portastatic

Hey There!

2012-01-30T14:39:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

Been awhile over here... at a certain point i look at just HOW long it's been and then the idea of trying to catch up is overwhelming so i just procrastinate a little longer...

So, lots happened since October!

Put out a new Superchunk 7" for "Learned to Surf" w/ non-LP b-side "Sunny Brixton" in the UK.

Played Superchunk shows in Madrid, Barcelona, and London. Had a great time in all those places! Awesome crowds, fun shows. Not to mention the food...

Made some Year-End Lists of favorite stuff.

Been tweeting a lot. Tweeting over here too!

It's been a year since starting the tumblr of our home kitchen compost, it's over here at Compost Beauty

Coming up -- two solo shows on the horizon:

Feb 11 at the Cave in Chapel Hill
Feb 23 at Swedish American Hall, SF, for Noise Pop

Hope to see you soon!

10 Years of OCSC

2011-10-24T15:35:00.004-04:00

Trish Mesigian and her fabulous bar the Orange County Social Club recently celebrated 10 years of existence with a series of shows in the bar itself and at the Cats Cradle down the street. I played a solo set, there's a clip of me doing "Rope Light" HERE in the dim light of the bar.

The set was thematic-ish:

Getting Older (the Clean
Outside This Bar (American Music Club)
Hey Salty
Rope Light
Music Lovers (Destroyer)
Lets Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits (Magnetic Fields)
4th of July Asbury Park (Springsteen)
I Don't Want To Go Home (Southside Johnny)
Autumn Got Dark
Punch Me Harder
Swinging Doors (Merle Haggard)
Song for A Clock
Digging for Something

Lots of great shows the whole week, capped by Seven Brides for the Meatwagon doing their famous slew of covers good and bad.

Thanks Trish & everyone who works at OCSC!

Transfigured Time at Westobou Festival

2011-10-07T16:05:00.003-04:00

My first visit to Augusta (though i met someone at the Superchunk Atlanta show who was convinced we had played there 20 years ago; as far as i know we did not!) was a good one. The Westobou Festival is run by people who are genuinely enthusiastic about art and bringing it to their town, and the venue we played, Sacred Heart Cultural Center, was kind of insane. Built in 1898, fallen into disuse and de-sanctified by the late 80s, nearly destroyed but saved by a wealthy patron, it's a fairly stunning and great-sounding place to play music / see a performance. Our performance in particular went well, nerves and all considering it was our first live performance of the music.

We paired one new piece with each of the four Maya Deren films shown -- Meshes of the Afternoon, At Land, The Very Eye of Night, and Ritual in Transfigured Time. Having done it once now, there are some arrangements that i'd like to tweak and flesh out further, so hopefully we'll get to play this music again in the future...

Thanks to Kristen Beard, Seamus Kenney, Brian Paulson, Mark Simonsen, and Matt Vooris for playing, as well as Carl Purdy and Angela Rubendall, Augusta musicians who joined us on violin.

We unfortunately had no time for any James Brown landmark-seeing, mainly because we were busy getting lost in the winding hallways of the haunted inn we stayed at. Next time!

The Week in Rock

2011-09-06T14:09:00.002-04:00

Two Superchunk shows this week in major metropolitan areas...for some reason it's taken a year since the release of Majesty Shredding to make it down to Atlanta, and it's been TEN YEARS since playing there period apparently, but the lineup for this Thursday at the Buckhead Theatre looks awesome, The Dodos and Times New Viking open up. Both of those bands are also playing (on different days) at the 2nd edition of Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival. Too many bands to see, will have to pick my spots.

Thurs 9/8 Atlanta, GA -- Buckhead Theatre TICKETS
Saturday 9/10 Raleigh, NC -- HOPSCOTCH Festival TICKETS

Meanwhile preparations have begun in earnest for the Transfigured Time event in Augusta Sept 29 & it's great to start to hear actual musicians (other than myself) play the music for the Deren films... Tickets for the Westobou Festival HERE

(Atlanta poster courtesy Nate Duval, we'll have them for sale at the show!)

Late Summer

2011-08-15T14:58:00.003-04:00

wow a lot of time has passed since my last post here, almost too much stuff to recount. some fun solo shows opening for Dino Jr & Rob Delaney the same week at the Cat's Cradle. the rock/comedy axis continues to turn.

Superchunk played really hot, really fun shows in NYC (at the House of Vans warehouse) and Chicago (at the Pitchfork Festival). 'forkfest show was seriously one of the hottest shows we've ever played and we weren't even on the stage w the most direct sun.

got some Superchunk shows coming up in September:

9/8 Buckhead Theater - Atlanta, GA BUY TICKETS HERE
9/10 Hopscotch Festival - Raleigh, NC BUY TICKETS HERE

and then in a more Portastatic-y vein, on September 29th i'm back in GA to perform a live film score to accompany 4 Maya Deren films. still writing the score currently! but making good progress and i'll be performing it with an 8-person ensemble, apparently the venue is an old church, sounds like the whole thing will be really cool (as long as we hold up our end w the music...).

the evening is called "Transfigured Time" and it's the opening night of the Westobou Festival in Augusta, GA.

enjoy the waning days of summer!(course it'll be hot as blazes for another good month)

Thanks Brazil!

2011-05-19T13:58:00.002-04:00

had a couple great, weird shows (like most of our shows in Brazil) last weekend as part of the Virada Cultural in Sao Paulo state -- both outdoors, one late night, one in the afternoon, in Mogi Das Cruzes and Sorocaba, Brazil. our fans in Brazil are dedicated (it's been 11 years since we were there last) and a bit unhinged, just like we like them. Fabiana and Sergio were great hosts, and the shows actually ran on time which is a change from Brazil tours past where we literally just added 2 hours onto anything in the itinerary. other acts performing on the festival included both clowns and mimes (separately). here's setlists...

MOGI DAS CRUZES

Throwing Things
My Gap Feels Weird
New Low
Detroit Has a Skyline
Rosemarie
Animated Airplanes Over Germany
Like a Fool
Hello Hawk
Learned to Surf
Cast Iron
Digging for Something
Slack Motherfucker
Skip Steps 1 & 3
Everything at Once
//
Crossed Wires
Seed Toss
Hyper Enough
//
Precision Auto

SOROCABA

Learned To Surf
My Gap Feels Weird
Detroit Has a Skyline
Crossed Wires
For Tension
Nu Bruises
Kicked In
Iron On
Digging For Something
On The Mouth
Driveway to Driveway
The First Part
Precision Auto
Throwing Things
//
Brand New Love
Slack Motherfucker
Hyper Enough

Now playing: Jorge Ben - Negro é Lindo

RIP Billy Bang

2011-04-18T13:27:00.002-04:00

An incredible improviser on an under-utilized instrument in the jazz world, Billy Bang made some amazing music on his own (one of my favorite albums by him is the solo Commandment (No More Records)) and with several groups including Sun Ra's Arkestra and his own String Trio of New York. He died last week at the age of 63.

Good obits at NPR and the Times.

Read it in Books

2011-04-13T13:27:00.003-04:00

My wife Andrea's excellent cookbook came out last week, it's awesome and available where awesome books are sold. It's called Cooking In The Moment. Here's one particularly great review on the Daily Beast by Katrina Heron wherein MFK Fisher and Alice Waters are both invoked; pretty good company!

This Saturday is Record Store Day. There's usually a ton of pretty exciting stuff out on vinyl that day and i hope to get some stuff (though i'll be at Coachella for the day for some Love Language, Arcade Fire, and other fun in the sun), but the volume of releases on that day has become so great that it seems like they should do it twice a year and spread the love a little bit. It already seems to encourage people to just think about record stores once a year rather than on a regular basis (though i do get the idea), maybe one in the Fall in addition to one in the Spring would work...

Speaking of Saturday, there are a couple Superchunk items coming out -- a split 7" with Coliseum on which we both cover Misfits songs, and it's on colored vinyl. I love stuff like this. We recorded our song in the studio in my basement. Also out Saturday is a reissue of Here's Where the Strings Come In, which has been out of print for awhile now, and on vinyl for a long time. It'll be available in all formats and you get a couple bonus items for download if you buy the CD or LP: Vol 5 of the Clambakes, (a live recording from 2003) and 4 acoustic 4-track recordings from Strings-era. The 2003 show is from the Cradle and we were touring in support of Cup of Sand, so there's some unusual songs on the setlist for that one! Sounds pretty good, too.

Midweek listening:

Jonny - s/t
Robert Wyatt - Shleep
Bill Evans Trio - Live in Paris 1974
Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
J Mascis - Several Shades of Why
James Blake - s/t
The Beatles - For Sale
Panda Bear - Tomboy

Been Awhile

2011-03-31T15:36:00.005-04:00

Hey! Been awhile since i had time to post here but it's not that i haven't been THINKING about posting. At a certain point so many things happen that i MEANT to post about that then it just seems too overwhelming to try to write about it all so maybe i'll just skip some stuff. Went to Austin for SXSW and saw some great bands. In addition to the excellent Merge artists that were all over town (Wild Flag, Wye Oak, Telekinesis, Apex Manor, cool trio version of American Music Club, Times New Viking & Versus...Jenn of Wye Oak & Mark Eitzel pictured above backstage at the Parish) that week, i managed to squeeze in some Yuck, Edwyn Collins, The Obits, OFF! and The Barreracudas (reminded me of the Chesterfield Kings). All good stuff. Still missed tons of stuff i would have liked to have seen incl Black Lips, Ted Leo solo gigs galore and Sharon Van Etten who i have yet to see live. Also had an incredible meal at Uchiko. Sushi in Texas? Yes, and more.

Somehow Austin manages to be fun despite the fact that when you leave that inspired set you just saw to close out the night at some sweaty club, you emerge to thousands of drunk idiots dropping their pizza in the street to the sound of someone freestyling to a digeridoo and some bongos that are strapped to a dog on a rope leash at 2 AM. The 6th St situation at this point is so terrible (yet somehow unavoidable, though i did steer clear for the most part) i'm not even going to check my spelling on digeridoo.

Cold and raining once again here in NC but hey it'll be 90 degrees here soon enough...

Listening this week:

V/A - The Sound of Philadelphia (Soul Jazz)
Yo La Tengo - President / New Wave Hot Dogs / Painful
Yaz - Upstairs at Eric's
American Music Club - California / Mercury
Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship
Fridge - The Sun
The Verlaines - Some Disenchanted Evening
Nick Cave - No More Shall We Part
Mal Waldron - Left Alone
Prince - Controversy (insane show at the RBC Center last week, too)
Jimmy Webb - Archive
The Zero Boys - Vicious Circle

been reading We Got the Neutron Bomb which means i have to dig out my Dangerhouse comp...

last and semi-least, we have a limited number of Majesty Shredding-themed tote bags for sale featuring the "Tube Guy" that graces our backdrop over at the Merge Store!

Popular Venues

2011-03-14T16:53:00.003-04:00

played our hometown Cats Cradle as well as a pair of shows in the cozy confines of Radio City Music Hall last week.... good times at all shows for us, the crowd at the Cradle was raucous and we played one of our longer sets ever there, tightening it up considerably for our 40-min slots at RCMH between Wild Flag and Bright Eyes. here's lists from all that!

CATS CRADLE 3/4/11:

Surf
My Gap
Detroit
Cursed Mirror
Rope Light
Rosemarie
Silver Leaf and Snowy Tears
The Question is How Fast
Breadman
Crossed Wires
Digging For Something
Driveway To Driveway
First Part
Martinis on the Roof
Slack
Everything at Once
//
Like a Fool
Hyper Enough
Where Eagles Dare
//
Punch Me Harder
Cast Iron
Precision Auto
Throwing Things

PHOTOS & review at TRIANGLE MUSIC

RADIO CITY 3/8
Learned to Surf
Crossed Wires
Detroit
Seed Toss
My Gap Feels Weird
Like a Fool
Hello Hawk
Digging
Slack

RADIO CITY 3/9
Slack
My Gap Feels Weird
Crossed Wires
For Tension
Skip Steps
Rosemarie
Digging for Something
Driveway to Driveway
The First Part
Hyper Enough

soon after returning from NYC we got news of the terrible quake and tsunami that hit northern Japan. even for a country that gets a lot of earthquakes, this is beyond anything in recent memory and there's a lot of devastation -- please help if you can!

Japan Setlist Recap

2011-02-28T12:40:00.004-05:00

we knew Japan would be fun, the crowds are always engaged and excited and this trip was no different though i think in a couple instances the kids let loose a little bit more even than in the past, especially when it got to encore time. Tokyo was off the hook from the first song. we had our first ever trip to Fukuoka which seemed like a city i'd like to spend more time in, great food there like everywhere else and some architecture we didn't have time to check out. it's only been about 14 months since we were last in Japan and we compared old setlists to make sure we weren't repeating ourselves too much this time for those coming back for more...here's setlists...

OSAKA - Fandango

Throwing Things
My Gap Feels Weird
Crossed Wires
Baxter
Detroit
I Guess I Remembered It Wrong
Kicked In
So Convinced
Iron On
Rosemarie
Learned to Surf
Hello Hawk
Digging for Something
Driveway
Everything At Once
//
Slack
Hyper
Children In Heat
Fishing
BlendingIn
//
Cursed Mirror
Precision

NAGOYA - Club Upset

Untied
Digging for Something
My Gap Feels Weird
Skip Steps 1&3
Cursed Mirror
Rosemarie
Tie A Rope
Song for Marion Brown
Watery Hands
Learned to Surf
Rope Light
For Tension
Driveway
First Part
Everything at Once
//
Crossed Wires
Hyper
Slack
Blitzkrieg Bop
//
LikeAFool
100KFireflies

FUKUOKA - Drum Club

So Convinced
Water Wings
My Gap
Digging
Seed Toss
Rosemnarie
Detroit
Like A Fool
Learned to Surf
Crossed Wires
Hello Hawk
Punch Me
Driveway
1st Part
Everything at Once
//
Mower/CastIron/Precision
//
Slack/Fishing
//
HyperEnough

TOKYO - O-West

slack
crossed wires
my gap feels weird
detroit
cursed mirror
rosemarie
kicked in
so convinced
learned to surf
digging for something
punch me harder
from the curve
first part
everything at once
//
martinis on the roof
skip steps 1 & 3
hyper
where eagles dare
//
throwing things
precision
//
100K fireflies

pushing our old-ass bodies to their limit is a good thing!
thanks to Hideki, Tak, and Contrarede for being perfect hosts as usual, and to Andy and Kei at P-Vine who puts out our records over there.
next up: Cats Cradle!

Radio Time!

2011-02-27T12:19:00.001-05:00

me and Wilbur hitting WXDU this afternoon at 4 PM, tune in!

been lax on Japan recapping, but it will happen!

Ghibli Time

2011-02-16T02:43:00.002-05:00

in Japan for the Superchunk tour, but doing some family vacationing in advance. as fans of movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo and the Iron Giant, we made reservations in advance to not risk missing a visit to the Ghibli Museum dedicated to the films of Miyazaki and other Studio Ghibli animators.
no photography allowed inside the museum, which is pretty cool actually. makes you just pay attention to what's happening, what you're learning, and the incredible work that's been done by the famed animation house since it's founding in 1985. we took a train out to the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka, our friend Hideki guided us through a park and to the museum. the whole thing is made for kids, but not in a condescending way...more in a "kids understand more than the rest of us" kind of way. it's also a tribute to the science and art of hand-done animation. oh and there's a giant Cat-bus.
walking through the park back to the subway, got text from Hideki's wife Yuki who was watching the Grammys at their house in Tokyo, and found out about Arcade Fire's Grammy win. Pretty great day!

Bouyancy Benefit

2011-01-31T13:05:00.004-05:00

on Saturday I played a cool space in Raleigh, formerly the Purina building you can see the back of from Capital Blvd, now to be Moving Island, a "community education facility." Sounds like its identity will be forged as it moves along which is to be expected. Maria Albani of Organos and the other board members (including Kelly of the Rosebuds) put together a 2-day Bouyancy Benefit concert this weekend and i was a last-minute fill-in for an out of town surprise guest that canceled...i was glad to have the opportunity to help out in some small way. mainly when i hear about these kinds of things i think "how do these people have the energy?" but they do and hopefully it'll become a cool thing for Raleigh. it was my first set ever playing under my own name. i played it solo electric and i felt under-prepared but it was ok...walking in, plugging in and starting w no soundcheck or warmup is pretty great actually. HERE is an article about the space from the Indy, and here was my setlist:

Crossed Wires
February Punk
Paratrooper
Some Small History
Stretched Out
White Wave
I Want to Break Free (Queen)
Rope Light
Song for Clock
Better Things (The Kinks)

trivial pursuit: the song "Stretched Out" is on the Superchunk album Foolish, but i don't think Superchunk has ever played it live. oddly enough i played it live once, solo acoustic, as Portastatic at Local 506, before it became a Superchunk song so that must have been 1993 or something. i'm old.

It's The New Year

2011-01-06T15:04:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year! Feeling kind of optimistic about 2011 despite Ol' Suntan & Teary Eyes grabbing the gavel yesterday...

Been catching up with some records i should have heard in 2010!

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Wild Wild Geese - Sorry, Earth
Phosphorescent - Here's To Taking it Easy
John Grant - Queen of Denmark
Lower Dens - Twin-Hand Movement

Tuesday Listening

2010-12-21T15:04:00.003-05:00

Gearing up for holidays, kids going bonkers around the house w/ no school, prepping for guests, rearranging CDs always results in pulling out things i haven't heard in awhile...:

The Avengers - Died For Your Sins
Miles Davis - Live in Tokyo (seriously, this band...Tony Williams, Sam Rivers...)
Bob Dylan - The Witmark Demos
Blonde Redhead - 23
Van Halen - Women & Children First (cassette! still works)
Mountain Goats - Hot Garden Stomp cassette
Marshall Crenshaw - s/t
V/A - Nu Yorica Roots!
Husker Du - Zen Arcade

2010 Was A Year

2010-12-15T12:34:00.007-05:00

Listing time!
Here's some records i listened to and enjoyed quite a bit that came out this year, more than 10 and non-Merge as usual....:

NEW ALBUMS

Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelion
Sharon Van Etten - Epic
Wild Nothing - Gemini
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Best Coast - Crazy for You
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
New Pornographers - Together
Four Tet - There Is Love In You
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
The National - High Violet
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Ted Leo Rx - Brutalist Bricks
Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise

REISSUES

Syl Johnson - Complete Mythology (!!!)
Bruce Springsteen - The Promise
V/A - Afro-Beat Airways
Orange Juice - Coals to Newcastle
Bowie - Station to Station
V/A - Nigeria Special Vol. 2
V/A - Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas
Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

(Robert Wyatt reissues should probably be on here but i am fine with the original versions....)

BOOKS

Lost City of Z by David Grann
Priceless by Robert K Wittman
Rat Girl by Kristin Hersh
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

TV

Louie (!!!)
30 Rock
Bored to Death
Work of Art
Boardwalk Empire
Parks & Rec

Great to get out and play some rock concerts in 2010 in support of Majesty Shredding, looking fwd to doing a bit more of that in the new year as well...
Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T13:36:00.002-05:00

On the turntable this rainy Thanksgiving:

Duke Ellington - Blues in Orbit
William Bell - Wow...
Syl Johnson - Complete Mythology
Stanley Turrentine - Dearly Beloved
Husker Du - Flip Your Wig

Listening

2010-11-09T15:36:00.002-05:00

beautiful Fall weather this week in NC. almost enough to make one forget about the horrific outcome of last week's elections....almost.

listening:

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Americans Swinging in Paris
Nick Cave - Let Love In
Bird Nest Roys - 1st Album
The Cars - Panorama
Syl Johnson - Numero Group box
Dirty Laundry Vol 2 - Soul of Black Country

VOTE

2010-11-02T11:39:00.001-04:00

that's right, today! do it! you get a sticker.

Wednesday Listening

2010-10-27T16:00:00.003-04:00

since hearing of the passing of Marion Brown, been listening to some amazing cuts over on the Destination Out blog, check out the great tribute over there (and thanks to the blog reader for the heads up) Destination Out

also listening to some recent pickups from Amoeba and CD Alley:

David Bowie - Station to Station box
Hauschka - Foreign Landscapes
Laetitia Sadier - The Trip
Stars - The Five Ghosts
V/A - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto
V/A - Next Stop....Soweto Vol 3 (this is an eye-opening Jazz comp)
Syl Johnson Numero Group box set (incredible! the music, the package, everything)

West Coast, one of the best coasts

2010-10-21T15:49:00.002-04:00

thanks to everyone who came out to our West Coast shows, not a clunker among them and great, nutty crowds down the line from Vancouver to LA's tour closer. here's our setlist from LA, including Samhain / Reptile House drummer London May joining us on Horror Business! awesome. Telekinesis killed it every night, what a lineup they have going right now and it's one hit after another, as were the Teenage Fanclub and Vaselines sets we saw! didn't even plan on it being a Scot-oriented tour but there you have it.

LA Music Box set

Learnt to Surf
Detroit
For Tension
My Gap
Rosemarie
Question iS How fast
Sick to Move
Like A Fool
Hello Hawk
Nu Bruises
Crossed Wires
Digging
Driveway
First Pt
Cast Iron
Everything @ Once

100K Fireflies
Horror Business
Slack
Precision Auto

Hyper Enough
Throwing Things

Matador is 21, and Hockey is Happening!

2010-10-08T15:56:00.004-04:00

'Canes just won their first two games of the season in Helsinki, wish i could have been there. Second game won in a shootout by rookie Skinner; can you imagine if your first NHL goal was a shootout game-winner? Also just to make me feel old, dude was born in the 90's. here's great postgame w/ Skinner:

Jeff Skinner Postgame

speaking of audio, i was lucky enough to join Peter Sagal and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! crew long enough to play their "Not My Job" quiz. i won, but barely and with much help. i was really nervous but it was fun.

Wait Wait...

Matador 21 weekend in vegas was great and exhausting. tons of great sets, highlights for me were Come, Sonic Youth, New Pornographers, Spoon, The Clean (who really punked it up!), Yo La Tengo, Times New Viking, and the Fucked Up / Ted Leo battle of the cover bands, Scharpling & Wurster as MCs...Thanks to everyone at Matador who ran the circus, it's a ton of work and everyone seemed to be having a great time. also had fantastic Thai food, some of the best ever, at Lotus of Siam, located in one of the sketchier strip malls you'll find anywhere!

Rainy Wednesday

2010-09-29T16:09:00.003-04:00

The Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
David Bowie - Young Americans
The Extra Lens - Undercard
Various Artists - Nigeria Special Vol 2
Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
Harry Nilsson - The Point

East Coast Listings

2010-09-27T12:49:00.004-04:00

back from a whirlwind of rock on the East Coast, thanks to everyone who came out to the shows! great crowds everywhere. pain in the morning following each show which means we must have been doing something up there....

setlists! sorry, they're in Twitter-speak.

9:30 Club
Throwing Things/Gap/Wires/Animated/Skip/Fractures/Iron On/NewLow(request)/Rosemarie/Hawk/Tower/Surf/Digging/Driveway/First Part/Everything//BrandNewLove/Cast/Slack/Hyper

Bowery Ballroom
Surf/Burn/Dtroit/Digging/Rosema/Marion/Watery/Gap/Bxter/Fool/Wires/Tension/Hawk/Punch/Cast/Evrythng//Driveway/100K Fireflies/Slack/Hyper//Throwing

Music Hall of Wmsburg
Things/Skip/Digging/Rosemrie/Art/Hawk/Fractures/SoCon/Iron/Gap/Wires/Mower/Curve/First/Evrythng//HorrorBiz/Slack/Cast/Precision

Royale Boston
Date/Seed/Gap/Rosemrie/Cursed/Detroit/Fractrs/Watery/NuBruises/Drip/Digging/Driveway/1st/Pkg/Evrythng/Slack//Fool/BrandNewLove/Hyper/Glue/Precision

Trocadero Philly
KickedIn/IronOn/Gap/Rosemarie/GuessIRemembered/OnTheMouth/Fractures/WaterWings/Convinced/Crossed/Digging/Detroit/Fool/Hawk/Hyper/Evrything//encore? can't remember! i think 100KFireflies/Slack/Precision but not sure!

Le National Montreal
Rosemarie/Wires/Rope/Hawk/Detroit/Digging/Fool/Curve/Gap/Seed/Drip/Popular/Driveway/First/Evrything//Cool/Fishing/Slack

VEGAS THIS WEEKEND!

Nasher Nights

2010-09-16T23:12:00.002-04:00

a hot-ass day cooled down to be a great night for outdoor rock at the Nasher Museum in Durham tonight, really fun times (for us anyway!):

1 So Convinced
2 Water Wings
3 Crossed Wires
4 My Gap Feels Weird
5 Song for Marion Brown
6 Watery Hands
7 Let It Go
8 Fractures in Plaster
9 Rosemarie
10 Shallow End
11 Punch Me Harder
12 Mower
13 Digging for Something
14 Pink Clouds
15 Hyper Enough
16 Everything At Once

encore:

Like A Fool
Slack
100K Fireflies
Precision

horns on Digging for Something and Pink Clouds! JD onstage for Digging for Something as well! nuts.
thanks to everyone who came out! our tour has begun....see you tomorrow, DC!

Ramping Up

2010-09-08T17:07:00.003-04:00

ordering t-shirts, getting stickers, shipping out copies of Majesty Shredding, things are ramping up towards release date and TOUR...yikes

this is the poster Ron Liberti designed and printed for our show at the Nasher next Thursday 9/16! tickets HERE

Listening:
Lee Perry & the Upsetters - Ape-Ology
The Rezillos - Can't Stand the Rezillos
Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
Howard Tate - Get It While You Can
Benji Hughes - A Love Extreme
V/A - Marvelous Boy: Calypso from West Africa

Tuesday Listening

2010-09-07T15:26:00.003-04:00

Betty Davis - Betty Davis
Raphe Malik - The Short Form
Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
V/A - The Upsetter
The Blow - Paper Airplanes
Brendan Canning - Something For All of Us...

Majesty Streaming

2010-09-07T10:39:00.003-04:00

NPR has Majesty Shredding streaming on their site as part of their excellent First Listen series, check it out!

http://tinyurl.com/28fkzey

also apparently a mobile frozen yogurt truck is giving away a pair of tickets to see Superchunk at the 9:30 Club on 9/17, details on their twitter feed!

http://twitter.com/SweetflowMobile

hope everyone had great Labor Days, now back to the labor.

Friday Listening

2010-09-03T15:18:00.005-04:00

Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs
William Bell - Phases of Reality / Relating
Archie Shepp - Four for Trane
The Blow - Paper Television
Analog Africa No.8: Afro-Beat Airways
Descendents - Milo Goes to College
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Too Rye Ay
John and Beverly Martyn - Stormbringer
Volcano Suns - All-Night Lotus Party

Record Shopping

2010-08-31T10:27:00.002-04:00

already into this listening pile i picked up at CD Alley yesterday...:

The Lines - Flood Bank
Cold Cave - Cremations (don't know what this is but love their album)
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Too Rye Ay (watched "Let's Make This Precious" on youtube so many times had to go get this)
The Lyres - A Promise Is A Promise
John & Beverley Martyn - Stormbringer (this was a gift and it's great!)

Friday Listening

2010-08-20T16:52:00.003-04:00

Timi Yuro - The Voice that Got Away
Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things
Rocket from the Crypt - Circa Now
John Coltrane - Live Trane - The European Tours Disc 5-6
New Pornographers - Together

Mid-Week Jamz

2010-08-18T14:43:00.004-04:00

The Pretenders - II and Learning to Crawl
Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody - I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years
Four Tops - The Ultimate Collection
John Coltrane - Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings
Wild Nothing - Gemini
Pulp - We Love Life

New Old Records!

2010-08-18T14:17:00.002-04:00

No Pocky For Kitty and On the Mouth have been re-mastered and re-issued and they are in stores now!

Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering made them sound great, and the albums are back on vinyl as well as compact disc (in cool LP-type sleeves) and downloadable things...so if your roommate or child borrowed your copies and never gave them back, here's your chance!

Friday Listening

2010-07-30T13:29:00.004-04:00

7-yr old daughter this morning: "Dad, EVERYTHING is easier said than done."

Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Tom Waits - Orphans
Bishop Allen - & Broken String
Bobby Patterson - Soul Is My Music
Anthony Braxton - Opus 82
Tracey Thorn - remixes
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Soul Rebels
Jeffrey Dean Foster - Million Star Hotel
Articles of Faith - What We Want is Free EP

Art Rock

2010-07-28T16:51:00.002-04:00

An NC show for Superchunk has been added to our September tour dates -- 9/16 at the amazing Nasher Museum of Art in Durham. It will serve as an album release show for Majesty Shredding as well...here's some details.

listening:

Dara Puspita - 1966-1968
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Chuck Prophet - Let Freedom Ring (great show in Winston-Salem last night)
New Pornographers - Together
The Church - The Blurred Crusade
The Church - Sing-Songs / Remote Luxury / Persia EPs
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Drake Tungsten - Six Pence for the Sauces EP

Daniel Schorr RIP

2010-07-23T13:57:00.002-04:00

So sad to hear about the passing of Daniel Schorr at the age of 93. The NPR obit calls him a "Journalism Legend" and i don't think it's an overstatement.

Hot Tuesday

2010-07-20T10:05:00.003-04:00

on the stereo:

King Sunny Ade - Juju Music
Delorean - Subiza
Andrew Hill - Black Fire
Mark Eitzel - Brannan St.
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
The Fall - Rough Trade Anthology

and The Love Language live on the radio! on WUNC show The State of Things btw noon and 1 today.

Thursday Listening

2010-07-15T15:36:00.004-04:00

Overcast but still hot as Hades, really unfortunate weather.

Medications - Completely Removed
Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
Strange Boys - Be Brave
Sir Victor Uwaifo - Guitar Boy Superstar 1970-76
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter
Joe Henderson - Blue Bossa
Maybe It's Reno - s/t (this is Bridget Cross!)

RIP George Steinbrenner

2010-07-13T16:33:00.002-04:00

The Boss (the other The Boss) looms large as a figure in my nascent sports fandom; as a kid in Ft. Lauderdale we had season tickets to Yankees spring training games. This is probably from 76-79, pretty good years to be seeing the Yankees. You could wait by the players' parking lot, surrounded by a flimsy chain-link fence, and get Mickey Rivers' (favorite Yankee) or Willie Randolph's autograph after the game. I read the box scores in the paper each morning, and remember where i was when i watched Bucky Dent beat the Red Sox in the one-game playoff one afternoon after school. During this time period Steinbrenner was in the news almost as much as the players it seemed, and my dad thought the back and forth between him and Billy Martin, with the hirings and firings, was hilarious. He seemed to soften in his old age (Torre managed there forever, compared to his predecessors), maybe he just wasn't around as much. But he was such a character that despite the fact that he was such a hot-head and a meddling jerk of an owner much of the time, it was hard not to feel some affection for someone so emotionally involved in owning a baseball team. Then again, i never had to play for him.

Listening

2010-07-08T16:10:00.002-04:00

Wild Nothing - Gemini
The Lloyd McNeill Quartet - Asha
Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter
V/A - Zanzibara 5: Hot In Dar
Fred Anderson Trio - Live at the Velvet Lounge
Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be

I Wanna Know Girls - Poetry Division

2010-07-07T10:49:00.003-04:00

for subscribers to Merge's 20th Anniversary Box Set "SCORE!" (and there are a few complete box sets for sale on the Merge site) you may have seen Phil Morrison's video for the Portastatic song "I Wanna Know Girls" (both the original version from Bright Ideas and also a cover by Lambchop embedded below), which incorporates a new poem (called I Lived Among Girls) by Keith Newton that accompanies the song and kind of runs parallel in a really interesting way to the lyrics.

here's a post on My Blog Could Be Your Life which includes the video for the Portastatic version those folks w/out SCORE!

Vinyl Weekend

2010-07-05T22:16:00.003-04:00

hope everyone had a great Independence Day, World Cup action was pretty great though i was pulling hard for Ghana to go through; brutal way to lose. Gonna be sad when it's over.

listening to records this weekend:

John Coltrane - Impressions
Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye
V/A - Light: On The South Side (Insane Numero Group package w/ amazing book)
Wesley Wolfe - Storage
The Replacements - Tim
Monsters of Folk - s/t
Joe Strummer - Streetcore
Nina Simone - Nina Simone & Piano
The Homosexuals - The Homosexuals Record
Destroyer - Thief / City of Daughters dbl-lp

Street Fair Fever

2010-06-22T14:52:00.002-04:00

i didn't consume an ounce of funnel cake this weekend and somehow still powered through both rock shows, great weather all weekend and great bands to play with...here are some setlists:

Denver Westword Music Showcase

Cool
Detroit Has a Skyline
Digging for Something
Seed Toss
Hello Hawk
Punch Me Harder
Art Class
Fool
Iron On
Nu Bruises
Learning to Surf
Driveway to Driveway
1st Part
Slack Motherfucker
Precision Auto

Chicago Taste of Randolph Street Fair

Tower
Cool
Detroit Has a Skyline
Digging For Something
Hello Hawk
Skip Steps 1&3
Art Class
Like a Fool
Low Branches
Iron On
Water Wings
Learned To Surf
Driveway to Driveway
The First Part
Slack Motherfucker
Hyper Enough
Encore:
Throwing Things

great crowds in both cities, lots of kids too.
airplane listening:
Arcade Fire, Ella Fitzgerald 12 Nights in Hollywood (ridiculously good), Tangerine Dream, Destroyer.

Digging Stuff!

2010-06-16T16:46:00.002-04:00

lots of news on the Superchunk front:

New single in July! "Digging for Something" b/w "February Punk," Ltd Ed 1000, sweet art by Harrison Haynes....more details here. You can listen to it even.

Also just announced -- West Coast tour dates! Looking forward to our first trip out there since Bumbershoot, and our first shows in Portland, Vancouver, and LA in AGES. DOG'S ages even:

10/13 Vancouver, BC – Venue Nightclub
10/14 Seattle, WA – The Showbox
10/15 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
10/19 Los Angeles, CA – The Music Box at Fonda

Of course even sooner on the horizon are a couple of rock concerts this weekend:

Saturday - Westword Music Festival in Denver w/ Dirty Projectors & more.
Sunday - Taste of Randolph Street Festival in Chicago w/ Califone, Love Language & more!

Last but certainly not least, congratulations to my wife Andrea who won Best Chef in Orange County in the Independent Weekly's Readers' Choice Awards!

Listening:
Etoile De Dakar - Once Upon A Time In Senegal
Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter
Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
Look Blue, Go Purple - Compilation

Hot Friday

2010-06-11T15:47:00.003-04:00

Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs
Chris Knox & The Nothing - A Warm Gun
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Laura Nyro - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
V/A - Nigeria Special 2: Modern Highlife 1970-76

and to inaugurate the World Cup, here's a remix i did for Air Miami's classic "World Cup Fever"...

Wednesday Listening

2010-06-09T16:26:00.003-04:00

Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way
The Cure - Head On the Door
Gary Numan Tubeway Army - Replicas (Numan missed Coachella, then i missed him at Primavera, damn)
Tracey Thorn - "Why Does the Wind" Morgan Geist remix
Owen Pallet - Game of Pricks cover

New Superchunk LP On the Way fr Real

2010-06-03T17:14:00.003-04:00

Majesty Shredding comes out September 14...more details here, and holy sh*t we're tweeting at twitter.com/superchunkband ... (#oldpeopledoingyoungpeoplethings)

Thursday Listening

2010-06-03T14:55:00.004-04:00

Black Tambourine - Black Tambourine
Pale Saints - In Ribbons
New Pornographers - Together
Goldfrapp - Head First
One Last Wish - 1986
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
Dirty Projectors - "I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine" (great Dylan cover)
Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance

Louise Bourgeois RIP

2010-06-02T13:33:00.003-04:00

I somehow missed this on Monday but one of my favorite artists, Louise Bourgeois, died monday at the age of 98. her work was groundbreaking and wide-ranging (her small drawings can carry as much weight as her huge spider sculptures), and she was still creating into her 90's. LA Times has a good obit. NYT as well.

Bowie v Cher

2010-06-01T14:00:00.003-04:00

i'm a huge David Bowie fan, i can't believe i never saw this trainwreck before....i was all psyched when they started with Young Americans, but then they go through a bizarre medley of 50's hits and other standards. Bowie's awkwardness when Cher jumps into "Da Doo Ron Ron" is palpable...what if you were in the midst of cocaine-induced psychosis and you stepped onto a TV set with Cher and her hair looked like this...

Bowie / Cher Duet 1975

Hola Primavera

2010-05-29T21:36:00.004-04:00

been doing too much eating and rocking to post since our set on Thursday night, but it was a fun one. enjoyed the heavy rock sounds of the Fall earlier, caught a little Titus Andronicus, and then after our set hit the Broken Social Scene scenario and Paved it up...all were great. missed lots of good stuff too -- would loved to have caught Tortoise among others, just too much happening at once. here was our set:

Throwing Things
Detroit
Animated Airplanes
Learned to Surf
Iron On
Water Wings
Digging for Something
Driveway
First Part
Cast Iron
Precision Auto (w special guest Tim Harrington! awesome)
Slack MF
Hyper Enough

also, what about Game 1 Flyers v Blackhawks...6-5!? crazy game, Patrick Leighton finally looked like he usually did in goal for the 'Canes.... hope the whole series is like this...

The Cure for Jetlag

2010-05-26T13:21:00.003-04:00

upon arrival in barcelona, never take a nap before hitting the boqueria!
looking fwd to the rock tomorrow...

Sound Smears

2010-05-23T14:00:00.001-04:00

that's our term for any song slightly faster than it should actually be played by us...we played a few the other night! deep cuts, etc...

Tower
For Tension
Skip Steps 1&3
Learned To Surf
Digging For Something (w/xtra special guest John Darnielle on baking vocs!)
Ribbon
Sidewalk
I Guess I Remembered It Wrong
Florida's On Fire
Water Wings
Iron On
Package Thief
Everything At Once
Precision Auto

encore #1:
On The Mouth
From The Curve
Slack Motherf*cker

encore #2:
Hyper Enough (w/killer stage rush by John Darnielle)
Throwing Things

Good Stuff

2010-05-19T15:40:00.002-04:00

lunch by Bahn's Cuisine in Durham, NC. it was great, though apparently it's only great on Wednesdays and Saturdays. lucky for me it's Wednesday.

what a great year for music so far...listening to some of it:
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (some fun making of vids here)
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Learned The Hard Way
Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St reissue
The National - High Violet
Caribou - Swim
Ted Leo & Rx - Brutalist Bricks

Rocking Is Upon Us

2010-05-17T16:00:00.004-04:00

Superchunk is gearing up for a couple shows in the coming weeks -- first up is our first Cats Cradle show since last Summer's XX Merge festival, we're there this Friday with Ryan Gustafson opening up, should be a fun evening! Gonna break out a couple new jams i'm sure, and on account of we're reissuing some older titles soonish, rock some of those ancient numbers as well.

Speaking of ancient numbers, we're playing between The Fall and Pavement next week at the Primavera Sound festival in lovely Barcelona, Spain. I think we've played that bill before! maybe not but seems like it. sandwiched btw two of my favorite bands in one of my favorite cities, can't wait...

UPDATE: we announced some dates for this fall, too....Merge site has the scoop.

(photo by Brian Vetter)

Friday Listening

2010-05-14T14:11:00.002-04:00

first off, congrats to the Habs on their second series upset in a row, i was getting panicked texts from north of the border even when MTL was up 4-0 in the 2nd period, but i know how it is. pretty amazing run for them. still, this is one of the worst things i've ever seen/ heard:

cleansing my ears w the following:
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
V/A - Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas
The National - High Violet
and looking fwd to LCD Soundsystem out next week....

Belated Knox Night Recap

2010-05-09T16:16:00.004-04:00

spent a fun week in NYC (including seeing a great Shout Out Louds set on Wednesday night at Webster Hall, formerly The Ritz in my NYC era, Chris Williamson jokes ensued), capped off by a fairly epic but pleasantly low-key (if something can be both) night at Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday, the Chris Knox Benefit Concert put together by (former Merge employee) Ben Goldberg. the show raised $52K for Chris and his family and the night was long, hrs-wise, but went by quickly thanks to the excellent music. you may have heard that Jeff Mangum played his first live set in some time, it's true and it was great to hear him again in person. his voice sounded possibly even better than ever, amazing. rather than list all the sets here, i will just say that everyone played well, and that ending any night with Yo La Tengo and the The Clean is a good thing! the whole thing even ran on schedule! what the hell? i was lucky enough to have YLT as my backing band for a 4-song set, and what a great band they are. they knew my songs better than me. here was our set....:

Vol-Au-Vent (Knox cover)
Noisy Night
San Andreas
Slack Motherfucker

good times! all that was missing was the man himself...
maybe next time!

Calling Out of Context

2010-05-01T10:30:00.002-04:00

Arthur Russell, excellent Saturday AM listening....special thanks to Stinkweeds for locating the RSD vinyl of this for me!

Friday Listening

2010-04-30T13:20:00.003-04:00

New Pornographers - Together (a new NPs record is always cause for excitement)
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Destroyer - Thief
Fucked Up - Couple Tracks
(noticing a lot of CanCon today for some reason!)
The Clientele on World Cafe
American Music Club - San Francisco
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

If We're Lucky

2010-04-29T14:38:00.003-04:00

i hear we may get one of these in NC!
but wait, possibly reexamining the idea at the White House? according to the AP, White House adviser Carol Browner said "obviously this will become part of the debate" on climate change. as if "this" didn't exist before "this" happened.

listening:
Dynamic Truths - Understanding Is Overrated

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

2010-04-29T12:51:00.003-04:00

Sadly, the 'Canes are not partaking in the postseason festivities this year, but i will still watch any game 7 of any NHL playoff series, even the Western Conference! but last night's Habs upset of the Caps was intense, what a crazy series. Sorry to see Corvo and Walker lose a series, but Ovechkin can take some comfort in the fact that he disappointed a lot less people with this series' bust than he did in the Olympics flameout...

not sure why now....actually one of these writers mentions he was just waiting til the library had it...couple nice reviews of Our Noise courtesy Adequacy.net and Rain Taxi.

listening:
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Ella Fitzgerald - Twelve Nights in Hollywood
Goldfrapp - Head First
Shout Out Louds - WORK
Hot Chip - One Life Stand

Back to Spring

2010-04-20T16:03:00.003-04:00

returned yesterday from the dry desert heat of Coachella and its surrounds, actually pretty nice this year, not too hot and a great breeze most of the time. saw great sets by She & Him, The Specials, Yo La Tengo, Spoon, and Pavement plus a couple Charlotte Gainsbourg tunes and De La Soul covering RUN-DMC. good times. it's still Spring here in NC which is a bit of a relief.

listening:

Sambassadeur - European
Anthony Braxton - Complete Arista Recordings
The Neats - 1981-84: The Ace of Hearts Years
Best Coast - "Make You Mine"
Figurines - When The Deer Wore Blue
Pavement - Quarantine the Past

Strange Powers

2010-04-10T19:01:00.002-04:00

i'll be introducing the new The Magnetic Fields doc at Full Frame tonight, 10.20 PM at the Carolina Theatre in Durham... the film is called Strange Powers and was made by our old friend Gail O'Hara and Kerthy Fix, and you should see it!

Hats on the Ice

2010-04-09T08:22:00.004-04:00

Well the 'Canes dug themselves a deep hole early this season and despite playing really well for the last couple months they will not be playing in the post-season. But they never quit, the Albany guys got a lot of good time in, and they finished off the season right last night with a 5-2 win over the Habs (preventing MTL from securing a playoff spot in the process). Staal netted 3 goals and La Rose 2, and after the game Rosie said "It was a good night, and it ended right - hats on the ice." Looking forward to next year already.

Speaking of hockey, i hear they have a team in Toronto though i saw no sign of it on Wednesday night when Jim and I were there for the screening of Passenger side. We rocked acoustic style, here was the list...fun night and excellent crowd participation on F*ck You.

Out of Luck (The Pointed Sticks)
Cool
Detroit Has a Skyline
1,000 pounds
Everything at Once
Cunning Latch
Song for a Clock
I Guess I Remembered It Wrong
Throwing Things
Hate Your Friends (Lemonheads)
F*ck You (DOA, but as i was corrected, actually the Subhumans)
Noisy Night
San Andreas

Encore:
Rock and Roll Friend (Go-Betweens)
Fishing

Toronto Here We Come

2010-03-31T13:48:00.003-04:00

Next week my compatriot in rock, Jim Wilbur and I will head north to play a somewhat non-rock show at a special advance screening of Matt Bissonnette's new film Passenger Side. The show will be us on acoustic guitars playing Superchunk and Portastatic songs, and maybe some covers thrown in for good measure. Matt directed Looking for Leonard and Who Loves the Sun, both of which i scored... but for this film almost all of the music is playing on a car tape deck as the main characters take a circuitous road trip, and i helped Matt come up with the playlist, which was fun and hardly what i'd call a job. Plus the movie is great. This event goes down at the fancy-looking Royal Theatre in Toronto next Wed, April 7. First they show the movie, then we talk about the movie, then we play some songs! Everybody wins, i think...

listening:
My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
Four Tet - There Is Love In You
DOA - Bloodied but Unbowed
Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall
Shugo Tokumaru - Port Entropy
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

I Want To Watch This

2010-03-30T15:23:00.002-04:00

according to Can't Stop The Bleeding, only our friends to the North were able to watch "Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story," a made-for-CBC movie...and i can't see Netflix getting ahold of it even if it DOES hit DVD! but you never know... seeing those guys skating around with no helmets reminds me of the excitement of early cable with ESPN, when they actually showed hockey.

Autumn Still A Lark

2010-03-27T08:48:00.005-04:00

Some Songs Considered Blog gives a small shout out to my cover of "Bobby Jean"...though the writer does refer to "Bobby" as a "her" and i think it's about Little Steven. This (and a recent conversation about the Plasmatics) got me wondering if Van Zandt's excellent album Men Without Women is on CD....it is, in this hideous package.

'Chop On the Screen!

2010-03-25T13:07:00.002-04:00

In a very special event, the 92nd St Y Tribeca is hosting a screening of the Lambchop Live at XX Merge film next week, March 31st.

In addition to the fabulous concert film for which Merge released the live album and video download by the same name, there will be a showing of a beautiful short film called "Buttons" featuring Kurt playing acoustically in a barbershop in Carrboro, NC.
And you know this stuff will look better on the big(ger) screen than your crappy laptop!

Kurt Wagner will be there and there will be a Q & A following the film, moderated by Anna Thorngate, an assistant editor at Criterion Collection and a film writer.

If you're in NYC don't miss this! Heck you may even win a pair of tix over at The Music Slut....

Food Tastes Good When You Eat It

2010-03-23T14:37:00.002-04:00

especially at Lantern.... if there's one thing this blog is good for it's to congratulate my lovely wife Andrea Reusing on her nomination for a 2010 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast...CONGRATULATIONS!

Still Thinking Chilton

2010-03-22T12:40:00.004-04:00

Alex Chilton dying is one of those things that we will keep re-living because it's still so hard to believe and just won't quite "sink in". When i saw him live for the first time it was around the time of Feudalist Tarts and you couldn't get #1 Record or Radio City easily on LP as they hadn't been reissued by Line or Big Beat yet. in fact i think PVC reissued Sister Lovers before either of the first two had 80's pressings...so essentially i was seeing this legend play the Cat's Cradle or the Brewery, but he was playing this pared-down R&B sets of covers and a few of his own songs ("No Sex" certainly and probably "Bankok" and other solo stuff) but no Big Star and no hint even of what Big Star had been...it was a little confounding and though i came to appreciate that side of Chilton it didn't prepare me for when i could actually get copies of the 3 Big Star albums, and it's fair to say they blew my mind in that way of "how could these record exist and sound like this and i have lived this long without hearing them?"...i think all three are perfect in their own ways (with 3rd maybe the deepest well of the three for me) and while i think many fans wanted him to go back to that sound & style & voice, i can understand why he walked away (not even counting relationships / drugs / poverty) because really what else could he have done to top it? Carrie Brownstein has a great explanation of what it was like to find those records on her blog at NPR:

"Musicians and fans have always passed around Big Star songs and albums like a secret handshake. When you found out someone hadn't heard #1 Record or Radio City, you were so excited to provide that missing link, to pass on all the glimmer, the jangly guitar, the big chords, the melodies, the American anthems that let you keep your teenage self -- for some of us long since faded -- close, etched upon your skin."

great interview HERE from MTV's Cutting Edge circa '85.

When Do They Announce the Winner...

2010-03-21T21:16:00.004-04:00

...of SXSW?

saw some great stuff including Lou Barlow solo and covering Smog's "A Hit," a great brave-the-elements set by She & Him outdoors Saturday night, 38 degrees and windy, some excellent Memphis-style punk rock courtesy River City Tanlines, and a positively joyous set by Chuck Prophet at Yard Dog, which included two Chilton covers and a great version of "For You". the sun came out at one point and everyone started cheering in the middle of the song...

here's some links to Chunk-related relating of the proceedings...

Washington Post
Nashville Scene
Houston Press
SF Weekly (note Jack McCook call)
NY Times blog
AV Club

meanwhile it looks like the Dems have enough votes for health care, but watching the insufferable Mike Pence holding forth right now actually makes me wish i was back in a muddy courtyard with a warm Lone Star and no earplugs.

Courtyard Rock

2010-03-19T18:28:00.003-04:00

Merge show last night at Cedar St Courtyard was a blast, see Radar Bros pictured above who sounded especially great with the new lineup. Nice to play under the stars. Rocked indoors today with Superchunk at La Zona Rosa, great crowd, and then caught some of the XX after our set, great minimalism and loved that the guy playing the drum machines is actually playing the rhythms on the pads with his hands.

All our playing/reading requirements are out of the way, time to eat some more and see more bands!

It's Begun

2010-03-18T11:10:00.003-04:00

Book People hosted a fun Our Noise event yesterday and despite the many offerings of 6th St and beyond we still had a nice crowd and some good Q&A action. More Our Noise today at the convention itself with Michael Azerrad moderating (at 2 pm if you're here and inclined). Didn't try to see a million bands last night, saved it up for Spoon at Stubbs at 12.15 AM, a time at which i'm not much aquainted with these days, and it was awesome. New songs sounded amazing live, especially "Trouble Comes Running" and "Got Nuffin"....

Hanging over the festival of course is the terrible news that Alex Chilton died yesterday, so sad and unexpected.

Rock n Roll Tuesday

2010-03-16T13:50:00.004-04:00

Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight
Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me
Ted Leo & Rx - The Brutalist Bricks
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
The Obits - I Blame You
Spoon - Transference

see you in Austin!

We're Dancing as Fast as We Can!

2010-03-15T15:57:00.003-04:00

some visual proof that we are actually working on something, hopefully a Superchunk record, in a studio (with Scott Solter, who thinks all of our songs are that funny).

what's really funny is that when this record finally comes out it will seem like we actually worked on a new album for 9 years, and then people will hear it and say "hey it sounds like you recorded it in 5 days like all your other records!"

Texas Time

2010-03-10T15:31:00.003-05:00

SXSW is upon us once again! warm weather, cold beer and way too many bands.

Superchunk is playing at least once (at La Zona Rosa for the Village Voice party on Friday) and we're doing a couple Our Noise events as well....

for a flier with all the details go here: MERGE AT SXSW

She & Him Bringing It On, Hula-Hoop Style

2010-03-09T11:15:00.002-05:00

Our old friend Peyton Reed, director of such Superchunk vids as Driveway to Driveway and Package Thief (in addition to films like Bring It On and Yes Man), has unleashed a hula-hooping fantasia of a video for a track off the new She & Him video. Zooey leads a pack of dancers, M. Ward plays the slightly creepy cool guy...check it!

Mid Week, Still Cold

2010-03-03T12:53:00.005-05:00

boy winter is just hanging on around here...tired of this 38 degrees and raining BS i tell you.

'Canes picked up where they left off before the Olympic break with a win last night (ok against the Leafs but it still counts) and Justin Peters looked great in net. Today's deadline day for trades, Aaron Ward gone to the Ducks, not too sad about that but who else will we lose?

listening:
Cecil Taylor - Olu Iwa
Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
The Kinks - Kinda Kinks
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
The Nils - Sell Out Young
Beulah - Yoko
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
V/A - Zanzibara Vol 5 - Hot In Dar

Silver Stinks

2010-03-01T16:12:00.004-05:00

not really! think about the disaster that was Torino...but still, second place could well feel like last when you're so close to first only to come up short. when the USA sent the it to OT yesterday with 25 secs left in the game, you had to think they might actually beat Canada twice in a week. that is, until you saw what 4-on-4 hockey vs Canada actually looked like, which is to say it looked like Ryan Miller was the target in target practice. too much talent and speed on the Canadian team, and it finally took its toll but not before the US pushed them to their limit (and you know that once Canada took a 2-0 lead they were thinking it might be easy...). great toughness shown by the USA team in the comeback, Ryan Miller deservedly MVP and congrats to Canada who collectively frankly couldn't have handled another loss to the US so soon after the last one!

There's a Hockey Game

2010-02-28T13:15:00.002-05:00

US plays whoever won the Canada - Latvia matchup the other night, will probably watch.

vinyl weekend:

Mirah - Aspera
The Clientele - Strange Geometry
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love
Greg Cartwright - Live at the Circle A
She & Him - Vol. 2
V/A - Boogaloo Pow Wow
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care

Ouch

2010-02-26T15:58:00.003-05:00

US up 6-0 on Finland after one period, didn't see that coming! and OUCH Hurricane Tim Gleason just took a puck to the head....Finns getting chippy now in the 2nd...

Friday listening:
Bee Gees - Horizontal
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
Straightjacket Fits - Hail
Talk Talk - Colour of Spring
The Magnetic Fields - Realism

Have great weekends....

Healthcare Summit

2010-02-25T12:30:00.008-05:00

Is there anyone who has fallen so far in terms of the respect he engenders and the substance he brings to an issue as John McCain?

Watching the Healthcare Summit and McCain's comments are self-righteous and self-aggrandizing and hard to stomach.

Obama's response: "John, we're not campaigning anymore."

odd note: Obama refers to ObGyn docs as something that sounds like "Obee Guynees"...never heard that one before.

also odd: Obama suggests Republicans do some soul searching...would require them having said souls.

listening:

Amor De Dias - S/T
Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
Straighjacket Fits - Melt
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

The Clientele tonight!

2010-02-24T17:04:00.005-05:00

The Clientele are in the US to tour for the fantastic Bonfires On the Heath record, playing here in NC tonight with Vetiver at the Cat's Cradle, can't wait.

listening:
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
Elvis Costello - Trust
La Nueva Banda De Sanisteban - Sabor a fresa
The Ettes - Do You Want Power

USA Hockey beats the Swiss in a much tighter game than the other day...Miller gets the shutout 2-0.

Big Tuesday

2010-02-23T15:53:00.002-05:00

Chris Knox tribute STROKE is out today on Merge, as is the great new Shout Out Louds album, WORK. They make albums that sounds like albums but at the same time each song is kind of a hit, it's an underrated combination.

Also, elimination hockey starts today! (Swiss currently up 2-1 on Belarus in the 2nd)

listening:

Rocket from the Crypt - Scream Dracula Scream!
SMOG - Rain On Lens
Organos - The Limbs EP
Patti Smith - Horses
Times New Viking - born again revisited
Kris Kristofferson - Kristofferson
Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago

Stroke Album for Chris Knox Out Tomorrow!

2010-02-22T13:22:00.001-05:00

Pitchfork has an interview with Chris (by Shane Carter of The Straighjacket Fits & Dimmer) up today: 5-10-15-20: Chris Knox

Go here or to your local record store to get the record!

Amazing

2010-02-21T23:12:00.002-05:00

Amazing win for USA hockey tonight...strange saying something positive about a Buffalo Sabre, it pains me actually, but Ryan Miller is playing out of his mind, stopping 42 of 45 shots tonight. Rafalski going nuts as well. Really best of both worlds (as a 'Canes fan) getting a goal for Staal but seeing the US win an incredibly intense hockey match. Having said that, i think there's a lot of hyperbole in the analysis of this as "one of the most important games ever" for Canadian hockey etc....not even an elimination game! obviously a lot of hockey to be played yet, and Russia looked pretty great beating Czech Republic.

MSNBC is right now trying to demonstrate how disappointed all Canadians are but it's difficult because everyone on the street is acting so drunk and happy and... not disappointed.

Friday Listening

2010-02-19T15:30:00.004-05:00

The Kinks - Everybody's In Showbiz
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge
Government Issue - Complete History Vol 1
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath (coming to the US next week!)
V/A - Casual Victim Pile
Pantha du Prince - Black Noise

big hockey match on Sunday! should be fun.
have a good one!

Tracey Thorn + Merge!

2010-02-17T14:02:00.004-05:00

You may have already seen the announcement that in May Merge will be putting out the NEW TRACEY THORN ALBUM! Yes, caps = excitement. Having been a fan for 25 years it's amazing to get to release Tracey's record here in the US and the record itself is surprising, engaging, and excellent of course. What's not surprising is how great her voice and her songs are. Tracey has a website and Tweets frequently and hilariously as well.

also listening today:
Sandy Denny - Sandy
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Taken By Trees - East of Eden
The Baseball Project
The Isleys - Brother Brother Brother

Have You Seen This Man?

2010-02-16T15:37:00.002-05:00

Olympic hockey starts today, and i still can't figure out why Hurricanes favorite Jussi Jokinen is NOT on the Finnish Olympic hockey team. He is the leads all Finnish-born players in the league in points this season...and while it's great that his teammates Ruutu and Pitkanen are on the team, why no Jussi!?

On the Radio

2010-02-15T17:02:00.002-05:00

local gal made good (and now living in the big city) Tift Merritt was back in NC recently and was kind enough to have me on her interview show The Spark, which she records for Marfa Public Radio...we talked about writing songs and listening to songs and record covers and all kinds of things, check it out here!

listening today:

The Damned - Strawberries (i first heard this record when i was in high school at a hardcore show in Durham at this Rasta place where they had shows...HR was playing (the Bad Brains had recently broken up, not for the last time). his band was amazing, and the guitar player sat in their van by the door of the club listening to the song "Dozen Girls" from this album over and over again, just rewinding the tape)
Fucked Up - Couple Tracks
Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Colour
Meat Puppets - Up On the Sun
Tracey Thorn - Out of the Woods

On Tap

2010-02-12T16:38:00.004-05:00

some great stuff happening in these parts in the coming week... this weekend at UNC (tonight and tomorrow night) is Young Jean Lee's play The Shipment. monday night Touareg rock stars Tinariwen are at Memorial Hall, should be amazing. wonder if i can make it from there to Tortoise at the Cradle in time?

next week at Duke Dean and Britta are bringing their "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screentests", to Page Auditorium. local boy and drummer extraordinaire Lee Waters (you may have seen him with Camera Obscura, Essex Green, his own band Work Clothes, or heard him playing on Portastatic records!) is on board for that show as well.

Coming off an excellent OT win v Sabres last night (it always feels good to beat Buffalo, and you'd never know from the atmosphere in the RBC that one of the teams was essentially just playing for pride) 'Canes play NJ on saturday and will have rookie Justin Peters in goal (coming off his own win last weekend, in his first NHL appearance). We've lost Nicky Wallin and Matt Cullen to trades this week, sad though not surprising. Ray Whitney liable to be next, after the Olympics. Still, Carolina has not thrown in the towel and it's fun to watch some no-pressure hockey.

Friday listening:
Heatmiser - Mic City Sons
Toy Love - Cuts
Depeche Mode - Speak & Spell
Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
Reigning Sound - Too Much Guitar
Hot Chip - One Life Stand

Tuesday Listening

2010-02-09T15:05:00.003-05:00

Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Robyn Hitchock - I Often Dream of Trains (In New York)
Hot Snakes - Audit In Progress
Tony Williams - Spring
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Marvin Gaye - Here My Dear
Shout Out Louds - Work
Replacements - Sorry Ma...
The Kinks - Arthur

also it's fun to watch this:

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Economy

Color Balance

2010-02-05T16:17:00.004-05:00

Took advantage of a snow day this week to check out the new Felrath Hines exhibit at the Ackland, beautiful color field type abstract paintings, perfect way to get away from the freezing rain coming down this weekend around here! Fascinating life story and absorbing work. The work pictured here, "Escape," is not even my favorite but i can find few images online to share here.

Friday listening:

Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Let's Wrestle - In the Court of the Wrestling Let's
David S. Ware - Go See The World
Tunng - Good Arrows
Eric's Trip - Love Tara
Doris Duke - I'm A Loser
The Fall - Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 3)

Ltd SCORE! Boxes Available Now!

2010-02-03T15:21:00.006-05:00

we have a limited number of complete SCORE! box sets over at Merge...beautiful package, great curators, great music and still all for charity of course...when they're gone they're gone!

Wednesday listening:

Four Tet - There Is Love In You
Bill Withers - Still Bill
Shout Out Louds - WORK
Bill Evans - Moonbeams
Irma Thomas - A Woman's Viewpoint
Andrew Hill - Live at Montreux 1975
Everything But the Girl - Everything But the Girl

Oscar Nominee Joe Klotz!

2010-02-02T15:04:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to Joe Klotz, old friend and co-director (with Phil Morrison) of the Portastatic video for "San Andreas" -- Joe is a 2010 Oscar Nominee for Best Film Editing for his work on Precious!

Got Some

2010-01-30T13:50:00.002-05:00

Expecting Snow

2010-01-29T15:46:00.003-05:00

it hardly ever delivers though! maybe this weekend is different...

Friday listening:

Various Artists - African Boogaloo
Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours
Billy Sugarfix - King of the Drama Kings
Wilson Pickett - The Definitive Collection
Various Artists - Stroke (nice Pitchfork review today!)
Ryan Gustafson - Donkey
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Live at Hollywood High

Pretty Fascinating

2010-01-29T13:02:00.007-05:00

Obama taking questions live at House GOP Conference.
Obama: "I'm having fun!" Not sure about that, but he's responding in a reality-based way on GOP talking points like tort reform, some good stuff.
"There has to be some test of realism in any of these proposals. I've actually read your bills."
Nice.
Too nice for Fox News, they cut away early!
GOP trying to spin themselves as having offered "many ideas." Not sounding convincing.
Nice bust on Frank Luntz at the end...
Wish they did this more often!

Eno Interview

2010-01-27T13:23:00.004-05:00

i wish there were more Brian Eno interviews. he's as smart and funny and unique as you think he'd be....here's a good one from last week in the Guardian. a couple highlights...

on acoustic guitars: "If you were sitting down now to design an instrument you would not dream of coming up with something as ridiculous as an acoustic guitar. It's a strange instrument, it's very limited and it doesn't sound good."
on Frank Zappa: "Zappa was important to me because I realised I didn't have to make music like he did"
good stuff! not sure i agree with this though:
"Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it."

In Merge world, Spoon has the #4 album in the country! They played an "in-store" (actually in the parking lot) at one of the nation's finest record stores, Waterloo, to 2,000 people on Monday.
And speaking of Eno, there's a great new Caribou track you can hear which reminds me of Arthur Russell and also a bit of Eno's work with the Talking Heads...check out "Odessa." (new album Swim out in May)