The Grammar Club‘s EP Bremelanotide almost became one such victim. You’d think I’d pay more attention to a group with so much individual talent. A venerable super group of nerdy proportions, and I almost missed it.

Luckily my man Z, over at Hipster, Please!, was kind enough to post this glowing review which reminded me that I really needed to spend more time with this album. And after spending a little more time with it, it becomes apparent to me that you also need to spend some time with this album. I won’t waste your time going into full review mode, since I’ve got nothing to say that Z didn’t say ten times better (damn English majors. Why’d I have to go and get a useful degree?). Instead I’ll just tell you that the party album of ’07 got dropped right before the ball came down. Go download this and then jam it out on New Years to have the perfect party. You know you wanna.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Geeks of all fandoms.

I give you…

Stop Standing Still!!!

For those that may be curious, Stop Standing Still is a site that I’ve set up to help promote the idea of geek culture. For now, it does this by providing a listing of geek centric shows that are happening around the world. Overtime, and after I develop an application with a better tool set for users, I’ll expand on this idea to include other things.

Heading over to the site, you’ll probably notice that the listings are a little sparse at the moment. This is just the beginning. I wanted to get a core list of artists into the system so people could get an idea of how things worked. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to work on expanding the offerings available for the geek music connoisseur.

Speaking of which, if you would like to help, please let me know. There’s a breakdown of the kind of help I’m looking for in the FAQ on the site.

OK, if you’ll excuse me, I’m kind of beat. Between the site and work and other things, I’ve been going non stop for the past 4 or 5 days. At the moment, I need to go to bed. More later.

Seriously, this week has taken a change for the weird so I’m pushing the new project back to Sept 30th. Possibly earlier, but that’s the date I’d expect to hear something if I were you.

As penance for my sins, I offer you videos,

Billy Bragg video for the song Great Leap Forward,

Live version of the same song, with different lyrics,

Billy Bragg video for Sexuality

And just to show that Billy apparently seems totally incapable of doing a decent video, here’s The Boy Done Good (this song isn’t political)

Live video of Billy playing with The Levellers, doing the song English Civil War

From the same DVD, The Levellers doing their song Riverflow

And finally, a video for The Levellers song One Way. The video may cause motion sickness, but the song is good.

These videos are offered as proof that if you really want to change the world, give your message a good beat that people can dance to.

Honestly, this is everything that I dig about J-Pop. You’ve got a song that is unabashedly poppy and bright with out a hint of irony (irony is losers who are just afraid of being honest) and has a great hook that you can’t help but humming afterwards. Seriously, how can you not love this track? And the video matches it perfectly. Bravo!

As an aside. The link for the video came from this boing boing post. That post lead to me tracking down this trailer for Dasepo Naughty Girls.

This is either the most amazing cracked out movie ever made (and I mean that in a deliciously good way) or it is just absolutely horrible. Either way, I need to see it.

Here’s a bunch of stuff that’s been sitting in my RSS reader waiting for me to get off my ass and write a post up. Since I seem incapable of that, I’ll just do a little dump here.

• First up, the NYC Pop Fest has finally gone live with their real web site, www.nycpopfest.com. You can check the site out to get information on ordering weekend passes and information on cheap lodging alternatives.
• Second, comes word from K Records that the legendary Calvin Johnson is heading out on tour for May and June. The tour crawls over large areas of the country so give the tour dates a look see here and go out to see a legend play live.

OK, I think that’s enough for now.

NYC POPFEST 2007

THURSDAY MAY 24, 2007 - Opening Night Gala
98-104 Meserole Ave., @ EUROPA in Brooklyn

• BMX Bandits (Scotland)
• Pants Yell! (MA)
• Yellow Fever (TX)
• The Metric Mile (NYC)
• Lispector (France)
• & Other Surprise Guests!!

FRIDAY MAY 25, 2007 – Kick-off the weekend with Mitch Easter & a Rooftop Afterparty!!!
168 Delancey Street, @ THE DELANCEY on the L.E.S.

• Baskervilles (NYC)
• Mitch Easter (NC)
• The Secret History (NYC)
• The Smittens (VT)
• Affair d’Coeur (NYC)
• The Reverse (NY)
• & ROOFTOP AFTER-PARTY

SATURDAY MAY 26, 2007 - FREE Daytime All-Ages Show
Astroland Stage – Coney Island Boardwalk, @ ASTROLAND on Coney Island!!!!!

• Bunnygrunt (MO)
• Cars Can Be Blue (GA)
• Best Fwends (TX)
• The Gritty Midi Gang (NYC)
• & Special Surprise Guests!

SATURDAY MAY 26, 2007
74 Leonard St., @ THE KNITTTING FACTORY

• Casiotone For the Painfully Alone (CHI)
• The Ballet (NYC)
• Ballboy (Scotland)
• Harvey Williams (UK)
• My Teenage Stride (NYC)
• The Besties (NYC)
• Brown Recluse Sings (PA)

SUNDAY MAY 27, 2007
361 Metropolitan Avenue, @ LUNA LOUNGE in Brooklyn

• Pipas (UK/NYC)
• CAUSE-COMOTION (NYC)
• Human Television (PA)
• Michael Leviton (NYC)
• Pelle Carlberg (Sweden)
• Dear Nora (CA)
• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (NYC)

MONDAY May 28, 2007 – Memorial Day BBQ & Show
484 Union Avenue, @ UNION POOL in Brooklyn

• Allen Clapp & His Orchestra (CA)
• The Gazetteers (NY)
• The Lil Hospital (PA)
• Surefire Broadcast (PA)
• Titans of Filth (GA)
• & Special Surprise Guests!!

If you’re not sure about this lineup, just check out the reaction from the Three Imaginary Girls site.

I’m not up on the full scope of what is happening here, but the general gist is that on the first of every month the band releases a new digital single, with individual sleeve art. The tracks are free to download and will remain online until the band releases their new album in early ’08. I’m not sure if the 14 tracks will be the new album, part of the new album, or completely unrelated to the new album. No matter what the case is, I definitely recommend picking up these tracks while you’ve got the chance.

The songs have a quality to them, which I’m having trouble putting my finger on, that reminds me of 80s British post-punk. They’re definitely indiepop though.

BTW, the band will be taking part in the up coming NYC Pop Fest, the official line of which I’m sure will be released any day now.

*taps foot*

Any day now…

Until then, the “top friends” on the pop fest’s myspace page are the bands that are playing. We just don’t know then when and where’s.

Voting for the contest can be found here. Currently the band is tied for 6th out of a possible 10 bands (a tragedy really). Please, do your civic duty as a fan of good music and go and vote for Little Hospital. Then go out and buy an album or two.

Side note, when you pick up The Lil’ Hospital’s Heavy Metal, and you should, you also need to pick up the The Snow Fairies album Get Married as well. Ignore the horrible rumors that the Snow Fairies have broken up. If they were true, then wouldn’t the band stop playing shows?

The artist in question is Jenny Jenkins. The link will take you to her myspace page where you can check out a couple tracks from her. The songs are her with a ukulele. I’ll be honest, they didn’t grab me when I first listened to them, but I just gave them another listen and there is definitely something to the songs that may not be evident on your first listen. I can’t put my finger on what that is though. Hopefully with a few more listens I’ll be able to say more.

So, if it doesn’t grab you, check it out again at a later point and see if the songs grab you then.

And for the Wrock reference? This is what Courtney said on the indiepop list when she first brought up Jenny,

When Harry and the Potters met Calvin Johnson, they asked him “do you know Jenny Jenkins!?!?!?!” (I’m not going to do the 20 minute Calvin version of the story)

So, dude. The Potters are fans, what more does a Wrock fan want?

If you do dig the songs, or are just a kind loving soul, the latest word from Courtney is that Jenny is going out on tour with The Wellbeings and they could use some help putting together some shows on the west coast. Here’s the info,

So here’s the itnerary. (The shows I think are comming together OK have a person, band or venue name by them, so don’t need help with those, except for people to come to the show.)

The “No More Crying” Tour Itinerary:
Oly by the 13th version, + North = 21 days (exactly 3 weeks)

May (Wellbeings only)
Wed Ashland/Eugene/Corvalis
Thurs Sacramento/Merced (Jenny @ the Smell LA)
June (Meet up with Jenny)
1 Fri – LA
2 Sat – LA/San Diego?
3 Sun – LA Day Off?
4 Mon – Santa Barbara – Josh
5 Tues – San Luis Opisbo
6 Wed – Santa Cruz – Whysp
7 Thurs – SF Day Off?
8 Fri – SF/Berkley/Oakland
9 Sat – SF – Jerry Lee
10 Sun – Arcata
11 Mon – Eugene – Shady Pines
12 Tues – Portland
13 Wed – Olympia Day Off
14 Thurs – Anacortes
15 Fri – Bellingham
16 Sat – Vancouver
17 Sun – Vancouver
18 Mon –Seattle – Jordan O Jordan
19 Tues – Olympia Return Car

Tell people they can listen to us:

http://www.myspace.com/jennyjenkinsrockstar

http://www.myspace.com/wellbeings

Thanks!
Love, Jenny

I’m guessing you can just get in touch with her through myspace, since I’m now seeing any other method. If you can help put together a show and don’t have myspace, leave a comment and I’ll see if Courtney can offer up some contact info.

Unfortunately, the band broke up back in ’05.

While My Favorite isn’t around anymore, the band’s primary song writer, Michael Grace Jr., does have a new band called A Secret History. History had their first public show at the beginning of March at the Cake Shop in NYC. While doing a little digging this evening I came across these clips from the show.

Our Lady of Stalingrad

Our Lady of Pompeii

And for good measure, here’s a clip shot by Courtney herself,

Needless to say, I will be keeping an eye out for these guys in the future. And if Courtney goes to see them again with out at least giving me the chance to tag along, I may have to have words with her.