my initial ballot for the best songs of the 1980s

I found this and didn’t want to lose it again:

when you’re in college, you buy these shitty $20 target jeans because that’s pretty much the best you can do, and you look like shit all the time because your pants are baggy in every place where pants shouldn’t be. so then the pants fall apart after, like, a month, and because you’re out of pants and money, you just keep going back for more unfortunate jeans. eventually you get to a place where you realize “well I could spend $20 every month on awful pants or I could spend more on pants that will actually hold up for a while.”

I think about my early writing and current writing in those same terms: my writing used to be baggy and uncomfortable in all the worst places and fall apart really quickly, so the result was just this embarrassing blob with potential. now I think I’m putting a little more thought into the process, and the writing is looking and feeling a little more solid, and I’m gradually more confident because of how it’s all holding together.

I guess what I’m saying is that I really like my new jeans. they cost more than $20.

I’ve been making tapes for myself. When I had to buy a VCR to hear Emotional Mugger I finally got an extra set of RCA cables, which meant I could finally use the "record” function of my tape deck. It works alright. I decided to compile some my favorite garage/punk/etc. rock records of last year onto a tape for myself. I did that and then I pasted a picture of 1988 Mike Love to an envelope I cut up. Forgot to put Sheer Mag and some other stuff on here but oh well.

Side A:

La Misma: Kanizadi PATSY: Tuley-Tude-High Timmy’s Organism: Back in the Dungeon CCTV: Anxiety + Mind Control Snooty Garbagemen: I Can’t Find My Keys The Achtungs: I Wanna Be Mean Mystic Inane: Eggs Onna Plate Lumpy and the Dumpers: Flush Em Crown Court: We Made You Golden Pelicans: Knuckle Dragger Wet Blankets: Marge Is a Wet Blanket Black Panties: Future MAMA: Dream Babe Downtown Boys: Poder Elegir No Limit: Moving Out + Radiation Poison Ivy: Cave Business Platinum Boys: Cruisin’ USA WOODBOOT: Gut You Red Red Krovvy: New Year

Side B:

Buck Biloxi & the Fucks: Stop Living Your Life Soda Boys: Burgers and Fries Royal Headache: High Último Imperio: Pulsión de Muerte Trampoline Team: I’ll Destroy You COLD MEAT: Human Waste G.L.O.S.S.: G.L.O.S.S. (We’re From the Future) The Shitty Limits: Swallowed Whole [actually from 2009, heard it for the first time this year] Rik & the Pigs: Pig Sweat Power: Puppie Aquarian Blood: Savage Mind Pronto: Cool Kids Contaminators: I OBNOX: Marinol Meercaz & the Visions: Wild With Me Manatees: Under the Gun Life Stinks: Strange Prison Helta Skelta: 55MM The Raw Nerves: Don’t Break My Heart on Valentine’s Day Erik Nervous: Tourist Destination The Hussy: Keep My Heart The Rubs: Nuthin to Do Rectal Hygienics: Suffocating Waylon Thornton & the Heavy Hands: Poison Flailing

in 2015

- Adopted my dog, who rules - Went back to Gonerfest, saw some amazing shows and got to chill with Martin Douglas and Badkins for a bit - Flew to Porto for Nos Primavera Sound, had an amazing time with Morgan - Saw what might have been the final Replacements show, had a really good time while drunk on sweet wine, got some stares from a few confused locals - Talked to Protomartyr and Wolf Eyes for podcasts I’m proud of - Visited some heroes’ graves in Memphis (for a forthcoming Pitchfork Review piece) - Road tripped to the Upper Peninsula and Crystal Lake - Camped at the Garden of the Gods in Southern Illinois - Drove to Chicago to see Total Control, which was fucking great - Wrote that feature about Third Man Detroit, which was cool because it meant talking to a bunch of awesome people and getting a legit exclusive - Talked to Trent Reznor and John Malkovich - Drove to New York, saw amazing things in galleries and museums, hung with good friends - Did some radio on WCBN and Pitchfork Radio - Saw Milwaukee for the first time - Went back to Pitchfork Festival - Got on Conde Nast’s payroll - Interviewed Will Lexington (real name: Chris Carmack) from ABC’s “Nashville” - Hung with friends and family in West Virginia - Morgan had work in a few awesome shows, including this particularly sick Detroit pop-up with a set by Fred Thomas & Bonny Doon - Generally spent more time in Detroit - A few shows of note: Royal Headache & Sheer Mag at UFO Factory, Timmy’s Organism & Buck Biloxi at the Painted Lady, Protomartyr & Spray Paint at Marble Bar, Downtown Boys at the Blind Pig, pretty much everything at Gonerfest but especially Hank Wood & Ty Rex - Listened to a lot of Laraaji and Pharoah Sanders - Reviewed Downtown Boys, Reatards, Royal Headache, Ty Rex, more - Some interviews of note: Jessica Pratt, John Darnielle, Tinashe, Scharpling & Wurster, John Carpenter, Bully, Mikal Cronin, Cannibal Ox - Wrote a piece about Lemmy’s life and legacy - Passed DUTCHY on the left-hand side

Gaze upon the horrors of my childhood

It was an absolute pleasure getting to return to Gonerfest for a second year. Met a bunch of lovely people. Hung out with good friends. Saw some fantastic bands. Ate like a king. Slept pretty terribly. Got handed a giant mug of coffee at a restaurant where the waitress said “you look like you could use a big-ass cup of coffee.”

1. Reviewed Royal Headache’s High 2. Reviewed Reatards’ Grown Up, Fucked Up 3. Wrote about a new Timmy’s Organism 7″ 4. Wrote about the best garage punk rex of the summer 5. Drove to Chicago to see Total Control and wrote a report about it

08/18 WCBN playlist

I decided to do a three-hour garage/punk/loud guitar music show on the radio this week. I’m actually really happy with how it turned out and might make tapes of it so my grandchildren will know what my life was like in summer 2015. For a little while anyway, you can listen to them at WCBN.org—just ctl-F this: “Freeform_With_Evan_M_2015-08-18″.

A lady came in near the beginning, I think while I was playing that Cramps song, and asked if I could play some jazz instead since they were all right outside helping people with campus orientation. I heard her out and said, “I hear you, but I prepared this punk show” and held up my copy of the Achtungs’ Welcome to Hell. 

Ended it with a five-minute Neil Young song because I had to pee really bad after playing really short songs all in a row.

Here’s the playlist:

Ausmuteants: “Mates Rates” Wet Blankets: “Marge Is a Wet Blanket” / “Work” Ivy: “Cave Business” Wipers: “When It’s Over” Red Red Krovvy: “New Year” Electric Eels: “Jaguar Ride” Speed: “Speed” The Blind Shake: “Go Go 78″ (Live in San Francisco) The Cramps: “Garbage Man” C.C.T.V.: “Mind Control” Action Swingers: “Kicked in the Head” The Hemingers: “Little GTO” Endless Bummer: “Such a Drag” Reatards: “I’m Gonna Break Down” MAMA: “I’m Shot” The Rubs: “Do You Wanna Go With Me?” Titus Andronicus: “I Lost My Mind” Thee Tsunamis: “Cry Baby” The Gizmos: “Mean Screen (Live at Gonerfest 11)” The Achtungs: “I Don’t Care About You” Royal Headache: “Need You” Kyra: “It’s a Stick Up” The Raw Nerves: “Don’t Go Home Tonight” Thee Marvin Gays: “Seducer” Yi: “Going Dumb” Nobunny: “Lizard Liars” Slade: “Gudbuy T’Jane” The Slits: “Spend Spend Spend” Terrible Twos: “Plunderball” The Clash: “Guns of Brixton” Total Control: “2 Less Jacks” Cosmic Psychos: “Decadence” Afflicted Man: “For the Few I Please” Mary Monday: “I Gave My Punk Jacket to Rickie” Patti Smith: “Gloria” Hank Wood & the Hammerheads: “These Chains” Sonic’s Rendezvous: “Let’s Do It Again” The Chandelles: “El Gato” Tyvek: “Underwater To” Amino Acids: “Behind the Shoe Nebula” Eddy Current Suppression Ring: “I Admit My Faults” King Brothers: “I Want to Burn Out” / “King Beat” Ty Segall: “Where We Go” Psycho Surgeons: “Horizontal Action” The Ar-Kaics: “Can’t Keep Waiting” Hasil Adkins: “The Hunch” The Seeds: “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” So Cow: “Barry Richardson” Bed Wettin Bad Boys: “Any Day Now” Danny and the Darleans: “Don’t Ask the Question” Sheer Mag: “Fan the Flame” Nots: “Virgin Mary” The Raincoats: “Adventures Close to Home” The Brats: “Be a Man” The Stooges: “Shake Appeal” Thee Oh Sees: “Rogue Planet” Neil Young & Crazy Horse: “Powderfinger” (Live Rust)

portrait of the artist meeting deadlines

I’d put my money on Brock Lesnar

Shirpron is a company that makes a garment that’s both shirt and apron, and I can’t stop looking at this tweet.

portrait of Mike Love (via J Penry)

I wrote about Jeff Bridges’ Sleeping Tapes for Pitchfork’s Overlooked Records of the year feature.

I talked to Trent Reznor about the cross sections of art, commerce and technology because he works for Apple.

Bill Owens, “Every summer we go all out on our camp in Yosemite. I do the barbecuing.”, 1976