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November 2008
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2008:10:31:08:00. Friday. NO!: THE SPINTO BAND (#449, OCT 24 2008).
I may have a new favorite spot to record from in the High Noon. After having been squished in down on the floor for Frightened Rabbit, we went up to these straight-on seats in the balcony and had a great, unimpeded view. The sound isn't great (it might just be me, but the vocals seem a touch muddled in these clips), but that could be the band or the mix or whatever. I'll try it again at the next show and see what it sounds like then. Also: Boo!
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:30:08:00. Thursday. NO!: THE SPINTO BAND (#448, OCT 24 2008).
Emily got a shirt that she really likes from the Spinto Band, which I think makes them her New Favorite Band for the time being. I find myself also enjoying their new album a lot more than their last one (though I actually like that one a bit more than I used to, as well), partly because I think they sound a lot like Office now. Emily thinks they sound like pre-crazy Of Montreal, but I feel like this song and much of Moonwink tilts in my favor.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:29:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: THE SPINTO BAND (#447, OCT 24 2008).
Headlining the show were the older-than-you'd-guess Spinto Band, who've recently come into some prominence after spending nearly a decade on the self-releasing train. This tune, from their first "real" but fifth overall album, features, among other things, a couple of catchy kazoo melodies. I believe this is the first time I've ever seen a six-person rock band with a multi-part kazoo section, which I'm glad to have checked off the list.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:28:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: FRIGHTENED RABBIT (#446, OCT 24 2008).
This opening track from The Midnight Organ is one of the two Frightened Rabbit songs that are really sticking with me (the other being "Keep Yourself Warm") and hearing it live really added a lot to it. If you find yourself enjoying these guys I think it might actually be worth checking out their new live record, Liver! Lung! FR!, over the studio version, at least as a first take.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:27:08:00. Monday. NO!: FRIGHTENED RABBIT (#445, OCT 24 2008).
Frightened Rabbit are the latest in a series of blog bands to visit Madison this year -- we've had Ra Ra Riot, the Virgins, Vampire Weekend, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, White Rabbits and the Whigs already. These guys are a bit different in that they are Scottish rather than American, but they largely fit with the blog band mode. I'd been led to believe that their new album, The Midnight Organ, was somewhat more subdued than their live show, and it's true. Their set reminded me a bit of what I expected from their fellow countrymen of The Twilight Sad when they put the Terrace to sleep last summer -- pushy but not brash, and with a touch of fun in the dour.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:19:17:01. Sunday. ANECDOTES. A bunch of us went to Iowa City for the awful Wisconsin-Iowa game yesterday, and on the way down we stopped in Dubuque to play a round of golf. Among the handful of folks in the clubhouse on Friday morning were some older white guys talking about the election. All of them said they were voting for Obama, and all of them said it was because of Sarah Palin -- keep in mind, Iowa was a Bush state in 2004. Her selection as the VP nominee may go down as the most disastrous decision in modern presidential campaigning.
2008:10:17:08:00. Friday. NO!: PLANTS AND ANIMALS (#444, OCT 2 2008).
A day after overexerting my elbow in an intramural football game, maybe I should've been recuperating. We went to this show mainly to see the headliners, Born Ruffians, and figured we'd be arriving right before they started. Instead we got there early in the Plants and Animals set and I decided I ought to grab a song or two from them as well. Nine minutes later, this one song was done and my elbow was absolutely killing me from holding the camera that whole time. And foolishly, we played some air hockey between sets, since this was likely our last trip to Union South for anything (it's scheduled for permanent closure in December). After all that I couldn't record anymore as the pain in my arm had gotten pretty persistent, so we left a few songs into the Ruffians set. Not the way I would've wanted my Club 770 experience to go out, but at least this is a pretty interesting song.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:16:08:00. Thursday. NO!: THE DIALS (#443, SEP 20 2008).
So, my show calendar is in a real drought. The Forward Fest came in a long span where basically nobody else was coming to town, and it's going to continue for a while yet. With gas prices cratering lately, hopefully that'll change soon. Dials, come play here again, we're close!
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:15:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: THE DIALS (#442, SEP 20 2008).
This opening track from the Dials' first LP is a great taste of the bouncy energy they bring to the stage. We've only seen them in the much more wide-open space of the High Noon before, and being in the Frequency's smaller area really amplified things (sound included). They got a really good crowd for a somewhat early show and I think it's clear they're developing a solid base in Madison.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:14:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: THE DIALS (#441, SEP 20 2008).
We last saw the Dials at the High Noon new year's extravaganza, where they teased us with a bunch of new material. Their record didn't come out until summer, though, and it took a while to get them back to Madison, so we were pretty psyched for this show. They played a pretty healthy mix of old and new songs to cap off a boisterous evening, with this being one of the energetic new tracks.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:13:08:00. Monday. NO!: THE BOX SOCIAL (#440, SEP 20 2008).
So on the second day of the Forward Fest we saw... the Box Social again. This time they were opening for the Dials, who we were really excited to see after it'd been a while, and also to buy their new record. This was also our first visit to the Frequency, which is in the old Slipper Club space, and is also hopefully going to fill the void left by the King Club's closing. As you'll see and hear, it's a small performance area with a regular little bar out front; we were about ten feet from the stage, and there's unfortunately a bit of distortion in the recording. This is another one of the Box Social's new tunes -- some behind-the-scenes stuff from their recent demo sessions should be going up soon.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:06:08:00. Monday. NO!: BOB MOULD (#439, SEP 19 2008).
This one's taken a while to get up here because, again, the crummy Majestic acoustics made it nearly impossible to decipher the lyrics in this recording, and I don't know the Mould catalog (or in this case, the Hüsker Dü catalog) well enough to pick the song out by melody. I talked to the Box Social's Nick Woods about the venue before things got started and he said they've played some great shows there, so I'm sure there's some good energy going on in the building, but I just can't stand the way loud music sounds in there. But anyway, Bob and his Santa beard were a lot of fun and I'm glad we got the chance to see him. I've already started poking into his back catalog through the library, and it's nice to know there's a lot there if I really get into it.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2008:10:03:18:15. Friday. I'M AMAZED YOU DON'T FIND ME DELICIOUS. I sure is looking like Barack Obama's going to be the next president, and I'd wager that John McCain's decision to pick a know-nothing beauty queen as his running mate will be seen as a bad move in retrospect, doggone it. This leaves two jobs undone for the American Left. The first is to push to the finish line on this year's competitive congressional races -- particularly the Senate campaigns in Minnesota, Mississippi, Oregon and North Carolina. The second is to destroy Sarah Palin. Think about where this woman has been and where she will go after the election. Until the last few days of August, no one outside of Alaska and a slim band of right-wing crazies had heard of her. She got about a week in the spotlight, a couple weeks in hiding, and then a couple of the worst weeks any candidate has ever had. Now that the VP debate has passed, she probably won't come up for much air for the rest of the campaign. Then what? Her first priority will be surviving Troopergate; then is will be re-election in 2010. Meanwhile, President Obama is going to inherit the worst conditions of anybody since Carter, and maybe FDR. I think it's just about dead certain that Palin -- assuming she gets through the next couple years -- will run for the GOP nomination in 2012. She remains popular in crazy baseland -- Rich Lowry all but said her debate performance made him hard -- and when she re-emerges in the summer of 2011, she'll have spent three years preparing for the campaign. She'll have name recognition and base popularity, and she won't sound like a high-school drop-out anymore. No one will remember much about her five weeks in the public eye in 2008, except that the 2012 version doesn't look like the stories they're hearing. The thing is, she won't be any more prepared to be president. She won't be any smarter, more curious or more engaged with the issues. She will be just as dangerous. She may also be more appealing to the core of the Republican party than Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty. What we need to understand is that destroying her now is the only sure way to keep this from happening. Hammer McCain too, of course, but hammer him also through her.
2008:10:01:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: BOB MOULD (#438, SEP 19 2008).
Not being super-familiar with Mould's solo or band catalogs, I was surprised to hear a song I knew early in the set. I don't know why I know "See a Little Light," from Mould's 1989 solo debut, but I do, and it's a good one.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra |
