Ironic Twist
seeking irony, because sarcasm clashes with my outfit
Friday, June 24, 2005 :::
The latest bluestate setlists should be posted sometime today, but in the meantime, here are free and legal downloads of some of the songs I played on Tuesday.
Ms. Rhinestone sent me a link to Free Katie. Man, they really do have everything on the Internets. She also sent me a link to this site, which I haven't had time to explore yet, but if I ever want to know anything about celebrity babies, I know where to go. Creepy concept for a blog, isn't it?
I most likely will be spending most of my weekend a) working or b) in The B.C., but if you're looking for something to do tonight, Monopoli are playing at Club Five with locals The Hint, The Heartstring Band and Boy Crazy, three bands I haven't seen before. Not on the fyer but also playing are Louisville band Your Black Star. Here's the info:
Thursday, June 23, 2005 :::
The songs playing on my work computer right now:
1. Agent Simple - Make a Right at Jordfallsmotet 2. Apartment - Everyone Says I'm Paranoid 3. BT Feat. Rose McGowan - Fabulous 4. Caesars - Don't Fear the Reaper 5. Dressy Bessy - Side 2 6. Editors - Blood 7. Editors - Fingers In the Factory 8. Eurosport - Eurosport Music Baby 9. Goldfrapp - Ooh La La 10. Housewife Lovers - Natascha 11. Jamiroquai - (Don't) Give Hate A Chance 12. Mayday - Pelf Help 13. Palomar - Static 14. The Clap - With Love and Squalor 15. The Isis Project - Les Heures Ou Je M'Eclipse 16. The Peels - Only Son 17. The Sunshine - Love 18. The Sunshine - Sabotage
Yep, I'm at work much later than I'd like to be. But at least the music's good.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005 :::
Even though I'm functioning surpsingly well on the less than five hours of sleep I got last night, I might not make it to My Favorite Dress at Saint-Ex tonight, but you should go. Both DJs are lovely ladies with excellent taste in music (and flyers).
I think this is the longest I’ve gone without posting outside of being on vacation. Bad, bad blogger. What have I been up to, you ask? Well, last Thursday was my last day at Team America. That evening, I celebrated by going to see Bloc Party at the 9:30 Club with a bunch of the DCists. We met for drinks at DC 9, where it got insanely crowded because of the combination of people waiting to get into the Architecture in Helsinki show and the people getting pre-Bloc Party drinks. We headed over to the 9:30 in time to catch about half of the Engineers’ set. Their CD is what I consider a rainy day album – quiet and melodic – but live they were very, very loud. So loud that I had to put in earplugs, which I rarely do. Their performance was very jam-heavy, so between spacing out and not being able to hear well, I couldn’t really get into it, although I’ll be revisiting the CD again soon. Bloc Party were wonderful and charismatic, of course, but I enjoyed their Merriweather set more – it has nothing to do with the band, it was more of the mood and atmosphere. The only negative thing I can say about the 9:30 show is that for the first few songs, all I could hear was drums. Other than that, as their merch proclaims, God Bless Bloc Party.
The next day, I continued to celebrate my freedom by catching a noon show of Batman Begins, which I really enjoyed. I think Christian Bale is the best Batman so far. That evening, I was considering either Liberation or the Paul Michel CD release at Warehouse Next Door, but it ended up that I was in the mood for neither, so I watched some episodes of Entourage and fell asleep early. On Saturday night, The Cause played their last show at DC 9. It was good while it lasted, boys. They played a short and tight sets, probably the best I’ve seen them play. After I left DC 9, I made a quick stop at Saint-Ex and headed over to the Black Cat to meet Ms. Remain Fabulous for the Miriam's House benefit show. She has a write-up and photos here. I got there toward the end of Martin Royle's (Washington Social Club) set, and for the rest of the evening could not understand the reason for the low turnout. I wasn't so much into headliners Ris Paul Ric (Chris from Q and Not U) - a bit too art school for me, but not so art school as to be grating - but could appreciate what they were doing. The highlight for me was Andy Zipf. He'd come highly recommended by Ms. Harmany Music. I had checked out some songs on his MySpace page, and thought it was good singer-songwriter stuff, but I wasn't prepared for the live experience. Zipf started out solo acoustic, and I was immediately impressed with his voice, much more than I had been on the recordings - he has an amazing, gorgeous voice that he really knows how to use, more so than most male singers on the radio right now. But I was really blown away when half way through the set, a drummer and bassist came out, and Andy Zipf totally rocked out. It was one of the best shows I've seen at the Black Cat in a long time, and since it wasn't crowded, I got to experience it front and center. If you haven't listened to Andy Zipf yet, you really must. Sunday was spend on doing all sorts of stuff I’ve neglected, like cleaning my apartment and buying vegetables, plus I got to spend some time with Ms. WeirdCurves and watch the Jessica Alba flick Honey, which is horribly entertaining.
Monday was my first day at the new job. It’s really overwhelming to be thrown into something fairly different than what I’ve been doing, and in a completely different environment, but I think it will turn out to be a good learning experience. And not in the same way that Team America was a learning experience in what sort of work environment is completely wrong for me. Plus I have a snazzy laptop with a CD burner, the view from my office window (good-bye, cubicle) is of Rock Bottom Brewery, and my commute is the shortest it’s ever been. Except for the actual stress of adjusting to the work, things are good.
Last night it was time for the latest installment of bluestate. Not the best timing to stay up too late on a weeknight, but we booked the night long before I knew it would be my first week on a new job. We had a quality turnout, passed around made-by-Catherine birthday cupcakes and played some fun songs. Set lists will be posted later today or tomorrow. Mine was pretty heavy on the Swedes this time. At the end of the night, Ms. WeirdCurves and I teamed up for a “there are only a few people here and no one’s going to dance but we’re going to play a bunch of dance songs anyway” set, which actually enticed someone to dance at 1:30 a.m. to Duran Duran’s “Notorious” (her selection, a tie-in to Donnie Darko, which DJ Leafblower played until the bartender asked us to switch over to the basketball game). Of course since dance commander Jeff, Michael and Ms. Remain Fabulous were there earlier in the evening, there was dancing earlier as well, which always makes me happy at Saint-Ex, because it’s not really a dancing kinda place. I even did some '60s-style go-go dancing with Jeff and PL while playing Les Sans Culottes. Next bluestate: July 9 at the Black Cat backstage, so get ready to dance.
I’ve been listening to the Dirty on Purpose EP and it’s beautiful and delicate and special. I’ve also been trying to figure out how I feel about the new White Stripes album. I really dig “Blue Orchid,” but the rest of the album didn’t excite me on first listen, so I have to keep listening.
01/05: Taint and Bliss present INFAMY, 9:30 Club
01/10: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, 9:30 Club
01/19: Benjy Ferree, Meredith Bragg and the Terminals, Greenland, Black Cat 01/24: Hej Hej, Cafe Saint-Ex
