CHEETAHS NEVER WIN: Out Now!!!

Cheetahs Never Win, No. 1 is out now.
It's 36 pages, B&W, Color Cover. $5.
Right now it's available at the MOTMOT shop.

UPDATE!
Cheetahs Never Win No. 1
Will be available in November at Atomic Books in Baltimore, MD. and at Quimby's in Chicago!
I am still interested in shops in YOUR area. Let me know!!!
It is also available NOW through mailorder in the Motmot online shop!!!
Online orders will receive an exclusive cheetah badge!
AND!The Cheetahs Never Win! Release party will coincide with the Murmel Comics 27 release party!
Murmel 27 will feature an all new comic by me! (As well as a gang of other fine comic artists!)

Friday November 9th. 9 PM
At: Fluc
In Vienna
Live: Rotterdam, Fantas Schimun, & the MurmelDjs

Be my friend on Myspace!
http://www.myspace.com/cheetahsneverwin

Random Record Reviews

Here are some quick reviews of some new things I picked up. Not really a review, but more a heads up. Enjoy!

THE EAT were a punk rock band from the sunny state of Florida. Hence the silly title. Apparently, their original 7' releases are these incredibly obscure and over-priced collectors items. The fine folks at Alterntative Tentacles have graciously re-released the original Ep's, as well as a ton of extras: A cassette-only release, an album, and a heap of live songs!
The songs are kind of funny, lyrically, it sounds like these guys weren't dumb, and knew how to make a decent string of words into (often) funny lyrics.
It's kind of Lo-Fi, but not too Lo. A comparison to the Angry Samoans might not be too far off, and a number of reviews compare the Eat to the Angry Samoans, but I think it's not quite the case, the Eat are more melodic, less retarded, and the tunes are more memorable.
And the tunes are what is so great about this CD. This band was able to walk a fine line between raw punk and melody. The songs are pretty raw and tinny but these guys were able to put together some great rock and roll. It's raw, it's great, you can hum along to it.
...
Silkworm were one of my rock and roll mainstays during the 90's, they were real meat and potatoes rock. A three piece of Bass, Guitar and Drums. Rock music stripped down to it's most basic components. They always put on a great show, and were always friendly and talkative with their fans. For anyone who doesn't know their music I would recommend checking out "Italian Platinum." Sadly, after 15 years as a band, Silkworm called it quits in 2005 after the untimely death of drummer Michael Dahlquist.

Well, a few years have passed and and the other members have regrouped and are performing and recording under the name: Bottomless Pit. Their first record is coming out, Hammer of the Gods! You can listen to mp3's of four of the eight songs that will appear on the album.
I reminds me a lot of Silkworm, but somehow older, wiser and more contemplative, or maybe I'm just reading into it.
They've shuffled their line up a little bit, Tim Midgett has moved from bass to guitar, and they have a new rhythm section. Musically, it's similar to Silkworm, but they sound a little bit tighter, more fucused, and completely fantastic. I've been listening to the Mp3's non-stop. Andy Cohen is still one of the most amazing guitar players I have ever heard.
The album is a double 45 rpm LP, and also comes with a CD version of the album, so you have no excuse!
Bottomless Pit

Jams Run Free

Hey! We saw Sonic Youth at the Arena in Vienna. Man, they were just as awesome as always, I'm beginning to think it was the best I have ever seen them!!! I'm always a little bit leery of big rock shows, big crowds tend to bother me, and I always like it when a band can remain accessible to their fans. But it's an imperfect word, what can you do?
They played a set heavily based on their excellent new record "Rather Ripped" and a lot of stuff from "Daydream Nation." They played my favorite song of theirs "Hey Joni!" Which I have never heard them play live. It seemed like most of the singing was done by Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo, which is kind of a cool treat.
They ended with "The Trilogy" from Daydream Nation, which was completely fuckin' awesome.
Man, their live guitar sound was just so loud and otherworldly, so, uhhh, Sonic! The sound just fills up the space. You can really forget how different the live sound is compared to the recorded version.

I do find it interesting that they hardly played anything from their 90's era, they skipped over: Dirty, Washing Machine, EX Jet Set, and A Thousand Leaves. And they didn't play anything off of their last two records, Murray Street and Sonic Nurse (Both of which are also great!)
I'm just kind of wondering about this band, are they like the Grateful Dead of Indie rock? Are they the Beatles of indie rock? Or are they really some kind of avant-noise-rock band that managed to stick it out and stay creative? Probably a bit of all of the above. I have to give it up to the band, they have managed to stick around for over 25 years, with almost no line up changes and no backsliding. If only Thurston Moore would have signed Royce's bottle of Paul Newman brand salsa... but that was a long time ago, and now, i think I can forgive you Thurston!

I'm still here...

We're just having a little "working vacation" in the South Tyrolean alps.
I'll post more later, but here's a weird little thing we found in the Italian grocery store.
For the baby that enjoys the finer things...

I've had a pleasant enough time watching some Swiss TV. Austrian and German TV are abysmally bad, but Swiss TV is pretty good. And they broadcast some shows in English and German. (If a movie is originally in English, they will send one signal in German, and one in English!) The other night they broadcast (uninterrupted and unedited), Anchorman, Secretary, then the Pretenders in Concert. A few days later they showed a great documentary on Elvis Presley.

Libraries are for Nerds

An actual post about life in Vienna! Sort of, kind of.
I've mentioned to a few people that I pick up quite a few CDs from the Vienna public library.
The library itself is interesting, it is a huge brick and mortar monstrosity placed right above the subway line. It has a never-ending number of stairs that lead to a restaurant, and a nice view of the city. If you look at it just right it looks like an upside-down Jawa Sandcrawler (sandcrawlers are always good!)
It's nestled in a comfy spot not far from inbetween work and home.
I normally don't spend much time in libraries, even if they look like they were built by Jawas.
The books are mostly in German, (duh!) so not much for me there.
But real deal is the amazing Compact Disc collection. They must have some cool people buying their music; I've never seen a library with this good of a music selection, not even my college library. Even after CSUF rebuilt their library, their shelves just seemed to have "library" music. (e.g., zydeco compilations, e-z jazz, Harry Smith's anthology of folk music, ZZ top, more jazz, and Gato Barbieri.)
The library will let you actually take 12 Cds home, for a whole month (with very modest late fees!) (CSUF, didn't let you take anything home, and the Cerritos Library let you take it home for a week, but with hefty late fines! I still owe the Cerritos Library a fortune!)
Last week I made it over to the Library and here's my big score.

1. Fela - Beasts of No Nation
2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues + The Lyre of Orpheus
3. Godspeed You Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.
4. Linton Kwesi Johnson - Poet and the Roots
5. The Donnas - Spend the Night
6. Kraftwerk - Autobahn
7. Desmond Dekker - You Can Get it if You Really Want
8. Brian Eno - Ambient 1 - Music for Airports
9. Brian Eno - Ambient 4 - On Land
10. 20 Years of Dischord Box set!
11. The Temptations 2 CD set

Not to mention all the other stuff I've found: Shellac, Fugazi, Ian Dury, RFTC, Ethiopiques, Philip Glass, Melvins, Can, Faust, Steve Reich, XTC, and countless number of Lee Perry CDs. And they seem to keep current, I've picked up (or seen) stuff, by the Futureheads, Go! Team, Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, etc...
They also have CDs by your favorite Austrian, German, and Turkish pop stars.
They have a pretty good Jazz section, and an intimidating classical section.
I wonder who is buying the cool stuff.