Got that new Walking Concert disc in my headphones, making the day go down real easy. Standout songs... Studio Space (clockin' in at one forty-six, aww yeah), The Animals (so rockin), Hands Up! (Not about arm-stretched enthusiasm, but an ih-home robbery), Audrey (so poppy), Calypso Slide (so smoooove), hell, most of the songs are keepers. Go out n' get it.



Amie, my own little shining light, won us two free tickets to see a special acoustic Snow Patrol set at ZuZu next Monday. Just sixty people. How cool is that? Gonna try to record that sucker, I am I am.


Between this Walking Concert disc, the new Twilight Singers covers cd, Rilo Kiley's stellar "More Adventurous", and the heartbreaking final Elliott Smith album, my ears are running on overload. So, so sonically spoiled.


I'm having a real tough time listening to the Elliott Smith record... it's like spending time with a ghost, maybe reading too much into lyrics that probably mean exactly what they say. So painful. "From a Basement on the Hill" is an amazing collection of songs, but then again he rarely wrote anything I disliked, so that's no surprise. But the added, nearly unbearable, weight that his loss adds to it... well, if you're an Elliott fan, you get it. If you're not, I sound like a melodramatic sap. Either way, I'm so glad we're all getting to hear this... and I'm gonna miss him, and a lost lifetime of his new work, like hell.

The album will be released on October 19th. Until then, visit Some Songs, a newish repository of Elliott's live performances.


Rilo Kiley's website has been relaunched with the release of the new record, and they've put their kinda-cute new "It's a Hit" video up there to mark the occasion. Reminds me, I still have to get tickets to their October 5th show here in Boston... it seemed so far away, now, not so much. Oh, and look, live acoustic performance (audio & video) on KCRW here.


And yet another thing I have to buy tickets to... The Twilight Singers are coming back, hitting the Middle East on October 15th. Another sell-out, fer sure. But their live show makes the late-night squeeze worth suffering through. Now that's entertainment.


Tickets, tickets, and more tickets... the Boston Film Festival just put all of theirs on-sale through Fandango (which I usually shy away from on principal... stoopid ads. Rahhrrr!). I've already picked up a couple to see Silver City. John Sayles and Chris Cooper last teamed up on Lone Star, and that's one of my favorite films... no way I'm missing another one of their team ups. Cooper plays Dickie Pillager, fictional Colorado gubernatorial candidate. Gotta love fake promotional websites... there's even a MeetUp link. Aces.


PopFest! New England 2004 has just posted a list confirmed bands, if not a complete schedule, and it's lookin' pretty good. My Favorite, Baskervilles, The Smittens, The Consultants, Shumai, Pants Yell!, superfallingstars, Colin Clary & the Magogs, The A.V. Club, Spanish for Hitchiking, Snoozer, Cannonball Jane, The Metric Mile, Brasilia, and My Teenage Stride. And that's just half of the lineup expected for the early November Northampton, MA fest. I'm just hoping it won't only be a celebration of pop music, but of a brand new president. Wouldn't that be somethin?



posted by brad at 2:59 PM | direct link | rss (1:2) | |