internal radio: summertime blues

this morning i have blue cheer's summertime blues going on in my internal radio:



makes sense since im fixin to head to werk and i really just want to go lay at spencers pool

this is totally not my favorite song by them. in fact when i first heard it i was disappointed because i was like, really? this is what all the fuss is about? this cant be right. turns out its not. honestly i think i had only heard their name in passing or like mentioned on my radio program and i was seeing their name pop up all over the place and i got all excited like yes! a new sabbath! but this album oh! pleasant hope is more soft/country than id figured and so i was bummed. but i stuck it out because i just knew i had been hearing hits by them. so i got the outsideinside album then i got it! and they are great. and i need to hear moooorrrrre....


here is a song i much prefer by them that was on internal radio not too long ago:


i think im just super into the hook

here goes blue cheer:

 i would say they are pretty unfortunate looking, which is sad because i like to develop debilitating crushes on musicians from other eras whose music i like. his fringe jacket is pretty bitchin though, so that makes him at least cuter. and they are lawng haiyuhed, and that, in almost all cases, helps. for instance, clay matthews is hot as 40 hells, but imagine him without the hair:

 

would he even be on the radar without all that lovely haiyuh? just not that into the sporty types, so..sorry clay...keep that mane, mang.

internal radio: awesome sound

THANK YOU JESUS: I no longer have "multi-purpose sarong" stuck in my head.

Jesus: the original lawng haiyuhed man 

We wrote and recorded a song at Zach's house in Chicago about my sarong that I travel with and use for many purposes and it was great and hilarious and amazing and also A TOTAL FUCKING EARWORM. i have not been able to get that shit out of my head for several days and it was driving me insane. Luckily I woke up this morning with "awesome sound" by Ween (the live version off of paintin the town brown) playing on my internal radio.

Here is the closest rendition of that song I could find on the whole damn internet! for some reason the paintin the town brown version is unavailable, now you too can hear what it sounds like inside my head while I am crunching numbers and chatting with coworkers all day:


And here is Dean Ween rocking your fucking face off:

 

Dean Ween: owner of the worlds greatest Rock Face (aka guitar face)

I'm not sure if we had ever discussed our internal radios before, but me and dawg got to chattin about how there is always always always a song playing in our heads, like at all times. Most of the time its enjoyable, I hear facemelting guitars just streamin along inside my head when I'm at work, etc. I have often thought of keeping a log of whats playing at all times just to scope trends, just cause its kinda funny. So I'm going to make  an effort to blog/log and tag all my internal radio rotations, just for the hell of it. So there.

Pitchfork Almost Live! Metz and Swans

Hey man, you 'member how I was gonna start blogging live from Pitchfork? I finally thought of the idea, then set up my technology, live blogged once, and then my phone died. It was awesome. But phone coverage there was not so great for data transfer, plus we got pretty twisted the longer we were there, so perhaps it's for the best. 

Backing things up a bit, I have to mention that our Chicago getaway would not have been possible without my awesome cousin Zach and his girlfriend Carey. They were our hosts and guides and spoiled us rotten! And that's really the best way to review a show. Here goes Zach and Carey with my mini-cousin, Dearth Vader:

They are really cool and attractive. Thanks Zach and Carey!

We really had a blast both days of the festival and for the entire vacation.

On Saturday, we caught the end of the Metz set, and I really enjoyed it. I had never heard of them before, but it was a good live set, whoever they are.  It was very hard rockin', which I love, of course. Generally, it was a little too energetic / effort-y for my regular rotation, but they had an endless jam at the end of the set that was full-on, and I always appreciate that.

After that we wandered over to Swans and vegetated for a while. Swans is great vegetating music.  I didn't know much about Swans before I saw them, except they have been around forever and I've never seen them before or listened to them much. They used a lot of endless hypnotic riffs, simple at first and then more complex later on, and that was perfect for me at the moment. I watched the "Such Hawks Such Hounds" documentary that Dawg suggested in an earlier blawg, and there's one quote where some guy says "Sometimes you just want to play the same riff over and over again for 52 minutes," and brother, sometimes I wanna hear you play the same riff over and over again for 52 minutes, whoever you are. Fortunately this was the case on Saturday or I might have gotten irritated.  Over the hypnotic repeating riffs, they had some cool tribal sounding vocals.  I regret that I couldn't get close enough to see them because it sounded like they had some pretty wild instrumentation, and I was curious about whether any of it was synthetic. At one point I thought I heard a clarinet and then later on a marimba, for example. Their jams kept getting heavier and thicker, their ambient noise started screaming, and their songs just rolled into one another. I probably won't go buy their music, but it was a good experience.

Oh I also almost forgot that after Breeders we stayed to hear a bit of the Belle and Sebastian set. That was strange.  I have a couple of their cd's from ancient times, and it's totally ok that they're so old now, time stops for no man, but there's something about seeing them live that made me feel sheepish. They have some lovely tunes, and their music is so positive and upbeat, I dunno...  I guess it's something you can wash your car to, as my brother said, but then when you're standing there listening to them play live, you have to ask yourself, "Am I one of their fans?" And then even if you kind of are, you just don't want to be. Remember when people used to say, "that's gay," all the time? Well that phrase is highly offensive, but you get my point. It has nothing to do with homosexuality, so it shouldn't exist, but I've yet to find a suitable replacement for that phrase.

Oh and speaking of homosexuality, I meant to mention the point at which I started to feel like we were inspiring love everywhere we went. During Swans, I saw these two dudes kind of kissing in front of me, which was fine, whatever, but then Dawg pointed out to me this shirtless guy in a cowboy hat who was just Getting Down With His Bad Self. He was a dancing fool in a crowd of people sitting and standing still. Then I couldn't take my eyes off him. Until eventually I noticed that the ecstasy the dudes in front of us had apparently taken had kicked in because they were all shirtless and on top of each other making out all hard. Then I also suddenly realized that everybody probably wanted to relocate, which we did. It's fine, you know, but I don't really want to see anyone get beyond a certain level of intimacy in front of me. Unless, you know, I'm paying for it.

PFL! Yo La Tengo

If I was Yo La Tengo's boss I would give them a rating of "as expected." Live is very true to the recording. But still awesome! Very rockin and jagged. Here go Yo La Tengo. 

Live post! Gettin a grip on technology!!!

The weather for to la tengo is amazing, and they are ruling.

Pitchfork Saturday summary!

What a beautiful day for a festival! It was sunny and warm, but not too warm. And breezy and plenty of shady spots. Small enough to navigate with ease, and excellent people watching/judging. And as soon as the sun started to go down it was cool, so lovely.

They have a totally bitchin array or merch booths here and lots of fun free swag! For instance:

These little packets of energy gems, basically like big ass m&ms with caffeine. Fun.

And these:

This is a shitty do-rag consolation prize from some  promotional thing. Itself not so exciting BUT the way that thing worked is you pick a guitar pick from a bag, if it's blue you get some shitty promo crap line the do-rag. If it's green you get to go into a money grab tube !!! You got like  thirty seconds to grab all the money you can while all this wind blows! So we gonna try that again today. You can also win a guitar. I've always wanted to go into a money tube ever since I saw one at dugans in Atlanta. Here is an example if you are unfamiliar with the concept :

The shows we managed to catch yesterday:

Blue stage for metz, heavy rock kinda screamy

Then we watched swans. That was kinda cool and mellow yet heavy droning kinda hypnotic, the singer kinda sounded like Jim Morrison driveling in a way. they would actually be perfect for heavy metal yoga, which we went to in Atlanta. Heavy metal yoga is actually a great concept, but whatever shit that chick had playing was not that great, but swans would be perfect. No photos here because I was too enthralled with this cowboy hat dude  dancing and flailing around, and with these boys making  out and then dry humping each other directly in front of us. Once Anna and Zach were alerted to that spectacle we relocated. 

But that was actually perfect timing to go get a good spot for the breeders set. At this time I would like to give a shout out to my favorite travel/music festival accessory/tool: my totally bitchin multi purpose sarong, pictured here:

This sarong serves many, many useful purposes. People may laugh at my multi purpose sarong initially but when it's usefulness reveals itself, they ain't laughin then. You need a blanket to sit on? Multi purpose sarong. You get all wet in the rain ? Here, dry off with my multi purpose sarong. You wanna twirl around like you're on some kinda hippy freak out acid trip? Multi purpose sarong. 

The breeders was a fun set, clearly many people were around to see them. I thought her voice was a bit muffled, but then you know all the songs so it doesn't really matter.

Finally, the Green stage during belle and Sebastian. I gotta admit I wasnt real impressed, I mean they sound  great, but not the kind of music I'm into at all. 

But it was a beautiful night and I had enough beers in me, and great company, and it was just a great day. Looking forward to checking out more shit today, and getting in that damn money tube!!!

Pitchfork Live! Great Idea

I wish I had thought of it before yesterday so Days 1 and 2 could have been live. Day 3 will be live! Yeah.

The high point of Day 2 for me was the Breeders playing Last Splash beginning to end for the album's 20th anniversary. God I loved that album when I was in college! What a treat to hear it live. They opened up with a cover song that I wasn't familiar with in sort of April Fools' fashion. It was fine, I'm just glad they're out of their Hedvig and the Angry Inch phase. It seemed like they performed in a lower key than the studio recording. That makes sense - time waits for no man. Here go the Breeders from our vantage point. 

Cool. 

The people watching was excellent for this show. The crowd was hugely diverse - elderly lesbian couples, Hispanic laborers, 90's lovin teens, chubby middle aged moms.  Ok, forgive me but I just downloaded the blogger app and there's no option to change the font back after pasting from my notes. Weird.

Also it was during the Breeders' set that we realized that we inspire love all around us. This chunky tattooed nerd girl in some painful shorts was workin it SO hard for her red-haired nerd boyfriend in front of us. You go girl! Get your money's worth outta them Torrid shorts!

Anyway, they sounded great and hearing the whole album was hugely satisfying. More to come! Stay tuned as  we cover Pitchfork Live! Or at some later time. 

Am I Pregnant? Tame Impala at the Tabernacle

Tame Impala at the Tabernacle - June 17, 8:30 pm

[iwishuwould]:  Not as familiar with the members of the band as much as the music on the album, my interest was piqued at how cute they all appeared from the nosebleeds of the Tabernacle. The singer is totally the Gustav of Tame Impala.

I first heard of Tame Imapla when their first album came out. A facebook acquaintance recommended them to me based on my interest (total fucking obsession) with Dungen. At the time i gave them a listen and totally did not feel it. I think i was just disappointed that they did not sound exactly like dungen. So they were shelved as far as i was concerned. then this new album came out and dawg and several others remarked on how awesome it was so i knew i should give em another try. dawg brought over a copy of the album and i gave it a listen and man its great. one of the best new releases in recent history (the last six years). 

[area.personality]:  Thanks Dawg!  Yeah, I wore out my copy of Lonerism before they ever even started playing it on XMU.  And I had the same feeling about their first album, Inner Speaker.  Pandora recommended it to me based on my burning love for Dungen also.  It didn't move me.

[iwishuwould]:  I'm not sure why this one speaks to me but the other one didnt. its like great dreamy and kind of tortured fuzz rock. its a little on the softer side of my usual music preference. kind of palette cleansing in a way. oh yeah, and theyre australian. so edzotic!

Here is an actually not totally shitty foto from the show. That never seems to happen. You can almost make out the staggering array of effects pedals laid out before him.

[area.personality]:  Holy SHIT was that a staggering crescent of pedals!  So much toe clicking was going on that the lead singer was barefooted!  Awesome.  The bassist was also sans footwear.

[iwishuwould]:  The show was really fun and they sounded really tight. They've been touring for like six months now so I'd imagine they got it down to a T now. They played a bunch of songs of the latest album and a few from the first which had a totally different sound to me. Unfortch, their projector burned out before the show began, so where other cities got the trippy dippy visuals to go with the sound, we did not. We actually heard and saw the projector explode though, at eye level (cause we were on the top floor of the tabernacle). Not a huge loss, but a small bummer. Fortunately they are all lawg haiyuhed and lithe and totally satisfactory to feast your eyes upon without the help of any piddly little visual effects. The best part of the show was when kevin parker got down on tha floor and fucking wailed all hard on his goddamn back! that was some serious sweat'in gwan on!

[area.personality]:  Yeah, and he kept telling us that the venue was beautiful and that we were all beautiful and I believed him because why the hell not.  I could give a fuck about the projector but it was fun to see it blow up right in front of our faces.  And PTL that it didn't set off the fire alarms or sprinklers because the stairs at the Tabernacle are critical and the place was PACKED.

I think saying the show was really tight kinda barely begins to describe it, but I don't know what else to say.  There was a point early on in the show where the music took a sudden and brief pause, just a second of silence, and it was so precise that I actually gasped out loud.  I mean, one second we are all enveloped in thick, rich, ambient sound, and the next second it's just gone!  Poof!  Then right back.  Wow, that was so amazing, to get that kind of effect, sudden silence, at a large venue packed full of people with muddling acoustics...  Damn...  They were so professional.  Also the sound was so full and thick that it was literally resonating throughout my body for the entirety of the show.  It was almost emotional.  Shit, not almost, it WAS emotional.  I don't get that way too often at shows.  They just rocked my ass so hard that I had to ask myself afterwards, "Am I pregnant?  Did Tame Impala just rock me and leave me with child?"  I was all ready to stop by the store for an e*p*t, but first I consulted wikipedia and reminded myself that conception via soundwaves, however righteous, is unlikely.

[iwishuwould]:  As far as the tabernacle as a venue- I really like it. Its just the right size to accommodate some of my favorite bands. Seeing Ween perform there several years ago was a highlight of my life. The sound is pretty decent and its just got a good party vibe. plus it has seating, which is key as i grow older and more decrepit. the merch looked cool, but the line was too long so we opted out :-(

[area.personality]:  So glad I saw that Ween show with you there!  Love them so much.  And they are truly masters of live performance.  It was a high point of my concert-going life as well.  I also really like seeing shows at the Tabernacle, it's always a good time.  It sounds great in there and it's easy to see the stage from anywhere.  I saw Blur there several years back and that was another high point for sure.

[iwishuwould]:  On a final note, I installed the uber cab app on my phone before the show started and we used that service to get home. That shit was also totally amazing.  Here is a photo from our receipt for our totally awesome ride from uber cab featuring a photo of our super friendly driver Tilahun. He arrived to pick us up in a black car in nine minutes and we were home in 11 minutes. No traffic, no driving drunk, no paying $20 to park. Super awesome.

[area.personality]:  Thanks Tilahun!