Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................

I'm having a weird moment.  My sleep schedule has become all kinds of wacky and my psyche is in grave danger of collapsing in on itself.  This is one of those times where your exhaustion is feverishly battling the mild stimulant you've recently consumed and it's slowly becoming clear that either nicotine or coffee will no longer be potent enough to keep you conscious.  Your thoughts become slow and disorganized.  Your eyes struggle to focus.  You find yourself listening to the same song you've been humming in your head all day and you can only vaguely distinguish if it's actually playing aloud or if you're finally snapped and might be hallucinating.  Yeah, I'm in that kind of state.

There are so many people in this world.  So many different, totally unique individuals in this world each acting and existing entirely independent of one another.  The biggest problem I have with it is that there's no way, no matter how hard I try, that I will ever get to meet all of these potentially interesting people and hear their stories and split some beers with them.  Sometimes I like to collect people.

My good friend Robert, however, attempted to collect some lizards today.  It did not work.  They were far too wily for us.  That's not to say they outsmarted us, just that they faked us out.  Lizards are crafty, man.  You don't know.  Anyway, at some point after that, Tyler and Jessica showed up.  Acoustic guitars, keyboard, and singing saw in the driveway.  That was kinda weird, but it was also pretty cool.  Almost as cool as getting beer and hanging out on top of a parking deck downtown playing Bob Dylan and Best Coast songs in the freezing cold.  That was an adventure.

Wow.  I grossly overestimated my ability to still be awake and/or stay focused on any one thing at a time.  I just quit writing this for like 20 minutes while I posted some shit on craigslist.  Wtf??  Am I really that ADD??  Maybe I should stop staying up so late.  Or maybe I should stop surfing with 8 tabs open.  Either way, I hope this makes up for it.  Sorry if it doesn't.  I'm not perfect, you know.  But I'm still pretty fuckin' good.

An open (love) letter to Jenny Lewis.

When I was in the 11th grade, I was introduced to the love of my life.  I didn't know it at the time, but nothing would ever be the same again.  A lot of my friends were really into this band called Rilo Kiley, whom I had only vaguely heard of.  Some of them were planning to go see them in concert, and one way or another I got invited to come.  So a girl named Kristie burned me a mix of some of their songs and let me borrow a couple of their cds so I could hear what they were all about.  I listened to one of the albums and skipped over half the songs, thinking a lot of it sounded kind of weird, but for some reason I kept listening to it.  I quit skipping the songs I had been skipping over.  Before I knew it, I was listening to the stuff every day.  We ended up missing the concert, but I moved on and kept listening to this band.  When I finally got my hands on the album they were touring to promote, I fell in love with this voice.  Her name was Jenny, and she was flaming red-haired goddess.

Amongst my friends, it is no secret that I have an enormous crush on Ms. Jenny Lewis.  In fact, some consider it one of my more endearing qualities.  I am a heavily tattooed, bearded, grown ass man, but when I hear Rilo Kiley playing, I turn into a 14 year old girl.  I giggle profusely and scream along to the lyrics as the song blasts through the speakers of the car with the windows down and the stereo turned up uncomfortably high.  Let me tell you, I have gotten quite a lot of interesting looks for this.  But something about it makes me simply lot care.  I feel like with a favorite band, it has to be that way, and I'm truly sorry that not everyone has a band that they feel so strongly about.  With Rilo Kiley, it wasn't an instant connection.  It was not love at first listen.  But I love them unashamedly and whole heartedly.  I listen to this band when I'm happy, when I'm down, or when I'm driving.  Nine times out of ten, this is what I'm singing in the shower.  I've learned to play the bulk of their catalog on guitar and bass.  I can recite every lyric from every song.  So here it is, my gift to you, from my itunes library to your internets, my favorite Rilo Kiley bootleg.  Please enjoy.

Rilo Kiley - Live on Austin City Limits 5/5/05

1. Intro

2. Pull Me In Tighter

3. More Adventurous

4. Ripchord

5. The Absence of God

6. Does He Love You

7. I Love LA

Mixtape monday #2 - "ALL DAY"

So I made a great new mixtape for ya'll to download.


Forget that.  Download Girl Talk's new album instead.  The Messiah of Mash-Ups decided to surprise us all and release his latest opus "All Day" out of nowhere today.  Let me just say this:  he delivers.

Download it here from his label, Illegal Art (fo' free).

Here's some album art.

Well, what the fuck are you waiting for??  Download it now and listen to it front to back.

I may have literally gone crazy. Seriously.

So it would seem that my intense job hunt was at least moderately successful.  I had a job interview the other day, the first of two I'll need to have before actually being hired.  Not a big deal, actually a pretty common practice amongst retail jobs, even in the holiday season when they need help as fast as possible (something I will never understand).  I'm also going to use that as an excuse as to why I haven't bothered to make a new blog post in the past few days even though it was 2 days ago and lasted all of... 20 minutes?  No, my precious internet friend, I am not neglecting you, I promise.

Anyway, so there I am walking out of JC Penney (not my ideal job, but I'll take it) already dreaming up ways to spend money I don't have from paychecks I haven't earned from a job I haven't even been hired for.  The irony did not fail me.

I have a desperate need for a bass amp, so that was the first thing to come to mind.  Secondly, I thought about a car.  Then I thought about how well I'm managing without one of my own right now (pretty well, all things considered) and how long it would take to save up for anything better than the random collection of junk I've previously owned (now THERE'S an idea for a future post).  And then, naturally, my mind wandered to even less practical things.

Now there are the obvious ones, like beer, cupcakes, and random thrift store trinkets, and then there's the big stuff.  I immediately got on gamestop's website and started searching for new and exciting ways for me to waste my time in the virtual realm.  Splashed there across the front page staring me in the face was the obvious answer.  A Playstation 3.  Months and months of aggressive marketing by Sony has finally worn me down.  Now, despite my terrible ways with money, I do not make large purchases without thinking, and unless the item in question is food or beer, I rarely make impulse buys.  I knew immediately that a PS3 would mean not getting a new ipod any time soon, and this was not a good thing.  However...  then I saw the second thing.  Gran Turismo 5, a game literally five years in the making.

It's hard to believe that picture comes from a damn game.  I mean, that shit looks like real life.  But I guess if you're a Japanese game programmer and you love cars as much as I do, you get some shit done in five years.  Shortly after realizing this, I decided to say fuck it.  Fuck an ipod.  Forget a car.  I'm going to buy 1,031 cars.  I will justify this to myself by saying it's a perfect compromise.  I love to drive and rarely get to do so anymore, I have a gigantic secret love for racing games, and very little self control.

Alright, I'm done talking about video games.  You can start reading again if that bored the shit out of you.

So one of my friends said something to me the other day about my last post and my stupid words and talking and all that blah blah blah.  We got into a discussion about it and some psychology words got tossed around and it came to my attention that what I was doing is a symptom of something called thought disorder.  So I looked it up, and it turns out I have nearly EVERY SINGLE SYMPTOM of thought disorder.  At first, I was distressed by this fact.  Then, I realized that's not so bad.  And then it came to my attention that thought disorder is a major symptom of schizophrenia.  Hmm...  Couple this with my sudden, apparent attention deficit and hyperactivity and I discovered that I may have literally gone crazy.  Let me rephrase that.

I have discovered that I am, in all likelihood, probably an insane person.


I must say, this is equally intriguing and disturbing.  But not all that surprising, I guess.  So to distract myself from that, new topic.  Ruin porn.

See that?  I love this shit.  Abandoned cities, buildings, houses, and anything else that people made and then, for one reason or another, just gave up on and left one day.  Decrepit, crumbling urban decay.  And now it apparently has a name.  Ruin porn.  This pic is from an old theater in Detroit, and if you're jaw doesn't drop upon seeing it, there is something wrong with you.  Or maybe there's something wrong with me.  But you know what, if there is something wrong with me for liking this stuff, then there is something wrong with Hipstercrite as well, and she seems pretty cool, so I don't mind being lumped in with that kind of company.  Also, she has a really cool blog that you should read and/or follow (like mine!! please????), because if you're reading this and you don't hate it, then you'll probably love her, because her blog is waaayyy better.

I remembered all of this and got to thinking about it today because of a series of increasingly weird dreams I had last night.  I won't bore you with the details until I start running of stuff that really happened to talk about, but one of them took place in a setting exactly like that picture.  Suffice it to say, there were zombies.  I have a lot of dreams about zombies.  Sometimes I wonder if this is simply because I think about zombies an awful lot or if I can interpret it in the traditional meaning of what it supposedly says about your psyche when the undead invade your subconscious.  Freud was a total hack and a cocaine addict, but I've always felt like he made a couple of totally undeniable contributions to the field of psychology; one being psychoanalysis, and the other being the interpretation of dreams (bonus points to myself for using a semi-colon).  Supposedly, zombies are meant to represent some unresolved issue or a nagging, recurring thought that will not go away within your subconscious.  Unlike most of my zombie dreams, this one was pretty straightforward and I've got a pretty good idea of what it was about.  Also, I started out the dream with a shotgun and didn't have to run or find a weapon to fend them off with.  That definitely helped.  Fuck, I said I wasn't going to talk about the dream, didn't I?  To make up for it, here's a picture of some zombies.  Also zombie related:  if you aren't watching The Walking Dead, you should be.

That's about all I've got to say right now.  Why does it seem like I only post after 3am??  This is the magic hour.  Anyway, I just realized it's now officially monday.  Know what that means??  Hell yeah, you do, because you're reading this awesome blog and that means you shall be rewarded with a delicious new mixtape later today.  *Hint*  There will probably be some Daft Punk on it somewhere.  *Hint #2*  There will probably be at least one band you have never heard of on it.  Goodnight, internet.

unemployment and other fine points

Being a jobless slacker affords one many opportunities to indulge in the simpler pleasures of life.  "Why Corey, what do you mean by that statement?" you may be asking yourself right now (if you literally asked yourself that out loud, consider seeking psychological assistance.  you may have some sort of disorder).  Well, good sirs and ladies, allow me to elaborate.  Though my desperation to find gainful employment in any sort of job that will not make me hate my life and pays a decent wage has pushed me to apply for every position from "Dog Trainer" to "Flight Attendant" to "Tow Truck Dispatcher", I have still found the time to play bass until my fingers have been shredded beyond recognition, do a considerable amount of writing, and watch some truly epic films.

In addition to surf guitar, loud noises, and videogames, I have a sincere appreciation for foreign films.  And may I just issue a hearty "bravo" to the German film industry.  I just got through watching The Baader Meinhof Complex, and I have to say, it is most definitely among the best films of the past few years.  Period.  End of story.  It's about a Marxist left-wing extremist group that operated at it's peak in West Germany from about 1967-1977 which engaged in a series of increasingly violent acts.  Starts as a bunch of students rioting in response to police brutality and ends up as a bunch of violent revolutionaries trying to free their leaders from prison.  Along the way, they rob 3 banks in 10 minutes in West Berlin, steal some Porsches and race down the autobahn firing Berettas wildly out the windows, living the kind of wild, criminal lifestyle most of us are too afraid to even dream of.  There's also a lot of random nudity (not a bad thing?) and some seriously graphic violence (also not a bad thing).  Most incredibly, everything you see actually happened.  I don't mean for this to turn into a movie review, but this is definitely a film that makes you want to change something about yourself, stop sitting idly by, and do something to change the world.  Anyway, for those of you who are more visually driven, here's the film's poster.

Boom.  Stolen from the internet.  Just like 90% of the pictures and music you will ever find on this blog.  Whoops?  Did I say that??  I meant... umm... legally acquired via an undisclosed source.  Internet piracy is bad.  Actually, I retract that.  In fact, here's a link where you can read about the "internet blacklist" that's being proposed to congress to "protect copyright infringement".  Realistically, it sets up an internet police state like in China.  Do you want the government to block you from viewing whatever sites they feel like just because they think it may or may not infringe on what are, let's face it, incredibly vague copyright laws??  Hell no!  So in that case, here's another link where you can sign the online petition to block this legislation, or at least voice your opinion against it.  And why stop there??  Why don't you email your senator and let him or her (just realized how few female senators we have.  jesus, people.  it's 2010.  let's get with the god damn program) know exactly what you think of the situation.

In a way, that's what the whole movie is about.  No, not internet rights, but lashing out and taking a stand against governmental actions that you don't agree with.  Maybe that's how all extremist groups start out, I guess.  Somebody has a really strong opinion about something and they take their opposition to whatever that may be to a totally different level.  Sure, it's messy, and a lot of innocent people end up getting hurt, but these people have principles, dammit.

I have no idea where I'm going with this.  But you know, no one seems to be making that kind of angry music anymore.  Who's the voice of the revolution these days??  It used to be so clear, like when Dylan went electric, or Hendrix and Cash started to sing about the Vietnam war.  Maybe Tyler Durden had it right when he said "We have no great war.  No great depression."  Our generation seems so concerned with self-discovery and masturbating our own egos that I think we've all lost sight of what really matters, like people and causes and being happy with where we're at and what we're doing.

In any case, every time I apply for one of these different jobs, I keep picturing myself doing that and wondering is that something I'm going to be happy doing in the long term.  Maybe that's not the right approach.  Maybe what we should all be doing is focusing on what we can all do to make ourselves just a little bit happier and more fulfilled right this very minute.  Maybe that's terrible advice and it's probably incredibly irresponsible.  Shit, at this point I don't even know if I care.

But I do know that if one of these places doesn't give me a job soon, I might have to resort to being a con artists or a Marxist extremist.  Or maybe something really outrageous...

oh noes! we gots troblems. (picture most definitely related)

For reasons beyond my understanding or control, my brain occasionally fails me.  And I don't just mean in situations where I'm probably drunk or standing far too near a pretty girl (although the things that come out of my mouth on those occasions defy all logic and reason).  Over the years, one recurring way that this seems to happen is when I am trying to speak and think at the same time.  Clearly, these are two incredibly complicated tasks.  It's not that I don't think before I speak, in fact, it's quite the opposite.  Sometimes I think way too much before I speak.  Let me demonstrate with an example of what goes on inside my head versus what my mouth ends up saying during a typical conversation.

Brain:  Oh dear.  This seems to be a problematic situation that this individual is describing to me.  Very troubling indeed.  Hmm... is this trouble or a problem?  Oh god.  She's looking at me like I should be saying something.  Wait, am I supposed to be agreeing or disagreeing?  Fuck.  This shit's way too hard. Oh no, I still haven't said anything.  This is distressing...  Quick!  AGREE!!

What actually comes out:  Buuuuhhh... I, uh, well you gots troblems... ??

I end up being totally incapable of choosing between one of two words, sometimes words that don't sound anything alike or have any kind of similar meaning and before I can decide which to use, the words are already coming out of my mouth and it's too late to not sound like a drunk retard.


Lately though, my brain has been finding new and interesting ways to keep me from succeeding in... well, in pretty much anything.  Case in point:  I am pretty god damn sure I have ADHD of some kind.  Wait, are there even multiple kinds of ADHD??  I don't know.  I am not a scientist.  Please do not judge me.

Anyway, I have got way too much energy.  When the mail comes, I sprint to the road and then jump back like a 5 year old girl who's had a few too many pixie sticks to be able to sit still, even though it's probably just some stupid political fliers and maybe a reader's digest (which is just a filthy, stupid publication, by the way).  Shit, I lost my train of thought.  See what I mean?  I got distracted by a television commercial that had a submarine.  And then for some reason I started thinking about bears.  And then I just HAD to put on my fingerless gloves so I could feel like a hobo when I go outside to smoke my cigarette.  Is it possible for ADD to come on later in life?  I don't know about that.  Someone smarter than me is gonna have to answer that question.

Anyway, I'm tired of talking about this and it's really cold out here.  So I'm gonna finish my menthol.  You just keep doing what you do.

Seacrest.  Out.

Mixtape #1 - "The Lost Art"

I wanted to tell a funny story, but I don't want to use up all of my good material in one post, and I realized I don't want to ruin my first mixtape monday by posting it late...

If music is the soundtrack to our lives, then a good mix should be about crafting the soundtrack to a moment, capturing a mood, or maybe just throwing together some bitchin' driving music for a road trip.  Back in the day, the best quality cassettes only had about 25 minutes of play time per side, so for that reason, I'm gonna try and keep the length of these under an hour.  I've always felt like there's something about restricting yourself in art that makes you rise above and overcome your limitations.  But then again, it all boils down to effectively using someone else's words to make your point... so...... yeah.

This is a tiny sampling of what I'm into right now.  I try to never use the same artist more than once on a single mix and I'll try not to recycle songs too much, but the I can't guarantee that the really good ones that are in heavy rotation won't make return appearances.

So, without further ado, mix numero uno lands here for your listening pleasure.  Click the song titles to download.  If you have issues, try again after midnight.  I don't get unlimited bandwidth.  But that'll be a good problem to have if we ever get to that point.


1 - There's No Secrets This Year - Silversun Pickups
2 - Loud Pipes - Ratatat
3 - Dull Life - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4 - The Way We Get By - Spoon
5 - Matchbook Seeks Maniac - Deerhoof
6 - Postcards From Italy - Beirut
7 - St. Augustine - Band of Horses
8 - Rise Up With Fists!!! - Jenny Lewis w/ the Watson Twins
9 - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service
10 - Sun Was High (So Was I) - Best Coast
11 - Next Girl - The Black Keys
12 - Love Is A Deserter - The Kills
13 - Take Me To The Riot - Stars

Download.  Listen.  Enjoy.  Share.  :D

this show is called squidbillies

Hello everyone.  So you're sitting there at home one day and you think to yourself, "hey, I've got important shit to say.  maybe I should start a blog."  No?  That doesn't happen to you??  Well, it happened to me, and now here we are.

Chances are, you don't know much about me aside from what it says on the right of your screen and things I may or may not have said while drunk somewhere.  Hell, you may know even less than that.  But that's not what's important.  What's important is what's going on, and there's a whole lot of that.  But just in case you were curious, here's a little more about me and mine.  I've got 5 years of college under my belt and no degree.  However, unlike many of my peers, I'm not completely retarded (so at least you're getting a well written blog if nothing else?).  I like psychology, history, zombies, things that go fast, and things that explode.  I also like music, but anyone with a sense of hearing does too, and if they don't...  well, I'm sorry, but who the hell doesn't like music??  Anyway, as to where I'm at and what's going on, imagine the state of Georgia.  Pick a spot exactly in the middle.  That's about where I'm at.  A few years ago, this place was a cultural vacuum with no music scene, downtown was full of crackheads, bums, and empty store fronts.  Slowly but surely though, we're catching up to the rest of the world.

It's a far cry from the sights and the sounds of Atlanta, but regardless, things are happening here.  We've got post-rock, psychedelia, alt-country, rap, and all that other good shit.  We've even got art shows and vintage book store that promotes free live music for all the local kids.  Ain't that special??  But if you're like me and you're looking for what's coming next, I'd bet on the surf sound.

Think about it.  Beach House, Wavves, Best Coast, Surfer Blood... I could go on and on with this, but I don't know if you're interested to read that or not.  If you are, stick around.  Shit's gonna get real.

This isn't a music blog, but it isn't not a music blog either.  Does that make any kind of sense?  Fuck, man, I don't even know.  Mondays are gonna be special though.  Every monday, I'm gonna make a new mixtape and share it with the world.  Mixtape Mondays!  That's what we're gonna call it, for better or worse.  It may be that that's all the music we squeak out of this thing, but who gives a damn, we're going to have some fun with it.  Yeah, I know it's monday right now, but it's also like 3am and my external hard drive is all the way on the other side of the the room.  I can't reach that far.  Cut me some slack, I'll do it in the afternoon when I get around to waking up.

Anyway, this wasn't really all that funny or interesting, or brief for that matter.  But it was informative.  I apologize in advance if I get drunk and post pictures of cats or cartoon bears.  Gonna try real hard to not do that.  If you're offended by my language, sorry, this probably isn't something you're gonna want to read. I type like I talk and I talk like a sailor.  I will not censor myself or anyone else.  If you like my blog, awesome.  I hope you keep reading it.  Maybe you'll even subscribe to it.  I'll try to not let the fame or notoriety go to my head.  If you don't, well... well I guess that's alright too.

In conclusion, I'll be your host, Comrade Corey.  And hey man, this shit is my jam (turn it up).  What follows will be the adventures, sights, sounds, and goings on of me and my compatriots as we struggle to get by here in middle Georgia.



PS - sorry if you were misled by the title of this post to think it had anything to do with the show squidbillies.  for putting up with it...  look at this thing I found?