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10:16 AM
Music: .... well i can tell you it's not the "new" Kings of Leon, that's for sure. man! it is awful. as i was listening to it i actually cringed on most, if not all of the vocals. none of the melodies or music is memorable, not catchy at all. well there is this one song that's catchy in a bad way. i don't think i've ever felt this strongly about a cd like this before.
i have a ticket for the concert this sunday and i was looking forward to seeing them live, that is up until listening to this. I do have to mention that the first cd is wonderful though and i can listen to that one over and over again. i will walk out if they play this one song from the second record though, i forgot the name of it but the singer just repeats "oohh or ahhh" something like that and it's annoying.
ok enough about THAT record.
i'm ditching work! this may be a lame reason but i'm going to see a taping of "that 70's show" with my friend jake. i've been to other tv show tapings and it's usually boring.... you just stand there and clap on que and you are treating like a "laugh machine". this might be better though. i like the whole cast of this show and it's actually funny. i'll probably head over to the largo tonight as well, just because i will be in the area.
Last night my i went to see The Section Quartet at The Echo. The Ditty Bops opened the show and they were great! I've always wanted to check them out and this was a good opportunity. It's two girls singing and they had a backing band.
They sounded "old timey", it was different and refreshing. The String Section had guests come up and sing their own songs; greg duili, grant lee, sam phillips.....They were all amazing. I'll have to say especially Greg Duili because I'm a huge Afghan Whigs fan and I've always admired his voice, I just melt! sure he's gained a lot of weight and his hand shook the whole time he was drinking and smoking his cigarette, which he smoked about 3 in a 5 minute time span, he will never need a fog machine that's fo' shizzle', but his voice, oh my..... he is such a great song writer! His other bands are called "The Twilight Singers" which just remind's me of the afghan whigs... and now he's got a new band called "Uptown Lights". I'm looking forward to seeing them at Spaceland. It's already sold out ..... somehow I will get in. The Section opened with a Jeff Buckly tune..... I was quite impressed and blown away. They also did some Radiohead and even a UFO tune. I'm really bummed that I missed when they did "OK Computer" in full at the Echo during one of their residency nights. I'm sure they will be back soon enough. My first introduction to them was when they opened for Jon Brion many times in the past. They pretty much can do anything from black sabbath to beck, radiohead to pink floyd.
(Sunday)
as jake and I got to the parking structure to see "that 70's show" the guy basically laughed at us for being so early, it was 3:15 and this is the time that was posted to come! he said to come back in about an hour and a half. so we went bowling in studio city at a place called "Pinz". we walk in and it was Kid Central, i've never seen so many kids in one place before. we only bowled one game and we both sucked at it. we get back to the parking structure, go in and wait in line for 2 hours. we were number 114 and 115. we had it all planned out to go see jon brion's second set after the show because it wasn't going to start until 6:30 and wasn't to end until 10:30. ouch! i felt like an idiot waiting in line for this stupid thing, just a waste of time. i'm thinking that it will be so boring, you just clap when you are told and they do the same scene over and over again until it's not even funny anymore. so why am i here?! anyway... the line starts to move, taking 25 people at a time. they get to us and say "SORRY, NO MORE ROOM" we just looked at each other and laughed! they gave us a card to call a number and we would be guaranteed a seat for another time. the thing is... i've taken the day off work TODAY to see this fucking thing and i'm not doing that again! :) we headed over to the largo and where the first few people in yet another line! we got in and Jon Brion was amazing again.
Suze
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4:15 PM
Friday night a friend of mine and checked out a new club (to us anyway) called “Tempest”.
It’s a pretty cool looking bar / club, very dark, small stage, good lighting for the bands and very “nice” inside, kinda artsy even. We got there early with a band flyer to avoid the cost. Free usually works for me. We had time for two beers and a chat before The Gun Shys came on.
I wasn’t sure what to expect but from after hearing some of their tunes from their myspace profile, I had a feeling that I would like them live as well. Just as soon as they started I was hooked. They have everything! Style, great sound and a good look. They are very tight live.
I could see them getting huge just as fast as bands like Jet did. Not to compare them to Jet, because they don’t really sound like them.
I didn’t know that Cliff from The Shore now plays bass for them.
I guess he wanted to “ROCK” as opposed to the acoustic sound that the shore tends to have. I’m really looking forward to seeing them again with my other favorite local band The Vacation at King King next month.
It was still somewhat early when the show was over so I figured we had time to head over to see Jon Brion’s second set.
To my surprise there was still a line outside at midnight. Just before he was to hit the stage, we got in.
Some of us in line noticed Meg Ryan walk out of the club and hop into a “geo” with her friend. That was kind of exciting for me because I've always liked Meg.
I’m not really star struck, though sometimes I’m a little rock ‘n roll star stuck. Another largo regular told me that “Paris” from the Gilmore Girls had also been in the club to see Jon Brion’s first set.
Saturday I went to an early dinner and drinks with an old co-worker then came home and ended up watching a couple of movies from my netflix list.
Sunday I hung out in Long Beach with a friend for a few drinks then came home and we watched Donnie Darko (again).
See…. This is why I hardly write anything anymore….
Next week should be better!!
Ps – Elvis Costello tickets went on sale this past weekend and I was about to get one through ticketbastards until I saw the service charge. Fuck them! I’m not paying 10.75 for who knows what plus another 4 something for another service fee that isn’t explained either.
I figure that I’ll just wait and see if I can get one at the box office next Saturday. I highly doubt it but whatever. I’ve seen him about 4 times already, I guess that’s enough.
The Wedding Present tickets go on sale this friday for the Troubadour show in March! fo' shizzle !!
A few of my friends went to see that “dead body gallery” show this past weekend and said it was really cool. The will have a sequel very soon. I forgot the name of it but you can look it up in the LA weekly.
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1:12 PM
Caterpillars / Demons and Ghosts from the past
I saved a caterpillar today! As I was on my first break of the morning I saw a caterpillar in the middle of the parking lot, I walked passed it and started thinking too much about the poor thing and turned around and picked it up and put it in a nearby flowerbed. It made me feel good. Although perhaps it was heading somewhere in particular and I fucked it all up for it. I continued on my walk while listening to Wilco’s “Summerteeth” on my ipod.
As for the Demons…… a friend of mine (pete, the keyboard player in “sometimes” mike watts band) asked me once years ago, if I got rid of all my demons yet. And for some reason I keep coming back to this question in my head. I could only think he was referring to “relationships” because I was in one at the time with someone he knew as well. There was much alcohol consumed in the very long conversation we were having that night so I never really answered him.Demons could mean anything about relationships! I don’t remember where I was going with this, so this is where “Ghosts from the past” comes up in my head.
I used to have some relationship issues in my past, I guess you can say “commitment” wasn’t for me, though it always sounded like something I needed or wanted. Obviously not the case! I used to compare everyone I dated to one guy and no one ever held a candle to him. I finally met someone that changed all that. He opened my eyes. He was a good listener/talker. Of course I fell for him…..we met up twice a year for about 3 years then it just stopped. Mainly because he lives 3,000 miles away and I didn’t have a job and I was pretty unstable (how attractive is that!) ha ha.
As we kept in contact, we dated others because we both knew long distance relationships just don’t work…. I didn’t need to try, then get hurt – to understand THAT! So comes the ghost from the past reference…. Why is it that most of the time ghosts from the past come at totally wrong times, I mean they usually show up when you are involved with other people, the timing usually sucks. However that isn’t the case with me, I’m just afraid to know what his deal is. Ever since I met him all those years ago, I haven’t stopped thinking about him. It’s just one of those situations where you “click” in every way. “too good to be true”. If he is married then I can just keep living the way I have been but if he’s not…….hmmm…. do I want to know?
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1:55 PM
Music: Radiohead
Is it so wrong to want to stay home to do laundry and watch movies or just go to the gym and go to bed by 11pm? This is what I've been doing for the last month or so and I'm cool with it. I'm always down for grabbing drinks with my friends or hitting a movie though. I've missed a few good shows lately, I know and If I wasn't so comfortable with staying home and watching LOST on tv then I would head down to El Cid tonight and see Paul Chesne / Jonny Kaplan and the Lazy Stars.
other gigs i'm looking forward to ......
21st Friday The Gun Shys at Tempest (7323 Santa Monica Blvd)
30th Sunday Kings of Leon at Roxy
February
2nd Wednesday The Willowz at The Space(?)
12th Saturday Comets on Fire at The Echo!!
15th Tuesday Electric Eel Shock at Silverlake Lounge!!! ((yay!!))
17th Thursday Mike Stinson / i see hawks in LA and The Hay makers at The Blue Cafe (long beach)
19th Saturday Uptown Lights (Greg Dulli) at Spaceland or Paul Chesne at El Cid
23rd Wednesday The Gunshys at King King
24th Thursday John Doe at Largo
26th Saturday Paul Westerberg at Anaheim House of Blues
MARCH
2nd Wednesday Mike Stinson and Luther Russell (ex - freewheelers) at The Mint
8th Tuesday Robyn Hitchcock at Largo
13th Sunday - SLINT at Avalon (on sale 1/8/05)
15th Tuesday Guitar Wolf at Knitting Factory
This weather has been spactacular lately! I love how the nights are still somewhat warm and the days have that slight breeze with a calm feel to them. I've been taking long breaks at lunch, wondering around outside with my ipod. I've been listening to The Kinks a lot lately along with AC DC, The Strokes, The Vacation and of course The Chamber Strings. I listen to them while at the gym as well especially AC DC and The Vacation... they both have that drive!
This past weekend I was hanging out with some friends in Long Beach, having drinks and going to the movies.
hey, did anyone happen to see BECK at spaceland last week? It was a surprise gig! also Rhett Miller showed up on Friday night to open for Jon Brion ..... I've seen him there many times but It's been awhile.
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1:34 PM
Music: The Finn Brothers / Paul McCartney and Wings / George Harrison - "all things must pass"
I haven't typed anything since last week. I just haven't been going out at all. The only shows that i'm going to that are coming up are: The Gunshys, The Vacation, Kings of Leon, Electric Eel Shock, Paul Westerburg, Slint. I'm sure there will be other shows in between.
I can't get over the whole Brad and Jennifer break up! such a fairytale couple (or so you believed). 7 years is a long time to be together, come to think of it. It's amazing that anyone lasts that long anymore!!
I went to LA to meet a couple of friends at Amoeba then to see the movie called "Bad Education". The movie was a lot better then I expected. It was very interesting, moving and touching to say the least (which, I usually do...say the least). I walked into Amoeba not really thinking about "amoeba boy" and there he was looking beautiful as ever but for some reason I was just over it. Funny how I can get over things without really getting "into" them.
One highlight for me last week was watching The Office special, Oh my! This show is possibly one of the greatest shows on BBC. I got really vaclempt at the end knowing that was it, no more "The Office" ever again. I have a tear in my eye right now just thinking about it. As I was expressing to Roger how funny I thought certain parts of the show was I started to laugh so hard that I was crying. If you haven't seen this show then I highly recommend that you do. I haven't seen Arrested Development yet but that is coming soon on my Netflix list.
I have been watching a lot of movies lately rather than going out to see any bands.
Next weekend is my birthday! Last year I celebrated with my friend Sarah, who's birthday is the day before, and some friend's. We went to the standard and had a lot of fun. We took the train around LA, ate at the Cat & the Fiddle and basically got super drunk. We smoked some pot which I never do so I was extra wasted. I won't do that again. From what I can remember, it was a good time.
I don't know what we are going to do this year, if anything. I always think it would be really cool to get a bunch of people together and hang out somewhere. I think my friends from different circles would really dig each other. All my friends have a common interest.... "music" and that's alway's a good thing to start off with.
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4:32 PM
Music: Gram Parsons / Flying Burrito Brothers
Can you believe it's 2005 already?! I mean really, where the hell did the last 15 years go?
...... I was in bed asleep at midnight on new years eve. It's not a big deal to me. I hung out in Long Beach / ate at the Sushi place in San Pedro and went to a party at my friends house for awhile. Nice company, cool place but I was super tired and I had to take my friend to his car in Long Beach so he can go see Al Green at The Grove in Anaheim.
The next morning we headed to Joshua Tree for some peace and beauty AND GRAM PARSONS! I took tons of photos. It was a beautiful day. I locked my keys in my Jeep as we got out to check out Grams place! I was freaking out! We both left our cell phones in the Jeep and only had our cameras. I was ready to flag someone down to borrow their cell when I thought to check the back and it was unlocked! woo hoo!! We met a couple of guys from San Pedro at the Gram site, we spoke of different bands. One guy mentioned the local LA band called "I see Hawks in LA". I see that name all the time in the L.A. Weekly but haven't seen them yet. They were there for rock climbing. They walked up with a can of bud in their hands and I'm thinking "these guys are rock climbing and drinking - wow!" after we chatted a bit one guy asks us if we smoked weed. Actually I was waiting for this question to come out of their mouths. I declined the good smelling pot but Bruno didn't pass it up. The guy took out a round altoids tin and had the pot pipe hidden away in that. Hmmm.... nothing like climbing on huge rocks with no ropes while drinking and smoking.
We left those guys and went on to Keys point where there is a beautiful view of Salton Sea, Palm Springs and whatever else there is to see on a clear day from there. It was partly cloudy but we could see alright. We noticed these 2 girls in cowboy hats up their who commented on Bruno's "Gram Parsons" t-shirt. I had a feeling that they were up there to hang out at Grams Place, sure enough on our way back we stopped once again and saw the girls at the "Gram Shrine" We chatted with them for a long time. Turns out they are the ones who put on the Gram Tribute shows, even the one with Keith Richards at Universal. I put their Sin City Marketing website over there under my "links".
We also found this really cool coffee shop that had the best soup/sandwiches and salads.... located in Yucca Valley called Water Canyon Coffee Co. If you are heading to Joshua Tree I highly recommend that you stop in and relax. The location is: 55844 29 Palms Hwy., Yucca Valley.
Needless to say I was dead tired when I got home.
I would like to spend a weekend there sometime and stay at Joshua Tree Inn then go on all the hiking trips throughout the park.
To check out some gigs in and around LA this month click here.
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