Stellastarr* - Editors Show

I apologize for the cell phone pictures. I called ahead for permission to bring the real thing and they politely told me to bite my palms. Once the show started I discovered, to my surprise, that I was the only person in the club without a camera...

Never ask permission.

Stellastarr* was great on stage, as they always are. Editors were new to us but we were glad we stayed late to see them play. Their disc The Black Room is also very much worth a spin. Very Intorpol meets Joy Division (they've actually already met) meets cold, isolated, industrial town...tasty! 

Sprung

 

Snow In April

The Complete Guide To Insufficiency

It's indie folk without an audience in mind, which is a quality I always gravitate to. It's Devendra Banhart meets Antony and the Johnsons meets M. Ward (which makes for enough jangling sadness to fill any rainy day with the kind of melancholy usually reserved for chemical induction).

There is a significant talent at work here. This is a small album of beautiful, difficult and moving music that is worth a listen.

David Thomas Broughton

The Complete Guide To Insufficiency

From The Archives

I was up late last night working on my new play (I'm writing a lavish Broadway musical version of Brad Pitt's masterpiece Meet Joe Black...my contention has long been that what the film version lacked was showgirls and a live orchestra...we're also going to have the ushers walk down the isles and slap members of the audience in the face with free copies of Manhattan), and as I worked I let iTunes have it's random way with my music collection. It seemed to be in a very Doors/Procol Harum kind of mood so I was surprised when I suddenly found myself in a club in 1994 feeling very free and quite sophisticated as I danced to some dub remix of Siouxsie and the Banshees' The Ghost In You...I could almost feel the liner burning my eyes.

I have no idea what hardcore Siouxsie fans think of Superstition...I never had much of a sense really, but from a band who's every disc I like, Superstition was my favorite. It was the most lush and probably the most accessible member of a considerable discography which makes me wonder if the fans don't scoff at it a bit. Hardcore fans are creepy. btw...I have an original German import of Join Hands on 'picture disk' vinyl if anyone's interested.

Four Albums

I've been near to madness lately. I've heard a fair bit if good music over the past couple months but, busy with my camera and spending much of my listening hours wandering through old favorites, I've quickly grown anxious for a new experience. This has been, perhaps, the longest stretch in recent years I've suffered without finding a new favorite. And then this morning, as I was putting the last peices of the new computer together, I find a kindred spirit on some remote island blog in Australia.

We chatted for a while about the really important stuff and swapped some favorite 'recent finds'. Thanks to my new mate on the bottom of the planet for lifting the sails on my drifting ship.

I give you four new(ish) albums for spring...each of them an unlikely choice, but all brandishing that perfect blend of sophistication and pop that we aging hipsters require.

Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time (download the outstanding track funeral here)
Dirty On Purpose - Sleep Late For A Better Tomorrow
Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures

I know what you're thinking, too. "Two months with not a hint of anything of quality, just a bunch of stupid tree pictures, and now he pulls four actual albums simultaniously out of thin air..."

Well, it is spring after all.

And I'm a new man. Look at me...I'm totally here for you.

System Error

For the two of you who check back here, an update: my computer has gone the way of all expensive things that I ever own...to a pile of circuit boards on the floor. As the unwieldy digital library of photos, music and video (and the backup of all of that) creeps up over 2 TBs the method in which I store and backup everything needed to be brought into the late 90's. Turns out just stringing a bunch of external drives together with USB hubs is dangerous and stupid (who knew?) and now that I've lost 4 of them to failure it's becoming expensive too. So we're moving the desktop up to a type 1 RAID array. Which is college talk for "you'll have to buy a whole new rig."

We may be up and running tomorrow, but I'm guessing Wednsday or Thursday. My ulcer will be gone a year from now.

Much love!

Fat Daddy

our corner of the sky

 

thirty below and we're far gone

 

Drummer

Guster