Days of Lore

You can quote me on the “quote”
Sometimes, when I want to really get a “point” across, or really “emphasize” something, I like to use “quotation marks.” I think it’s even more effective when you’re talking to someone and you make those little “quote signals” with your fingers, or when you actually say “quote, unquote” before saying that very important word or phrase. I think doing this can really drive a message home—and when people look at you like you’re a “pretentious prick,” that’s actually them hanging on every “fantastical” word you have to say.

I think it can also be fun to accentuate insignificant words just “to” throw people off a bit. And besides, even lexes deemed trivial need some attention, “too.”

In the blog house
There are thousands of music “blogs” out there. Some “good,” others not so good. Well, the CN&R’s “very own” Jason Cassidy has started his very own music blog called Your New Favorite Song. The concept is simple—every weekday he’ll post a new song for your listening “pleasure.” What makes this blog different is that there is no forethought as to whether a song is popular, underground, metal, dance pop, or if it’s Pitchfork-shunned or Rolling Stone-approved—if he likes it, he’ll “slap” it up.

There are also links to other music-blog brethren like Hype Machine and Stereogum, as well as links to places to purchase music and myriad resources including Chico State’s KCSC radio, Filter Magazine and the aforementioned dreaded/beloved Pitchfork.

Your New Favorite Song debuted Oct. 9 with Vampire Weekend’s “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.” OK … not my new favorite song. But I will hand it to Jason for doing all the work and putting any sort of pretension aside and looking for true gems. So far MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” and Woodpigeon’s “That Was Good But You Can Do Better” have become a couple of my new “favorites.”

Oh yeah, Cassidy recently added a feature where he’ll highlight one song “per” week from a Chico band. The first entry? An homage to Chico’s own singing cowboy with Moriss Taylor’s “High Sierra.” Check “it” out here: www.yournewfavesong.com.

Doing the robot
Continuing my official tour of office nepotism, I headed down to Empire Coffee last week to check out some music of the “electronic” variety—not something I would normally get very excited about. But, the new coffee house—the “one” located in the train car outside Chico Art Center—is operated by the CN&R’s advertising manager, Alec Binyon and his partner, Lucky Rodrigues.

The night’s festivities included performances by Owen of Anamnesis and Binyon’s “not-so-suit-and-tie-ish” alter-ego, Basic. I actually enjoyed “both” quite a bit. Owen of Anamnesis was less chaotic, and he made good use of compressed low-frequency distortion. Basic was all over the place—mixing heavy beats with non-sequitur jazz loops on “Jazm”—while getting a little theatrical as the Apple’s glow illuminated the far end of the coffee house. My new favorite Basic song is “War.” Listen to it at: http://commonpath.org/user/36.

Adding to the fun were the countless bottles of Two-Buck Chuck, strong coffee and some interpretive dance from Christine “Sea Monster” Fulton and Dave “Dragonboy” Sutherland. I think they should hire Fulton and Sutherland full time. I know if I walked in on that at 6:30 in the morning, I would buy “three” extra shots of espresso simply out of fear alone.

Cream of the crop
I don’t “want” to leave anyone else out of my official tour of office nepotism, so here goes: Editor Evan Tuchinsky just bought his first home and has interviewed former Lakers great James Worthy numerous times; Associate Editor Meredith J. Cooper is a world traveler and one hell of a pool player; News Editor Bob Speer has written four screenplays and enjoys getting “naked” in nature; Special Sections/Projects Editor Melissa Daugherty is currently writing a book and has an unhealthy affinity for Ryan Adams. “Me?” I just learned a “Third Eye Blind” song on the guitar. What a well-rounded bunch of SOBs we are!