I said I was back and then I don’t post for two weeks. I’ve been too busy wasting time setting up a facebook profile. I hate facebook. I tried to wait it out, but I lost. Why isn’t that totally over yet? Anyway, the next three nights I will not be lurking about the internet and I will be at all of these events even when it isn’t possible:
Thursday 9/11/2008
You know we love Doug and Thursdays at the eagle (I think, since that last post he finally got Carol’s load out of his hair). We love The Ohsees. We love the Sic Alps (and they have to have a better night tonight). And Ty Segall has been consistently entertaining every time I’ve seen him. This has good time written all over it.
Friday 9/12/2008
@ The Hemlock Tavern
As you know, I love girls (shut it). I wouldn’t miss this one either! Also, did you see, our very own Legs has piece about the boys in this weeks guardian.
@ Ghost Town Gallery
Sir Lord Von Raven went way up in my book when I heard they threatened to give the sound guy at the rickshaw stop a gorilla mask. Not because I have anything against the rickshaw stop, but because I had never heard the term gorilla mask before.
@The Knockout
This is the after party. Oldies courtesy of Primo and co! Its Nasty!
Saturday 9/13/2008
@ Gilman St
This show will be worth going to Gilman St and feeling like you’re a million years old because BRIDEZ keeps getting better, The Floating Corpses keep getting freakier, and Hunx and Junx can party.
These aren’t my favorite photos but I took ‘em and I posted ‘em to flickr so I guess now you gotta look at ‘em.
I was all aboutThe Fresh & Onlys before I saw them. Then I saw ‘em. I dunno if all the reverb impaired my senses or if it was some kind of triggered memory from the last time I was at the Rickshaw Stop, but when they all burst into dance for the end number I decided I might not need to follow them too closely.
Sic Alps weren’t extra good like I thought they were going to be, but they were extra lovable. As tempers flared over equipment failures they endeared themselves to me with every smashed guitar, defective cord thrown into the audince, knocked over microphone, and breath of fresh air grabbed outside. When the equiment cooperated though, all right!
Singer was last and good enough. All of the advanced press was accurate — lots of US Maple moves were copped. The last song was the best. I remember thinking the word pummeling. Thats a trick US Maple never pulled off and probably why I thought it was the best of the bunch.
Okay, maybe you didn’t think we knew there were bands outside of San Francisco (except, for this one time when we let on) but check this out: This thursday there’s a pretty cool show going on at The Rickshaw Stop with Chicago weirdos Singer, as well as San Francisco weirdos Sic Alps, and new to me The Fresh & Onlys.
Ok, so The Fresh & Onlys features “members of Black Fiction, Kelley Stoltz Band” and I’m really into the songs on their myspace page. Sixties, garage worship stuff — Thee Oh Sees are in their top friends, surprise! But so are The Strapping Fieldhands and thats a better reference point. The songs are catchy and a little weird and I’ve played this little ditty called “Nuclear Disaster” a few times already. There’s Harmonica too. Yay, surprise new band to go see!
Sic Alps rule, I know we’ve told you this (they were on our first muxtape). They were supposed to be on tour this summer but then right before their kick off show at the Hemlock, dude broke his wrist. Bummer! I think this is their first show since that mishap and I bet they’re gonna be extra good.
Then Singer. Singer has memebers of Lichens/90 Day Men and Town and Country and Drag City veterans U.S. Maple who were one of my favorite bands at the time. They were total weirdos. The songs would be at odds with themselves, the guitars stumble and then burst into some oddball rock posturing while the singer dude rhasped away. Live they would antogonize each other on stage. One time I saw them, an instrumental intro was stretched out much longer than it could handle because the singer was in the audience talking to somebody like he was totally not in the band. They knew how to make it tense, but after the show they’d be joking with each other and friendly as can be.
So from what I’ve read, Singer’s live show is maybe a bit like the U.S. Maple show. And from what I’ve heard, Singer sounds a lot like U.S. Maple if they were fronted by M. Lamar or something. Ok, maybe not, but these guys sing and harmonize their hearts out. At any rate, it sounds totally absurd and I will be there. Take a listen:
Today we are (kinda) hip to the internet trends. A muxtape for you with some bands we’ve talked about over the past year. Except for the Hard Place and Mon Cousin Belge songs, both of which come from albums out on our label World Famous in San Francisco, these songs were all totally available for free on the WWW so don’t get mad at me for stealing, ok?
Acquaintance Patrik Sandberg of West Add radio’s most listened-to radio show and blog, Cobain In a Coma, believes he is in Rhythm Nation- when he is in fact not.
Last Halloween Patrik sat in my apartment dissatisfied with his ramshackle straight-guy costume. I thought he looked okay in regular jeans; and the Nascar T was fun. Really it was. But nonetheless Patrik looked sad. Way sad. Now, I don’t remember how it happend, but I suggested my Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation cap. We put the hat on his head, some black and white clothing AND ta-da! Rhythm Nation backup dancer!
But what started off as a cute Halloween costume has now turned into an every-other day outfit. Go to his party on Saturday. He’ll probably be wearing my hat. Snatch it off that redhead and return it to me emkay thnx. I hope it doesn’t smell like Chochella. It belongs on one of my teddy bears.
Dethrone the queen Saturday @ Thee Parkside plz MK thnx.
A few Fridays ago No Doctors had their record release at the Elbo Room with Wooden Shjips, Fuckwolf, and Sic Alps. Also, it was a Jack Daniels promotional night where they were giving away a guitar. I kind of hate those promotional night, but they’re also kind of hilarious. I mention it only because the Elbo Room was super bitchy this night. Supposedly some dude on the internet named grandma put us on the list but when we got there this lady at the door made this huge production about how we weren’t on the list. I hope he was just saying that to get people to go to the show, that’s great promotion! Anyway, I offered to pay, but this woman had a big deal to make about it for five minutes before letting me pay. I’m sure she had to, all sorts of people were probably trying to pull a mentos to get at that guitar.
We’ve been reviewing a lot of shows lately so I’m just going to stick to the highlights:
Sic Alps – Everybody loves these guys. I wanted to like them, but enough with the vocal effects already. Every song doesn’t need to sound like its coming from deep within a cave, even if that cave does seem to sound really good.
Fuckwolf – So, they’ve added bongos. I heard they were becoming the next Faust. I don’t know if I agree with that, but the bongos ruled. Their crazy dance dub destroy manifesto is totally extreme. Somewhere in the middle of the set it feels like you can’t be take anymore, but they know better. These guys continue to be one of my favorites.
Wooden Shjips – Good news! This performance wasn’t limp at all and the drummer wasn’t slacking. Bad news! They still have no stage presence. Beer time!
No Doctors – Unlike Wooden Shjips, No Doctors owns the stage. I like their classic rock schtick, but I can see how its not for everybody. Two guitars, sax, and drums. Who needs bass after fuckwolf anyway?
