songs of the massive

Absolutely sick - probably one of the best shows I've ever seen. Massive Attack came correct at the fillmore on friday. Daddy G and 3D had a full band in tow, two drummers, bass, guitar, keys/samplers, shara nelson, horace andy, oh yeah and um elizabeth frazer! It was a powerful performance, and left us wanting more. Luckily for us denver was one of three US cities graced with this tour. Here's a few photos from the seattle show the night before:









False Flags
Risingson
Black Milk
Man Next Door
Future Proof
Karmacoma
Hymn Of The Big Wheel
Teardrop
Butterfly Caught
Angel
Safe From Harm
Inertia Creeps
Unfinished Sympathy
Group Four



-closed eyed sky wide open-

reviews from a gun

I've been listening to lots of music this week, so you get a second helping of reviews to digest on this overcast friday:

television personalities - My Dark Places: Oft referenced as wildly influential by the likes of nirvana and the J&M chain, this sporatic project of dan treacy returns with it's 8th (or 9th, or maybe 10th?) studio album album since 1977. And as is the fate with most bands that influenced bands you went on to enjoy, they just can't live up to your expectations. All you really get to do is say, "Oh yeah I can totally see how so-and-so was influenced by these guys here and maybe over here." Empty fullfilment at best, although the 'she can stop traffic' song is kind of pleasing.

tool - 10,000 Days: I knew a lot of people who got into tool a few years back because trey anastasio mentioned how he listened to their last album at full blast while driving around vermont in his audi. I was introduced to tool while digging through a crate of cd's with ryan years back that didn't make the cut to be played on college radio (ouch, they'll play anything!). Tool's debut EP was amongst this pile of discs that soon became silvery slivered remains of their formerly round self as we projected them at each other during a cd war in the halls of our dorm. Tool made the "to-be-hurled" cut due in large part to the pictures of necrophelia adorning the inner sleeve artwork. I never felt much remorse for judging that book by its cover, as tool have never since made any sort of lasting impression on me.

tv on the radio - Return to Cookie Mountain: On the flip-side we have a band that has peaked my interest as of late. Initially turned on by the Young Liars EP, mainly for the track, 'staring at the sun', which subsequently wound up on their debut full length, but also for their unique cover of 'mr. grieves'. Said debut full length was a little too industrial doo wop for my liking, but I gave them another chance, and I'm glad I did. The album title may or may not be a nod to Super Mario World, but fortunately it's frivolity has little to do with the almost dark musical leanings and strangely gruffy yet shrill vocals of the songs contained within. I had been listening to an unfinished advance of this for a while, but the final copy has proved a much better listen and has received far more spins.

wizardzz - Hidden City of Taurmond: Someone sure is excited they got a new keyboard, so much so that they forgot to invite some other musicians over to help in the creative process of making an album.

cocteau twins - Lullabies to Violaine: All you die-hard fans will likely have most of this material, as it is a collection of the bands EP's, singles and b-sides spanning their 1982-1996 recording career. As the title suggests it's bookended by the first EP, Lullabies, and their last single, Violaine. Being somewhat of a casual fan myself, I own only three of the releases that make up this 4 cd set, so this is a great collection of things I probably would have never hunted down, but enjoy listening to regardless.

mecca normal - The Observer: Lo-fi feminism courtesy of whats-her-face and her guy partner doing what they unfortuantely have decided to keep on doing after all these years. A much easier swallow than their quasi-punk efforts, I even like that one track, 'his own madness', but it is probably just be because KVCU has been caning it as their 'cd of the month' and I've grown desensitzed to it. I highly doubt I would ever concsiously choose to listen to this.

pearl jam - s/t: Everytime these guys release a disc, I'm a little surprised to learn they are still around. I mean who the heck is listening to these guys that they need another album? Ten was a strong release, but it definitely had its place in a time which has long since passed. Self-titled and something like their 7th or 9th studio effort, what I'm upset with the most here is the lack of a proper album title. Didn't they already release an eponymous disc? Please just call it something, steal a lryic from a song for pete's sake. If you're not going to bother naming it, I'm not going bother listening to it. Jeez. They're still pretty rockin live though - you can check 'em playing some of the new material on letterman.

reviews on tues

zero 7 - The Garden: This reminds me of that scene from Garden State where one of their songs is playing in the background and all the kids jump in the pool, except that if it were me I would stay under and drown myself rather than be subjected to any more of this band's doldrums.

mcclusky - McCluskyism: I kept hearing this on the radio and thinking that it was a new Les Savy Fav disc. They sound very similar, except these guys are welsh, and have recently called it quits. To that end this is a 3-disc career spanning retrospective of A, B, and C-sides, and the discs are indeed labeled as such. Having never really listened to much of their stuff before, this is a lot to swallow all at once, but it's still good for inducing sporadic bursts of energy.

sonic youth - Rather Ripped: The youth are like a bottle of wine these days, getting more and more savory as they age. We have Jim O'Rourke to applaud for thankfully getting them out of their "all-of-our-instruments-got-stolen-and-we're-going-to-make-beat-poetry" stage of NYC Ghosts & Flowers, and got them to explore some more languid and expansive type choons that graced Murray Street and Sonic Nurse. Although jim's out this time around, the rest of the gang manage to keep up the good work even though the song structures tend to be a little more on the succinct side.

rainer maria - Catastrophe Keeps Us Together: Nothing more than a re-incarnated Mary's Danish, or an edgier version of Rilo Kiley. Choose whichever you identify with more I suppose. Mind you, neither comparison is designed to be terribly flattering.

why ween is the bees knees

from a recent tour stop in florida:
"the club served us chicken francaise for dinner and after the show the empty tray was sittin there with only the sauce left in it, which had coagulated from sitting out all night. it was about 2 inches of oil and solidified butter, chicken skin, and fat. me and one of the bouncers were trying to convince a girl to get down on all fours and lick the butter and fat while we pissed in her shoes but we struck out. kids just don't know how to have a good time anymore. "

- deaner

when you hit them

I'm sitting here at the pueblo convention center for a trade show in busling downtown pueblo jamming out to gotan project, and looking quite dapper despite the fact that I forgot to pack half my clothing for the trip. Luckily, two exits up we have the expansive pueblo mall, home to JC Penny, Dilliards, Sears, and a food court comprised of not only an asian buffet, but a country buffet as well. Winter clothes were on sale, and armed with an additional 20% coupon provided to me by one of the friendly locals standing before me in line, I made out with a nice shirt and tie combo for a very respectable price.



Yesterday was a relaxing travel day, just me and my new car ster-e-ereo following the lines going south.

Saturday was a beautiful one, and after running errands in the morning, I had a great session on the bacarro rooftop with beth, kerr & jacq. We were joined by several other merry makers as the day progressed (jake, christy, robin, nik, et al). It was a great vantage point up there, because when we saw someone we knew walking down pearl street, we could shout down for them to join us. Continued on to styr where we finished the night with a few rounds of martinis (fwiw - happy hour has moved from 8 to 10).

Friday was a whirlwind evening in denver. Had a great dinner at dev & kims before we headed off to the yeah³ show at the fillmore. Bumped into jordan and her roomie at the sold out but short show. The performance was solid, and the setlist escapes me, but they played mostly material from show your bones, longside the classics, maps & y control. We thought we'd visit with robert & angie as their hut was right on the drive home, and their living room light was on. Impecable logic save for the fact that angie's mom was in town - oops! Woke up the next morning to find that my hosts had left town themselves. Somewhat confused I proceeded to accidentally let the dogs in... oops again! It was time to head back to boulder...

-you can't buy sand-

real world denver

I'm sure you've all heard by now that the next real world will be filmed in denver's very own LoDo this summer. The seven inevitably disfunctional & drunk strangers will meet and occupy the old B52 Billiards bar located at 1920 Market Street. The nearby bar & nightclub scene, all within stumbling distance, will undoubtedly be put to good use. There's a rumor that the 'token gay' castmate is already busying himself with work as a bartender at JR's, which is odd since filming has yet to begin. As if LoDo was not debauched enough...





-brace your bad self-

420

a couple of gems from the way back machine

kp & mc fa Q at purple haze



the doctor is in!

hump day toon check

willowz - s/t: The red-headed step child of 'garage rock' ushers in the underlooked realm of 'carport' or perhaps even 'dirt driveway rock'. Clocking in at around 20 minutes, this release is an easier swallow than last year's sprawling, TalkInCircles. Here we are privy to a shotgun wedding between the white stripes and moldy peaches.

devotchka - Curse Your Little Heart: A six song EP from a denver band to watch. Kind of like slovakian goth music. This is a pleasant little surprise to tide us over until the next studio affair. Covers of Baldo Rex, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Frank Sinatra, and Velvet Underground, rounded out with the the original title track and the traditional 'El Zopilote Mojado'.

yo la tengo - Is Murdering the Classics: Ouch, they sure are! A collection of live covers originally played on air during the annual WFMU fundraiser from 1996-2003. Basically a donor makes a request and yo la plays it. They don't seem to necessarily know how to play all the requests, however, and are pretty much winging it throughout. Released through their website to keep die-hard fans occupied until their next studio project, they're quite honest about its relative crudeness - "It's dreadful. No song titles will be provided, don't ask. Beautiful cover art by Adrian Tomine. Order at your own risk. No refunds." (check the comments for track listing)

maritime - We, the Vehicles: I wondered were davey von went. Last I recalled he did some backing vocals on a jimmy eat world tune that received commercial radio play. I kind of gave up on the promise ring after wood/water did not live up to my post Very Emergency expectations. Having seen their energetic performance at the echo lounge that same year, the three year wait for a slow & mopier than usual album was disappointing. Well, here he is returning with one of the other members from the ashes of PR and the bassist from the also sadly deceased dismemberment plan. The result is much like the ennui imposed by wood/water. Gone are the peppier and seemingly heartfelt days of yore, leaving us with this unfortunately vapid replacement.

ween - Dirty Money (single track): I've said it before, and I'll say it again. These guys could shit on a plate and I'd put it on the turntable for a spin, even if it gets messy. I'm not sure where this track came from, or where it may end up, but it parades around their prince-ish funk fixation quite mirawkulously (oh yes I did).

keeblin'

As you may have surmised from my posting a day or two ago I spent friday evening at the fox with dinosaur jr, robert, angie, and jake. There were insanely more amps onstage than PA speakers in the venue, and it was LOUD. As expected, they played all vintage DJ material from the first three albums, save for a surprise post-lou era 'wagon', which was most welcome. Despite lou's insistance on redlining anything electrical, the dino 3 blazed through their 80-ish minute set with J wailing all the while. Clown of the night award goes to jordan, who inexplicably wound up inside the sound board area trying to make off with the setlist mid-show. He was promptly booted from the show, and called us up 10 miutes later wondering why he was thrown out. My apologies go out to the girl who showed up for my extra ticket after I promised it to heidi who is now in the doghouse for never showing up. My tape from the night turned out darn right, and if you have not done so already I encourage you to grab a copy from CO Tapers for your listening pleasure.

On saturday, the CU football team, hot off the heals of the worst end to what could have been a 9-2 season held their spring scrimmage against themselves at folsom field. So we decided to hold a practice tailgate in their honor and for the high hopes of our new head coach - the Hawk, formerly of Boise State (the team with the blue turf). I'm ashamed that we faired far better in the parking lot than they did on the field. But thankfully there's still plenty of time for them to practice. Partially celebrated dyl-o-man's b-day post scrim with free flowing marg's courtesy of my new wave station:



Had a happy and relaxing easter dinner on sunday with the fam at hillside.

-uma who?-

finders keepers

here's a wagon, get on in

Dinosaur Jr.
Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO
April 14, 2006

Source: Earthworks SR-78's > Tascam DA-P1
Transfer: Sony DTC-790 > HHB 850 > Soundforge 6 > FLAC

01 gargoyle
02 kracked
03 repulsion
04 wagon
05 forget the swan
06 bulbs of passion
07 lung
08 little furry things
09 lose
10 in a jar
11 raisans
12 sludgefeast
13 freaksccene
14 chunks
15 just like heaven
16 mountain man

J Mascis - guitar / vox
Lou Barlow - bass / vox
Murph - drums

Notes: PA clipping was Lou's fault. Fades applied, and removed some crowd cheering in between encores so that the show would fit onto one 80 minute cd. Enjoy!

don't believe the florist

Thanks to the beautifully simple wonder of the concert call courtesy of my good pal scott, I was able to witness ween tear the roof off of the disco rodeo in raleigh earlier this evening during 'roses'.



-boognishisms-

one for mo

Peace brother. I'll miss you.

-marc-

elements

Finally watched the dogtown documentary friday night which got me extremely stoked (yes, stoked) for what was likely my last day this season up at copper. The snow was a bit heavy and wet, but there was still a bunch of it from a fresh fall thursday night. Saw the d'aquanni boys over on resolution for a quick run befroe we headed out. Overall it was a great season. We had some monster dumps and the epic days abounded, way outnumbering the average ones.



That night kind of unfolded pleasantly as we headed to denver. Had dinner at lime (note to self - curaco kind of tastes like soap, it's not the glass), then headed over to the poor house for some additional bevy action, before heading south to the gothic to catch particle. I've been meaning to see these guys for a while, both because I'd heard good things and me & the bass player played together as toddlers in northboro. I already missed them play at copper, and at the fox, and this was the last CO date of this tour. We got there plenty early and commanded a nice balcony area as our own.



I was utterly amazed with the opener, that 1 guy, and immediately went down to the front of the stage so I could see exactly what was going on. He had this appartus, that consisted of big metal pipes, a couple of bass strings, and various switches. He made all the beats with bass pedals attached to cowbells which I'm guessing had some triggers inside. Everything was all wired up to a few effects racks. Oh yeah and he sang. The result was frank zappa making out with les claypool. As that one guy in the crowd so eliquantly summed up that 1 guy on stage, "epic motherfucker!"



Particle recently kicked out their old guitarist because he wasn't really a team player. This was the first tour with his replacement of two guitarists, one of which plays just like a young trey. Previously a stricly instrumental band, a few of the new tunes sported vocals, and they pulled off a killer version of LA woman later in the show. The easy comparison would be to sts9, but with a different dynamic - mainly more guitron chord building vs. solo looping, and more organic keys vs. sampley sounding keys. They totally ripped it.



Had a casual sunday, watched dot the i, rode my bike around town, and took part in some Q action at derr's hut.

-particularly-

good sport award

reviews from a rainy friday

raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers: Wow, we have a fucking champ. Jack White teams up with Brendan Benson, and the bassist and drummer from the Greenhornes. Not surprising Jim Jarmusch directs their first video (meg & jack were in coffee and cigarettes, and the greenhornes had a few tracks on the broken flowers soundtrack). Clocking in at just over a half an hour, there's not enough time to lose interest in this wicked catchy disc. It's very white stripesy, but with a fuller sound, and brendan sharing vocal duties. Look for an official May release, or look elsewhere.

snow patrol - Eye's Open: And we have a didn't even finish the race loser. Total shite floating on the teppid sea of the adult alternative wasteland. This is horrible, insulting almost. I must have these guys confused with another band, because I was expecting something else, something inspiring maybe, or at the very least tolerable. I'd rather listen to james blunt.

ms john soda - Notes and the Like: Harmless female glitch twee, which has enough blissfully mesmerizing moments to make it a good spin.

aloha - Some Echoes: in a nutshell, we could call this some seBADoh. It has an uncanny likeness to the original lo-fiers more high gloss material, which kind of makes me want to throw on some of that 'jason, lou, eric' asthetic that inspired this release. Follow?

fiery furnaces - Bitter Tea: I can't stand these guys for more than a song or two without some sort of half-violent reaction (with the exception of that 'beat me/banged me' song from EP which I caned compulsively one weekend). The 'gimmic' on this disc is all sorts of backwards tape loops. Some clever dan actually took the time to flip them back in the right direction. The result was about as boring as when the bits were backwards.

irving - Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flower: A little all over the road stylistically. We hear some synthy cure-ish leanings mixed with elephant 6-ish 60's pop. I picked it up for track 7.

-seven, seven eleven-

service with a smile

I ordered my friends' cd the other day from an independent online store, and I'll have to say that I was pretty impressed with their service. This is the email I received when it was shipped:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Tuesday, April 4th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'.

phrasing

At the gift shop Rick buys a T3 t-shirt, immediately puts it on, and says "I'll be back." Which is true because we've made reservations for 1230p.

gunnin' down a dream

I had planned on taking it easy again on friday. My only plan was to grab a quick drink with robert & carolyn before they went to the wicked sold out ben harper show at the fox. I beat them to the hill, so I saddled up next to a couple of folks sitting at the bar of some new resty next to the record shop. Our small talk session ended up with a golden ticket in my hand, because as it turns out I was chatting up the manager of the fox. after a quick meal at the sink, we headed to the show, which was damn good.

Set:
• Better Way
• Both Sides Of The Gun
• Engraved Invitation
• Picture In A Frame
• Dressed In Black
• Gold To Me
• Forgiven
• Morning Yearning
• Waiting For You
• Jah Work
• How Many Miles Must We March?
• Gather 'Round The Stone
• Black Rain
• Serve Your Soul
E1:
• Another Lonely Day
• Walk Away
• I Shall Not Walk Alone
E2:
• Forever
• Diamonds On The Inside
• Get It Like You Like It
• Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating
• Cryin' Won't Help You Now
• The Way You Found Me
• Where Could I Go
E3:
• With My Own Two Hands/War



Lollygagged around pearl street with devin & the kims saturday afternoon, then sunk back up with them in denverseveral hours later. When I arrived, devin was without power, so we headed down the road to robert & angie's digs for foods and drinks before heading off to vinyl to catch lee burridge spinulate some tunealage. At some point in the evening, j-luv's infamy was mentioned, encouraging the usual slew of florida refernces, culminating with sereval prank calls, which I'd completely forgotten about until he called me back last night.

-where the breaks are funky-

seriously though....

ben ar-per ers NO sloutch...

of cpourse - more to come

-kp-