Ok kids I know I missed another Friday podcast… you would think that since I actually record the Friday podcast on Thursday night that I would actually do it. However, it turns out that I am such a popular man about town that even my Thursday nights are full of beautiful people and fancy dinner dates with all manner of hours d’oueuerveus made from organic items that can only be found on the sea floor and/or the farthest reaches of the most backwater parts of Nepal and France. It is at these parties that I wax philisophical about how wretched the new favorite modern artist has become and how much I like more obscure artist A and B because they have “really held the high ground” or some other such claptrap. Such is the life of a humble Right Reverend. I was, however, able to scrape together something for this Monday. This podcast is almost exclusively live music. There are some very excellent gems in the bunch. Including stuff from earlier Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Without giving to much more away I bid you adieu (that is French for “pretentious goodbye”). Until Friday: (more…)

I started watching MTV when I was about 6 years old (whenever we first got cable TV). I can vividly remember old music videos from the likes of Ah-Ha, Dire Straits, and They Might Be Giants. I am not sure I really knew what was going on at that age but I really liked the music and movie matchup. However, somewhere along the line the whole thing hit a penny on the track derailing into a jumbled mess of butt tight spandex rump shaking, platinum grills, vapid blondes rehashing the same song that Madonna sang 20 years ago only with even less clothing. Although to my everlasting joy not all was lost and many years later (after abandoning MTV and the idea of music videos) I have rekindled my old romance. Now, a lot of my very favorite videos have found their way on to the Internet via web-2.0ey video sites such as YouTube. Pitchfork has an excellent collection of 100 of their staff’s favorite music videos. These range from truly interesting, artistic, and excellent to ironic, kitchy, and excellent. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a prime target for an RIAA generated cease and desist order, so go check it out while its still standing and tell us what your favorites are.

Very now and again I get really excited by a vdov.net project (the letter E brought to you by Carson Ellis herself). This is definitely one of them. One of my favorite categories here is our Interviews section, which, in my humble opinion, has some real gems. Professional illustrator and all around excellent artist Carson Ellis agreed to do an interview for vdov.net a while ago. In the intervening time she gave birth to Henry “Hank” Meloy with her college sweetheart Colin Meloy of Decemberists fame, naturally moving my interview to the back burner. My eye was first caught by Ellis’ work for the cover art of the Decemberists’ album Castaways and Cutouts and I liked it enough that I hired Ellis to make a watercolor which she titled “Faster Maria.” She remains one of my favorite artists and from the interview it sounds like we will be seeing some fun new projects. I am also supremely jealous of little Hank Meloy, who with his parents will probably have the sweetest baby room and best bedtime stories. (more…)

One last themed podcast methinks. This one is all over nostalgic reinvention of old musical styles. It may just be a perception based on increased awareness but it really seems that there are a lot of emerging (and already emerged) bands that are redoing old folk motifs in new ways. The New York Times has an article on freak folk. This means that it is now officially mainstream and it is time to jump the genre and find whatever is the new “new thing.” So let’s consider this an elegy for the genre, just to be really hipstery. I should also mention that these are not representative of th Rt. Rev. Fischer’s favorites in the genre, its just that I have played them recently and I try to avoid too much repetition. So take this list and add The Bird Names, Akron/Family, Man Man, among many others. I will admit that there is some repetition of podcast favorites like Roky Erickson and Wooden Wand, but we all have our weaknesses. Until Friday: (more…)

GADZOOKS congregants! The Rt. Rev. Fischer has not updated you as to the new podcast that you now most likely already have. The reason is one of utmost important. There is nothing more beautiful and life affirming than the holy bonds of matrimony. So when a friend of yours actually finds a woman who has the forbearance not to righteously strangle him to death in his sleep it is a cause for joyous celebration. As is the custom this celebration involved drinking copious amounts of intoxicants and trotting out every horrid and vile story of his past deeds just to remind him of the vast gap between who he is and who he has just promised to be in a very real and legally binding sense. The Rt. Rev. Fischer presided over much of this lovely ceremony with much help from The West Coast Informant who is busy corrupting the minds of impressionably cute (and adorably red headed) brains of small children. This means that this writeup was put on hold. However, you may have been able to guess from the podcast’s RSS that this is in fact an epic podcast salted with sea breeze, spiced with pungent sea grass, and punctuated with the hearty cries of grizzled mariners. That is right, the themed podcasts contiue with a nautical podcast. (more…)

This is a guide to life without structural purpose. I have been unemployed now for 3 weeks, some of which can be considered ‘vacation,’ since I was traveling and visiting family and whatnot, but the last 2 weeks are more readily classified as ‘lollygagging.’ I tried to find a job, and I am still trying, but less so. Here is a graph of my efforts in that respect (we’ve been down with graphs lately on vdov): (more…)

I will keep this short because I want to get myself to bed. I decided that it had been far too long since I did any themed podcast so I made one. As the title suggests this one is about monsters, creatures, demons, ghosts and all other manner of unnatural abominations. I don’t have much else for you, so until Friday: (more…)

I am sorry this one is late. There was a smattering of laziness and techincal difficulties, but now things are back and some of the “back end” of the podcast (if you can call it that) is now easier and more versatile. You probably won’t notice much on the listening end but I am much happier. I mentioned that I would give you the link to the No Culture Icons video, which I have now done. Other than that I will get right into the playlist so as not to waste your time or mine. Until Monday: (more…)

After expressing my lukewarm disaffection with the Decemberists I feel that is only fitting to describe the glorious second half of the Wells Fargo Summer Music Series. Following the Decemberists’ opening set classic proto-indie rocker Beck Hansen took the stage after a tortuos delay involving some absurdly large projector. I spent a lot of time complaining about how the show shouldn’t be delayed for some lame light effect… little did I know at the time… It was almost an hour of anticipation (mostly in the beer garder) before Beck fired up his bizarre musical cabal. By this time the cold of Bend’s high desert was a moot point because so many people were packed into the surprisingly intimate outdoor Les Schwab Ampitheater that we were peeling off layers that were needed for the sorrowfully under-attended Decemberists set. (more…)

Our last day on the road was pretty uneventful, save for our 2 hour jaunt around Nebraska looking for any one way in which to get $1500 wired to California (June rent). There are no Washington Mutuals or Chase Banks in Nebraska or Iowa. The stupidity of the people in Nebraska that we encountered in this hunt has also caused a deep regret for ever entering the state and I will definitely be considering it a grave day if I ever have to return. To fill in for the lack of interesting details on this last day, I have put together a mostly worthless economic (minus any sort of economist) analysis of the gas prices and milage from Los Angeles to Bend and finally to Chicago. (more…)

You may have read a couple posts about the recent trip across the country by two of us on the vdov.net writing staff. The West Coast Informant (shollen), Dr. Hollencomium (rhollen), myself, and Victoria Mom all attended the Decemberists and Beck concert in Bend, OR. It was a bit of a mixed bag, but for a small town in the Oregon high desert it was fantastic musical event. Beck Hansen even seemed a little surprised by the massive crowd turnout and frenetic fan energy. (more…)

The early morning in Pocatello, Idaho on our second full day of driving was kicked off by a series of potential disasters. First off, no one slept well because afischer was up and ready to drive at 4:00 am. This did not go over well and we instead left at 7:30 after afischer attempted to destroy his camera by 1) leaving it on the roof of my car and 2) leaving it under a chair in the lobby restuarant. But before I could get arrogant for saving these incidences I 1) slammed my finger in the glovebox (resulting in a freakishly black blood-blister) and 2) slapped myself across the face with a bag strap. We drove out of the parking lot with fingers crossed. (more…)