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2008:03:30:23:08. Sunday. PS3. We got a PlayStation 3 today, and it's the media center I've been dreaming about for years. Setup was a breeze, and it seems like the only thing it won't play that I think it ought to is PlayStation 2 games (thanks, short-sighted Sony assholes!). Upscaled DVD's look unbelievable, and I can't wait to see what an actual Blu-ray disc looks like in it. My recommendation is that everybody go buy one.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:20:11:50. Thursday. QUICK QUIZ. In the wake of Geraldine Ferraro's awful comments about Barack Obama being "lucky" to be black, it's worth wondering what to think about the person who said this:
If he were white...he would simply be one of nine freshmen senators, almost certainly without a multimillion-dollar book deal and a shred of celebrity.
So who said it? Answer here.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:14:08:00. Friday. NO!: THE GUTTER TWINS (#376, MAR 9 2008).
I've heard Mark Lanegan described as a recluse, but I didn't realize just how true that was until this show -- I don't think he said a single word between songs and left the stage noticeably before the rest of the band. The intensity that he brought to the performance just made his presence darker. It was the same incredible effect that he had when I saw him a few years ago with Queens of the Stone Age; he came out mid-set, sang a few songs, and left after burning the stage down. By contrast, Greg Dulli totally ran the show on stage, talking a bit between songs and occasionally throwing in a solid rock-out maneuver. It's a striking difference from their album, which sounds dominated by Lanegan to me. I guess it's like the difference between watching or listening to the Kennedy/Nixon debate -- if all you can do is hear, Lanegan's voice destroys your mind, but if you can see, Dulli will pull you back from the brink while Lanegan hangs back in the shadows. This song is a great example of it. On the album, it follows the mostly-Lanegan barnburner "Idle Hands" (an early front-runner for my favorite song of the year) and sounds like a wind down while Lanegan refills his reservoir of horror. Live, Dulli makes a lot more of it and directs the energy of the show his way. I haven't seen that kind of record/live shift in quite a while, especially one that didn't involve some major instrumentation or personnel change.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:12:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: THE GUTTER TWINS (#375, MAR 9 2008).
So, where to start? Last year, I certainly wouldn't have expected to care about either this act or this show, but once I got hold of their record, well, there is was. I couldn't get enough. I've been an on-and-off fan of Mark Lanegan for a while (Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age, mostly yes; anything with his name on the front of the record, mostly no), but Greg Dulli and his various projects have always left me cold. Something about the collaboration just clicks incredibly well for me. You may notice that this clip is extremely dark, despite a bit of lightening-up in post-processing. In addition ot the general lack of stage lighting, there was a "no flash photography" sign on the door, which leads me to think somebody in the band is either light-sensitive or just really likes hanging around in the dark. On top of that, I was probably standing a bit too close to the stage and caught a lot of distortion. Though, their sound is so bass-heavy -- Lanegan's voice alone is probably enough to cause some fuzz at the bottom end of the spectrum -- that it may not have mattered how far back I was. This tune is a cover of a Massive Attack song that first appeared on a Twilight Singers EP with Lanegan doing a guest appearance. They turn into a kind of down-tempo rock assault that fits in surprisingly well with the rest of their set. I wouldn't have expected a couple of early 90's Sub Pop survivors to do that kind of thing with a Massive Attack song, but there you go.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:11:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: GREAT NORTHERN (#374, MAR 9 2008).
There's a lot to say about this show, and probably not enough room to say it, but here goes. This was one of my most anticipated shows in a while, with the Gutter Twins record not just having spent a ton of time playing on my iPod, but also sounding like it had to be majestic live. On top of that, I really enjoyed Great Northern's debut LP and figured this to be a terrific Sunday-night double-bill. For the most part it was, but I must say I was disappointed to find that Great Northern didn't play as a full band, but as a coffeehouse two-piece, with occasional soft rhythm support. This song, as an example, has a really full, boisterous sound on the record that's not captured in this live setting. In general I can't fault small-time acts for cost-cutting on the road, but it was a step down from what I'd hoped. They were well-received by the crowd, though, which was probably the most attentive audience I've ever seen at a skewing-older High Noon show. There was no ubiquitous layer of chatter, no constant picture-taking, no cellphone douchery -- a nice surprise, to be sure.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:08:08:00. Saturday. NO!: THE GERMAN ART STUDENTS (#373, FEB 26 2008).
The highlight of this set was the block of new material that they played, kicked off by this new tune. It sounds somehow different from their previous stuff, maybe fuller, I can't quite describe it. I really think the little hitch that permeates the opening guitar line is a great touch -- at first it sounds like the opening lick has just been blown, but then it keeps going and fits the song well. The couple songs that came after this one will soon be released on 7" vinyl, with hopefully a new record to follow.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:07:08:00. Friday. NO!: THE GERMAN ART STUDENTS (#372, FEB 26 2008).
Even though I forgot that I'd recorded "Hear It" before, I did have a mental list of songs to skip at this show because I'd previously recorded them -- the result was that the second song I got, "MENSA Girl," was something like the sixth song in the set. Luckily they've got some new material on the way, including one song in my next clip, so at upcoming shows it'll be easier to get unique stuff, but it's always a challenge thinking about the podcast with my favorite local bands because I see them so frequently.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:06:08:00. Thursday. NO!: THE GERMAN ART STUDENTS (#371, FEB 26 2008).
Normally I try not to record songs I've already gotten at previous shows. Unfortunately, I forgot to check and see what I'd recorded at the G.A.S. Terrace show from last fall before going out to last week's happy hour set, and wasn't on the ball enough to realize that I'd probably recorded their standard set-opener in the past. But, it's a good tune, it's a high-energy performance, and I think it might be the stage debut of Andy Larson's beard, so it's certainly worth a peek.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:05:13:50. Wednesday. RELIABILITY. The Texas primary has been called for Hillary Clinton; meanwhile, the Texas caucus is still being counted with Obama in the lead. The differential is nearly the same in each contest, about 4%. Same electorate, same candidates, eight-point swing. Does this make sense? Is this ridiculous Texas system the perfect illustration of why our primary model is screwed? In social science, we have an idea called reliability. The idea is that you take different measures of the same thing to be sure you're measuring it right. For instance, I might measure somebody's propensity to use blogs for surveillance reasons -- that is, to observe and follow news stories -- by asking whether they use blogs to "learn how politicians stand on issues" and to "help me make up my mind about things." Using a statistical test, I can find out how much these questions seem to be tapping the same underlying idea (in this case they went with four other items, and had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.844). If an election is meant to provide an estimated measure of the "will of the voters," something is unreliable in Texas -- they're coming up different. I don't mean to say that the outcomes are necessarily statistically different -- 52C-48O and 48C-52O are fairly close -- but that these two processes, ostensibly designed to measure the same thing, appear to have different outcomes. That's kind of crazy! Texas has inadvertently given us a field experiment comparing the caucus and primary processes, and given us different results. I find that very interesting as a social scientists, but as a small-d democrat, I find it both baffling and disturbing. UPDATE: A handful more precincts have reported in, bumping Obama's caucus lead to 12 points with 39% of precincts counted. And that will be it, because the rules in Texas make precinct reports voluntary. But rest assured, superdelegates are the real problem in this system.
2008:03:04:12:24. Tuesday. FREE. For the first couple years of the podcast, I got maybe three requests from publicity people to do this or that, and I think only one of them involved going to a live show. The others were essentially cold e-mail requests to review or talk about some record I'd never heard of, interview some band I'd never heard of, etc. This is not what I do, clearly; I post videos from live shows and, to a lesser extent, talk about local music. In addition to that, my interests fit into a pretty identifiable set of genres -- in other words, I am not interested in interviewing the Fresno bluegrass band that you represent. Somehow, these requests have suddenly spiked in the last few months. Perhaps somebody's compiled a new list of "music bloggers" to seek out and they've got me on it; whatever it is, most of the requests are the same old thing and I've ignored them. But I've also gotten some requests from people who seemed to have paid attention to my format and my interests, and those I've taken up. The upshot of this is that some bands are now keeping me up to date about their Madison-related tour plans, and others are sending me free stuff. Indeed, I got put on the list for the German Art Students/Wrong Ways show I'm posting about this week (thanks, Kirk!). I say all this by way of getting to Northern Room, a Milwaukee band who sent me a copy of their album, Last Embrace. First of all, it doesn't sound like Milwaukee. The scene there is kind of dirty and ramshackle, living in basements and divey venues like the Cactus Club; these guys are shiny, which might explain why they're on a Japanese label. This was the route taken by their fellow non-dirty Milwaukeeans in Maritime with their second record, so they're in good company to be sure. Nonetheless, the only simple way for Americans to get the album is to get it from the band themselves. It's got a strongly anthemic sound and it's worth checking out, or at least checking the band out live. They remind me more of Mute Math than anybody else, but there's also a clear mid-period Coldplay or Joshua Tree vibe in there. Opener "We're on Fire" and "Dutch Radio" probably embody this amalgamation most clearly, though the influences are clear throughout the tapestry of bright tones that makes up the album. It's not life-changing and I don't think I'd travel just to see them, but I'll probably give them a look the next time they play Madison. I think they could fit well here given the recent local development of bands like Paris, Texas and System and Station, and the tendency for the Madison scene to go for melodic pop. I'd love to see more Madison-Milwaukee crossover anyway, so hopefully they'll be stopping over soon.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:04:08:00. NO!: THE WRONG WAYS (#370, FEB 26 2008).
I was planning to record just the one song from the Wrong Ways set, until Lisa pulled out a pair of scissors and said she'd be "playing" them on the next tune. I don't want to say she used them as a percussion instrument because the snipping sound isn't especially "percussive," but she and drummer Peter Kaesburg used them to provide rhythm both going in, coming out, and during the body of the song. It added a pretty cool sound and visual effect to the song, but I couldn't help but wonder at what point she was going to accidentally cut her mic cable.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:03:03:08:00. Monday. NO!: THE WRONG WAYS (#369, FEB 26 2008).
The Wrong Ways used to be MaeRae, and their lilting alt. country never really did much for me. I wasn't expecting to enjoy them -- same band, new name -- at this show, but it turns out the name change is accompanied by a significant stylistic change. The material they played in this set was all a kind of hard-edged college rock, which I liked much more than I would've guessed. Singer Lisa Marine, despite a foot injury, had a big stage presence that really drove the whole set and got the happy hour crowd going.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra |
