22 and dying.

The Best Mash Ever? Nope.

Though I know there are other posts/other things in my life that I should be focusing more on, I couldn't help myself on this one. Thank you internet for providing all of these extravagant distractions.



Wow. I can die now.



In other news, I know this blog has some avid Wavves fans. Well these peeps may be excited to know that Mr. Williams has announced that the new and improved Wavves will in fact be releasing the follow-up to last year's highly touted/widely discussed album WAVVVES. If nothing else, it's always entertaining to keep up with Nathan Williams.

I also enjoy the fact that of all the great music to come out in 2010 and coming out in 2010 and hell just music news in general, we here at 31st & Chi like to focus on the most prevalent of bands, Wavves.

Mickey Mouse - WAVVES

A Few Summer Tunes

Summer is starting to wind up for those of us who have some kind of schooling that we attend in the fall. So I thought I would reflect by posting a nice, random, short inventory of some summer mp3s for y'all to listen to while you chill at home, chill on the road, chill in the office, chill on the boat, chill in your underwear, chill in her underwear, or chill wearing no underwear. Most of these are pretty fresh, while some are from earlier this summer. This is just a random list of songs from the summer that you may have missed, so I thought I would post them.

"Walkabout" is a new one from Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox of Deerhunter) featuring Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) of Animal Collective in gazy, upbeat cheerful tune. One of the best of the summer. I also posted a new one from Nathan Williams (Wavves) as both the tracks he's made this summer have been great, the other being "Mickey Mouse" of course. Volcano Choir is Justin Vernon's (Bon Iver) side project and their new album is to be released this fall. "Island, IS" is the only song I've heard so far, but I dig it. A new one from Radiohead (or so we think, maybe?), a great song from The Almighty Defenders which is a side project from King Kahn and The Black Lips, a newish one from the trippy "glo-fi" artist Washed Out, a great song from Mos Def's latest album, a Simian Mobile Disco song from their upcoming album Temporary Pleasure featuring Jamie Lidell, a crazy hot reggae tune from Major Lazer with a taste of Santigold, and finally a song Animal Collective has been playing at most of their live shows lately that features a hook from a Grateful Dead tune. Hopefully this gives you a little something to listen to over the next week or so. Enjoy!

Walkabout (ft. Panda Bear) - Atlas Sound

Cool Jumper - Wavves

Island, IS - Volcano Choir

These Are My Twisted Words - Radiohead

Cone Of Light - The Almighty Defenders

Feel It All Around - Washed Out

Auditorium (ft. The Ruler) - Mos Def

Off The Map (ft. Jamie Lidell) - Simian Mobile Disco

Hold The Line (ft. Santigold) - Major Lazer

What Would I Want Sky (Live on BBC Sessions) - Animal Collective

Nathan Williams, Living the Dream

Before I get too far into this post I want to make two things clear: First, I realize that the second Wavves related post in as many days has us venturing towards the single-focus days of the "Grizzly Blog" when it seemed like all we did was gob on about Veckatimest. Second, I never thought I would be coming to the defense of Nathan Williams.

Nathan Williams, best known to most as the driving force beyond beach punk outfit Wavves, has been the target of a load of criticism ever since his freakout at the Primavera Sound Festival a while back. Those who saw Wavves success as riding on a tsunami of hype and inflated reviews took no pains in dragging Williams over the coals. Let me clarify this: by no means am I a huge fan of Williams. Do I enjoy Wavves' music? Yeah, its great for cruising down the highway with the windows down and sunglasses on. Do I think its worthy of the collective load being blown by the big-name reviewers? Not really. Does he deserve the vitriol for his colossal fuck up in Barcelona? Sure. He's a musician, people paid to see him perform and he didn't. Do your job, or take the heat.

I'm not writing this to say that it's ok to blow a show and that people should stop picking on Nathan. The reason I'm writing this is to implore everyone to put themselves in this kid's shoes for awhile. He's 22. Until recently he was unemployed and living with his parents, recording his songs on GarageBand. He was living the life he sings about in "No Hope Kids": no car, no money, no girlfriend. Now go from that to suddenly being an indie sensation and a music blog darling. For somebody that's clearly starved for attention, its like taking an anorexic to Cici's. Then, he goes to Europe, with no responsibility but to play music. This is what everyone our age dreams about. You're in a place where you can do almost anything and still get away with it. And he's doing it. Is it a shame that it's affecting his music? Yes. Would I do the same thing? Absolutely.

Aside from the awful haircut, I would love to be Nathan Williams. I watched the video for No Hope Kids and through the whole thing I kept thinking, "Damn, I wish I could do that". Which one of us wouldn't want to drink beer and smoke weed all day, only to hang out in some of the coolest rock clubs we'll never see by night? Who wouldn't seize this amazing opportunity to live their wild and glorious youth to the absolute abandon? And I'm not kidding myself for one second, I would do it the exact same way he's doing it: acting like a complete asshole. Perhaps there is no better symbol for our generation than Nathan Williams: young, self-centered, and increasingly self-destructive. And maybe that's we all need, someone that makes us say, "Hey, everybody, stop acting like a bunch of punkass bitches." But, hey, don't blame me if I reply, "Not yet, I'm having too much fun."

New Wavves Video - "No Hope Kids"

Apparently this Wavves video was shot some time back in February, around the time WAVVVES came out. So indeed this video came a good time before the ecstasy, xanax, and valium fueled breakdown on stage across the pond at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. Watching this video, there are just too many lines to pull on poor Nathan as we watch him smoking (pot & cigarettes), pole vodka, eat some delicious breakfast burritos, and generally just cause an absolute ruckus over in Europe. Perhaps this video brought a bit of 'too little too late' foreshadowing. Nevertheless, Nathan has apologized and actually talks about it here to Pitchfork. Hmmm...I wonder what has been running through Pitchfork's mind through all of this, after best new musicing
their debut, watching the torrential collapse in Barcelona, being the first to interview Nathan since the collapse, and also hosting Wavves' first performance since the meltdown at their annual Pitchfork Music Festival later in July. Hmmm...

Wavves "No Hope Kids" from Pete Ohs on Vimeo.

WAVVES Cancel Rest of UK Tour Dates

Nathan Williams's pitiful, beer-soaked non-performance at Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival was more of a mess than Psychedelic Horseshit's anti-Wavves rant, if you can believe it. Pitchfork recounts the final minutes of the crappy late night set and directionless, off-key musicianship:

Finally, fed up with Nathan's petulant behavior, Ryan ran out from behind his drumkit and poured a full cup of beer over Nathan's head. The act would be met with their most enthusiastic applause of the evening.

At 3:00 a.m. sharp, having dodged their share of bottles and even a shoe (neither Nathan nor Ryan was hit, although Nathan likely made impact with some unlucky attendee upon forcefully returning the latter object back to the crowd), the show mercifully came to a screeching halt: Ryan ran offstage, throwing his drumsticks at Nathan. Infuriated, Nathan screamed into the mic, "Come back here, motherfucker, we're not done yet!" Immediately, stage crew appeared, breaking down Ryan's kit. "Fuck!" Nathan shouted, "Stop doing that!" They didn't, so Nathan decided the show must go on. Helplessly, he strummed his guitar again, clearly intent on playing another song. But as he stepped back to the mic, he realized it had been cut. As the crowd booed, the house lights came up, and a defeated Nathan Williams threw his hands up and left, along with the few remaining attendees.

It was the band's second date on a European tour.

UPDATE: Nathan explains his behavior on the band's blog:

I think in the back of my head I knew I wasn't exactly mentally healthy enough to continue to tour the way I have been since February. Honest truth is this has all happened so fast and I feel like the weight of it has been building for months now with what seems like a never ending touring and press schedule which includes absolutely zero time to myself. I'm sorry to everyone who has put effort into this and to everyone who supported me. Mixing ecstasy valium and xanax before having to play in front of thousands of people was one of the more poor decisions I've made(duh) and I realize my drinking has been a problem now for a good period of time. Nothing else I can do but apologize to everyone that has been affected by my poor decision making. I made a mistake. Not the first mistake I've made and it for sure wont be the last. I'm human. Don't know why I chose the biggest platform I could imagine to lose my shit, but that's life. You live and you learn.



via Stereogum; Pitchfork