Deadwood, Destroyer, Record Store Day

Finally finished watching the third season of Deadwood this weekend. Holy hell. That show absolutely makes me quiver with glee. It's an incredible work of art, surely one of the best things on television ever (and you all know what a huge Buffy fan I am). I'm seriously going to be mourning the loss of these characters from my life for a little while. Highly, highly, highly recommended for those of you who haven't indulged yet. I guess it's finally time for me to get into The Wire now.

The Destroyer show on Thursday night at the Logan Square Auditorium was much fun. I just stood there grinning the entire time. Dan Bejar is one crazy bastard, and the drummer is a monster. Seriously. This guy was doing some of the most sensitively aggro shit I've heard in recent memory. (Mr. Perpetua has already geeked out about the drums on "The State," and, as usual, he's right on the money.) I'm sure part of it was the very muddy sound mix in the room, but the beats were just exploding all over the place, but tightly, precisely, each one a little prison yard with spider's web barbed wire wrapped around it. Incredible. They played a good chunk of songs from the wonderful new Trouble in Dreams and generally kept riding that tension that I so adore about them that leaves me constantly wondering, "wait, are they for real about this?" Plus, on the train platform on the way home, I had the pleasure of running into the inimitable Jeff Harms, who shared with me a copy of his second CD, The Myth of Heroics, which drops soon. It's got kind of a Willy Mason thing going on, or maybe Matt Berninger fronting a less ecstatic Okkervil River. The songs are sweet, smart, and quirky and convey an abundance of warmth and gentleness. Be sure to put May 26 on your calendar, Chicago kittens, and get yourself to Rainbo for his CD release party.

Speaking of CDs, did anyone make the effort to observe the Record Store Day holiday on Saturday? I was running errands anyway so it was relatively convenient for me to stop into Laurie's Planet of Sound and pick up a copy of the new Man Man album. I would've grabbed a copy of the new Cadence Weapon too, but they didn't have it currently in stock. (Say what you will about iTunes and its DRM, but it does allow me to legally get my instant gratification rocks off when I decide I need some specific music at that very moment, especially when eMusic doesn't carry the album I want.) I usually try not to let record store snobbery bother me too much, and Laurie's usually isn't as bad about it as some, but as one of the clerks was running my credit card, I heard another clerk ask the dude in line behind me if he owned a turntable and then mentioned the stack of Record Store Day 7"s they had available. Now, admittedly, I don't happen to have a turntable right now, but I totally resented the somewhat sexist assumption that I wouldn't. I mean, maybe the clerk and the guy were friends or casual social acquaintances already, but still, not cool. Gripe, gripe--support your local record store anyway.

Compare Your Genitals to Musicians! (My faves are Frank Zappa and Leonard Cohen, though Television has a certain foul charm to it as well.)

"PETA declares truce with Beyonce: Under the terms of the agreement, PETA will admit she was 'pretty good' in Dreamgirls and Beyonce will stop whaling." --Entertainment Weekly "Hit List" for April 25/May 2, 2008.