It’s a cold snap in the middle of winter, and we’re bringing you another round of our exclusive and ever popular Snapbacks.

For this run we had an idea  to heat things up with the Death Adder Arch going back to the 90s, and taking a colorway that X-Clan might have rocked. We also took a bit of influence with our  Varsity Script Snapback from a couple of our favorite pro sports teams while throwing a twist of green in there for good measure.

As always these are limited, so don’t touch that dial as there are many more things to come as this winter trudges onward and comes to an end (hopefully soon).

Faith No More – Angel Dust (1992)

Vs.

Big Black – Songs About Fucking (1987)

The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be?  What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…

This is how we hold it down in Paris, Big Up the Booty Call crew!

Iran – Dissolver (2009) [Narnack] // Grade: B-

It’s been about 7 years since Iran released their lo-fi gem The Moon Boys which dropped just before Iran’s guitarist Kyp Malone’s other project, TV on the Radio started gaining the kind of traction that would no doubt put a follow-up to The Moon Boys on the back burner. I’m not sure what singer/song writer Aaron Aites did in that interim while his guitarist’s other band became one of the most critically praised of this decade. I assume he spent the time a little jealous and penning these songs, but whose to say? What I do know is that in that time Iran’s lo-fi aesthetic was totally re-evaluated into the band that you hear on Dissolver.

It’s kind of interesting that Iran chooses now of all times to ditch their Lo-Fi sound, just as a  vibrant Lo-Fi movement in NYC and out west is gathering steam, but I guess you just don’t pass up on David Steick (TV on the Radio) willing to lend his expertise on your next album. I could however have done without the occasional TV on the Radio like moments slipped in. However the Pavement like moments like say on “Baby Lets Get High One Last Time Together” I’m all good with!

I’m certain the many fans Iran gained from The Moon Boys will surely be put off by the polished Dissolver. But for those of you willing to look past production will find the same strong sense of melody and song writing that used to be buried by mounds of tape hiss, feedback and poor micing. It’s kind of up to you now to decide if you’re the type of person who liked Iran solely on their production aesthetic or if their song writing played into it at all. I’ll admit that without the lo-fi production these songs do lose some of their urgency and charm that made The Moon Boys so great, but these are still strong songs that make for a good, but more straight forward indie rock record. Dissolver feels like a stepping stone to prove to fans and probably themselves that they are capable of moving past just being known for their production value choices, and thriving.

As with I’ve found with later Guided By Voices and other Lo-Fi greats… if you’re willing to move past the sonic shift, you’ll still find a vast and interesting world to explore.

My spanish-speaking skills are, how you say, limited. I went through 3 years of it in High School just like everybody else in California, but, well, something about girls with skirts on, girls with boobs, and girls who weren’t-quite-but-almost looking-back-at-me-when-I-look-at-them makes one put everything else on cruise control and just focus on one thing. The girls. With boobs.

Actually, come to think of it, I guess you could say that I had enough brainsteam left over to focus on one other thing: Batman. I love, and have always loved, the bat-man. So, you can imagine the ironic delight that washed over me when I stumbled onto this gem: Batmania.

Batmania is a site completely and soul-drenchingly dedicated to the Batman TV show starring Adam West and Burt Ward. It’s an amazing trove of photos, facts, and goofy character profiles that , despite it’s being trapped in 2001 (frames only…no direct links without breaking it), is exhaustive in nature and, well, 100% written completely in Spanish. Irony. Tragedy. Holy Sewer Pipe.

Speaking of tragedy, there’s a FULL PAGE—Santo Robin—that catalogs Robin’s dork-ass phrases from the show and, yep, correlates them to the appropriate episode. There’s a catalog page with screencaps (a la the above) of “Las onomatopeyas” which, BANG-ETH!, is fucking awesome.

So, to sum up: if you like Batman, and you speak/read spanish, you are in for a real treat. You can feel the love pulse right off the page. If you like Batman, and you have a Firefox addon that will translate Spanish to English (or whatever else), you’re in for an equally real but slightly less concise treat.

Todos granizo, el hijo del demonio.

Eastbound & Down is only two episodes in, but I can already tell this is going to be one funny show and a favorite of mine. If you haven’t caught on to it yet, you should! It’s like an American version of Trailer Park Boys, and is the perfect vehicle for Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Foot Fist Way), one of the funniest comedic actors working today.

You’re Fuckin’ OUT!

There isn’t much for me to say on this one, I just thought it was cute.

“This Japanese sushi chef has developed a fantastic Obama sushi: ‘Obama’s skin is Amis (small shrimp) TSUKUDA?use. МишкаМишка???? Hair is black sesame, fish paste teeth.’”

Real Life – Send Me An Angel

Fall Out Boy – A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me (Live)

Indian Thriller

Little Marcy – I’ll Be A Sunbeam

CHARLES BRONSON live in Albany

This EMOnday was supposed to be dedicated to our karaoke at Beauty Bar in Las Vegas. It sort of still is, but way too many f-cking videos are “Embedding Disables By Request”. So annoying!

Midnite Till Death No. 20 was just sick as Hell. Every band was awesome and the people who showed up were mostly not assholes.

The first band up was the Jadewalkers, who tore it up on stage and tore up my expectations and then threw them on the ground and spat on them. Emma Vikingskull is an intimidating stage presence who can tame a guitar like few else, but what man could tame her? I don’t know if it’s okay to say this, but I think she looks a little like a Gaye Advert blow-up doll in this photo.

This is Justin and his tattoo. I love that tattoo.

The K Holes were up next. Since the girls in the band skipped out to party at Mardi Gras, they’ve been alternatively calling themselves the Gay Holes, the Man Holes, and the TestosteRomeos. They sound like a herd of stampeding piglets and one of the piglets is playing a surf guitar riff on a little guitar and Indians are riding on the pigs. Then you get trampled by their music. I love it. If you want to know more, then you can read my interview with them here.

Put your head on my shoulder. Put your tongue in my moustache. Ana, the girl on the left, requested “Dirty Old Man” by the Sonics out of Seattle pridesmanship. She has tattoos of the Germs circle and of a vacuum cleaner. That is the kind of girl you marry. She gets your music and knows her place.

Cerebral Ballzy are fucking awesome. They are one of my favorite new bands. They are hard to the core. People were slamming around and having a good old time to their music. At one point, some kid suggested that I shotgun my beer, and when I did, he squeezed the can, forcing all the beer into my mouth, and I spat it all back into his open mouth from like a foot away. It was the only cool thing I have ever done. They performed their hit song, “Insufficient Fare”, at the beginning and end of my set. When they finished and I came on stage, people were screaming at me because they were mad that the band was done.

Nerd perfection.

Fancy pants.

Violent Bullshit were fun and funny and intense. Jayson, the singer, used to be in Orchid and the Panthers. I thought he was going to be a really serious, skinny forty year old with a shaved head. As it turned out, he kinda looks like me. They did a song about distrusting the president called “Keep The Change”. They did a song about hating Seattle and those cute sluts from Seattle beat on Jayson relentlessly during the entire song. Awesome.