October 10, 2007
Skeleton Ed, the reunion tour. ::
music — tagged friends, minneapolis and music
9:36 am
One show only, at the Seventh Street Entry in Minneapolis. Sorry I missed this.
Concert-going creating potential border security problem? ::
legal — tagged civil liberties, legal, music and travel
9:29 am
Brian over at False 45th has a nice review of The National’s recent show up in Montreal. I’m sorry I missed it, and having seen The National at last year’s Pitchfork festival, I understand, at least partially, what I was missing out on. But, unrelated to the show itself is Brian’s increasingly tense and interrogatory interactions with the border guards:
One last note, I think the border agents are becoming increasingly suspicious of my brief three-hour trips to Montreal. The questions are getting more and more detailed and are being asked with an increasingly surly tone. On the way in, I was asked what I did for a living, what company I work for and where they were located. Then the agent quickly mixed in, “Do you have $10,000 in the car?” On the way back, the border agent asked me where the concert was, what street the club was located on, what were the cross streets and what roads I took to get to and from the club.
Brian’s story implies that US Immigration maintains a database of each citizen’s border crossing activities. It’s probably keyed by the the car’s license plate. The government’s doing this is probably not a problem on its own, though it does raise a civil libertarian flag—mostly because it suggests that although border guards are able to collect extensive information on when and how often a person crosses the US border, that by itself isn’t enough to warrant increased suspicion, and potentially raises a lot of false positives. To my mind, making brief trips to Canada every month or so does seem a little out of the ordinary, but on its own I’m not the sort of behavior that suggests nefarious activity. Yet the increased suspicion of the border guard, implied by his pressing questions, seem to suggest that such border-crossing jaunts are treated like that. Yet, Brian’s activity is really very ambiguous, and has a completely innocent explanation. If the guards had a little more information, they’d know that.
September 5, 2007
!: more music ::
music — tagged fall, indie rock, mixes and music
11:15 am
So, another music list. It’s been a pretty music-intensive summer for me, and the end result has been a nice expansion of my music collection. With that, a few notes on the list below. First, there has been a lot of interesting electronica coming out this year, and the minimalist sounds of The Field’s From Here We Go Sublime has been some of the best of that crop of music. In the more familiar genres, Band of Horses’s “Is There A Ghost” totally rocks; my palms sweat a little when I think about the release of their new album in a month. You can hear the new track yourself on the band’s MySpace page. “Sun A.M.” mysteriously showed up on my iPod a few months ago and its catchy Swedish pop melody has worked its way into my heart. And finally, no mix of mine would be complete without some song from Spoon.
Oh, and the exclamation point title doesn’t have that much meaning. I just found it floated the song list to the top of my iTunes playlists.
- Race:in; Battles
- North American Scum; LCD Soundsystem
- She’s the One; Caribou
- A Paw In My Face; The Field
- Harnessed in Slums; Archers of Loaf
- I Turn My Camera On; Spoon
- Unless It’s Kicks; Okkervil River
- Ghostship; Menomena
- Your Asterisk; Halo Benders
- Camron’s New Color (Pt. 3); Professor Murder
- Take What You Take; Lily Allen
- New Girl; The Long Winters
- Last American Virgin; Oxford Collapse
- Carne Levare; The New Year
Asleep At The Wheel; Working for a Nuclear Free City - Is There A Ghost; Band of Horses
- Sun A.M.; Moonbabies
August 31, 2007
Distance: a song list ::
music — tagged indie rock, mixes, music and summer
6:58 am
I need to get back into posting more regularly. So with that being a priority, here’s a song list we’ve been listening to this summer, entitled Distance. Sorry, no commentary on the individual tracks, which I know I’ve set something of a precedent for doing; I thought it more important just to get this post out the door. Ok, I need to continue looking for work.
- Detects On My Affection; Peter Bjorn And John
- We’re Not Alone; Dinosaur Jr.
- Live Until I Die; Ass Ponys
- Soft & Warm; Voxtrot
- Thirteen; Big Star
- Your Favorite Thing; Sugar
- Lying In State; Superchunk
- Queen Of Cans And Jars; Guided By Voices
- Cold Days From The Birdhouse; The Twilight Sad
- Happy; The Rolling Stones
- The Start Of Something; Voxtrot
- Looking For Astronauts; The National
- Books Written For Girls; Camera Obscura
- Glad And Sorry; The Faces
- O2; Sleater Kinney
- Polar Opposites; Modest Mouse
- Anything You Want; Spoon
- Cedric’s War; The Besnard Lakes
December 24, 2006
Healing: A song list ::
music — tagged broken leg, buffalo, family, indie rock, music, personal and travel
12:13 pm
So I’m back in Buffalo for Christmas. The trip here was exhausting. After an eight hour car ride I tumbled from my dad’s car with a stiff leg feeling very, very cranky. My time here overall has been fun, and it’s been nice to show family members that, even though I’m still on crutches and have still-unhealed surgery scars, my condition has improved dramatically from the day I was discharged from the hospital. Also, it’s been fun to show off my x-rays and watch people squirm when I point out the fracture that starts from my hip and spirals around my femur.
So, with introductions aside, I put this mix together a couple of weeks ago while in the hospital, high on Percocet. I’m pretty happy with the sound of this one, much moreso than Winterish or the Fall mix. In part the outcome is the result of my immobility at the time, which allowed me the concentration and time it takes to make a good mix. But also, I think it’s an indication that drugs and rock and roll really do go together quite well.
Halloween by Matt Pond PA: Is it un-hip for an indie rock snob to actually like Matt Pond PA? No matter what the critics might say about the band’s artistic shortcomings, I fell for this song long before it would have otherwise been tainted by other’s opinions. And it’s dramatic lyrics, combined with the piano, acoustic guitar, and pedal steel make for a really seductive sound.
Pushover by The Long Winters: I first found this song over the summer, through a Music for Robots post. Since then the track has appeared and reappeared on a variety of playlists and mix CD’s I’ve put together. I finally picked up the CD at Amoeba Records when I was in SF in August.
Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby by The Islands: “Bones, bones, brittle little bones,” go the opening lyrics of this track. When I first added it to the list, I didn’t even think about how apropos to my condition the song actually was—I was thinking more about just how pretty the song is. But boy, does this one fit perfectly.
The End’s Not Near by Band of Horses: Band of Horses covering a song by The New Year for the OC Soundtrack. I really don’t know that much about The OC, but the track is really great—it’s an interesting reinterpretation of the original version of the song, in which the band makes the song their own.
Steps and Numbers by Appleseed Cast: They’re such a curious band, which moved from a straight ahead (and pretty annoying) Midwestern emo outfit to a post-rock band with a melodic, unique sound. So far, Low Level Owl has been the high point of their sound for me, but I also haven’t heard any of their most recent releases. But that’s on my to-do list, definitely.
Sukie in the Graveyard by Belle and Sebastian: I don’t love the album, but I do love this song. It does a great job of snapping the mix back into line after the more airy, nebulous sound of the previous track.
Hard Bargain by Ron Sexsmith: Ah, the underappreciated Ron Sexsmith. This is a great track that emotes a feeling of being beat up but willing to come back the next day for more.
Song for the Myla Goldberg by The Decemberists: This is the first song I heard by the Decemberists, and it’s the one that caused me to really fall for the band. But it’s never made it onto any of my mixes. So now’s as a good a time as any to finally add it to my song list. And the lyrics, especially the tongue-twister “I know New York, I need New York I know I need unique New York” always makes me smile, especially when I sing along and get it right.
This is the Way by Devendra Banhart: An interesting song in which Devendra sings about his physical self. One thing about this broken leg, as well as the healing process, is how aware of my physical self I have become during this time. With that in mind, the track works really well here.
Radio Campaign by M. Ward: Hey, I’ve been into M. Ward since August, and I think I’ve had one of his tracks on each of my mixes since then. So here’s another one. Here he pleads, “come back, come back my little peice of mind…” As I sit here, leg aching and knowing that I couldn’t get up to visit friends, get food, or go to the bathroom without a big production, I really know how he feels.
Paper Thin Walls by Modest Mouse: after the more intellectual, introspective stretch of tracks, I needed something to change the tone a bit. I found this song on a whim and thought it was perfect. Do you remember when the Moon and Antarctica came out in, what, 2000? And do you remember how new and exciting the track was? I sure do, now that I’ve heard this song. Now the album is back in my iTunes rotation.
A King And A Queen by Okkervil River: There’s an element of melodrama to all of Okkervil River’s music, and it provides me with a feeling of catharsis every time I hear it. This slow, acoustic number is a perfect example. Did I mention that my roommate went to high school with the lead singer? I’m totally serious!
Sleeping In by The Postal Service: One thing I like about the Postal Service is the sense of calm the songs seem to bring in the face of apocalyptically bad news. This song is a perfect example: here the singer dreams that global warming was simply a reward for humans being so good to each other. “No we can swim every day in November,” the verse concludes. It’s definitely not something I’d want to maintain in my entire life, but while I’m healing it makes me feel just a little bit better.
Throwing Things (Acoustic) by Superchunk: I pulled this track off of Superchunk’s Incidental Music, a compilation of the band’s singles and b-sides from the early 1990’s. This is a wonderful acoustic rendition of the electric original, and can make me weep if I hear it at the right time.
Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans: this is probably John Samson at his most melodic and fun. This great sing-along tune can help me see the bright side of just about any dismal situation.
The Ballad of Daykitty by Lou Barlow: Lou Barlow is so strange—his music can range from exploring the deepest, darkest emotions to just having fun. This track, which closes out Barlow’s Emoh release, is an example of his later line of songs, in which he sings of a cat who, after much flirtation, decides to come and live with him.
December 3, 2006
Winterish: a song list ::
music — tagged favorites, indie rock, mixes and music
8:56 pm
I was out riding today and noticed, along with the conspicuous lack of snow, the significant number of Japanese SUV’s ferrying around Christmas trees. ‘Tis the weekend for at least one holiday purchase, I suppose. And with that image ingrained in your head, here’s decidedly non-Christmas-themed song list for your December enjoyment:
Gamera by Tortoise: The first track of the Lazarus Taxon rarities compilation. As a general principle I have very little tolerance for extended songs, but it’s worth paying attention to every moment of this 12-minute track. Starting with a single acoustic guitar and moving gradually into a driving post-rock crescendo, the song will get me to stop everything I’m doing to listen.
Mr. Tough by Yo La Tengo: This song’s instrumentals recall Moondance-era Van Morrison for me, and represent (I think) a new sound for the band. It’s catchy, groovy, but still has much of the same sound that has defined the band over its 20-year career.
7/4 (Shoreline) by Broken Social Scene: It’s taken a year and a half for me to finally start getting into Broken Social Scene’s second album. But I’ve always liked this song. It’s fast-paced, intensely orchestrated, and has an excellent horns section that ties it all together.
Goodbye by Asobi Seksu: In my humble opinion, I think Asobi Seksu should win a best new band award from someone for their 2006 release. It’s been one of my favorites of the year, to be sure. I threw this particular track on there because it reminded me of the insufferably hot weather of late July and early August
Loser City by Oxford Collapse: I stand by the assertion I made on an indie music mailing list that Oxford Collapse’s latest album exudes the “easy confidence of a three beer buzz.” This song, with lots of guitars and shouting, exemplifies exactly that sound. It’s a great song to have stuck in your head when your biking through traffic in downtown Montpelier.
Leap Year by +/-: I saw these guys open for the Wrens and was blown away—their songs have a great combination of heavy fuzz and chiming guitars that can really emote at times. This song wells up like heartbreak.
Each Coming Night by Iron & Wine: Over the past three years I’ve grown to appreciate the emotional honesty of folk musicians that are beginning to make up a larger portion of American Indie Rock catalogs. Iron & Wine was my first introduction to this sound, and continues to be the a central figure in that indie folk movement. A part of you might cry, just a little, each time you hear this song.
Something by Sam Prekop: Post-rock at its best. I remember hearing this song for the first time on the Murderball soundtrack, and have been looking for the right mix for it. So here it is. I feel hopeful every time I hear this one.
Rainbow by Snowlgobe: Things are starting to get sad now. Snowglobe has an interesting sound that calls up the sad underside of psychedelia, and this song exemplifies what they’re all about.
All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands by Sufjan Stevens: I was reminded of how good this album was when I was watching Weeds over Thanksgiving and this song closed out one episode. (Speaking of Weeds, I really enjoy the show—not so much because I find the weird suburban pothead culture entertaining, but because the main character is such a real person. The death of her husband, and the emotional loss that makes up a large part of her emotional landscape, really gives a sad texture to the whole show.)
Greycoated Morning by David and the Citizens: This song has been kicking around my song lists since it showed up on one of my podcasts over the summer. It’s one of those great indie pop tunes that sounds happy but probably has some of the saddest lyrics of any song published this year.
Beauty by The Shivers: I’d never heard of The Shivers before downloading this track, which I’d heard about through Pitchfork’s (quite stellar review). Although I, like any other indie rock hipster, do my best to distinguish my music tastes from those of the Pitchfork editorial staff, I have to give them credit when they found a winner. If you’ve ever longed for someone so badly it hurt, this song, with its echoing, solemn guitars and composed yet deathly sad lead singer, will resonate with you, too.
Future Women by The M’s: The track for which the M’s latest foray into guitar-driven glam-pop was named. It was an easy way to close out a track list that was maybe getting just a little bit too serious.
October 18, 2006
Fall Song List ::
music — tagged fall, favorites, indie rock, mixes, mixtapes, music and songlists
8:26 am
- Goin’ Against Your Mind, by Built to Spill: When I first heard this track on Built to Spill’s 2006 release You in Reverse I thought, hey these guys are back to their old form. Alas, the rest of the album is a little flat, so in the end I was disappointed. But it’s no matter, because this 8 minute track is stellar—a fast tempo and lots of different instruments going in different directions but still held in a cohesive whole. Plus Doug Marsh’s guitars always sound so solitary and haunting.
- Stuck Between Stations, by The Hold Steady: They’re one of the few bands I can think of whose albums have progressively, consistently gotten better over the past two years. This track particularly caught my attention because of the John Berryman reference (of course it makes sense, since he was a Twin Cities native). Craig Finn sings of Berryman’s suicide, and tells a story of Berryman’s conversation with the devil before jumping off the Washington Bridge. It’s a really great intellectual reference in the middle of a truly great indie rock anthem.
- Black Cab, by Jens Lekman: with two rocking tracks to start out, I thought I’d change up the tone a bit with Jens Lekman. I loved “Black Cab” when I first heard it sometime last year, and I’ve been looking for the right mix for it. So here it is. What is it that makes Jens’ music so great? It’s the underlying R&B sounds, of course!
- Ankle Injuries, by Fujiya and Miyagi: Not sure what it is, but electronica always follows well after Jens (see my previous mix). I picked up a couple of these guys’ tracks after reading a positive Pitchfork review of their album. Very simple melody laid over a nice, driving beat, with one of the musicians chanting, “Fujiya, Miyagi, Fujiya, Miyagi” over and over again. It’s a study in minimalism, I suppose, and it really works.
- Playhouses, by TV On The Radio: Oh, man, this song is great. It works well as a first track, or a great transition to get things moving again in the mix after slowing things up for a track or two. And as the song descends into its closing fuzz, the band sings with one of the most exhilirating cadences I’ve heard all year.
- I Feel Like Going Home, by Yo La Tengo: What a great album Yo La Tengo has come out with this year. I was a bit worried about them after they released Summer Sun (had they lost it?) but this one comes out and they’re back in full form. Here’s an exquisit, sad song with a solemn piano, female vocals and not much else. It gives me chills just thinking about it.
- Emergency, by Wilderness: This indie rock band from Baltimore was one of my great discoveries of the summer. The underlying music harkens back to Interpol, but the decidedly non-melodic chanting of the lead singer totally wrecks any meaningful reference to that band, or any larger school of music to which it might belong. The result is a sound that is at the same time familiar yet completely their own.
- Underneath the Waves, by The Twilight Singers: When I was a teenager, The Afghan Whigs were one of my agnst bands. Now the Twilight Singers come along, and while they use the same formula—that is, tight verses combined with really strong choruses—and create a sound that is similarly cathartic but a little more restrained. So it produces the same emotional reaction, but appeals to my more adult sensibilities.
- St. Rosa and the Swallows, by The Thermals: See my previous post on The Thermals and you’ll see why I put one of their tracks here. How could I not include them?
- Favours for Favours, by The Futureheads: I always liked these guys, but I fell in love with them at Pitchfork. This song, off their 2006 release, particularly caught my attention because of its subjectmatter—trying to get some gal’s attention. It’s a theme that has been all but completely played out in indie rock, but with their sense of melody and optimism, The Futureheads are able new and exciting.
- Eyed Eyes Eye, by Conner: They’re a young band out of Lawrence, Kansas. And they have a punk-rock sound tinged with traditional rock and roll sensibilities. There’s something very Exile-on-Mainstreet-esque about this track, and about their album generally. Although the song by no means reaches the heights of Exile, the band nonetheless has a lot of potential for indie rock greatness, and I think that comes through with this hard-driving little rocker.
- Requiem, by M. Ward: A touching in-memoriam of a truly great person who may or may not have actually existed. Whether or not he did, I feel bad that I never had an opportunity to meet the man to whom this song is dedicated. M. Ward has the unique ability to sing songs that really make you feel what he’s talking about. He’s a lot like Tom Waits in that regard, though Ward is a bit more melodic about it.
- Pancho, by Tortoise (featuring Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy): Tortoise and BPB got together and produced an album of unrecognizeable cover songs that overall was pretty eh. But this song is really great—there’s lots of opportunities for irony and sarcastic commentary, but Will Oldham sings it with the upmost sincerity.
- Sons and Daughters, by The Decemberists: I’ve been warming up to the Decemberists’ latest over the past few weeks. When I first heard it, I thought it sounded a bit too, I don’t know, Steely Dan? But now I realize that it’s more like the band is reaching for a newer, heightened form of their sound. I can’t fault them for that, definitely. And this song, which is the album’s last track, calls to mind the underlying optimism of wanting to escape from your life—not because you want to run away from what you have, but because you want something better.
- You Gotta Feel It, by Spoon: Where did this song come from? I’ve had Kill the Moonlight since it came out in 2002, but I didn’t notice how great this song was until just recently. Great horns section, plus a really catchy, minimalist piano line that comes in sometime in the second verse. And at just about a minute and a half, it’s a perfect closer.
October 13, 2006
Jesus Christ made Seattle under protest ::
music — tagged kexp, mnemonics, music, seattle and the mellors
11:08 am
By way of the KEXP song of the day podcast comes the song Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest by the Mellors. For anyone who’s spent any time in Seattle, this mnemonic has a special meaning, referring to the 12 East-West roads that lead from the city to the Puget Sound. Starting from the South and moving North, those streets are: Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike and Pine (Google map, with Jefferson starting just North of Yesler Way). It’s funny, I hadn’t thought of that fun little memory device for quite some time, until I saw the song downloading this morning. I suddenly recalled my many Seattle experiences between December, 2001 and August, 2003, and for a moment there I really longed for that city.
October 12, 2006
The Thermals: The Body, the Blood, the Machine ::
music — tagged indie rock, music, politics, post punk, subpop and the thermals
4:07 pm
There’s a certain point at which I listen to an album enough and it goes from being something I just generically sort of enjoy to something something more distinguished and profound. It’s at that point I realize that I’ve liked this album not because of some catchy hook or some set of impassioned screaming, but because I’m somehow connected to the music they’re playing on a more fundamental level.
This happened today. On their new album The Body, the Blood, the Machine, The Thermals speak to me (or scream at me) in a way that I’ve been wanting a band to for a few years now. Part political commentary, part impassioned (though oblique) love story, the songs never drift too far into one subject or the other, but rather stick right in between the two, both sides pulling against them and adding even more to the tension. The end result is a set of ten songs emblazoned in my mind, which I find myself thinking about—or outright singing—at any given time during the day. (Yeah, you can picture me biking through Montpelier singing “A Pillar of Salt” to myself.)
Part of it, I am sure, is that I’ve been through a set of pretty substantial changes since I bought this album. I picked it up on the day it was released from New World Record, the hipster record store up the street from my parents’ house in Buffalo. I had to harass the clerk to dig the album out of Sub Pop’s box, he had yet to even enter the disc into the store’s database by the time I’d bought it. From there the CD when right into my car’s player, where it’s been ever since. It’s become one of the few albums I’ll listen to straight through, the volume creeping up from medium-loud to close-to-deafening by closing feedback of the last track. All the while I’m listening I’ll think about having graduated from law school (thus losing the structure on which I’d come to depend for the past three years), having taken the bar, having passed the bar, having moved my life up to Montpelier, and generally feeling somewhat confused at how my life could simultaneously have so much direction yet at the same time no direction at all. All of this is happening in a political year, with an increasingly unpopular President focussed on a painfully unpopular and wrong-headed war, with the economy flatlining and building tensions in throughout the Middle East and now in North Korea. Meanwhile all of our elected leaders seem to want to ignore these problems and protect themselves. The outrage at this injustice is palpable. It’s that strange contrast of personal emotion and political awareness that I think first attracted me to this album and has, I now confess, made me fall in love with it.
In any event, I can say in retrospect why I love this album, but it’s impossible for me to predict which bands are going to be a taste-of-the-month and which ones are really going to endure. If I knew what it was about these albums that gives them such staying power, I would probably be much better at selecting music I know I would actually like over the long term, and would likely save a lot of money. But then, if the system were more predictable it wouldn’t be music or art that I was immersing myself in—it would be science or law or something else that would be a lot more boring and much less meaningful.
October 6, 2006
Post Punk Rock Show, 1990 ::
photos — tagged 1990s, milwaukee, music, narrative, photos and the unicorn
8:20 pm
Post Punk Rock Show, 1990
Originally uploaded by Quicksand2005.
I don’t know anyone in this shot, but I do know where it was taken. It was the parking lot of the Unicorn, one of the coolest punk clubs in Milwaukee in the early 1990’s. As I mention in the photo’s comments, I grew up going to shows there.
What’s funny is that those shows seem like such a long time ago—it’s almost like I dreamed them. So it’s good to know there are other people out there who shared the experience, even if I don’t know them.
October 5, 2006
Music reviews: Pointing out the obvious ::
music — tagged daytrotter, music, pitchfork, reviews and thekillers
11:03 am
First, Pitchfork leads its review of the Killers’ new album by noting the band has altered its sound “from the Cure and 1980s UK new wave to Bruce Springsteen and 1970s earnest U.S. classic rock.” Then Daytrotter asks (in its headline no less), “Who Are All These People Saying This Album Sounds Like The Boss?” Does this mean that the two reviews cancel each other out and I don’t have to read either of them?
September 24, 2006
Weekend round-up ::
personal — tagged canada, funny, montreal, music, travel and vermont
12:13 pm
Well, quite a bit has happened since the last time I posted about passing the Vermont Bar Exam. (Yes, by the way, I mention it again because I’m still so psyched about passing.) Mostly my life has involved not having enough time during the day and not getting enough sleep at night. But I’ve been reading a lot, keeping up with things online, hanging out with friends, and travelling. So all in all, the fact that I’m exhausted really isn’t that big of a deal—I’ll be sure to get some sleep sometime soon.
So on Friday evening one of my roommates comes home with a friend of his from high school. They were planning on going out to eat, I asked to join them. We decided on this local Indian place, which is attached to the lobby of this hotel just south of town on Route 12. So it’s kind of an innately surreal place to begin with. We get there and I find that it’s one of those places run by an Indian family—it’s clear from watching the four or five people standing at the front counter that they all know each other and are chatting about whatever.
So we come up to the front counter, and the guy there says to us in heavily accented English, “hello, 27!”
We tell him we want to place an order, and his response is the same: “27.” But this time he hands us menus. One of us said we loved Chicken Tikka, I told him that I would like the Chicken Vindaloo, extra spicy. Then one of the other guys of the restaurant group says that it will be the best Indian food I’ve ever had. Anywhere. Something about his use of superlatives made me trust him less. But before my roommate could place his order, everyone in the restaurant group cleared out and filed into some back room, leaving us there alone.
It was unclear what was happening. I asked myself if I’d even placed an order. Then we started looking around and noticed that only a few of the tables were actually set, and others had pots and pans strewn all over them. The room smelled like paint, and the kitchen wasn’t in working order—there was equipment pulled from the walls and more pots and pans strewn over countertops that should have had dishes in various stages of preparation. Then when I noticed the table with the half-empty bottle of Black Velvet on it I realized what was going on—the restaurant wasn’t open, it was in the midst of renovation. And—could it be?—the proprieters of the restaurant were getting drunk.
Oh and 27? The restaurant is scheduled to reopen on September 27th. I’ll be sure to be there, ready to order my Chicken Vindaloo.
So then yesterday Brian and I headed up to Montreal to see Lambchop. The show was really great—Lambchop is a particularly interesting band for their ability to fuse soul and country western music and come up with a gentle, folky, but impassioned sound that is very unique. Also, I was really impressed with the crowd at the show—whereas in many venues in the US crowds would only give half their attention to a band like Lambchop, whose music lacks the immediacy of other louder and faster bands on the indie rock scene, I really got the sense that the crowd was paying attention to the music and getting into it, even though it took a certain amount of work to do that. And they cheered like crazy at the end of every song. So how great is that?
September 12, 2006
Live music! ::
music — tagged indie rock, music and vermont
10:46 am
Update: Brian has a review of the show up on his site.
So, in an effort to take my mind off of—or possible revel in—the fact that I’m unemployed and my ability to practice law is still in a state of limbo, I headed out to a triple bill show last night with Josh and Brian at Higher Ground. The lineup consisted of California Folk-Rockers Foreign Born, erstwhile Broken Social Scene member Jason Collett, and headliners Rogue Wave. The show was really interesting, mostly because of the fact that many of the high points came at totally unexpected points in the show.
Rogue Wave’s performance was extraordinary because of how consistent it was with what I imagined it would be. They’re music is always tight and polished, and is a strange crossection between rock, folk and electronic atmospherics produced by keyboards played by both the lead guitarist and drummer. It’s funny, but I always think of their songs as well-engineered software applications. And while their tunes were catchy, definitely, and the band loved what they were playing, there was something, I don’t know, missing from the show. And it was the same thing missing from their music on the record. So while I could always think to myself, yeah, this music is definitely good, I couldn’t let myself just fall in love with it.
Contrast that With Jason Collet’s set. At one point Jason Collett noted how much he liked Vermont, and someone mentioned that he should stay an extra day to take a walk down to Lake Champlain (one of his favorite things to do in Burlington, apparently). When Collett said that he was sorry but he had to head down to Massachusetts, someone in the crowd yelled “Hey, New Hampshire Liquor Store is on the way, yeah!” And without missing a beat, Collett said, “thanks for the tip!” The band then launched into the upbeat acoustic number “I’ll Bring the Sun.” And that was just one interaction with the audience. The set was punctuated by a number of these incidents, which I found to be so disarming and infectous, and made the music that much more enjoyable. Comparing Rogue Wave with Jason Collett, it made me realize how the deciding factor of what makes a good show—at least for me—often has almost nothing to do with the music and everything to do with the performers.
Foreign Born started out the night, and they were a lot of fun—like I mentioned, a definite California folk-rock group, complete with the frontman playing a plugged-in acoustic guitar that, except for the pick-ups looked like it could have come from Woody Guthrie’s collection. The band played well and got into their music. At one point they played a song that they asserted that had written just the other day in Canada. Since I’m not familiar with their ouvre, there was no way for me to verify this, so I had to take them at their word. But overall it was a fun set, a nice surprise, and a great way to start of the evening.
June 10, 2006
Rainy day songs ::
music — tagged favorites, indie rock, mixes and music
4:09 pm
Bleah. Some days just never get off the ground. If you know what I mean, let me recommend a soundtrack:
- That Photograph, Brent Gorton
- Snakes Got a Leg III, Sunset Rubdown
- The Latest Toughs, Okkervil River
- The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!, Sufjan Stevens
- On To You, Constantines
- Sukie in the Graveyard, Belle & Sebastian
- Reconstruction Site, The Weakerthans
- Lily and Parrots, Sun Kil Moon
- One with the Freaks, The Notwist
- Kicked In (Acoustic), Superchunk
- What Are You, Bonnie Prince Billy
- Rebels Got A Hole In It, Halo Benders
- Lovers Who Uncover, The Little Ones
May 25, 2006
Post-JD song list ::
music — tagged favorites, indie rock, mixes and music
7:26 pm
In honor of my becoming a newly-minted lawyer, an updated song list. It’s a rough reflection of my general mood, but it has no deeper meaning than that. So don’t read too deeply into it. In Song name, Artist order:
- Stadiums and Shrines II, Sunset Rubdown
- Protein and Poison, Maritime
- Disco Sheets, Wolf Parade
- Our Swords, Band of Horses
- What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?, The Wedding Present
- Black Cab, Jens Lekman
- Caterpillar Girl, Lou Barlow
- In Between Days, Ben Folds
- Casio Bossa Nova, Holy Fuck
- Details Of The War, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
- Trahison, Vitalic
- Love And Some Verses, Iron & Wine
- Patterns of Fairytales, The National
Well, now that I think of it, there might be a deeper meaning to at least one of the songs. I remembered this from “Patterns of Fairytales”:
so I’m turning on the stereo
and I’m lining up the names
on the mixes I made before you…
So there you go. How meta, indeed.
