“Close Calls With Brick Walls” by Andrew W.K. is completely and utterly brilliant, as expected. A must-listen.

I know that some of you still want Cockshirts, but how many of you would buy a shirt that says “Either fuck me, die, or leave me alone.”?

I haven’t actually heard the MCR album yet, beyond the single, but I do like the single. My takes on the other records mentioned in the headline: Muse’s album is good but not as good as “Absolution”; The Killers record, though it might take a while to grow on me like “Hot Fuss” did, was a pretty major disappointment out of the gate; the one song I heard from Gary Numan’s album sounded more like Gary Nu-Metal than Gary Numan, but I wouldn’t mind hearing more.

Now, to what I did hear plenty of and enjoyed, in no order. I may be adding to this as the next few weeks go on, as I’m working almost totally from memory right now, and my music collection is scattered between two states at the moment.

Gnarls Barkley-St. Elsewhere: Gnarls Barkley soundtracked at least the last 6 months of this year for most of the planet, though I think I started listening to “St. Elsewhere” prior to the start of the 2nd half. It’s the most overplayed album of the year, definitely, but I can still hear a lot of it whenever it comes on, and even “Crazy” sometimes.

Venom-Metal Black: This album is completely and totally unrepentant. If you liked Venom then, you’ll like them now. If you didn’t like Venom then, there’s really not much hope for you.

Ray Davies-Other Peoples’ Lives: This one is also pretty unrepentant, too. Ray’s still pissed off, people, God bless ‘em.

Scissor Sisters-Ta-Dah: OK, 3 unrepentant records in a row. This is a fantastic piece of pop music.

Semi-Precious Weapons-Magnetic EP: as I’ve said everywhere, numerous times, Semi-Precious Weapons are the best band in New York. In fact, they’re probably the best New York band in a long, long time. See them now before they’re playing stadiums.

Lauren Hoffman-Choreography: Lauren’s album got me through a tough summer. It’s really beautiful. Since she might read this, thanks, Lauren.

Jarvis Cocker-Jarvis: Jarv, like Ray, is still pissed off too, but this is definitely a mellower record than the Pulp stuff. Thankfully, it doesn’t suffer for it, and it’s a nice piece of work. Put this one on when you’re trying to get someone into bed.

Sparks-Hello Young Lovers: The most difficult listen on the list, but it’s worthwhile. Smart, funny, and totally over the top. Danny Elfman owes this band a career.

Queensryche-Operation: Mindcrime II: What do you know? It didn’t suck!

Johnny Cash-American V: A Hundred Highways: This one, I’ve only listened to once, and it’s the most depressing record I’ve ever heard in my life (even more so than Warren Zevon’s “The Wind”), but it was so, so good. Soon, I’m gonna pull it out again and give it another spin.

Bob Dylan-Modern Times: Fuck all y’all who are bagging on this record. Best Pro Tools job I’ve ever heard in my life, and damned if Bob doesn’t sound like he’s having a lot of fun here.

Beck-The Information: This one is nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a good, solid Beck record, written, seemingly, for people to do a bunch of drugs to.

Records I haven’t heard enough of yet that I’m intrigued by:

Jesu-Silver: Loved it on my first listen, need to see how it holds up to abuse. Looking forward to the tour next year.

Devin Townsend Band-Synchestra and Strapping Young Lad-The New Black: I really haven’t had time for Devy this year, but I’m sure both albums will treat me right when I get to them. I do LOVE the video for “Vampira” from “Synchestra”. I’ll try to dig up a YouTube copy of that ASAP for y’all, it’s hilarious.

Pink-I’m Not Dead: Like her stuff a bunch (she’s maybe the best female vocalist of her generation), liked what I’ve heard from this, but I haven’t gotten to this one at length yet, either.

James Brown may be dead*, but midget gang bangs ring eternal.

Happy Holidays from all of us at My Big, Black Cock!

(Let’s be honest, folks. Brother James had one hell of a run, and that doesn’t even count the time he had the cops chasing him on 4 flat tires, high on angel dust. Don’t weep for him, celebrate him!)

Some friends of friends had a really bad break overnight. They’re alright and the pets are alright, and so far, people have been really good to them, but there’s a good chance that these ladies lost close to everything, 4 days before Christmas. Help ‘em out if you can.

Please stop sending me YouTube links. I’m not going to watch them. To me, video, like the telephone, is a disruptive activity. I don’t like being badgered into engaging in disruptive activities, no matter how enjoyable they may end up being. At the very least, tell me what the fuck you’re sending me a link of before or while you send it, and let me decide if it’s worth my time.

Thanks In Advance,
-S

antimatteruniverse. recording artist Scott Crawford (alternate link if the MySpace streams aren’t working) will be performing live at New York’s Club Midway tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 19th at 9 PM. Headlining the night at 11 PM, as part of their December residency, will be Nanuchka. Matthew Landis opens the night at 8 PM, and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys will be on between Scott and Nanuchka at 10 PM. Admission is $8.00, and the show is 21+.

antimatteruniverse. recording artist Scott Crawford (alternate link if the MySpace streams aren’t working) will be performing live at New York’s Club Midway tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 19th at 9 PM. Headlining the night at 11 PM, as part of their December residency, will be Nanuchka. Matthew Landis opens the night at 8 PM, and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys will be on between Scott and Nanuchka at 10 PM. Admission is $8.00, and the show is 21+.

Just a reminder that my Second Life nightclub, Heck, opens tonight, Friday, December 15th 2006 at 8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Second Life Time. I’m still scrambling around last minute, of course, but it’s lookin’ good so far. This SLurl will get you to Heck if you have SL installed, and if not, the coordinates are Tamarack 94, 78, 159 (look on the Map), or search for “Heck” (because Search in SL does work right now, anyway).

If you’re still not sure what the hell I’m talking about with this Second Life business or if you missed it, read this.

People of Cartoonland,

On this coming Tuesday, December 19th, I will be playing at Club Midway in New York City. Some of the old farts in the audience like me will remember it as Save The Robots, the place where all the ravers would spend their late-night/early morning K-hole time in the late 80′s and early 90′s, though it’s switched owners a few times since then, and it has recently been snazzied up and turned into Club Midway! I hear good things about the sound system, and because the neighborhood is so gentrified now, the corner crack dealer who used to work on 2nd and B and once even gave my friends a free glass dick with their order has been replaced by a shiny new Starbucks, so fear not, suburbanites! (OK, I lied about the Starbucks.)

Anyway, I will be playing with Nanuchka, who are awesome and have graciously invited us to be a part of their month-long Tuesday night residency at Midway. We will be going on at 9 PM, (with Nanuchka on at 11) the show is 21+, and admission is a very reasonable $8.00. Also appearing will be Matthew Landis at 8 PM, and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys at 10 PM. I haven’t checked either of those acts out yet, but I’m sure they’re just wonderful.

So, don’t make me beg. I hate begging. Come out and play on Tuesday, people! We haven’t played New York in a few months, and with me, you never know when I’m just going to stop playing shows and hide in my bedroom for a few years, so take your chances when you can get ‘em. If by some god-awful chance you haven’t actually heard my music yet, go here or here.

The show is just one of the things I have to tell you about today, though. I’ve asked before and gotten no response because you’re all a bunch of heathens. How many of you are using Second Life? If you’re not and you have a powerful enough computer to do so (hint: if your graphics card is anything other than an ATI or an Nvidia card, you don’t; sorry, not my rules…), you should really, REALLY be spending time with SL. Besides, I will be playing live shows in SL soon (more on that later, and yes, it can be done! My company, antimatteruniverse. will be opening Heck, an adult nightclub in Second Life, this Friday, 12/15, at 8 PM Eastern Time (or 5 PM Second Life Time, for those of you already operating on that clock). Heck has gotten great reviews from the people who have visited while I’ve been building it (and solid crowds, in a club that’s not even open…), so Friday’s opening should be insane. Come by, have sex on the ceiling, and do cocaine off of every flat surface in the place, just like we used to in the old days. “It’s all happening…” Heck can be found in Second Life at Tamarack 94, 78, 160 on the Map, or by searching for “Heck” in search, assuming it’s working. Or, assuming MySpace lets me use them and assuming you’ve got Second Life installed, use this SLurl to go straight to Heck.

And, finally today, I’d like to direct you to Pretty In Velvet. Pretty In Velvet is Kage Hopkins, known to some of you as my guitar player. While I’ve been dealing with all sorts of things in my life this year (pretty much everything but the completion of my album “Babykiller.”, which I assure you is still in very slow progress…), Kage has been writing and recording his own album. It is still a work in progress, but the basic tracks are written and we’re about to go into the mixing/overdub/putting a coat of gloss on it stage. So far, I hear shades of Human League, Fad Gadget and all sorts of other things dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I’m liking what I’m hearing quite a bit, I’m pretty sure that quite a few of you will as well, and I’m very proud of Mr. Hopkins for the work he’s done so far on bringing Pretty In Velvet to life. You can check them out at the above web site (that’s prettyinvelvet.com) or on MySpace (and be sure to add Pretty In Velvet if you like what you hear, because there’s more on the way), though I point out that, because MySpace’s streaming server has been really cranky lately, the easiest way to listen to music (which is what you really want to do here) is to go to the web site.

*huggles*
-S