43 posts tagged “bands”
A new Vox neighbor, tracyk, introduced me to a new (to me) band called The Cat Empire. I checked them out on Rhapsody and only had to listen to two tracks before I decided to buy their album off Amazon's mp3 store. It's pretty fucking amazing, for sure.
Last night we saw K's friend's band Office play at 330 Ritch. They played an amazing set, as expected, and we danced the rest of the night away. Afterwards, we brought K's friend and her boyfriend to our place where we ate greasy burgers, got fucked up, and watched Dave Chappelle. Rudy put on a show for everyone with Mr. Frog, and we stayed up talking and laughing until we could rage no further. It was a good night. Here's a picture of my hot date for the night, and show pictures are below.
So, Wednesday I knocked off work a little early, having not finished my awesome Hack-a-thon[tm] project. I met Lady Scotch at the BART station, where we hustled ass to the airport. Our destination: the unholiest of places. The belly of the beast. That city whose name we dare not speak aloud. Los Angeles. Birthplace of Road Rage. Ground Zero of the Botox craze. Et cetera, et cetera... What on earth would lure us to such a destination? A concert, of course.
Specifically, we were there to see Office at The Troubadour. An old friend of Scotch's is the keyboard player, so I attempted to rig a surprise trip wherein friends would reunite and rock and roll would be jumped around to. The surprise was thwarted when several friends were sloppy in their use of discretionary communication, but we were still excited - Scotch to see her old friend play, and me to see one of my new favorites play live.
It was a great show... Office is amazing. Their album is awesome and their live show was a fucking blast. They played the shit out of that place.
After their set, we retired to the back bar so K and her friend could catch up. While there, I noticed the bass player of one of my favorite bands, OK Go, had walked in, so I decided to say hello and thank him for being awesome. I said, "so are you just here supporting another great Chicago band?" and he told me that he and K's friend were also old friends. Sweet. Not wanting to be a gusher, I bid him good evening, but he eventually found his way over to our table and while K and her friend reminisced, Tim and I had great conversation about various topics, including music and bands of course, but also things like favorite cities, barbecue restaurants, and home prices. He was a cool guy and he firmly insisted that I listen to "Discovery" by Daft Punk at my earliest convenience.
I'm familiar with Daft Punk, but I'd never taken them (it?) seriously, as it just falls in the dance music category for me. But, when someone you respect musically makes a recommendation, you take it, and that's what Rhapsody is for. So, I'm currently rocking the aforementioned album and I have to say that it's registering about an 8.9 on the ass shaking Richter scale. While it's true that it is just dance music, it's pretty fucking awesome, musically. The arrangements and instrumentation are incredibly funky, and the whole thing just grooves. Call me a Daft Punk fan, I guess.
I won't bore you with details of the rest of the trip. Suffice to say that after 24 hours in that place, we were happier than ever to return home. Scotch made a beeline for the shower the second we walked in the door and Rudy showered me with love, despite being aware that my scent was definitely not the same.
One more thing of note - in addition to her many other endearing qualities, Scotch is one of the most fun travel partners I've had the pleasure of flying with. We made ourselves laugh so fucking hard while making fun of the pilot last night that I'm sure we're on some DHS watch list now. Good times.
Wow. I almost can't believe this, but apparently Elvis Costello is going to be performing at Great American Music Hall next month. That, in and of itself, is awesome, because it's a small-ish venue and a great place to see a show. But... for this particular show, he's got the original band that played on My Aim Is True together to play those songs. This is apparently the first time they're playing together in public?? Amazing!
The down side is that it's a benefit show, and tickets are a hundred bucks a pop. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love me some Elvis Costello, but it was a fairly long time ago when I got sick of paying $60 a ticket for his shows, so $100 is unlikely, even given the unique circumstances. Plus, I'd hate to shell out that kind of cabbage and then have them JUST play that album. I mean, it's a great record, but it's uh... short, and there's a lot of stuff on a lot of other records I'd want to hear as well.
Alas, I think I'm gonna pass on this one.
One of Scotchie's friends is in this band called Office (not to be confused with the mildly popular television program of similar name). I heard one of their songs a few weeks ago and it was really cool, and today Scotch posted this video from them. I like it a lot. They kind of have that new new wave thing going on and they're really hook-ey. They have some tracks on their MySpace (ech!), including one called "The Ritz" which is quite pleasing to my booty. Check them out.
Scotch - you should get them to set up shop here on Vox. It's the only choice for the civilized modern band.
Eight reasons you should go see The Rentals with me on my birthday at Great American Music Hall:
Tickets are available from Virtuous. This is the first date of a really big re-forming tour, and I'd be surprised if it didn't sell out.
There will be dinner of some sort before the show for those of you who don't rock and roll on school nights. I haven't figured out where yet.
Oh man. I forgot about the new Aggrolites album. It came out last week. I just pulled it down off eMusic and have only taken a cursory swipe at it so far, so there is no review as of yet. I think I'll save it for the nice long flight I have tomorrow.
I'm not gonna leave you hangin' though. I'll give you this track which, if I remember correctly from their live show, RIPS.
I just got my regular mailer from Slim's and Great American Music Hall and it appears that The Rentals are going to be playing at GAMH ON MY BIRTHDAY!! So fucking awesome. This solves the following problems:
- I don't have to go in to the Soul Crushing Abyss of the greater Los Angeles area to see them in July
- I get to hear what they've been working on since they reformed
- I have something fun to do on my birthday
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were pretty awesome tonight. I can't recall the last time I saw Fat Mike that sober. They still forgot how to play the songs and Spike forgot a lot of the words, but they rocked it hard anyway, and played a lot of my favorites. Super gigantic thanks to Barry for the guest list hookup and letting me watch the show from the sound booth, which offered the best view in the house and the best sound as well. There were beers as well, which was a little sad because I forgot to eat dinner. I grabbed a blueberry muffin from the store across from the club, and ate that just now, and I'm gonna drink a big ol' glass of water, so I can be bright eyed and bushy tailed for a very special someone's birthday tomorrow today.
I am dangerously close to planning a trip in to the unholiest of lands in July to see what is pretty much guaranteed to be an amazing show.
Dammit. I really don't want to go to Los Angeles, despite it being the home of The Dude and all. I got this crazy hangup about wanting to keep my soul intact and all. Gah!
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