Episode 77: Boo

Happy Halloween Dear Listener,

And nothing screams Halloween more than Glenn Danzig buying kitty litter.

As Halloween is upon us and Christmas decorations are already in the stores, this episode will serve as our salute to all things sweet and evil.  This episode was a great deal of fun to put together so I hope you enjoy it.

Joyous news came earlier this week.  Sleater-Kinney will be putting out a new record in January and touring this winter.  No Cities To Love is available to pre-order in multiple formats over at Sub Pop.  The first single is Bury Our Friends and was included as a one-sided 45 in the Stay Together box set that was released this week.  Here's the video for it:

J Mascis came through town last week and completely crippled my brain.  I never thought that one man with an acoustic guitar could give a PA such a hard time.  Denny The Sound Guy had one helluva time keeping it from reaching meltdown.  I skipped dinner to get to the venue early for a good seat and a cup of coffee.  My efforts paid off two-fold because I got to meet the man and thank him for taking years off of my hearing.  Here's a picture that I took from my table:

The opening act was a band from Australia called Luluc.  They were great except for the fact that my 15 year old brain could not get over the fact that they looked like Cate Blanchett and Russell Brand gave up acting to become Australia's fourth most popular folk duo.  I crack me up.

The Gaslight Anthem played last week as well and they brought Against Me! with them.  Other than the shitty venue and excessive lights, it was a great show.  Going on after Against Me! every night has got to be a great challenge.

And of course, every time I say that I'll never go back to that venue someone gets booked there.  Sleater-Kinney will be playing that beer filled toilet bowl in March.  Something tells me they will break that shitty PA that was designed for electronic music.

Last week, Iggy Pop gave a lecture on the state of music and other such topics at an event dedicated to the BBC's John Peel.  The man dropped the science for about an hour.  You can go here to download it.

A few months ago, Sleep released The Clarity as a free digital download through Adult Swim.  I thought a 12-inch single with an etched b-side would have been a great idea.  Apparently Sleep did too.  They pressed up 1,000 of them back in August and I missed it.  I had to get mine from a record flipper on the ebays.  Savages.  Here's what the b-side looks like:

And it seems that there will be a cartoon involving Mike Tyson and mystery solving.  Here's the first episode:

In more bizarre news, there was an online petition demanding that Toys R Us stop selling Breaking Bad themed toys.  The woman who started the petition ended up on the Today Show saying that it sets a bad example for children to sell toys that come with tiny bags of plastic meth.  Maybe she should stop complaining about the toys and just ignore them.  If she's not going to buy the toys for her children then what's the problem?  The lady also failed to notice that these toys are sold in Wal-Marts and other retailers but did not mention them in her petition.  Maybe the example we should show our children is how a well crafted a story and following through on that idea as far as they possibly can, regardless of how goofy it might be, could end up with action figures being made of that idea.  People are assholes with nothing better to do.  And doesn't every G.I. Joe and Transformer come with a gun?

Thanks for listening.

Rock over London.  Rock on Chicago.

Cazart.

Here's the download link:

Out of Step Music Hour Episode 77

Here's the playlist:

Many treats and a few tricks.