Whenever I go to New Haven and drive close to I-95 it makes me think of IKEA, even if I'm not actually going to IKEA, probably because I'm almost always needing batteries for my camera and IKEA's got good ones for $1.99, plus their batteries are bright yellow which makes them easier to see when your camera dies at a show and you have to change batteries in the dark. Have you ever gone to Wal-Mart and tried to buy batteries? Shit's like $6.79 for a 4-pack, when you could go to IKEA instead and they're all over that shit. That's why when the Swedes come with their tanks they're gonna roll right through Arkansas and take that Wal-Mart asshole with them, except the screws will pop out of the tanks every so often and they'll have to jump out and use those little hex wrenches to put 'em back in. And then roll over the top of that asshole from Wal-Mart a few more times. I own like six pieces of furniture from IKEA, I don't own any furniture from fucking Wal-Mart, just things like the little 99 cent bottles of ibuprofen and stuff, they're good for that.
MOTO's got a new LP out, "No Sleep 'Til Turku", it's got a gatefold sleeve and was recorded in Finland, which is pretty close to Sweden even though probably none of you could pick out either one on a map anyway. It's a damn solid record, too, especially if you liked the "Kill MOTO" material (for instance), where some of it's kinda quiet and poppy while some of it rocks harder than the rest. Only 500 pressed, though if you're not able to find a copy you can still buy the files on CD Baby for 5 bucks or something, which seems like a pretty good deal. There's a track down below that I ripped from the vinyl, just for you.
Friday night's show at Cafe Nine with M.O.T.O. and Medication was like a dream bill, even if the two bands sound nothing like each other. But there's a reason for everything that I say, although it doesn't seem like it sometimes, especially like right now for instance. (Am I gonna bother explaining what I mean, then? No.) Medication's set was almost a complete turnaround from any other time I've seen them: not only were there two new songs-- and I can't think of any other Medication set I've seen that included even one new song-- but Kryssi, from Mt. Movers/Colorguard, was on second guitar instead of Stefan. Then halfway through the set Mikey broke like 8 strings at once and had to borrow a guitar, a lime-green Jaguar/Jazzmaster-looking thing, which looked and sounded totally different from his usual gold top Les Paul. There was hardly any of the extra reverb on "Fog", for instance (I'm guessing Mikey couldn't find the switch), so it came out sounding a lot chunkier. Not like Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" or anything, which would've been a pretty neat trick, but still a lot chunkier than usual. One of the new songs is called "Far", and it's actually somewhat of a screamer, which was a different thing in its own right. Afterwards I listened to some newer Medication demos on Mikey's iPhone-type thing, and then completely forgot what they sounded like by the next morning, other than he's recording the vocals differently now so that they sound like the Everly Brothers or Brian Wilson, which is totally friggin' amazing.
I've been lucky enough to see MOTO at Cafe Nine three times now, and Friday's set was maybe the best out of all of them, because the band was tight (as if they'd actually practiced or something) and so all the songs sounded like they were supposed to, and pretty much ripped. They played "Magic Words", which I don't think I've ever seen them play before, and some other oldies like "Dick About It", which is the kind of song that Paul doesn't write as much anymore, with a rock history lesson hidden inside of it (in this case it's two Beatles rips, although most people are only smart enough to cop to the first one). There wasn't a singular moment like the last time when Paul finished off the set by coming out and singing "Ghosts" by himself, but rock 'n roll isn't always about those Hallmark Card type moments ("afterwards we all went out into the night air, still singing all the words aloud and celebrating the new friendships that we'd just made," as the content-focused blog always puts it). Sometimes rock 'n roll is Paul not being able to read the set list because it's all the way down on the floor and in 4-point type, or having to change key in the middle of a verse because he's got a cold called "I'm fifty years old now, motherfucker". Those drink straws with the ends of the paper still stuck on them, those are annoying, too. I took out "Bolt!" and played it right after I got home, so now I know which song it is that Mikey is always talking about.
"Hard On Rock 'n' Roll"
Medication -
"Factory Made"
