until i will be in LA seeing the swell season. i'm excited, but that goes without saying. i've been following their setlists as closely as i can and it seems like they're mixing stuff up a little bit more and playing a few more frames songs every night. i think my chances of seeing red chord, people all get ready and, perhaps, 7 day mile (i can hope, right?) have just increased.
since the swell season are touring (i do this when pearl jam and the frames are touring, too), one of my daily routines is to look online for reviews/videos/pictures of their shows. this video is, i think, from one of their concerts in the czech republic this summer, and it is one of my favorite frames songs.
headlong
i met some people from work today for lunch and a movie at SIFF (seattle international film festival) cinema, and, as i walked through the seattle center on a gorgeous fall day, i thought about how much i love this time of year. the air was warm but not hot and it had that edge of crispness to it. cool enough for a sweater but still sunny enough for sunglasses. in my last post, i wondered what it was about certain bands/songs that make my heart stop and that i keep wanting to go back to over and over until i know them so well that i can close my eyes and sing along without concentrating or missing a beat. well, i think that it is close to the feeling i had walking outside today. for a while, everything is alright and all you want to do is wrap yourself up in life.
i also accomplished one of my goals for the weekend today - buying the new blitzen trapper album. i'm in the middle of listening to it right now, so i can't write a review yet, but so far i am really liking it. they played a bunch of the new songs at bumbershoot, and i'm actually glad i have heard most of the songs live before hearing the album. buy it.
Showing posts with label blitzen trapper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blitzen trapper. Show all posts
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
i still dream of running careless through the snow..
i think that what i am loving most about blitzen trapper is that they cannot be categorized. are they country? are they rock? are they that word that i hate, "alt-country"? garage rock? experimental? who knows, and does it even really matter? i think the reason i can't stand to listen to the radio (KEXP excluded, for the most part) is that so many of the songs sound alike. i'm not interested in hearing the 90s again ad nauseum.
this band has a crazy number of musicians. i think i counted 3 guitarists and at least two keyboard players. and at the risk of sounding like a fan girl (which i'm not! i swear!) i think i am a little bit in love with the lead singer. i can't believe i just wrote that...
they released their first few albums independently, and then got signed by sub pop (hence their appearance at the 20th anniversary festival), and their new album will be out later this month. i think that the songs that they said were new ones sounded a little bit mellower and less obviously rock oriented. one of the songs on the album, furr, is on the free compilation sub pop gave out for their birthday.
oh, and they're from portland. i hope they come back here soon. aside from great music, they were a whole lot of fun to watch. a lot of their songs were suited to clapping along (but NOT in an annoying way), and don't you just have to love a guitar player who plays an enthusiastic cow bell for one of the songs? after seeing them in july, i put their last album, wild mountain nation, on my ipod and i listen to it most days on my way to work, and the songs can't help but put a smile on my face. i don't know if it's the singer's voice, or the lyrics, or the music itself - or probably a combination of all three..
wild mountain nation. they are, literally, a wall of guitars. awesome. and i love the singer's hand motions. does the beginning of this song make anyone else want to sing, signs, signs everywhere there's signs.... what song is that even from??
country caravan.
p.s... here are my bumbershoot pictures. you can tell what bands i liked because i have the most pictures of them (minus the bear, the whigs, tapes n tapes). i would have more of blitzen trapper, but my camera batteries died. i will never buy walgreens brand again.
Monday, September 1, 2008
this band will change your life x2
i will upload all my pictures of bumbershoot (and i have a lot! i think i have found a new hobby - taking concert pictures. i may suck at it, but hey.. it's fun) during the week, but for now suffice it to say that i have had the best weekend in a long time. i have been going to bumbershoot since i moved to washington in 2002, and i can never remember seeing so many good bands. usually, i may see one or two that blow me away, but this year every single group that i saw was incredible! (that's due to the fact that i only went to see bands i was interested in, of course, but it's also owing to the line up bumbershoot put together this year)
today was perhaps the best. i started out with vince mira, a kid (i think he's a teenager?) who sounds exactly like johnny cash. i mean EXACTLY. i saw him last year at the pike place market 100th anniversary, and i was sure to get to bumbershoot by noon so that i could check him out today.
next up was mark pickeral and his praying hands who i absolutely adored. the guidebook thingy described him as "alt country." hmm.. that description seems to be thrown around a lot. but, whatever, he was great.
then i pretty much stuck to the stage under the space needle, which was clearly the best stage of the weekend (all of my favorite bands, with the exception of band of horses, were on the stage). first was blitzen trapper, who i am completely in love with. last month, i said that they were my favorite group at the sub pop anniversary festival, and today they were ten times better than they were then. seriously, i can't say enough about them. you know how every once in a while you see a band who completely and utterly floors you and makes you want to go home and buy all their albums and see all the shows that you can? this was that band.
another one who i loved today was john vanderslice. i've heard him before, but never gotten a chance to see him live. he was really great, and had some excellent banter with the crowd about the restaraunt at the top of the space needle. i've heard that it sucks and charges 11 dollars for a hamburger. i think someone told him that it was called denney's. ha. that would rock, actually.
i made the decision to forego seeing death cab on the mainstage - actually not a hard decision; although i loved them at one time, their last two albums (with the exceptions of 2 songs - marching bands of manhattan and cath) have left me feeling like something is missing. incidentally, once their show started, i noticed an absence of the annoying teenagers (not that all teenagers are annoying, but, i have to say, many are) that had been, well, annoying me all day. i don't know if that is some kind of remark about death cab, but there you go.
anyway, instead of seeing them, i went to see minus the bear, and it turns out that was by far the best choice i could have made. WOW. i've never had a chance to see them live before, and i was completely mesmerized. from the second they took the stage to the second they left, i was utterly transfixed. there are very few bands in the world who are so good that they can make me cry (a cookie for you if you can guess who two of them are), but minus the bear surpisingly did just that. i cannot believe i have wasted my time not being a fan of them before, a situation that i will remedy as soon as possible. it was kind of funny to watch some stupid kid try to crowd surf only to fall flat on his butt when no one wanted to play along. ha.
a note: iced coconut mochas from dillentante chocolate (i think i spelled that right) are really, really good. yum. so good that i got one both sunday and monday mornings. mmmm...
sigh. back to real life. why can't this be real life?
today was perhaps the best. i started out with vince mira, a kid (i think he's a teenager?) who sounds exactly like johnny cash. i mean EXACTLY. i saw him last year at the pike place market 100th anniversary, and i was sure to get to bumbershoot by noon so that i could check him out today.
next up was mark pickeral and his praying hands who i absolutely adored. the guidebook thingy described him as "alt country." hmm.. that description seems to be thrown around a lot. but, whatever, he was great.
then i pretty much stuck to the stage under the space needle, which was clearly the best stage of the weekend (all of my favorite bands, with the exception of band of horses, were on the stage). first was blitzen trapper, who i am completely in love with. last month, i said that they were my favorite group at the sub pop anniversary festival, and today they were ten times better than they were then. seriously, i can't say enough about them. you know how every once in a while you see a band who completely and utterly floors you and makes you want to go home and buy all their albums and see all the shows that you can? this was that band.
another one who i loved today was john vanderslice. i've heard him before, but never gotten a chance to see him live. he was really great, and had some excellent banter with the crowd about the restaraunt at the top of the space needle. i've heard that it sucks and charges 11 dollars for a hamburger. i think someone told him that it was called denney's. ha. that would rock, actually.
i made the decision to forego seeing death cab on the mainstage - actually not a hard decision; although i loved them at one time, their last two albums (with the exceptions of 2 songs - marching bands of manhattan and cath) have left me feeling like something is missing. incidentally, once their show started, i noticed an absence of the annoying teenagers (not that all teenagers are annoying, but, i have to say, many are) that had been, well, annoying me all day. i don't know if that is some kind of remark about death cab, but there you go.
anyway, instead of seeing them, i went to see minus the bear, and it turns out that was by far the best choice i could have made. WOW. i've never had a chance to see them live before, and i was completely mesmerized. from the second they took the stage to the second they left, i was utterly transfixed. there are very few bands in the world who are so good that they can make me cry (a cookie for you if you can guess who two of them are), but minus the bear surpisingly did just that. i cannot believe i have wasted my time not being a fan of them before, a situation that i will remedy as soon as possible. it was kind of funny to watch some stupid kid try to crowd surf only to fall flat on his butt when no one wanted to play along. ha.
a note: iced coconut mochas from dillentante chocolate (i think i spelled that right) are really, really good. yum. so good that i got one both sunday and monday mornings. mmmm...
sigh. back to real life. why can't this be real life?
Sunday, August 10, 2008
my weekend
i went to see goodness at the showbox last night. goodness is a band from the mid-late 90s who i found through carrie akre, who i'm sure i have posted about here before. she is an AMAZING (and that is an understatement after what i witnessed last night) singer who i first heard in 2000 when the rockfords, a band that included mike mccready from pearl jam as well as chris and danny from goodness, released their album (if you go to the link, do yourself a favor and listen to distress. wow). i LOVED that record, and started listening to carrie's solo albums because her voice impressed me so much (there are 3: home, invitation and her newest, last the evening). since moving to washington, i've seen carrie live 4 or 5 times and the rockfords twice.
despite not knowing all of the songs goodness played, they were wonderful. i can't remember the last time i saw a show at the showbox full of such energy from both the band and the audience. every time i've seen carrie live, she does this weird, charming kind of robotic dancing and jumping around the stage. during superwise, the last song of their main set, she told the audience to jump up and down, and by golly, i think that everyone did. the entire band was amazing.. i especially loved watching garth reeves, the guitarist, and fiia mccann, the bassist.
i was right; goodness will be playing at the mural ampitheatre on the 23rd (and it's free!) and then they're going to do another show nov. 22 at the tractor tavern.
there were two opening acts - the first one kind of cracked me up because his name was "buddy." nothing else, just "buddy." despite having my hands on the stage for most of his set, i could hardly hear him through all the chattering in the bar.
the second band definately did not have that problem. their name was, i think i have this right, "my life in black and white." they obviously had a big following (i think they're from portland). i liked them okay, but i kind of hate them for one of their lyrics that is stuck in my head: goodbye, farewell, i'll see you in hell. i don't remember the rest of the song, just those lyrics.
i slept in today until 9:30 (which is really late for me, even on a sunday), had breakfast, read the paper, and decided to go downtown. since they close the streets in pike place market to cars on sundays (as far as i'm concerned, they should do that every day of the week), i ate lunch at a little cafe there and listened to a man outside who was playing bob marley songs. afterwards, i went to a coffee shop and read some more of i capture the castle , a surprisingly good book that is the first novel for our book club at work. a lovely way to end a weekend that has, surprisingly, felt more like fall than summer.
at the moment, i am listening to the free cd subpop gave away at their festival a few weeks ago. it has a bunch of songs from albums that were released this year on it. have i mentioned that i am in love with blitzen trapper? they'll be at bumbershoot september 1. my favorite song on the cd, though, is by the gutter twins, who i sadly (and, again, speaking to my musical ignorance) did not pay much attention to until now. it's made up of greg dulli (afghan whigs) and mark lanegan (screaming trees), the latter of which has got to have one of the most interesting voices in rock music.
despite not knowing all of the songs goodness played, they were wonderful. i can't remember the last time i saw a show at the showbox full of such energy from both the band and the audience. every time i've seen carrie live, she does this weird, charming kind of robotic dancing and jumping around the stage. during superwise, the last song of their main set, she told the audience to jump up and down, and by golly, i think that everyone did. the entire band was amazing.. i especially loved watching garth reeves, the guitarist, and fiia mccann, the bassist.
i was right; goodness will be playing at the mural ampitheatre on the 23rd (and it's free!) and then they're going to do another show nov. 22 at the tractor tavern.
there were two opening acts - the first one kind of cracked me up because his name was "buddy." nothing else, just "buddy." despite having my hands on the stage for most of his set, i could hardly hear him through all the chattering in the bar.
the second band definately did not have that problem. their name was, i think i have this right, "my life in black and white." they obviously had a big following (i think they're from portland). i liked them okay, but i kind of hate them for one of their lyrics that is stuck in my head: goodbye, farewell, i'll see you in hell. i don't remember the rest of the song, just those lyrics.
i slept in today until 9:30 (which is really late for me, even on a sunday), had breakfast, read the paper, and decided to go downtown. since they close the streets in pike place market to cars on sundays (as far as i'm concerned, they should do that every day of the week), i ate lunch at a little cafe there and listened to a man outside who was playing bob marley songs. afterwards, i went to a coffee shop and read some more of i capture the castle , a surprisingly good book that is the first novel for our book club at work. a lovely way to end a weekend that has, surprisingly, felt more like fall than summer.
at the moment, i am listening to the free cd subpop gave away at their festival a few weeks ago. it has a bunch of songs from albums that were released this year on it. have i mentioned that i am in love with blitzen trapper? they'll be at bumbershoot september 1. my favorite song on the cd, though, is by the gutter twins, who i sadly (and, again, speaking to my musical ignorance) did not pay much attention to until now. it's made up of greg dulli (afghan whigs) and mark lanegan (screaming trees), the latter of which has got to have one of the most interesting voices in rock music.
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