Ironic Twist
seeking irony, because sarcasm clashes with my outfit
Friday, October 28, 2005 :::
I didn't realize how many photos of Chicago's New Black I took until I uploaded them this morning. I didn't take pictures of the other bands because it was so crowded, but by the time New Black went on, around 12:30 a.m. or so, there were fewer than 20 people left upstairs at the Velvet Lounge, so I could easily go up and take some photos. The band was putting on a great, energetic show, so I just kept taking pictures before finally moving to the back to give my ears a break.
New Black reminded me a lot of Karmella's Game before those Baltimoreans went math rock on us. Less gimmick (no uniforms) and more punk (the singer sure can yell), but similar energy. Because of the powerful female vocalist and the punk edge, New Black also bring to mind the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. New Black is punk/new wave/pop played by a cute girl on guitar and vocals, a cute girl on keyboards and backing vocals, and some boys playing bass and drums. But don't dismiss the boys, because the drummer is great and the bass player sucessfully takes over lead vocals on a few of the songs.
All of you who left early missed out on a great band, the kind of band you see late at night when almost everyone else has gone home because they don't know anything about that last band and don't feel like sticking around for something that's not a sure thing, but the 15 or so people who stuck around are happy that they did, because it was worth losing that extra hour of sleep.
Morning commute I-meant-to-post-this-earlier-in-the-day music: Aberdeen City, The Freezing Atlantic.
I've been listening to this one a lot. For some reason, maybe because of the imagery on the band's site, I thought it might be one of those CDs that works best on a rainy day, but while the lyrics and music are quite dark, the album didn't require a dark mood for me to enjoy it. If the songs were simply brooding and complicated, I might have had difficulty getting into it, but most of the songs happen to be accessible and catchy. In fact, tracks like "Another Seven Years" and "God Is Going to Get Sick of Me," driven by a steady kick drum, are ready for the dance floor. Part of what keeps me coming back to the album is that all of the songs are complex enough that every time I take a listen, I hear something new. And since everyone loves a comparison: Interpol, Radiohead, The Secret Machines. I was amused by this description in an Amazon customer review: "...the songs on this record are good, like, interpol, but with a singer who sounds like he didn't just wake up and stab himself in the throat." Yes, I like the singer's voice too.
I posted my favorite Aberdeen City song, "God Is Going to Get Sick of Me," in the last bluestate setlist, so go download it if you haven't already. And here's another one:
Tonight:Gist, Aberdeen City, New Black and Federal City Five at Velvet Lounge. Hey, Velvet Lounge, you know what would be really great? If, when I visited your site, I could find out how much a show costs and what time it's going to start (not just that doors open at 8:00 most nights). Yeah, that would be super helpful. Thanks.
I know Aberdeen City are set to go on at 10:00, and the Gist site lists the show as 9:00, so I guess that's when things are getting started.
Before going over to Staccato last night to get countryfied, Michael, Jeff and I ate some Eritreanfood across the street at Harambe. It was delicious and vegetarian (except when I tried a piece of Michael's lamb). Relaxed atmosphere, pretty decor and also inexpensive. I ate a lot of spinach.
I took some photos at Backroads. I didn't stay very long, because I was getting tired and cranky, but it was a good time, as expected.
A few more here. The Backroads kids had a professional going around taking photos, like they do at Taint, so I'm sure they'll have much better photos posted on the official site soon.
Karmella's Game are holding auditions for a new guitar player. If you're interested, or know anybody who would be, send the band a message through their MySpace page.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 :::
Despite the cold and rain, I dragged myself out to My Favorite Dress last night, and had a good time, so hooray for dragging myself out and being social. Tonight, I may repeat this pattern of being social, and go to Backroads. I wish I had something country-like to wear. I'm thinking about going feather boa shopping after work (no, not for Halloween, but just because I want one), so maybe I'll see something.
DCist has an interview with We Are Scientists. I contributed a few questions, but they aren't in the interview, though I hear that at least one of them may have made it into the upcoming podcast.
I can't believe stereogum hasn't reported on this:
Lindsay Lohan is reportedly furious after an opportunist sold a headlamp from her black Mercedes on internet auction website eBay, following a car crash which left her needing hospital treatment. The Herbie: Fully Loaded actress was driving through Hollywood when her vehicle was hit by a van making an ill advised u-turn. Lohan and a female pal were later treated for minor injuries while the sporty car was taken to a nearby garage. The listing read: "Friend of mine works at the place where this car was taken. Today is your lucky day, you are bidding on the passenger side headlight of Lindsay's black Mercedes." (Via IMDb)
Have you all already read about the AU birthday party where a guy gave another guy a golden shower in front of everyone at the party? The guy on the receiving end won an iPod Nano. There's a City Paper article, so I'm pretty sure it's not an urban legend. (Via Thrown for a Loop)
Another reason I know that this isn't an urban legend is because the guy doing the peeing e-mailed RJ asking him to take down the post. I'm not going to use the guy's name here because I don't feel like dealing with him, not because I wouldn't want to take part in teaching him that actions have consequences. Like I told RJ when he e-mailed me and some of our other friends for advice: people need to learn to accept responsibility for peeing on people in front of others and then talking to reporters about it.
Instead, I'll just call him Mr. D____ "Pee On You" L______. So this guy goes to a party, gives another guy a golden shower in front of a bunch of other people, and then gives an interview to the City Paper, providing his full name? Here's how Mr. D____ "Pee On You" L______ is featured in the story:
“Jeff was a champ,” says D____ L______, 22, the contestant who urinated on Schneidman’s chest and face. “He really earned it.”
A Google search for "D____ L______" leads immediately to the City Paper article. In fact, you don't even have to click on the article to read the part that mentions the golden shower in connection to his name. RJ's blog is the least of this guy's problems. From now on, when he goes to apply for a job or asks someone out on a date, this will be the first thing people learn about him.
In writing to RJ, Mr. D____ "Pee On You" L______ calls what he did "a stupid mistake." Wow, what an understatement. Look, I'm not going to bother judging him for what he did at the party. To some extent, we've all done things we wouldn't want to see in print. But most of us will never see those things immortalized in print, because most of us haven't talked to a reporter about it. Talking to a reporter about giving someone a golden shower at a party is not "stupid." I have a pretty good vocabulary, but I can't think of a word that accurately conveys the level of stupidity one must have reached to do what this guy did. I have about as much pity for Mr. D____ "Pee On You" L______ as I do for the girls who claim that the producers of Girls Gone Wild took advantage of them. And I have no pity for those girls.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 :::
Morning commute music: Sabrosa Purr, Music From The Violet Room EP.
I only got through the first few tracks, since there was surprisingly little traffic. The introduction and first track are deceptively delicate, with hushed vocals and fuzzy guitars. Intricate and pretty. I was expecting the rest of the CD to follow, but on the next few songs, singer/guitarist Will Love throws in some screamo-style vocals and the sound just gets louder and more intense. I need to return to this CD when I'm not half asleep, because the screaming was way too jarring early in the morning.
I have a rare post on DCFUD today. AMG made me write it after a Google Talk conversation we had yesterday. The post is about how I'm slowly becoming more and more vegetarian. But really it's about chicken livers. Gross.
There's a Dior store opening on the Maryland side of the Friendship Heights Metro station, across Wisconsin Ave. from the Versace store. I'll be on the other side of the Metro, shopping at T.J. Maxx.
After work yesterday I went to Georgetown to see Shopgirl, since we had a few passes left over after the last bluestate. I enjoyed a lot of the movie, but thought that the narration was completely unnecessary and that Steve Martin has had too much Botox. My mood was also ruined by the fact that I was wearing a new sweater that I really like, but at some point while I was walking to the movie theater from H&M I was splashed with black paint. I'm not sure how it happened, but I must have walked under a freshly painted building and it rained down on me. The sweater? A creamy shade of white. The paint? Does not wash off. At all. I don't know if I should bother to take the sweater to the dry cleaners, or if it's a lost cause. And if there's no way to get the paint out, does anyone know a place that will dye the sweater black?
Just kidding, the scene is doing quite well. If you need further proof, Saturday night's We Are Scientists / Ambulance LTD show sold out. There was a very long line when I got to the Black Cat around 9:45, and I later found out that the show sold out. It didn't feel as crowded as other sold-out Black Cat shows, but I think it was because some of the people who were there to see We Are Scientists left before Ambulance LTD went on and some of the people who were there to see Ambulance LTD got there after We Are Scientists were done. I headed into the Red Room to meet BV, my +1 for the show. After getting a greyhound and heading upstairs, I found out that We Are Scientists were now starting 15 minutes later than scheduled, so I had time to fidget in anticipation and hope that the show would be as good as I was hoping it would be. It had been ages since I was this excited to see a band for the first time. I realized that this was because, over the last few years, I've mostly gotten into new bands by seeing them open for another band. I would go to a show knowning next to nothing about the opening band and end up blown away by them. Anywhere between a month and a few months later, many of these bands (stellastarr*, The Killers, Ambulance LTD) released albums, blew up and toured as headliners, so now I've seen some of them a few times. With We Are Scientists, I got an advance of their CD about a month before seeing them live, and was looking forward to the show based on that, hoping that their performance lived up to the fantastic album. Life is so much easier when you don't have expectations.
BV, Chrisafer, Mr. Dumbek and I got a pretty good spot near the front, but not too close, because there were already 10 to 15 rows of people in front of the stage. A good sign of an enthusiastic crowd, I thought. More on the crowd later. We Are Scientists came out and kicked the evening off with "This Scene Is Dead." At first, I thought they were a bit static for a band playing such energetic music, but eventually the band's energy level picked up, and bassist Chris Cain (the one with the 'fro and silly mustache) even attempted some in-between-songs banter, introducing some songs with "Here's another one we wrote and you didn't." As expected, they played most of the songs on their upcoming album, including "Inaction," "It's A Hit," "Callbacks, "Lousy Reputation," "Textbook," "The Great Escape" and of course the single "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt." They also threw in "Mucho Mas," a B-side from the "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" single. The set was less than 45 minutes in length, but they packed in a whole lot of awesomeness. I wasn't completely blown away, but I think that would have been almost impossible because of how much I had built them up in my head. I don't think any band could live up that. I was by no means disappointed. In fact, as soon as they were done, I was ready to see them again. I even bought a T-shirt, which I rarely do, but they had very cool-looking shirts. Mine is navy with a bright pink skull and crossbones and reads Trust We Are Scientists in bright pink letters.
Back to the crowd. I'm not going to go as far as to call anyone lame, but from where I was standing, I didn't even see any heads bopping. I would blame it on not knowing the songs, but you know that everyone has already downloaded the entire album. At least the clapping following each song was very enthusiastic, I'll give the crowd that. Maybe it was too packed right up front for people to dance. But heads should have bopped, that's all I'm saying.
Music aside, Keith Murray, the guitarist/lead singer, is completely adorable and pretty (you can't tell from my pictures because his floppy hair was covering the side of his face to which I was closest). At one point, some tall guy blocked my view, and I started flipping out a little bit until BV, annoyed with my squawking, pushed me over to his other side, where I got my view back.
When We Are Scientists finished, I went downstairs to get another drink and stop by Bliss, then headed back upstairs and walked in just as Ambulance LTD were starting up. The last time they came through town, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. Their show was lackluster, and they didn't sound as good as they had the first few times I saw them. I was thinking that maybe it was just I had seen the band too many times, and was getting bored, but this time around was much better. It's not me, it's you.
Almost every other song in their set was a new one, although they didn't play "Straight A's," a song they released on their site a while back. Although Ambulance LTD have always had a '70s rock influence, the new songs make it even more obvious. Two of the new songs were very CCR. They also did a Neil Young cover, although I didn't know the song so I can't tell you what it was. Of the songs from their debut, they played "Young Urban," "Stay Where You Are," and "Primitive." The last song was "Yoga Means Union" and the encore was "Ocean." No "Heavy Lifting." Sad. I love "Heavy Lifting." The did play "Ophelia," which I haven't heard them play recently, and "Anecdote," both of which made me happy, but Marcus didn't switch to acoustic guitar for "Anecdote" and I wish he had. BV didn't even stick around, and Mr. Leafblower got bored and left, but I think their songs are very pretty and keep me interested.
Disappointment of the evening: finding out that We Are Scientists are supporting Hot Hot Heat at their Baltimore show, then finding out that it's on a night I'm DJing at the Black Cat. Dammit, dammit, dammit. Kyle made me feel better by pointing out that We Are Scientists are sure to come through D.C. after their album comes out in January. But it won't be with Hot Hot Heat, and I haven't given up on Hot Hot Heat yet, disappointment in their sophomore album aside. I would have loved to see these two bands together. Oh well. You all better come to bluestate on November 19 and make it the best one ever, because look at the sacrifice I'm making to make you dance.
Over the weekend, someone glued these flyers onto some of the bus stop shelters in my neighborhood:
Ah, a whole new generation of kids discovering Fight Club. Good for them. Excellent book and movie. What I don't understand is, why my neighborhood? I agree that I live in one of the "nice" parts of D.C. But unlike some of the other "nice" parts of the District, my neighborhood does not bring out weekend visitors from the suburbs. There just isn't anything to attract them. Any time I walk by one of the neighborhood's few restaurants, I see the same people. These restaurants are all neighborhood joints, not dining destinations for people who live in Bethesda or any of the other nearby Maryland suburbs.
So, to the wanna-be nihilists: do your research before breaking out the glue.
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
I've been listening to this one a lot. For some reason, maybe because of the imagery on the band's site, I thought it might be one of those CDs that works best on a rainy day, but while the lyrics and music are quite dark, the album didn't require a dark mood for me to enjoy it. If the songs were simply brooding and complicated, I might have had difficulty getting into it, but most of the songs happen to be accessible and catchy. In fact, tracks like "Another Seven Years" and "God Is Going to Get Sick of Me," driven by a steady kick drum, are ready for the dance floor. Part of what keeps me coming back to the album is that all of the songs are complex enough that every time I take a listen, I hear something new. And since everyone loves a comparison: Interpol, Radiohead, The Secret Machines. I was amused by this description in an Amazon customer review: "...the songs on this record are good, like, interpol, but with a singer who sounds like he didn't just wake up and stab himself in the throat." Yes, I like the singer's voice too.
