Spoon at First Avenue

Spoon played two shows last week in Minneapolis. I was able to get to both. This was obviously a big deal to me, as anyone who has ever read this blog knows that I kind of have an obsession with the band.

10.10.07
Utilitarian
Minor Tough
Fitted Shirt
Anything You Want
Small Stakes
Way We Get By
Stay Don't Go
Vittorio E
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine
My Mathematical Mind
I Summon You
I Turn My Camera On
Don't Make Me a Target
The Ghost of You Lingers
You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
The Underdog
Black Like Me

ENCORE
Chips and Dip
Me and the Bean
Don't You Evah
Quincy Punk Episode



I don't know what to say about it that won't sound like fangirl gushing. It was fantastic. An absolutely solid show. I was in the front row, right in front of Britt and got some (in my opinion) excellent shots.









You can see more on my flickr.

The Thursday night show (10.11.07, for those keeping track) was also amazing. I did write down the setlist, but I'll have to edit that in to this post later, as I do not have it with me.

I was very impressed with the way that the songs off of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga sounded. I had heard "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" and "Don't Make Me a Target" when Britt played in Portland last year, but had yet to hear them with a band.

The thing that I personally love about Spoon is that they're a solid band. They sound like their albums when they play live, and yet they're not stale. They have an energy about them and they have that 'je ne sais quoi'.

Overall, both nights were excellent and I'm sad that I'll have to wait for who knows how long until I get to see them again.

So it goes.

FYI

It should be known that in approximately 152 hours, I will be seeing Spoon.

That is all.

An explanation, of sorts.

There has been a huge break in service on this blog. Not that I have ever been one who is consistently blogging a few times a week (who has the time for that?)(or the ideas of things to write about? Not me!), but, you know, a few times a year is probably not that acceptable in the "blogosphere".

Again, though, not that I need to be acceptable. By any definition of the word.

However, I feel that I should explain myself and my lack of blogging about musical things.

Quite frankly, I lost interest in music for a while there. I get really stuck with the things that I like and I am always quite excited about the things that I like. But, new music? I don't dig it so much. I have become, in my old age of 27, quite close-minded in what I listen to. You can see the problem, I'm sure, with having a closed mind and, yet, trying to maintain a music blog.

Even a crappy, not ever read music blog.

I'm trying to change. I am. But, mostly, I don't care that much about things that people rave about. I don't get it most of the time. I like what I like.

Spoon!
Pavement!

And others.

The other night, in an effort to change, I went to my favorite record store and bought eight (count 'em: eight!) CDs. Prior to that, I had purchased six over the course of the entire year. The six I bought?

Some Loud Thunder - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks (I'm not lying about this.)
FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake (Again, I'm NOT LYING about this.)
Neon Bible - Arcade Fire
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
King for a Day - Bobby Conn

Aside from Spoon, I have listened to the others a total of one time each. Spoon has been on repeat for months (even prior to the release).

Acquisitions on Tuesday were:
Challengers - New Pornographers
Grinderman - Grinderman (Nick Cave, really)
New Moon - Elliott Smith
Living With the Living - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Songs of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen
Songs From a Room - Leonard Cohen
The Blackened Air - Nina Nastasia
Dogs - Nina Nastasia

Maybe someday I'll write how I feel about them. Though, regardless of how I feel about some of them, it is good that I'm opening up again to new sounds, new things.


This really isn't an explanation at all, is it? It's more pointless blathering from the Bad Arts. Ahhhh, so it goes. So. It. Goes.

The New Pornographers - Challengers

THE BAD ARTS IS LIVE BLOGGING.

First (kind of) impressions.



My rights versus Yours.
Okay, it is sounding okay here. Promising. It sounds like the New Pornographers without sounding exactly like every other Carl A.C. Newman song. Strong opener, TNPs!

Fade to.....
All the Old Showstoppers.
Twangy opening strings.
Okay, and then the melody. Kind of sounds like, oh, another NPs song. Which one? I can't remember, because they all kind of sound the same.

The twangy guitaring is good. It's not that this song is bad. I just feel like I have heard it before.

Halfway through the song, I'm a little bored.

The New Pornographers like to end their songs with repetition of words/melody. That's okay. They also like to repeat songs. :(

Challengers.
Oooh, the title track. A little melancholy right away -- ooh, I knew Neko was going to be the main singer. She always is on the slow songs. Which is fine. She has a lovely voice. I've loved her for over seven years and, in fact, it was my love of Neko which first made me buy Mass Romantic which still stands as my favorite of all of the NPs albums.

I'm just sayin'.

This is a pretty little ditty. Nothing earth-shattering, but pretty.

Myriad Harbour.
Immediately, I hear Destroyer. Oh, Dan Bejar, I love you. You sound like you without re-writing the same song over and over again.

I love Dan's voice.

I love his songwriting.

All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth.
First impression? I HAVE HEARD THIS SONG BEFORE.
I'm kind of bored. Though, it could just be the fact that I am tired.

Failsafe.
Another Neko track. This sounds kind of like Neko singing for the Magnetic Fields circa 1990. While I like Neko and I like the Magnetic Fields (esp. circa 1999), I don't know. It's not as boring as the previous song, but it's just okay.

Unguided.
Maybe it's Carl's A.C.'s voice. It used to not bug me, but now it kind of does. I'm not sure why. One would THINK that Dan would have the more annoying voice (if one were not me), but no... I don't think that Carl A.C. is a bad singer; I just don't like his voice very much.

And again, I feel like I have heard this song before.

Oh, and now Neko chimes in. I don't know.

Is it my mood? I like 'doot doot doots' in songs, but I'm really really bored. Or tired. As previously stated.

Entering White Cecilia.
Enter Dan again, to make things interesting.

I am just going to listen and enjoy this one. No blogging. Unless something stands out.

(Oh, it's drifting a little into Carl A.C. Newman territory towards the end. Yikes!!)

Go Places.
A promising first twenty seconds of instrumental.
A Neko song!
This song could......go places.

1:52 in and I still like it.
This actually sounds different than the other Carl A.C. Newman songs.

Okay, so this one is a winner. It's not overly exciting, but it was solid. And not quite the same.

Mutiny, I Promise You.
I like the title!
But, again, it's so same-y.

Immediately, one is hit with the same-y-ness of this song. It's so obvious a Carl A.C. Newman song. :/

I'm not saying that these don't make me bop my head or tap my fingers or swing my leg (I am, after all, sitting at work and can easily swing one leg)...it's just that I expect something different every New Pornographers album, and I keep ending up disappointed because it kind of just sounds the same.

Sometimes, bands progress too much, and other times they don't progress enough. Rare is the band that can keep their sound without sounding the same all the time (hats off to you, Spoon!). The New Pornographers is not one of those bands.

See? I'm so bored that I am writing about other things instead of the song. It just sounds the same.

(Pause for coffee break!)

Adventures In Solitude.
Again, I like the title. Probably because I have a lot of adventures in solitude myself. I'm a solitary kind of girl a lot of times.

Immediately, I like this song. I am not sure why. Combination of title, tempo, instrumental, vocals, probably. I never quite know why I like some things and dislike others. Things just hit or they do not.

This one is sounding good.

It hits about 2:30 in.

This might be the best Carl A.C. Newman song on the album. He always has a couple of winners on each album, which is probably what keeps me coming back. Well, that and knowing that I will hear at least one or two Dan Bejar songs that are not on Destroyer albums....

The Spirit of Giving.
A remake of a Destroyer song.

Good stuff.


Overall thoughts:
Challengers is kind of the same as Electric Version and Twin Cinema. I keep buying these albums, hoping for something different, and get a few good Dan songs and a few good Carl A.C. Newman songs, with a bunch of other songs that all sound exactly the same. While, overall, not a terrible album, it probably will not be on heavy repeat.


Other thoughts:
I went on a CD buying binge last night. For the first time in years. Maybe I'll shake the dust off this blog yet...!

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Get it.

Or, at least, stream it here.



Maybe someday, I will actually write an in-depth review of it other than this:
It's pretty much the best album ever.

Back to it. Kind of.

I have long said that I prefer the Kinks to the Beatles. This has been my stance for years.

However, lately, as my daughter grows more obsessed with the Beatles by the day (thanks daughter's dad) and I find myself listening to them more and more, I might have to change my mind. Maybe I have called myself a Kinks girl because everyone loves the Beatles, and I just have to be different (and difficult). Maybe I was in Beatles denial.

Whatever the reason, I think I'm coming around.

That said, I still don't own any Beatles albums, whereas I do have the entire Kinks back catalogue (well, the good stuff, at least - up through Muswell Hillbillies). I should probably get working on that, huh?

For your entertainment, here is the story of the Beatles:

This might be the best birthday present ever. A few days early.

My friend Melinda totally rocks my socks.

:D