Sunday, June 7, 2009

Dear Billy Corgan,

We here at Trivial Design are longtime fans. We even gave Zwan a chance for a little while until we discovered it was The Smashing Pumpkins lite (Paz Lenchatin was a huge selling point). And I personally thoroughly enjoyed "Superchrist" for all its grandiose feel.

But we really think that unless you do something hella awesome really soon, we'd all rather you disappear quietly until a full band reunion can happen, because, well, you're embarrassing us and yourself, especially when the Silversun Pickups is out there making the type of music you should be making.

That's not to say they have bitten off your style completely. No, elements of your Siamese Dream and Gish days are present along with a healthy dose of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. But this LA band has unpretentiously melded snappy lyrics with Brain Aubert's distinct vocals to a melodious, droning guitar-driven music with fantastic bass and drum accompaniment.

We thoroughly enjoy listening to their albums and seeing them live, as they always give us our money's worth. We feel "There's No Secrets This Year" should be as popular as "Cherub Rock" while at the same time don't want the band to get too popular otherwise have to see them with screaming teenage girls with too much makeup at an amphitheater (they and their sullen looking waifs of boyfriends can discover good music when they've all mellowed out a bunch).

Mr. Corgan we think the album you meant to make was Swoon, Silversun Pickups' second LP and that maybe your loneliness after Jimmy Chamberlain left or inability to make James Iha clean your toes has made you go a bit crazier than before (and you were absolutely batshit before). We understand your pain but at the same time are excited and amazed at the fact that the Pickups' Swoon is a better album than their debut LP album Carnavas.

Despite the fact they aren't as angsty as you were (or are) we enjoy them mightily. As your audience we've grown up a bit and don't need every song to be a veiled reference to how much life sucks anymore; that's why we have Jon Stewart.

So please Mr. Corgan, don't emerge from your lair in Chicago until you have done something cool and grown up, or at least made amends with James. Until then we're gonna enjoy the band you should have formed back in 2001.

They are really awesome.

Sincerely,
Your fans at Trivial Design

Thursday, June 4, 2009

PRINCE TRIBUTE SHOW!!!

A full night of all the greatest hits and rarities of Prince will be played all night by your favorite local bands such as Madam CJ, The 54, The Lost Boys, etc) including Tendaberry. Come and hear some of your most beloved Prince covers. You may hear/see a surprise or two. It's something that can't be missed.

Doors open at 9! Show starts at 10!

$5 donations going to Saint Francis' Table Atlanta

Start Time:
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 9:00pm
End Time:
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 3:00am
Location:
THE STAR COMMUNITY BAR
Street:
437 Moreland Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30307
City/Town:
Atlanta, GA

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Trends And Such

Yeah we're a music blog... so the fuck what?

So check out these trailers here; Do you see what they have in common?







All these videos use music from deep dark rock bands. In the cases I've pointed out two from Nine Inch Nails and the other from A Perfect Circle, although i should add the music of the APC track was done by Danny Lohner, a former member of NIN during it's heyday.

So does anyone else out there realize that major studio companies are using music from artists who have a history of giving away their product for free?

Besides all that it is suffice to say that this industrial-metal-alternative blend is going to keep showing up in movie trailers to add ambiance for awhile; I just wish it didn't become apart of some meathead's work out list as this happens...

Kim Gordon Redux

Seriously though I can't leave you with just the one vid. This is by far one of my favorite Sonic Youth performances (with a bunch of extra people) and I feel I have to share.

This cover first appeared, in a slightly different fashion on the band's first full LP. Their sound at the time was still deeply embedded in the No Wave movement and because of that this song was perhaps their most accessible on Confusion Is Sex. My Mom still hates it when I play this album around her.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Tenda Berries Make Fine Wine: Kim Gordon



You've got to be a total idiot if you listen to rock music and are not at least acquainted with Sonic Youth's bassist and most photogenic vocalist.

I was shocked, SHOCKED I say, to realize that SY is releasing their 16th full studio album and that the band's ages are approaching the time where they could collect social security. Personally I have about half of their studio albums and each one is different and awesome.

When I first got into alternative music most of my new grungy looking friends were heavily into the indie scene, having already pledged their undying love to Nirvana and constant devotion to modest Mouse and Quasi, I went around the lot and started listening to Sonic Youth. The Choice was an easy one for me... SY's most notable single featured Chuck D, a welcome bridge from two seemingly unbridgeable musical landscapes at the time.

I am especially excited for this new Sonic Youth record because it sounds more like the Sonic Youth I first got into. And this is one of those bands who never disappoint live, the below clip is merely a smattering of what really goes on. And yes I enjoy seeing Kim Gordon bop around while doing vocalist duties and letting someone else handle the bass for awhile; although I gotta say she is a primary reason why women who can play the bass guitar is so damn hot.

And You May Hate Us After This:The Click- Hurricane, Captain Save-A-Hoe



The weather here in the Pacific Northwest is slightly crazy during this spring. A third of the time it's wet and cold and very winter like, another third it's warm (like low 70's), bright and the day begs you to go outside and play. The last third it's sunny, with a few clouds and welcoming, but a good 40 degrees outside so you are momentarily confused on how to dress. Ultimately you go with the tried an true jeans, t-shirt, and leather jacket. That type of day is today, and this type of day feels so like the Bay Area it hurts.

I want Ghirardelli Chocolate, clam chowder in french bread bowls, and the smell of the ocean... Man I miss the Bay. I grew up in Northern California, so I made frequent trips to S.F,. Berkeley, and Oakland and, when I got older, San Jose and Santa Cruz where my friends went to college. I also grew up with all of the Bay Area nineties rap.

These songs were far from my first introduction to E-40 and his extremely distinctive voice and flow, but it remains they are the foremost in my mind. They aren't great songs, and they painfully show their age, but they remain those type of songs that are really fucking equated with growing up, the place I first called home, when things were simpler before I had to worry about money, jobs, people, politics, time, etc.

Today you can barely get to The Bay from the central valley (Sacramento) in less than two hours due to the upswing of new suburbs surrounding both areas and the fuck-all-ness state of I-80. But the Bay's ignorant dumb as shit hyphy music travel with break neck speed all around NorCal and somehow (thankfully) stay and settles there (except for that ghostride buffoonery). And if you'll take note this is one of the least dumb songs of the Bay, which is probably why they have ingratiated themselves to me for this long.

Every time in Atlanta I miss being in a city that smells like the ocean... and that's usually when I'll play this music.

Conan on "Tonight"

It's been since February since Conan's last episode of "Late Night" on NBC. Things have been rearranged from that moment in television history. Jimmy Fallon is now the host of Conan's former position, Jay Leno will be hosting the "Jay Leno Show" at 10 pm, and Conan shall be the ringmaster of all the "Tonight Show" activities.

Some think this will be an easy transition since his comedic prowess has grown over the past 16 years, and other think it may be a bad decision for Conan to move up to an earlier time slot with his off-kilter antics. All in all, it should be entertaining to watch. For more info read this current NY Times article about Conan's transition to being the new king of the late night talk show.

The "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" will make it's grand debut on June 1st at 11:30.