May was a (crazy) busy month - hence the lack of posts.
June is an awesome month - hence my return! Not only did yours truly, Shameless Andie, turn (gasp!) 30 this month*, but I also got to celebrate the milestone with my favorite boys,
The Prix, by joining them on their trip to the Big Apple. It was a whirlwind trip - 3 Prix shows, a
Madison** show, dinner in Little Italy, rat spotting in the subway, 7:30am breakfast with
Lane (after one hour of sleep), a street fair in the Village, fresh fruit at Chelsea Market***, a visit to Strawberry Fields and the Dakota, 1 "business" meeting, several pizza stops, a blown birthday surprise, and a trip to H&M - in 3 days and 3 nights. I also got the scoop on Sloan's upcoming release - no official date yet, as they're still sequencing and mastering - and it sounds like an amazing body of work. All I can share is that it consists of an unusually large number of tracks, and it's meant to be listened to straight through from start to finish. We'll revisit this topic in the fall...
In other June news, I've come across some great music:
The Bangkok Five,
Birdmonster,
Commuter****,
Death From Above 1979*****,
The Gray Kid******,
Office, and new CDs from The Futureheads, Thom Yorke******* and Pretty Girls Make Graves.
Speaking of Thom Yorke, I'm so excited for Radiohead's show at The Greek this Friday! But that's not 'til after I DJ at
The Couch this Thursday, which is after I screen the Leonard Cohen biopic,
I'm Your Man, tomorrow. And let me tell you what I did tonight: Beck, baby! It was the first of two shows at the Wiltern LG******** and one of the best all-around shows I've seen in... ever. Okay, so the sounds was a little muddy and the vocals were tough to pick up for the first half. And yeah, there were some feedback issues a couple of times. But everything about what was happening on that stage was immensely entertaining from beginning to end. The emphasis was clearly on percussion. Aside from there being two drum kits on stage, there was a tambourine, xylophone, things I can't name (that's Stevie's department), and maracas. At one point or another in the night, every person on stage except maybe Beck himself rattled a pair of maracas. There was also an acoustic portion during which everyone but Beck took a seat around a table set for a meal. Dishes, glasses of water, silverware, the works. The segment, which ended up being the end of the show (pre-encores) culminated in a freeform percussion jam with the guys in the band clanging their silverware on glasses, plates, and metal serving trays. So freakin' cool. Who says there's nothing new(-ish) out there? The bass player was fun to watch cuz he had huge hair, and there was a Napoleon Dynamite guy alternating between percussion and funky interpretive dancing. But that's not even
close to all. In the center of the stage, right behind Beck, there stood a mini version of the stage, complete with its own mini jumbotron*********, and marionettes of Beck and his band! They performed along with every song, and even got to do
Loser by themselves. Between the main set and first encore they showed a short film of the puppets in Hollywood - at Pink's, the 99 Cent Store, the Chinese Theater, backstage at the Wiltern, etc.. Truth be told, the little guys stole the show. The first of the two encores included a pair of men in bear suits - one rapping and the other flashing a spotlight into the audience, å la The Flaming Lips. The rapping bear backed himself into the smaller of the two drumsets, knocking himself on his ass and sending the drums in all directions. I'm not sure if that was choreographed, but I suspect not. The second encore included Napoleon Dynamite Guy jamming with a small radio, then, unsatisfied, bringing out a slightly larger cassette player, then a massive boombox, and finally air-controller-style directing a 6-foot ghetto blaster as it was lowered from the rafters. The show was seriously one visual and aural delight after another.
whew! What a lot to cover! Thanks for sticking with me - it's good to be back. I'll let you know how the next few nights go much sooner. Sweet dreams!
* It's true what they say - 30
is the new 20! And I'm so ready to start acting underage again...
** It was acoustic, but from what I hear they do a rockin' dance set on a normal night.
*** No, that's not a pun. But it could be...
**** as heard on the season finale of The O.C. and recently photographed by yours truly.
***** They're not all very new - I'm just still playing catch up. Yes, from a year or more back. So...?
****** A little too much rap for me, but he has some great tracks and a falsetto reminiscient of Prince. Worth checking out if you're into hip-hop more than I am.
******* not yet released, but got a preview at the office
******** speaking of which, toss your Sidekicks and get yourself one of the V phones by LG. Sooooo much better - all the same features PLUS a higher resolution camera, a video camera, mini SD storage, an mp3 player, and built-in stereo speakers! Not to mention: the Verizon network is 10 times more efficient than stupid T Mobile's (nobody even paid me to say that). Just ask Jaime how frequently we get disconnected and how many of my text messages she
doesn't get.
********* a "minitron" perhaps?
Last night marked my return to the turntables - well, the laptop and CD players, but that doesn't have such a good ring to it. Besides, I recently started a collection of vinyl, so the former will be more accurate in no time. Anyway, I presented two shamelessly fun sets of rock and dancable 80's at The Couch last night and had so much fun I nearly begged them tohave me back next month. Okay, I'll wait for the invite.
