​In 1962, Neil Sedaka said everything that needs to be said about ending relationships when he sang, "breaking up is hard to do." It's simple in an "aw shucks" 1960s pop song sort of way, but the tune's direct approach has not meant the end of the break-up song. In fact, we've got some pretty dandy ones the past few years, the kind that make you almost forget that guy/girl/celebrity crush who just won't return your fan mail who ripped out your heart, spit on it and fed it to his/her dog for dinner. Almost.

Here, for your misery and heartache, are five recent songs that say everything about breaking up that you never could.

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​From the man who brought us "Rifles Burs" and "Snacks" comes a new song/video called "Imdabes." It's already blowing up Youtube, so I'm going to go head and call it now: It's an instant classic, the kind you don't take home to mother.

On the track, Gillionaire tells listeners that he "be the one that win Street Fighter tournaments," "got the highest score in the world on my SAT" and that he's in the best at "watching all them '90s videos -- Power Rangers, All That, Kenan & Kel."

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Wayne Coyne's Twitter account

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Spending 22 hours in a car is a crazy idea in itself. Match that with driving halfway across the nation to knock on the door of rocker Wayne Coyne's house is taking stalker status to the next level.

"Some weirdos just showed up on my porch...They drove all the way from LA to bring me a birthday gift!!!" said Coyne on Twitter  last week.

Those weirdos were newly-formed Orange County band, Hott Mt. Not only did the trio, made up of Adam Ashe (formerly of Dahga Bloom), Nick Logie (of Telegram) and Ashleigh Allard  show up unexpectedly at Coyne's home in Oklahoma City on Jan. 13, SPIN.com also reported that the members got to sleep on Coyne's couch and floor for four days. 

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​Full disclosure: I've known Lauren Boquette of Lords of Ruin for approximately seven years and I consider him a friend. But the first time we met, I wasn't so sure we'd have much in common. Allow me to explain.

Without ever meeting him, I hopped in a van with Boquette, my friend Gabe, someone who I think played in Dread Zeppelin and the only man who knew everyone in the vehicle, the one, the only, Alfunction.

I'm an introvert who doesn't do well with people (but I'm amazing with animals). I'm also a pipsqueak and a nerd, so you can imagine my trepidation when I first saw Boquette. Dude is at least 6'3'' and one of his arms is as wide as my entire body. Add a bunch of visible tattoos into the mix and I was certain he figured I was a total lame ass not worth talking to.

Keep in mind, I am a total lame ass not worth talking to, but by the time we hit Baker, Boquette was not only keeping the van in good spirits, he was actually engaging me in conversation. Turned out, my fear was nothing but my often-irrational belief that no one will like me because about 14 hours after we left Orange County, our party ended up at downtown Las Vegas' Glitter Gulch, where Boquette got us in for free and all of our drinks comped. Later that night, someone who wasn't me puked outside a car while it was moving. I'm not saying who, but he knows who he is.



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Jeremy Eichenbaum

​Champagne. Kisses at midnight. Some dude throwing up.

These are what we've come to expect at New Year's Eve parties, which is why I'm headed to the Blue Cafe in Long Beach to see the Spell, Ambush Freqs and Mr. Elevator & the Brain Hotel. I'm no psychic (although I play one on this blog), so here's what I'm planning on seeing this Saturday evening.

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On Oct. 18, I introduced two YouTube videos that are not only changing the face of music on the Internet as we know it, but are also re-shaping and re-defining the idea of swag. The songs ("Rifles Burs" and "Snacks") are so life altering, so hard ("Gunshots are the beat!") and so damn good that the artist doesn't even list his name on the videos. Thanks to a comment left on that post, we are led to believe that the emcee in question might or might not be named Gillionaire.

In that blog, I called "Rifles Burs" "the video/song of the year." It's true: the track leaves a sticky trail of swag all over listeners' ears just like how my hair used to leave a stain on the pillows of all the girls I was with when I rocked a greasy pompadour (which was pretty swag on my part).  Without further ado: Q&A with the one-man Internet swagging machine...Gillionaire.


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Meranda Carter/OC Weekly

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Remember that new Guided By Voices album we were talking about? The one that will be out in January, made up of 21 new songs, made like the 1990s seminal albums Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes? Well, Let's Go Eat the Factory (the title of the new album) is real. And there are songs for us to finally listen to! Check out "Doughnut for a Snowman" after the jump, which Pollard calls "the goofiest, twinkliest song I've ever written."

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Jeremy Eichenbaum

​The last time I saw the members of The Spell, they were drinking tequila and bowling on a Thursday night. That was before the party celebrating Spell guitarist Andy Kiddoo's birthday moved to Fern's, the Long Beach dive where Spell singer Josh Brown was nearly escorted out of the bar for harassing the karaoke jock to play a Bob Dylan song for him and Kiddoo to duet on. The KJ swears he called their names, but I was there--and stone sober--and I didn't hear it either. Just sayin'.

So maybe you've never heard of this hard-partying Spell band from Long Beach, the one that combines blues riffs with hip-hop beats and pulsating basslines with ethereal melodies. Or maybe you have and just don't know it as Kiddoo, Brown and bassist/new father Tone Blair played in On Blast, a group I always claimed was the best in town. Something happened with On Blast that forced the name change and new beginning, but what that something is will have to remain a mystery because the members aren't talking. What we do know is the Spell also includes drummer Branden Murray and guitarist Steve M.

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Circa:Now! will be performed, but not by these guys

​Cover songs are a dicey subject. On the one hand, you got your bands that write their own awesome shit and play other people's tunes as either a nod to great music or as a fun escape from their own material. But on the other, you got your bands that get known for playing other people's material. This is fine for bar bands, but--and maybe I'm crazy--I always wince a bit whenever I hear a cover being released as a single. To me, that screams desperation and depression because no one who writes songs wants to be known for a cover.

Luckily, the monthly event known as Album Attack falls into the former. Spearheaded by Jesse Wilder, the idea is simple: Take local musicians and tell their sorry asses to get on stage to perform an entire album by another group. What's really cool is that Wilder doesn't pick active, complete bands to play--he chooses a group of local musicians who he thinks will do the music justice and throws them together. So basically, you're getting to see a unit that has never played before and probably never will again.

This month's Album Attack just so happens to be a performance of Rocket from the Crypt's Circa: Now!, aka one of my favorite records by my all-time favorite band. I was hesitant when I first heard that someone other than San Diego's golden children would be performing the gospel, but Wilder has put together an impressive cast of musicians from groups such as Reel Big Fish (although drummer Carlos de la Garza will always be the guy from F.Y.P to me), Fast Dragon, the Bumpers and Go West Young Man, along with Alex Hernandez, the man who puts the "Alex" in "Alex's Bar."

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Chad Sengstock/OC Weekly

​The lineup for the eighth annual FYF festival in downtown Los Angeles was announced today and if bloggers mean anything, it sounds like lots of people are excited. Bands such as Death From Above 1979, Explosions in the Sky, the Dead Milkmen, Guided By Voices, Broken Social Scene, the Weakerthans, No Age, Avi Buffalo, OFF!, Cold War Kids and Pink Mountaintops are just a few of the groups scheduled to perform.

That bill alone would attract plenty of attention, but fuck all those bands because the Descendents are playing!

I interviewed singer Milo Aukerman a few months ago regarding his group's show at the Long Beach Arena with Rise Against and Bad Religion. After the jump,  a few notable quotes that didn't make my story.

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