“This is what you call a one-shot deal,
November 30, 2007
Photos: The Most Serene Republic + Los Campesinos! at The Echo
November 28, 2007
It’s you! It’s me! It’s Danson!
November 27, 2007
- – - -
Los Campesinos! will be playing The Echo tonight! Oh man, I hope they play that one song about Ted Danson! Could you imagine if he actually showed up? Like, as a special guest?! You never know — after all, Hollywood’s not so far away!
Los Campesinos!: You! Me! Dancing! / MP3 / $$$
So yes, I’m thrilled to be seeing The Most Serene Republic tonight — who are opening for the abovementioned Los Campesinos! — and will admit to not knowing much about the band they’re traveling with, beside the fact that they’re akin to TMSR in their ties with the sprawling Arts & Crafts collective. But I do enjoy their accents (Welsh! One of the other few things I know about them), and certain parts of the two songs of theirs that I’ve heard have actually left me fairly eager to hear what the rest of their music might sound like.
And yes, I know they’re not saying “Danson”, but you need to learn how to let me dream.
And although I could never claim to have been a follower of Cheers, Becker, black face, or anything Ted Danson took part in besides that first movie with Guttenberg, Mr. Baseball, and the ghost, I would be lying if I said that I wouldn’t be thrilled to see him standing stoically atop the Echo platform surrounded by a bunch of merry Welsh kids.
- – - -
(BONUS!) The Most Serene Republic: Compliance / MP3 / $$$
In the time since I first heard it, this has been my go-to song on the band’s latest album Population, which was released early last month on A&C.
(Oh snap.)
November 27, 2007
- – - -
One of the top million or so blogs in the world (1,391,575th to be specific). You’re looking at it, pal!
We’re number 1(,391,575)!
Speak your truth
November 26, 2007
Feist, “Intuition” (from the Grizzly blog)
November 26, 2007
- – - -
Grizzly Bear: blog
Grizzly Bear are back from their fall migration and, after a couple of months of quiet, guitarist Ed Droste has updated the band’s blog with a new post. In it, he makes mention of highlights from their tour with Beach House, shares a surprising and wonderful cover of a JoJo song Daniel gave him for his birthday, likens his recent (themed) big 2-9 party to plaid flannel shirts, and assures fans that he and his fellow bears have been busying themselves with a burgeoning load of new material. Among the things they’ve been working on is a recording of a song with Feist for a still-unannounced compilation. In mentioning the Toronto songbird, he posted an alternate take of his favorite of her songs — “Intuition”, from this year’s The Reminder (which Ed also lists as one of his favorite albums of 2007). I’d never heard this version of the song myself, and was instantly taken by it. So here it is, in all its alternate glory, courtesy of the Grizzly blog.
Feist: Intuition (alternate version) / MP3 / $$$
(BONUS!) Grizzly Bear: / Alligator (choir version) / MP3 / $$$
(BONUS!) Dntel, with Grizzly Bear: To a Fault / MP3 / $$$
- – - -
ALSO…
- Rest peacefully, Kevin Dubrow.
Strippers nationwide fly at half-mast on their poles! (Too soon? I apologize.)
– Annie Clark is on the cover of the coming month’s Anthem! All copies at a certain local chain bookstore will sell out before seeing shelves.
- In vaguely related news, I work at a certain local chain bookstore.
- I can’t stop listening to this song.
The Happy Hollows broke their keyboard tonight.
November 25, 2007
True story.
Through with her tambourine and consumed in a fit of mid-song glee, singer and guitarist Sarah flung the jangly ring into the atmosphere. Aimed towards the stars but stunted by the ceiling, it hit hard, deflecting downard onto the band’s keyboard, which up until then had been sitting quietly across the stage for most of the set, minding its own. In a collision that drew a terse shriek from each instrument, the wild tambourine smacked and ricocheted off of a poor white note and leapt just as quickly, in good momentum, to the jaw of Hollows bassist Charlie (who would mention to me later in the night that it felt like someone had punched him in the face). And that’s a recount of the accident. Hand to ceiling, ceiling to key, key to face, face to floor — the tambourine’s reign of terror had ended for the night, and there it sat for the remainder of the songs.
The keyboard lost a tooth, and to be honest, I’m surprised nobody else did in all of the commotion. They put on a great show.
Here’s them at the zoo.
- – - -
WHY? + Half-Handed Cloud at Spaceland
November 24, 2007
- – - -
WHY? and Half-Handed Cloud each have freshly-pressed short-players lingering about and, conveniently for the two Bay residents, they share a release party for their respective records tonight at Silverlake’s Spaceland.
WHY’s vinyl single “The Hollows”, from the forthcoming Alopecia, sees the “aww, schucks” wiped almost wholly from Yoni Wolf’s lyrics and replaced with a decidedly more acerbic tone, a stark contrast to how many of us last remember him on his great 2005 album Elephant Eyelash.
Winding Currents on a Spool, the third release on Long Beach-based label/experiment Seven-Inch Project, is a six-song collection of four track recordings made by Half-Handed Cloud’s John Ringhofer which found him utilizing, among other things, a rented euphonium, a t-shirt-muted drum kit, two types of Melodians and a 100 year-old Steinway grand piano. It was recorded between trips to a California water park.
Opening up for the two gents and their bands will be local spazzoids The Happy Hollows. More talkie stuff after the show, though; for now, goodies.
WHY?: Speech Bubbles / MP3 / $$$
Half-Handed Cloud: We Are Not Orphaned / MP3 / $$$
Half-Handed Cloud: To Love Like Father & Son Love Each Other / MP3 / $$$
Kid Koala, “The M-River”
November 19, 2007
Glue at The Airliner
November 19, 2007
- – - -
On the subject of Low End Theory, indie rap super-troika Glue will be gracing the platform of the function a little later in the week, likely charming the local hip-hopsterati with a few new + unheard tracks mixed amid a set of the thought-rustling, densely layered boom-bap familiar to the group’s ever-growing mass of gluepies. Composed of multiple-time Scribble Jam battle champ/whirlwind/Keene(sbridge), NH native son Adeem and midwesterners Maker (producer) and DQ (dj), the group has released three strong studio records in just as many years, sounding at the moment to be well into work on their fourth. Punching at the aesthetic boundaries of the form while still giving nod to its roots, Glue are every bit as fresh and invigorating live as they are on record. Joining them on stage will be Def Jukies Hangar 18. The two groups have been touring the nation for the better part of the closing autumn on their dual ‘The Horse and The Hanger’ tour.
Glue: Early Morning Silence / MP3 / $$$
Glue: Steal the Crown / MP3 / $$$
Both songs were taken from the group’s Sunset Lodge EP, released in 2005 on Shake It Records. A copy of the album can be purchased here.
Daedelus, “Press Snooze”
November 19, 2007
- – - -
Daedelus: myspace
Daedelus rocked a rousing set at The Airliner a couple of months back, the finely preserved results of which are now available — in very limited release and for a very limited time — at the Alpha Pup online store.
Due to find a home on shelves of good record stores some time in late January, Daedelus: Live at Low End Theory captures the trickster at his most mystifying, with so many of the puzzling, sweet, and downright enrapturing moments from the more recent of his studio recordings recalled on the spot by the briskness of his fingers atop the endless, blinking rows of his magical music box. (If you’ve never had the chance to see him hover above his custom-made performance controller, his nimble hands pulling sounds from every conceivable nook, then his is most certainly a show I can’t recommend highly enough.)
Order an early copy of the album through Alpha Pup, but before that, stir your ears a bit with “Press Snooze”, a swinging sequence from the nascent stages of the mix, which features a slightly charged, foot-stomping take on the Denies the Day’s Demise highlight, “Like Clockwork Springs”.
Daedelus: Press Snooze (from Daedelus, Live at Low End Theory) / MP3 / $$$
Mere hours
November 17, 2007
Dear Paul: Tompkins dispenses advice in November’s ‘Sedaratives’
November 17, 2007
- – - -
Paul F. Tompkins: website / myspace
I picked up the new issue of The Believer today, and to my most pleasant of surprises, I found that Paul F. Tompkins is filling in this month as guest columnist of Sedaratives. The single recurring feature of the magazine to which I scurry first every month, Sedaratives is Amy Sedaris‘ eponymous advice column, inside which she plays the role of agony aunt, addressing letters from hopelessly troubled readers and sharing her acerbic wit through snarky, sarcastic “tips” returned to anyone silly enough to think that they could turn to an advice column (of all things) for some actual advice. With Amy spending the better part of the past year and a half promoting her Quill Award-winning guide to domestic arts and entertainment, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, several comedians and writers have been assigned to cover her station during her intermittent absence; among them — David Wain, Zack Galifianakis, Sarah Vowell, and this month’s extra special advice-doler(-outer?), Paul F. Tompkins.
A favorite around these parts for his absurdist reverie and bel-esprit’s approach to the most frivolous of subjects, Paul has become a dapperly dressed staple of LA’s comedy scene, hosting his own monthly show at Largo on Fairfax and making frequent appearances at this blog’s beloved home away from home, the UCB Theatre LA. From his formative days as a stand-up in Philadelphia to more recent years that have found him as a writer and performer on such television shows as Bob Odenkirk and David Cross’s Mr. Show, VH1’s Best Week Ever and The Sarah Silverman Program, Paul has mastered the delicate art of, as aspecialthing puts it, “treading the line between the intellectual and the absurd.” Word is that he even has a sitcom of his own in the pipeline somewhere, though I’m not exactly positive at the moment of when it might be seeing airwaves. Hurray though, whenever it comes! Maybe it’ll bring broader and much-deserved notice to one of the truly exceptional comedians working today.
Anywho, here’s my favorite bit of advice shared in Sedaratives this month — in this instance bestowed upon an unwell Texan named Jennifer.
- – - -
Dear Sedaratives,
I’ve been infected with poison oak or ivy. Research and doctors have told me that there is no cure and I will suffer from constant itching, oozing, and blisters for the next two to three weeks. I don’t believe the doctors. I think they are hiding something just so those of us who are highly allergic to this evil plant can suffer. Do you know of home remedy that will make the pain go away?
Jennifer
Austin, Tex.
Dear Jennifer,
I fear for your safety now that you have revealed this conspiracy. Poison oak is the least of your problems. You’d better get out of the country and I mean now. Also, I’m mocking you. Stop being ridiculous! That’s what the doctor cabal picked as the official affliction they’re gonna fold their arms over and do nothing about? Do you know how many kinds of insane cancers there are out there that they’ve probably just given up on? Come on. Tough it out. Watch where you’re walking next time. Also, “Do you know of home remedy”? Did you think talking like a villager in an old Wolfman movie would make me cough up some secret gypsy cure?
Paul
- – - -
PLUS!
A bit from Paul’s wonderful comedy album, Impersonal, recorded live at the UCB earlier this year and released in June on AST Records:
Paul F. Tompkins: Stromboli / MP3 / $$$
Pick a copy up from the AST online store, and be sure to read even more helpful hints from Paul in this month’s Believer.
St. Vincent graces PIG
November 13, 2007
- – - -
Italian fashion + culture magazine PIG is running a cover story this month on our most beloved Saint. The interview, as you would imagine, is printed entirely in Italian, but having spent the breadth of my formative years as a scruffy, apple-cheeked youth trotting about the thin alleys of Napoli, I’ve taken it upon myself — with a minor amount of aid from Babelfish — to translate the introduction to the article for all you non-Italiano speakers. I am, after all, near-fluent in the language (although I’m sure there is some evidence of rust).
- – - -
“In cover St. Vincent, interviewed from Depolique and photographed from David Ledoux: It comes to ask itself where it was hidden until today a talent of the sort, what made camouflaged between the thousand uniforms of the Polyphonic Spree or “relegated” the role of turnista chitarrista, if also beside Glen Branch or to those geniaccio of Sufjan Stevens. To single ventitre Annie years Clark, stage name St. Vincent, been born in Oklahoma, grown in Texas and transplanted to New York City, is proposed with its first enormous album, “Marry Me“, like one of the artists more amazing Americans, originates them and complete in circulation. We could define it folk singer postmodern the widest horizons, but it would not be enough to give back the complexity of its music or its personage. Not there are doubts: “E’ she it girl”.
– - – -
More about PIG Magazine and the interview with St. Vincent can be read here. And I’d also like to extend a longing wave to my paesans Paolo and Manfredo.
BONUS:
St. Vincent: Your Lips are Red (live at the Modern Art Museum in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX / 10.19.07) / MP3 (thanks to Lullabyes.net) / $$$
