Ironic Twist
seeking irony, because sarcasm clashes with my outfit
Saturday, October 22, 2005 :::
I finally gave in and upgraded to Flickr pro, which means I don't have to wait until November to upload my photos from the Cedars / Giant Drag / stellastarr* show.
In case I haven't already mentioned it, it was really fantastic to see a local band get their first opportunity to open up a show at the 9:30 Club and play such a tight, polished set. You really couldn't tell that it was their first time playing a club like the 9:30, and a few songs into their set, it was pretty easy to tell that the crowd was into it, and not dismissive like people can be of opening bands when you're eager to just get to the headliner. The club began to fill up fairly early into the evening, and was probably half full by the time Cedars played their last few songs. I'd be curious to know how many of the people who got there early enough to see Cedars were long-time fans and how many discovered Cedars that night. And of course it was so great of them to give bluestate a shoutout from the stage. Awww, my very first 9:30 Club shoutout...
Giant Drag:
Everyone I spoke with after the show either loved or hated Giant Drag. I definitely enjoyed their performance. Sure, the tiny, Cobain-sweatered, super-stoned singer rambled on in an annoyingly girlish voice, and I can see how that can really grate on people's nerves, but I thought that it was fun to see what would come out of her mouth next. Sure, a lot of it was about her subcutaneous emphysema, but I thought it was mostly amusing. And of course I really liked how their songs sounded live.
I've seen stellastarr* many times. I've seen them in D.C., Baltimore and NYC. I'm pretty sure this was my sixth time seeing them. One of the first times I saw them, at Fletcher's in Baltimore, there were less than 20 people there, and stellastarr* played their hearts out like they were headlining a sold-out show. So here they were, headlining a packed 9:30 Club (I forgot to check whether it was sold out, but it seemed that way), and they were pretty damn good. But it just wasn't the same. I think the reason I enjoyed them so much at those first few shows was precisely because of what I said earlier: they played those nearly-empty clubs with an overwhelming energy. You could feel their determination. You knew that they would keep playing show after show until the venues filled up. So I have no criticism for the band. It's not you, it's me. They played a solid set with all of the crowd favorites and many of the songs from the new album. Mandy's backing vocals sound better than ever. It was a good show, although the responses I've seen online have been mixed. The biggest distraction for me was that I thought the sound was pretty bad. I was in the front, where I don't usually stand, so I thought maybe it was that, but when I moved to the back for the encore, it wasn't any better.
Not surprisingly, I'm in zombie mode today. Waking up on a dark, rainy morning after five hours of sleep is nearly impossible. The bright side is that it's not Wednesday morning, like it usually is after we DJ at Gate 54.
bluestate was a blast as always, and we had a great crowd, heavy on all of my favorite adorable gay indieboys. They're so cute I want to take them all home with me, but I live in less than 600 sq ft, so they wouldn't fit. We're going to post the official photos and setlists soon, but here's a link to my Flickr set, and here's what I played, with some downloads:
I got questions about Le Sport and We Are Scientists, which made me happy, of course, because they're two of my favorite bands right now and I love telling people about them. Dirty on Purpose and The Rinse also inspired questions, and while Dirty on Purpose wouldn't carry over to the Black Cat, I have a feeling that people will be dancing to The Rinse come November 19.
Some bluestate firsts: 1) cute gay indieboys making out during one of my sets, 2) not one but three good photos of me taken in one night, 3) I had only two drinks, 4) an unusually high number of incriminating photos, some of which are not posted on Flickr by a special request and some of which are not posted on Flickr because they involve me. At 1:30 a.m., I should know better than to be around a camera and Jeff.
Thursday, October 20, 2005 :::
In case you forgot (as if you would):
callmeMICKEY posted two of the Gang of Four remixes. I wish I liked the Hot Hot Heat remix, especially since they tackled my favorite Gang of Four song. So far I think I like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs remix of "I Love a Man In Uniform" the best.
There are a few Shopgirl passes remaining after the contest deadline, so I'm going to allocate them to the first three people to leave a comment here.
I'm more of a nerd right now than I was at this time yesterday. Why? Because I noticed a punctuation error in one of the subtitled scenes from last night's Lost. A period goes inside the quotation marks, people. Luckily, the error didn't detract too much from the episode (which totally freaked me out). So, who's going to die in the next episode? Which is three weeks from now, dammit.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 :::
I discovered a fairly young D.C. music blog, Bang Bang Rock & Roll, through Pop! Goes Culture, another D.C. site I didn't know about. He also lead me to Blogs t r e t c h. Finding more D.C. music blogs makes me happy.
Best Week Ever, which may be the only good show remaining on VH1, devoted some time to OK Go's "A Million Ways" video. Watch the clip.
Hot Hot Heat are playing the Sonar on November 11. Obviously I have to go. Who's going to Baltimore with me?
The Presidents Of The United States Of America (who are apparently still releasing albums) are putting out a video shot entirely with cell phones. More specifically, it was shot in one day using Sony Ericsson mobile video phones, then sent via bluetooth to a Mac, where the footage was edited. You can watch it here. If I hadn't known the video was filmed with cell phones, my first reaction to the video may have been: "Wow, this looks like shit. What did they do, shoot it with a camera phone?"
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 :::
A quickie contest over at the bluestate blog. Enter to win passes to a screening of Shopgirl (October 24 at Loews Georgetown). Since it's a short turnaround, you'll have to pick up your prize at the October 20bluestate event. See, now you have yet another reason to stop by.
You Ain't No Picasso beat me to posting about The Rinse, a band that I discovered through MySpace about a week ago. Since the Picasso people already wrote about the band, I'll be lazy and quote them: "a danceable beat, good hook, a bouncing chorus and some great vocals." The line is in reference to the song posted on their blog, but it pretty much applies to all of The Rinse's songs.
The following are two of the band's songs that you could theoretically download on MySpace, but MySpace downloading has been down for at least a week, so here you go:
This weekend I finally returned to socializing and chewing after a week of staying in and eating sugar free Jell-O. Friday I left work early for an oral surgeon's follow-up, and then had dinner with my mom, who started working at my alma mater soon after I graduated. It was fun to walk around campus and my old Baltimore neighborhood and eat dinner at Niwana, the Korean/Japanese place I used to go in college once in a while, when I actually had money for going out to dinner. I had bibim bap, which I haven't had in ages. It wasn't that great, but chewing was pretty awesome. Saturday afternoon was laid back, with cleaning and Undeclared DVDs, some shopping and dinner with the parents, who came to visit, and then super-cheap beer with BV, MAH, Megalicious and Matt at The Raven, my favorite new dive bar. Sunday afternoon I returned to Mt. Pleasant to have brunch at Marx Cafe with the visiting Ms. WeirdCurves and BV. Marx Cafe has excellent brunch, and I get to look at pictures of socialist leaders while I eat, which takes me back to elementary school. Mt. Pleasant is so my new favorite neighborhood to go out. It's a 10 minute drive from my apartment (avoiding any streets on which weekend people tend to cause traffic), so far there's always been good street parking when I get there (take that, WMATA, I don't need you), the people are laid back and the bars are great. I really should have gone there more while CS lived there (well, he still does, but he's always on the road), but now that I have other friends who live in the neighborhood, I will definitely be spending more time there. Tonight I have plans to see Ms. WeirdCurves again, but I don't know yet where we'll be meeting up. The rest of my free time between now and Thursday night is devoted to figuring out what I'll play at the upcoming bluestate (okay, okay, and watching TV).
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
