Philip Fibiger

90's Bands on TV

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:40:05 -0500

Pavement playing “Stereo” on Conan (promoting their performance at the Tibetan Freedom Concert. Ahhh, the 90s.). Nastanovich’s fact checkin’ cuz gets a little crazy in this one. It’s part of the awesome collection of Youtube user 90sBandsOnTV who isn’t coy about what he’s into. Some other gems: Sebadoh’s “Rebound”, Buffalo Tom’s “I’m Allowed”, The Afghan Whigs doing “66”, and Superchunk’s “Foolish”.

Greg Dulli covers Leonard Cohen’s Paper Thin Hotel.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:55:00 -0500

Greg Dulli covers Leonard Cohen’s Paper Thin Hotel.

Year End Best Of List

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:04:51 -0500

Here is my comprehensive list of the best things on the internet from the year 2011:

1) The video for Wild Flag’s “Romance”

Carrie Brownstein! Mary Timony! Janet Weiss! Rebecca Cole! It’s like Sleater Kinney graduated from pop school, like that dog but riffier. The song is awesome and so is the video. It kills me that I didn’t find the record earlier. I can’t stop listening to it.

As an aside, who would have picked Tom Scharpling as the person who would singlehandedly keep the music video alive in the internet era? Good job, Tom!

A Little Rain Is All We Need

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:18:00 -0500

Ryan Adams is a total enigma: grew up on post punk, founded an acclaimed alt country band, loves black metal, married a top 40 pop star, writes incredibly hook laden songs. The way he breaks down these Bob Mould solo tracks is amazing, with Black Sheets he takes a dirge-like feedback drenched song, one of the heaviest Bob Mould recorded (that’s saying something) and makes it delicate.

His version of Heartbreak A Stranger is beautiful and most interesting for what it did: took a raucous crowd from the Bob Mould tribute show, amped up from stuff like Dave Grohl playing drums on New Day Rising¹ and getting the whole room quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

He gets a lot of shit from a lot of quarters: too much talent wasted, throws fits on stage, doesn’t curate and releases everything, etc… Read his foreword to Our Noise: The Story Of Merge Records…it’s clear this guy loves music and I think people will look back and say holy shit, that guy was pretty amazing. Also, I think he should put together a power-pop three piece.

1 holyshitholyshitholyshit: about 3:45 into this video, Grohl gets behind the kit. The hair, the power. That guy can hit.

The Mountain Goats with Craig Finn. I love that guy. Is he ever...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:46:45 -0500

The Mountain Goats with Craig Finn. I love that guy. Is he ever not absolutely thrilled to be on stage?

My dad and I spent eight and a half days, with extended assists...

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:10:37 -0500

My dad and I spent eight and a half days, with extended assists by Bill Russell and Emily, rebuilding the deck at the beach. The old one had a staircase that was rickety and more like a ladder, and had a bunch of termite damage. The new one is pretty classy looking if I do say so myself. I love Emily’s design for the railings using “goat and sheep fencing” from Tractor Supply Co.

Sure, sure…talking, naming animals, walking backwards,...

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:52:47 -0400

Sure, sure…talking, naming animals, walking backwards, etc…the most stunning change in my kid recently is that he is no longer nearly bald.

Lou Barlow's Newsletter

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:20:52 -0400

Lou Barlow's Newsletter:

Lou’s “Song of the Month” is fascinating, looking how Folk Implosion records were recorded more or less simultaneously with Sebadoh records, and how much John Davis influenced the songs/recording of Sebadoh stuff.

More Bob Mould and the Foo Fighters. Dear Rosemary on Conan....

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:15:39 -0400

More Bob Mould and the Foo Fighters. Dear Rosemary on Conan. That’s a lot of guitar players on stage.

Wow. Another gem from Spectacle: Elvis Costello, Richard...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:23:22 -0400

Wow. Another gem from Spectacle: Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Nick Lowe, Levon Helm and others trading verses of “The Weight.”

Slingin’ Rock Will spent a huge amount of time up north in...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:14:50 -0400

Slingin’ Rock

Will spent a huge amount of time up north in the water, and one of his favorite things to do was to pick up rocks and throw them. The rocks got bigger and bigger as the vacation went on, and close to the end they weighed almost as much as he does.

Richard Thompson and Elvis Costello rip through “Shoot Out...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:12:00 -0400

Richard Thompson and Elvis Costello rip through “Shoot Out The Lights” on Elvis Costello’s Spectacle.

Will waves goodbye as he heads to “school”

Tue, 10 May 2011 08:44:51 -0400

Will waves goodbye as he heads to “school”

Superchunk - Crossed Wires Man, that cat’s a real jerk.

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:07:00 -0400

Superchunk - Crossed Wires

Man, that cat’s a real jerk.

The trailer for Closer To The Edge, the rare motorcycle movie...

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:09:00 -0400

The trailer for Closer To The Edge, the rare motorcycle movie that doesn’t appear to be set to rap metal.

“When you meet someone that really helped you become the...

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:22:27 -0400

“When you meet someone that really helped you become the musician you are, I really think it’s important to acknowledge it”

Bob Mould recording “Dear Rosemary” with the Foo Fighters from the upcoming documentary. This clip is pretty crazy when you think about how intertwined the players in this video are. Bob Mould was asked to record Nevermind by Kurt Cobain, but turned it down and they went with Butch Vig. Bob’s always maintained that his recording of Nevermind would have been a lot darker, less commercial. Does Nirvana still blow up with a less commercial Nevermind? Does Butch Vig’s career take off without that record? If the record’s still a hit, does Bob Mould become a megaproducer?

Love how much of a fan Dave is. He seems like a really good guy.

Measures of Success

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:37:08 -0400

Despite the championship game drubbing by Yale, this was a pretty great end to the hockey season, given that everyone expected a rough rebuilding year (and it seemed that things were going that way at the beginning of the season.) In response to people calling for Schafer’s head / questioning his coaching due to our inability to beat this fast and skilled Yale team, Towerroad on eLynah posted a list of “measures of success.” I thought it was a fantastic list and figured I’d reproduce it here for posterity:

Here are a few of my thoughts informed or otherwise about other measures of success:

1. Beating the Harvard Mens Varsity Figure Skating Society.

2. Filling Lynah East with a sea of Red and humiliating both of the aforesaid Figure Skating Society fans when it comes to Alma Mater singing and general cheering.

3. Filling Lynah and maintaining the traditions and dreaded passion of the Faithful from the Anthems to the Salute.

4. Having the best band in the Ivies.

5. Winning the Ivy League.

6. Making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

7. Graduating Hockey Players who got an education.

8. Selling out womens’ games.

9. Consistently beating Yale.

If we do these things on a regular basis and never win a title who is to say that the program is not a tremendous success.

So this wife of mine, she’s pretty smart.

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 15:03:41 -0500

So this wife of mine, she’s pretty smart.

“Any guy who can drive himself to the hospital using his...

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:11:17 -0500

“Any guy who can drive himself to the hospital using his mouth can probably get it together to put a couple of arms, wrap ‘em up in some newspaper, put them in the back seat.”

Part 2/3

Part 3/3

So, turns out this kid likes cupcakes. Who would have thought?

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 21:38:21 -0500

So, turns out this kid likes cupcakes. Who would have thought?