Rocking the Routine
Posted on September 30, 2005 at 2:14 pm | No Comments
I’m not one of those bloggers who shares information about what I do for work. Regular readers know I only go so far as to whine about how busy things are here. You’ll never find me dishing details, ‘cuz it’s just not something I find all that appropriate, necessary, or frankly very interesting. Well, it might be interesting for me, but I know it sure wouldn’t be for you. I keep my online life and my cube-dwelling days as separate as possible…
So let me just say that yesterday was not like any other day here at the ol’ workplace. The building is still buzzing, it’s a little hard to focus, the times they are a-changin’. Or maybe they aren’t. Time will tell. My working world has suddenly shifted, and I’ll leave it at that.
Oh, a new personal pledge: Since the Almanac has never had what anyone could consider a ‘regular schedule’ for posts, except for the fact that new mp3s usually appear Monday-ish, I’ve decided to set myself a little goal.
Starting now, I’m sticking to at least two big posts per week: Music on Mondays, and a big ol’ collection of links and news on Thursdays. That’s just a minimum, though, so it certainly won’t prevent me from rambling whenever I dang well please. Mondays and Thursdays, though? Always. That’s the plan, anyway.
Alright, before the weekend hits, let’s do this thing…
Great show on tap for tomorrow night here in Boston, what with former Guided By Voices guitarist guy Doug Gillard playing at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge as part of NEMO. I’m very psyched to hear him play songs from his excellent solo disc, ‘Salamander‘. Joining him in the lineup are the also-pretty-excellent Dirty On Purpose from NYC, along with Doveman, Celebrity Pilots, and Snowleopards.
The show is actually a donewaiting.com showcase, and I’m pretty into that ‘cuz I’ve been reading Robert Duffy’s site for quite awhile now. He’s started up his own label called Sunken Treasure, and their first release is by the afforementioned Celebrity Pilots. Mr. Duffy will be appeared at a Saturday afternoon NEMO panel as well called ‘Creating a Buzz’, so if you’re into that sort of thing, do go and check it out.
Kochalkaholic is a website dedicated to all things James-Kochalka-related; his music, his comics, his daily online diary strip, you name it. Two of my favorite people, Colin Clary & Jason Cooley, were interviewed by site-keeper Alan David Doane thanks to their frequent collaborations with James. For Colin’s interview, head here, and for Jason’s click this.
Speaking of Colin, one of his bands, The Smittens, just released their second disc ‘A Little Revolution’ on North of January records. I’ve got it, and it’s the exact opposite of a sophomore slump. Near perfect pop from five of the nicest people you could meet.
They’ll be playing this weekend as part of Popfest! New England 2005 out in Northampton, MA. I’m hoping that work doesn’t get in the way, so I can drive out there and catch not just them, but the brilliant Trembling Blue Stars, who will supposedly be playing their very last live show there. Bigtime bummer, that is.
Another fest I have a far less likely chance of attending: Record label 4AD’s 25th Anniversary celebration in London. What a lineup…
November 17th – TV On The Radio plus special guests (@ The Scala)
November 18th – Minotaur Shock & Magnetophone plus special guests (@ The Luminaire)
November 19th – The Breeders plus special guests (@ Blackheath Halls)
November 20th – The Breeders plus special guests (@ Blackheath Halls)
November 21th – Kristin Hersh performing the songs of Throwing Muses (@ The Scala)
November 22th – Kristin Hersh performing songs from Hips And Makers onwards (@ The Scala)
November 23th – The Mountain Goats plus special guests (@ Bush Hall)
November 24th – Celebration plus special guests (@ The Water Rats)
November 25th – Mojave 3 & Mark Kozelek (@ Conway Hall)
November 27th – Blonde Redhead & Johann Johannsson (@ The Scala)
I was lucky enough to attend 4AD’s ’13 Year Itch’, which was their 1993 13th anniversary party, and it was one of the best weeks of live music of my life. I can feel this new one pulling me over the ocean, and I might just start looking into airline fares…
The early 90s shoegazing scene gets a full-on tribute with the just-released ‘Never Lose That Feeling #1‘, a spiffy-looking collection of covers. Songs written by Ride, Curve, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Slowdive, Pale Saints, Ultra Vivid Scene, Moose, Spiritualized and more, covered by the likes of Andrew Kenny (from American Analog Set), Windermere, Amusement Parks On Fire, Air Formation, and Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa. Great songs selections, can’t wait to hear them all.
For four of the songs, head to this myspace page, and for a review of the collection, hit up Drowned in Sound.
Bob Nanna (ex-Friction, Braid, Hey Mercedes) is playing out under the moniker The City on Film, and soon Redder Records will release his ‘American Diary‘, an EP derived from his many cross-country road trips. Redder was kind enough to send along an mp3 link to this track, ‘Pony’s Last Trick‘, so take a listen.
Also coming out soon on Redder is the debut disc from The Tiny Amps, titled ‘Trill & Swagger’. Judging by a preview track, I’m gonna love the thing. Check out the song ‘Dance on a Crowded Floor‘ for yourself right here. I can’t believe I’ve been missing their Boston area shows for so long, and I’m really gonna have to fix that.
As Jackie kindly mentioned in an earlier comment, Bell Orchestre and Clogs are coming to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in early November. There’s some member crossover in those bands between The Arcade Fire and The National, so the buzz buzz buzz will likely get loud, and tickets will definitely disappear. If you wanna go, get clickin’.
Speaking of The National, Vincent Moon has some video downloads available for their ‘Lit Up‘ and ‘Daughters of the Soho Riots‘, along with the Clogs ‘Lantern‘.
Want some more easy Sigur R�s downloads? Check out Sonic Plague for a clip of their appearance on the Late Late Show awhile back, along with mp3s from their 2001 gig at Boston’s Berklee Performance Center.
Glad to read more about the upcoming reissue of Explosions in the Sky’s first disc on Temporary Residence. Want want want. Go grab an mp3 from it, and read of their contribution to the Travels in Constants EP series while you’re there.
The new Supergrass album, ‘Road to Rouen‘, came out earlier this week, and you can listen to an album sampler here. I lost track of them for years, but they’ve certainly mellowed with age. Not sure what I think about that.. seems to be an entirely different band from the ‘Caught By The Fuzz‘ days, but I fully intend to give the new one a little time to sink in.
The first video off the disc is ‘St. Petersburg‘, and here’s a ton of links to various flavors of it: Windows Media 100 / Windows Media 300 / Realmedia 100 / Realmedia 300 / Quicktime 100 / Quicktime 300 / Quicktime 750
Attention Boston-area fans of funny-girl Sarah Silverman: She’s coming to town as part of the Boston Jewish Film Fest, screening her film ‘Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic’. It was directed by the uber-talented Liam Lynch (who is also directing the upcoming Tenacious D movie), and I’m just dyin’ to see it. Tickets will be available starting this Monday morning, October 3rd, and the festival takes place from November 2nd to the 13th.
I’ve got comic writer and novelist Greg Rucka on the brain lately after checking out his newly redesigned website and learning that his second Queen & Country hardcover, ‘Private Wars’, is coming out in October. I feel compelled to shake his hand when he comes to town this weekend as part of the first Wizard World Boston comic convention. I’d love to see a couple of my favorite artists, John Cassaday and David Mack, as well, but I’ve got to be in a very particular mood in order to tolerate the massive throng of fandom that’ll be gathered over in the Bayside Expo center. We’ll see if that mood hits me tomorrow.
Another comic-y bit of news: Carnivale (a damn good show that I’m still kinda bitter about losing) creator Daniel Knauf has been tapped to write Iron Man. His six-issue stint will begin in spring 2006. Now, it’s been over a decade since I’ve read a solo Iron Man book, but his involvement is enough to get me on board. Ink me intrigued.
Hey, if it does well, can someone get him to crank out a Carnivale continuation in comic form? How about a freakin’ novel? Hell, I’d even take a two-paragraph post on a messageboard, Mr. Knauf. I’ve gotta know what happened to Justin! The fantastic (but unplanned) finale of that show left us with the worst unanswered questions since “Where’s Annie?”. Painful.
Also painful? The one and only David Lynch will be in Boston tomorrow night, giving a talk entitled ‘CONSCIOUSNESS, CREATIVITY, and the BRAIN’, along with quantum physicist Dr. John Hagelin and neuroscientist Dr. Fred Travis. Now, that’s not painful, although it might hurt your brain. What smarts is that it’s Students Only, general public be damned. Curses!
The USA network has decided to bring back sci-fi series The 4400 for a third season. I’m glad to hear it, especially after the cliffhangin’ finale of season two, although I wouldn’t exactly have been crushed otherwise… while it’s certainly a solid show, you won’t catch me raving.
Dood. The PC demo for Call of Duty 2 is out. I loves me some WWII first person shooter action, and this one is supposed to raise the bar. Perfectly timed for the weekend, it is.
One of my fave Boston authors, Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, the Kenzie & Gennaro novels, etc), is currently teaching down at his Florida alma mater, St. Petersburg’s Eckerd College, and this article reveals that he’s written a play called ‘Coronado’ that will be performed down there in April. Also shared is a little bit of info on his next novel, which I’m eagerly awaiting. The relevant bit…
Lehane continues to write while teaching.
For the time being, he has retired the quirky detective duo, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, who are the protagonists in several of his novels.
He is at work on an epic novel, centering on the 1919 Boston police strike but containing a national sweep. It might be the first of a trilogy or perhaps a four-book series, he said.
And it’s tough going.
“Absolutely brutal,” he said. “I’m earning my paycheck on this one.”
It’s working title?
Lehane doesn’t reveal such things.
“One of my superstitions,” he said.
Sounds great, can’t wait. In other Lehane news, this new interview with A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olsen ends with this exciting tid-bit…
“…the next thing I�m doing after [a project called Monster] is directing an adaptation of a Dennis Lehane short story called Until Gwen .”
I’ve read that short story, and it’s killer. Good news all around. Oh, and A History of Violence was amazing, by the way. All those four-star reviews don’t lie.
Another of my favorite Boston fiction writers, Robert B. Parker, has a new Spenser hardcover called ‘School Days‘ out this week, and he’s making a few east coast appearances to do a little reading and signing. Check here to see if he’s going to be near you.
I can’t seem to get off the subject of my favorite fiction. Here’s a fantastic Time Magazine interview that teams up Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman to mark today’s release of Whedon’s Firefly film, Serenity, and Gaiman’s own Mirrormask movie (as well as Neil’s new novel, Anansi Boys, which will debut at #1 on the NYTimes bestseller list). I’ll be seeing both movies this weekend, although I did already catch a preview of Serenity a few months back. It’s excellent, and more than worth your hard earned dollars. I’ll be doing my part to pump up the box office totals so we end up with a sequel, and I feel lucky to be in one of the few cities that gets Mirrormask on its first weekend, so I’ll be at the Kendall sometime, at least when I’m not watching the Red Sox fight the Yanks for the division. Good times.
Oh, and for more Whedony goodness, here’s a little interview with Mr. Sunnydale in Boston’s own Weekly Dig.
I’ve finally updated the blogroll in the right hand column over there, expanding my ‘music, mostly’ links list by adding some more of my favorite places. I’ve been so dependent on my rss reader that I sometimes forget that thing is over there. You’ll probably notice that I actually added a ‘previous posts’ lists as well. Only took me a few years.
A great big thankyouthankyouthankyou to the kind surfers who have donated towards the Making Strides Breast Cancer Walk that Amie and I are doing in a couple weeks. You already helped me blow away my initial modest goal, so I’ve raised it slightly higher. If anyone else out there wants to pledge online, it’d be most appreciated by not just me, but the rest of Team Genevieve.
As promised, on Monday I’ll be posting AminA’s set from the Boston Opera House a couple weeks back, when they opened for Sigur Ros. Sounds great, looking forward to sharing it. Until then…
Mp3s: Kay Hanley & Buffalo Tom at Brookline 300
Posted on September 26, 2005 at 11:22 am | No Comments
It was a slightly surreal Sunday morning, as I hopped on my bike and pedaled a couple miles to Coolidge Corner, having read that Kay Hanley would be playing on an outdoor stage at noon. Although the former Letters To Cleo singer had left Boston behind for life in L.A. (and I don’t mean Lower Allston), she was back to help Brookline celebrate it’s 300th anniversary, along with still-local boys Buffalo Tom, who were scheduled later that day at 5pm.
It was a day well spent, as I love unusual venues and the atypical crowds that show up at free events (although watching the Sox get crushed on the telly in between the two sets wasn’t so fun). The audience was filled with families, dancing kids, and friends of the musicians, there was beer on tap, and the smell of local food vendors in the air.
I wasn’t sure how the recording would turn out, as it was the first time I’d taped something outdoors with my new setup. I was in the middle of a relaxed, chatty crowd who often wandered in front of the mic, so while there’s an occasional bit of audio weirdness, the sound mix was pretty good considering.
So here’s both sets, starting with Kay Hanley and her excellent backing band. They did a bunch of stuff off her solo releases, ‘Cherry Marmalade‘ and ‘The Babydoll EP‘, along with a bunch of Letters to Cleo songs…
live at Brookline 300
Brookline, MA
Sunday, September 18th, 2005
1. Happy To Be Here
2. Mean Streak
3. Big Star
4. Satellite
5. Veda Very Shining
6. Sparklegirl
7. In Clouds
8. Fall
9. Awake
10. Te Amo
A few hours later, the three gents who are Buffalo Tom took the stage to much applause. Hard to believe they’ve been around for almost 20 years, and contrary to the occasional rumor, have never actually broken up. They’re still chugging along, and actually working on a new album for release on Kimchee Records.
It had been so long since I’d seen them, maybe somewhere on Lansdowne Street in the early 90s, although I’ve seen plenty of solo sets and guest appearances from both guitarist/singer Bill Janovitz and bassist/singer Chris Colbourn in the years since. Was real nice to see the three of them on stage together again. They ran through a bunch of old faves, and threw in a new song and a Stones cover for good measure…
live at Brookline 300
Brookline, MA
Sunday, September 18th, 2005
1. Velvet Roof
2. Summer
3. Under My Thumb (Stones cover)
4. Birdbrain
5. Kitchen Door
6. The Wiggles (sort of)
7. Sparklers
8. Treehouse
9. Clobbered
10. Sodajerk
11. Good Girl (new)
12. Late At Night
13. Tangerine
According to the Kimchee Records site, Buffalo Tom is finishing up their next album this month, it’ll be out next year (although not on Kimchee), and Mission of Burma’s Clint Conley makes a guest appearance on it. Nice.
Other BT related news: Chris Colbourn has teamed up with Fuzzy’s Hilken Mancini to record a disc of their own, and Kimchee will be putting it out. Won’t have to wait long, as the release date is November 15th. They’ve got a notable guest star of their own in Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis, who plays on the record.
Bill Janovitz’s other band, Crown Victoria, will also be a part of a Brookline 300th Anniversary event when they play a heated tent in Lars Anderson Park. They’ll be followed by fireworks, and in a perfect world that’d happen exactly when they hit the last note of the very last song. Their 2004 disc is called ‘Fireworks on TV‘, after all.
If the ‘Under My Thumb‘ cover isn’t enough evidence of Bill J’s love for early Stones, you should check out his contribution to the 33 1/3 series of album-exploring books. He wrote an in-depth look at their seminal ‘Exile on Main Street‘.
Before I sign off, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention Dan Speca’s amazing Buffalo Tom fansite, The Kitchen Door. A must-visit for any BT fan.
As always, if the artists or anyone involved in the making of their music has an issue with my making these tracks available, just say the word. I am but a humble listener.
Oh, and for those waiting patiently for the AminA set, who opened that Sigur Ros Opera House show a couple weeks back, I’ll have it up next Monday, promise.