Usually I say nothing. Sometimes I say “happy holidays,” pretending to be politically correct, out of robotic inculcated duty to respect the myriad “holidays” that converge at the end of December. Occasionally I slip and utter a drunken “Merry Christmas,” for which I am always painfully reminded by some jackass that not everyone celebrates [...]

Category 1, Fucking Outstanding:
Nick Cave – Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. The Fire and Brimstone is back, bitch. Has there every been a cooler record title than ‘Abattoir Blues’?
Dungen – Ta Det Lugnt. Swede wunderkind recreates amazing 60’s pop-psychedelia. Masterpiece.
Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld. Sometimes etherial sometimes rollicking psychedelic buddhist freakout from Japan.
Fly Pan Am [...]

Big Weekend at the EARL.
It all begins Friday night (well, I guess you could go tonight and see the Orphins) with Magnapop, Brain Box, and The Deadenders.
Saturday, 25 of us smelly musicians will meet at the EARL whenever we drag ourselves, or are dragged, out of bed to pick bandmates out of a hat [...]

Man Under Stress would like to take a moment to salute the continuing evolution of gas station haute cuisine. On a recent late night trip back from Athens, GA. after a Magnapop show, the twin forces of hunger and impending urination conspired to provide more than enough reason to pull over at a QuickTrip on [...]

For some time now I’ve wanted to redo the photo gallery on this site. It’s done now, and I opted for using MiniGal, a very clean and simple freeware gallery done in php, as opposed to doing it myself (I am so over coding.) For now just recent travels are up there. I promise [...]

I love the friendster email updates that inform you which of your friends have recently updated their profiles or uploaded pictures. It’s like catching people obsessing in front of a mirror. Busted!
You have to wonder with all this stuff, friendster, myspace, tribe.net, where it will all go. So far, most of them have their [...]

My car was broken into, again, while sitting within “gated” parking at the Mattress Factory. This time they stole my cannon digital and my lomo. My fucking lomo. Thieves with a thing for those contrasty, saturated color images only the lomo can produce? More like bums that get free meals at Blood and Fire, then [...]

This evening at Publix, my favorite grocery superstore, I spotted a vintage Judas Priest “Screaming for Vengeance” colored silkscreen on the back of a denim jacket. My very first thought was that I was witnessing some kind of nostalgic Metal-Kitsch, that this couldn’t possibly be true sentiment, and had to be an ironic homage to [...]

If you’re worth your weight in hip, if you’re in tune to what’s cool, you will most likely be seen tonight at the Echo Lounge, where soon to be voted “Sexiest Boy-Band of 2004,” Licentious Five, take the stage in between The Long Knives and Japancakes. That’s right we changed our name from “The Licentious [...]