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Rock 'n Rollers Don't Bathe

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The New Sidewalk Cafe

I had my first, newly renovated, Sidewalk Cafe back room experience last night. Hmm...that sounded a little strange. Anway I was lucky enough to be treated by excellent sets by: The Ladies of Old Hat, Liv Carrow, Toby Goodshank and Yaya Herman Dune. Nan and I went to brunch at the front restaurant part a few days before and thought I dug the creme brulee French toast but we both thought, over all, it was slightly over priced for what you got. I also miss to the 3 egg Benedict style meals they used to have like the avocado poach. Perhaps there is new cook but Nan noticed that the huevos rancheros was pretty much the same as before jut without the option of a salad or potato and about a dollar more. Hello new New York. The wait staff was nice and attentive and the coffee was very good. Read more »

Fourtrack on Stage interviewed by Berlin Beat

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Falk Quenstedt and Sebastian Hoffmann were interviewed by the new English-language online interview magazine Berlin Beat. Check it out! We say "like" a lot - it's kind of scary.
Berlin Beat Interview with Fourtrack on Stage

Rock 'n Rollers Don't Bathe

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Music Communities/Schwervon! Tour Pics
I worked a live sound gig 2 nights ago for a Hip Hop party that featured 21 MC's. It was kind of like going to an old Antihoot open mic at the Sidewalk but for Rappers. They all performed to backing tracks and most of them even had lead vocals on them. So, it was a bit like watching someone karaoke to themselves. There was a DJ who played the tracks and made funny noises. He kept the energy going. My job was to mix the over all level and try to mix the live vocals in with the track. It was tricky because all the rappers had different levels of experience and different qualities of backing tracks. There was a guy on stage who would announce the acts. He was also the promoter. He went by the name Green Eyes. At first he seemed kind of curt and mean but I think he was just a little nervous about the event. As the night went on I could see that he was really trying to create a scene. I can respect that. Some of the rappers were better than others and I'm sad to say that out of all the performers the only women during the whole night was a single guest singer and few back up dancers. Green Eyes kept encouraging people to network and buy drinks. Occasionally, one of the rappers would talk about "unity" and urge the other rappers to support each other because it's the only way they will be able to make it. Read more »

Dave End back on OJ Distro

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We're super happy to announce, after a long hiatus, that both Dave End CDR's are back in stock at OJ Disto. The charming, cup cake loving, debut How To Hold Your Own Hand. And the slightly more complex, socially conscious Fruit Commonly Mistaken For Vegetables (recorded at Olive Juice Music). Not to worry. There's a Dave End for everyone. Read more »

At Home he's a Tourist

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I can't believe it's already spring break. Harmon and I went downtown to visit the Brooklyn Bridge to complete his optional weekend exploration assignment. It was Monday so it was difficult to get him to go because he's really literal. Breakfast was from the coffee cart. Since we were on 125th Street we could buy breakfast and then shop for dvd's, we bought Hanna, Hop, and Rio. I saw the trailer for Hanna and that the Chemical Brothers did the soundtrack so I'm going to see it in the theater so this will be a good preview. The weather was great so we walked to the east side to get the 6. So we take the train to the stop and make it onto the bridge. The bridge was really crowded. It was a classic NYC mix of people. Being that it is one of the seven wonders of N.Y.C. There were tons of tourists ( it was spring break after all) and there were tons of New Yorkers peddling and hoofing it over the bridge on bike and foot. The New Yorkers are great. Some of them were getting upset at the tourists for blocking the way. I mean it is New York and there are places to go and things to do in a N.Y. minute. Read more »

3 New Videos by Winter Berries

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Check out these 3 new videos by our friends Winter Berries from Norwich, England. Kyle (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Kayleigh (keyboard, percussion, xylophone, vocals)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Winter-Berries/209311555781042

Help.

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One of my oldest friends is dying of ovarian cancer. It's hard to say or to type or to think but it's real and it's happening and it's on my mind every day. She is 28 years old.

Nicole and I first met in Cedar Lane, a high school for teens who have suffered trauma and abuse as children. We shared the same art class, although never even spoke until I was looking for someone to go see Joni Mitchell with at Merriweather Post Pavillion. She had the car and I had the tickets. Joni wasn't at her best. She was visibly tired singing classic jazz standards and playing with a 20 piece string section. Nicole and I were bummed as as we left, so we rolled the windows down and blasted "Carey." Everyone in the parking lot started cheering and dancing. For a moment, we felt like celebrities.

I moved in with Nicole and her family during my senior year of high school. My mother had recently relapsed on heroin and left behind a husband, three very young children, and me. Nicole's mother and brothers welcomed me into their home without a second thought. They bought me clothes, fed me and became my family. Read more »

Erin Regan CD Back In Stock at OJ Distro

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Erin's debut album is the perfect accompaniment for a long car trip, a bright winter day or a solitary sunrise. Her poetic songs sung in a heart-stopping dark alto over sparse acoustic arrangements touch on confusion, pain and transcendent beauty in family, mortality and childhood. Songwriter and playwright Dan Fishback describes this record as "smack dab halfway between Elliott Smith and Suzanne Vega." Produced by Casey Holford. (2010)
http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/products/erin-regan/erin-regan-cd

5 Questions for Major Matt

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1. Why don't you ever want to ask me 5 questions?

2. How did Gummo get his name?

3. If you were a spaceship, which would you be, and what would be your mission?

4. On a pentatonic scale, how awesome am I?

5. (this isn't a question, I was just giving you the answer to #4).

Have a great time in Tennessee.

<3jo

Major Matt asks Tod Carlstrom 5 questions (#24)

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1. How did we originally meet?
I haven't a very good memory for specifics. Or dates, for that matter. I'm not even sure exactly how long I've known you. You're like this little brown spot on my arm. I don't quite know when you showed up but you're here (and you're non-cancerous). I've never been an active member of the antifolk scene but I showed up to a few open mics in the late '90's, and I guess I've played a few shows there; I imagine it was through Nan and the rest of the Sidewalk Cafe crew that we actually physically met.

2. 3 things that make you happy?
Cooking good food. Finishing a song. A day with my wife and daughter without any distractions.

3. 3 things that make you sad?
Squandered opportunities. Human brutality. Ignorance.

4. What is your favorite color?
Don't have one, find the whole notion foreign. However, if one were to look for a pattern in my wardrobe, it'd be plaids that involve brown.

5. 3 people who inspire you?
Read more »

At Home He's a Tourist

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Thomas Patrick Maguire- S/T Like the hazy photograph ( reproduced color xerox) on the cover of Maguire at home near an open window guitar in hand, the songs are laid back and minimal like they were recorded in a living room or at a kitchen table. Leaving Now could be a demo for Em Are I. You Could go, You Could Stay has Maguire more indecisive over a lone snare that punctuates the indifference. Issues is a classic antifolk psych drama, similar to Phoebe Blue's Control Issues, not to mention countless issues of issues of antifolk in CDRs, zines, and open mics. Snare takes a prominent sound over Maguires vocal and guitar in the lofi pun underneath. Coin Toss continues the indecision, but the uptempo and for Maguire an almost sunny melody suggest an optimism regardless of the result of the toss. Christian Love gives the CDR religion making comparisons to John Wesley Harding obvious, except minus the bass, harmonica, and for the most part drums, so even more minimal, and clocking in at 70 minutes for 21 tracks it is a more rigorous antifolk listen. Nothing That Stitches Can't Sew is a classic lower east side punk healing anthem. Read more »

This Saturday! is Huggabroomstock: The World's Most Modest Music Festival

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this saturday
aug 13th 3pm
from afternoon till early morning
at goodbye blue monday
1087 broadway
bushwick brooklyn
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146071955469184

Inside Stage (The World's Most Modest Music Festival)

3:00 Elastic No-No Band
3:45 Thomas Patrick Maguire
4:30 They would Be Happy People
5:15 Kung Fu Crime Wave
6:00 Season Finale
6:45 Berth Control
7:30 Zombie Jesus and the Chocolate Sunshine Band
8:15 Nan & the One Nite Stands
9:00 Prewar Yardsale
10:00 The Wowz
11:00 The Purple Organ
12:00 Huggabroomstik

Backyard Stage (The Debe Dalton Folk Revue Festival)

3:10 Ladies of Old Hat
3:50 Major Matt Mason USA
4:30 Space Rainbows
5:10 Matt Frye
5:50 EquinoX Ent
6:30 Frozy
7:10 The Rainbow Vomit Family Band
7:50 The Pendulum Swings
8:30 The Happy Rappies
9:10 The Fools
9:50 American Anymen
10:30 Erin Regan
11:10 Debbie Dalton

Back in Stock: A Brief View Of the Hudson: Well Here We Are (EP) - CDR

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Well Here We Are is the brand new home recorded EP by your favorite folk duo A Brief View of the Hudson. It was recorded specifically for their first European tour earlier this year. (2010)

01. Oh Why Oh Why
02. Sick Old Dog
03. Too Wild To Tame
04. Though It Is My Heart
05. Wisconsin Window Smasher
http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/products/brief-view-hudson/well-here-we-a...

Bemusement Park - CD by Phoebe Kreutz now on OJ Distro

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"Phoebe Kreutz's chanteusey delivery and comic writing are genuinely funny."- THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Musically, her simple song structures are lifted to near-genius level by her clear, bright vocals and vivid personality...as melancholy as they are witty." - SANDMAN (U.K.)

(2011)
http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/products/phoebe-kreutz/bemusement-park-cd

At home He's a Tourist

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So it was another Saturday afternoon I was wrapped up with another week of work so I called Matt to see what he was up to. Matt told me about two shows; the former a Steam Punk show, the second Rachel and Dan, The Fools and Kung Fu Crimewave at BTP. I was sure I wanted to go to BTP but I had never heard of Steam Punk before so I had to ask Matt to tell me about it. Matt told me Steam Punk is when people dress up in turn of the century ( 1899-1900 ) outfits, with turn of the century songs and instruments mixed in with more standard punk or postpunk outfits, songs and instruments. I was shocked because I'v heard of so many bands like that; Go-Go Bordello, Thomas Truax, and Arcade Fire. I felt like a lazy reader because I have read tons of articles about these artists and didn't remember the term Steam Punk. Anyway Kung Fu Crimewave have a sound I truly love ( shambling antifolk) so I knew we were going to BTP and we did. Read more »

Schwervon! Summer Tour Dates and Recording in Memphis w/ Doug Easley

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Things are just not hot enough for us in NYC this summer so Schwervon! is happy to announce that we will be taking a little trip down south to record with legendary sound engineer/ producer Doug Easley (Sonic Youth, Pavement, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) in Memphis, Tennessee. We've decided to play some shows on our way down there and back.

SCHWERVON! SOUTHERN FRIED SUMMER FUN TOUR
Aug. 18 - Charm City Art Space (Baltimore, MD) w/ The Dangerettes and Silence Kid
Aug. 19 - Bazaar Consignment (Roanoke, VA) w/ Uncle Bengine & the Restraining Orders, Elephant Child
Aug. 20 - The Lab (Asheville, NC) w/ Her (ruined majesty), The Ringing Cedars
Aug. 22 - The Hi-Tone Cafe (Memphis, TN) w/ The New Mary Jane (ex Grifters, Those Bastard Souls) Read more »

All Ages Movement Project

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http://allagesmovementproject.org/about
I just discovered this organization and I think it's worth checking out and supporting. I've just purchased my copy of "In Every Town" and I'll try to follow up with a little review soon. In the mean time, I lifted this blurb from their website:

“Music scene” is another word for “music community”, and every young person is a participant in some music community somewhere. Just like a religious community or a literary community or any community, music communities have within them the potential to create change. Unlike other communities, music communities are exceptional at reaching young people, because they are essentially created by young people. Read more »

At Home He's a Tourist

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Major Matt Mason presents: Huggabroomstik - Alternative
Major Matt Mason narrates this rock opera/concept album. the rough outline is Time/Space/Sacrifice/Lesbians/Nuclear War/zombies, mutants, heroes, and villians. Huggabroomstik blast into outer space and befriend and are befriended by a community of outer space crusaders. Outerspace Huggabroomstik and the outerspace crusaders return to earth in order to defend earthlings from the injustices they have to endure. Multi-tracked chaotic and psychadelic alternative is absolutely the most dense record Huggabroomstik has yet recorded, chanting, very stoned guitar riffage, and prog keyboards submerge being mean means being mean into a pop morass sticky as a tar pit. Fear Foolish shows the bands folkier side harkening back to the luv-a-lot years with acoustic guitar, saw, kazoo, trumpet and tambourine with harmony vocals and uplifting lyrics proclaiming independence, freedom, and courage. THis is the part of the story when Huggabroomstik comes together and reaffirms themselves prior to their returning to earth from outerspace. Diamond Eyeballs opens stoned Read more »

Berlin Venue & Cultural Center: Schokoladen in danger of being shut down.

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One of my favorite Berlin venues is in danger of being shut down. This would be a horrible loss to the Berlin Artist community. If you live in Berlin please show your support for keeping this wonderful place alive. If you don't live in Berlin please show your support for your favorite local independent music venue or art space. You'll miss it when it's gone. The following link features an audio piece including comments by Phoebe Kreutz.

http://mediacenter.dw-world.de/english/audio/#!/193763/Living_in_Germany/Program=3071

Schwervon! performing "Cut It Down" live at Schokoladen. Read more »

At Home He's a Tourist

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So Dashan and I were on the train going to brooklyn and he was interviewing me for O.J.'s new zine Elephant Shoe which was good because if I was being interviewed I felt I wouldn't have to do anything for it so i could be lazy. So Dashan gives me these index cards with questions on them and I'm supposed to write the answers on the index cards so this is really a lazy interview. So I start answering the questions and I'm almost done when I got a bright idea to make the interview more Prewar and only use one word answers. Needless to say I didn't finish the questions so I said I'd finish the questions on the way back. Needless to say I completely forgot about the questions till the next day. So anyway I told Dashan I'd bring them to him so he could bring the interview to Selena. Elephant Shoe went to print before Dashan got to Selena, he was up against a fast approaching deadline and my deliberations caused him to miss the deadline. So as a public service this is the Secret Salamander interviewing Prewar Yardsale Interview:
SS: What is a blog and when was the last time you saw one?
PY: At Home He's a Tourist, today.

SS: What do you think is the worst thing in the world? Read more »

Hallo. Warten. Danke. - CD "NOW ON OJ DISTRO!"

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Hallo! OJ would like to welcome the group Containerhead from Regensburg, Germany to the distro. family. They follow in the musical footsteps of Explostion in the sky, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Logh. Guitars, trumpets, distorted lapsteels solos, intertwining bass melodies, glockenspiels all play hide and seek with each other in songs that must have been recorded live. One's first impression might be of seven people who had got really fucked off pop music and wanted to just make music and noise. It grooved and flowed and rocked. And yet for all their endeavors, they just couldn‘t shake off their tenderness and charm.

http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/artists/containerhead

Green Mind and Winter Family

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They bombed our apartment for roaches yesterday so Nan and I had to box up the Gummo and chill out in the community garden on our block for a few hours yesterday. It was a nice excuse to take a little break and soak in some green. I managed to get some decent snaps. I was going for the ant perspective on a lot of these.
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Major Matt asks Daoud Tyler Ameen (Art Sorority For Girls, Urban Barnyard, Daouets) 5 questions (#23)

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1. How did we originally meet?
I first saw you play at an outdoor event in Tompkins Square Park in 2002, my first summer out of high school. I went away to college that the fall, where I took full advantage of the blazing fast internet in the dorms (my mom and I had just gotten connected two years earlier, and it was dial-up at that). MP3.com was then what MySpace and Bandcamp later became, so I found you and a handful of the other East Village artists I'd discovered that summer, downloaded a handful of songs and rocked them all year. The next summer, I was working an arts internship in the neighborhood. I'd just left work one day in August when the power in most of the city — the great blackout of 2003. I didn't feel like sitting at home in the heat, so I went the only place I could think of: The Sidewalk Café on 6th and A, where I would come to spend most of my summers for the next few years, attending the weekly open mic and making friends. You were there; so was your lady Nan Turner, my future Urban Barnyard bandmate Dibson T. Hoffweiler, and a handful of other folks from the scene. I followed the pack to your place and ended up spending the night on the roof, after a long evening spent chit-chatting and passing a guitar around. I had been waiting a year for an easy way to insinuate myself into your social circle. That night was it. Read more »

Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard on tour in Germany

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Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard are embarking on a tour of Germany very soon! Spread the word and also check out Toby Goodshank's amazing Down By The River Festival poster art!

22.07. WETZLAR - Café Vinyl
23.07. BERLIN - Down By The River Festival
24.07. HAMBURG - Soulkitchen Halle
25.07. HANNOVER - Bei Chéz Heinz (Salon)
26.07. LEIPZIG - Kafič
27.07. DRESDEN - Blaue Fabrik
28.07. BREMEN - Spedition
29.07. DARMSTADT - Oetinger Villa

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113474208740674

Pantsuit back in stock at OJ Distro

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Nan Turner (Schwervon!) side project includes fellow former member of Bionic Finger Christine Murray and ex-Danger Giant Ranger drummer Tina Harris "Pantsuit is a plucky all-girl antifolk trio....their cd is full of jangly, ecstatic songs that are as clever as they are whimsical..." -time out ny (2004)
01. Work song
02. Underdog
03. Alaska
04. Elizabeth
05. Scarlet
06. Splinter
07. Texas
08. Sea Legs
09. French Pop
10.Pantsuit
http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/products/pantsuit/path-house-lawn-cdr

At Home He's a Tourist

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So Nick was having a birthday party at the Lucky Dog in Williamsburg, so I took the A train, transferred to the L train and got off at Bedford. Bedford Avenue is really hopping at night, there were so many people out and the sidewalk was busy and crowded. I knew the Lucky Dog was only a few blocks away from the Bedford stop, except I didn't exactly know where it was so I walked around trying to find it. I walked a six block radius a few times but I still couldn't find it. I had to call Dina to get the address and then I found it. I must have walked by it a bunch of times and not seen it. Bedford was so bustling that i must have missed it. So Nick is there and I wish him a happy birthday, I didn't have a gift, usually I give a mix tape as a gift, but I didn't have time to make one. I love making mix tapes as gifts because I can make artist/pirates dance tapes, I'm not exactly sure how much people like getting them but I love making them. I like to buy gifts too but I'm really particular so that can be difficult. Ben and Brian were there and I talked to Ben about Sidewalk. Read more »

The Victorian English Gentlemans Club cassette Demos available on OJ Distro

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BLOOD PIE. A YELLOW CASSETTE OF 16 DEMO versions, PREPARATIONS, UNRELEASED SONGS, DURGE REMIXES AND STRANGE THINGS related to their third album, bag of meat. 16 SONGS, 40 MINS. RECORDED IN A KITCHEN AT LOW VOLUME AS NOT TO UPSET THE NEIGHBOURS. IT COMES WITH AN MP3 DOWNLOAD FOR TWO 20 MINUTE MP3S: SIDE A & SIDE B.
http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/products/victorian-english-gentlemans-clu...

Retroactive Trip to Russia Blog: Day 2 (Monday, June 22)

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Regarding Day 1, I forgot to say, before turning in, we went for a little walk around the neighborhood of where our hotel was. We came upon this cute little park that had a beautiful little pond where people would gather and talk. I learned later that it's called Patriarch's Pond

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The traffic in Moscow is pretty intense. Instead of pesky pedestrian crossings some of the larger main roads have these creepy underground sidewalks that would take you from one side to the other. Read more »

Major Matt asks Yoko Kikuchi (Dream Bitches, Daouets, Tight Little Ship) 5 questions (#22)

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1. How did we originally meet?
Here's how I remember the first time I saw you play a solo set. Nan said, "I'm setting up a show with me and my boyfriend and Rachel Lipson, at this place The Stinger. Wanna play?" I said OK. It was during my senior year of college, on winter break. I had never been on Grand Street (in Williamsburg) before. Onstage, you were wearing a red cardigan sweater and said you had quit smoking recently. I bought your CD afterwards.

Here's when I think the first time you saw me play was. Nan asked me to play her Leg Out CD release party at Sidewalk. This was a couple months before the Stinger gig. I took the bus down from Massachusetts especially for the gig. I don't actually remember you being there but I have written in this notebook that I used to pass around: "My friend Sam thinks you are a better songwriter than me. -MMM" At the time I don't think I knew who you or Sam [Lazzara, of the Leader] were. I liked finding that years later.

2. 3 things that make you happy?
I like transitional times, feeling like I have things under control, and when it stays light really late. Read more »

At home he's a Tourist

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Instead since I was plugged in through the monitor with my fuzzbox on I decide to begin playing the intro of the first song over the between band music which was cool at first but soon got boring, so instead of putting my guitar down to take five I started to yell over to Dina to start playing. She looked at me like I was crazy, but she started playing even though she looked annoyed. So Dina and I are playing and I got a brilliant idea that we would just start the set with the between band music playing, to be unpredictable and experimental. So I thought Matt would catch on but he hadn't yet so I turned to prompt him. He was trying to tell me something but I couldn't hear him so I figure it could wait until later. It was weird though I couldn't hear his guitar even though Dina and I had fully begun to play the song and the in between music had been turned off. ASo the song sounded horrible, I couldn't hear Matt's guitar and I forgot most of the words because I was disoriented and stressed so I stopped the song about halfway through. SO that was a terrible beginning. So I'm like " Here we go again. Another horrible Prewar Yardsale show". Read more »

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