(09.11.08) Recommends:

Overcast Days.

We don't know what this says about us, but we've always found grey days and rain calming. You don't get much of that here in Southern California. But we've got one of those days today, at least downtown. We feel soothed. It's gonna be a productive day.

Overcast days also recall to our mind the opening credits of the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart which is, without question, one of the finest opening scenes of any movie, ever.

(07.03.08) Recommends:

Airborne Toxic Event's video for the acoustic version of "Moving On".

Okay, that title was a bit of a mouthful. But regardless. This is probably the coolest music video we've seen since that awesome video of Arcade Fire playing in an elevator (here).

Also: it's brining back memories of the Smashing Pumpkins video for 1979. (here)

Furthermore: it reminds us of our own concert photography, which is to say it's a bit too dark to see clearly, but you're convinced that something awesome is going on in the picture.





---


[link via the essential radiofree silverlake]


---


more airborne toxic event:
here.
here.
here.

(06.20.08) Recommends:

A Cure For Getting Out Of Your Head The Song You Woke Up With In Your Head.

So. It's Friday. And you woke up with a song in your head. You hummed it as you were hitting the snooze button. You hummed it as you ate a donut for breakfast. You hummed it as you worked your way through, what your undergraduate hallmate called the 3S's. You hummed it on your commute into work. Under normal circumstances, to get the song cycled through your head -- thus making room for its inevitable next obsession -- you would simply listen to the song, on repeat, all day. But the problem is, the particular version of the particular song you woke up with in your head was only unofficially released as part of the officially released outtakes of a documentary made about the band. And lugging the DVD to work and finding the particular clip and then creating some kind of loop to satisfy your need to hear the song continuously, all day long, seems too daunting a task. So what is a person to do? How, you're wondering, do you get the song out of your head?

Before the internet, we're not sure there was an easy answer. But now, you just find the clip on youtube. And listen to the song for the next 10-12 hours. And, of course, apologize in advance to all co-workers for subjecting them to this song, on repeat, all day long. But. It just has to be one of those days today.

Wilco -- How to Fight Loneliness -- youtube.

(04.12.08) Recommends:

Going Home Again.

Well, well -- we've proved Thomas Wolfe wrong today (and the sun's just out; what else does this day have in store for us?); we're going home again. As in: today we purchased airline tickets and we're headed back to visit America [1] come June. Don't get us wrong -- LA has been a blast these last six months, and before everything is said and done we'll have left our mark on this town in a way that few have done before. But, we know where we're from and who we're from, and if there's two things we've been sorely missing these last six months, it's those two things. We couldn't be more excited to spend some quality time with both very, very soon.






[1] One of our dearest friends in law school was from Oklahoma. And every time he'd go back to Oklahoma during the holidays he'd announce that he was "going back to America." This guy is one of the funniest people we've ever met, but this line might have been our favorite. So we've stolen it and applied it to Kansas. But we felt obliged to note that we're not nearly clever enough to come up with something like that on our own.

(04.10.08) Recommends:

The Dodos.

We've mentioned this band previously -- here and here -- and we feel like mentioning them again today. We haven't stopped listening to their new album Visiter since it came out. It's our favorite record of the year at this point. Here's the youtube of Fools, it's probably our favorite track off the new album:



Their homepage.
Their myspace.

(02.23.08) Recommends:

Six Degrees of Comedy.

1. Paul F. Tompkins performed down the street from us last night at UCB.

2. Paul F. Tompkins regularly performs in Comedy Death Ray at UCB.

3. A Comedy Death Ray album has been released.

4. Ian Edwards contributes a track on the album.

5. Part of his contribution is a bit on shark attacks.

6. And it's among the funniest things we've ever heard.

Here's the bit, in a slightly different form, that we found on youtube. [Starts at 1:44]

(02.15.08) Recommends:

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright.



Okay so no one can dispute that Bob Dylan is a legend or that this song is legendary. To this end enough has been said and written about both to fill up entire internets. But please indulge us as we toss another one into the tube.

Not a month goes by without us giving this song a listen. It always speaks to us. It manages to move us and comfort us, to make us feel happy or sad, but mostly it reminds us that it's necessary and proper to set aside four minutes out of this hectic life to be contemplative.

And it's worth nothing that this song has been around for literally our entire lives.

Which means:

• We've known it longer than we've known family members, friends, loved ones

• We've known it longer than we've known the Bible, been allowed in a voting booth, held a job.

• We've known it longer than we've known some of humankind's most vexing elements: love, intoxication, indifference. etc.

People, things, movements, these are all fleeting; they come and go. But somehow, this song has been here forever. And it remains.

We sought refuge in it's words when we were confused 12-year olds [a child I am told]. We seek guidance from it now, standing -- confused again, we must admit -- at the dawn of 30 [a child I am told].

The song has literally become part of us. It's seen our past and knows our present and will be part of the toolkit that we bring to bear on the issues that we will face in the future. We find strength in it's longevity and we're hard pressed to come up with many other things in our lives that can make such a claim.

We love this timeless quality of music. And we think it's important to reflect on this quality when we get too caught up in thinking about how digital technology will affect music, and how the law will deal with digital technology, and how a generation of post-Napster people will view the law.

In the end, we turn to music because it's been there for us before, it's what we've always known. We've had rough patches in the past and the music is proof both of those old wounds and of the fact that we soldiered on, and things turned out okay.

Oh, things turned out way better than okay.

(01.02.08) Recommends:

First Fridays at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Okay, probably every city in the country has some version of First Fridays. Standard protocol is to take the first Friday of the month, throw in some booze, throw in some kind of art or other cultural offering, and boom, First Fridays.

We're fans of First Fridays, though we've seen certain cities misplay them enough times to be somewhat cautious about the label. However. This Friday LA's Natural History Museum has put together a First Fridays event with a few twists -- and this thing promises to be something really cool.

First of all, it takes place at the Natural History Museum, and anybody in LA who has talked to us over the past several weeks will tell you we've been itching to go to this museum. The theme of the evening is "Discovery in the Age of Mammals: Building Brains and Making Minds." Such a topic brings with it guided tours by Anthropology PhDs and lectures from Neuroscience professors. Readers will recall that we really like Neuroscientists around here.

After getting your learn on, the museum hands the keys off to various bands and DJs, the highlight of which is Seawolf (he used to be in Irving, another blog favorite.

Here's Seawolf's video for "The Garden You Planted." It's our favorite track off of the 2007 EP "Get to the River Before it Runs to Low."

(12.15.07) Recommends:

December in Los Angeles.

We grew up fortified by long Midwestern winters, but our time in California has apparently softened us. We were unexpectedly called away to the East Coast this week and here we sit inside, wrapped in layers, heat on full blast, as the rain slowly turns to sleet out our windows. Oh winter in the 20166 area code, we won't be sad when we leave you behind.

(10.29.07) Recommends:

More David Dondero Youtube Videos.

It's been all David Dondero all the time around here lately. This might not stop for a while. You people need to buy his albums and attend his shows.

(10.28.07) Recommends:

David Dondero, "My Fuse Is Lit."

So last time we spoke we were hyping the David Dondero/Richard Buckner show at Spaceland in Silver Lake. Dondero played this song. It was eerie. Evocative. Provocative. Angry. Sad. Goose bumps.

The world around us rarely makes sense and we turn to art for some kind of explanation or some sense of comfort or at least a sign that we're not the only ones who feel the way we feel. This song doesn't offer an explanation or a sense of comfort, but we do feel less alone in the world when we hear it. And there's comfort in that, we suppose.

The version performed last night seemed to have more lyrics, but here's a version of the song performed earlier this year.

(10.13.07) Recommends:

The Airborne Toxic Event.

We were laid up, sick, in bed all day yesterday. First we thought it was one of those innocuous 24-hour bugs. Then we thought maybe it was something more serious. We were feverish and we worried we were dehydrated. So, we walked to the market (the people of California call their grocery stores "markets") to pick up some Gatorade. We almost fainted four times on the way to-and-fro the market. Then we could not "keep" the Gatorade "down" and the funny/gross/educational thing about that is when you drink red Gatorade followed by blue Gatorade it does, in fact, come back up green. Who knew. So we were convinced that we would not be able to keep our body temperature down or our vital organs replenished so we were sure we were going to die.

Then, we remembered how the night before we had eaten a Caesar salad for dinner. Caesar salads, of course, are made of lettuce. And everybody knows that California lettuce was recalled last year due to E.Coli concerns. So naturally, we were convinced we had E. Coli and were going to die at any moment.

Then we convinced ourselves that we noticed some weird smell in our apartment. We were convinced that there was some kind of weird mold growing somewhere, the breathing in of which would slowly, surely, kill us.

Which brings us to the point of this blog entry. Since we were convinced that we were literally on our death bed probably due to breathing in mold, we naturally went looking to verify our symptoms on the internet. We Googled "toxic airborne" which, when we look at this search string now, makes little-to-no sense to us. But at the time, we were under an insane feverish delusion. At any rate, the first search result was for The Airborne Toxic Event, which is a band from Los Feliz, which, for people not familiar with the area, is a somewhat hipster-LA neighborhood.

So I clicked on the link.

Immediately the song "Does This Mean You're Moving On" pops up.

74 listens later, and we think our impending death, too, is moving on.

Here's a youtube video of the song:

(10.10.07) Recommends:

Making it big on the stock market.

Some have been suggesting for a while now that our economy is in the throes of another bubble. And while talking about personal finances publicly is always a faux pas, the fact that some of us are making out like bandits in this current climate is faux real.

Learn the game of mergers and spin offs and this too may be yours some day:



Go ahead, click on the picture. Get a close up of that dollar amount, you know you want to.

Awwwwww, yeah. What up, ladies in the audience? You like all those digits to the left of that decimal place, don’t you?

Now, I know what you’re all (I’m speaking to the ladies and the non-ladies now) wondering: the only number that could possibly be larger than the number on the check is the number of readers of this blog. How will this newfound wealth effect you, our humble editor? We come to learn about the new and the underappreciated; will we continue to get our irregularly updated filling if you cash in and sell out and move on? With an excess of cultural outputs, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you (woo woo woo).

Fear not. There will be some changes around here obviously. How couldn't there be? But change is what sustains us. I am transparent and want to assuage your fears. I want you to sleep soundly knowing that you can take the boy out of the middle class, but you can’t take the middle class out of the boy. Following find a list of How Things Will Change:



Oh, Law school! How paid off are you now!



Oh, Fire place! How your flames will burn high and warm and will shine like a beacon of hope for your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, once my treasure stuffs your bosom full of logs!



Oh, Chris Ware signed art! How you will remain an anchor, even though you're only a print, in my new room financed by my bounty and dedicated to nothing but the art of our most important graphic designers.



Oh, Tickets to the shows of our most ambitious and compelling musicians! How my treasure will no longer require me choosing between you and tuna fish sustenance!



Oh, Brooks Brothers sweaters! How to choose between Cotton or Cashmere or Lambswool or Shetland or Camel Hair or Merino or Saxxon Wool? Why not have them all!



Oh, Window-unit air conditioner! How you will soon be replaced by central air! Our break up -- It’s not me, it’s you, that’s true: see, central air uses ducts to distribute cooled and/or dehumidified air to more than one room, is not plugged into a standard electrical outlet, and because it is located outside the home, it offers a lower level of noise indoors than a free-standing air conditioning unit! -- will be somber yet amicable.



Oh, Book of poems! How I will no longer have to rely on your sad truths to make ends meet! Art is my muse, but capitalism is my daddy. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. (I am large. I contain multitudes).



Oh, Paper shredder! How you will soon grow in size and blade strength and shred speed now that I am a Noted Industrialist and must be protected with ever-greater vigor from all the foils of identity theft!



Oh, Jif Peanut Butter! How I can now afford to send you on that fancy date with Jelly for which you've long pined!



Oh, Jif Peanut Butter, again! How I can now afford to store you somewhere other than in the shower!



Oh, Chuck Taylors! How I can now get you in 365 different colors, one for each day of the year!



Oh, James Gatz! Even though I was not named after you, how you become my spiritual guide as I enter my own Gilded Age!



Oh, Second home! How I will be kept up at night, Gatsby, wondering do I summer in West Egg or East Egg?

---

So there you have it. While there are Big Changes in store, it’ll be the same as it ever was around here. And now you’re probably also wondering: how do you find the time to work and play and live and love and discover new and underappreciated cultural voices and make a killing in the public financial markets?

Well peeps, if I got all Rich Dad Poor Dad on you, I’d have to charge you $16.95 each. But as it is, I’m willing to break down the secret behind my financial freedom into a manageable formula.

Start with the fundamentals...:



...Understand the competition...:



...Learn to count...:



...Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run...:



...Repeat after me: it's a subtle blend of science and art...:


...a subtle blend of science and art...:


...never underestimate the value of a puffy shirt...:


...or a big yellow hat...:


...and this, too, can be yours:

(09.07.07) Recommends:

Concert Photography, Vol. 10.
Earlier Show:
Okkervil River,
Free In-Store,
Amoeba Music, SF.

Later Show:
The Finches,
Great American Music Hall.
09.06.07

First up yesterday was Okkervil River at Amoeba. Lately I've really been gobbling up their new record, "The Stage Names." You can currently stream the whole thing over at the band's myspace page. So based on that I was very excited for the show. It was better than I even anticipated. Frankly, this band blew me away live, and you must go see them when they come through your town.

First off, I had never been to an Amoeba in-store performance, so I was not sure what to expect w/r/t sound quality. But it turns out that those Amoeba people really know what they're doing because the sound was excellent.

Then, there was the music. They played the new album, so if you were an old school fan maybe this would have been something of a disappointment. But if you were disappointed by this show obviously you are trying too hard at life. Because this band is so amazing live. The lead singer plays each song like he's undergoing an exorcism. Like the song lives somewhere deep within his soul and he must frantically twitch and twitter until he gets that song out of him where it slowly washes over the crowd. By saving himself, he gives us all life. All for free, and at a record shop. It's a good thing, that.





















After having life affirmed at Amoeba, I headed out through the fog slowly enveloping the Haight and made my way over to GAMH to meet up with my friend The Hip Librarian because she had scored an extra ticket to the Finches show. Without even getting into the whole "teaching generations of people how to read, and in so doing spreading civilization's greatest literary accomplishments, and in so doing creating a thoughtful and free-thinking citizenry, and in so doing creating an informed and vibrant and staggeringly accomplished culture" thing, scoring extra tickets to the Finches is reason enough for us to stand up and support librarians and the funding of our libraries. Think about it, folks.

I've blogged about the Finches before. They were every bit as lovely live as they are recorded. The lead singer has such a pure, perfect voice. It's really quite awesome. This was a seated show which created a neat environment. So I didn't want to be That Guy using a flash and ruining the moment. So I just snapped two pics, then sat back, and enjoyed the music. Fun night.





Here's a flavor of the Finches live, from a show last month:

(09.04.07) Recommends:

A Dawn Landes Update.

We were first introduced to Dawn Landes through her Young Folks cover. Today we heard from her again when this track showed up in our inbox. We love our inbox because it can smell purity. Also: because it once contained an email from Jim Myers, better known as George "The Animal" Steele. By that time he had replaced his green tongue turnbuckle eating ways with the life of a born again Christian. He was reluctant to allow us to interview him for a project we were working on. Eventually he stopped returning our emails. But those three email exchanges remain in our Top Twenty Five Email Moments.

Anyway, back to Landes. We really like this track. It's from a previous album of hers. She is releasing a new one in early '08. So the story is still developing.

As for George "The Animal" Steele, we're not sure what he's got on his plate these days. We remain hopeful that eventually he will realize that our project proposal is completely earnest and upon its release will be met with far reaching acclaim. The world we live in is full of the generous and the gentle. What it lacks is a coming of age tale involving many of the mid-80's finest wrestlers. He knows our inbox will always welcome him with open arms.

Editor's Note: You may be wondering why we wrote this post in the first person plural, when there is clearly just one of us. We have no good answers for that. What do you think? Does the first person plural sound more convincing? We think that it might. We might keep this up. Let us know what you think.

Dawn Landes -- Suspicion -- mp3.

George "the Animal" Steele vs. Macho Man Randy Savage (w/ guest appearance by Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat):

(07.27.07) Recommends:

The song "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's.

I'm late on this one, I know. Did this song come out in 2006? Where has it been hiding all this time? I actually heard it for the first time today on some MTV channel. MTVU? Is that a channel? I think that's what the screen said. Obviously I don't watch TV much.

Anyway.

This is the first time I've heard a song on MTV that has made me stop, sit down to listen, and wait until the end so I could see the name of the band. The last time that happened? The Strokes' video for Last Night. Back in the day, right?

There is something fishy about this band: on their current tour they are playing mostly Six Flags amusement parks. I don't know what that means. However, there was also something fishy about the Strokes. They sold out the Granada in Lawrence less than a month after the release of "Is This It." There were people who drove in from Iowa trying to scalp tickets.

Here's the video, enjoy:

(05.19.07) Recommends:

Dawn Landes.

So you've probably seen the bluegrass version of Peter,Bjorn, and John's "Young Folks". If not, it's really a must-hear. This Dawn Landes is new too me, so it's a developing story! I'll have more about her to write soon.

Here's the youtube:


Dawn Landes + WST Bluegrass Band -- Young Folks -- mp3.

(04.17.07) Recommends:

A Reflection on Taxation.

Today we will hear lots of noise regarding the tax debate. They’re too high and they stifle an efficient flow of labor and capital! They’re too low and they prevent an equitable and just society! The debate has been ongoing for decades, and will continue to rage on for decades to come. And really, at this point, the debate is by and large boring, because it’s not a really a debate. Rather, it's a series of rants supported by ostensible facts and wholly dismissive of the other side. And of course, we all know that the facts don’t matter if you don’t agree on the issue.

So today, on this Tax Day, I want to leave the traditional tax debate behind. Instead, I would like to share with you all something I came across recently. To me, this video demonstrates the value of taxes. Not only that, it demonstrates the awesome potential of this country of ours. It demonstrates that while we may be in the midst of fighting a War on Terror, no fucking terrorists can ever destroy the spirit of this country. It demonstrates that while we’re entering the beginning stages of a shitstorm of a Presidential campaign in which both sides will insist that this is the Most Important Election of Our Time, the winner ultimately does not matter, because it is the people of this country who gives this country of ours its awesome strength.

In April of 1973, Stevie Wonder appeared on Sesame Street. The following video is the blistering result. This video to me is such a beautiful and strong distillation of the power and potential of our country that watching it literally brings me to tears. Here is a blind, black man invited to be the musical guest on a show that features a reality where humans interact with all manner of strange puppets. It’s a show that features a monster who eats – but cannot swallow – cookies. It’s a show that features two puppets – one orange and a lover of duckies, one yellow and the wearer of a unibrow – who might be roommates, or who might be gay lovers, or who might just be puppets made out of cloth. It’s a show that features a monster who lives in a trash can and is generally angry, yet always shows patience and compassion for his pet worm. It’s a show that features a big bird (Big Bird), and a big dog (Barkley) and a big wholly mammoth thing (Snuffleupagus). I could go on and on about the wonderful and charming characters, but it’s what those characters have done that’s even more remarkable. They’ve taught generations of children about letters and numbers and spelling and friendship and emotions and that it's okay to be a little weird or odd or a freak or an outsider or disabled or to be from a different country or to be a different color. It's taught about having and dealing with imaginary friends (the type that aren’t physically there) and imaginary friends (the type who you think are nice to you, but really aren’t). They’ve taught about tolerance. They’ve taught about the incredible power of language.

Fact: I remember the first time that I saw the “Letter B” skit, where a band of puppets sings “Letter B” as a play on the Beatles’ “Let it Be.” I remember watching this at maybe age three or four. And I remember realizing that language could be taken, and tweaked, to humorous effect. I was three or fours years old and I've tried to use that lesson every day of my life since. Are we really willing to say that TV does nothing but rot the brain?

And my god, look at the kids dancing in this video! The show has also taught generations of kids to get down with their funky selves! Stevie Wonder, a black man born blind in Michigan in 1950. He shows up on Sesame Street and puts on a performance, at age 23, that can unit kids and adults, puppets and people. White sax players and black drummers. This is the kind of thing that changes the world.

All of this goodness from Sesame Street. And how does this show get funded? Well, it gets funded from many different sources, but – and here’s the point of today’s lecture – lots of the funding comes from the Federal Government, and the Federal Government gets lots of its money from our tax dollars. So today, I am happy to give my Hard Earned Dollars to the Government. Because I know there is waste in the government. And I know there is inefficiency. Do I care about this? I do care. But my god, I want to give because every time I give it allows for the possibility of the funding of something as beautiful as Stevie Wonder performing “Superstition” on Sesame Street in 1973 to happen. The tax system isn’t perfect, and the government isn’t perfect, and Stevie Wonder isn’t perfect, and Sesame Street isn’t perfect. But, let's all remember the goal of the Founding Fathers in the preamble of the Constitution (this will be convenient since I’m sure you people already have your Constitutions out in order to justify your belief in the necessity or illegitimacy of taxation): they wanted to create a more perfect Union. More perfect. Perfection might always be out of the reach of us mere humans, but Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street in 1973 made things more perfect.

(04.10.07) Recommends:

Laura Veirs, Saltbreakers (Nonesuch, 2007).

Tuesdays have been particularly good to music fans in 2007. Today I've been fawning over the newest release from Laura Veirs. She is based out of Portland, OR and this album of restrained indie-pop music will immediately resonate with fans of other Northwestern bands (The Decemberists, Death Cab, The Shins, M. Ward, and on and on and on...). Here's the video for "Cast a Hook in Me." I think this is my favorite track off of the new album.



Her homepage.
Her myspace.

(03.28.07) Recommends:

Arcade Fire on Take Away Shows!

You've heard the hype that Arcade Fire is the most important indie-rock band of its generation. Perhaps you're not convinced. This video elegantly shows a band owning it. Yes, that's Richard Reed Perry, the band's Napoleon Dynamite-esque bass player ripping out pages of a magazine, creating a steady beat for the band. And yes, that's you, skeptical you, thinking "why yes, magazine pages as bassline, it makes perfect sense." This is a band that is so needed.

#41 - Arcade Fire - Neon Bible & Wake Up
Uploaded by lablogotheque

Here's more info about the Take Away Shows! series.