I know it may be shocking to some to see a Monday podcast directly following a Friday one. This is mostly due to the restoration of my having of the Internet and my l33t bribery skills. The other excellent facet of this ‘cast is the connection between it and the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, CA. The West Coast Informant (Shawna Hollen) and the Dr. Hollencomium (Richmond Hollen) have been feeding me information about bands all day since yesterday. From their nearly incoherent torrent of garbled cell phone conversations, explanations of medical treatment, and overheard snatches of conversation I have condensed a small chorus of “bands that do not suck” and included them in this podcast. These bands include the outlandish Brits White Rose Movement, the nearly pornographic and probably Richmond interviewed The Octopus Project, and Brit-licious Editors (not THE Editors). (more…)

Great news! I thought that perhaps the guys of The Cloud Room may have forgotten about agreeing to do an interview for vdov.net. This was happily not the case. They just happened to be in Australia rocking out in another hemisphere and the qulity of this interview more than makes up for any delay experienced. There is talk of couch surfing, slow football, and I get taken to task for joking about selling out. You can’t go wrong with this thing. These guys are an independent New York based band that has a great album out on the streets. I saw the band at The Troubador in Los Angeles not long ago and was really blown away. These guys are great on the album but monsters on the stage. Below is the interview that I just got back from front man who goes simply by J. You have to love independent bands that take time for fans but don’t make enough money for health insurance (buy the album or you are putting their lives in jeopardy is the take home message). They have mp3s and videos available for free download. (more…)

You may have noticed that there have been no recent sermons. Upon realizing this you are probably rocking slowly in the fetal positions at 3am instead of sleeping waiting for the clearly imminent apocalypse. I kind of like that. However, there is no reason to fear. The real reason for this is that my land lord decided that it would be a good idea to literally cut (as in with wire cutters) the cable line going into my apartment without telling me. This is the cable that supplies me with The Internet, which is a very important ingredient in my hybrid sermon-podcast about independent music. I tried very hard to convince him that cutting this cable was not really a good idea. He did a good job of patiently explining to me that he didn’t care. Apparently Comcast didn’t have the right to wire my apartment for cable, which consisted of apparently drilling one .5 inch wide hole. So now some very tedious negotiations are underway in which I will attempt to bribe my landlord’s wife into convincing him that I really do need cheap (kind of) reliable broadband internet service without signing a contract or buying new equipment. However, the general countenance of this man suggests that this might not work well.

Now, it should be very clear to you all that this in no way impacts you except that you will be without podcast for now. I will probably record them at home and then upload them from work. Not exactly ideal but such is the cross I must bear in my ministry. If anyone has any suggestions on how one might “stick it to the man” please email them to the Rt. Rev. Fischer… it would be much appreciated.

In a stunning tactical coup I was able to bribe my landlord’s wife into convincing him to let me have the Internet. So now things can return to normal. Also, here is the Friday podcast:

1) The Fiery Furnaces - I Am Waiting To Know You - Bitter Tea
2) The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song - At War With The Mystics
3) The Figurines - Other Plans - Skeleton
4) The Mgmt - Love Always Remains - Time To Pretend
5) Gnarls Barkley - Storm Coming - St. Elsewhere
6) The Cloud Room - We Sleep In The Ocean - The Cloud Room

As always you can email the Rt. Rev. Fischer with any suggestions, requests, complaints, etc. etc.

Every time I see the Horrible Sickness I leave with a new perspective on the world. Whether it be the universal weakness in robots (sensitive testicles), NASA management (it’s true that we do looove juice boxes and I’d say about 40% of employees don’t know what their job title means, myself included), or how to get a rocket out of your head (very dangerous, life threatening operation, must have a doctor on the phone to lead you though it), these guys can explain it. So, without further ado, I present an interview with The Horrible Sickness.

The Interview:

1. First off, can you give us a brief background on The Horrible Sickness? E.g. its origins, adolescence, and/or aspirations for the future?

1. The Horrible Sickness, as best we can gather, was born in the summer of last year. It was late at night, there were no birth records, the umbilical chord was not saved in a jar. At nine members, it was an unusually large, good natured infant that enjoyed simply making people laugh. However, as it grew in renoun, it shrank in size to just five members obsessed with self promotion and monetary gain. Now as a teenager, it is less like an adult, and more like a enormous powerful child… who is hungry. When it eats, it is restless so it runs around and ’round in circles and then is tired. In the future, The Horrible Sickness hopes to one day be paid for its talents, even the smallest sum, anything to justify its own existence. And maybe to settle down with the right one.

2. Who is in the group? Do you like them?

2. Joe Chandler, Jared Crain, Daniel Campagna, Adam Sauter, and Soren Bowie make up The Horrible Sickness. Yes, they are all smart people who love their own jokes. In fact, they strive to someday produce comedy no one thinks is funny, because that would prove them misunderstood and before their time. They get along well and all like each other almost as much as themselves.

3. What were some of your favorite shows, and why? Any special moments you’d like to share?

3. Ok, so this one time Joe goes out on stage and he’s all, “Hum-de-dum, I’m eating cereal.” And then Jared jumps out and he starts going, “I’m a crazy kid hopped up on Fruity Pebbles!” except without saying it, he just made it obvious . So Joe’s all, “What are you doing?” and Jared just keeps right on jumping around like an eight year old, no, like a six year old, one that has ADD. I forget what happened next, but then he started counting his hairs. F*ck that was funny.

4. Do you have any interest in taking the show beyond improv? In other words, does improv define the Sickness or might it spread? (be specific…)

4. The Horrible Sickness hopes to start doing sketch comedy considering everyone in the group has a sketch background. In fact, improv was really a poor jumping off point because most of the members are enormously more talented at other things. With the exception of Adam, the rest of the members sit just north of the mediocre boundary. Also, the group has recently started getting down about the lack of perks in the comedy scene, they’ve sort of decided it might be more fun to become rock stars. There are still a lot of insecurity issues that need to be hammered out and a fear of non-coolness but rockstardom is sort of the light they’re shooting for.

5. Can you give us any behind-the-scenes info on the Sickness et al.? Drama? Gossip? Romance? Improper use of chopsticks?

5. Yes. It turns out that everyone in the group has directly or indirectly hooked up with girls because of the shows. Two of the members have girlfriends but we’re counting those as improv-related hookups. Rarely does the group fight amongst itself, and the fights usually have less to do with creative differences and more to do with Adam showing up drunk to the show.

6. Do any of you have professional lives outside of the Sickness?

6. Some of the members write for sketch comedy groups or are members of sketch comedy groups. Dan, Jared, and Adam fancy themselves actors, however, none of them have achieved the same international, and deserved renound as Soren. He is considered the “pretty” one of the group, prooving that talent is always a distant second to looks on the road to success in any field.

7. If given the prompt “cheese,” describe in some detail how you might respond.

7. Can we have another suggestion?

8. Where and when do you perform? Do you have material available via the internet and/or do you plan to?

8. Dan, I’m giving this one to you.

Okay, Dan here. We perform Saturday nights at 9:30 PM at the Westside Eclectic Theater. That is located at 1323-A 3rd. Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA. In case our performance dates ever change, check out thehorriblesickness.com for an up to date schedule. The only material we have available on the internet is at the aforementioned site. And it really just consists of bunnies whose heads explode, butterflies being vaporized, and Da Vinci’s ‘Man’ being injected with a green liquid. All those things are pretty funny. There’s also a secret “balls” page on the site that always makes me laugh. Once we have some sketches filmed they will be up on our site as well. That’s all the information I have, so I’m going to give this interview back to The Horrible Sickness.

9. If I live in Connecticut, how can I support the Sickness and what do I get for it?

9. Shit, I really wore myself out on the first questions. I don’t really want to answer the rest of these.

I’ll do it (Dan again). If you live in Connecticut you can send us money. We are absolutely not a non-profit so you don’t get any kind of tax write off. In fact you don’t get anything out of it. The only thing that happens is that we get money. I’d like to say that you’ll get a warm feeling from supporting a talented troupe that is trapped in the throws of poverty, but you won’t. The other thing you can do is visit our Website every single day, even when nothing new is happening. Then recommend us to anyone you know who would want to sponsor us: Budweiser, Kaiser Permanente, the makers of Immodium AD, etc. I’m seriously done this time and permanently handing the interview back to The Horrible Sickness.

10. Is there a cure?

10. No. Oh thank god that’s it.

EOF

These guys are pretty awesome. And I know they really enjoyed doing this interview despite answers that suggest otherwise… You should check them out, and especially go and see them if you’re in the LA area. I’ll keep you updated if (when!) they start putting some material online.

Too curious for my own good, I walked down Lake Ave near my house in Pasadena carrying my camera, a notebook, some oranges, and three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Homeless people and the very poor congregate at the freeway exit on the overpass, holding cardboard signs asking for help or hoping to sell flowers. I wanted to know about them.

This is Susan. She grew up in LA and has several children who live with her mother-in-law. She had a baby on the streets a year ago; he was taken away by the police and turned over to Susan’s family. The local police know her by name and are the ones who take her to the hospital when she has seizures. She spent last week at Huntington Memorial, was released and now holds a sign that says “Hungry Please Help.” Her and her husband have a tent in an empty lot over the wall of the freeway a few blocks East. He works, landscaping people’s lawns. They sometimes eat at the Salvation Army.

“How did you end up out here?”
“I did bad things.”
“What bad things?”
She looked back at me, then to her shoes, “things you shouldn’t do.”

I handed her a sandwich, and asked if I could take her picture. “You don’t want my picture,” she shuffled her feet, “no one wants to look at me.”
“You’re beautiful.”

On my way back, I had a sandwich leftover. I gave it to her for her husband. She thanked me. “As soon as you left, before, the four police officers over there, they looked over here and” she shook her finger at me, “telling me I can’t be out here. They don’t want me here.”

******************************************************************************************

I stopped to talk to Jason because he said hello to me. I asked him what he was doing just sitting on a bench and he said he was trying to figure out how to get money for gas. “My van’s empty.” He had a Target receipt and said he was going to try to return something. I don’t know what he could have been returning, he didn’t have much else with him. “I’ll give you some money for gas if you let me take your picture and talk to you.”

He graduated from high school, lived in Pasadena his whole life, and worked in groceries, telemarketing, ballots, and a Mexican restaurant. “You looking for a job?”
“Yeah. It’s impossible here though. I have to, like, get out or something.”

I asked him if he had a resume. “It’d be a lot easier to get a job if you had a resume. You know how to make one?”

“No.”

I pointed at the Kinko’s across the street and asked if he wanted to learn, but he “was about to go over to [his] people’s house for a shower.”
“Here, if you give me all the information: addresses, phone numbers, etc. I’ll type one up for you and print it out.”

******************************************************************************************

Carlos was selling bouquets of roses. He didn’t speak a word of English except “Flowers, five dollars.” I knew the word ‘casa’ and could point. I found out he lived somewhere south of Pasadena with his familia. We had 10 minutes worth of useless conversation and I offered him a sandwich. I deciphered the proposition that he would teach me Spanish and I would teach him English. He asked if I had a cellular…numero…something. I didn’t understand what he was trying to get at at all…. I laughed and said that I would be around. Maybe mañana. I shook his hand and said goodbye. He handed me a bouquet of roses.

“Por ti. Gratis.”

******************************

Another woman I came across was talking to herself or someone else who I couldn’t see. I said hello and asked her what her name was.

“I don’t give out my name.”
“Okay, do you want a sandwich?”
“No. I’m not here for that.”
“Then what do you want?”

She had a shopping cart very neatly piled with pieces of junk in between layers of blankets and organized garbage bags of bottles and cans hanging from the handle.

“Nothing. I don’t want you here. I want you to leave me alone.”

I said goodbye and walked away. She resumed her jabbering and rocked back and forth on the cement wall.

******************************************************************************************

Chuck’s story is heartbreaking. He was brought out to LA from Memphis three months ago by a preacher because his dad was dying. When his dad passed, he slept on the floor of the preacher’s house with 100 other homeless and wanderers. He had worked in a warehouse in Memphis and was trained to operate fork lifts and leg presses; he had been trying to get a job out here. He was mugged by a Mexican gang and lost the rest of his money, his ID, and his birth certificate.

“No one’s going to hire you without your birth certificate.”

I asked him if he was going to get another, he said he was going to. He wanted to find work, he doesn’t like being on the streets.

“Did you see them just now? The police just kicked me off the street. Now I can’t work. I’m just trying to eat and maybe sleep and clean sometimes. I’m not doing drugs, I just can’t get a job. And God, God was with me, but he must’ve left with my dad, ‘cause he’s gone now.”

I gave him the oranges I had left. He has a mom in Oklahoma and a sister in college. “They don’t know where I am now. I don’t want ‘em to.”

“Can you buy me a soda?” I was out of money. I really didn’t have any left, I hadn’t brought my wallet and I told him that. I don’t think he believed me. I wished him luck and walked away, he called after me, “Pray for me, tell God to listen to me. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”

Recently I purchased a new cell phone, the Cingular 2125 (yes, you should have gotten my new number …). This is the first “advanced” or “smartphone” I have purchased, and so far, I’m mostly impressed. The feature set is pretty extensive, it’s quite stable, the reception and call quality is absolutely stellar, and with the exception of the fact that it runs Windows and that there is no Wi-Fi, I couldn’t be happier with it. As with any new piece of technology I purchase, I like to push it to the edge, unlock every feature and build everything from the ground up. Nowhere on the web seemed to get it right with the Cingular 2125, so I thought I’d chronicle the adventure that was hacking this phone. (more…)

You may have noticed that there was no Friday podcast? Why, you might be asking yourself, did you miss a sermon on on of the holiest days of the year? Well, I had bigger fish to fry. Namely in the form of actually going to church and studying for the cursed MCAT, which is still hanging over my head like some kind of wretched Greek sword. The upshot is that I have a plethora (as in pinatas) of new music for you. The downside is that I might not be making a podcast for Friday, seeing as the real MCAT is the next day. The other upside is that next Saturday evening you are all invited to a party, wherein I will proceed to defragment my brain and free up some file space. Like I said, there is a lot of good new music on this one. Including The Figurines, The Management (or MGMT) who I am hitting up for an interview based solely on the insanity that is their myspace page, and then some new stuff that comes out in May that people should get very very excited about. My pal Bob Hammond went as far as to speculate Outkast levels of popularity. I don’t know if it has that much mass appeal, but I would be looking for this to be big. Anyway, we will go directly to the podcast:

1) The Figurines - Release Me On The Floor - Skeleton
2) Figurine - The European Beauty remixed by Phasmid - Reconfigurine
3) Figurine - Impossible - The Heartfelt
4) The Mgmt - Kids - Time To Pretend
5) The Streets - When You Wasn’t Famous - The Hardest Way To Make and Easy Living
6) Gnarls Barkley - The Boogie Monster - St. Elsewhere

As always you can reach the Rev. @ rtrev -at- vdov -dot- net

Ok no fanfare this week. Just the goods. We played some Tapes ‘n Tapes, which was glowingly reviewed by Sam Ubl over at Pitchfork. Mr. Ubl shares a site with Bob Hammond, a friend of vdov. Also, on an internet-indie historical note… here is the death knell for the Polyamory label. I will also point out the fact that Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice is in Chicago this Sunday at The Beat Kitchen. In June the Beat Kitchen has old favorites (and long unheard from) Rainer Maria. Until Friday:

1) Tapes ‘n Tapes - Insistor - The Loon
2) The Capricorns - The Sailor - Pure Magical Love
3) Wooden and the Vanishing Voice - Dread Effigy - Gypsy Freedom
4) Wooden and the Vanishing Voice - Effigy in Dread - Earth and Turf
5) Carissa’s Wierd w/ Jenn Ghetto (The Six Parts Seven cover) - On Marriage - Lost Notes From Forgotten Songs

As always you can reach the Rev. @ rtrev -at- vdov -dot- net.

First: The podcast will be later today, but you will have it on Monday. I am waiting on a couple interview responses so you may see some of that in the coming week. Keep checking back.

Too often introspective and personal indie rock falls into the trap of becoming self absorbed emo mush. The voices get breathy, guitars tone down, and the majesty that personal lyrics can rise toward is drowned in self pity or indulgent egotism. The other trap you hate to hear is when a band goes introspective only to expose that there isn’t much there. Band of Horses deftly sidesteps these obvious pitfalls and is a breath of fresh air in what is usually a egotistical quagmire of emo self aggrandizement. The band is headed by Ben Birdwell and Mat Brooke, who rose from the breakup in Seattle of Carissa’s Wierd. There is definitely a touch of Carissa in this album, but they abandon the wimpy soft-pop and fragile instrumentation of that band and go for something more vital and powerful (This is not to bash Carissa’s Weird because they did put out some excellent wimpy soft-pop, including a project for the Six Parts Seven reinterpretation album Lost Notes From Forgotten Songs which is FANTASTIC… in fact look for it on the podcast). Band of Horses is able to pour it all out there, without cheapening the whole experience and retaining some dignity about the whole thing. They also don’t hold back on the catchiness, which works really well for this album.

What is truly excellent about Everything All The Time is that Brooke and Birdwell are able to hold your attention throughout. At first it seems that the songs are sort of a soft toned wall with little differentiation, but as you delve into the album it becomes apparent that there is varied and robust set of songs lurking behind a consistent theme. Perhaps one of the best features of the album is the interplay between the two vocalists. Take a listen to “I Go To The Barn Because I Like The” to get a taste of what I mean. The interplay of the soft whispering of Brooke and the bright crooning of Birdwell. Band of Horses departs from the cannonical pop-hook-chorus of many bands of their stripe. They instead compose sprawling ballads that return to consistent themes, but don’t dogmatically hew to the old A-B-C-B-D-B format. The album is, as I mentioned, very consistent and sprawling in its sound, but it is punctuated with some glorious moments. Our Swords really opens up the top half of the album and makes a good counterpoint against the more intense Wicked Gil. Our Swords rises and falls with Birdwells signature voice over a nearly tantric bass line, giving the whole song an air of sad mistake. “Stepping on our own toes tonight… Fall on our own swords tonight.” The bottom half of the album contains the most upbeat section, with Weed Party and The Great Salt Lake. Horses shows that they have some fire to go with their laid back vocals. The transition from Weed Party’s upbeat finish into the soft, melodic harmony of I Go To The Barn Becase I Like The Barn gives a good example of the strength of the album. The closing two songs Monsters and St. Augustine really cap off the album with a bittersweet and bautiful note, bringing the whole endeavour back to where it started.

The truth is that no one is going to claim this is a breakthrough album. It doesn’t break into any new territory, but who says it must? These two songwriters have made a solid album, good lyrics, variety, and they have a grasp on how to string songs together the right way. They hold your attention without being garish or tritely poppy. I think we can expect some more good work from these two, especially with the weight of the venerable Sub Pop label behind them. I will be keeping my ears open for more.

GLORIOUS DAY my followers! This is the 50th podcast of the Rt. Rev. Fischer. This means that I have brought you 50 installments of the word of the Lord in indie rock form. We have come a long way since the early podcasts. This podcast has some definite nostalgia value (as it should). I have actually been quite pleased with my output it only took me 186 days (that is 1.89 podcasts a week… very near the 2.0 that I hoped for). In the time that I have been podcasting I have been through a lot. I have started a job as a microbiologist, rented a new apartment, began studying for the MCAT, gotten a wonderful girlfriend, settled in Chicago, outlasted the WBOR Podcast, watched the rise of the excellent Hollencomium Music Review, destroyed acosta’s life one drink/person at a time, learned a bit about RSS feeds, saw some sweet shows, found great new bands, and hated on hipsters in grand style. I must say that I owe a lot to my good pal Rabbit’s dad over at the Dreadful Snake Podcast for kicking my butt into gear. I hope that you enjoy it. Until Monday… the 51st installment:

1) Animal Collective - Did You See The Words - Feels
2) John Wilkes Booze - People’s Songbook - The Five Pillars of Soul
3) Wooden Wand - Forgiveness Fig (Bethany Hotep) - Harem of the Sundrum & The Witness Fig
4) Silver Jews - Honk if You’re Lonely - American Water
5) Silversun Pickups - Kissing Families - Pikul Ep
6) The Long Winters - The Commander Thinks Aloud - Ultimatum
7) The Pixies - Here Comes Your Man - Doolittle
8) Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm - Blood on the Tracks

Especially on this 50th podcast anniversary I look forward to feedback… etc, etc. As always you can reach the Rev. @ rtrev -at- vdov -dot- net

This is a double teamed podcast from the glorious burg of Pasadena, CA. I will keep this short, but keep your eyes open for some interviews and writeups (including something from rocksters The Cloud Room who rocked the Troubador on Saturday). Until Friday:

1) The Cloud Room - Beautiful Mess - The Cloud Room
2) Gnarls Barkley - Go Go Gadget Gospel - St. Elsewhere Promo
3) TV on the Radio - Staring At The Sun - Young Liars EP
4) Silversun Pickups - Comeback Kid - Pikul
5) The Music - Bleed From Within - The Music
6) Cake - I Bombed Korea - Motorcade of Generosity
7) Cake - Dime - Pressure Chief