Igloo Tornado rides again

I can't believe i haven't posted about this yet, i'm slippin. The Igloo Tornado is back in the saddle, they are showing at the Black Maria Gallery in L.A. starting February 23rd. Check the Black Maria website for info and previews.
Scot has a new print for sale right now. Hit him up at his web site Loser Goes 1st. I have the last print he did and it is awesome. I'm not sure what they are but this isn't a poster, the paper is heavy duty and the ink is almost paint like. Get it now.
Scot has several new pieces up on his site, this is probably my favorite.
One of Levon's new pieces. I also like "Whisper", fire breathing Giraffes rock.
Gin does Elvis justice, you can also get him covered in crystals.

Support your local Vagina

Once again my wife is in Vermont Law Schools production of The Vagina Monologues. The show is this Saturday @ 7. Try to make it through the show without giggling.

A couple Videos

Oh man this new New Pornographers video for Myriad Harbor is very trippy, It makes me want to wash my hair.
Fab Channel has a very cool Iron & Wine show up from a couple of weeks ago. Someone remind as to why i didn't catch him in Montreal.

Gotta be proud of my alma mater for selling out the little man.

Bad Flirt

How great is the name of this band? Bad Flirt are from just over the border in Montreal. They are playing Burlington on February 16th at 242 Main and they had better have t-shirts with the band name on them, it would be a colossal waste of an awesome band name if they don't.
I got a copy of their unfinished album that should be out this year. It's hard to say since only one song is finished but there is some nice sounding stuff here. They have a nice little indie sound, reminiscent of Liz Phair when she rocked with a kiss of the kinks, the guitars are out in front and the vocals have the sound of a girl that's not afraid to kick a little ass. One of my favorite songs is Mad, Mad Madeline world, Of Mastodons and Men also shows promise, it will be interesting to hear these pieces in concert. Check out their web site to see a video for Heart of Darkness.

Neko Case or Not enough squirrels in rock these days

I see some really good performers so i don't know why i was so surprised when Neko walked up to the microphone opened her mouth and sounded like Neko Case. That voice is so amazing on record that it's surprising that it sounds just like that and maybe even a little fuller in person, i think my jaw hit the floor. Neko looked good, sounded great and, who knew, was really funny. The show wasn't very long, maybe an hour and a half but she managed to fit in a bunch of songs from her last couple of albums along with a Tom Petty cover and probably six new songs(my favorite being Edge of the World). All of the new tunes seemed really strong. They are all in the vein of Fox Confessor. The entire show was a little less country then the album versions had lead me to expect.
There was a dog on stage(her backup singer's) who was completely unmoved by the performance, she explained that he was deaf and wasn't excited because there "weren't enough squirrels in rock these days". She also talked about being in Vermont for the past three weeks rehearsing for the tour and she spent a lot of time talking about Vermont's delicious french toast.


You may have noticed from the picture that i got one of the posters! That's never happened to me before. For some shows Higher Ground has an artist do a hand signed and numbered limited edition poster that they hand out at the end of the show. Now not every show has posters and I'm not sure what the criteria for a poster worthy show is but I finally got one.

What a shirt.

I saw this shirt and had to post it.

I also picked up a promo of Hip Hop is Dead by Nas and really like it. Why didn't my brother(my source for what's good in rap) let me know about this one?

Vampire Weekend

I finally got a chance to listen to the Vampire Weekend album and love it. Everyone is blogging about them so i don't have to think of a creative way to describe their indie rock melded to world music rhythms style(post world punk? indie world?). Put on your dancing shoes and give it a listen.

Random Stuff

Is this really Neko Case? I have my tickets so i'll just hope she wears this number in a couple of weeks. According to her web site this little new England tour is a chance for her to test drive some of the material for her new album.
My current obsession the Mars Volta will be on Letterman this Thursday(17th). They are also on the cover of the new issue of Harp.

I'm still laughing about the latest post on What would Jesus Blog?.

Notes on the Mars Volta show

This show left me speechless so instead of a proper review here are some random notes.
Almost three straight hours of face-melting rock.
For such a serious sounding band the members seemed to be having a lot of fun.
They never stop playing. They slow down and one person will retune but the music never stops... unless it's part of the song and then they stop and start on a dime.
Higher Ground has the coldest beer on tap, it's a degree away from being a slushie.
After a few beers and some incredibly hard complex rock my wife feels like she should talk shit about Iron & Wine.
The hair is even more impressive in person.
I know the names to none of the Mars Volta songs... except The Widow... which they played. I'm pretty sure I also heard Wax Simulacra.
It was hot in HG but they never took off their jackets.
Cedric and Omar both did their funky dances.
Nice t-shirts but how bout one with tour dates?
My ears were still ringing at noon the next day.

Last bit of 2007

Here is a list of my favorite albums of 2007.
1. The New Pornographers - Challengers
2. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
3. Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger/Follow the Lights
4. The Cribs - Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever
5. Beirut - The Flying Cup Club
6. Bright Eyes - Cassadega
7. Jens Lekman - Night Falls over Kortedala
8. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
9. Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
10. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna are you the destroyer?
11. The National - Boxer
12. Bishop Allen - The Broken String
13. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
14. Radiohead - In Rainbows

Best T.V. of 2007
1. 30 Rock
2. The Office
3. Kitchen Nightmares

Best Covers of 2007
1. KT Tunstall - Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
2. St. Vincent - These Days - Jackson Browne
3. Peaches and Tone Loc - Wildthing

The books I've read

In addition to music i also like books. Here are the books I read in 2007 in the order i read them. The * denote a graphic novel.

1. Children of Men P.D. James

2. A Grave Tattoo Val McDermid

3. The Devil’s Feather Minette Walters

4. The Blade Itself

5. Love is a Mixtape Rob Sheffield

6. Judgement Ridge

7. The Walking Dead Vol I *

8. The Walking Dead Vol II *

9. Alternadad Neil Pollack

10. The Walking Dead Vol III *

11. The Walking Dead Vol IV *

12. Black Monday

13. Leave Me Alone I’m Reading Corrigen

14. Mistress of the Art of Death Ariana Franklin

15. Escape of the living Dead *

16. Pattern Recognition William Gibson

17. Uglies

18. A Gentlemen Abroad Bridges and Curtis

19. Strange Son Portia Iverson

20. Daniel half Human David Chotjewitz

21. Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim David Sedaris

22. Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow Susan Benbletti

23. Blood and Chocolate

24. The Shakespeare Riots

25. Pretties

26. Specials

27. This land was made for you and me Elizabeth Partridge

28. 13 Bullets David Wellington

29. Childhoods End Arthur C. Clarke

30. Five People Who Died Having Sex

31. Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop

32. French by Heart Rebecca Ramsey

33. The Harlequin Laurell K. Hamilton

34. Children of Hurin J.R.R.Tolkien

35. Everybody Hurts

36. A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson

37. Tales from Jabba’s Palace Kevin J. Andersen

38. Monster Island David Wellington

39. How to Survive a Horror Movie

40. March Up Country Weber Ringo

41. Mole People

42. Too Far From Home

43. Bridge to Terebithia

44. Escape: the Story of the Great Houdini Sid Fleischman

45. When the Emperor was Devine

46. Ananssi Boys Neil Gaiman

47. Green Mountain Boys

48. Deathly Hallows Rowling

49. Hole in My Life Jack Gantos

50. Inca Gold Clive Cussler

51. The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold

52. All I Did was Ask Terry Gross

53. No Reservations Anthony Bourdain

54. Island of Dr. Moreau H.G. Wells

55. 2001 Nights Yukinobu Hoshimo *

56. My Boring Ass Life Kevin Smith

57. Sold Patricia McCormick

58. Stiff Mar Roach

59. The Glorious Cause Jeff Shaara

60. State of Fear Micheal Crighton

61. A Man Called Kev Garth Ennis *

Matthew Sweet

Have you heard this great new song from Matthew Sweet? Reminds me of the nearly perfect Girlfriend album. He didn't write it but it sure does have his fingerprints all over it. It was written by the writer of a new movie i know nothing about called The Bigtop.
Download - Matthew Sweet - Wild
Lily Allen's pregnant?

It's been awhile

It seems like i used to post pictures of boobs alot more often.

Respect

You have to admire this guy. I wonder if he really loves vodka or he was just saying "fuck you" to airline regulations?

Larry Bird

Here is the birthday gift rundown. Shoes.
Classic powell deck.
T-Shirt.
Tattoo. G! pointed out that if she didn't know me she would think i'd gotten my gifts mixed up with some teenager.

Mars Volta in town?

On their official website the Mars Volta have a show scheduled at the Higher Ground on January Ninth! Higher ground and Pollstar haven't confirmed this yet but if it happens I will have to find a way to be there. Usually the first couple of weeks after Christmas are a no extra spending zone at my house but i may have to sell something to make this show.

Edit: Higher Ground has confirmed, tickets are on sale this Friday at 11. Don't sleep on this, it's as close to At the Drive-in as we're gonna get in this lifetime.

Renewed

God I love Vermont, I renewed my driver's license through the mail!! No waiting at the DMV for me.
The only thing that made me pause was the fact that they didn't need me to come in and take another picture. That means that my picture and all of my information are in some government database somewhere, thank god i was rocking a giant beard.

Fiery Furnaces on the way

The Fiery Furnaces will be playing Higher Ground on January 18th. G! and i will be there weather permitting. Let's just hope we get a good set, I really love some of their work and really hate some of it. The one and only time i saw them was at ACL right before singing my choir(hated it) came out but they ended up playing a bunch of older stuff and only a couple of the dreadful tunes. Fingers crossed.

Threadless sale

Threadless is having another $10 sale. I need that shirt.

Skateboard Art/ Foundation One Gallery

Mike Giant

Foundation one gallery has a great fund raiser going. They are auctioning off skateboards painted by lots of well known underground artists. The bidding starts at $100 and the money raised goes to a skatepark.

Shepard Fairey

There's something about skateboards that strikes a chord with me and i'm sure with lots of people who grew up skating, often buying boards based on the artwork alone. I've been getting after my wife for some time to let me buy and hang up a nicely done deck. Maybe while we are in Paris Colette will do another deck. Check out the art here.

Uncle