August 6, 2011
Outro
In light of our inactivity on this blog this summer, I feel obligated to report on some of the summer's events, especially those leading to such inactivity. There have been lots of changes this summer--for all of us, in all our lives--and there are some reasonable explanations for why we have neglected to keep up Johnny Whopper:
Shortly after graduating, Gavin, the blog's co-creator, returned to the region of Tunisia where he conducted his thesis research, intending to rendezvous with his former colleagues and maybe find some academic work. His endeavors quickly went awry when he discovered that his colleagues had fled the country back in January. Cooped up in an elegant hotel, he gained relative fame amongst the hotel restaurateurs for his refined and esoteric palate. One night, he requested his rack of lamb be delicately seasoned with ambergris. The chef retorted, "Why don't you come down here and season it delicately yourself!" Thus making his way into the kitchen, Gavin wowed the staff into offering to help him start a gourmet restaurant. After months of planning and investment, Gavin cut the ribbon on his bistro, Bichon.
Much to his chagrin, the locals--and especially the youths--expected Gavin to serve greasy American food. Patrons would loudly declaim their shaved fennel and pear pork loins, their pan-roasted duck with medjool dates, etc., and stir up a daunting ruckus. For fear of facing the same fate as his former colleagues, Gavin begrudgingly gave in, changed the place into a burger and hot dog stand, and is now starting to see business improve. He recently began offering milkshakes, which has been interpreted by leading Western ambassadors as a move towards Tunisia's democratization. For franchising opportunities, send an e-mail to bichonburgersandhotdogs@gmail.com
Knox, the blog's other co-creator, has become a proud father. With semester's end, Knox's period of denial and secretiveness about his baby boy gave way to inspired acceptance after reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Knox re-established relations with the child's mother about a month before the anticipated birth date. Then, on the evening of the day of this nation's independence, the Fourth of July, 2011, Knox helped deliver his newborn son, Knox Jr., from the womb to the world. Father and son's cries were punctuated by firework blasts in the night, and eventually the whole family was lulled to sleep.
A couple weeks later, Knox landed a construction job, and he, his son, and his son's mother moved into the bigger half of his aunt's duplex in Knoxville, TN. Knox has since adjusted to his new life, but often recalls his reckless college days wistfully. He is currently planning a Labor Day barbecue which he insists will be "kick-ass," despite everything.
As for me, I have not had quite as good a summer. What I foolishly hoped would be a baller Brazilian summer rife with rooftop pool parties, beach babes and caipirinhas took an abrupt turn for the worse when I sustained a neck injury at a small forro show. My dance partner and her friends assured me that had I had more experience the accident would have been avoided. Nevertheless, I suffered nerve damage which prevented me from moving my right arm and leg. It was determined that my time in Brazil was over, and dejectedly I moved back home to commence my physiotherapy course.
Since then I have made a fair but not full recovery. The doctors have prescribed a treatment combining a medication regimen and a daily aquatic stretch exercise. My health notwithstanding, I have been able to start working again. I help coordinate after-school activities at an underfunded elementary school. The coincidence of this job with my easy access to pharmaceuticals has resulted in a minor addiction to pain and anxiety pills. But I should note here at least one benefit of the job: a private, handicap bathroom.
I think I speak for the three of us when I say that these, the summer's developments have given us a new perspective on Johnny Whopper. The schedule that being an entrepreneur, a construction worker, or a disabled elementary school peon demands doesn't leave enough time for blog duties. Reading indie Mickey Mouse's rave album reviews of the newest meaningless music, site:mediafire.com searching that shit, downloading it, listening to the middle ten seconds of the first and last songs, uploading the song with the better middle ten seconds to dropbox, finding a cool picture that doesn't have a Getty stamp, coming up with a decent paragraph about how refreshing the music sounds, looking up synonyms for 'awesome' and 'exciting,' and making sure it's all formatted right--you know, I mean those things are really important and all, but there are only 24 hours in a day, and most of those hours we're either trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents or sleeping. So it's not that we've opted to cultivate and keep our immaculate tastes in music to ourselves, it's not that we want to stop sharing those immaculate tastes, it's that we are just--we have different lives now. Times change. People change. Blogs change.
We hope you enjoyed our coverage of the last year and a half in music, and all the rest of our antics.
And we out.
June 13, 2011
JEFF the Champions
Having signed to a distribution contract with Warner Music Group, having been chosen Rolling Stone's band to watch a couple weeks ago, having been featured on Jay-Z's website last week, and then yesterday with their new LP, We Are The Champions, streaming on NPR--man, and that's not even all of it. Their dad/label-owner Bob Orrall (who is also an awesome artist) said to the Nashville Scene, "We Are the Champions deserves to be heard by the world." Hell yeah, Bob.
The album is a refreshingly simple but still fast and fuzzy and fucked up trip towards good vibes having good times with good friends and cheap beer. So check it out and buy the album on June 21, on Infinity Cat, or your local record store, or your local Virgin Megastore, or wherever music is sold.
June 6, 2011
SUMMER LOVE 2011
We're making some summer mixtapes, and this is one of them. It's called Summer Love 2011 and the link is the mp3 which has a little something special at the end but here is the tracklisting w/ some other mp3s, too:
1. "Good Stuff" - UGK
2. "Give Me Your Love" - Curtis Mayfield
3. "LAst Night" - BeachesBeaches
4. "Cowboys In The Void" - QUILT
5. "Got A Feelin'" - The Mamas & Papas
6. "I'd Rather Be With You" - Bootsy Collins
7. "Whxt Txrns U Xn?" - Teams
8. "Playing Your Game Baby" - Barry White
9. "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" - Dionne Warwick
10. "Paranoiyalackofcommunication" - Flash Forest
11. "Lady Dub" - The Widdler
12. "Touch" - Holy Other
Basically it's some songs that I really think will be nice for driving around with the windows open or drinking beers on the po'ch or laying in the grass or in the sand or travelling, even, and so it's a nice mix for summer. It's got a lotta soul. Some of the songs were inspired by mixes from Yvynyl, Flashlight Tag, and The Captain. Most of the other songs were straight from the heart.
Have A Good Summer and love one another.
June 3, 2011
Holy Other
Earlier today Altered Zones posted the ninth installment of their now-world famous monthly mix series with songs selected by another Manchester innovator producer hustler the occult brother, Holy Other. It is a well-rounded set so get it.
With U is available for pre-order right now from Boomkat and Ruff Trade but really comes out officially June 7, 2011, on Tri Angle Records, who are running shit doing everything cool and pretty much nothing that don't sound good, you heard.
Another thing to note about it, though, is the irony that Holy Other made this month's, and next month he'll be what it's made of. If you haven't listened to the Soundcloud stream thing (also courtesy of Altered Zones) of Holy Other's upcoming EP, With U, indulge yourself:
With U is available for pre-order right now from Boomkat and Ruff Trade but really comes out officially June 7, 2011, on Tri Angle Records, who are running shit doing everything cool and pretty much nothing that don't sound good, you heard.
June 2, 2011
John Maus x Molly Nilsson
So I've been eagerly awaiting John Maus's upcoming album We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves ever since hearing its abso-fucking-credible first single, "Believer." So when I heard "Hey Moon," the fourth track on the aforementioned fifth album from the reclusive Minnesota native, I figured it was another product of his songwriting genius. Guess I was a little premature. The track is still awesome, but it turns out the song was actually originally written by the equally mysterious Stockholm freeform dream-pop singer Molly Nilsson.
She seems to be closely associated with the Dark Skies Association label, and she's touring the U.S. for the first time in November. She's still booking her tour, so send her a message if you want her in your town. The original version of "Hey Moon!" appears on her 2009 full-length These Things Take Time, and you can grab it below, along with the John Maus cover.
May 27, 2011
Covers Watch
So I haven't been around these corners much, and Adam has been ably stepping in to provide you with sweet tunes coverage these past few weeks, but I'm determined to return. There may possibly be a Johnny Whopper mixtape in the works, and you should be excited about it, but for now, I have to post this absolutely unbelievable track from Barcelona's Hermanos Calatrava. It's a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," but it turns it into equal parts psych-pop freakout and globalization commentary. It's not new - it's part of Finders Keepers' Absolute Belter comp, but it's every bit as fresh-sounding today as when it was released in 1974.
May 25, 2011
WU LYF
Wu Lyf is the radical band all y'all will be dancing to at house parties by summer's end, and this is a video for their new song "Dirt." Their upcoming LP, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, is out June 13 all on their own thing World Unite. These Manchester kids got a whole smart style enterprise together.
4 further reading: what is the meanin of LYF; Guardian article from way back that states "'Wu Lyf are fucking brilliant;'" and sum NME coverage from early this year. And they were also on the playlist for Episode 21!
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