Beirut in Montreal

As usual I'm late with this post but i had a good friend in town so... We were able to catch Beirut's second night (of three) at La Salla Rossa in Montreal. It was my first time in that venue and it was very intimate. I'm guessing the room held 250 or so and it was sold out. The show was right on. I expected it to be a reeling sloppy mess and it was and it was perfect.
I don't know the names of many Beirut songs but i know we heard Nantes, Elephant Gun(my favorite song), A Sunday Smile and Idle Days. Everything sounded great, just like the studio tracks but better. After Elephant Gun ended they were setting up for the next song when one guy started singing the humming part at the end and the band actually took it up and played a few more minutes of the song! Elephant Gun being my favorite track i was flipping out! You can probably tell from the pictures but I'll lay it out, they played the last song of the night on the floor. It was funny, i could see one of the horn players gesture to the floor from the stage and Zach just shrugged and grabbed his mike and climbed down along with the rest of the band.
The Flying Club Cup site has a video performance for almost every song on the album, it's a must see.

p.s. Thanks to Sam for the pictures.

Jenny McCarthy cures autism!?

At this point if my wife say Jenny McCarthy on the street she would probably whip her ass. Autism is a rather touchy subject in our house.

Iron & Wine delivered

I preordered the new Iron & Wine album The Shepherd's dog from SUB POP a couple of weeks ago, it arrived today!!! In addition to the disc it came with a handful of stickers, a button and a single with two unreleased songs, Arms of a Thief and Serpent Charmer. Now I'm wishing I'd ordered the limited edition pack of silk screened art signed by Sam himself. Maybe i'll add it to the Christmas list.

Random Boobs/Meg White

Two of my three best friends will be visiting in the next couple of weeks and they like boobs

and sushi.

In other news there is a supposed Meg White Sex tape floating about the internet and is rumored to be part of Meg's recent breakdown. Check it out here, it doesn't really look like her to me, at least not how i picture her naked.

A Chelsea walk

I just want your dinosaur head

Here at my house we have all been listening to Tegan and Sara's new album The Con quite a bit. My youngest is in love with the song Back in your head. He loves the video but it is a little off putting to hear him yell "Look out for the black guys" or "Oh no, where are all the white guys?" He has also decided that he likes Sara but not Tegan. This has lead to him yelling "Don't look at me" during Tegan's brief appearances in the video. He has actually watched the video so many times that he can give a running commentary when we are listening to it in the car, "the balloons are falling", "they are running down the stairs" etc... He also has a thing for dinosaurs which lead him to rewrite the words into "I just want your dinosaur head". You can't tell me that doesn't rock.
That having been said i think everyone in my family would recommend both the album and the video.

Another note on my kids and music, while getting a band aid for a scraped knee(bicycle crash) for my daughter the other day i could hear her comforting herself by softly singing The Crane Wife 1 and 2 by the Decemberists.
I'm also missing(sniff) the Iron and Wine show in Montreal due to her first soccer game.

Feist @ the Fylnn (aka. the Guitarsenal)

My lovely wife caught the Feist show on Sunday at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington. She said it was a great show overall-and she loved it when Feist invited the crowd up for the encore. The only things she was disappointed about was that Inside & Out wasn't played and the "half-assed" version of Mushaboom. "It was if Feist felt like she had to play it, and nobody really wanted to admit that they were glad she did." Feist has one of the most talented voices in music today. (and G! fell in love with her "endearing sprite-like quality" and "witty on-stage presence")Download - Feist - Mushaboom
Download - Feist - Inside & Out


In other news it appears that Ryan Adams has a seven song Ep coming out soon, see I am Fuel for the scoop.

Damn! hell! crap!

If you haven't seen this great piece in the Onion concerning Pitchfork then check it out here.
Have you seen this post at False 45th? Expect lots more f bombs and photos of tits.

Rufus Wainwright Places Des Arts

After a comedy of misadventures, that resulted in us missing the opener(A Fine Frenzy) and the first half hour of Rufus's show, we finally made it to Places Des Arts.
While we did miss the first part of the show, what we did see was phenomenal! Apparently we heard all of the new album minus two tracks as well as lots of others, including two Judy Garland tunes a folk song and an unbelievable cover of Hallelujah. I'll admit that i fell in love with Wainwright's debut and while my wife has each subsequent release i haven't really paid much attention to them. It appears that I've been missing out. Rufus has an absolutely amazing voice! It didn't hurt that the venue had amazing acoustics, he even sang one song sans amplification. His mother joined him for two songs, including the aforementioned cover of Hallelujah which required a long pause in the middle while they tried to remember the words to the next verse.
This was the first time that i've been to a sit down concert in recent memory. I think the last time may have been Natalie Merchant in the late '90's at the Brady in Tulsa, Ok.

Ben on Ryan

Check out this great article where Ben Harper gushes about our boy Ryan Adams, read it here.

Tattoo ideas

Here are a few tattoo ideas for my wife.

Yelle the art of the dance

Cute French electropop lady Yelle has this great remix out now. I've convinced two of my kids that this is the way people dance in France.

Banksy in the flesh

I spent way too much time on BME the other day and couldn't help but notice that Banksy tattoos are getting pretty popular.

In other news threadless is having a $10 sale.

Ryan's new tats

It's nice to see that Ryan's new tattoos are all healing so well.

BK Cain's: Ryan Reports

Ryan and my wife's nephew Jimmy(Ryan on the left Jimmy on the right BK in the middle) caught Ben Kweller at the Cain's ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma last night. Ryan wrote up a great drunken review last night and posted it on the lamest blog ever. There are some great pictures and videos, make sure you check out the video of In other Words, awesome. Sounds like he put on another great show, his cover selection is always great, i'm surprised he didn't do She Don't Use Jelly by the Flaming Lips like he did the last time he played Ok. I think the most intriguing part of the whole thing is the report of a BK country album in the works.

Double Nickels

Before we moved to Vermont we got rid of a lot of stuff, although looking at our garage it seems like we didn't get rid of enough stuff. I got rid of three boxes of cassette tapes, one carrier full went to Ryan and two big boxes went to goodwill. I hadn't had a tape player in a couple of years so it wasn't a big deal but a lot of the stuff on tape i still don't have on disc or in mp3 so it's time to start rebuilding.
The Minutemen's Double Nickels on a Dime is a great disc. You probably don't need me to talk about the significance of this disc or how it's supposedly a one up of Zen Arcade. I'd never claim to be a punk rocker but some of the stuff that came out of the punk/hardcore scene really speaks to me even today when I'm probably way too old to be listening to it. I had a conversation with a twenty something at work the other day, he had on a jacket with a big misfits patch on the back and a jerry bear on the front(i shit you not) and he had on glasses that looked like the ones the lead singer of the descendants used to wear. To make a long story shirt he'd never even heard of the Descendants although he did like the clash but again had no idea who the minutemen were. I felt old.
Download - Minutemen - Political song for Michael Jackson to sing
Download - Minutemen - Shit from an old notebook

By the way i got in trouble(from the wife) for listening to Danzig and Black Flag videos the other night. I do what i want.

Igloo Tornado Goodness

This box showed up on my doorstep yesterday chock full of Igloo Tornado goodness and light.
Look at this stuff, Zines, t-shirts a graphic novel, the Igloo Tornado boys have been busy.
Here is the product i was most excited about, the Losergoes1st X Lace lock Losers shirt. The graphic is very involved and looks great(The original art looks like it will be on sale soon). Take a moment to notice the custom tag, the reverse even has a print on it. You can kind of see in the second picture that it came in its own silk screened bag, attention to detail kids.
Check the wicked new Igloo Tornado shirt.
Here's my signed copy of Tom's new graphic novel The Blot. Check it out, it's genius.
The new Henry and Glenn is as funny as the first but with 100% more Hall & Oates. Somehow the guys got Henry Rollins to actually autograph a copy(i assume no one was killed in the process) stop by the Igloo Tornado site to see the pictures. Another gem is the zine of poetry inspired by the movie Highlander. I know some of this stuff is still available email Losergoes1st@gmail.com to see what's available.

Band of Horses/ Love as Laughter/ Higher Ground

From what i could tell from last night's show, Band of Horses have been doing two things since Everything all the Time came out; writing great songs and growing kick ass beards. My wife went to the show with me, something that happens too rarely because shows with her are always fun, she knows what she wants to hear and does what she can to make it happen. If you were at the show you probably heard someone yelling out "St. Augustine" between most songs, that was her. While they didn't play St. Augustine they did play most of the album along with quite a few great songs from the upcoming(Oct. 9th) disc(False 45th has a picture of the set list. For up to the minute coverage and photos see False 45th, they had their review up about 45 minutes after the band walked off stage!). The band was funny and talkative during the show and sounded great. It's hard to get over the fact that the vocals sound exactly like they do on disc. It's really amazing that he can hit those notes night after night. I have to take a moment and comment on how hilarious the final song was, i would have thought it would be titled "Don't get fucked on a Tuesday" but apparently it is called "Earl". Before playing it Ben explained that the record company didn't like it so it didn't make the album. At one point in the song it veered close to a hoedown.

Love as Laughter put on a solid set, part of Band of Horses came out and played on a couple of the more rocking tunes. In concert you can hear a bit of country in the indie rock of Love as Laughter. I spent a few minutes talking to the drummer between sets and most of the songs in the set are from an upcoming album they are finishing up now the ep i bought at the show contains some of the songs that will ultimately appear on the album.
Download - Love as Laughter - Coconut Flakes
Download - Band of Horses - Bass Song(Our Swords Demo)

Band of Horses/ Higher Ground

Band of horses will be playing Higher Ground in Burlington tomorrow, I'll be there.
Download - Band of Horses - St. Augustine

Pitchfork Records

On our way to Boston yesterday we stopped in Concord N.H. where my wife had a business meeting. The three youngest kids and i wandered around town while she met and found a great record store called Pitchfork Records. The shop occupies a huge two story space with mostly new product upstairs and used stuff in the basement. The hippie working the counter was super friendly and didn't seem to mind the kids running around half crazy. The vinyl selection was awesome and cheap. They had a huge selection of singles that would be worth the price just for the cover art. They had used cd, vhs tapes DVDs and stereo equipment. I bought this sweet shirt for $10 and a vhs copy of Evil Dead II for $2. I honestly could have spent all morning there digging through the bins but the kids had spotted a toy shop down the block. I highly recommend that you stop in if you are in the neighborhood.

Download - Ash is Back(Evil Dead Remix)
Download - Evil Dead Groovy

Lets get physical

I had a woman come into work today looking for a workout cd not a cd to workout to but something that was made specifically to motivate you while working out(she basically wanted it to say Workout in the title). All I could find were some yoga companion cds and dance mixes for workouts neither of which she wanted. The woman kept saying she wanted "something fast like the Rolling Stones". Guess how I remedied this problem, that's right, i talked her into the Rolling Stones Greatest Hits. I should have told her to go across the street and buy an ipod and put whatever she wants on it.
Any way during the search we talked about what type of music is good to work out to and that made me think of an interview with Henry Rollins i read years ago where he talked about how he works out to slower music so he can focus on his breathing. She was all for really uptempo stuff I, like Rollins, prefer something a bit mellower, but then i'm in terrible shape.

Download - Black Flag - Rise Above

Feist on her way.

G! picked up two tickets to the Feist show in Burlington on 9/9. If her friend backs out I get to go. Maybe Jason Collett will show up and they will do Hangover Days(rightclick-save as).
There are a veritable ton of shows coming to the Burlington area in the next few months, here are the ones I'm most excited about.
Ben Harper @ The Flynn
Band of Horses @ HG
Grizzley Bear @ HG
Okkervil River @ HG
Andrew Bird @ HG
Del tha Funky Homosapien @HG
I don't know how many i'll get to, it all depends on money and timing but things are lookin good.

I am fuel, You are Friends has a great review of the recent Ryan Adams show at Berkley. I'm sure you picked up the excellent album Easy Tiger, but did you see the picture in the booklet of his Black Flag bars tattoo? Who knew?

If you have a strong stomach you should check out the first eye tattoos. It ain't pretty kids but if you like Dune this might be the look for you.

Liam's likes

My youngest son has recently discovered the glory of youtube. He spends the entirety of his time on the site watching the videos for "forever Lost" by the Magic Numbers and "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John. He can seriously sit for half an hour going from one to the other. For a little more insight into the Beez here are his top five favorite songs.
1. "Young Folks" Peter Bjorn and John. He refers to this as the Whistle song.
2. "Forever Lost" The Magic Numbers
3. "Laika" The Arcade Fire. He cals this Alex.
4. "Love My Way" The Psychedelic Furs. Referred to as Mom's song.
5."You can have it all" Yo La Tengo

honorable mention: "Fix up, Look Sharp" Dizzee Rascal "500 Miles" The proclaimers
It won't be long before he'll want a video ipod.

Ipod update

Every once and awhile I have to do a major musical overhaul of the old ipod it could be for any number of reasons, things get stale, i realize something esential is missing, whatever. The last time i did an overhaul i dipped into my hip hop folder(which is admittedly full of 80s and early 90s artist) and added some old favorites.

Wilco Shelburne Farm/ late post

I was very tempted to just make this review of the sold out Wilco show one sentence long. If i were to do that it would read: Wilco played a rousing version of California Stars. False 45th has a well written review up right now so i'll just throw out some random observations.
Most of the kids were in Oklahoma so G! and i took D with us for his first concert. Here he is rocking the summer tour shirt. The merch was pretty good, in addition to the tee G! picked up a bag for $5 and i grabbed a patch. The limited edition show poster was a bit lame so i passed on it.
Low played a pretty good set although it seemed a bit out of place on a beautiful day at an outdoor show. We arrived early so we saw their entire set i really liked it but again the fit was off.
There were a lot of kids everywhere which ended up being pretty cool. There was a lot of dancing going on in the area we were in which was to the left of the soundboard close to the merch tent. At one point we realized that several of the families had cleared out and then we realized that a group of meatheads had a couple of joints going not far from us.
I teased G! all concert long at her weak attempts to yell out songs requests between songs but they did end up playing Claifornia Stars so way to go girl.

Lace Lock Losers

Somehow i've not posted the fact that Scot and I are doing a sneaker blog together. If you want to read two guys geeking out about shoes check us out at Lace Lock Losers.

In related news i got my print in the mail and it is amazing! There are still some left but don't wait, get one now.
I've also got to mention that i got a sneak peek at the graphics for the new Igloo Tornado shirt, prepared to be blown away.

The Cribs - Men's needs

If you could wear out an Mp3 it would be time for me to rebuy The Cribs new single Men's Needs. I don't know what it is about the song but i'm hooked. CSS just put out a great remix of the tune.
Download - The Cribs - Men's Needs(Css Remix)
Check out this perfect lotech video for the song.