triple threat

The weekend started with one of two sold out built to spill shows at the fox friday night. We got there early to set up the rig, which wasn't really an issue because no one else showed with a pole. It did afford us lots of beer time during the opening acts. B2S has always had an inscestuous group of opening bands on the road with them on any given tour. This time around it was Mike Johnson & the Evildoers (with Bret Netson from Caustic Resin on guitar & Jim Roth on bass). The B2S lineup was Doug Martsch, Bret Netson, and Jim Roth on the triple guitar mayhem, Brett Nelson on bass, and Scott Plouf drumming. You got all that?

friday set:
velvet waltz
strange
the plan
when not being stupid is not enough
distopian dream girl
built to spill
you were right
going against your mind
don't try
virginia reel around the fountain (halo benders)
alien fugue (caustic resin)
big dipper
sidewalk
I would hurt a fly
carry the zero
stop the show

The show was out of hand good - the triple guitar fed madness was really exceptional. All the opening band beers caught up with us eventually, as robert disappeared about half way through the B2S set and headed back to wimbeldon and wound up partying with my downstairs neighbors, and I foolishly forgot to roll the volume back up for the last song after a tape change.

I had entered the weekend with a bit of a head cold, and it started taking hold as something a little heavier on saturday. Too bad for the cold, I had a full day planned starting with a roof top rendezvous at the foundry. The next stop was nathan & michelle's bbq, where I eventually parted ways while they hit pearl street and I returned to the fox for night two of B2S. I was pretty sick the whole show, leaving to go accross the street to the convenience market for some aspirin & tums. Another great performance, but they played mostly the same songs as the night before. I had been hoping to hear some newer material they debuted earlier in the year, but as it turns out they hadn't deviated too much from these core tracks on this outing. What can you do?

saturday set:
In Your Mind
Distopian Dream Girl
I Would Hurt a Fly
Strange
Goin' Against Your Mind
The Plan
When Not Being Stupid Is Not Enough
Sidewalk
Alien Fugue
One Thing
Stab
Virginia Reel Around the Fountain
Carry the Zero
Stop the Show

The tapes from both nights turned out great, and I will likely host them on CO Tapers when I get around to it.

The weather took a turn for the worse on sunday, which moved the bbq at jacq & dyl's inside. We also ran out of gas for the big grill, but we enjoyed some fine smoked meats hibachi style. At some point during saturday's Q, jacq & I agreed to go to the Erasure show at the Paramount with peter & theresa. We successfully rallied by evening and as luck would have it, Rich was kind enough to drive the lot of us to and from the show in Denver. I was actually curious to see them after learning they sold out 10 nights(!) in a row at Irving Plaza a few weeks earlier, and was indeed pleasantly surprised by the performance. The stage was all done up like an enchanted forest, and the lead singer and two female backup singers were decked out as winged beings. The progammer/sequencer guy was similarly themed in a sequin suit. I didn't keep track of the setlist as I'm not up on too many of their song titles, but I was rather surprised that I recognized a bunch of the songs they played.

Monday = sleeeeep style.

-exhausted, neph-

built to spill extras

I have an extra ticket for each night of Built to Spill at the Fox (tonight & saturday). If anyone's interested, get in touch...

just can't get enough

Video game manipulationisms along with a song - Fette's Vette. It's a wmv file, enjoy!

fuzzy wuzzy

store wars

Yet another spoof from a seemingly neverending supply - Store Wars.

-no pun necessary, neph-

first impressions

audioslave - Out of Exile: I blame the resaon I want to like this on some dutiful sense of pent up nostalgia for this style of music that effectively ceased being effective one weird day in April 1994. The lead single, 'be yourself', is probably the worst song on the album. So if that's the only track you've heard so far, know that it gets better. But unfortunately, chris cornell's voice just ends up wearing on you until you wish he'd go back into exile with the rest of his former band.

imogen heap - Speak For Yourself: Reminds me of dido singing over a cirque de soleil soundtrack.

white stripes - Get Behind Me Satan: I'm listening to this from the advance vinyl release and I'll have to say I am rather enjoying it. Jack & Meg are back with an album heavy on their special brand of matter of fact love songs. Most tracks here also include the pianotron, which adds a certain elegance to the otherwise raw cuts.

black eyed peas - Monkey Business: The album opens with Dick Dale's now famous by way of Pulp Fiction riff from 'misirlou', and soon digresses into the peas' standard hand-clapping, fergie gyrating nonsense. How are we supposed to take these guys seriously with tracks like 'don't phunk with my heart'? We're not. And with that in mind, this is your standard NBA theme song making, top 40 hit machine type thing that these guys do best. Of all the guests that litter the album (justin timberlake, cee-lo, john legend, talib kweli, q-tip, james brown, sting), the jack johnson collaboration is my fave.

-whimsically observed, neph-

boat dreams from the hill

All you need for a vacation are three simple things - the will, the means & the destination. Everyone was up for an outing, so no problem there. The sub was gassed and ready. And our lovely host offered the hospitality of her Steamboat Springs home. Easy as one, two, three. Our weekend was filled with waterfalls, biking, canoeing, parties, food, drink, and general merriment - thumbs up!

-carpenter's sure hand, neph-

full force

Spoiler alert...

One of the moments I've been waiting nearly all my life for came into fruition last night with my viewing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. All the loose ends were tied off quite nicely. I especially enjoyed how some of the ships, droids, and armour we see in the later eps start making appearances in this one.
We get to see where the wookies live, although I would have like more wookie fight footage. The storm troopers we wind up seeing on endor are on the wookie planet as well - must be jungle garb. We see that the ship in the opening of Ep IV belongs to the Organas, Leahs adoptive parents. We also get a glimps of Alderan, which is the first victim of the death star. I could go on about specific droids and ships, but I could seriously spend too much time on that. Oh, and for all you jar jar haters, you're in luck - he only has a non-speaking cameo.

One of the low points was the abysmal acting which was prevelant in all three prequels. Hayden Christiansan is battling Mischa Barton for space at the bottom of that paper bag neither of them can act their way out of to save their lives. Good 'ol Palpatine/Darth Sidius's "tranformation" to his current deformative state was also horribly acted. I've seen more moving dialogue in The Wraith. And I'm still not sure if I'm 100% keen on all of the CGA that was used to make these films. Word on the street is that this will be nominated for an acadamy award for best animated film, because over 50% of the film is CGA.

The highlight was definitley the vader "transformation". I'll leave this alone, just in case you're still reading and you haven't seen it. I'll likely go see it again. Until Lucas makes the last three, here are my rankings:

1. A New Hope (it was the first)
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menace

-double sunrise, neph-

ligers & tie fighters

If you happen to be someone who loves when two great tastes go great together, well perhaps Anakin Dynamite is a visionary cinematic endevour you ought to explore.

This week's quicky reviews:

despistado - The People and Their Verses: Mediocre indie rock.

maximo park - A Certain Trigger: Mediocre dance core electro clash whatever you call it on Warp Records.

billy corgan - Future Embrace EP: This 4 song sampler from his forthcoming full-length serves as further proof to back up my theory - until he grows his hair back, billy will continue to make music that just plain sucks eggs.

gomez - Out West: Double live disc, which could easily be chipped down to one. The problem is these guys have 2 singers - one I kind of dig, the other not so much.

buck 65 - This Right Here Is: Crap 65.

-the dark side, neph-

peoples

The dust seems to have settled, and I've caught up on rest so I can finish logging my adventures.

Saturday started with a brisk bike ride to retrieve my car from the hill before the meter maids could have their wicked way. Being the good host, I picked up some beans & bagels for the slumbering minions visiting from denver in my living room. We eventually took a walk for some lunch, and spent some time trying to piece together the Trail of Dead setlist, before kicking the evening off with a round of oc. It was vu ja-dé all over again when we landed at the Sink prior to the Sound Tribe Sector 9 show at (you guessed it) the Fox.

Let's talk about the sts9 bit for a moment, shall we? Saturday's show was the last night of this tour, and one of two all live PA sets, as opposed to their usual instrumenty shows. And as luck would have it, they worked out the kinks at the denver show the night before. Two powerbooks took center stage, flanked by key drums & percussion - minimal guitron & bassitron were played. They went 2 hours straight playing some sick organelectroisms - it was dare I say, wicked awesome, or awesomely wicked, you choose. We had a strong showing of folks in our crew, and were all jazzed up enough to continue grooving to the tribe dj's closing set until lights up at 2am.

Milling about outside the show, and not ready to call it a night, we followed a tip about a house party nearby. As we walked, you could hear the house music from a few blocks away, which is always a good sign. The 'heaven & hellraisers' party was in full effect when we showed up, and lasted well past a reasonable hour. Special thanks to jumpsuit Jane and the guy in the cape!

-nephew-

une jeunese que l'avenir inquiete trop souvent

...and you will know us by the Trail of Dead on Friday the 13th was a raucous affair. The 3-piece from Austin, expanded to a 6-piece for the live show, which included 2 drummers for many of the songs. Most material was pulled from their latest disc which rather pleasantly happens to be my favorite. Tight, energetic show overall. The order is a little dodgey in the middle, but it's the best I can do with the setlist right now, my handwritten notes from the show were largely incomprehensable:

Ode to Isis
Will You Smile Again?
It Was There That I Saw You
Worlds Apart
The Best
Caterwaul
Aged Dolls
A Perfect Teenhood
Clair de Lune
Totally Natural
Days of Being Wild
Mistakes and Regrets
Richter Scale Madness (complete with wanton destruction of gear)

-the rest will all follow, neph-

freezer fun

Still counting down the days until EpIII...



-hothin' it, neph-

sushi roll

Had a splendid time with allison last night, who was visiting from the high country that we do not speak of.

silly shit

Here's a helpful video which gives you some insite as to how you can be your very own Trogdor the Burninator.

And, Justin Case you thought that you've already collected every possibly kind of action figure ever made, here's some more really bizarre crap to stockpile. Enjoy!

-on fire, neph-

toosday reevoos

frank black - Honeycomb: Considering the only two songs the pixies have managed to record since their reformation a year ago were the abysmally bad track, 'Bam Thwok' (it was even rejected from the Shrek 2 soundtrack), and the throw away Warren Zevon cover, 'Ain't So Pretty at All', it's probably just as well that the only other new material coming from that camp (besides the gratuitous Frank Black Francis cd of his early demos and pixies covers) is the new solo album from the Brackish one himself, so as not to tarnish the begining to be questionable reputation of the Pixies legacy. When they originally broke up in '92 we all thought that the first Frank Black solo album was going to sound (hopefully) just like the pixies, since he was the chief songwriter, many of the tracks were originally written as pixies songs, and both david lovering and joey santiago made appearances on the disc. Unfortunately, such was not the case as we were bitch-slapped with the sugary-sweet dribble of not only that 'debut' but his next two drastically sub par discs as well. That, coupled with the artistic & commercial power of the Breeders, left some to wonder who was really the driving force behind the pixies (of course after listening to Kim's unbearably lame lyrics in 'Bam Thwok', I guess we'll never know). The dissapointment continued when Frank joined forces with The Catholics and churned out another several discs of bland americana rock (amerirockacana?)
Honeycomb is consistently better than any of Franky boy's other releases, that is if you're looking for a more stripped down mellow affair. Still plays on the americana tip, but in a lazy hot afternoon on the front porch, folk song kind of way, which works very much to his advantage. Oh yeah, and the nashville session musicians help out a bit too. So far, so good.

xiu xiu - La Foret: Self indulgent, tortured art rock. I really enjoyed the beligerance of 'I luv the Valley, OH!' off their last disc Fabulous Muscles. Like all of their material, this album requires lots of patience mixed with just the right amount of painkillers in order for it to be enjoyable.

prefuse 73 READS the books: This is exactly what the title implies; Scot Heron mixes The Books' latest with his own, the results are not so interesting. You'd be much better off with the source material.

zZz - The Sounds of zZz: Let's say you were in the mood to listen to The doors, jon spencer, the butthole surfers, and the B-52's in one sitting. You could save yourself a lot of time, by just throwing on the zZz's debut, which is comprised of merely organ, drums, & baritone vox.

35mm

"The real mystery in life is not a problem to be solved. It is a reality to be experienced." - JJ Van der Leeuw

I was near ecstatic when I heard that the lead singer of the Doves had a sore throat and had to cancel a string of dates. Why so ecstatic, you ask. First off, I don't care much for the Doves. Secondly, and most importantly, it allowed their tour opener, Mercury Rev, to headline on their own, which they really should have been doing anyway.

Cut to me & nathan at the Fox last night - the Rev oozed class, drinking wine from stemware, wearing dinner jackets, and pretty much putting on a phenominal show. They had a screen as big as you could make it behind the stage which hosted constant projected images throughout the show. Whether it was old black & white movie clips, or deep quotes, or the solar system, it definitely added to the grandiosity of the tunealage, which was pulled from their last 3 discs. Thumbs up.

set:
secret for a song
black forest (lorelei)
tonite it shows
tides of the moon
my love
the funny bird
vermillion
opus 40
there you are
holes
in the wilderness
spiders and flies
diamonds
E:
little rhymes
first-time mother's joy (flying)
the dark is rising

"At the moment you are most in awe of all there is about life that you don’t understand, you are closer to understanding it all than at any other time." - Jane Wagner

-chasing a bee, neph-

delivered fresh to your door

-pizza kid-

pyramid scheme

I'm sure you've all seen the USDA's new food pyramid with the little guy running up the steps by now. But have you seen the satirical mock up created by some clever dans in order to point out the USDA's agribusiness fueled agenda? Brilliant work, if I do say so myself.

-said, neph-

junk mail disobedience

Over the past few months, I have been collecting my junk mail in a pile on the floor, too lazy to open it. The day finally came last week when I got sick of the size of pile I had accumulated, so I got to work. As I opened the mail, I set aside all of the business reply envelopes. When it was all said and done, I had close to 50 envelopes which I then mailed back to whomever sent them to me in the first place, courtesy of "no postage necessary if mailed in the U.S."



-post no bills, neph-

swoop & swap

Following in the theme of graduating, michelle & theresa threw a great bash on friday. Some wisdom I took with me: dead plants should be left to die, especially the big ones in hard to reach places.

Busted out into grill mode on saturday at Milo. We feasted on chicken/feta/spinach brats with great sides, including italian sausage, while calling in our bets for the 131st kentucky derby. My horses did not fair so well, I thought I had a lock with Spanish Chesnut from the starting gates, but his steam pretty much fizzled on the last leg and he came in 17th once the mud cleared. A quick round of the oc game later, we were denver bound.

Our denver agenda was based around catching joaquin's new band play later that evening at the 15th street tavern. We had several hours to kill before hand, so we haphazardly pulled onto market street around happy hour and picked the Double Daughter, which proved to be quite a neat spot for a start to our travels. Jen met up with us there, and Soon after she split for boulder, we went to Mynt, which proved to be a cocaine-fueled, barbie & ken hangout, complete with lousy drinks, and really awkward security. Of course, I left my cell phone there and had to go back. The pinacle of the evening was upon us when Slickpigs Lie took the stage and blistered through their set of melvins-esque sounding material. Joaquin absolutely tore up the drums - nice one!

Vegged out sunday with the stack of burninated dvd's jay sent me, until evening when it was time to celebrate with the fam for mother's day dinner at Il Forneo - yum!

-the good son, neph-

congrats

Congratualtions to Michelle & Theresa who graduate from CU today with doctorites in philosophy!

-doctorin' the tardis, neph-

uno dos tres

Happy cinquo de mayo! For all you numerologists, it's also 5/5/05 which may be lucky or something.

Skipped the Kasabian show in denver last night. I didn't feel up for a long wednesday night just to hear only one album's worth of material (even though I rather enjoy that one album). Took it easy on the homefront instead and caught the red sox/tigers game, which the sox won 4-3 (yea!). As I watched the game, I listened to the sound of skateboards click-clack past my window down colorado ave - I dig that sound.

Note to self - must get together with john for future viewings of alias. Justin Case you were wondering, my favorite theme from alias is that bad guys love to work out of nightclubs in far away places that you learned the name of by playing RISK. Oh yeah, and the meaning of life is 52, not 42.

Good news - the Colorado smoking ban passed in the hiz-ouse, and now it's off to the senate. The bill will essentially ban all smoking in public buildings with the exception of cigar bars and the smoking lounge at DIA.

-five alive, neph-

get ready

The excitement is building with only two weeks left until episode III. I'll bet these guys are camping out by a theater near you, gettin' ready to rock the afterparty - watch out!

toosday grooves

The snow is gone, and you can smell the cut grass outside. But I digress, here are tuesday's grooves...

kraftwerk - Minimum/Maximum: Has that grandiose live album aura that I associate with orblive93, mainly because it's two discs worth of live performances from various far away trans continental locations. The major difference, however, is that kraftwerk are in their nostalgic prime as opposed to their artistic prime, so this set comes off as a little sterile. But since their music was never known for being especially warm and fuzzy to begin with, this does serve as a handy career spanning compilation, which is fine by me.

day at the fair - The Rocking Chair Years: I got a lot done yesterday while I was listening to this emo/punk affair, simply because it's quite peppy. If you like this kind of music, this is a prety good one - not as good as say, alkaline trio, but nowhere's near as bas as say, good charlotte. Emo is as emo does.

minotaur shock - Maritime: BZz, bzz, bzz. That's the sound surrounding David Edward's debut full length. First off, let's not confuse this with that little red radiohead mascot, the crying minotaur, even though a lot of the buzzing sound could probably be traced back to radiohead's favorable mentions. I recall first being introduced to MS by way of his remix for the Badly Drawn Boy track, 'the shining'. At times Maritime is a decent dish of [insert prefix here]tronica, it kind of reminds me of a more (dare I say) organic kraftwerk. But, overall this lacks direction in that way that people who are great at remixing, but not producing, does (i.e., it could benefit from some vocals).

the ponys - Celebration Castle: A good 80's sounding jangly guitron group with marbles in the mouth vocals. Their sound and vibe feels a bit more honest than many of the poorly executed synth-ladden tributes to that era. They sound like the band that the Young Ones might hire should they throw a party. Island records wishes they signed these guys instead of the shit whistle they got with The Bravery.

roué - Heroic Upward Motive: Nice linearly aggressive, somewhat fugazi-ish, play in an abandoned house type punk. Good for lazy afternoons, sitting in a lawn chair on afformentioned cut grass with a cooler by your side.

-cabin fever, neph-

asinine

Here's a gem, courtesy of Nomina.

sounds of saturday

Several events coincided on saturday - Jacq's birthday, the Moby show, and lots of snow. Ater a false positive OC game friday (we didn't realize the prez pre-empted our beloved game show the night before), we were raring to go saturday evening. University Hill was homebase, as we gathered for food & drink at the Sink. After dining with steph, sonja & bill, the rest of us (michelle, nathan, jacq, dylan, jen, & yours truly) walked uphill the one block to the Fox for the way sold out moby show (fire code capacity: 625).

Once inside, we parked ourselves up front (because, hey why not) and took in the house sounds of the opener, dj harry, probably best known for his SCI remixes. It's always good to hear house music, especially in a town generally deprived of 4/4's, due in part to night spots catering to college kids' horrifying taste in what they think is enjoyable dance music (I'll save this rant for some other time, though). Mid set, dj harry mixed out of vinyl into his own live band in which he played guitron, longside the adorable vocalist, lissie, who shouldn't wear a mumu.

After a bass heavy, stomach churner ambient intro, moby & band (a drummer, a guitarist/bassit, and the go-go dress & boots clad Lucy Butler on tritons & vox) blitzed through the first several tracks before moby took a timeout to thank david bowie as the inspiration to 'spiders'. The set & performances were solid all around, lucy sang all the female vocal parts quite beautifully while moby raged out on his black epiphone SG, and occasionly the bongos for the classics, 'go', 'next is the e', and 'feeling so real', the latter of which we were informed was inspired by one particular sunrise at an outdoor rave (of course it was). Easily one of the best shows I've seen this year, very enjoyable energy level. Here is the 98% accurate setlist:

(intro) my weakness
find my baby
extreme ways
raining again
natural blues
spiders
where you end
go
new dawn fades (joy division)
beautiful
very
next is the e!
porcelain
dream about me
southside
we are all made of stars
slipping away
"bossanova/lounge singer medley" (creep, we're not going to take it, freebird)
bodyrock
lift me up
E:
walk on the wild side (lou reed)
feeling so real
{john cale's '2:38 of silence' and about a minute of metallica's 'battery' were also covered at some point during the show along with a bluesy harmonica jam, however their precise placement eludes me}

another camera phone masterpiece:


-nephew now-