Animal Collective HOB Las Vegas

WOW!

What a show! I was fortunate enough to catch a great show last night at the HOB Las Vegas by the group Animal Collective. They are touring to support their latest release titled Merriweather Post Pavilion. The band from Baltimore, Maryland, has four members, Josh Dibb, Noah Lennox, David Portner and Brian Weitz. They have been touring sans Josh Dibb as he has chosen to take a little time away from the band. Sonically, it doesn't seem like they have missed a beat, no pun intended.

As they started the show, you see a huge, round orb hanging from the ceiling. Throughout the show, many different images are projected onto and , seemingly, into the orb. They ranged from pictures to different colors and textures. The images would pulsate and flow as well. It was a nice effect complimenting the color-pulsating bases on which they had their various electronic devices and mics stationed. It was tough to get really good pictures with my phone as HOB does not allow cameras into the venue.



Since I have only listened to a few of their CD's, I found it difficult to believe that they could recreate the intricate sounds that they produce on their recordings. It was a real treat to see how they crafted this show. There were only a few true breaks in the music throughout as one song just flowed right into the next. To put a category on the style is doing the show an injustice. If forced to, I would say it was a mixture of rave, pop, electronic and experimental noise.



Unique does not begin to describe the show. There are so many different combinations of electronics from the keyboards and other equipment. Noises and samples are layered into the song structure that truly accentuate the texture of the experience, pulsating perfectly with the lights throughout the show. Didgeridoo, birds, and other abstract noises are recognizable and woven expertly throughout the show. Vocally, the band members sounded great. They would switch off duties every few songs while the other members would assume percussion or keyboard duties.

The videos from my phone sucked ass, too, but it will give you an idea of the light show aspect, check out the video just above my Guinness posting.

The opening act was an artist named Grouper. Liz Harris is the mastermind behind this low-key style music. She uses a guitar as she sits and uses lots of overdubs and sound loops through the use of pedals and small sound boards right at her feet. One magazine recommends listening to Grouper if "you used to play Kate Bush records through a walkie-talkie for extra eerieness." A very appropriate description for her haunting vocals and shoegaze-style.

I will definitely see Animal Collective again, if they come back into town. They were danceable, fun, and etherial all at the same time. An interesting combination for a band that certainly defies catagorization. If they play at a venue near you, don't hesitate to pick up tickets to check out a very unique experience and one of the best shows I've seen in the past few years.

Grizzly Bear Veckatimest

I want to talk a little bit about the new CD out this week by Grizzly Bear titled Veckatimest. The strange title apparently refers to a small, uninhabited island off the coast of Massachusetts. There is nothing strange about the impact that this recording has had on me from the very first time through.

Their style is unique in many ways yet I found myself comparing various elements of their music to bands ranging from the 60's to today, such as Cream and Fleet Foxes, to name a few. The vocal harmonizing is layered perfectly throughout. Some people will call it a minimal indie sound, even lo-fi. Whatever you choose to call it, mezmerizing is the word that comes to my mind. Just when you think that you have a grasp on the direction that the album is going, you are hit with a nice choral arrangement, performed by the Brooklyn Youth Choir, on three of the songs. There are also string arrangements that are woven throughout several of the songs.

One of the songs that caught my ear on the first spin was "All We Ask". The song is low-key from the beginning. The vocals have a desperation that gives you a sense of someone trapped by feelings that they can't shake loose from. A jagged ending to the song instrumentally works very well.

The second was "I Live With You". This song laments the longing of someone separated from one they love. It has a sense of despair and blame for the circumstances with no solution in sight. Perhaps someone not able to deal with accepting the fact that it is over. It begins very subdued and builds to a driving beat, repeating this pattern a few times.

This is their third full studio album, their second for the Warp label. The Brooklyn-based band has toured with the likes of Radiohead, TV On The Radio and Feist. They have collaborated with indie artists such as Beirut and Dirty Projectors. They have also appeared at many festivals including Coachella in 2007 and have performed live on many late-night TV talk shows.

This is definitely going to be on my playlist for the forseeable future and a strong contender for my top spot on the best of 2009 list. I heartily recommend it to anyone into down-tempo, subtle-styled indie music. I believe that this will be the recording that breaks this band to a much wider audience.

More to follow!

K

Resignation

by J. D. McClatchy September 24, 2007

Here the oak and silver-breasted birches
Stand in their sweet familiarity
While underground, as in a black mirror,
They have concealed their tangled grievances,
Identical to the branching calm above
But there ensnared, each with the others’ hold
On what gives life to which is brutal enough.
Still, in the air, none tries to keep company
Or change its fortune. They seem to lean
On the light, unconcerned with what the world
Makes of their decencies, and will not show
A jealous purchase on their length of days.
To never having been loved as they wanted
Or deserved, to anyone’s sudden infatuation
Gouged into their sides, to all they are forced
To shelter and to hide, they have resigned themselves.

List of Some Favorite Concerts

Ok,

Check these out:

Dead Can Dance
Wiltern Theatre - November 15, 1993
Into The Labyrinth Tour

Echo & The Bunnymen/New Order/Gene Loves Jezebel
Irvine Meadows - September 12, 1987

Cocteau Twins w/Lush
Wiltern Theatre - December 7, 1990
Heaven or Las Vegas Tour

The Who w/The Clash
L.A. Coliseum - August 26, 1989
Reunion Tour

David Sylvian
Wiltern Theatre - April 5, 1988
In Praise Of Shamans Tour

Stevie Ray Vaughan
Hollywood Palladium - June 6, 1984
Couldn't Stand The Weather Tour

Joe Strummer & Mescaleros
House Of Blues Las Vegas - July 4, 2002

Sigur Ros
Joint @ Hard Rock - October 6, 2005
( ) Tour

Soft Cell
Hollywood Palladium - November 11, 1983
Soul Inside Tour

Radiohead w/Liars
Cricket Pavilion - August 27, 2008
In Rainbows Tour

Oasis w/Kasabian
House Of Blues Las Vegas - September 15, 2005
Don't Believe The Truth Tour

The Pogues
House Of Blues Las Vegas - October 15, 2006

I'll post more later. Anyone out there see any of these shows?

K

Doves Kingdom Of Rust

As I put the finishing touches on my Japan blog, I wanted to send out a quick shout out for a great band that has always been near and dear to me, Doves.

This is to commemorate their recent release Kingdom Of Rust. It is their fourth release and definitely their most mature. I have listened to the CD about twelve times and it keeps getting better every time I hear it.

The title track has a slow country sound to it at the start and progresses into the lyrics. It starts off as a resignation to loss of a love, wanting to feel the glow of the love when it was there. He wants to regain it but cannot do anything but wait in his own kingdom of rust.

With all of the despair that this album wreaks of, the song "Birds Flew Backwards" is a respite of hope in the analogy of emerging from the long winter in anticipation of the summer arriving soon. A short and slow song but very nice, indeed.

My favorite song is "Spellbound". It's knowing about being drawn to beauty and completely mesmerized, realizing the lost of his heart and mind but accepting his fate. This is classic Doves and a very powerful song.

They are supporting the record with a tour. Unfortunately, no stops in Vegas and, unlike making a trip to L.A. to see them in June of 2002 in support of my still favorite album The Last Broadcast, so it was not to be this time. They are winding up their West coast swing of the tour in Portland tonight and then back towards the East Coast. If you find yourself in a position to catch them, it is well worth your money and time to do so.

Doves continue the tradition of great bands to come out of Manchester, England. Pick up the CD and listen to one of the best bands around today.

K

Japan

Hi,



One of my favorite places that I've been in the world is Japan. Tokyo is the center of most of the fun but there are other places that are great around Tokyo to visit, too.


There is so much that I have seen in my three trips to Japan that I will just write about different elements of my trips in concentrated paragraph form, if that makes any sense. Well, here goes:


Akihabara is known as the electronics center of Tokyo. There are business after business here stacked to the ceiling with all types of electronic items. Computers, cameras, cell phones, TV's, radios, etc, are everywhere here. During the day, it is very crowded here. Anyone looking for a good deal, this is the place to go. There are also many arcades, Manga shops and other interesting places. I saw a seven-story building with only Hello Kitty inside! Holy crap! No, I did not enter, I swear.



Ueno Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo. It was very close to where my friend, Paul, lived the three times that I visited. There were lots of people at the park during the days that we went. A few large ponds with giant lillies everywhere were here. Very serene and a perfect spot for the many ducks and other water birds that called it home. One morning before heading to the park, we were watching TV. The news showed a story about how someone had gone to the park and had shot blow darts through some of the ducks on the pond. They showed a video of a duck that was walking around with a little pink dart going right through it's head. Not a nice thing to see. We went over to the park and saw people gathered around an area. Sure enough, we saw the very same duck, pink dart and all. It was just waddling around like nothing was wrong. I will include a picture in my photobucket link below. There were a few temples, places to eat, huge lawn areas and many trees.



Most of the trees were in full bloom with cherry blossoms during two of my trips. In Tokyo, Ueno Park was a major spot for celebrating Hanami, the viewing of the cherry blossoms every year. It is a national holiday and is celebrated at parks all over Japan. On the designated day set up by a bureau yearly, people gather to eat and drink to excess. Some are just there to spend time with family and friends. It is really like a celebration of Spring. Booths are set up that sell food and drinks, including alcohol, throughout the park. Most of the prime areas are obviously situated around the concentration of cherry trees. From what I understand, it can turn into a real puke fest when people really get into the spirit of the event. I have missed being there twice by about three days. One day, I will be there for Hanami and I'll participate in the ritual purging, if it's the last thing I ever do!



As we walked from the train station to Paul's apartment, an interesting segment of Japanese society can be found. Yes, there were several "companions for hire" near the stations within a block or so. Coincidentally, or maybe not, there were several what are known as love hotels close by. These hotels have signs for three different price points. You can "rest", "extend" or "stay" at these places that are plentiful in Tokyo. According to my guide books, many of the rooms are themed and getting one of these rooms is done very discreetly. Most places only take cash. In Japan, these hotels are plentiful. It caters to a part of Japanese society that isn't very prevalant or accepted in many countries around the world.


Onsens are hot spring baths that are located all over Japan. They are retreats where many people get away to a few times per year, if possible. You really have to book them early in Spring to get a nice one reserved as they are usually full as you get closer to Summer. One year, we had tried to find one but we were a bit too late. Paul's boss at the language school, Mr. Hirate, was so kind to offer to take us to an onsen near his house in the mountains. It was amazing! We drove for a few hours outside of Tokyo into a wooded area where his property was located. It was a two bedroom, small house but it was very cool! We walked down into the town after arriving and went directly to the local bath. After cleaning yourself thoroughly, you immerse yourself in a very hot pool outside of the building. Being in the mountains, the stars were amazing and with a clear sky that night, we could see a million! After sitting in water almost too hot to bear for long, you get into an even hotter pool. I couldn't last more than a few minutes in that one. Eventually, we dressed and left to have dinner.

My favorite place in Tokyo, as it is for many, is Shinjuku. They have the busiest railway stop in the whole world with around 2 million passengers using it per day. There is so much to see and do there. Around the station, it is crowded with entertainment, restaurants, clubs and shops. The famous pictures of Shinjuku at night don't do the place justice. Seeing the lights at night are unreal at times. Giant big screen TV's with advertisements on the sides of buildings are everywhere. Walking up and down the smaller streets and alleyways offers many different options for eating, drinking and karaoke. There are people that walk the street trying to recruit people to go to their karaoke business. You negotiate a price with them and you are off! They sign you up and take you and your party to a small, private room with a full karaoke set-up. They best thing about it? For the hour you pay for, it is all-you-can-drink! You can order food, too, and the hour seems to fly by. You always tend to stay one or two more hours as it is much more fun with friends than with strangers. I am all about Oasis "Wonderwall" whenever I sing!

When eating in Tokyo, people always think about sushi but there is so much more to japanese food than that. Popular sushi restaurants in the city are small and have one main oval area. The counter goes all the way around the oval and the chefs are inside the oval. A small water conveyor goes around with plates of food. When you see one that you like, grab it off of the small river. The plates have different designs on them and each corresponds to a monetary amount. Once you are done eating, they add up your bill based on the empty plates left in front of you.

Mind you, there are many great sushi restaurants but you can find alot of themed restaurants, too. We went to a labratory-themed restaurant one night and sat in a jail-cell like room while we ate our meal. It was dark and blacklights were everywhere with random yelling and action for ambience. The drinks were served in test-tubes as you mixed them yourself. Many restaurants are great for groups of people. On several occasions, we ate with large groups where several ala carte items are ordered and everyone just takes off of every plate. When you need more, you order more. A meal can go on for a long time this way, depending on how much drinking goes on. One of my favorite dishes is freshwater eel, or unagi as it is called in Japan. When you go into a restaurant that specializes in unagi, you will see a tank of eels as you walk in. When you order it, they pull it out of the tank alive and it is on your table in minutes...yum! People think of eel as slimy but it is anything but.

When drinking in Tokyo, beer and whiskey are very popular wherever you go. Sake is also served everywhere. It is served cold as well as hot. It is an honor to have someone buy you a cold shot of sake as the best quality and more expensive sake is always served cold. Guinness stout has become very popular in Tokyo. Due to this national affection, many breweries now have dark stouts in honor of this affinity for Guinness. You can also find vending machines on the street that dispense everything that you could possibly want. Besides unusual items like school girl underwear (no joke), you can buy beer, sake, and a hi-ball drink called Chu Hi from these vending machines. They are lined up along the sides of building and in alley ways, especially on train platforms and outside of the stations. Paul and I went into a few nice whiskey bars that have a few hundred different whiskeys from around the world. Single-malt is my favorite where many people prefer a blended whiskey. I'll have more on whiskey in my Scotland blog.

On our way back from the onsen in the mountains, Mr. Hirate dropped us off at the train station near by so that we could visit an interesting theme park called Ninja Land. Yes, as the name would imply, it is all themed around the legendary stealth-fighting ninja. They had many exhibits, reenactments, dramatic skits and other types of events. It was very family-oriented and there were lots of small children there. It rained off and on so we found ourselves finding cover alot. They did have a somewhat gruesome exhibit called the History of Torture Museum. Besides the mutilated body parts and torsoes in various positions, the sound effects of shrieks and screams made it more than a little strange. I really didn't see alot of children at that exhibit. After leaving, we took the train back into the city.



One of best side trips that we took the last time that I was in Japan was to Kyoto. We hopped a train and booked a nice traditional Japanese-style room. The floors are matted and you sleep on tatamis. Of course, all shoes are kept at the front door of the building and only slippers are used inside. The rooms were small but nice. I am not very good with sleeping on the floor and I might not venture to do so again but I am glad that I tried it this time.



There is so much to see in Kyoto. We hopped on a bus and took off towards downtown. We found a bus hub and decided to see the Golden Palace, one of the nicer historic places to go. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus and proceeded to see the Silver Palace, which was also very nice. The huge palace is situated on a lake with huge rooms and ornate decorations that are hundreds of years old. No flash photos allowed. The tours are very informative and each room has descriptions in different languages to help with your understanding what you are seeing.





Kyoto has beautiful places to walk where it is green and some of the streams have alot of coy in them. We came across some wild cats that were very friendly, a few photos of them in the link below. With the 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, there are countless historic buildings available to visit. We visited a few of the larger temples situated in remote areas on hills and such, surrounded by small, serene communities.

The night life is active, due in large part to the university in town. On the weekends, many of the restaurants and bars are very crowded for this reason. We stayed two nights but could have stayed longer with all that there is to see here. We ate at a very unique restarant that specialized in yakiniku, or a Korean-style barbeque. You sit at a table and order different types of meats and other items suitable for the small grill at your table. When they bring your order, you place the items on a small, pre-heated grill that has flames from below. Once your food is done, you eat it with rice and other accoutrements provided. We ate ALOT of different types of meat that night. I even agreed to try something that I had never had before, horse sashimi. It was very lean and not alot of flavor due to the low-fat content. It reminded me of emu or ostrich, if you've ever had them before. If you ever make it to Japan, I highly recommend a side trip to Kyoto.

I really enjoyed my trip to Tsukiji Fish Market. You need to get up very early to get the full effect of just what happens there on a daily basis. However, this trip the morning after you land in Tokyo after a 12 hour flight can be a little painful when you are severely jet-lagged. We did get up around 3am and headed down to the coast. The market is huge! You always have to watch where you are going or you will get run down by some sort of mechanical beast. The market handles nearly 2,000 tons of fish daily making it one of the largest fish markets in the world. Walking the endless aisles of vendors selling fish is interesting. There were so many varieties of fish that I had never seen before. We witnessed an auction going on for freshly caught and flash frozen tuna. Each person at the auction takes a tool and takes a sample of the fish to see the quality and fat content of the tuna. The higher the fat content, the higher the price. Once the winner is determined, a tag is slapped onto the side to identify the person to take it after payment has been made. We ate sushi at a very small counter right off of the main market area. I'm sure that I will never have any fresher meal than I had that day, it was amazing! When I say that it melts in your mouth when it's that fresh, I really mean it.



Asakusa is a very nice place to go for a few hours. It is an area situated around one of the larger temples in Tokyo. Like many of the other tourist areas, there are lots of places to shop. The vendors line up in very organized booth areas stretching from the main entrance all the way to the temple and five-story pagoda. You can find anything that you are looking for here. T-shirts, kimonos, food, souvenirs and toys are everywhere. It is easy to spend several hours here and not be able to see every booth.

I'm sure that I have not included some of my adventures. I may add them to this blog as I recall them. Airfare and lodging in Japan are not inexpensive. It is one place in this world that I can say that you can find whatever you are looking for. I may not get back there this year but I definitely will be back again. It helps to have someone with you that speaks Japanese but it is not mandatory. Most of the signs have english translation. If you are tall like I am, always look for low-beams in buildings and stations or you will hit your head.

Here is a link to see some more of my pictures from Japan:

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh83/squish033/Tokyo/

More music and other themed blogs to follow.

Be well,
K

Sex, God, Rock & Roll

Hey!

I just discovered this show recently that I think is great. It's called "Sex, God, Rock & Roll With Stuart Davis". The writer, director and star of the show is, you guessed it, Stuart Davis. I had never heard or seen the show but HD Net has some very edgy shows and I decided to DVR it.

It started off with what I can only describe as a beatnick poem for today. Contemporary, creative, and very humorous. It involved sexual and had religious overtones, not for the close minded or devout, to be sure. After he finishes this monologue/poem, he sits down and begins what would be comparable to a one-man Weekend Update. He begins with the topic of sex and goes on about a handful of topics from recent news stories. After sex, he launches into stories about religion and then rock & roll.

Just when you're wondering how he's going to fill in the additional time, a short comedy sketch about iPhone exorcism comes on with Stuart as the iPhone priest. Again, pretty funny and original. Then he breaks out his guitar and launches into a pretty cool, acoustic performance with good vocals. He finishes up the show with another short comedy sketch about a hick farmer asking for donations. It is not to save his farm but viewers can save his animals from being molested by him! Pretty absurd but funny and original for those of you into dark comedy.

I have decided to DVR the series since the first show was very entertaining and original. Stuart Davis is funny, smart, irreverent and very energetic, besides being a damn fine musician and singer. I highly recommend this show to those of you that enjoy cable-style comedy without censorship or regard for hurting anyone's feelings about the title subjects.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

My Japan blog is next, I swear it!

K

Azure Ray and Now It's Overhead

I wanted to mention a few cool indie bands that I've revisited this week:



The first band is Azure Ray. The band consists of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink. The two met at the age of 15 and have been playing together ever since. Their style has an alt-country feel to it with the lyrics being very personal. The song "Look To Me" from the CD titled Hold On Love is almost a doomed love song. The wispy vocals emit strong feelings with a hint of resignation that it won't last. Admitting a sense of dysfunction almost excuses the inevitability of doom. The featured song from the November EP CD is called "For The Sake Of The Song". It was written by the great Townes Van Zant, a sort of cult musician for country and folk music. The song tries to explain the failures of a relationship, explaining that a realization will come down the road in reflection.

Both CD's are very good for those into low-key sounds such as Mazzy Star or Cowboy Junkies. Maria Taylor recently released her 2nd solo album and Orenda has one to her credit. They have also appeared on recordings for Bright Eyes and Moby, too.



The second group is called Now It's Overhead. The mastermind and songwriter for the band is Andy LeMaster. He penned all of the songs off of the two albums reviewed. The first song from Dark Light Daybreak from 2006 is called "Let The Sirens Rest". It is about breaking away from a past life and throwing off the chains of old and embracing the new better life. On 2004's Fall Back Open album, the song titled "Surrender" is the realization that there is no running from this love that is found. There's no sense in fighting it and the resignation is final.

Not so coincidentally, Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink are also a part of this band, recruited by Andy. He liked them when he heard their Azure Ray recordings and layers their voices in brilliantly. The sound is a sort of dream-pop with synthy overtones. Andy and Orenda have also appeared with the band Japancakes, too.

If you get a chance to check any of these above indie releases from the past few years, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and might wonder how you missed them. The Saddle Creek label has a great reputation for cranking out great alt-folk and these above artists are a few of the best.

My next posting will be on my trips to Japan.

K

Coachella 2009

Hello!



This is my first real posting and I've chosen something that I just recently experienced in April for the first time!

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, as it's officially known, took place Friday thru Sunday, 4/17-4/19/09, in Indio, California. It was an amazing experience! I was there with the company that I work for, Zia Records, a company based out of Phoenix, AZ. We had a retail tent there with thousands of CD's, vinyl records (new and used), t-shirts, pop culture books among many items. I was one of the main cashiers for the event and was it ever busy in our business! We saw hundreds of people pass through our tent every one of the three days. Sales were outstanding and the atmosphere was electric! Needless to say, I hope that I get to go again next year if we are priviledged enough to be invited back. It was very hard and tiring work but worth every second of it!

My experience with the music unexpectedly began on Thursday evening as we prepared our "store" for the next day's business. At around 7pm, a band started playing on the main stage. They were a Beatles cover band, I assumed, as the first 2-3 songs were obviously from the Liverpool Four. The lead singer did not sound familiar even though the songs did. Around the 3rd or 4th song, someone stated that I should listen more closely to what was happening on the north side of the field. It soon became apparent to all that this was the sound check of none other that Paul McCartney! He continued to play song after song by the Beatles, Wings and other solo tunes. I really felt honored to have been there to hear and witness one of the most influential artists of all-time jamming into the night!

I also want to talk about the three bands that I was able to see while I was at Coachella. The first artist was M. Ward. He is a singer-songwriter out of Portland, OR that moved back to the east coast in 2006. He was in a band at one time called Rodriguez and has played for and with many atrists such as Jenny Lewis, Bright Eyes, Beth Orton, Cat Power and My Morning Jacket. He is also half of the band She & Him with movie star and vocalist extraordinaire, Zooey Deschanel. His most recent album released earlier this year is called Hold Time. He played on Friday afternoon on the Outdoor Theatre Stage from around 4:55-5:45pm. He was very good, indeed! He was alot more folky that I expected him to be live. He started out just playing by himself without a back-up band. As he worked his way through various issues with the mic and amp, he moved on to play a few choice songs from the recent release, including my favorite song, "One Hundred Million Years". It's a simple song about eternal love, really making the show worth seeing and performed with the rest of his band. He ended his set with a rabble-rousing version of the Chuck Berry hit "Roll Over Beethoven".

The second show that I saw was on Saturday night, also on the Outdoor Theatre Stage, from 7:25-8:15pm. The band was the Fleet Foxes. They were number one on my year-end Top Ten for 2008 with their first full-length release self-titled Fleet Foxes. They are a five-piece band from a suburb of Seattle, WA. The vocal harmonies that they produce have reminded many of Crosby, Stills & Nash and Simon & Garfunkel. I really tend to think of their style as "alt-folk". The lead-singer, Robin Pecknold, has a very low-key, humble approach to his demeanor on stage. He apologized twice early in their set about being off-key or out of sync, which I absolutely did not hear. The crowd was much larger that I anticipated and everyone there, including me, were singing along to most of the songs as they played. I really thought that due to the critical-acclaim that they received from alot of indie press that they might have been considered for a higher headlining position. This would have allowed more time for them to entertain a very captivated audience. However, this turned out to be only my second favorite show of the three.

My third and final show on Sunday night was on the main Coachella Stage from 7:50-9pm. It was none other than My Bloody Valentine (also known as My Bloody "Fucking" Valentine when I described to people what I saw that night). Even though I had wanted to see them for years, which was impossible due to a sixteen year hiatus, I was hopeful once lead-guitarist, Kevin Shields, announced that they would be reuniting in 2007. I was unable to get to either of the two shows at the Santa Monica Civic in late 2008. When it was announced that they would be playing Coachella and after I was invited to work at the fest, I knew that it was kismet for this union! As I kept agonizingly checking my cell phone to see how close it was to the show, I wondered if it could even come close to what I had built up in my mind as my show of the decade! When I was told that I could break for dinner right before the show, I strode toward the food vendors to grab a quick bite before heading over. Once I saw the very long lines, I made a bee-line for as close as I could get to the front. Due to the special section for all three-day ticket holders, I was unable to get really close. Based on the high volume, I am glad that I was standing where I was! They launched their set with the ever-popular "I Only Said" and continued on into the set fearlessly after that. One of my top ten recordings of all-time is Loveless and the band did not disappoint as they played nearly all of my favorites from the album. This includes my favorite song, "Soon", the last song on that recording. I thought that they would play that song as their final parting shot...boy, was I ever fucking wrong! Their last song was the one that incited every emotion that you can imagine: joy, pain, anger, resentment, confusion, amazement, among dozens. The song was called "You Made Me Realise" and it started off like many of the others that they had already played. Their signature layered guitar sound with Bilinda Butcher's joyous vocals infused in between. The song was progressing well when all of the sudden, armageddon descented upon the desert! Kevin, Bilinda and the rest of the band, proceeded into what I call a "cacophony of deafening brilliance"! The layers of sound coming from the feverish rhythmic strumming of their guitars and banging of percussion was intense, to say the least! The friends that I watched the show with, Mary and Mike, had an i-Phone application for sound and it registered 90 decibels throughout! From where we were standing, just to the left of center about 75 yards from the front of the stage, that was pretty impressive! According to sources that timed it, I have heard that it lasted somewhere between 15-20 minutes. After they finished the song, the last of their set, I was uncontrollably giddy! This is not an emotion that I'm used to having after seeing a live show, and I've seen hundreds in my life.

To wrap up the MBV show commentary, it was very, very loud. Most of the people directly in front of me had their hands tightly pressed against their ears throughtout the jet-engine like drone, which I could not understand. Sunday was the only day that the event personnel handed out earplugs, I'm sure for this very show. I know that there were many people present who knew little or nothing about the band. Most of the people at the show were not even old enough to remember when the band was still together, let alone what sort of sonic bombardment that they were in for!

As I walked back to the Zia tent after high-fiving my friends, I was interested to hear what people were saying to each other as they exited the show. I heard that they sucked, were brilliant, too loud, untalented, lame, unique, among many random comments. Even my comrades at the tent, nearly 500 yards away, were "victims" of the barrage, as some of them put it. I believe that any band that incites such extreme emotions in people is doing something right. I count myself as lucky to have been a part of one of the most intense music experiences, known as My Bloody (Fucking) Valentine, and would do it again if ever given the chance!

Here is a slideshow of some of my pictures from the weekend:

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh83/squish033/Coachella/?albumview=slideshow

I know that I will be back there someday, either as a retailer or an ardent music appreciator. I'm hoping to make it for 2010 no matter what the circumstances are!

K

First Blog!

Hi!!

This is my first posting of what I hope to be many. I will tend concentrate alot on obscure, independent, and abstract music but I may endeavor to go into many areas such as travel, food, movies, beverages, etc. I have many interests and I would like to share some of my experiences with you.

I am an enigmatic person that has taken a very non-conventional path through this journey that we call life. Some friends call me eccentric. I choose to call myself fiercely independent. I have been known to use colorful language, also known as naughty words. I target alot of what I write about to open-minded, free-thinking individuals. I hope that you are one of those people and that you find any of what I ramble on about as interesting or thought-provoking.

Bon voyage!

K