Thanks everyone for the lovely e-cards. Especially those that involved naked men and/or pirates. There seemed to be a theme.

Today I saw Magnetic Fields and Andrew Bird at the Old Town School of Music, which was a really great, chill venue because it's all seating and it's super small. Andrew Bird blew me away. Becky and I saw him at the Empty Bottle last fall, and this time was so much better; I think the venue really made a difference. He's an experimental violinist, and for most of his songs he plucks a melody on his violin, loops it and they plays more violin over it. He also has a fabulous voice. Very sexy music. The Magnetic Fields were good, extremely low key as they just sat there and played for the most part. I was happy about the song selection; they played songs off of the Pieces of April soundtrack, which I'm loving, along with a couple other of my favorites from 69 Love Songs. Also lots of songs from the new album I, my favorite being "I Though I Was Your Boyfriend," which they called their gay anthem to go along with Gay Pride Weekend here in Chicago. Stephen Merritt is very small.

Oh yeah, I also went and watched the Gay Pride parade. Lots of pole dancing.

Just when I thought, it could not get any better...

Ch-Check this out

When all my dreams come true, I'll be her sidekick.

Here's "I Summon You" for your convenience, if you haven't gotten it already. Just right-click and save!

Just got back from the Spoon show at the Metro. Let me say, MUCH MUCH better show than last summer's show at the Randolph Street Festival. Obviously you know that means they played Everything Hits at Once (and relatively early enough for me to not get too anxious) and it was wonderful, but overall it was just a better concert; the set list was almost perfect, the new songs they showcased sounded good, including an awesome Britt Daniel solo of "I Summon You," which he put up in demo form on the Spoon website, and they really seemed to take their time with the songs, while last year I felt like they really rushed through their set (though that might have been the doing of the festival, since Ted Leo last week seemed sort of rushed as well). Hopefully everyone in Madison got the chance to check out the show on Wednesday, I'm jealous it was at a small venue like the Annex!

Britney's gonna be a stepmom!

Hot Hot Heat news on TMT!

Tonight I see Spoon. I'm hoping to hear some good new songs and also am giving Britt Daniel the chance to redeem himself for not playing Everything Hits at Once last year. Hopefully tears won't have to be shed a second time.

SCARY

Lollapalooza cancelled . . .

Guess who just called here at the agency. . . DAVID CROSS. He's apparently making a video for the Black Keys, though I'm not sure how that relates to the booking agency. But it's still cool.

New Picts of Mifflin Street Block Party 2004 in the pictures section; check'em out.

I played episodes one and two of the Perfect Face For Radio Adventure Story Hour for my parents... they LOVED them.

Just one more day of suspension left... Will the Communications Future Federation and President Nightfall succeed where real life has failed and tune DJ Lazer out for good? Find out in one week!

So after like a million years (or 1 1/2 months), I finally put up some pictures from Coachella on the Pictures page. I also wrote a ridiculously long review of the festival for tinymixtapes that I'll link here when it goes up. It helps explain some of the pictures more, like the one of the Broken Social Scene guitarist proposing to his girlfriend.

Today I went to the Randolph Street Festival to see Brendan Benson and Ted Leo, who I've been trying to see ever since the show Liz and I won tickets to was cancelled due to his ruptured vocal cords. They were great and both played lots of new songs from upcoming records. I dragged my roommate along, who has absolutely no musical knowledge but liked both bands a lot. In fact, she made an astute observation: "How come no one is getting into them? Everyone is just standing around! Does no one know them?" To which I replied, "oh no, everyone here really likes it I'm sure, that's just the way indie fans are. They show their appreciation by standing around with their arms crossed." And she said, "well we might as well get some fun friends together and stand around listening to the radio then if it's like this." Very funny to hear someone else comment on the annoyingness of "doing the standing still."

Go go Nicole. That's great news! Now I won't feel nearly as guilty if the show gets banned from WSUM for indeceny.

Future Perfect Face for Radio news:::

I went to a volunteer meeting for the local community radio station, WLUW 88.7 FM (www.wluw.org). It is pretty much exactly like WSUM but not a college station and has block programming, though block programming is essentially like this:
All day- indie rock
Nights and weekends- a variety of other stuff that may or may not still include indie rock
I'll volunteer all summer and garner bonus points, start DJ training in the fall, become a DJ and sub by December, and hopefully sub fairly frequently for awhile before getting a show. Unfortunately, unlike college radio, people don't graduate and leave time slots open. Luckily, WLUW does a lot more events than WSUM did, so there's plenty of chances to do radio stuff! Stay tuned!

Look at all the story hour fodder you have for two weeks from now!

My first news story in awhile is up on tinymixtapes, about two kids dying at Bonaroo . . .

Sadly, there will be no PFFR next Monday. DJ Lazer has been suspended for indeceny.

"Hey Jon,

Thanks for fessing up right away. You're suspension will start
Now, Tuesday, and go through next Tuesday the 22nd. I'll put up a sub
sheet for you. Next time, you're off the air for the remainder of summer,
just so ya know.

Meagan

"

Graham! Let's blame it on him, it's easier that way.

Meanwhile, I put up a couple awesome new CDs on the recommended listening page. I wrote a review of the Joanna Newsom album that will be up on tinymixtapes sometime. Beware: the album is definitely an acquired taste. Actually, her voice specifically is the acquired taste. But I like it, and that's what matters. Feel free to give yourself a few minutes, which is what it took for me, or a few months.

Yes, I am serious.

Last week I meant to play a different track from the Scissor Sisters album but I selected "You can't see Tits on the radio," which features the title of the song in the chorus. Ironically, I reviewed the album and found that song to be the only indecent one on it.

Yesterday, I failed to censor Graham when he introduced himself as "Skullfucker," which is the name of his character on the adventure story hour. Coincidently, I had just received that email from Meagan a few hours earlier and apologized to her mere minutes before I aired it.

Also, coincidently, the plot of the adventure story hour revolves around me being wanted for indecency.

The details of my suspension are still pending.

Clearly, I have no clothing on my face or upper body in those pictures.

Keep checking the page because there will be new adventure story hour stuff up later today!

Are you serious? What did you do? And are you naked in those pictures on the homepage?

I just got suspended. I made another FCC violation.

@#$!

The second Adventure Story Hour airs tonight!

"Hey Jon.
     This is your warning for indecency...next time its a one week
suspension.  I have faith that I will not need to bust out my so-called
iron fist though  ;)
  thanks,
  Meagan"

Last night I saw Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. Joanna Newsom totally stole the show in my opinion- the first time I've ever seen anyone play harp and her voice is so cool. Devendra Banhart, meanwhile, has got to be one of the wierdest people ever. Read this interview with him on Nerve.com to see why. Basically he's a big hippie.

Check out the all-new Adventure Story Hour Section of the Webpage!

Oh my God, that is so funny. And it was your 22nd birthday too . . . but let's all remember, it was the night of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and you were at the Bar of Evil (KK), and I was coming down with a cold. I promise I will not cross anyone off my friends list for not hanging out with me on my birthday. However, there were definitely people crossed off the list for not coming to my Single Frame show, I'll tell you that much . . .

Nicole, Ahem, did you bother to come to my birthday?

I'd like to point out that my birthday is in a couple weeks: June 29. A little pre-warning for those of your disposed to forget these types of things. It's a Tuesday, and I plan on celebrating the weekend before, so anyone interested in coming down to Chicago that weekend is more than welcome; Spoon is also playing at the Metro Friday the 25th, which might be included in said birthday celebration plans.

Monday's show was insane. The feedback of the adventure story hour was positive as in "I almost died laughing." Many people have expressed that sentiment.

Big update of the webpage coming this weekend! New Pictures! And a New Adventure Story Hour section with scripts and episode synopses!

This is hilarious: go to www.hardnphirm.com and click on their song "Rodeohead." It's a bunch of Radiohead songs sung in country.

Also, the other day we went to dinner, where we were served by BIZARRO SAM. He looked somewhat like Sam, but sounded and talked EXACTLY like him, it was crazy!

How'd the first show go yesterday Rockey? We don't have internet set up yet at the apt, so I couldn't listen in.

Today I get to learn to use the phones! Now I get to say "Stephen Malkmus on line 1", ha!

Just kidding, here's my new part-time summer job:

"We are looking to hire intelligent, articulate, sexually open-minded women to work from home as phone sex entertainers.
Being a phone sex entertainer is a real job and requires real work. We will advertise you on our websites as well as show you how to promote yourself. You will need to put time in advertising yourself. This way you are not limited to the amount of calls we can send you, but by the amount you can pull yourself in addition to what we send you.
To work for us you must:

1. Be female and at least 18 years old.
2. Have 2 seperate telephone lines with caller ID.
3.You must have internet access and time to devote to networking with potential clients online.
4. Work 20 hours a week.
5. Be comfortable being sexy and talking dirty. We train you to get calls; we cannot train you to be sexy."

Well, I just found my part-time summer job!

"I am a very busy business owner and am looking for a model companion to accompany me for workouts, sporting events, shows and fine dining. This is not a solicitation for sex or nudity. I don't have time to date, but want someone to accompany me and to enhance my image. I would expect you to look and be dressed and made-up like a model at all times. All activities would be above board and in high class public places. I would of course pay your modeling fee at the time of each event. This could include clothes etc. for the right person. This would be a great summer job for someone that wanted to take classes during the summer or enjoy other activities rather than be accountable to a 9-5 job. Prefer Asian models, but others will be considered.

If you are interested send your picture and any questions that you may have."

Workouts???

Overhead today in the office:

"David, it's Stephen Malkmus on line 1."

It's things like this that confirm to me that I'm doing the right thing :)

I did a massive update of the upcoming concerts page, so check it out- lots of new ones coming to the High Noon in Madison.

Some more CD recommendations:
Sea Ray- Stars at Noon (sort of post rock-ish)
Joanna Newsom- The Milk Mender (experimental folk-pop, this is amazing and her voice is so odd, in a cool way)
Ratatat- Ratatat (somehow two guys who've toured with Ben Kweller and Dashboard Confessional made this awesome instrumental electronic record, who knew)