I was exhausted, but the cold wind woke me up as I zipped through the streets of the Mission on my bike. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go and I was a little burnt out from going to so many shows recently, but I decided a bike ride would be good for me and what better place to ride than the Rickshaw Stop where locals Here Here (unrelated wikipedia entry) and Winterbirds (myspace) and Portland band Musee Mechanique (named after one of my favorite SF institutions) were on the bill.

The first band to break through the chattering crowd was the Winterbirds. They started with a guy and a girl, two vocals, fingerpicked guitar and electronic piano and during the next song, they added in drums and bass. It took a few minutes but I realized that the vocals, their sound and the harmonies reminded me a lot of Low, while the chord progressions reminded me, as clarified by Burton of the Botticellis, of Pedro the Lion. All in all, they have a pretty solid slowcore thing going. I liked their set.

I didn’t buy their (homemade?) EP that night, but I now I’m kicking myself, especially after listening through some of their myspace songs again. I tried getting in contact with them to get it, but to no avail. Winterbirds, please sell me your record! (Contact info here.)

During the set break, I noticed most of the Morning Benders were there. We chatted. Nice guys. Apparently they were there to see Here Here.

I’d come to see Musee Mechanique, though I didn’t know a lot about them other than their myspace songs. They had a good sound with keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and a few people taking turns at lead and background vocals. The songs themselves were a bit hit and miss–well, I should clarify, there were some songs that I really liked and some that didn’t quite do it for me. Overall a nice set.

Here Here came up and immediately reminded me of the Arcade Fire: not only did their set up have accordion, trumpet, violin, keys, guitars, drums, bass, etc, but some of their song structures did the swirling beginning that solidifies before the vocals enter and then the rest of the band enters later thing that the Arcade Fire does quite a bit. And some of the vocal interjections were similar as well. I’m not saying a band can’t be reminiscent of another band, but I found this similarity distracting.

After a half dozen songs, I decided to head out, back onto my bike, speeding through the still brisker air and more deserted streets.

Local indie poppers The Botticellis (myspace), whose debut full length Old Home Movies is coming soon on Antenna Farm Records have a new song for the impatient. It’s a cover of George Harrison’s “Awaiting on You All” (off of the most successful Beatles solo album). I love the sound of the Botticelis version, especially the guitars (ringing, almost 50s sounding) and the vocals (great harmonies).

the Botticellis – Awaiting on You All (mp3)

Old Home Movies is out May 13. I heard it back in August and listened to it a lot. I can recommend it. More about tour dates and more tunes are available at their myspace (and don’t forget about their gig in a surf shop this week).

Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.

–

Adrian (me):
Deer Tick – These Old Shoes (mp3) (buy)

I don’t know what it is exactly about this song that has its hooks in my brain. I like the narrative–it’s like the opposite of that oldies song, “The Letter” (”Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane/ ain’t got time to take a fast train“). I’ll do anything to get to you, even if it takes forever. I also love the singing and the train beat on the drums.

–

Andy:
Neutral Milk Hotel – Up and Over We Go (mp3) (buy)

I was digging around last weekend, and found this one, originally released on a 7″ that’s long out of print and hard to find.

It’s got a lot to live up to – the version of this with which most of us are familiar (King of Carrot Flowers pt. 3) is an excellent song on an an album that, arguably, changed the way a generation of young indie rockers thought about music. It certainly did for me.

And truthfully, I think I like this version more – it may not have surpassed the live version of Engine as my favorite NMH song ever, but it’s pretty close. There’s more fuzz in this one, and the straight-ahead drumming changes the feel of the song completely. It’s a great little fuzz-pop song – short, to the point, and totally rocking.

–

Natalie K:
Nada Surf – Are You Lightning? (mp3) (buy)

I didn’t get how intense this song was until I saw them play it live last week. Ever since then, I’ve listened to it at least once or twice a day. It’s just got this great feeling of longing and hope to it.

–

Keith:
Stephanie Says – I Hope You’re Happy (mp3) (buy)

Back after a short vacation prompted by family obligations. At least I got to spend an hour at Reckless Records in Chicago! Pawing through the used CDs I came across a Grimsey release by the band Stephanie Says, two good references as the label consistently puts out lovable indie pop and VU worshiping usually yields lavorful fruit. I’ll let you decide if my instincts were correct!

–

Dave:
Secret Stars – Wait (mp3) (out of print?, buy other releases)

So in gearing up for the rebirth of the covers contest I went back through all the songs we had done and got obsessed with this one all over again. Most may be familiar with the Death Cab for Cutie version of this song, which is really good, but there’s just something about the original. I feel like it would fit perfectly over the emotional denouement of some awesome indie film.

Engadget points to interesting reuters article about teens not caring about potential hearing loss:

In focus-group discussions with students at two high schools in the Netherlands, researchers found that the teens were generally aware that blasting an MP3 player could harm their hearing. Yet most said they usually played their own device at maximum volume and had no plans to change that.

This reminds me of the group Don’t Lose the Music that I’ve heard about lately. They have a pretty good point: you won’t be able to hear music well if you have hearing loss. Another point about hearing loss is that it won’t just make all music harder to hear; hearing loss affects some frequencies more than others so it’ll distort music as well.

As someone who loves music and has had some temporary hearing loss, I can say it’s not a good situation to be in.

Check out my recommendations for ear plugs and keep the volume reasonable on those ipods.

It’s been a few weeks since I first talked about it. The Outside Lands Festival (no, not…) line-up has been announced and as I mentioned tickets go on sale soon. Everyone has commented on this already.

Here are some of the bands I might actually like to see that are in the line-up:

Radiohead
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Beck
Wilco
Manu Chao
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
Broken Social Scene
Regina Spektor
Andrew Bird
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings
Drive-By Truckers
Donavon Frankenreiter
Bon Iver
Sean Hayes

But tickets are $225 (+ absurd ticketmaster fees)–Scott made a good point that you might need an extra job to pay for that pretty hefty fee–and I’ve made known my preference for venue-based festivals over giant outdoor festivals. I know I sound like an ornery old man in saying this, but I’d prefer going to see just the bands I want to see in a small venue rather than with thousands of people while sitting or standing miles from the stage.

Posted every Thursday On Sale Soon is a weekly series of the tickets going on sale that weekend.

Where to get tickets: The Independent, Great American Music Hall, Slim’s, Fillmore, Warfield, and other Livenation venues. Another Planet booked venues like Greek Theatre @ Berkeley, Palace of Fine Arts, etc. Bimbo’s.

Pre sale now/ Thurs March 27:
8/22-8/24 Outside Lands Festival w/ Radiohead, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Jack Johnson, Beck , Wilco,, Manu Chao, Broken Social Scene, Regina Spektor, Devendra Banhart, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, M. Ward, Drive-By Truckers, Donavon Frankenreiter, Bon Iver @ Golden Gate Park

On sale Saturday March 29:
4/19 La 5a Estacion @ San Jose Center for the Performing Arts

7/15 Jonas Brothers @ Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View
7/17 Jonas Brothers @ Sleep Train Pavilion

On sale Sunday March 30:
4/22 John Butler, Mama Kin @ The Fillmore

5/2 Nick Swardson @ The Warfield
5/16 Robyn @ Bimbo’s
5/22 Crudo featuring Mike Patton and Dan the Automator @ Great American

6/13 Poor Man’s Whiskey, The Mother Truckers, Four Year Bender @ Slim’s
6/19 George Michael @ HP Pavilion
6/20 She Wants Revenge, Be Your Own Pet, The Virgins @ The Fillmore
6/20 Earth, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter @ Great American

8/22-8/24 Outside Lands Festival w/ Radiohead, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Jack Johnson, Beck , Wilco,, Manu Chao, Broken Social Scene, Regina Spektor, Devendra Banhart, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, M. Ward, Drive-By Truckers, Donavon Frankenreiter, Bon Iver @ Golden Gate Park

Double check all information as venues and promoters often change on-sale times and days up until the last minute.

I put it on my January mixtape. And they played it on Conan a little bit ago. I like it’s sound a ton–the vocals, banjo, brushed drums and pedal steel go really well together.

I only have a four song sampler from the album. I like that–how’s the rest of the album? Should I pick it up?

(Looks like the band will be in town for Outside Lands in August.)

Everyone’s 6th most favorite music blog turns one today.

On Sunday I saw a “solo” set by Jens Lekman at the Bottom of the Hill.

I’d seen him a week and change prior at SxSW, but I’d bought these tickets months ago and I was really glad I went. The SxSW Mohawk set was good but this “solo”–I keep using quotes because, in fact, he played with a bongo player, perhaps named Tanya–in a small venue was a lot more intimate and malleable than that set.

Si, Claro was up on stage when I got there. It was one guitar and a voice. It was pretty dark/ emotional stuff that didn’t seem to fit with the band that most people had come for.

Jens came on wearing a white shirt with a flowery design on it and put on his archtop guitar. He made what he referred to as a “silly” request, that people didn’t take videos of that night’s performance. People sort of laughed at this and he said he figured that would be the reaction and that he wanted to keep this night special.

Special, the night was. From the get go, it was clear that Jens was in top form. He played and sang well. In addition to that, though, he’s become an excellent showman; he had the audience in the palm of his hand the whole time. We were following each detail of his stories, each demonstrative hand movement and gesture, each exaggerated facial expression.

Even in his most solo moments in the few times I’d seen him before, he’d always played with his samples at least (save the time I saw him play a song standing on a coffee table at the Rickshaw Stop with just ukulele and vocals.) On Sunday, he played entirely without samples until “I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You”, which was just a couple from the end of his regular set (and he played the encore without samples).

Here are some of the highlights:

• “Black Cab” sans sample–I’d always heard this song with the sample along with it. He played that part on guitar and it gave the song a whole new feel.
• the storyteller version for “Postcard for Nina”–lately his live version of this song is accompanied by a long story of how the song came about and is acted out on stage to quite an extent by Jens
• Rollicking singalong of “Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill”–everyone sang “bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom!” while Jens mimed his heart beating.
• Arthur Russell song (”A Little Lost”) on kalimba–I love when Jen’s plays his gorgeous sounding kalimba and this was no different. It wasn’t as heartbreakingly gorgeous as the version of “the Cold Swedish Winter” I heard him do on the instrument a few yeas back, but it was pretty nice
• “Julie” w/ reggaeton beat–Jens said that when he was first in SF (spring of ‘05 for a Cafe du Nord show) he said the same song was coming out of all of the car stereos and then sang the generic reggaeton beat, which the bongo player picked up and then they did a really odd and awesome version of “Julie” on top of it.
• Opposite of Hallelujah->Just a Little More Time (Chairman of the Board)->Opposite of Hallelujah–Jens did a great version of long-time favorite of mine, “Opposite of Hallelujah” (with samples) but then segued into the 70s tune “Just a Little More Time” (during which he mostly danced and sang away from the mic) before coming back to his song, which ended with him miming the bell part in the air (see photo below)
  Jens Lekman – Opposite of Hallelujah (mp3)
  
• his story telling in general–between songs and even mid-song he’d break out quirky and funny little stories

Jens playing the air bells along with the “Opposite of Hallelujah” sample

This was the encore as I remember it:

Encore:

• Se a Vida E (Pet Shop Boys)
• You are the Light
• Shirin
• Pocketful of Money (singalong in lieu of Beat Happening sample)

Closing with everyone singing along with “Pocketful of Money” was a pretty amazing and satisfying way to finish up the evening.

View the rest of my album.

There seemed to be some downtime for a couple hours earlier today on the server that hosts IPMN. I’m investigating.

I was too busy to post this during the show, but I did my radio show, “I once was Canadian” like every Tuesday 6-9am on KZSU.

You can check out my playlist. I liked the mix of music this morning–good oldies stuff, some new stuff, some local stuff. I feel like it had decent flow between the songs. I’ve got to work on being more awake, though–it’s so dang early.

Also, if you want to give the show a listen, click the play button:

It starts about a minute in and then a (funny) comedy track comes on. If you want to get right to the music, go to about 5 minutes in. [Note: if you don't get the whole mp3 and it's still early on Tuesday, that may be because the mp3 hasn't fully uploaded yet. Try back again later.]

Saturday night I went to the one true Fillmore to see Nada Surf (myspace) and Sea Wolf (myspace).

I’d seen Sea Wolf a week ago at SxSW and Nada Surf a month ago (acoustic) at the Swedish American Hall, but I decided to hit this show up anyway.

I’d seen Sea Wolf a week ago at SxSW (as I mentioned) and they played a fairly similar setlist this time. While I liked their previous set, I feel like this show worked a lot better. It was tighter and sounded better (probably due to the fact that they had a chance to sound check). I expected that the front rows would be Nada Surf diehards that were just waiting for their band to come on and to be somewhat indifferent to the opener, but as it was there were a lot of people who knew the songs and were shouting out requests. I was a bit surprised.

I guess I don’t have a lot else to say about Sea Wolf. They played well. It was a fun set. I’m not sad that I saw them again.

the view through the wide-angle mirrors that were set up stage rear

Nada Surf came on after a short break. I’d seen them twice before but this was, in fact, the first time I’d see them play as a full rock band–the previous two were acoustic and stripped down and informal for a benefit. During the break I noticed a lot of young adults, so to speak, at the front. As I mentioned yesterday, I love it when I see an all ages crowd at an all ages show.

The band played pretty well, rocking their new songs and old ones as well, much to the crowd’s enjoyment.

Matthew also turns out to be super nice. Between two songs, the kid right in front of me said quite quietly “I’m really thirsty, Matthew” and during the next set break he said a little louder “Matthew, do you have any extra water?” and Matthew handed him a bottle of water. Nice guy!

A bunch more photos after the jump, or check out my photo album.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday I saw the Austin Guitar Army[1], Explosions in the Sky (myspace) at the Great American.

Thinking about the show, I’m realizing I don’t have a ton to say about it. It was a really great show and I was really happy I went. Explosions played their songs really well and with a lot of energy. There weren’t a lot of breaks between songs–one song would wind down to a ringing sustain and the next one would start up immediately. The whole thing felt like one hour and a half long song. People who sometimes squeeze in a quick round of applause during that sustain; other times there wasn’t applause. There was more applause in general at the beginning of songs that were the more popular or recognizable Explosions songs, e.g. “Your Hand in Mine”.

Here’s one thing I can definitely say, though: when they turn on the house lights at the Great American, the show is over, the band is not coming back. The lights come on and people make their way to the back. That’s how it works. Well, this is first show that I’ve been to there that the audience refused to accept this and kept clapping and yelling anyway. Eventually guitarist Munaf had to come back on stage and said they had nothing else to play.

I take it some people like 21+ shows because they don’t have to deal with teens. I hate 21+ shows when I was younger, but these days I just tend not to notice, unless, of course, there’s a significant contingent of under age kids at a show, like there was Friday. (Thinking about it often makes sense that Explosions were a big draw with teens–accessible but dark and somewhat disaffected music seems like it fits with the high school experience for many people.) They’re often so eager and happy to be there that’s it’s refreshing. San Francisco isn’t a particularly jaded music town, but the older concert goers, myself included, often have a distance from the band, the music and the experience. In addition, I love when younger people are into good music. It gives me hope about the industry.

One interesting thing in the evening is that at this point I’ve seen most of my post-rock favorites (Rachel’s, Godspeed!, A Silver Mt Zion, Mogwai), but so many times before I enjoyed the show and the bands played well (or even amazingly, as A Silver Mt. Zion) but I wasn’t really in the mood for post-rock on each particular evening. Post-rock is definitely more of a mood-dependent music for me than many other genres. I was definitely a lot more welcoming mood-wise of Explosions in the Sky than of previous post-rock bands. I don’t know if Friday’s show just happened to fall when I was in the mood for it or if the Explosions’ welcoming sound got me in the mood.

[1] yup, a reference.

[Update:] The show has appeared on archive.org if you want to give it a listen.

On Thursday, I saw the Speakers (myspace) with Ash Reiter at the Hemlock. The Speakers are Brian Miller of ipickmynose local fav Lightning Bug Situation along with Peter Musselman. Last of the Blacksmiths was also on the bill, but I wasn’t their for their set.

Ash Reiter was first up. It’s on days like Thursday where the Hemlock feels like the most intimate venue possible. It’s a small place and it wasn’t entirely full, so it felt like the artist was playing just for you. Ash played guitar and sang and her band members played upright bass and jazzy arch-top guitar. She sings a timeless sort of song, hearkening back to 40s and 50s jazz standards. Her band set up (the upright bass and arch-top guitar) and their style (the guitar especially followed jazzy patterns that the jazzers might call “comping”) added to this feel. She played a nice set.

I’d been looking forward to seeing Lightning Bug Situation/ the Speakers for a while, having loved A Leaf; a Stream and being curious how it would translate live. It was just Peter and Brian on stage, Brian on guitar and Peter mostly on accordion. However, Peter started on the “suitcase of mystery” (a suitcase that contains some electronics such that the sound changes as you move, hit and drop it) and Brian on effects. I can’t say this is the best way to draw in the masses, but it was pretty interesting. They played well, but a few times they were really getting into something gorgeous (like their lovely live rendition of the Lightning Bug Situation song “Message to Myself after Franny was Born”), there was a sustained squeal of feedback. I’m talking 15 or 30 seconds of feedback from the mic. It ground the song to a stop (what else could they do?) and broke the mood. (They did manage to pull off a great version of the LBS song “Topher’s Song” without interruption, though.)

I decided I just need to see them again and hopefully hear a technically better functioning set.

You can see a few more photos at my photo album.

Here’s a tune for you today:

Elvis Perkins – Good Friday (mp3)

You can pick up the whole (still excellent) album at insound.