I’ve added links on the right to my upcoming concerts list and my concerts [I've been to] list.

What shows are you going to? Did I see you at that show? You can answer both questions with those links.

I’ll try to keep both up-to-date. Let me know if you think I’ve missed something.

Did anyone else notice that Girl Talk (from my native Pittsburgh!) is playing a senior prom in SF? It’d probably be just a little weird if I posted on craigslist offering myself as a date to said prom (to an 18-or-over person, of course), right? Though I do look smashing in a tux…

In other news, his myspace also has his remix of Grizzly Bear’s “Knife” up for download. It’s worth the download. Good stuff. I’m wondering what all the other samples are of. When’s wikipedia going to list every single sample in it, like it does for all of Night Ripper?adam ringtones sandler3310 free composer ringtonesringtone samsung a900 freeall free sprint ringtones raggae samsunglg ringtone 11501400 ringtone free lg 20free ringtone se 47 kyoceraa300 ringtone Map

Merlin’s Merlin Show is always interesting and it’s based right here in the SF. He’s also had a bunch of indie rockers on recently. You can check out these 10ish minute videos on his site or get them through iTunes. Notable for the indie rockers:

• John Vanderslice: part 1 part 2
• John Roderick (of the Long Winters) watch it here
• Peter Hughes (of the Mountain Goats) watch it here

Keep up the good work, Merlin. 401k plans loanspayday online loans loan 5 paydaypayday 11 cheapest online loan 8pay payday loan day 8 onlinea loan financing a carfast personal a loanpayday loan account savingsoftware lender loan accounting constructionadjustable loan mortgage rate adjustable htmlbusiness start loan payday advance

Last night I saw Adem and the Dodos (aka Dodo Bird). I’d been a fan of Adem since I heard/ reviewed Homesongs a couple years ago. My interest has gone in waves since then with an upswing after Love and Other Planets, but after I saw about four songs of his set opening for Badly Drawn Boy at the Great American last Friday, I knew I had to make sure I saw his headlining set at Cafe du Nord.

I arrived in the middle of Black Fiction’s set. They seem to be the band opening up for all the bands I want to see lately (like Rogue Wave was a couple years ago), but this was the first time I actually managed to see them. They had a pretty decent set. They have a wide range of influences that it’s almost confusing to listen to them at times.

After their set I ran into Nick and we talked for a while. I also ran talked briefly with Elise of Soma.fm’s Indie Pop Rocks.

The Dodos were up next. The aforementioned Nick had recommended them over on his blog there, so I was intrigued. Their set up is pretty simple: Meric on (mostly) acoustic guitar and Logan on an interesting drum kit (3 toms, a snare, 1 cymbal and a tambourine strapped to his shoe). Right from the get-go it seemed like they were on. I’d heard some songs on their myspace, which were good, but this was a different game entirely. Their melodic talents were supplement by ridiculous energy and shear skill on their instruments. I really enjoyed their set.

After the Dodos, the place seemed to clear out a little bit. I think some of the people were there for the Dodos.

Adem (buy his stuff at insound) came up after a short break. He started his set on acoustic guitar, singing and twisting, contorting, almost squirming while singing along to these delicate songs he’s written. He switched to ukulele (note the two u’s in the spelling) for a Bjork cover, then went wild on the crazy instrument front. Next autoharp, then mbira and guitar at the same time, then hand bells for a gorgeous tune based on a page of a children’s book. By the time he switched back to ukulele for “God Only Knows” I was all smiles.

At a couple points (the middle, the end) he brought on the Dodos to play some percussion. They’d apparently organized this an hour before his set and you could tell it was improvised, but it sounded great. Those were some of the highlights of the set. They finished off the set all together with a great version of “These are Your Friends”.

All in all a really great show: a pleasant surprise and a band that I wanted to be great (that was).

More photos after the break:
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‘lost gems’ maybe become a series about older bands/ albums that I feel are overlooked.

I was talking with Nick last night, a world famous (yes, he’s the reason you like Mogwai) and knowledgeable music snob if there ever was one, and he didn’t know Seldom. Maybe you don’t know about Seldom. I love Seldom. There’s an opportunity there, I think.

From Seattle, Seldom came onto the national scene in 2001, shortly after they released their only EP, Places I Haven’t Seen because of a tour with Pedro the Lion. By early 2003, they were effectively over.

In the meantime they made beautiful, dark, largely wurlitzer-based rock(/pop) with Yuuki Matthews’ great baritone voice on top of it all. From the first notes of “Who am I?” which was the first song I heard as I walked into the Middle East club in Cambridge the first time I saw them or heard them, I was intrigued. I bought their EP and was hooked. It’s just really good stuff.

The main members were Yuuki Matthews on wurly/ guitar/ vocals, Casey Foubert on drums, and Casey Wescott on guitar. Bass players varied and included David Bazan (the Pedro the Lion guy) and Jonathan Ford (Roadside Monument, Pedro the Lion, Unwed Sailor).

At the same time, Casey Foubert played/ recorded with Pedro the Lion, primarily on their great album, Control and on tour. He also recorded inaugural split 7″ with David Bazan on Ben Gibbard’s Bedside Recordings label.

Their album Romance came out the following summer, while I was living in Germany and I listened to it so obsessively that I still associate the album with different streets and locations in Stuttgart. A couple tours followed (including opening for Sarah Shannon of Velocity Girl and then another with Pedro the Lion) and then they were done, though there were rumors of more recording in there somewhere. All we have of them now are the EP and their album.

Seldom – Can’t/ Must from Places I Haven’t Seen (mp3)

Seldom – Who Am I? from Romance (mp3)

You can still buy both the album and the EP from insound. Barsuk also has them in their shop for whatever reason.

Yuuki and Casey ended up joining the Crystal Skulls, a band where their talents don’t really flourish. Casey was also seen playing with Sufjan and played a bunch of instruments on and co-produced that last Rocky Votolato record.

To be a real rocker, you need the right gear. That is why I am wearing my brand new shirt today. It is “Funkalicious” from Threadless.

I’m getting some strange looks from people at work, but they need to realize that I’m a rocker. I rock out.

Here’s my playlist from last night’s show.

Both the Boat and the Benoit Pioulard have been pleasant surprises lately. The last set was mixing that Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales reading (in Middle English!) with those five songs (the One AM Radio, Do Make Say Think, Six Parts Seven, Album Leaf and Mogwai). I think it worked pretty well. I also did two oldies sets, an indie rock megahits half set (the Modest Mouse one) and a Swedish songwriter set.

This is meant to be a weekly list of what interesting shows are going on sale the coming weekend. Here are this week’s.

On sale Saturday, March 31:

• Morrissey @ Paramount Theater, Oakland, 5/1 livenation
• Morrissey @ Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, CA, 5/2 livenation
• Rock the Bells w/ the Roots, Mos Def, MF Doom, etc etc. @ McCovey Cove Parking Lot, 8/18

On sale Sunday, April 1:

• El-P @ Great American, 5/18 virtuous tickets.com
• Hold Steady @ Slim’s, 5/30 virtuous, ticketweb
• John Mayer w/ Ben Folds @ HP Pavilion, San Jose, 6/5 livenation
• Menomena @ the Independent, 5/8 ticketweb
• Sonic Youth @ Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, 7/19 livenation

Mount Eerie is going to be playing two dates in SF at ATA (992 Valencia @ 21st).

Sun. April 8th- San Francisco, Calif.- ATA- 2 shows: 5pm and 8pm, 6$ each

I’ve heard so many accounts of Phil Elverum being crazy that I think I’ll have to go to this show. Plus it’s $6!

Check out the rest of their tour dates (west coast, Canada, England and Norway) after the jump.

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Somehow the music blogs haven’t quite picked up on my favorite album/ artist of 2006, Fionn Regan (myspace)—probably because his label hasn’t released his album in the U.S. yet—so here I am to trumpet him.

Fionn’s absolutely fantastic. His album the End of History is a collection of well-written, well-orchestrated, delicate but not too wimpy indie folk songs in the vein of Sufjan Stevens or Adem. Comparisons to Nick Drake are probably inescapable, too, since anything that has fingerpicked guitar is compared to him.

Fionn Regan – Be Good or Be Gone (mp3)

Fionn Regan – Black Water Child (mp3)

If you want more, he was recently on the BBC. Hearsay has the mp3s.

You can also check out his video for “Be Good or Be Gone”

Bella Union [UK] has the album for purchase.

Last night I saw Elvis Perkins (in Dearland) at the Cafe du Nord. I got there a little bit before he went on when they were finishing setting up and sound-checking their mics. I was a bit surprised because they had large diaphragm condensers for his vocals, the harmonium and as an overhead for the drums (?!).

When Elvis and co. came out, they pretty quickly launched into “While You Were Sleeping” which was fine with me, as it’s my favorite track off of his album Ash Wednesday. The band consisted of Elvis on guitar and vocals, a guy that switched between guitar, harmonium and trombone; an upright/ electric bassist and a drummer/ percussionist. Everyone sang back up vocals. “Ash Wednesday” followed soon afterwards. His sound from the get-go was really good. His voice was clear and the mix was nice.

His set quickly veered away from album songs. “Weeping Pilgrim” was a great song. I think it’s a traditional song. It was rollicking and fun. On a few songs including that one, the drummer got out from behind the set and played a marching bass drum with a mallet on one side and a set of jingles (like on a tambourine, but in a line) on the other.

All in all, the show was a lot of fun and the band and sound were good. I’d definitely recommend it if you like Ash Wednesday or if you’re on the fence about Elvis Perkins.

Perkins did do a couple things that could be taken as arrogant or endearing, depending on how you look at it. The one that I’m mostly thinking of was before the last song he said “Well, the last song before we go backstage and you clap for a while and we come back out.” and then later while people were clapping he stuck out his head out of the dressing room and said “louder!” It was a little much
more photos after the jump

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In the wake of Tower closing, the Chron covers the remaining SF independent record stores.

This ties in nicely because I recently went to the new Mountain View Rasputin which is in an old Tower location. I like it. Good selection and good prices and for the first time since I moved here, a (reasonable) CD store within 15 minutes of me. It’s got some downsides, in that it’s even more of an empty box than Amoeba. They’re working on the interior still, so it’s forgivable. Even though it just opened, it’s already got a decent selection of used stuff. I picked up Low’s I Could Live in Hope, Jen Lekmen’s When I Said I Wanted to be Your Dog, Nada Surf’s Proximity Effect, Velvet Teen’s Out of the Fierce Parade and Badly Drawn Boy’s Hour of the Bewilderbeast for $36 total. Not bad.

My other favorites are:

• Amoeba (Haight St.): of course, the king. it’s giant and has a ton of stuff. fun just wandering around in
• Aquarius: fantastic in the great selection per size department
• Streetlight (Bascom, San Jose): sometimes a great place for odd finds and rare records. Otherwise, just a decent selection and often good prices on new stuff

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