My Morning Jacket @ The Greek Theatre, 09.21.08

Now that it is settling in and the initial ecstasy of it all is waning, I can say that in all honesty it was one of the best shows I've ever witnessed. Up there with Ben Harper's 3.5 hour performance at 9:30 Club a few years back. Likewise Radiohead at Tower Theatre, DFA 1979/QOTSA/NIN at the Verizon Center, The National/Arcade Fire at DAR, TMV, TVotR, Boris, Eddie at The Wiltern, the list goes on....It was epic. And I will forever wax nostalgiac about how this band literally exceeded every impossible expectation I had for them. Studio recordings ain't got shit on what it sounds like - what it feels like - to hear those vocals live in the midst of a balls out rock and roll assault.

I really don't know how to, in some way, capture what it was like to be within maximum effective range of Jim James & company a couple of nights back. Without getting lost in Sabine's reverberation equation we need to somehow make sense of it all; figuring critical distances will only lead to a maddening plunge down a dark rabbit-hole. And you probably won't hear the vocals down there. Things are good and firm up here on planet earth. Down there, you probably won't feel the goosebumps on the back of your neck emerge when that madcap lunatic with the beard (who has spent the better part of two and a half hours doing things with his vocal chords you couldn't possibly imagine) hits the pedal on "Run Thru" and deepens your plunge into eclecticmusicalecstasy with a Reznor-worthy riff thats been building for five minutes or so. The muted jab on the strings sounds like a pistol grip pump - the not-so-calm before the storm type of foreshadowing that draws your breath away and makes your jaw drop right before Mr. James and Mr. Broemel unleash some of the nastiest guitarwork you've ever witnessed (and you've seen Jack, John, Omar, Ben, Nels, Adam and the like).

But don't go down that rabbit hole either. Don't go comparing or associating. Don't get lost in the categories. Prince, Floyd, Zeppelin, Petty, Elvis, The Boss, they're all there somewhere. So where are we, right now? If time is reflected on the x-axis and we're strictly speaking of the evolution of rock and roll - y'know...where. we're. headed. - where is this band taking us? It's all meeting and merging, exploding and imploding, destroying and creating by the time you get to the chorus, if there even is one. There's too many branches, but it's all so focused and contained. And two and a half hours never went by so fast. And how is it, that the mastermind behind all of this, that guy with the beard and the towel draped across his brow, the one that just did three knee slides the length of the stage, while he was playing during the outro, how is it that he seems to be having more fun than I am? Because I'm having a pretty good fucking time, right now.

Looking back on it you realize how American it all is. But not that nationalistic spew they're shoving down your throat when we club other malnourished, tiny nations to death on the Olympics. No. Not that faux-patriotism that you slap magnetic on the back of your SUV. This is that truly American promise of anything's possible, the America that I like to believe in. Potential. A million ways to the same place. Creating an interpretation of life through every influence that has ever crossed a synapse in your brain. A melting pot. And everyone gets to choose which way to go. Like walking into a country music bar and pumping some Boris on the jukebox and everybody being cool with it. (Give us a few decades and a few more bands like this and we'll get there.) But, they'd been thinking about all of this long before the rest of us, sponging it all up - motown, metal, disco, reggae, country, folk, intro, outro, solo, bridge, keys, brass, and most importantly guitars (their own little musical melting pot). What they found and what they bring to an audience is a wholly different and unique approach to that good ol' American end-state of rocking the fuck out. No limits. No boundaries. No genre of music is safe.

There was this girl five rows in front of us with blonde stringy hair, she was shaking and rocking so hard I thought her head was going to spin off. I've only seen cathode-ray black and white permutations of things as drastic and spastic as this: it was '64 and they were the Beatles. But who am I kidding. We were all under the same spell, the place was going shithouse-rat crazy and well, it ain't evil, baby if ya,...

It's been more than a day now, I need to hatch a plan. I need to somehow figure out how this bad man from California is going to get to Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve. Talk about potential.

Setlist:
1. "Evil Urges"
2. "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt.1"
3. "Off The Record"
4. "Anytime"
5. "I'm Amazed"
6. "The Way That He Sings"
7. "Two Halves"
8. "Thank You Too!"
9. "Sec Walkin"
10. "I Will Sing You Songs"
11. "What A Wonderful Man"
12. "Mahgeetah"
13. "Lay Low"
14. "Phone Went West"
15. "Gideon"
16. "Dondante"
17. "Librarian"
18. "Smokin From Shootin"
19. "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt.2"
----------
20. "Golden"
21. "Wordless Chorus"
22. "Highly Suspicious"
23. "Run Thru"
24. "One Big Holiday"

Beck, Spoon, MGMT Tonight

[Photo Credit: Amazon]

Beck will be ripping up the Hollywood Bowl tonight. I've never had the opportunity to see him live and the fact that MGMT and Spoon are opening gives this show a lot of promise. It is also my first time catching a show at the Hollywood Bowl. His latest album has been spinning regularly out here in California and while I don't know if it tops Sea Change (my favorite and one of several albums that literally CARRIED me through my experience in Iraq), it's very, very good. It won't hurt that Beck's dad (a legendary producer in his own right) will be manning the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra strings.

As for MGMT and Spoon, this will be my first time with them as well and I'm quite interested to see how MGMT does live. Oracular Spectacular is a fantastic album, but I'm nervous about these guys pulling off that heavily produced sound live (see: Bloc Party's "Flux"). At any rate...all of it is the perfect primer for my maiden voyage with My Morning Jacket tomorrow night at The Greek Theater. Let the games begin...

MP3: Beck - "Chemtrails"
MP3: Beck - "The Golden Age"

Trackmarks: Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Don't Forget Me" Live @ Canvas Club (14 APR 06)

[Flickr]

This track's greatness lies in it's the simple construction. The foundation of a 4-note bass riff and the endless possibilities of John Frusciante's talent. It is also marks one of those all-to-rare moments where Kiedis' lyrics aren't in conflict with Frusciante's guitarwork, rather the two are in perfect harmony. On the album it is overshadowed by the catchy flash of "Zephyr Song", the grower "Tear", the album's pinnacle "Venice Queen" and the singles "By The Way" and "Can't Stop", the latter which has evolved into the staple opener of the Chili Peppers' live experience. Yet live, "Don't Forget Me" continues to grow in leaps and bounds 6 years after the physical release of By The Way (which marked the complete return to form of Frusciante); it is different every night. And because of it's minimalist structure and the man behind the wheel it holds the rarest of possibilities: infinity.

MP3: Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Don't Forget Me" (Live @ Canvas Club)

The Mars Volta: Bedlam Webisodes

"The Volta is taken from a Federico Fellini book about his films, what he characterizes as a changing of scene, or a turnaround; a new scene to him is called Volta. Y'know, changing of time and the changeover. And Mars, we're just fascinated by science-fiction so and it's something that ultimately looked as in anything I write, its meaning is always up to the listener. As the way we write songs and words, if it looks great on paper then to us it's like painting, so if it looks good meaning the second then people usually have a better interpretation than we ever would." - Cedric Bixler-Zavala

"Wax Simulacra"


"Aberinkula"


"Goliath"


"Askepios"


I cannot wait for this to drop. No leak that I can find so far. Frat is catching them in Providence tonight, at the site of my dismantling by the same band several years ago, Lupo's. I'll never forget walking a couple of blocks to some trendy spot where my fiance was waiting for me with friends and rolling in completely fucking drenched in sweat. As in: soaked. Pants. Shirt. Face. Shorn head sans sweatband. It was fucking glorious. Frat will grace us with a complete report tomorrow. Or whenever he recovers. These videos kick. "Wax Simulacra" and "Goliath" (the epic previously known as "Rapid Fire Tollbooth") are 1, 2 for the best songs of 2008. So far.

 

MP3: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - "Rapid Fire Tollbooth"

Top Albums of 2007 While Riding Through the Streets of Baghdad

Land of the free...
Home of the brave...
From my teammate, brother and comrade in arms. May he be home safe and soon. The only two weeks he had off in '07, we spent getting haught in NYC and Manchester, TN. And while he misspelled the name of the White Stripes album, I think he was fucking with me...trying to see if I'd proofread. Without further adieu, JQ aka Dr. Thomas Beckett, esq. presents...

Top Albums of 2007 While Riding Through the Streets of Baghdad

There are two approaches when riding through the streets of Baghdad. The first approach is to be vigilant – eyes and ears open, scanning the streets for anything out of the ordinary, locked and loaded, ready to fire. The other approach is to do what I do...plug your dirty white Ipod Headphones into your ears, close your eyes and fuckin pray.

Here is what I was listening to...

10) Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer! – “The Past is a Grotesque Animal,” is a true statement and an epic song from a great pop band. Must be honest with my Elephant 6 bias on this one. I can see why people wouldn’t be taken by it if they weren’t previously into the E6 scene. Plus, the previously mentioned song can get you from Camp Victory to the International Zone via Route Irish with one single play.

9) Derek Webb The Ringing Bell – “This is The End...This is the Very End” starts Derek Webb’s poignant album. I think he used to be a Christian Rocker but this album rocks. Eat skin, Jesus.

9) Elvis Perkins Ash Wednesday – One of first albums I really got into in 2007. “While You Were Sleeping,” is one of the top songs of the year and the album packs as much punch the rest of the way. Acoustic and a lot of instruments...I dig it. Elvis has interesting back story considering his father, Anthony Perkins and his mother [were] on one of the 9/11 planes...but his music speaks for itself.

8) Elliott Smith New Moon – I was thinking that this is more of a tribute, but these songs affected me just as much as any other album on this list...so it belongs here. If Elliott transmitted 1% of the pain he felt into his songs, then one can understand how it all ended. Prolific, never wrote a bad song…anything is better than nothing.

7) Beirut The Flying Club Cup – I just love the fuckin horns! Much of the same from Beirut, but still a lot different and much better than the shit other people are putting out.

6) The Apples in Stereo The New Magnetic Wonder – Jeff Mangum played the Cow Object on this album...enough said. Seriously though, The Apples have reached a whole new level with this album (somewhat literally with Robert Schneider’s introduction of a whole new scale), but the album is simply fun and well produced. The whole E6 community seemed tied to this one way or another and I constantly had a visual of every E6 band in a room singing “the sun is out, the sun is out...c’mon c’mon c’mon check it out!!!!!!” Simply put, at the end of the year I found myself enjoying this album a lot more than others.

5) Rock Plaza Central Are We Not Horses – Came out in Canada in 2006, but released in the States in 2007...so I am going with the release date just to include this great album. Some might say Chris Eaton’s voice is awful, the songs have no melody and the instrumentation is mediocre and they might have a point...but the cacophony brings joy to my ears. From the beginning with the crooning of “I am an excellent Steel Horse,” I was in and the rest didn’t disappoint. “When We Go, How We Go (Part I)” is one of my favorite songs of the year. The semi-concept album about robotic horses that are used by humans in a war against angels is somewhat poignant to a soldier on stop-loss being used by the government in a war against...
Sad that I can’t even finish that sentence. Whoever we are suppose to be fighting, I am sure they are not angels. I AM AN EXCELLENT STEEL HORSE!!

4) The Poison Control Center A Collage of Impressions – The best find of the year. This album is hard to define, but easy to enjoy. “Thrill” is probably the best song of the year. “You hit your head…now the terrorists want you dead” seemed to speak to me when a detainee tried to spit on me in a helicopter over Qadasiyah Province.

4) Okkervil River The Stage Names – Okkervil River is better than your favorite band. “Unless It’s Kicks” is another top song of the year. What I wouldn’t do to be a 14 year old girl floating to the stage during an Okkervil River show.

3) The National Boxer – I think this band has invented their own music genre. “Slow Show” makes me want to be at least 29 years old. I was lucky enough to catch them with my special lady friend during Bonnaroo. They brought me to tears...or it may have been the completely naked dude standing right next to me.

2) Radiohead In Rainbows – Sounds like the album that should have came after “OK Computer.” I think Radiohead is at a point where they are able to utilize all of their experimental achievements over the last 10 years to pick and choose what to add to just make a song great rather than just make a song different. Whenever Radiohead would play a song off one of their albums since OK Computer live it would be broken down, raw and beautiful. In Rainbows somehow combines [that simplicity] with state of the art production and the [indelible] beauty of a Thom Yorke song. Incredibly, Thom’s lyrics are also improving. I thought so during his solo debut The Eraser, and now with In Rainbows it is even more present. When he starts singing “it was the 21st century, it was the 21st century,” I almost had a head explosion. The best band of the 21st Century.

1) Cloud Cult The Meaning Of 8 – I love the back story of a musician and when Craig Minowa opens up The Meaning of 8 with the pleading of “You have eyes like mine,” I nearly melted as I could feel the pain of his lost child. The lyrics can mean something completely different...but that is what I felt...and that is the power of music. All year, I compared everything to this album and it persevered to the end...listening to it just as much in December than I did in February. If there was ever an album to get you through shots fired, it’s the Meaning of 8. If there was ever an album to help you put on your helmet and do it again, it’s this one. Suck up...take your medicine.

***

Honorable Mention:
!!! (CHK CHK CHK) – Myth Takes
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
Bjork – Volta
Bright Eyes – Cassadaga
Dr. Dog – We All Belong
Figurines – When the Deer Wore Blue
Joanna Newsom – Ys
Peter Bjorn and John – Writer’s Block
Rufus Wainwright – Release The Stars
Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger
Smile Smile – Blue Roses
The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters
The White Stripes – Icky Thumb
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

Things I Wish I Listened to More in 2006 while I was too busy getting Haught:
David Thomas Broughton – The Complete Guide to Insufficiency
Damien Rice – 9
Anything and Everything THE KNIFE.

MP3: Rock Plaza Central - "I Am An Excellent Steel Horse"
MP3: U2 - "Desert of our Love"
MP3: Okkervil River - "For Real"

Steak Cologne? Stologne.

[Photo Creds: Sarah Lee/Guardian]

Antiquiet: Is the Queens sound a conscious or deliberate atmosphere?
Josh Homme: The thing is, that’s from years of doing whatever you want. Everything you do is habit-forming. You will form a habit of one style or another. And it might as well be getting people used to the notion that you’re going to do whatever you want. ‘Cause all the other habits include cow-towing to what somebody else wants. And there’s never a time to do that in music. As I understand it, your obligation is to play your favorite music that noone else plays, so you have to. And my favorite music is hooky, quirky, arty, dark, surprising, heavy, groovy, soft, emotional but not emo. It wears a sweater because it’s cold, not because it’s stylistically there.

Antiquiet: And it doesn’t try to fit into girl pants.
Josh Homme: Yeah, like there’s enough room for your cock and balls in your pants. And it’s in touch with its feelings, but it’s not a fucking pussy, man. Like, I need Lee Marvin, and I need Robert Mitchum. But I don’t need Sylvester Stallone, unless it’s Tango and Cash, ’cause that movie is fucking awesome. Or unless it’s my new steak cologne called Stologne.

Antiquiet: What are your thoughts on Radiohead’s name-your-price approach to selling their new album?
Josh Homme: I think it’s working great for them. I think they’re doing a really cool job of it and a really cool thing. Not everyone is Radiohead. You’re talking about one of the finest working bands in the world. So it’s tough to transpose a situation that works for the finest rock’n'roll band in the world and sort of move it around the cabin. If you were in a band noone knew, that wouldn’t work so well.
[Entire Interview @ Antiquiet]

Just when you think you've got you're monthly quota of Josh Homme (C-C-C-C-Cocaine), he goes and drops an interview like this. I'm looking forward to the day that QOTSA gets all In Rainbows on our collective asses.

MP3: Queens of the Stone Age - "Feel Good Hit of the Summer"
MP3: Queens of the Stone Age - "White Wedding" (Billy Idol cover)

The Mars Volta: Puzzles & Covers

You have to give it to TMV. Not as revolutionary as Radiohead's latest internet ventures, but fun. And rewarding.

I'm not sure if all 732 of my moves were necessary. I think they are just proof that my brain is mush from the first semester of grad school and/or I'm just fucking retahded. I was honest, I didn't peak at the cover art before hand, I just let my synapses do the firing. Eventually, I got the track...and I'm saving you the trouble.

The videogame trailers, video clip madness and puzzle pieces for punk covers do nothing but whet my appetite. The first few impressions of this album ("Rapid Fire Tollbooth" now called "Goliath" & "Wax Simulacra") are putting me into that Tremulant, ATDI frame of mind. From the looks of the track lengths, it will be a return to exploratory form for the band, but I can't help but feel a little buzz, a little something different.

The Bedlam in Goliath drops on January 29th of next year and is the first studio album from TMV to feature new, permanent drummer Thomas Pridgen, who joined the band back in March.

MP3: The Mars Volta - "Back Up Against the Wall" (Circle Jerks cover)

New Wu-Tang: Beatles Interpolation, Frusciante Contribution

[A Concert for George]

I make no bones about it: George Harrison is my favorite Beatle (in fact a framed issue of Rolling Stone with his face on it looks at me as I type), "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is my favorite Beatles track (no surprise, it was penned by George) and despite their abysmal live performance two years back at 9:30 Club, I love me some Wu.

So the news that Wu-Tang took the track on with the help of George's son, Dhani, John Frusciante, and Erykah Badu got me a little excited. As of yesterday I was babbling to some cohorts about how they were the first to "sample" the Beatles and now today we find out its an "interpolation". I feel like Wu-Tang has Bush's speechwriters penning their MySpace blog: a euphemism here, the wrong word there. C'mon. It's definitely a noticeable take on the Beatles classic. One man's interpolation is another man's sample.

Continuing on my nightly journey through the internets I stumbled across more George Harrison news. Martin Scorsese has agreed to direct a Harrison documentary that will be produced by Harrison's widow, Olivia, and involve participation from both Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney (a close second as favorite Beatles go). More at Rolling Stone and Variety.

Now back to the 36 Chambers:

"The statement that we made yesterday was incorrect and we apologize for any confusion it may have caused. We DID NOT sample the Beatles, i repeat, we DID NOT sample the Beatles, rather we did an INTERPOLATION of the classic George Harrison composition 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.' In a historic collaboration, Dhani Harrison, son of George, through his friendship with the RZA, played guitar on the song and he himself helped secure the REUSE LICENSE. Also appearing on the song are John Frusciante, guitar player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Erykah Badu singing the chorus. To satisfy everyone's curiosity, the song will be streamed exclusively on loud.com tonight. It will be the first single and video from the forthcoming album '8 Diagrams' in stores December 4.

"Thanks again to Dhani Harrison and the Harrison Estate for helping us make history." [TangSpace]

MP3: Wu-Tang Clan (ft. Dhani Harrison, John Frusciante & Erykah Badu) - "The Heart Gently Weeps"
MP3: The Beatles - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
MP3: Martin Luther McCoy - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

3 Round Burst

1.
The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP Is Is is full of old songs that never made it to albums for whatever reason. And it's excellent. I still haven't tracked down their performance from Letterman, but I heard they played "Down Boy". Pitchfork has a great review of Is Is and a continuing onslaught of videos from the EP.

2.
Sebastien Grainger continues to work on his solo album which appears to be slated for 2008. Everything I am hearing from his MySpace page rocks. Life after Death From Above 1979 isn't perfect, but solo work is better than nothing.

3.
The new Ataxia album is suberb. John Frusciante continues to blow my mind. Another solo slbum of his (dubbed Solo X by fans) is slated for release towards the end of this year. Production quality is expected to lean towards the polished, synthed-out stylings of Shadows Collide With People. We can also expect a sequel to A Sphere In the Heart of Silence.

 
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Down Boy"

 
MP3: Ataxia - "Hands"

 
MP3: John Frusciante - "Penetrate Time (Lou Bergs)"

 
MP3: Sebastien Grainger & Les Montagnes - "Are There Ways to Come Home?"

Interpol: Tour Dates, Pre-Sales

Interpol hit up AOL.

Our Love to Admire drops next week and there are special offers at iTunes (ticket pre-sales via TicketBastard) and Insound (lithograph).

The new album is streaming right now at MTV's "The Leak". I got my first full listen bombing my way up the Jersey Turnpike with JK. And yes, that's the third time in four posts I mentioned that journey. And yes this album is fantastic. In the same way I anticipate Bloc Party and Pearl Jam releases - and recently The National has been rolling like this, too - I am foaming at the mouth for some B-Sides and rarities.

Pretty soon news like this is going to be uber-relevant for our respective locations. I'm not in LA yet, but someone out there is and there are album release parties at both LA and NYC on the following dates:

July 11 @ Sweet and Vicious in NYC presented by Other Music.
July 13 @ LA's Natural History Museum.

LA folk can get more info at KROQ.com.

I'll be popping my LA Forum cherry in October. * marks the new dates.

5 July - POR - Lisbon Superbock Superrock
7 July - Eire - Oxegen
8 July - UK - T in the Park
19 July - Rochester, NY - Harro East Ballroom
20 July - Atlantic City, NJ - Music Box @ Borgata
21 July - Norfolk, VA - Norva
23 July - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
24 July - Pittsburgh, PA - Byham
25 July - Columbus, OH - The LC Ampitheatre
27 July - Grand Rapids, MI - Orbit Room
28 July - Detroit, MI - State
30 July - Milwaukee, WI - Rave
31 July - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian
1 August - St. Louis, MO - Pageant
3 August - Covington, KY - Madison Theatre
4 August - Lollapalooza Chicago, IL - Grant Park
5 August - V Festival Baltimore, MD - Pimlico Race Course
11 August - JAP - Summersonic Festival
12 August - JAP - Summersonic Festival
16 August - Austria - Frequency Festival
17 August - Germany - Highfield Festival
18 August - Netherlands - Lowland Festival
20 August UK- Birmingham Academy
21 August UK - Newcastle Academy
22 August UK - Edinburgh Corn Exchange
24 August - UK - Reading Festival
25 August - UK - Leeds Festival
8 September - Toronto, ON CAN V Festival
9 September - Montreal, QC - Osheaga Festival*
10 September - Albany, NY - Palace Theatre*
12 September - Boston, MA - Agganis Arena*
14 September - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden*
15 September - Philadelphia, PA - Tower Theatre*
16 September - Raleigh, NC - Disco Rodeo*
18 September - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live*
19 September - Miami, FL - Bank United*
21 September - Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle*
22 September - Nashville, TN – Ryman*
23 September - New Orleans, LA - Sugar Mill*
25 September - Houston, TX - Verizon Wireless Theatre*
26 September - Austin, TX – Stubbs*
27 September - Dallas, TX – Palladium*
10 October - Kansas City, KS – Uptown*
11 October - Chicago, IL – Aragon*
12 October - Minneapolis, MN - State Theatre*
14 October - Denver, CO – Fillmore*
15 October - Salt Lake City, UT - McKay Center*
16 October - Boise, ID - Big Easy*
18 October - Seattle, WA – Wamu*
19 October - Portland, OR - Memorial Coliseum*
20 October - San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium*
23 October - The Forum - Los Angeles, CA*
12 November - ITA - Florence - Sachhall
13 November - ITA - Milan – Alcatraz
15 November - SWITZ - Zurich - Volkshaus*
16 November - GER - Munich - Tonhalle
17 November - GER - Berlin - Columbiahalle
19 November - GER - Cologne - Palladium
20 November - HOL - Tilburg - O13
23 November - BEL Brussels - Forest National
24 November - GER - Hamburg - Docks
25 November - GER - Hamburg – Docks
28 November - UK/ Blackpool Empress Ballroom
29 November - UK/ London Alexandra Palace
30 November - UK/ London Alexandra Palace

MP3: Interpol - "Specialist" (Black Session)

MP3: Interpol - "Public Pervert [Carlos D Remix]

Vincent Gallo. John Frusciante. Paris Hilton?

[Photo Credit: VincentGallo.com]

While I was out of the net, Paris left jail, got sent back, served time and then was released. I could really give two shits. But I found this track over at Said the Gramophone called "I Wrote This Song For The Girl Paris Hilton" by an artist named Vincent Gallo.

I had previously heard of Vincent Gallo because of his friendship and work with the likes of John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer. Klinghoffer of Bicycle Thieves, Ataxia, PJ Harvey, and John's solo sessions and Frusciante of well, Red Hot Chili Peppers and my severe man-crush. At any rate, back to Gallo. Take a look at this dude's Wiki...I'm not sure if crazy is quite the word. He's got a who's who of interesting personalities among his acquaintances to include Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Ramone, Rick Rubin and Lukas Haas and I'm still laughing about his tangle with Roger Ebert at Cannes.

In 2005, at Weekend 2 of the Vincent Gallo-curated All Tomorrow Parties John Frusciante performed. That portion of the UK festival also featured Olivia Tremor Control, Autolux, PJ Harvey and Gallo himself among many other unique acts. Frusciante and Gallo have long been friends and Gallo is even referenced in the John Frusciante song "Look On" (one of my favorites from his solo work) from Inside of Emptiness. John sings:

Things used to be alright
So much was going on
I'm empty now inside
When I thought life was terrible
Things were going fine
Vincent called as a set up
Look on, look on, look on

I recently sparked a John Frusciante interest in my blogger-in-arms, JK. We had just caught sight of New York City as we headed toward the Lincoln Tunnel and I gave him a fast and furious intro to the greatness of Shadows Collide With People. I'm pretty sure his life was changed forever. Give me a couple of days to get my bearings and I will fill you in on how the latest Ataxia CD is.

And yes, that's John, looking at the camera, with the sweet molester 'stache in the above photo. As good as it is, it's got nothing on the blonde beast I'm rocking through the summer.


MP3: John Frusciante - "Look On"
MP3: John Frusciante - "What I Saw"

Treasure Island Music Festival

[Treasure Island Festival]

The chances of my fiance saddling up for another music festival after pushing through the dust and heat storm of Manchester, TN is highly doubtful, especially when this thing kicks off the weekend before I start school in LA. However, I've never seen Ghostland Observatory and our good buddy ultra8201 raves about them (I think that's them walking off stage in his header). I also never got around to catching Thievery Corporation in their hometown of DC while I was there. Not to mention the fact that I've never seen Modest Mouse, M.I.A., Spoon, Built to Spill, CYHSY, or M. Ward. If I don't make it, I'll have some reliable sources from the Bay Area in attendance anyway...and we'll let you know how it goes. 1-Day, 2-Day and VIP tickets are still available at TicketBastard.

On a side note, Modest Mouse has one of the most underrated albums of the year thus far. I think I might like it more than any of their previous efforts.


MP3: Ghostland Observatory - "Midnight Voyage"

MP3: Modest Mouse - "Parting of the Sensory"

MP3: Spoon - "Monkey Feelings"

MP3: Built to Spill - "Car"

Spoon: Dates, Tracklisting, Pre-Order

[Spoon]

Updated US/Canada Spoon dates. We will miss them at Bonnaroo because of Ben Harper and his nastiness going down on another stage. But I will be in LA by the time they are rocking out in the Henry Fonda Theater. It's all good.

06-10 Chula Vista, CA - KZBT Independence Jam
06-16 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
06-29 Calgary, Alberta - Sled Island Festival
07-04 Detroit, MI - Comerica CityFest
07-05 Milwaukee, WI - Summerfest
07-11 New York, NY - Rockefeller Park (River to River)
08-04 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-05 Baltimore, MD - Virgin Festival
08-16 London, England - Cargo
08-17 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop Festival
09-07 Vancouver, British Columbia
09-10 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
09-11 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
09-14-16 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (ACL Festival)
10-10 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
10-15 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
10-20 New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom

You can pre-order Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga at Spoon's store. It drops on July 10th. Here's the tracklisting:

1. "Don’t Make Me A Target"
2. "The Ghost Of You Lingers"
3. "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb"
4. "Don’t You Evah"
5. "Rhthm And Soul"
6. "Eddie’s Ragga"
7. "The Underdog"
8. "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case"
9. "Finer Feelings"
10. "Black Like Me"

MP3: Spoon - "It Took A Rumour to Make Me Wonder Now I'm Afraid I'm Going Under" [ALT]

8 Track: Recent Addictions

"He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone." Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Simple, haunting beauty.
MP3: Lightning Dust - "Listened On" [ALT]


Probably not the best track on this album, which says a lot. I can almost guarantee this album will be in my Top Five come year's end.
MP3: Dinosaur Jr. - "Pick Me Up" [ALT]


Everything a great cover should be.
MP3: Franz Ferdinand - "All My Friends" [ALT]


My favorite track on this album changes daily. Right now I'm grooving on "Slow Show". Thursday night. At the 'Roo.
MP3: The National - "Slow Show" [ALT]


It's hard to improve upon this track, but Diplo adds another dimension. The pieces that make it great are left in and then a killer beat and rhyme are dropped on top of the music. It's not better than the original (found on the CD above), but it's pretty fucking great.
MP3: TV On The Radio - "Staring at the Sun" (Diplo Hollertronix Remix) [ALT]


An unconventional leadoff track for an album, but an absolute beast of a song. A stumbling, drunken love song that weaves it's way right into the listener's heart and soul. I'm looking forward to catching Wilco (and Nels Cline) for the first time ever at Bonnaroo.
MP3: Wilco - "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" [ALT]


Still my favorite Pumpkins track.
MP3: Smashing Pumpkins - "Soma" [ALT]


Not their best album by any stretch of the imagination, but it has it's high points. "Not What You Wanted" is one of the peaks.
MP3: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Not What You Wanted" [ALT]

Bloc Party

[Photo Credit: Mark Cowan]

I have caught them before. So when push came to shove it wasn't that hard of a pill to swallow. That, and, well, it was my own damn fault. I spent the weekend in Tallahassee helping a friend out with a short film he was shooting for the Graduate Film Conservatory at Florida State. To say that it was a blast would be a gross understatement. I was on cloud nine from the time I stepped off of my plane in Jacksonville, until I got in the car to head back to Jacksonville on Sunday morning. Fucking exhausted and working on three hours sleep, I began my journey back to J-ville at around 9:30 AM. It's about a 2.5 hour ride, but I rocked my coffee, plugged in my iPod and began rolling through another listen of The National's Boxer.

If you're doing the math out there, you are probably wondering why I flew into Jacksonville instead of Tallahassee. For starters, it was kind of a last minute thing, I just finished my job here in DC and I start grad school in LA next fall. Everything was fairly hectic leading up to the end of my days at work and I didn't grab my ticket until late. Me being a veteran of Southwest I chose to rock out to Jacksonville, because it was cheaper, worked towards my Rapid Rewards and I would have to rent a car even if a flew to Tallahassee.

So there I am, "Brainy" creaping across the airwaves, when I make my fatal decision. I head West on I-10 instead of East, towards Jacksonville. No big deal. But, I don't notice it until I am about 80 miles in. Luckily I was on the phone with the First Lady when I realized my mistake. After yelling out "Fuck" about 10 times and U-turning at the nearest exit I had two choices: Go 120 miles an hour for the next 2 hours and hope of making it on time. Or resign myself to a later flight, which had a changeover in Nashville and still provided a window of opportunity to catch all of Bloc Party due to the fact that the Noisettes and the Maccabees were opening.

Plan B begins, I get on the later flight and all is well and good. I'm too tired to be pissed and there is too much road ahead of me to let my own doing unravel me. The iPod car jack shits the bed. I'm left to the radio. I can't buy a break. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is followed by "Only Wanna Be With You". Fucking Hootie. The perfect mix of yesterday's hits and today's favorites is melting my fucking skull. I drive by exit signs to Tallahassee and ponder, for a moment, driving back to set. The worst case scenario is missing the show and missing the shoot. The 'Hass was a sure bet, but there are very few opportunities that the First Lady and I have like this: Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Birdmonster, TV on the Radio, etc. I seize every chance I get to take in a show with her. And she was pumped for Bloc Party. And I'm doing the best that I can. To get there.

The good news at 4:00PM Nashville Standard Time was that I was gripping and ripping a pulled pork sandwich from Whitt's Barbecue. The bad news was that the flight was pushed back. Then it was on time. Then it was pushed back. It was of no solace to me that Steve McNair reacted the same way I did every time an obstacle appeared. He was on my flight with his family and was going largely unnoticed in the airport of the city he used to play quarterback for. The city he helped bring within a yard of a Super Bowl Championship. But I'm sure he preferred it that way. The worst part? The plane was right there. The crew was ready to fly. When I finally boarded around 7:15 EST, I felt like a slow motion version of Kevin Dyson stretching that ball out. My Bloc Party is his Super Bowl ring. The light at the end of the tunnel dims. Time is running out.

Boxer sinks in at cruising altitude. I forget when exactly we landed at BWI, but I grabbed my shit and sprinted towards the Lot A Shuttle. Everyone else was late for a connecting flight and as I run a rather large lady sees me running and yells "Are you on the flight to Norfolk?". I don't think she heard the "No, ma'am" through my heavy breathing. The shuttle was closing it's doors as I got there. Timing could not have been better. Things are looking up. I find my car quickly and I am out of the lot in record time. The Noisettes are on stage. The First Lady is in her seat. The word is that Bloc Party gets on in 45 minutes. Doable. And then the Baltimore Washington Parkway - the last domino I needed to fall perfectly - rears it's Jekyll head and morphs before my eyes into the Baltimore Washington Parking lot. I slug my way through a traffic jam that costs me, easily, 40 minutes. All the while, the First Lady is shaking her money-maker wishing I was there and texting me the setlist. Alright, it wasn't a perfect setlist, but it was close enough. I knew that "absentminded" was "Positive Tension"...we're good like that.

When I finally burst into the District they've finished the initial set. By the time I was running past the White House (after locating her car and grabbing my ticket out of her glove compartment) I figured I had about a song left. I ran anyway. I didn't need the ticket and I definitely drew some odd looks from people that were sitting outside smoking (why is this fucktard running to this show when it will end in a song?), I burst in and find entrance #3 and there is the First Lady perfectly outlined in front of Bloc Party's lights as the boys rip through "Sunday". I thought this was it. Big hugs, a big kiss and we start dancing. But they aren't done. "Helicopter". And later, "The Pioneers". A moral victory of sorts.

Looking at the setlist the following morning was salt on my wounds. I missed a great set. They are building an incredible catalog that will only get bigger and better as the years go by. My one hang-up is that they have so many ridiculous B-sides...but they rarely play them. I look forward to the day that this band brings the pain in the same way Pearl Jam does: so many songs, you never know what you're going to get, but you know they are going to dip into everything. Here are my Top Five Bloc Party Rarities/B-Sides I Want to Hear Live. Eventually. Next time.

MP3: Bloc Party - "Staying Fat"
MP3: Bloc Party - "The Once & Future King"
MP3: Bloc Party - "Version 2.0"
MP3: Bloc Party - "Two More Years"
MP3: Bloc Party - "Secrets"

Rage Against The Machine Countdown

I don't have a clue what www.ratm82407.com is all about...but I have the feeling it is really, really good news. August 24, 2007 hopefully marks the day that the renegades of funk drop another musical bomb on my ear canals.

MP3: Rage Against The Machine - "Renegades of Funk"

Smashing Pumpkins Residencies, Ginger Sling and the Scouts of St. Sebastian

Two residencies and two festivals stateside:

06-23 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
06-24 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
06-26 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
06-27 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
06-29 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
06-30 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
07-02 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
07-03 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
07-05 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
07-07 East Rutherford, NJ - Giants Stadium (Live Earth Festival)
07-22 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
07-24 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
07-25 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
07-27 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
07-28 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
07-30 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
07-31 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
08-01 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
08-05 Baltimore, MD - Pimlico Park (Virgin Festival)

I've been bouncing around the Interwebs trying to figure out who is playing in this band these days. I came across the name Ginger Reyes, aka Ginger Sling. She was (is) the bassist for the Halo Friendlies. They're pop-punk and are on hiatus for respective solo endeavors. Ginger Sling's MySpace page said "yes, it's true" which I assume means "yes, I am the bassist for The Smashing Pumpkins". Both her and the Halo Friendlies respective MySpace pages had a band called the Scouts of St. Sebastian on their friends list. I am really digging one of their songs, called "The Order of Things". A little bit Asobi Seksu, a little bit Silversun Pickups...female vocal, catchy, worth a look.

MP3: Scouts of St. Sebastian - "The Order of Things"

Ian Curtis Biopic: Control

I began tracking the development of Control when I learned that Anton Corbijn was attached to the project. Corbijn has directed videos from a diverse range of bands: from Henry Rollins to At the Drive-in to Echo & the Bunnymen to Depeche Mode and even Metallica. Even more interesting is the fact that Corbijn's trajectory paralleled that of Joy Division. He rose to prominence photographing Joy Division and other post-punk bands, going on to photograph for Spin, Details, Vogue and Rolling Stone, and eventually parlayed his visual and artistic talents into music videos. While I am a fan of Joy Division's music, I'm not a rabid fan by any stretch of the imagination. But I've found it hard not to become increasingly interested and fascinated by the life and death of Ian Curtis. After watching the trailer above I cannot wait to see Corbijn's interpretation of Curtis' life and times on the big screen. Via RS, I found out that the film recently won the Prix Regards Jeunes (Young Eyes Prize) at Cannes, resulting in heavy buzz and the Weinstein Company winning the rights to the film. I think it's safe to agree with RS on this film's potential as "a passionate labor of love", after all, Corbijn financed half of the film's budget out of his own pocket.

MP3: Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
MP3: José González - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo

[Photo Credit]

Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo the new solo album from Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez will hit iTunes tomorrow via Gold Standard Laboratories. You can find it here (or by clicking on the buffalo below). Among the 10 tracks on the new album is the TMV staple from the last tour, "Rapid Fire Tollbooth", and (new?) version of "Please Heat This Eventually" (originally on Omar's album with Damo Suzuki).

Tracklisting:

1. "The Lukewarm"
2. "Luxury of Infancy"
3. "Rapid Fire Tollbooth"
4. "Thermometer Drinking the Bussness of Turnstiles"
5. "Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo"
6. "If Gravity Lulls, I Can Hear the World Pant"
7. "Please Heat This Eventually"
8. "Lurking About in a Cold Sweat (Held Together by Venom)"
9. "Boiling Death Request a Body to Rest Its Head On"
10. "La Tirania de la Tradicion"

Amazon.com lists the band name as Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet and, naturally, has samples of each track. You can also preview six tracks at Omar's MySpace page, which also references the quintet. You may notice John Frusciante in the photo portion of the MySpace page, John guests on the track "If Gravity Lulls, I Can Hear the World Panting". Surprisingly, Jon Theodore (ex-drummer, The Mars Volta) also guests on one of the tracks (10).

Wikipedia has other info on the album:

It is one of four albums written and recorded by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez whilst living in Amsterdam in 2005. Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo was conceived simultaneously to The Mars Volta's Amputechture and Omar’s soundtrack to the forthcoming Jorge Hernandez Aldana film, El Búfalo de la Noche; which is where the title for Se Dice originates. Omar expressed that this record is a response and expression of his feelings of the film, the soundtrack of which will feature The Mars Volta contributions.

El Búfalo de la Noche is a film directed by Jorge Hernandez Aldana and written by Guillermo Arriaga (based on his novel). You recognize Arriaga's name because he wrote Alejandro González Iñárritu's first three feature films: Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and last year's Babel. All of this sounds familiar because we talked about it way back when...

From the liner notes (via Wiki):

"This album was recorded in Amsterdam in November 2005 partially at my then home studio but mostly at 10 Catharina Can Renneslaan. It was engineered by Jon Debaun and myself and processed though the E-Clat Portable Morgue Disaster Unit with final overdubs done at Greg Ginn's warehouse in Long Beach. Robert Carranza mixed and prepared it for mastering, which was done by Pete Lyman at 5076 1/2 Alhambra Ave., Los Angeles. Longtime friend and collaborator Damon Locks created the artwork (everything but the photo on the back cover) and the ever-present Sonny Kay is once again responsible for the layout and design. I wrote these songs in reaction to working with maestros Guillermo Arriaca Jordan and Jorge Hernandez on their film and soundtrack album El Búfalo de la Noche. This album is for them."

 

MP3: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - "Boiling Death Request a Body to Rest Its Head On"
MP3: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - "If Gravity Lulls, I Can Hear the World Pant"

The National. 9:30 Club. Tickets.

Tickets to the June 20 show at 9:30 Club are now on sale. Go here. And yeah, that's about the fiftieth picture I've used from their site. I just can't seem to get enough. You can stream all of Boxer at their other site or on AOL Spinner. It hits stores on the 22nd.

Shapes & Sizes [MySpace] and Talkdemonic [MySpace] are opening.

MP3: Shapes & Sizes - "Island's Gone Bad"
MP3: Shapes & Sizes - "Wilderness"