NO YOU DIDNT, AND NO YOU DONT

OK. I love Liam Fray. I really do. But, seriously could he be ANY more of a Libertines worshipper/rip off-er? I mean we all know that his songs are just one after another glorified Don't Look Back Into the Suns. And now NME reports that the B-side to the Courteeners new single "No You Didn't and No You Don't" is going to be a cover of "Dream a LIttle Dream of Me". Which was a huge number in the Libertines live show in their early days and a crowd favorite at their reunion in 2007.

I mean we all know that Lam and a secret Pete and Carl shrine that he prays to every night, but I didn't think he would make it so obvious to the rest of the world. And by rest of the world, I mean Libertines fans.

Check out the REAL (feat. Carl on vocals) deal doing an awesome cover at their reunion show complete with tap dancing!

AAAND WE'RE BACK ON DRUGS

God love the boy, but if he is going to go back to his crack-tastic ways, why oh WHY does he have to share his benders with the world. I mean I find them mildly fascinating. but thats only because I'm obsessed. Seriously. It really is funny that the two most fucked up people in London finally find each other. It seems they are just friends, especially because Amy uses a mouse to beg Blake not to divorce her, but seeing that Pete will probably have sex with just about anyone, I can't see it staying platonic for long.

"he looks like Johnny Borrell just come out of the bath" EPIC LULZ

I like redbullll I like adderalllll

HEY

whilst sarah is studying communism in Cuba, I've taken over the Redbull and Adderall section of the Almack's Dance Hall blog for the rest of this week. Here is today's entry and be sure to check in every day for your daily dose o' stimulants.




more song chart memes

If you missed American Idol last night, you missed (and this is putting it mildly) one hell of a performance from former Idol contestant Fantasia Barrino. Too bad hers is the most exciting performance of the season thus far. Gawker has the vid.

Conor Oberst is realeasing a solo album, out on August 4th. I'm glad he's branching out, it'll be interesting to see how he fares now that he's escaped from under the shadow of....all those other influential people in Bright Eyes.

Oh la la. Looks like Lily Allen has been doing some all over tanning work in the south of France. And I mean all over.

So...a "fat girl" finally wins America's Next Top Model. Only Dlisted doesn't think the fight was quite fair. Rumor has it that winner Whitney didn't start out as the curvaceous babe she purports herself to be.

The latest installment of the addictive 3 1/3 Series that features in depth analysis of seminal albums in mini-book form is out with their latest installment (#56), Black Sabbath's Master of Reality. Author John Darnielle will be doing a reading at Housingworks Used Book Cafe on Saturday at 7pm. Get out your devil horns.

We all remember the times we laid on the floor of our bedrooms and stare at album covers all day long, but did you ever wonder what was going on outside the frame? Well, this guy did and came up with some pretty hilarious ideas.

Hot Chip are going on tour....again! I would say that I'm getting tired of them...but their just too damn catchy. They are coming to NYC in October to Terminal 5 (best venue ever!....NOT). You can get more info on Spin.com

(BOYS) DON'T CRY

This is hi-ho-larious.

I showed this to my mom and she was like i dont get it. and I was like, "you know...friday im in love? THE CURE?!?" and my mom was like...."who is the cure?". Please kill me. Im living in a bubble of musical ignorance.

I'm going to play my first indoor soccer game tonight. shoot me. in the face.

I'M NOT LYING TO YOU

If you are lucky enough to still (unlike me) me in the city this Wednesday, you better be getting yo ass down to Mercury Lounge to see Chief . They are gonna be big. Trust me on this one. Their songs are just totally perfect and timeless and amazing. Very polished for a band that hasn't even gotten signed yet. Go. see them. you will thank me later.

ARRESTING: TOKYO POLICE CLUB @ BOWERY APRIL 22

On Tuesday evening, my encounter with Tokyo Police Club started far earlier than I had anticipated. I was supposed to go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall before the concert in Union Square, but apparently so was everyone else. And their Grandma. And their dog. We got there twenty minutes early and it was STILL sold out. I was pretty upset, especially because Russell Brand is pretty much my favorite comedian. I would gladly feed his sex addiction problem if given the opportunity. Anyways, I found myself wandering Virgin Megastore, killing time until I met up with my photographer friend, Annie, who was going to try to get a ticket despite them being sold out online. I heard a familiar sound coming from the cafe area and, sure enough, there was TPC playing an in-store. So I wandered over to watch them. They sounded pretty good but as I will tell anyone who will listen, I hate Virgin in-stores. Florescent lighting and live m
usic does not make a good combo for me.

So after wandering aimlessly for a while I went to meet my friend Annie and we walked down (in the insanely beautiful evening weather) to see if we couldn’t finagle a ticket. We got there and there weren’t too many people standing outside and we felt really sketch going up to people and asking for a ticket, and I think they thought we were sketch too. Finally I was like “Well, I guess you could go up to the bouncer and see if they have any extra tickets”, and she asked him and he was like “uh…yeah just go right downstairs”. So basically we embarrassed ourselves by looking like shady fools for no reason.

So we got there just as the second opening band, Smoosh, was about to go on, when they took the stage I literally thought I was seeing things. Were these children of the band members? Two young girls, one at keyboards and behind the drums just looking as cute as cherry lollipops. They launched into their first song and the whole audience (including myself) just sort of stood there with their mouths open. At the risk of sounding like a total tool, I can say without any underlying irony that these girls were rockin’. They just looked like they were having the time of their lives, smiling at each other the whole time, and the little drummers ponytail was whipping about at breakneck speed. Their sound was like indie synth pop, but not the boring kind. It had a fun punky bluesy edge. I thought they were kind of like the The White Stripes, firstly because they were a duo and they looked related, but also because the drummer looked like a little Meg White, drumming in that kind of crazed cavewoman style. In case you didn’t realize, I’m kind of obsessed with the drummer. I kind of want to be her. Turns out that she’s FOURTEEN. Yeah, and it gets better. At the beginning of their third song, their little sister comes on stage to play bass. Their ELEVEN year old sister. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. They were so great. The audience loved them too. Possibly more than they loved TPC, but we’ll get to that later.





So TPC takes the stage and launches into their first song, and the first thing I noticed was that they had a pretty sick stage setup. The stage was totally dark except for about six light rods that kept changing colors in time to the music. That was a bad description, but luckily Annie took amazing photos so you can see it in all its spectral glory. Sadly, this was possibly the only interesting part of their whole show. There seemed to be an invisible wall between the band and the crowd. People just weren’t into it. Except for about four songs (”You’re English is Good”, “Box”, “Cheer It On”, and “Cut Cut Paste”) people weren’t even really dancing. And I was in the front, where you would presume all the people who would want to dance would be. They had the audience clap along to songs several times in an attempt to make people, I dunno, do something, but it only sort of worked. It was really weird actually, because the band was actually pretty energetic. The guitarist was shr
edding the hell out of his guitar with these sick space age riff-solo things, the lead singer’s neck was straining with the Strokes-y vocal delivery, and the keyboardist was playing like his life depended on it, but the crowd just didn’t reciprocating the energy. It was kind of sad. And then there was this guy who kept yelling how shitty the audience was and everyone was getting really mad at him, but secretly I kind of agreed with him. I mean people were barely clapping for an encore. Maybe it was because this was like, their sixth show this week in NYC. In any case, it was a shame because I think that TPC has great songs, and sort of remind me of the first wave of indie “the” bands (like The Stokes), but with a strong dose of Arcade Fire-like synth melody. I just wish all of those good elements would translate into an infectious live performance. But then one interesting thing happened when the guy who was slagging off the crowd jumped up onstage and started dancing and the
n ran backstage. Which was mildly entertaining.

So, sadly, my mind was not blown by this performance, but I guess I have to accept that not every concert I go to will be life changing. Sigh, such is life.

While my mind may not have been blown by TPC, it certainly was by the AMAZING pics that my friend Annie took. Check it:

HIM AND HER AND: SHE AND HIM @ KIMMEL APRIL 23

The thing I love about shows at NYU is that I can roll out of bed and walk 100 yards to the Kimmel Center and get to see some pretty cool bands. Not that I’m usually in bed at 9pm but the opportunity is there and thats what counts. What I didn’t realize about this show was that it was in Skirball Auditorium, which is a seated venue.

I have a love hate relationship with sit down concerts. My favorite thing to do at concerts is scream my lungs out and just totally lose myshit with reckless abandon, which is something that is pretty much impossible at a sit down show, unless you decide to stand up, which most people don’t. On the other hand, your feet don’t get tired. So it has its benefits. And I think She and Him are a good choice for sitting down because their music is pretty low key, and benefit from a closer listen that is easier when you aren’t trying to dodge the drunkard next to you spilling their beer on your back.

The concert started off with opener Thao wih the Get Down Stay Down, which was an alt country/folk pop four piece from LA. I actually think Iliked them better than I liked She and Him, and I’ll explain that later. You know the type of person that, whatever comes out of their mouth is just totally hilarious and you keep giggling about what they said long after you saw them? That was how the lead singer of this band was. From the beginning she just kept telling this extended joke about when they played at another college, they were mis-scheduled and ended up having to open for the Ying Yang Twins. If I had been drinking milk it would have come out my nose. Thankfully I wasn’t. Their music was sort of like a fuller sounding Kings of Leon but with a female vocalist who kind of reminded me of a mix between Regina Spektor and Bjork. The kind of voice where the singer deliberately seems to distort themselves and cut of in weird places, but it comes out sounding totally beautiful. That’s what Thao sounded like. Their songs all sounded great but pretty similar to me, but this is not a type of music I listen to very often. The one song I do remember standing out was one where Thao started beatboxing in the intro, which was pretty badass.

Then She and Him (She being actress Zooey Deschanel, and Him being singer-songwriter M. Ward) took the stage along with the rest of their backing band with great anticipation from the crowd. There was this moment right before they started their first song that was total silence, and everyone seemed to be holding their breath. I thought to myself “Well, that was awkward”. But it didn’t stop there! That same moment of silence happened between like every single song! Finally Zooey said something in this really annoying baby voice “um…hi,” and everyone just burst out laughing. The thing was, she totally wasn’t funny. And she kept saying unfunny shit and everyone kept laughing. I felt kind of embarrassed for the crowd. Maybe it was because there was no alcohol for sale or something, but I couldn’t figure out why there was this strange aura about everything. Finally I leaned over to my friend Cara and was like, “Why is everyone acting SO awkward, I don’t think I can take much more of this.” And she was like “I think its because there’s a lot of sexual tension in the room. I mean, all the guys want to have sex with Zooey and all the girls want to have sex with M. Ward.” Leave it to Cara to bring up sexual tension, but she was totally right. The show felt kind of like a bad first date, with the both sides sort of muttering things desperately to engage the other person, and then overcompensating. Itwas just a really weird vibe.

Other than THAT though, the show was great. Zooey has a gorgeous voice, if a little too forcedly southern sounding, and it was suited perfectly to their slow blues rock style. Her harmonies with M. Ward were rather heart melting and beautiful. The only complaint I would have is that I thought they should have had M. Ward sing on his own more often, because its amazing on its own. My favorite song they did was actually a cover of “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” which emphasized how well Zooey and M.Ward’s vocals complemented each other. When they came back onstage for their encore, they brought the members of Yo La Tengo on with them, which was a nice surprise for a lot of people in the audience, like me, who love Yo La Tengo. Sadly, they didn’t actually play any YLT songs, they just shook maracas and played piano.

So, I’d say all in all it was an OK show. I’m sorry that my last two reviews have been kind of cynical but hopefully my faith will be restored tonight when I go see Foals at Bowery, so stay tuned for that. Sadly, my photo friend cancelled at the last minute so I don’t have any photos for you, but I will next time!

ITS ALL THAT WE CAN DO: FOALS @ BOWERY APRIL 24

Spring is in the air, which means its time for a Foals concert obviously. I had forgotten the simple pleasure of being able to walk to a concert without freezing your ass off. My friend Annie and I went to Cosmic Cantina before the concert and can I just say it was some of the freshest bestest mexican food ever? Its all organic and delicious and full of yum. It was the perfect complement to the perfect weather that I basically wanted to make love to, but it didn’t really prepare us for the sweaty pit of Foals madness.

We missed the first opening band, but I ran into my friend Keith from the awesome band A Million Years, and he said that they were called Telepathe and they were “really horrible and boring”. Since Keith and I have very similar music taste, I trust his opinion. I wish his band had been opening. Because they rule.

The second band we were there to see and they were called The Epochs and I really couldn’t decide if I liked them or not. They had moments where I kind of just sounded like they were making a lot of okay sounding noise and added some creepy vocals over the top, but then they would have these moments of total epic-ness where if sound could explode, I think it would have exploded. I used to think that I really didn’t like prog-ish rock very much but lately I’ve really been getting off on the jamming parts of shows so pretty soon you might find me learning Stairway to Heaven on my guitar and listening to The Wall.

When Foals took the stage was very excited because 1. Foals are from the UK and that puts them at an advantage already and 2. I found their music so catchy and addictive that I couldn’t go one night of DJing without playing one of their tracks. They played my very favorite song “Cassius” second which, for some reason always makes me want to do a Native American type jig while simultaneously windmilling my arms in opposite directions….yeah. The crowd shared my enthusiasm and before long I was swept up in a sweaty man filled mosh pit. Maybe its the heavily featured saxophone but I found this crowd to be kind of testosterone driven, with this group of guys behind us pretending they were English (yelling out “alright boys?” and chanting “England, England” etc.) it was pretty entertaining. Despite all the men around there was this group of girls who was getting super annoyed with them being rowdy. I would like to take this opportunity to vent against pissy girls. Dear bitches, maybe you don’t go to very many concerts or something, but there are two constants: beer and drunk people. When those factors are present combined with the fact that people are dancing and in close quarters there is a very high chance that drinks are going to get spilled. Its a way of life, so get over it. I got like three beers dumped on me and do you see me complaining? No. It cooled me off. It tasted good. Get over yourselves. Whew, OK end rant.

Foals’ music simultaneously makes me want to jump out my skin in ecstasy and listen really hard to what they are doing because their music is so complex with the guitars and the sax and the drums and they keyboards and everything its just insane. In any case I just wish that they had more material than one album because their set was just under an hour due to the fact that they “sort of ran out of songs to play ” for us. Which was sad, because all of their songs are awesome. If you want to know the setlist, just check out their debut album Antidotes, because its awesome.

So Annie and I skipped home high on music and life, and windmilled all the way home. The End

THIS IS MUSIC: THE VERVE @ MSG APRIL 28

When I heard that The Verve were going to be playing a few months ago, I basically flipped. “Bittersweet Symphony” has been one of my favorite songs since I was about ten. I had only just gotten into the rest of their discography, so I was eager to hear live the songs I had recently grown to love.

My friend Bennett and I took a cab up to MSG because it was raining and we were both having bad days. But we both foresaw it turning around after this concert. We got some drinks to take the edge off, and settled down in our seats to wait for the show to start. Looking around observing the crowd, I realized that we were only a few other (barely) teenagers there besides us. I guess that makes sense, since the band hadn’t performed in New York for almost ten years. In about three minutes, we had both finished our drinks (we had REALLY bad days, ok?), and decided to go for round two. Its a good thing we did because I ran into my favorite Mancunian, Paul Adams! He had the sad misfortune of going with a friend who had not yet recovered from ankle surgery and was forced to sit near the back of the theatre, despite having a general admission pass. He offered to switch tickets with us so we could get closer down into the action (we were in the seated section), and we trekked down to
the side of the stage to try to explain to the guards that we wanted to switch tickets but since Bennett and I didn’t have GA wristbands, they wouldn’t let us switch. So we grudgingly slogged back to our seats.

As we were about to sit down, the band took to the stage (there were no openers), and we jumped right back up because OH MY GOD, there they were in all their legendary glory with the amazing Richard Ashcroft right in center stage. I forget what song they opened with because I was too in awe of how Ashcroft does not appear to have aged a day since I watched a video of him walking down the street for five minutes in fourth grade. By the time they started their second song “This is Music” I had come back to reality and started dancing my pants of, because this song and pretty much every other Verve song makes me feel like my feet could just lift right off the ground. I guess the rest of the crowd didn’t share my feelings, or maybe they were tired, because we were almost the only ones standing up in our section, and probably literally the only ones dancing. I felt kind of bad for the poor sod who had his view of obscured by my shakin’ booty, but not that bad. You paid good money
for these tickets, sir! Get up and dance!

Despite Ashcroft’s handsome appearance, after the first few songs I spent very little time looking at the stage. The sound they made (especially with the crap MSG acoustics) was phenomenal and I was lost in my own little eyes-closed-arms-waving-hair-flying universe. Even though I knew almost every song they played, it sounded new, and I think that is the mark of a legendary band. Their sound is just so all-encompassing and huge sounding that its hard not to get caught up and find yourself in distortion and reverb heaven. They stormed through most of the favorites (except Slide Away, which is an amazing song) including “Drugs Don’t Work”, “Sonnet”, and “Lucky Man”, “Life’s an Ocean” and “Weeping Willow”. As the songs progressed, Ashcroft’s zip-up shirt kept getting more and more unzipped, and I made a bet with Bennett that he would take his shirt off. Crushingly (for both my wallet and my heart) he did not. They also played the epic ten-minuter “Gravity Grave”. I am telling
you, I used to hate long songs passionately but lately they are just my favorite part of gigs! Its like you are going into an underwater tunnel and lose all concept of space and time when they song is going on, until it stops and you come up gasping for breath on the other side, realizing that you were only in a temporary reality. Sorry if that was a little metaphysical, but it was seriously a spiritual experience. It was THAT good.

They kicked their encore off with the heart-wrenching and gorgeous “History” which , in a very cliche way, sent a wave of shivers all over me. But this was no match for my reaction to “Bittersweet Symphony”, which basically consisted of me melting into a puddle. . It sounded a hundred times better live, which is incredible considering how great it sounds recorded. Finally the whole crowd was standing up and waving their hands in the air, huge smiles of ecstasy plastered on their faces. They just kept playing it for what seemed like forever, the sound just kept getting bigger and bigger and I thought I would just combust with happiness. Thankfully I survived. They played a new song for their closer, which I found kind of lame. I mean, the song was good, but it was sort of an anti-climax after “Symphony”. But that didn’t make me any less ecstatic as I made my way out into the drizzly night . Our night (and the weather) had improved so much we didn’t even mind taking the subway
home.

GOING TO THE CLINIC MAY 8TH @ MUSIC HALL

I had never heard Clinic’s music up until last night. I had heard of them many times, in magazines, on blogs, on the street. But I had never heard a clear definition of their sound. Some people (ahem, ohmyrockness) says they sound like a “post-OK Computer Radiohead”. This means almost nothing to me mostly because Kid A and Hail to the Thief are not records I listen to very often (please don’t shoot me). Others (ahem Pitchfork) calls them “recombinant rock”….uh….okay. So I really didn’t know what to expect when I turned up at Music Hall (by myself because all of my friends are in the midst of finals….something I somehow miraculously avoided).

I got there just as the second band Violens was about to go on. I was eager to hear what they sounded like since I had read about them in the last L Magazine’s new band feature. I scuffled in the stage area like a bum and slid down on the side wall to the right of the stage. Did I mention that I was stoned? Oh yeah, I was. Really fucking high. Right after I sat down these two girls started talking to me and seemed to think I was really cool despite me looking like I had just rolled out of bed and was probably responding to all of their questions with only semi-decipherable word vomit. Maybe that’s the reason rock stars are so popular. Somehow within (what seemed like to me) about 5 minutes, one of the girls was talking about how we were gonna hang out or something and I seriously started to freak out. Had I given these girls my cell number? full name? social security? God help me. Just as I started to get really confused, the sound of the band coming onstage saved me.

The first thing I noticed was that the lead singer looks like that character Sawyer form Lost. Which is a plus for the band, they were really working from advantage form the beginning. They, like I would later discover with Clinic, had a sound that was like a water nymph of genres: totally impossible to pin down. Their intros sometimes sounded rhythmic and almost Libertines-ish, but then they would add in synths and kind of slow everything down. Then they would speed up again into an almost metal-like frenzy. And the vocals sounded like almost an American Morrissey. Really. This guy had a good set of pipes. But it was almost like Jekyll and Hyde. We’re hard rock! No wait, we’re mods! But I was nonetheless pretty captivated by their performance. Mostly because they couldn’t seem to keep one sound together for more than a few minutes.

After Violens were over, I went to the bathroom. When I came back the girls were gone. Probably to steal my identity with all of the information I had given them. I sat back down and tried to make myself be less high. It didn’t really work. Then the band came on and they were wearing surgical masks and Hawaiian shirts. I really thought I had lost my mind at this point. But I sort of forgot about all that as they started to play. Although they played very differently music then Violens, their style of encompassing just about every genre you can imagine into one song was very similar. When I asked the random girl I met what Clinic sounded like. She said “electro-folk”. That kind of describes them, but not really. They are like a word in a foreign language that isn’t directly translatable into English. No matter what words you use to describe them, it doesn’t quite cover all the bases. At times I heard what sounded like a native american chant over a synth melodies or really b
eautiful rocking vocals over marching drum and base lines.

The crowd was pretty thin, especially for a Thursday night, but I guess Clinic is not as big a band as some of the other headliners. Most of the people there were older hipster types. Ones that didn’t necessarily full deck themselves out in hipster garb but then again, are drinking PBRs on a Thursday in Williamsburg. Kind of hard to deny. They seemed to be enjoying the performance but you have to have x-po-mo-ray specs to tell because their enjoyment was hidden behind a veil of feigned apathy. But because it wasn’t too crowded I got to move around to all different locations to see the band. Which kept me entertained.

So after the band was finished I rushed out of the doors, unsure whether I had just witnessed the two most confused rock bands ever or the two most genius. I’m still not quite sure.

SHE'S NOT DEAD

Yo bitches and hos

sorry I've been e-dead for the last little while. I have been out, you know. Living life etc. But I am going to do a little catch up posting the rest of my review's for Almack's and maybe a few other things. But I am going to be a lot more active around here. Mostly because I am going to be killing myself with boredom for the next few months as a go back home to Sacramento.