I am not terribly impressed with the most recent Front 242 album, "Pulse". It's their first studio album in ten years, and it's not bad... but it just doesn't grab me. Probably my expectations were too high, though, because every previous F242 release, going back to when Official Version came out in 1987, was immediately my Favorite Album Evar, for at least a little while. When "Off" came out, it was my new favorite album before track 2 was half over. But this one disappoints in much the same way as Cabaret Voltaire's "Colours" did. Colours grew on me eventually, but it's not exactly groundbreaking.

I just read Jennifer Government by Max Barry -- it's really, really funny. The first chapter is online. It's got the kind of silliness that the first half of Snow Crash had, and many of the characters have the kind of gee-whiz dopeyness that Christoper Moore's characters do (e.g., Bloodsucking Fiends.)

I also read "The Moreau Factor" by Jack Chalker. It was total fluff. I occasionally pick up a new Chalker book because when I was 12, I totally loved the "Well of Souls" series. Unfortunately, he's been mostly writing the same story ever since.

On thursday, I went to see Throwing Muses at Slim's. I hadn't seen them before. It was a pretty good show, but Kristen Hersh has a very odd stage presence... during every song, she seemed like she was trying to stare a wide-eyed hole through one one particular spot on the back wall, never looking to the side or down, and barely blinking. Kinda odd.

My club sucks, but there's some good stuff coming up at Slim's in the next few weeks. I'll probably be going to these:

thu may 15: Verbena
sat may 24: Red Elvises!!
sat jun 21: The Fall
sat jul 12: Placebo
sat jul 26: Horton Heat