Gas Station Coffee

"Gas Station Coffee"

1 The Boys Are Leaving Town - Japandroids - Post-Nothing
2 Refuse Angels - Crocodiles - Summer Of Hate
3 Teen Creeps - No Age - Nouns
4 Get In Or Get Out - Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown
5 Golden Touch - Razorlight - Up All Night
6 Keep Yourself Warm - Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
7 Cactus - The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
8 Close Behind - Calexico - A Feast Of Wire
9 Providence - The Love Language - The Love Language

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This one is more of a narrative, a fictional journey illustrated with music. I'm pleased with how the progression turned out, and I hope you enjoy it.

As far as proper blog posts, I'm sorry. I'll get right on it. I have pictures from the Cevennes and from St. Jean de Buèges and stories from both to share soon. In the meantime enjoy the music.

"Don't say it's hopeless! Nothing is hopeless!"

This week's show:

1 Down By The Water - The Drums - Summertime!
2 Lauren Marie - Girls - Album
3 Ultimate Satisfaction - Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
4 Fake Blues - Real Estate - Real Estate
5 Moon And Moon - Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
6 Higher Than The Stars - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
7 Last Day - Other Girls - Perfect Cities

Here's the link. Enjoy!

I've got other things to say, but they'll have to wait. Expect at least a miniature trip report about hiking in the Cévennes and maybe a record review between now and next Wednesday.

Weekly Podcast!

Well, here it is.

This weeks theme:

"It's late, and if I hear an emotional song I might get emotional"

1 Broke - Woods - How To Survive In The Woods
2 Matthew 25:21 - The Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
3 Hymn # 101 - Joe Pug - Daytrotter Session
4 Overdue - The Get Up Kids - " "
5 Dong We Sang Away - Low vs. Diamond - " "
6 Goodbye - Fourth Of July - " "
7 Faces In The Dark - Generationals - " "

Download

Music comments

Chances are that if you talk to me on a regular basis I've already told you how amazing the new Mountain Goats record is. If I haven't told you yet, well, I'm telling you now. It's amazing.

All of the key ingredients are here: biblical themes, poignant lyrics, cancer, death, and that unique sense of sparseness and lyrical efficiency that John Darnielle seems to have completely mastered. It's called "The Life of the World to Come", and you should listen to it. Here's a link. [Fixed]

In other news, apparently Digital Leather is coming out with a new record. Their old one, "Sorcerer", was great. I thought it sounded like a perverse and violent Joy Division: Deep, flat, dark-sounding vocals and tinny drums were present, just like Joy Division, but also a heavy layer of fuzz and hyperactive synthesizers. The hooks were all there, too, but wrapped thickly in the meaty noise that made up the rest of record and evenly spaced between audio-violence ("Pleasurebot") and flat out trickery ("Hologram"). If this sounds interesting, it is. Here's a link.

So what about the new record? I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but found a few tracks to download on this blog. It's called Warm Brother, which according to Pitchfork is supposed to be offensive. Read into that if you want.

My first impression upon listening to these two tracks?

Frankly, I was a bit let down. The hyperactivity and tension that made "Sorcerer" stand out from all of the other Joy Division-influenced fuzz-bands seems to be largely missing. In their place are (relatively) clear vocals and a much friendlier approach. The first record was engaging, but these two new tracks seem immediately ready to fade into the background.

I haven't heard the whole record yet, though, so don't consider this a review. I'll let you know my complete opinion after I've heard the whole thing.

Also, The Antlers did a session over on Daytrotter last month. Check it out if you like The Antlers.

In the meantime, stay tuned. The podcast will update this week as usual, but it might be a day or two late. Don't panic.

Pleasure Island

Last weekend was Halloween, as I'm sure everybody in the States already knows. After all, you had to find a costume, attend a party or two, and maybe get some candy from the neighbors. In France Halloween is not that big of a deal. There were some costumes, but in general the holiday was just another reason to go downtown, drink a lot, and stumble around medieval streets all night. Which brings me to my next point: this place is like Pleasure Island. Remember Pinocchio, the Disney film? Remember the part where all of the boys were smoking cigars, drinking huge mugs of beer, and throwing bricks through church windows? That's Southern France, except instead of throwing bricks they pee on buildings, and instead of being boys they're grown men in designer jeans.

I have seen police officers here. But I've only seen about six, and they never seem to be doing anything. For a semi-socialist state, I certainly haven't noticed any real social controls in France. Nothing like in Bozeman, anyway. Not that I'm complaining.


In other news, I went climbing this past weekend, first at Collias on Saturday then at Thaurac on Sunday.

On Saturday I was one of the stronger climbers and ended up setting up topropes. Here's an awful picture of one of the cliffs:
If you look kind of close you can see a Parisian joker scrubbing his way up the cliff on toprope. I set that rope up, because Dominique decided he wasn't up to leading the last two bolts of a 4b. What you can't see is another toprope about four meters to the right with a hot-shit gym climber flailing around the first bolt, behind the trees. I set that one up too, for the same reason. To be fair, it was pretty sandbagged. The topo said 5a, I say 5c+, 6a. That's basically the same as calling a 5.10a/b a 5.7.

On Sunday, however, I went climbing with a number of stronger climbers, many of them women, which was humbling. Climbing 6a is only a big deal when surrounded by new climbers. When everybody around you climbs 6c (5.11b-ish) hacking your way up a mid 5.10 isn't so impressive anymore.


Here's some extra photos from a bike camping/squatting trip in September:

Montferrier:

No fires allowed:
Sleeping arrangements in a paintball bunker:


And finally, music.

This week on the Anarchy Breakfast podcast,

Songs About Jesus That Don't Suck

1 Head Rolls Off - Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
2 Jesus - The Welcome Wagon - Welcome To The Welcome Wagon
3 To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4 Jesus - Page France - Hello, Dear Wind
5 Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam - The Vaselines - The Way Of The Vaselines
6 Jesus Wrote A Blank Check - Cake - Motorcade Of Generosity
7 Christ For President - Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
8 Jesus And Tequila - The Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
9 I Saw God - The Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand

Link here

More news & music next Wednesday.