(Click on the photo to enlarge) So as it turned out, the weekend I was heading up to NYC to visit college friends was the same weekend that The Airborne Toxic Event was playing two shows there, this past Thursday night at Pianos in the Bowery, and this past Friday night opening for the Fratellis at Webster Hall. Given that the room at Pianos holds roughly 130 people, I had a feeling that it would be the show to see, given the “personal" nature of Airborne shows. Listening to Airborne’s lyrics is somewhat like [...]
Dear God, how did this happen? I like Scarlett Johansson as an actress and ok, she's not the first star to try this (Leif Garrett and Shawn Cassidy, Don Johnson and Bruce Willis, Lindsay Lohan...really the list is friggin endless ), but c'mon, Tom Waits, for real?? She couldn't start small with I dunno, some Beatles tune that everyone covers, then move up? I'll give it to her, that took real guts. At least they hooked her up with a really good backing band. Maybe between the solid band and studio trickery the record is somehow better and Nico [...]
The Airborne Toxic Event, this site's first big interview and an Ipod favorite around here for the past couple months, sent word out yesterday that each week between now and August 5th, when their first full length record is released , that the band will post a video a week on their Myspace page . Each video will be an acoustic version of each of the 10 tracks from their record in disc order, in one take, and in different locations around Los Angeles. "Wishing Well" (the first of the series) [...]
Was poking around band sites tonight to compile the 899 shows that seem to be set for Mid-Atlantic stop offs during June and July, and as I hope to catch The Whigs again during this very kick ass tour but this time near the bar in a venue with air-conditioning, I hit their site. What I found instead of a tour date was this... This Is a Blog and We Are the Whigs . With pictures! Of Chuck E. Cheese! And Vegas baby! And lots of food items! And batting cage poses! How Julian Dorio fit all [...]
Sorry for the radio silence kids. I must have acquired some bad karma somewhere along the line and it came back to bite me in the ass in the form of having to serve on grand jury duty service in DC. Not petit jury duty where you are there for an hour? a day? a week? No, no, I mean grand jury duty where you're there for 32 DAYS (you did indeed read that correctly yup), 5 days a week, 9am-5pm, sitting in a room that hasn't been remodeled since Eisenhower was in office (read: no internet access). Ol' JP [...]
"We've taken what we always done well, and just grown it some"-Murray Hammond Track listing 1. "The Fool" 2. "Dance with Me" 3. "No Baby I" 4. "My Two Feet" 5. "Ride" 6. "She Loves the Sunset" 7. "This Beautiful Thing" 8. "I Will Remain" 9. "Early Morning" 10. "The Easy Way" 11. "Here's to the Halcyon" [...]
If you don't know much about Tom Waits, check this out: The Complete Idiots Guide to Tom Waits . Then listen to this, one of my most favorite Tom Waits songs of all time, "Day After Tomorrow." Waits' voice may be hard for some to listen to, but don't just listen to it on the surface... really listen to it, like with your whole heart. His voice when paired with the stories he tells in his lyrics, is to me, much like a fiddle or a slide guitar, it just adds a level of emotion to [...]
...and again, none are above the Mason Dixon line. Waits, known for his years-between tour schedule, announced dates the other day. For his last tour (2006), he explained his odd choice for the venues were, ""to pick up some fireworks, and someone owes me money in Kentucky." So who knows....much like Leonard Cohen, Waits can do kooky stuff and get away with it. I mean, what are you gonna say, "No Tom, that's crazy," he's Tom Waits for cripesakes, he gets to do whatever he wants. But yeesh, how come Phoenix gets two dates and DC none Tom? You can [...]
Hell is...GRAND JURY DUTY. Which I am stuck on. With a group of people who have apparently served 98755798 times and lover it mucho. I think Satre was right, hell is other people. But as promised, the rest of my SXSW experience, my interview with The Red Romance, and shows reviews are forthcoming. Hell is also being stuck in a courthouse all. day. long. with a wifi signal that makes one dream of dial-up so bear with me....:) Subscribe in a reader
DAY 4 1. Longwave When I was heading to Mario Martelloli the night before, I ran into a couple of Longwave members on the street (and recognized the lead singer who looks like the Chris Martin of Coldplay because of his very cool hair). I’d raved about what I saw at Emo’s and asked if they were doing any other day shows, and they told me about their kicking off the Filter showcase at Cedar Street’s Courtyard. I think I spent more time at Cedar Street than [...]
What a way to start your weekend, eh? Travis over at Web in Front is sporting a soundboard-recorded podcast from the Coachella 08 performance of Portishead . Subscribe in a reader
(Day 3 begins here ) DAY 3 (continued) 7. Portastatic Portastatic is the prolific side project of Mac McCaughan, whom you may also know as one of the main guys in Superchunk. I'd heard of them from that but more so because my dear friend Margaret White , fiddle-player extraordinaire and all around great dame, played fiddle for them over the years (and Cat Power...and The Comas...and 66489685 other bands). Margaret said she wasn't playing SX [...]
Who knew a 4 hour interview could take so much out of a girl! Chart your courses and mark your calendars, upcoming goodies for the next week or so here at BL&L include: -Completing my SXSW 08 experience report -Sound and Vision: My Interview with The Red Romance You know you want it... Subscribe in a reader
My dear friend and SXSW travel partner John sent this to me today. John and I don't 100% agree in all of our musical choices. But he too loves the Old 97s as much as I (well ok, probably not as much as I'm rather certain that I am alone in my naughty Rhett fantasies), but he's stoically endured the "whither I'm a flower" mess I become in Rhett's presence more than once hence....a true blue friend. AND he sends me things like the video you see below. For the life of me, I [...]
After getting turned on to Travis Woods cool music blog, Web in Front , I got itchin to hear some Archers of Loaf . So I tinkered around on the Hype and found this great solo acoustic Eric Bachmann plus interview link . Amazing...I had to chuckle though, I'm 99% sure he no longer lives in the Triangle area, prolly hasn't in years, but he's still on Merge and has those specific and wonderful Triangle inflections in his voice when he says certain words. Then there's Crooked Fingers...I was introduced [...]
Props to the person who goes by, "I have mono," over at Sometimes I Tape Stuff for a listen at brand new Death Cab for Cutie tracks from the forthcoming Death Cab record, "Narrow Stairs," out May 15th. DCFC, Live at McDonald Theater, Eugene OR, 4.19.08 Subscribe in a reader
(Old photo "disappeared" so....new photo via Modelography ) Act I of IV Act II of IV Act III of IV ACT IV of IV "No matter how long it holds me if it falls apart/or makes us millionaires/We'll go through this thing together/and on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads"- Golden, My Morning Jacket Mikel and I reconvene a day or two [...]
RSS feeds and all that shite. Screwy Blogger XML code. Me sporting very short hair as I've pulled all mine out. I hope to be back up here by tomorrow with more SXSW postings , a tricked out Angela Davis wig, and the last act in the Airborne Toxic Event interview series , maybe even with additional info regarding the label signing, keep your fingers crossed.... Subscribe in a reader
Oh man...so sad. I was at one of the last couple of shows Danny played (Albany) last fall and the first one at which they played "Sandy" and "E Street Shuffle" in something like 98787678575 years. He truly was an amazing talent. From Pitchfork : Danny Federici, Bruce Springsteen's longtime keyboardist, died yesterday, April 17, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The 58-year-old E Street Band member had been fighting melanoma for three years. Posting about Federici's death on his website, Springsteen wrote, "Danny and I [...]
Act I of IV Act II of IV ACT III of IV "The hope I had in a notebook full of white, dry pages/Was all I tried to save"-Via Chicago (Live, 2.18.08 at The Riv, Chicago)-Wilco (We pick up where Act II closed. Steven is in another room playing guitar.) Me: Has there been one writer whose books you collect/always pick up when they put one out? MJ: Yeah, probably Fitzgerald, Phillip Roth, Don
Between Love & Like
Old Photos of Football Fans from 1900–1940
Song Diary / The Dig – Without Your Love
R.F.T.W.E. pt.2
DANCE BITCH DANCE: disclosure - when a fire starts to burn
