Can I tell you a secret? I think Achewood broke my brain today with the phrase "pussy shavin' music"
What is NOT pussy shavin' music, thank you very much, is the updated muxtape, themed with all the songs that have inspired my tattoos and two songs about tattoos.
I was busy playing Peggle all afternoon again when I realized there's a few things I don't want to forget:
- The big Swervedriver show two weeks ago was mostly bland. Most of the set was B-sides and rarities, which made about 10 people really happy, and left the other 290 kind of scratching their heads for close to an hour. The last five songs were great, although afterwards, I realized they only ever had five great songs, when you really think about it.
- The big Mark Kozelek show two weeks ago was really good. He layed off the obscurities for the most part. Unfortunately everything has the tendency to sound the same when he plays these acoustic shows. The encore [Glenn Tipton/Rock n Roll Singer/Convenient Parking/Three Legged Cat all strung together in a five minute medley] was awesome. So was "River".
- The big Lollapalooza schedule was announced, and I've planned my days. I'm taking location of stages and likeliness of crankiness into account this year in planning. That explains the presence of things like Duffy, The Ting Tings and Kid Sister in there. That explains the absence of CSS, Lupe Fiasco and Saul Williams. And yes, Rob and I really can't come to a decision on the Nine Inch Nails versus Kanye West Sunday night finale.
Did you know I was on vacation last week? A lot has happened since then. I saw Swervedriver, Mark Kozelek and the Lollapalooza schedule was announced, which caused one of those moments that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later:
Really.
Hispandex: New York City Men at the Beach
I think it's meant to be porny, but really, it's quite artsy.
Oh, MARY
No, wait.
I don't have any gay pride plans this year, which isn't any different from any other year, actually. And that's all I have to say about that.
So last night was the big anthemic technogaze show at The Middle East in Cambridge. M83 played with The Berg Sans Nipple and Matters and Dunaway.
I was in NO MOOD to go to a show last night, what with it being Monday and all. It was sold out and I told Rob if anyone even offered me face value for the tickets we were NOT GOING. Some Frawnch dude inside the club asked us if we had extra tickets, but by then it was kind of too late, right?
We skipped Matters and Dunaway, who I would actually like to see some day. The Berg Sans Nipple is an assy name for a band, and it was pretty basic sampler and banging on stuff. It wasn't awful, it wasn't amazing, it was pretty good when it was loud.
The show was sold out, and here's an awesome quote from the event's Last.FM shoutbox:Smelled like a refugee camp down there.
I KNOW, RIGHT? The crowd was quite mixed. It was like 50% crafty hipsters - we saw a girl with a shawl that you know she knitted at a Bright Eyes show, with a pattern bought at a Belle and Sebastian merchandise table. 25% were gay boys and who knew. There was even some bear soup. And the other 25% were frat boys and eurotrash, and they were the ones up front. I think Rob and I were the only people over 21.
I wanted to get up close and we lasted there for about 15 minutes. It was really hot and there was some asshat screaming and people jabbering in all kinds of languages and backpacks and knitting bags, UGH. They came on promptly at 11 though and Run Into Flowers was just beautiful. Then Graveyard Girl. It sounded perfect, but there wasn't a lot to look at on stage. Anthony and another frenchie just kind of posing like the European models they are. A drummer behind a sneezeguard. And Morgan Kibby, who's actually from LA and look s pretty LA. I took a portable telephone picture but can't get it off. So here's Anthony, posing.
We went out back for air (there was none) and water (which was room temperature). Like the Middle East was being all cheap by not putting ice in the free water, and not air conditioning the place. We stayed for the whole main set, which alternated between fist pumping anthems and ambient pieces composed of 2 repetitive chords for 5 minutes. Needless to say, the show's pacing was fucked up and not coherent at all. Do I dance? Chat? Wait, is it time to rock again? It was quite good when it was loud. We did not stay for the encore because we had seen enough and it's not like they were going to do anything different. Would I go see M83 again? THE ANSWER IS PROBABLY NOT!!??!!! I will still listen to and buy their records though!!!!! And I will now think twice about shows downstairs at The Middle East, because they are not air conditioned and I am just too old to be sitting in a fire trap like that with children who don't shower.
