another forgotten classic

One dude dead(RIP), one dude in Guns and Roses, the other dude a painter, and the final dude a singer/songwriter. Who would have guessed it. I don't know about the 81 tag on this video(Stink came out in 82 so it's possible), but it is killer none the less.

Another killer. This is what should have been playing on that radio in the boombox scene of that John Cusack movie....

Tubular Life Part 2

So I let the tires stretch, and stretch, and stretch. I was little nervous about gluing them and was having trouble balancing all the competing methods and practices.
I had originally planned to go with the full CXWorld belgian tape method. My cross guru brought up a couple good points against it, and that had me going back to the drawing board.
I decided on 4 coats of glue on the tires and rims-no tape. The next point of contention was the drying time between coats. Even with only a handful of reliable sources, there were variances of 23 hours. The shortest time between coats was 20 minutes. The longest was 24 hours.
Since I had already gone with my cross guru on one point, I decided to follow his methodology which was a coat of glue per day.
So ready to go I prepped my primitive work stations. I used a front fork to glue the rims and did the tires on empty wheel boxes. Ghetto fab.

Gluing was a four day fiesta. Although it was much more solemn-maybe a four day rite. The only problem was with only one coat per day, you don't spend enough time to work up into the full glue fueled extended ecstatic state. No time to crank up the Sunn and jump into the Park Tools robe. Doing a coat a day was pretty much 30 minutes a night until the grand finale. Only about an inning or so of sub par Red Sox action.
Day four was the day of reckoning. Would I end up glued to the tire? Would there be glue everywhere but where necessary? Would I lack the muscle to properly seat the tire? What would go wrong that I hadn't even thought of?
Properly stretched,the tires mounted pretty easily. Rookie jitters had me spooked, but the whole process was not to bad(this is subject to a post test ride review and inspection by those more skilled than I).
Let them dry and aqua sealed them the next day. Just have to put in some tire sealant and throw on a cassette and they are good to go. Took the front tire out for a spin and returned without incident.
Ready for Suckerbrook with 2 races to test them on.
Cannot wait to race these.
Ride review of wheels/tires/my mounting job will be up on Sunday after the Quad Cross race. Hopefully it will not be co-sponsered by the Fail-blog

Eddie Harris High Voltage LP

Atlantic jazz circa 69-73 has a real special place in my heart. It flirts with funk,soul,whatever but always manages to come up with it's own interpretation of the times. I thought this might have been limitted to Les McCann, but this Eddie Harris record keeps my faith in this time period alive.
I am not a fan or opponent to the "electric" angle of Eddie Harris. It never seemed super gimmicky to me and it doesn't get in the way of the tunes.
This LP opens up with a killer. Moving on Out. True,it's not Moving on Up, but what can you do? Next up is the killer "Funky Doo". The only thing stopping this from being a "rare groove" monster is the trippy effects at the end which really only make it more of a monster. This 2 song A side justifies the purchase of this LP on sight. The A side of this LP demonstrates all that is good about Atlantic jazz in this time period. It is funky but not generic, informed of it's era, but not bound to it.
Side 2 had 4 tracks. Some more straight ahead stuff and a nod to the tenors of old. Not as mind blowing as the A-side, but "Listen Here" keeps it moving.
It is pretty crazy to think that Atlantic was dropping this alongside Led Zep,Aretha, Do Covay, The MC5,and Roberta Flack.

tubular teaser

Project is almost done.....
Full Report to follow....

picky,picky

Lots of rad bike shots as trade season kicks off.
Courage bikes makes some amazing frames. The SS cross bike is amazing-love the slightly extended seat tube with pass through brake cable and the graduated track ends are a cool touch, but what is up with the leather shoulder pad? After a few races wouldn't this stink worse than Rob Halford's crotch? Do you really want something that collects water snugly wrapped around your STEEL frame? Regardless of this nitpick, it is a rad bike. Courage Cycles.

Colnago doesn't dodge a bullet either. This CX friendly arch looks more like this than something designed to more easily shoulder your bike. If you have the bike wedged onto your shoulder all the way back at the seat post, you are going to have an awful lot of bike hanging in front of you. Can't picture Nys requesting this. The beefier tube sections make it look more like a Stevens.

IF had this classy cool way to run the rear brake cable on a cross bike.
And finally Schlamm's twitter came through with these way to handle the front brake....

Cross on the brain

Double Dagger pretty much rule

Thrill Jockey was always home to a bunch of tedious post-rockers who danced way too close to jazz-fusion lite and world music, so I never really paid much attention to their output. But, as frequently happens, I may have to change my opinion based on the last few releases. Pontiak, Extra-Golden, and now Double Dagger. Hailing from Baltimore, they have a classic arty indie rock sound that brings me back to the early/mid 90s. I never realized how much I missed this classic sound, til I heard it reworked here. Bass driven and melodic. It's got a DC sound, emo in a good way. Wish Dischord put out more records that sounded like this. Made me wistful for bands like Chino Horde-who apparently have a 2lp discography out, but I will save rambling about midwest early 90s emo for a different post. Gonna name check some bands, and I think this is on par with them. Lync, Squirrel Bait, No joke.
This is seriously fucking great and I have not stopped listening to it since I got it. Good at work, good in the car, good working on bikes in the basement. "Camouflage" is the jam and , I wish I got this in May when it came out, cause it would have been album of the summer.
The band even has a documentary??? And a video

Liturgy Renihilation CD

Black Metal is a term that is as abused as "acid-folk". When it comes to
the more traditional kult or orthodox black metal, I would rather just look
at pictures and album art from new bands, while listening to Transylvanian Hunger.
But despite the misuse of the term, black metal is the jump off for some of
the more interesting music hitting my speakers(krallice,nachmystium,bone
awl, etc) and now Liturgy. 20 Buck Spin is the label for the Renihilation
CD.
The my main test for black metal is very simple. Does it make me feel like
I want to ride a horse across a frozen plain as my barbarian horde prepares
to attack a village? Call it the Bathory test, but if it gives me that feeling or
reminds me of Conan, we have a winner. Liturgy passes the first test.
On one hand, this is some furious straight ahead blasting black metal. Vocals
are classic TH era Darkthrone.
On the other, there are some cool noisey-almost sonic youth type parts.
Maybe even some Harvey Milk esque bashing and riffing when it slows down, and
that is all in the first song! The riffing remains furious throughout and
manages to mutate from metal into melodic buzz and back with ease.
This disc shreds. It overcomes the singing interludes, the pretentious lyrical concepts, and the fact that they are from NYC.
I wish I had it when I was gluing my tubulars, this cd and a couple tubes of glue would make for a hell of a night-maybe even River's Edge II.