Every Monday, I am going to post a quick list of shows this week in the bay area that won’t be a waste of time. I won’t necessarily be at all of them, because I don’t have infinite wealth and time, but you can use this as a handy guide when looking for something to do!
10 Quick Questions For Ponytail
Ponytail are a band from Maryland, and they are currently on tour. Guitarist Ken Seeno has offered to answer a few questions by e-mail from their travels, so here are his answers.
The Leaky Faucet: Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor
Retail Release Date: June 2, 2009 (digital only)
Leaky Faucet Acquision Date: May 3, 2009
I’ll start with the album cover. Patrick Wolf is posed here as an alien who’s landed in an oddly shaped spaceship tent, in some crazy cyberpunk outfit with a purple glow behind his hand, and some ancient instruments at his campsite. What is Patrick Wolf saying about this album before you even listen to it? He’s saying, “please don’t take me too seriously. I’m an utter goofball.” Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Patrick Wolf — The Bachelor”
May 4th, 2009 (Sluttering Day)
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District."]
[/caption]There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.
It is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.
With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.
There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.
The agony is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.
With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.
Defined by the writer of the lyrics, Blake Schwarzenbach, the word itself means “pontification under duress and/or a kind of drunk muttering.”
And as the song’s chorus whipsaws in, Blake’s voice climbs meticulously across the syllables of what it sounds like to know that the person who was once with you is now with someone else:
slow dance alone with no one to the sound of four hands clapping / congratulations to you both I hope somewhere you’re happy / if there’s a moral to this story, then I wish you’d show me
Today is May 4. It is Sluttering Day. Listen to the song. And if you can help it, don’t break anyone’s heart.
Maria Taylor at Cafe Du Nord, 5/1/09
Admitedly, I was a bit apprehensive about this show. I love Maria Taylor’s albums and singing along to her songs in the car. But her songs are slow and moody, so I was a worried the show would be boring. But Maria Taylor was hypnotic. She has that special charisma or ‘it factor’ where you really can’t take your eyes off her. Or really, it’s that you can’t look away from her eye: big, shining and soulful. It reminds me of love story where a man sees a woman sing and instantly falls in love. The voice, the eye, the giant left handed guitar, she is an indie dream woman.
Though Maria’s sultry left eye was the star of the show, there was a lot of good music too… Continue reading “Maria Taylor at Cafe Du Nord, 5/1/09”
The Leaky Faucet: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Retail Release Date: May 25, 2009
Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: March 11, 2009
Phoenix is a French pop band that plays music that can only be described as Britpop. What does French Britpop sound like? It sounds like the band Phoenix. Perhaps I should explain. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”
Album Review: Graham Coxon – The Spinning Top
Graham Coxon’s new solo album The Spinning Top is due to be released on May 11th, a month before his former band Blur reunites for a series of reunion tours. I must admit that I have been in fangirl love with Graham Coxon since I was 16 years old, and The Spinning Top makes this fangirl swoon. Musically, we’re back to a simpler Graham, focusing on him and an acoustic guitar, unlike his last two more rock-tastic albums. Thematically, The Spinning Top is more complex. It is a concept album, following the story of a man from birth to death, but the theme gets a little lost. It comes across more as a way for Graham to expose his deep inner self without having to be held accountable for anything that he reveals.
Continue reading “Album Review: Graham Coxon — The Spinning Top”
Throbbing Gristle/Erika Andersson at The Grand Ballroom, 4/23/09
Throbbing Gristle are an early industrial band that formed in the early 70’s. They were known for both electronic experimentalism, and blatant shock value. I probably have read more about this band than any other band that I have never heard before. In fact, this show at The Grand in San Francisco will in fact be the very first time I actually will get to hear this band that has followed me for years as nothing but academic text.
Continue reading “Throbbing Gristle/Erika Andersson at The Grand Ballroom, 4/23/09”
Britney Spears/Pussycat Dolls Oracle Arena, 4/22/09: An Unrepentant Fans Thoughts
I go to a lot of shows. And I get excited about them. Very excited about them. But few shows have I anticipated as greatly as this one. I love the bubble gum pop, and there is just something about her that has drawn me in from day one. I think she always has reminded me of the person that I had always dreamt of being when I was younger. I really like the idea of being a child star, then becoming a pop star, followed by making some very poor decisions in public, leading to heavy scrutiny from the media. I really enjoy the idea of fame at all costs, and Britney has lived that dream. She lives her life as if every day was her big return to the spotlight.
But I digress; you want to hear about the show. Just to answer a few of the questions that you may have before reading on-
No, she did not refer to Oakland as Seattle, or Santa Barbara, or Sunol, or any other town she may have been thinking about that day. In fact, she did not address us by name of our city at all.
She did not storm off the stage because of pot smoke.
She did not fake a knee injury to get out of performing.
She did not sing live.
That being said, on with the review: Continue reading “Britney Spears/Pussycat Dolls Oracle Arena, 4/22/09: An Unrepentant Fans Thoughts”
Fleet Foxes at the Fox Oakland, 4/21/09
Robin Pecknold, lead singer of Fleet Foxes, emerges from stage right for an encore after an hour set; he comes wielding his acoustic guitar and a great looking beard. He banters with the crowd of the nearly sold out Fox theater in Oakland, then tell us all that he is going to “do this one without a mic”. He unplugs his guitar and steps up to the very front of the center apron of the stage and begins to play truly acoustically. Robin’s powerful voice emanates through the theater of about twenty-two-hundred perfectly quiet listeners. With a revolving cast of players in the five-piece Seattle-based band, it seems that Pecknold is Fleet Foxes. I enjoy the simplicity of a singular Pecknold in an other wise deeply woven creation of sound. Continue reading “Fleet Foxes at the Fox Oakland, 4/21/09”