the finest kiss

photo from Providence Journal photo / Sandor Bodo

People are nuts.  Why would you ever want to grow a 1,725 pound pumpkin?  I suppose so that you could say that you did.  Apparently pumpkin growing is like horse breeding, you gotta get the right seed from a sire that has the right genes.  The seed for this big beauty came from a former world record holder.    The funny thing about this picture, besides the obvious, is that it came from northeast Ohio, about 30 miles from where I grew up.  In case you ever wondered what it was like growing up in sl-Ohio, I can tell you it was just slightly more exciting than this picture.  Depending on your point of view (world record pumpkin growers excepted), something a little more exiting is the new basementcast.  It weighs a whole lot less, you can fit in your pocket, and you won’t need five guys to help you with it.

download: basementcast #8 (~170 Mb)

The Sky Drops – Sentimental
Fungi Girls – Pacifica Nostalgia
The Spits – 19 Million A.C.

Fergus & Geronimo – Tell It (In My Ear)
Sam Cooke – Sugar Dumpling

White Wires – Pretty Girl
Firefly Effect – Never by your side
Cosmos- Grapes Of Wrath

The Kindness Kind – Labor Day
Tap Tap – Straight To Hell
Headlights - Secrets

Beat Happening – Bewitched
Black Box Recorder – Up Town Top Ranking
Peter Tsotsi, Nashil Pichen, & The Equator Sound Band – Pole Musa

Cerys Matthews – Into The Blue
Ladytron – He Took Her To A Movie
Rose Elinor Dougall – Fallen Over

Hope Factory – The Folly Of Being Comforted
Kevin Ayers – Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes
Lofty Heights – Eye Contact

Black Whales – Young Blood
Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs – The Last Kiss
Dutchess and the Duke – Side By Side

Ganglians – Blood On The Sand
Velez Manifesto – Pop Song
Trailer Trash Tracys – Candy Girl

Bob McFadden & Dor – The Mummy

In the summertime, everything seems to slow down. No one returns your calls or emails at work because they’re all on vacation. In the music world, releases slow down from their rapid spring rate.  Although this year it seems like there hasn’t been much of slow down in stuff coming out this summer, so there is no dearth of new stuff in this edition. Without further ado, and since this isn’t France  (I don’t have enough vacation time to take the whole summer off), here is the summer edition of the basementcast. The track list and links to all the bands below.

download: basementcast #6

The Bluebells – Red Guitar – Sisters
The Clientele – I Wonder Who We Are – Bonfires of the Health
Internet Forever – Break Bones
Charles Leo Gebhardt IV – King of the Mountain – Unfaithful
Gnonnas Pedro Et Ses Dadjes – DaDje Von O Von – Legends of Benin

The Nightgowns – Buoy – Sing Something
The Wannadies – Lee Remick – Might be Stars b-side
Dan Melchior – Williamsburg, Brooklyn – Thank You Very Much
The Hummingbirds – Word Gets Around – LoveBuzz
Dreamdate – 8 Sleeves – Patience

Surf Punks – My Beach My Wave – My Beach
The Sunrays – I Live For the Sun -
Rainbow Bridge – Big Wave Rider – True Panther 7″

Mannequin Men – Who Is Alive golden – Lose Your Illusion Two
Darling Buds – It Makes No Difference – Crawdaddy
Flight – Flowers – Sweet Rot 7″
Sunny & the Sunsets – Death Cream – Soft Abuse 7″
Hex Dispensers – It’s Your Funeral Minion – Winchester Mystery House

Afternoon Naps – Mittten Fingers – Parade
The Depreciation Guild – Dream About Me
ESP Summer – Golden Heart of the Year
The Bats – Crimson Enemy – The Guilty Office
Davila 666 – Sabes Que Quiero – Hozac 7″
Dara Puspita – A Go Go – A Go Go

Mayer Hawthorne – The Ills – A Strange Arrangement
Papas Fritas - Way You Walk – Pop Has Freed Us
Esser – Headlock – Braveface

Yes, summer has finally arrived and my vacation was filled with swimming, baseball games, and fishing. We split our time between sl-Ohio and Washington, DC. It was a bunch of fun, especially our trip to Linesville, Pennsylvania to feed the carp. Throwing bread to a bunch of overgrown fish is probably not a lot of people’s idea of fun, but I don’t hang out with those kind of people.
I’m hesitant to call this the summer edition of the basementcast, that’ll be next month. This is more like the summer vacation edition. Take it with you, whether it’s to the beach, the back yard or over to the neighbor’s house, just don’t take it to work!

basementcast #5: download

track list:
Electricity In Our Homes – Motorbike
Tiger – On the Rose
Young Fresh Fellows – Suck Machine Crater
Tyvek – Building Burning
Rose Elinor Dougal – Stop/Start/Synchro
Drums – Best Friend
Mirrors – Cheap & Vulgar
Cheap Red – Let’s Start a Riot
Champagne Socialists – Teardrop Tatoo
Nancey Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood – Greenwich Village Song Salesman
Personal & the Pizzas – I Don’t Feel So Happy Now No More
Shackles – Broken Arm
Grant Hart – 2541
Hospitality – Betty Wang
Maribel – Flesh and Blood
Radio Dept. – David
Pale Saints – She Rides the Waves
Charlie Mingus – II BS
Let’s Wrestle – Let’s Wrestle
Human Beinz – It’s Fun to Be Clean
Ganglians – Lost Words
Cave Weddings – Let’s Drive
Catapult – Cute
Chomp – It’s Arizona
the Clean – In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul
Tall Dwarfs – The Brain that Wouldn’t Die
Television Personalities – A Glimpse of My Genius
Jonathon Richman – Circle I

When we first moved into our house, one of our neighbors offered us some chickens. She assured us that they were little trouble and that once you have a farm fresh egg you’ll never go back to the store bought ones. I balked at having chickens in the backyard, and still buy eggs from the grocery store or the farmer’s market. There are times that I wish we would have taken the offer, usually it’s at breakfast time. What does this have to do with the fourth installment of the basementcast you may wonder? Absolutely nothing, but there are backyard references made a few times in this one and a cameo appearance from my daughter Elsa who also talks about the backyard, sans chickens of course.  It’s the spring fever edition of the basementcast.

basementcast #4: download

Track list:
Woodentops – Get It On
Answering Machine – Cliffer
Eat Skull – Stick to the Formula
David Kilgour & Sam Hunt – Chords
Tea Cozies – Pretty Pages
Pylon – M-Train
Super Furry Animals – The Very Best of Neil Diamond
Heptones – Tea for two
Signed Papercuts – Of My Heart
So Cow – Greetings
Fresh & Onlys – Peacock & Wing
Idle Times – Million Miles Away
Legends – Always the Same
Vincent Vincent and the Villains – Killing Time
Gene Vincent – Race With the Devil
Hula Boy – When Owls Cry
Surfire Broadcast – Stars Hang Bright
B.I.S – This is Fake D.I.Y
Bill Nelson – Do You Dream in Colour?
Intelligence – Saint Bartolomu
Jazz Butcher – Domestic Animals
The Saphires – Gotta Have Your Love
Wooden Shjips – For So Long
Atlas Sound – Solo or the Square
Nite Jewel – Artificial Intelligence
Softies – I Love You More
Cat Walk – On The Cracked Pavement
Teenage Lovers – Number One
Wounded Lion – Pony People
Richard Swift – Lady Luck

This is basementcast number three, but I’m still working out the kinks.  For some reason everything seems a bit overmodulated, especially me.  But, I guess I always was a loud talker.  A big thanks to my kid sister and her husband who got me the new microphone for my birthday.  They must have been listening and took pity.  I’m still figuring it out, but it makes it a whole lot more fun talking into a real mic.  As for the music, there’s tons of good stuff coming out every week, especially 7 inch single these days.  I try to cover a bunch of them, but somehow still left out a bunch like the Fresh and Onlys, The Pink Noise and Happy Burger to name only a few.  I guess you can’t play everything, and there’s always next month.

basementcast: download

Track list:
Manhattan Love Suicides – Superboy & Super Girl
Help Stamp Out Loneliness – Torvill & Dean
Sad Day for Puppets – Little Light
Woods – To Clean
Chad VanGaalen – Bones of Man
Green Pajamas – The Lonesome End Of The Lake
Arthur & Yu – Don’t Piss Into the Fire
Velocette – Bitterscene
Frederick Knight – I’ve Been Lonely For So Long
Pop Art Toasters – Baby What Am I Gonna Do?
Magic Kids – Hey Boy
Sea Lions – Let’s Groove
Dick Dale – Let’s Go Trippin’
Real Estate – Old Folks
Moles – Bury Me Happy
Brilliant Colors – Should I Tell You
Vibrarians – Red Light
Graffiti Island – Wolf Guy
No Bunny – Boneyard
Crystal Stilts – Love is a Wave
Felt – The Day the Rain Came Down
Abe Vigoda – Wild Heart
Love Boat – Frankie Shampoo
Nerves – Paper Doll
Pooh Sticks – I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well
Jeffrey Novak – Hello Hello