Wooden Shjips @ The Stork, Oakland, 7/17/07

Another post consisting of material I’ve been sitting on for too long.

Ripleyfront

I began working at a new job a few weeks ago that pays significantly more than the paltry wages I made working in television, so, to treat myself for this new found success, I bought myself some new headphones. I went full out, buying a pair of Ultrasones, which mimic stereo monitors — instead of the little speakers being pointed directly at your ears, they are almost facing your head, just like a pair of monitors.

Recently I’ve been reading “Eye Mind,” the story of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, which reignited my interest in psych music.

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Pink Reason, Stork Club, Oakland CA, 7/17/07

“The Devil Always Wins”

My wife and I have been waiting for this show since Pink Reason’s “Cleaning the Mirror” came out. (I would also like to add that, thanks to connections I have, I bought it before it was even put out on the floor at Amoeba.) That album didn’t leave our record player for weeks. Though it’s solid, we really only played one side — the second — which led with our fav song “Dead End.” Though it’s a poor recording and the drums are totally out of sync, the melody literally haunts you, more than any goth song. I’ve never actually heard emotion so heartfelt come through a recording so clearly before. If, God forbid, some pro band or money-hungry producer ever heard it, they’d turn it into some hideous “pop song” and whoever did it would become the next “Kurt Cobain.”

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