It's like if Avril Lavigne grew up listening to good music and reading more fantasy novels. Or just reading, really.
Current Music: Eisley - Plenty of Paper
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
You have reached I, Dickolas Wang
I am on Spring break and will mostly be away from my blog except to put small and unsubstantial updates up until Sunday, April 2, 2006. If you must find me, please visit LUGs.com and stevekwan.com, where I will be blog-residing this week.
If it is not urgent, please leave a comment with your name and e-mail address and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.
Current Music: Blur - Parklife
If it is not urgent, please leave a comment with your name and e-mail address and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.
Current Music: Blur - Parklife
I made a funny
Dave says:
anyway, I described your blog to your big fan as, "He really wants to be a rock star, but really, he just wants to go home and have something nice for dinner."
Richform says:
I like that
Richform says:
it really sums up the Dickhotomy
Current Music: Eisley - One Day I Slowly Floated Away
Friday, March 24, 2006
Snakes on a Plane tagline, Dickolas Wang style
This summer, Samuel L. Jackson is the Mangoose.
Current Music: Broken Social Scene - Fire Eye'd Boy
Current Music: Broken Social Scene - Fire Eye'd Boy
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Just smile all the time
Allow me one more fanboy music blog post.
Damn I love this album.
And so should you.
I've always thought that Summerteeth was the "Revolver" to Wilco's "Sgt. Pepper", Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I always sort of assumed that as time went on, the critics would clue in and remember that Wilco made some good stuff before YHF. Well, that doesn't seem to be happening, and as it stands, Summerteeth has been relegated to footnote status, the dreaded "hinting at the greatness that was to come" album. So I'm going to take it upon myself and my PageRank of 3 to tell the world that damn, this is a good album.
Maybe I'm biased. After all, this is the record that built up Jeff Tweedy in my mind as an infallible hero. He could do no wrong: he was turning out great songs left, right, and centre, and here was his masterstroke. There wasn't a single thing that he wrote that wasn't better than what he was writing a year before, and the sky was the limit. I don't know if the same can be said about him anymore, or if I can really say he's my biggest musical hero.
Still, this album makes me forget all that. It takes me back to a time when Jeff Tweedy was the saviour of alternative music, when he was the promising new thing, when he was Ryan Adams before Ryan Adams. Maybe there is an element of hero worship in this album for me, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't not bob my head along with "I'm Always In Love" or "Pieholden Suite". Anyway I can't say anything about it that wouldn't be better conveyed by just listening to it, so listen to it. DO IT.
Anyway, if a guy with a PageRank of 3 says so, it must be true.
Current Music: Wilco - Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)
Damn I love this album.
And so should you.
I've always thought that Summerteeth was the "Revolver" to Wilco's "Sgt. Pepper", Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I always sort of assumed that as time went on, the critics would clue in and remember that Wilco made some good stuff before YHF. Well, that doesn't seem to be happening, and as it stands, Summerteeth has been relegated to footnote status, the dreaded "hinting at the greatness that was to come" album. So I'm going to take it upon myself and my PageRank of 3 to tell the world that damn, this is a good album.
Maybe I'm biased. After all, this is the record that built up Jeff Tweedy in my mind as an infallible hero. He could do no wrong: he was turning out great songs left, right, and centre, and here was his masterstroke. There wasn't a single thing that he wrote that wasn't better than what he was writing a year before, and the sky was the limit. I don't know if the same can be said about him anymore, or if I can really say he's my biggest musical hero.
Still, this album makes me forget all that. It takes me back to a time when Jeff Tweedy was the saviour of alternative music, when he was the promising new thing, when he was Ryan Adams before Ryan Adams. Maybe there is an element of hero worship in this album for me, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't not bob my head along with "I'm Always In Love" or "Pieholden Suite". Anyway I can't say anything about it that wouldn't be better conveyed by just listening to it, so listen to it. DO IT.
Anyway, if a guy with a PageRank of 3 says so, it must be true.
Current Music: Wilco - Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
This one's for you, Jimothy
I went to In-N-Out and ordered a Flying Dutchman for you, Jimbo.
(click to enlarge all of the pictures)
(I ate it.)
While we were there, Adam asked for something "inside", something from the secret menu. I pulled out all the stops:
Clockwise from top in the tray: a 4x4 Animal Style whole grilled, a Grilled Cheese Animal Style, Fries well Animal Style, regular fries. I also got him a Neapolitan shake, which may or may not be the drink in the picture.
I like this picture because it makes me look taller than Adam.
Thanks to my excellent photographer Frances. Fun fact: Frances took my profile picture.
Current Music: Wilco - Candy Floss
(click to enlarge all of the pictures)
(I ate it.)
While we were there, Adam asked for something "inside", something from the secret menu. I pulled out all the stops:
Clockwise from top in the tray: a 4x4 Animal Style whole grilled, a Grilled Cheese Animal Style, Fries well Animal Style, regular fries. I also got him a Neapolitan shake, which may or may not be the drink in the picture.
I like this picture because it makes me look taller than Adam.
Thanks to my excellent photographer Frances. Fun fact: Frances took my profile picture.
Current Music: Wilco - Candy Floss
Sunday, March 19, 2006
If you only listen to one of these songs, make it "Please Tell My Brother" by Golden Smog
There was a time in my life when I was very interested in alt-country. It started on the day I bought Rufus Wainwright's debut album and Wilco's "Summerteeth" (which still ranks as the best CD buying day of my life). I knew Rufus Wainwright would be a winner, but I only bought Summerteeth on a whim, fuelled by some positive press and one cool single. I figured I'd probably listen to it a little and then move on. Six years on, Summerteeth is still my favourite album ever.
Here I was, holding this fantastic album but not knowing anything else about Wilco. In this situation, 17-year-old Dickolas naturally takes to the internet and finds that not only does Wilco have another highly acclaimed album in their back-catalogue, but that their fearless leader Jeff Tweedy was actually in this other band that a lot of people seemed to really like. Also, that while in this band, he invented country rock (his words, not mine). When a Canadian hears these words, he immediately thinks of Blue Rodeo, and so I borrowed my father's copy of "Outskirts". I bought some more Wilco, I got some mp3s off Napster before I was booted off for downloading Roy Orbison's "Crying". Thus began in earnest my alt.country phase.
For most of this time I was content to stick by my main man Mr. Tweedy and try to get into this whole exciting alt.country/country rock/Americana/"No Depression" thing. I picked up all of Uncle Tupelo's albums -- except, curiously, "No Depression", I obsessed over the excellent "Mermaid Avenue" album Wilco did with Billy Bragg and (sort of) Woody Guthrie, and I picked up a Golden Smog album (a sort of supergroup with lots of "big names"). I expanded my Blue Rodeo collection eight-fold, and heard a few tracks by Whiskeytown and the Jayhawks ("We've been called the American Blue Rodeo," said Gary Louris). During this time, I even considered buying a banjo.
Still, it wasn't really going to work out between me and alt.country. Sure, Uncle Tupelo's "Anodyne" is a great album, but as I went back through their catalogue, the appeal was diminishing further and further until I just couldn't be bothered to buy their seminal first album, the important one that invented the genre. What Whiskeytown I could track down didn't grasp me either. The Jayhawks were cool, but all of the stuff I liked by them came when they were moving from Country rock to country Rock, if you will. Eventually, I concluded that I didn't really like alt.country so much as I liked Wilco and Blue Rodeo, and rootsy guitar rock. But that's okay, because it taught me not to fear banjos, mandolins, and pedal steel guitars.
I tend to really like the stuff that formerly alt-country bands make after they get out of alt-country. Since Wilco got out of the alt-country game, they've made three all-time classic albums. The Jayhawks have a fantastic album in "Rainy Day Music". My Morning Jacket followed up "It Still Moves" with "Z". I think that alt-country is like going to a good school, only with music: instead of getting you a good job, it allows you to make music that appeals to me, Dickolas Wang. It teaches people to really embrace tube distortion and to write melodies. It exposes them to all sorts of great vintage keyboard sounds, like the Farfisa and the Rhodes piano. I think that all this experience keeps bands from going too far off the deep end when they go the way of Radiohead and make their difficult 4th album. This got me thinking that I should make up the 2nd semi-annual I, Dickolas Wang mixtape. I'll put together a list of post-alt-country songs by formerly alt-country bands, I thought, and it would have some jam-rock, some classic pop, even a little lounge jazz. The criterion would be simple and broad-reaching: any song that has even a peripheral connection to alt-country would be fair game. I'd also include a little bit of a country-tinge, too.
As I put together the list, though, damned if the rootsier stuff didn't stick together better. So, the final list contains a lot more pedal steel than I initially planned. And why not? When it comes right down to it, great as the new stuff might be, this is the stuff that I turn to on a cold and rainy night for comfort. These are the songs that will love you, as they say, even when you don't love yourself. The lack of diversity of artists here is a symptom of me not actually knowing a huge amount about alt-country, which I feel bad about, but not that much.
Obtain, by whatever means you wish:
It might be long, but I pared it down from 37.
I just found out that Golden Smog, a sort of alt-country supergroup featuring both Jeff Tweedy and Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, is putting out a new album in April. I am eager to see if Tweedy still has any of the old spirit in him. This playlist has really made me hope that he does.
Current Music: Official I, Dickolas Wang Mixtape #2
Here I was, holding this fantastic album but not knowing anything else about Wilco. In this situation, 17-year-old Dickolas naturally takes to the internet and finds that not only does Wilco have another highly acclaimed album in their back-catalogue, but that their fearless leader Jeff Tweedy was actually in this other band that a lot of people seemed to really like. Also, that while in this band, he invented country rock (his words, not mine). When a Canadian hears these words, he immediately thinks of Blue Rodeo, and so I borrowed my father's copy of "Outskirts". I bought some more Wilco, I got some mp3s off Napster before I was booted off for downloading Roy Orbison's "Crying". Thus began in earnest my alt.country phase.
For most of this time I was content to stick by my main man Mr. Tweedy and try to get into this whole exciting alt.country/country rock/Americana/"No Depression" thing. I picked up all of Uncle Tupelo's albums -- except, curiously, "No Depression", I obsessed over the excellent "Mermaid Avenue" album Wilco did with Billy Bragg and (sort of) Woody Guthrie, and I picked up a Golden Smog album (a sort of supergroup with lots of "big names"). I expanded my Blue Rodeo collection eight-fold, and heard a few tracks by Whiskeytown and the Jayhawks ("We've been called the American Blue Rodeo," said Gary Louris). During this time, I even considered buying a banjo.
Still, it wasn't really going to work out between me and alt.country. Sure, Uncle Tupelo's "Anodyne" is a great album, but as I went back through their catalogue, the appeal was diminishing further and further until I just couldn't be bothered to buy their seminal first album, the important one that invented the genre. What Whiskeytown I could track down didn't grasp me either. The Jayhawks were cool, but all of the stuff I liked by them came when they were moving from Country rock to country Rock, if you will. Eventually, I concluded that I didn't really like alt.country so much as I liked Wilco and Blue Rodeo, and rootsy guitar rock. But that's okay, because it taught me not to fear banjos, mandolins, and pedal steel guitars.
I tend to really like the stuff that formerly alt-country bands make after they get out of alt-country. Since Wilco got out of the alt-country game, they've made three all-time classic albums. The Jayhawks have a fantastic album in "Rainy Day Music". My Morning Jacket followed up "It Still Moves" with "Z". I think that alt-country is like going to a good school, only with music: instead of getting you a good job, it allows you to make music that appeals to me, Dickolas Wang. It teaches people to really embrace tube distortion and to write melodies. It exposes them to all sorts of great vintage keyboard sounds, like the Farfisa and the Rhodes piano. I think that all this experience keeps bands from going too far off the deep end when they go the way of Radiohead and make their difficult 4th album. This got me thinking that I should make up the 2nd semi-annual I, Dickolas Wang mixtape. I'll put together a list of post-alt-country songs by formerly alt-country bands, I thought, and it would have some jam-rock, some classic pop, even a little lounge jazz. The criterion would be simple and broad-reaching: any song that has even a peripheral connection to alt-country would be fair game. I'd also include a little bit of a country-tinge, too.
As I put together the list, though, damned if the rootsier stuff didn't stick together better. So, the final list contains a lot more pedal steel than I initially planned. And why not? When it comes right down to it, great as the new stuff might be, this is the stuff that I turn to on a cold and rainy night for comfort. These are the songs that will love you, as they say, even when you don't love yourself. The lack of diversity of artists here is a symptom of me not actually knowing a huge amount about alt-country, which I feel bad about, but not that much.
Obtain, by whatever means you wish:
- The Jayhawks - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
- Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss - I'll Fly Away
- Son Volt - Driving the View
- Wilco - Someday Soon
- Blue Rodeo - Hasn't Hit Me Yet (live)
- The Jayhawks - Blue
- Uncle Tupelo - Acuff Rose
- Billy Bragg & Wilco - Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key
- Ryan Adams - Beautiful Sorta
- Blue Rodeo - God and Country
- Billy Bragg & Wilco - Feed Of Man
- Soul Asylum - Runaway Train
- Neko Case - Deep Red Bells
- Golden Smog - Please Tell My Brother
- The Jayhawks - Save It For A Rainy Day
- Blue Rodeo - Try
- Uncle Tupelo - No Sense In Lovin'
- Blue Rodeo - The Ballad of the Dime Store Greaser and the Blonde Mona Lisa
- Wilco - Say You Miss Me
It might be long, but I pared it down from 37.
I just found out that Golden Smog, a sort of alt-country supergroup featuring both Jeff Tweedy and Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, is putting out a new album in April. I am eager to see if Tweedy still has any of the old spirit in him. This playlist has really made me hope that he does.
Current Music: Official I, Dickolas Wang Mixtape #2
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
