San Diego Serenade

The CityBeat cover story raises an interesting point this week: Have the Cold War Kids been dealt an unfair hand by the music press because of their Christian faith and themes in their music? The author is a fan of their music and believes that reviews from major publications such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork have unfairly focused on Christianity, rather than the rocking-ness of their music, which he describes as:

“dirt-pan, white-boy blues” [with a singer who] channeled Nick Cave, John Fogerty and Jeff Buckley all at once.”

Author Seth Combs believes that the band has been unfairly written off by a music press and fanbase that sees

“religion as a hindrance to deep, creative thought, as if some a[sic] Christian musician sits in a studio and thinks, Gosh, would Jesus approve of this lyric? I’d better lose it.”

and more over thinks that

“religion goes against the rebellious, hedonistic and godless spirit that makes rock ‘n’ roll so appealing.”

The fictional world of music listeners that the author writes about must be consisted of two groups: either ninth graders who have just bought their first copy of The Doors “Greatest Hits” or leftover Motley Crue fans from the ’80s. These are the only two groups of people left on the planet who adhere to the cliche of “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” as why they listen to their favorite bands. The rest of us tend to base our decisions on the more obvious and rational method of determining “Is this music awesome or not?”

Evidently the author has not listened past the two minute and twenty three second mark of the highest regarded (borderline worshipped) album by the indie rock, Pitchfork reading crowd, or he would have heard Jeff Mangum nakedly exclaiming “I love you Jesus Christ…Jesus Christ I love you, yes I do.” Rock lyrics rarely come more honest, blatant or emotionally delivered, and this one happens to be about Jesus. But this album has been embraced by the masses because of the transcendent quality and emotion of the music, religious undertones be damned. It’s the kind of record that makes even the most skeptical hipster wish that they believed in something the way that the singer does.

If the Cold War Kids have not been fully embraced by the world at large, it’s not because of the way they choose to live their lives, it’s because of the quality of their product. To have received the amount of attention and endorsement from music blogs, to a point where even Rolling Stone chooses to cover them and review their album, is more attention than 99% of their peers will ever achieve. If they happen to be relegated to the status of the latest band who you Should Be Listening To But Aren’t, it is because all the hype in the world can’t make people like something that isn’t that good. In the CityBeat article, frontman Nathan Willett is quoted as saying:

“It’s just lazy journalism, where if you don’t like a band, you pick up one thing about them and say, ‘I’m gonna write about this.’”

It seems to me to be just as lazy journalism to do that if you like the band. But they’ve sold out the Belly Up, so good for them.

50 On Their Heels Singer/Guitarist Junior Metro at the Sports Club

Like a storm rolling away, the clouds of cover and tribute bands have parted leaving only the bright, bright sunshine of some of San Diego’s best local bands. Fifty On Their Heels and Grand Ole Party play Wednesday night, fresh off a shared gig a week or so back at the Sports Club. Canes bartenders likely have little going for them in the way of personality, but their is NO FEASIBLE WAY on Earth that they could be more obnoxious or unpleasent than the bartender at the Sports Club. Imagine a morbidly obese Zippy The Pinhead, shrieking your drink order obnoxiously at top volume. Seriously, this guy could bartend in the depths of hell, hands down.

But the music is great. Fifty On Their Heels rocks the house with an energetic performance from singer Junior Metro the likes of which we haven’t seen since Iggy Pop was rolling around on broken glass for some reason back in the day, and Grand Ole Party, once you get by the Britney/NSynch style customer service agent microphones deliver sleazily rockin’ set. At the Sports Club I observed that the guitarist of Grand Ole Party is definitely the bands secret weapon. The singer may get all the press for doing what she does best while playing the drums, but the guitarist has a vast array of licks stored away for use at a proper time.

Both bands draw crowds, I was personally shocked to see how many people came out to see Grand Ole Party last time, and after extensive press coverage written by myself in such widely read periodicals such as the Reader, that’s sure to increase on Wednesday. Fortunately, I’ve got yer tickets right here, for absolutely zero dollars. So if you want to go check out the bands on Wednesday night at Canes, email me at conorATsandiegoserenade.com. I highly recommend both, and am happy that my recommendation doesn’t have to have any costs incurred to you, the reader, because that takes me off the hook for even the minimal amount that I was on the hook. Booya.

New Bo Bo Jo Jamaican Albino Podcast hopefully coming tomorrow night.

Two and a half months ago, I was trying to figure out any advance information about the then-unrevealed Street Scene lineup. While speculating that a performance by a reunited Replacements, fresh off their two newly recorded tracks, might be an event worth getting excited about, I got called “retarded” and “a joke” by this guy:

Would you rather be a joke or a douchebag?

Street Scene organizer Joe Callahan. I’ll be honest, the insults bother me a whole lot less after seeing that picture.

It was, however, the first sign that the Street Scene people might not be down with making friends with the little guy. Over the past few months, I asked if I could give away tickets to some of my readers through an fun little San Diego-wide scavenger hunt. I offered to interview the guys putting it on, since the interviews in the UT came across as pretty much re-printing their press releases (the god damn ferris wheel!) Then last week, I applied for and was turned down for a press pass to go and take pictures of the show. This was the unkindest cut of all, since it means that I won’t be going to the festival for the first time in the four years I’ve lived here. But once it became a reality, I got to take a step back, and wonder if really this was such a bad thing.

So let’s break down the Street Scene next to the other major festival going on this weekend, Chicago’s Lollapalooza. It seems like a legitimate thing to do. Both festivals take place on the same weekend in major American cities, both have evolved a great deal from previous iterations, and both are of large enough scale to be talked about in articles like Rolling Stone’s summer festival preview. But do the two really measure up upon closer inspection? Let’s find out:

HISTORY:
Street Scene has been taking place in San Diego for over two decades, but has undergone great changes since 2003, the first one I went to. Notable changes include lineup focus and location. Lollapalooza was a historical travelling festival, (THE travelling festival for a flannel wearing 7th grader), but is only in its second year as a multi-day festival. So while Lollapalooza has by far the more recognizable name, Street Scene is more of a fixture. However, the aforementioned Lord Douche-In-Shades did say to the UT that they had considered moving the festival last year, so it’s true roots in San Diego may be in doubt.
EDGE: Street Scene - You can’t argue with history, but people, especially people in both festivals target age groups, have very short memories.

LOCATION

Lollapalooza takes place in Chicago’s Grant Park, complete with fountains and grass. Street Scene takes place in Qualcomm Stadiums parking lot. I have not been among the ones disparaging the parking lot in past years, to me it’s about the music. But you have to agree that at an all day concert, when you want to sit down and take a break, it would be nice if there were some trees or water around.
EDGE: Lollapalooza - No contest, as long as it’s easy to get around once you’re inside.

COST

Street Scene costs $125, including service charges, for a 2 day pass. Lollapalooza costs $167, including service charges, for a three day pass. So for Street Scene that’s $62.50 per day and Lollapalooza, $56. Both festivals offer more expensive single day passes, and both offered passes for much cheaper earlier on in the summer. Why the ticket prices must increase is unknown to me . Why do tickets cost more at the door? What has changed? Why did Street Scene tickets go on sale for $80 before the lineup was announced? This method of ticket sales only serves to alienate people who might have been making last minute plans based on ticket prices. If there is a real reason, I’m curious to know it.
EDGE: Lollapalooza - Both festivals are pretty expensive, but if you were considering both festivals, the price is close enough that it would not be a deciding factor. Lollapalooza advertises its ticket price as “almost $1 per band”, which as anyone who has been to a large festival can tell you, is ridiculous. It’s impossible to see every band, an compromises are always necessary. Lollapalooza also complicates this matter by starting ridiculously early in the morning, pre-noon. So it is much bigger, but I know that I would personally have to miss a good deal of what was going on due to exhaustion, laziness and hangovers. However, their per day ticket price is cheaper, and it really boils down to bang for your buck, which we will address below.

OTHER STUFF TO DO

Street Scene has the god damn ferris wheel, inflatable land and burlesque shows. Lollapalooza has karaoke contests, improv comedy and VH1 confessional booths.
EDGE: Draw - Who cares? The only non-musical thing I can think that might actually strike me as worthwhile at a festival might be an enormous swimming pool. When the focus is not on the music, everyone loses.

So that brings us to….

MUSIC
This is what it all comes down to. If both festivals were going on in town at the same time, with no difference in price, (since it’s not really that great a difference), which one would you go to? I think that the only way to look at this is to break the line up down, day by day, hour by hour, declaring a winner and keeping score. Points only are awarded during times when the lineup overlaps, unless the band is too awesome not to award a point for.

Let’s begin on FRIDAY.

11:45
Lollapalooza: Deadboy & The Elephantmen, Sound Team
Street Scene: Greasing the ferris wheel axels
Points: Probably wouldn’t be there yet, but the Deadboy’s song “Stop, I’m Already Dead” kicks ass.

12:30
Lollapalooza: The Subways
Street Scene: Inflating inflatable land
Points: The Subways play from 6 to 7 on Saturday at the Street Scene, and garbage time at Lollapalooza. I choose to award no points.

1:30
Lollapalooza: Aqualung, Cursive
Street Scene: Joe Callahan practices leering over his shades
Points: This 12:30 to 2:30 gap would only further confirm my late arrival to Lollapalooza. No points.

2:30
Lollapalooza: Eels
Street Scene: Fish tacos
Points: The Eels are a nice early day surprise here before the festival kicks into full gear, but not great enough to award uncontested points.

3:30
Lollapalooza: Stars, Editors
Street Scene: The Colour
Points: +1 Street Scene. Brent, who works at the Colour’s label sounds is a pretty nice guy, and the band is no slouch either. STARS are ok and the Editors are our second double dip band, playing at Street Scene on Saturday at 6. I give the edge to The Colour, even though I probably wouldn’t have show up to the Street Scene by now.

I’m going to start listing just the bands I would go to see, since I’ll typically just pick one at big festivals like this.

4:30
Lollapalooza: Ryan Adams
Street Scene: Reeve Oliver
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. At times I can’t stand Ryan Adams, but some of his songs I absolutely love. Reeve Oliver was the guy who got banned from one San Diego radio station that’s about the music after he played another radio station that is about the music’s concert. That makes me want to like him. But it’s not a contest, as Street Scene is still in its garbage time and Lollapalooza is gearing up for the big names

5:30
Lollapalooza: Secret Macines/Iron and Wine
Street Scene: I would not have arrived at Street Scene for the likes of Lupe Fiasco
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. Lollapalooza has the first tough call for who to go see, the guy who sings like a pussy but I know more of his songs, or the spacey band with the potential for rocking out. Either one reading from the cars operating manual would be better than the Street Scenes offering during this time.

6:30
Lollapalooza: My Morning Jacket
Street Scene: Steel Pulse
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. Sorry Steel Pulse, the token “legitimate reggae” status can’t stack up against My Morning Jacket, who I think may be the best live band there is out there, and who are unfortunately stacked up against the Raconteurs. MMJ is easily worth half a days ticket price in itself, and them not playing at Street Scene made it a hell of a lot easier for me to pass on the festival.

7:30
Lollapalooza: Violent Femmes
Street Scene: Wolfmother
Points: +1 Street Scene. The Violent Femmes have played for free at the racetrack every year I’ve been here. People always react the same way when I tell them that: “The Violent Femmes are still around?” Wolfmother, I think rocks, and could be really fun to see. They also play Lollapalooza later on in the weekend.

8:30
Lollapalooza: Ween
Street Scene: Wu-Tang Clan
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. I love the Wu. I have two Wu-Wear shirts, visited the Wu-Wear store on Staten Island, saw them live in Southeast DC in 2001 and engaged in vicious debates all throughout high school about which of my friends was equivilent to which member of the Wu. But nothing will change the fact that the chances that a hip hop live event does not suck are inversely proportional to the number of guys on stage with water bottles and towels over their shoulder. It would pain me to do it, and the number of drinks I’d have had could play a major role in a decision reversal, but picking outright between Ween’s insane rocking and rumored to be awesome live show and any live hip hop act is a no brainer for me.

10:00
Lollapalooza: Done for the night
Street Scene: Kanye or Social D, Bra
Points: +1 Street Scene. Despite the above “famous hip hop artists suck live” reasoning I’ll give them Kanye. Social Distortion has played at every Street Scene that I’ve been to, like G Love, and I guess people love that tradition. But find a better band to headline the rock stage on Friday night, one with a new album, a hit song from the past decade, a reunited Replacements, anything!

Score after Friday: Lollapalooza 5, Street Scene 2

On to SATURDAY

11:45
Lollapalooza: Be Your Own Pet
Street Scene: Still asleep
Points: None. I’m sure this band is terrible.

12:30
Lollapalooza: Nada Surf
Street Scene: First bloody mary of the day. Three girls leave Joe Callahan’s apartment, wondering how they thought that look-over-the-sunglasses was cool the night before
Points: None. I don’t buy into Nada Surf actually being good, especially because Weezer was the band I most frequently saw tossed around in comparisons to them.

1:30
Lollapalooza: The Go! Team
Street Scene: Fourth Bloody Mary
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. The Go Team provides a strong reason to start Saturday early. Their energy will hopefully provide an early highlight.

2:30
Lollapalooza: Built To Spill
Street Scene: Waiting for the trolley
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. I’m not as familiar with Built To Spill as I’d like to be, but feel like I might really enjoy checking them out in a nice outdoor setting.

3:30
Lollapalooza: Wolfmother
Street Scene: Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. Wolfmother is just a damn good idea: try to sound exactly like an energetic Black Sabbath at their peak. Well done.

4:30
Lollapalooza: Gnarls Barkley
Street Scene: The Futureheads, Tapes ‘n Tapes
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. Gnarls Barkley not bringing their crazy ass costumes out to San Diego this summer is a pretty big regret of mine. They will undoubtedly bring the heat. For those of you keeping track, “Crazy” has somehow become my top played song on my last.fm charts. The Futureheads on the other hand, are one of like 5 bands whose CDs I have actually deleted off of my iTunes, and I don’t delete anything. But I may make another exception for Tapes ‘n Tapes one of these days.

5:30
Lollapalooza: Blackalicious
Street Scene: Subways or Editors
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. I could care less about either Street Scene band, and nobody will remember them in a years time. Blackalicious on the other hand, I saw at Street Scene two years ago, and they feature a hype man named Lateef the Truth Speaka. Credit goes to Street Scene here for organizing the best live hip-hop show I’ve ever seen, A Tribe Called Quest back in 2004. They proved all the bold claims I have made earlier in the article very wrong, although I can attribute most of their ass-kicking to the fact that they didn’t rely on hype-men, instead deciding to shockingly let the guys rap who people came to see rap.

6:30
Lollapalooza: The Flaming Lips
Street Scene: Editors and Subways finish, G Love starts
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. One thing I didn’t notice is that Lollapalooza has a lot more flow between stages. These dismal acts are still performing at Street Scene as the greatest experience you will ever have at a concert takes place up in Chicago. More than one point should be awarded.

7:30
Lollapalooza: Thievery Corporation
Street Scene: The Shins
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. A tough call. I’ll go with the Thievery Corporation despite an aversion to electronic music because A) I’ve never seen them before, B) It will be the perfect come down after the insanity the Lips and C) unlike The Shins, it won’t sound exactly like their record.

8:30
Lollapalooza: Kanye West
Street Scene: Bloc Party
Points: +1 Lollapalooza. This was up for Street Scene to run away with, but Bloc Party just doesn’t do it for me.

10:00
Lollapalooza: Done til tomorrow
Street Scene: Snoop Dogg
Points: +1 Street Scene. I’ve seen Snoop twice, and he is no exception to the live performance sucking rule. But he’s by far the most fun thing going on now. I’ve had several different people tell me that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Indy Jam performance was the worst thing they’ve ever seen in their lives, and Tool blows. As long as Snoop touches on more than one song from Doggystyle, then Drops it Like It’s Hot and in the end all the Homies Have Some, it will be a good way to close out a day.

Final Score:Lollapalooza 12, Street Scene 4

It looks like Lollapalooza wins in a landslide, and that’s not even factoring in Sunday, which features The Hold Steady, who are one of the few bands that have enough power to single handedly influence my festival attendence decisions. The day as a whole is weaker than the first two though. Kudos to the Street Scene organizers for reisisting the inexplicable urge that people are having to book Matisyahu these days. Day three of Lollapalooza is less inspired, with less must see live acts, and you’ll certainly be tired by then. Like all good double albums, it’s a three day festival that could have been condensed down to two in this mans opinion.

So after going through and scoring the lineup, which resulted in an astonishing Lollapalooza landslide, I have a few questions for the Street Scene organizers.

-Do you consider the Street Scene to be on similar status to major festivals like Lollapalooza or Coachella? If not, is it your goal to reach that status? What is preventing the Street Scene from being that kind of national festival that out of towners will fly to San Diego for?

-On a similar note, do you feel it is unfair for me to compare the two festivals? Why or why not?

-Did you try to book any of the bands that are playing at Lollapalooza, but were unable to because they were already committed? Did any bands waver before signing on to the Street Scene hoping that Lollapalooza would call?

-How would you score the lineups that I came up with?

-The “ticket prices increasing” gradually thing…What’s the reasoning behind that? Also, what do you see as being a cap to a 2 day festival pass in the foreseeable future? Do ticket prices increase because bands have more bargaining power with so many festivals taking place? Does focusing on a much younger audience make you have to focus more on keeping ticket prices lower?

Thus concludes another exhausting piece, undoubtedly rife with errors and exaggerations. I appreciate all feedback, criticisms and offers to buy me plane tickets to Chicago.

Both nights of Radiohead’s Sold Out San Diego shows are now available for download. Check out Monday and Tuesday. Click each song for an MP3.

Or download the zip of Monday’s show here. Zip of Tuesday’s show here.

Evidently the Tuesday crowd had their off in the distance visual trump our Monday firework show, when a crazy rocket test launch that Boeing did culminated in an awesome trail and explosion off on the horizon.

Here’s Fake Plastic Trees from Tuesday:

Going to check out Jolie Holland at the Casbah tonight, and wondering what the attendance will be like for this show. Based on the Sound Team turnout from two weeks ago, where there were more tumbleweeds rolling through the place than actual people, you realize that just having some buzz on the internet isn’t enough to make people flock to the show. The only show I’d ever seen less people at at the Casbah was Marah. Both shows had the effect of making you wonder if you had made some sort of mistake, if there was some terrible secret about both of these bands that everyone else knew about and somehow implicated you by being in the audience, like if it was well known that both bands brashly endorsed child molesting from the stage, and you just happened to miss that fact when deciding to purchase a ticket.

Though tonights concert could easily be considered the least accesible of the three, I predict a higher turnout than both Sound Team and Marah combined, (Note: that sounds impressive, but that is probably only thirty people.) I don’t know why I think that, maybe because Jolie Holland has been around for a while, or because you don’t get as many female solo artists headlining the Casbah, or just because her records are better than both of those other bands. On the other hand, there hasn’t been much chatter regarding her latest, “Springtime Can Kill You,” and I don’t particularly like it as much as “Escondida” or “Catalpa,” so we could be in for another uncrowded evening at the Casbah.

Lastly, no review ever gets printed without mentioning that Tom Waits is a big fan of Jolie Holland’s music. But just as universally, none of those reviews ever mention where on earth they get that information from. They just leave it at that and move right on. Well I haven’t found any specific interviews with the man, but could all of this press stem from the fact that Waits nominated Ms. Holland for the now-defunct Shortlist of Music Prize back in 2003? If so, that’s a hell of a lot of mileage to get out of a man’s nomination. You have to wonder if the Orchestra Baobab is still packing in the crowds based on their Waits nomination from that same year. Nevertheless, without that little blurb mentioning TW, I probably would have continued skimming right over the article the first time I saw it, so some press person somewhere should be complimented for their work on that one.

Radiohead’s popularity continues to amaze me. After the show they put on last night, which was split about evenly between great guitar heavy performances, crazy songs where samples were recorded and looped live on the spot, and new songs which sounded a bit in the middle, I found myself thinking that Radiohead is the kind of band that 99 times out of 100 will be confined to a fate of shows like Arrested Development, movies like Cinderella Man or bands like Spoon, ie “The best show/movie/band that nobody is watching/listening to.” The strangest thing about Radiohead is that they truly became who they are when they started taking steps towards becoming wierder and paring down their audience from the straight ahead rock sounds of Creep and The Bends. I don’t think that this band circa The Bends would be selling out two shows in every city they play and inspiring the ticket gouging and headlining spots that come with that kind of popularity. Radiohead has succeeded in spite of our tastes, and for that I salute them.

The top secret of last night, that I imagine will be about 5 times less of a secret tonight, is that you can go watch the show for free, without endangering yourself, risking arrest or looking through a knothole. The Embarcadero is behind the convention center, and has a long path along a harbor before you have to present your ticket. There’s a clear side view of the stage, and the sound is far more audible than the Rolling Stones concert we sat outside of last year. People had picnics and coolers, and enjoyed themselves on the rocks, or yachts, or dinghys. If people have been mocking you for how little you use your dinghy, trot it out tonight and see who’s laughing then. I imagine there were quite a few people who left last nights show vowing to return again for free tonight, so I would say getting there early is a must. Also, to whoever put on the twenty minute long firework display off in the distance right after sunset that coincided with the set from Paranoid Android through Idioteque, I can only say “thank you.”

Setlist available here.

M. Ward has announced his tour dates to support his new album Post-War, and is coming to San Diego on September 27th to play the totally rockin’ Women’s Club. As a special bonus, super-early pre-sale tickets go onsale today at 1 PM right here: http://mward.ducatking.com I’m not sure who needs to buy the tickets more than 3 months in advance, Jesus, god knows what kind of horrific changes to the world might happen in those three months, rendering M. Ward and his unique vocal stylings obsolete. But I would say that more likely to happen than the apocalypse is the fact that Post-War comes out to the kind of acclaim that makes this show one of the bigger hipster tickets of the year. A couple songs from the album, namely “Requiem” and “Chinese Translation” are among the best work he’s ever done, very catchy and very nicely complimented by the backing band and guest voices he employs. The record is one of the best I’ve heard so far this year, so maybe buying your tickets so ridiculously early isn’t that bad an idea…

Sometimes one of your friends puts forth an argument so delightfully inept that it kind of makes you want to agree with them:

10:15 AM Jake: are you going to see mountain goats on thursday?

10:20 AM do you want to see sound team on wednesday instead since you’ve already seen MGs?

10:21 AM well what else are you doing on Wednesday night? nothing, that’s what
it’s only $12, are you some sort of cheap bastard?

10:23 AM What’s the matter with you? Too indie for you? You knee-jerk anti-hype hipster-hating cooler-than-though Stella-and-Pabst-are-terrible I-don’t-like-music asshole.

10:24 AM is it their name? it’s a stupid name, I know, but maybe it’s ironically stupid. Don’t even try to pretend like “We Play Guitars” wouldn’t be an awesome band name
I hear radiohead is opening for them

10:25 AM Adam is going. So is Adam.
Come on, you know you want to

If not for the fact that the instant messaging program keeps reminding us that it is 10 AM and not PM, you’d think the man was drunk. But no, it takes a special kind of talent to rebutt and counter the imagined responses of someone who would not read the collective convincing effort until 8 hours later. The kind of effort that makes you wonder if maybe this Sound Team is worth checking out…

Well let’s take a look at the postiives and negatives:

Positive: Big Heads

Negative: The singer’s name is Matt Oliver. Matt Oliver was also unfortunately a guy who drew a comic for the UVA college paper who told me “You have no soul. You are so cold and so empty” after I called his 9/11 tribute comic “trite.”

Positive: Tickets are only $10

Negative: I am going to the Casbah on Thursday night as well.

Positive: Adam is going.

Negative: So is Adam.

Neutral: These guys have been getting quite the buzz lately. This could mean any number of things, either positive or negative.

I guess it is my job, nay, my duty, not to dismiss these guys outright becuase of the flavor or the month potential, or the disturbing manner in which they make my PhD student friends write at 10 AM, but rather to go see them and form my own opinion about them, so that when I scoff at the hype, I scoff with authority, and when I berate people for not buying into the hype, I berate with authority.

Sound Team, Casbah, Wednesday June 14th: Here I come.

Tickets here. Four MP3s to download at their myspace, plus tons more at the Hype Machine.

A few things before the good stuff:

1. Thom Yorke’s solo album, The Eraser, which was only announced a few weeks ago, and quickly became the most exciting album to be released this summer, has leaked. For the fans who snap up Radiohead tickets in less than four minutes, a summer tour without a new album was a frustrating proposition, and a solo album seemed as good an alternative as possible. If you’re interested in hearing what Thom-y sounds like on his own, check out the Hype Machine. Some Eraser can be heard there, as well as some interesting solo performances and covers.

2. As I mentioned before, the road from Seattle to San Diego happened to take me through Bend, Oregon this Saturday, where Beck happened to be playing. I think there is relatively zero chance that I would have gone to see Beck had he came thru San Diego, and I say that as a fan. Just seemed like it wouldn’t have been a good concert to see at the inevitable larger venue he would have played here. Fortunately, we made the decision to go to the Bend concert, and from the opening notes of Devil’s Haircut, we didn’t regret it. Beck has a large amount of great songs that I’ve listened to so much over the years, that I’ve pretty much stopped listening to, and having them played for you live all at once was a great way to be reminded that you really like his stuff.

The addition of his PuppeTron entertainment system didn’t hurt things either. Throughout the entire concert, a group of puppeteers mimicked the bands action onstage with lookalike puppets, which were then broadcast on the jumbotron instead of the band. This was, in a word, awesome. It was like taking the Flaming Lips Nun-Cam to a glorious new level. To cap it off, for the first encore, the puppets came onstage by themselves and performed a pre-recorded version of Loser.

3. Finally, I wrote a comic while at the University of Virginia. The UVA paper, the Cavalier Daily, had a substantial comics section, and I studied it as detailedly as I did the Washington Posts comics section while growing up. So it came as a huge shock to me when I started reading about a band named We Are Scientists. You see, to me “We Are Scientists” was nothing more than the most mediocre of mediocre comics that the Cav Daily had published during my tenure there as a student.

The wit of “We Are Scientists” the comic strip

Drawn by Nathan Altice, who I never met, We Are Scientists boldly foraged into the abominable copy-and-pasted characters method used by comics such as Red Meat and Get Your War On. It only ran for a semester and a half, before being replaced towards the end of the year. It was not missed.

We Are Scientists the band, on the other hand, has done quite well for itself. Fresh off playing the Indy Jam with the Flaming Lips last week, the band is bringing their Franz Ferdinand style rockin’ to Soma on Friday with the Arctic Monkeys, who I’ve unfortunately not been able to learn to hate. To commemorate the concert, we have some We Are Scientists stuff to give away. Since the show is Sold Out (with tickets widely available for face value on Craigslist) maybe taking some of this stuff away can ease the pain:

-1 copy of their CD “With Love and Squalor”
-1 copy of their CD/DVD Dualdisc “The Great Escape”
-1 copy of their import single “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt”
& -1 copy of their import single “The Great Escape”

We Are Scientists The Band - Funnier than the comic strip

So here’s what you have to do. Since We Are Scientists, no matter how kickin’ the band is (and they’re none too shabby in actuality), in my mind will always be associated with a mediocre comic, I’d like to hear what your “favorite” mediocre comic is. No obvious things like The Family Circus. That’s just a terrible comic. What is your favorite mediocre comic, the one that you just can’t possibly imagine how the author is cashing a paycheck for his efforts every other week? Leave it as a comment, and if I pick yours, you win one of the prize packs with all four of the above items. I have two to give away. Go nuts.

MP3s of the above artists:

Thom Yorke - True Love Waits
Beck - Do You Realize??
We Are Scientists - This Scene Is Dead

The perils of not having enough band members to spell out the band name with fireworks

There could be a free Street Scene this weekend featuring every band we had hoped would be there and this would still be the concert of the week. This is partially due to the fact that I will be going out of town on Friday afternoon, returning home late on Monday and thus would miss any exceptional concerts that would happen to be taking place. But the rest of it is because I just started listening to Voxtrot a few days ago and have gotten excited for the concert that takes place Thursday night at the Epicentre.

From what I gather, Voxtrot has been around and loved by people for quite some time. Their page of streamable/downloadable music on The Hype Machine shows you all you need to know about how much people with music blogs like the band. What speaks even more about their popularity is this funny little coincidence: the band has released two EPs on Cult Hero records, but preliminary google searches for that record label turn up this exchange at http://www.cult-hero.com/:

Where is Voxtrot’s CD?
While we hold lots of respect for Voxtrot and we like their music, they are on a DIFFERENT Cult Hero Records. We have tried various ways (email, cease and desist letters from lawyers, etc) to get them to stop using the name since we believe we were the first to use the name in Commerce, but have had little luck.

So they generated enough press for the wrong Cult Hero records label that they had to put up that disclaimer. I guess that’s hilarious. I just imagine the guy finally putting up that disclaimer after a few weeks of being like “well, this influx of emails and phone calls about Voxtrot will die down any minute now” and then begrudgingly updating the website while glaring at anyone who walks by. What’s even better is that I can’t find a page for the Cult Hero records that they are signed to…But wacky label mishaps put aside, the band is really good, and deserves their hype. They’ve got a poppy sound that I wouldn’t hesitate to compare to The Apples In Stereo or Belle and Sebastian. I don’t like Belle and Sebastian, so I’m surprised that I would make the comparison, but Voxtrot has that extra something that makes it less something that girls like and more something that I like. I don’t know what that would be, but someone should figure out a name for it.

So listen to this MP3 from their Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP, it is called Soft & Warm and decide whether you want to go see them on Thursday night at the Epicentre. They are opening for Elefant, who I’m told are good too.

Tickets are $15 and available here.

Voxtrot home page
Voxtrot myspace
Elefant home page
Elefant myspace