Patrick Holt: Hell & Working Class Hero

"HELL"


"WORKING CLASS HERO" (John Lennon)


all vocals and instruments by patrick holt
recorded on terror island

Beach Book Post!

a real page turner

Sebastien Tellier-Look (video)

I sweat tellier so hard right now, not that i ever stopped sweating him. His whole essence is just so alluring. His tongue in cheek sleazyness is something I aspire to develop. Below is his new video for his jam "look" off his 2008 release Sexuality. Its a masterpiece of animated asses. Spectacular.

Cows&Cows&Cows

scary.

Courtney Fucking Love

Last Saturday I got a lead on the 6 fingered man so I followed it to the 930 Club in Washington, DC. My lead was bunk, he'd either left before I got there, or had never been there to begin with. The bartender, an old friend of mine named Wesley, bought me a large glass of Jim Beam with ice. I rarely drink these days, but when I do, I drink a pint of Jim Bean with 4 ice cubes. I was glad Wesley knew what I wanted without my having to ask because the band was loud and I was in no mood to yell.

There was an aging transvestite onstage singing for a band called Hole. When they went on set break I asked Wesley who the guy was. "That's no guy," he said "It's Courtney Love." Sensing I didn't know who he was talking about he explained, "Kurt Cobain's wife"

"The girl that killed him?" He shrugged unknowingly. I'd liked Kurt Cobain and never fully believed he'd killed himself. He was a sweet kid, though he couldn't write for shit. I remember one time he was working on a song he called 'Smells Like a High School Bathroom.' "No," I told him, "call it 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' and change the words around to match."

"What's 'teen spirit'?" he asked.

"Fucked if I know, but that high school bathroom crap won't fly." I heard that song ended up selling a bunch of records for him before he died. I was glad for that.

Wesley thought me and this Courtney Love guy should meet. It took me about 4 minutes to drink my whiskey and I was hammered by the time we made it backstage. We walked through a cloud of smoke that burnt my nose like cocaine and fire, I could only imagine the source was a combination of the two.

I don't quite remember what happened after that. I know I freebased with Wesley and Courtney, and I know I woke the next afternoon to find Courtney licking my flacid penis, begging it to rise. I seized the opportunity and pissed in her mouth and eyes. "Why?" she asked.

"Because Kurt was my friend." She wailed in tears and I, having too harsh a headache to deal with the noise, hit her on the head with the but of my sword, knocking her out. I finished peeing on her face and hair, and I left.

Shine A Light

The year was 1971, October. I don't remember the day. The radio of a car parked outside told me the Pirates had won the world series, a 7 game sweep. Though I could hear the game as clear as a bell, our calls for help were either unheard or ignored. It was me, Mick Jagger and this Spanish guy, I think his name was Eusubio, locked in a basement in the Bronx. I never got to find out for sure what his name was, Eusubio was sick the whole time and dead by the 3rd day. Mick and I had eaten some nasty peyote in a sweat lodge 10 miles outside of Reno the previous weekend, the next thing I knew, here we were. Our captors had a speaker playing into the room, "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and Drells, over and over for god knows how long. It was torture. Mick looked at me and said, "I used to like this song. Now I want to bloody kill myself but they've left us nothing sharp." At that moment, a thin shaft of light spilled through a crack in the boarded up window and onto Mick's face. Right then, and I don't know why, I said to Mick, "May the good Lord shine a light on you. Make every song, your favorite tune." The next day we woke to find the door unlocked, the house was empty and we ran, in separate directions never to speak of the incident again. The next year Mick recorded Exile on Main Street with the Stones, one of the greatest rock albums ever released. I haven't seen him since, but I think about him every day.

Wiz Khalifa-Mezmorized (Video)

I dunno, I'd prolly have a good time bonging it up with Wiz and his frodo looking buddy, just saying. Nothing really goes on in this song/video really, but whatever, its like a summer day...not that important. I saw this dude at a festival not long and yeah he's pretty popular...so i thought id drive some traffic over here for our ads and what not...you know how we make all our money off of advertizing right? Click on some of the ads.......

"I dont chase em, I duck em"


mixtape for free! here! hotlink FTW


Im fucking bored and I hope this shows up when you google Ed....he prolly like it

2Pac-Do for Love (Video)

Soft Rock samples FTW work so well as samples for rap songs. it's a trend that started (as far as I know) since Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz flipped Steely Dan's "Black Cow" for "Deja Vu" fuck yeah does it ever work perfectly. Here, is a posthumous release from Tupac Shakur which flips soft rock star Bobby Caldwell's "What you wont do for love". Since 2pac was dead at the time it forced a little creativity to release this as a single for his first (of 11) posthumous release. The result is some fantastic animation of 2pac in many different styles including anime and stop motion. Worth watching if you are a fan of cartoons+rap music+soft rock.

Bridget Bardot-Contact

Oh hey there Bridget, how's it going? i didn't see you there in your super hot bikini. So whats up? Oh, Serge Gainsbourge wrote you a few songs and you fell in love with him? But you were married at the time? Scandalous, how French of you, I love it. So are you DTF? WTGTFOOH?

Today is a good day, I don't know why but it just is. Here are some songs about similarly good days in contemporary American history.


this one unfortunately has a commercial in the beginning but still an amazing video and song



neat animated video of Lou Reed's Perfect Day

Chromeo-Nice'N'Clean

Sesame Street is cool and all and that's my childhood and all, but kids today get Yo Gabba Gabba: the most psychedelic children's show of all time. The must not do drug testing at that workplace because its one of the weirdest things I've ever seen in my life. Here's Chromeo with a synth jam set in a giant sink in space singing about properly washing your hands. It's totally bizarre....

and btw I'm a VCB (very clean boy) and I ALWAYS wash my hands after playing.

Mixtape Vol.13

(click to enlarge to read tracklist)

Download

Step by Step

August 22th, 1992. It was 2 days after my 11th birthday and I was staying at my father’s apartment in Greenwich, CT as I did most weekends back then. It was a good weekend for the most part. For my birthday I received a cassette of New Kids on the Block’s game changing album “Step by Step” from my father and his young girlfriend, Stacy. I’ll always remember the day I received that album because late that night, as I left my room to go to the bathroom, I saw my dad banging Stacy on the living room couch. I’d never seen anything like that before, and I would never see Stacy again after that weekend.
My favorite song on that album was obviously, “Step by Step.” What a song.

Megafaun: Volunteers

Vincent Moon and the people at La Blogtheque are at it again capturing the new band Megafaun in all their bearded glory doing their new song "Volunteers" outside a coffee shop in Montreal. I especially enjoy the banter amongst the band mates about hitting one more high one at the end of the song.

Megafaun - Volunteers | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Sir Mix Alot-Put 'Em On the Glass (NSFW Video)

Sir Mix-A-Lot was just known as Mix-A-Lot before he released the song "Posse on Broadway"; a song which instantly struck a chord with the British noble class. Soon after its release he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in a ceremony which many called "fresh" and "forward thinking". It was Prince Charles' idea to record "Put 'Em on the Glass", a record which came from his own personal experiences of driving through the British country-side while wearing a chinchilla coat, sunglasses, and a Kangol hat.


Sir Mix A Lot - Put Em On The Glass(Uncensored) - MyVideo

just came across this letter from corporate on firenzi's desk...

(click to enlarge)

...guess i better write something before i get mine

Tame Impala

Tame Impala are some really far out psychedelic fellas who're set to drop their debut album in two weeks. They're australian, they're signed to Modular Records and they play some pretty trippy music....far out!

Trampled by Turtles: Wait So Long

Seems these Duluth Minnesota boys are playing the upbeat bluegrass laced with energy that I love. Reminiscent of what the Avett Brothers had when they were first getting started. This tune "Wait so long" I can tell just from the recorded version that in person would kick some bluegrass ass.

iPhone Ringtone Collection

Bell Biv Devoe-Poison
TLC-What About Your Friends
Coolio-Gangsta's Paradise
Beverly Hills Cop Theme
Sisqo-The Thong Song
David Bowie-Ashes to Ashes
PM Dawn-Set Adrift on Memory Drift
Neneh Cherry-Buffalo Stance

Ring Ring "Hello?"

Black Keys: Brothers (New Album)

Frank the funkasaurus rex is out there promoting The Black Keys new album "Brothers". Be sure you pick this up. Salutations.

Mixtape Vol.12

ENTRE

Conor Oberst: Breezy

A young girl by the name of Sabrina Duim was a harp player that toured with Conor Oberst's band. She was 21 years old at the time and from the pictures at www.sabrinaduim.com/ it seems she was full of life and had the world at her fingertips. A few years ago at 22 years old she died from complications with some medications she was taking. This type of death has even the most hopeful of people ask questions about life and death. Conor would later write a song called "Breezy" in honor of her and it is a mournful piano ballad.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

The underground world of Street Artists. The illusive mysterious man Bansky. I won't say anything else except you need to see this movie.

Los Campesinos: You! Me! Dancing

Los Campesionos play vibrant live shows that you will hop at. The group has a lot of people on stage and their brand of indie pop is addictive. This song in the video "You! Me! Dancing!" will get you dancing with its slow building up to that ripping guitar riff. When heard live I forgot about all my problems and grinned ear to ear.

Phantogram: Mouthful of Diamonds

Sarah Barthel of the band Phantogram left NYC where she was pursuing a Visual Arts degree later to start making music with her longtime friend Josh Carter. The bands name Phantogram literal meaning is a levitated image created using drawn images, photographs or computer generated images. The above image is a Phantogram of a picture taken of The Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. Their video for "Mouthful of Diamonds" has good use of visual imagery and is a bit trippy. Enjoy

Mini Daddy-El Nino Mas Bonito (Video)

You don't need to know spanish to know this kid has talent. He's even got some jail-bait fly-girls with him, this dude knows whats up. I didn't have fly-girls when I was prepubescent, this kid is way ahead of me. I just wanna bump this out my jeep with a system in the back that's so loud it rattles the trunk door something crazy.

Insane Clown Posse-Magic (Video)

"Magic everywhere in this bitch!"

"Miracles" is the latest from Insane Clown Posse off their latest smash hit album"Bang Pow Boom" (which I'm guessing is a sly reference to the Black Eyed Peas' smash hit "Boom Boom Pow"). This album sold 50,000 copies last week, and that's why I'm confused... This song is two guys dressed as clowns rapping about miracles. While the CGI graphics of the video are visually dazzling and must have required a huge budget to put together, sonically this song is bland, and lyrically it's just plain retarded:

"fucking rainbows after it rains,
there's enough miracles to blow your brains"

I appreciate ICP's attempt to pull out their Ralph Waldo Emerson impression on us and start rapping about how they like rainbows, "things chilling in the sea", and how they don't understand how magnets work. It's just too bad that they're terrible at expressing the joy they feel from the surrounding natural world. I guess they were so high when they thought of these examples that they believed this song was (to quote them) "pure motherfucking magic" and fuck, it really is...I've never heard anyone rap about how they like rainbows before, so in that respect they are innovators and I applaud them for attempting to take rap music to another level. Too bad its a new low, for life and for humanity that something this offensively ignorant could become so successful in today's day and age. I have a theory on why that is. The music industry has suffered immensely because people have learned how to share/steal albums off the internet in various manners...and this takes a certain degree of intelligence/skills. Luckily for ICP however, they aren't affected by this because from the looks of them,their fans don't own computers..see below...

MGMT-Flash Delirium (Video)

Kind of hard to know what to make of this, but its definitely strange. Does it make any fucking sense whatsoever? No. But that really doesn't matter because it's weird in a total nightmare kind of way which I guess works for it somehow...

One can stream the entire new album before it's released here.

The Runaways

Before I get started, please read this and forward it quickly, because I just have an idea some of these pictures (one in particular) are gonna get flagged and we might get shut down for a couple of days. Without further ado…

Finally, and after much anticipation, The Runaways, directed by Floria Sigismondi and starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning as Joan Jett and Cherie Curry, respectively, has been released (actually I’m surprised to see how little anticipation there has been.) In my earlier post on the film, I talked about how this film would really be about whether the two starlets could pull off such adult roles after building names for themselves as American PG sweethearts. That remains the only story to tell here. The film was lacking a lot, but it sure as shit wasn’t lacking a performance from either of these two. Both did an awesome job and definitely changed the way I’ll look at either one moving forward.

If I give Sigismondi credit for anything in this film, she had the balls to push the envelope with these girls and convinced them to do some stuff on camera that I never would have thought they’d be cool with. We meet up with 15 year-old Cherie Curry as her legs are dripping with the blood of her first period on the Sunset Strip, on her way to a random hook up with a random guy in the back of his car. They don’t hold back on the drug front, either. My favorite scene is when the girls are en route to Japan and the rodie tells them they’re about to land, so, “if you have any drugs, get rid of them.” Curry and Jett head to the bathroom where they proceed to shovel mountains of blow from their palms, straw free up their noses and onto their tongues, and pop whatever pills they can handle. Ahh, to be a 15-year-old rock star of the 1970’s (sorry, I couldn’t find a picture from this
scene.)

Joan Jett is an angry young punk chick, hell bent on changing the face of Rock and Roll at any cost. She’s sick of being told that Rock and Roll is a man’s game and 20 minutes into the movie, I was sick of being reminded of how unfair that is. There is no point in the movie when you aren’t reminded, either by a menacing crowd, Kim Fowley, or Jett, that people don’t want to see girls play rock and roll and that The Runaways have to shove it down their throats. It gets a bit annoying, but not thanks to Stewart who personifies the future Rock Goddess impeccably. From the awkward, developing teen that can’t yet play the guitar, to the fully formed leader of the band, with a mastery of her instrument and the art form, Stewart evolves and grows with the character seamlessly. She manages the tough-guy persona as leather clad leader of a kick-ass punk band without sacrificing her femininity, which really comes across during tender moments between Jett and Curry. Kristen, you really kicked ass here.


Having said all that, Dakota Fanning definitely takes the cake in this film. I’m not surprised that she should be capable of delivering such a stellar performance, she’s been getting nominated for awards since she was a little girl in 2001’s “I am Sam.” What surprises me is that she’s managed to translate her skills as a convincing and heartbreaking child actor to the role of a drug addled sexpot. What’s more, in the role of Cherie Curry we get to see this evolution of a character play out on screen. A better metaphor for this transition than the aforementioned “first period” scene would be tough to come by. When Fowley and Jett spot Curry in Rodney Bingenheimer’s on the Sunset Strip sipping Mountain Dew, she’s still a young girl with stars in her eyes but no marks on her soul. From her botched audition for the band to her ownership of the tough as nails sexpot (a role in which, it’s worth mentioning she did her own singing,) to the washed up drug addict less than two years later, you never get the feeling that she’s faking it. And she’s hot! Fanning has always been adorable and loveable to moviegoers but in this role she needed to shatter her girl-scout next-door persona, and when she’s rocking out seductively onstage in signature Cherie Curry Lingerie, she blows any preconceived notions about her innocence out of the water.


Perhaps the most effective aspect of her performance is not that of the drug addict or the daughter of an alcoholic but that of the fucked up kid discovering herself in a relationship with Joan Jett.


You get the idea that Jett is less than straight, but for Curry, the attraction is less about girls and more about Joan. Joan Jett discovered Curry at a real low point in her life and gave her a purpose. She told her that just by being, she was a superstar and what’s more, she turned her into one. Curry couldn’t even sing before Jett and Fowley came along while Fowley’s help came from a place of greed, Jett’s came from a place of love and adoration.

While we’re on the subject, let’s get into the character of Kim Fowley and his portrayal by Michael Shannon. I couldn’t possibly end this thing without ripping someone apart, right?


While the character of Kim Fowley is undeniably integral to the telling of this story, his representation both in the film as it’s written and by actor Michael Shannon is fucking miserable and one of the film’s biggest drawbacks. While Fowley was definitely an over the top eccentric, the overacting on the part of Shannon shatters any chance this film had at being taken seriously. He is caricatured at best and if at any point you start to enjoy the crazy ride The Runaways are on, he is right around the corner to spoil it for you. I literally went through 2 minute periods that started with me loving the film and ended with me wanting to get up and leave. He just fucking ruins it.

Director Floria Sigismondi may have fumbled here but how can you really blame someone who’s previous directing experience includes only music video compilations for VHI? I want to know who’s job it was to pick such an inexperienced director to direct such an historically significant film? The woman uses headline montages to compress time for crying out loud! The Runaway’s first major show was opening for Cheap Trick at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, but Sigismondi shows none of the bands the girls opened for on their way up. In fact, though this film is about a revolutionary time for Rock and Roll, no music from the era is featured in the film, save a few selections of The Runaway’s music and some Joan Jett songs which came out a couple of years after the film’s conclusion. If Sigismondi had chosen to take advantage of more of the music that inspired Jett and the band they may have been inviting a whole demographic of movie-goers who will surely sit this one out.

All said the movie was sub-par. I have to admit I walked away a little disappointed. There was so much I would have changed, but it’s been a few days now and I can’t get Dakota Fanning’s or Kristen Stewart’s performances out of my head. They didn’t have much to work with, but man, they made the most of it. Two thumbs up or tomatoes or whatever the fuck you prefer, for both of them.



Here’s to hoping “The Dirt”, whenever it comes out is in the hands of a capable director, and a few actors as talented as these two stars.



... and now, just for fun, pics of Kristen Stewart smoking weed

THE RUNAWAYS PRE-POST

I promised some people earlier I would have this review up tonight, but I'm waiting until the morning for two reasons. First, I'm positive these pictures are gonna get flagged for a number of reasons and I want that to happen during the day when at least a couple flockers have had a chance to see'm. Second, I'm going dizzy and I need Ferenzi to check it for spelling errors. ok?

The Never Home-EP

Download
Tracklist:
1.Repent

2. Sick Religion

3. Mary Johnson

4. El Paso

5. High Horse (Demo)

6. Down Low (Demo)

Wakey! Wakey! covers Yeasayer

Live videos of bands off stage are becoming a new phenomenon on the internet these days with people like Vincent Moon of La Blogotheque creating some amazing stuff with the right bands. I am someone who sees a shit ton of these videos and am rarely impressed due to lack of production quality etc. But there are a few people out there creating the "good stuff". I came across this video of Wakey! Wakey! covering Yeasayer's "Ambling Alp" and wanted to share it with ya'll. Although everyone in this video looks as if they are hipper then I could ever be they are making good tunes and having fun doing it. Also that violin player has some sweet chops. This video is brought to you by the Goddamn Cobras Collective.

Deleted Scenes

Deleted Scenes released their LP "Birdseed and Shirt" and mentioned in every blurb about them on the web they received a 8.0 rating from the Pitchfork gods. They are from Brooklyn and Washington DC which I thought constitutes mentioning them because the writers of this blog are from exactly those two places. The front man Dan Scheuerman has been quoted saying that Soren Kierkegaard, the nineteenth century philosopher inspired the bands music. Intellectually inspired musicians making memorable melodies...worth checking out. The photo above was taken from their blog and apparently has some members of the family pissed off.

Deleted Scenes - Fake ID's


Deleted Scenes - Ithaca

The Black Sessions

Bernard Lenoir is a radio DJ from France who has a show called C'est Lenoir and he features many of the indie artists we know and love. The shows that he puts on are in front of 200 people, recorded live and called The Black Sessions (Lenoir in French means black) He has been doing this for many years and if you go to www.freewebs.com/blacksessions you can see the amazing catalog that has been forming over the years. You can also purchase all these recordings at that website. Below is the recording of The Kills song "Monkey 23" at their Black Session.

The Never Home Play Maxwells!

I'm giving away tickets to this show if you're one of the first 200 people to email me at flockalone@gmail.com with the answer to this question: What city do The Never Home call home?

Notorious B.I.G-Who Shot Ya?

On March 9th, 1997 Biggie was killed over a disagreement stemming from an interpretation of the lyrics to this song. No one is sure whether or not this song actually references the then recent shooting of Tupac in a New York recording studio, but that soon became besides the point as it kicked off a chain of nasty events which sadly culminated in both their deaths. It's total bullshit, that should never have happened.

Notorious B.I.G-Who Shot Ya?

This is can be found off of Mister Cee's definitive collection of BIggie songs found over here

Blu-Amnesia

I don't know Blu, this is the first jam I ever heard from the dude, but I thought this track was nice, got a cool Billie Holliday sample, and this video compliments the vibe nicely...not you typical rap video

Teru'Ah-Edward Receives A Letter From An Old Friend

Here's a jam from our friends Teru'Ah who released Mad Kids in the Holy City around this time last year and we've yet to give them some well deserved shine. Although singer Mike Cades's lyrics are melancholy, they exhibit a degree of wisdom which may belie his age. This is especially true on "Edward Receives A Letter From An Old Friend" a song about the banality of the average man's life, and the seeming inevitability that one's dreams will inevitably be over-run by daily responsibilities until they die.

"If we are reasonable men, its seems absurd to expect anymore than
an ill-tempered life."

The excellent production and instrumentation of this track gives Cades's lament a bittersweet quality: a quiet mandolin sets the tone, as the track builds upon a brass band to reach a subdued coda that audibly expresses this sad story of a life filled with regret. Poor Edward.

Teru'Ah-Edward Receives A Letter From An Old Friend


Check out their myspace
And dont forget to cop the album on itunes

In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry

It was August, 2005 and I was driving out to Los Angeles with my then girlfriend to try and find work in the film industry. The sun was hot and staring us right in the face as we drove in silence through an endless desert. I was low on cash and not quite ready to move, she was chomping at the bit to head west but wouldn’t leave without me. I didn’t want her to leave without me, either. We were in that uncomfortable point in our relationship when we'd lived together for so long, the outside world seemed scary, no matter how far the two of us had drifted apart since we first fell in love. However we got to where we were, I never would have expected that on that hot day In August of 2005, we’d be burying a hitchhiker together in the Nevada Desert. This song always reminds me of that long, hot day in August of 2005.

Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore: Dear Companion

Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore both great musicians in their own right have teamed up to come out with Dear Companion. They have received help from My Morning Jackets Yim Yames in the recording process and this album was released last month on Sub Pop Records. A portion of the money made on the album will be donated to Appalachian Voices an organization devoted to ending mountain top removal. The first track is the free download from the album and also included is a song of each of their own solo stuff. Hug a tree, listen to bluegrass and find a better way.

Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore – Something, Somewhere, Sometime



Daniel Martin Moore – Stray Age


Ben Sollee – A Few Honest Words

The Hold Steady: Heaven is Whenever (New Album)

The Hold Steady from Brooklyn (yup thats right kids the BK) are going to release another album on May 4th. Recording took place in Queens at Arctic Studios over a six month period. This will be the fifth album to date since this band began in 2004. Their taste of rock and roll is melodic, punk influenced and fun. I will post a few videos of their older stuff ("Stuck Between Stations" also featured on Flock Alone Mixtape Volume 10). The band will begin their tour in Ardsley NY on 4/2 and it seems to me like an odd set of venues for a band like The Hold Steady. Check out the tour here and buy the new album.

Mixtape Volume 11

Breakbot-Baby I'm Yours

Miike Snow-Burial
Toro Y Moi-Causers of This
Passion Pit-Cuddle Fuddle
Little Dragon-Feather
Joe Crepuculo-Gabriella (El Guincho Remix)
Michael Jacksonnnn-Human Nature
Lillo Thomas-I'm In Love
Kenny Loggins-Lady Luck
Boy Crisis-L'Homme
Animal Collective-On a Highway
Prophet-You Really Turn me ON
Tiga-What You Need (Chromeo Remix)
DWNLDTHEMIXTAPEHERE