Showing posts with label concerts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concerts. Show all posts

Thursday, December 31, 2009

YEAR END LISTS part two: Best Shows Of The Year

1. BLOODSHOT BBQ with WACO BROTHERS (best live band ever), SILOS, Rosie Flores, etc. @ The Sail Inn in Tempe, AZ
2. Vic Chesnutt & Elf Power @ 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA
3. Jay Reatard @ AMB in Mobile, AL
4. Music Tapes & Nana Grizol @ The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY
5. Rhett Miller @ Wine Loft in Mobile, AL
6. Cats On Fire & Liechtenstein during NY POPFEST @ Don Hill's in NY, NY
7. Heartless Bastards & Jenny Lewis @ AMB in Mobile, AL
8. Pine Hill Haints @ AMB in Mobile, AL
9. Blue Mountain @ Moe's in Daphne, AL
10. My Teenage Stride & Folklore & Still Flyin' @ Cake Shop in NY, NY
11. Those Darlins @ Modified in Phoenix, AZ
12. Starlight Mints @ AMB in Mobile, AL
13. The Metric Mile & The Ballet & MTS & Knight School during NY POPFEST @ Cake Shop in NY, NY
14. Camera Obscura @ The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY
15. Pants Yell! @ Dead Herring in Brooklyn, NY

Sunday, November 1, 2009

i went to PHX, AZ

Funny the cat






Feelies, The New Yorker, brogues


ate breakfast at the famous & delicious Over Easy

shopped at Stinkweeds where i purchased: Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures on vinyl & Robyn Hitchcock's Respect, The The's Infected, Jesus & Mary Chain singles collection, & Superchunk's new EP Leaves In The Gutter on cd.

iced coffee from LUX


went to a wine/beer/sweet-tea-vodka tasting where we bought some Dogfish Head Punkin Ale...


...and to a bar that had PBR on the bathroom door


went to the Heard Museum






rode the Light Rail




saw Those Darlins, who are on the fantastically named Oh Wow Dang Records


and best of all was the Bloodshot Records BBQ, which ended up being one of the greatest things ever. saw The Silos & talked to the wonderful Walter Salas-Humara about my favorite band ever, Vulgar Boatmen, saw the Waco Brothers, who are MINDBLOWING live, & met Jon Langford (from Wacos & MEKONSSS). also saw Exene Cervanka from X and other good people & met/hung out with lots of super dudes.

"RESERVED"


The Silos




Jon Langford playing with Rosie Flores


WACO BROS


their rendition of George Jones' "White Lightning" was FREAKING INSANEly amazing.


Jon is my new BFF. also note my dad's sweet Pavement t.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

End of the Year Lists: Part Three!

i saw SO SO MANY terrific shows this year, so it's really hard to cull them down into a concise list, but i've never been known for being concise, so here's my Top 20-ish Shows of 2008:

1. The Pogues & Billy Bragg in NYC
2. Justin Townes Earle in Mobile
3. King Khan & The Shrines in Phoenix
4. Circulatory System @ Athens Popfest
5. Elephant 6 extravaganza in NYC
6. Crystal Stilts & Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ Bard College (my show, i rule)
7. The Feelies & Shrubs in Brooklyn
8. Jay Reatard & Women in Brooklyn (i broke my finger at this show, i kind of rule again)
9. Old 97's in New Orleans
10. My Teenage Stride @ Athens Popfest
11. Okkervil River in NYC
12. Old 97's in Mobile
13. Fat Planet @ Athens Popfest
14. Robert Forster in NYC
15. Jay Reatard @ the Matador offices
16. Dressy Bessy in Brooklyn
17. Meat Puppets in Flagstaff, AZ
18. Elf Power @ Athens Popfest
19. Dean & Britta in NYC
20. (BIG TIE) Deerhunter in Brooklyn/ King Khan & BBQ in Brooklyn/ Marshall Crenshaw @ a middle school fundraiser in a church in Rhinebeck, NY (!!)/ Bunnygrunt @ New England Popfest

Sunday, October 26, 2008

lots 'o' things

1. FIRST OF ALL, MUSIC.

a. lately i've been listening to The Soft Boys, The Silos, R.E.M.'s Murmur, Jay Reatard, Sonic Youth, and one night recently Brian Eno's Another Green World was played by me & a special someone over & over again throughout the night. but more than anything else, i've been WAY into PAVEMENT lately. especially Wowee Zowee, which was the only one of their albums i hadn't played a ton over the years. but i've made up for it in the past few weeks, as that album is on constant repeat.
here is their video for "Rattled by the Rush":



b. Elliott Smith is the only person who could make Big Star's "Thirteen," the most achingly beautiful song ever, even more beautiful.
this is from Lucky Three, a film E.S. was in:



c. the day after my birthday, the magnificent Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour came to NYC. it was quite a spectacle. the crowd was rabid & the place was completely packed. i had the great honor of watching most of the show from backstage, while i rubbed elbows with some of the biggest indie rock icons of the past 2 decades. they are some of the coolest, most creative, sweetest, most genuine and talented people anywhere in the world. it was the best birthday present ever.



i was also left with an old, hole-y, AMAZING e6 t-shirt at the end of that long night (that actually never ended, because we never went to sleep). a few days later i also got an old, AMAZING Athens, Ga t-shirt from my friend for my birthday. how 'bout that.


2. This past weekend was CMJ in the city & lots of crazy/drunken/amazingly fun things went on.

a. on Thursday night, i went to see Mission of Burma.

b. on Friday during the day, Jay Reatard came to the Matador offices & played a few songs as everyone in the office stopped what they were doing and huddled around to watch. it was like a mini-concert in the middle of the workday. pretty amazing. Jay's Matador Singles '08 is one of my favorite albums of the year.
here he & his band do an awesome cover of an old Go-Betweens (!!) tune:



c. on Friday night, E came in to town. we made gin & tonics and went to Gowanus. we wanted to see Crystal Stilts, but arrived too late because apparently in New York City shows actually start on time. SHEESH. so we saw Ladybug Transistor who the man at the door referred to as "Ladybirds." from there, we headed to Manhattan. along the way, we ran into my subway pal from my hometown as well as a busker on the subway who, despite his designer glasses that i complimented him on and his fancy 12-string guitar that he let me play, asked us for a "donation" after he played us 2 beatles tunes. i hate when people sing to me. but this dude was pretty hysterical. we parted ways with our new friend and went to the Matador afterparty in the Lower East Side. drank some free Stellas, had enthusiastic interactions with people who usually never talk to me at work, admired the Halloween decorations, and got out of there around 3 am.

d. on Saturday night, M came over to Greenpoint and he and E and i had some beers & maybe a shot of vodka or two.



it was rainy, so E & i took a cab to Williamsburg for that night's show. Women played first. they were a delightful surprise. really really good stuff. they are from Canada i think.



the venue was supercool and there were crazy Alice In Wonderland videos being played on the walls and we drank Colt 45's and just had a blast. after a few pretty dreadful acts, it was once again time for JAY REATARD. it was SUCH a fun show. superfast songs, high energy from the band and the crowd, singing along and going crazy, those luscious long flowing curls of his.
this way FAR OUT photo was taken by E:



e. oh, but towards the end of Jay's set, a few members of the crowd were getting a bit unruly, and some dude slammed into me and knocked me down, as i was stood at the front of the stage. now i've got a GIGANTIC black and blue bruise on my thigh & what i think is a broken finger:



i'm pretty badass, i guess.


3. i've fallen in love with Brooklyn lately.

a. the other night, after the Mission of Burma show, all by my lonesome, kind of late at night, i took the long way home. i walked 20 minutes down Bedford back to Greenpoint. it was just elating. it was a beautiful night, people were out but it was quiet, the park was on the right, old Polish churches all around.

b. i was also eating a slice of broccoli pizza from a pizzeria right by the Bedford L stop on this walk home. it was one of the best slices i've ever had. i got another after the Jay Reatard show, with E, before we made the late night walk home for our second night of going to bed at 6 am.
tasty:






4. ELECTION DAY, SCARY!

a. also on our walk home from Williamsburg after Jay Reatard, we saw THIS:



it was pretty amazing. it looked so beautiful. perhaps all those Colt 45's were making me overly emotional, but it was really inspiring, kinda got me all misty-eyed. well not really, but almost.

b. my dad pointed me to this hilarious/lovely essay written by the one & only Larry David.
read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-david/waiting-for-nov-4th_b_137029.html

c. i've never been a big SNL fan, but i've been really enjoying all their election sketches. that Tina Fey sure is terrific. the dudes who play McCain and Obama are great too. they make me laugh out loud.

d. semi-related, i've also been reading The Onion a lot and it CRACKS ME UP. especially uproarious are news items entitled "First Openly Gay Racehorse To Compete Sunday" & "John McCain Accidentally Left On Campaign Bus Overnight" and "'I Am Under 18' Button Clicked For First Time In History of Internet." HI-LARIOUS!






Thursday, December 6, 2007

The Clean.

Lots of great things are from New Zealand. Like: The #1 top person in the world Dean Wareham, those cute little Kiwi birds, The Chills, The Flight of the Conchords, and... The Clean. If I was a band, I would be The Clean. They are just my ideal band. They are everything music should be. Lo-fi, minimal, poppy, melodic, fun, and they write songs about cats. They recently played a 3 night stint at the Cake Shop in NYC's lower east side. After the first show, I got a cupcake. After the 2nd show, I had some beers. I didn't make it to their 3rd show. Tempting, but instead I took the train back to school and sat under my covers watching Queer As Folk.

Anyway, The Clean are amazing. They played "Whatever I Do It's Right," Hamish sang it, he is my favorite Clean and that song is the greatest song ever.


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See Hamish playing drums? He is the best. This photo was taken by my friend Andrew Gardner who is an excellent photographer!

I went to see The Clean with my dad. A friend of his was there- they know each other because they both belong to a Guided By Voices zealot mailing list and they have met a few times before at GBV-related events. Reporting back to the mailing list about the weekend's Clean festivities, the friend wrote that it was great hanging out with my dad at the shows, and with his "cool daughter." He then told all the people on the list with babies to take notes from him, apparently because he raised such a great person. Yes, I am pretty great...