i'll tell you anything, baby 'cept the truth

it's no secret a swiped my blog name from the eagles of death metal cover of the stealers wheel song "stuck in the middle." i was supposed to interview the dream boys themselves a couple of days ago for a bitchin' article i was gonna write... but boots electric was a no-show/call. i get it, they're on tour. things get weird. but i can bet it probably wasn't 'cos he was sleeping in. i mean, sometimes it's tricky keeping everything in your life straight, especially when your little black book probably looks a little something like this:

1. baby girl #1
2. baby girl #2
3. baby girl #3
4. baby girl #4
5. friend of baby girl #3
6. baby girl at amoeba
7. baby girl at big wangs
8. blonde baby girl
9. goth baby girl
10. tatted up baby girl
11. boy baby girl
12. baby girl on the corner of santa monica & la brea
13. old baby girl
14. baby baby girl
15. baby girl with an english accent
16. baby girl in chicago
17. baby riot grrrl
18. alabama backwoods baby girl
19. baby girl baby momma
20. baby duck

etc.

somewhere on that list is probably "baby girl that i'm supposed to do an interview with on 11/11 at 9am" but maybe my number was cross-filed under a different baby girl. oh well. shit happens. i'm supposed to do an interview with "the devil" and his cohorts (for real) sometime in the near future, so if you've got any ideas for good questions you think i should sling his way, e-mail me.

one of those dudes from buddyhead told me to ask jesse hughes about the buddyhead podcast... which just made me wonder, "uh, what podcast?" is that just gonna be a couple of burnouts and their fair-weather friends spinning tracks and shooting the shit about ol' dirty bastard, creedence clearwater revival, and the verve? couldn't ya just go to one of those fifty nights that those dudes are djing instead? prove me wrong, boys, and make that shit worth it! bring the good stuff back. i know i'm not alone when i say we miss the good ol' days when you used to "go OFF" (and not be lame about it). do it!

at least rivers cuomo is still rad, even if the last few weezer albums have been little more than weird experiments in the field of how popular can we sound while still looking like total dweebs? market. regardless, there were some choice cuts on his last solo release alone: the home recordings of rivers cuomo, and i'm hoping to find at least a few gems on his follow-up that's due out on november 25th (same day as GnR's chinese democracy, dudes!). if nothing else, everyone needs to own this album for the cover art:



fuck yes. and i thought my haircut was ridiculous.

seeing as how it's almost time for the impending release of the loooooong awaited "chinese democracy" (even though everyone who's anyone has heard it already), i figured i'd take the opportunity to correct a few douchers who don't know that when you abbreviate "guns n' roses" it's GnR not GAR. they are not "guns and roses" anymore than "rock 'n' roll" is "rock and roll." besides, GAR is too fucking close to that shit/piss/hair metal band "GWAR." let's not taint the genius that is "appetite for destruction" with thoughts of old dudes wearing masks and spewing shit into an audience of blind sheep who paid wayyyyy too much because they can't/won't/don't admit that it's OVER. wait. fuck. which band was i referring to again?

most people who know me know that i'm a little... weird. i'm a social retard half the time, and stoned as fuck the rest. comes from a rebellion towards a weird religious upbringing and getting beat up a LOT in my younger days. but if there's one thing that will always get me outta my shell, it's dylan (if you've been here before, you already know this). my buddy lionel recently attended a show of his up in victoria, bc on october 23rd, and since i spent my last dylan experience in santa barbara tripping balls on mushrooms and puking on the dude in front of me (which if you're reading this, i'm sorry, man, but that shit was INTENSE), i thought a real dylan show review was warranted. especially since this one seemed like such a unique experience. it offers a real insight on just how much this man is still capable of:

"Show was incredible. His keyboard wasn't working so he sang Man In The Long Black Coat center stage, just Bob and his harmonica. Later, when the keybord wasn't working again, he picked up a guitar and played Just Like A Woman. He spent about two minutes fiddling around aimlessly on the guitar before he found the song. It was terrible, or should have been, but I was in awe of it. Only he could pull that off. He's completely peerless.

The entire thing was miles above and beyond even my raised expectations. When other artists of his age and stature play their "timeless hits", it's entertaining but there's something false about it. Dylan tosses any nostalgic bullshit aside and re-invents the songs from the ground up. He's singing them how he fucking FEELS like singing them. Like he's singing them for the first time.

Bob is at his best whenever he's doing what he wants. The only low-points in his career have been times he's compromised or let other people take control of his music. As long as he's doing whatever he damn well feels like, it clicks. And it did last night."

awesome, lionel. i'd be lying if i said i wasn't jealous. wish i could've been there for that one.

for as much as i love dylan, i also have a soft spot for neil young. and since i'm as connected as much as the next neo-folk poseur hipster wannabe, i thought i'd link to an article i read recently about dylan visiting the canadian songwriter's home in winnipeg. click here to read.

does anyone know anything about the old LA punk band "butt trumpet?" i just picked up a 7" for the single "i left my flannel in seattle" from the album "primitive enema." thing is, that album is way out of print, and yeah, even though i work in the world's largest independent record store, there's a few things we don't see here too often. if you've got a copy of "primitive enema" let me know.

and last but not least, amoeba interviewed my old buddy casey (who most of ya know if ya know me) for this new feature on the site called "what's in my bag" (make sure you check out the mos def one, too) anyway, i took the pictures, and homeboy has some great suggestions if you've got taste, so check it out. i remember when we were teenagers, hanging out in the parking lot at hastings, and i told him about "this amazing band called my bloody valentine." we went inside, and i made him go grab "loveless" and that was that. friends ever since, and we've only tried to kill each other a couple times over the years. rock on, bro! now you're famous!