The Cobra and the Mongoose

A little over a week ago, I went with the fellas in Hello Monster to see Live 105's Local Band Showcase and Battle of the Bands. The battle had something slightly more than your average "handshake and maybe some cash" at stake: the winner of the battle wins the opening spot for Live 105's Not So Silent Night, which is their big Winter concert at the Oakland Arena. The winning band gets to open for Muse, AFI, Vampire Weekend, and a few other heavy hitters.

So why the title? I was trying to come up with the classic conflict, and it seemed fitting, but the comparison I'm making is the ancient struggle that I witnessed that night at the show: the struggle between a band and a sound guy. See, it's an odd symbiotic relationship, and there is a reason that most of the major bands you see much of anywhere all bring their own sound guys with them once they can afford to. Even in my limited experience, unfortunately there tends to be an unspoken rule that bands have to pretty much bend over and take it if the sound guy at the club is being a dick. It's how it goes: it's his club and his gear as far as he (or she, of course) is concerned. Many of them are great; a lot of sound guys I've worked with have been both wonderful people and talented at their job. But when they screw you.... boy do they screw you.

So here's the long and the short of it: the band that was pretty much the front runner as far as I'm aware hit the stage with their work cut out for them. Another band from earlier in the night absolutely blew the place up and had the entire crowd eating out of the palms of their hands. As soon as they hit the stage, something was clearly off. At first I thought it was a matter of my ears - it just seemed like the vocals were off key and the mix in the house just wasn't right.

Then between songs, the lead singer/guitarist asks for more vocals in his monitors. They play another song, he asks for more vocals in his monitors again, and it is distinctly heard that the sound guy tells him that he has to turn his guitar down before he can get anything else in the monitors. This request is ignored. See, this is the dance between bands and sound guys. Guitarists especially (I am speaking as one here) know for a fact that there are "sweet spots" in amplifiers when they are pushed to a certain volume. Sound guys want a much quieter signal, usually, so they can have more control over the volume from their soundboard.

And so it goes.

So a song or two later, the sound guy comes onstage to adjust the bass drum microphone mid-song. It's not uncommon, but it wasn't so glaring that the adjustment couldn't be made between songs. So, the singer from the band makes like he's kicking the sound guy the whole time he's on stage. I personally believe he made contact at least once, but that's still open to debate. So they play, they announce two more songs. They play another song, they announce one more song. They start said song.

Something is wrong.

Something is very wrong: the guitar is about a fifth as loud as it was. Then it hits me: they got yanked. The band tries to end gracefully, which is hard to do when your lead singer is trying to sing into a microphone that isnt' making any sound. So they wrap it up, they throw down their instruments, complete with the guitar leaning up against the amp so it feeds back, the singer flips off the sound guy and storms off stage.

As they are making their way off stage, the sound guy can clearly be heard saying through the monitors "You're done. Get the fuck off the stage."

Now let me elaborate: there was apparently existing beef going all the way back to sound check. Sound guy was a dick to the drummer, and some words were apparently exchanged. Still, to his credit, the band did have to adhere to a time limit as per the schedule, and they may well have gone over. I don't know for sure. I don't know if anyone does. But either way, by being completely punk rock about it, the singer won his band the admiration of a LOT of people there that night. But then again, his band just sounded off for like half an hour plus.

So who wins? Honestly, nobody. Except the band, that is, who was announced the winner of the battle the following morning.

The Fading Traces of a Handstamp

So, as you may have noticed, I haven't really been writing a hell of a lot lately. There are a number of reasons for this, the main one of which is the simple fact that I am essentially never home. I pop in and out from time to time between band practices and all the other social obligations, but that's really about it. Of these varied "social obligations", the main one over the past few weeks has been going to shows. Certainly I'm not complaining, there's little in the world I'd rather be doing, especially on some random weeknight. So you know I'm not exaggerating, let me break it down for you:

Sunday November 1st - Built to Spill at the Fillmore
Monday, November 2nd - The Airborne Toxic Event at the Fillmore
Saturday, November 7th - Los Dryheavers and Get Dead at Annie's Social Club
Monday, November 9th - The Pixies at The Fox Theater
Thursday, November 12th - Headlights at Cafe Du Nord

Five shows in eleven days. It's been a wild ride. Toss in about five band practices in there, plus my regular full-time work schedule. But it makes me stop to think: what is it about seeing live music that gets me going so much. I mean, it's time, and I don't want to think about how much I've spent in that time span between tickets and drinks. But still, seeing good shows (and I can say that pretty much all of those were excellent shows in their own right) does two things to me: it makes me want to go out and see more good shows, and it makes me want to play more shows myself.

There's also just something about going out, seeing people do their thing onstage and having a great time, there's a certain amount of pride I feel in walking into work the next day, the remnants of a handstamp fading off my hand or wrist, knowing I probably had a better and more fun night than most of the people I walk past. Still, I'm kind of looking forward to a week or two that I don't have any shows on the calendar to go to. It might actually give me a little chance to take some of that inspiration of seeing all these bands and write some music again.

Au Revoir Simone

So, you kids should hopefully be aware of the band Au Revoir Simone. True, you have to be somewhat in the know when it comes to modern indie music, but damn are they wonderful. It's three drop-dead gorgeous hipster girls from Brooklyn playing indie synth pop exactly how it should be played. While all their music is just gangbusters, there is one song in particular that especially sets my heart aflutter, and they just released a video for it:



Now, since my dear sweet Zooey D is married away to Mr. Death Cab, these ladies are now the cutest thing since bite-sized sliced bread.

So here's my plan: I own a MicroKorg, which is a pretty respectable keyboard in it's own right. I'm thinking that sooner or later I'm going to book a flight to Brooklyn, find these lovely ladies' rehearsal space, keyboard in tow. In due time, I'll convince them that what they really need is a fourth member. A male member. From San Francisco. (hurr hurr hurr, I said "member".... twice!)

Then, after a little time of learning all their songs, making myself a productive band member and trusted friend, we book a tour. Said tour will inevitably swing through Utah. Once we're in Utah, BAM! I marry all three of them on one fell swoop.

Then we start a family band and live happily ever after in music and looooove. And maybe kittens. Those girls have gotta love kittens.

Yeah, I Play a Little Guitar...

Unfortunately, that's not necessarily the case so much these days. See, I've kind of become a bit of a bassist these days, and while that's a fantastic thing, I miss playing guitar. I still play a bit from time to time, but in the last eight or ten years, I have mostly limited my guitar playing to band practices. Now that I don't play guitar in said band practices nearly as often, I don't take enough time to sit down and crank out the music as much as I used to.

So what does this mean? Well, it just means I have yet another thing to do with the time that I don't really have all that much of. Still, I feel like I'm somewhat musically stagnated from a creative standpoint, and I think getting back in touch with the ol' guitar is exactly what I've been looking for. I mean -- look at this face, that sheer joy on my face...



You'll have to excuse if this was a somewhat lackluster posting, but I'm really just trying to get into the swing of nightly postings again. I'm setting a bit of a goal to write a post every day in the month of June, and so far I'm two for two, but I've got a little while before I start counting my chickens. But hey, is' a good start.

Fuel to the Fire

As per the usual these days, I tend to be a little off on my blogging. The bright side of this is that I am a stone's throw away from finishing my thesis, and therefore actually having free time once again to blog to my little heart's desire. But until then, you'll have to be content with my sub-par ability to keep up with my updates as much as both you and I would like.

So a while back, (370 days ago to be precise! bizarre...) I wrote a post about Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and how much she bothers me. As some of you might have heard, they have a new album out, and it's really quite good. I give it a thumbs up if you're on the fence. The copy I got has a couple of bonus tracks, and I was reminded of a realization I'd had some time back: Karen O is actually a ridiculously talented singer. She's just such a spastic freak onstage that I think even she forgets it sometimes. See, the YYYs have an acoustic EP out on iTunes, and the bonus tracks have acoustic renditions of a few of the new songs, and every time I hear them, I am really floored at her voice. It's crazy - if she really gave a damn about singing more often and not trying to be that wild unpredictable maniac that everyone can't help but write about, she could go down as one of the better female rock singers of our generation. But unfortunately she's so busy screaming and acting like a weirdo and just generally forgetting everything anyone ever learned in the history of singing that it just doesn't come through. So this begs the question: does "showmanship" (and with her I use the term incredibly loosely) trump talent in our time? Are we willing to settle for someone with real natural talent doing a half-assed job at what they are good at in order to put on a show?

I think overall the same thing can be said for Charles Bukowski after a while. Sadly, later in his career, once the word had spread to the general population about his work and his readings, he bought into the image he tried to put forward. He was a talented writer; not great, not the best of his time, but he expressed things flatly and clearly in a style that was all his own, but half the people who'd show up to his readings were there to see him get shithouse drunk and make an ass of himself. If he didn't it was as if he were not keeping up his end of the bargain. However, on the other hand, it was the casual reader that would show up to his readings to see him get drunk and make threats and talk about women that really paid his bills for a decade or so.

Exhibit C in this little melange is reality television. With the exception of a few random folks here and there on some of the talent-based shows, nobody on reality TV has a single iota of talent. Yet we still flock to the toob to watch it all the time because these people make such a friggin' spectacle of their everyday lives. Is it really entertainment? Hells no. But does it help TV live up to its reputation as the opiate of the masses.

In closing, and I was going to try to tie this in with the Karen O discussion (as I so subtly did right there), I wanted to let you all know that I have registered, though I won't be writing in it for a while, a new blog that will be music-centric. I know some of you out there think I ramble on about music too much sometimes on this blog, and to some extent, I agree. So, with you good folks in mind, I will be writing a second blog just talking about new music, old music, and all sorts of other fun like that. The blog is called Godspeed You! White Blogger and I hope you all enjoy it!

Where Loving Son Meets Hipster Music Snob

Chances are, the vast majority of you who read this blog already know this, but for those of you who don't: my sister is getting married in just under three weeks. Naturally, this means that the whole family has been abuzz over all the proceedings for weeks now. As I am always wont to do, I am staying as far as humanly possible from all these discussions, plannings, and all that. It's not that I don't know how: I think my best man experience clearly speaks for itself. Rather, I just find that it's best to have as little as possible to do with family decision making, especially in matters that don't really directly affect me one way or the other.

I have been given a chance to inject a little interest and some cred to the ceremony by doing a reading, and I'm looking for something that isn't 1st Corinthians 13 or Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. I actually look forward to the chance to find something that isn't trite or played-out.

However, there's one aspect of this wedding that, being the musical know-it-all that I am, I am inadvertently getting dragged into, and I couldn't be any less happy about it all. See, I am a self-admitted, self-realized music snob. I like a wide range of bands that most haven't heard of, and I always have a little tiny shred of self-satisfaction when I can drop the name of a band that others haven't heard of before. Paired with this is a general dislike for a range of bands who I consider to be on the boring side of music. But I digress... Back to the subject: my dad is trying to pick out a song for the father-daughter dance. The problem with this is, my parents keep asking me about if I have songs to recommend. Being the musical snob that I am, I naturally have a ton of songs that I think could possibly work, but the bigger issue is the fact that my dad's knowledge of usable songs stops with much of anything written after 1975.

So now I have to patiently explain to my parents from time to time that, chances are, I do not have what song they are looking for. Nope, I don't own any Better Midler albums (does any hetero man under 30?). Sorry, I don't know that song that was a duet from Peabo Bryson that may have been in a Disney musical. I'm afraid that the next request is going to involve Yanni or John Tesh. Hell, I actually find it promising that he's moved away from John Denver, more towards Neil Diamond.

I tell ya, I feel just like Jack Black in High Fidelity when the guy comes in and asks for a record of "I Just Called To Say I Love You" but at least that guy wasn't his blood relative.

Top 11 Albums of 2008

I can't help myself - I really, really wanted to whittle this list down to a top ten. But I just can't do it. I debated, I hemmed and hawed. I gnashed my teeth and dressed in sack cloth. No matter what I did, I just couldn't bring myself to leave any of these albums off of my top list, so I can sit comfortably with eleven. I'm also including the other like eighteen or so that all got honorable mention from me this year. All in all, I'd say this was a pretty good year for music. Nothing earth-shattering, but no major disappointments unless you count the fact that Axl finally released "Chinese Democracy". Too bad it was lame (from all I heard, at least). So, with no further ado, I present to you my top eleven albums for 2008:


1) Brain Thrust Mastery - We Are Scientists

I just don't get it. No one, and I mean literally no one to this point has put this list on even put this album on their "honorable mention" or "in contention" lists. Did the U.S. just go to sleep on this one? I know that WAS are much, much more popular in Europe than over here. But still, this album is a top-to-bottom collection of great music. The guys are silly, the songs are catchy but don't slack on quality musicianship, and there is plenty of hipster cred to go around. And let's not forget that if you toss in a little extra cash, you could get the two-disc set which includes an amazing live set from Union Chapel in London. If you haven't heard it, go out and listen to this song.

2) Alopecia - Why?
I just discovered this band in the past year. Apparently they've been cranking out music since about '99 or 2000, and everything that I've heard from them has been good, but this album stands head and shoulders above the rest of the stuff I've heard from them. There's indie rock, there are ridiculously catchy loops and beats, there are absurdly good and clever lyrics. Again, it's a great disc from top to bottom, and I'm really hard-pressed to find an artist that I could compare to this band. Take a listen to the opening track here and see for yourself.

3) Moonbeams - Throw Me the Statue
I love multi-instrumentation. When you can have horns, strings, accordion, and even a glockenspiel to round out the sound of a band, it always makes me smile. These guys are new on the scene; though they're based in the Pacific NW, they have roots in San Francisco, and they put on one hell of a live show. I am always torn when I talk about this band - I love them and would love to see them blow up, but then I wouldn't be able to see them in smaller clubs and interact with members of the band after they've played. Eh, I think they'll blow up -- with songs this good, it's hard not to.

4) Walk it Off - Tapes 'n Tapes
I don't know exactly what it is about this band, but I can't get enough of them. It could be that they have what I think is the most underrated song of the year in "Say Back Something". It's so under-appreciated, in fact, that I can't find any reference of it on YouTube. These guys (or at least their producer) mastered that "this was recorded on tape, so it doesn't sound too perfect sound on this album.
They also have an appropriately absurd and hilarious video for the first single off this album.

5) Volume 1 - She & Him
Super cutie Zooey Deschanel and indie rock utility musician M. Ward come together to make one of the most perfect discs I've heard in a while. It's old-timey, but not in a hokey way, and it doesn't include much of that country twang that kept Jenny Lewis' album off my list. It's just a straightforward album that might be the greatest makeout album since MBV's "Loveless".
Also, their version of the old Smokey Robinson song "You Really Got A Hold On Me" is such an accomplishment it would melt my heart even if it weren't sung by the hands-down cutest girl in all of indie.

6) You & Me - The Walkmen
These guys caught me off guard. I had heard their name thrown around a lot by a number of people, but it wasn't until I heard this album that I really got it. They kind of capture that vintage sound that The Cold War Kids pulled off last year and had so much trouble replicating this year. The songs and instrumentation are somewhat sparse, and the singer has one of those voices you either get or don't, but these kids from Billyburg really pulled it all together on this album. Their song "In the New Year" is hands-down the crowning achievement of the album despite its peculiar video.

7) Innocent Ghosts - Geographer
This is my nod to complete and total Bay Area pride. Why? is from Berkeley, but they're fairly well known nationally. Geographer is a local band whom I was hipped to by a friend, and they really blew me away the first time I saw them. I picked up the CD (the show was the band's CD release party) and was every bit as pleased. Expect to hear a lot from them in the coming year(s) and expect to see me at their show with The Botticellis on January 14th. So far the only thing I don't really get about this band is their first video. Hipster interpretive dance?

8) Devotion - Beach House
This album is just chock full of Dream Pop goodness. The addition of slide guitar to a number of the songs really, really floats my boat. It's sparse enough to be tranquil, but there's enough there that you don't forget you're listening to music as can happen with some lesser achievements. Some argue that their debut self-titled album was really their better, but I have a soft spot for this disc. Plus, someone was cool enough to make a video with their song Gila over a video of Jayne Mansfield. Either way, it was one that I kept thinking "oh, I guess it doesn't have to make the top ten" but just didn't have the heart to give the axe to.

9) Narrow Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie
Another disc that almost didn't make it. I was debating with a co-worker a few weeks back whether or not this had the merit to make it on top ten lists, and that prompted me to go back and give it a few more listens. I will come out and say it - this is a phenomenal album. It doesn't have the amazing singles that "Plans" had, nor can it really compete with "We Have the Facts", but dammit, this album is yet another accomplishments from probably the biggest indie rock hit machine outside of Spoon. I just don't like the choice of singles, they really needed to hype "Cath" more than "I Will Possess Your Heart" with its four minute redundant intro.

10) LP3 - Ratatat
These guys do what they do better than anyone else. I don't even know how to describe what it is that they do. Instro-indie-beats? Electro-awesomeness? Whatever it is, I hope they manage to keep cranking out records like they are now. It's wonderfully melodic, it's catchy, and it makes me bob my head in approvement anytime I hear it. Basically, whenever these guys put out an album, it's got a great chance of making it on to my "best of" list for that year. It's the type of music I'd love to make if I knew a hell of a lot more about programming beats and loops. Check out the first single off this disc.

11) Hold On Now, Youngster... - Los Campesinos
These kids just seems like a good time no matter what. The album is a hell of a lot of fun to listen to, and they don't let hipster preoccupations keep them from rocking out and making some up-tempo overdriven music. I do have to question their releasing of two albums this year, but still I refuse to lump the two together for a single review. Plus, I don't have the latest release, so I can't speak one way or another about it. All I can say is that I liked this album way too much to keep it off of my "best of" list for this year. Their single "You! Me! Dancing!" also has a hearty dose of glockenspiel, which, as you know, always wins my heart over.


I will say that I was most disappointed to leave off "Some Racing, Some Stopping" by Headlights. I feel that it was a fantastic album, but when you have to stack ANYTHING up against their previous album "Kill them with Kindness", there's just no way you can stack up.

HONORABLE MENTION (aka "Albums in the Running")
(in no particular order)

Fleet Foxes (self-titled)
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing
DeVotchKa - A Mad & Faithful Telling
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping
The Rhumb Line - Ra Ra Riot
Minus the Bear - Acoustics
Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Does it Offend You, Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
Crystal Castles (self-titled)
Because of Ghosts - The Culture of Background Noise
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Abe Vigoda - Skeleton
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
Murder By Death - Red of Tooth & Claw

And I close out this music posting by wishing my congratulations to Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel on their engagement. Some day she will finally come to her senses and realize that she actually loves me, she just doesn't know it yet.

Musical Realization Plus Some Exciting News

So I was listening to a little John Vanderslice this afternoon, and while I have been enamored with his album "Death of an American Four Tracker" for some time now, I just had a chance to listen to a little bit of his latest album "Emerald City" and he does something that has become a bit of a trend: he is simulating overdriven tape distortion as a musical device. I don't know why this is such an emerging sound, but there are a number of indie bands moving in that direction. When it is successful it can be divine, as in Tapes 'n Tapes' latest album Walk it Off. However, it can also be blatantly over done. Vanderslice doesn't quite cross the line that extremely in his latest effort, but both Sleater Kinney's The Trees and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's sophomore album Some Loud Thunder both do this ad nauseum. I'm not critiquing the bands, just the technique. Hell, even all time favorites like Spoon and The Pixies have slipped in a couple instances of the technique that grates on my ears. I wish I could figure out why people do it, and moreover, I wish those folks would stop. Please - I love a little lo-fi edge to warm up a recording, but let's keep it under control.

Now on to the exciting (at least I sure as hell hope it is as exciting as it could be) news: they are making a sequel do Donnie Darko. Titled S. Darko, it is supposed to document Donnie's younger sister, Samantha, who is troubled with visions of her own. I'm curious because it's an almost real-time depiction of the time that has passed between the present day and when they made the original movie. Sounds fascinating but I hope with all my heart that they don't screw this one up.

How Serendipitous.

Yesterday evening, as I'm on my seemingly interminable bus ride home after work, I decided to get a little creative in my music selecting for the final leg of my journey. I was in the mood for something more or less indie that was still up-tempo enough to keep me awake as I stood there, bookless, among the masses. I settled on Bloc Party's debut album "Silent Alarm", and it fit the bill incredibly well. (pun intended)

So that evening I went home and decided to look up what all the latest was on BlocParty.com, and lo and behold, yesterday they released a new album out of the blue. It's called "Intimacy" and from now until October 27th it's a digital download only, though they have options for people who want a digital copy now and a physical CD later.

I've got to say, it's pretty friggin' good, too. It's a little more across the board, but it all sounds like what we've come to expect from Bloc Party. I may even go so far as to say that it's better than their sophomore album "A Weekend in the City", which I enjoyed, but thought lacked a little bit of edge from the first album. It seems they've re-captured said edge with this album.

Also, I have realized that I am a huge fan of indie rock with strings. I was impressed when Throw Me the Statue put strings in their opening song "Young Sensualists" on their album. Murder By Death, though not really "indie", has a cello that really rounds out their sound. (it doesn't hurt that the cellist is hawt, too) A few other bands have incorporated cello or violin into their music, and I pretty much always enjoy it. Then, last weekend I lucked into seeing this band called Geographer at Cafe Du Nord, and I was thoroughly impressed. They are three key members, with some supporting cast, but one of the three members plays cello (along with some keys/drum loop stuff), and they have a great sound. While still being wowed by that show, I happened upon some discussion of Headlights, who remain one of my favorite bands, and there was argument of the relative hotness of Erin Fein, their vocalist. Someone arguing that she wasn't particularly hot mentioned the band Ra Ra Riot, who has a couple cuties in the band. Luckily, they are also incredibly talented, and feature both cello and violin in a number of their songs.

So there you have it: click around the indie blog world, go to shows, and you too may find new bands to adore and new albums from bands you're already fond of.