|
Archives
September 2008
August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 |
2007:08:31:23:42. Friday. TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. We just got back from seeing Karmella's Game at the Annex, and I unfortunately won't have any footage of it to post next week. Despite the fact that I seemed to have fully charged my camera this afternoon, it wouldn't turn on when we got there, but was fine when I put it back on the charger at home; it now claims to be charging again, but we'll see. I hope it will be fine for the SoCo™ Music™ Experience™ next weekend. The last time I saw Karmella's Game I also couldn't record them, coincidentally, because it was in the darkened Corral Room and my old camera couldn't handle the low light. At that show the room was packed, which was not quite the case tonight. As far as I could tell, Emily and I were the only civilians there. Del Monte Carlo of Mad Trucker Gone Mad was there with his ladyfriend, and during the set a few other people went in and out, but I think they may also have been from other bands on the bill. Supposedly the word had gone out that the show started at 10:00, not 9:30, although 9:30 was all I'd heard. When we walked in at about ten after 9:00, all the house lights were on and there was nobody at the door. For about fifteen minutes, we sat in the fully lit main room of the Annex wondering if we were secretly an hour early. Their set was pretty hot, especially considering they were playing for four people and I was the only one who knew their material. Most of what they played was new, apart from one of my favorites from their debut LP and maybe one of the tracks I skip on the album. The new stuff sounded excellent, and I hope they're on track to release it soon. In other tech trouble news, some crazy shenanigans happened while recording the German Art Students last week, and I only have complete audio for one of the three songs I recorded. These are the hazards of shooting without a monitor, extra batteries and the other comforts of legitimate recording, I guess.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:31:08:00. NO!: THE HUSH SOUND (#307, AUG 25 2007).
This song was dedicated to the band's buds in the Villains of Verona, who provided a terrific opening set to the evening. In between were local pop-rock heroes the Box Social, just back from several weeks of touring and playing in front of one of their biggest Madison crowds. It was, on the whole, one of the more solid bills I've seen in recent memory -- at least as good as the Mates of State/Starlight Mints/Molitor show we saw there last fall.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:30:08:00. Thursday. NO!: THE HUSH SOUND (#306, AUG 25 2007).
Having released their first two records in 2005 and 2006, the Hush Sound have already got a third on the way for early next year. They played two bouncy new songs at this show, both of which were pretty good. The mix is a little rough on this one -- just try to make out Greta Salpeter's vocals, I dare you! -- but the basic shape of the song is there and has me looking forward to the LP.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:29:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: THE HUSH SOUND (#305, AUG 25 2007).
The best spot in the Stagedoor to shoot from is, unfortunately, in the balcony, where the close walls and short ceiling, which means there's a bit more distortion on clips from there than from other venues. This one still sounds OK, but I think next show there I'll try to find a good spot on the main floor that's not too echoey.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:28:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: THE HUSH SOUND (#304, AUG 25 2007).
In this year's recently released Isthmus Annual Manual, the Barrymore Theatre was voted Madison's best music venue. When I saw the results, it was a little bit like watching George Bush win in 2004. Had these people ever been to a rock show there? I wondered. Anyone with working ears should've been able to tell that, if you want a larger venue, the Orpheum is where it's at, including the Stagedoor. And then this show happened. Apart from the generally bad mix (which was tweaked during the show into various different-sounding bad mixes), the Hush Sound lost power twice during this song, their second of the set. Amazingly, they plowed right through -- it turns out something like this had happened to them before -- literally without missing a beat. When the power came up, they came out of their vamp and dove right back into the song. Opening with this and "Don't Wake Me Up," my two favorite songs of theirs, it was an exciting way to start the show.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:27:08:00. Monday. NO!: THE VILLAINS OF VERONA (#303, AUG 25 2007).
A couple days after getting back from DC, I'm walking down State St. and I literally do a double-take and spin around as I pass by a kiosk. The Hush Sound playing at the Orpheum? Great! The Box Social opening? Super! The Villains of Verona also opening? ... Who? These guys seem pretty new, and the material on their Myspace page doesn't really do them justice; they sound much better live. They are similar to the Hush Sound and a third Chicago band called 1997 (Chicago suddenly seems to be the epicenter of boy-girl rock harmonies), and were certainly well-received by the early arrivals to this show. Their debut LP is out soon and should be one to look out for.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:24:08:00. Friday. NO!: THE TWILIGHT SAD (#302, JUL 13 2007).
Lest you think, "Why on Earth did you go to this show if the band sucks so hard?" well, there are actually some good tunes on their LP. This is one of them, though I understand if you can't tell from this noise-laden, poorly mixed performance. Despite the kind-of-decentness of this song, they'd totally lost the audience at this point, who didn't seem interested in paying attention to more and more drone on one of the hottest and humidest Friday nights of the summer. Indeed, it was too much for me to take, and I left the show after this song for cooler environs. Here's hoping they can find a more appropriate venue if and when they return to Madison.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:23:08:00. Thursday. NO!: THE TWILIGHT SAD (#301, JUL 13 2007).
Apparently the Twilight Sad started out as an extended-length noise band, an approach that is mostly gone from their recorded material these days, but which was all too present in their live set. This song was where it bottomed out during their Terrace show -- with singer James Graham turned away from the audience and all but motionless for over six minutes, he repeated the song's sparse lyrics over a set of tuneless tones to what turned out to be more than a few boos. Afterwards, a middle-aged man who was clearly out of his element asked me what kind of music it was; I told him it was Scottish.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:22:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: THE TWILIGHT SAD (#300, JUL 13 2007).
To celebrate the 300th of these podcasts, I'm afraid we've got the most disappointing show of the year. I'd had the Twilight Sad's debut LP in heavy rotation ever since I first heard about them, and had been quite looking forward to this show. Sadly, it turned out to be one of those things where the band just seems to have it in for the audience for some reason. Things started reasonably, if oddly, with this obscure b-side to open the set -- after working through the feedback and doing a bit of detective work, it only took me five and a half weeks to figure that out.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:18:10:18. Saturday. TELEVISION: TEACHER, MOTHER, SECRET LOVER! Watching the premiere of Spike's The Kill Point recently something struck me, or rather, re-struck me -- there are a lot of TV shows lately that are either explicitly about what a shitty government we've got, or implicitly about the shittiness of our government's preferred policy approaches. A brief rundown:
Others?
2007:08:17:22:37. Friday. THE MONEYMAKER. Well, Rilo Kiley fuckin' grew up. Under the Blacklight is mature, progressive and boring. Alas. If the new Zolof record is also lacking in juvenilia I shall be in quite a mood, let me tell you.
2007:08:17:08:00. NO!: WHITE RABBITS (#299, JUL 31 2007).
When they came back out for their encore, they played kind of a spazzed-out version of "Maggie's Farm," and then had to beg off the stage, saying that they were a young band and didn't have anymore songs. In fact, during their set, they played beyond their debut album, including this song currently only available in their Daytrotter session. It's a bit of a bouncy shanty, and would make a nice centerpiece on a new album.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:16:08:00. Thursday. NO!: WHITE RABBITS (#298, JUL 31 2007).
I wouldn't have expected White Rabbits to have such a propulsive drum attack in their live show, but there it was, two full sets plus some extra kit for the piano player to pound on every once in a while. This was the song where they brought it out in fullest force, also edging into the quasi-tropical sound that winds in and out of most of their songs. The more I listen to them, the more I find them difficult to sort with other bands in my mind
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:15:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: WHITE RABBITS (#297, JUL 31 2007).
Generally, I am not one to give in to Pitchfork hype, but they really got it right with White Rabbits. They are Yet Another New York Indie Rock band, but they don't have much in common with the likes of Interpol or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah -- the band they remind me most of, though not much, is Ann Arbor's Mason Proper, but with more of a fancy dance feel. This song is one of their bouncy piano numbers, and encapsulates their sound quite well; the dual drummers give it a drive onstage that's hard to resist.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:14:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: PALE YOUNG GENTLEMEN (#296, JUL 31 2007).
I never expect Emily to like new bands when we see them live, because she's just not wired that way, and Pale Young Gentlemen are not the type of band I'd think she'd like in general. Surprisingly, she got into it right away and came out of their set thinking they were pretty awesome. I agree.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:13:08:00. Monday. NO!: PALE YOUNG GENTLEMEN (#295, JUL 31 2007).
In the brief period between the Boston and Detroit trips, White Rabbits visited the High Noon and local up-and-comers Pale Young Gentlemen opened the show. I'd listened to their record, but the songs clicked much better on stage, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again. This one, like most of their set, was a higher-energy affair than I'd have expected, and was well-received by the band's sizable fan core.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:11:12:31. Saturday. MY PARTY WITH EZRA.
I've seen some of the sights but not explored too much, because it's way too hot to spend a lot of time walking around outside, and the public transportation is not very good. Last night, though, we followed the Wisconsin social by cramming five of us into a cab to go to a party at Ezra Klein's house, because Kjerstin's sister Emily knows him and understood it to be the place for hip young folks like ourselves to be. Kjerstin had earlier identified him as "some blogger that was on Hardball yesterday," and was surprised that I could identify him, based largely on this post. I don't generally read Klein's blog, but that post was linked by Atrios, whom I do read. Also in attendance was Matthew Yglesias, whom I recognized, and I'm told a bunch of other bloggers, whom I didn't. It was sort of a weird experience, in that I was sort of shocked that these 25-year-old prep school kids were part of the New Elite Punditry, my general agreement with them about most everything notwithstanding. Part of it also was a direct collision with the New Celebrity, which the fact that I recognized Yglesias immediately plays a large part in. On the other hand, we were provided with several beers and a piece of cake (it was Tristan's birthday, though I don't know who Tristan is), and had a generally enjoyable time hanging out on a wobbly old deck. Also, some guy walked straight into the glass deck door, which everybody promised to blog, but so far have not. I grabbed a big handful of bottle caps for Emily when we were getting ready to leave, so Madison readers may find themselves in the possession of 100% authentic Big Media Blogger trash if they come down to the farmers market and buy some bottle cap magnets. They are guaranteed to appreciate!* * Appreciation not guaranteed.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:10:08:00. Friday. NO!: MATT AND KIM (#294, JUL 19 2007).
It's weird, but the first band at this show -- How Are We, Hawaii? -- was really bad, and yet had what seemed to be a core of extremely enthusiastic fans near the front of the room. Many of these same people were the craziest of the Matt and Kim fans, even though the bands don't sound much alike at all. The whole atmosphere of the show was actually much more unified and community-oriented than I would've expected for a big city show, and not much like the show I saw in San Francisco last spring. Hopefully someday I'll get a chance to go back and see if that's always the case.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:09:08:00. Thursday. NO!: MATT AND KIM (#293, JUL 19 2007).
The only thing more exciting to Matt and Kim fans than hearing their favorite Matt and Kim songs is hearing new Matt and Kim songs. This one -- presumably part of a batch of new ones along with a couple others that are on their Myspace -- amped the craziness up a notch, just as the room was really starting to literally heat up.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:07:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: MATT AND KIM (#292, JUL 19 2007).
It's weird, I probably would not have gone to see Matt and Kim and they played in Madison. Their overdriven and reversed take on early Mates of State never seemed that interesting to me, but I noted yesterday, there was just nothing else to see in Boston while I was there. So in the crazy heat and humidity, I headed down one T stop to Central Square and stood in line for ten minutes to get into the upstairs, all the while getting in the way of people who were just hanging out in the bar. Why was the line stopped? No clue; they just stopped moving people in at one point. Then we started up again and packed into what turned out to be a much smaller room than I expected. It seems that Matt and Kim, now in Brooklyn, are both New Englanders, and have played the greater Boston area many times. Kim's family was in the house, as were lots of hardcore fans. As you can see during this clip of their big hit single, they were pretty much all ready to go nuts throughout the entire set.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:06:08:00. Monday. NO!: MAGIC PEOPLE (#291, JUL 19 2007).
My two weeks in the Boston area were apparently the sparsest weeks of the year for live music. When all was said and done, I only got a chance to go to one show -- Matt and Kim, with a couple of local bands opening. The second one was Magic People, who I found myself liking quite a bit. Their sound reminds me a bit of the late 90's Boston emo scene, but mixed with Detroit acts like SSM. I believe this song is called "To the Moon," and I assume it's from their forthcoming new record, but this is speculation; all I know for sure is that it's not on last year's record, which I bought after their set.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:03:08:00. Friday. NO!: ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET (#290, JUL 14 2007).
In perhaps not my wisest move ever, I decided to go to this show even though it was the night before I flew to Boston for two weeks -- in my defense, it was an afternoon flight, but there was still packing and planning (and video encoding!) to do in the morning. I'm glad I went though -- leaving before the headliners played helped -- because I was able to spend a lot of my travel time re-appreciating tunes like this one from their first album, but also listening to their new one with a different perspective afforded by the live show. On my first few listens to it, I was really disappointed, but I'm finding it a lot more enjoyable now.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:02:08:00. Thursday. NO!: ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET (#289, JUL 14 2007).
Looking at the audio for these clips, I suspect that the battery in my mic filter (which is meant to keep the bass from overwhelming everything else) is dead, since the frequencies aren't clipped at all. The good news is that the baseline quality of the external mics is much better than the camera's poor built-in mic, and everything here sounds pretty decent. This was the one worry I had about these mics, since there is no indicator of remaining power and I didn't know how long the battery would last (about six months, it turns out). This song, the first track from their new album, is driven by the acoustic guitar and piano lines, which helps a lot, but the rest of the stuff I've recorded since then has been OK as well.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:08:01:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET (#288, JUL 14 2007).
The Redwalls headlined this show, but my main interest was Robbers on High Street, who we saw play a sparsely attended show at the Annex a couple years ago. At the time they'd just released a better Spoon record than Spoon made that year, and I was pretty excited to see them again, even though their new album is a little tepid. They started with a few from their first album, and they seemed to do well with the bigger crowd and venue.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra |
DC, or at least what I've seen of it, has been interesting so far. Much like New York, I wish I could've seen what it was like 20 years ago. Much like Boston, I can't find breakfast before 9:00 fucking anywhere. The