A week or so ago I noticed that Robert Pollard, singer/songwriter for Guided By Voices, was releasing a new album. His most recent stuff has yet to grow on me, but I’ll be forever entangled in so many tunes from GBV.

Listening to their old albums like Fast Japanese Spin Cycle, Bee Thousand, and Alien Lanes (I could go on) has renewed my love for the magic Robert Pollard created with guitarist Tobin Sprout. I saw GBV play live once, at the Trocadero in Philadelphia, and the show was wild, manic, and brilliant. I swear Pollard swigged an entire Budweiser beer before each song. No matter — he rocked.

So I’ve once again become a disciple of old school indie rock, which, to me, means college days in the early ’90s. In honor of how much Guided By Voices kicks ass, I’ve included two rare studio outtakes below. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

• Surgical Focus (acoustic) - Guided By Voices
• Twilight Campfighter (studio) - Guided By Voices

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

I haven’t posted lately due to a rather nasty case of melancholy. It’s my bipolar illness acting up again after lying dormant for more than a year. My pdoc claims it’s “that time of year for bipolars” but there are other loathsome, personal factors involved that I’m too ashamed to admit.

If you’re unfamiliar with bipolar disorder or would just like to learn more, click “bipolar” under the “Tags” heading along the left column of the blog. You’ll be presented with a list of related posts. You may want to start with an insightful entry (imho) from 2005, Drinking blood…embracing the ephemeral.

Life as a (recovering) drug addict with a mood disorder is certainly not the greatest day-to-day existence. I get by mainly because of my two amazing daughters who have taught me priceless lessons about love and responsibility. In my darkest hour I know they are there for me, and their youthful zeal for life can be quite contagious.

I also want to thank YOU, all my readers, who keep me motivated to be creative and keep blogging. I’m still not quite sure what the main reason is for the 20-30 unique visitors I get per day — my best guess would be the MP3 downloads. I know that most of you find my blog from various keyword searches on Google, etc. My goal is to build a steady readership by giving you valuable reasons to return.

Any feedback on what brought you here would be welcome. Please leave a comment for me so I can eventually, perhaps, provide a more narrow focus to what I blog about. I have several more websites in the works that will specifically cover topics like divorced fathers, drug addiction and my freelance talents.

Also, stay tuned for a new and improved theme for balancemybrain that will hopefully encourage more social interaction. I value each and every reader who finds me here in cyberspace. Thanks again.

I discovered this priceless video yesterday when I went searching for the Jimmy Kimmel video Amanda mentioned in her recent comment on Sarah Silverman is Fuc*ing Matt Damon. I found the latest Kimmel clip (crazy funny), but this video trumps it big time–a classic, methinks.

Will Ferrell can really hit the “high” Stevie Nicks notes in this duet — it’s impressive and funny as hell. Dave Grohl plays Ferrell’s straight man to a T even to the point where he has to break from character and say “Stop it, Will, you’re fucking me up” as Ferrell runs his hand along Groh’s leg, obviously lovestruck.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did. I can’t get the song out of my head now, and I figured out how to play it on the guitar. Who will be my Stevie Nicks, dear sister?

So please be patient while I work on a new one — 2 columns this time, because I think 3 is too busy. The design needs a major overhaul…so many plug-ins to choose from. I’ll be up and running in a week or two. I’ll be posting updates in-between, along with some new favorite MP3s. Thanks for stopping by! I value each and every one of my readers.

Damian

Any ideas or suggestions for the blog’s theme? Email Me!

See what happens when Jesus gets turned on, kids?
No wonder Catholic priests see no wrong in pedophilia…

Source: Sepultura’s Flickr Photos

My, my, The Thermals are getting quite popular around here.

By around here, I mean within my close circle of indie-rock friends.

By indie-rock friends, I’m actually referring only to me because all my flesh-and-blood indie-rock friends have scattered themselves around the globe. And despite living in a golden age of communication, we all make geographical excuses for not staying in touch.

So, yeah, I am totally digging The Thermals right now. And by “digging” I’m not referring to the social media site. I just mean old-school digging, like when Mom left milk and cookies out for an afternoon snack: “Dig it!”

A few weeks ago I posted a couple acoustic songs by The Thermals which were heavily downloaded, so I thought I’d add another Thermal treat with this wacky video for “A Pillar of Salt.”

Feel less guilty about shit in your life right now by singing “We were born to sin!” along with singer/songwriter/guitarist Hutch Harris. Just click the image to play!

Although I’m late to the plate with this announcement, I would feel utterly amiss if I didn’t let all the belated listeners out there know that you can watch a sweet Radiohead movie that features all their songs from In Rainbows played live. And it’s all free. Free, free, weeeee….

I couldn’t get the video to play for me here, so…watch Radiohead Scotch Mist movie here (say that second “here” in Cartman’s voice to be a silly banana like Dane Cook).

This video is fuc*ing hilarious, and it just gets funnier as it goes along. If I would have been drinking milk while watching this for the first time, it would have been messy.The story behind this song, apparently, is that dork-ass Jimmy Kimmel makes fun of Matt Damon all the time. Kimmel’s claim-to-fame, meanwhile, was being Adam Carolla’s fat and flatulent sidekick on the horrendously vacuous “The Man Show.”

Go Sarah Go!

Sarah Silverman singing with Matt Damon!! - Watch more amazing videos here

Peter Cetera sang

“You’re a hard / habit to break”

in the overwrought Chicago song from the ’80s, and he could well have been talking about any number of bad habits with his sentiment—other than his woman. Because the simple formula for most of us is:

bad habits = hard to break
good habits = hard to maintain

Sometimes, bad habits can be quite violent, and therefore even more of a reason to quit. Take the song “Bad Habit” by Darwinian losers The Offspring. Somebody needs help…

Hey man / you know I’m really okay
The gun in my hand / will tell you the same
But when I’m in my car / Don’t give me no crap
Cause the slightest thing / and I just might snap

When I go driving / I stay in my lane
But getting cut off / it makes me insane
I open the glove box / Reach inside
I’m gonna wreck / this fucker’s ride
I guess I got / a bad habit

Yes, I would classify that as a bad habit. Anything you do, pretty much, that would lead to serious jail time or death row, yep, BAD HABIT.

Fortunately, I have no egregiously bad habits like shooting people who piss me off. I do, however, need to get my shit together in a number of areas.

Enter The Habitizer, a cool online tool to help you get your affairs in better order. It’s free, easy to understand, takes little time, but the payoff could be huge.

The Habitizer helps by tracking your habits—bad or good—by the number of stars you give yourself each day/week for your progress. That’s it. Just gold stars. But won’t it feel good to see a string of 5 star-days as compared to lowly 1-star days? I’ll tell you in a few weeks after using the site.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has a similar system for tracking his habits. For all his success, Seinfeld’s advice should qualify as pearls of wisdom for anyone who wants to be successful.

To start, get yourself a wall calendar and hang it somewhere prominent. Next, get a big red magic marker. For each day you’re free of your bad habit or work productively on a good one, put a big red X over that day.

“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

Here’s the takeaway: Don’t break the chain. Why can’t I get The Pretenders song “Back on the Chain Gang” out of my head?

Sublime music can inspire evocative imagery—calling forth cherished or forgotten memories that seem nearly tangible. An inspired melody, an oddly gorgeous voice, powerfully sparse acoustic chords, a raw energy that can’t be ignored. The song is “On This Side” and the singer/songwriter is Jesy Fortino, otherwise known as “the band” Tiny Vipers.

It’s the vocals that truly grab you, Fortino’s unique, softly intense warbling of lines like:

By now / I know my rights / well let’s wave them
‘Cause I see / no way / to evade them
They’d say my name / I’d obey them
And they’ll ask for more / And I’ll pay them

Another line from the song, I must confess, is the title of this post. When she starts singing that verse, it takes me back to high school dances, which were THE big thing in my hometown. All that adrenaline, drunk philosophy, a general awkwardness to the world. Guess I still don’t feel like I really fit in, which is probably a check mark on the Emo chart. Oh well…

Download this song and tell me how much you love it! (Or hate it.)

• On This Side - Tiny Vipers

For the full effect, check out the video for On This Side (I’m still trying to figure out a few chords…can anyone help?). Just scroll down a bit to find it. Enjoy!