to celebrate halloween is a fun black metal band name generator that should entertain you for a good 30 seconds until it starts to dawn on you how completely ridiculous these names are. count elfnymous? i definitely call this one.

here’s a good song that i haven’t listened to in a long time. i saw play at a restaurant in san francisco’s japan town in 2001 or so. they’re from s.f. and feature former singer sooyoung park. this jam is slow, epic indie rock. not unlike tarentel or explosions in the sky.

ee “tinyspot” from for 100 we try harder. asian man records. 2002.

fast company reports on , who has been using mostly stock components in innovative ways to create diesel engines that are capable of achieving a combination of numbers never thought possible: huge horsepower, amazing acceleration, and planet-saving mpg.

it’s a full article so if you’re short on time, check out . they also link a clip of the video of goodwin’s biodiesel musclecar smoking a lamborghini at the racetrack, from pimp my ride…

, but most of these lists are. it was “compiled by a panel of six experts in creativity and innovation from creators cynectics, a global consultants firm”. number 1? 101 year-old swiss chemist , inventor of lsd. prince is tied for #32.

reminder: the meanest man contest over at gold robot is on until december 15. download the acapella of “they do” and turn it into something new! and have posted awesome bits about it. thanks, guys!!

yesterday, conrad keely of posted a funny and vitriolic blog post about leaving interscope, and he did it, ballsily enough, right there on the group’s . it’s since been taken down by the label, but i luckily kept the page open all day. here’s the text of it (thanks, amy!):

Leaving the Label and the Future

So as has already been announced, …Trail of Dead has once again made history, this time being the first band to drop Interscope. OK, we’re not the first. Actually, Trent Reznor beat us to it. Let’s just say we’re the first rock band to do so… this year. Ever since label head Jimmy Iovine started dating the lead singer guy of the Pussycat Dolls it became impossible to get him on the phone, so that was a first bad sign. Then their idea of marketing became keeping it a secret that we’d released a record. The industry is in a strange place these days, and the only way they can make money is to sell urban pop music. Which is what I thought we were writing, but apparently I was wrong.

That’s not saying the label didn’t do great things for us. At the expense of a massive debt to them of half a million dollars, they really helped us to grow. They’ve taught us about the worthlessness of A&R people, how to yell at idiots running an art department, and how to shake hands with smiling retailers who have no idea who you are. And I love Jimmy Iovine for having worked with John Lennon and Phil Spector on the Rock and Roll sessions. I mean, that was thirty years ago, and the Rock and Roll sessions sound pretty bad over all, and John Lennon is now dead and Phil Spector has murdered people since then, but hey, that was really cool that Jimmy did that, thirty years ago, back then, and dated Stevie Nicks. He’s had a great dating record, he just won’t have the next TOD record.

As for the future, well that really depends on whether we can reduce fuel emissions, on whether we can conquer Iraq, and kill all the Muslims and Christians, using an army made up of legions of pacifist Buddhist monks. I have hopes that this can happen.

As for the short term future, I’ve been trying to write songs. It’s hard because the back lounge of the bus is where people like to play the basketball video game, which I hate. In the front lounge Dylan Mackie, our sound manipulator, is playing Ratatat, which is like a great band where they accidentally erased all the vocal tracks. It’s really frustrating, because I can hear all these amazing melodies and lyrics I’d love to sing over their songs, but then we’d get sued. Coupled with the desolate landscapes of New Mexico we are currently driving across, it sort of makes me feel like I’m at the beginning of a really dark comedy, like Fargo or Donny Darko. Did the bus just pull over at Starbucks? Excuse me for just a second.

A while later…
So I’ve decided to go ahead and write songs in the back lounge, whilst the guys are playing the basketball video game, whilst they’re screaming at one-another’s plays, and jumping up on their seats. I’m thinking that I want to recreate the atmosphere of a Roman coliseum, and I’m going to try imagining atrocities happening to scores of misfortunate victims on the dusty arena beneath me. I’m going to write a song around that. It will be a song with blood, gore, groaning and cheering, and smirks devoid of mercy from the leering spectators such as myself. Death arenas are harsh, would you agree? Basketball, not so much.

I did a recent email interview when I was asked a bunch of dumb questions so I gave a bunch of what I thought were even less relevant answers. I was then told it was for an important internet website called Yahoo.com. So Jason’s going to do it instead. But it’s a shame, I wonder how people would’ve reacted to questions like:

If I weren’t a musician I’d probably be a (fill in the blank) because (fill in the blank).

– Serial killer, because I love to kill people.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen from the stage while performing?

– I saw a black dog, with white skin. I saw a lioness without a cub, feeding the young of eagles, with grey talons from the sleek bark of the baobab tree.

We are now unloading onto the campus of University of New Mexico. We have officially christened the tour the “…Trail of Dead goes Back to School” tour. This will be our first show playing with a fictional cartoon metal band Dethklok, who’s fictional guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf was recently in a guitar magazine. He and I will no doubt have many things to talk about.

More from me six months from now.

xlr8r is one of my favorite music magazines. they’ve been doing some great stuff online, like exclusive dj mix podcasts and an internet tv show featuring interviews, performances, and features on cool musicians and other artists. recently relaunched with new features like a daily mp3 download and free pdf downloads of the print magazine.

it’s odd and even kind of sad, but also cool and fun in its own weird way. it’s only five minutes long and i recommend checking it out.

sneakmove buddypal eric stoyer has a new session up on . the show’s called “odd predicament.” it’s in the stream now along with sets from computer jay, jimmy tamborello, nobody, and frosty. eric’s set is about an hour long, and the overall stream (with everyone’s sets) is about 11 hours long. you can hear all 11 hours by going to dublab.com and following the directions there, and you can download an mp3 of just eric’s set .

here’s the playlist:

ODD PREDICAMENT – 10.17.07
Brian Protheroe – “Pinball” (”Pinball” / Chrysalis)
Arthur Russell – “Make 1, 2″ (”Calling Out Of Context” / Audika)
Carly Simon – “Why” (”Soup For One” soundtrack / Mirage)
Judy Henske and Jerry Yester – “Farewell Aldebaran” (”Farewell Aldebaran” / Straight)
Breakout – “Warm Up My Lips” (”Blues” / Polskie Nagrania Muza)
Zero 7 f/ Jose Gonzalez – “Futures” (”The Garden” / Atlantic)
Fleetwood Mac – “Walk a Thin Line” (”Tusk” / Reprise)
Gil Scott-Heron – “Speed Kills” (”Free Will” / Flying Dutchman)
Zager and Evans – “In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)” (”2525 (Exordium & Terminus)” / RCA)
The Hombres – “Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)” (”Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)” / Verve Forecast)
The Byrds – “Draft Morning” (”Notorious Byrd Brothers” / Columbia)
McDonald and Giles – “Flight Of The Ibis” (”McDonald and Giles” / Cotillion)
Giorgio Moroder – “Leopard Tree Dream” (”Cat People” soundtrack / Backstreet)
Ellen McIlwaine – “Higher Ground” (”The Real Ellen McIlwaine” / Kot’ai)
Shuggie Otis – “XL-30″ (”Inspiration Information” / CBS)
Marcos Valle – “Crickets Sing For Anamaria” (”Samba ‘68″ / Verve)
Tacks, The Boy Disaster – “Forget-Me-Not” (”Oh, Beatrice” / self-released)
Barbara Ruskin – “Where Are We” (single / President)
The Mighty Sparrow With Byron Lee & The Dragonaires – “Only A Fool” (single / Trojan)
23 Skidoo – “Coup” (single / Illuminated)

is a cool new t-shirt company with some really fun and geeky “wears.”

i especially like their and designs. imagine the real life LOLs you’ll elicit with those phrases on your chest!

cottyn prints on shirts made by american apparel, which is a prominent practitioner of forward . in case you hadn’t heard!

the guys who started cottyn are also responsible for and (btw, if you haven’t checked out virb, please do. it out-awesomes myspace and facebook in some crucial ways.)