Pro: The bar that somehow 7 straights and 1 gay wound up going to on Saturday night had Hoegaarden on draft. ON DRAFT, PEOPLE! Con: I have had this damn Madonna/Abba song playing over and over again, and yet I still can't get it out of my head. Damn you, 15-minute club remix!
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After a few fits and starts, including 2 reschedules, "Kristin Hersh":http://throwingmusic.com/ came to town last night to play at the very small and very intimate "Plush":http://www.plushtucson.com/ on 4th Ave. I was lucky in that I happened to be sitting by the door that Kristin and BillyO walked in, and I chatted with her a bit while he was introducing her and explaining why, due to their "recent move to Portland":http://www.throwingmusic.com/blog/2006/04/not-in-this-lifetime.html, they didn't have their usual stock of t-shirts and other stuff, so instead they had some awesome handmade gift bags.
I admit that I totally geeked out and turned into a slobbering fanboy talking to Kristin. We talked about her move to Portland, my move to Tucson, and the different states that I had seen her play in.
Then she was on, and did her pretty standard acoustic set. Setlist was as follows:
White Bikini Sand Two new tracks off the forthcoming album Gazebo Tree Hook in Her Head Another new song William's Cut Your Dirty Answer Trouble Sundrops Your Ghost Clay Feet Sno Cat (encore, this time with the electric guitar) Cottonmouth Serene Listerine
Her voice was a little scratchy, due to her losing it about a week prior, so she stayed away from the high notes, but she gets a pass from me. She told great stories in between, from dead/crazy people on buses to blueberry bagels looking like necrotic tissue, to being in Throwing Muses and playing an impromptu gig at a bar in Scotland filled with very drunk Scottish folks.
After her set we once again chatted a little bit. She talked at length about her new album which should be out in January. The songs that she played live had sounded darker than the last few albums, but she said with arrangements were lush, orchestral and "happy", and she was really, _really_ pleased with how it had turned out. I managed to completely humiliate myself and ask for a picture with her, so today in the light of day I'm happy that I did.
Highlights: * Bauhaus * New Order * Coldplay * The homefries at a Palm Springs breakfast place * Winning $50 very quickly at a super-loose California "cardroom":http://www.hotwatercasino.com/ Saturday
Lowlights:
* The fucker from "craigslist":http://phoenix.craigslist.com/ who never got back in touch about camping tickets * Selling one too many extra Sunday tickets on Saturday, and having to buy another one Sunday * Forgetting my ticket at the condo Saturday and having to go back for it * Chemical Brothers * Losing $150 not as quickly at a super-loose California "cardroom":http://www.hotwatercasino.com/ Sunday * The 5 hour drive back last night, and getting in at 3 a.m. * The realization that I am now officially old and un-hip
This weekend I'm going to be heading off, along with Kim and two friends, to the "Coachella Valley Music Festival":http://www.coachella.com/ thingy dealie. It's sort of Lollapalooza on steroids, or Burning Man but less dusty, or even Bumbershoot without all the rain. I'm currently "bidding on":http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6526713282 camping tickets for all of us, which will probably be a lot better than trying to negotiate the clusterfuck in and out both days. Granted, it's still going to be a clusterfuck with "all those bands":http://www.coachella.com/artists/, but hopefully a slightly more managable one. Plus, if we camp we actually get to "bring in food and water":http://www.coachella.com/camping/?onsite, instead of paying $8 for a bottle of water or whatever it was that caused the Woodstock riot a few years back. It's a lot of bands, and there's quite a few that I would like to see, but it sounds like it's going to be a really, REALLY big crowd, which always makes me a little nervous. I wish there was going to be WiFi there, but there ain't... so all my "pictures":http://flickr.com/photos/tags/coachella will have to wait until I get home to get uploaded.
*Update:* Well, I didn't win the auction for the tickets, but only because some fucking asshole bid me out of them, thinking they were tickets to the _event_! Um, $100 to get 4 tickets that cost $175 each? "If it seems to good to be true..." Fucker. Now the original seller is trying to sell them to me for a Buy It Now of $100. No way, not when individual camping passes are going for less than $20 each.
New albums out recently from both Fatboy Slim ("Palookaville":http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/fatboyslim/palookaville) and The Chemical Brothers ("Push the Button":http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/chemicalbrothers/pushthebutton). Also out at the same time is a complete remix album of PTB called "Flip the Switch":http://www.chemicalbrothersremixed.com/. Out of the two, I like the Chemical Bros' new offering a whole lot more. Huge beats, Q-Tip shows up on track 1... what's not to like? I particularly like the eastern-sounding "Marvo Ging", and the slightly eerie "The Big Jump". The FBS album is not as good, at least for the first few spins I've given it. "Don't let the man" is fun and recognizeable, both from the 5 Man Electrical Band hook "and the sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply" and the fact that it was remixed on the last SSX game I bought. The other songs are not as catchy, proving to me that Norman Cook is a better remixer/house DJ than an original composition writer. Bonus points for getting Bootsy Collins (awww, shizzle!) to help him cover Steve Miller's "The Joker", tho.
Last night I drove up to Mesa to go see "The Pixies":http://www.4ad.com/artists/catalogue/pixies/ at "the ampitheatre":http://www.cityofmesa.org/cencntr/amp/amphitheatre.asp. It was my first time seeing them live, although I saw Frank Black and the Catholics a few years ago in Pittsburgh. The show was awesome... it was like listening to a greatest hits album live.
*Update:* If you want a rough approximation of what they sounded like, go "here":http://accordionguy.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/4/22/37799.html for links to the mp3 and flac versions of an earlier show from the same tour.
Setlist follows:
Is She Wierd Subbacultcha Something Against You Tame Cactus River Euphrates Monkey Gone to Heaven No. 13 Baby Mr. Grieves Ed is Dead Planet of Sound Caribou My Velouria Gouge Away Isla de encanta Broken Face Wave of Mutilation Debaser U-Mass I Bleed Hey Gigantic Winterlong Here Comes Your Man Nimrod's Son Holiday Song Vamos (Encore) In Heaven Where is My Mind
They sounded fantastic, and good ol' Black Francis didn't even look as fat as he was a few years back. I guess they're doing a lot of touring, so that's a lot of good exercise right there.
Mesa itself is a strange place. It's a suburb of Phoenix, really... so it's all sprawl. Plus, they have a very high concentration of "Mormons":http://www.dooce.com/archives/nubbin/09_18_2004.html there, so it lends to the overall creepy atmosphere.
"Joshua":http://firepile.com/log/ just pointed out to me that "50 Foot Wave":http://www.throwingmusic.com is going to be at "Club Cafe tonight":http://www.throwingmusic.com/index.php?module=PostCalendar&func=view&Date=20040506&tplview=&viewtype=details&eid=31. I would go if I didn't a) completely suck, and b) already have plans for the evening. Oh well, maybe next time.
Have I mentioned lately just how much I fucking *love* "Interpol":http://www.matadorrecords.com/interpol/'s "_Turn on the Bright Lights_":http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/i/interpol/turn-on-the-bright-lights.shtml? Well, it's a lot, I can assure you.
I have a bit of a bug up my ass today about finding either songs that have been covered by "The Cure":http://www.thecure.com/, or "Cure":http://www.thecure.com/ songs that have been covered by other artists, and "the Covers Project":http://www.coversproject.com/artist/Cure has been an invaluable help.
Looks like my homeslice "Joshua":http://firepile.com/geekday/07102003_2/images/Hawaii.jpg has his weblog "up and running":http://www.firepile.com/log/archives/000005.html. The thing that was extra-interesting to me was the link to "Edith Frost":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/55061/'s "weblog":http://www.edithfrost.com/. Here she is, a fairly big name recording artist, keeping up a weblog writing about geeky stuff like "browsers":http://www.edithfrost.com/archive/2003/07/28-i_think_i_love_fir.html, the same as the "rest":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000195/ of "us":http://www.anklebiter.net/log/archives/000142.html. I just love that the 'net has enabled artists to be able to keep so close to their fanbase through "their own":http://throwingmusic.com/ "personal":http://www.moby.com/ "sites":http://granarymusic.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi. Bravo.
If you happened to notice the music I've been "listening to":http://feralboy.com/musicarchive/?d=2003-07-22 "recently":http://feralboy.com/musicarchive/?d=2003-07-23, you'll see that I've gone through most of the "Richard Cheese" ouvre. There's just something so delicious about hearing lounge versions of Nirvana's "Rape Me" and Fatboy Slim's "Rockefeller Skank". All this lounge-y goodness has put me in a mood, and I've currently got "Portishead":http://www.portishead.co.uk/'s "Trip-Hop Reconstruction" on the "headphones":http://www.gradolabs.com/product_pages/sr60.htm.
Sonic Youth played a free show as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival last night. The show sounded really good, and although Sonic Youth isn't my favorite, I enjoyed the show. I did ask the SLF(Special Lady Friend) "So, with all the feedback and wall-of-sound experimentation and stuff they do, how do you know if they have a particularly _good_ show?" I certainly felt old last night. I went to the original Lollapalooza (yes, I'm _that_ old), and now whenever I go to an outdoor concert I get this weird twinge that's a mixture of nostalgia, disdain and anger. These little punk kids, they're probably in high school! And what's that cheerleader-looking girl doing with a pierced eyebrow?!! She's *so* not cool enough. And these little punk-skater wannabes? They probably all work at the mall, blow their money on video games, and have their parents buy them their ironic t-shirts and thrift store-worn jeans! Auugh!
On another note, it was nice to see The Dude at the show. I guess he's finally given up on the Creedence.
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I've been on a really embarrasing retro-metal kick lately, as you might have noticed by looking at my playlist or my Audioscrobbler profile. I've just found that it is very motivational listening to the driving beat of drums and guitars while coding. Plus, I half-watched that MTVIcon special with Metallica, which got me feeling all nostalgic and retro and stuff. I "found" a copy of their newest album yesterday, which is supposed to be all "back to their roots" and "heavy" and crap. Of course, there's nothing more pathetic than someone clinging to barely retro music.
Our Internet connection was down at work this morning for about 2 hours when I came in, and I felt like I was suffocating. Maybe it's because I'm so reliant on the Net for work-and-entertainment-related info that I really don't have anything to do here when it's not working. Anyway, it's back up again now, and just in time for me to order 2 tickets for the Throwing Muses show at Irving Plaza next weekend! I have to make sure I can work out all the logistics of getting out there, places to stay, etc., but it shouldn't be that much of a problem. Let me just state for the record just how much I loathe TicketBastard. There were no more tickets available through Virtuous, so I had to go through TM. $13.60 in "Convienience" charges and $3.90 in "Order Processing" fees later, and I'm coughing up $54.50 for *two* tickets! This is not Lollapalooza! It's just a show! Gah!
I'm gonna try and get in nice and close and take some cool pictures.
Brian has a good writeup of the show we went to last night. Besides, I'm so damn hungry right now I might pass out if I don't eat, so I'll do that instead of posting.
Over the weekend I whipped up a page to display full-day archives of songs played. There's a link under the last 5 played that will take you to the day of the most recent song played, and you can page around from there.
I know that the whole thing is probably old hat at this point, but Pat brought it to my attention this morning, and now I just can't get the song out of my head: "Where'd the muthafuckin' cheese go at? I don't know."
I added a new feature to the site; a real-time look at what I'm listening to. There are actually two interesting things going on: First is that I now have an Audioscrobbler account set up, which means that anyone can go take a peek at my listening statistics. This is very cool, because the more I listen to stuff, I'll get recommendations about which other users listen to similar stuff, and then I can find other music to listen to that way.
The other neat thing is the info gathering that I'm doing myself. I'm using Do Something to post artist and song title to a .nizzle page on my site, which is stuffing it into a local database. I then put some ASP-Classic (ick!) code into my Blogger template, which does a query on the db to pull back the last 5 songs I've listened to. I'll work on an archive feature over the weekend, so you can pull back what I've listened to on any particular day. The idea for this part of the new hotness was shamelessly stolen from Andre Torrez.
urg. blogger ate my post from before... i guess their database dropped a nut or something. i would really love to move to some sort of homegrown (or at least self-contained) blogging solution, but i guess i would actually need time to set that up, eh? for awhile before i went pro, blogger would eat my posts on a regular basis, so i got in the habit of actually making them to a text file, and then pasting in when i was all done. i didn't this morning, but i might have to start again. anyway, i was pretty happy with the weather this a.m.; after the last few weeks, 30 degrees and light snow feels like a balmy summer day.
in other news, a friend of the slf who happens to be a music distributor sent along pre-release copies of the new kristin hersh and throwing muses cds. i know that all the people on the throwing music messageboard are all geeked out because of the new muses record (titled "throwing muses", appropriately enough), which is their first since they went into semi-retirement in the late 90s, but i've really only been able to give that one spin so far. i've been completely entranced by kristin's solo album, "the grotto". i've been listening to it pretty much non-stop at work since monday. the album is a collection of raw nerves, bundled together for your listening enjoyment. the music on some borders on downright "rollicking", but most are classic solo kristin. perfect example is track #1, "sno cat". stripped-down arrangement; just kristin's quavering-yet-strong voice, her guitar, and a tinkling piano in the closing seconds. pure bliss.
so, this turned up in my inbox today (links are mine): From: Derek DePrator To: webmaster@feralboy.com Subject: kudos on yr review of the j mascis show, please read on:)
hi im derek deprator and i formerly played guitar for cobra verde. i laughed my fucking ass off to your review, it's so fucking accurate of the kind of show those fucking pussies put on it's not even funny. john petkovic is a fucking backstabbing asshole that deserves every negative word that's printed about him timed infinity, cuz god knows he writes for the newspaper here in cleveland so he knows all these press folks so there aren't damn near ENOUGH negative things written about him... but anyway if you're interested...this is me www.geocities.com/eleettapes/derekdeprator/ and here www.tellersrock.com though that url will probably change soon because we're going to change the name of the band...john blamed our lead singer on 'influencing me' to quit the band and screamed at her...me and her are 22 years old and he's this 37 year old 6 and a half foot tall guy it's like shit, pick on someone yr own size fuckface. anyway i just wanted to let u know the site was brought to my attention and i'm glad other people feel the same way i do. feel free to throw stuff at them next time they come to town...cuz god knows j and watt are the only two people in rock and roll stupid enough to hire them repeatedly (we'd opened for mudhoney, breeders, makers, matthew sweet, none of whom ever asked us back, gee wonder why)
hope to talk to ya soon bro, u run a good site.
derek
i have to admit that i was pretty freakin' happy that there are actually people outside my small circle of friends who actually read my page.
--update-- ooh, the plot thickens. now i'm getting bashed in c.v.'s yahoo group.
--update 2-- the whole thread has been yanked. while i support the board moderator's editorial control, i think that the discussion was light-hearted enough that it could have remained. i said my peace, and someone replied jokingly, and everyone was happy. there was no hatred flowing around, so i still find it a little odd that the thread was pulled. probably because i linked to this entry with the email from the former band member. hm... now that i think about it, it probably was a good idea. ;-)
