***February Twenty
Eighth
Two
Thousand and Eleven***
How awesome is this photo? That cat is really fucking angry at
that cooked bird. Too angry to even eat it. He just
wants to stare daggers at it until it dies...again.
I don't have a lot to offer this month...not much in the way of
interesting links, no photo journal entries. Ain't shit been
going on. There is a new batch of Burt Reynolds photos linked
above, so if you like photos of cute dogs you got that
going for you.
This time around I've got two Instagr.am photos of the month, both
taken within a few minutes of each other in Ashe-
ville a couple of weekends ago.
Also someone made an Instagr.am
API interface that basically works like the app, minus the photo
posting. You can
look at your feed, the "popular" feed, make/read comments, etc.
Even if you don't have an account I'm sure you can
still look at the popular feed. It's a nice, simple interface,
and you can see larger versions of the photos than you can
on your phone. Thumbs up.
Archers of Loaf
with Love Language & Cellar Seas
The Cat's Cradle
1/15/2011
It happened, it really fucking happened...Archers of Loaf reunited, and I
was there. My good man Brian, who is some-
times in the know, contacted me in mid-December saying that there was a
strong rumor that the Archers would be part
of the Love Language bill coming up at the Cradle, so he got tickets
and made plans to come up to the Triangle for a
bit of rocking out and dicking around. The gig was never
confirmed though, leaving me plenty anxious. At some point
a week or so before the show a "and special guests" line was added to
the Cat's Cradle website on the date, but
unless you knew someone who knew someone, you probably didn't know they
were playing. Sometimes it's good to
know people who know people who hear rumors of things happening.
When I got there my man Roy's band Cellar Seas was playing.
Great gig for them, though a rough crowd...it was
about 50-50 surly old dudes like me waiting for the Archers and 19 year
old girls wound up for the Love Language and
wondering why all these old people were at their show. That
didn't stop Cellar Seas from powering through a nice
slight twangy Americana set, and I did my best to enjoy it while
knowing that a few minutes from now my favorite band
of all time was going to be taking the stage for the first time in a
decade.
And then it was officially official the Archers were playing - Matt,
Mark, and both Erics were setting up their gear on the
stage. Between my head and the band there was some hair missing
from the last time this happened (which accord-
ing to the poster on my wall was Saturday, December 5th...1998 I'm
pretty sure), but with no less enthusiasm. They
came on like a badger in a chicken farm, wailing through a 45 minute
set that was exclusively from their first three re-
leases ("Icky Mettle", "Vs. the Greatest of All Time" EP, and "Vee
Vee"), and sounding like they played their last show
last week not a decade ago. Just like the previous three dozen
times I saw them, I found myself watching Matt lurch
around the stage most of the time...pitching back and forth like a ship
in a strong storm, and then earnestly thanking the
crowd after almost every song. It was good to hear Bachmann pull
out the full-on rock voice after many (great) years of
mellow Crooked Fingers folk and Neil Diamond impressions according to
most folks I know. Not that there is a god-
damn thing wrong with a Neil Diamond impression.
I'm not usually a "list the track list" sort of dude, but this was a
monumental occasion and even if it's only for my own
reference, this is what they played:
Audiowhore
Harnessed in Slums
Revenge
Nostalgia
Lowest Part Is Free
Freezing Point
Greatest of All Time
You and Me
Might
Web in Front
Wrong
Slow Worm
The crowd during this performance was a trip unto itself. You had
the older folks like myself who clearly knew who the
Archers were and were singing along, dancing and basically going nuts
for the return of one of our favorite bands.
And then you had the kids who were there for the Love Language, mostly
(but not exclusively) very young girls in the
18 to 21 year old range, who had the most confused looks on their faces
- the sort of confusion they probably last felt
when the release date of one of those Twilight books got pushed
back. They spent most of their time tweeting and
texting, and would occasionally look up frustratedly, waiting for the
old men the age of their dads to get off the stage.
It was all pretty entertaining to me to be quite honest.
The Love Language were obviously the
headliners, and they sounded great, but I just couldn't concentrate on
them
after seeing the Archers. They certainly know their way around
some pop hooks and had a great polished sound...
I especially love the giant drummer, who is not only a bad ass but is
so big it looks like he is playing a toy kit. I hung
out with some friends and listened to a few songs, but my brain was
swimming and eventually I just went to the back
and sat down. The Love Language deserve more attention than I was
able to give them this night, but they got it in
droves from the rest of the house.
What are the odds you'd find yourself standing next to an overweight
middle-aged man with poor hygiene at a Yo La Tengo
concert? I know I know, it's hard to imagine, but there he was
right next to me - stinking up the immediate area
with a smell best described as "three day programming binge". As
per usual the show was very schlongtacular as a
whole, cause for some reason YLT attracts as many dude nerds as Rush,
even though it isn't masculine music at all.
This whole tour the band was playing two sets, with the first set
decided from a random audience member spinning
their "wheel of fortune", which featured a number of different themed
sets the band might play. Some of the options
included "Sounds of Science", "Condo Fucks", "Dump", "S Songs", and a
few others. I was hoping for "Condo Fucks"
but we got "S Songs", which was totally fine cause it meant they played
two of my very favorite tracks - "Sugarcube"
and "Stockholm Syndrome" from their best record "I Can Hear the Heart
Beating as One".
After about 45 minutes of "S Songs", the band took a short break and
then came back out and played a random
assortment of their other songs. I specifically remember "Tom
Courtenay" and "Decora" and a couple of newer songs.
Here's the thing about "Decora" - I thought the version they were
playing sounded "off", but then realized I'd listened to
the Spoon cover so often that it was clouding my memory of the
original. Both versions are stellar, for the record.
This show was on a Sunday night and like an idiot I took off after the
second set, skipping the encore, cause getting up
early and work and all that stupid adult shit. And then I read
online they not only played their cover of Daniel Johnston's
"Speeding Motorcycle", but another of my all-time favorite songs
"Autumn Sweater" as well. Sometimes it just doesn't
pay to leave shows early out of laziness and/or dumb adult
reasons. A few extra minutes of New Jersey rock wouldn't
have killed me the next day.
"We come
to your town, we pollute your children, we kick you in the mouth, then
we run off, thats basically the ethos be-
hind it."
AC/DC - It's
A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll). It
is decided: this is the greatest AC/DC song
of all time. And yes, it's because of the bagpipe solo.
These three tracks are from the Quagmire comp, all pretty obscure
garage rock tracks from back in the sixties. It's a
pretty mediocre comp honestly, these are by far the best songs on
it. All of Thus - It's
All Right With Me. The Blackstones - The
Bag I'm In.
Zorba & the Greeks - You've
Had
Your Chance.
Bobby Conn & The Glass Gypsies -
Home
Sweet Home. I saw Bobby Conn live once, and it was
awesome. His
recordings are not quite as awesome, but are at least mostly decent.
Bonus: The
Homeland.
Magnolia Electric Co - O!
Grace. I love Jason Molina in all his forms. And
his 2009 album "Josephine" (from which
these songs were taken), would have totally made my top 20 of 2009 if
I'd gotten around to listening to it before a couple
of months ago.
Bonus: Shenandoah.
New York Dolls - Personality
Crisis (Demo). Hey, I posted some more New York Dolls
songs!
Bonus: Trash
(Demo).
The Electronic Anthology Project - Age
I Felt. So this is a "side project" of Built to Spill,
taking BtS songs and
making electronic versions of them that sounds like remixes from
1995. It's pretty great in my book, but I'm a huge
BtS fan so it's cool to hear these slightly altered versions.
Bonus: What
If Your Dull.
The Jayhawks In a just
work "Blue" would one of the most famous songs of the last twenty
years. Unfortunately, most
people are morons. Here is the entire "Blue" CD single. 01 Blue 02 Tomorrow The Green Grass 03 Darling Today
Archive - December 2011
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