That Black Lips and Ponys show I went to on Sun­day? Major­ly dis­ap­point­ing. Kudos to pro­duc­er John Agnel­lo, who along with the band engi­neered a record that accen­tu­ates Turn the Lights Out­’s Son­ic-Youthi­est moments. Unfor­tu­nate­ly for me, those moments turned out to be stu­dio arti­facts that nev­er emerged from their mud­dy mix Sun­day night.

A brief note on the Black Lips: what­ev­er their appeal, it was lost on me. I envi­sioned the spec­tre of Lit­tle Steven loom­ing over the stage, shout­ing non­sense about the salvif­ic pow­er of rock and roll, while Black Lips banged out rote three minute, three chord garbage rock [not a typo].

Did I men­tion that one of the gui­tarists hocks loo­gies and catch­es them in his mouth while he plays? He does. It’s the sort of thing only a moth­er — or Pitch­fork crit­ic Jason Crock — could love. 7.8!

Don’t call it a cold war. Every­body glasnost!

[“Free­dom” — Vladimir Putin remix b/w “Watch­ing the Detec­tives Watch Each Oth­er” — Lil’ George feat. AG’s Ashcroft and Al Gonzo]

Tonight at John­ny Bren­da’s I will try to deter­mine whether or not my appre­ci­a­tion for songs [as opposed to my ongo­ing love affair with “songs”] has reached its lim­it in first quar­ter ’07. It may just be all the col­lege bas­ket­ball jar­gon float­ing around, but do the Ponys have an upside? I hope so.

[In oth­er fence-sit­ting news, I’ve come around on Low’s Drums & Guns, pri­mar­i­ly because “Hatch­et” is so much fun, even if it sounds real­ly shit­ting blar­ing on the stereo. It’s that awe­some on headphones.]

Nas vs. Funkstörung? That’s a good look.

You should real­ly check these out. I checked it out on this guy’s say-so, but then the man him­self per­son­al­ly left a com­ment. Tago-Mago should­n’t be denied. Don’t take my word for it; check it out your own damn self.

A few pass­ing thoughts while I try to fin­ish up this over­due Andrew Bird review.

Things I’ve heard late­ly and liked:

• Boris with Michio Kuri­hara — Rain­bow
• Gui Borat­to — Chro­mo­pho­bia
• Elec­tre­lane — No Shouts, No Calls
• LCD Soundsys­tem — Sound of Silver

A few records I’m on the fence about:

• Low — Drums and Guns [pret­ty, but too almost too friend­ly. I’m still com­plete­ly per­plexed by Low.]
• The Ponys — Turn the Lights Out [pro: recent Son­ic Youth jam-ori­ent­ed indie rock; con: recent Son­ic Youth jam-ori­ent­ed indie rock]

Total­ly not mak­ing the cut:

• Aere­ogramme — My Heart Has a Wish that You Would Not Go

Two artists that I’ve cho­sen as what to look out for post SXSW hoopla, more or less arbitrarily:

• No Age
• Blitzen Trap­per