March 2005

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Friday Random Ten

Filed under: Imported

Nice work today, iPod. A good mix of tempo and mood and there's even a bootleg track that I completely forgot I had. For that particular concert I paid a rather hefty sum to stand so close to Thom Yorke that I could have flung my personal effects at him. Not that I did. But I could have.  My Random Ten is looking more and more like me all the time. Someday it will put all my most embarrassing guilty pleasures on display and I'll finally be able to profess my love for--well, you'll see.

1. The New Pornographers - "Execution Day"

2. Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - "Bloodsport for All"

3. The Pixies - "I've Been Tired"

4. Ben Folds Five - "Kate"

5. Nick Drake - "At the Chime of a City Clock"

6. Junior Senior - "Chicks and Dicks"

7. The Arcade Fire - "The Woodland National Anthem"

8. Radiohead - "No Surpises" (Live at Alpine Valley)

9. XTC - "Making Plans for Nigel"

10. R.E.M. - "Oddfellows Local 151"

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 25, 2005 5:03 PM

 

Like hearing an ex is coming to town

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Weezer just announced they're playing First Avenue on May 3 and I really feel like I should have something to say about that. After all, Rivers Cuomo and I shared a lovenest inside my head for the better part of a decade (long enough that I believe we had an imaginary common law marriage). But 85% of my brain says, You threw him out on his ass as soon as you heard "Hash Pipe." Good riddance. The other 15 is a sucker for that video they made with the Muppets. Still, I'm reading John Luerssen's unauthorized biography Rivers' Edge: the Weezer Story and so far it has only reiterated what I've slowly admitted to myself over the last five years: Rivers is an egomaniac in the studio, an occasional nutjob, and in some ways a very sad little man. Luerssen does include some early '90s pics of the Dork King with bitchin' metal hair, though. I might just have to scan some of those. Speaking of which, if you dig through the archives at Complicated Fun you might just find a scan of my official Weezer fan club membership card, including a picture of yours truly at age 13. Happy hunting.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 23, 2005 5:27 PM

 

This is the part where I make a clever joke about the burial of Little Dirt

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I returned from a week in Austin yesterday morning, only to hear that Little Dirt are playing their last show on Friday at the Hexagon. This is one of the bands I nominated for Picked to Click last year. Given my toddler-like exhaustion brought on by an 18-hour roadtrip, my first impulse was to throw a tantrum and stamp around the office yelling, "No no no!" I took a day to calm down and though I'm still heartbroken, I'm the tiniest bit more articulate now. In case you haven't heard them (which you probably haven't since they've only played a few shows since quietly releasing their debut ep in September), here's a crash course: 

Little Dirt are a rootsy pop band that I greatly enjoy despite not enjoying rootsy pop bands in general. If pressed for a comparison, I'd say they're somewhere between Neil Young and Camper Van Beethoven. Lead singer Zac Stanley's voice has an inexplicable twang that disappears when he talks. Sometimes they throw in handclaps and I forget the term "alt country" exists and I'm a happier person. They're huge Replacements fans. I've seen Zac in a dress a la Bob Stinson on SNL. I've also seen Zac's wife and bandmate Kim Carolan dressed up like Angus Young but they don't seem to talk about AC/DC nearly as much as they talk about the Replacements.

Since none of that was probably very helpful, check out their website for mp3s.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 22, 2005 5:54 PM

 

littledirt.jpg

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Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 22, 2005 5:51 PM

 

badge.jpg

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Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 15, 2005 2:29 PM

 

mia.jpg

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Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 15, 2005 2:26 PM

 

In Da Pool (Extended 12" Remix)

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I love scavenger hunt movies. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Rat Race, Follow That

Bird—pretty much any movie where there's a pot of gold at the end of the road trip rainbow. So while I was excited about Brother and Sister's rescue mission/record release show, Hollywood had already set some pretty high expectations. (For example, I was hoping to pilot a prop plane). The funny thing is the local siblings came through in fulfilling my scavenger hunt fantasy (minus the plane). I think the time and effort building up to two hours last Friday night deserve a little more credit than a simple concert review blurb.

 

Preparation — Friday morning

All pre-registered "secret agents" receive an email alert that the "evil head master wench" has kidnapped Brother & Sister. Agents are to report to a cul de sac in Dinkytown at 5:30 p.m. with items including a flashlight, a piece of chalk, a tape measure, a calculator, and a swimsuit. I leave work early and put my swimsuit on under my clothes. You know, in case I suddenly have to dive to the bottom of a lake and retrieve a treasure chest or something.

 

 

Clue #1 Less than half the teams are on time but the all stragglers trickle in asking the same question—what the hell is this? No one else on my team ("The Well-Respected Press") bothers to show up, so I'm kindly adopted by Team Death to Our Enemies. A crusty punk hands out badges, clue workbooks, and files containing missing persons reports. When everyone's present he gives us instructions: "Go to that bridge."

 

Clue #2 Hung on the train bridge just south of Van Cleve Park is a banner reading "this is a walkway. yet on our path do find new coding tag. you please go revisit all third letters. be fast cum kwick to save me hurry!!!" Reading every third letter, it says, "I saw you ad in City Pages a tree back cover."

 

Clue #3 We grab a copy of the paper at Joe's Market and scan the back page. "I Saw You — Pining For You. Reading on the bridge. Let's do laundry at the Tub Coin-Op. I'll dry — you fold."

 

Clue #4 A dryer marked "Brother and Sister" is full of hand-decorated t-shirts. They show a calendar with "people" written in every square. 

 

Clue #5 After a few minutes spent ransacking Everyday People, a cashier starts slipping people envelopes. Inside is a collage of a couple milling around a giant T on a bridge. It's hard to tell what they're doing. This is where we lose the most time. After Chuck Terhark and I run (okay, okay, we mostly walk) across two bridges, we figure it out. They're WASHING a 'T' ON the BRIDGE.

 

Clue #6 A square on the bridge reads, "Go to Difficult Mathematics — Heavy Thinking"

 

Clue #7 We drive to the Hard Times Café and find a note on the bulletin board that says something like, "You don't usually look at the covers when you wake up. But today you should."

 

Clue #8 We grab a copy of the Wake, the cover of which has been inconspicuously designed like a Mad Magazine fold-in. Fold the sides, flip it 90 degrees: "SPOKES"

 

Clue #9 Another case of simply asking the guy working the Spokes Pizza counter if he's got anything for us (wink, wink). He hands us a picture of Linda Tripp, 3 Rocks (Kid, Chris, and The), someone sewing, a seashell, and the Club (the thing you put on a steering wheel to prevent car theft).

 

Clue #10 We arrive at the Triple Rock Social Club but before we reach the door, we're the victims of a hold-up. A masked girl ushers Matt and Ken into the back of a Budget van. It peels off, its walls barely muffling the sound of live music. A Brother & Sister cover band is giving private performances as the van makes a two-block circuit. The rest of our team returns unharmed (although they say the van reeked of B.O.), holding a wooden building block. The sides of the cube feature an @, a picture of the U.S. and Canada, A, T, M, and E.

 

Clue #11 A kid loitering near the ATM outside the Block E Borders slips us a piece of paper. It says, "RamandaN isn't ending, it's just begINNing," followed by a long list of numbers to be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided. Chuck and Ken do the math on a cell phone as we walk to the hotel. We've got our room number.

 

Clue #12 We're on our best behavior inside the Ramada, grateful for losing the pack that would've blown our cover for sure. The door of Room 328 is propped open but when we enter a guy in boxer shorts asks, "Who are you?" We mumble and back pedal until he says, "Oh, you're agents. There's a clue on the stereo." A boombox is playing a loop of spliced song lyrics. "Upper level"..."Parking garage"..."H-A-R-M" (we're not driving to Roseville, are we?)..."O-N" (thank god). It takes several listens to get it all and then we're back in the car, headed toward the Harmon Place Ramp.

 

We drive to the top, expecting to find the band rocking the rooftop. Afterall, it's an automatic ramp with no attendant to call the cops. But on the roof we only find the winning team (damn you, Matthew St. Germain) and a girl in an eyepatch. The evil head master wench tells us we're the second team to arrive. The hunt was supposed to end at 7:30 but pretty soon it's 7:40 and only a couple other teams have shown up. With a little needling, the wench divulges the location of the show. We're all going to the YWCA to go swimming.

 

Insert crazy rock show pictures here (they're coming soon, I swear)

 

I've been thinking about the effect this whole experience (particularly the surprise pool

party) had on a bunch of rock fans and it reminds me of Andy Kaufman's show at Carnegie Hall. He wanted to return his audience to a state of child-like wonder. A tabernacle choir sang, Santa showed up, and it seemed like the evening couldn't get any better. Then Andy announced he was loading everyone onto buses to take them out for milk and cookies. The "agents" emerging from the locker rooms at the Y wore a similar expression as the "children," a mixture of disbelief and absolute joy. When I stepped into the shower later that night and caught a whiff of the chlorine in my hair, I made the same face just thinking about it.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 11, 2005 3:51 PM

 

Friday Random Ten

Filed under: Imported

Not only do the Make Up, Spoon, and Wire all pop up two weeks in a row, Ian Svenonius gets a double shot. On a side note, I'm slowly phasing out some of the stuff that came with my hand-me-down iPod to replace it with music I listen to for actual pleasure and not merely out of convenience.

1. The Rapture - "Love is All"

2. The Make Up - "Untouchable Sound"

3. Weird War - "Baby It's the Best"

4. Trash Can Sinatras - "Make Yourself at Home"

5. Spoon - "Metal Detektor"

6. Constantines - "Scoundrel Babes"

7. The Notwist - "One with the Freaks"

8. Yo La Tengo - "Our Way to Fall"

9. Ride - "Decay"

10. Wire - "Marooned"

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 11, 2005 12:08 PM

 

Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto!

Filed under: Imported

I'm putting together a long post about Brother and Sister's fantastically original record release show. In the meantime check out the Onion's profile on Thomas Dolby. It's a bit dry and technocentric for the most part but such an innovative artist deserves the press. If you're like me and played The Golden Age of Wireless in heavy rotation throughout most of the '80s, you might be more interested in the "Mr. Dolby Remembers" section on his website. It's got some background on specific songs, plus great anecdotes packed with British new wave name-drops. And then there's the time he showed up at Michael Jackson's house with mono only to find a bunch of kids in their jammies...

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 9, 2005 5:10 PM

 

Friday Random Ten

Filed under: Imported

As stolen from American Idle who stole it from Rox Populi and Feministe. Here's what the random mix of my iPod spit out this afternoon:

1. Public Image Ltd. - "No Birds"

2. Versus - "Never Be O.K."

3. Spoon - "Quincy Punk Episode"

4. Kali Bahlu - "A Cosmic Telephone Call"

5. Galaxie 500 - "Here She Comes Now"

6. Imperial Teen - "Million Dollar Man"

7. Wire - "Strange"

8. The Make Up - "Caught Up in the Rapture"

9. Guided by Voices - "Motor Away"

10. Kid Dakota - "Summer Cold"

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 4, 2005 3:12 PM

 

Panda What?

Filed under: Imported

A clear sign of Hot Hot Heat's impending mainstream explosion occurred at last night's show when a teeny bopper asked lead singer Steve Bays for the sparkly scarf off his neck. Any musician who can talk accessories with a teenage girl definitely has an advantage. And there were so many girls in the Ascot Room last night that would have donated organs for a heart-to-heart with Steve. The room was filled with that random hysterical screaming and the floating, illuminated squares of camera phones that only come from a group of girls head over heels for a guy with a microphone. As a non-screaming girl, I'd say the show was pretty good. I had some issues with the back-up vocals (too loud and out of tune) but they always put on a performance that's high energy and danceable. Of course, the highlight of the set was "Bandages," the chorus of which ("Bandages on my legs and my arms from you") I've enjoyed on an entirely differently level since my brother pointed out that it sounds a bit like "panda jizz."

From there, I made my way to the Entry where Menomena was headlining. I hadn't really gotten into the album so their live show really caught me off guard. While the recording seemed a bit contrived, watching the whole mess recreated live was awesome. Menomena is a trio and they littered the stage with a drumkit, two guitars, bass, two keyboards, two saxophones, and assorted percussion. I'd be exaggerating if I said they played them all in one song but it was pretty damn close. The result is a little hard to explain. A single song might remind me of UNKLE and Creeper Lagoon and Enon. They're weird like that. Let it also be known that their website is one of the most brilliantly obnoxious bits of internet I've ever seen.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 3, 2005 4:42 PM

 

What's black and white and brown all over?

Filed under: Imported

Check out the redesign at First Avenue's website. Not sure how much I care for the calendar page (which is where I spend a lot of time). With all that text piled up on the left, it's a little hard to sort out. But it's nice to see them upping the content with reviews. Sure, they're nicked from AllMusic and press releases but it's something. I'll be checking out Menomena in the Entry tonight to find out if they are indeed "surprisingly sophomoric."

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 2, 2005 5:21 PM

 

Links

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Friends and loved ones

Corey Anderson

Christopher Bahn

Daphne Carr

Diabo Cody

Paul Demko

Mark Desrosiers

Tom Elko

Kim Ha

Keith Harris

Dylan Hicks

How Was The Show?

Dave Loomer

Michaelangelo Matos

MNspeak

More Cowbell

Chuck Olsen

Ross Raihala

Peter S. Scholtes

Kate Silver

Rex Sorgatz

Gwen Steele

Jesse Thomas

Brian Weidemeier

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 2, 2005 11:21 AM

 

Polar Opposites

Filed under: Imported

I thought I'd kick things off with a review of last night's Modest Mouse show but there isn't much to report. The show was similar to every other good Modest Mouse show I've seen but far less entertaining. This wasn't the band's fault but rather the recent population explosion in the meathead sector of their fanbase. The band has wooed a small number of meatheads for years but now it's as if the closeted obsession of one or two frat boys has become the norm for the rest of their clan (I hope the next big thing is wearing ladies' unmentionables over their Budweiser t-shirts and cargo pants). That's fine. Music is meant to be shared and tolerance and harmony and blah, blah, blah. But here's the problem. Not only was the average meathead about a foot taller than me, they also pogoed incessantly (nothing like a song about how much life sucks to make you jump up and down!) They hollered along with all the words, punctuating every other syllable with violent finger pointing, jabbing at the stage as if Isaac Brock's head was a balloon they desperately wanted to pop. And at some point in the last few years, it became proper MM etiquette for one of these meatheads to throw something at the stage, if only to bathe in the glory of Isaac calling him a stupid fuck and threatening to kick his ass. Dude, remember when he called some guy an asshole? That was me!

 

Now that I've cemented myself as someone who hates live music ruined by people having fun, let's talk about something more pleasant.

 

What do you call that noise?

"Bottle Rocket" - the Go! Team

Thunder Lightning Strike sits atop my "Best 2004 Albums that I Didn't Hear until 2005" list. While the Go! Team mainly create instrumental collages from Mike Post horns, melancholy harmonica, and the occasional unintelligible cheerleader chant, "Bottle Rocket" owes its atomic energy to some phenomenal live vocals. B-girl Ninja (greatest MC name ever) does tongue acrobatics over a spectacular 1982 block party jam. It's got 808 beats, vinyl scratching, and a bed of trumpets that could have coerced Rocky up a few more flights of stairs. I hear this song and I want to learn to jump double dutch or breakdance—a couple of accessible fantasies that take my mind off the real desire: to do both at the same time.

Posted by Lindsey Thomas at March 1, 2005 4:17 PM

 

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