So what happens to Amoebites (people who work at Amoeba) after they stop working at Amoeba Music and move on with their lives? And does their time spent at the music store impact or influence them in any way later on? These questions and a lot more are answered in this interview (the first in a series) with a former Amoebite, who is now a Brooklynite, named Nick Lesley. Nick worked at all three Amoebas (Hollywood, Berkeley, San Francisco) before moving out to NYC two-and-a-half years ago. In California Nick played in the bands Vholtz, The Oma Yang, and Felicia & Coctopus, with whom he appeared on Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. V on the track "Whiskey Dick." Currently Nick is a student at Brooklyn College, updates several websites, and plays in several bands, including Necking, whose lineup includes Dong-Ping Wong and Josh Graver. He books shows at the cool Brooklyn living space called Dead Herring House he shares with other artists (they had a giant show there just last Saturday night). For income Nick now works at a funky, fun lil spot in New York City's Lower East Side called the Cake Shop, which is part record-store, part cafe, and part music club. It was there that I caught up with the former Amoebite recently and asked him about  the differences between East and West coasts, about his studies, his music, and his life -- before and after Amoeba.

I am a big fan of the 80's horror movie. I spent many hours in the video store making sure I had seen every bad 80's horror movie. However it seems that I missed one. Troll 2 is the name of this amazing movie. I had already seen the original Troll movie starring Sonny Bono and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Which is bad in its own special way. But nothing really comes close to how bad this movie is. To start with, it has nothing to do with Troll 1. There is not even a Troll in the movie. It is about goblins who live in the town of NILBOG.
My friends Josh and Andrew were kind enough to share this movie with me last night. The movie was released a couple of years ago on DVD as a combo pack with Troll 1 and Troll 2. This movie is listed on countless lists as the worst movie of all time and has developed a crazy cult following. They show this movie around the world at midnight screenings. This little horrible movie has somehow become one of the best worst movies ever.
                                                                                                                                                                   
I seriously can not stop thinking about how amazingly horrible this movies was. It is basically about a regular family. A clueless
dad and a slightly crazy mom with their 2 kids. One, an exercise crazed daughter who refuses to let her boyfriend have any friends. The other an awkward son whose only friend seems to be his dead grandpa Seth. For their vacation they switch houses with a weird family in a very small town. The town is basically all goblins but they are able to disguise themselves as humans. Or they are simply both human and goblin. They seem to be led by a Jim Jones type cult leader as well as a witchy sorceress type old lady who is played by a 12 year old girl. The towns people/golbins are all vegetarians and make the guests of the town eat weird green food which turns them into trees which then allows them to remain vegetarians and eat the humans. Somehow, someone thought this would make some sort of sense

While Hillary Rodham Clinton's popularity among Hispanic voters currently leads the Democratic pack by a long shot, the "Amigos de Obama" are slowly gaining ground and gradually growing in numbers thanks to such showings of grassroots support for Barack Obama as the recently recorded "Obama Reggaeton," which can be heard here with lyrics printed below (scroll down). it's a catchy song that calls upon Mexican and other Hispanic voters to support Obama with a call to "Listen to gente, es tiempo para algo diferente.. What we need is un nuevo presidente*… Como Se Dice…Como Se llama? OBAMA! OBAMA!" As clearly outlined in the map (below) posted on the website supporting Obama, 13 million eligible Hispanic voters live in ten states (including California, Florida, and New York) with all but one hosting primaries on or before February 5th. Note that Texas' primary isn't until March. Roughly two thirds of the nation's Hispanic residents live in nine of the states that will hold Democratic primaries or caucuses on or before early February, 2008.

Obama is way behind Hillary in popularity with Hispanic voting Democrats, as recently reported by the New York Times, which cited polls (including the paper's own and ones carried out by CBS News) from the past few months which show that about 60 percent of registered Hispanic voters who identify themselves as Democrats have a favorable view of Hillary while a quarter do not. Meanwhile Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, according to the Times, "remains a blank slate to many Hispanic voters, polls show, with 40% having no opinion of him. But his aspirational biography could prove a draw as more Hispanic voters get to know him." No doubt "Obama Reggaeton" can only help in this effort.

Prism Entertainment 2458

I haven't thought about Radiohead at all in about a year, really, not since I got to go see them kill it at the Greek Theater last year in Berkeley about this time.  To be honest, I don't think about them much at all anymore, but they are one of those bands that has meant a lot to me over the years.  With news today that Radiohead's new album is nearing completion, I thought it might be the right time to build a little anticipation and revisit some of their finer songs and videos.

People always want to whine that Radiohead are overblown, that they are not nearly as great as everyone always says.  I defy those people to listen to these songs and watch these videos and tell me this band is not fantastic.  Well, I do understand that not everyone wants to listen to some white overeducated English dudes complaining about alienation and having issues with technology.  I do get that.  Maybe it just doesn't float your boat.  But please, people, don't try to tell me this isn't a great and powerful band.  To each his own.  I also recognize that by thinking and talking about how Radiohead is great, I am sounding like a regular old Record Store Nerd.  But why hide who I am?  Oh well.

Oh, and I do agree that their last couple albums have not been fully up to speed....but when you have put out albums like OK Computer and The Bends, what are you gonna do??

This is "Karma Police" from OK Computer.



Effing awesome video, right?  Usually I tend to think most videos take more away from the music than they contribute to it, but this is one of those rare exceptions where I watch it and think, "Whoa" (not to quote icky Keanu Reeves).