Silky smooth. Almost too smooth. Drums patter along under lulling, numbed synth waves while whispertalk rolls over them like a velvet red carpet. Trying not to slip into a peaceful slumber is actually difficult. Sweden’s latest chillrock, coming from The Radio Dept. conjures Slowdive and the like on their urban-edged, nighttime album, Pet Grief, at the intersection of synthpop and slowrock, backlit with shoegaze.

The highly comforting, interstellar sound flows throughout the album, and at it’s peaks, hatches a new wave beat continuity with a numbing effect broken only by piano crashes and lite guitar riffs. Reserved, cozy, and poignant.

The Radio Dept.’s myspace page

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Video of Delmon Young throwing bat at ump

Ah, the flagrance of Delmon Young. How we love it so. This video rocks. All the people who have been saying that he “tossed” the bat at the ump are idiots. He definitely chucked it, if not tried to spear the guy. If that would’ve hit him in the grill and knocked him down, Delmon Young would now be a short-order cook at Waffle House in Bamberg, South Carolina.

Mass. Parents File Federal Suit Over Gay Book

I was waiting for this to happen. If the school gets away with its super-gay shenanigans, I will weep for our children more so than ever. If you want to teach them diversity, apply for a job at a private school and leave the public curriculum alone.

Two Teens Arrested for Myspace ‘Kick the Cat’ video

I was under the assumption that you couldn’t be arrested for anything on myspace. Err, brb, gotta delete a bunch of stuff. Oh crap.

Nothing makes me want to slap a band more than when they bitch about how crappy a magazine gig is, seeing as they’re the sell-out whores, and they’re the ones being paid for it. Unbusted whined, and the Walkmen didn’t seem to give a crap, for which I will forever curse them for being such crappy sell-outs.

The Walkmen whipped out a couple popular tunes, mostly played their new, uninspiring material, and finished with “The Rat” as if they were doing us all a huge favor. The venue, the Cycloramatronomatic, is a huge, round room with brick floors and a pointed ceiling, aka the worst possible room to have a concert in.

Unbusted got rocked by the sounds of their own failures. Forget that the Cyclotronarama’s acoustics. They just sucked. Just watching the drummer made me feel like I needed elbow surgery. The highlight of the night was possibly mocking the crappy Honda Fit. 107 hp? My tricycle has more than that.

Saariaho didn’t use any woodwinds or brass, but instead chose to slap our skulls with nothing but sour, sliding violins in some sort of dark, avant garde mysterium. It was like a schizophrenic wolf running around a forest, killing everything and not knowing why.

Then Piotr Anderszewski - yeah - was the pianist who doth rocketh Beethoven all the way back to the old school. Homeboy, mit supafly jacket that I need to buy, tossed out Piano Concerto No. 1 in mind-dissolving Beethoven cascading thunder, which pretty much everyone dug. Solid.

Finally, the BSO whipped out two Sibelius joints, The Bard (a harp ditty), and Symphony No. 3, which was solidly triumphant. The harp was tight, as you would imagine, and the symphony was sorta like an old school Finnish anthem that celebrated winning a war, instead of losing one, which they usually do. All in all, I got a bit dozy, but I’m sure everyone else did. Our seats were ridiculous, as was the diamond on the woman next to me. Big, big pimpin.

BSO.org info page

Gangsta rapper of Kabul puts peace before guns ‘n’ girls

“It was my best friend, Jawad, and a rocket hit him in the neck. He died.” It would be a pretty big story if he didn’t die. Anyway, DJ Besho, aka DJ Diamond, rolls with no bikini-clad ladiez, drugs, or guns, raps in four languages, and is meeting with President Karzai. His biggest hit, “(Don’t) Pass the Hookah”, has swept the Afghan airwaves.

Some Afghan rap on Youtube

Chinese Army Outlaws Snoring, Tattoos

The penalty for being caught snoring is death, and they skin your tattoos, just like the Boy Scouts do.

Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can’t Be Fired

Yeah, best news ever. I suppose if I was going to get fired, I would’ve by now, but it’s nice to know that the fine folks in robes realize what’s up.

Large, mysterious booms still unexplained

I have the feeling Oprah’s butt is involved.

Wild Thing style. Won(?) a bet w/ that wily Greek, Youkilis.
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Ok, each day I keep discovering more and more Lexingtons across the country. I personally have a strong opinion about a couple of them, which prompts me to ask, which is the best Lexington in the nation?

Lexington, KY - Home of Univ. of Kentucky, thoroughbreds, and my birth. Greatest city ever.
Lexington, MA - Lived there for a while, has some nice restaurants in town center. Recently went super gay.
Lexington, NC - The Hickory Smoked Barbeque Capitol of the World. I can’t disagree.
Lexington, SC - Just got a schoolhouse, general store, well, and a website. Good for them.
Lexington, VA - Sort of like Williamsburg, but not intentionally stuck in the past.
Lexington, TN - More bbq restaurants per capita than any other US city. Read: 10 of them.
Lexington, MO - Home of the Battle of Hemp Bales. Seriously. Not much else going on.
Lexington, NE - Eh, I got nothin’. Tumbleweed capitol of the world? Dirtiest town in the US?
Lexington, TX - Surely the home of “Lex-Tex” food, which is nothing like Tex-Mex.

I have no idea why Office is still unsigned. The album’s been finished since 2005, yet we’re no closer now to officially hearing it than we were back then. This, just like Love Is All’s delayed release, is criminal. This album is indie rock solid as any New Pornographers stuff, but a little more jaded.

Maybe it’s all the use of actual office imagery, but this album feels like being stuck in a crappy office job, but with a huge window. There’s a greyed, apathetic slink wrapped around some seriously catchy tunes and beats. It’s like being in a one-man prison: you’d think it be easy to break out, but it’s not, so you just enjoy the view from four walls of bars. Part drunken-piano-ballad, part-ELO, part-new age grindy. These songs will be glued to your brain, and you’ll tear off a layer of grey matter trying to get them out.

Call me conservative, call me libertarian, call me correct. Whatever you call me, just know that I think reading a bunch of a 7-year-olds a book called “King and King” is pretty foul. The admins claim that they need to teach kids in elementary school about their world, and in Massholia, gay marriage is legal.

Unfortunately, little kids and gay marriage don’t mix. Teach high schools, maybe. But elementary? What a bunch of bastards. Parents should be doing the teaching about “alternate lifestyles”, not 2nd grade teachers. If they’re going to teach it, at least warn the parents and kids beforehand, so they can yank them out of class that day.

Controversy over gay book in elementary school
Globe article about it