I Know All There is To Know About Nothing At All

Good good things this week:

• Plain, black coffee. Not hazelnut-blueberry-vanilla-spice, just plain old, overpriced Sumatran coffee dark roasted with no creamer, no sugar.
• Free cigarettes. Who can resist? Even if they are menthol.
• New Sights album came out this week. You can get it here. Finally, their amazing cover of Mahalia Jackson's "I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About In My Song" is available to all, and not just 45 collectors. I've been watchin' these kids since they were still in high school. You need to check this out. Also, the record release show will be this Thursday at the Magic Stick. Read about that here
• The Hard Lessons. A newer rockin' band from Detroit. Drums, guitar, and organ. Male and female vocals. Stax/Volt soul meets '60s rock. They're playing the Magic Stick with New Grenada, the Recital, and the Trembling for the "One Scene to Another" release show. Go here for more info on that. I caught them on Monday at the Belmont for an unadvertised show. It was hot.
• The little things. More on that later.
• New Thunderbirds Are Now! album. It's called "Justamustache." They've slowed down a bit since the last album. Focusing more on songwriting and a more mature sound. Most of the hyper spaz is gone, the singing is actually singing and not just shouting, and it's an all around good record. Reminds me a lot of their former labelmates Radio Berlin, who have a slightly more goth edge to their sound.
• New Human Eye record, which seems to be self-titled. They've moved past their earlier sound that easily recalled Chrome, and replaced it with a slightly improv sound. A couple songs have horns, one of them has trombones! Recommended if you like weirdo robot punk.
• Tonight! Gris Gris, Indian Jewelry (former NTX+Electric and Swarm of Angels people), and White Devil all at the Painted Lady in Hamtramck, MI. It's probably $5 at the door, I'm sure it's 18 and over only, and the first band will probably start between 10:30 and 11pm. Plus, I'm DJing. You just can't beat that. It's a chance for me to play more of the avant-robot-weirdo stuff that I like so much.
• Death From Above 1979 at the Lager House on Saturday. Trust me. Go here to read a little bit about them, listen to some songs. They're playing with Lee Marvin Computer Arm, who you also must see if you haven't. Imagine if At the Drive In actually had soul and knew what rock n roll was meant to be. That gives you an idea. Controller.Controller is also playing. There will be two shows, and early one for the kiddies, and a later one for us adults. Honestly, I don't know what time the earlier one is, because no one has posted it anywhere. If you don't already know, DFA1979 is insane. Two guys: blown-out bass, and drums. They take turns singing, and sometimes sing together. Their sound is like Black Sabbath with soul. That sounds cheesy, but really, it's not.
• McSweeney's Lists. Check them out here. Mandatory daily reading.