I've been sitting on these Holy Ghost! shows for a while, but I figured it was time for me to get off my ass and post them. Since both of these sets are not full length I decided to bundle them into a single post. It's an interesting juxtaposition in venues. Mercury Lounge is a small room that bands play when they're on the way up, and Terminal 5 is the big place they play when they've made it. The Mercury Lounge show was an early show which started at [...]
I've been sitting on these Holy Ghost! shows for a while, but I figured it was time for me to get off my ass and post them. Since both of these sets are not full length I decided to bundle them into a single post. It's an interesting juxtaposition in venues. Mercury Lounge is a small room that bands play when they're on the way up, and Terminal 5 is the big place they play when they've made it. The Mercury Lounge show was an early show which started at [...]
Top 10 Shows of 2011 Since I grow my music library by bouncing back and forth between decades and music styles, playing catch up on the music I've missed, I don't really have a "Top 10 Albums of 20113. I could do a list of "10 Albums That Were Released in 2011 That I Have" but that would make me look stupid since I'm pretty sure Duran Duran's newest album is not one to the best 10 albums released this year. I could also do a "Top 10 Albums That I Discovered This [...]
Top 10 Releases of 2011 1. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake Polly Jean Harvey has been my favorite artist for almost 20 years (!), but I haven't felt this strongly about one of her albums in at least a decade - maybe even since 1995 and To Bring You My Love . Casting herself as an English patriot just to knock those ideals off their pedestal, Harvey uses discordant sounds, off-kilter rhythms, skewed stereotypes...and her tremendous vocal range to create a haunting, [...]
Top 10 Releases of 2011 Once again, the great releases of this year are roundly ignored by other 'best-of' music compilers. I am again mystified how some of the releases included here got such short shrift, particularly, when there was not much by way of competition. 2011, overall, was largely dominated by folkie southern-rock sounding bands, which is a direction that is easy for me to ignore except for the insanely good The Wooden Birds record, which, against all reason has shown up on no best-of lists that [...]
Austra Bowery Ballroom New York City, NY 10/5/11 I recently discovered Austra when I came across the song "Lose It" and was immediately hooked. It's one of those handful of songs that hit me right in my musical G-spot. When I listen to it, my body tingles and I feel like a real woman. The whole song is perfectly written and I listened to it like 30 times in a row the day I first heard it. What I'm trying to say is that I like the song. The rest of [...]
I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in America who is actually a fan of Men Without Hats . Other than the enduring "Safety Dance" most people don't know any of their other songs, which is a shame, because they wrote some really good synth pop in the 80s before writing a grunge album ( Sideways ) and breaking up in the 90s. The 2011 version of the recently re-activated band consists of sole original member and chief songwriter Ivan Doroschuk backed by hired musicians, none of whom is a drummer unfortunately. I've read (by [...]
Peter Murphy Mayan Theater Los Angeles, CA 3/14/11 Earlier this year I caught Peter Murphy at the Mayan here in Los Angeles. It was the first time I had ever been to that venue. It was also the first time I had ever caught Peter Murphy solo. As a long time fan of Bauhaus et al., it was never in the cards for me to see Peter Murphy solo before. Despite the self deprecating jokes throughout the set, he still puts on a great show. [...]
In my younger metal days, I remember hearing about a hardcore band called American Nightmare who had a singer with one hand. Under normal circumstances, it would suck to be that guy, but if you're the vocalist in a hardcore band, it could be used as a pretty unique gimmick to separate yourself from the pack in a crowded marketplace. Personally I would've gone with a hook attachment for maximum effect during live performances, but that's just me, and I'm weird. Anyways, American Nightmare never really took off and they broke up sometime in the mid-00s. The [...]
TV on the Radio was on tour this past spring in support of their soon to be released album "Nine Types of Light". April 12, the albums' release date was left conspicuously open on the band's itinerary. About a week before, the band announced this special club show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in their hometown of Brooklyn. With the aide of my trusty mouse-clicking finger, my web browsers' Refresh button, and my advanced captcha entering skills, I was able to snag tickets before they sold out in one minute. After sitting through the comedy/hip hop stylings [...]
The non-stop touring machine known as Reverend Horton Heat celebrated their 25th Anniversary, which occurred sometime last year. As many bands are doing nowadays, they decided to mark the occasion with a special tour. The setlist this time started in chronological order, leading up to their most recent album. After a brief intermission, the Reverend came back out and took requests for whatever songs were called out from the audience (though I have reason to believe the choices were from a small pre-determined pool due to the similarity between recent setlists). Once again, the Reverend broke out some [...]
This past April, Cut Copy made their triumphant return to NYC after playing Brooklyn last summer, which was a brief post-Lollapalooza stopover at the Williamsburg Waterfront ( See previous TSOI post ). This show was the 1st of a 3 night stand at NYC's Terminal 5 , where LCD Soundsystem had just wrapped up a 4-night stand the night before ( see previous TSOI post ).This time the band was touring in support of their 4th album Zonoscope, which had just been officially released. The set was heavy on new material as well [...]
Bear In Heaven Off Festival Katowice, Poland 8/8/10 I was a day behind in getting this "Monday Set" posted, but hopefully it was worth the wait. Here's a fantastic live Bear In Heaven recording that I traded for last year. It was the first date of their fall/winter tour which spanned nearly four months. They've played a handful of dates here and there since that tour, but none near Los Angeles. Here's hoping the lack of tour dates is due to a forthcoming album. Setlist [...]
Bauhaus Wartburg Club Weisbaden, Germany 11/28/81 For 30 plus (yeah 30!) years, Peter Murphy has been one of the most captivating front-men in show business. I recently took my wife to her first Peter Murphy concert and even though she knew next to nothing about his solo work short of "Marlene Dietrich's Favorite Poem" she walked away even more captivated by the performance than I did, a fan of over 20 years. Peter Murphy's new record "Ninth" comes out today in the UK and tomorrow in the US. The full [...]
Burning Hearts put out one of my favorite records in 2009 and they are finally back with a brand new EP out on Shelflife Records. The 4 song EP is a little more mellow than their previous record, but the Finnish duo manage to squeeze in one rocker at the end. The track Into The Wilderness picks up with the same catchy sound that I was so fond of on their debut album and is a great taste of what to expect from their upcoming sophomore album. Download: Burning Hearts - Into The Wilderness
LCD Soundsystem Terminal 5 New York City, NY 3/28/11 So this was the opening night of the much-hyped "farewell" concert series for LCD Soundsystem. After the villainous triple threat of corporate America, scalpers, and free market capitalism hijacked the ticket sale for the Madison Square Garden show, snatching up all the tickets and exorbitantly marking them up for resale on legal pirate scalper outpost StubHub, James Murphy booked 4 shows at Terminal 5 to amend for the miscalculation. Even this did little to tame the public's appetite to see LCD Soundsystem one last [...]
LCD Soundsystem Terminal 5 New York City, NY 3/28/11 So this was the opening night of the much-hyped "farewell" concert series for LCD Soundsystem. After the villainous triple threat of corporate America, scalpers, and free market capitalism hijacked the ticket sale for the Madison Square Garden show, snatching up all the tickets and exorbitantly marking them up for resale on legal pirate scalper outpost StubHub, James Murphy booked 4 shows at Terminal 5 to amend for the miscalculation. Even this did little to tame the public's appetite to see LCD Soundsystem one last [...]
LCD Soundsystem Terminal 5 New York City, NY 3/28/11 So this was the opening night of the much-hyped "farewell" concert series for LCD Soundsystem. After the villainous triple threat of corporate America, scalpers, and free market capitalism hijacked the ticket sale for the Madison Square Garden show, snatching up all the tickets and exorbitantly marking them up for resale on legal pirate scalper outpost StubHub, James Murphy booked 4 shows at Terminal 5 to amend for the miscalculation. Even this did little to tame the public's appetite to see LCD Soundsystem one last [...]
If there was some kind of an official award for the "Most Amusing Album Cover" given out each year, Klaxons' 2010 entry, "Surfing the Void", would make a strong contender. The cover isn't particularly funny, it's just that it's, well, amusing. I mean, there's a cat in an astronaut suit! What does it all mean, man? Picking up where 20072s "Myths of the Near Future" left off, the album is a continuation of the sonic trajectory started on the debut. Interestingly, the band chose producer Ross "The Godfather of Nu Metal" Robinson for the album, who is responsible for producing [...]
Two of West Coast punk's most accomplished performers - Exene Cervenka and Kevin Seconds - were recently on tour together, and we caught them playing solo acoustic sets at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans in March. Kevin opened with some high-energy songs that were all the more impressive for the relatively sparse attendance. The songs were great, and he just projected an incredibly friendly and cool personality, both on stage and in person. He lives in Sacramento now, and I happened to be going there the following week for a conference. When I [...]
The Sound Of Indie
Young Jeezy featuring Jay-Z, Andre 3000 & Drake – I Do (Remix)
On The Cover Of A Magazine
Miike Snow – Paddling Out (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Kylie Minogue receives threats on Twitter, alerts police!
