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11:26 AM
music: still Radiohead (weird, last year around the same time i was on the exact same radiohead kick....hmmm)
yet another friday night at the largo! i tell ya, you should have been there and if you were there then you know why!! Jon belted out Outkast's "Hey Ya" like nobodys business. omg, it was amazing! he did some songs off of fleetwood mac's tusk album too. ricki lee jones opened up with a few songs while we were waiting for jon to even step foot into the largo (10:45!!) which is the time he usually starts singing.
saturday night was also very amazing..... i went to the derby to see neko case and kelly hogan, carolyn martin also sang with them. Those girls can SING! beautiful harmonys - beautiful girls!! I can't tell you enough how amazing these womens voices are! they all have solo albums and i highly recommend them if you are somewhat into the alt country sound. neko looks a bit on the indie side of rock but she can belt out country songs like "insert favorite OLD country singer here"!!
I've seen Kelly Hogan play at Fais Do Do and Spaceland a few years back, but this was more of Neko's show so Kelly didn't really get a chance to sing a lot of her songs. bummer! it was cool how they all sang together but i was expecting one after the other. Ian Moore opened the show, excellent singer/ songwriter. wow! I've got to get me some of that, errr... i mean I've got to check him out again. he's playing march 12th at the Alterknit Lounge at the Knitting Factory.
so is everyone ready for the oscars tonight?? I'm gonna head down to ameoba then and head over to an oscar party. a very small oscar party :)
Hope you have a wonderful week! ~ S
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12:57 AM
music: Radiohead
Hi - How is everyone doing?
Whats everybody been listening to in the last month or so?
Music (top 5)
Movies (seen any?)
I just thought i'd give myself a break and ask YOU something.
I can't decide what to do on Friday. Jon Brion at largo or Low at spaceland. on Saturday i'm hoping to see Kelly Hogan and Nico Case at the derby though!!
Ps- The Vacation show at spaceland on Monday was rockin'! I'm looking forward to the new record because all of the new songs are great! Ben has a beautiful voice and the band just rocks!!
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11:42 AM
music: Beatles
you won't believe this but....... i was actually bored watching jon brion at the largo last night. i never thought it was possible. i'm so glad that no one i knew that hadn't seen him before came down last night to catch him. they would have never wanted to come back.
scott, the normal sound guy and bobb, the guitar tech/helper in many ways guy was absent and it showed! jon had a lot of technical difficulty right off the bat. well, at least the amp wasn't smoking as it has happened before!
pretty much the only thing that somewhat saved the show was the fact that Neil Finn just flew in, literally and sang some of his own stuff ( driving me mad) along with a lot of covers (I'm so tired and tomorrow never knows = fucking amazing). i saw PJ Harvey sitting down at one of the tables, now if only SHE had gotten up and sang something, that would have totally made my night!
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what a nice saturday huh!? i love the rain.
i went to fingerprints and picked up a few cds (candy butchers, nick drake, andrew bird and the bens - a project with ben lee, ben folds and ben kweller. )
went to supermex with rich and roger. then roger fixed my record player.....duh, i had the wrong plug hooked up from when i was burning some tapes onto cd from a long time ago. *phew*. i was starting to think that my cat pete was the culprit.
so instead of going to spaceland tonight....... many things stand in my way besides the rain and driving, i'm tired, i gotta finish my taxes, i have 2 dvds to watch - sylvia and american splendor, my record player works now- which means i can now listen to all my old 45's, and did i mention that i'm tired.
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11:04 AM
music: Big Star and Grant Lee
nothing like the feeling of putting 100,000 miles on your vehicle that you've only had for about 5 years!! i've realized that i drive ALOT! It's not only from the cross country trip to Boston either.
i went to the Little Temple last night to see All Night Radio and The Like opened up for them. i didn't think that i liked them that much but i totally do!! they have gotten so much better from the last time that i saw them at the knitting factory at that elvis costello tribute gig.
The Like are: charlotte froom - tennessee thomas - z berg. they sound like old Blondie. the likes next gig will be at the troubadour on march 2nd.
All Night Radio were up next. this was their record release party. the drummer handed out used records from ameoba (he works there) between songs, i saw a miles davis, the who, the osmonds pass by me and i came out with "environments".... the sound of thunderstorms and light rain. now if i can only get my friend to come check out my record player this weekend. ..
have a wonderful weekend.
to find out some of the things going on.......
oh yeah, it feels good to know that i'm gonna be working again! its funny how just knowing that you are going to be back in the work force can change your attitude. i start on monday. not my dream job but that will come later in my life i think. i need to make some money to make my dream job happen first.
today i hung out with my friend rich, he's not working right now either but he owns a house and deli, has money saved etc...., very smart business guy who is into managing bands, and has toured with numerous bands. we were at his house this afternoon playing around on his new mac with this garage music program. it's pretty cool! you don't need a band you can just make your own music from this program and sing over it. he kicked me out some drum beats so i can start practicing again. his 19 year old protege walked in and i was like, "helloooo"! ha ha. he's from the midwest or somewhere like that. he's a very good singer/guitar player. i told them that they should come on down and check out jon brion tonight.
i don't know where i was going with that lil' story......sorry.
i think i'm going to spaceland on satuday night now, texas terri and a tribute to ac/dc band is playing......... though it cost $10 bucks!
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10:17 AM
yay! it's raining!! i love the rain.
time for some hot tea and popcorn and a dvd!
CHECK IT!!
re: the gilmore girls AND the shins!
i don't know if tickets are still attainable but its worth it if you indeed love the gilmore girls as well as the shins, i guess. click here for all the info!! 103.1
***** i don't really know how much more i can talk about how i like the vacation so much....... i mean really, it's almost as if this website is geared towards them. they are my guilty pleasure!
what i will say......... is that monday was a FREE night for both the echo and spaceland.
i parked at spaceland where it was clearly ok to park - i read the signs and everything!! and cari came and picked me up to head over to see nina drum for the Supragettes at the echo. i was happy to see her first live show with this band. she is an adorable drummer! such amazing taste in fashion too!! her band totally reminded me of sleater kinney. the singer is heavily influenced by p.j. harvey. after the show nina changes out of her chucks into some nice snakeskin boots and we all hit the high road to spaceland. but first she had to woof down the rest of her mango-cheesecake pie. , uh yeah, it tastes as bad as it sounds to you and me but she loved it! the girl could eat anything and not gain a pound!
a long line at spaceland as usual for a monday! no sign of mario to let us in this time, well not until we get up to the front of the line and he pops out the door and says "these girls never have to wait!" and let us in. ha ha!
we missed the high speed scene who i liked when i saw them at a record store playing with the vacation before. they sounded like they were pretty much influenced by Nirvana. The Vacation were up next..... i don't know what i can say about them anymore. Ben spits and girls drool. Ben takes beer from girls and pours is all over his skinny body and the girls fall in love with him! oh and they are a dumb rock band! i mean that in the best way possible!!
The drugstore cowgirls (gotta love that name!) didn't go on until a little after midnight... we were tired and none of us could really get into them. i'm sure it wasn't their best show. we left after a couple of songs. the girls got tamales from the tamale guy at the door. what a great idea, to sell tamales at a club at this time! seriously.
The Vacation only have one more FREE show this month and thats on .... you guessed it, Monday February 23rd at Spaceland with The 88, this is gonna be another packed night!
All Night Radio is playing at The Little Temple (aka. The Garage) this Thursday at 11pm!
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3:12 AM
music: The Darkness!!
well , well , well ! would you look at the time. it's 3am!!
today for valentines day i called up a few friends to hang out at in L.A. we went to ameoba first where i bought The Darkness and The Shins and the All Night Radio 12". then we ate at El Coyote and went to the Good Luck Bar then we walked over to the movies to see .... In America which I actually liked, not really a valentines day type of movie. we wanted to go see Sabrina with Breakfast at Tiffany's but it wasn't on right after we were done eating so..... after the movie i dropped a couple of them off and went to THE party in Silverlake. we got there at midnight and right off the bat i run into cari and nina and a friend i haven't seen in a long time. i only knew those 4 people at this party but did see a few familiar faces. it was crowded! the keg was done by 12:30 all the hard liquor was gone by 11, i was told. i was slightly annoyed at how drunk people don't care about the house at all. i'm just glad it wasn't my house. very nice house though! pretty good dj's. we left by 1am. partys are boring unless you know at least 1/2 the people, ya know. or if you meet that someone special! oh well. maybe next valentines day. ha ha.
must sleep now!
not much going on sunday....
Monday, my friend Nina's band the Supragettes is playing at the Echo at 9pm for Free! Then i'm gonna head over to see The Vacation at Spaceland for free with the Drugstore Cowgirls and High Speed Scene. Have you seen the new rolling stone with Beyonce on the cover? well...... in the back with all the record reviews, they got a write up for their 4 song E.P. entitled .... They were the sons. It's on the U.K. label Fierce Panda Records with Tony Hoffer mixing and producing it. The write up was all good! They received 3 and 1/2 stars!! Congrats to you guys!!
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5:11 AM
wow! i just had the most amazing night ever in my life at the largo! well......pretty damn close anyway.
more details to follow......... must sleep!
happy fucking valentines day!
alright here we go........here's a brief summary of tonight's show as compiled by Rick, myself and Jake, at a very loud corner of the 101 coffee shop at 3:00am.
First thing Jon said was that he was battling a throat infection AND a nasal infection, so his voice was not going to be great tonight.
First song Jon did tonight was "It's all over now baby blue". ok, this was the best version i've ever heard him do, complete with fuzzy guitars, jumping around towards the end.....just fucking phenomenal. his voice was mesmerizing. i could have gone home right after this song and would have felt completely satisfied! shit, i could have smoked a whole pack of fags after that song, it was THAT amazing, but i don't smoke.
Then Jon talked about how Friday the 13th and Valentines day came together at midnight and then he played "Everything happens to me" because it was a song that best exemplified Friday the 13th and Valentines day.
He also played a VERY VERY ROCKIN' version of "I was happy with you" as well as "Love of my life so far".
someone yelled out My Bloody Valentine.... and i usually don't yell anything out but i couldn't help myself, it was quiet and i said "Yes, do THAT"! he kinda smirked and wasn't sure if he wanted to play it, it totally would be perfect due to the fact he had the sore throat and all. someone else near me yelled out "do My Funny Valentine" in the style of "My Bloody Valentine"!! he absolutely loved that idea. it was pure beautiful noise at its finest! i was in a trance! i could not believe what was going on! it was fucking incredible the way he can sing My Funny Valentine with the guitars sounding like My Bloody Valentine!! This was just one of the many highlights for Friday night.
He played "before you broke my heart" for Josh Klinghoffer as he requested before the show. simply beautiful song!
He ended the first set with the song that Jake calls "Lordy". It's the song that goes "you made the sun, you made the world, you made the girl, etc..."
I seem to remember Jon referring to that song as "conversation with the big guy."
this song makes me all teary eyed whenever i hear it, not because it's about god or anything like that at all. its his guitar playing and his voice, and the words - it just all fits together perfectly. Jon is an amazing pop song writer!
intermission, bathroom breaks, all the stupid people leave because they don't know that Jon is gonna bring some special guests up that are gonna bring the largo to new heights never thought possible. ok that was a little carried away, i'm sure people get tired of the rock after midnight.
Second set started with the Nickel Creek jam. I don't now what it was they played in the beginning, but it reminded me of something you would hear at a hootenanny.
Next thing they played was "Ms Ohio", with "the gay butcher" other wise known as Gabe Witcher on vocals and piano, and Jon on drums. Gabe has an incredible voice, you would not think that by looking at him that he could sing like that, he has punk rock hair and chin stud! he plays a damn good fiddle as well! He did Gillian Welch proud singing Ms Ohio!!
Jon switched over to piano for the next song. Josh joined them onstage at this point and took over on drums doing "Trouble", with Sarah Watkins doing the vocals.
That was also amazing! Sarah has a beautiful voice! I told her so after the show and she got all shy about it......she is so damn cute!!
Next up was "Ruin My Day" with Gabe once again on vocals and Jon on piano. I know they did "same mistake" in there somewhere and probably others that we can't think of right now. you get the point! it was one of my top 3 jon brion shows and i've been going there since the very first year he was playing at the largo back in ... i wanna say '96 or '97.
Final song of the night was "Son of Sam", i looked over at Lindsay with complete amazement only after a few chords knowing that this was going to be an Elliott Smith song and that we were in for a treat!
if you were there, consider yourself lucky to have witnessed one of the most amazing jon brion shows EVER!!
peace out!
~S
ps - if your bored on V-Day as i usually am.... give me a shout, i'll be out and about
in L.A. today!
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9:29 AM
music: ........Public Enemy
ok, so i went a little crazy yesterday as i was typing my feelings about music out. sometimes i get sick of listening to music but i get over it. I actually think this is true of most people. everyone feels a little lost sometimes. it's good to talk about it!
i watched The Last Waltz about THE BAND, last night which is "........just what i needed"!
Music means everything to me!! Music can take me to places in my mind that nothing else can come close to. well, i'm assuming this beings i've never done any/much drugs.
I like the fact that I can put on a record and know that it's gonna make me feel a certain way, i can change my mood by the placing of my record needle!
Music has actually saved me somehow, i don't know from what, i just know its a good thing. Working in record stores half my life and meeting all my best friends because of that, has been a positive experience for the most part. I've met a lot of others that have the same passion for music and have been turned on to some amazing stuff!
***********distracted***********************************************
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6:40 PM
music: Replacements "Unsatisfied" and "Answering Machine"
Tuesday night I met Cari and Nina at Mexico City for some grub before the show at Silverlake Lounge. We got to the Lounge super early but went in anyway. CB Brand played first. They are a really good Country band with a back up woman singer who looked damn cool with Chad the lead singer, their harmonys sounded great! but you have to be in the mood for it. It would have been cool to sit in a bean bag chair with a glass of wine while watching them but what can ya do! next up was Northern Lights fronted by 3 women and Josh from the old band Beachwood Sparks also backing them were members from Slydell. In my opinion, just my opinion..... the backing band was good as was josh's singing but i honestly think that the girls were tone deaf or something.....i was cringing. i wasn't alone either. i looked towards my friends and they both had the same look on their faces. I was impressed when they kicked out hot burrito #2 though!! josh was singing that one of course.
last but not least......actually they weren't last but for me and my friends they were last.......The Shore. I think by the time they got on I was so bored that I could have just gone home and I wouldn't have felt that I was missing anything but I stayed because.....well, it was The Shore and they are a good band! I swear the singer has the best looking hair/look i've seen in a long time. c'mon don't be like that, you know i'm half kidding! They sounded great, very melodic with straight ahead rock 'n roll. My friends and I dig them a lot. cari leaned into me and whispered "hey, felicity is here" i've never seen the show but yep, that was indeed her.
I saw a guy that looked familiar there and asked Cari who he was, it was Rick Parker from that band Lions and Ghosts!! remember them from 1987 - 1989? I still like to listen to the 2 cd's that i have of theirs : velvet kiss, lick of the lime and wild garden. She told me that Rick is producing The Shore. cool! no wonder why i like them so much.
well, i've desided to stay in for one night this week. finish watching Donnie Darko, i'm at all the deleted scenes right now. excellent movie. i even cried at the end! what the hell is wrong with me!!
i was thinking about music and what it means to me today and I'm thinking that i'm getting really really sick of it. ya know? i mean, i go out and see bands almost every night of the week some weeks, it's exciting and all but..... i just don't know anymore. i'm thinking i need to take some more classes at school or something. something! maybe take a road trip by myself. Joshua Tree sounds like a good place to just kick it and play on the rocks, look at the stars at night. or Bernie can i come vist you in Chicago?
i'll just go listen to Nirvana or Dylan, that will make me FEEL better!
ok, i'm gonna go finish watching Donnie Darko then The Last Waltz and the last dvd for tonight will be...... Confidence, which i heard was a great movie. so thats my mid-week night.
my apologies to Ms. Jennifer Nash for once again .... not checking her show out tonight.
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11:23 AM
music: Grant Lee Buffalo
last night for me was like listening to two Big Star songs - "Feel and In the Street" both amazing songs. I had so much fun besides getting the $45 dollar ticket by spaceland.
i was just watching out for the green signs and didn't notice that the red sign said no parking from 10pm - 5am. aaargh! My second ticket since they put in those stupid signs. i guess it makes up for all the times i've gotten in Free, thats how i'll look at it to make myself fell better anyhow.
The line was 'down the street....' but i found cari and we walked right in! you would think that it was the 70's and the stones were about to hit the stage by the look of the crowd! Juliette Lewis...... when i told some of my friends that she was playing, they laughed but i told them that i'm only going to see THE VACATION. I think Juliette picked up where Lita Ford left off with a hot body with a 'look at me, i rock' attitude and cheesy songs. I wonder if she is from Wisconsin? I didn't really expect much anyway, though i did like her song in the Natural Born Killers movie. After she was done with her set, everyone seemed to go outside to get some fresh air and have a smoke- doesn't make sense does it?! It seemed to fill back up once The Vacation where about to start. Ben came out in a white coat and a black tie and his infamous ' married with children ' t-shirt on oh plus his red checkered vans. Dutch was sporting this fine looking Nudie type shirt. Very cool, i must say! I felt the need to comment on the outfit beings i'm up front and all..... not to be leaving any of the other guys out, they all looked great! :)
I think it's just amazing to be able to go into a club and see a band like this for fucking FREE!
They are just a straight ahead rock 'n roll band. You can not take your eyes off of them while they are playing - mainly because you don't know if Ben is going to jump on you or what! It's exciting and entertaining. They have two more FREE Monday shows this month at Spaceland, only two! The one on the 16th should be great, they play with The Drugstore Cowgirls.......and from what i can remember from seeing them a long time ago, I liked them a lot - they have that 60's garage rock sound going for 'em....from what i can remember anyway. Don't forget to look at all the signs when you are parking at spaceland and get there early!
ps- i finally got my grilled cheese sandwich at exactly 3 o'clock in the morning! - wink, wink.
there is something magical about 3 o'clock in the morning. have you ever noticed that a lot of musicians either have a song with that in it or it's part of the name of the band or song title! it's true! ---- The Three O'Clock, The Stones with ".....at 3 o'clock in the morning i'll be signing my song for you", and Elliott Smith almost made the 3 o'clock mark with "......it's 2:45 in the morning"
please feel free to comment with other 3 o'clock related songs etc...
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12:41 PM
music: All Night Radio
I saw The Shins last night in San Diego with All Night Radio and..... the magic magicians - if only they had disappeared!
All Night Radio reminded me of My Bloody Valentine meets The Flaming Lips with a touch of 60's guitar sounds! Pretty fucking amazing if you ask me! I couldn't take my eyes off of the drummer - i was hypnotized by the lights that were on him and watching his hair fly all over the place. He had an interesting and entertaining way he played. It was just him and the singer/guitar player. Check out their website for more info. They are playing in Santa Monica very soon as well as Spaceland!!
The Shins were really good too. The keyboard player is pretty quirky, he made everyone laugh. They rocked! I had bought the first cd when it first came out and sold it back to fingerprints.....Jimmy- the mangager seemed pretty appauled by my actions. i hate it when i buy like 10 cd's at once because only then do i trade in my least favorite ones and they just never had a chance. sometimes cd's are amazing and you don't know it until after 6 listens. this holds true for the jon brion's 'meaningless' cd as well as jeff buckley's "sketches of my sweatheart the drunk" and yet both fucking amazing musicians/ records! i hated both for the first say...5 listens. i ended up buying back jeff buckleys less than a year later.
.......oh yeah, The Shins. anyway - they were really really good but All Night Radio had something that caught my eye/ears even more.
Almost forgot to mention that on Saturday I went with a couple of friends to check out that new Bernardo Bertolucci movie called The Dreamers in Santa Monica. I, in fact loved it, maybe the ending could have been more - just more. I loved how they integrated classic scenes from the old films that inspired the charactors. There is a lot - A LOT of nudity and the anticipation of sex. The camera stays on the full frontal naked body for almost an uncomfortable amount of time....almost. I think its obvious why it got an NC-17 rating, not an X because it wasn't porn, no visible contact, if you know what i mean. It was beautifully done. the lighting, the classic b&w scene jumping, self - discovery, set in 1968 - a good year indeed!, the acting was amazing, lots of debauchery and voyeurism going on, permissive parents, and kinky mind games. What more can you ask for in a movie, i tell ya! Based on the novel by Gilbert Adair. I kind of want to go check it out again!
After the movie we walked over to Kings Head and talked about the movie.....even though i hate the smell of fish and chips....of course both of them ordered it! ha ha.
it wasn't as bad as i thought, anyway - it was still early so roger made the suggestion that we all go have a drink somewhere... a friend of mine works at the red lion inn (name?) so we ended up there, though of course she wasn't working. (hey sara!)
at one point, i thought we were going to get car jacked because roger pulled into this gas station with his 1962 silver impala and this guy in a truck pulls in after us, whips around to the side gets out and walks towards us as roger is filling up the gas tank! rick and i are like..... what the fuck is he going to go! the guy had his hands in his jacket and i was slightly scared. turns out he just wanted to talk 'cars' with roger and offered him some money to buy the car right now. it's like yeah buddy how about we just trade ya even for that toyota tundra of yours RIGHT NOW! me-thinks-not!
it was a nice Saturday. different from my normal stay at home kinda saturday night.
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3:26 AM
".......at 3 oclock in the morning i'll be singing my song for you"
just got home from a wonderful amazing night of jon brion once again! some friends i haven't seen in a long time were there, so that was pretty cool. i was told it was flanny's birthday - he turns 40 this sunday. jon just turned 40 awhile back too.
i totally want someone to make me a grilled cheese sandwich right now, with mustard! i should have went to swingers on the way home!! always with the afterthoughts.
songs jon did tonight: isn't it a pitty, moon river, here we go, happy with you, same mistake, some greys songs as well as his own....i'm forgetting right now! oh man, he did mexican radio which i can't stand and he did it in a les paul way.....ugh!!
i'll remember more and type this w/e sometime.
must get some sleep now, i have to go to a 6 year olds birthday party in the afternoon today. check this out......the theme is Abraham Lincoln! i kid you not! and it was the little girls idea, how cute is that?!
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9:34 PM
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ok so.....shows coming up this week: wed - jill sobule at largo thurs - minibar at largo. fri - jon brion at largo. sun - the shins at canes. mon - the vacation at spaceland. TUES - THE SHORE, CB BRAND AND NORTHERN LIGHTS AT SILVERLAKE LOUNGE! thurs - paul f. tompkins at largo for taping. fri - jon brion at largo. mon - the vacation at spaceland again.....
good times to be had by all!!!
ANYONE GOING TO COACHELLA??
The line up looks amazing, i'm not much into paying $140 bucks on a festival though.
ANYONE GOING TO The Noise Pop Festival.
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