We’re back?
So yeah, we’re not dead. Things got a little rocky and I had some personal things I had to deal with, but now everything is great for the most part.
I’ve been going to a lot of shows since the last post and have seen some amazing bands. Some of the highlights include Thee Oh Sees, The Intelligence, Smith Westerns, Nobunny, Beach Fossils, Liquor Store, Pissed Jeans, Lamps, Wedding Present, Natural Child, Davila 666, JEFF The Brotherhood, Boogie Boarder, etc.
Deezer just moved here on Tuesday, so we’re gonna try to bring this blog back to life and update it on a fairly regular basis.
I want this blog to be less about record reviews and news and more about just a general love for music. Maybe my writing will improve too!
See you in 6 months!
Here’s some videos:
LIQUOR STORE
THEE OH SEES
THE SMITH WESTERNS
BEACH FOSSILS
Public Image Limited on Old Grey Whistle Test
This deserves a post of its own. Why did I just now find this?! LISTEN TO THE DRILL SYNTH!!
Girls @ Bowery Ballroom 11/06/09
I was greatly anticipating this show as soon as I found out about it, but by the time I got around to buying my ticket, I learned that it had sold out. My first idea was to search on craigslist. I was shocked to find out that people were offering $40, $60, and even $100 for tickets. Certainly I would never get one, seeing as how that’s way out of my price range. Oh trust fund hipsters, you get me every time! My next idea was to just show up at the venue early and try my luck with scalpers, or better yet, maybe they’d still have some at the door. I got there early and told the doorman about my dilemma. He told me they had 10 left and to get in line. I got the second to last ticket. I was thrilled to only pay face value…
…and let’s just say I would’ve been pissed if I paid any more. Chris Owens and his “band” managed to ruin every song they played. I couldn’t really figure out why, but all the charm and fun of Album was nonexistent in a live setting. They kicked off the set with “God Damned,” and immediately after the guitar intro, I somehow knew I was about to be let down. They almost seemed as if they didn’t even want to be there.
More songs came and went, then I heard the opening chords for “Lust For Life,” the song that made everyone fall in love with Girls. I thought “This is it. The set is finally going to pick up and I’ll leave with a smile on my face.” Nope. It just didn’t have the same dynamics live. Unfortunately, the guy shoving his way to the front in an attempt to stage dive, only to immediately be grabbed and escorted out of the venue, was far more interesting than what was happening onstage at the time. After a couple more songs, I started to entertain the idea of leaving, but I didn’t. The only good song during the set was “Morning Light.” I was curious to see if they’d be able to pull of that kind of volume live, and much to my surprise, they did. But by then, it was too late – the set was over. They walked off stage, then came back out and did the obligatory encore. By that point, I just didn’t care.
Earlier that day I had read a review of their show only a couple days before in Washington, D.C. The Washington Post slammed it. I thought the reviewer focused too much on the hype and had just fallen victim to it, and that there was no way it could’ve been that bad. Turns out he was right and I was wrong.
Had the hype gone to the band’s head? Was Album only good because of the lo-fi production? Is it the new guitarist? Is that just how they normally play and I expected more because of all of the hype? Did they take the wrong kind of drugs that night? I don’t know, but what I do know is that this performance seemed phoned in.
Lil’ Wayne: No Ceilings mixtape
The first half of the most anticipated mixtape of the year leaked today. You can get it here. The tracklist is impressive and the 3 tracks I heard before my boss told me to get back to work are ridiculous. This should be called Da Drought 4. The full version is supposed to have 33 tracks. Hopefully it will leak later this week.
Update: The full version is officially coming out on Halloween
CMJ Overview: Part I
Uppers: Check
Downers: Check
Big bag of crack made with the help of Master P: Check
Having to keister stash all this for 5 hours: So worth it!!
Gram Parsons once sang “Las Vegas, Ain’t no place for a poor boy like me.” This is not the case for CMJ. I chose the best time to visit New York City for the first time. I went with with an empty wallet and an ass full of drugs. That’s all you need for a good time. I saw more music and drank more whiskey and beer in the 5 days I was in New York than I ever have in my life. This was all possible with the help of beer sponsors, open bars, and free shows. A wise hipster told me that CMJ is like “Christmas for hipsters.” She couldn’t have been more right. This trip was my deciding factor on whether or not I was going to move to NYC and I’ve never been more convinced in my life. In the following posts I’m going to do my best to describe my experience as well as the shows I saw in detail. I guess I should get to doing that!
Day 1, 10/20/09:
I was met at the airport by Tim and a friend, they had just downed a bottle of vodka on the way to pick me up. Within 5 minutes of meeting up Tim puked outside the airport and they convinced me to pay for a cab. After finding a place to stash all my belongings and shit out the lump of drugs in my ass, we finally headed out for some fun. On our way to meeting up with some friends I noticed a lot of hipsters gathered in an open window area holding small glasses of wine, I knew what that meant. Free alcohol!! I convinced Tim to walk in with me and we discovered it was a magazine launch party. Which magazine? That really doesn’t matter now does it? All that mattered is that they had free wine and Magic Hat. So we stayed there for a while then headed to our friend’s place.
We had planned to go to the Woods and Beach Fossils show at Webster Hall, but by the time we got everyone ready to head out it was already 2 hours past the start of the show. We ended up going to The Levee and another bar. Tim and I ended the night by passing out on a twin size air mattress that leaked more than someone with OAB. If you expected to read about music, then I guess consider yourself fooled. I actually didn’t see any shows during CMJ, I just spent all my time looking for free alcohol, or at The Levee, which I’ve decided is my favorite bar in Brooklyn.
Day 2, 10/21/09:
So remember when I said I didn’t see any shows at CMJ? I lied! Tim and I started the day with cheap whiskey and the Forcefield Day Party at Pianos. The first band we saw was Surfer Blood. They sounded like kids raised on Graceland who also dig Rock N’ Roll. Which is way better than Vampire Weekend or The Givers who just sound like Graceland rip offs who only listen to whatever shitty indie pop is popular. They had great energy that didn’t seem forced. Nothing really stood out to me though.
After drinking some more whiskey in the park, we headed back to Pianos just in time to catch Brooklyn’s own Grooms. They had a post-rock sound which I usually frown upon, but their tones were so great. They had a Mustang bass and a Jaguar guitar that created sounds that not even Jesus Christ could get. Their bassist was busy but not too busy, and they were capable of creating catchy chord changes. This is generally not the case for most post-rock bands these days.
Up next we have Stricken City all the way from London, England. I wish they would have stayed there! The 2 songs I heard from them sounded like noisy generic brit-pop from the 80′s. The singer’s stage presence and voice resembled Patti Smith. That’s never a good thing! So I took it to be a good time to take a smoke break and drink some more of the whiskey drink I had mixed in a 20 ounce bottle.
I went back inside to catch a group of Jersey boys who call themselves Real Estate. Right away I realized I had made a mistake. I took the wrong kind of smoke break, Shit!! Within the first minute I was thinking to myself, “I really wish I was stoned.” They were the only band I had listened to previously out of all the bands at the showcase. I should have known better, but all I had done that day was some uppers and I was already pretty drunk. Oh well, they were still entertaining. They are a great lo-fi psych band with good guitar interaction between the 2 guitarists. They were able to achieve a great sound with few pedals, and were one of my favorite acts of CMJ. Real Estate was the last band of the showcase.
Read more…
Lack of updates/CMJ
Sorry for the lack of updates. I haven’t been near a computer much lately, and lots of friends have been in town. CMJ is this week, and Deezer and I will be going to anything and everything we can. We’ll do our best to document it in our drunken/drug filled haze. We’ll also try to get around to posting some things that have been on the back burner. Stay tuned.
Right of the Dial: Summer in Review
So now that summer’s finally over in Louisiana I feel it’s time to recap some of summer’s biggest songs. If you live in Baton Rouge than you really only have 2 choices when it comes to hearing good music on the radio. You can turn your dial to the left and deal with KLSU’s 6:1 bad song:good song ratio. Which unless you like generic indie pop and 5 year old indie electronica is pretty much intolerable. You probably just do what I do, switch back and fourth between the hip-hop/r&B stations and KLSU hoping that they might be playing “Summer Babe”, “Sister Midnight”, or “Flash Light”. One thing I noticed listening to the radio is that a lot of the hit songs this summer were actually good. So I’ve decided to review 15 songs that were hard to avoid hearing this summer. I put together a playlist.com playlist of all the songs in orderhere.
PLAYLIST
Beyonce – Ego
This one’s not as strong as “Single Ladies” but it’s still a catchy little number and it really knows how to play on words. The chorus is just one long “That’s what she said” joke. “It’s too big, it’s too wide, It’s too strong, it won’t fit, It’s too much, it’s too tough”. All I know is Jay-Z must be packing some kind of heat to have her make this song. Kanye’s on the remix. He has some memorable lines but the beat just doesn’t go anywhere.
Maxwell - Pretty Wings
I must say that I’m not a big fan of most modern Soul/R&B, but this song will stay in my head for days if I hear it. It reminds me of the last Al Green album that came out that was produced by ?uestlove. The part of the song where the horns section kicks in sounds great, and makes you think of the days when Soul and R&B wasn’t dominated by bad singers singing over a beat that wasn’t good enough to be picked up by a rapper. I’ve read nothing but good things about his new album, I’ve just been too lazy to download it.
Gucci Mane – Make the Trap Ayy (ft. OJ Da Juiceman)
I can’t believe that after years of releasing some of the shittiest mix tapes known to man Gucci is finally a rap star. This song made me realize that as long as you take Gucci Mane’s rapping for what it is, club rap, then you can really have a fun time listening to him. The hook is infectious and puts Juiceman’s signature “Ayy” and “Okaay” to good use. His mixtapes might suck but Gucci Mane sure knows how to make some club bangers.
Read more…
Useless Eaters, Box Elders, Jay Reatard, Nobunny, Hunx And His Punx @ Le Poisson Rouge 10/01/09
I went to the Shattered Records showcase at Le Poisson Rouge last night.
First up was Useless Eaters. They’re a relatively new band from Memphis, Tennessee with a few singles out, one being recently released on Shattered Records and one coming out soon on Goner Records. The vocalist looked really young, like he was in his teens, and Jay Reatard was playing bass with them – I’m not exactly sure why. They played fast garage punk with the songs clocking in around the two minute mark. Not particularly interesting.
Box Elders played next. I had seem them last week, so I wasn’t really interested in seeing them again. They seemed like they were less into it this time around, for some reason. They didn’t even do the great “Teenage Kicks” cover that they did last week.
Jay Reatard played third and it was obvious most people were there to see him. I’ve had some bad luck trying to see him live, so I was really looking forward to it. The first time, some friends and I went to Dallas to see him play with Cheap Time and The Strange Boys. Not only did we have a blowout on the interstate on our way there, causing us to have to walk with the tire to the closest auto shop, but by the time we got there (which was hours before the show), Jay had already been dragged out of the venue for various reasons, such as breaking things, trying to get an underage girl into the bar, and throwing an overall fit. I heard he had been on an acid and coke binge for the past few days. Nice. The second time I tried to see him in New Orleans, but he ended up canceling the date. Anyway, the place really started to fill in once he started setting up. He ripped through 15 songs in what seemed like just over 30 minutes. I love the fact that all of his songs are somehow twice as fast live. He was heavy on the Blood Visions material, which I thought was great.
Nobunny played next. He was the highlight of the show. I wanted him to play every song he’s ever recorded, but of course he didn’t. He did, however, play some of my favorites such as “Mess Me Up,” “Give It To Me,” “I Am A Girlfriend,” and “Boneyard.” Pop perfection. Nobunny was all over the stage and everyone in the crowd was bouncing up and down. You could tell he was feeding off of the energy. Needless to say, I loved it and can’t wait to see him again.
Nobunny left the stage, took off his bunny mask, and joined the closers of the night, Hunx and His Punx, on guitar. Hunx was really fun as well as funny. He had a few outfit changes, including a banana hammock g-string which he claimed he “got from Frederick’s of Hollywood.” He even came up to me during the song “Good Kisser” and puckered up. I gave him a kiss, I couldn’t resist. The show was just too good.
I think I’m in love.
Our camera died, so I’ll just use pictures from Brooklyn Vegan.
Read more…
Caddywhompus, Baby Boy, and Colour Revolt @ Spanish Moon 9/29/09
Caddywhompus:
This was my first time to see Caddywhompus and I must say I was thoroughly impressed. This 2 piece sure can make a lot of noise. The guitar tones were great. The drums were on point, and they had great energy. My only complaint was the vocals. What’s up with them? Are you trying to get signed by Saddle Creek or did the vocalist go to the Ben Gibbard School of Annoying Pretentious Vocals? I don’t know if they had the the mic going through an equalizer but that would help for sure. You could bring them down an octave. I wouldn’t mind if they added a little fuzz to the vocals or even just turned them down a bit. Hell, Auto-tune would even be better. I did enjoy the set still. I imagine they could rock a house show pretty hard.
Baby Boy:
I will stick with my original description of Baby Boy and say that they “sound like a shitty Slint” but that’s better than sounding like Man + Building right? Right! I will say this though, even with the technical difficulties and the 10 minute joke session from the crowd it was still a better show than their last show. The bass sounded great and I could feel it in my body, and thank God Jesse put down that Gibson and picked up a Strat. There’s a reason why that guitar changed Rock n’ Roll. This band is moving in the right direction and I’m interested in seeing where they go from here. Also, Baby Boy is such a better name than Man + Building. Too bad it’s taken already by a Latin R&B artist.
Colour Revolt:
See video
Sorry no pics. Feel free to leave any comments/personal attacks/threats.
