Black Lungrophenia


Poor Black Lungs guy. First zombies, now this. If Quadrophenia filtered the ’60s through the ’70s, this video filters the ’60s through the ’70s through the ’80s through the ’90s on a Canadian indie-label budget. Can you believe there are people so young they think of Rancid as “old-school?” Nice (though repetitive) footage, though, and very sweet barn-fresh Vespas. And hey, it’s fun.
(Thanks, Zombie Bill, who sent it in a better player but I wanted to embed it, without ads.)

CWC+2SB=AFU

Tonight I planned to post the Cold Weather Challenge sign-up page and unveil some new stuff for sale at Scootmoto. Tonight I ended up botching a WordPress upgrade, then locked myself out of the 2SB admin page, completely destroyed the site, and took three hours to fix it. I think it’s almost back to normal now, let me know if you see anything weird. For the last two hours I was pretty sure I’d killed the site for good, so just seeing it load is making me very happy. Maybe the Cold Weather Challenge will start tomorrow night. Sorry, Ryan. In the meantime, here’s the Cold Weather Challenge theme song (right click to download).

Tears for Fears were ex-Mods… literally

DID YOU KNOW: Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears started out in a Bath, England Mod Band called Graduate? You learn something every day. This discovery was inspired by the new “Literal Video” for “Head Over Heels,” which I was hoping was the Go-Go’s, but TFF will do:

It’s great, but not as totally essential and perfectly awesome as the first “Literal Video:”

Decemberists’ Halloween scooter?

The Decemberists are playing in Wheaton? On Halloween night? And there’s a scooter on the poster? Did Carson Ellis actually paint that? What’s up with her website? Is a liberal alt-whine anachronism-gimmick oboe band playing to creationists at a christian college in a dry suburb on halloween night funny, cool, or sad? I can’t tell anymore, but if anyone can steal me one of those posters, please do. (Photo via Mike Marusin, thanks!)

2sb meets the Breeders

I alluded to this a few times in the past, but I can finally share it:

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been completely infatuated with the Pixies since “Gigantic” came out and I bought “Pod” by the Breeders the morning it was released. Many of you remember my dear departed evil cat Cannonball. Many of you have seen the Vaughan Oliver posters around my various dorm rooms, apartments, and now my house. A few years ago, my company was asked to record, design, and sell the Pixies’ reunion concert CDs, and I even got to design an official t-shirt for the tour and work with Vaughan Oliver a bit on some Dead Can Dance CD packaging. Even better, I got to stand onstage at Lollapalooza to watch the Pixies’ set. I thought it’d never get any sweeter than that.

Well, last year, I met a great designer from Dayton named Chris Glass. We hung out at the ludicrous Creation Museum in Kentucky when I was home for Christmas, and he took his leave saying he had to go meet with “the girls about their website” and said something about “you know how rock stars are.” I didn’t know what he was talking about at the time, but later on, I figured out that he was talking about Kim and Kelley Deal.

Well, to make an already long story a little shorter, Chris finished Breeders Digest and my friend and co-worker Steve Delahoyde, also a big Breeders fan, asked me to ask Chris if the band needed any videos for their new album. Chris talked to them and they said “Sure, as long as we don’t have to be in it.” Chris leaked us a few songs, we picked one, agonized over some ideas, scheduled a shoot, then delayed it so long that we got to shoot some footage when they played here in May. We met Kim, Kelley, Mando, and José, and they were fantastic people who did their cameo perfectly in one (long) take, even though they weren’t actually aware we were rolling (it was a four-minute-long cameo). Steve edited the four separate videos, then we messed with the flash interface for months, then waited a couple more months, and at last, I’m ecstatic to share it with you. I hope the video does justice to the song, and I hope you’ll check out their incredibly great not-so-new-anymore album Mountain Battles (get it on LP, it sounds great and is packaged as beautifully as usual by Vaughan Oliver).

Thanks to the band, Chris, Richard, 4AD, the actors and crew, and especially Steve, who put WAY more work into this than I did. Embed this sucker everywhere you can (a link to the “embed” code is next to the Breeders’ logo), I’d love to see Steve’s phone ringing with more video work.

Oh, to keep it scooter-related, all the “running” scenes were shot by Ryan Taylor from my Genuine Blur 150, he was strapped to me with a tie-down, facing backwards. Luckily no one got hurt. The scooter was parked in the background in one scene that got cut, maybe we can get that up on YouTube sooner or later.

Righteous Rotenburg Rally

This is the kind of race/rally weekend I can get behind: a DSSC meet in Rotenburg, Germany. Ryan, who sent the video, points out that all scooter rally raffles should be immediately replaced with “throwing shit.” Oh, and DEBASER. (Keep an eye out for some exciting sorta-Pixies/2strokebuzz related news coming Monday.)

Red light spells danger

Some interesting tips on how traffic sensors work from Oklahoma City traffic engineer Stuart Chai. I’ve never once had a problem with traffic lights, but judging by forum posts and all the products available to trigger the sensors, some people do. According to Stuart, if your scooter isn’t triggering a sensor, something’s wrong with the sensor, not your bike, and you should notify local authorities.

(If you actually ‘got’ the headline reference, this is for you.)

Record Store Day

Tomorrow is (Record Store Day, which is an awesome idea. I’ve always been a music snob/nerd, but I’d lapsed a bit. I bought a great new turntable a couple months ago, and I’ve really reconnected with music lately, maybe I’ll write an interminable rant about it tomorrow to celebrate.

Mekons: Work All Week

Thanks for registering for 2strokebuzz. As a bonus to registered 2sb users, we’re relaunchng our quasi-legal “What Rocks Us” music column. We’ll try to post a new song every Monday. Enjoy!

Work All WeekThe Mekons:
“Work All Week”
from Virgin 7″

All my friends know how nuts I am about the Mekons. They’re a band that’s hard to explain, they’ve been around for 30 years, gradually moving from Leeds to Chicago, as bandmates came and went and came back, and they switch styles every few albums (Post-punk, art noise, country, indie rock, country again, sea shanties, electronic disco, more country, disco versions of their greatest hits, etc.). When they play live it all comes together and makes sense, and there’s something there for everyone. Probably my favorite thing about the band is how they temper their highbrow musical, political and literary references with lowbrow boozy self-deprecation and a great sense of humor.

The sleeve for the 7″ of “Work All Week” is a good example of their appropriation and humor, and the song is a good example of their very early post-punk style, basically a sloppier, catchier version of their Leeds neighbors Gang of Four. It’s not their best song, but I chose it because it’s a bit rare (This mp3 was made from the Meek’s third single from 1979, it’s never been released on CD in the U.S.) If you hate this song, don’t write them off, somewhere in their vast repertoire there’s something you’ll like. There’s finally a must-have (import-only, sadly) Greatest hits album, which was always nearly impossible considering all their label-hopping, that’s a great place to start, or pick up “Rock and Roll” or “So Good It Hurts,” both are late-80s masterpieces finally available on CD again.