10.31.2005

Dead Disco (re/discoveries)

Fun new wave in the vein of the Pretenders and Blondie, plus the singer's hot and involved with Broken Social Scene:

Speaking of BSS, holy crap their new album (on the left) and their classic "You Forgot It In People" are really fucking good. The live show was great, too. As my friend Rebecca said, "do they really need ten people on stage at once?" Yes, yes, they do, or else they wouldn't be who they are.


I used to be really into minimalist electronic music, and I guess I still am, but I don't actually buy it much anymore. This one kinda fell into my lap just last night. It's the Dielectric Minimalist All-Stars. Basically, the artists were given samples from Die Elektrischen, and then they manipulated and returned them to him. Die Elektrischen happens to be the founder of dielectric records out of San Francisco. The artists he's been involved with range from black metal to barely audible blips and boops, but it's all interesting and the packaging is amazing.


Other than those albums, I've been freaking out over some other older things like Gong, The Wipers, Husker Du, Morrissey, the Shout Out Louds, and Os Mutantes.

Coming soon when I find myself with some extra time (rare yet again this week), I'm going to post some long overdue concert reviews.

(Oh, and go see NTX+Electric on Saturday, November 5th at the Painted Lady, cuz I can't. One of my favorite local bands, Tentacle Lizardo is playing that night and also on Wednesday, November 2nd at the same place.)

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St. Petersburg

It's time, kids. It's time for another contest. This time there will be two winners yet again. Supergrass is the featured artist and we're hyping their excellent new album "Road to Rouen."

The first winner will receive the album, magnets, pins, and the CD single for "Kiss of Life." They will also receive a very limited edition iPod case made by Tinymeat. Only 20 were made. Click the artwork below to check out the Tinymeat site.


click for more meat!

The second winner will receive CD singles of "St. Petersburg" and "Kiss of Life" as well as magnets and pins.

Click on the band below to check out the site for the new album.
click to check out the new Supergrass album Road to Rouen


Also, here are some links to check out the video for St. Petersburg:

hi-res/Windows Media Player
hi-res/Quicktime

And, lastly, you can go here to check out the review I wrote of Supergrass' latest album, "Road to Rouen."

To take part in the contest, all you have to do is leave a comment here, or email me (the address is right over there to your right at the top of the links list) and tell me why you should win. Or tell me why you shouldn't. Either way, you could be a winner!

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10.30.2005

Overheard in Detroit

Lately I've taken to eavesdropping on random strangers. Sometimes it's not intentional and completely unavoidable.

Overheard Thursday night at the Broken Social Scene show at the Majestic Theater:
"I get high to this song every night"
The reply? "we need to find five bitches"

Overheard Saturday night in the Garden Bowl:
"I don't want to date him, I just want to screw him. I just want to fuck him, that's all." Note: This girl was sitting at the bar by herself and practically screaming this information into her cell phone. There were only a couple of people there and the music wasn't very loud. All you could hear was her screaming into that phone.


Unrelated: More stuff coming soon regarding the new Supergrass album "Road to Rouen." There will be a contest and links and all kinds of things. Just gimme a minute.


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10.27.2005

Excuse me, I think you have my stapler

Work blows. And that, my friends, is why I haven't updated this thing in awhile. Corporate suits and training supervisors are in town to train some of us on the new software so that I can teach my minions everything later. Fun!

Don't they understand that I have things to do? It'll all be over with by Friday, I think. Then I'll try to post something real.


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10.20.2005

Randomly Heard In Detroit

"I smell prog rock, that guy's got five cymbals too many!" - me


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Blood Just Like Love Always Stains

The end of the rocknrollscientist stellastarr* fantastical giveaway contest is here. The winners are The Underachiever and LDVDG. Congratulations Cath and Lisa! You will receive many treasures in your mail soon.

In other stellastarr* news, the band will be hosting MTV2's Subterranean on November 6th, a show that I highly recommend even when bands aren't hosting it. In fact, it's probably the only thing worth watching on any of the MTV brand networks. The band will also be recording on Fuse's Daily Download Live on November 8th, so check it out! (assuming that you get the Fuse Network)


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10.19.2005

Randomly Heard In Detroit

"Pig is the glue that holds breakfast together..." - Squid or Matt Van, I can't remember


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10.15.2005

Sweet Troubled Soul (redux)

Okay, I'm giving it a few more days for the stellastarr* contest. Basically, you win the new album, some pins, and stickers. All you have to do is email me (address at right), or leave a comment telling me why you should win this shwag.


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Smash It Up When I'm Down

A few years ago, someone who was probably almost ten years younger than me turned me on to the Swedish punk band The Refused. I had heard of them before, and I had read about it, but I never heard the music. And when I did, it was all over. They were like the saviors of hardcore in my eyes. Because they took it further. Their love of jazz and soul and even hip hop was evident without the music coming off as cheesy. Plus they were very educated in leftist politics and knew how to get their point across in a forceful and exciting way. The band's "Shape of Punk to Come" from 1998 was a fucking bomb. It hit so hard in every way, and I still listen to it on a semi-regular basis. It's so tight, and so well-executed that you can't ignore it. Unfortunately, soon after completing that album, the band broke up as they were unable to reconcile their anarchist leanings with a career in music. It's a classic catch-22 that many political bands go through: they don't want to become a part of the machine, but they need to in order to get their music heard. Soon after the Refused disbanded, Epitaph Records in this country re-released "The Shape of Punk to Come," so many kids who heard it didn't even realize it had been out for awhile and that the band was all over and done. But, by re-releasing it here, Epitaph created huge buzz, and this helped out a lot. Denis Lyxzen, the singer of the Refused went on to start The (International) Noise Conspiracy because he was willing to take part in the machine so that he could be heard. Don't get me wrong, he's not some over-zealous politico ranting to the masses. T(I)NC took the power of the Refused and fused it to soul and more rock sounds. The hardcore was gone, but the message remained and became easier to digest.


Starting in 2000, the Noise Conspiracy has reached a wider audience then the Refused ever did. Not everyone can get into hardcore punk, it's just one of those things. The latest and third album, "Armed Love" was originally released late last year in Sweden, but due to label issues, it wasn't released here until a couple weeks ago. Rick Rubin, known for his work with Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, Anthrax, Slayer, as well as reviving Johnny Cash's career and founding Def American, and American Recordings produced this "Armed Love." He gave the band a clean, yet still very soulful and strong sound. I think it may be their strongest album yet.

I saw The (International) Noise Conspiracy open for The Bravery at the Majestic Theater (in Detroit) two weeks ago. I have my opinions about that (The Bravery plays '80s music to kids who were born in the '80s because no one else takes them seriously enough), but I won't digress. Finally getting to see the band was enough for me even if it was too short of a set.

Expecting no less, I was thoroughly impressed with the band live. They came out in matching military-inspired uniforms, which goes along with their occasionally Communist politics. Unlike the opening band People In Planes who had about six people and a crapload of gear onstage and The Bravery, whose lighting rig alone took up half the stage, T(I)NC were simple in terms of their onstage presence.

Their sound was far from simple. High energy and full of soul, just like it should be. Lots of perfectly timed stage moves, and a lot of movement. I hate seeing a band that just stands there, it makes me wonder why I paid to see them in person. Not that I paid to see the show, but that's besides the point.

Of course they went through all the hits that everyone would want to hear like "Smash It Up" and "Capitalism Stole My Virginity," but then they also played a good portion of the new album. I hate when a band tours to support a new album and only plays tracks off said album. That's annoying (RE: Sloan this summer).

Denis obviously has studied his rock and roll quite well. One of the last songs had him standing about ten feet in the air on top of a amp cabinet/head. As the last chorus was ending, he threw the mic up in the air, jumped off the cabinet down to the front of the stage, caught the mic and continued the end of the song. I was impressed. I see way too many singers trying to attempt these Roger Daltrey (The Who) stage moves with the microphone and they all just fuck it up. During a couple songs he jumped down into the crowd and sang to people directly. In a smaller venue, I wouldn't be surprised, but this isn't something you see very often at the Majestic Theater. Denis also has obviously been paying attention to James Brown considering that he did the splits at one point. Then he started strutting around like Mick Jagger. It's all appropriate considering his band's music has the soul of the Stones, the power of James Brown live, and the presence of The Who onstage.

Overall, a great show, the new album "Armed Love" is excellent, and I would highly recommend both.


click for more Armed Love



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"You see too many shows, who cares if you miss this one?"

Last Sunday I declined going out to haunted houses in the Detroit area because I wanted to see Dungen play the Magic Stick. Being a big fan of a lot of Scandinavian music (Dungen are Swedish), I know how hard it is for a lot of these bands to make it to this country for tours. So I had to go.


A few months ago, an ex-girlfriend was telling me about a show on MTV2 called Subterraneans. I stopped watching any of the MTV stations years ago because the only ones that show music 24 hours a day show crappy r&b or bad hip hop all day. So one Sunday night I was laying in bed going through the channels, and I came across a video that could've been from Blue Cheer. The music, the look, the special effects all looked like something that the psychedelic proto-stoner rock band would've done. But it looked too new, and the singer was not singing in English. I was intrigued by "Panda" with it's Sabbath guitar and bass chorus and chiming verses. So I watched to the very end and found out it was Dungen. A few days later, I remembered to look into it and ordered their most recent album "Ta Det Lungt" from Amazon, because I couldn't find it in any local stores.

So, last Sunday they played the Magic Stick. The band themselves did look a bit hippy-ish, but didn't talk or act like it. A couple of them had dreads. Of course, as with most Scandinavians I've met, they were very polite and had no problem with English. It's strange to me that they've made it out of Sweden and are still singing in their native language. This isn't common.

According to the band's site, Gustav Ejstes grew up in Lanna, a small village in Sweden. His father taught him the violin, guitar, and piano as well as giving him insight into Swedish folk. I didn't know until recently that Sweden has a deep history with excellent folk music. Gustav took in all that he could including a detour into hip hop and sampling, but while digging for records he started coming across all kinds of crazy Swedish psychedelic folk from the '60s and '70s. This inspired him, and he decided he was going to go back to the simple tools, the guitar, drums, and piano. He wanted to show that he could do it all himself, so he hibernated in his music studio in his grandmother's basement and started creating what the Swedish music press would call 'folkrockpsych'. And that, is exactly what Dungen is.

Except onstage, Gustav's sound is fleshed out by four people, not just him. The album title "Ta Det Lungt" translates to 'take it easy'. This is definitely music for taking it easy. On the surface, the first track "Panda" feels like a stoner-rock kinda thing, but when you dig deep into the album, it's a fucking masterpiece of folk and pop and psychedelic rock. And his band pulls it off live with no problem. Onstage, most of the songs are extended into jams. But it never gets annoying. The talent and skill freely falls from their fingers and drifts over the crowd.

Hopefully, with this tour doing as well as it is, Dungen will be able to loop back around to Detroit again for another show. When they do, you should check it out.


click for more from Dungen, the folkrockpsych masters from Sweden


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10.12.2005

re/discoveries

Classic fourth album.


click to check out the Supergrass site

Washed denim Easy Fit jeans from the Gap. Normally, I don't buy a whole lot of clothes besides stuff from Dickies or rock t-shirts, but these are the best kind of jeans I've ever owned.

click to check it out

Sparkling citrus beverage with pulp. You can find it at places like Trader Joe's.

click here to see the Orangina site

I fucking love this movie.

click to buy

Punk rock before they called it punk.

click to check out my favorite singles collection from the Troggs

Steve Winwood is a fucking god.

click to check out Britain's best ever 'supergroup'

Electro-pop like Depeche Mode never dreamed of.

click for Ghostly International's Solvent page

Okay, that's all for now, I'm sure I'll have more later.


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10.11.2005

Better Safe Than Safari

Click the pic for the Thunderbirds Are Now! video for "Eat This City."


click on Tom Selleck's tongue to watch the new TAN! video



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10.10.2005

Kick In the Teeth

I remember the year the first Supergrass record (I Should Coco) came out. It was 1995, and I was in my first year of college. I was a DJ on WSGR-FM, the 'Bluewater's ONLY Alternative'. Anything punk or aggressive with a punk edge was in heavy rotation on and off the air. It was when I learned that punk wasn't just a sound, it was an attitude. Acts like Supergrass helped define that for me.

"I Should Coco" kicked my whiny little ass because it definitely was punk, and it was a ballbreaker, and it turned everything upside down. Those guys were my age at the time. That blew my mind. A week didn't go by for two years without me playing at least one track off that album. Then in 1997 "In It For the Money" came out. Obviously the boys grew up a little, but only in that they were more focused. The music was still stellar just as before. The songs slowed down a little, but they also became more textured. It became quickly obvious that the band had a lot of ambition and had no intentions of falling into a sophomore slump. Not a band to rest on its laurels, they released their third and self-titled album two years later in 1999. "Supergrass" was even more mellow than its predecessor, a bit more down to earth, although less focused. It almost seemed like the band lost its direction and didn't know where they wanted to be or go. After a three year break they came back in 2002 with "Life On Other Planets" which is so far the best and most focused album in their discography (purely in my own opinion). The songs were as tight as ever, and they finally found the balance they had been searching for...that balance between the power of "I Should Coco" and the musicality of "In It For the Money." And life goes on for the boys from Oxford.

Here in 2005, they arrive with "Road to Rouen," which is kind of a fresh look at the band. They've dropped a lot of the aggression and attitude, but they found a direction and kept the musicality. The songs are still infectious, but in more of a classic pop way, and when I say classic pop, I mean like John Lennon or Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon era in particular).

At just over 35 minutes in length, this is definitely reminding me of classic pop rock albums from the sixties and seventies. There are nine extremely well-crafted songs here, and yes they are a bit diverse, but there's also a common thread running through it.

The album cover is a photo of a European highway at night with the light trails from car headlights. I don't know whether it's intentional or not, but this is definitely a record that you can see yourself listening to while driving at night. Maybe by yourself, maybe not, I don't know, it just feels that way.

Full disclosure: I also feel that most of the music from Joy Division is specifically good for driving at night, especially the uptempo tracks. What I'm trying to tell you here is that you shouldn't equate "Road to Rouen" with Joy Division. Two entirely different beasts.

Okay, back to the review. Supergrass recorded this album in a barn in France. When I say "Supergrass recorded this album..." I mean they recorded it themselves. The band engineered, produced, recorded, wrote, and played the whole damn thing themselves. They dealt with trying to find the right power adapters and patch cords and all that on their own. Imagine doing this in the French countryside (Normandy), it can't be easy. Shit, it's hard enough to find a shop that sells patch cords in downtown Detroit let alone the middle-of-nowhere in France. This was their first time doing it all on their own, and you'd never know. The recording is ambitious and obviously handled well by these veteran musicians.

The first track is titled "Tales of Endurance (parts 4, 5, & 6)." There are no other "Tales of Endurance" from this band, but I hope they put the first three parts on the next album. Its so interesting how they can wear their influences on their sleeves without actually sounding like them. I can hear T Rex and Humble Pie and the Faces, yet I really just hear Supergrass and this perfect pop that they've created over the past ten years. "Sad Girl," like a few other songs on the record definitely have Lennon in mind. In fact, there's a whole lot of piano on this record. It sounds really good. "Roxy" is a majestic piece of glam, "Coffee In the Pot" is a whimsical instrumental that shows the band hasn't lost it's sense of humor, the title track may be the most uptempo track on the record, and is also quite glammy, "Low C" brings back the Lennon piano with some sweeping strings (Mellotron, I believe), and "Fin" is where that aforementioned Pink Floyd reference comes into play.

Supergrass are back, and yes, they grew up, but it's good. Sort of like how the Troggs started out crazy and punk as fuck with "Wild Thing" and grew into "Love Is All Around."

Check out "Road to Rouen" by clicking on the album cover...


click to listen to tracks from the latest Supergrass album



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Sleep/Swim

A couple months ago when the City of Detroit was revising their budget to account for a massive deficit, it was announced that there would be cutbacks to the fire and police departments. It wasn't until today that I found out how massive these cutbacks really are. I saw something posted on Detroit Yes, and I got curious.

So, I looked up some articles online to find out how the city's police department was restructured. I think "restructured" may be an inappropriate term here. 'Making bad things much, much worse' may be a better term for the situation. This is the initial result of the cutbacks:

First, at least 150 officers were laid off in addition to most student officers which means that when cops retire, there will be no one to take their place. Real smart.

Second, several precincts were closed or consolidated. Here is the breakdown by precinct number:

  • 1-closed
  • 2-being used only to house prisoners
  • 3-covers 3,4&2,moving to new location on Fort/Clark this month (new loc. does not have cell block)
  • 4-closed
  • 5-closed
  • 6-open covering 6&8
  • 7-closed
  • 8-closed
  • 9-covers 9&5
  • 10-closed
  • 11-covers 11&7
  • 12-covers 12&10
  • 13-covers 13&1, but cellblock has been closed

If you read that closely, you'll see that there are now only five cellblocks where there were thirteen. With the first precinct being closed, this means that Greektown no longer looks and feels like a police state. There aren't quite as many officers wandering around down there.

The second precinct has always been the officers who deal with traffic and crowd control. For years they have provided free security and crowd/traffic control for events at Comerica Park, Ford Field, the Fox Theater, and the State Theater. Finally, the city is considering charging these private interests for these services rendered.

But wait, it gets better!

The seventh precinct was over on Mack just east of Gratiot in one of the city's worst neighborhoods (east side). Now that's closed. Sounds real smart, doesn't it?

The thirteenth precinct may be one of the most visible for suburbanites and local college students. It's on Woodward in the popular Midtown area. If you were hanging out at the Magic Stick and your car got stolen, this is the precinct you had to deal with when filing a report. If you were at the Bronx, and someone mugged you, the thirteenth is where the responding officers came from (if not from Wayne State - we laugh at them, but they have all the same authority as a DPD officer and they're often quicker to respond). Knowing all this makes me scared to know that their cellblock is now closed. It makes me feel like maybe some officers might overlook some things just to avoid having to deal with taking a suspect or perpetrator across town to an open (and most likely overcrowded) cellblock.

My point is that I don't think Detroiters really understand what's going on here. I was horrified when I heard on NPR this morning that Kwame's rating has gone up by ten points since primary. He's still losing to Hendrix, but he's on the move, and that means that people have already forgotten the mysterious Manoogian Mansion party/murder that supposedly didn't happen, and that they've forgotten about his spending issues with the city's credit card, and that they don't even know about the police layoffs and restructuring. And what's even worse is that this is just what's going on with the police department. I'm sure the fire department is even worse. I can't imagine.

(Maybe this is why when my tires/rims were stolen off my car two months ago I couldn't get an officer to file a report to save my life. I still haven't filed that report and I don't think I ever will. What's the point?)


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10.06.2005

Thoracic Cavities In My Teeth

Yesterday morning I was driving to work, and as I was heading westbound on west 8 Mile, I passed over the Southfield Freeway overpass. For the first time in the 2, 080-something times that I've passed this intersection I've never noticed it. The streetlights are all the same kind, and a there's a ton of them because of all the weird on and off ramps right in that area. The light poles are all crooked and wonky looking. I don't think any of those things are straight. Because there's so many of them in an area that looks empty when looking across it, and they're all at different angles, it's almost like looking across the surface of one of those cactii with really thick and long pickers on it. What are those things called, anyway? Or it could've been like a bunch of grey walking sticks all stood up vertically. You know, those insects that camouflage themselves by looking like twigs. Either way, it looked friggin' odd. Detroit continues to intrigue me.


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10.05.2005

The Train Kept A-Rollin'

Click the pic to see short documentaries about The Muggs, and the Hard Lessons. Look to the right side of the page and click on "Detroit."


clickit


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10.04.2005

Children Of the Night, Fight! Fight!

Two Saturdays ago, I was DJing, and my friend Suzette brought in a CD for me. She claims that long ago she promised she would burn this for me, but I don't recall. It was probably on a Wednesday when I was DJing in Hamtramck and fallin' off my barstool from all the Powers Irish Whiskey. I think, I don't know. So, anyway, the CD starts off with an odd track that starts out sounding like something from Crime, but then it goes into a vamp with a spoken word voice-over glorifying San Francisco. Close, Crime was from San Diego. The vocal sounds like it's from an educational film from the '50s. After the spoken word thing, it turns into a folky thing with a harpsichord still rambling about SF. I like it. Artist unknown. The CD ends with nine tracks titled as "Melting Moments - Cough mixes 6/2005." The songs are all sort of electro with a drum machine and occasional keyboards. Otherwise, I don't know what to call it. Definitely lo-fi. I kinda like that, too, but I haven't fully digested it yet. At times I'm reminded of Nico's solo work.

Anyhoo, that's not what's important here. The tracks in the middle, 2-12 are what matters for me right now. The artist is Piedmonster who are from somewhere in North Carolina. I can't find much of anything about them online besides a couple of show reviews, and their MySpace page, which you can find here. They list their influences as Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benetar, Crass, Chumbawamba, Joy Division, Jawbreaker, Black Flag, and Led Zeppelin. I guess those make sense, but I'm not sure. Have you ever heard the Selby Tigers from Minneapolis? Kinda new wave-y with male and female vocals. That's what Piedmonster reminds me of except the Selby Tigers have that shiny happy production sheen courtesy of Dave Gardner (aka Sammy G).

One song, "Powertrip" successfully rips off the chorus from Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and the rest of it's good, without ripping off John further! The first song on the album, "Bloodsucking Developers," definitely has a Joy Division feel to it, musically at least. It's also where the title of this post comes from. Most of the vocals on the album are male and female at the same time. A handful of songs are just male or just female. "Good Ole Boy" is just a girl singing about a man she obviously thinks very little of: "good ole boy, you are the biggest dirtbag that I know..." It's just drums and vocal. Some other tracks have a little bit of synth, but not so much that you would call any of this electro. There's a good variety of music styles going on within these ten songs. With the drums, I'm definitely hearing a Joy Division influence, the Crass influence comes through in the vocals. Actually, I guess the Chumbawumba reference succeeds with the vocal and drum styles. But I'm not talking about that big soccer anthem hit from them. I mean everything else. The anarchist punk/pop stuff. Which reminds me, there's a track on here called "Hey, Chomsky!" where the chorus is "we'll talk about the good ole days when anarchy was just a class war away!" So, yeah, there's some politics going on here. Directly after the ode to Noam Chomsky is "Where Do You Draw the Line," which is a dirty all-out hardcore-ish punk rocker. I think the next song, "Snip Snip" is all about knitting, or sewing, or something like that. I think, it's hard to tell. It's catchy as hell, though. All the songs on here are catchy. Close to the end is "Skafee," which is a dub reggae song! It evolves into an upbeat ska thing that manages to not sound cheesy. In fact, it almost sounds like they're mocking Sublime a little bit but using their own vocal style. Like I said, it's hard to tell because there is so little info available about this band. The CD is a burned copy, and it was given to me by someone who also only has a burned copy. The closing track, "Another Day" is an a cappella sing-along with a little bit of drums. Then there's a hidden track called "Magic and Weather," which seems to be something recorded backwards, but I can't tell if it's an album track or not.

If you can find it, check this out. Piedmonster is where it's at. I think I might try to get them to play for my birthday in January. We'll see.

click here for the Piedmonster MySpace page


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10.02.2005

Sweet Troubled Soul

In two weeks' time, I will be giving away a signed CD, signed poster, and stickers and pins from stellastarr*'s new album. There will be two winners. Write to me using the email address to the right, or via the comments section to tell me why you think you should get these things. Completely subjective and rather random, I know, but that's the way it is. It's my blog, and I'll make the decisions around here. Check out their site at stellastarr*. Click the pic for the video for "Sweet Troubled Soul."




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