After the rigor of November I was a bit lax on the blog this week. There was just too much to do. I caught Vampire Weekend Friday but was too lazy to take photos of the show. Though many others did, like these. I'm kinda eating up their playing up of the whole Ivy League thing.
And then there was our Christmassy going away party for Nic and Timmy, who I'm still in denial of having to live without. I experimented with baklava for the event, of which the guests kindly left a little corner for me. I used a combination of this recipe (just the first listed when Googling "baklava recipe") and the recipe on the back of the phyllo dough box. Turned out divine if I do say so myself. A few of the party photos are up here.
Last night I did something new and exciting. I went to a show by myself! There was a time when I never would have, but living in NYC makes you lose some qualms about doing things alone and I wasn't about to miss of Montreal. I ended up getting chauffeured to the front door by Ams and Kent who yelled motherly admonitions out the window as I scampered in to catch the last ten seconds of MGMT. Grr. (Damn you, In the Venue for having totally inconsistent scheduling practices [and douchey employees, and for hating the internet, and phones].) On the bright side, Grand Buffet were much better than I had expected.
Luckily I ran into Jory and Josh afterwards and we ended the night with Wendy's and leftover streusel. But I learned that shows alone can be much more fun that I would have thought. Which is really a credit to of Montreal. And now I'm newly infatuated with Kevin Barnes. He would get this boyish grin like he was so pleased we were enjoying ourselves so much and that expression just made me so happy. Oh and he claims he's seen Saturday's Warrior twice.
I saw Pinback for the first time last weekend. Out of kindness I won't tell you quite how lame the crowd was. But way to go boys for playing all my favorites. I was just as excited to see Glaswegians Frightened Rabbit open. Is Glasgow the new Stockholm? Is it weird that sometimes they remind me of Counting Crows? Is this the best sleepover you've ever been to?
I don't really know how to tell you this cause I can't not be a nerd about it. For as disappointed as I've been with a lot of music lately, I've been reminded why I love it so much. Saying I love music sounds funny though, kind of like, "summer is nice." But whatever. Seeing LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire when they finally came to Utah a few weeks ago reminded me what a lucky thing it is to have a perfect moment when you're totally content, which happens often with music. Like the moment during "Someone Great" when I'm transfixed by the patterns cast by the mirrorball. And for all the reasons I listen to music, Arcade Fire reminded me that even just the beauty of the sounds is a wonder. Really it's impossible to explain what I'm trying to get at. Maybe that's why the sincere and happy isn't quite the indie or cool blogging way.
So I guess live music has been kind of a joyous thing lately. Seeing Shout Out Louds open for Interpol certainly was. (They were hard core about no cameras though now that Interpol are on Capitol.) The flow of their set was perfect, even breaking into a little Clash during Very Loud.
This is something I would have told you about back in March, but I didn't have very good updating habits around then. So I might as well now, eh? Its the story of how Dirk and I met Lo-Fi-Fnk, because it would have been rude not to introduce ourselves after they had just played us an essentially private show.
I've been a little obsessed with Lo-Fi-Fnk since I first heard them a couple years ago. As soon as Mitch told me they would be playing in Vegas on their first American tour, there was no question I would make the trek from the SLC. And thank goodness for Dirk, who is just as devoted. I was slightly wary because the venue seemed to be clueless. But we were there in plenty of time to see like, 6 of the openers, all unremarkable and pretty far removed from the Swedish electro-pop aesthetic. No matter, I was content to sit and watch Leo (the one next to Dirk in the photo) smoke at the bar with his sunglasses on, waiting for their turn. Finally, it was time. As the boys were setting up, what had previously been an almost empty bar had dwindled down even further to a couple randoms drinking, and a few members of other bands still cleaning up. We felt bad that it looked like nobody was there to see them, so we took places on the empty dance floor. No exaggeration--we were THE ONLY people there to see them. Lucky thing my good friend Kristin, serendipitously home in Vegas for Spring Break, joined us and increased the crowd by 50%. (What are Las Vegas dwellers even called--Las Vegans? Vegasites?) August (the one next to me) was wearing the best outfit ever: bunched up purple sweatpants with a metallic gold chain printed around the waist and down the sides, with wifebeater. As they finished setting up their equipment on the small stage, August turned off the light above his keyboards so that everything was dark except for two small spotlights shining from the front of the stage.
What happened next was maybe my weirdest concert moment ever, despite its subtlety. August bent down and rotated one spotlight around to shine on Dirk, then adjusted the second to focus right on me. So now the stage was dark, and the two of us were lit up like monuments. August stood, smiled at us slyly, and left us on display. I laughed back, thinking he would turn those lights back around, but he never did. Here we were, having just driven over 5 hours to see this band who deserved all the hype in the blogiverse, and now we were on stage for them. Looking back, I suppose one of us could have easily turned those spotlights back around. Why didn't we? No, this lighting scheme lasted their entire set and we did dance our hearts out for them. Seeing them play was my fondest wish fulfilled, which is why it was so boggling that there was not even a handful of other excited kids like us there to see them. Eventually another girl showed up and seemed to be really into it, but it turned out she was there because her band was playing next--Lo-Fi-Fnk didn't even get the dignity of being last to play. And just a few days later they'd be blowing up SXSW. The whole thing was a bit of concert Twilight Zone.
Now, I usually don't care to meet celebrities, in fact I don't think I've ever bothered to try to take a picture with one. But these guys are the kinds of people I would actually like to get to know, and I really admire them. And considering we'd all been watching each other for the past hour, we decided to say hi. They were darling and gracious. Leo was horrified we'd driven so far to see a performance that he didn't think was so great. August apologized for being so sweaty. And when asked about the odd choices in opening bands, he said "I was so angry when I found out," in the calmest, accented, tender tone, like you might use when saying "I think I'll have some chocolate milk." I was, of course, too nervous to carry on the conversation too long. Big geek, me.
We were excited to hear a new song that night, which checks Daft Punk, and was captured on video the night before in San Diego:
Somebody at the Salt Lake Arts Council deserves a lot of credit for the line-up of the Twilight Concert Series this year. The Fiery Furnaces last night; Peter Bjorn & John, & French Kicks soon. I mean who would have thought you'd be able to see these sorts of bands for free at the kind of community event where mom hangs out on the blanket while the kids play hula hoop. I was pretty excited about Fiery Furnaces because I'd never seen them and it was a treat. Before playing some older goodies, they basically played all of Bitter Tea, in order even. Except that they saved Teach Me Sweetheart for last which was perfect because that song just KILLS me. Although it's not like listening to the album played live, the music is practically rewritten, which speaks to their incredible talent. Here are a few photos of Eleanor and Matt (I still think brother/sister bands are just adorable) and the drummers.
Note to aspiring musicians: maintain a following of more than 20 people before you name a foundation after yourself, throw a benefit concert featuring yourself, and dubiously claim that "some" proceeds will go to giving "opportunities" to "people." Really.
Sorry. Helping is good. I love everyone. Oh and it wasn't the Libbie Linton Foundation.
The point is, someone had the good sense to feature her at this show last Saturday to raise money for a good cause. Because it might have been a long time before I got this video of her cover of Erasure's "A Little Respect" (a song I had stuck in my head my entire sophomore year of college, no joke).
See Libbie play a free concert in the park this Saturday in Smithfield, Utah, 7pm at Central Park.
After a long lack of updates, I'm getting ready to change it up a little here at More Than Milk. We'll see in the next few days what direction I take. In the mean time, I've neglected to share photos from many recent shows so I thought I'd put up this little video of Great Lake Swimmers, a dreamy folk act from Toronto, playing recently here in Salt Lake. It was ridiculously hot in that little shed at Kilby Court, but the lilting banjo and Tony's voice tempered the heat from sweltering to seductive.
Its a bit rough but Libbie (the fabuloso opening act) got better video than I, so perhaps she'll share and I can replace this one. I only hope she caught a bit of Tony's charming nervous forehead scratching that began every single time he opened his mouth to speak.
For those in and around Salt Lake City, notice the new upcoming shows list over on the right. It's as much for me as for you, really. I just needed a comprehensive list of what I'm looking forward to, and expanded it so that perhaps this could be a handy reference for all of us. See yous there.
I saw The Futureheads and Tapes 'n Tapes last Thursday in Salt Lake City. I was curious to see if TnT would live up to all the hype of a few months ago and I gotta say, they finally won me over. They seemed a little awkward at first, maybe it was the tiny crowd. Eventually they loosened up enough for some major rocking and even a little bum slapping.
Observations from The Futureheads' set: They can all pull off black jeans. Those punk roots really come out live. That guitarist on the left is a Colin Meloy lookalike when his glasses are on.
For me two marks of a good show are when you can really tell the band is having fun, and when you leave with new favorite songs. Both these bands did both. Here are the new favorites:
A week late, but take what you can get. Sorry for the lack around here, I think it took me a week to recover from the last month. By now you've heard all about Coachella, or probably you were there cause you are super cool, but here's my Coachella weekend in brief:
the goodies: the baddies:
Lady Sovereign for getting heineken Missing White Rose Movement in her eyes, forgetting her words, because of traffic. and still rocking.
Robbie Guertin for being the TV on the Radio for sounding member of Clap Your Hands muddy and basically just serving least bored with their own as a placeholder for Ladytron. set--he in fact appeared to be having fun.
Metric for looking and sounding Everyone for their ridiculous need tons better than the "Monster to take pictures throughout entire Hospital" video ever suggests sets, blocking views with their and inciting my obsession for endlessly upstretched arms. the week.
The Madonna crowd The Ladytron crowd for for being pleasant being bitches
Mylo for kicking Paul Oakenfold's Paul Oakenfold for having ass with his dj skills and giving the look of a smarmy us the best dance party of the telenovela character festival. and putting me to sleep.
Seeing Santino Not seeing Daniel V The worker guy who kept things Too many choices! lively by offering mouthfuls of I missed way too many good squirt whip cream to line-waiters. things because there were other good things to see first Jamie Lidell for a set with the and this makes me sad. appearance of a magic act, including an assistant to help with sparkly wardrobe changes, and an an ability to merge that soulful voice with crazy beats, creating the second best dance party of the festival.
All in all, the goodies won and it was all worth it. Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters, in the last time slot of the weekend (up against Tool), purported that Coachella would no longer be held at the Empire Polo Fields. It's hard to tell when she's serious, so I'm not sure about the veracity of that statement, or whether I care, but there you go. I got bored of taking pictures quickly, especially with all the other cameras already in my face, but here's a couple, and some tunes from just a few of the acts I especially enjoyed this year.
Lady Sovereign
Jamie Lidell
Santino of Project Runway A bit stalkerish of me, but I did not move a bit from my spot at Scissor Sisters to take this, he just plopped down right next to us. Plus I didn't want to bug him during the set.
Sorry for the delay today. Looks like things are normal again and links are worky.
The Elected have kinda gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to Rilo Kiley side project attention. Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett may have released their albums on the same day to keep them on the same schedule so they'll be ready to work on RK again at the same time, but Jenny stole the spotlight. I'm not saying it's undeserved attention, I love her. But hey guys, look over here at Blake for a minute! I've already talked about my love for The Elected's first album, and on the new one Blake gets more confident, though he still comes of as incredibly modest in interviews. And I love the slide guitar. I've been waiting to see them play for a while, and last night I got my chance. They're about to wrap up their tour, so if you haven't caught them by now here's what you missed.
Jake of Neva Dinova played a solo set, which was hilarious, partly from what I assume was drunkennes. I don't even remember much about his songs though, other than that they were all the same slow tempo. Not that they weren't enjoyable, but the cover of "House of Pain'' was most enjoyable.
Eventually the crowd mellowed out since the young kids who came for the local openers didn't even know who The Elected were and left before their set. As we waited, conversations could be heard all around about people's favorite episodes of Salute Yours Shorts. The set was polished but natural, and made me just wanna go hang out at an old cabin on a lake with my Grandpa. And wear Blake's shirt and hat. Sometimes it seems like little Blake's hiding something, but is letting us in on it whenever he screams, which he seems to do more than I've noticed on recordings. Really all I can say is that clearly, he chose the right profession, and another side band or two wouldn't hurt.
Lately all my pictures have the same corrugated green plastic backdrop, but I swear there's more than one venue in Salt Lake.
Last Saturday Mitch, Dirk, and I saw Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, which I'd been looking forward to forever, obviously.
New Porn's set was great, playing the favorites, but many of them seemed bored to be there. Mitch speculated that they were nervous. I'd been warned about rude comments to the audience, but we didn't get any. Sidenote: Carl Newman's lisp is noticible when he sings live. I think we all went home and tried to hear it in the recordings afterwards.
My favorite New Porner of the night was vocalist/keyboarderist Kathryn Calder who takes over in Neko's absense, and who also happens to be Carl Newman's niece. She has a great voice, reminds me of my Aunt Stacie, and also plays with Immaculate Machine.
New Porn are smart to put drummer Kurt Dahle in the center of their stage setup because he may be the most entertaining to watch with those facial expressions, er, contortions. I didn't capture the good ones so you'll just have to imagine.
Dirk made the comment that B&S are a band that you feel like you shouldn't actually get to see. Their greatness has always seemed just a little removed from reality. But alas, they were there and we were there and it was magical. They opened with "The Stars of Track and Field" and played a good amount from Pursuit and Sinister as well as a smattering of other satistying favorites like "Jonathan David", "The State I Am In" and "Your Cover's Blown".
Electric Renaissance was a highlight, during which Stevie, dappered up in his suit, danced around with a melodica (a mouth-keyboard thingy). Stuart danced around quite a bit too, like a delightful little sprite. At one point he ventured into the audience to sing "If You Find Yourself Caught In Love" and was hug-ttacked on his way back by an overzealous teen who didn't notice that he'd knocked Stuart in the mouth with the mic and sent his balance askew.
This caused him to miss some lyrics, so once back onstage he backed up so that, as he said, we wouldn't miss out on our 79 cents worth of concert. Stuart definitely has the non-distracting witty on-stage banter down. He introduced the encore with a story about how their staff had presented them with a pie chart of audience requests to help them decide what to play. (He had previously demanded everyone stop yelling their requests and raise their hands to be called on instead.) Perfectly, they finished with "Sleep The Clock Around". I could say much more about Beans' mustache, how Mick is cuter up close, and the afterparty, but I'll spare you the blurry photos and end the gushing here.
New video for "The Blues Are Still Blue" is here, by the way.
Monday, March 6, 2006
Saturday I got to see Voxtrot along with Kid Theodore (whom you may remember from just last week) at Kilby Court in Salt Lake. It's a tiny old garage, but is probably my favorite local venue. Both bands impressed me:
Kid Theodore with their variety in songwriting and fervor,
and Voxtrot with their charm and pretty guitaring. Upon first listen they've got a great 60's pop thing going on, but live they had a depth that really pulled me in. I'd forgotten where they were from and had picked a different country of origin for each perfectly slightly unkempt band member, ready for endearing accents, when they reminded us that they're from Texas. I picked up their brand new Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives ep featuring the song below, which I've been enjoying all day and which you can preorder here and receive it earlier than the April 4 release date. While you're at it pick up Raised by Wolves.
In spite of it all, I feel in a bit of a music slump, like I should be going really crazy about something and I'm not. Which is maybe why you're just getting one song today. But surely something is waiting for me. What will it be next?
, in order even. Except that they saved Teach Me Sweetheart for last which was perfect because that song just KILLS me. Although it's not like listening to the album played live, the music is practically rewritten, which speaks to their incredible talent. Here are a few photos of Eleanor and Matt (I still think brother/sister bands are just adorable) and the drummers.
Observations from The Futureheads' set:
