Check 'em Out: The Spinto Band

The Spinto Band are touring right now, turning heads, touting a brilliant album Nice and Nicely Done, which is an extremely solid album of power pop/indie rock. This 7-piece band from Wilmington, DE have been receiving from what I can tell rave reviews (this one no different) as well as making the best 97 albums of 2005, according to www.woxy.com, drawing comparisons to Flaming Lips, The Strokes, amoung others. Nice and Nicely Done is a superb collection of stunning rock compositions, twirling and thrashing its way with melodic excellency down the aural corridors, dripping Beach Boy harmonies, Flaming Lips licks, power pop sustainance along the way. I thouroughly enjoy the feeling of happy sadness, that the songs tend to evoke at particular times. This album is a truly well-rounded gem. Album Standouts include: "Oh Mandy", one of the most catchy songs you will be humming all year long, with vocals akin to Sigur Ros(if they sung in English.) "Crack the Whip" is another rocking track, mashing up disco thuds, with rocking new wave riffs, and some sweet melodies, blaring out Casablanca-esque chirps, "I don't wanna break your heart, I don't wanna let you down.." This album is recommended to anyone looking for something new and fun to listen to. If you like The Flaming Lips, The Strokes, Of Montreal, Franz Ferdinand, or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Then this album is a must have for 2006 head bobbing and humming...

For those of you in Chicago, you can Check out The Spinto Band @ Schubas on this Friday, Jan. 13 2006. Show starts at 9PM. Moonlight Towers and The 1900's open, Manishevitz headlines. Tickets are $12.

S.R. Embarks.

Switchblade:Relative is embarking upon a new journey.
This blog has been killed, revived only to be killed once again, and now a new re-invigoration will take place. Switchblade:Relative, once a purely simple blog of personal thoughts and mostly shameless self promotion, will shift gears becoming a source of creative writing output and rock music critique. So, if any readers still exist, there will be much to-do, soon.

Please take note of some new links: Lost in Absentia is the blog of my co-hort, Keith Michael Judge, aka Johnny Moniker. Together, with a group of naive and wild eye dreamers, we co-exist in a world known as The Stray Dog Collective. Neo-modern-zen-rock-art-thropologists. We are amalgamated like much of the world. Molten lava pumps through our collective heart.

As far as linking goes, I have deleted some seeming dead blogs from the past. Anyone wishing to link to me, send a comment along.

TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2005

1. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

2. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

3. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

4. Sigur Ros - Takk

5. Spoon - Gimmie Fiction

6. The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done

7. The 88 - Over and Over

8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl

9. Dr. Dog - Easy Beat

10. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine

11. The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike!

12. The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever

13. Fiery Furnaces - EP

14. Sons and Daughters - Repulsion Box

15. My Morning Jacket - Z

16. Little Barrie - We Are Little Barrie

17. The Kills - No Wow

18. Aqueduct - I Sold Gold

19. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema

20. Stars - Set Yourself On Fire

In my humble opinion, these 20 albums belong in your record collection as a token of 2005.

Writing: rise.

Torches blare out harkening dreamers to approach and gather with their kindred in abandoned lots where battles against natives once raged, intertwining artistry of self proclaimed tortured souls intensify burning rifts in time and exuding a blinding beam of glow green, that quickly alternates it's eminating color, like a chaser bulb in a string of festive lights. The fuselage attracts pedestrian gawkers like flies, drawing them closer, those unfortunate without imagination and creativity burn up upon re-enty into the atmosphere of this collective of stray dogs barking out the new codes of freedoms, chewing out limitations, and taking a shit on societal constructs. It's safe to snuff out the searchlights, the chosen have taken their place.

TOP 10 CONCERTS OF 2005

1. Sigur Ros @ Chicago Theatre

2. The Dears @ Metro

3. The Features @ Double Door

4. EL Vez / Babyteeth @ Subterranean

5. The White Stripes @ Auditorium

6. The Go!Team @ Double Door

7. Death From Above 1979/Les Savy Fav/Dungen/A.C. Newman/The Go! Team @ Intonation Festival

8. Bobby Conn/Baby Teeth/The Apes @ Double Door

9. The Dirtbombs @ Double Door

10. The New Pornographers/ Destroyer @ Metro

This List is based on the concerts I attended in 2005, best 10 out of approx. 40 shows. The top quarter echelon of the crop.

Writing: compiled.

Drowned Light thrust thru living room recline, Peels violet pigment from weathered leathered skin, make nan look edwardian, lace and corset, rocking back and rolling forwards, smack delicate kisser into concrete covered in berber, and cracks that adage of a smile... lullaby sings softly on the strings of her hair, as body erects a monolith to launch the spirit from this world and into the grace of the nest.

nonsensical blurb-age of a day passed on, through chocolate covered stained glass I see into your neo-soul, i softly recite a long winded diatribe to your unattainable beauty and etch it to my memory to tell you four years later, you said, "i wish you weren't worried...", but I wish you weren't married... that's the thought that glazes my gaze, i become incoherrent and no longer can convince you to touch my face... please, gently wrap the tenderly weaved gauze around the wound painted deep within my haloed center. Release me into the shadows to fight the rats for the discarded morsels tossed down into my hell by the harlots above... as i desperately try to obtain another artistic hyphen.

Vesuvio or Pomodoro....
Upon death, I would like to be served to my guests. Although it is more classical to be sauteed in garlic and extra virgin olive oil and served with potato wedges, I think it is more appropriate that I be sauteed with tomatoes, scallions, a hint vodka and tomato cream sauce, with crush red pepper...