Tag Archives: Osees

Tales From The Drop Box Episode 189 (2021-01) / The Pandemic Episodes

Posted on by
Reply

So, as a starter, happy New Year! I’m glad to be back after a short break. So where are we now a few weeks into a new year? Well, shit is still bad. As you might note by the title to these episodes – we are still in a deadly pandemic. In Los Angeles, where I am located, things are really bad. There are more people dying here every day than at anytime in the past 11 months. While there is hope on the horizon we are experiencing the surge caused by a catastrophic failure of people to listen to the advice and act. Here we are at a point where community spread is so high that we just passed 1 million (1,000,000!) COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and confirmed its first case of the new, more contagious coronavirus strain first reported in the United Kingdom. This week the county also reported 14,669 new cases of COVID-19 and 253 additional deaths, bringing the county’s totals to 1,003,923 cases and 13,741 fatalities. See it’s bad.

Then there is the insurrection in the nation’s capitol as the 4 years of chaos under the Trump regime well documented in these pages comes to an insane end. There is still a couple of days until Biden is sworn in but as we should all be aware – that is no guarantee that there will be a peaceful transition of power. Honestly, these past 4 years have been exhausting with this nut bag in control of the reins of democracy. I am hopeful that the tyranny of the minority will end and the rest of us can confront the real issues created and exposed during the past 4 years including the economic disaster caused by the failed response to COVID-19, the harsh reality that the U.S. has institutionalized racism and economic disparity, climate change, and the other social diseases that are symptoms of economic inequality in a very politically divided country. I fear that we are in store for a very rocky ride to get out of the place where we are trapped now. Well, there is always hope….

As you should know by now, the beginning of a new year is also a state of transition for Tales From The Drop Box. Episode 189 delicately balances the urge to present a flurry of new releases that always arrive at the beginning of a new year with those that were released at the end of the last one. Then, there is always the ones that I just didn’t get to play or missed along the way. So, this is really a long way of saying this is a mixed bag of tunes, but all in my mind really good. This I believe is the best way to start a new year – contemplating the last one but always moving forward. So, with that said have a happy and safe new year. We are still going to rock our asses off.

Here is what you’ll find in Episode 189 (2021-01):

  1. Shitkid – “Downtown Apartment” (Crotchrock EP)
  2. Ben Kweller – “Hold Me Down” (Circuit Boredom)
  3. Babe Corner – “Killer” (Killer EP)
  4. The Dirty Nil – “Ride Or Die” (Fuck Art)
  5. Viagra Boys – “Ain’t Nice” (Welfare Jazz)
  6. Some Stranger – “Meet In Secret” (Meet In Secret Speak In Code)
  7. lié – “Drowning In Piss” (You Want It Real)
  8. Osees – “Nervous Breakdown” (Live At Big Sur)
  9. The Avalanches – “Gold Sky (feat. Kurt Vile)” (We Will Always Love You)
  10. Slow Worries – “When We Go Out” (Careful Climb)
  11. Foxy Shazam – “Burn” (Burn)
  12. Descendents – “Hindsight 2020″ (Suffrage 7”)
  13. Happy. – “April Is For Fools” (Imposter Syndrome)
  14. The Stone Roses – “I Am The Resurrection” (The Stone Roses)
  15. Gotts Street Park – “Favorite Kind Of Girl” (Volume Two EP)
Tales From The Drop Box Episode 189 (2021-01)

I’m about to have a nervous breakdown my head really hurts if I don’t find a way out of here …. Down, down, you bring me down I hear you knocking down my door and I can’t sleep at night …

KFR

Tales From The Drop Box Episode 179 (2020-27) The Pandemic/BLM/Vote Trump Out/ Episodes

Posted on by
1

Nah, I’m not even going to try to hide the fact that this opener is political given this week’s new twist in the soap opera that is American politics. Following what some, including myself, have described as a shit show of a presidential debate where Trump demonstrated his true self (i.e. a weak insecure little man prone to lying), the news that Trump, three Republican Senators, and a number of others attending an event in the Rose garden tested positive for COVID-19 certainly was a karma twist. I note that Melania tested positive for COVID-19 as well, so maybe it isn’t true that she won’t get within 6 feet of him. Anyway…

It should not surprising to anyone that the idiot in charge gets COVID-19 at his own super spreader event. After flaunting his own department’s COVID-19 guidelines, mocking the use of mask wearing, hosting events where no one wears masks or physically distances from one another, and lets not forget spreads a shit ton of coronavirus misinformation on a daily basis, the chief architect of evil responsible for the death of more than 209,000 Americans is now feeling the virus’ effects. Given that Trump is a pathological liar, and those around him are also liars (as evidenced by the medical staff having to walk back misinformation within an hour regarding the orange idiots medical condition and treatment, it is not surprising that many see this COVID-19 incident as a political stunt to deflect from the overwhelming amount of evidence that Trump is not fit for office, dangerously incompetent, and whose continued occupancy of the office of the presidency constitutes a clear and present danger to democracy. I would venture to say that 100% of the American people are concerned about whether Trump dies. I cannot estimate that percentage secretly hope he does. However, I do know that evil does not die, so every single person who cares about America, about democracy, and about American values – honesty, decency, and justice still needs to vote to eliminate the Trump scourge as well as the Republican bootlickers who have enabled his brand of lunacy for the past 4 years. We are not perfect as a country but we can do much better than this freaking mess.

As for music, this has been a tremendous week for new releases. Episode 179 has several of them. I would venture to say that when we look back at 2020 we will find that some of the records released this year are generational. That is, they will be records that you will dig out of your collection and say, “damn this is still a ripper, isn’t it?”

Here is what you will find in Tales From The Drop Box Episode 179:

  1. Poppy – “Khaos x4” (I Disagree)
  2. A. Swayze & The Ghosts – “Suddenly” (Paid Salvation)
  3. The Asteroid No. 4 – “All Mixed Up” (Northern Songs)
  4. Bob Mould – “Next Generation” (Blue Hearts)
  5. Knuckle Puck – “Earthquake” (20/20)
  6. The Hunna – “Young & Faded” (I’d Rather Die Than Let You In)
  7. The Menzingers – “Anna” (From Exile)
  8. The Archaeas – “Lip Gloss” (The Archaeas)
  9. Cabbage – “Get Outta My Brain” (Amanita Pantherina)
  10. Idles – “War” (Ultra Mono)
  11. Second Narrows – “Liquor Store” (Second Narrows)
  12. Death Bells – “Heavenly Bodies” (New Signs Of Life)
  13. Osees – “Rainbow” (Levitation Sessions)
  14. Bikini Kill – ‘Rebel Girl” (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)
  15. Pillow Queens – “Holy Show” (In Waiting)
Tales From The Drop Box Episode 179 (2020-27)

When she talks, I hear the revolution in her hips, there’s revolution when she walks, the revolution’s coming . . . I’ve memorized every single moment every fleeting passage of time the way you’d laugh and dance in the kitchen . . .

KFR

Tales From The Drop Box Episode 170 (2020-18) The Pandemic/BLM Episodes

Posted on by
Reply

A bit of a throwback episode this week. As the number of days under pandemic increase, so does the length of the list of tracks that are – drop box worthy! America is struggling in getting the Sars-Cov-2 virus under control, and it doesn’t look like there is going to be any coordinated national response until there is new leadership in the White House. Not unsurprising, the President continues to spread lies, misinformation, and misdirection to attempt to deflect from a horrific and catastrophic loss of American lives (154,449 acknowledged deaths as of this date) and from his own failures. (See John Hopkins Coronavirus Center.) As a lesson for our future, should we have one and if American’s are still voting for elected offices, don’t elect morally corrupt lying sacks of crap who are willing to kill you for their own gain. There is hope and it is 93 days away.

Tales From The Drop Box Episode 170 is a musical smack down of diversity, with a new Osees track, a track from the former dBs vocalists Chris Stamey & Peter Holsapple, new Soul Asylum, and X. There is some new-old music from earlier in the year and late last year before the world shut down in response to the pandemic. I’ve thrown in a couple of live tracks in the hope that live shows will someday return. We will survive the pandemic and when we get to the other side, the lessons we are learning each and every day will help form a new world order, hopefully one that is safer, kinder, and forward thinking. This podcast is merely your soundtrack to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here is what you will find in Episode 170:

  1. Violet Soda – “Don’t Like This Song” (Violet Soda)
  2. Arson Daily – “Bring It All Back Home” (Late Reflections)
  3. Osees – “Blood On Your Boots” (Be Gay, Do Crime!)
  4. Surf Rock Is Dead – “Diabolik” (Existential Playboy)
  5. The Academic – “I Feel It Too (Live at the Iveagh Gardens April 24, 2020)” (Live at the Iveagh Gardens)
  6. The Bar Stool Preachers – “When This World Ends” (Soundtrack To Your Apocalypse)
  7. Chastity – “Flames (Live At The Whitby Courthouse Theater)” (Home Made Satan: Live Addition)
  8. Standup Stacy – “Mirrors” (The Magnificent You)
  9. Aviva – “GRRRLs” (Volume 1)
  10. X – “Alphabetland” (Alphabetland)
  11. The Movement – “Revolt” (Future Freedom Time)
  12. Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey – “Black and White” (Our Back Pages)
  13. Soul Asylum – “Hopped Up Feelin’ (Hurry Up and Wait)
  14. Plain White T’s – “Big Bad World” (Big Bad World)
  15. Riverby – “Smart Mouth” (Smart Mouth)
Tales From The Drop Box Episode 170 (2020-18)

It’s a big bad world we’re doing what we can sometimes we fall on our face before we even learn to stand . . . I, I never would hurt you but even if I did you you never would tell me . . life is simple, life is plain fuck the future, stay the same lust for lashes your country’s in ashes.

KFR