the nerdist

MUSIC NERDIST: Hockey Night & Troubled Hubble

Now, I know the headline of this post sounds like I'm desperately trying to be abstract and weird. But no. Those are the names of two bands that put out very good, yet VERY overlooked records in 2005.

Now the first band, HOCKEY NIGHT. They had just about the LAST release (GET REAL) from seminal bay area pop punk label LOOKOUT! RECORDS.
And I will explain Hockey Nights sound like this:

"Hey dude, ya know how you LOVE Pavement?"
    -yeah.
"And how you wish that Stephen Malkmus solo records weren't so hit or miss?"
    -right.
"Well, then stop living in the 90's and check out HOCKEY NIGHT! you waste of space!"
    -alright....but you didn't have to call me a waste of space, I'm trying my best to get a job.
"That's a surprise. Most people ACCIDENTALLY get jobs faster than you can find one."
    -I've had enough of your lip, I'm gonna go smoke a bowl and listen to some pavement.
"ah ah ah! what did we JUST talk about!"

The second band, TROUBLED HUBBLE. I'm gonna be honest. I only heard them yesterday while listening to an APPLES IN STEREO pandora radio station. I felt like an idiot for having not heard them before. The vocals cut through in a familiar tone. As it should too, seeing as how its the singer for DISMEMBERMENT PLAN. But this stuff is a lot more poppy, catchy and fun than their former band could ever hope to be.

Now, I could have a similar conversation with a fake person like I did before, but I can't. As it turns out TROUBLED HUBBLE broke up after the release of its album MAKING BEDS IN A BURNING HOUSE in 2005.

I'll leave with a video from each band. first, HOCKEY NIGHT with GREET THE DAWN:

And second, a song that made me think of the leader of this nerdy rag tag...duo(?), MR. HARDWICK.
a song entitled EAR, NOSE, THROAT:

-Jonah Ray

Fanboy Focus w/ Jonah Ray

My nerdly friend and infrequent Nerdist contributor Jonah Ray gots hisself a Innernet broadcastin' programme. Interestingly, I went hick with part of that last sentence and then swung it into Brittania for the last word. I sure love playing with words. When read aloud, they're like odorless mouth-farts deftly crafted from the articulating sphincter of the lips.

Oh, right. Jonah's video. IT IS GOOD:

Via current

MUSIC NERDIST'S BEST IN NEW MUSIC: THEE MAKE OUT PARTY

Years ago when i first moved to the LA area I lived, specifically, in the town of SAN PEDRO. Pedro (home of the minutemen), as it's called (pronounced PEE-DRO), Is the harbor town of Los Angeles. While there all I really did was sit on a porch and hang out. I hung out with people that were part of a particular music scene. One that I had been obsessed with since i got into punk music. But I wasn't the only one that gravitated towards this scene, another chap I had met while doing nothing with my life was Lee.
    Lee, who played in THE NOISE (a band that had no songs, just literally made noise), was a gangly, tight-panted eye glass wearing bass player from Orange County...THAT I HATED! He was one of the most irritating idiots that I had ever met. I hated most every band he was in, and found his drunken "dancing" at shows to be a pathetic attempt in showcasing the need to be noticed.
    Then I heard the latest offering from his new band THEE MAKE OUT PARTY.   Then i got angry. Very angry. Because of HOW MUCH I LIKED their song "CHANGE". It's sound reverberates the feeling I had when I first heard THE GAIN, yet not as abrasive. It is the perfect montage music. It's the song that starts playing when you and your friends are having fun and don't have a care in the world.
    THEE MAKE OUT PARTY have been trudging around for years, mostly in OC, South Bay, and at venues like THE SMELL. They have a lifestyle fit for a much crazier sounding band. Yet, they start playing, I start smiling, because of a montage in head. And it's of me bashing Lee in the face with a bottle of beer, he looks at me, I look at him...and we laugh....because his band rules....damn.

-Jonah Ray

Master The Internet

Music Nerdist: REVIEW. HOLD STEADY "STAY POSITIVE"

I had an odd moment this week. Whilst I was casually walking through the automatic sliding doors of a Rite Aid (I live in a poor area.) I was greeted with a sign that read "BACK TO SCHOOL SALE!". It caused a flash of panic and despair, like I had just blown my summer. Like I hadn't fully utilized my vacation, school was just right around the corner, and I forgot to do the required reading before english class which is, of course, THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE SEMESTER!
Then I realized, I graduated high school already (barely), I have nothing to worry about (as far as learning is concerned). Yet, I still was a bit bummed on the near-end of summer.

The reason i bring this up is because when the sunny season began this year I had received a copy of STAY POSITIVE by brooklynite-bar-band THE HOLD STEADY. 

This album has the hopeful and reckless abandonment you feel as a kid when school gets out. CONSTRUCTIVE SUMMER is the opening track and with the line "We're Gonna Build Something This Summer!"  you immediately feel pumped up. Pumped up like you just  gotta hop on your bike and ride down to the quarry hole, go swimming, and talk about the crazy "tree-house-dam-fort-make-out-party-having-club-house"  that you and your Cutter friends are gonna make with branches and mud (hopefully pennywise the clown won't kill you before that.)
The album continues rocking with some of the best sing-alongs for guys who feel they should like BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN but just haven't been able to understand why that guy at the record store always proclaims "No dude, you gotta get the album NEBRASKA."  My retort? No, no I effing don't need to get Nebraska.

So, go get it. And live the rest of your life like you' re on summer vacation.

(honorable mention for a great summer song. TOTALLY MICHAEL "death hill over and over")

-Jonah Ray

MUSIC NERDIST: Best Birfffday Songs, according to me (the guy that's always right.)

My birthday is coming up this weekend. I'll be turning an age that's closer to the signifying number of years you live before you have to realize yer not a kid anymore. Seeing as how I now cower at the idea of having any kind of party to "celebrate" my slow death. I have the feeling that I'll just want to spend it the way I spent ALL of my formative birthdays, alone and disappointed whilst listening to MUSIC in my room. So here is a list of some of my favorite BIRTHDAY SONGS:

#5: The original happy birthday song by the HILL sisters in the late 1800's. It's totally overused and not cool at all. EPIC FAIL HILL SISTERS.
#4: Happy Birthday by CLEM SNIDE. So soothing and happy sounding, you'll forget that yer decaying body is starting to hurt this year more than last year.
#3: You say its your birthday! by THE BEATLES.  Not their best work (obviously, a**hole) but mentioned because of it's association with the movie 16 candles (the scene with Ted in the car).
#2: Lisa It's your birthday, Happy birthday Lisa: by MICHAEL JACKSON (leon kompowski)...that song will get stuck in your head as easily as gum in Lisa's Hair. (reference!)
#1: HAPPY BIRTHDAY by WEIRD AL YANKOVIC: I used to play it loudly for each of my family members on their birthdays. Because i loved it and they thought it was irritating...EFF THEM. It's one of the punkiest songs Al ever did. and it was on his ST release. And yes, I still like him.

alrighty, happy birthday to me.

jr.