Japanese God Jesus Robot

Erin Go Bragh!

2006-12-21T11:22:00.000-05:00

And to think that there wasn't even a question in this survey where I could've revealed my love of Lucky Charms or Thin Lizzy. :-)

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.
You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Am I Supersonic or am I Fergalicious?

2006-12-20T13:31:00.000-05:00

I know this isn't the most original thought (see here; it's also where I got the JJ Fad song from, so umm, thanks), but to my ears Fergie's "Fergalicious" (which is a masterpiece next to "My Humps", which I had the displeasure of hearing at my office's holiday party last Friday night; see I can only avoid Top 40 radio for so long), which I admittedly first heard in a cell phone commercial, is almost identical to JJ Fad's "Supersonic", a well-known song from my youth.

The Invisible Deck

2006-12-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

Sometimes my writing shows up in some really cool and unexpected places, like here for example, though you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to see it. Thanks Anne for bringing this to my attention.

The Avengers

2006-07-28T15:40:00.000-05:00

This is my first post on here in over 6 months. I'm sincerely sorry about that. If you wanna see most of what I've written since then, you can go here. I'd been focusing so much on my Big Takeover column that I've been neglecting this space. Also, I recently moved to Philadelphia, which took up a lot of time as well, as you can well imagine. Now that I'm all settled in, however, I've decided to re-activate this space. I think I'll mostly be posting mp3s of rare and hard to find albums as well as teasers of new and up-and-coming albums. I'm in the process of importing most of my CDs into iTunes and as I've been doing it, it occurred to me that I have some hard-to-find and out of print stuff that I'd like to share with you all.

Anyway, with all that said, my first post in this series is about the late '70s San Francisco punk band The Avengers. Ever since I first heard them when I was 16 (back in those pre-internet days when I used to trade tapes with other punk and hardcore fans across the country and the world), I've considered them one of the finest punk bands ever. Penelope Houston's forceful yet melodic vocals matched Greg Ingraham's slashing guitar power and the superb rhythm section of bassist James Wilsey and drummer Danny Furious to create sonic masterpieces like "We Are the One," "Thin White Line," "Car Crash", "The American in Me" and "Corpus Christi". In the late '90s, Penelope and Greg reunited to play shows and re-record some old songs from the '70s that never saw the light of day for one reason or another with a different rhythm section. These 2 songs, however, are from the self-titled album (really a compilation of singles and other odds and ends from their original incarnation) that was released on the CD Presents label in 1983. Although this is some of the finest punk rock I've ever heard, legal issues have prevented it from being reissued and it languishes out-of-print while going for obscene amounts of money on ebay, Amazon and what not. Since I'm lucky enough to own a copy, I thought I'd share a few songs with you. If you like what you hear, you can buy a digitally remastered CD directly from Penelope here. Furthermore, The Avengers are mounting a rare U.S. tour in the fall which includes a date here in Philadelphia at the First Unitarian Church. I can't wait!

The Avengers - "We Are the One"
The Avengers - "Car Crash"

Enjoy!

Love Monkey Blows

2006-01-25T17:48:00.000-05:00

This is a great editorial about some of the many things that's wrong with the new CBS mid-season replacement show Love Monkey. Many of my complaints are encapsulated in this article, but I'll add a few more:
1) There's no way that a married man would complain about having an attractive nanny. If anything, it's his wife who would have a problem with it.
2) The fact that "unhip" Sony/BMG artists like Billy Joel, Air Supply and Starship get dissed. I'm just amazed that Sony/BMG lets CBS get away with this shit.
3) Then again, I could devise a drinking game for every time there's a desperate namedrop or for that matter, for every time Teddy Geiger comes on the screen.

For another anti-Love Monkey rant, click here.

And finally, for even more fun, click here.

The Haze

2006-01-18T23:31:00.000-05:00

This is an awesome interview with Tom Hazelmeyer, the proprietor of Amphetamine Reptile (Am Rep for short) records, who released Helmet's 1st album and singles as well as underground favorites Halo of Flies, The Cows, Lubricated Goat, The Melvins and many others. More recently, they've reissued the Australian (not the also great and much more well-known LA band) X's Aspirations, which I recommend heartily. Thanks for the link, mykel.

I Will Follow You Into the Dark

2006-01-18T23:14:00.000-05:00

I went to see Ben Gibbard play a solo show at Bowery Ballroom last Tuesday. He had two other frontmen open for him. The first was Andrew Kenny of the recently departed American Analog Set, who I missed, and the second was Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, who was excellent. I'd never heard any of Nada Surf's tunes besides "Popular" (their 1996 MTV and alternative radio hit) but now I think I'll have to check them out. Anyway, Gibbard came on and played a mix of new and old Death Cab for Cutie songs as well as some cool covers. My full review is here.

Before the show, me and my friend Sara went to Pho Grand, a phenomenal Vietnamese restaurant. I had the spring rolls and a phenomenal cubed beef dish with vegetable fried rice. I can't wait to go back!

Oh and I took the above picture from Stereogum. His review of the show is here.

PREVIOUSLY: My review of Death Cab for Cutie with The Decemberists and Stars at Central Park Summerstage in August.

Oh You're So Silent Jens

2006-01-10T17:46:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to Jens Lekman a lot lately. I put his singles collection Oh You're So Silent Jens on my Top 10 list for 2005 despite the fact that it consists of previously released material (I'd never heard any of it before, so there). I was worried that as of a month ago, it seemed like he was thinking about retiring from music or at least taking a long sabbatical. This article added to my worries. However, my fears have been quelched at least somewhat by his recent diary entries and hopefully when he's ready he'll come back here since I missed his previous New York shows. Apparently, although he's a superstar in his native Sweden, he still can't get arrested here. What a travesty. Hopefully that'll change soon (or at least enough for him to come back here at some point).

Here's an interview that he did with NPR recently.

Shift-Work

2006-01-10T17:34:00.000-05:00

I meant to post this earlier, but here's a terrific article from The Guardian about one man's quest to find everyone who's ever played in The Fall. Despite Mark E. Smith's lack of concern for his fellow bandmates (it appears that leaving them stranded at airports and bus stops is his modus operandi for giving them their pink slips), they're still one of my favorite bands of all time, and as Bill pointed out, the band that possesses perhaps the deepest and most exhaustive catalog of anyone in the last 30 years. It's definitely a case of "trust the art, not the artist", but to be honest his restless nature is part of The Fall's appeal and one of the reasons that their music has always seemed so fresh and never boring year after year.

I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

2006-01-10T17:22:00.000-05:00

Me and Anne went to go see 2 nights of Yo La Tengo's 8 nights of Hanukkah at Maxwells recently. My review of the 1st show can be found here and the review of the New Years Eve show will be up shortly. Both shows were excellent, but between the two of them I preferred the first one since Eugene Mirman was the featured comedian and because the sound was excellent, unlike the New Years Eve show.

ADDENDUM: As promised earlier, my review of the New Years Eve show is up here.

The Start of Something

2005-12-27T13:13:00.000-05:00

Voxtrot @ Magnetic Field 12/15/05
This show was added a day before to make up for Voxtrot cancelling the second half of their current tour due to van problems. I first heard them over the summer and I downloaded a few of their songs, which I liked, especially the insanely catchy and very Smiths-like “The Start of Something.” But though they’ve played New York several times since I heard about them, I somehow missed them, and so when I heard about this show, I made sure to check it out. And boy am I glad that I did!

My initial thinking going into the show was that they’re a young band with a lot of potential and talent, but they’re not quite there yet; my impression definitely changed after seeing the show. Playing in a tiny room (imagine a venue half the size of Maxwell’s or Mercury Lounge), Voxtrot put forth enough energy to fill a room many times the size of Magnetic Field and showed that their chops, songwriting talent, and the magnetism of singer/guitarist Ramesh are for real.

Voxtrot’s sound recalls that of The Smiths and Belle and Sebastian, their most obvious influences along with New Order (whose “Love Vigilantes” they covered on this evening). The band’s make-up consists of two guitarists, a multi-instrumentalist who mainly plays keyboards, and a crackerjack rhythm section. While on paper, this combination of influences and musicians may sound potentially derivative or even generic, Voxtrot manages to make this combination into a sound that’s most definitely their own. Even better, they communicated passion and fun (not a standoff-ish cool like oh so many other buzz bands) with every note, which endeared them to the enthusiastic audience.

They played several songs that I recognized, including “The Start of Something,” “Wrecking Force,” and a version of Talking Heads' “Heaven” (originally on the terrific LP Fear of Music), as well as the aforementioned New Order cover. Yet it was even more of a pleasure to hear them play unfamiliar songs, songs which I’ve come to enjoy after picking up Voxtrot’s excellent Raised by Wolves EP. The biggest treat was unexpected: Andrea Vaughn, formerly of the similar-minded Long Island band My Favorite (who I always liked), came on-stage to duet with Ramesh on a great version of the EP title track.

If you have a chance to see them play, I highly recommend it. With good looks to match their terrific playing and memorable songs, I predict big things for them and hope that they come back soon.

What' Obscure 90s Alternative Rock Cult Figure Are You?

2005-12-27T00:27:00.000-05:00

You are Primal Scream - poppin' Es, shagging the
finest birds and raising hell!

What Obscure 90s Alternative Rock Cult Figure Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Beyond and Back

2005-12-14T11:33:00.000-05:00

X with Julianna Hatfield @ The Theater of the Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA 12/8/05
Opener Julianna Hatfield played a solid if not particularly spirited or memorable opening set. It was nice for me to see her perform live for the first time since 1994 (when I saw her play at my college). However, my favorite part of her set, by far, was when John Doe (of headliners X) came out and harmonized with her on The Everly Brothers classic “When Will I Be Loved”, an unexpected and welcome treat.

Headliners X came on and just dominated. I’d never seen them with the original lineup before, so this was a real treat for me since I’ve been a big fan for years and I consider them to be one of my favorite bands ever. Opening with “Beyond and Back” from 1981’s excellent Wild Gift (one of my favorite albums of all time), they stormed through an hour-long set of classic after classic from their 1st 4 (great) LPs including the more well-known cuts like “Los Angeles”, “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene” (both from 1980’s debut Los Angeles) alongside Wild Gift’s “In This House That I Call Home”, “We’re Desperate” and “I’m Coming Over” (though sadly “It’s Who You Know” and “Some Other Time” weren’t played on this evening). Songs played from 1982’s critically-favored Under the Big Black Sun included “Because I Do”, “Motel Room in My Bed” and “The Hungry Wolf”, which was one of several songs played in the short encore. 1983’s equally excellent but underrated More Fun in the New World was represented by “Poor Girl” (perhaps my favorite song in the X canon aside from “Some Other Time”) and “The New World”, though “Drunk in My Past” and “I See Red” would’ve been great additions as well.

Still, the complaints I had were very minor considering how tight the band were. The audience (aside from some very drunk fellow that security escorted out in the middle of the set) ate it all up, singing along with all the songs as if they were at a Southern Baptist church. The “let’s have fun and enjoy this” attitude is so refreshing in light of the joyless vibe that many indie-rock shows give off. All in all, this was the best concert that I’ve seen all year!

For Whom Hell's Bells Tolls

2005-12-12T14:16:00.000-05:00

This is an excellent article (from Pitchfork; for all my issues with them sometimes they really come through with some great articles like this one or the one last month about the roots of twee indie-pop) about a documentary that outraged me when I was 15 (it always seemed to be on same random cable channel late at night back then in Louisiana) as I'd just started to seriously get into rock and roll during that time. I'm sure I would find it really funny if I'd watch it now, though. It's quite disturbing that people still buy it and eat this stuff up, though.

We Like Birdland

2005-12-12T11:56:00.000-05:00

Patti Smith @ BAM 12/1/05
Playing all of her legendary first album Horses to celebrate its 30th anniversary and recent reissue as a double CD set (the 2nd disc includes a similar concert given earlier this year in London), Patti Smith wowed the audience with a performance full of so much unbridled energy, passion and vigor that it shamed many performers more than half of her age.
With the starting time at a very early 7:45, the first set consisted of Horses from start to finish. Patti was backed by 2 former members of her ‘70s band (guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty) along with long-time band member Tony Shanahan on bass and keyboards and 2 special guests, Flea and Tom Verlaine. Kaye, Daugherty and Verlaine all played on the original album whereas Flea (who handled most of the evening’s bass duties) did not, but those worried if he would fit in were left assured by his nimble and understated, yet energetic playing, complete with lots of head-bobbing and running around the stage. In sharp contrast, Verlaine sat on a stool and looked down at his guitar the entire time.

From the opening “Gloria” to the “Land” trilogy (including the chilling “Horses” and “Land of a Thousand Dances”) to the beautiful closer “Elegie” with stops in between including the cod-reggae “Redondo Beach” and the passionate and fiery “Free Money”, Patti was in full command and delivered a top-notch performance. To make it even better, the sound was also top-notch at this lovely concert hall.

For the second set, they came out and played songs from Patti’s other albums along with a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced”. The set culminated in a rousing version of “Rock and Roll Nigger”, complete with Patti’s son Jackson shredding along with Kaye and Verlaine on guitar. If it would’ve ended there, I would’ve been more than happy, but with the audience begging for more, Patti came back out and played an unscheduled 2nd encore and the show culminated with the ubiquitous “People Have the Power”.

Regardless, of all the times I’ve seen her, this was by far the best and was simply an incredible night of rock and roll.

Sorry for the very late post. This review was first published on the Big Takeover website. You can see it here.

PREVIOUSLY: My review of Patti Smith at Central Park Summerstage back in August

Descended Like Vultures

2005-12-06T13:28:00.000-05:00

Rogue Wave and Mazarin @ Bowery Ballroom 12/2/05
Having never heard openers Mazarin, I didn’t know quite what to expect, though I’d heard good things about them and that their sound was of a neo-shoegazer persuasion. Although this was partially true, it was only half the story. At first, I wasn’t too keen on them as I noticed that their singer’s voice was buried in the mix and that he really didn’t have too much stage presence, but after a while I began to notice that the music was so heavy and powerful (though still dreamy and psychedelic) that it didn’t make much of a difference as the singer’s voice was just another instrument in their wall of sound. Thus, if I were to make comparisons to early ‘90s stalwarts, I’d have to say that they reminded me more of say, Catherine Wheel or Swervedriver though they really sounded like neither. Regardless, they represent the more rockin’, visceral side of that movement and time period, though they’re original enough to stand on their own merit.

Rogue Wave’s Descended Like Vultures is currently one of my favorite albums and one of 2005’s finest offerings and since I’d never seen Zach Rogue and company before, I was really looking forward to their set. I’d like to say that they didn’t disappoint and while I enjoyed the set thoroughly, I did think that a few things could have been better. The one song that Rogue did entirely on his own, which was the first song in the encore, was noticeably better than many of the songs in the main set where he was backed by a full band. Rogue is a great songwriter and a fine vocalist to boot, but the arrangements that he chose to employ to make the songs work in a live setting didn’t always play to their melodic strengths, though they seemed to get it together more towards the end. In particular, a jaw-dropping version of Descended Like Vultures’ stunning “Love's Lost Guarantee” with the band was the highlight of the evening, but the other high points not mentioned were the quieter numbers like “California” (also from Descended Like Vultures). Thus, while I’d go see Rogue Wave again and I look forward to their next record, what I’d really like to see is a Zach Rogue solo performance.

You can also read this review here, where it was first published.

Don't Change for You

2005-12-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

INXS @ Tower Records on the Upper West Side 11/29/05
I have a confession to make. As some of you know, I watched the reality show Rock Star: INXS religiously from its 4th or 5th episode back in July up until its conclusion in September, culminating with them naming JD Fortune as their new lead singer. You see, I've liked them since I was 13 with their 1987 album Kick being one of the first albums I ever bought and I couldn't help but to be curious about their first album in 8 years and their 1st without original singer Michael Hutchence, who of course tragically died in 1997.

In all honesty, though, I had no plans on buying their new album Switch right away (though the new single "Pretty Vegas" is quite good), but when I heard that they were doing an in-store, I rushed out to get a wristband and for the cost of buying the new album, I was guaranteed admission to an in-store performance with a signing afterwards. The set was short, as they only played 4 songs (a 5th song, either "Devil Inside" or "Never Tear Us Apart", was on the setlist, but not played) and encompassed "Mystify" and "Need You Tonight" from Kick as well as "Don't Change" (their first single to chart in the US Top #100 back in 1982) and the aforementioned "Pretty Vegas". After waiting outside in line again for the signing, I got my booklet signed (to be scanned soon hopefully) and got to briefly talk to and shake hands with all of the members, including JD. It felt a little surreal since I'd watched JD compete with other singers on TV and now here I was shaking his hand, though I certainly wasn't starstruck. It's like you think that these people exist on some other plane and in some other reality other than your own, but in reality they're just the same when it comes right down to it. I also got to tell bassist Gary Beers that we missed him since they were only playing as a 4-piece (it was an acoustic set, though for an "acoustic set" it was pretty rockin'), which was pretty funny.

All in all, it was a fun night (and that includes the excellent dim sum that we had afterwards at Shun Lee; pricy but great) and it was worth the $11.99 (the price I paid for the new album) since I just viewed it as the ticket price (the album's actually pretty good, too).

Hymn for Her

2005-11-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

The Magic Numbers @ Mercury Lounge 11/27/05
I slept on tickets for their sold-out show the next night at Bowery Ballroom, so when this "secret" (if it was so "secret", how come there were tickets sold on Ticketweb until the day of the show; not that I'm complaining, mind you, since I was able to get tickets that way, but I'm just saying) show was announced a few weeks ago, I got tickets right away.

And luckily, the band didn't disappoint. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to make it down to the venue in time because of some home improvement stuff that I was doing earlier (mad props to Sara for helping me out BTW), I missed opener David Kitt (who's touring with them on the remainder of their current U.S. tour) and right after I walked in the door and got a beer, The Magic Numbers went on. Good timing, huh? Anyway, they played for about an hour and no encore (it doesn't make sense to do one there anyway since there's no backstage area much like Maxwells). They played most of their excellent debut album, including "Mornings Eleven", "Love Me Like You", "Don't Give Up the Fight" and my favorite, the heart-wrenching "I See You, You See Me". Despite their sad lyrics, they give off such a great "good-time" vibe that's inescapable. As I've noted before, they're obviously influenced by a lot of late '60s West Coast stuff (think The Mamas and Papas, Buffalo Springfield and the like and you'll be somewhat close), but their '60s-isms are filtered through more modern UK acts like Teenage Fanclub and the like. Furthermore, their stage presence has improved tremendously since I saw them back in March (it was their 1st U.S. show ever) and they did a great version of Beyonce's smash hit "Crazy in Love", complete with audience sing-a-long, clapping and the like. In other words, it was a great time. If they came to your town, go see them.

PREVIOUSLY: My review of The Magic Numbers @ Sin-E back in March and some other stuff

The Big Takeover

2005-11-24T20:06:00.000-05:00

This is just a note to inform all of you reading this that you can now also read my column on The Big Takeover's newly redesigned website. You can see my 1st column and my Top 10 list if you click here. Enjoy!

A Strange Geometry

2005-11-24T02:34:00.000-05:00

The Clientele with Annie Hayden @ The Knitting Factory 11/23/05
Annie Hayden, formerly of the '90s Jersey City band Spent, opened the show with a 30-minute set of delicately strummed and played indie-pop that I imagine isn't too far from the sound of her old band (though I'm unfamiliar with their music, so I can't vouch for that statement). The between song banter was funny and during one break, Alisdair from The Clientele brought her flowers to culminate the end of their almost 2-month long tour together, which was a really sweet gesture.

I'd never seen The Clientele before, but I'd heard that they were similar live to what their records sound like. It turns out that this is only somewhat true. The first thing you notice is the sparseness of their sound. They're a 3-piece led by the aforementioned singer/guitarist/songwriter Alisdair MacLean and another thing I noticed since I was standing close to the front was the amount of effects pedals that he used. This created a mesmerizing sea of reverb that fortunately didn't overwhelm the vocals or the rhythm section but on the plus side added to the beauty of his playing. And beautiful it was! A revelation to me was how absolutely amazing of a guitar playing Alasdair is, which is something that I don't usually see mentioned when I read reviews of their albums or live shows. Instead of strumming rhythmic chords, he picks at the guitar in a manner almost similar to what a bluegrass guitarist would do. I don't know if he would appreciate the comparison, but though they sound totally different, it actually reminded me in some ways of Lindsey Buckingham's playing style. Overall, though, the sound is more akin to indie legends like Galaxie 500 (seeing them live, the similarities are even more apparent since The Clientele is a 3-piece and because of the reverb and the hazy, droning nature of their sound), The Church, The Go-Betweens and even occasionally Robyn Hitchcock. In other words, it was a slow, dream-pop haze that was enrapturing and even trance-inducing. Although they stand still and don't really put on a "show", I still recommend seeing them highly.

A couple of really funny things happened during their set. Someone requested the song "Losing Haringey" (a spoken word monologue where the band just plays an instrumental track over it), so Alisdair invited said person to come up on stage and recite the lyrics (luckily they had a print-out of the lyrics perhaps with this in mind), so he did to rapturous applause. Also, their final song was an acoustic-guitar led version of Television Personalities' "A Picture of Dorian Gray", a song which I also saw The Futureheads cover last year at Maxwells. Anyone someone yelled out "who's Dorian Gray" when Alisdair introduced the song, but then someone else said "he's a fag" after his explanation (I can only hope the heckler in question was being ironic; douchebag).

I bought their tour-only CD of their early recordings (It's Art Dad) after the gig and I got a chance to speak briefly with Alisdair and have him sign my copy. Unfortunately no one seemed to have a permanent marker so he used a pen and the ink is a bit runny, but I can't really complain. Once I set up my new printer/scanner/copier that came with the new computer I bought last week, maybe I'll be able to scan the image for all of you to see.

Area (new Futureheads single)

2005-11-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

You can stream the video for the new Futureheads tune "Area" here. Enjoy! The song's terrific. It slows down the pace a bit, at least compared to most of the breackneck-speed debut album, though it's even more Jam-like than some of the songs on that album, reminding me a lot of All Mod Cons, but that's a really good thing.

Dap Dippin'

2005-11-21T00:39:00.000-05:00

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings @ Southpaw 11/19/05
When we got there, we already missed the 1st band of this triple bill that was the Daptone Records Funk and Soul Revue, but we managed to catch most of the set by The Budos Band, an instrumental soul/funk band whose overall sound reminded me of the thick grooves of such luminaries of the genre as (early '70s) Kool and the Gang. After an extended intermission that still felt like a dance party since great old 45s by Rufus Thomas ("Tramp") and the like blared loudly out of the speakers, The Dap Kings (sans Sharon Jones) came on and played an 8 song set of their own material. Frankly, I thought they were fun and all, but I was getting impatient waiting for Sharon Jones (the person I paid to see) come on. I should say that I probably would've enjoyed their set more if it wasn't so hot in the elevated part of Southpaw. It was so incredibly hot up there that I could barely stand it, so a few songs after Sharon Jones came on, we went to the downstairs level and got spots by the bar. It was near the door, so it was a lot cooler and this made a lot of difference in terms of me being able to enjoy the show. I don't know if they turned up the heat to make it seem more like a juke joint down South than a club in Park Slope, but it was almost too much to bear.

Anyway, onto Sharon Jones herself. She was amazing. She opened with a few songs I didn't know and some interesting interpretive dancing that she attributed to her African-American and Native-American ancestors (and dancing would be a recurring theme throughout the evening), but then the set really got going when she started playing material from her excellent album Naturally, which has been getting a lot of airplay around here. Aside from stellar originals like "How Do I Let a Good Man Down" and "My Man is a Mean Man" (during which she introduced the Dap-Kings as "mean men", but in a different and presumably better sense) as well as the politically-charged "What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes", classic covers such as Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land", the Otis Redding/Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and the encore, a furious take on James Brown's "There was a Time" (fitting since Sharon is also a native of Augusta, GA, which is of course the Godfather of Soul's hometown) were also played during the hour and a half long set.

All in all, what I got out of this show, aside from Sharon Jones' huge voice and commanding stage presence, was the sheer intensity and passionate energy of not only her voice but the fiery '70s soul/funk music played behind her, and the fact that despite the fact that it was hard to take your eyes off of her while she was performing, is that the music of the Daptone Records stable is really dance music and as such, it was good to see a few people (even me) cutting loose throughout the course of the evening. While this may be unusual for Brooklyn hipsters, it was healthy in the best possible way. It's good to just go out, cut a rug and have a good time sometimes! I just wish that I had some pictures. Sigh.

"We Worship the Dark Lord"

2005-11-18T15:05:00.000-05:00

Jeff Tweedy @ Tribeca Performing Arts Center 11/17/05
I tried to get a ticket to see this show when they went on sale last month. I ended up waiting in line for 3 hours only to find out that they'd sold out when I was a block away (the line for tickets wrapped around 5 or 6 blocks), so I was delighted when I found out yesterday morning that there was a stand-by line and that on Wednesday night (Tweedy played there 2 nights in a row), everyone in the stand-by line got in. So forward to last night. I get there and 2 girls are trying to sell me their tickets for $25 a pop (tickets were supposed to be free for this event). I talked them down to $20 but I told them that I wanted to check out the situation first (i.e. I wanted to see what a real ticket looked like to make sure I wasn't getting scammed and also I wanted to see how long the line was). It was cold as hell, so the prospect of waiting in the stand-by line for over an hour (they don't let people on the stand-by line get in until 8:15) filled me with dread, so I walked back over to where the 2 girls where standing, but of course they weren't there anymore. Presumably, they'd gotten rid of their tickets. So, left with no other recourse, I went back to the stand-by line and waited. Miraculously, as they were letting people in (ticketholders got to go in at 7), some guy walked by me asking if anyone was alone since he had an extra (free) ticket. Of course, I yelled out and so I got in immediately thanks to a complete stranger! What makes this story even better is that we got in so early, we got to sit in the front row, a little bit to the right! And all for free! Unbelievable.

At about 8:15, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche took the stage. He played a solo set with just him on drums (and occasionally on vibes or a xylophone; I couldn't tell) and some accompanying tape loops. It wasn't Cream's "Toad" or anything that indulgent, though, thankfully. He tuned his drums specifically for the show and not only played them traditionally, but pulled a long, dangling piece of string that he'd tied to one of his drums (I couldn't tell which one) and at one point even used one of his drumsticks as a paintbrush on one of the snares. It was definitely weird, but quite good. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Obviously, he's very influenced by avant-garde composers like Cage and Stockhausen, but he also has a thing for Brazilian music as well. At one point he covered a Jao Gilberto composition towards the end of his solo set.

And then after about 45 minutes, he left and 5 minutes later, Jeff Tweedy came on with just an acoustic guitar in hand. He played for about an hour and his set including a few songs which I didn't recognize, but many which I did, including "Summerteeth" (complete with audience backing "oohs" and "ahhs") and "She's a Jar" from 1999's Summerteeth, a Woody Guthrie song whose name eludes me, "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and "War on War" from 2002's masterpice Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and a few songs (opener "Muzzle of Bees", "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" and 1 other) from last year's flawed but intriguing A Ghost is Born. In particular, the Ghost material was a revelation. On record, "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" is a long (almost 10 minute) piece reminscent of the Krautrock of Neu! (in fact, according to Tweedy, it's a direct tribute), but when he stripped it down to just his voice and acoustic guitar, it reveals its roots as an almost plaintive folk song. The title track from "Summerteeth" was also a revelation as I preferred it to the version on the record as well.

After a short break, he came out for not just one or 2 encores, but an entire mini-set, thus upping the length of the show to an hour and a half. After a beautiful rendition of Being There's "Sunken Treasure" (a song that features some of Tweedy's most affecting vocals and lyrics; he really sang the hell out of his song), Glenn came out with fellow Wilco (and Loose Fur) member Jim O'Rourke and we were treated to an impromptu Loose Fur mini-set featuring the terrific "Whistling Jesus", which will appear on their next record (which they just finished recording, according to Tweedy). Something really funny happened after they finished playing this song. Someone in the audience yelled out "yay Jesus" to which Tweedy replied with the title of this post and further adding "think about the name; it's Loose Fur" (get it?). Brilliant. Anyway, after that O'Rourke walked off and Jeff and Glenn proceeded to play "Heavy Metal Drummer" complete with Glenn's hysterical Led Zeppelin-esque drum fills. After that, I thought that was gonna be it, but Tweedy came back out with just his guitar to play "The Lonely 1", another song from Being There that I adore. An appropriate ending to a great night with an even greater price (free). I want to thank John (if by some strange chance you're reading this) for giving me your extra ticket.

One Way Ticket to Hell (and Back)

2005-11-16T13:05:00.000-05:00

You can watch the video for The Darkness' "One Way Ticket to Hell (and Back)" here. Enjoy! Thanks to Bill for the picture and the link.

Art Brut pictures

2005-11-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures (taken by Anne) from Saturday night's show at the Tribeca Grand.

PREVIOUSLY: My review of this show.

Sons and Daughters on KCRW

2005-11-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

Sons and Daughters played a live session on KCRW's famous Morning Becomes Eclectic show a few days ago. You can download the entire session here as individual mp3s. Enjoy! (Thanks Anne)

PREVIOUSLY: My review of Sons and Daughters @ Sound Fix and North Six later that night

Bang Bang Rock and Roll

2005-11-15T15:20:00.000-05:00

Art Brut @ The Tribeca Grand 11/12/05
I've only been to The Tribeca Grand 3 times, but this was by far the most packed I've ever seen it (though only the last 2 times have been in the room in the basement where they normally hold shows). Despite the long wait and the overstuffed and circulation-deprived surroundings, it was all worthwhile as Art Brut played an awesomely energetic set that had much of the front rows singing (and occasionally even dancing and pogoing) along. And hey, the sound is generally pretty good and the shows are always free, so I can't really complain, now can I?

They played most of their excellent debut album Bang Bang Rock and Roll along with a brand new song that they only had 1 verse and a chorus for. Frontman Eddie Argos (he of the razor-thin 'stache reminscent of Ron Mael of Sparks) was compelling, telling the story of what happened with Emily Kane after she called him up and asked if the song (a love song to his girlfriend at the age of 15 of the same name) was a joke and at different points throughout the evening, he prompted all in the audience to start a band or at least start a fanzine or write a book or something (I hope having a blog counts; ha). They opened with a garage band take on the opening sequence of "Welcome to the Jungle" before going straight into "Formed a Band" and then proceeded to play most of their excellent debut album, including "My Little Brother", "Emily Kane", "Modern Art" and the encore "Bang Bang Rock and Roll". During "Modern Art", Eddie ran out into the crowd. When he did that, Brooklyn Vegan took this awesome picture (yes that's me on the bottom right-hand side singing along):

I was able to pick up a copy of the album at the merchandise table and when I was there, I spoke with the person working the table, who I believe is their tour manager. Anyway, he said that they were looking for a deal for their record to come out in the U.S. (currently it's only available on the UK) and that's the reason they undertook this short U.S. tour. Hopefully they'll be back soon (I predict a headlining slot at Bowery Ballroom in the new year). I can't wait to see them again!

You can see more of Brooklyn Vegan's photos and his review of the show here.

Bill was at the Mercury Lounge show on Thursday night. Here's his review along with some pictures. He noted that David J of Bauhaus was there at the show on Thursday night. I saw Bauhaus the next night at the Nokia Theater (review).

Heartonastick was there on Thursday night as well. Here's his outstanding review.

Bela Lugosi's Dead

2005-11-15T14:28:00.000-05:00

Bauhaus @ Nokia Theater 11/11/05
Although this is the case, luckily Bauhaus isn't. They reunited earlier this year for an appearance at the Coachella Festival, complete with Peter Murphy hanging upside down when they opened with "Bela Lugosi's Dead". During their previous reunion in 1998, I missed their appearance at Hammerstein Ballroom, so I jumped at the chance to get tickets for this show when they went on sale back in August.

First off, this was my 1st time at this brand new venue. Although it was very clean and antiseptic, it still felt like an theater of some sort (more than a rock and roll venue) and the sound was very good, so in those ways it was quite appropriate for Bauhaus' theatrical music. There was no opener and they went on right after 9 (almost on cue) and played until a little after 10:30 or so. The first few songs were shaky because Peter Murphy was either not fully into it vocally or his vocals were turned down in the mix, which is what my friend thought. Regardless, as soon as Daniel Ash started blaring his saxophone and strutting around the stage for an incredible version of "In Fear of Fear", the concert went from good to great. Many of the old favorites, such as "Dark Entries", "God in an Alcove", "Kick in the Eye", "Terror Couple Kill Colonel", "Hollow Hills", "Silent Hedges", "Swing the Heartache", "She's in Parties" and others were played. In addition, songs that were more unusual choices were also tried out, including the opener "Burning from the Inside" (a 9 and a half minute funk-based dirge that I love but I know many others aren't fond of) and the B-side "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores".

For the encore, they came back out and played the Daniel Ash-sung "Slice of Life" and "Bela Lugosi's Dead", concluding a stunning (though a bit too short; it would've been nice to hear "Crowds", for instance, but that's a very minor complaint) show that witnessed all 4 members in top form vocally and instrumentally. Daniel Ash is an extremely innovative and underrated guitarist (not to mention vocalist, artist and his turn on the sax) and the rhythm section of David J and his brother Kevin Haskins is incredible, too. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw a band so tight in its precision yet all the while making crazy sounds rarely heard on their instruments before or since. I loved the fact that the bass was turned way up (I'm a huge fan of that style of bass-playing which features it in the forefront; it started out in reggae and dub and many post-punk bands, including Bauhaus, adopted it as well), so you could hear David's almost John Entwistle-like lines. As my friend noted, Peter Murphy sounded more like the Murphy of yore than he did in the 1998 video Gotham (which chronicled the 1998 reunion show at Hammerstein) and on his previous and subsequent solo tours.

The incredible photo above is by David Thorton/Ice Cream Man and was reprinted in Pitchfork for the review I cited above. You can visit his site here. He's got a review of Bauhaus' recent show at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Search in the index and you can see it there.

Still Fighting It

2005-11-15T13:22:00.000-05:00

Ben Folds @ Radio City Music Hall 11/7/05
First and foremost, I'm sorry that this review is so late. This was my 4th night out in 5 days and to be honest, I probably wouldn't have gone to see this show (despite the fact that Folds is a long-time favorite artist of mine) if I didn't buy the tickets as a birthday present to my friend and co-worker Sue, who's an even bigger fan of Ben than I am.

And why not? Well for starters, I've seen Ben both with Ben Folds Five and solo at least a dozen times (no exagerration) over the years since Whatever and Ever Amen came out and made me a fan and though he always puts on a great show (the 2 times I've seen him solo at Bowery Ballroom and the show at the Beacon with Joe Jackson on hand for a few songs have been especially memorable), his new album Songs for Silverman (which came out earlier this year) was a major letdown. Gone are the fiery sparks of humor and the big hooks of yore, replaced by the feeling that he's mellowed out and lost his sense of humor (and penchant for said big hooks and melodies that stick in your head for days).

With all that said, I was still looking forward to seeing this show because it's still Ben, I hadn't seen him play in over a year and because he has a knack for rearranging material in concert to make it sound shockingly superior to the recorded versions. I was also looking forward to it because I knew he'd be playing with a band and I hadn't seen him play with one in over 4 years, the last time being when he played with a full band at Town Hall right after the release of his 1st solo album Rockin' the Suburbs.

So after missing the opener (whose name escapes me at the moment), we got there at a little before 9 (after a tasty meal at Yum, a dependable no-frills Thai restaurant located amidst a sea of overpriced tourist traps) and Ben went on promptly at 9:15 or so. Backed by only a bassist and drummer (how Ben Folds Five-like, though in reality the show reminded me more of when I saw Joe Jackson play 2 small club shows back in 1999 backed by only Graham Maby on bass and Gary Burke on drums), Ben played until exactly 11:00 PM (he said he would be fined $20,000 if he played 1 minute over that time since there was a curfew). The 1st half of the set, consisting of him playing with the band, covered much of the new album, the 3 subsequent eps and his 1st solo album and I have to say that the live versions far surpassed the album versions in many cases, especially on the new material. It was during the 2nd half of the show, however, that it really became transcendent. The band left and Ben played solo, delivering a harrowing version of "Lullabye" (from the overlooked 1999 Ben Folds Five swan song The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner) that absolutely slayed me and destroyed the much more tame version that closed the album. In addition, songs like that album's fantastic "Don't Change Your Plans" and "The Ascent of Stan" (from Rockin' the Suburbs) received the solo treatment to fantastic results. After a few more songs in the same mold, the band came out again and it became a greatest hits set of sort with well-known tunes like the solemn "Brick", "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces" (both from Whatever and Ever Amen) and the closer Army" (complete with audience sing-along).

All in all, this was a fantastic show that restored my faith in one of my favorite performers. Furthermore, I have to add that this is by far the largest venue I've ever seen Ben perform in. It's telling that almost a decade after his only real hit, he's more popular as a live performer than ever. He's been able to fashion a career out of writing great, memorable songs that have a personal perspective on all facets of life ranging from the personal (the aforementioned "Brick") to the explicity political ("All You Can Eat") and people have clearly responded to it, so more power to him.

Hot 3-Way Action

2005-11-07T11:42:00.000-05:00

Spoon, American Music Club and Mary Timony @ Warsaw 11/6/05
First of all, get your minds out of the gutter! I merely titled this post "Hot 3-Way Action" to describe the awesomeness of this great triple bill that played at Warsaw last night (and at the new Nokia Theater the night before, but I was busy seeing Super Furry Animals that night). Going to Warsaw is always about more than just whatever band(s) are playing. It's also about the experience and though the sound isn't the greatest and we found out later that the balcony is now only for VIPs (which is what happens when you sell out to Clear Channel, but I digress) unlike in the past, when anyone could go up there, what makes it all worthwhile is the amazing food! You get a platter of pierogies and kielbasa for only $5 and a plate of cherry blintzes for the same price and they're all extremely tasty. To me it's comfort food and I always end up eating dinner there whenever I'm there. Oh and the draft beer (a Pilsner of some sort) was great, too. Anyway, Mary Timony (formerly of '90s indie darlings Helium) first took the stage with only herself on vocals and guitar and drummer accompanying her. Being unfamiliar with her music before the show, I can only say that I really liked it and that the drummer's playing reminded me a lot of George Hurley (formerly of The Minutemen and Firehose), which is a very good thing. She played a lot of twangy, surf-style licks and seemed to having a good time and even covered Richard Hell and the Voidoids' classic "I'm Your Man" (from the incredible Blank Generation), which made me happy as well.

Next up was American Music Club. I'd never seen this band live before and to be honest, I've only become recently acquainted with their back catalog (including their excellent reunion album Love Songs for Patriots). Singer/guitarist Mark Eitzel seemed very conscious of the fact that most of the crowd wasn't there to see them (but rather the headliners Spoon; indeed a lot of people were still in the bar area at this point) by almost apologizing for their presence, saying that having them on the bill was like being nice to your great uncle or something along those lines. He had no need to worry, though, as AMC put on a stellar (though all too short) set full of lots of oldies (like the riveting "Outside This Bar") and newer destined-to-be classics like "Patriot's Heart" until they closed with "Sick of Food". An AMC show is a bit like an exorcism. Eitzel and co put you in a zone where he really makes you feel his pain (as cliche and potentially stupid as that may sound, he actually pulls it off). For instance, he introduced "Outside this Bar" by saying that he wrote it after his ex-lover's girlfriend attacked him with a knife and he introduced another song by saying that he wrote about after Kathleen (his ex-lover) killed herself. Pretty heavy stuff, to say the least, but the music has the emotional weight to back it up.

Then after a more substantial wait than the one between Mary Timony and AMC, Spoon came on and played what was by far the best show of the 3 times I've seen them over the years (including once earlier this year at the Siren Festival). I'm still waiting for them to pull out their cover of Wire's "Lowdown", which I don't think they play anymore, but otherwise, it was an excellent set. The material from 2001's modern classic Girls Can Tell is still the best and fortunately, they played 6 songs from it last night, but I also really enjoyed hearing "The Way We Get By" and "Jonathan Fisk" (from 2002's Kill the Moonlight) and new ones from this year's Gimme Fiction like "Sister Jack" and "I Turn My Camera On". In the last 4 years, Spoon have grown into a really confident live band and Britt has grown into a consummate front man not afraid of showing off (though not too much) and extending out songs and riffs as well as interplaying with the rest of the band (including excellently named drummer Jim Eno).

Thanks to Frank for letting me use 2 of his photos (the ones of Britt Daniel of Spoon and Mary Timony; the AMC one is from their website). You can find a whole lot more of these photos (all from their recent show in Toronto) as well as a review of the show here.

The Man Don't Give a Fuck

2005-11-07T11:09:00.000-05:00

Super Furry Animals @ Webster Hall 11/5/05
We got there a bit late, but we managed to catch about half of Caribou's opening set. I like their new record The Milk of Human Kindness, but I wasn't sold on their live show. Instead of just a guy and his laptop, which is what I was expecting, it was 3 member band with 2 drummers and one member (Dan Snaith) who occasionally played keyboards and a melodica on one song. At times, it was very noisy and high energy, but mostly it was just strange and while it tried to put me in a different head space, it didn't quite succeed, even with the visual backdrops, partly because of Webster Hall's poor sound and partly because I generally don't think this stuff translates that well live.

After dealing with yet another bartender who doesn't seem to know how to count or take orders (Webster Hall seems to have lots of these), Super Furry Animals (in matching spacesuits; for one song during the encore Gruff Rhys put on a helmet!) took the stage. This was my 1st time seeing them and it was clearly a weird show and not one for the uninitiated. Despite that, I still enjoyed it. After a lackluster first few songs during which they either tried to find their footing or weren't into it, most of the main set consisted of songs from their new Love Kraft, which I enjoyed but which also seemed to bore most of the audience (either that or they were really attentive). Love Kraft is a fine album and one that's grown on me a lot since I got it and didn't like it at first, but it's atmospheric, complex and not at all immediate, so I imagine that it must've been a difficult show for fans to swallow if they hadn't heard it or in the case of my girlfriend, not familiar with the band's music at all. Nevertheless, the new album's material was played well and unlike the 1st few songs, with lots of enthusiasm. Highlights included "Atomik Lust", the 3-part "Cloudberries" and the incredible Funkadelic via Beck "Lazer Beam", which was played as part of the encore.

This was only the first part of the show, however. During the long encore, starting off with "Slow Life" from 2003's amazing Phantom Power, they played their old hits including "Rings Around the World" and "The Man Don't Give a Fuck", which they closed with complete with a backdrop that read "All Governments are Liars and Murderers" and which played a sample of it over and over again. During this portion of the show, it was obvious that the audience was really into it as they were really going wild for these songs, which is understandable since they're more catchy and immediate.

Overall, it was an enjoyable show despite Webster Hall's poor sound and "bad vibes" (apparently when Devendra Banhart played there a few weeks ago, he sensed "bad vibes" and that bad things had happened there before; I wouldn't doubt it) and the fact that they didn't play "Liberty Belle" or "Back on a Roll", 2 of my favorite songs from their last few albums.

Here's what the stage looked like from where we were standing (in the middle of the floor off on the left-hand side). Thanks Anne!

PREVIOUSLY: My review of Rilo Kiley @ Webster Hall back in May
My review of The Fiery Furnaces @ Webster Hall back in April

The above picture of Gruff with helmet was taken at the recent Toronto show and it's from For the Records.

Bill also wrote a terrific review of this show. You can read it here.

Fugitive Motel

2005-11-04T16:29:00.000-05:00

Elbow @ Hiro Ballroom 11/3/05
Actually the Maritime Hotel (which houses the Hiro Ballroom) is far from a "fugitive motel", but rather a hip, trendy and consequently very pricey ($400 a night) hotel. Regardless, I must say that I absolutely love this venue. It's like the House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill, where the final scene (the massacre) was filmed. There was Japanese lettering all around and even a dragon that puffed smoke (insert your own joke here) above the tiny stage. The place can't hold more than 400 people and the sound was absolutely perfect, though they were working with a tiny PA (more on the technical problems below).

By the time that we got there (after eating at a terrific Cuban place nearby), it was 8:30 and we missed Mazarin, the up-and-coming openers, who I'd wanted to see. It took almost another hour for Elbow to hit the stage, but once they did, they were mesmerizing and the long wait was all but forgotten. It's a bit surreal to see a band as intense as they are whose lead singer sits on a stool during performances and uses his cane as a prop during songs. Furthermore, with a dreadlocked bass player and a guitar player who resembled a mid '60s Mod (however, I could barely see the drummer because of the small stage, they're definitely a visually striking band as well and Guy Garvey's stage presence as well as his persona is terrific as well.

They played a variety of songs from their 3 albums and concentrated mainly on their new one, Leaders of the Free World, featuring such standouts as the single "Forget Myself", "Mexican Standoff" and the title track, which Guy introduced by saying that he was happy to be in a city where everyone thought like him in regards to global politics. Indeed! If I had one complaint, it's that they didn't play enough songs from Cast of Thousands, my favorite album of theirs. Nevertheless, it was great to hear "Fugitive Motel", "Grace Under Pressure" and "Fallen Angel" from that terrific album as well as "Newborn" from their debut Asleep in the Back. However, it took 2 attempts for them to play "Newborn" since guitarist Mark Potter's amp died and they brought another one and it still didn't work, so they took a break (though they claimed that they don't do encores since it's "a silly French invention") and came back out for 2 more songs, finally getting "Newborn" right and then eventually finishing with "Grace Under Pressure".

Overall, it was great and the personal nature of the show (and intimate size of the venue) made it that much more special. I really hope that they have more shows at this venue. My only complaint about it is that $7 bottled beer is a no-no (though at least it's Japanese beer, so it was appropriate) and I'm not crazy about bathroom attendants, either. I can get the towels myself. Thank you. These are minor complaints, though.

Here's a review and setlist from The Modern Age.

Here's another review from Sound Bites.

The above picture is from Coolfer. You can see more of his photos here.

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T14:23:00.000-05:00

Here's a great little Halloween short story courtesy of Graham Parker. Enjoy!

Miiiiiiirman, Man from the Sea

2005-10-25T10:39:00.000-05:00

Eugene Mirman @ Pianos 10/24/05
The 2nd night of a 2-night stand at the venerable Lower East Side venue Pianos, this show (well this residency) was unique because (like the night before) it was taped for a new album that'll be coming out on Sub Pop (who wisely signed Eugene to a record deal). Now for those of you who don't know, Eugene Mirman isn't a musician. He's a comedian (and a very funny one) and one who I'd been meaning to check out live for quite some time now since I'd first heard about him last year. I was particularly interested in him because his family background is quite similar to my own. Like me, he also emigrated here from the former Soviet Union in what is now Russia and came to the U.S. at a very young age (he came when he was 4 and a half and I came here when I was 5; this fact would lead me to believe that we're around the same age, too) and though we obviously took very different career paths (he's a stand-up comedian whereas I work in academia and teach), he also seems to have immersed himself in the same kind of music that I love as well. For instance, I've seen him out and about all over town and at shows, including a Robyn Hitchcock show at Southpaw back in March that I reviewed, and he's toured with Yo La Tengo and The Shins.

This last fact explains why all 3 members of Yo La Tengo were there last night along with Carl Newman from The New Pornographers. Opening the show and introducing Eugene was Todd Barry, who was also quite funny and then Eugene came on and just killed. I'm not really all that familiar with too much stand-up comedy, so I can't really compare him with other comedians, but he's certainly unique in terms of who I've seen and heard over the years in that genre. He has his own oddball style and perhaps that's why indie-rock bands and fans have gravitated towards him recently (me included). He's not particularly angry (in fact he's kind of laid back), but very ironic and observational (and occasionally very dirty but not so much so that it overwhelms the diversity of his act). For instance, last night his routine touched upon everything from letters that he wrote to nouns to describing his time at Hampshire College to ideas for reality TV shows such as naked bear wrestling.

Finally, if you wanna piss yourself laughing and if you wanna get odd looks thrown your way on the subway since you're giggling so hard, listen to his album The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman on your iPod or discman. It never fails to put me in a good mood and cheer me up and I can't wait for his Sub Pop debut.

When Cass was a sophomore she planned to go to Swarthmore

2005-10-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

The Mountain Goats with The Prayer and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers @ Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 10/22/05

It's no wonder that in the Mamas and Papas song "Creque Alley", Mama Cass changed her mind about attending Swarthmore College and instead headed to New York to join the then vibrant Greenwich Village folk scene. Maybe she knew something about the place that we sure didn't because although both of the acts that played were very good, the annoyance factor was through the roof. In all fairness, we probably shouldn't have attended this show since it was rainy and miserable out that night and since it was intended to be only for the kids at the college (they let us in anyway), but me and Anne both like the Mountain Goats and the college is conveniently located within only a 20 minute or so drive of her place, so we decided to do it.

When we first got there, there were hardly any people there and the openers (sorry I don't feel like typing their very long name again) then proceeded to play a rousing set of kinda non-descript but very good indie rock. Then the place started to fill up. Since we both had to go to the bathroom, we lost our spot and when we came back, the entire main part of the venue (which is tiny and resembled an old log cabin complete with a fireplace and everything) was filled up, so I had to watch from the hallway and Anne had to watch from the stairs, which was annoying.

To make matters worse, when John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats came out with just a bass player for accompaniment, certain members of the audience (some very drunk, including some kids drinking a mysterious blue drink and signing something incomprehensible in Spanish) insisted on talking through it, thus almost completely ruining my enjoyment of his delicate, confessional, mostly acoustic-based songs. Regardless, Darnielle soldiered on, bantering freely with the audience and telling stories such as the one about the first official Mountain Goats show in LA back in 1992, which happened to occur the same day the LA riots started. Many of the songs from their excellent new album The Sunset Tree were played as well as gems from the back catalog (which admittedly I'm mostly unfamiliar with). Towards the end of his set, the openers joined him for a short set as a full band, which was also quite good. This also continued into the encore, but at that point, the combination of the drunken, talkative college kids and the smoke filling the small venue just made both of us wanna hightail it out of there and we did just that, vowing to never attend a show there (or at another college) again.

That's What They All Say

2005-10-22T12:53:00.000-05:00

Graham Parker @ The Tin Angel Philadelphia, PA 10/21/05
First, a little background. GP is one of my favorite artists of all time and I've seen him perform more times than any other artist in the decade since I've become a fan. Like many fans, I got into him via an unhealthy obsession with Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson in my 2nd year of college that's lasted to this day, so I was a natural for GP fandom since he always got compared to both of them back in the late '70s when they all first started out. After getting Squeezing Out Sparks when I was 20, I proceeded to get his entire back catalog over the course of the next year or so and I never looked back, snapping up reissues, new albums and albums of previously unreleased material as much as I could.

Most of those times that I've seen him have been solo and while I've never seen him do a bad show, obviously some were better than others with a few being totally trascendent. I can easily put this show in that category since the sound was great, our view was great (as a side note, we got a table for having dinner there beforehand; while I liked the upstairs of the club as it's an ideal venue for singer-songwriters though it feels a little cramped as it's very narrow, I have to warn anyone who goes there not to eat there unless they're absolutely insistent on getting a table for the show since the food was very mediocre and to make matters worse, very overpriced. It's the kind of place that names its food with fancy names and takes advantage of the fact that it's in a nice neighborhood and that people are willing to fork over large amount of money to eat there, but in reality beneath the hype and the priciness, the food is soulless and tasteless; the Thai beef salad was in particular abysmal) and most importantly, GP was in fine voice and seems reinvigorated after a very good new album (his best in a decade) with the Figgs that came out back in June (Songs of No Consequence).

The setlist focused on his 1st 2 albums (including "That's What They All Say", "Silly Thing", "White Honey" and "Heat Treatment") along with 3 songs from 1979's landmark album Squeezing Out Sparks ("Waiting for the UFOs", "Passion is No Ordinary Word" and a rousing sing-a-long version of "Local Girls" with the crowd singing the chorus and providing backing vocals) along with new and unrecorded material (including the fantastic "Harridan of Yore", which recounts Al Franken's meeting with Barbara Bush; it got an enormous amount of audience applause for its hysterical lyrics and imagery) as well as a few songs from his most recent albums. These included "Did Everybody Just Get Old" and "Evil" from Songs of No Consequence as well as "Almost Thanksgiving Day" and "Things I've Never Said" from 2004's Your Country. After he played the latter, he admitted that he took the groove out of it from Neil Young's "Harvest" and proceeded to play a verse and a chorus from it as well as one from "The Needle and the Damage Done", which also illicted a great audience response. A few early '90s tunes made the cut as well, including "Weeping Statues" from 1991's masterwork Struck By Lightning and 2 songs ("Mr. Tender" and "Long Stem Rose") from 1992's Burning Questions.

The picture above was taken by Anne last night. This was her 1st GP show.

Do You Want To?

2005-10-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

Franz Ferdinand and TV on the Radio @ The Theater at Madison Square Garden 10/17/05
Having seen Franz Ferdinand during their 1st US tour ever (at the tiny Mercury Lounge) 2 years ago and 4 subsequent times since then (in progressively bigger venues leading up to last year's show at Roseland), I was reluctant to go to this show since it's in such a large and frankly not very rock and roll type venue, but this is the only show that Franz Ferdinand is playing here since there were no small club shows announced or anything like that, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a ticket for me and my friend Sara since I really wanted to see them again (it had been a year since I'd last seen them, after all) and since it would be my 1st chance to hear them perform songs on their quite good just released (and funnily-titled) 2nd album You Could Have It So Much Better with Franz Ferdinand. When we got to our seats, TV on the Radio were already playing. They were quite good (and the sound was very good, too) and much better than they were last month in Philadelphia, but it was still unfortunate to see them play to a crowd that, for the most part, didn't know or care about who they are and what they do. Well all I can say is fuck the MTV-watching sheep who'll only listen to what's spoonfed to them instead of seeking things out on their own. It's one of the reasons why I hate seeing shows in such large venues (though for a large venue, the Theater at MSG is quite nice). Then Franz Ferdinand came on and transported me to another place for an hour and made me forget about all of the doofuses that sat there stone-faced as TV on the Radio played their hearts out. They played pretty much all the songs on their excellent debut save for "Tell Her Tonight" and "Come on Home" as well as most of the offerings on their new one save for "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" (which I really wanted to hear; oh well). I don't know what else to say about them since pretty much everyone knows what they sound like by now except that they were great and that they filled the approximately 6,500 capacity theater with their sound quite nicely. They also had an enormous backdrop that changed from their 1st album logo to the cover of the new album to a shot of all 4 of them. If you have a chance, go see them before they start playing even larger venues!

PREVIOUSLY: My review of TV on the Radio's show with Deerhoof and The Roots in Philly
My list of the Best of 2004 (Franz Ferdinand's debut made #3 on the list)

Rehearsing My Choir

2005-10-19T11:41:00.000-05:00

The Fiery Furnaces @ The Black Cat Washington, DC 10/15/05
First off, I have to thank Carolyn for putting us up on our weekend getaway to the suddenly (or was it always?) very hip and happening U-Street Corridor and Adams-Morgan sections of Washington, DC and making me feel at home. I hadn't met her before and she turned out to be quite a cool person and a good host. Second of all, The Black Cat is conveniently located within a few blocks of her apartment with the great Ethiopian restaurant (I wish I could remember the name; they gave us way too much bread, though) on U Street that we ate at right in between the 2 locales.

However, once we got inside, there was a really lame opener whose name I forgot. They feature the former lead singer of mid '90s buzz-band Jonathan Fire Eater, who I saw once back then. All I'll say about them is that they made me realize why I didn't like Jonathan Fire Eater back in the day (3/4 of JFA went on to become The Walkmen, who are quite good and much better than either JFA or this band that I'm talking about) and that they probably spent way too much time with a bottle of Old Granddad trying to capture the feeling of Exile on Main Street and not quite succeeding.

Onto the Fiery Furnaces, a perennial favorite band of mine. I was looking forward to seeing how their new songs would translate live and hopeful that they would actually play their songs in their entireties instead of going the medley route, which is what they've done the 3 previous times I've seen them in the last year or so. Luckily, they did and it was for the most part a real joy to hear songs from their 1st 2 albums played on their own (though some Blueberry Boat compositions were understandably shortened to fit in with the rest of the material), especially the fast ones like "I'm Gonna Run", which was played way faster than the recorded version, like most of the other songs on this evening. However, when they decided to play fast versions of their slower, more melodic numbers like "Two Fat Feet", it tended to drown out those songs' melodies and hooks and that was a shame. As for the new material, well most of it was played towards the beginning through the middle of the main set in a long 30-minute block. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great, either. They could've had samples of their Grandmother (who handles lead vocal/story-telling duties on their about-to-be-released new album Rehearsing My Choir) along with some kind of backdrop and a Powerpoint presentation to get its point across. For those of you who haven't heard the album, it's not conventional pop/rock or even indie rock at all. It's more like a book on tape that needs to be listened to on headphones and even then it's confounding. The songs just don't work in the context of a regular show. That's just my opinion, of course, but I stand by it. Nevertheless, they were good as always and played with energy, passion, precision and heart and they also have to be one of the most gracious bands on the planet, too, politely thanking the audience after the set for listening. And their new drummer is a dynamo, too.

Now that I've reviewed the band's performance, no Black Cat review would be complete without saying that this is one of most poorly-ventilated clubs I've ever been in. I'm normally ok with smoky bars and clubs (though I don't smoke myself), but this was just too much. I liked the place a lot otherwise, but the ventilation issues almost ruined it for me. Carolyn and her roommate Erin, who attended the show with us, had to leave early (and I don't blame them) and Anne was hanging out in the back near one of the few vents, so I joined her about 2/3 of the way through the show and stayed there until the end of the night. It obscured my view, but at least I could breathe (kinda). Regardless, it was still a fun show in a different environment, but it was great to get some fresh air!

PREVIOUSLY: My review of The Fiery Furnaces @ Webster Hall back in April
My list of the Top 10 records of 2004 (Blueberry Boat made the list at #6)

The picture above was taken by Andy Scheffler and you can also see it here.

Sing Me Spanish Techno

2005-10-19T11:40:00.000-05:00

The New Pornographers, Destroyer and Immaculate Machine @ The Trocadero Philadelphia, PA 10/14/05
After sitting through lackluster opening sets by Immaculate Machine (featuring AC Newman's long-lost niece Kathryn Calder, who's also playing with the New Pornographers now; can you say nepotism anyone?) and Destroyer (which features Dan Bejar, who's also a New Pornographers member) at the Troc's convenient upstairs seating area, we ventured downstairs to get a good view as the almighty headliners played with Neko Case and Dan Bejar possibly for the last time ever due to Neko's also prominent and rising solo career and subsequent touring schedule. Compared with seeing them in Brooklyn this past June, this show was different because of Neko's unmistakable vocals and presence (though Kathryn did a great job filling in for her back in June) and because it was in a small club, not an outdoor venue (Prospect Park Bandshell). With that said, I will echo the sentiment of Sad Stars in saying that it was a nice way to relive memories of a wonderful first date. :-) They played an assortment of songs from their 3 albums (all excellent, including the recently-released Twin Cinema, which will easily make my Top 10 of the year; it may be their best album thus far) with the only crucial song missing being "Letter from an Occupant". I was also hoping to hear their version of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" (I bet Neko could sing the shit out of that song), which they played here in New York the 2 nights before. Supposedly, the set here was longer, too, but regardless it was still a great show with the absolute highlight being the incredible Neko-sung "These are the Fables" (she transported me into a rapturous haze during the end of that song). Dan also came out and sang 3 of his songs included "Testament to Youth in Verse" and "Jackie Dressed in Cobras", another highlight from the awesome new album. Although Kathryn was onstage with them the entire night and singing backing vocals as well as playing keyboards, there's really no reason for her to be up there since Neko's touring with them now and since her voice is so overpowering, but I still found it weird that I could barely hear her vocals at all. I can only speculate as to what was up with that. Don't get me wrong, though. As I said before, she's a fine sub for Neko when she's not around and it's good to know that they'll continue to tour even if Neko's solo career prevents her from going out with them again.

PREVIOUSLY: Neko Case and Visqueen @ Bowery Ballroom on Valentine's Day

The photo above was taken by Daniel Harvey and can also be found here.

Life Translated

2005-10-11T22:21:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, I went to see the movie Life Translated at the ImaginAsian Theater. Along with Asian teen hearthrob Edison Chen, the movie stars actor Cary Woodworth, who's a good friend of my friend Asim. I really enjoyed the film (which was apparently a big hit with the teen set in China), though it definitely suffered a bit from faulty editing and a too-soon resolution that looked like they ran out of money towards the end.

Regardless, though, it features fine acting and a very memorable and emotional script that will appeal to anyone who's ever been teenage, awkward and having to fend for yourself while you're far away from home. After the screening, Woodworth and co-star Jennifer Li (the script of the movie was based on her autobiographical novel addressed questions from the audience and signed autographs afterwards.

Love The Cup (or How The Rosebuds Stole My Seat at Sound Fix)

2005-10-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

Sons and Daughters & The Rosebuds @ North Six 10/8/05 and Sons & Daughters @ Sound Fix (also 10/8/05)

Yes ladies and gentlemen. You read that correctly. Not just one, but 2 Sons and Daughters shows on one very rainy day. First up was the in-store at 4 PM, which was held at Sound Fix, one of my favorite record stores in the entire area. They played for about 30 minutes and were really tight, focusing on material from the just released and excellent full-length The Repulsion Box along with "Johnny Cash" from their ep Love the Cup.

Something really funny happened while they were playing, though. Right before they went on, I went to get some coffee and snacks for Anne, who held down the fort (i.e. our seats up front) or so I thought. As it turns out, 2 of the members of The Rosebuds, who we would see later on that night at North Six (more below), stole my seat. Well that wasn't exactly true. Truth be told, there was enough room for both of them as well as me and Anne, but they still stole my seat. I wasn't mad or anything, though, in case you're wondering. It was just funny because after Sons and Daughters had finished playing, I told Anne that we should go see them later on that night because I'd really enjoyed the short set and I also knew that she liked The Rosebuds and when I mentioned them, she said that they were sitting right there and she told me to be quiet since she didn't wanna embarass them. Up to that point, I had absolutely no idea what they looked like and that they'd taken my seat, so that was pretty funny.

By the time we got to North Six, we'd missed the opening band Eiffel Tower and there was so much rain on the BQE as we were driving that part of it was a bit flooded (though we were able to get through it ok) and visibility was low. By the time we got there and entered the venue, we were just happy to be in a dry place. Luckily, it was just in time for The Rosebuds' set. I'd never heard them before and fortunately they were awesome. They were like a mixture of late '80s/early '90s indie rock with flashes of rockabilly and roots music. They have no bass player, just an adorable husband/wife duo on guitar/vocals and keyboards, respectively, as well as an awesome drummer. At times they reminded me of everything from Sonic Youth to The Flat Duo Jets and if you can imagine a poppier crossroads between the two, then you'll have some idea of what they're like.

And then Sons and Daughters came on and despite numerous technical difficulties throughout their set having to do with the bass amp being broken, they still put on a spirited set that lasted for about an hour and though I'd just seen them hours before, I really like the new album and it was a joy to hear them run through most of it along with more older material from Love the Cup. They've definitely improved a bit since I last saw them open for Franz Ferdinand at Webster Hall last year. Their sound is unique as well. They take a healthy '50s rockabilly/Bo Diddley-beat obsessed guitarist/backing vocalist (Scott) and add lead vocalist Adele, who at times can wail like Poly Styrene from The X-Ray Spex, and the mix of their harmonies at times resembles Exene Cervenka and John Doe's harmonies in X. Throw in some Franz Ferdinand-like post-punk, an old-school country-like preoccupation with death in their lyrics and melodies that at times recall Irish greats like The Pogues and you only hint at the sound of this unique band.

PREVIOUSLY: The Trashcan Sinatras played an in-store at Sound Fix back in April along with some other show reviews in that same post.

A Good Idea

2005-10-07T09:49:00.000-05:00

Bob Mould @ Irving Plaza 10/5/05
In a word, this show was great. For the first time in many years, Bob Mould went out on tour with a full band (including Brendan Canty of Fugazi on drums!) and along with the requisite 5-6 numbers from his excellent new full-length Body of Song, they played 7 songs from Sugar's Copper Blue and a mini-set of about 5 Husker Du songs, all at a really loud volume (I'm glad I brought my earplugs!). One of the highlights was an excellent version of "High Fidelity" from the new one. It's a song that I first heard Bob perform live when I saw him play a solo show at my college back in 1997.

Of course, new songs and solo material weren't the reasons that I bought the ticket, however. All of the Sugar songs aside from "A Good Idea" (which just sounded off; it was the only misstep of the night aside from his solo college-radio hit "See A Little Light", which is a great song but it doesn't work with a full band) absolutely rocked and the Husker Du songs did as well, though most of them were played at breakneck, almost thrashy speeds that were faster than the respective recorded versions. With that said, it was still great to see them play this material, which included "Chartered Trips", "Could You Be the One", live favorite "Celebrated Summer" and the uncharacteristically (for Husker Du) brooding, slow, breakup ballad "Hardly Getting Over It". The crowd (myself included) enjoyed it immensely and it was definitely by far the higlight of the night for me. And even better, for the last song of the 2nd encore, he finished the night off with "Makes No Sense at All" from 1985's incredible Flip Your Wig. What a fitting end to a great night!

Oh, the above picture was taken from Chrome Waves, who went to the Toronto show. Check it out. It's a great site.

Across the Narrows Day 2

2005-10-06T15:47:00.000-05:00

Me and Anne went to day 2 of the Across the Narrows festival, which was held for 2 days at 2 minor-league ballparks, Keyspan Park in Coney Island (home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, a Mets minor-league team) and Richmond Park, home of the Staten Island Yankees (obviously a Yankees minor-league team) play. Since we had to pick one over the other as they were going on at the same time, we went for the Brooklyn show since the lineup was far stronger.

Since this was our 2nd weekend in a row at Keyspan Park in Coney Island, a pre-show trip to the always awesome Totonno's pizza was mandatory and luckily, this time we didn't have to wait at all for a table and our pizza came out relatively quickly as well. While the pie wasn't as scrumptuous as the unbelievable one we had the previous Saturday, it was still top-notch.

After that, I got my ass handed to me in skeeball (admittedly I was a bit off my game on this day) and by that time, The Raveonettes were about to go on, so we entered the park. Although they only got to play for about 40 minutes or so (they were running a bit late with the set times, so they couldn't finish their encore) and their new album is a bit underwhelming (though truthfully I should spend more time with it), they still brought it and played an enjoyable set. It was good getting to see them play more after seeing what amounted to a teaser (they only played 2 songs) at last year's Underground Garage Festival. The set was a good mix of tunes from their new one Pretty in Black like the great single "Love in a Trashcan", their rendition of the girl-group classic "My Boyfriend's Back" (one drawback was that while the studio version features the song's trademark harmony and backing vocals that are reminscent of the 1963 original by The Angels, they couldn't replicate it live so they relied on a tape) and others along with old favorites like the Jesus and Mary Chain-ish "The Great Love Sound" and "Heartbreak Stroll" (both from their absolutely excellent 2003 debut full-length Chain Gang of Love) as well as "Attack of the Ghost Riders", the Suicide (the band)-referencing track from their debut ep Whip It On.

The Polyphonic Spree came on next. They consist of 26 members all of whom wear church robes and many of whom are merely backup singers, though the core band is composed of a singer, guitar player, bassist, keyboardist and drummer. Because of the matching robes, it feels like you're watching a cult and I joked about it, though obviously they're not. Honestly, though they do what they do reasonably well, they're just not my thing. The singer's voice reminds me of Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, but they're just repetitive and I think their shtick is a bit too forced for my taste. I need some minor keys to break up that major-key, happy-go-lucky overdose. Check out this photo:

After that, Belle and Sebastian took the stage as the venue began to fill up, though even by the end of the day, it was still far from sold out. Yet as Anne said in her review (which you can read here, incidentally), this made getting around and finding a spot close to the stage easier and it also meant that there was no line at Totonno's as well, so I certainly wasn't complaining! Anyhow, lead singer/songwriter/guitarist and baseball aficionado (he was taking practice swings on stage) Stuart Murdoch came out in a Mets t-shirt and for that alone, he won me over. I should explain at this point that I've been a Mets fan ever since I was 9. It also didn't hurt, however, that unlike their underwhelming performance at Hammerstein Ballroom back in May 2002 (the only other time that I'd seen them previously), they put on a fantastic show. They played a bunch of new songs, which all sounded fantastic, but most of the set consisted of oldies ranging from "Me and the Major" from 1997's masterpiece If You're Feeling Sinister to the title track of 1998's disappointing The Boy with the Arab Strap to "The Wrong Girl" (from 2000's underappreciated Fold Your Hands Child, You Look Like a Peasant) to a few songs from 2003's excellent Dear Catastrophe Waitress including "I'm a Cuckoo" and "If You Find Yourself Caught in Love". The set ended gloriously with Sinister's "Judy and the Dream of Horses".

Here's a photo featuring Stuart and Sarah Martin (swoon):

Finally, as the day was drawing to a close, headliner Beck came on and for an hour and a half, he rocked the joint and showed why he's still a pivotal force over a decade after he burst upon the scene back in the mid '90s. He's a consummate showman, captivating the audience with a terrific set that focused on his new album Guero but also included plenty of oldies such as 3 songs from 1996's terrific Odelay and a totally stripped-down, acoustic version of "Tropicalia" from 1998's even better Mutations, not to mention the ubiquitous "Loser", his 1st hit and perhaps still his best-known song. It should be mentioned that his incredible backing band included several drummers and keyboardists (one of whom often danced and reminded me a lot of Bez from The Happy Mondays) and were absolutely on fire throughout the set. At one point, he had the members of Whirlwind Heat (whose set we missed earlier) come out and hold a gigantic boombox for one song and when he played an acoustic set featuring "Tropicalia" and some material from 2002's Sea Change, the band sat down and actually had dinner (I don't know what they served, though) and to conclude the dinner, they rattled their forks, knives and spoons and used them as percussion instruments on one song, which concluded the solo acoustic portion of the evening. It was a brilliant trick and it worked really well.

Here's a photo of Beck and friends holding up the boombox:

Furthermore, it should be added that throughout the day, footage from that day's simultaneously-running Staten Island show was shown between bands on the huge screen. Of all the acts that were shown (including footage of Tegan and Sara from the day before and The Lemonheads, Doves and Jet from that day's Staten Island show), only Doves were really captivating and made me wish that I could've seen their set.

Overall, despite the high ticket price (it was $55 just for a single concert) and long-ass trek to Coney Island, I had a really good time and after 2 consecutive weekends at Keyspan Park, I look forward to seeing more shows there as this place has become one of my favorite large concert venues in New York City as of late.

P.S. All of the photos were taken from Heartonastick. You can see many more pictures there. I just hope that J doesn't get mad at me and make me take them down. :-) You can read Heartonastick's full review of the show here.

Is It All Just a Master Plan?

2005-10-03T09:46:00.000-05:00

Click here and you can decide for yourself and either way, I'll bet that you'll laugh your ass off at this (or perhaps cry, whatever the case may be).

Great Expectations

2005-10-01T12:28:00.000-05:00

New Model Army @ Southpaw 9/30/05
The openers (whose name I didn't catch) played a decent set of UK-inspired post-punk/shoegaze not unlike locals Longwave, though not quite as good. They definitely have a lot of potential and were much more enjoyable than many typical no-name openers, though.

Much like their previous trip here back in March (I saw the Maxwells show and they also played Southpaw the night before), New Model Army kicked ass and took no prisoners as they stormed through an hour and a half of their back catalog combined with 6 new songs from the just-released (and quite excellent, at least given what I heard at the show and aftewards when my friend played it for me in his car after he bought it) new album Carnival. Knowing only a few albums worth of their material, the parts of the set that were most pleasurable to me were the well-known and loved singles that they played during the 2nd half of their main set such as "No Rest", "51st State", "Here Comes the War" and "Poison Street" (played in the encore), but there was one song during the 1st half of the main set that absolutely killed because of the amazing drumming (I wish I knew the name of it; sigh).

It's just great to see a veteran band like NMA releasing new records and getting to tour the U.S. twice in one year (after not having played here with the full band for over 10 years) despite the public indifference and that's because of their hardcore fan base, who showed up in droves for last night's gig, dancing and singing along to virtually every song. It just reaffirms my faith that great music can exist without trends and can stand on its own merit as it gets passed down to fans from generation to generation and that's truly inspiring.

Apply Some Pressure

2005-10-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

Maximo Park @ Bowery Ballroom 9/25/05
Openers Cloud Room were an ok UK band who at times reminded me of Franz Ferdinand, but otherwise didn't do much for me. I'll also say that I confuse them with Cloud Cult sometimes.

It was nice to see Maximo Park jumping in popularity from 2 sold-out nights at Tonic back in June to a sold-out gig at Bowery Ballroom in just a few short months. Their set was very similar to the one I saw at Tonic back in June. It covered all of their excellent debut album A Certain Trigger except for one song as well as a B-side ("Fear of Falling") and a few newer tracks, including one recently recorded for the War Child compilation. Again, the energy and enthusiasm of this band is boundless, as is their ability to write hooky, anthemic, heart-on-sleeve, early '80s inspired songs like "Going Missing" (the most recent single in the UK to become a well-deserved hit), "I Want You to Stay", "Limassol" (whatever that is) and others. If I have one complaint, and it's a minor one, but I really wish that keyboardist Lukas would stop doing those cheesy karate/kung-fu moves. It's really played out. Then again, it did let me practive my taekwondo moves after the show as I was making fun of him (in good fun, of course). During the encore, Lukas' keyboard broke, so they had to play "Going Missing" and their last song as a 4-piece and you know what, they still sounded great though the keyboard parts were obviously missed. Regardless, I highly recommend seeing this band if they come anywhere near you. They're fantastic and much better than the constant comparisons they get to other, more established UK bands playing this style of music.

As a final note, me and the girlfriend defintely had slightly different accounts of this show. I think she preferred Cloud Room. You can read her account of the show(as well as others shows including the Roots/TV On the Radio/Deerhoof bill that we saw a few weeks ago) here.

PREVIOUSLY: My review of Maximo Park @ Tonic back in June.

Thanks to Andrew Kendall for letting me use this picture.

I've Been Thinking About My Doorbell

2005-09-29T13:29:00.000-05:00

The White Stripes and The Shins @ Keyspan Park 9/24/05
Ah, another trip to Coney Island for a show (this was my 1st time at Keyspan Park; previously I'd only been there to attend the Siren Festival on 3 separate occasions, most recently this past summer, which you can read about here. Of course, you know what that means, right? Another trip to the original Totonno's pizzeria, of course! Unlike last time, when we got seated right away and got our food rather promptly, this time it seemed like everyone who was eating before the show chose Totonno's, so we had to wait for an hour just to get a table and then another half hour for our food to come. You know what, though? It was worth it. The pizza was even better than it was back in July, if that's even possible. And this time, we wisely chose a small pizza over the large, which is humungous.

Because of the long wait and dinner, we missed all of Brendan Benson's set and the first song or two of The Shins' relatively short set. Despite playing for only 45 minutes or so at the most, they were still really good. They played a mix of songs from their excellent 1st 2 albums and the newer song "When I Goosestep". While keyboardist Marty Crandall was funny as always (I loved his reference to John Fogerty's "Centerfield" as we really were standing in what is centerfield when the Coney Island Cyclones, a Mets minor league team, play there) and the center of attention, singer/guitarist James Mercer was much more talkative than usual. I also must say that for a large outdoor venue, the sound was surprisingly very crisp and clear, much like Central Park Summerstage and unlike almost every ampitheater on earth.

And then The White Stripes came on and like the 2 previous times that I've seen them, absolutely blew everyone away. Though they're only 2 people obviously, they play with enough intensity and energy and sheer volume (good thing that I had earplugs, even at an outdoor venue) to rival most 4 or 5 piece groups. As soon as they launched into "Blue Orchid" off of their excellent new album Get Behind Me Satan, the crowd just went nuts and neither the band nor the crowd let up during the hour and half long set, which was considerably longer than the sets that they played the 2 previous times that I've seen them. They played a set of songs that covered much of the new album, but wasn't too shy on the oldies, either, from a rousing version of "Seven Nation Army" and "The Hardest Button to Button" (both in the encore) to the blues-jam "Ball and Biscuit" (all from 2003's commercial breakthrough Elephant) to songs from their 1st 3 albums (originally released on indie Sympathy for the Record Industry) like the excellent "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground", "Hotel Yorba", "Screwdriver" and others. The set was also heavy on covers, from their jaw-dropping version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene", which gives me chills every time I hear it, to 2 Son House songs "John the Revelator" and "Death Letter"). Many have criticized Meg White's drumming, but I think it's fine for the minimalist, stomping blues-rock that The White Stripes engage in. It's a different story when she sings, though. I like the recorded versions of "Cold Cold Night" and "Passive Manipulation", but her voice didn't sound good at all and fortunately both were mercifully short (though the latter was sung twice, oddly enough). She still is mighty fine, though. Swoon. :-)

Anyway, because of the length of the set, there was a bit of danger of them overstaying their welcome, but they left the stage right after a long and satisfying encore, so it was ok, though still a bit unlike previous White Stripes shows where they kick your ass for an hour, leave you panting for more and totally drained and then go home. Much like their new album, it's nice to see them maturing into their status as probably the biggest mainstream-crossover stars in the indie-rock scene without compromising the integrity of their music in the slightest and by challenging themselves further.

"Dumb It Down for the Average Jew"?

2005-09-29T12:37:00.000-05:00

The Pernice Brothers w/ Tim Fite @ Southpaw 9/23/05

Ok first things first. Tim Fite sucked. I just don't get his whole indie minstrel singer with his brother playing guitar act. Can someone please explain his appeal? The most positive thing I can say about him is that I've never heard anything quite like it, but that doesn't mean that I enjoyed it.

The Pernice Brothers came on to an unfortunately half-empty but still enthusiastic Southpaw crowd. Although only guitarist Peyton Pinkerton (on the very left-hand side of the above picture) remains from the original band, they still rocked and played even better than at their excellent show last month at The North Star Bar in Philadelphia. The setlist was virtually the same, concentrating on new material from this year's excellent Discover A Lovelier You and 2003's just-as-excellent Yours, Mine and Ours along with older material from their 1st 2 records and a few songs during the encore where Joe played solo before the band came out again to do "Flaming Wreck", perhaps Joe's finest composition.

Joe and the rest of the band seemed visibly shaken (and understandably so) from the murder of their tour manager's father a few days prior to this show (they had to cancel their previous 2 dates as a result of that tragedy) and I think that intensity carried over into the performance. He also dedicated the excellent "Saddest Quo" (one of my favorite songs on the year) to Jet Blue, who showed footage (on their other planes as well as on the one that was stuck in LA before crash-landing) of the plane that flew over LA to their passengers and he said that it's symbolic of how fucked up we are and I can't help but to agree with him.

As for the title of my post, before performing the excellent "Dumb It Down", he explained that some listeners (including his wife Laura Stein, also pictured in this shot from 2001 since she was a former member of the band) thought that he was singing "dumb it down for the average Jew" instead of the correct line, which is "dumb it down for the average Joe", which makes more sense. The alternative lyrics, which Joe described as "horrible" and rightfully so (what's funny about this is that his wife is Jewish), are ones that I just don't hear anyone being able to make out, but perhaps as my friend Jack said aftewards, it's that Boston accent.

As a side note, I took my friends from The Czech Republic who were in town to see the dB's a few days beforehand and who never heard of The Pernice Brothers to see the show and both of them loved them, even commenting on how it's unbelievable that they don't have a major label deal given how accessible their music is. I couldn't agree more, but such is the music industry.

Oh and by the way, I know that September is almost over, but for a few more days, you can download the rare Sandwich ep for a $5 donation from The Pernice Brothers' Bargain Center and all the proceeds will go to hurricane relief. It's great and otherwise unavailable music for a good cause, so get to downloading!

Previously: My review of The Pernice Brothers show at The North Star Bar in Philadelphia last month

I Feel Good Today

2005-09-28T19:11:00.000-05:00

The dB's @ Maxwells 9/19/05
This review is long overdue, so sorry about that. I don't know who the openers were, but we (me, my girlfriend, my friend Jeremy and 2 friends from The Czech Republic who came here to see all 4 dB's reunion shows including 2 earlier in Chicago; now that's dedication!) got there late, so we missed them anyway.

The dB's got off to a bit of a shaky start with the first 2 songs, "Big Brown Eyes" from 1981's wonderful Stands for Decibels and "Ask for Jill" from 1982's even better Repercussion. They looked similar to their 20-something selves back in the early '80s except for Peter Holsapple, who had a shaved head and a goatee and looked not unlike a goateed Mr. Clean or a tough biker dude instead of the bookish Holsapple of yore. Holsapple emerged once again as the clear leader of the group, though Chris Stamey shared the spotlight, singing slightly less than half of all of the songs performed. Gene Holder seemed content to not hog the spotlight and hang out in the back though Will Rigby was manic (and great) on drums.

Throughout the approximately hour and a half long set, the band alternated songs from their 1st 2 landmark albums (which made up the majority of the set) along with later gems like "Love is for Lovers" (one of the best performances of the evening along with an astonishing version of "Neverland") alongside new material like "World to Cry" (set to be released on a new album next year), which you can download here. This was the 1st time in 22 years that the original lineup (including Chris Stamey, who departed the band after their 2nd album back in 1983) had played together and it was only their 3rd show since the reunion happened earlier this year, so I wasn't expecting them to be super-tight. The only real misstep of the evening was the performance of "I'm in Love". Stamey just can't hit the high notes in the chorus anymore, though he was fine on the verses, so they just should've chosen to perform another song in its place. Otherwise, his vocals were fine, sounding even more like his hero Alex Chilton than ever (as Jeremy pointed out).

Regardless, I'm sure that if they end up touring to promote their new album that they'll be a bit tighter, but to be totally honest, it was all about the vibe in the room on this evening. It seemed like I knew about a good quarter of the people there from when I lived in Hoboken (including my former roommate Jim, who got me into them; he showed up right when the dB's took the stage) and members of Yo La Tengo, Antietam, The Schramms and other bands that (like North Carolina transplants the dB's) cut their teeth at Maxwells as far back as the early '80s and were thus giddy with excitement and anticipation at the thought of this reunion. Thus, it was just awesome to see them not only in such a small place and in such a great club (still one of the best in the entire area), but also in their old stomping grounds.

What They Do

2005-09-19T13:20:00.000-05:00

The Roots, TV on the Radio and Deerhoof @ The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Philadelphia, PA 9/16/05
Though originally not a benefit, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, this became a benefit for hurricane relief, which made me and Anne feel better about paying $60 or so for this eccentric Philly hip-hop meets indie-rock triple bill.

Anyway, to start things off, Deerhoof played a cacophonous (in a good way) set of no-wave influenced clatter (again, in a good way) with cooing female vocals (think a combination of God is My Co-Pilot and recent Blonde Redhead) that left most of the members of the audience (clearly there to see the Roots) or I should say, whoever was there (as most of the audience wasn't even there for their set nor for TV on the Radio's set as well), perplexed, confused or just plain bored. In their defense, I have to say that Deerhoof (like TV on the Radio) clearly didn't come off as well as they probably would've in say, a small club. They play North Six in a few weeks, so I may be able to give a total different review then.

TV on the Radio were up next and they played a set which encompassed material from their 2003 ep Young Liars, their 2004 full-length Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and the new "Drunk Dry Emperor", which was appropriately dedicated to President Bush. They sound like Peter Gabriel (their vocalist) singing for Suicide (buzzing guitarists, one with his back to the audience and one out front, creating walls of feedback similar to Suicide's bludgeoning static synth flourishes) with the additional accompaniment of a barbershop quartet (their harmonies). I know that might seem like a lazy description and too similar to the all too often used A+B+C=D way of describing bands' sounds, but I just can't think of another way to describe this unique band. They came off a bit better than Deerhoof did, but again, they would've been much better in a club and of course, as most of the audience was their to see the hometown heroes (The Roots), the crowd response was a bit low as well.

And then The Roots came on. They made one of the most unique entraces I've ever seen. A New Orleans marching band procession that started on the street (complete with drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson on bass drum and MC Black Thought on a megaphone) went into the venue, in the aisles and up towards the stage where all the performers took their places. In addition to their normal set-up (an MC, guitarist, bass player, drummer and Korg synth/keyboardist), they added the marching band on many tracks and even a string quartet (this venue is normally used for classical performances) for a few. Anyway, the set started out very strongly, but after 30 or 40 minutes, they ran out of steam for a little while, but got back into the groove with an incredible version of the (on record) 10-minute plus "Water", which they must've extended to 25-minute, jam-band length (I didn't time it but I should've). Among other things, this version contained a battle between the keyboard player and ?uestlove, who's incidentally one hell of a drummer. After a short break, they brought out Jill Scott (who also sang their biggest hit "You Got Me" when I saw them back in 1999; Erykah Badu sings it on the recorded version) to sing back-up on one song and then she had her own mini-set (well it was only one song) with her own guitarist backing her up. After that, I thought that it would over soon, but they proceeded to play for at least another hour (they played for almost 2 and a half hours). To be honest, they did get a little tedious (and I was a bit tired), but overall I thought they were good and much better than the 1999 show I saw at Roseland (at that show, they totally killed the vibe by having a so-so group called Black Moon perform for 30 minutes or so and this was maybe 20 minutes into their own set; also they spent way too much time noodling at that performance as well). They left the same way they came in, with the marching band leading the way and the band members following and the procession continued onto the street with over 500 people watching them as well!

Overall, they don't have a lot of memorable songs, but they're notable for being one of the very few hip-hop acts that use live instruments, thus making for a much more effective show than most rappers/hip-hop groups, who tend to bludgeon your ears with an MC and a lousy-sounding turntable. It might work on record, but rarely does that setup work well live (IMO, of course). Also, I have to credit them for exposing their audience to bands like TV on the Radio and Deerhoof, who perhaps made a few new fans on this evening. With that in mind, every time I've seen them (this was my 3rd time, though the first time was at a spring festival at my college back in 1997 where they played a great but shortened set) they've managed to draw one of the most diverse audiences I've ever seen. It's nice to see a modern-day band that atracts a multi-racial audience as well as one from different subcultures of the music scene where fans of rap/hip-hop, alternative rock, punk and hippie jam bands can all come together.

Furthermore, I have to add that it was a little like watching Prince's Madison Square Garden show last year, only much better, partially because I was sitting much closer to the stage (right behind the soundboard) and it was in a much smaller venue as well. The point is that it was more like a party with people dancing and going bonkers in the aisles rather than a typical, normal rock or pop concert, and I appreciated that aspect of it as well. Ultimately, though, with their extended compositions, an keyboardist that often sounds like the one from Medeski, Martin & Wood (who in turn often sounds like many classic jazz organists) and their penchant for soloing, they're a hip-hop jam band, which really isn't as bad as it sounds (in fact it's often quite good).

Damaged Goods Redux

2005-09-16T12:04:00.000-05:00

Gang of Four @ Hard Rock Cafe 9/15/05
This show was free and part of a night sponsored by Souza tequila, which I must say is the nastiest-tasting tequila I've ever had. It was a kick-off party for URB Next 100 Live. I shouldn't complain since there was an open bar there with Sam Adams on tap, but as for the tequila, blech! Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo tequila, on the other hand, which I had about a month ago at a party, was much better, but that's another story.

Anyhow, the show was at the space that used to be the short-lived club called The World, where me and my friend Jeremy saw The Damned put on a very good show 3 years ago and it's 1 block from the newly opened Nokia Theater, where we'll be seeing Bauhaus in November. At first, there was a DJ and then a screening of "URB Next 100 Live" which, despite the presence of Souza in the background where everyone involved was interviewed, was an interesting piece detailing how hip-hop, alternative rock and dance music have all combined into a cohesive whole and it featured innovative artists ranging from hip-hop MCs like Mr. Lif of the Perceptionists to DJs like Diplo to more well-known stars like Moby as well as Dave Allen from Gang of Four. I would've preferred it if there was seating for the movie and the sound system was better (a recurring theme for the evening) and people weren't talking over the movie, but again, all of it was free, so I can't really complain.

And then it was time for Gang of Four to come on. I was standing up front and unfortunately I'd forgotten to take my earplugs (my ears still hurt a bit) as they were loud and coupled against the absolute worst sound system I've ever heard. You could barely hear Jon King's vocals throughout their hour-long set. Either way, it didn't matter that much because Gang of Four completely kicked ass and wiped the floor with almost any band I've seen this year (save for The Arcade Fire, Mission of Burma and perhaps a few others). It much better than the also very good (but too short) Irving Plaza show back in May. The raw energy was unbelievable, especially for a band 25 years removed from their classic period. They played most of the songs from their 1st album Entertainment, 3 songs from 1981's underrated but equally as great Solid Gold and 1 from 1996's Shrinkwrapped ("I Parade Myself"). To say that they really know how to work a groove and that Dave Allen's bass-playing was funky as hell would be an understatement. Combining that with Andy Gill's guitar, which sounds like cutting shards of glass (in the best possible way), and Jon King's yelping and jumping around like a monkey all over the stage and you have a still powerful unit that should silence all the naysayers regarding their reunion.

PREVIOUSLY: If you wanna stream their new album, you can go here.

The TV News Finally Gets It Right

2005-09-13T10:27:00.000-05:00

I don't think I have to add anything here. Just like those Mastercard commercials, this is indeed priceless.

Coldplay picture

2005-09-12T09:40:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't take pictures at the show over Labor Day weekend, but if I had a better view (maybe if I actually had seats instead of standing out on the lawn), they would have looked something like this from my vantage point. Thanks to Erikk for letting me use this awesome shot.

For my review of the concert at PNC Bank Arts Center over Labor Day Weekend, click here.

All for the Taking

2005-09-11T22:01:00.000-05:00

I saw this movie today as part of the Evil City Film Festival. It was a really moving account of how lower-income, mostly African-American homeowners in Philadelphia are being displaced in favor of higher-income homeowners. I highly recommend it.

All Wound Up

2005-09-11T20:45:00.000-05:00

The Circle Jerks, D.I., 45 Grave and Channel 3 @ CBGBs 9/10/05
Well even though the show was $40, it was for a good cause as CBGBs is currently without a lease and just received an eviction notice a few days ago. I don't know if my contribution will make a difference in terms of whether the club survives or not (without a lease it's doubtful), but at the very least, I figured that I'd see a show at this legendary venue for perhaps the last time ever. And I sure picked a good one to attend! It's amazing how many great old-school punk and hardcore bands have reunited out of the blue to play these benefit shows and this lineup was one of the best (perhaps the best) out of all these shows. All are legendary and fantastic bands from the California punk scene of the early '80s and as I was too young to have seen these bands in their heyday, I jumped at the chance to see them even at this late juncture.

Channel 3 opened the show and even though I'm not really familiar with too many of their songs (with the exception of the excellent songs "I'll Take My Chances", "What About Me", "Indian Summer" and "I've Got a Gun"), they played excellently and were a good opener for the rest of the show and like most of the other bands on the bill, play hardcore punk with a melodic edge and harmony vocals so typical of Southern California style bands.

Up next were 45 Grave, one of the best and most overlooked bands from that scene. In their original incarnation, they featured singer Dinah Cancer (possessor of the greatest punk name ever; she stills leads the new lineup) and former members of original LA punk bands like The Germs (drummer Don Bolles and sometime guitarist Pat Smear, who among other things who was later in Nirvana and Foo Fighters) and The Bags (bassist Rob Ritter) and sounded not unlike a US version of The Damned or even Siouxsie and the Banshees. Many, myslef included, would argue that they were the progenitors of the horror/goth punk genre in the U.S.. Their 1983 album Sleep in Safety is a classic of the genre. Unfortunately, though, this show was lackluster. Featuring only original member Cancer on vocals and Rikk Agnew of The Adolescents (who also played later, though I left before their set; see more below) on guitar and a rhythm section that I didn't recognize (though I think the 2nd guitarist, Jaime Pina, was in Chemical People), 45 Grave stripped all the subtlety and musical intricacy away from their songs in favor of a punk snarl and bar-band hackery that pleased much of the "punk as fuck" CBGB's crowd (more on them below) but left me displeased. They could've really used a keyboard player and Dinah's voice was really irritatingly screechy live. I don't mean to diss them entirely here. I respect Dinah as she was the chief lyricist and obviously the singer of the great '80s incarnation of the band, but they lose a lot without their key members that I mentioned above as well as chief songwriter and guitarist Paul Cutler.

Next up were D.I. The place was really starting to fill up at this point as it was almost impossible to get down to the bathroom and come back up in time for their set. Wading through the crowd in the oversold, hot and sweaty club was no easy task. To be honest, having only heard their contributions to the Suburbia soundtrack and their overlooked but excellent 1989 album Tragedy Again, I wasn't too familiar with most of the songs that D.I. played (save for "Imminent War", "Richard Hung Himself", "OC Life" and "Guns"), but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Lead singer Casey Royer could've been a comedian in another life as he was so charismatic and plain funny and had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. He did a bit too much complaining about the "system" and their home (Orange County) for my taste (that shit may fly when you're 16, but I'm 30 and it's really old).

Next up was the band that I'd wanted to see the most on this bill, The Circle Jerks. Being a big fan and having never seen the group live, I was really looking forward to their set and the Jerks didn't disappoint. They plowed through lots of songs from their incredible 1st album Group Sex and their subsequent albums Wild in the Streets, Golden Shower of Hits and a surprising number of songs from their excellent but often overlooked 5th album VI ("All Wound Up", "Beat Me Senseless", "I Don't" and their awesome and timely cover of "Fortunate Son"). And then, after security escorted a knife-wielding patron out of the door and an admonishment by singer Keith Morris about "leaving the tough-guy shit for the next time The Exploited play" (I couldn't agree with him more), their set really kicked into full gear as The Jerks turned into a great cover band, playing The Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy You" (which they recorded for their 1995 reunion album), The Weirdos' "Solitary Confinement" (bassist Zander Schloss has been playing with them recently) and a mini Black Flag set featuring "Revenge", "Wasted" and the closer "Depression". The Black Flag set was entirely appopriate since Morris was their original singer and sang on the original recorded version of "Wasted" (as well as The Circle Jerks version on their 1st album). He even told a story about Greg Ginn's girlfriend before introducting "Behind the Door", thus further adding to the old-school Cali vibe.

If there was a lowlight to this show, it was the club itself and some of the fans. While Morris was trying to speak about the important issue of schools having to turn over their information for military recruiters, some of the "punk" fans were yelling over him and one of them yelled "fuck your politics". Morris yelled back "fuck you" and finished his spiel and more power to him. The Circle Jerks were always way more intelligent than many members of their audience and it was nice to see him railing against the small mindedness of the beer, spikes and leather set that was one of the things that drove me away from the genre that I'd loved as a teenager. As they closed their set, he told the crowd not to use punk rock to act like an idiot. I couldn't agree with him more. Disgusted with the crowd and tired after 4 1/2 hours on my feet, I left before The Adolescents set. Now, having loved The Adolescents growing up, I wanted to stay for their set, but my body and mind could only take so much abuse. It was really loud in there and I was tired. I know, excuses excuses, but D.I., did "Amoeba", my favorite Adolescents song, to close out their set and I'd gotten to see Rikk play with 45 Grave, so that was good enough for me.

P.S. I have very mixed feelings about the very real threat of CBGBs closing. On one hand, it's a New York institution full of lots of history of amazing music, but on the other hand, it hasn't been a relevant club for new music for many years and it tends to attract very narrow-minded crowds like the one I wrote about above. Regardless, I'd like for it to stay open as a museum of some sort so that people can visit it, as it does generate a lot of tourist revenue and more importantly, it's a landmark, but I won't be sad if they don't do shows there anymore as there are far better clubs that book better bands and treat them better, too. However, the threat of it turning into condos or a Starbucks or something is really sad, but if that's the case, it'll be another step in the inevitable gentrification of the Bowery.

The Space Between All Things

2005-09-10T12:24:00.000-05:00

Idlewild @ Irving Plaza 9/7/05
I went to see Idlewild on Wednesday night. I'd looked forward to this show for a long time, getting tickets several months ago once I found about it. I was excited about it because Idlewild are one of my favorite bands and because they haven't played these shores in over 2 years (not counting a few acoustic gigs in LA last year). Their excellent new album Warnings/Promises, which you can buy here, was released in the UK back in March and as I got the import (luckily Amazon gave me a $30 credit and I used most of it to buy it so I didn't have to pay the exorbitant import prices), I've been able to listen to it since then though it just came out in the U.S. in August. After a so-so opening set by Inara George (the daughter of Lowell George of Little Feat), who contributes backing vocals on their new album (including the brilliant single and opening track "Love Steals Us From Loneliness"), Idlewild came on and at first they were a bit underwhelming as it took them a few songs to find their groove. Overall, the older songs, including (surprisingly) "Film for the Future" from their debut album Hope is Important and the rousing rockers from 2000's classic 100 Broken Windows ("Little Discourage", "Roseability" and "These Wooden Ideas", though unfortunately no "Actually It's Darkness", "I Don't Have the Map" or "Mistake Pageant", though "Bronze Medal" was played, which was a nice surprise) along with several great ones from 2002's The Remote Part (especially "A Modern Way of Letting Go" and the beautiful and seriously underrated "Live in a Hiding Place") went down a lot better and had much more energy than the more understated and mellower material from the new album. The big exception was a prolonged, psychedelic version of "The Space Between All Things" (my favorite song on the new album), which was dedicated to my friend Jack Rabid, a long-time supporter and champion of the band who also understand how truly great and underrated they are, especially in America. Perhaps it takes time to incorporate these more subtle songs into their live repertoire or they're best when they're rockin' out more, but either way it should be interesting to see how these songs come off the next time they play here.

Though it lacked the sheer power and intensity of their shows here back in 2003 (including their last Irving Plaza appearance and their set at the Siren Festival that year), it was still a welcome return to New York for one of my favorite bands.

Ultraggrl also went to the show. You can see her review and a bunch of comments (including one of mine) here.

Venus and Serena Understand

2005-09-10T11:58:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday, I went to the US Open with a few friends for the 2nd year in a row. Last year, we went to an evening session, but this year, we went in the afternoon, which made it a much more pleasurable experience for me in all but one respect (the blazing sun, more below). Last year, we only got to see a few matches in the gigantic Arthur Ashe Stadium. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. One of the matches featured Maria Sharapova and another featured Martina Navratilova in mixed doubles action, which was cool to see, but we didn't get a chance to explore the smaller courts and matches. This year, watching (among others) the 30th seed in the mens' singles play a Norwegian player on a tiny court and being merely a few feet away from the action was liberating in the same way that being up front at a club is different from watching a band in an arena. After watching that as well as a mens' doubles match (an Israeli team versus an American one) on a slightly bigger court, we went to the main stadium (Arthur Ashe) and once again watched Sharapova. This time, she decimated her Mexican opponent (again the name eludes me now; her first name was Sonia; but it was cool to see that she had a fan section with fans hoisting Mexican flags and cheering her on) in straight sets and in the highlighted match of the afternoon set, the Williams set met each other in the 3rd round in womens' singles action. Unfortunately, the heavily-touted match was a bit of a letdown. The first set was thrilling and competitive with Venus winning 7-6 (I think the tiebreaker was 7-5) with Venus coming from behind to win but the second set wasn't even close, with Venus plainly outplaying her younger sister and coasting 6-2. And that was it. Although it wasn't blazingly hot, I still sat right near where I got the most sun during the earlier matches and despite applying lots of sunburn (recommended), I still got a bit burned on my forehead, possibly from sweating so match, thereby negating the effect of the sunscreen. Oh well. Either way, I'll definitely be back next year. What a great event. I'll just wear a hat next year!

np: 45 Grave-Sleep in Safety

In My Place

2005-09-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

Coldplay at PNC Bank Arts Center Holmdel, NJ 9/3/05
First off, we missed Rilo Kiley, but the few songs that I heard from the parking lot sounded nice enough. I didn't think that they'd be able to pull off a show in a large ampitheater since I thought their Webster Hall show back in May was underwhelming. Incidentally, you can read a review of that show here.

By the time that we got there, the lawn was already overcrowded (note to self: the next time I come here, I'll get seats; the lawn there sucks). In fact, it was the most crowded I've ever seen the lawn there, though I've only been there a handful of times over the years. I think that they oversold this show or maybe it was just the fact that everyone seemed to rent a lawnchair, thus minimizing the space. Regardless, this meant that we couldn't get a spot that wouldn't ensure that the members of Coldplay looked like microscopic dots as they played, resigning us to look at the screens. To be honest, I was kind of underwhelmed. Either Chris Martin was sick or his voice just wasn't as powerful compared to the rest of the band (especially the awesome drummer) live as opposed to the records. It was more effective on slower, piano-voiced songs like "The Scientist" where the band played quieter, but I have a feeling that the band toned it down a bit on the louder numbers to make way for Martin's voice to glide over it, much like what's on their records. This meant that for such a big show, the impact was stunted. It would've worked much better in a smaller setting in my view and not just because I would've seen the band much better. Many of the songs sounded almost soulless in that they were so close to the studio recordings, especially early on. And let's not even talk about the screens. Instead of showing the band as how they are, there was some crazy live cut-up imagery which was nice and innovative, but ultimately added nothing to the experience. It was almost like watching a high-tech MTV video on the screens instead of the band! In the one bit of spontaneity (though I'm sure it was well-rehearsed), not counting Chris Martin's constant joking, they played an acoustic set featuring a cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Otherwise, the rest of the set consisted mostly of 2002's great A Rush of Blood to the Head and the newly-released X&Y. Furthermore, the crowd was annoying with many patrons talking throughout the entire bloody concert. Arrggghhh! I was disappointed, but perhaps things could've been different if Coldplay wasn't such a hugely popular band and they could play more intimate shows or if Martin was in better voice.

Bushes on Vacation

2005-09-09T10:37:00.000-05:00

Thanks Sue for this priceless (and darkly comical) image.

Dry Drunk Emperor

2005-09-09T10:31:00.000-05:00

You can download the unreleased TV on the Radio song "Dry Drunk Emperor" here. It sums up my feelings on the White House response to Katrina (and about the President in general)quite well. Plus, it's a really good tune. Enjoy!

Nero Fiddled, Bush Strummed

2005-08-31T16:23:00.000-05:00

I think this speaks for itself. Thanks to the awesome Mike Bennett for the title of this post.

Diamanda Galas' Defixiones

2005-08-31T14:10:00.000-05:00

I just read an interesting article about Diamanda Galas' new project in this week's Village Voice. While I can't seem to find the article online, here's a link to her site. Some of this is very graphic and hard-to-read for someone like myself who lost many relatives in the Holocaust, but it is important since she fearlessly brings attention to one of the 20th century's most horrifying and least well-known and reported genocides.

Emo Farming

2005-08-31T13:56:00.000-05:00

I meant to post a link to this short film a few months ago. It's too hysterical for words. Enjoy!

Finding or Looting?

2005-08-31T12:22:00.000-05:00

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, I thought that this issue was important enough that I should link to this article from Boing Boing. While it's sad that these horrendous conditions inevitably lead to chaos of all sorts, I think this is clearly a case of the AP's (probably unintentional but still disturbing given that these people are obviously fighting for survival) racial bias at play here. What do you think?

Woo Hoo, I'm Blur!

2005-08-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

Which British Band Are You?

We Jam Econo

2005-08-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

Me and Ms. Thang went to see this film, which chronicles the story of the amazing Minutemen, yesterday at Anthology Film Archives, where it's playing until Wednesday. I'd already seen the New York premiere back in May with my friend Jeremy, but since she hadn't seen it before, I agreed to see it again, especially because it's awesome. I'm eagerly awaiting the DVD release, which will have 3 full Minutemen concerts in the bonus section.

To see if it's screening at a theater near you, click here.

np: Echo and the Bunnymen-Siberia

Oslo in the Summertime

2005-08-29T15:23:00.000-05:00

Of Montreal @ North Six 8/27/05
The opening band, Mgmt (or The Management; I'm still not sure which one), was weird. It was 2 guys in wife-beaters with sunglasses (sorry guys neither are you are Corey Hart so no "sunglasses at night" for you) and trenchcoats singing (I say that loosely) and occasionally rapping over pre-programmed beats, all with their own stage design, which resembled a tent. Like I said, it was definitely weird and not that enjoyable, to be honest. In their defense, they at least admitted that they're a "karaoke band". I couldn't agree more. What's puzzling is that the audience was going crazy for them, but I just don't get it. Of Montreal leader Kevin Barnes thought they were great, though. Maybe I'm just too old as I felt like I was one of the oldest people there. Maybe it isn't just me. After all, the person who was there with me thought so, too.

Regardless, I thought that Of Montreal were terrific. They focused mainly on their recently released wonderful new album The Sunlandic Twins, but the set left plenty of time for a bunch of oldies as well. I have to confess that since I'm not familiar with their older records, I don't know what they were, but they sounded good as well. What's great about them is that unlike way too many bands that look like they're rather be elsewhere, it's obvious that Of Montreal really enjoy playing and have a lot of fun doing that and don't really care whether that's uncool or not. They all have fake butterflies all over their instruments, for instance, as well as synchronized dance moves during certain songs. Sonically, they're very poppy and psychedelic, but also incorporate a lot of elements of electronic music and synth-pop into their sound as well. For their latest album, Barnes has said that he listed to Brian Eno and Prince and if you can envision a sonic meshing of the two of them, then you'll be somewhat close to the sound that Of Montreal manage to pull off. Oh and it doesn't hurt that Nina, who happens to be Barnes' wife, and who plays keyboards and occasionally bass and guitar, is easy on the eyes as well. She looks like a much-better looking Sandra Bernhardt.

Here's an interesting article about the band and the new album.

Club Owners, Hide Your Mic Stands

2005-08-29T13:44:00.000-05:00

Les Savy Fav, Fred Armisen and Thunderbirds Are Now @ Bowery Ballroom 8/26/05
Right after Ted Leo's rousing set at South Street Seaport, me and ALG went to this show after getting something to eat. When we got there, Thunderbirds Are Now went a short while later and they just completely kicked ass. I'd read about them either late last year or earlier this year in the Village Voice and while I think Chuck Eddy (their music editor) sometimes needs his ears checked, sometimes he clearly has a good ear for infectious, noise-tinged post-punk acts and Thunderbirds are clearly no exception to this rule. After hearing a few songs on their site, which you can get here, I was definitely looking forward to seeing them and they delivered with a rousing, 30-minute set so tight, drilling, maniacal and plain old great that it would've been incomprehensible for them to play any longer since there was so much energy given off. Go see them if you have a chance.

After their set, Saturday Night Live cast member and indie-rock comedian (and former Trenchmouth drummer) Fred Armisen came on and gave a bizzaro comic performance which I didn't really know what to make of. It featured a Saddam Hussein impression, amongst other things, as well as a lot of ranting about a broken projector (apparently Armisen usually shows a slide when he goes on). And then Les Savy Fav came on and while they were interesting at first, they utterly disappointed me. To be fair, I've never been a fan of theirs. I'd seen them once before, at the Siren Festival in 2002, and was unimpressed. Furthermore, I'd heard one of their records in a store once and was similarly unimpressed. However, I'd heard much about singer Tim Harrington's crazy stage antics and had heard that they were back in top form, so having not given them much of a chance before, I was willing to listen and see if I'd missed anything. I liked the first couple of songs, but then after that, it became clear that the musicians and even the songs are just a backdrop for Harrington's crazy antics, such as licking a mic stand all the way down to the base, ingesting a noodle and downing water at the same time and then spitting it out and grabbing various garments from the audience and wearing them (such as a scarf that he used for a bandana on one song). He's really a dynamic front man and it's hard to take your eyes off of him, but it only really works if the songs can back up the craziness, like in the cases of Iggy Pop with the amazing Stooges or maybe The Jesus Lizard, but otherwise you're entering a really slippery slope here. With that said, also consider that we were both really tired from having stood for about 4 or 5 hours at that point and from attending 2 shows in one night (and my feet really hurt), so at 1:30 AM or so, we decided to leave. Ordinarily, I would've stayed for the whole set (at least the main part of it), but I was just too exhausted and I thought that after 7 or 8 songs, I'd gotten the idea.

Where Have All the Rudeboys Gone?

2005-08-29T11:13:00.000-05:00

Ted Leo @ South Street Seaport 8/26/05
After a so-so opening set by Tigers and Monkeys, Ted and his stripped-down Pharmacists (and now there are two; just a bassist and guitarist) came out and rocked Pier 17 on an absolutely perfect night for an outdoor show, as it was humidity-free and with a nice breeze flowing in from the water. The main set, which was about an hour in length, consisted mainly of selections from last year's good but not great Shake the Sheets along with 2 from 2003's excellent Hearts of Oak (the title track of this post and "The High Party", an incredible song written right after 9/11, which happens to be Ted's birthday). The encore, however, was the big surprise. Instead of the standard 1 or 2 songs and then get off the stage thing, he played what amounted to another mini-set, covering now-classic material like "Biomusicology" and "Parallel or Together" (from 2001's The Tyranny of Distance), several more from Hearts of Oak ("I'm a Ghost" and the title track) as well as a rousing (and unfortunately appropriate given the political climate) cover of the Stiff Little Fingers classic "Suspect Device".

Damaged Goods

2005-08-26T12:17:00.000-05:00

You can stream the new Gang of Four album Return the Gift (sans the bonus disc of remixes) if you click here. I'm listening to it now and personally I think it's a bit pointless for them to re-record these classic songs, especially since the reissue of Entertainment!, their classic debut album, just came out in the U.S. Well, I suppose the point is that they don't own copies of their masters, but that's still no excuse. All of these re-recordings are fine, but they hardly improve upon the originals (in fact they're generally weaker). Regardless, it comes out on October 11th, but you can preview it for yourself (thanks Brooklyn Vegan).

We'll Fly A Big Star

2005-08-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

This is a terrific Big Star career overview as well as a terrific, song-by-song review of their new album. It's obvious that the writer, Kent Benjamin, is knowledgeable and passionate about Big Star and Alex Chilton.

With that said, I've heard the new record and it's quite good, though very different from what most fans who haven't followed Chilton's solo career would expect.

Mesmerize/Hypnotize

2005-08-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

System of a Down @ Continental Airlines Arena East Rutherford, NJ 8/23/05
I hadn't been to an arena show in almost a year (the last one was The Beastie Boys at Madison Square Garden last October; they were awesome in case you're wondering), but I bought a ticket for this one since I'd never seen System of a Down before and I knew that since they don't play smaller venues as a general rule that this would probably be a good opportunity to do that. Anyway, we missed the 1st opener Bad Acid Trip and by the time we got there, The Mars Volta had taken the stage. First off, let me say that the sound mix was atrocious. I mean, the sound at arena shows and bigger clubs like Roseland and Hammerstein is usually bad, but this was the worst I'd ever heard. Or maybe I'd just so use to going to see bands in small clubs that I notice it more as the years go on. Anyhow, partially as a result of the terrible sound mix, The Mars Volta sounded like utter crap. It was like a big blur of noise and not noise that goes somewhere and is interesting, either. It was painful to listen to. They were unequivocally one of the worst bands I've ever seen or at least one of the worst openers. My friend Ian remarked that it was like seeing Phish, except that they're influenced by Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix (and I would add Santana and fusion-era Miles Davis to that list of influences as well) as opposed to The Grateful Dead and actually I kind of agree with him. Many years ago, a friend dragged me to see Phish once (he was really into them at the time) and I was bored out of my mind for most of that show as well. Anyhow, I commend Omar and Cedric for breaking up At the Drive-In at the height of their popularity in order to pursue what they really wanted to do, but they just don't have the chops, songs or stage presence to pull it off and frankly, for me it was painful to listen to and incredibly boring.

Now onto System. They came out with the guitarist singing behind a curtain and then tore into "BYOB", their popular single from earlier this year from their stunning new album Mesmerize. Now I'll be frank here. I can't stand most nu-metal or alt-metal or whatever you wanna call what they do, but System has always stood out from the pack for me for a variety of reasons:
1) Their riffs are speed-metal based and their rhythms are funky without trying to be, unlike so many of their contemporaries. Furthermore, they're as intricate as a prog-rock band but they have the fury of the best hardcore punk and occasionally their tempos match it as well.
2) Their lyrics are incredible and they're one of the few bands in their genre dealing with socio-political concerns but not in a heavy-handed manner. They combine overtly political material like "BYOB" and "Prison Song" with goofy, fun songs like "Bounce" and odd personal stories like "Old School Hollywood", which is about a celebrity baseball game in which among other things, Tony Danza is found out to be a line-cutter (they didn't play this song, unfortunately).
3) Their songs are really catchy and well-done and passionate.
4) For all of these reasons, they transcend their genre and are truly an excellent band.

Anyhow, despite the awful sound (whenever they tried to play something softer like one acoustic-based number, it sounded like they were playing with boxing gloves), they played excellently with vocalist Serj Tankian expertly pumping up the crowd and occasionally playing some synth as well. Guitarist Daron Malakian moved around the stage the most, alternating between different sides of the massive stage and moving a lot like Angus Young (though sans schoolboy uniform) and playing like a one-man James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett all rolled into one. Incredible. The material played included many selections from Mesmerize, one from the upcoming Hypnotize (recording during the same time as Mesmerize but released months apart from each other, much like Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac) as well as selection from 2001's excellent Toxicity and their self-titled debut album. What was odd about the show was that there was no encore. They just played straight for an hour and 45 minutes or so and just kicked ass. Highly recommended.

R.I.P. Randy "Biscuit" Turner

2005-08-19T16:58:00.000-05:00

Although I'm too young to have ever seen The Big Boys play live, I've been a big fan for many years and I was really sad to read the news this morning. To me, The Big Boys were every bit as great as the much more heralded and similarly-minded Minutemen. Virtually all of the records that they put out are classics and can be found on 2 anthologies on the Touch and Go label (they're called The Skinny Elvis and The Fat Elvis). My preference is towards the later, more experimental stuff (they incorporated and successfully combined elements of hardcore punk, funk, post-punk and even hip-hop long before bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers (who played their 1st show ever opening for The Big Boys) turned their variation of it into a multi-platinum selling formula. Here's an article about his death.

Interestingly enough, Turner passed away right after an article in the Austin Chronicle, mainly concentrating on his fascinating art work, was printed. You can read it here.

An Indie-Rock Sandwich

2005-08-19T16:11:00.000-05:00

Death Cab for Cutie with The Decemberists and Stars @ Central Park Summerstage 8/18/05

At least that's what Colin Meloy of The Decemberists called this triple bill, which started with Stars, who once again rocked the very packed (I've never seen a line that long to get into Summerstage for a benefit, i.e. non-free, show) Central Park Summerstage in much the same fashion as their previous New York appearance opening for New Pornographers at the Prospect Park Bandshell back in June. Others in blog-land have stated that Stars are awkward live and don't come off that well live as compared to their records, but I have to disagree strongly with that assertion. In fact, I prefer their live show to their recently released Set Yourself on Fire, which is good and great on occasion but it sounds like the band is still trying to find their way in the studio. They may be a bit awkward, but you can tell that they're having oodles of fun playing up there and unlike Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, who stated "there's a lot of joy for us in playing up there" a few weeks ago at Bowery Ballroom (see my review here), they didn't have to announce it to the crowd, either. Male lead singer Torquil bounced around like Michael Stipe's younger and just as emaciated-looking younger brother (to paraphrase Colin Meloy, who borrowed a jacket from Torquil, "this jacket's a bit tight; he really should eat some more carbs or something") and Amy Millan, who handled the female lead vocals as well as lead guitar duties, looked stunning as usual and played and sang really well, too. You can see photos here.

Next up was The Decemberists, whose excellent album Picaresque remains my favorite album of 2005 thus far. Although they only got to play for 50 minutes or so since they were the openers, they still put on a really good show, mainly concentrating on excellent Picaresque material like the opener "The Infanta", "16 Military Wives", "We Both Go Down Together" and my favorite "The Engine Driver" (though unfortunately no "Eli, The Barrow Boy", my other favorite on the album). In addition, they played "Odaline" and "The Legionnaire's Lament" from their 1st album Castaways and Cutouts and "Billy Liar" from their 2nd album Her Majesty. The show culminated with "The Mariner's Revenge Song" complete with audience screaming (as directed by guitarist Chris Funk) to emulate being swallowed by a whale.

After their terrific and too-short set, Death Cab for Cutie came on and much like their previous New York show at Roseland (which I also attended), they rocked Summerstage with a sound big enough so that all 5,000 or so could hear almost every instrumental nuance. Wisely, instead of innundating the crowd with almost every song from their so-so new one Plans (which will be out in a few weeks), the set concentrated on older material like The Photo Album's "Why'd You Wanna Live Here" and the excellent Transatlanticism's "The New Year", "Title and Registration" and "The Sound of Settling" (though unfortunately no "Lightness", "Tiny Vessels" or "We Looked Like Giants") while previewing 3 or 4 new ones (including the excellent single "Soul Meets Body") to give the audience a glimpse of the new album. The set did get a bit boring during the 2nd half and my feet really hurt from standing for 4 hours or so, but it was worth it. After closing the main set with "The Sound of Settling" and picking up the pace in the process, they came out for the encore with members of The Decemberists and proceeded to play a jaw-droppingly awesome version of Fleetwood Mac's soft-rock breakup classic "Go Your Own Way" with Ben and Colin singing together on the same mic. When Ben announced "this is just like 1978" before playing the song, I honestly expected a punk or new wave cover, but in all honesty, late '70s Fleetwood Mac is closer to the sound of the bands on this bill (though none of them particularly sound like Fleetwood Mac) than say, The Sex Pistols or The Ramones or The Clash, but that's ok though since I heart the Mac (and not in some stupid, ironic, detached, doofy hipster-ish kind of way). You can see photos of the collaboration here. After that, they closed with the stunning title track of Transatlanticism and on this beautiful, cloud-less, breezy night with low humidity (sweet relief after this record-breakingly hot summer), it was appropriate to hear the longing lyrics "I need you so much closer" pour into the New York City air over and over again. It was really moving, in fact. The only thing missing was the cigarette lighters from the crowd!

Scenic Gold Streets

2005-08-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

Gold Streets @ Scenic 8/17/05
Well since I've already written plenty about the ever-awesome Gold Streets in the past (see the archives), this will be more of a review of the club and what not than a show review as you faithful readers are used to from me. I will say, however, that they debuted a new song featured a Korg synth, which was great to see, and the bells that drummer T played on the last song were heavenly as well and that overall, it was a good, solid set with good sound. It was also part of a shoegaze festival organized by a group called Loveless, though only 1 of the other bands that I watched really had a shoegaze-type sound and in my view, though Gold Streets have a lot of elements of shoegaze, they're really more in the indie-pop category and are thus a hybrid of the two styles. There was also a DJ downstairs (Oliver from the band A Place to Bury Strangers) played similarly-inclined music between sets.

Now, as for Scenic itself, it's on Avenue B in the same spot that Save the Robots used to be many years ago. The upstairs level has a bar and get this, serves food and calls itself "The Burger Joint". They serve these little, White Castle-like (but better cooked and without the onions) burgers for $1.50 and $2.50 for a double cheeseburger. Also, the music they played upstairs absolutely rocked. It was like my own greatest hits with lots of late '70s UK punk, pub rock and new wave classics by the likes of The Jam, The Undertones, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, The Only Ones and others. Later, after the bands went on, they swtiched it to metal, but good metal like Iron Maiden, Ace Frehley's "New York Groove" and Motorhead's "Eat the Rich". Also, it was free to get in, which always helps. I definitely recommend this place as it's one of the better small new clubs that I've been to lately.

The Call of the Wreckin' Ball

2005-08-17T16:02:00.000-05:00

The Knitters @ Trocadero Philadelphia, PA 8/13/05
Well after the Paul Green Pink Floyd show (see review below), which was an early show that started at about 7:30 and ended at about 9, we headed down to the Trocadero to see The Knitters, who just released their 2nd album and their 1st in 20 years, the excellent and simply titled The Modern Sounds of the Knitters. Now for those of you who don't know, The Knitters are basically X (one of my favorite bands of all time) with Dave Alvin (who was absolutely mesmerizing on lead guitar) taking the place of Billy Zoom on guitar and an additional bass player who plays stand-up bass. The material consists of covers of obscure country, rockabilly and blues songs like Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line" (of which they performed an absolutely furious and unbelievably fast-paced version), similarly spirited originals like the beautiful "Someone Like You" and the stomping "The Call of the Wreckin' Ball" (which they played 2 versions of; the original one on their 1985 debut Poor Little Critter in the Road and the new one, titled "The Call of the New Wreckin' Ball", that's on their new one) and redone X originals like "Burning House of Love" (which they played on Letterman the night before) and "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts". Although it was really late and very hot in there since there was no air-conditioning (it was on the hottest day of the summer; luckily I stood near a fan), it was still great to see John Doe and Exene Cervenka on the same stage. Now all I have to do is see the reunited original lineup of X, though they hardly ever tour over here and I missed them when they came to Philly (the closest they came to NYC) a few years ago.

Welcome to the Machine

2005-08-17T15:49:00.000-05:00

Paul Green's School of Rock plays the music of Pink Floyd 8/13/05 @ The World Cafe Philadelphia, PA

Although I don't usually like cover bands or attend shows like these, this is a notable exception. After hearing much about the recent movie about music teacher Paul Green and his students (I still haven't seen the movie in question), we decided to check out one of their performances. Admittedly, it wasn't my idea, but since this was an early show and The Knitters show was a late show (see review elsewhere), I accepted the proposition. To their credit, they did a fantastic job with a difficult catalog and covered just about everything from 1967's excellent Syd Barrett composition "See Emily Plays" to "Hey You" from 1979's double album The Wall, with many interesting midway points such as the opener, parts I-IV of "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", "Pigs on the Wing" (from the often-overlooked Animals) and about half of Dark Side of the Moon, including "Time" and the show closer, "Brain Damage/Eclipse". I have to say that it's a really interesting experience to hear a drummer who didn't look above the age of 11 mimic Nick Mason's drum parts so well or 3 teenage girls singing the female lead vocals in "The Great Gig in the Sky" so perfectly that it almost gave me goosebumps. There must have been about 30 kids or so during the performance with musicians alternating song by song and all were uniformly excellent musically on their instruments, though a few were a bit weak vocally. That's a very minor complaint, though, since overall they played the Pink Floyd catalog with skill, care and feel and that's not an easy accomplishment.

Discover A Lovelier You

2005-08-17T15:20:00.000-05:00

The Pernice Brothers @ North Star Bar Philadelphia, PA 8/12/05
The 1st band was some really quiet and really boring folksy/country-ish act, so after a few songs, me and the super cool boo who I spent the weekend with went into the other room to shoot some pool, which was much more fun than watching them or Royal Gun, who I caught a few songs of towards the end of their set. They're accompanying the Pernice Brothers for their entire current tour and their guitarist and keyboardist are filling in for the absent Thom Monahan and Laura Stein (Joe Pernice's wife). Maybe they should just call it Joe Pernice and Whoever's Able to Play with Him instead of The Pernice Brothers, especially since Bob Pernice hasn't been in the band in years anyway, but that would be too long. Anyhow, this was my 3rd time seeing Joe & co and I thought that they were great. It reminded me a lot of the 1st time I saw them, which was at Maxwells a few years ago and less of their Mercury Lounge show that I saw back in January of 2004, which was a bit tentative and awkward (perhaps because they knew it was being recorded; some of the songs they played that night ended up being on the Nobody's Listening/Nobody's Watching CD/DVD). Anyway, they were very loose (not in the sense that they weren't tight as a band, but in the sense that they seemed to be having fun up there and they were comfortable as well) and in top form, though the club was only half full. They played a variety of the songs from their excellent and for some reason very underrated new album Discover A Lovelier You as well as selections from their excellent back catalog. For the encore, they played "Flaming Wreck" (from the the excellent The World Won't End) and then Joe played an acoustic song (I think it's from the Big Tobacco album) and they finished with "One Foot in the Grave" from the almost-as-excellent Yours, Mine and Ours. Also, after their set, I was able to obtain a setlist right in front of me, but admittedly, I did have a bit of help in that department. :-)

Getting the Clap from a Devotchka

2005-08-11T20:09:00.000-05:00

Devotchka and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ South Street Seaport 8/10/05
Despite my tired state on this muggy Wednesday evening (I got home at 2 AM the night before and didn't get to bed until 3 or so), I ventured out to Pier 17 at South Street Seaport to catch this very interesting double-bill. The fact that it was free didn't hurt, either. First and foremost, I must say that in all my years of going to free summer shows at Pier 17, I've NEVER seen as many people crammed in there as I saw last night for this double bill that was sponsored by East Village Radio. When I got there, current Pitchfork-approved indie buzz-band of the moment Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (say their name correctly without the "And" between "Hands" and "Say" or the hipster police will come to get you) was already playing. I managed to squeeze in sort of towards the middle of the crowd on the left-hand side and catch the last 15-20 minutes of their set. Honestly, I liked what I heard and the songs that they played live were considerably better, at least for the most part, than what's on their hot-selling (well for a band still without any sort of record deal though I'm sure they'll have one very soon or at least before the year is out) self-titled CD, which I've found so-so thus far after several listens. All in all, it was servicable nerd-rock in the vein of '77 Talking Heads or even the early Feelies (though not nearly as good as either), with singer Alec Ounsworth prancing around the stage like a young David Byrne or even a young Jonathan Richman. The major difference between them and the bands I just compared them to is that they use a lot of keyboards and a few other electronics as well, thus updating their indie-rock template for the new millenium. Overall, they're a good live band with a lot of potential, but just not the second coming that others seem to think they are. Also, it was a bit distracting watching them since about half of the people who were there (or at least the ones standing next to me) were talking over their entire set. What's the point of making the effort to come out to a show (even a free one) if you're just gonna talk right through it? I mean, I can understand the occasional comment or between-song chatter, but when a band is playing and people are trying to listen, please shut the fuck up. Maybe some of the kids (it was a really young crowd for the most part) there have a lot more free time than I do and don't value or cherish the thrill of going out to shows and seeing bands, but if they don't, please stay home! I know this plea will fall on deaf ears as there have always been trendy assholes who just come to be seen and ruin it for genuine music lovers, but I just had to vent.

Anyway, back to the music. After their main set ended, I thought that The Clap (look guys, I think you're pretty cool, but you're asking for people, including myself, to call you that by choosing such a long and dorky band name) were gonna come back and do an encore, but unfortunately they didn't. Of course, some people left after The Clap's set, so I was able to move up towards the front and in the middle for Devotchka's set. To my surprise, though, lots of people stayed for Devotchka, which was good. I was expecting a mass exodus after The Clap, but I'm glad that the listeners piled in there for the buzz band stuck around and had an open mind. Honestly I didn't know much about them at all over than that they're from Denver, but I really liked what I'd previously heard, which is their 200o CD Super Melodrama. Their music is almost indescribable. They're a 4-piece consisting of a vocalist/guitarist along with a violinist/accordion player, a tuba/cello player and a drummer who played trumpet on a few songs as well. Instead of the guitarist playing the main melody lines, they're played by the violinist/accordion player as the guitarist strums the rhythm and chruns out chords, enabling him to focus on his singing. Also, at a few points in the set, he "played" something that made a weird, whoosing noise when he conducted it. I've never seen anyone do that. Oh and his vintage mic was cool, too. That instrumentation alone makes them completely unique (at least for a band playing rock and roll or something resembling it), but better yet, they write wonderful, lovelorn songs with wonderful instrumental passages that are equally influenced by Southwestern music as well as traditional Eastern European sounds. Imagine a polka in a Polish beer hall and a Tex-Mex hoedown, but at the same time, and you're sort of close. However, despite the fact that their music is imminently danceable, very few people were dancing in this way too self-conscious (or way too cool for school) city. Not that I'm not innocent in this regard, either, but that has to do with self-consciousness. I love to dance, but I'm just not that good at it and I don't like others looking when I do it unless they're dancing as well. As Craig Finn of The Hold Steady said last week when I saw them at Bowery Ballroom, "What's the deal with Teaching Indie Kinds to Dance? Ever seen an indie kid dance? Indie kids shouldn't dance" (I'm paraphrasing here). I don't necessarily agree, but I do see his point. Anyhow, if you have an opportunity to see this very unique band, definitely do it. Meanwhile, though, you can go to their site and download some mp3s if you go here.

The Road Leads Where It's Led

2005-08-11T19:41:00.000-05:00

Kings of Leon and The Secret Machines @ Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ 8/9/05
Well this was my 4th time at Starland Ballroom since it opened a few years ago (it used to be a nightclub called Hunka Bunka and yes supposedly it was as cheesy as its name, though I only went there once when they briefly did shows there and this was back in 1998 to see The Violent Femmes) and the 3rd time that I've gotten in for free (my friend who I went to the show with got a free ticket offer from their mailing list). When we got there, we'd already missed the opener Helio Sequence. The Secret Machines were up next and at first, this powerful 3-piece with the laserific light show and slow, chugging heaviness was impressive. After a while, however, of similar sounding material, they began to grate a bit until the set closer, the incredible "First Wave Intact", which generated some much needed momentum that they'd been losing. Overall, they were impressive, but they played for about 20 minutes too long (especially for them being the openers) and while they put on an impressive and powerful stage show, their lack of songcraft becomes apparent after listening to them for over an hour. With the exception of the aforementioned "First Wave Intact" and "The Road Leads Where It's Led", they don't really have a lot of very good songs, but they rely on atmosphere and power (and lights) to get their point across. At times, they reminded me of Rush, early U2 and Interpol, but if those bands had a John Bonham sound-a-like on drums who, interestingly enough, set up his kit at the front of the stage and all the way to the left unlike most drummers, who occupy the back part of the stage and are in the middle. Obviously he anchors the band and the other 2 members need to see his motions.

As for Kings of Leon, after hearing a few songs each from both of their albums, I wasn't all that impressed and after seeing them live, I can officially say that though they had an incredible crowd reaction (at this point I must mention that there was this incredibly annoying frat boy directly ahead of where we were standing who kept screaming very loudly and very inappropriately, much to my aggravation; if you're gonna act like a 2-year old, go home asshole!), especially up front where people were going nuts for them, I just don't hear what all the fuss is about. Their 1st 2 songs were good, including their opener, which I recognized from a car commercial, and after that, their guitar player played some good riffs (though the same ones in every song seemingly) and their bass player had some good, '60s style inflections similar to those great mid '60s Who singles on a couple of songs as well (and again, there wasn't much variation going on in his playing on those songs, either) and their drummer was solid in a Dave Grohl (think his playing on Nirvana, especially In Utero, not his subsequent Foo Fighters records or his work with Queens of the Stone Age or Killing Joke or Probot), but the overall combination just didn't gel for me. I would describe them as being very Strokes-like with a slight Southern rock element because of the twangy vocals, though the other influences I mentioned above were prevalent as well. My friend said that they reminded him a bit of Mudhoney, but I have to disagree. Mudhoney, at least at their best (on Superfuzz Bigmuff), were a great blues-punk hybrid more similar to an American Birthday Party (or to what later bands like The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Royal Trux and more recently The White Stripes, The Black Keys, The Kills and others) than to their grunge peers despite their Sub Pop and Seattle pedigree, whereas Kings of Leon are clearly not bluesy at all. Thus, since it was a work night and I had a long trip back, we all left about 7 or 8 songs in. On the way out, they were giving away tickets to the reunited New York Dolls performance (see my review of their April Irving Plaza show in the archives) there on Friday night. Of course for free I would go in a heartbeat even though I wasn't that crazy about the April show (it wasn't all bad, however) and though they gave me 3 tickets, I gave them all to my friend since I'll be seeing The Pernice Brothers that night, which should be a totally different and hopefully better show!

I'm Glad to See That You're Still in the Bars

2005-08-08T13:34:00.000-05:00

THE HOLD STEADY @ Bowery Ballroom 8/5/05
After a Chinese meal at the nearby New York Noodle House, it was time to head up to Bowery Ballroom to catch a set by one of the fastest rising indie-rock bands in the area. After getting on the cover of The Village Voice and since the release of their terrific sophomore album Separation Sunday, they've been all the rage with critics and fans alike, thus far culminating in a 2-night headlining stand at Bowery Ballroom, the biggest local venue they've played in at this point. They have a sound that's tough to pin down, but essentially it's '70s hard riff rock or maybe even pub rock along the lines of when The Rumour backed Graham Parker or when The E Street Band and Bruce Springsteen were still playing the circuit in Asbury Park before Born to Run landed them on the cover of Newsweek. The main difference between them and many other competent bar bands is singer Craig Finn's vocals, which resemble a revival tent preacher during a particularly righteous sermon rather than anything resembling a conventional rock and roll singer. Another good point of reference is Husker Du-era Bob Mould or maybe even the talk-singing style of Jeff Pezzati (formerly of Naked Raygun and currently in The Bomb). Some have even suggested the ranting style of The Fall's Mark E. Smith but I don't know if I necessarily agree with that comparison. The lyrics concern the shady side of life and in particular, Separation Sunday is a song cycle about a Catholic girl gone bad named Hallelujah (or Holly for short).

With all these elements added up, the performance was galvanizing and lasted for about an hour and a half with a 3-song encore and it encompassed all of Separation Sunday as well as songs from their 1st album Almost Killed Me. Finn repeatedly enticed the crowd with lines like the one in the title of this post and seemed to be having a great time on stage, which is always nice to see in the midst of so much apathy and navel-gazing and what not from way too many bands. He repeatedly invited fans to an after-party at Hi-Fi (formerly Brownies) as well, though after their set ended at 1:15 AM, I was more than happy to go home at that point. If I have one very minor complaint, it's that their set started out slowly and took time to pick up a little steam, but I think part of that was nervous jitters. I think Finn & co were obviously a bit overwhelmed at all the attention they've been getting and how popular they've become recently, which is understandable for a band who could barely fill smaller places 6 months ago.

Black Mountain was supposed to open, but they didn't show. Instead we got Sam Champion (we listened to them from downstairs; they were ok at best) and another supposedly metal band who we got there too late to check out.

Free Patti Smith

2005-08-05T19:00:00.000-05:00

PATTI SMITH @ Central Park Summerstage 8/4/05

No don't worry! Patti isn't in jail or anything like that, but she did play an awesome free show last night at Central Park Summerstage. Although it was a muggy evening on one of the hottest days of this already oppressively hot summer, I braved it for a chance to see Patti for free, mere minutes from where I work. Her opener, Janet something or other, was like a PBS version of Patti. At least that's what someone I overheard said and I couldn't agree more. She had Patti's vocal qualities and nuances, but with none of the attitude or the bite. I'll cut her some slack since, according to the program guide, she was Patti's mentor back when she was still a college student at Glassboro State College in the mid '60s and she's a lifelong friend of Patti's as well, but I didn't enjoy her set at all.

And then Patti came on about 30 minutes later with a stripped-down, 4-piece band backing her that includes 2 former Patti Smith Group members (the unstoppable guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty) and her son Jackson on 2nd guitar and occasionally bass (Tony Shanahan was the main bass player but he also played keyboards as well and when he did, Jackson switched over to bass).

The set was short, lasting only about an hour and fifteen minutes, and concentrated on covers such as "Like A Rolling Stone", "Not Fade Away" (done as a tribute to Jerry Garcia; the anniversary of both his birth and his death is right around this time of year) and another song that was done as a tribute to Garcia. I presume that it's a Grateful Dead cover that I just didn't know. From her post '70s albums, she played "People Have the Power" (a song I can't stand but one that always sounds good live), "Summer Cannibals" (it was fitting that she would play this at Summerstage because the 1st time I saw her was at Summerstage back in '96 and I remember her playing it then as it was on her then recently released album Gone Again) and "My Blakean Years" from her most recent album Trampin'. Of course, she did pull out a few chestnuts from her '70s heyday such as the brilliant "Ain't It Strange", the beautiful "Because the Night" and "Dancing Barefoot" and to finish off the show, she encored with "Gloria", a song that never fails to captivate in part because it has what it quite possibly the greatest opening line of a song (and for that matter, an album) I've ever heard, which is the great line "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine".

Unlike other shows I've seen of hers over the years, she didn't dive deep until her back catalog and thus favorites like "Pissing in a River" (my favorite song of hers), "We Three", "Redondo Beach" and others were missing, but it didn't matter too much because she was so full of life, energy and youthfulness (especially for someone who's 58 years old) and the band was cracker jack tight as well. Furthermore, she was her usual motherly self, urging the crowd to drink lots of water towards the end of the set. Overall, I'd say it was worth the amount of sweat that was all over my shirt after the show. It's good to see a punk icon and a hero of mine still giving it her all.

Vacation Brain

2005-07-20T20:32:00.000-05:00

OK first off, my loyal readers (all five of you), I'm really sorry that I haven't updated this thing in a long time. Part of the reason is that I recently moved and as of yet, I still don't have internet access at home (I'm doing this after-hours at work here; shhh, don't tell), which makes it harder for me. Furthermore, I was also away on vacation in northwestern Massachussetts with a certain boo (you know who you are) for almost a week of that time, during which time I caught Yo La Tengo perform a mesmerizing live score to the Jean Panleve film "The Sounds of the Sounds of Science" at Mass MOCA in North Adams and then a few days later we also caught a superb Dinosaur Jr reunion show in Northampton in a club (Pearl Street) that holds 350 people.

I can't even imagine how much better it was than it would be if I were to see them here in hot, humid, overcrowded New York City at Summerstage. Other than it being really loud and really good, one thing I'll say about their set is that in 15 years of listening to their 1st album, I never realized that Lou Barlow sang so many of its songs, namely "Forget the Swan", "Gargoyle", "Mountain Man" and "Does It Float". Also, Lou barely looks older than when he was kicked out of Dinosaur Jr originally in 1988 whereas J Mascis (with a big head of long grey hair) and Murph (who could pass for Mr. Clean these days) definitely showed their age more, though both played absolutely f'in awesomely, so who cares! My only (minor) complaint is that they didn't play "They'll Always Come" from Bug and a few chestnuts from the 1st album that I would've included in the setlist (namely "The Leper" and "Severed Lips" though they did do "Bulbs of Passion" which was cool).

If you wanna see some pictures of these shows and some additional commentary, you can go here. Furthermore, lots of records and CDs were purchased on my trip and all in all, I really enjoyed hanging out in Northampton and Amherst and I'd go back there in a heartbeat!

A few days after I got back, me and the boo I referred to earlier went to the Siren Festival. I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here, but if you wanna see pictures, go here. We managed to catch all of the Dears set (excellent though like all of these bands, they would be better indoors in a small club) as well as Q and Not U (who I'd never heard before but who quite impressed me; they're an excellent dance-punk band that reminded me of The Rapture and Radio 4 as reimagined by Fugazi with Prince singing if you can imagine it; I'm glad I got to see them before their breakup, which will be soon sadly) and Dungen (is it me or is he/they completely overrated; I'm sorry, but why do people with respectable taste like this 2nd rate hippie/festival rock circa 1970?; now bear in mind that I like lots of classic rock, so it's not that they were playing a style of music that I don't dig; it's just that these guys would've been opening for Grand Funk in 1970 or something or maybe 5th or 6th on a bill at a big open-air festival back then; maybe it's because they're Swedish or something and they have the looks down; too bad they don't have the tunes, though).

Later in the day, we caught part of VHS or Beta's set, which was quite impressive in the short bursts that I heard and then we caught most of Spoon, who were quite impressive despite the fact that by this point there were so many people that it was hard to get up to a position where we could see or even hear anything. They played 4 songs from their masterpiece, 2001's Girls Can Tell, as well as a bunch of newer material and they seemed way more confident as a live unit than the only other time that I've seen them (back in 2001 at Maxwells). I wish that they would've played their cover of Wire's "Lowdown", which I've never seen them do. Oh well.

Oh and I scraped my knee riding the Cyclone, but the thrill of riding it was worth it. And go to Totonno's if you're in Coney Island and you like pizza. It's awesome, though Patsy's is still better!

Well in the next few days, I'll be seeing Kaiser Chiefs at Webster Hall and a Gold Streets record release party for their ep "Red", so I'll be sure to report back in a more timely fashion. Scout's honor. :-)

Which Creation Records Band Are You?

2005-06-28T13:44:00.000-05:00

You Are... Ride.
You are young at heart and full of energy. You are
talented but very modest. You are happy go
lucky and care free. You have learned to take
the good with the bad and you just accept life
for being what it is. People tend to be envious
of you, That's only because they don't
understand you and they just want some of what
you have. There's no task too hard for you and
you excel at pretty much everything you try to
do. You have a playful personallity and a
beautiful inner soul.

http://quizilla.com/users/aLieOne/quizzes/

This One Should've Been in The Onion

2005-06-20T18:22:00.000-05:00

Check this out and tell me that you don't agree. Personally, though, I think he would love Raisin Nut Bran, which kicks the shit out of Raisin Bran any day of the week. And maybe for his sugary cereal fix (boy that Saddam really is a Toys R Us kid in the making, isn't he?) he should try some magically delicious Lucky Charms since they're way better than Froot Loops.

Lots of New Show Reviews!!!

2005-06-20T01:42:00.000-05:00

Doug Gillard and Last Burning Embers (Pink Frost/Big Takeover Records night) @ Southpaw 6/18/05

Full disclosure: I am a staff writer for The Big Takeover, the magazine edited and published by Jack Rabid, who is the drummer for Last Burning Embers. Thus, I'm inherently biased in regards to this band. With that said, they're a really good post-punk influenced quartet (formerly a trio) led by Dave Barokas, who sings, plays guitar and writes all of the songs. Ever since their bass player left for work-related reasons (he moved to Japan), they've had 2 of Dave's students (he's a teacher in Newark and he's taught his students songs by The Specials, The Adverts and others; pretty cool to say the least) fill in on bass and lead guitar, respectively. Dave, Jack and the bass player (sorry I don't know his name) were all very comfortable up on stage and all had great presence whereas the 2nd guitar player was a bit more restrained and hiding out a bit in the back. Overall, the set was stronger than their last show, which was opening for New Model Army at Maxwells back in March. Whereas they were a bit rusty at Maxwells, here they sounded a bit better and less tentative, though still not as rockin' and unrestrained as they can be. Jack's drumming was also better on this evening as he's further into recovering from a thumb injury that prevented him from playing drums for a while (and thus preventing Last Burning Embers from playing shows for about 9 months). They played material from their full-length Lessons in Redemption and one song from their Distress Call ep and no covers, unfortunately (they do great versions of Husker Du's "Pink Turns to Blue" and The Wipers' "Nothing Left to Lose"), but it was still a strong set nonetheless.

As for Doug Gillard, well I'm not a particulary big Guided By Voices fan (Doug was the lead guitarist on their last few records), so perhaps I'm not the best person to write this review, but I will say that though I'd only listened to his debut full-length Salamander once before the show (and enjoyed it on 1st listen), I was struck by how much more energetic, upbeat and well rockin' (there's that word again) the songs were as opposed to their studio versions. I was also struck by how good the musicians in his band were, especially the drummer. However, only a few songs really stood out (perhaps the songs will grow on me more as I keep listening to the album). A big surprise was a slowed-down and initially unrecognizable cover of The Smiths' "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before" (a song I've listened to hundreds of times) and aside from his solo stuff, a few songs from his old band Gem were played and the last song was the Guided By Voices crowd-pleaser "I Am A Tree".

Agent Orange @ The Continental 6/15/05

A very interesting way to spend the Ides of June. I've been a fan of Agent Orange ever since first hearing them on the old hardcore punk radio show "Radio Riot" on WRSU, Rutgers College's radio station, back when I was in high school. I used to stay up late on Monday nights (it was on between 12 AM and 2 AM, so I guess technically it was Tuesday morning) and I would hear amazing music, among which were songs like Agent Orange's stunning skate-video classic "Bloodstains", "Everything Turns Grey" and "A Cry for Help in a World Gone Mad", all from their incredible debut Lp Living in Darkness (a record which isn't standard issue hardcore, but rather a combination of early '80s Cali punk, '70s metal and surf music which had never been attempted before and hasn't really been replicated since).

The first time I saw them perform was at City Gardens back in 1993, when I was a senior in high school. Later I saw them in 1995 at the then just reopened Stone Pony in Asbury Park and the last time I saw them before this show was about 5 years ago at the Court Tavern in New Brunswick (you can teall I'm a Jersey boy, huh?). All of these shows were memorable and enjoyable (especially the last 2), but all were sparsely attended, with Agent Orange never managing to draw more than 50 people or so in good ole New Jersey.

My oh my, was this show a completely different story, though. At The Continental, they drew 200 rabid, screaming mohawked, pierced and shaved-headed punk youth on a Wednesday night. While on one hand, it's great to see Agent Orange draw a good crowd and get somewhat repaid for their efforts and their great music. On the other hand, though, it makes seeing them much more annoying. I mean, this isn't 200 people packed in at the Mercury Lounge or something watching an indie-rock band and generally behaving themselves and not getting in anyone's way. No, I was up front for this one and I don't remember the last time I'd been bumped into, had people land on my head, been pushed from my spot (not easy to do as I'm 6'2" and quite big), etc. as many times as I had on this night. Now all of this was fine when I was 17 or so, but after the age of 20, when I almost completely got out of the hardcore/punk scene (I'm 30 now so it's been about a decade), I just didn't have the stomach for it anymore as I realized the inherent stupidity behind moshing/slam-dancing or whatever you wanna call it. OK, now that my ranting is out of the way, I'll say that Agent Orange, as always, played a terrific and tight set encompassing all of Living in Darkness (including my favorite"No Such Thing") as well as some choice material from their later records like their covers of "Somebody to Love" and "Secret Agent Man", the great hardcore stomper "Breakdown" and the classic should've been a college-radio hit "Fire in the Rain" (from their This is the Voice album). After the show, I got to talk to Mike (Palm, the only original member left and the one who sings, plays incredible surf-guitar and wrote all of their classic material that weren't covers) and he mentioned that they would be coming to either a club in Clifton, NJ or to CBGB's tomorrow night, so be on the lookout. I know if the CBGB's show happens, I may be there to see them again (if I decide I can brave the stupid-ass slamsters)!

Engineers 6/13/05 @ Southpaw

Yes, dear reader, you're reading this correctly. I went to Southpaw 3 times in one week. Definitely a record for me of some sort, though perhaps not because knowing myself, I'm sure it's not unprecedented. :-) Anyhow, Engineers are a terrific UK shoegazer-style band (think My Bloody Valentine and you won't be too far off, though the recorded stuff I've heard reminded me more of Spiritualized's quieter moments) that have a full-length, a mini-Lp and a few singles out. Before they opened for Bloc Party at Webster Hall the following 2 nights, they managed to squeeze this one in and of course, since it was over 90 degrees out and it was on a Monday night, hardly anyone showed up so unfortunately they only played to about 20 people or so. Nevertheless, though they were quite loud, they were quite good and I'm glad that I managed to catch them. Oddly enough, though, they didn't play their 2 singles (including the new one "Home") or replicate the harmonies found on the recorded versions of those songs. I didn't stay for the headliners, The Nein, though they have a former member of '90s noise-rockers Steelpole Bathtub from what I understand.

Magic in Here

2005-06-12T23:12:00.000-05:00

The Go-Betweens @ Southpaw 6/11/05
First off, before I go on about the Go-Betweens performance, let me say once again that it's such a pleasure going to a great club like Southpaw, especially after having to endure Tonic the night before. It has a really great, welcoming atmosphere, great beer on tap (including all the varieties of Brooklyn Lager; my favorite is the Brooklyn Weisse beer; mmmm beer, I say, Homer Simpson style), good sightlines, much improved sound (the first time I went there, about a year ago to see Clinic, the sound was utterly horrible, but every time I've been there since, they've really upped the ante in that department) and a really friendly staff, not to mention the fact that they constantly book quality national touring and local acts.

Last night's sold-out Go-Betweens show was no exception. Having never seen them before and knowing that they hadn't played in the New York area for almost 5 years, I was really looking forward to this show and fortunately, they didn't disappoint. Showcasing a 4-piece lineup featuring Adele Pickvance on bass (she had a keyboard next to her but I didn't see her touch it during the entire set) and drummer Glen Thompson, they sounded less like the orchestrated and sometimes produced (though not overproduced generally) classic lineups of the late '80s and more like their original incarnation as a proto indie-pop 3-piece in the late '70s and early '80s. They played for about an hour and 45 minutes and the set was a mix of new and old songs. From their excellent new album Oceans Apart, a few of my favorites were played ("Darlinghurst Nights" and "This Night's for You" among them, though no "Born to a Family"; darn) and there was also a fair amount of songs played from their 2000 reunion album The Friends of Rachel Worth ("Surfing Magazines" and the opener "Magic in Here" were highlights).

Digging deep into the back catalogue, the highlights were "Cattle and Cane" (from 1982's Before Hollywood) "Draining the Pool for You" (from 1984's Spring Hill Fair) "Spring Rain" (from 1986's excellent Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express), "Bye Bye Pride" (from 1987's very spotty but occasionally brilliant Tallulah) and 3 songs from their masterpiece, 1988's 16 Lovers Lane ("Streets of Your Town", "Was There Anything I Could Do?" and "Dive For Your Memory"). They also played a few oddities like the Robert Forster solo single "Baby Stones" and the excellent "This Girl, Black Girl", though they also ignored classics like "The House that Jack Kerouac Built", "Bachelor Kisses", "The Wrong Road", "In the Core of the Flame", "Right Here", "That Way", "Part Company" and many others (personally I would've loved to hear "You Can't Say No Forever" and "Quiet Heart"). However, with such a vast catalog, they were bound to skip a few fan favorites since they can only play so many songs, though they did managed to play a long main set with 2 full encores. Of the 2 main songwriters (Robert Forster and Grant McLellan), Robert is clearly the showman at the front and center of the stage with Grant almost looking on (though the amount of songs each writes and then sings is about equal with perhaps a slight advantage going to Robert).

Oh and thanks again to Jeff for giving me a ride to the nearest subway stop. You're a sweetheart. It's like having my own post-show personal driver. :-) Of course I would've gotten home sooner had I not taken the 4 the opposite direction by accident before I realized the error I'd made and (when I was already in Crown Heights) promptly got back on a Manhattan-bound 4 train.

As an addendum to this post, here are some pictures of the show, used by permission (thanks Rob). Check out the rest of the site for some more Go-Betweens photos (including some from a 1984 show in Ohio) as well as others of XTC (from the early '80s) and other artists as well.

The Coast is Always Changing

2005-06-12T22:46:00.000-05:00

Maximo Park @ Tonic 6/10/05
Well after missing their pre-SXSW shows here back in March and after finally hearing their terrific debut album A Certain Trigger (though it only came out a few weeks ago here in the U.S.), the wait was finally over and I managed to catch the 1st night of their 2-night stand at Tonic, a club I'd never been to before that's better known for playing host to avant-garde, experimental artists (think any of Thurston Moore's side projects or venerated guitarist Elliott Sharp playing a musical adaptation of The Fibonacci sequence) as opposed to (relatively) straightforward UK post-punk/indie bands like Maximo Park. This venue was in danger of closing (though when I spoke to one of their staffers about a month ago, they said that they were ok for now and have managed to stay open) and honestly, if the attitudes of the entire staff approximate those of the person who was working the door and sitting behind the box office (he took my ticket and when I asked if I could keep my stub, he ripped it in such a fashion that only half of the part of the stub that I got to keep was visible; asshole), then good riddance. I mean, don't get me wrong, I hate what's happening to the Lower East Side with great clubs like the Luna Lounge (where there was never a cover and they booked good bands and there was no BS dress code or fashionista vibe as you find in so many placed down there these days) closing and being replaced by places with velvet ropes, but I also hate clubs and people that are so snobby that they think they're cooler than everyone else and this place definitely had it in spades, much like some of the record stores I try not to frequent too often in both the East and West Village (names will be omitted to protect the guilty; ha). Also, negative points go to this place for not having any beer on tap (though at least they had Bass in a bottle) and for having a relatively long bathroom line (2 bathrooms with only 1 stall each and the one I used was filthy and cramped, too; yuck).

Regardless, the sound in this place is excellent, so if you can brave the avant snobs and bathroom lines and bottled beer and a band or artist you like is playing, then at least they'll sound great. And fortunately, Maximo Park not only sounded great, but they placed a killer, ace, 45 to 50 minute set (with one 2-song encore) in which they managed to play every single song from their album except for the Peter Gabriel-ish "Acrobat" as well as 2 B-sides ("Fear of Falling" and "I Want You to Leave") and 2 brand new songs as well. The energy they had was unbelievable and fortunately, singer Paul Smith and keyboardist Lukas Woller were able to curtail their Devo-esque hand gesturing and strutting down to a minimum. Sound-wise, they remind me of everyone from The Dickies and Devo to on a few songs The Smiths (one song borrows the riff from "This Charming Man"), any C86 band and The Jam (as well as more recent contemporaries), but they have a sound that's distinctly their own and lyrically, Paul Smith is an adept writer of adolescent and young adult struggles at the art of romance, making their songs feel more personal than those of many of their contemporaries. I can't wait to for them to come back here! And plus, Paul graciously signed my "Apply Some Pressure" CD ep after the show and guitarist Duncan Lloyd was very nice as well. In short, if they come anywhere near you and even if you don't know them and you like the current crop of post-punk/new-wave revivalists coming out of the UK (or the older bands I cited above), you must see them!

More Adventurous?

2005-05-29T02:02:00.000-05:00

Rilo Kiley @ Webster Hall 5/27/05
Well, before I start this review, let me state that I'd happily pay $23 (the cost of a ticket to this show plus Ticketweb fees) just to look at Jenny Lewis for an hour. She's so cute that it's sickening. So what about the music then? Well openers The Brunettes were from New Zealand and certainly sounded like it, with influences from The Velvet Underground, much like their earlier Kiwi brethren ranging from The Clean to The Chills to Galaxie 500 and later Luna's Dean Wareham and others. The trouble is that though they pulled off a nice, druggy pop sound that at times also reminded me of Spiritualized's excellent 1997 album Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space, they didn't have the songwriting prowess to back it up and were a little too cutesy for my taste. They weren't bad by any means, but there was something inexplicable about them which turned me off slightly.

The next opener, Portastatic, was much better, fortunately. Having never heard them before but being familiar with leader Mac's other, more well-known group Superchunk, I expected a lighter-edged, almost bossa-nova and jazz influenced sound from this side project (at least from what I've read about them throughout the years), but boy was I wrong! What I got was a jarring, 30-minute set that aside from one song in which a member played violin and another one on which she played keyboards, the set could've been taken from a Superchunk gig in the early to mid '90s. I don't mean that they played the same songs. They were all Portastatic songs, but rather they were all loud, abrasive, in-your-face guitar anthems not that far off from classic Superchunk fare like "Slack Motherfucker" (also covered by Firehose) and "On the Mouth", though closer to their later albums like 1995's Here's Where the Strings Come In. While not great, it was certainly enjoyable and it's always good to see an indie-rock veteran like Mac and co. showing the very young audience (I felt positively ancient there) how it's done.

Now onto Rilo Kiley. I love their last album More Adventurous and as you loyal readers (yeah all 10 of you if that many) may remember, I voted it one of my favorite albums of last year, which is why I bought the ticket (I missed their show at Bowery Ballroom a few months back and in retrospect, I really wish I would've seen them there instead since I much prefer that venue over the bigger, cavernous, maze-like and worse-sounding Webster Hall). Thus, I really wanted to like this show. I really did. But I didn't. First off, the sound was awful. I've seen a couple of shows at Webster Hall before and the sound was fine, so I don't know what happened here. Jenny Lewis' exquisite voice, the centerpice of More Adventurous, was so low in the mix from where I was standing (towards the front but over on the left-hand side) that you really had to struggle to hear her on many of the louder numbers, including the excellent "Portions for Foxes", the title track of 2002's The Execution of All Things and the heart-wrenching "Does He Love You?". Now this wouldn't be too much of a problem if the band was tight, but they weren't. Guitarist Blake Sennett came up with a few cool parts and solos throughout the night (although I have to say this: please can the mock rock-star moves and poses; that shit is played out) and the rhythm section and other guitarist played capably as well, but for whatever reason, they just didn't gel. I really think that they had to fix a lot of mistakes in the studio when they recorded More Adventurous because I almost couldn't believe that it was the same band playing last night as the one who played so capably on the last album. Then again, the awful mix might have had something to do with it as well or maybe it was the fact that natural star Lewis (or at least she should be) was so shy that she only came out from behind her guitar and keyboard for a few songs and kept eating the mic (or at least it appeared that way). With that said, her magical voice still captivated on numbers like "I Never" and More Adventurous' title track. In general, the best tracks were the quieter numbers where one could hear Lewis' voice the best. She's got a solo album coming out soon and though I was disappointed with this show, I'm really looking forward to it since I think she's really capable of even more great things, especially without the rest of her band distracting her.

I Was Meant for the Stage

2005-05-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

The Decemberists @ Warsaw 5/26/05
Well actually I'm pretty stage-shy, but The Decemberists' Colin Meloy certainly isn't. At Warsaw last night, he and the rest of The Decemberists put on a spectacular show focusing mostly on material from this year's excellent Picaresque as well as some of the best numbers from their 1st 2 albums, including "July July", "Leslie Ann Levine", "Billy Liar" and a really long and drawn-out version of "The Chimbley Sweep" which featured a mock guitar duel between Colin and guitarist Chris Funk and a segment whereas violinist and vocalist (at least for this tour, which ended yesterday) Petra Haden went into "Hava Nagila" and Colin simultaneously led the crowd in a clap-along. You could just tell that they were all having such a great time up there and that the newly re-tooled band, now featuring Haden and new drummer John, were in top form. Every single song in the main set was absolutely incredible, culminating with the epic "The Mariner's Revenge Song", during which the crowd was instructed to scream at one point of the song as if they were eaten alive by a whale. Pretty scary stuff for a band often pigeonholed as Smiths-styled bookworms (not that there's anything wrong with that, BTW) because of their 19th century dress and lyrics having to do with chimbley sweeps, pirates, town raids in the 8th century and what not. Hell, they have more songs about people dying than most gangsta rappers do, and "The Mariner's Revenge Song" is exhibit A in this regard.

For the encore, Colin played a song solo that I didn't recognize and then the entire band came out and they did the entirety of "The Tain", the 15 minute, 4 part, almost Who-esque ep that they put out last year which is all about the raid on a town in the 8th century in what is now Ireland. Honestly, by this point, I was kind of tired and although it was thrilling to hear them attempt to pull this off live, I much preferred the incredible main set.

Regardless, it was still a great show and I highly recommend seeing them. I'm seeing them again here in August when they open for Death Cab for Cutie at Central Park Summerstage. Hopefully then they'll play "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect" and "Eli, the Barrow Boy", which they didn't do last night, but I can't complain too much since all of my other favorites of theirs ("The Engine Driver", "We Both Go Down Together", "Billy Liar", "Leslie Ann Levine") were played last night.

As a side note, it was my first time at Warsaw in about a year and a half. I've been there a bunch of times now over the years and every time I've been there, I've had a great time. They don't book shows too often (most of the time, it's known as the Polish National Home and functions as a social center for the neighborhood's vibrant and numerous Polish community), but when they do, they're usually quality ones and best of all, they have INCREDIBLE Polish food (great potato pierogies and kielbasa and the best cheese blintzes I've ever had complete with cherries on the side) for very fair prices (all entries are $5) and Polish beer on tap (Zwiec is one and I forgot what the other one is), which was quite nice as well. All of this, combined with the punk/hardcore feel of the venue (a friend of mine once said that, when I took him there, that it reminded him of a place where The Sex Pistols would've played and I agree; it also reminds me of many a VFW Hall or other such center rented out to do hardcore shows that I attended in the early to mid '90s) make it one of my favorite places to see a show in the entire area. If you get a chance, go!

Show reviews (many that I should've written long ago)

2005-05-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

Yes I know that I haven't updated this thing in a while and I'm really sorry about that (yes, I know my 5 or so loyal readers were just clamoring for new material on this site with bated breath, but anyway...). So let's get down to business, from most recent first:

Gold Streets @ The Pussycat Lounge 5/13/05
At their 1st show after the recording of their 1st ep, which will be out in 2 weeks or so and just in time for their 1st tour, Gold Streets once again packed this venue (honestly, I felt really bad for the next band, a Yeah Yeah Yeahs-wannabe group who barely had 2 people watching them!) and played a stellar set. Despite a few sound difficulties early on, they really rocked the hizz-ouse and are evolving into a great outfit reminiscent of an early '90s shoegazer band who just happened to re-emerge now to kick out the jams and show the young'uns how it's done. I mean, honestly, you could put their songs onto a mix CD with Slowdive, Lush, Ride, Chapterhouse and others of that ilk and they would fit in perfectly! Well I think that this will be their last show at this venue because of sound issues and what not (it's also a weird place since there's a strip club below and it's the kind of place where they only have Coors on tap; yuck; the lounge on top of the club area is quite nice, though), but if that's the case, at least it was a good one and on the positive side, that means that I won't have any reason to go this venue any more as I much prefer the other places I've seen them at (The Delancey, the now sadly defunct Luna Lounge, Pianos, Siberia and others). Also, since it's in the Financial District, it's a real schlep to get there, though I wouldn't mind as much if I liked the place more.

"The New York Dolls" @ Irving Plaza 4/28/05

One of the highlights of last year's Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival was a short, 30-minute set by The Dolls with the same lineup that they had on this occasion. So you may be wondering why I put The New York Dolls in quotation marks. Well, the lineup for this show consisted of David Johansen, Sylvain Sylvain and 3 others (though all good players; bass player Sami Yaffa, formerly of Hanoi Rocks and later Jet Boy in particular) that had nothing to do with The Dolls when they existed the first time around in the '70s, so in actuality, it should've been called "David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain with special guests play the music of the New York Dolls" and that would've been much more accurate. The set started off very tentatively, as if they weren't sure if they should be doing this, and they inexplicably played a version of the ubiquitous Janis Joplin hit "Piece of My Heart" for no good reason. Yeessh! Luckily, though, the set really picked up from that point. It took Johansen & co a good 30-45 minutes to really get going and to find that old sloppy magic (part of the problem I had with the early part of the set was that though the songs were played well, they were played a bit too well and the feel just wasn't quite there), but once they did (on the great 1st album track "Trash"), the intensity level REALLY picked up and from then on, songs like "Personality Crisis", "Jet Boy" and the rousing closer "Human Being" really made it feel like you were at Max's Kansas City in 1973 if you closed your eyes. So overall, for almost $50 with Ticketmaster fees, I think they overcharged and I don't think I'd see this lineup again, but I'm glad I saw them play a full set at least once, as it's the closest thing to seeing the Dolls that one can get in this day and age.

The Trashcan Sinatras 4/22/05 Southpaw, 4/23/05 in-store at Sound Fix, 4/24/05 at Maxwells
Although I went to visit my parents on the 23rd for the 1st night of Passover, I managed to catch 2 of the 3 area Trashcan Sinatras show as well as the in-store on Saturday afternoon (right before I had to leave to go visit my parents). The Southpaw show was excellent as me and my friend Sue were situated right up front. It was great to see them with a full-band again after last December's acoustic tour (which was incredible, so don't get me wrong). They seemed much more comfortable and in control than they did back in September at Bowery Ballroom and watching lead singer Frank Reader jump around and "rock out" (for lack of a better way of stating his stage moves) was awesome. A healthy mixture of songs from all 4 of their albums was played, with the focus of course being on their most recent (and best) album Weightlifting, but stalwarts from A Happy Pocket (such as my personal favorite "The Genius I Was"), I've Seen Everything (a rare rendition of the uncharacteristically heavy but great "One at a Time" being one of the highlights of the set and a great set closer to boot) and their 1st album Cake (a great rendition of "Obscurity Knocks") were almost trotted out, as was the entirely unexpected B-side gem "Stainless Stephen". As an additional note, I was able to procure a poster for the Southpaw show and the next day, at the in-store at Sound Fix (a great record store in Williamsburg with welcome and uncharacteristically friendly employees more than eager to talk about music and ask questions and answer your questions and make recommendations and what not), I got 3 of the band members to sign it, which was cool. Anyway, during the in-store, it was the acoustic lineup which is basically all of the band members except for bassist Davy Hughes, who was nevertheless on-hand watching the set. The set was about 30 minutes and focused mostly on songs from Weightlifting, but it was nice to get a rendition of "How Can I Apply?" as well as "Only Tongue Can Tell" (if memory serves).

The next day, I arrived early for the Maxwells show to interview Frank for The Big Takeover, the great magazine that I write for. I was a bit nervous since I hadn't interviewed anyone in a really long time (like more than a decade or so and that was for an old fanzine that I used to do when I was in high school and in college) and because I'd only written show reviews and transcribed interviews for the magazine before and hadn't as of yet interviewed anyone. Luckily, Frank was nice, talkative, intelligent and generally a great interview. The format of the interview was unique as well. We walked around Hoboken, where I lived for 4 years until last July, and I showed him the site of Frank Sinatra's birth place as well as my old apartment building and the beautiful and recently renovated Hoboken waterfront (where you can see breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline; boy I really hope that they don't build that proposed hotel there since that would obscure part of that view) as we walked all over the town, with my (well actually Jack's) tape recorder in hand recording our conversation. To be honest, I haven't had a chance to transcribe the interview yet since the issue it'll be in won't be out until December or so, but I'm quite confident that I got a great interview out of Frank.

Anyway, onto the show. It was a similar set to the one on Friday night, though there were a few songs not played on Friday (and vice versa) such as "Only Tongue Can Tell". One of the highlights was Frank's awesome melodica playing on the Weightlifting's "Trouble Sleeping" (actually not one of my favorites on the record but boy was it improved live!) . Oh and thanks to Frank for getting me on the guest list (and for doing the interview) and as always, thanks to Mark for driving me and Herb back to the PATH station. I think you should start charging us cab fare or something since you're our personal after-show valet back to the PATH from Maxwells as of late. :-)

The Funniest Thing You'll Hear All Year

2005-05-04T01:38:00.000-05:00

This is where you can download and buy NWA's classic Straight Outta Compton album edited down to just the explicit content. Pure genius and hilarious as hell. Thanks Thierry!

A Minor Incident

2005-04-19T18:49:00.000-05:00

As I was waiting for the bus this morning, a strange woman who must have been in her 50s or 60s came up to me and asked me if I spoke English (I live in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood and as you can imagine, Spanish is the most prominent language spoken). Still barely awake and without caffeine or food, I said "yeah" not really wanting to talk to her but not wanting to be rude, either. She then proceeds to put her finger in her nose and asks me "what do you think this is?". I said, admittedly somewhat rudely, that it's "you picking your nose and me not particularly wanting to see it". She said "no, it's me speaking Spanish" in such a way that the word "speaking" was manipulated to sound like "picking" with an "s" before that. She then proceeded to ask me if it was funny after I didn't laugh. It wasn't that I thought it was racist or something like that. It just wasn't fucking funny. I said that it wasn't and that I was just being honest. She then accused me of having no sense of humor. Instead of telling her to fuck off, which is what I really wanted to do, I just said "you think" in a way that really meant "you're a fucking idiot".

All in all, I guess she either really wanted the attention really bad for some reason (maybe loneliness) or she's just nuts. It was just kind of weird since I don't normally have people crack bad jokes in front of me at 9:30 AM no less.

np (now playing): Little Milton "We're Gonna Make It"

The Art of Shooting (not what you think)

2005-04-18T00:07:00.000-05:00

After the Undertones show at Knitting Factory last night, I went to Williamsburg, where Goldstreets were playing a show in a recording studio with a bunch of other bands. Unfortunately, I got there too late to see them, but I got there just in time to see a fantastic band that they played with called The Art of Shooting. It's 2 women (one on guitar and one on bass; both of them sing, sometimes at each other at the same time) and 2 guys (including a fantastic drummer named Oliver who plays like Ikue Mori, formerly of DNA, meaning that he plays more like a guitarist than a drummer; he paints a canvas of sound instead of just merely keeping the beat).

When they came on, I was immediately impressed with their sound, which was reminscent of the new crop of experimental post-punk bands like Erase Errata or maybe even Ex-Models, though guitarist Kelley's vocals reminded me of Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney on occasion. Their secret weapon is their other guitarist, Ellis, who ensures that everything stays together when it threatens to fall apart. If you like post-punk skronk in the vein of the bands on the No Wave compilation or any of the bands I mentioned above, then you should definitely check them out.

Teenage Kicks So Hard to Beat

2005-04-17T23:45:00.000-05:00

The Undertones just played a 3 night stand here (well they're playing tonight at Southpaw) and I caught last night's Knitting Factory show as well as the show on Friday night at Maxwells, which was the opener of their current 2 week U.S. tour. I can't describe in words how much I love this band (they're one of my all-time favorites), but what I will say is this: if you're a fan (or if you like late '70s punk or power-pop and aren't familiar with them) and they come anywhere near you, go see them! Their tour dates are here.

I saw both Knitting Factory shows last year (they only did those 2 and a show in DC when they came here last year) and I can say that as great as those shows were, they're much improved this time around. First of all, they seem more comfortable with each other (new singer Paul McLoone was cracking smiles and jokes throughout both performances) and with their audience, which consequently seems more accepting of them. And luckily, though it was a treat to see people going nuts, dancing and pogoing (unlike many shows I go to, which consists of indie-rock kids folding their arms), there weren't too many slam-happy punk morons like there were last year (more so at Maxwells than last night at Knitting Factory). Of course, the songs from the 1st album (which they played almost the entirety of) garnered the strongest reaction, but as for me personally, I thought the strongest performances (other than the immortal "Teenage Kicks" and "Get Over You", their New York Dolls tribute, both of which just killed live) were of "Thrill Me" (from 2003's fantastic comeback album Get What You Need) and a much improved "Julie Ocean" and "When Saturday Comes" (both from 1981's fantastic and severly underrated watershed album Positive Touch, which was maligned at the time by fans for not being the simple, fun pop-punk of the first 2 albums, but rather a Squeeze-influenced, darker post-punk work) .

And man, were they loud! My ears rang the day after the Maxwells show since I was foolish enough not to wear earplugs for most of the set, though they feel better today since I learned my lesson and put my earplugs on last night during their set. The closest comparison is the MC5 (a huge influence on them, especially their last album High Time; just ask John O'Neill, guitarist and primary songwriter), with their 2-guitar attack producing a rush of feedback fettered through Marshall stacks. What a sweet sound that is when combined with their sugary-sweet melodies and lovelorn, innocent, wide-eyed lyrics.

And what's even more amazing about this, other than the fact that they're playing and touring and recording (supposedly 7 songs are already in the can for a new album; they've been playing one of them, "Here Comes the Rain", on this tour, and it sounds awesome) with a new singer, is that they're using a fill-in drummer on this tour (and he didn't miss a beat!). Billy Doherty, their regular drummer and an original member (like the rest of them except Paul McLoone, their new singer), accidentally fell off his bike and injured his hand (though guitarist Damian says that he's feeling better), so they had to hire a fill-in at the last moment. His name is Davy and he hails from Derry, which is in Northern Ireland (like the rest of The Undertones; they all still live in Derry as well except for Damian, who was stayed in London).

I got to meet them again last night after the show and once again, they proved to be as nice as you'd want a great and legendary band like them to be. Unfortunately, the club's staff kicked us all out of the backstage area last night way too soon since there was a late show (the much-buzzed about Magnolia Electric Co.) and the bands for the late show had to set up their stuff (we made them wait 2o minutes, though; ha!).

Laugh of the Day

2005-04-12T14:18:00.000-05:00

Check this out. Funny as that is (and I wonder who that hideous Steve Perry/John Waite wannabe is? Maybe Eric Martin, the singer from Mr. Big?), I prefer this "remix". Enjoy. I'm sure that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are giggling hysterically somewhere right about now. Oh and if it doesn't start playing right away, be patient. It takes time, especially the first link.

The Decemberists

2005-04-10T04:14:00.000-05:00

Their new album, Picaresque, is incredibly excellent (it's the best album I've heard all year thus far and maybe the best of the decade so far as well) and I've been listening to it more than anything else the last few weeks. I'm seeing them at Warsaw in Brooklyn next month and I absolutely can't wait. You can still get tickets for this show here. Their show at Irving Plaza on May 4th is already sold out, so if you wanna see them, I definitely recommend getting tickets. Oh and they're playing at NYU on April 28th, but I think you need an NYU ID for that one and they're notoriously stringent. Nevertheless, if you don't go to NYU and you wanna crash the party (or if you do go to NYU and you happen to be reading this), the pertinent info is here. And if you go here, you can download the excellent (and topical) video for "16 Military Wives". You'll need to know how to use Bit Torrent, though. All the instructions are explained, however. You can hear some mp3s here. All 3 of the songs they have on the site to preview are excellent including "The Engine Driver", my favorite song from their new one.

Gold Streets

2005-04-10T04:07:00.000-05:00

Gold Streets @ The Delancey 3/30/05
Playing their Death Disco debut, Gold Streets played what was in my view their best show ever so far. Luckily, they got a good draw this time and people seemed to be into it. They've really tightened up their sound as of late and the guy working the sound was terrific and they sounded so much better than they did the last couple of times that I saw them (at Pianos and then playing with The Magic Numbers at Sin-E). They're recording an ep this weekend in Brooklyn. I'm sure that it'll far surpass their demo and better represent what they sound like live and how far they've come in just a few short months. They're playing another show on Thursday night the 14th at Luna Lounge. It's free so you all have no excuse not to go! Come on down! E-mail me for details.

I Predict a Riot!

2005-04-10T03:50:00.000-05:00

The Kaiser Chiefs @ Maxwells 3/29/05
After a very long wait, The Kaiser Chiefs finally took the stage at about 10:45 PM or so and absolutely kicked ass. Their singer, Ricky Wilson (that name always reminds me of the guitarist from The B52s who died in the mid '80s), moves like a maniac (and with a bad leg, too!), at various instances going into the audience and jumping around maniacally on the tiny stage. And what a unique-looking band, too. Ricky had a lime green suit, an ascot, and a quasi-Flock of Seagulls (i.e. Mike Score) type haircut whereas their bass player looked like Zander Schloss (the bass player for The Circle Jerks and The Weirdos; he looks like a cross between Sideshow Bob on the Simpsons and I don't know, Rob Tyner from The MC5 with his huge white afro), their drummer was dressed like Alex from the movie version of A Clockwork Orange, complete with hats, braces (suspenders) and a white shirt and their keyboard player Peanut looked like someone from Madness or The Specials in the early '80s with his rude boy outfit complete with pork-pie hat.

Anyway, looks aside, they blazed through most of the songs on their excellent debut album Employment as well as the B-side "Take My Temperature". They'll be back in July at Webster Hall and I'll be there (just got my ticket a few days ago)!

Code Blue/Gentleification Now!

2005-04-10T03:31:00.000-05:00

TSOL @ CBGB's and The Smittens @ The Delancey 4/1/05
Well the night started off at The Delancey where my friend Colin Clary's indie-pop band The Smittens were doing their thing. I'd only seen them one previous time, back in November 2003 at Luna Lounge, and they've improved tremendously and gotten a lot tighter since then. They're working on a new album that'll be out in June. As for what they sound like, if cutesy, Beat Happening-influenced early '90s indie-rock is your thing, then The Smittens are definitely for you. Think Small Factory, Eggs (they cover one of their songs) or hell, anything from the Simple Machines or Sarah Records rosters and you're pretty much there.

Now, luckily, The Smittens played rather early, giving me an opportunity to catch legendary gothic punk band TSOL, who were playing a rare NYC show (the last time they played here was back in September 2001). Although I almost didn't wanna go because CB's sucks and what not, I reasoned that TSOL doesn't come around too often and since I'd never seen them, I wanted to rectify that situation. TSOL, despite playing a stellar set mostly consisting of material from their 1st ep and their great debut Lp, 1981's Dance with Me, utterly disappointed me by only doing 1 song from the great 2nd Lp, 1982's Beneath the Shadows, and by generally playing their songs faster than they needed to be and concentrating on their faster, thrashier material (as opposed to the moodier, gothic stuff on Beneath the Shadows and its unjustly overlooked follow-up, 1984's Change Today), thus appeasing the small-minded, mostly young hardcore punk kids in the audience who can only appreciate one part of this great band's legacy. A highlight, however, was when they played The Damned's "Politics" and dedicated it to my friend Jack Rabid, who was in the audience. After the show, I briefly got to meet Jack Grisham (TSOL's singer) and heard him tell a funny story about running for California governor in the recall election of 2003 that Arnold Schwarzenegger (sigh) ended up winning.