What's this

I haven't looked at this place for so long.  So many things have happened since I last wrote.  Good things, average things.  Maybe we will catch up sometime.  At any rate, this photograph of my grandfather at 18 prompted me to return.  With some unknown person called "Two-bit," Grandpa is on right in his navy outfit. Sometime in 1944.

The Arcade Fire at Roy Wilkins

So, it worked out that I have been to the (Legendary) Roy Wilkins Auditorium twice now in three days to attend two wonderful concerts.
Here, I was confined to a balcony seat, because the tickets sold out alarmingly fast and that was the best I could get, but it was okay anyway.  Just less enjoyable, due to not being able to go crazy without the possibility of losing my footing and toppling down to presumably my death from up above. Also, the sound was a bit over-saturated (if you will), but Roy Wilkins is notorious for bad sound anyway so I wasn't very surprised at all.  But yes, it was okay.

Calexico was the opener, and not knowing any of their music, I would say it was pretty good.  Their style isn't exactly my main choice, but it was smooth, and nice to listen to.  The horns sounded great, and I enjoyed watching them. 

When the Arcade Fire finally came on, they were greeted by the expected screaming.   They opened with "Ready to Start" off the Suburbs (which, as I probably should have expected, they played lots of songs from.  I haven't really been feeling this album though, and I still haven't gotten around to purchasing it, so I was unfamiliar with a lot of the stuff. Oh well...).  Right after, Win yelled, "This is a song called 'No Cars Go,'" and we erupted.  Then shortly after, they played "Haiti."  It was a good start to the show, indeed.  The band was super-energetic, as I've heard, and they really put a lot of feeling into it.  Even if it's only for show, it gets the rest of us going too, and it's super fun, if not a little dangerous (my god, the way they launched those drumsticks into the crowd I'm surprised no one got speared).  It was a lot of fun, Regine was even dancing so hard the skirt of her dress flew up and we saw her butt.  And you, crazy Win, you get down from that piano.

So, as I was saying, they played a lot of Suburbs tunes, but they also played most of their older songs that I wanted to hear.  Although there was no "My Body is a Cage," they did play "Intervention," my other favorite from Neon Bible and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" one of my very favorites from Funeral (Win prefaced it by pleading with us, "I know you're all tired, I know you have work tomorrow, but please, please, just give me something for this one." And we did).

The encore was great, beginning with "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," another personal favorite of mine, and finishing off the night with "Wake Up."  This was really a pretty good show.  Honestly, I wasn't expecting all that much because I had been a bit disappointed with The Suburbs and I was beginning to wonder how much I really liked this band anymore, but I was very impressed.  I still like them, and that's good.

The Flaming Lips!

Went to my first Flaming Lips show on the 19th at Roy Wilkins with my mom.  Excellent! 

It really lived up to all the hype you hear about F'Lips shows.  It was absolutely awesome, in the real sense of the word. 

We got there, and the crowd was really pretty young and friendly.  Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti opened, and although I commend them for trying, I can't say I really liked them at all.  Too much synth, too much awful, if you ask me.  But that didn't matter; they kept the set fairly short.  Wayne kept peeping out during it, too, just to make us more antsy.
So then they set up the elaborate F'Lips stage, what with nets full of large balloons swelling up from behind and confetti guns and aliens and everything.  Wayne kept coming out, smiling, assuring us that he loves us too, and being an all-around coolguy.  Finally everything was ready, and he announced a sort of disclaimer thing regarding the strobe lights, and shortly then after the show began! Whee!

So, the balloons and confetti were released, and they came out from behind the screen with the yellow dancing woman (whee!) and got in their places and Wayne got in his bubble.  And then he rolled out onto us.  It's such a strange feeling, to be looking above, and seeing the soles of Wayne's shoes, and realizing that he's standing on top of you, in a bloody plastic bubble.  It's rather insane, I'd say.  Brilliant though. We pushed him back to stage, and they started playing some songs.  A lot of their newer ones, but they also played "She Don't Use Jelly," to which everyone sang/yelled along.  I enjoyed the theatrics, what with the strobes and bear-costumed man giving Wayne a piggy-back ride, the green laser hands, the wonderful use of darkness, Woo Hoo!, the video backdrop, everything.  It was really quite a trip.   Everything was so fun, the jumping the dancing and singing.  Good stuff.  For encore, they played the Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and Do You Realize?, both of which were extended and very good for the singing along.  When it was all said and done, the place was a huge mess, and people were lingering around, dancing amongst the garbage all over the floor.  It was great!

Nirmala Rajasekar and Co.

Last Sunday I sort of spontaneously decided to go to an IMSOM hosted concert featuring Ms. Nirmala Rajasekar.  I met Nirmala back in May and aside from being super-nice and talented, she mentioned how she'd be playing in September, and so I looked up the show, and day-of I decided to go. 
It was in a little room inside an auditorium at St. Catherine's that was really very intimate and filled with orange-upholstered seats.  When I got there, it was already pretty crowded, and I recognized a few players that were with her last time sitting in the audience.  Honestly I felt a bit out of place for different reasons, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  Nirmala is extremely talented, and the ensemble playing with her were great as well.  During the first half of the show, she recognized her "mentor, and guru," and elderly woman in the front row, whom she invited up on stage.  Nirmala stooped to touch the woman's feet in great respect, and presented her with a gift and her new "Into the Raga" album.  Then, we took a 10 minute break of cookies and coffee.
When we returned, we got right back into the music, playing some really long compositions.  I honestly am not that knowledgable with the ways of keeping rhythm for this style of music and everyone else did, but after some time, I fell into it, and it was a lovely atmosphere.  It was a nice familiar feeling with almost everyone in the room patting their hands in the same rhythm, right along with the players, dropping our palms on the dominant beat.  It was really fun, and very long.  After everything was said and done, it had been just about 4 hours.  We split pretty soon after it ended, and were thoroughly impressed.

Lowertown Music Festival!

I went to the Lowertown Music Fest on Saturday with some friends and had a great time.  It was a bit overwhelming, but the weather was perfect, and the music was nice.  Here's the breakdown, in order of appearance:

Koo Koo Kangaroo... was this humor hip hop duo wearing black sweatsuits trying to get the crowd going.  Their songs focused around such heavy subjects as PB&J, let me see your dinosaur, I'm drivin' the minivan, and others.  Although they had so much zeal in their performance and getting the crowd going, only a small percentage of the people there were actually playing along.  They did bring out a parachute though, which was pretty neat.  Everyone loves a rainbow parachute.

Frank Turner... is from Winchester, England, and is pretty cute.  He seemed like a cool guy and a good musician.  He mainly played fun, youthful songs on his acoustic guitar getting the not-yet-leg-cramp-ridden crowd going.  He even asked for a volunteer to play harmonica solo for him, and a girl named Rachel from Australia got to come up and do it.  It was nice that she was the one, because while she was up there, it was clear she knew all the words to all his songs.  He kept us singing along with him, yelling "I still believe," and other things.  At the end, we were to sing the chorus with him, all of us, as loud as we could, because he firmly believed that if everyone on that block sang together, something amazing happened, something philosophical, where there is no raised stage anymore, and we're all in it together.  It's a very nice thought, and so I sang and sang and sang. 

Peter Wolf Crier... I don't know much about them, unfortunately.  I enjoyed the performance though.

Tapes n Tapes... I'm afraid I only knew the radio hits for these guys, too.  Oh well.  They were a fun bunch.

Cloud Cult... over the past couple of years have really impressed me with everything they've done.  This was my second time seeing them, and it was great, as expected.  Aside from about ten minutes of technical difficulties after the first song, they were very smooth.  They have a new album due out in September (although it was for sale there, and from their website too, I believe,) and they played a handful of songs from that, but many of their older, so well loved ones.  They even did a Cloud Cult-ified cover of "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man."  They really owned the crowd, had and brought out a lot of energy.  During "Pretty Voice," while just near everyone sang along with the opening lines, Craig was visibly in awe, and said, "Wow, guys, that's great... Keep doing that."  And so we did.  I think a lot of people were there to see this band.  Definitely some great things from them.

Mason Jennings... is an amazing songwriter.  I overlooked him for so long, and it was just this year that I started getting into him.  I shouldn't have waited; his music is great. His performance was pretty much flawless. He played some of the songs from his last album, Blood of Man  (which I think is just great),  including some of my favorites from there, like "Pittsburgh," and "The Field," which pull tears from my eyes whenever I hear them. He played older songs as well, and everything was spot on.  There were a lot of hard-core fans singing all around, it was a nice atmosphere, as the sun slowly disappeared and left us in the bluish dim.  He played for a long while, and it was a great set.  He's a cool guy, and I hope to see him again.

Built to Spill at First Avenue

So I saw Built to Spill in the Mainroom on Thursday the 22nd, and it was a great show. A band called Fauxboix opened, and weren't too shabby, but Doug Martsch and Co. just blew me away.
They opened with "Else," which is probably one of my favorite songs of theirs from probably one of my favorite albums of theirs, and so we began on a great note. They played lots of great songs.. not the songs I expected them to play, but still great. I want to say how lovely the guitar work between the three fellows comes out, wonderful jamming. I love Doug a lot. I really love this band.

Schedule.

Very excited.

And happy 92nd birthday to Nelson Mandela. 
Possibly Dr. Dog in October.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott at the Cedar.

June 19-- We went to go see a folk pioneer play at the Cedar.  I think there is a trend forming of seeing folk musicians at the Cedar.  That's cool. 

Anyway, yes, so the mysterious "Rolling Patches Revue" part that was included on the event poster ended up being a (long winded) tribute to Ramblin' Jack himself, including a zillion local folksters, and then, surprise, Patches and Gretchen happened to be there too.  Well anyway, that's unimportant.
Yeah okay so then after all that and the intemission, 'twas time for Ramblin' Jack's set.  He was welcomed warmly by all, and sat down to play a few songs. No pictures were to be taken because he said that when people shot pictures of him, he felt compelled to "shoot back."  Well, he played some songs, and mostly told stories.  He really lives up to his epithet.  I don't know if we ever did reach the punchline to some of them.  His "sweetheart" Vickie Lee (the Queen of Rockabilly) came out to do a song with him (sung in G.. the People's Key) and rambled a little bit about some teddy bears that they have living at home that talk to them and often have malicious intentions.  Jack talked about Bob Dylan, and did a quick impression of him (well, his voice) during a song.  He got on coughing jags.  He complained about the heat, and the funny shape of his new hat.  He was pretty colorful.  Good stuff though.  I feel lucky to have seen the man.

Optometry.

Summer is Ready.

Here comes the sun.  The weather is shaping up nicely and I would like to go swimming. So. Here's the deal.

I have been cultivating my fondness for the wonderful Built to Spill this past year, and some weeks ago, I remarked, "Gee-- it sure would be nice to see this band play live."  And then the next morning, because fortune decided to smile upon me, I opened up the City Pages to the First Avenue schedule-ad, and guess who is scheduled for July 22?  Yes, indeed it is Built to Spill.  I am going, I am excited.

Also in the upcoming concert queue is one Ramblin' Jack Elliott.  There's a good chance I am going to see him play at the Cedar very soon.

I've been on a ridiculous Donovan kick lately, decades late to the party or not.  He just recently turned 64 years and released through his website a new single. (http://www.donovan.ie/).  He's got a new album coming out you know, Ritual Groove.  Whether it is going to come out within the summer or not, I think he'll be getting heavy rotations on my record player all summer long.

Speaking of new material.  My first musical love, Sawao Yamanaka, has finally gone along and created a solo album.  I will say, I am excited for him!  His album is called Discharge and the song 'Dawn Speech' is up and playing already.  What can we say about it?  It's different, it's Sawao trying to sound mellow, or something.  Still, it's nice to see him and Yoko together again.  I'm curious to hear more cuts from the record.

The Arcade Fire, too, have a new album due for August as well, titled The Suburbs. I doubt it has any correlation to the Minnesota band The Suburbs, but either way I am looking forward to hearing new Arcade Fire tunes.

Summer music is always integral to the season.  I will be digging out the required summer records soon, a comprehensive list of which I plan to compile in the near future.  Rock music friendships, yes yes.

Adventures in Space and Time with the Apples in Stereo

It's strangely apt that the Apples' new theme is time travel, because Saturday the night of May day sure happened fast, almost as if compressed in time.  Story time.

In all likeliness, I wasn't going to be going to this concert.  Just another age-restricted Turf Club show.  I really wanted to go though.  A good acquaintance suggested that I contact Robert to see if he could do any pulling of strings for me, and so I did.  He directed me toward his lovely wife Marci, to whom I am forever indebted for all the kind things she did for me.  Marci and I kept of sporadic correspondence until the very night of the show, where she sent me a last e-mail about 50 minutes before mom and I were going to leave that sealed the deal of getting in.  We got our things gathered in a great tizzy and left to go to the show.

So we got to University Ave., and basically just wandered and waited until the time came.  I made serious eyes at the wonderful Bill Doss in the CVS store, but I don't think he realized I recognized him.  I saw the kids of Laminated Cat (who, as it turned out, were a nice bunch too).  When the time came, we sent the deciding text to Marci, saying "Hello, this is nicole, we are here, we are in front. You are wonderful!" and about 15 seconds later, we spotted Marci and Robert through the window and coming out the door to come meet us. Wow!

First impulse of mine was to hug the pair, and so I did, and shook their hands.  Robert commented, "Nice Music Tapes shirt!" and flashed his lovely white smile, and I melted a little bit.  They led us in, where we found out they had actually put me on their guest list (oi!) and really weren't even expecting me to have a ticket.  Amazed I was, and Robert then announced, "We're gonna go eat," and so mom and I were left alone again, completely floored.

Sitting at the bar, I basically looked around dumbfounded and overjoyed to be there, and listened to Laminated Cat mic check for a while.  Robert walked by later and spoke with us again, and then soon enought LC began their set. 

Not knowing much about them, I honestly enjoyed LC.  Basically, they are a group of some talented young kids who like to make psychedelic rock music, and play it well.  Robert stood solitary in the middle of the floor, watching them like a proud father, for the majority of their set.  I really enjoyed this band, and ended up purchasing their two CDs afterward.  Very polite indeed: the bassist smiled widely at me as he walked by; my mom told the front man (whose voice I really quite love) he did a really nice job, and he just smiled and looked in her eyes and said "Thank you very much"; and the guitarist said to me afterward, "I like your shirt.  A lot." (Gee--I claim to like these guys and I can't even remember their names off hand.  I am an awful person).  Anyway, Laminated Cat is a cool bunch, definitely worth checking out.  They finished their set, and the first middle waiting time commenced.
   Generationals!  I only really knew them from the radio, but they were pretty cool. 
More on this soon...

Festival of Nations

Today I visited the 2010 Festival of Nations over in St. Paul and had a nice crowded time. As always, there were hordes of people there, which gets on my nerves in trying to walk but also is nice in seeing such diversity.

Largely, the bazaar and cafe are where it's at. So of course, I spent a lot of time looking around at all the little buyables that are supposedly representative of their respective country (which, in many cases, aren't, but likewise in many are-- the Matryoshkas, for example). I ended up at the Tibet stand, where I bought a cute little knit hat (although summer is on its way) and a beaded bracelet. There I spoke to an older fellow from Tibet from whom I got the sense that he'd really like to go back but "(sigh)" he really cannot, "because China."  He was really a kind old man and pressed my hand warmly before I left, and I was happy to have spoken to an interesting person.

Speaking of interesting persons, I continued ambling along through the stands, and I spotted a blanketed instrument obviously of Indian origin.  I didn't know what it was, so I sort of stood and stared until the women took notice, then I asked them.  As it turns out, it's a veena, the ancient cousin of the sitar, and the national instrument of India.  They are 2000 years old and have a nice unique sound.  The woman who led the troupe of veena players and others was one Ms. Nirmala Rajasekar, who coincidentally was going to be playing that day a small set, so I went to watch her.  She was quite friendly, and really quite good, and reassured me that sitar "really isn't that complicated."  I'll take her word for it..

Anoushka Shankar at the Dakota.

Yesterday, the twentieth, my father and I went to the lovely Dakota Jazz Club to watch Ms. Anoushka Shankar play up her sitar, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
Having been my first time visiting the Dakota, I didn't realize that I would be enjoying an entire dinner meal there and be waited upon all night. It was quite nice though, and the food was good.

Anyway, Anoushka and her fellow players came onstage and filled the place with wonderful music. They began with a traditional Indian style piece that was just lovely to the ears. Anoushka, sitting in center with a great stage prescence, led the songs, which varied from traditional ragas to psychedelic flamenco-esque pieces ("it's like flamenco--but not entirely") to interesting energized songs with her two percussionists going at it across the stage verbally. All the pieces were terribly impressive, what with so many plucked notes in rapid succession and much raking of the sympathetics alongside the tom dom tom of the tabla. She played a piece written by her father, as well (as she put it: "... I assume I don't have to tell you his name"). Later, she introduced her band-mates, and mentioned that she was actually playing a borrowed sitar, from a San Franciscan fellow named Kenji (who was standing up in the balcony above) because her own was damaged during transport. Oh dear. She wasn't very distraught, however, and seemed confident it was repairable. The last song they played before encore was a long jam of back-and-forth motifs wherein each player had his or her own solo bit. After leaving for a minute, they came back on to do the final song, which was a romantic Indian song that they "like to finish shows with." It was very pretty indeed, and left a good taste in my mouth. (Also the soup I had was delicious).
Here I am looking silly as usual with Anoushka's percussionists and flautist who I spotted on the sidewalk after the show. When I saw them walking out, I promptly succeeded in walking into a locked revolving door. Hopefully, they didn't notice.