LOVE, BEN



Don't put things off. Don't. Not seeing people you love, even if it hurts to see them.

I miss you. I miss you. I shouldn't have missed you.

WEEEE!

LET'S GO STEADY



You know, I realized that I never plugged my dear friend, Marc Spitz's book, TOO MUCH TOO LATE.

I read it a couple of months ago and LOVED it... a few of my friends (even those that don't like marc) read it and loved it...

Here's a breif description that Amazon.com posted about the book:
From Booklist
Ace teenage trend-spotter Natalie "Motorrrju" Levine waxes enthusiastic about her boyfriend's father's band, the Jane Ashers, in her super-popular blog, and within the space of days, the aging rockers find out that that one of their old songs, "Let's Go Steady, Debbie," has become the most commonly bootlegged MP3 file on the Internet. They land a recording contract and a tour date and soon find themselves staring down the same demons that broke up their band in the first place. Veteran hardware-store employee and ace songwriter Harry Vance attempts to treat his writer's block with massive amounts of drugs and alcohol and keeps forgetting to call his wife. Drummer Sandy Klein, the novel's narrator and an unapologetic stoner, is so busy enjoying the perks of being in a wildly successful rock band that he forgets to keep his eye on his emotionally fragile bandmate, handing off the chore to the tour manager. Music journalist and novelist Spitz (How Soon Is Never? 2003) gets a lot of mileage out of his one-note premise in a fast and funny read. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.

I LIKE IT THAT WAY

I was going to start this blog off with a rant about how I am having less and less amounts of fun at parties these days and wondered if it was because I'm growing older or possibly because I'm settling down in a relationship with someone who doesn't like to party, when I found this photo on Gurj's amazingly awesome SXSW-Recap:



I guess I need to be in the mood to party, and with the right people, and unless those elements are in place, I'm miserable. And from the looks of the photo above, all those elements were in place at the PureVolume Party at SXSW.

I went to some parties this weekend in Miami. That's all. I can't really write more on the topic.

What I can write about is my parent's condo in Hallendale, FL. It's super desolated in comparison to south beach. Me and my friends found ourselves hiking about 5 miles each way to find food, and we enjoyed every moment of it. I actually took a long walk on the beach. I took so many long walks that my hips hurt.

I'm happy to be home.

Oh, and you know how I'm always going on and on about Dan Keyes, former Recover singer? Well, good news: he has a band name. He is now YOUNG LOVE

And you can finally hear Young Love on MySpace... they're demos, but they're great. And incase you want to look at him, here's a photo of his awesomeness:

NOTE TO SELF:

... Stop forgetting that you really dislike partying in Miami.

There have been very few times when I've had fun partying in MIA, and usually they involved Joshua M from Revolver. This year, however, there wasn't much salvaging the time.

I did hang out with She Wants Revenge and put things behind us. That was nice.

I did go for 6 mile long walks with some of my favorite boys... long walks along the beach became less of a Personal Ad, and more of a Personal Reality.

Anyway, some crazy things have been happening...

So last week I made a "joke" that the Animal Collective sounded like "a bunch of retards clapping." OK, Ok, i know it's really uncool for me to make fun of the mentally challenged... go ahead and make jokes saying i'm a retard... you're gonna miss the point.

So I made that joke and felt really bad about it, and in order to make me feel better, Brandon said he was gonna start a band called "Retards Have No Rhythm." (for the record, he is a very sensitive person... would never make fun of ANYONE... he was just trying to lift my spirits about my poor description abilities). We joked about the band name, and didn't think more of it.

Then a day later he calls me up to tell me about this really intersting person he met on the road. Apparently the man used to be in the Army where he would jump out of helicopters while high on Acid. Now, he's not in the army anymore and just teaches 5-year-old down syndrome kids how to play drums. When He told me that last bit, my heart and mind started racing. It all seemed so oddly coincedental.

This afternoon I was checking myspace and seeing who requested me as their friend. I did a breif overview and spotted a familliar name. It caused me to write the person this following email:

From: ultragrrrl
Date: Mar 27, 2006 9:11 AM

this is going to sound really dark, and i'm sorry if it bums you out, but whe I was 8 years old, a good friend of mine died of brain cancer, and she had the same name as you.

about 10 years ago i went to a seance and the psychic told me that i had a guardian angel. described jenny, and i was floored.

anyway, you asked me to be your myspace friend, and part of me wonders if that is a sign.

-sarah

and her response went as following... brace yourself:

Date: Mar 27, 2006 12:29 PM
Subject: RE: hi
Body: weirder still is that my sister died of brain cancer in october.

Does anyone know anything about this sort of thing? Like the constant occurances of coincedence? I feel like I'm on LOST.

Oh, I forgot to add... the other night I went to dinner with a ton of friends. When the bill came, someone grabbed it (before reading it... while it was in the black folder) and said "OK, how much do you think it is?"
I blurted out "$380."
The guy looked at the bill and put it down in disbelief... I was off by $8. The bill was $388.

I've been telling Brandon lately that I'm psychic, and he plays along and tells people the same thing, but i think we're both starting to see something weird happening around us.

IT'S PINK IN MY WORLD

A cat is moving in. I'm allergic to cats (but not insanely allergic to this one, like i usually am). Does anyone have any allergy medicine to recommend? I don't have health insurance, so something over the counter would be ideal.

thanks!

THIS IS ME

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

Right. So now that everyone is recovered from SXSW, Stolen Transmission is back to screw everyone over...



You also have to target="_blank">watch this immediately. Via Gorilla Mask.

And if you're in Miami over the weekend, which is where I will be debating on which Brandon I want to see sing (Flowers Vs. Reilly... the battle of the ages), there will be a fucking party that the Misshapes are throwing. Holla!

I LOVE HAVING DVR

I get to watch all the episodes of "American Idol" and "Americas Next Top Model" !!!! Fuck yeah. woooooo! I heart Ace Young. He's so pretty. He's sooo cheesy too. But I don't really give a fuck. He's got that sort of George Michael/Pop Idol elements to him. When I say Pop Idol, i mean the british version of this show... it seems like all the winners are like this dude. I also found out that I really love the bald dude, and my friend Amy totally called it by saying that the gray haired dude is the most real thing on reality tv.

I just came home from DJing at Rothko with the Cinematics and Boy Kill Boy. Dude, the Cinematics were off the mother fucking chain. Seeing them reminded me of seeing Franz Ferdinand at Pianos a few years ago and running off to meet up with friends at the Library and telling them that Franz reminded me of APB, and breaking out into "Shoot You Down."

Anyway, the point is that the Cinematics are really fucking great. The singer is kinda geeky and awkward when he's not singing in between songs, but once he starts up, it's like this fucking star is born. I think they said it was their last show in the US this time. Catch them next time, or if you live in England, see them soon.

I promised i'd write about SXSW... and you're all gonna get disappointed... So I got there wednesday night and chilled out in my room watching Idol. After eating room service I went to the Convention Center to pick up my pass and ran into Hot Robbie and his awesome roommate Piper from boyskout and two of robbies friends. we all went to the Blender party where Tapes'n'Tapes, Spoon, and one of my all time favorite bands, Echo and the Bunnymen, were playing. Tapes'n'Tapes were really fantastic, fun, and more libertines than I expected. Seems like Spoon were good, but I wasn't paying attention. And got totally fucking stoked to see Echo & the Bunnymen... until they played. Man, it felt like they were just phoning it in. They were playing for 400 drunk dudes, fratting it up, under tons of light (i want to see only a silohuette of Mac), and at 3am.

The next morning Brandon arrived so I hung out with him during the day, and then went to the Pure Volume party in the evening where Nightmare of You was playing with Heat Automatica.

WAIT... let me interject this for a second...

SXSW was super fucking emo this year. It was like the MySpace SXSW. Plus, nearly every band down there is already signed to East/West via Atlantic via Warners... as an A&R person, I was like, well, this might be a waste of time. Sure, I had a pass to see a bunch of bands that I normally don't get to see, but the lines to every venue were so long. I'm just another jerk with a badge, amongst hundreds, I'm not patient enough to wait in line for a show i'll be too short to see... But I can just go see the bands in New York, since they all come up here anyway, get a ticket and find the spots in the venue where I can see (figured them all out). Regardless, I love SXSW and will probably go back every year.

So... I'm at this pure volume party with Gurj, Nick the intern, sasha the intern, my buddy Casey, NOY, and a bunch of other friends. NOY played a great set, which was a relief since Brandon had a stomach virus just a few days before. I had a genuinely awesome time. So many friends were there that I don't normally get to see in one place. Great. Rah Rah! I'm stoked cause tomorrow they'll all be at my stolen transmission party!! woooo.

So I go home early so i'm not too tired to be on a SXSW panel, and have tons of energy for my party, when at 7am, I ran out of bed and made a b-line for the bathroom where i proceeded to puke for the next five hours. Eventually, I managed to pick myself up, get dressed, and head out to the convention center for my panel despite Gurj and Brandon begging me not to. I couldnt look or be touched by anyone for fear of upchucking right at their feet. I rode the cab over praying to god that i would be ok and not puke, holding tightly to the plastic bag in my hand. I made it to the convention center very late. I couldn't help it, I was puking when I was supposed to be there. I walked in on my panel and apologized for being late, and saying i was sick. 10 minutes into taking my seat on stage and attempting as much as i could to participate, I excused myself and ran to the bathroom for another puke episode. I ran back for my purse and ran out of the center looking for a cab. I jumped towards a taxi that was stopping and inside was my Josh Madden and John Fewell. I motioned them out and jumped in, hardly saying a word. I made it back to hotel room, grabbed another bag and puked in it. I then repositioned myself in a hugging position with the toilet.

A few hours later, it was party time. I had been attempting to get shit done from my hotel bed, but talking was so hard. typing on my kick was so hard. People were calling looking for me and not understanding why I wasn't there yet. When I finally arrived, I called Brandon to meet me outside the Redbull house to help me with the boxes i brought. he came out and I guess i looked like shit, casue he looked stressed. I walked into the house, collapsed on to a bean bag chair and started crying about the pain i was in and my dehydration. Brandon brought me a water and took me to the band's van to lay down where he kept an eye on me. The van needed to be moved, so it was moved, and so I puked into a brown paper bag that immediately started leaking before I could throw it out the door... brandon keeping his hands cupped under the bag, catching the puke so it wouldn't get all over the van. I jumped out and started puking. Brandon sat me down and ran into the venue to get Alex and Gurj to let them know he was taking me back to the hotel to lay down. Alex knew I was sick, but when he found me, I don't think he expected me to be that sick. I was a hazy shade of green. He begged me to go back to the hotel even though i was insisting that i shouldnt. I told them what needed to be done, and Brandon and I went looking for a cab.

We tried to hail a cab for a bit, and nearly gave up. Finally a van cab pulled up, rolled down the window and asked brandon where he was from. When brandon said new york city, he said we could come in. This was so surreal... the van had all the chairs taken out except for the last two. Then in the center of the van was a fucking fruit plate with cheese and crackers and surrounded by bottles of fanta. We thought we got into the wrong cab... i guess thinking it'd be one of those reality tv show vans. The driver assured us that wasn't the case. Brandon let him know i was really ill, and I put my head down. The driver proceeded to talk the entire time, making the need to puke, that much more intense. When I finally got to the hotel, I laid down to sleep until Brandon's friend picked us up from the hotel a half hour before brandon was due on stage. Meanwhile, Alex, Gurj, Sasha and Nick had totally taken care of absolutely everything that needed ot be taken care of. Not only that, but they all appeared to be having a great time. I couldn't thank those people enough. They are absolutely true friends in addition to excellent team members. They took care of absolutley everything. I love them all soo much, you have no idea.

As I got there, I told people not to talk to me or touch me for fear of puking, but after a while I started to feel better and I started to drink soda without puking. I attempted to climb on stage to announce NOY and fell flat on my face, making people fear I passed out. I was ok, but bruised up. I attempted to participate in the fun but I was too sick to. I watched bits of all the bands, they were all amazing and Lady Sov was a total midget (she calls me midget and I guess she can cos i'm an inch shorter... much to her dismay), and then went straight to the hotel. Soon later brandon came back right after his second show to take care of my sick body, and took care of me for the next day and a half, basically forfitting going to any shows. He is the bestfriend ever. But I also guess he felt guilty about getting me sick, ha!

So... this was what my trip was like. Totally un-fun. Completely uneventful. I heard my party was really fun. Apparently people were trying to jump the fence to get in, there was a line two blocks long, owen and luke wilson were there and so was elijah wood? Tons of folk... cept for me... at my own party. Oy Va Voy. You can see photos on StolenTransmission.com and clicking here.

So that was it... my experience. Bum out dude, huh?

RAWR

Since there are so many dudes who love Damone that read this blog, i have GREAT FUCKING NEWS FOR YOU...

Their new album IS UP ON ITUNES RIGHT NOW

Buy it. It's great. For real. Look how hot Noelle is... geez!

ACES TAKE YOUR TIME

Nightmare of You are on tour down south with She Wants Revenge and I just got an idea that stokes me the fuck out...

Fucking, Nightmare of You should cover Placebo's motherfucking "Spite & Malice" since Justin Warfield of SWR is the dude rapping on the Placebo track (from the black market music album).

when i first got that album i listened to that song about 302 times in a row and learned how to do the rap and i was stoked beyond belief to find out that the dude from she wants revenge is the dude that was the rapper in that song. after that placebo album came out, justin's rap thing called Tape was shopping their works to labels and i was soooo bummed that i missed their showcase at cbgbs... and holy shit, i can't believe that i actually remember all that information.

i'm gonna post a sxsw update shortly. it's not gonna be that impressive since i caught a stomach virus and was bedridden for a couple of days. the experience confirmed my beliefs that my boyfriend is fucking awesome and made the most amazing nurse a puking girl could ask for.

not to mention the best interns, the best roommates, the best dudes working with me. yay!

LA TI DUH

I'm leaving today for Austin, Texass. I can't fucking wait, obviously. I'm sharing a hotel room with my most adorably fabulous roommate, Gurj, possibly my other roommate Josh (so funny that he's now living in Apt 3A.... I wake up most mornings to him blasting hip hop and Good Charlotte demos, it's hilarious), and my other roommate, Brandon. I predict non-stop laughing for four days straight.

Anyway, I wont be updating this blog for a couple of days, I think. Though, who knows... between me and Gurj, there will definitely be some blog updating going on.

So i'm going to leave you with a topic to discuss:

Muse. Are they this generation's Nine Inch Nails? Radiohead?

It's funny, these days when i hear my friends in bands discuss the weird musical directions of their peers, it's usually matched with "they're trying to be Muse." When I was at SPIN, I used to nearly get tossed out of meetings for mentioning that band's name... but have they secretly become influencial?

SACTO KIDS

A show that is not to be missed:

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

Come to this.



On a totally unrelated note: for those of us who have super damaged hair from over-dying and over-styling, there's this hair stuff my mom bought me that did the trick in fixing my fried ends in only one use and in only 5 minutes! It's called Salerm. It comes in a little tub and looks like diarreah, but works like a charm. My mom managed to find it in the Black hair product place on Clinton Street for a pretty reasonable price (i think under $20), and I swear by this. I'm so happy with the results. That's all.

OH ME, OH MY

Cute photos from Stolen Transmission (like the one below) are up. Click that to see. If you have any to submit (like, if you came to the party and took pictures), click here to upload them.

WE WILL LIVE OUR LIVES

Last week I was watching Subterranean and the only song that blew my mind was The Gossip's - "Standing in the Way of Control."

click that link to d/l. that shit is making me stoked to be alive.

the video, however, is unwatchable.

OK, I GIVE UP

This photo is going to be the end of me. Look at her little face! She's a little old person with no teeth!



EDIT...
added:




does anyone have a brussels griffon? what are they like? do they live ok in apartments? are they friendly?

TIME TO POST THE FLYERS

If you have any SXSW flyers to share, please send them to sarah.lewitinn@umusic.com

thanks!

SHE'S LOST CONTROL AGAIN

Holy shit! I was just on the Joy Division MySpace page randomly and found out that I was in Joy Division's TOP 8!!!!

Also, in regards to the discussion from yesterday, something i want to point out to people is this:

A lot of people say that there is no way that MCR has the same cultural impact as Nirvana. While this might seem/be true, i'd like to remind a lot of those people writing that the following: Nirvana probably seemed like they made a larger cultural impact because you were LIVING it. You were a teenager or perhaps a bit older, and to you, nirvana was probably your life... which is what MCR is to the kids. Lord knows all I could think about was Nirvana when I was a teenager. It drove my parents up the wall. But in my school, the kids that felt the same way I did were few and far between in relation to the kids who were into Phish, DMB, the Dead, and hip hop.

Emo is the new Angst.

I WEAR THIS ON MY SLEEVE

HOW VERY KOSHER

... and very cute.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE... OVER THE AGE OF 30

My friend Vanessa was interviewing me last night for a school assignment and one of the things she asked me about was music journalism.

That's always a weird topic for me to cover because I've never really considered myself an orthodox music journalist (and i'm sure that nobody who has ever read any of my writings has either). One thing I felt strongly about was this:

Most music journalists have no clue whatsoever what kids like. They're 35 year old men writing for other 35 year old men who think they're actually writing to 21 year old college kids.

The idea that My Chemical Romance is this generation's Nirvana is ridiculous to them. It's probably ridiculous to most of the people who read this blog, but to the average 16 year old kid, Nirvana is irrelevant in comparison to My Chem.

Don't believe me? Go to myspace. The 3rd most search topic is My Chemical Romance. Myspace is the place where teenagers are hanging out and spending all their time, trying to meet other people like themselves. It's where many people live their life.

I find it incredibly hard to imagine that the average 35 year old rock journo can relate to MCR. But you know, it's not for them to understand or relate to. It's for them to accept, and until they do, they will be absolutely irrelevant to anyone who matters.

I'd like to end this post with bidding farewell to the thousands of readers I've just lost as a result of this posting. BYE BYE.

EYE OF THE TIGER

Monty came into the office the other day to sign their record deal.
As seen here:



They made a HILARIOUS video of the process that YOU MUST WATCH ASAP.

SACRAMENTO PEOPLE!!!!!

Bright Light Fever will be playing a show TONIGHT AT THE BOARDWALK

sorry for the short notice.

but you must go.

THE NEW FRIDAY SPOT

This was the first friday night where I didn't HAVE to be at Orchard Bar. It was my full intention to go, though, right after Tasting Chaos, as a way to celebrate signing Monty. But it was freezing outside, and when I called the Orchard Bar to let them know I was running 20-people deep and I was told "it's dangerously packed in here" i decided to stay home with my buddies, get some food, booze, and tunes... and party. As an homage to Misshapes, we posed infront of Gurj's purple wall... Justin from Monty made a collage... hahaha:


(click for larger image)

(from left to right)
row 1: me, gurj
row 2: Ben the Intern, Ryan from Monty, Sasha the Intern, Eric Speck from Stolen Transmission
row 3: Andrew, Justin, and Steve ... all from Monty
row 4: Clark?, Rob?, Joe from Fallout Boy, Hot Nick from Hull/Resevior
row 5: OMFG Nick Snow the Intern, Matt from A Fein Martini, Alex from Stolen Transmission
row 6: Brenden, Tracy (Alex's hot gf), Mike from Monty, and Lauren (Tracy's hot friend)

MORE HOT FUSS

The Killers just put up a new website and it's fucking awesome. Really, really, really cool and serene, and there are a bunch of new photos as well.

And yes, before anyone has a chance to say it... I am a corporate schill because I'm writing about the killers. BECAUSE I WASNT WRITING ABOUT THEM FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, ONLY NOW THAT I'M WORKING WITH THEIR LABEL.

NU NEW GNEU

New stuff to report...

Well, first off, dont forget this hot fuss:



AND...

For music i pay to be made... The oohlas have a new song on their myspace page! It's called "Snow Shoes" and it's from their debut album that will be out August 1.

AP BITCHES!

I don't like reading. Infact, I hate it. Words make me dizzy. I don't even read text heavy blogs... only the ones with lots of photos.

That said, I really like reading Alternative Press... and even more so now that they wrote about TWO OF MY BANDS in their BANDS YOU NEED TO KNOW ISSUE (starring my friend Alicia's band From First to Last).




(click image for larger, readable size)


(click image for larger, readable size)

Thanks AP!