Dec
    29

    My Pure Pop Top Ten Albums Of The Year List by Jason M. Kooly

    1989Hey, it’s my top ten list for this year. Hope you like. It’s been a rough year for me. High school sucks.

    My Pure Pop Top Ten Albums Of The Year List by Jason M. Kooly.
    1.  Jane’s Addiction, “Nothing’s Shocking”
    I know this actually came out last October, but I didn’t get around to it until May. Wow, this album is enormous. It starts off with a very simple, quiet bass line, there’s a weird sort of breath (or a “pssh”? Not sure) and then BOOM! Loud and gorgeous power chords and screaming vocals that seem to echo on forever. Just about every song on it is like this. I listened to it at least two times a day this past summer. The cover is really cool, too (yet even though the drummer’s name is Stephen, from the pictures inside the tape I can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl). They are my new favorite band (besides The Beatles).
    2.  The Cult, “Sonic Temple”
    I love The Cult. This is a mixture of their first two American albums “Love” and “Electric”, the former being very psychedelic and the latter sounding more like AC/DC. (They have one European release called “Dreamtime” I’m trying to save up for. Imports at Pure Pop are expensive.) It’s a good mix. When Ian says “This is where it all begins” during the first tune (entitled “Sun King”. I know. Weird, right?) you know this record is going to kick some ass. Make sure to save up for the CD version. I know it’s $6 more but it has the bonus track “Medicine Train” which totally rocks and is worth the extra dough. Also, they rocked at Memorial Auditorium opening for Metallica.
    3.  Lou Reed, “New York”
    I read about it in Rolling Stone (my dad got me a subscription for Christmas). They gave it four stars and then some 15-year-old kid wrote in to say how much he liked the review. The review made it sound good and the cover looked good, so I asked my mom to buy it for me at Pure Pop on her way home from work (just like “Sonic Temple” and “0U812″). It was $6.99 for something I’d never heard so it was a risk, but it was totally worth it. I know they’ve been playing “Dirty Blvd.” on Triple-X, but there’s even better songs other than that one.
    4.  Beastie Boys, “Paul’s Boutique”
    This is a very weird, different album than I was expecting. I actually didn’t buy it, I copied it off my friend Matt. The tape was ugly and orange. Pure Pop only got one cassette of it in and it wasn’t on sale, so I didn’t get it. Also, I heard it sucked and wasn’t anywhere near as awesome as “Licensed To Ill”. According to MTV they predicted they’d be doing this ’70s stuff back in ’86, and I admire that they weren’t kidding. It is weird, though.
    5.  Violent Femmes, “Violent Femmes”
    This girl I secretly have a major crush on is really, REALLY into this band. She even wrote out all the words in a note she gave me before I even heard it. Then she lent me the tape and it was really good. I’ve been trying to get out of listening to so much metal lately. I keep asking that guy Rick at Pure Pop if they have anything different. I asked him about this band and he said they sucked. I don’t think so! I know it came out in 1983 (a really good year in music) but it makes my list anyway.
    6.  The Cure, “Disintegration”
    I got this tape the same day I got “Nothing’s Shocking” and listened to it in my mom’s office on a Sunday (she was working extra hours) and it was really pretty, but also very sad. I got it because the girl I have a crush on doesn’t like me anymore (she got a perm and is now popular) and she said she liked them. I tried to get her to notice me having it in English class, but didn’t. Or if she did, she didn’t care. I really like “Pictures Of You”. I don’t have any pictures of her.

    7.  The Jesus And Mary Chain, “Automatic”

    This tape is really cool, but too short even though it has two extra songs on it. It has a really neat rocking sound with electric drums. Triple-X has been playing “Head On” a lot but I like “Blues From A Gun” way better. I don’t care about the state of my hair!

    8.  A mix tape I made for myself.
    I know I made it, but I like this tape. It’s got a bunch of stuff I like, like The Cult, Tears For Fears (it took me a while to get into them), The Clash, Talk Talk, and other new stuff I’ve heard. There’s this song called “Wave All Through The Nation” on it that I taped off of WRUV but they never said who it was that played it. If anybody knows who it is out there, please let me know. It’s a really pretty, slow song. I opened up the cassette and stuck a cool Powell-Peralta sticker ad inside from Thrasher Magazine. I know I don’t have a skateboard, but I like Thrasher. It’s cool.
    9.  Camper Van Beethoven, “Key Lime Pie”
    I got this tape the same time I got The Jesus And Mary Chain” one because it has “Pictures Of Matchstick Men” on it, which is a wicked cool song. The other songs are kinda weird and country-ish. There’s this really pretty one called “All Her Favorite Fruit”. The words are sort of creepy, but I kinda get what he’s talking about.
    10.  Fugazi, “Fugazi”
    This is a band I’d never heard of before, but my friend Haik videotaped them playing at 242 Main and it looked awesome, so I went to Pure Pop and bought the tape. It was cheap. The artwork looks crappy, but don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s really good! It’s an EP, but the songs are all awesome and they go perfect with each other. “Waiting Room” is the first one and it’s a killer. My favorite is the last song “Glue Man” because it’s very echoey and I don’t know what it means but it rocks. I hope they come back and play again so I can see them. I wish I knew what a Fugazi is.
    Honorable mentions (sorry, some of them are from last year. I have to save up for them, you know!): New Order, “Substance”, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Mother’s Milk”, The Church, “Starfish”, The Stone Roses, “The Stone Roses”, Michael Penn, “March”.  Thanks, everybody. See you next year (I hope)!
    (and in no particular order)
    Girls, “Album”
    Phoenix, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”
    Black Dice, “Repo”
    Animal Collective, “Merriweather Post Pavillion
    Dinosaur Jr., “Farm”
    Lightning Bolt, “Earthly Delights”
    Sonic Youth, “The Eternal”
    Fuck Buttons, “Tarot Sport”
    Karen O and The Kids, “Where The Wild Things Are”
    The MP3 I have of The Boredoms show I saw in September
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    Dec
    01

    WARMTONES: The Winter Mix

    ginevrawintermix

    winter mix // mix for nimai

    1 come on, life – ben chugg (burlington, vt)

    2 fake blues – real estate (ridgewood, nj)

    3 despicable dogs – small black (brooklyn, nyc)

    4 leda atomica – mostly bears (tucson, az)

    5 she’s so smart – nose bleed island (burlington, vt)

    6 oneness – many mansions – (boston, ma)

    7 biggy shorty – birthdays (saratoga springs, ny)

    8 oh naoko – sun airway (philadelphia, pa)

    9 cyclical cyclical (atlantis) – pictureplane (denver, co)

    10 osaka loop line – discovery (brooklyn, nyc)

    11 skin – tooth ache (burlington, vt)

    12 mbee – maui (burlington, vt)

    13 109 – toro y moi (columbia, sc)

    14 failure – a sunny day in glasgow (philadelphia, pa)

    15 feel it all around – washed out (perry, ga)

    16 the waltz – mt desert island (boston, ma)

    Here are some newer musical pettifours to cut down those rapidly oncoming winter blues. I guess, I got really into making this mix. I fell in love with all of the songs and wanted to know more about them. So I asked. Everyone on the mix has been so kind and supportive of this project, and from this kindness a variety of interviews have spawned. Good music is contagious, you know? You want to share it with everyone you care about and hope that they’ll love it just as much as you do.

    “Good music is contagious, you know?”

    The interviews from the mix will be posted weekly here on Pure Pop’s blog and will span the course of a few months. Currently there are 50 (out of an edition of 100) copies of the mix available. The cd sleeves are handmade by me from recycled Burlington show flyers. The photograph on the front I took with my ½ frame camera last winter, here in Burlington. A digital download as well as the physical copy  will be available very soon, for free of course – keep checking back. Until then:

    TUNE IN THIS WEDNESDAY to MIXTAPE

    105.9 FM 9pm-11pm to hear the mix and some audio from the interviews.

    Thanks to all the bands, Trevor Powers, Nimai Larson, Joe Pelia and Jason Cooley for your contributions and support.

    Readers – catch you next week for the latest edition of WARMTONES.

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    Sep
    22

    Show Review: Boredoms – Boadrums 9

    boredomsatempac
    Butchy Fuego gets my vote for Time Magazine’s Man Of The Year.  Why?  Because he provided me with what was (after much thought) the greatest day of my life in return for a simple favor.
    Butchy plays drums for a Thrill Jockey band called Pit-Er-Pat, whose other member is Fay Davis-Jeffers, someone I’ve known since high school.  I’d never really met Butchy before, but they were in town and Butchy needed a drum kit to practice on for some upcoming shows.  Shows with who?  BOREDOMS.  BOREDOMS.
    I have been obsessed with Boredoms since 1993.  They are sort of like a little jewel you spend a lot of time chasing, whether it’s an album import or a rare live show here in America, you have to search and it’s always expensive but it’s always completely worth it as well.  They are a Japanese band who specialize in bringing you soaringly fantastic things: sonically, visually, mentally, and spiritually.  And they rock as much as any band you can think of.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown my arms in the air listening to them.
    For the past few years they have been putting on special events for certain days.  The first was on July 7, 2007.  7/7/7.  In a park in DUMBO, Brooklyn they assembled a massive drum jam of 77 drummers playing in unison.  The next year, 8/8/8 it was 88 drummers.  This year, 9/9/9 they honed it down to 9 drummers for more than one performance.  Butchy was one of the chosen drummers and I was very happy to oblige his request.  I got Herb and Frank’s permission to use The Jazz Guys‘ practice space and Butchy got to play.  Also, he turned out to be a really cool guy.  He said he’d try and get us into one of the shows.  I said I was very interested, but secretly I didn’t really believe him.  Those shows are tough to get into.
    A few days later I was at work at The OP (bar) and got a call from him.  He asked if me and Herb not only wanted to go to a show but actually BE INVOLVED in it.  I imagine this was probably the only way Butchy could get us in, if we were part of the “crew.”  I had already felt pretty damn awesome that I helped out a Boredoms show in some very small distant way, but now this was too much.  I could hardly contain myself texting Herb about it.  We rejoiced at our good fortune repeatedly over the next couple of days.  We somehow managed to get Tanner on board, got our workdays off, rented a car just to be safe (Budget rules, but the guy behind the counter was a real grump) and went off to Troy, NY to see Boredoms on Sept. 11, 2009.
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    Aug
    31

    Ghosts of Pure Pop Past: Jason Cooley

    I worked at Pure Pop for exactly a year.  My favorite part of the job was grading the condition of the used vinyl.  My least favorite was selling concert tickets.  Anyway, the music you hear when you shop there is an employee’s pick.  You get to pick one album and then you have wait for the other employee’s picks to run through before you get play another.  These days I’m a bartender at The OP, which means I can play whatever the fuck I want all day long.  Sometimes people will make suggestions or requests (one customer got really steamed when I skipped over Donna Summer‘s 18-minute rendition of “MacArthur Park.” Um, sorry…NO), but I usually ignore them.  Also, there are 10,000 songs on my iPod.  I have lots of music to choose from on any given day for any kind of shitty mood I might be in.  So, this is The OP top five.

    1> The Rolling Stone 500 Songs playlist and The Pitchfork 500 Songs playlist.

    People on the internet are crazy.  Somebody actually took these lists of great songs, spent time compiling them, and then put them on the internet as a bit torrent file.  The Rolling Stone one is great for the older patrons, who sometimes look very surprised that I know who Little Richard and Bill Haley are.  The Pitchfork one is for the younger folks.  Either way, all I have to do is open the playlist up, hit shuffle, and it’s great songs all day long.  Also, it’s like radio.  When a song you dig comes on the radio, it’s different than playing it at home.  It’s more fresh because it’s unexpected.  The Rolling Stone playlist will make you realize how many songs are about losing the one you love.  I’m gonna go with 98%.

    2> LCD Soundsystem, “Sound Of Silver”

    Whenever I put this on at least five people will come up and ask me who it is.  I’m pretty sure by the time they sit down they’ve already forgotten.  No matter.  I’ve watched old drunk people dance to it.  On multiple occasions.  Sounds like silver to me.  It’s a lot like the Beta Band scene in “High Fidelity” except nobody goes out and buys it.

    3> Pavement, “Grounded”

    I never get tired of this song, but every time I play it at the bar at least one person locks eyes with me and nods.  They know.  I know.

    4> Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”

    Playing this makes the girls in the bar very happy, especially when it’s late and they’re all drunk.  It makes me happy, too.

    5> Silence.

    The first example of silence I’ll use is its use at the end of the night when you want people to leave.  Lights bright, music off.  Usually effective.  The other example occurred yesterday, during Beatles Day.  When I worked at restaurants if the customers talked too loud (sometimes it’s deafening) I’d simply turn the music down a bit and they’d get a little quieter.  Yesterday, a few drunken patrons were shouting their opinions over horse racing at increasing volumes.  I tried the quiet trick.  It didn’t work.  Oh, well.

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    Jun
    18

    Portrait of an Employee

    Every once in a while a two dudes at a bar, bored, a little drunk, with a pencil, the back of a recipe, and more than a little raw artistic talent, create something that sees through the veneer of a man, into the very depth of his soul.

    This, was not one of those times.

    herb

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