If I had the power...

So it's been a long time (This is becoming the standard start of my blogs). Sorry.

This is also going to be pretty random. Today, despite having an exam, all I could think about on the way to class was tours that I would put together if I had the power. Not only that, but what they would be called. I put these bands together because A) I like them or did at one time, B) Some are influenced by the others, C)I think they have styles that would compliment each other and attract many of the same fans.

Here's a few:

-WHY? / P.O.S. = The Indie R.A.P.? Tour

-The Dismemberment Plan/Local Natives/ The Velvet Teen = The Adjective Noun Tour (Although, is Dismemberment a gerund in this case? I might have to rethink it. Besides, misnomers are hip)

-The Thermals / Matt and Kim / Headlights = The Feel Good Fun Time Tour (Matt and Kim and The Thermals are in fact touring together)

-Broken Social Scene / DFA 1979/ Chad VanGaalen = It's a Tour, Eh?

-Weezer / Smashing Pumpkins = The We Promise to Play the Stuff from Before Our Lead Singer's Went Crazy Tour

-Janelle Monae / Mugison = The Don't Put Me in a Box Tour

-St. Sat B / Nick Miller and the Neighbors / The Static Sea = The Futures Tour

-Grizzly Bear /Local Natives / Bowerbirds / Colour Revolt = The Sweet Harmony Tour (Obviously it'd have to be when LN wasn't on tour withe The Adjective Noun Tour) (Additionally some would add Beirut or Yeasayer, which I would allow, but I have never really listened to their stuff. It's not that I'm against it, it's just I'm poor and have to prioritize purchases sometimes)

-Radiohead / almost any indie band formed after the millennium = The Opening Bands Grew Up Wanting to Be Us (and That's A Good Thing) Tour

-Menomena (original lineup) / Lackthereof / Ramona Falls = The Solo Projects are as Genius as the Band Tour

-DFA1979 / The Black Keys / Local H = The Dinner for Two Tour

-The Strokes / M.I.A. / Liam Finn = The Nepotism Tour (This is in jest, as all the people whose parents were famous in these bands are very talented at would have likely made it on their own)

- Nirvana / Jeff Buckley = The Live from the Next Life Tour (I wish this was possible)

- Mugison /Chad VanGaalen / Liam Finn / tUnE-yArDs = The Kali Tour (A reference to their mult-instrumental, DIY nature. Kali has many arms, and if these artists did, they could do many things. Liam Finn and Mugison especially got their start as multi-tasking solo performers. I'm not sure about CVG's live show, but I know he records all his stuff in a home studio and mostly by himself. tUnE-yArDs, Mugison, and LF all have touring bands now I believe, although again, I'm not sure about CVG)

-Of Montreal / CSS / Bat for Lashes = The Face Paint Tour

-Arctic Monkeys / The Fratellis / The Kooks = The Fight in a Pub Tour

-Phoenix /Department of Eagles /The Dodos / Bowerbirds = The Flock Together Tour

-Modest Mouse / Avi Buffalo / Minus the Bear = The Indigenous Species' of the West Tour

Ok, I think I'm out of them. At the beginning I tried to choose bands that I'd always thought would compliment each others' sounds well, but at the end I think I was just trying to think of plays on names, although I did only put bands that I thought would go well together. There were some that fit the tour name, but I didn't include them.

Some of these bands aren't necessarily the same style, but again, I think the same people would like them. M.I.A. and the Strokes may seem different on paper, but most everyone I know that likes one is a fan of the other. When I saw Dismemberment Plan in Chicago, they played with a 60's-ish soul act complete with horns. People loved it! Sometimes acts you think have nothing in common are perfect compliments.

Most of the tour names should be pretty straight-forward. If you don't get it, it's probably because it's a horrible, tacky joke.

I also acknowledge that some of the opening bands could easily pull off headlining shows. But this is MY fantasy, and if you have a problem with it, imagine them as co-headliners or at a festival or something. Bug off.

Anywho, I know I'm a nerd and I spend a lot of time dreaming about stuff that is probably not productive at all. I acknowledge that. Wow, I feel like I'm getting super-defensive here and justifying myself to a computer screen that seems to be unmoved by my words and just continues staring blankly at me. Good times.

Fiona Apple, Planes, and Daydreams

This one's mostly going to be a stream-of-consciousness post because, well, I'm bored, so I'll talk about everything and anything that's on my mind.

Basically, I've spent an hour or so watching Fiona Apple videos. And this isn't the first time. She just fascinates me for some reason. Well, I know for what reason. Basically, she's known for being a little off her block, but in a sense, I believe she's one of the most sane people in show business. She knows the whole thing is a farce, she knows it's all fake.

Part of the reason she's "crazy" is for her 1997 MTV awards speech. There were a few outlandish comments like "This world is bulls**t", but essentially what she said is for everybody to not pay attention to what stars are telling you is cool and to make your own path. Psycho, right?

One of the most intriguing interviews with her is on the Howard Stern Show in 1997. First off, Stern is a pig, constantly pointing out how "messed up" and "troubled" she is, even asking her what it was like to be raped at 11, but she totally takes it in stride. It's impossible not to be impressed by how mature the 19-year old is. Sometimes people mistake a lack of child-like naivety for being troubled. Apple displays an ability to see the hypocrisies and injustices in everything, and how much of life itself is theatrical. I feel like she and Dostoevsky would be friends. "Everybody's messed up" she says (Part 1, 1:14), and it's true. The problem is that when people are honest about their insecurities and how they see the world, it tends to come off as crazy. Most of Hollywood tries to keep that part private, and understandably so as there's media ready to pounce at any mistake or flaw. But what will strike you about Apple is how she doesn't feign excitement or perkiness in any interview she does. There's nothing fake about her, she's genuine in everything she says.

I won't declare Apple a victim of Hollywood however, but rather her reputation is the victim. She's pointed out herself in an interview with Craig Ferguson in 2006 that the ugliness of the people that are negative towards her gets processed through her and comes out as something beautiful. How strong is that? And how lucky are we to receive the benefits from that?

Unsurprisingly, this ends with me buying her music.

In other news, I went to the EAA Airventure yesterday. First of all, it was great to get a day-off from my soul-sucking job. It seemed like we missed a couple opportunities because we were a step behind, but it was still an awesome time. The biggest attraction was the A380, the largest passenger plane in the world. Unfortunately, we got in line to view the inside just as they closed it, but it was still a sight to see from the outside. Now, the A380 is an Airbus, which is the competitor for Boeing, who employs my uncle. Basically, Airbus has a far worse disaster record than Boeing, as many of their parts are cheaper and made of less strong material (read: plastic). However, this plane is pretty awesome. The pilot was a regular Evil Knievel. During its demonstration, he had the plane climbing and turning at angles that seemed like they should make the plane stall out or flip (Actual video of what I saw). Basically, it looked like it was doing things passenger planes should not do. He also pulled the plane back to low speed, even putting down it's landing gear, and it almost looked like a Harrier, just floating in the air.

The underbelly
Originally uploaded by ntdlosangeles

The other pretty cool attraction was the WhiteKnightTwo. It's a crazy plane, with two cabins, designed to launch Virgin's SpaceShipTwo into space. The SST will take customers into space for the low low price of 100,000 to 200,000 dollars. Anyway, the fly-by was mostly just interesting because you thought to youself, "How does that not snap in half?". You also could barely hear it. But another cool thing to note about the plane was the paint job on the bottom, which showed the evolution of flight on the bottom of the cabins. It showed what I believed were, in order, Icarus, The Wright Flyer, the Spirit of Saint Louis, Chuck Yeager's X-1, the Boeing 747, the Apollo Eagle landing craft, and the SST.

For the last couple years my father and grandfather had tried to get me to go on a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor flight, which you can do for just over $50 at the Airventure. I used to refuse because the thing looks like it's made of cardboard, but over the years I've become less afraid of death. So yesterday I finally accepted the challenge. However, we got to the stand as they were booking the last flight, and I was #11 in line for a flight of nine people. All in all the Airventure was tons of fun, though.

Finally, to totally switch subjects, I've been daydreaming a lot, and here are some of a few of the daydreams I've had lately. First, I imagined myself winning the lottery and starting a record label. I was thinking about the bands I would sign. Three came to mind. Obviously, I'm a huge The Velvet Teen fan. Their record label, Slowdance, recently folded in the middle of them recording a new album. I don't know what they have in the works, but I'm hoping they'll still be able to release their album soon. Secondly, I would sign St. Sat B, who is a band from New Jersey that I communicate with often. It's surprising that somebody hasn't knocked on their door yet, considering how talented of a songwriter Jimmy Francis is and how great their sound is. Finally, I'd sign my friend Nick Miller, who is a talented solo artist with the voice of an angel. Check out all three of them.

My other daydream was of becoming a author. I'm going to school to become a history teacher, but I'd love to work on a work of fiction on the side. I used to do a lot of creative writing when I was a kid, just for fun. Back then my influence was Matt Christopher, and I wrote stories about hockey. I had a 20-ish page story called "Skating from the Law" published in my middle school's collection of works that followed a promising juniors player whose unknowingly drugged at Prom, resulting in a car crash that leads to his arrest. Anywho, I haven't written creatively since the sequel to that story, and I'd like to try my hand at writing a novel. I've often thought that if I ever become homeless and have nothing left to lose, that would be my backup plan.

Okay, this post is long enough. On to music. Basically, this song has helped to make me happy because you can't listen to it without singing along and wanting to dance. I've been in a nostalgic phase lately, and this song screams nostalgia. Plus some of the lyrics are so witty you don't know what to do with yourself. "If you're bored, then you're boring".

Harvey Danger "Flagpole Sitta"

Flagpole Sitta @ Yahoo! Video

Songs that Will Make You Need to Call a Waaambulance

Grant and I roadtripped it the other to the Texas vs. UW basketball game from Milwaukee. It was during a pretty sweet snow storm, so it took us about two hours, which gave us plenty of time to listen to music. I couldn't find my iPod hookup, so I had to rely on old cd's. I was running out the door when we left because we wanted to beat the worst of the storm, so I just grabbed my old cd case from high school. Admittedly, in high school I mostly liked emo music until my senior year or so, so there wasn't a great selection, but I at least had a few decent albums in there. After maxing out Brand New, we listened to the Format, which was the first time for me in about a year or so. The song "On Your Porch" came on, and I remembered that I once dubbed it the "Most Beautiful song of all-time". Grant, an avid reader of this blog, said that I should make a post of the most beautiful songs known to myself, and I agreed. As I'm in Michigan right now visiting family and have nothing else to do as they're all early sleepers, that time is now. I won't rank them, I'll just throw them out there and give you videos/streams.



On Your Porch - The Format

Basically the lines that get me are "My dad was sick/ my mom she cared for him/ her love it nursed him back to life. / But me I ran / I couldn't even look at him / for fear I'd have to say goodbye / And as I start to leave / he grabs me and he tells me / What's left to lose? / You've done enough / and if you fail well then you fail but you gave it a shot / Cuz these last three years / I know they've been hard / but now it's time to get out of the desert and into the sun / even if it's alone.











The Great Unrest - Mugison

This song is a repeat offender on the blog. It gets intense at the end, but the orchestration and buildup throughout the song is the beautiful part. And Mugison just has a raw, emotional voice that represents a broken, weathered man, and it's just beautiful in itself.







Poor Celine - The Velvet Teen

Pretty much any song off of Elysium could be on this list. Judah's voice is at its best in this album, as there's no distortion on it and he's not straining it. Don't mistake that for a lack of emotion, because you will feel a range of them within this album, but the absense of a not-even-a-single guitar on this album makes Judah's voice more prominent, and the orchestration adds a new dimension as well.


Poor Celine at last.fm

It's Okay - Land of Talk

Who here's down with Fleetwood Mac? This song could so be sung by Stevie Nicks, but it's way better because while Liz Powell might have some vocal similarities, her voice is in no way obnoxious like Stevie's can sometimes be. The song is so raw, and the lyric "Maybe when I die / I'll get to be a car / Driving in the night / lighting up the dark" just puts you in the body of someone that is giving up on this life and looking towards the next. I think there's a sort of beauty in that kind of honesty, and even though it's a kind of dark hope, it's still undeniably hope.

It's Okay at imeem.com

Annuals - Sore

Another repeat offender. The video itself is beautiful, but the song just to me seems to be about a need to express love daily. Whether with a significant other or offspring (in the video it seems to be about both), its a beautiful sentiment. The highlight lyrically: If I ever let out of bed / Without a kiss to the center of your head / Then I never deserved you from the start /And you can let loose the wall around my heart.

All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun - Jeff Buckley

There are quite a few Buckley tracks that could make it on this list. The obvious choice would be Hallelujah. The song is not originally Jeff's (it's Leonard Cohen's), but his version is the version that has been played by numerous other artists (Before you ask, the version on Shrek is Rufus Wainwright, who had a huge crush on Jeff Buckley) and trillions of YouTubers. However, being an owner of quite a few Jeff bootlegs and B-sides, the most beautiful JB song is All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun. I have two versions of the song, never released or recorded, one very fuzzy, distantly recorded live solo version, and one where he duets with Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins. Both are amazing. The duet gives the song a whole new dynamic and meaning. Here's both versions:

(With Elizabeth)

(Without Elizabeth)


All Flowers in Time at imeem.com

All I Need - Radiohead

This song is hauntingly beautiful. It's obsessive. The song is basically saying that the protagonist's only reason for living is the existence another person. It's beautifully desperate. He sounds desperate to try to put into words just how much this person means to him, but like he can never accomplish that task to the extent he wants to. He feels he can't get through to him/her the way he wants. The lyrics are so simple, but they say more than a whole novel could.

That's all I've got for right now. I'd be interested to know what songs you all think are the most beautiful songs you listen to, but I've never been one to ask for comments. If you feel like it though, go for it. I'm going to make a non-related song of the day just because I've been so obsessed with Land of Talk Lately. Elizabeth Powell is the newest member of Broken Social Scene, and I saw LoT open for them and her sing with BSS, and her cuteness is undeniable, but her voice is what gets me. I like it way better than Amy Millan, and she gives Feist a run for her money in my humble opinion.

Land of Talk - Speak to Me Bones

Forget Sarah Palin For a Second, Let's Talk About Me

Alright, so school's back in session meaning that I should get some more posts in, especially since I'm living alone this year. So hopefully I've heard the last complaint about how I don't post enough.

Let me tell you my top 5 complaints about this school-year so far.

5. Now that I'm a junior, I'm starting to feel stupid for being in classes with freshmen. I have two 100-level classes because they were the only two that I could find that fulfilled some requirements. The first day I walked into these classes, it was practically silent because they were full of freshmen that knew nobody and were afraid to talk to their neighbor. I've never had the hatred towards freshmen that others have felt, but my being in the same learning space as them is now starting to make me feel like the creepy old guy. All I need is to have my hair start falling out and to be the guy to stare at a female a little too long after she's finished answering a question in discussion.

4. My TA's are starting to look closer to my age. Maybe I'm having a middle-age crisis of the college variety, but jeez, I feel like these people will be applying for AARP cards at the same time as me.

3. I love Asian people. Please don't get me wrong. But basically my entire floor is made up of people who I can't speak with. I don't know what it is about this building, but it's made up mostly of people that are not from the U.S.

2. The person who lived in my apartment last did not cancel their cable and internet. Now, when I called from my hometown, I was told that I would need to bring a lease in to be able to get service. Well, lucky for me, I had to work in my hometown until Labor Day, meaning that the only time I could get in to Charter would be when school started. So when I got here, I hooked up the internet and cable and it was working. Sweet, free internet and cable. But yesterday the cable went out. Well, today I went to the nearest Charter office... 8 miles away... and set up cable. It's only going to be 6 more days before I have cable. Luckily, I have That 70's Show Seasons 2 and 3 to keep me preoccupied.

1. I miss living with people.

Song of the day: We Looked Like Giants by Death Cab for Cutie. I just really like the line "You'd skip your early classes and we'd learn how our bodies worked". Even though Ben Gibbard seems a bit pretentious, a lot of my bands have ties to Death Cab, especially Chris Walla, and their songs are amazing productions. They are so well arranged, and a lot of that has to do with Chris' production skills and Jason McGerr's knack for picking the perfect drum beat for a given song. I have to give Gibbard credit for writing some amazing lyrics too. Going back to the bands with ties to Death Cab, The Dismemberment Plan were amazing friends with Death Cab, which is interesting considering that their music is quite different. Walla has produced albums for many of my favorite bands, including the Velvet Teen (Out of the Fierce Parade), Tegan & Sara (The Con (which McGerr also played drums on)), and Hot Hot Heat (Make Up the Breakdown and Knock Knock Knock).

We Looked Like Giants by Death Cab for Cutie at Youtube

My Everything Hurts

New Year's resolution accomplished. On New Year's Eve, as the ball was dropping, I said to myself "I'm going to exercise this year. I'm going to lift, and I'm going to run." Well, I've achieved those goals. Yes, for the first time this year, I lifted (for the first time in two years, actually) and I ran (I played basketball). Now I'm done.

I'm kidding, of course. But I'm sore as anything right now. I organized a basketball game between my old dorm floor of last year. Now, in nine months of last year's games, we didn't have a single injury. Tonight we had two. They were serious enough to get the entire front desk of the SHELL to come and make sure nobody passed out because of a concussion. More about that in a second. But let's talk about me.

Now, I hadn't played basketball since last year's adventures, and I wasn't even good then. I mean, over the year I progressed, but come on, I'm used to shooting at a four foot by six foot net, not a 3 inch wide circle. So, let's just say the first game was rough. I think I was 1-for-8 from the floor, which is still higher than Armon Gilliam's career average. This was with a 80-pound girl covering me. Hey, she's good. She was really speedy. That combined with my horrendous ball-handling skills was my downfall.

During the second game is where the fatalities occurred. We had one sprained ankle from my friend Aaron, who once when he was drunk poured my chocolate milk down his pants (just for reference). The other was none other than my assignment, little Ellen. She made the mistake of going for a rebound against my beast of a roommate, who never saw her coming. Needless to say, she hit her head so hard on the ground it wasn't funny. Even when I thought she was dead, she never stopped smiling, one of her more favorable traits. They're both fine from what I know, but you never know with concussions.

On a lighter note, I did a little better throughout the night. My assignment for much of the second game and all of the third game was Corey, who is my height, but a rock. He's immovable. Luckily, I had some mobility against him, so I'd say my shooting average was better.

After the games I was about to head home, but then I decided, hey, why not stay and lift with Stapes, my roommate. There weren't too many people around to point and laugh at me, as it was 10 pm, so I was like what the heck. Now, I am a small guy. 5'6". I also haven't lifted since the end of my hockey season senior year of high school. I was never an amazing lifter, but my summer job at the golf course often requires heavy-lifting, so I guess I developed some abilities, because I could bench as much as I could in high school. That's only 95 pounds, which I'm not proud of, but remember, I'm 5'6" and I've been out of it for two years. I also did three sets of 10 reps.

Right now, however, I can barely move my fingers to type this entry. This is the reason for my dramatic first paragraph. I'm sure I'll lift again to try to beat the century mark (that sounds pretty sad).

In the spirit of this post, I will make the song of the day a song called "Macho" by Tin Circus. Tin Circus is the band that Judah Nagler (The Velvet Teen) led and played bass for in high school. It is amazingly talented California Ska music. There is not a weak point in the band, and Judah is probably a better bass player than a guitar player (which makes it unsurprising that when Josh Staples left the band last year to focus the New Trust, Judah took over bass duties and they hired Polar Bears guitarist Matthew Izen to take his spot on guitar). This is probably the high point of the album, which early Incubus / Primus - like slap bass and psychedelic guitar parts with some brass thrown in for good measure. The whole album is available for free download at www.tincircus.com . If you don't want to download the whole thing, head over to myspace and give it a listen.

Tin Circus - "Macho" at Myspace.com

Califonia ruins everything

Okay, people, it looks like after Super Tuesday, it will be a close heat between Obama and Clinton for the Democratic Nomination. It looks as if, according to MSNBC, the results at the end of the counting will be Obama will be ahead 838 delagates to Clinton’s 834. The race is mostly close because of Hilary winning the two states with the most delagates: California and New York. New York is Hilary's old stomping grounds for Congress, so it's no surprise she won there. However, California? Seriously? The young, hip candidate didn't win California?

Now, I am an Obama supporter. What it comes down to for me are his green policies. He supports a shift to nuclear energy, which will reduce CO2 emissions, slowing the progression of global warming. However, moreover, this is just another instance in which California is out to get me. Here are a couple of other reasons me and Cali don't get along.

1) The O.C. and young stars of Hollywood.

Let's talk about Laguna Beach and my Super Sweet 16. If these were the representations of America I saw from another country, I would hate it, too. Spoiled litte brats who do nothing but whine about how their Mercedes was the wrong color. Or how about Lindsay, Paris, and Britney? The media does nothing but fascinate themselves with these people's lives, encouraging them to do stupid and more stupid things. It's ridiculous.

2) Happy cheese comes from happy cows in California.

Screw you, it comes from Wisconsin. Are you trying to cripple our economy? Without dairy, all we have is beer, and St. Louis is trying their best to deprive us of thriving off of that. I take that back. We'd still have FIB's that would give us their money at Summerfest and Brewers games. But there's only so much rich suburbanites can do.

3) Sports teams.

Okay, part of this is jealousy, but much of it is hatred. I mean, colleges like UCLA and USC attract all the stars because of their warm weather and beautiful women. And what, they have like 184 MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA teams. Hey, here's an idea: Give the state that's gettint 10-14 inches of snow as we speak a hockey team rather than giving the one that's 80 degrees year-round three.

4) Coasties.

Stop sending us your rich, your spoiled, your lazy. Please. They influence girls around here to start acting like them. Basically, people wear Uggs, huge sunglasses, North Face jackets, big purses, and leggings to stand out, but after a while they just blend in.

5) I'm jealous of the music scene.

It really isn't fair. No band in their right mind would not tour to California if they had the chance. I mean, there's 3 billion people in one state, massive amounts of media, and musical history. Plus, many of the bands I love come from California, and since many of them are small, they end up playing many of their shows in the same area, namely the Velvet Teen. If i want to see a good concert, many times I have to travel to Chicago, and who wants to go to that dump?

There you go, five reasons California is ruining my life.

Thus, the song of the day today will come from a band from across the seas, The Kooks. They are English. It is obvious that they are heavily influenced by the Police, resulting in reggae-infused rock. Check out their debut LP "Inside In the Inside Out". The song of the day is "Eddie's Gun".

The Kooks' Eddie's Gun on YouTube

Getting started

Hey, guys, it's Teej,

This is going to be looked down upon by some of my friends, which is fine. I know posting notes on facebook is laughed at, let alone blogs. I dunno, I just thought this was a great way to get things off my chest. As many of you know, I like to write. It's part of the reason I'm a history ed. major. This often results in me having very long away messages or facebook posts, consisting of thoughts I've had, descriptions of bands and songs, and fun facts. I figure by starting a blog, I can put all that stuff here, in one place that you don't read rather than a constant stream of things you don't read, haha. Additionally, I am much better at writing my words down than expressing them verbally, as I tend to stutter and lose my train of thought. Thus, you may find out things about me that I have never been able to really say before.


As most of you know I am essentially a straightedge. By that I mean I don't drink or do any form of drugs. I also don't swear. This comes with a large amount of challenges. I don't know how much I will get into this over time, but I might. I'll give you a brief synopsis here. A lot of people ask me why it is that I don't do any of these things, and I have a hard time answering, but I'll try to do my best. Basically, it's a personal decision based on how I was brought up, and at the point where I started thinking about these subjects on my own, as a result of peers participating in these activities, I came to the conclusion that I liked my life the way it was and adding these new aspects to my life was neither beneficial nor safe to myself, as I sometimes have an addictive personality. Over time, my views on these subjects have come looser as I have been exposed to them. As more people begin to paricipate in these activities, sometimes it is difficult to maintain relationships and relate to people without using them, especially at a university like Madison that has been ranked the number one party school in the country various times by various people. However, I have still stuck to it despite these handicaps, and I believe the friends that I am left with accept me the way I am. The irony of the situation is that the people that are involved in these activities are often intolerant of people that aren't involved in them, and as a result don't realize that I myself do not look down upon them because they partake in them. It is simply a personal decision that has nothing to do with a prejudice. Simply put, I would just feel bad if I went back on this commitment. I feel more of a lack of anyone who can relate to what I'm going through than an anger towards anyone who does drink or smoke. Like I said, I may go into this in more depth over time.


Anyway, moving past that, I am hugely into music, and without it I don't know what or where I'd be. I am sure with every post (including this one) I will give you a song I am enamored with, so without further ado, here are two. I will start with songs by my two favorite bands: Radiohead and the Velvet Teen (the picture below is of me and Judah Nagler, the singer). There is a stark contrast between their popularity. Radiohead is one of the most listened-to bands in the world. Their music influences half of the bands that exist today. I could go on for hours about the originality of Radiohead, but I won't. The main reason I love them is because, despite their fame, they continue to make the music they love despite what is being played on the mainstream airwaves, and have no qualms about how their music is rarely played on American radio. The Velvet Teen on the other hand, is a little indie band from Santa Rosa, CA. They are like Radiohead in the sense that they have continued to make whatever music they feel despite it's failure to bring them fame. This has resulted in every album being very different and very unorthodox. Elysium featured no guitars, yet it is some of the most mature music you will ever hear, and one of my two favorite albums with Radiohead's OK Computer. Thus, the two songs that I feature today will be from these two albums, one being Radiohead's Paranoid Android, my favorite song of all-time, and the other being the Velvet Teen's A Captive Audience. Enjoy.

Paranoid Android video
A Captive Audience at Last.fm
www.myspace.com/thevelvetteen