Superblast!

Review: Breeders @ Glasshouse

4/29/08, Pomona: MMMMM...Breeders. Playing to an all-ages joint that was only about 3/4 full, and dealing with some pretty significant sound issues, Kim and Kelley Deal and their partners in crime still softly kicked some ass at the Glasshouse on Tuesday.

Playing selections from all of their full-lengths (Pod only repped two songs though), they seemed gun-shy about playing new tunes until the end of their set and the encore. New single "We're Gonna Rise" sounds awesome, with it's slow, smokey qualities and "German Lessons" was a hoot with Kim Deal singing in Deutsch. They wrapped their warped pop sensibilities around two covers: Beatles' "Happiness is a Warm Gun" (found on Pod) and Guided By Voices' "Shocker in Gloomtown" (issued as a single in, what, 1993?).

About halfway through, during "No Aloha" and again on "Pacer," the sound went kablooey, with Kim Deal's guitar and mic cutting out. The audience (sort of) filled in on vocals on both songs before the band took a little break. During that time, Kelley Deal cracked some jokes to the peeps in the first few rows, until the sound was fixed and things came roaring back to life.

Good times, especially "Divine Hammer" and set-closer "Saints."

Poster of the Week: Raconteurs by Lil Tuffy

The Raconteurs @ SF, 4/29/08. Art by Lil Tuffy.

Boris playing in-store at Amoeba Berkeley

People in the Bay Area have no idea how lucky they are. From Amoeba's site:

"On June 22, legendary Japanese heavies BORIS will play an exclusive after-hours show at Amoeba Berkeley in celebration of their new release Smile! For this EPIC event, Amoeba Berkeley will actually be closing its doors early, teaming up with Southern Lord Records to host a private after-hours show with BORIS."

The only way in is to buy Smile at Amoeba Berkeley (you'll get a wristband for access). 

As of now, the only other U.S. date on Boris' itinerary is the Pitchfork Music Fest in Chicago July 17-19. They're playing the shit out of Europe though.

Photo of Boris by Chinapixie.

New Tapes 'n Tapes video!

New Tapes 'n Tapes video for "Hang Them All":

Justice, DeVotchKa, Silversun lead Monolith Fest

Silversun Pickups photo by Chinapixie.

1 mile high...and when you touch down...you'll find that it's...stranger than those...signs in the street...that say where you're going...but don't say where you've been...

Dateline: Red Rocks, Colorado's mind-blowingly beautiful outdoor amphitheater where many a band has recorded a live album and many a hippie has played many a hackey sack. It's also the locale for the annual Monolith fest (9/13-9/14), which sports this fab lineup:

Justice, DeVotchKa, Silversun Pickups, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, Neko Case (grrrrr...), CSS, The Avett Brothers, Akron/Family, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Superdrag, Cut Copy, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Holy Fuck and more!

The crazy thing? Their site already has the set times! Your trip just got 100 times easier to plan, dude.

More like "Rad Rocks." Am I right?

Wolf Parade plot North American tour

Canadian weirdies Wolf Parade are currently driving to your town. It's a long drive, I guess.

7/7 - Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
7/8 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
7/9 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
7/12 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
7/13 - Seattle, WA - Marymoor Park
7/15 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
7/17 - San Francisco, Ca - Fillmore
7/18 - Hollywood, CA - Henry Fonda
7/19 - Hollywood, CA - Henry Fonda
7/20 - San Diego, CA - Cane's
7/21 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
7/24 - Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom
7/25 - Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa
7/26 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
7/28 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
7/29 - Raleigh, NC - Disco Rodeo
7/30 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
7/31 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
8/2 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
8/3 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
8/9 - Toronto, ON - Koolhaus

Misc. Coachella debris

Hey gang, just a few more cool links about Coachella:

-- Citizenrobot Survives Coachella 2008
-- L.A. Times' Anne Powers digs Prince

And our predictions/hopes for next year:

My Bloody Valentine (Seriously this time), BOWIE (why hasn't this happened???), PJ Harvey (ditto!), Low, Boris, Hold Steady, and reunions: Replacements (Seriously this time), Roxy Music, Talking Heads, Lush... OK, I'll stop...No I won't...HUSKER DU. OK, now I'll stop.

Review: She & Him/Lavender Diamond @ The Vista

4/28/08, Los Angeles: Wide-eyed silverscreen starlet Zooey Deschanel and indie guitar hero M. Ward comprise She & Him, an old skool-flavored duo (expanded to a quintet onstage) who play melancholy pop dervied from '60s girl groups, blue-eyed soul and outlaw country. Monday night, they played the first of two sold out, very intimate gigs at the Vista Theater in Los Feliz (on a normal night, it's one of L.A.'s very best movie theaters..now playing: "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Check Moviefone for showtimes and tickets). Their show was a vast improvement over their appearance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in January, where they played two not-so-hot covers.

Keeping things at a simmer for most of the show, the group really hit their stride with the one-two punch of "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" and "Sweet Darlin'," two of the best tracks on their debut CD Vol.1. Deschanel has a strong voice, and despite appearing a little nervous, she was in command, aided immeasurably by Ward's excellent fretwork (how does he move his hand so fast up and down the neck and keep it so clean-sounding?). And the Vista lent the show a magical, cinematic feeling.

With Deschanel standing in dim lights, wearing a vintage dress, in front of a red velvet curtain, it was hard not to imagine a number of David Lynch images.

They pulled out a killer version of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" (move over, Beatles! Actually, don't -- just stay where you are).*

For the encore, they were joined by Giant Sand's Howe Gelb on piano. And guess who was watching the show? Annie Clark from St. Vincent!

Openers Lavender Diamond play around L.A. a lot, but thery're always a good time, mostly because singer Becky Stark is such a cut-up, dedicating songs to "the planet Earth -- the best planet in the world!" They played one new song, which sounded like their old songs (slow, pretty, vocal-heavy). Deschanel joined them for their final tune.

*Let's take a minute to celebrate Smokey Robinson. The dude wrote or co-wrote over 1,000 songs including: Ain't That Peculiar, I Second That Emotion, Money ("That's what I wa-a-a-ant"), My Girl, My Guy, Shop Around, Tears of a Clown, The Tracks of My Tears, The Way You Do the Things You Do, and 990 more.

Bad Brains shoes: The Big Takeover

MF Doom, Fine. Ramones? I guess. Dinosaur Jr.'s are pretty funny. But BAD BRAINS? Not on my watch. The legendary D.C. hardcore pioneers-turned wanky metal doodz-re-turned hardcore gods are releasing a collection of Vans shoes (in Rastafarian colors, natch) through a store called Supreme. They'll only be available to fashionistas in NY, L.A. and Japan. They actually look pretty cool, and fairly subtle, but still it's pretty depressing. I used to have the below photo in my locker freshman year, and I never thought in a million years that some designer douchebag in SoHo or Shibuya or Silver Lake or wherever would be wearing them on their feet. Still, go ahead and buy me the red ones.

Coachella 2008 wrap-up

Another Coachella has come and gone. They grow up so fast, don't they? Prince really, really was the winner there. Roger Waters and Jack Johnson -- not so much. Other kick-ass performances: St. Vincent, Gogol Bordello, Black Mountain, The Breeders, Holy Fuck. Some crummy let-downs: Kraftwerk, Kid Sister, Battles, Duffy, Death Cab For Cutie, Spank Rock, Stephen Malkmus. Some surprises: Love and Rockets, Does it Offend You Yeah?, The Verve... and Portishead was good, just a little too long and slow. Unfortunately missed: The Teenagers, Akron/Family, Fatboy Slim, Hot Chip, Kate Nash, Raconteurs, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, many more.

Check out all the in-depth coverage here (photos, reviews, random thoughts) and peep some more dope photos here.

Man. Hold Steady at Pitchfork fest!!!!

Move over, Coachella. Festival season is just getting started and Pitchfork's annual entry in the derby (7/18-7/20, Chicago) just got sweeter. How much sweeter? Try Sebadoh, Caribou, Times New Viking, High Places, Bon Iver, Elf Power, HEALTH, Mahjongg, Icy Demons, Titus Andronicus, Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar and...HOLD STEADY!!! Best live band ever. These folks are all in addition to previously announced performers like Vampire Weekend, Public Enemy, Mission of Burma, Dinosaur Jr. and BORIS. Best live band ever.

U.S. Virgin fest is amazing: Dylan, Kanye, Stooges

Baltimore's upcoming Virgin Mobile Festival (8/9-8/10) just got a lot more awesome. The inital announcement included Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Stone Temple Pilots and Kanye West. Yawn. What else you got? How about:

Bob Dylan, Wilco, Iggy & the Stooges, Lil Wayne, Cat Power, Bloc Party, Andrew Bird, Chuck Berry and the Silver Beats, Moby, the reunited Shudder to Think, the Black Keys, the Go! Team, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, the Swell Season, Paramore, Underworld, Lupe Fiasco, She & Him, Erol Alkan, Chromeo, Gogol Bordello, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Soulwax, Richie Hawtin, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ferry Corsten and more to come. Again, you get Dylan, Kanye, Chuck muthafuckin' Berry , Iggy, Go! Team AND Lil Wayne all on one (or probably more like 4) stage. Wow. Good job, Virgin!

Clusterfuck alert! This fest is the SAME weekend as the similar, but Radiohead-including All Points West Festival in N.J., which also has a pretty killer lineup.