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

Music is my boyfriend.

Thanks to my Canadian friend, to whom I owe like seven CDs (and WILL send out. I swear.), I have discovered the wonder that is the Hidden Cameras.

It happened like this:

I'm not sure when, but my Canadian friend sent me Ecce Homo by the Hidden Cameras, and when I uploaded iTuned on my newish work computer and had to redo all my music due to a crash on the previous newish work computer (faulty hard drive. let's not go there. it was depressing and i lost around 20 gigs of music) and found the stack of CDs that I had brought to work from my Canadian friend. They were mostly Canadian. Just so you know. Anyhow, I put them all on iTunes and hadn't really listened to them due to a slight obsession with a recording of a Britt Daniel (not Canadian) show and a mix CD that I made for my friend DK.

So, I had these albums on my computer, but unlistened to. Okay? Are you following this truly complex story? Hopefully so....

Fast forward about a month to Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning:

My brother gives me a rough mix of his band's (American, not Canadian) studio session at Electrical Audio. We drive around and listen to some songs. It sounds great. Steve Albini did an amazing job, of course (I have a strange obsession with Albini, FYI). We have discussions about Albini. Fun times.

Wednesday: I put the disc on my iTunes. Cleverly, I label the CD "EA Sessions: Steve Albini Mix". Well, that's not really clever on my part because that is what Drew had written on the disc, but let's pretend that it was me. I listen to the whole thing with headphones. Still sounds great. I'm pleased with it - I can only imagine how the band feels.

My iTunes is organized by album title, because that is how I like it. If I didn't have it that way, then for some reason, Stripped by Christina Aguilera does not play in the correct order. I am 100% serious as to why it is organized that way and perhaps I should not blow my snobby facade by admitting to that, but I cannot lie and now you know. So, album title sort. After EA sessions ends, I hear this little ditty come on and I'm like, "what the eff is this?" because I've not listened to it before. I look, and it is The Hidden Cameras Ecce Homo and it is great. They're Canadian.

I've been listening to that interspersed with MeP's studio sessions on and off since then and things have been good.

That is my long story.

Lessons learned:

I like Christina Aguilera.
Steve Albini is my favorite recorder.
My brother's band is good.
Canadian music is good.
The Hidden Cameras are good.

Word count.
Canadian: 9. Including that one.

it's official...

...or something.

The news that we learned at a little cafe in NoPo has been written about in Pitchfork:

Janet Weiss Joins the Jicks.


pfft. I knew that like 25 days ago, and I'm not even with it anymore. What's with the delay Pitchfork?

":D"

britt daniel, 9.9.06

britt daniel. solo. portland oregon. how could i pass this up? this, was the icing on the cake for my trip to portland, as i love spoon, love britt, and want to see him/them any chance i can (within reason). as i have friends in portland, one of whom loves spoon as much as i do, i had to be there for this. the britt show cemented my trip.

and i'm so glad i went for it.

the tracklisting of his show, from the spoon yahoo group is:

Don't Make Me a Target
Lines In The Suit
"Telephone My heart"
The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine
Stay Don't Go
"Cherry Bomb"
Metal Detektor
"Nausea" (???)
The Beast And Dragon, Adored
Anything You Want
They Never Got You
I Summon You
Everything Hits At Once
The Way We Get By

it was amazing. i'm jumping ahead, though, aren't i? we made it there around 8, when doors opened, had a quick drink, ran into someone we knew would be coming, and staked our place at the front (to the left of the stage, but managed to inch our way to the left of center for britt's set, which is both mine and my friend's preferred spot for shows. we're totally concert twins!) for the opening bands.

first, came smoosh, the tween wonders from seattle. they were okay, but i feel that if they were 20 or something, people wouldn't like them that much. there was one guy in the crowd (who must have been in his thirties? or so?) who was totally rocking out to them and singing along to every song. it made us laugh.



i think that rowan would like them. i thought that they were okay. the guy in the crowd was the best part of their set.

next came jeremy enigk or something like that - the dude from sunny day real estate. that was like a really boring bar band (less boring than viva voce, though). i was a little annoyed because they played for 1 hr, 5 minutes. at first, i was excited because i had hoped that it would mean that britt would play for 1 hr, 5 minutes. but, he didn't. he played for 45.

here's a picture. the bassist was really hilarious.



but, other than that, not that exciting.

then, britt. he said he lives in portland now (we knew that) and that he loves it there (how could he not?). he pretty much just played a solid show that was wonderful. setlist above. i really think that spoon is cemented as my number one band currently performing and recording music. no one, not even britt, will take the place of pavement. sorry, dude.

so, here are some pictures, because that is what people really want to see.


the chandelier in the crystal ballroom.


britt setting up and seeing me take his picture. oh my.








(that's my favorite)















and that is that. it was really quite an amazing show.

afterwards, i asked britt for the setlist, while he put his guitar away, and he was all, "oh, i promised it to someone else already. that girl over there" (points randomly towards the center of the stage). me: "aww, man. well, thanks!" then, he went to his guitar case, pulled out a sheet of paper, scribbled something on it and then gave it to me. it was lyrics or something? to some song? some unreleased song? and he signed "thank you, britt daniel" on the back. that was pretty cool. no high fives, but lyrics to an unknown song? i'll take that.

thx, britt! :-*

oh, and my acquaintance justin sent a link to my flickr to britt (he is actual real live friends with britt, which is pretty awesome) and britt responded:

nice ones.
thank you

nice!

britt update to come

HOWEVER, in the meantime, it would be really nice if someone would tell me how to turn m4a files (iTunes) to mp3 (universal) files. yes, that would be fableeeous.

thx!

:-*

sm/joos

as you may know, i attended this year's musicfestnw festival in portland, or. well, attended the festival is a bit of a stretch, since i only attended two shows for three artists. the experience was well worth the price of admission (or, in my case, the price of airfare).

the festival took place in various venues throughout portland and featured many prominent artists. my main ambition, however, was to see stephen malkmus, the silver jews, and britt daniel. sm and the joos were on friday night. britt was on saturday. i expected nothing short of pure awesomeness and i was not disappointed.

sm/joos
this show was highlighted in the portland mercury as a show to attend. they lauded david berman as the bob dylan of our generation (excuse any typose: i have a little child on my head) and as he and the joos never tour, it was the thing to see. i was more excited because not only would i finally get a chance to see a band that i have loved for some years, but because i would get to see stephen malkmus, whom i have loved for as long as i've had good taste, open. i assumed it would be with the jicks, but thought there was potential for another arrangement.

prior to either of those artists coming onstage, we were entertained by the trachtenburg family slideshow players, who were fun to watch. that said, though they were fun, i don't know that i would ever buy anything by them because the whole experience revolves around slides, and it probably wouldn't really make much sense to listen to their music without the accompanying pictures. the pictures make the show. overall, they were fun and i would not mind watching them again as an opening band.





the second band of the evening was a local (to portland) act, viva voce. they were lame. i could hardly understand what the singer was singing about and they were just really boring.

here is a picture anyhow, because it IS important to document - even the bad.


the highlight of the set was seeing stephen malkmus in the wings, sporting an awesome moustache.



i got in trouble by a teeny tiny (i am very tall, and so is my friend) security guard for using flash. that, too, was more interesting than their performance.

then, oh then, came stephen malkmus. as previously mentioned, we were unsure if it would be a jicks performance or if it would be a malkmus performance. it turned out to be a solo acoustic show, which was pretty amazing. he played a short set of about 45-50 minutes, but played some jicks songs, some covers, and two pavement songs (!!!)(trigger cut and lions (linden) from the watery, domestic ep). amazing. then, he pulled david berman from the silver jews up to play a song. overall, great set. if i had a tracklist or had kept one in my head, i would tell you about it. alas, i do not, so you have to deal with adjectives like "amazing!" "fantastic!" and so on.








(reunite! the original joos!)





up next were the silver jews. i was extremely excited for this, especially after seeing david berman sing onstage with malkmus. they did not disappoint! they played a long set with many of their "hits" such as pretty eyes (swooooon!), trains across the sea, a good chunk from tanglewood numbers, and some more that i'm forgetting. their performance was simply outstanding, though at times, dc's wife was a little much (i think it's his wife).











they left the stage and came back for a two song encore, in which malkmus joined them. they played "smith and jones" and "new orleans" (which i was hoping that they'd play). malkmus did interpretive singing/dancing during the set and it was pretty much the best thing i'd ever seen. ever.











when they were done, david berman went up behind malkmus and ripped open his jacket and shirt and gave malkmus a hug.



(unfortunately, i did not catch the bare-chested moment on film, but that picture captures the emotion, i'd say...)

the britt daniel review will have to wait until later. malkmus and the jews together was practically musical history and ranks up there with the first show of the pixies reunion tour as one of my most important shows of all time. it was significant. but, this is coming from a major pavement-fan, so what do i know?

coming up....

july 29 - jolie holland

i'm excited about this. i missed her last show in town PLUS i get to see it at a venue that i walk by every single day but have yet to go to.

august 12 - bonnie prince billy

(free instore! how cool is that?!)

september 12 - shellac

steve probably wants another hug. i think my brother is more excited about this than about recording with steve a few weeks later.


i need to get back to monitoring the first ave and 400 bar website with a diligence usually reserved for work. that said, my diligence is usually reserved for work.

music fest

today is the day of posts.

with approximately 97% certainty, i will be attending this awesome looking festival in september.

musicfest

stephen malkmus! britt daniel (solo, no less!)! scout niblett! the silver jews!!

oh my.
it's like my dream come true.

especially the malkmus/britt bit, considering that they're my two rock star boyfriends (that don't know that i exist except maybe as the high five girl in malkmus' case). if only we could get howe and dan and others to come, too. neko? could sleater-kinney reunite JUST FOR ME? quasi?

we shall see. it should be fun and awesome and there is a 100% certainty of that.

mise en place, big v's

on july 11, 2006, minneapolis' own mise en place played their first show in some months (they had taken a break from performing to prep for an upcoming recording session with that famed producer, steve albini) at big v's in st. paul. though i am a biased listener (my brother and fake brother are two of the members), i thought that they sounded really good. not that they didn't before, but the two months off seemed to reenergize and revitalize their sound.

you can listen to their music on their myspace page, found here. and, if you are in the minneapolis area in late july, they'll be playing at the famed 400 bar (famed in my heart, mind you. IN MY HEART.) on july 27 for a mere $5.

photos from big v's.



m. forrester


drew patrick and cory rath









(i swear that i might get sick of the blurry photo look soon, but i doubt it.)