G.Love and Jack's Mannequin (shut up): A Review

I am from San Diego. Del Mar, to be exact. It is a beautiful place to call home and a great place to grow up, but home is home no matter where you live if you get what I'm saying. Anyways, during the summer it becomes a huge tourist destination. The Del Mar Racetrack is one of the main attractions, and in exchange for making our town overrun with tourists in ridiculous hats and creating large amounts of traffic, the racetrack offers 4 O' Clock Fridays, a free-ish summer concert series (free with $6 racetrack admission). Whoever the concert promoter is, he or she always brings in some pretty good bands. This summer includes G.Love & Special Sauce, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Flaming Lips, Pinback, and Pete Yorn. I'll be back at school for some of these, but I did get to see G.Love last friday.

I was skeptical at first when G.Love & Special Sauce took the stage, but once they started a shout and response with the audience during "Can't Go Back to Jersey", they got the crowd moving and kept the momentum going for the rest of their set. They're music is pretty funky, a mix of r&b, blues, rock, and rap. Eventually I found myself grooving and dancing amongst a sea of drunken and sunburnt adults. They ran through their popular songs (My Baby's Got Sauce, Peace, Love, and Happiness, Milk and Cereal) and ended with a surprisingly good cover of The Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" They came back onstage for a long encore that included a duet with singer/song-writer and Del Mar local Tristan Prettyman. Overall, it was a show that was well worth my $6.

Also, I saw Jack's Mannequin on Tuesday at a local arena venue with my sister and one of my best friends. YES I like Jack's Mannequin. They are the ultimate guilty pleasure, fulfilling my girly and sometimes emo musical needs. They destroyed the stage with their emotional piano pop rock. Andrew McMahon is a talented pianist/frontman and their music is a lot more rocking live than on the album. An advantage of huge expensive arena tours is that the lights are usually incredible, which they most definitely were. The band went through a short set of the popular songs from their two albums and ended with an epic cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "American Girl". A side note to male bloggers and readers: if you are looking to pick up girls, go to a Jack's Mannequin concert. 

Jack's Mannequin was opening for The Fray. I stayed for one song. If you're into the prime time Grey's Anatomy soundtrack I guess they would be good, but I personally felt that their light show was far more exciting than their music. As I made my way out of the amphitheater the scent of weed hung fresh in the air. Who would smoke weed at a Fray concert? To each his own I suppose.

Dear My Favorite Bloggers

There is a small co-op in the town over from me called Wrench in the Works which is a small little nook with books and a small stage and members can use the space for their liking. About two-and-a-half years ago I went to see my friend Becky Noonan play guitar and sing. While waiting for her to play, my then-lover (?) picked a book up off of their bookshelves called "How We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love" and looked at the first poem; titled "Salat" it is a poem of only nine lines. Becky then began her show and we stopped looking at the book, but for the next couple of weeks I just kept thinking about it. What a name for a book: "How We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love."

I eventually forgot about it for a while only to suddenly remember the book while walking outside one day. I came home and racked my brain to remember the titled. To make a long story short, I found a copy of the book at a used book store and I bought it. The author is E. Ethelbert Miller and in Washington, DC, he has a day - September 28th - which is also my Mom's birthday. One of my top three is titled "14th Street Station" and the page has been folded over so much that the crease is as ingrained in the page as the poem is ingrained in my memory. Here it is for you to enjoy:

14th Street Station
by E Ethelbert Miller

I want to hug you close
in subways that no longer
belong to New York and feel
the softness beneath your
dress like when you walk or
dance and the poetry is in
your eyes and I read them
aloud and taste the words
on my tongue and to speak
another language is to love
and touch you tonight or to
follow you home is to say
I will miss you whenever
I breathe in dark places or
where trains run and your
hands remain invisible on
my chest like tracks we
might one day cross

Taste = Experience ?

Carrie's recent blogpost in addition to my experience driving past some ethnically dressed people has got me thinking about our experience when dining in ethnic restaurants.

Chang's (Storrs, CT): Does anyone remember that protest outside of the high school last year about how the Chang's workers were all here illegally and were being paid under minimum wage and living in a basement? That shit was legit! Or when I ask the lady for "tofu with broccoli in brown sauce" she has no idea what I am talking about because she can only understand enough English for me to tell her the numbers from the menu. Everyone who works there is Asian.

Guapo's (Washington, DC): Mexican restaurant where I feel as if I can almost see the sombreros on all of the waiters. They are all Hispanic and all probably under 5’6”. They are constantly brining you chips and salsa while talking in a heavy Mexican accent.

La Petite France (Stafford, CT): Bakery where I work. The owners (Romeo and Alexandra) are from France and speak in extremely heavy accents. Alexandra’s grandmother has also been helping out recently and is here from France for a few months. She is about eighty years old and wears dresses, orthopedic shoes, and sneakers while smiling at me in silence when I do something correctly because she cannot speak a word of English.


Willington Pizza (Willington, CT): No one Italian works here.

Abyssinian (West Hartford, CT): They guy who served my food last time I was there was most definitely not Ethiopian.

McDonalds (Everywhere?): Pretty sure they don’t only have Americans working there serving our American food.

See how in the picture something just looks wrong? YEAH IT’S BECAUSE THE SERVER doesn’t exactly fit. It would be like if the guy from Chang’s were working at the Abyssinian or if a Guapo’s waiter served your food at La Petite France or if a black guy served you sushi. It just doesn’t fit.

Discuss…

New Order soundboard recording from Blackpool, 1982.

"There is no end to this, I have seen your face but I don't recognize all the things you must have left behind. It's a problem, you know, that's been there all your life. I tried to make you see the world without you that just turned black and white." (New Order "Procession" lyrics).

An early soundboard recording from the British electronic pop band New Order. One of their early appearances, the band was still reeling from the suicide of their former singer, Ian Curtis.

"This was not long after Ian Curtis passed away and the band became New Order instead of Joy Division. I thought they felt almost uncomfortable on stage, they seemed like reluctant heroes, like they didn't really want to be there."
-Francesco Mellina 1981

A year later, the band began to mature and develop a new, unique, musical identity. This particular recording captures the essence of this maturity and musical progression. Ian Curtis had been the creative focus of Joy Division, yet 1982 verified the ability of the band to continue the soulful performances of their past as well as progress towards an electronic dimension of sound.

The bass levels and distortion give me chills every time I listen to this.

Best of 2009: The First Draft

Considering how en vogue it is to tout your own pseudo-elitist "best albums" roll call in order to promote one's own sense of self-indulgent musical superiority, I figure I'd best start on this project now; if I wait until the end times of 2009 to begin, I'm certain that some gems would be lost in the proverbial mix. Thus, with a clear and conscious mind, I begin:

RAY'S BEST ALBUMS OF 2009 VERSION APLHA-1.0

I've already predicted what the vast majority of these sort of things will look like, with every hipster douchebag in the world fawning over the exceedingly mediocre Animal Collective release, Merriweather Post Pavillion. I apologize for bursting the bubble of perceived snobby coolness here, but Animal Collective has always been mediocre at best - they are a band restricted by their own ridiculous sense of avant-garde. The whooping, hollering, and yelping...art it does not make. And anyway -

Grizzly Bear - Vecktamist
Castevet - Summer Fences (Best Debut LP of 2009)
The Chariot - Wars and Rumours of Wars (Best Post/Hardcore Album of 2009)
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Kevin Devine - Brother's Blood
Mastodon - Crack the Skye (Best Metal Album of 2009)
Metric - Fantasies (Best Pop Album of 2009)
mewithoutYou - It's all Crazy! It's all False! It's all a Dream! It's Alright!
Mount Eerie - Wind Poem
Radical Face - Ghost
Say Hi - Oohs and Aahs
Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade (Best Black Metal Album of 2009)

These aren't in any particular order, and still have to be sorted out...but that gives you some modicum of an idea into the way I'm leaning here.

Singing Children Are So Hot Right Now

Featuring a children's choir/chorus seems to be a foolproof formula for a good song

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

Thanks to Pineapple Express I think everyone has heard this song (as Clive Dangerously once asked, how many facebook photo albums do you think are titled "Get High Like Planes?"). Kids from Brixton sing along in the chorus about taking your money. Very creative on M.I.A's part since the song samples The Clash's "The Guns of Brixton".

Justice - D.A.N.C.E 

I think Justice needs to give the London based Foundation for Young Musicians Choir a little more credit since they are the ones singing this entire song. 

Peter Bjorn & John - Nothing to Worry About

Please go listen to this if you have never heard it. It's a perfect steering wheel drumming sing along song. Chanting children start the song and form the chorus.

Passion Pit - Little Secrets

Passion Pit has been righteously hyped beyond belief, and I am joining the rest of the music blogosphere by professing my love for this electro-pop group. "Little Secrets is one of my personal favorites off of their debut album "Manners".  Love the lyric "have you ever felt so goddamn strong/how come it takes some people so damn long". Anyways, this song also has kids singing backup in the chorus line "up and up I keep on climbing/ higher and higher and higher higher and higher and higher." That shit's catchy.

Yeasayer - 2080

Probably the most well known track off of their album "All Hour Cymbals".  Children join in at the ending chorus. Makes the song more powerful I think.

What exactly do children add to these songs?  Contrast? Innocence? Juxtaposition? Metaphors? Not entirely sure but it seems to result in some good music.

The Sartorialist Fashion Blog

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

My personal favorite fashion blog, it focuses my interest and appreciation for photography through the power of expression and worn style. In one way or another, this is my way of exposing these photographic archives as well as recommending that this be added to the list of favorite links. In no way is this merely a gallery of beautiful people in expensive clothing. rather an individual development of self-defined fashion through a myriad of locations spanning from Milan to New York City.

Jetboy / Jetgirl

Over the course of the day, I was able to see "Bruno" in the theatres as well as catch a touring band bust out this classic cover. Coincidence?

Random Musical Jibble

I started this post two weeks ago, then never finished. Then I thought of a bunch of other stuff to blog about so I figured I would just put it together, like a musical smorgasboard.

Anyone who knows me is aware that Be Your Own Pet is one of my favorite bands. I love the messy punk style, spastic screaming of the singer Jemina Pearl and lyrics like "Have fun and be safe with it/Just kidding, fuck shit up!/ We ride bikes, cars are for idiots" They broke up last August and the split makes me sad on almost a daily basis. Thankfully, BYOP kinda lives on in the new projects of the old members. One is Turbo Fruits, with former guitarist Jonas Stein on vocals and lead guitar. Turbo Fruits sound kind of like Be Your Own Pet if they smoked a lot of weed and had a male singer (coincidentally, many Turbo Fruits songs have a cannabis theme). 

Former lead singer of Be Your Own Pet, Jemina Pearl, is working on solo stuff. It's got kinda an old school girl group vibe. It's cool I guess. At least she's not playing an acoustic guitar and writing Jewel-esque songs. But I will miss songs about her taking xanax and drowning her boyfriend in bogs. Reincarnations are better than nothing right?

I previously mentioned my girl crush on the lead singer of Metric, Emily Haines. I've been listening to her solo stuff (Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton) more lately and it's beautiful beautiful beautiful. She has such a unique voice and her vocals seem to soar more without the heavy synths of Metric. 

Also, I just got to see an early screening of 500 Days of Summer. It was SO GOOD and the soundtrack is SO GOOD. Please go see it.

Tracklisting for 500 Days of Summer Soundtrack

A Story of Boy Meets Girl - Mychael Danna and Rob Simonsen

Us - Regina Spektor

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths

Bad Kids - Black Lips

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths

There Goes The Fear - Doves

You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates

Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap

Quelqu'un M'a Dit - Carla Bruni

Mushaboom - Feist

Hero - Regina Spektor

Bookends - Simon & Garfunkel

Vagabond - Wolfmother

She's Got You High - Mumm-Ra

Here Comes Your Man - Meaghan Smith

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - She & Him

Hang the DJ Hang the DJ Hang the DJ

Another "amazing story behind the song" example. Morrissey wrote this song as a response to DJ Steve Wright's insensitive placing of Wham's vacuous "I'm Your Man" directly after a news report of the horrible Chernobyl disaster. Done live, Morrissey often twirled a noose around, wearing a T-shirt with the "zany" Steve Wright's face stamped, like a passport, with "HANG THE DJ". (Borrowed from the "It All My End Tomorrow" site)

Despite the song's connotation, it's still yet another catchy pop classic with all the usual Smiths' ridiculousness to boot.

Laura Marling.

You know the girl who does the backing vocals for Noah and the Whale? (She isn't actually in the band, so you may not know.) Well her name is Laura Marling and she's a 1990 baby like a lot of us. You should check out her solo work. Her style is like a mix of Kimya Dawson and Deb Talan.

Poor, poor Llamas :'-(

OOOOOooo, i like my sugar with coffee and cream...

http://rappmusic.ytmnd.com/

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My Friends and I

An old thing from back in high school, my friends and I just recorded it tonight. Fits nicely next to John's Ass.