Hi, true believers-ish.  I’ve decided to try to post a one-every-few-days kinda music track thing, bringing out the business that I’ve been enjoying listening to.  So here it is, the inaugural music blog Boneless Children Foundation.  Even though I’ve posted a bunch about music before.  But that’s enough lip outta you, junior!

And so here we are.

For those of you who don’t know, The Walkmen are a delightful band from New York City, the home of Statues of Liberty, Rudy Giulianis and my friend Rudy Delson.

The Walkmen are a stripped down kinda… hmm… vintage instrument playing indie rock band in a sort of Velvet-Underground-meets-The-Cowboy-Junkies-but-really-isn’t-described-by-that-at-all kind of way.  Maybe it’s more like a rockabilly band not at all playing rockabilly and in fact playing indie rock but with a twangy almost Wilco-esque kind of tone, but not country, and actually just really rock, in fact.  Indie rock, even.  And “indie rock” because, well, they’re not a pop band.  Genres aren’t so useful in these heady days of 2009, are they?  No, apparently not.

Anyhow, the members come from a variety of fairly celebrated bands (Jonathan Fire*Eater, The Recoys) with whom I’m not all that intimately familiar.  But The Walkmen and their most recent album, “You & Me,” makes me mad.  It makes me mad because it’s too good. It’s music that makes you want to be the singer in that band, because it must be so god damn fun to sing those songs.  And so on.

I mean, yeah - it’s kind of smacked out.  But you say that like it’s a bad thing.

It’s good business, this “Walkmen” music.  Kind of can’t recommend it enough.

This particular song is a fun listen.  It’s bombastic, it gets quiet, it gets exciting, it has yelling in it, it’d make you break a sweat if you’re singing along to it, it’s ostensibly very glorious and positive but has a strong, sad note running through it… it’s bittersweet, like so many sour worms.  Ok, those are more like sweet & sour, but still.

And so, without further ado, here it is:  ‘In The New Year,’ by the Walkmen.

Thanks for the reading!

-David

P.S. BCF!  This Saturday, 6/6, at Flux 53 in Oakland, CA!  5300-5312 Foothill Boulevard, tickets $8 pre-sale & $10 at the door.  Playing with Shovelman (8 pm) and Colossal Inertia (9 pm).  Mm hmm.

It’s technically not published until Monday - and it’s 4 months late, but it’s here at least!  Hooray!  BCF Comic #77!  We’re getting there.  A short goal is to get to 100.  Then we’ll see what happens.  Most likely?  Profit.  Sheer, unadulterated, filthy profit.  Mmmm.

So anyway, just posted, fresh off the writing desk and everything: BCF Comic #77!

And it’s about a topic near and dear to all of our hearts: Jesus on a cliff. Yes indeed.  Enjoy.

I love this series of games - Grow! They’re so fun.  Yeah, you need a walkthrough (typically) to max the game out, and maxing it out is where the extra fun and cuteness is at, but it’s tottally worth playing with.

The “Chronon” game is especially complicated - not a Grow game per se, but by the Eyemaze folk.  I needed a walkthrough just to get to any part of this game, really.  But still, overall, good stuff; fun and cute and interesting. High recommendations.  From moments to hours of entertainment, depending on your desire… and availability…

From Grow v.1 to Grow Island, Grow Tower, and so on… it’s a world of joy.  Pure, pure joy.  Ahh.

David out-ish.

Yahoo, in their forward looking way, reported today on a crucial thing.  Well, okay, to be fair, they posted a link to a Fox News story.  Which actually explains it all.  But hey great job, Yahoo, on spreading the agenda.  It’s stupit.  Too bad it’s not an April Fool’s joke.

Yes: SALVIA DIVINORUM.  Oooh.  Scary times.  Great job, Yahoo & Fox, in trying to scare people.  And what are the dangers of it, as detailed in this story?  Mainly inappropriate behavior. Yes, the story even says that some parents have ended up “having” to take their kids to the emergency room since their behavior was “so inappropriate.”  Uh huh.  Dang.  Inappropriate behavior.  Pretty scary.  Woo.

Oh, Sally D - you so crazy.

Ok, to be clear, I’m not saying kids should go out and smoke random plants all the time.  But I mean come on.  Yeah, people shouldn’t take it and get behind the wheel of a car.  Sure.  Nor should they drink, or probably even take freakin’ Benedryl.  That’s no reason to ban something.

Sure, do more research - find out what’s dangerous about it if anything.  But just to say, “Oh people are doing it so it must be bad,” is silly.  I know it’s just how the mainstream dominator culture brouhaha deals with these things - especially with things that cause any degree of hallucination - since we’re not a culture that particularly understands how & why people might want to have their own altered experiences & what not, but it’s just too bad that the rhetoric aroudn this is so idiotic.  As I say, as per usual, but still.  Maybe it shouldn’t be quite so available, but maybe we should give people some sense of personal responsibility with what they do with their own bodies and maybe then they’d be more responsible with them, mm?  Mmm? Mmmm?

I’m just sayin’.

And, incidentally, say what you may about wikipedia not being a reliable source, but it’s much more reliable than some (essentially) anti-drug op-ed video piece on yahoo.  And here’s what it has to say about Salvia, the Scourge of Parents Everywhere:

“The duration of effects is much shorter than that of other, more well-known psychoactive compounds; the effects of smoked Salvia typically last for only a few minutes. The most commonly reported after-effects include an increased feeling of insight, an improved mood, a sense of calmness, and an increased sense of connection with nature—though, much less often, it may also cause dysphoria (unpleasant or uncomfortable mood). Salvia divinorum is not generally understood to be toxic or addictive, and as a κ-opioid agonist, it may have potential as an analgesic and as a therapeutic tool for treating drug addictions.”

Pretty scary.  Not only is it very short-acting (you’d have to run to the car to get there before it stopped working), but you end up often feeling - GASP! - calm.  Or maybe kind of unpleasant and uncomfy.  And it’s biggest danger: it’s neither toxic nor addictive, and in fact it might work to help treat drug addiction.  Pretty scary.

Fox, I understand.  You like scaring people and saying dumb shit.  But, Yahoo?  I thought you at least knew slightly better.  No idea why I would think that, though, upon reflection.

Watch out, parents!  It’s a Big Deal.  A Big Scary Deal.  Oooh.  Oooh!

David very much out.

1) http://creebobby.com/timestable.html - I like comics.  Sigh.  This is a “comics times table.”

2) Girl Talk’s “Feed the Animals” album - it’s so good!  It’s just fun on wheels.  Music wheels.  It really is.  And people made some pretty great videos for it, too…

3) The National’s album, “Boxer” - same opinion: so good!  But not total fun-ness.  More smooth and low and dark which is actually so very hard to achieve and make it work.  But they sure do it.  Amazing.  Nice.  Here’s the first song, “Fake Empire,” as they play it on the tee-vee…

4) Do you all know the Mr. Bungle album, “California?”  It occurred to me recently since we’ve started playing a song I wrote like 10 years ago that kind of sounds a little bit like the song “Vanity Fair” on that album.  Sort of.  Well, ok, “Vanity Fair” is like its supersonic cousin, but still - it’s a great album.  A little intense at points, but if you’re into that - as I am - then hot patootie do I have an album for you… and Mike Patton, my god, is there anything he can’t do?… and hey who knew, a fan-made video for the song “Pink Cigarette” from “California.”  Kinda interestin’.

5) Yes!  Still!  Tomorrow, 3/25 - at the Knockout in SF!  Boneless!  Boneless!  Boneless!  Children Foundation.  And Off Campus and Vox Jaguars.  Brought to you by the lovely folk from the Lower Class Revolt:

And come celebrate - it’s Jonathan Kepke’s birthday!  (Our bass player)  We’ll, I dunno, chuck donuts at you or something nice.
Thanks, folks.  Hope to see you there…

David, in the outness.