Truckers and a Three Stooges reference? Why yes, please.

Manchester Orchestra – Shake It Out

Sorry for the sparse day. I’m in Texas now, still en route to Austin. You’ll have to take this pretty sweet video (and possibly a few others later on) as consolation. Then again, not having to read anything I write for a whole day is like finding a birthday and Christmas present from the tooth fairy stashed in an Easter egg on your doorstep.

Fun – All the Pretty Girls

Melvins – Nude With Boots double LP
Release date: November 3, 2009
[amazon.com]

Hey, another dog on an album cover. This time, because it’s on vinyl, the caninity (?) will be grander. Someone contact Japan about this.

Saturday, Nov. 7

• 1:10 | Royal Bangs
• 1:45 | Crystal Antlers
• 2:15 | Young Widows
• 2:40 | Times New Viking
• 3:35 | Russian Circles
• 4:35 | MC Chris
• 5:05 | Dead Confederate
• 5:15 | Melt Banana
• 6:00 | Death
• 6:30 | Todd Barry
• 6:55 | Fucked Up
• 7:35 | Les Savy Fav
• 8:35 | Jesus Lizard

Sunday, Nov. 8

• 1:40 | This Will Destroy You
• 2:25 | Astronautalis
• 2:55 | Mika Miko
• 3:50 | Why?
• 4:50 | Coalesce
• 5:40 | Lucero
• 6:15 | King Khan & BBQ Show
• 6:35 | Mission of Burma
• 7:40 | Gorilla Biscuits
• 8:00 | Brian Posehn
• 8:30 | Danzig

I’ve been looking for video of this since I heard about it this past Sunday. It’d be awesome enough if it was just Ted Leo covering Misfits songs for Halloween — and that’s all I thought it was initially. But the awesomeness level was pumped up about 10-fold when I learned that Atom from Atom and His Package was playing guitar for this spectacle.

:: Who needs Pearl Jam doing Devo when you’ve got Devo doing Devo?

:: Never thought I’d read something like this on Nine Bullets, but they love Amanda Blank over there.

:: Nothing indie rock street cred like launching a cell phone. Just ask the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

:: Folks are saying that Slayer will move 35-45,000 copies of their new record, World Painted Blood, in its first week. That’s nothing compared to what the MorriShat split is gonna do. Swearsies.

:: Idolator was inspired by Weezer’s wuggie to come up with some other bands that should get in the Billy Mays business. What do you think? Who is the next Ron Popeil?

Remember when Buzzgrinder was good? You know, before we jumped the shark? Yeah, we don’t either. But we are going to crack open our archives once a week anyway, to see what we were talking about around this date in the middle of the decade, now that it’s almost over and all.

:: Sufjan Stevens was in Seventeen Magazine. Weird.

:: But not as weird as a marching band doing a Demon Hunter song. OK, maybe as weird.

:: Damn you rootkits. But at least you’re no longer the bane of our existence.

:: Damn you Myspace Records. You are still the bane of our existence.

:: Moby was returning to his punk rock roots, which I guess involves owning $25,000 of Simpsons memorabilia. I’m just crabby because I’m jealous.

:: Bayside drummer John Holohan was killed in a car accident. Doesn’t seem like it’s been that long.

So Tom Morello — mostly known as guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, but now one of the forces behind snorecore act Street Sweeper Social Club — recently admitted that he did a lot of crap jobs when he first moved out to L.A. And that included a stint as a banana slinger. That’s right, Morello was a male stripper. He even gives a few juicy details:

When I graduated from Harvard and moved to Hollywood, I was unemployable. I was literally starving, so I had to work menial labour and, at one point, I even worked as an exotic dancer. ‘Brick House’ [by The Commodores] was my jam! I did bachelorette parties and I’d go down to my boxer shorts. Would I go further? All I can say is thank god it was in the time before YouTube! You could make decent money doing that job – people do what they have to do.

This is funny enough as it is, but the real reason I’m mentioning it is because of the headline Drowned in Sound gave their post about it, which made me literally laugh out loud: Balls on Parade.

Needless to say, it reminded me of how the porn industry comes up with their movie titles (you know, like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Bone, Driving Into Miss Daisy or Rambone). And, of course, that got me thinking about pornifying other song titles.

So, with that, I open up the floor. Give it your best shot. Where’s Rojas when you need him?

There aren’t many bands that naturally fit a Halloween performance as well as Man Man. Face paint, costume changes, weird instrumentation — pretty much par for the course. It also seemed fitting that the band played its last couple of songs and encore while the fire alarms were going off. Any evening that ends in three fire engines worth of firemen storming a building is more than likely a good one.

Man Man – Rabbit Habbits
Man Man – Top Drawer

Photos by Meagan Jordan.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t actively watch Ford Theatre Reunion open up for Man Man at Buster’s. In my defense, it was Halloween, so I was way too busy trying to scope out all the crazy costumes in the crowd. My favorite was probably the mail-order bride (complete with nerd husband), whose wedding dress was made of bubble wrap. Then there was Tobias Fünke in his blue man understudy makeup and cutoffs.

But the almost nude girl — only wearing very skimpy underpants and a little tape on the ladies, who used cheap body paint that almost completely peeled off halfway through the night — well, that was an interesting one, too. No pictures of that, though. Sorry guys. You have to get out of your mom’s basement to see that kind of thing.

Photos by Meagan Jordan.