bradley's almanac - a boston-based music blog

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thursday, july 2nd

the church

adam franklin (swervedriver)

@ showcase live, foxborough

sunday, july 5th

city breathing

deep sea diver

adam rich

steve pardo & lindley cameron

@ the middle east upstairs

saturday, july 11th

the luxury

the click five

midatlantic

aloud

@ the paradise

sunday, july 12th

the dead weather

screaming females

@ the house of blues

saturday, july 18th

butterflies

travels

@ pa's lounge

sunday, july 19th

grand duchy (w/frank black)

the bunnies

van elk (w/valerie mistle thrush)

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, july 19th

lymbyc systym

coralcola

the cush

the pandas

@ the middle east upstairs

monday, july 20th

you can be a wesley (cd release!)

casper & the cookies

everything, now!

magic magic

@ the middle east upstairs

monday, july 20th

green day

the bravery

@ the garden

tuesday, july 21st

mark eitzel & marc capelle

performing american music club songs

@ the lizard lounge

friday, july 24th

varsity drag (cd release!)

the grownup noise

winterpills

brendan boogie & the best intentions

@ the middle east upstairs

sunday, july 26th

pete yorn

@ the house of blues

tuesday, july 28th

cass mccombs

jennifer o'connor & band

mike bones

@ tt the bears

wednesday, july 29th

foreign born

the veils

faces on film

@ tt the bears

thursday, july 30th

justin ripley & his band

@ pa's lounge

friday, july 31st

destroyer (dan bejar)

iran

wooden wand

@ the paradise

friday, july 31st

depeche mode

peter bjorn & john

@ great woods

saturday, august 1st

alasdair roberts

@ lorem ipsum books, inman square

saturday, august 1st

wheat (cd release show!)

the xyz affair

@ great scott

sunday, august 2nd

soft power (featuring mary timony)

gramercy arms (featuring dave derby)

@ tt the bears

monday, august 3rd

billy bragg

@ the berklee performance center

monday, august 3rd

tinted windows

(james iha, adam schlesinger,

taylor hanson, & bun e. carlos)

@ the paradise

monday, august 3rd

coldplay

elbow

kitty daisy & lewis

@ the comcast center

wednesday, august 5th

the rural alberta advantage

joshua english (ex-six going on seven)

with lisa molinaro

baby teeth

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, august 5th

arctic monkeys

modey lemon

@ the paradise

wednesday, august 5th

joe pernice (solo show & book tour)

@ the brattle theatre (2 shows)

wednesday and thursday

august 5th and 6th

paul mccartney

@ fenway park

friday, august 7th

the electric prunes

love

sky saxon (of the seeds)

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, august 8th

blondie

pat benatar

@ the b.o.a. pavilion

wednesday, august 12th

the warlocks

@ great scott

wednesday, august 12th

the pretenders

cat power

juliette lewis

@ the bank of american pavilion

thursday, august 13th

bat for lashes

@ the paradise

friday, august 14th

six finger satellite

@ tt the bears

sunday, august 16th

the decemberists

heartless bastards

@ mountain park, holyoke

sunday, august 16th

trashcan sinatras

@ tt the bears

monday, august 17th

the breeders

@ the paradise

friday, august 21st

choo choo la rouge (cd release!)

the big disappointments

impossible hair

the operators

@ pa's lounge

saturday & sunday

august 22nd & 23rd

bruce springsteen & the e street band

@ the comcast center / great woods

saturday, august 29th

caspain

actors & actresses

irepress

arms & sleepers

@ tt the bears

sunday, august 30th

the flaming lips

explosions in the sky

stardeath and white dwarfs

@ the boa pavilion

thursday, september 3rd

kay hanley (letters to cleo)

antisocialites

ingenue

@ tt the bears

saturday, september 5th

the pains of being pure at heart

cymbals eat guitars

depreciation guild

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, september 5th

pet shop boys

@ the house of blues

thursday, september 10th

autolux

sleepy sun

@ the paradise

thursday, september 10th

dirty three

@ the i.c.a. boston

friday, september 11th

kings of leon

glasvegas

@ the comcast center / great woods

saturday, september 12th

the cult

performing 'love' in its entirety

@ the house of blues

sunday, september 13th

down

melvins

@ the house of blues

tuesday, september 15th

the horrors

@ the paradise

saturday & sunday

september 19th & 20th

boston lebowski fest

with movie screening & bowling

@ the house of blues & kings

sunday, september 20th

snow patrol

@ gillette stadium

tuesday, september 22nd

son volt

@ the paradise

friday, september 25th

township

the lights out (cd release!)

reverse

gravehaven

@ tt the bears

friday, september 25th

charlatans uk

hatcham social

@ the paradise

saturday, september 26th

kmfdm

@ the house of blues

sunday, september 20th

maximo park

@ the paradise

monday, september 28th

sunny day real estate

@ the house of blues

wednesday, september 30th

mono

maserati

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, october 4th

the "loud & rich" tour

richard thompson &

loudon wainwright iii

performing solo & together

@ the sanders theatre, harvard

wednesday, october 7th

bob mould

@ the paradise

saturday, october 10th

the psychedelic furs

happy monday

@ the house of blues

wednesday, october 14th

loney dear

asobi seksu

@ great scott

wednesday, october 21st

mum

@ the somerville theatre

saturday, october 31st

pinback

@ the paradise

friday, november 13th

janeane garofalo

rob riggle

two shows @ the wilbur theatre

visit tourfilter for more shows

So I'm not much of a music festival-goer. Lack of spare travel-time, discretionary funds, and mild enochlophobia usually keep me away from any major multi-day events. Sure, I've been to some over the years, but the ones that have drawn me are few and very far between: down the coast to D.C. for the Teenbeat Records 20th anniversary fest last year; 3000 miles to London for 4AD's 13 Year Itch in '94; a couple block walk in my old hometown of Burlington, VT for Sub Pop's Vermonstress back in '92 (fests were such a rarity up there, we were inspired to just do them ourselves).

There've been more than enough bloggers (and not enough bands I deeply love) at the Coachellas, the Bonnaroos, the later-day Lollapaloozas. I could semi-experience them all vicariously through the wealth of photos, audio, and video coverage that appeared online shortly after each. But there was one fest, from the moment it was announced last summer, that I knew I had to be at: The Touch & Go Records 25th Anniversary Celebration. Didn't matter if cash was tight, if vaca-days were scarce, if hotels were either full up or too expensive... free will simply didn't factor in. Too many beloved bands were playing, some reuniting after years apart, musicians I thought I'd never get to see on a stage together again. I've got more Touch & Go discs on my shelves than nearly any other label, and I wanted to be part of the crowd that celebrated their existence. So air travel was booked, couch space was found, and off to Chicago I flew on Friday morning, September 8th, 2006.

32 acts performed over three days, and I was there for every one of 'em, from the warm Friday evening start to chilly Sunday night finish, from the first notes of Shipping News straight through to Calexico's overtime encore. It was both exhausting and exhilarating, I ate far too little for the beers I downed, and by the end my feet hurt like holy hell. And how to describe what it was like to see some of my favorite bands in one place, playing so many songs that have made up the soundtrack to my fanboy existence? The hyperbole (or 'hyper-bowl' said Mr. Crow) could come easy, but so much of what I'd write was said over and over again from the festival's two stages, by the musicians themselves.

By the time I flew home, I'd spent almost 30 hours standing in the Chicago municipal parking lot adjacent to the Hideout, the bar that was also celebrating its own anniversary of 10 years by hosting this huge block party. Thanks to the two-stage setup, there was very little between-band downtime, with some acts starting up as others faded out. Even grabbing food or a bathroom break meant you might miss something... the whole event ran that smooth. As an audio archivist, I had to make a few decisions: Check out a band I kinda like, or score a good spot on the other end of the lot for one I really love? Get stuck in the back for Shellac, or miss Man or Astro-man?

In the end, I managed to capture sounds from all but two of the appearing acts, and I'll be offering up some songs over three posts during this last month of 2006, one for each day of the fest. I've given a lot of thought on how exactly to share this stuff, how best to honor the label without stepping on their toes. Asking around at the anniversary, I was told that official audio recordings weren't being made, but that videographers were recording as much as they could for later (eventually to be posted on T&G's website?). Since some artists only played for a few minutes, others performed songs I couldn't identify, and some random technical glitches, I've decided to share a couple tracks from each act I saw.

And so here's the first night of the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary Celebration, recorded on September 8th, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. The sound quality of this particular day's mp3s isn't as good as the other two, thanks to a faulty mini-disc setting and the general difficulty in capturing outdoor aural action, but it's still more than worth a listen. Things get much better on day two and three. I'm going to keep my commentary on each band to a minimum, or I'll never get this post finish. Oh, and head to the bottom for a fest-related giveaway...

Tim Tuten from the Hideout, our endearingly talkative
host for the entire weekend, kicks things off by introducing...

Shipping News

Mp3: "(Morays or) Demon" (live)
Mp3: "Axons and Dendrites" (live)

A perfect start to the whole event, Shipping News had a new limited edition single ("Claws") specially made for the festival, and gave them out free to attendees. Nice touch.

(T&G band page / Southern site / MySpace fan site)

Supersystem (R.I.P.)

Mp3: "Born Into The World" (live)
Mp3: "The Pinnacle of Experience" (live)

I hadn't heard much Supersystem before they took the stage, even in their previous incarnation as Dischord band El Guapo. Unfortunately for fans of either band, they've just called it quits according to this message on their website...

"Friends,

After 10 years, the members of Supersystem/El Guapo have decided to disband. From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank everyone at Touch and Go, Dischord, Flower, Locusta, and others too numerous to name here for all your help over the years.

Most of all we would like to thank everyone who supported us, saw us play, listened to our music, set up a show, played a show with us, or otherwise participated in making our time as a band really awesome. We appreciate it and will miss you!

Love,
Supersystem

(Official site / T&G band page / Album stream / MySpace)

Girls Against Boys

Mp3: "Rockets Are Red" (live)
Mp3: "Super-Fire" (live)

The first jaw-dropping performance of the fest, GvsB played their entire 1993 T&G album "Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby" from start to finish as the sun went down, then threw a few faves on the end of the set for good measure. Loaned out and lost long ago, I re-bought the album immediately after they left the stage at the Reckless Records tent.

(Official site / T&G band page / MySpace fan page)

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Mp3: "Sons of Cain" (live)
Mp3: "Suspect Device" (live Stiff Little Fingers cover)

"Sons of Cain", which has made the rounds in both demo & live form over the past year, is likely to be one of the highlights of TL/Rx's upcoming album, "Living With The Living", the band's first for Touch & Go. I can't get enough of the song... not just the killer guitar line, but the way the bass holds off for the first minute or so, the drum accents that last just a little longer than expected, the rising walk into the bass/drum breakdown, and Ted's unrestrained "Heeeeey!"s near the end. So good. Pray for his voice, kids: We never want to see the "Great Vocal Chord Inflammation of '03" happen again. Guy's got a lot more songs to sing for us next year...

(Official site / T&G band page / MySpace / Lookout page)

!!!

Mp3: "Must Be The Moon" (live)
Mp3: "All My Heroes Are Weirdos" (live)

The first night ended with a set of self-described "live dance music" from !!! (Chk Chk Chk). Not exactly my thing, but they do what they do very well, and treated a fairly enthusiastic crowd to songs from their upcoming disc "Myth Takes", which will be out in March on Warp. Studio versions of both songs above will be found the album, along with eight other new tracks.

(Official site / T&G band page / MySpace)

A whole lot of fest-related links...

Touch & Go founder Corey Rusk, who himself was the target of so much gratitude all weekend, shares his own heartfelt thank you note.

Touch & Go's official festival photo archive.

Although I traveled out to the fest solo, I spent lots of time hangin' with new friend and all around good guy from D.C., Sean K., who wrote up his experience in this Razorcake review. Nice to re-live the whole thing through his words, although I'll say one thing about the article: he needs to find a better photographer...

... take John in Houston's shots, for example. Great photos to be found in his Flickr set. John was another guy I was glad to run into while I was out there. The fest became not just about the bands, but the tangibly warm vibe, and I met a whole bunch of people who helped make that so.

For more visual evidence, check out my own T&G fest Flickr set, the Flickr T&G fest pool, or some shots from newzeroeurope, kirstiecat, and Ryan Gear.

Chicago resident Mike, aka mrhonorama, reflected on the fest in words and photos on his MySpace blog here, here, and here.

A couple YouTube users shared up some videos: peasinspace has clips, as does leeharvey43.

T&G fest coverage (mostly via photos) from two of the usual suspects: BrooklynVegan (day 1/2/3) and Stereogum (1/2/3).

On the wall behind me here at work hangs a framed T&G festival poster, one of the two gorgeous prints that sold out over the weekend. I actually waited too long to grab one there (didn't want to drag it around), but was fortunate enough to order one up at artist Kathleen Judge's website. Not sure she has any left, but it's worth dropping her an email through there. I admittedly had a tough time deciding between her print, or the one by Jay Ryan, which you can take a look at here, although it's unfortunately no longer available.

And lastly, a holiday gift for making it to the end of this post: a copy of the instantly-out-of-print Shipping News single "Claws" that the band had pressed and available for free at the festival's Reckless Records tent. If you live in North America and want one of your own, send an email (subject: Claws!) with your mailing address to giveaways[-at-]bradleysalmanac[-dot-]com before midnight on Wednesday, December 13th. I'll pick one random entrant and send it along soon after.

Mp3s from the second day of the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary Celebration should be posted next week. Key word: should. Lots to be done between now and then...

Labels: livemp3s, touchandgo

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