HOT LINKS! (this one is on the house)

I’ve updated my “links!” My “bookmarks!”

These are all the sites I click on everyday and read and I recommend you do too, because they are pretty great. Let’s go through them, one by one:

dot organisms – My friend Brendan’s blog. All sorts of stuff – music, games, films, electronic things.

Face of the Cookie – My friend Kiala’s blog. Hilarious observations about life? Recipes? Kiala? Description.

Hell For Leather Magazine – Not what the name’s ambiguous connotation suggests. A blog about motorcycle style and culture.

Honky-Tonk Dragon – Scooters, steampunk, art, etc.

Isabellyboo – My friend Isabelle’s blog. This blog is about the 3 F’s: Fun, Floetry, and Farts.

Mister Jalopy’s Hoopty Rides – Blog about cars, tools, old things, wonderful things, etc.

My Impression Now – Posts about Robert Pollard songs. Great writing.

Permanent Transition – My currently-abandoned motorcycle blog. ???!?!??!

Pop Zeus – Initially a comic about an upcoming Guided By Voices tribute comic. But also good Robert Pollard related news and posts.

Recovering Californian- My friend Melissa’s blog. I think she is an author? Google her.

Sinpies – My friend Charley’s blog. And he’s back to postin’!

The new Cafe (racer) Society – Motorcycle, bicycle and monowheel in modern art and culture, etc. Really entertaining stuff.

You Set the Scene – Los Angeles concert news, reviews, etc.

These are sites that I usually check on daily, but I’m always checking out other blogs (usually by checking out the comments on Kiala and Melissa’s blogs… because they are popular and even have superfans).

Anything awesome I’m missing?

Bonus: My friend Nate made an awesome submission to Photoshop Disasters!

Wonders – War and Wedding

I’ve already written about the entire Airport 5 album Tower in the Fountain of Sparks here. But I think “War and Wedding” is one of the most amazing songs ever written… so it deserves its own post.

First off – you can listen to the song here.

There is something that just amazingly haunting and beautiful about this song. Both war and weddings involve ceremony, and the organs in the background of the song feel right at home. As for the lyrics (included after the break), they aren’t as pointed as Pollard’s “Sing For Your Meat” but they do bring up the imagery of lives shattered by war. Everything about the song feels old.

It seems that in every generation, with wars come weddings. How many stories do we hear of soldiers who have died that have young wives or even children waiting for them at home? Perhaps marriage becomes a link back home for many young soldiers – something to look forward to and perhaps a reason for them to do what they are doing. Unfortunately when some of them don’t come back, all we can do is sweep up the pieces and make room for the next. It is heartbreaking.

I don’t have my Airport 5 album here with me, but I wonder if it is Tobin Sprout joining in on the chorus?

I’d love to hear your interpretation.

Abort

Today has been frustrating, to say the least.

First off – my motorcycle is idling/running like crap. I know it is the carbs, and I have really awesome racing carbs to replace them, but I need backup transportation because of Murphy’s Law.

So that’s my Vespa, and I’ve received everything except one part. Unfortunately, I can’t get started until I get my case ports matched to my new Polini 130 kit, something that requires shaving away the aluminum and possible welding extra aluminum on some parts. This I can’t do. So hopefully Bar Italia can do it this weekend, I have to call tomorrow. They really are the best in Los Angeles. So, if this happens, I can spend my weekend putting my engine back together. I’m really crossing my fingers here.

Back to the motorcycle. My idle is just all over the map – I think I’ve traced it down to my left carb but no matter what I do with adjustments of idle and the air/gas mixture screw, it just does all this unpredictable crap. I think there must be a blockage in my low-speed jet. Tonight, I was going to a concert in Echo Park and I smelled oil… a very distinct oil smell. It was my oil, I’m leaking out of my head gasket for some reason. Not copious amount, but enough for me to get a whiff of half oil/half synthetic. So add that to my list.

Anyway, got to the concert and my bike is just way too hot, oily, and idling like a pitbull with emphysema (brwargle, putt putt rawgle rawgle). Alex calls and his car is kaput, and there is still 2 hours before the band I wanted to see will even go on. I decide I’m in no mood to be in The Echo by myself for three hours, so I decide to bag it. I swing by Amoeba on the way back and pick up The Circus Devils latest album, “Sgt. Disco.” 

So now I’m waiting for my bike to cool down so I can go pull off that left carb and see what the hell is going on. Of course, this is the carb on the side of the scrambler pipes, so I’m going to try and finagle the carb past the pipes so I don’t have to take everything off. Maybe I’ll just get up early and do all this tomorrow.

I’m in a very, very, very bad mood today.

Hello, love: The Ace Cafe Racer

via Hell For Leather Magazine:

“After revealing Little Miss Dynamite, the first Ace Café Racer, to a small audience on June 9th, the Ace has finally released official images and the results of its dyno run. The 100ci S&S v-twin makes 135bhp and 105lb/ft of torque at 75% throttle and 5,000rpm. Expect production bikes, benefiting from more development time, to do even better.”

Read more and see more here.

Love the wheels, love the tank shape, wish the speedo were sunk down into the headset so the bars were the highest part of the bike. And please, ditch the chrome and leave the shiny stuff for accents only.

But I’ll still take one.

Songs that came on random this morning

On the way to work:

Robert Pollard – Hammer in Your Eyes
The Dandy Warhols – Wasp in The Lotus
The Velvet Underground – Candy Says
The 101′ers – Keys to Your Heart
Devo – Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No)
Guided By Voices – Bulldog Skin
R.E.M. – Chorus and the Ring

Mail Order King – All Bob News

These are coming soon:

Carbon Whales 7″

From Rockathon Records:

“The Carbon Whales are an obscure band from the late 70s that actor Paddy Considine turned Bob on to. The 4 songs on this EP are apparently the only things they ever recorded. It was never released. Bob really loved it so we tracked the band down and asked if we could release it.”

Listen to a bit of “The Jeep” right here.

The Takeovers – Little Green Onion Man 7″

From Off Records:

“This freaky little beast that be is the new Takeovers release the “Little Green Onion Man” EP. A nice mini-movie comprised of 4 songs (one from the Bad Football album—the other 3 are unreleased Robert Pollard compositions) that warmly straddles the loosey-goosey psych-pop sounds of their first album, Turn To Red as well as the white knuckled rock pomp of their second (Bad Football).”

Hand numbered and limited to 500 copies online. I’ll have one of them.

I also have been listening to Robert Pollard’s latest album “Robert Pollard is Off to Business” and it is really good. I ordered the vinyl because Rockathon sent an Advance copy of the CD along with your order so you can put it on your iPod, etc. I also ordered the final three 45’s from the Happy Jack Rock Records singles, including the long awaited extended version of “Frostman.” I also received the web only release of the “Weatherman and Skin Goddess” EP.

I was very disappointed with “Superman Was a Rocker” which felt like one of the “Briefcase: Suitcase Abridged” collections. I’ll revisit it later.

Finally – tour dates were released for Pollard’s new band, Boston Spaceships. (Download “Go For the Exit“). Tour dates are as follows:

Thu 9/25 Cincinnati OH – Midpoint Music Festival
Fri 9/26 Cleveland OH – Grog Shop
Sat 9/27 Washington DC – Black Cat
Mon 9/29 Philadelphia PA – Johnny Brendas
Tue 9/30 Boston MA – Paradise
Wed 10/1 New York City – Highline Ballroom
Fri 10/3 Ann Arbor MI – Blind Pig
Sat 10/4 Dayton OH – Dayton Music Festival
Mon 10/6 Chicago IL – Double Door
Tue 10/7 St Paul MN – Turf Club
Thu 10/9 Champaing IL – High Dive
Fri 10/10 St Louis MO – Bluebird
Sat 10/11 Memphis TN – Hi Tone
Tue 10/14 Austin TX- Parish
Wed 10/15Dallas TX – The Loft
Fri 10/17 Atlanta GA – The Earl
Sat 10/18 Nashville TN- Mercy Lounge

I will be attending the Austin show, and then driving up the next day for the Dallas show. Would you like to attend? I was going to do the Atlanta show, but it will be at my ex-girlfriend’s Dad’s bar… so that would be awkward.  Buy your airplane tickets today – it is going to be a hell of a couple of shows!

Totino’s Party Pizzas

Where the hell are you in southern California?!?

Those sad, junky little pizzas are DELICIOUS! Why don’t they sell them down here? We like to party too, Totino!

THEY USED TO BE A DOLLAR EACH ON SALE!

College times.

luddite-lite

In the evening times, I’ve been turning off my phone and computer and just enjoying being away from that stuff. This means that I miss some calls, including a mysterious caller from San Francisco that didn’t leave a voicemail. 

Having problems with backordered scooter parts. I wouldn’t recommend ordering from Scooter Parts Direct in Georgia. They have great prices, free shipping on orders over 400 dollars, and 10% everything if you order online. However, they don’t tell you if something is out of stock until AFTER they ship your order. They had none of the Polini parts they advertised on their site (no reed valve, no pipe, no top-end kit). I have to now order the carb/reed valve from Chicago, and the pipe and top-end kit I’ll probably end up ordering from San Diego. This is inflating the project’s pricetag quite a bit – I just hope this means I get my scooter running in time for the rally.

This weekend – lots of work and at least one day with a very cute girl. Next weekend: FOURTH OF JULY = UNPRECEDENTED AWESOMENESS. I’m keeping the details secret as to not ruin the wickedness of that weekend. 4 day weekend awwww yeah.

Off to play pool.

The next two weeks

It is going to be quite Vespa-riffic round these parts. I get my first round of part on Wednesday, which includes a new cut crank, clutch plates, seals, gaskets and reed valve and new Dell’Orto 24mm carb. 

This will allow me to get everything all put together and wait for the new cylinder and piston – which I’m hoping will arrive by Friday. Along with that shipment, I’ll also have a new Polini pipe and a new CDI box.

After putting everything back together, there will be the task of properly jetting the new carb. I’ll have a general idea of where to start – but because of the new kit, new carb, new pipe etc. I’ll have to fiddle with it to get it perfect.

Then – I’ll be riding it everyday to get it broken in for our Westside Scooter Club Beach Invasion III.

So be prepared for a ton of Vespa pictures/stories/etc. I can’t wait to get it back on the road!

Full story on Jaxon’s accident

The scene of the accident, after most of the oil and glass were picked up and ground by the traffic

Jaxon got back from New Orleans about midnight on Wednesday – I was still pretty sick but went out and checked out his bike, talked for about an hour then went to bed. The next day I was pretty excited to have my buddy back and hear his stories from the trip, so I called him and told him I was taking off work early and we can meet at Swingers and talk about the trip.

Blah blah blah, talked about the trip and general stuff. There were some things he wanted to check out on the bike, so I was eager to get it back to the garage and take it on a test drive and get my hands in the bike. 

hoo dawgies

Well, wish I could say I spent the beautiful day romping around the hills, stealing pies from window sills and grabbing corn right off the stalk. But I’m quite sick and spent 99% of the day inside drinking green tea and purging my body of…. well, of snot.

Gross.

are you not having nightmares?

Well – if you aren’t having nightmares, let me present you with something guaranteed to give you some:

If that doesn’t keep you up at night, I don’t know what will. Wish I had this picture in college when I was pulling all nighters.

I have a cold now.

Last post: don’t worry, I’m not going nuts. I’m just tired of this city and wanted to pound it out with my hands last night. Everyone needs to get out of the city they currently live in, and it has been over 6 months for me. I’m going stir-crazy, and I don’t like what this city can do to you sometimes.

In related news – possible Robert Pollard fall tour and new band with new releases! All the news fit to print here at Pop Zeus.

Oh yeah, and I shattered the glass front on my iPhone somehow. It is a bummer.

this city these days

Today.

I’m tired and exhausted and thinking about two years gone by and I just want to sleep them away. I look around and don’t like what I see, and so I clean and organize and pull things out of closets and throw things away. My closet is full of broken things, but they are just things. Things that record life, or at least the life that we think needs recorded and they sit in my closet broken. I pull them out and spread them around my room. Cameras and books and recorders and phones and boxes with birds in them, which aren’t even mine. I set these around my room.

This city is filthy. It is full of dirt and piss and money and sin and I’m tired of it. I’m tired of this city. I can’t wash it off, this city has seeped in me and changed me in ways I don’t even want to think about, but it’s time to. Because I want to clean myself of this city. I want to love it and I want to enjoy it, but I need to clean this city off of me. This city and this person and these things all tell a story about the last two years and I don’t like the story. I need to get up north and look for the person who left there two years ago. I want to go to the desert, where it is hot and the sun is inescapable and it burns you – it beats down on you and burns the asphalt out of you. Your bones become sand and you sweat all the regret out of your body.

But I can’t right now. So I sit here, and I write. I write to you, and I write to myself, and I write. I try and bleed out of the bad through my fingers on this keyboard but it doesn’t work yet. I look around and things are still the same. I’ve settled into a ravine – and I need to climb and climb and climb. Make amends. Bury the city and make amends with it. But it is late, and all I can do is write. And sit on my floor, in the middle of everything that is broken. I sit in the middle of everything that is broken, and I look at it. Close. I feel the things in my hands. I feel where it is broken, and I set it down.

And I start to fix them.

I’ve thought about it…

… and I think it is time to shake the pillars of heaven at the SMOG CUTTER.

3 Awesome Guided By Voices Videos

Proving that I have nothing to write about yet, or have been lacking the will to write – I present the best Guided By Voices videos on Youtube!

First off – “My Valuable Hunting Knife.” This isn’t the version from Alien Lanes, it is the 7″ single version, also available on the Tigerbomb EP (7″ only) or on the Hardcore UFO’s boxset.

This video is great and reminiscent of older REM videos to me, random footage intercut with the band on a stage, playing the song. Sort of like “What’s the Frequency Kenneth.”

Look for: The Pollard bow @ :42, the “presenting items to the camera ala “It’s the End of the World as we Know It” @ :50 and 1:30, and a super high kick @ 2:07.

Next, it’s an awkward Matt Pinfield interview from 1996 on 120 Minutes!

This is off their tour of “Under the Bushes, Under the Stars.” Watch for a “Back to Saturn X” comment by Pollard, which is an awesome, obscure GBV song with an excellent write-up right here.

Finally – this last video almost brings me to tears and goosebumps. It is “Game of Pricks” live at Guided By Voices’ last show in Dayton, Ohio. This is one of the most played songs for all of GBV’s live shows – and the energy in this live version is bounced back from the audience singing along and it is electric and amazing and awesome.