daily playlist 8/16/09: love in stockholm

today's daily playlist is also a new haven concert must see, for tonight (8pm) at leon's.

i've mentioned my friend charlie's band, love in stockholm, before (sadly, didn't make the top 20 by a couple slots, but good for you if you voted), and tonight, new haven friends, you have a chance to see their new, awesome expanded set!

the "musical fearlessness" of this be-suited septet makes itself felt in all their originals, from the dance-ready (nay, dance-DEMANDING) funk-rock jams "allston, MA" (a tribute to the band's birthplace, a filthy, low rent, and deeply awesome slice of boston sandwiched between cambridge and brookline) and "fellowship of funk" to the more laid-back tunes like "don't be fooled". they also do some truly rocking covers of everything ranging from outkast's "bombs over baghdad" to the band's "don't do it", in their signature growly funk/soul sound (and let it be clear that by "funk", i do not mean any craptastic jam band nonsense; i mean serious funk). let's be real; anyone who can make me enjoy the middle school dance staple "no diggity" deserves a medal.

it may be a little out of your way, but, if you go, i guarantee you'll have the same reaction to love in stockholm that i heard from a surprised sounding gentleman last night at a family-heavy, all day outdoor music festival staged about 100 yards from plymouth rock. as charlie thanked the audience, the man muttered, "no thank you!" and turning to his wife, "these guys are fucking great".

daily playlist 6/19/09

"timorous me"
ted leo and the pharmacists
2001

for when: you're going to a ted leo concert (!)

yeah, so the theme lacks a certain creativity today...
however, if you haven't managed to catch these guys in the last 10 years they've been making music (in a variety of lineup configurations), you should do it. they started off, as so much great music does, as an experiment. by the time they released 'tyranny of distance', their first full length album (from which "timorous me" comes), they'd settled themselves firmly into mainstream rock sensibilit(ies)... which is in no way a bad thing, as they've remained unbound by any particular rock sub-genre convention (see eg dub sensibility in "the unwanted things" off 2007's 'living with the living', side-by-side with the same album's distortion-laced, savage "bomb.repeat.bomb"). they pretty much rock anything they put their collective hands to...in fact, that's what these guys pretty much are: pure rock. hopefully i'll get some fun footage/pictures tonight, when i see them play at toad's place.

the rest of your playlist:
"tommy gun" the clash
"long nights" piebald
"santeria" sublime

excuse me, your geek is showing.

how can you not love these guys?

Middle East Upstairs (boston)
Sun 5/24
Harry and the Potters present WizRock iz Dead: a WizHop BLOWOUT with Swish and Flick, Dumbledore, Big Whompy, MC Kreacher, DJFF, MC Remus and the Lupins, Griz-ed & Fiz-orge – All Ages $10 – NOTE: 1pm Doors

april music dump: concerts

running a little late this month, but here is a preview of concerts i'd like to hit...review of music acquisitions forthcoming (still working through some of them).

4/8: Margot and the Nuclear So and So's @ Toad's (new haven)

4/8: Ray LaMontagne @Schubert Theater (new haven)

4/9: Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin @ Mercury Lounge (nyc)

4/10 Amazing Ghost @ Cafe Nine (new haven)

4/15 Nada Surf @the bellhouse (nyc)

4/16 Damien Jurado @ TT The Bears (boston)

4/18 Yale FES Environmental Film Festival @GYPSCY (new haven)

4/19: Of Montreal @ Toad's (new haven)

4/20 Jedi Mind Tricks @ Toad's (new haven)

4/21: Ratatat @ Terminal 5 (nyc)

4/23 Simian Mobile Disco @ Highline Ballroom (nyc)

4/23 Shiny Toy Guns @ Webster Hall (nyc)

4/25: Kid Sister @Bowery Ballroom (nyc)

4/27 KRS-One @Toad's (new haven)

4/28 Girl Talk, N*E*R*D, Wale @Yale Spring Fling (new haven)

5/7 Cut Off Your Hands @ Mercury Lounge (nyc)

5/12 - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ Bowery Ballroom (nyc)

5/14 Thao With the Get Down Stay Down @ Bowery Ballroom (nyc)

common concert post-game

caveat: this post is going to start a little negative, but IT WAS ALL WORTH IT BECAUSE LONNIE RASHID LYNN JR (aka common sense aka common) IS A GOD AMONG MEN.

so last night i went to a show at toad's for the first time in a while, because...well, who could pass up common playing within walking distance?? we sort of split the baby in terms of arrival- too late to get to the front, but early enough that we waited for an hour and a half for the opener, asher roth, to go on. (predictably, the show started about an hour late).

asher roth...
is a new artist from PA. i knew nothing about him before he came on, so i didn't immediately identify the lanky, tow-headed kid (he's 23) who loped on stage and snagged a floating joint from an audience member as the first act. he's kind of charming, actually, in that wanna pinch his cheeks way...but he's self-fashioned as a sort of chill party boy; his overall vibe says "smoke weed every day! in my mom's basement, in the suburbs". to be fair to him, it's not really his fault that i didn't respond well. first of all, when you show up for common, a man who writes lyrics about his daughter's eyes and redirecting hiphop in a positive direction, a song called "i love college" isn't exactly what you're in the mood for. on a personal note, as someone who's trying to scramble up the cliff-face of adulthood (one foot upwards, two feet back) lyrics like "that party last night was awfully crazy/i wish we taped it/i danced my ass off/i had this one girl completely naked/drink my beer/smoke my weed/with my good friends it's all i need"...not so much. it's to his credit that he doesn't posture and act like something he's not, but at the end of the day, he's sort of like the OAR of hiphop: fun if you're smashed at a party, but otherwise a bit grating and juvenile in all but the smallest doses.


COMMON
it says so much about this artist that he wiped away every trace of negativity that had built up for me in the interim between acts. as much as i love live music, i realize that i kind of hate concert-goers. i was surrounded by every terrible show attendee stereotype...EVER. the couple making out the whole time: to my right. the group of drunk, writing, attention-seeking 14 year old girls with the BRIGHTEST CAMERA FLASHES this side of a red carpet: to my left. the tallest guy in the room: directly in front of me. the guy shouting every lyric in budweiser breath: directly over my right shoulder. BUT in the middle of mentally composing hate letters to all of these people, common swooped onto stage in a blaze of energy, and i immediately loved everyone around me, and not just because of the ambient marijuana finally getting to me (i don't think...).

his set was pretty be heavy (which made me happy), including the title track, "the corner", "go", "testify", "love is", and "the food" (in his encore), but he also threw in older classics like "i used to love HER" (a scathing critique of hiphop's gangsta-turn, which spawned a brief battle with west-coast rappers, primarily ice cube), to which the crowd responded energetically. live-moment highlights included a quick sample from black star's "definition," when he decided to spotlight his INCREDIBLE dj, and an extended free-style, which, starting off a bit slow, made me wonder if he was beginning to show his age, but picked up considerably in the second half, where he offered shout-outs to new haven landmarks and a mini-praise song for obama (AMEN!)**.

this was my first real exposure to his neptunes-produced universal mind control material, which is a departure, especially lyrically, from the gravitas and fusion beats for which he's become known. however, the sheer danceability (less common for common) of "universal mind control" make truth of the lyric "you know you like it/it's calling your name". "punch drunk love" (the album version reprises the successful kanye/common partnership from be) isn't terrible either. i dug "gladiator"; its sky-high energy and horn-and-piano accented electronic beats make it great for a live show, but who invokes michael vick and nelson mandela in the same verse? common's famous and admirable moral compass seems to have gotten skewed there. unfortunately, "sex 4 sugar", weirdly salacious in a crappy club song kinda way, doesn't have the same musical highlights to redeem it.

but let's be real: it barely matters what a mixed bag his new stuff is. the man is a consummate performer. he reminds me of the kind of young, cool high school teacher who had the students completely in the palm of his hand. a commanding, but playful presence; earnest, but mischievous. he seemed like he was having as much fun as the audience was (which was LOT) whether he was bantering with his dj and keyboardist on stage, interacting with the crowd in front, or dancing with a fist-pumping, sweat-soaked energy on every inch of the stage. (it helps that common is not only a riveting performer, but easily one of the most attractive men i have ever been the the presence of; he is sexy in an irresistible, magnetic way. i'm (almost) not ashamed to admit that i would have sacrificed a digit to have been the girl he brought up on stage during "love is".)

bottom line:
there are shows that you leave feeling quizzical, with a sense of anti-climax (dave matthews).
there are shows that you leave feeling satisfied, but ultimately not overwhelmed (catch 22).
there are shows that you leave, drunk as a lord on smuggled nips of bourbon, eating cheez-fries, and having just made out with a celtics-jersey wearing plumber from quincy, in order to tow a distressed and equally drunk friend back to a red roof inn (steve miller band).

and then there are shows, like this one, that make you say to yourself, "i would give up [sex, chocolate, beer, lolcatz, etc] for a whole year, in a hiphop lent sort of way, if i could see that every saturday".... it's the food, baby.

aaanyway, to distract you from the fact that i've been to a steve miller band concert, here's a snippet of "go" from saturday:


**i, of course, got video of the first half of this, but, for no logical reason, stopped taping in the second half. kicking myself...but i'm having a hell of a time getting the videos posted, anyway...so maybe no harm done. i'll try to get something posted, soon, though, whether it's my own or something that pops up on youtube.

march/april concert update

here are some more for ya:

3/10: let's wrestle and black lips @ music hall of williamsburg [<--anyone? anyone?]
AND/OR
3/13 let's wrestle w/ pains of being pure at heart @ the bell house [THIS will be an AWESOME show...that i tragically can't attend]

4/1 Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Terminal 5
4/1 Sebastien Tellier @ Le Poisson Rouge
4/3 Deadmau5 @ Roseland Ballroom
4/18 Yale FES Environmental Film Festival @GYPSCY
4/23 Simian Mobile Disco @ Highline Ballroom

march music dump.

happy march, everyone!
i realized i had a couple of posts i wanted to do: one on concerts i want to see, and one on my monthly binge/emusic purchase....and then realized that they could easily be combined in a single, convenient monthly format. so, i give you: monthly music dump, march edition.

march concerts
these are concerts i want to hit in the months of march and april. most are in new york, although some are in new haven (toad's turned out a surprisingly good lineup). i'm open to pretty much anything, though, so send me a concert and i'll update this post.

3/7 Toad's: Common

3/15 (Music Hall of Williamsburg) 3/16 NYC (Terminal 5): Ting Tings

3/16 Toad’ s: Less Than Jake

3/25 Terminal 5: Bloc Party

3/26 Music Hall of Williamsburg: The Harlem Shakes (nb: yale alums)

3/31 Toad's: Digable Planets (yeah, that's right)

3/31 Wellmont Theater: Ray Lamontagne

4/4 Mercury Lounge: Ra Ra Riot

4/8 Toad's: Margot and the Nuclear So and So's

4/9 Mercury Lounge: Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin

4/19 Toad's: Of Montreal

4/20 Toad's: Jedi Mind Tricks

4/21 Terminal 5: Ratatat

4/27 Toad's: KRS-One


emusic binge
so, as i've mentioned before, my personal music downloading venue of choice is emusic (and yes, i often, if not exclusively, BUY my music, like the sucker i am). emusic doesn't carry a lot of big contemporary names, which is what lets them get away with selling their music for what they do: anywhere between .60 and .25 per track, depending on your plan. what's great is that they sell by the track, so, for instance, i get 40 downloads a month, of any length, in any configuration. although it's not the place to find that one addictive radio single (you'll inevitably end up augmenting from itunes or similar), the price, eclectic selection, copious free downloads*, and smart (if self-consciously indie) editorials and features make it a no-contest win for my primary service. the only major downside is the monthly "refresh" function of your downloads: if you don't use 'em, you lose 'em. for me, this results in dawdling all month, then purchasing in one big binge...and hoping i don't lose track of the date...and all my downloads.

anyway, i got my shit together this month, so here goes:

jay-z reasonable doubt

those of us who came of age after 2000 know jay-z as much for his crossover efforts, entrepreneurship, and tumultuous romances as for his individual artistic efforts. i think we can lose sight of the fact that he's a brilliant lyricist and heir to the legacy of some of new york's greatest, as reasonable doubt, his debut album, attests.

the pains of being pure at heart the pains of being pure at heart

this album invites the inevitable comparisons to morrissey, velvet underground, the cure, etc [insert john hughes reference here]. but i'll go ahead and use the word "derivative" without any negative connotation (although you may not agree). regardless, as often happens, just when i feel like pop is dead (thanks, katy perry), emusic gives me a little something to hold on to.


beirut march of the zapotec & realpeople: holland

as usual, zach condon pulls together a whirling, swooping carnival of influences, from mexico to his usual balkan-inspired sounds. recorded half in oaxaca, mexico and half in his parents' basement...SO INDIE IT HURTS.

bon iver blood bank

a sort of amuse-oreille follow up to the wistful, sighing balladry of 2008's for emma, for ever. at 4 tracks, also rounds me out to 40 for the month.

free music haul: nacional records sampler 2009, wages of syntax (syntax records sampler from 2002), an introduction to truth and soul (great sampler, this one), and an ok remix album from the rosebuds.
see you next month: sharon jones and the dap kings, ted leo and the pharmacists.

*the free downloads can be a major mixed bag, but i've picked up a couple of new favorites artists from the samplers i've gotten there. they're always worth sifting through.

thao with the get down stay down

well, my day was just made.
thao with the get down stay down, one of my favorite bands, will be playing at the bowery ballroom on may 14th. i've seen them twice already, but i'm absolutely going again, and i encourage everyone else to check them out. the openers seem not bad: samantha crain, a perfectly listenable neo-folk/americana outfit, and sister suvi, who i suspect will either be FANTASTIC live, or unspeakably pretentious. (y'know, either way...or both?)

and then there's TWGDSD. i'm pretty prone to girl-crushes, but the one i have for thao is of a particularly flustered, breathless type...so i'll try to get the basics out of the way before going all rapturous: you can snag a few free songs on the daytrotter website, but i seriously recommend getting their albums, at least we brave bee stings and all, if not also like the linen. both are pretty great, but, in my opinion, bee stings, their second, is a more varied, polished, interesting album. i would definitely be sure to score "moped," "tallymarks," and "chivalry" off linen, though.

TWGDSD is spring music for me. can't really pinpoint why, except that maybe it's that their literary, guitar (and sometimes banjo)-based brand of indie folk rolk is so light-footed and (mostly) sunny, good-natured even when in distress. regardless, it's gotten me through 2 senior theses and graduating college, so maybe that speaks for itself. or, specifically, bee stings did. like i said, i like the first album fine, but the second is far better (i've just destroyed my hipster street cred if i ever had any). one improvement on like the linen that's made on bee stings is the addition of more varied forms and eclectic components, like the horn bass line under the stripped down snare drum and acoustic string on "beat (health, life, and fire)". just...so...catchy.

the lyrics are the real gems here. what thao does most often, and quite well, are verses that meditate on situations that have just not gone quite as someone expected: regret leavened with resignation and self-deprecating humor ("you can't build cathedrals out of finger steeples" or "my, my mouth, a confessional canon/run away with me with the most reckless of abandon"). i'll say though, she's energizingly great on the occasions when she gets fierce, like on her feminist anthem (woot!) "swimming pools". the lyric "you've got to push all the doubt/to the side of your mouth/and we, we brave bee stings and all/and we don't dive, we cannonball" gives the album its name, and the rest of us an oft-needed general exhortation to ballsiness.

thao croons and sighs and growls and wails her way through these lyrics in a way that makes you feel like you're in the middle of your third glass of wine with a perfect stranger. you're both a little drunk, but certainly sober enough to be self-conscious about it (not to mention the fact that you're spilling self-revelation to a complete stranger). and then she says something wry and self-reflective and just exactly what you've been trying to articulate, even if the actual situation she's describing has nothing to do with yours.

at her live shows, thao is far more wail and growl than croon and sigh. even at an intimate gig/talk i saw, her twiggy limbs jerked and thrashed along with the beat, and most songs were played half again or even twice the speed of the album versions. like a manic-depressive in a manic phase, her energy, her hurts, her wryness, are all as distilled as the whiskey she's been known to sip while performing. live, thao is like that stranger a couple drinks (and maybe a few lines) later. she wants to find a way to break onto the roof of the nearest, tallest building, or steal a fast car, and while part of your brain thinks you may have gotten something completely different than what you bargained for, the rest of you is pretty much along for the ride.