Swinging Singles Club MN

  I've been doing some cooking but it's still unbearably hot out. Even now at around 11pm it's still in the 80s. But I did somewhat successfully concoct a Thai inspired cucumber/pineapple salad using some of the leftover roast duck from last week. It works. Made some Japanese green beans with a sesame dressing and have some duck stock burbling on the stove even as I type. It's kind of a cooking win for the day. Especially since I don't feel like I've been all that good about keeping up with the cooking as of late. Which means I should probably work out making some custard base for some ice cream tonight as well.... In the meantime here's some punk rock from Saint Cloud, MN Persnickety (1993) As previously noted the Nothingheads originated in Saint Cloud, MN . For whatever reason this album always seems to rise towards the top of any random playlist when it's on my phone. I can't say whether that's good or bad, but it happens. This is early 90s ga...

  It's my week off from work and I had a few plans for getting parts of the new place in order and places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do. Didn't happen. Summer cold knocked me on my ass for a couple of days and I'm playing catch up with the barest minimum of what I actually need to do. So there's that. Otherwise I'm feeling tons better, but the post nasal drip still lingers. Not that it really matters. Luke's Angels (2003) Indie girl pop. Played with them once at a party organized by John Kuker. Rather enjoyed them. There is a follow up to this released in 2008 that I can't say as I've ever seen, but I'm on the hunt for. For both our sakes.

  It's nearing the end of July and it's been a pretty hot fucking summer. We're nearing the dog days of August and it's not seeming to get much cooler. In times like these music that goes "GRRR...Rawr...ArOOO!" is the only kind that really makes any sort of sense of the inferno that is the great outdoors and goes well with alcoholic beverages. With that in mind, I present to you, kind reader, Total Fucking Blood... Blaze the Lord (2006) Downtuned noisy metal chaos you didn't know you needed, but you really fucking did. You're welcome. Swing on by the Total Fucking Blood Bandcamp and you can pick up vinyl copies of their other albums, but not this beauty. Just do it and everybody wins.

 Another staving off the end of the queue and keeping things rolling along while I ponder my next move post.       Something Wonderful (1996) As a wee lad I had a toy called a Whee-lo which I suppose was for its day the equivalent of a cross between a yo-yo and a fidget spinner. It just spun around on its track back and forth and ate up time and motion. It's an incredible feat of magnets and movement that served no other legitimate purpose than to simply hypnotize a small child with the illusion of doing something while wasting time until puberty hit. It's also almost the name of this rock and roll combo that put out this compact disc in 1996. They went by Wheelo, thereby avoiding issues of trademark infringement should Maggie Magnetic inc get wind of their existence and feel like suing. Listening to this disc is slightly more productive than the original toy though. At least in that listening to it frees up your hands to do something constructive with them while yo...

 It's my week off and I'm down to a single queued post in either blog. Time to rectify that while I continue to slack off and avoid doing the responsible adult things I should actually be doing rather than this. Empty Hearts (1986) I  don't really know what to say about this one. When I first moved here way back in the day one of my roommates and his friend were sort of obsessed with this band called the Widgets. I found this odd since they were otherwise very punk rock oriented listeners. They got Nirvana's "Bleach" when it came out and played it over and over again on repeat until I couldn't stand to hear it ever again. But this pop rock confection was a band that they'd bubble over about and rush to see at the Uptown Bar and Grill as often as they played there. Life is funny that way. It's also one of those records that's obscure enough that there isn't a decent jpeg of the cover to be found on the interwebs. That's something that is...

  'Cuz it's 7/11. Get it? Huh?    Something in French (1995) Oh dear. I don't appear to have made my own scans for this. AND it's packed away in a box still. Sorry for the shitty graphics. This is the debut by Voodoo Love Mint. It's rock and roll and kind of loud.  You like loud rock and roll don't you? Well, don't you?

  I need to get to bed soon and straighten out my sleep schedule after some time off. So you, dear friend, if you aren't already in the know about these things might have to do some google searching on your own. Whoops Kitty (1996) A band of veterans of other bands. Female fronted. Power Pop/Punk/indie in equal parts. Something that seems to go down pretty easy and this is the only record that it existed. And after those sentences I still feel like I'm underselling it.

  It's last week. Everything is here. There's little room to move around because of all the boxes that are yet unpacked. But we're all here and I'm on vacation. For the moment at least it feels a lot more like we're on a trip and staying at somebody's really crowded Airbnb except that we didn't leave the city and brought all of our stuff and the cat with us. We're adjusting to a new neighborhood. Having a neighbor across the hall. (We went from a duplex to a fourplex) Having to find a different Chinese place. A new pizza place. The general quiet of the new digs. (Old place was on a major bus line and under a main flight path to the airport. There were times you couldn't hear the TV from six feet away.) And having my sleep schedule be all kinds of fucked up. We got movers for the big stuff, but I moved a bunch in the car. There was a huge heatwave so doing that late at night was the only comfortable time of day.  Then with everything else my sleeping ...