Back to school time!!! Here is a snapshot of me posing for my
senior portrait. I god I hope I make the homecoming
court!!! Class of 2011 forever!!!
I'm going to be spending my Labor Day weekend in Pigeon Forge at
Dollywood. I expect this picture is a
close approximation of what Dollywood is like, but I've never been
there before so I'm not positive.
Yet another lost photo from the cross country trip...I've only got a
couple left. It's of Bryce Canyon obviously. Sure, the
snow made it beautiful, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves,
but good goddamn was it cold. We were not
prepared for the bone chilling temperatures, so we didn't spend long
there. I want to go back.
My good man Brian got
permission from the wife to come up to the Triangle and see a little
live music. And when a
man escaping two kids comes to town, you damn well make the most of it
and pack as much fun as you can into that
evening...aka go to two shows and eat burritos between them.
We met up with our broham Ivan inside of Duke Gardens just before the
show started. It had looked a little stormy early,
and seeing as how this gig is outside that is a concern, but it was
merely an idle threat and the dark puffys floated away
to torment someone else's outdoor plans.
It occurred to me that the last time I saw Camera Obscura play was with
this same duo of dudes, which is odd as I
tend to go to shows solo. That bit of trivia has little standing
with the review of the band, but is merely a piece of infor-
mation for those scoring at home.
The band was great, but no big surprise there. They breezed
through a nice set of their mellow cute pop much to the
delight of all the young hipsters and not-quite-as-young families with
their dancing children...and let's not forget my
group, the grizzled old creepy dudes that everyone makes fun of at
shows. They managed to squeeze in nearly every
song I wanted to hear - "French Navy", "My Maudlin Career", "If Looks
Could Kill", "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heart-
broken" and "Razzle Dazzle Rose". I've never seen a bad Camera
Obscura show, but the outdoor setting, the sun
low in the sky...it was simply magnificent.
And then Brian and I headed to Chubby's to stuff ourselves silly with
burritos in preparation of the dance party that
would be happening at Of Montreal soon thereafter...
So after some Camera Obscur'n and burrito eat'n, we waddled over to the
Cradle to take in the dance pop band known
as Of Montreal. I saw these
guys a ton of times back in the late nineties and early aughts,
pre-Outback jingle explosion,
but haven't followed them a ton over their last couple of
records. But Brian wanted to go, he got us some tickets, and
there we were.
I often joke about being the old man at shows, but never has that been
more obvious than at this gig. So many young
kids, all dressed up in ridiculous clothes like it was some catalog
shoot for Urban Outfitters and American Apparel at the
same time. Some folks were even in costumes - of note I saw a lot
of people dressed as "indians" (a look the band em-
ploys on occasion), marching band members, and even one dude dressed as
The Riddler (there was no Batman to be
found).
The show was good, but like night and day from their older gigs.
They used to be a quirky pop band, lots of short
songs, and the closest they came to a stage show was a
psychedelic-style light projector. But now it's all dance pop
with multiple projectors and a team of community theater actors and
actresses doing god-knows-what all over the stage.
I don't think they played a single song from before their "Sunlandic
Twins" record, which was pretty much where I
stopped listening to them. But no matter - the band performed
their "new" disco songs quite well, the strange actors
carried on onstage in a confusing but entertaining manner, and the kids
all danced around like it was a 1995 rave minus
the glow sticks (actually there might have been a couple of glow
sticks). It was all very entertaining, though I felt a bit like
an observer than one caught up in the moment.
(Photo ganked from somewhere online. There were no horses in the
Cradle.)
"Erupt
into a Bev-Rage this summer with "Glug"! That's the slogan. We'll add
the word "Dawg" for the blacks. They like
that word, like they're friends with the product."
Built To Spill - Hindsight.
I love the new-ish Built to Spill record. It's the best thing
they've put out since "Keep It Like
A Secret".
Bonus: Nowhere
Lullaby.
Jarvis Cocker - Black
Magic. Pretty sure I've already posted some of
these songs before, but fuck it, they're great
songs.
Bonus: Don't
Let Him Waste Your Time.
Bonus: Fat
Children.
Kid Cudi - Soundtrack
2 My Life. By far the best new hip hop in years.
BY FAR.
Bonus: CuDi
Zone.
Bonus: Pursuit
Of Happiness (Nightmare).
Mississippi John Hurt - Frankie.
This is not the actor John Hurt, but it would be pretty awesome if it
was.
Bonus: Stack
O' Lee.
Mojave 3 - Bluebird
Of Happiness. Been on a real Mojave 3 kick these past
few months. Everything they've re-
leased is golden.
Bonus: My
Life In Art.
Bonus: Return
To Sender.
Bonus: She's
All Up Above.
Morrissey - Children
In Pieces. Some tracks from the outtakes/B-sides album
"Swords". A spotty release as you
might expect, but plenty of good songs that make it worthwhile.
Bonus: Christian
Dior.
Bonus: Munich
Air Disaster 1958.
The High Dials - Matter
Of The Clouds. This first song couldn't sound
anymore like Teenage Fanclub. The rest
of their material - less so.
Bonus: Our
Time Is Coming Soon.
Bonus: The
Holy Ground.
