New Malkmus!

"Lariat"

I had my tickets to the 2010 Pavement reunion in Central Park for about a year. In what probably served as a partial, primordial version of CoolDad Music, I spent that entire year posting Pavement and Stephen Malkmus songs / videos to my Twitter feed every Friday with the hashtag #pavementfriday. I had to skip out on CD #1's Back-to-School Night to attend the show -- the first one I ever attended alone, probably -- and the rest is history.

So, in a way -- before even Titus Andronicus, Screaming Females, and Diarrhea Planet -- Stephen Malkmus is probably one of the biggest reasons why CoolDad Music even exists. That's why it's so weird and inexcusable that the release of this lyric video for "Lariat," off of Stephen Malkmus's upcoming Wig Out at Jag Bags (January 7th), escaped my notice until now.

Whatever. Here it is. It, of course, features Malkmus's trademark, and I believe highly underrated, guitar playing along with some straightforward lyrics that harken back to his self-titled solo debut. It's a spin on the traditional lyric video in that the lyrics we see are in French, translated for us by a young women as she listens to the song.

First Day of Summer Edition

Summer Solstice Friday

Summer came to us in the northern hemisphere at 1:04 AM EDT Friday morning. Be safe. Have fun.

And don't forget to check out the Tiny Giant Summer Bummer this weekend.

And rock on.

Kaboom!-less in Red Bank

July 3rd and No Red Bank Fireworks

I never loved the Red Bank, NJ fireworks.  The crowds were too big.  You couldn't park anywhere.  In recent years, I think there were even some issues with fights and general hooliganism.  So I wasn't particularly sad when the announcement came earlier this year that the annual "Kaboom!" fireworks in Marine Park weren't going to happen.

Now, here it is July 3rd, and I'm sitting here thinking about the fact that I complained about them every year and still went.  Every.  Single.  Year.

Oh, well.  There are still plenty of options.  While out on the bike today, I saw that preparations are well underway in Long Branch for Oceanfest, which concludes with a fireworks display.  West Long Branch will set theirs off tomorrow, as usual, and that's always fun.  It'll be interesting to see if the absence of Red Bank's (and Sea Bright's, too, I think) show drives more people to what's always been the more small-towny display in WLB.

Hope you were able to cut out of work early.  Enjoy the holiday.

Be safe and rock on...

Friday Afternoon

20th Anniversary Edition 

Make-up post for missing last week.

Slanted and Enchanted, April 20th, 1992

Head home early and

Rock on...