The Thermals Sign to Kill Rock Stars

I got the press release that the Ther­mals signed to Kill Rock Stars just as I got home from the office. I think it’s great that they were able to stay on a clas­sic North­west label, but it seemed more strange that they would­n’t re-up with Sub Pop.

Coin­ci­den­tal­ly, Swedes Loney, Dear — a band signed in the post-“Young Folks” hys­te­ria — recent­ly depart­ed Sub Pop as well. Not to get too pulpy, but is there more to this than meets the eye? Loney, Dear were poor­ly reviewed and their Sub Pop debut, Loney, Noir, was a stinker. But the Ther­mals seemed to be the sort of act that Beg­gars Group would’ve poached in a heart­beat just a few years ago.

I’ll stop beat­ing around the bush: I’m shocked that a band like the Ther­mals would end up on such a tiny label at this point in their devel­op­ment. I know the music indus­try is bad, but labels like XL are still sign­ing bands and reis­su­ing albums a year after every­one in the blo­gos­phere down­loaded them. But that’s just business.

Think of it anoth­er way: if Deer­hoof — a band that crit­ics once show­ered with praise — does­n’t gen­er­ate heat a month after drop­ping their new album, Offend Mag­gie (7.6, no less), can they work a band that may have out­lived its hype cycle? At this point in his­to­ry, it does­n’t even seem to mat­ter if a band is hit­ting its stride. Every­thing is yes­ter­day’s papers the moment it leaks.

Don’t believe me? Read this pul­lquote in the Pitch­fork news piece from this after­noon and tell me it did­n’t make you wince.

Posted on by J T. Ramsay

Let’s Now Praise Sly Fox Beer

One of the great things about meet­ing my folks halfway between Oley and Philly is hav­ing din­ner at Sly Fox Brew­ery in Roy­ers­ford. Sure, the food isn’t world-class, but I’m always eager to try their lat­est offer­ing of draught beer.

I tried two new beers tonight. I got a  20 oz. glass of their oat­meal stout, which I thought was fan­tas­tic, and their Sai­son Vos, which seemed fine­ly craft­ed, just not to my per­son­al taste. (I want­ed to try their Sai­son Vos because I’ve enjoyed the glass­es of Ommegang’s Rare Vos at Mem­phis Tap­room in the past few weeks.) No dice.

So what filled my growler before we head­ed back to Fish­town? Their tried-and-true Route 113 IPA. I had their award-win­ning Rauch Bier after my last vis­it, but want­ed to spend some more time with their IPA before I treat myself to some mon­ster hol­i­day brews as Christ­mas nears. I’m eye­ing up some Troegs Mad Elf already!

What have you been drink­ing this fall? What will you drink this win­ter? I’m always look­ing to try new beers, so share your favorites!

Posted on by J T. Ramsay

Gorgoroth’s Gaahl Discusses His Influences

This isn’t new, but it’s a pret­ty hilar­i­ous video. I love these guys. Look at the mise-en-scene! It’s per­fect! The sense of style and ded­i­ca­tion that goes into being a true Nor­we­gian black met­al war­rior is noth­ing short of total­ly ridiculous.

I need to fol­low up and watch these episodes on VBS TV by Peter Beste. You can watch the first episode below:

Posted on by J T. Ramsay

Ignored Netflix Movies Fight Back

I real­ly need to fin­ish watch­ing Bertoluc­ci’s La Com­mare Sec­ca already. It’s good, trust me! There’s just nev­er enough time to watch it! For­tu­nate­ly, Helen holds up her end of the Net­flix sub­scrip­tion by devour­ing TV on DVD. She just fin­ished the final sea­son of Homi­cide. I think that’s sev­en full sea­sons! I salute her ded­i­ca­tion and insom­nia. I sim­ply can’t com­mit to that sort of late night view­ing, nor am I will­ing to sub­mit Helen to tor­tur­ous for­eign lan­guage films for hours at a time.

In oth­er seri­ous movie news, I’m head­ed down to Ritz at the Bourse to watch Godard­’s Vivre sa Vie on Thurs­day night. It’s not much, but I’ll take what­ev­er reper­to­ry crumbs Philly man­ages to get.

Posted on by J T. Ramsay 1

Fishtown Library Rally on Channel 6 Action News

Chan­nel 6’s Jes­si­ca Borg cov­ered the Save the Fish­town Library ral­ly last night. You can see me sport­ing my Phillies play­offs hood­ie and hat 37 sec­onds into the clip. I want­ed to post this not only because I think that this is a sto­ry that deserves a great deal of vis­i­bil­i­ty, but also because I want­ed to note that not every­one present felt that Bill Green’s com­ments artic­u­lat­ed what we want from the City.

As a Philadel­phi­an, I want it all. I don’t want to sac­ri­fice things like the Office of Sus­tain­abil­i­ty. A lack of sus­tain­abi­ity is how we got here in the first place. The hous­ing mar­ket was­n’t sus­tain­able; now it beg­gars us. I want the City to pur­sue an aggres­sive pol­i­cy toward bik­ing. I ride a bike and want to be safer as I com­mute to work. Why can’t we have that and our libraries, too?

What we may be see­ing is the down­side to May­or Nut­ter and Gov­er­nor Ren­dell endors­ing Hillary in the pri­ma­ry. I hope that’s not the case and that Pres­i­dent-elect Oba­ma can see why our politi­cians endorsed his oppo­nent but then worked hard to ensure that Penn­syl­va­nia went his way in Novem­ber. If there is mon­ey out there for banks, insur­ers, the auto indus­try, and unpop­u­lar wars, there needs to be mon­ey for ordi­nary cit­i­zens, too.

This makes me won­der what’s next for Fair­mount Park. I vot­ed ‘no’ on that bal­lot ini­tia­tive specif­i­cal­ly because the only thing I’ve ever seen the Recre­ation Depart­ment do is close pools. I seri­ous­ly hope Nut­ter and City Coun­cil aren’t con­jur­ing up ways to sell off our com­mon wealth. We real­ly need to do better.

Posted on by J T. Ramsay 3