Double Crown Records

Ever since I turned 21, there have been two choices in my mind when I'm at a bar looking to order a beer (or beers) - cheap or expensive. There are lots of expensive microbrews and imports that I like (anything brewed locally, Guiness, Newcastle and others), but when it comes to cheap beer there has only been one choice - Pabst Blue Ribbon. Good ole PBR doesn't put a big dent in your wallet and for a cheap beer it tastes great. Heck, on a hot summer day there's nothing better than a cold PBR. Over the years it's been like a good friend to me. Yet a few years ago it teetered on the brink of extinction - it became hard to find and for a while you couldn't even get it at the 3-B Tavern here in Bellingham. Then somebody purchased the brand and it became easy to find again. I was a little miffed when they introduced "Pabst Lite" and "Pabst Ice" - who the hell would want either of these? Still, good ole Pabst was back, easy to find in stores and cheap. Apparently it's making a strong comeback nationwide:


Pabst Makes A Comeback
doublecrown 10:14 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
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I just watched the School Of Rock DVD - man, what a waste of time that was! I am a fan of Jack Black's other films, but the man is truly turning into a one-trick pony. Oh gee, look how funny the chubby man is making goofy facial expressions and acting so outrageous! Over and over again. I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a comedy or some cheesy made-for-TV movie for the Noggin channel. The school kids, during the climactic "Battle Of The Bands" show, looked like they were inspired by the band at the end of Revenge Of The Nerds (except the song at the end of Revenge Of The Nerds was much better). For proof, just look at the photo above! I don't know who would like this movie - certainly not anyone involved with music. Kids, maybe. Jack Black's family? I dunno - it just plain stunk. We almost saw this one at the theater, but never got around to it - I'm so thankful for Netflix! You pay a flat fee each month that's just a little more than 2 movie tickets, and you can rent as many DVD's as you want (up to 3 at a time). For some reason my wife and I like cheesy comedies, even if we know they aren't going to be any good (Dickie Roberts anyone?). It seems like with Netflix we try to rent one classic or foreign movie, one cheesy comedy and one movie for the kids. It's cool that you can rent trash and not feel like you're wasting your money.

Also, the Double Crown men's soccer team just ended their latest indoor season. We actually had our first non-losing season since we started nearly 2 years ago. We ended up 4-4, in 5th place, just outside of a playoff spot. Next we start playing outdoor soccer, starting next month.

Team Name Wins Losses Ties GF GA Pts
Archer Ale House 8 0 0 64 26 24
Dri-Eaz 6 2 0 60 35 18
Bay City 5 3 0 58 30 15
Adich 5 3 0 45 38 15
Double Crown Rec. 4 4 0 37 41 12
Winded 3 5 0 43 44 9
Paddle Me 1 7 0 24 44 3
Bombers 0 8 0 23 96 0

doublecrown 11:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
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Some new promos have come in recently that I'm pretty excited about. The first one is a 4 song EP by Finnish band The Huskies (a completely different band than Husky & The Sandmen, although both bands have releases on Gas/Goofin' Records). I only wish there were more than 4 songs on it, otherwise I'd say this is one of the top instro releases of 2004 (so far!). We've got copies of this one in our mail order catalog.

Another excellent release comes from Belgium's Hawaiian Astro Boys - their main influence (Man Or Astroman?) is given away in the band's name. If you miss the sound of the early MOA? releases you will want to pick this one up. It includes a bunch of originals along with covers of Slacktone, Los Straitjackets and others. Check 'em out at: Hawaiian Astro Boys Official Website

Here is one of my favorite blogs, done by the guys behind Hitch Magazine (a funny pop culture rag that comes out 2-3 times/year): Hitch Daily
doublecrown 10:32 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
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I just picked up tickets for two shows (non-surf) that I am really excited about - Air and Kraftwerk. Both are playing in Seattle at the Paramount Theater within 3 days of each other. I am just getting into Air, but am really impressed by their new release Talkie Walkie (which comes with a live DVD). I am a big, long-time fan of Kraftwerk. I first started listening to them about 20 years ago, around the time they released Tour de France and just before their Electric Cafe LP. I never thought I'd get a chance to see them live, but it looks like after years of seclusion they are ready to make some money and have released their first CD/LP in nearly 20 years, Tour de France Soundtracks and are on a 50 city world tour. Reports of the tours so far are pretty amazing - 2 1/2 hours of songs from throughout their career.

I wish I could report on surf shows in this space, but unfortunately, they just don't happen in Bellingham anymore and I can't even remember the last Seattle surf show. Heck, there hasn't even been any garage rock in the area. Rockabilly is still fairly strong in Seattle - last show I saw in Seattle was Deke Dickerson at the Tractor Tavern.

If anyone has a show review they'd like me to post here please e-mail it to records@dblcrown.com. If you have a photo to go along with it you can send it as an attachment (.jpg or .gif).
doublecrown 9:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
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If you dig exotica/lounge/moog music, there are a few websites that regularly offer free downloads of hard-to-find LPs.



These are LP's that will probably never be released on CD - some are good, some aren't, but heck - they're free!

www.basichip.com
www.bellybongo.comlinks/sharity.html
www.astroboy.tv/music/
milwaukeejohn.com/featuredalbum
www.echonyc.com/~lenkei/ping.html

I normally don't encourage downloading music for free, but when it's vinyl only releases that are long out of print and have no chance for legitimate release, it's a different story. These sites change their downloads fairly often, so check back once a week or so.

There's been a lot of talk about John Kerry's previous life as a rock n' roller. He was in a surf/frat rock band called The Electras in the early 60's. They cut an album, which recently sold on Ebay for $2,500. NPR just did a piece about it, where they play some of the cuts from the LP. Check it out here:

NPR John Kerry - Electras Feature

Here are a couple of odd sites - this one is for a group of Trekkies filming new episodes of Star Trek, using some of the original studio set pieces.

www.5yearmission.com/

This site was set up in response to the current Pepsi/Itunes bottlecap promotion. If you have a winning cap, but don't want to use it, why not support indie music by submitting your winning code to this site? They will use the code to download tunes by indie groups, who in the end get paid for the downloads. I don't think this will help surf/instro bands much (the bands they are currently downloading are non-surf/instro), but I'm all for supporting independent music and labels.

tunerecycler.com/

doublecrown 9:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
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Glitter! Man, I hate glitter!!! I have a couple of kids, 4 years old and 2 years old. While I was on the phone my 2 year old found a big bottle of glitter, opened it, and spread it all over the house. It took me two hours to vacuum it all up, and I only got about 80% of it - I still see it all over the place.

Not much else going on. Looks like I will be doing another KFJC live CD this year, probably a Slacktone performance, although it's possible that it might be a live set from The Penetrators. We'll have to see how it all works out.
doublecrown 7:32 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
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