Jude's Sarah is back in print!

SUBTRACT GIRL... ADD FLOWERS!

Jude's wonderful fourth album Sarah is back in print with a new cover! It's available exclusively at CDbaby.com, so run and buy one copy for yourself and maybe a few more for select ex-lovers.

The following is yet another stupid conversation between Patrick and Boone concerning Jude. If this is how they talk about musicians they love, imagine how they talk about the ones they hate!


Jdamen: On Jude's album Sarah, which track comes first... "Your Love Is Everything"/"If You Need" or "If You Need"/"Your Love Is Everything"?

TheKeenGuy: I can't remember which is first, but the track list as printed on the back is wrong.

Jdamen: The copy I just got from CD Baby with the new cover is weird. On the back it says "Your Love Is Everything" and then "If You Need" but on the CD those two songs are reversed.

Jdamen: Yeah .

Jdamen: I like the new Sarah cover without the girl.

TheKeenGuy: There's a new cover?

Jdamen: This cover is just Jude holding a pot of flowers, which is kind of funny.

Jdamen: Yeah, I ordered a new copy so I'd have one to pass around to people. Different cover, exact same blue tint but different picture I guess showing it’s in its second printing.

Jdamen: Or because the girl was like: YOU PUT ME ON THE FRONT OF YOUR FUCKING CD?!!?!?

Jdamen: YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!

TheKeenGuy: People were probably confused and thought it was a singer named Sarah and the album was called Jude.

Jdamen: Yeah, the Jude is huge now and “Sarah” is really small on spine and cover.

TheKeenGuy: Plus, she's ugly and looks like Cher.

Jdamen: Agreed, hated her nose.

TheKeenGuy: I hope Jude didn't have sex with her.

Jdamen: I think that girl was his girlfriend. They probably broke up and when he kicked her out of his mom's house he was like "FUCK YOU, I'M TAKING YOU OFF THE ALBUM COVER!!!"

TheKeenGuy: Which is why the title in the second printing has now been changed to "Sarah... IS A TOTAL FUCKING WHORE WHO CHEATED ON ME WITH PETE YORN!!!"

Jdamen: That would be amazing.

Jdamen: And on the new version GAY COWBOY is a bonus track.

Jdamen: Kidding.

TheKeenGuy: I was so about to order it.

Jdamen: I was thinking about waiting until you ordered it and then telling you I was kidding

TheKeenGuy: So wait, in the second pressing they STILL got the tracklist wrong?

Jdamen: yep

TheKeenGuy: Don't you think they would have corrected that?

TheKeenGuy: How would no one have fucking noticed?!

Jdamen: They don't care. They just wanted Jude's name bigger so no one thought it was an ugly girl named Sarah's album.

TheKeenGuy: I mean... Jude had to have noticed, right?

TheKeenGuy: Couldn't he have been like, "Hey, can you guys do me a favor..."

TheKeenGuy: Or maybe Jude's like really pretentious and has purposely named both of those songs with lyrics of the opposite songs.

Jdamen: They probably don't care. They did change the cover art. You would think they would have noticed. Unless Jude is confused about his own songs.

Jdamen: And the lyrics in the gatefold cover are reversed as well. The order of the songs, not the actual lyrics

TheKeenGuy: Oh, right right right... well there's just some CD layout guy out there who is a real asshole.

TheKeenGuy: First the big label's fuck over Jude and now this!

TheKeenGuy: He can't win!

Jdamen: So the correct tracklisting is: Madonna, Perfect Plank, You and Me, Crescent Heights, If You Need, Your Love Is Everything, Living Together, Black Superman, Isn't It Over... And the bonus track Gay Cowboy. Why don't you go order it, Patrick?

TheKeenGuy: YOU ARE A LIAR!

Jdamen: I'm just glad I put all my albums on iTunes at 256 kbps or I never would have noticed that.

TheKeenGuy: I want his Cuba song more anyway.

Jdamen: I haven't heard that one. Or did he play it at the show we went to?

TheKeenGuy: Yeah, it was the "I will be your drunken hero" song...

TheKeenGuy: At the song starts out about him talking about shooting record executives.

TheKeenGuy: And the execs wouldn't let him put it on King of Yesterday. Go fig.

Jdamen: Oh, I remember that one. That was good.

TheKeenGuy: Yup, I bet you that it's locked up somewhere in the Maverick Records vaults.

Jdamen: I have a hard time believing there was ever a good version of “The Not So Pretty Princess.”

TheKeenGuy: I have a hard time believing that Jude didn't try to hang himself after recording that song.

TheKeenGuy: That's the song I cannot reconcile with... I dunno. But, ehh, I guess he was purposely writing a song for teenage girls... that's fine, I guess.

Jdamen: I bet KOY has a big gay following.

Jdamen: It missed the high school girls mark.

TheKeenGuy: Yeah, Jude has a huge gay following... that's why Cher was on the Sarah cover.

Jdamen: Thank God for Sarah. If that hadn't come out... Well, it would have been sad.

TheKeenGuy: Well, something like "I Know" is perfect for teenage girls without being so ridiculously stupid that I can't listen to it.

Jdamen: KOY has two version of "King of Yesterday." Any album that includes both a studio and radio version of a song is pretty bad.

Jdamen: "I Know" was on the City of Angels soundtrack, which makes it less than it should be.

Jdamen: Which is obviously how you first came across Jude.

Jdamen: Being the big Meg Ryan fan that you are.

TheKeenGuy: I never saw that movie nor listened to the soundtrack!

Jdamen: C'mon now. You're among friends here. Fess up.

TheKeenGuy: And never will.

TheKeenGuy: Meg Ryan can kiss my ass.

Jdamen: Actually, I remember Jude from "I'm Sorry Now," which was the big radio song and they played that in Virginia Beach a lot.

TheKeenGuy: I saw her in Innerspace last night and she was irritating even back then.

Jdamen: Did you have his stuff before that?

Jdamen: Or was No One Is Really Beautiful your first?

TheKeenGuy: I never heard "I'm Sorry Now" on the radio, but "Rick James" was a minor radio hit and that's how I caught on, even though that's like my least favorite song on there.

TheKeenGuy: And it was at a listening station in a record store, so I listened to the first song or two and bought it.

Jdamen: I told you I found You're So Hot I Love You for 1.85$ at a record store here in Burbank, right?

Jdamen: And there was a sticker on it that said RARE, yet it was only 1.85. That's right, "Rick James" was a big song. I think I just liked "I'm Sorry Now" better.

TheKeenGuy: Jude could have been standing there trying to sell it himself and it'd still be two dollars.

Jdamen: I liked "I'm Sorry Now" and then when we started swapping music you turned me back on to Jude by giving me your signed by Meg Ryan City of Angels soundtrack and became a fan.

Jdamen: So I knew who Jude was before based on those two radio songs and then when you told me how great 430 N. Harper Ave was, I bought both albums.

Jdamen: And have regretted it ever since.

TheKeenGuy: That's right, and you loved 430 N. Harper Ave... and you loved Pete Yorn and everything else.

TheKeenGuy: And what did I get recommended?

TheKeenGuy: David fucking Gray!

Jdamen: Haha. That's right. We were so not indie yet.

Jdamen: I was like: Dude, have you heard "Babylon"!??!?!

Jdamen: It's AWESOME!

Jdamen: So is Sarah better than 430? I think it is. I think Sarah is the best thing he's done.

Jdamen: Isn't it?

TheKeenGuy: Umm... hmm...

TheKeenGuy: I think I like 430 better... more memories... and some of my very very favorite songs.

TheKeenGuy: It's funny how I think all the better songs on 430 are the songs that didn't end up on No One Is Really Beautiful.

Jdamen: Embrace progress. 430 was a rough, but very good collection. No One was a great studio album. King of Yesterday was a semi-disaster. Sarah is perfect.

TheKeenGuy: Sarah is really good but slightly dependent on the older albums... like the references to older songs, which is fun.

Jdamen: And we have to knock him slightly for including "I Do" on three releases.

Jdamen: The Caesars did the same thing with the iTunes song. It's on like three of their albums. And it's their only good song.

TheKeenGuy: Okay, releasing an album without "I Do" was a good step forward.

Jdamen: I can understand "I Do" twice, since the first was live.

Jdamen: But the KOY version is bad.

TheKeenGuy: Well, the third time was the label being like "No! You're gonna do it AGAIN! You're gonna keep doing it until it's a hit, motherfucker!"

Jdamen: Do you think he recorded KOY at gunpoint?

TheKeenGuy: I think they held his Cher-looking girlfriend hostage until he recorded the album for them.

TheKeenGuy: And now he blames her for his failure, which is why he broke up with her.

Jdamen: I would have let them shoot her.

Jdamen: And removed her from the album artwork.

So... When's the Next Album?: Mazarin

We’ve all wondered. It’s been more than two years and you’re starting to get antsy. You haven’t heard much about your favorite band in that time. Have they broken up? Are they still on the label? What’s going on?!?!

Well, let’s try to find out.

Let’s start with Mazarin. Oh, don’t know who Mazarin is?

Mazarin has put out two great records, 1999’s Watch It Happen and 2001’s A Tall-Tale Storyline. With Mazarin, you not only get great rock songs like “Chasing the Girl” and "Wheats," but also the stripped-down solo musician thing from frontman Quentin Stolzfus on songs like “Watch It Happen” and “Henry Darger.” They can produce great jangly pop like "What Sees the Sky?" and “Suicide Will Make You Happy” (not as depressing as it sounds) or kick some ass on tracks like "My Favorite Green Hill" and “Deed to Drugs," which features some of my favorite lyrics as the chorus; "and I can't write another letter to myself, and I can't write another letter to the girl who broke my heart, 'cause I won't send them anyway... I'll only box them up and read them again some day and break my heart again." So fucking good.

And where have they been?!

I’ve searched for them on the internet again and again, but there’s no official band page, and they aren’t on a label. So I have been absolutely starved for updates.

In 2002 I saw them in concert, opening for Beulah at the Troubadour. It was an amazing set, and afterwards, Boone and I caught the bassist outside having a smoke and chatted him up. He said that it looked like they were going to sign with Sub Pop Records, and indeed a two song single, on vinyl only, was a part of Sub Pop’s Single of the Month club. But about a year ago when I asked a Sub Pop publicity person about whether there was a Mazarin album in the wings, her response was “I know nothing about Mazarin, unfortunately.” So it looks like that deal wasn’t a lasting one.

And then one day I was on the indie rock godsend that is the file-sharing program of SoulSeek, searching for Mazarin. I’d found two concerts and was looking for more. I came across a folder full of song titles I didn’t recognize and started downloading, assuming it’d probably be another band with the same name (which had been the case before). The guy PMed me and said “Do you know what that is? Those are the new Mazarin songs.” It turns out that it was the bassist I’d spoken with outside the Troubadour a few years before. I gathered that these five songs (including the Strokes-y rock song "Energy," the politcal lament that is "Apathy" and the old time pop of "And Another One Goes By") were intended for a new EP, but there didn’t seem to be a release date yet.

And so we come to the present, when I’ve been listening to those five songs over and over again on my iPod and have been waiting for an official release, and I decided that it was time to start doing some heavy duty investigating. I started to compose an e-mail to Sean Byrne, frontman of the Twin Atlas, a great band very much in the same ballpark as Mazarin. Byrne, like Stolzfus, was part of the Philadelphia music scene and had helped produce the Mazarin albums. But before I had even finished the e-mail, it occurred to me to do a Google search not just for Mazarin as usual, but including the new song titles as well. I typed in “Mazarin Apathy” and started to get back returns “Mazarin New American Apathy CD" listed among promo lists. A mini review. Etc.

I freaked out and started clicking links. Found an article on Howlin’ Wuelf Media that started “We're Already There is Mazarin’s label debut for I And Ear Records. This is the third full-length release from the Philadelphia based outfit…” Did a search for “I & Ear Media” and indeed found their site with the press release…

After nearly two and a half years, Mazarin have finally resurfaced, bringing with them their most climactic record to date; We’re Already There. Quentin Stolzfus put the record together in Philadelphia, with Sean Byrne, Brian McTear, and Mike Walker. Guests Kurt Heasley (Lilys), Don Devore (Icarus Line) and Walt Martin (The Walkmen) fill out the lineup.



Seconds later, I was in contact with Boone… “BOONE! YOU HAVE TO CONTACT THE LABEL! I MUST HAVE THAT CD!”

And thus, We’re Already There is on its way for review, with the July 26th release date looming. And guess what, Mazarin even has their own webpage now at www.mazarinband.com! If you visit there, you can hear some of the songs from the new record!

I’m so happy!!!

The Oranges Band - The World & Everything In It review

The Oranges Band – The World & Everything In It (2005, Lookout! Records)


Sometimes you expect certain things from a band. Like a certain sound. After rocking the fuck out on 2003’s All Around, I expected the Oranges Band to do the same on the new album The World & Everything In It, but what I got was different. A more calm and controlled rock album than I had expected. I guess this is how early Spoon fans felt when they first heard Girls Can Tell. Like that album, this is a great record. It just shows a lot more restraint than I was expecting. Here I was ready for some great loud rock songs, and that was not what was delivered.

Now, is that something to criticize the Oranges Band for? Mmm, no. Certainly not. I’m a big boy, and if I want more music that sounds like All Around, I can dig deep and find other bands that might be in the same ballpark (like, say, the Natural History). And then I can appreciate the new Oranges Band sound for what it is, relaxing rock (along the lines of Dios and Rogue Wave) for un-busy summer days.

Albums You Can Swear By

Bruce Springsteen

Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (1973, Columbia Records)
The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973, Columbia Records)
Born to Run (1975, Columbia Records)

Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978, Columbia Records)
The River (1980, Columbia Records)

Nebraska (1982, Columbia Records)
Born in the U.S.A. (1984, Columbia Records)

I never understood what the big deal was with Bruce Springsteen. I was born in '79 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a tourist town on the ocean that shares some similarity with Springsteen's Jersey Shore. Growing up in the 80s, I heard Springsteen's music everywhere and knew his face as the iconic symbol it had become. But the music never resonated with me.

Want to know why?

Because I had never heard any of his albums on vinyl.

Bruce Springsteen, being the towering giant of a rock star that he is, had the misfortune of being one of the first artists whose entire catalogue was released on compact disc just as the format was unleashed on the public. As many Boss fans will tell you, the vast majority of his back catalogue sounds like absolute shit and is in need of some serious remastering. The sound is muddy, the levels are all over the place, and the magic and power of his music are completely lost, resulting in a shrug from virgin ears.

I was one of those who shrugged until I recently took the time to explore his early albums on vinyl. Let me tell you, I now completely understand the religious fervor fans have for the man and his music. Forget Natalie Portman telling Zach Braff that the fucking Shins will change his life. Bruce Springsteen will alter your existence. His songs have the lyrical and musical impact of a nuclear bomb. They will completely and utterly destroy you.

I was so impressed that I had several Springsteen albums transferred from vinyl to CD. There's a record store here in Los Angeles that will do the job for you and it's worth every cent. The process is relatively simple. The vinyl signal is fed into a computer where the album is mastered and burned onto a CD. The end result is astounding, retaining the sound quality of the vinyl and easily surpassing the sloppy job done when the Springsteen albums were originally transferred to CD in the 80s.

Fans of both Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones have been spoiled recently with remastered editions of their entire back catalogues. Landmark albums like Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, Let It Bleed, and Beggar's Banquet sound like they were recorded yesterday. The precision with which they've been restored is something to write home about. Truly beautiful work, especially when compared to the original vinyl releases. The engineers have finally translated the magic listeners experienced when hearing "Like A Rolling Stone" for the first time and captured it on CD.

With that said, where's our fucking Springsteen remasters?

We've been given a taste of what's surely to come with The Essential Bruce Springsteen. Thirty tracks spanning his entire career. Bob Ludwig did the remastering and they sound incredible, putting the original CD releases to utter shame.

We're waiting, Columbia. The 30th anniversary of Born to Run's release is this August. There have been rumors of an elaborate remastered edition with a slew of rarities slated to coincide with the anniversary but there's still been no official announcement.

There's a whole generation of snobby indie kids who are waiting to discover these albums. Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams, and even the Strokes have been outspoken for their love of all things Boss. With music this good, how could they not?

Springsteen's first seven albums are all essential recordings that any serious music fan should have in their collections. The only thing I have to do to convey to you what Springsteen is all about is quote one verse from his devastating "The River." That's it. It won't take anything more to do the job.

"I got a job working construction
for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain't been much work
on account of the economy
Now all those things that seemed so important
Well, mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't care-
But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
They haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse..."

Springsteen is one of our most gifted storytellers. He is the quintessential American artist. His concerns are our concerns. The stories he tells are our stories. Our parents understood that. It's time we did too.

Not to kick a dead horse or anything but...

Some remasters would help.

Screw you, Superman! or, Sufjan Stevens album pulled off shelves!

...THAT'S BETTER!

Asthmatic Kitty Records has been forced to pull the release of Sufjan Stevens' new album Illinois on the very day of its release, all because DC Comics has gotten all huffy about their use of Superman on the cover. So unless you preordered it online (like Boone did), or already picked it up from a record store willing to break street date (like Patrick did), then you're screwed for now!

It's a real shame that you have to wait too, because it's a Sufjan Steven's best record yet. Well, have fun waiting, suckers!

David Mead - Wherever You Are EP review

David Mead – Wherever You Are EP (2005, Eleven Thirty Records)


David Mead’s got a new EP already, after releasing the full length Indiana last year. If you don’t already have Indiana, or any David Mead for that matter, now is the time to catch up. I started with his first album The Luxury of Time, which is an overlooked pop gem.

Mead is making great radio hits at a time when great radio hits aren’t what’s getting played on the radio. We’re talking about meaningful straightforward songs, often romantic, great singing voice. I keep waiting for someone else to pick up on David Mead, but I think that perhaps he’s a little too sentimental for the indie crowd that listens to the sort of music I listen to.

I mean, listen to the first three tracks on this EP and tell me that either of those wouldn’t fit in just fine on the radio on your way to work. Even if it’s not music you love, you wouldn’t turn the dial, right? And then there’s a dreamy quiet song like “Astronaut” which is my favorite kind of David Mead song, and the fun little ditty of “How Much” as Mead sings “you don’t know how much I’m going to miss you.”

You can tell that Mead is writing music that’s autobiographical without being too on-the-nose, and that sense of honesty is what keeps his music from feeling too simplistic or forced like so much popular music written about relationships. He’s one of the best pop songwriters out there, and people need to start paying attention!