I'm a big fan of Friends Thanksgiving. I've had a few now and they always blow the family affairs out of the water. This year my friend Eric (Fruit Bats/Shins/Vetiver) and his lady, Annie, invited me over to their place which is pretty much the coziest place on earth. I broke out "Mike Shea's" famous Dicken's Cider and also made some R-Rated baked brie:
It was Eric's first bird and it was delicious.
My roommate just this second informed me that Eric and Annie have officially decided to up and ditch Portland for more Angelesian pastures. This breaks my heart in so many places and reminds me of another phone photo I recently took:
My friend Steven recently tipped me to this Icelandic band called Skatar who have a song called "Pantee Lions." I am well aware that good ideas tend to pop up in opposite ends of the creative conscious from time to time but when I chose the name "Panty Lions" as a band name, I was pretty sure I could own it. I'm pretty certain these guys have never heard of me.
Steven fronts The Broken Family Band and is coming to visit this weekend. I am stoked.
This Thursday I will have some polaroid prints hanging (and for sale) in Portland's city hall. Neat! Details are thus:
Secondly, it is not yet confirmed but as I will likely not update this muv again anytime soon, there is a fair chance I will be DJing on Friday night at Gainsbourg (8550 Greenwood Ave. N. - in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle). Also playing music will be DJ Foodcourt from San Francisco and Spiral Stairs (who happens to be part owner of the establishment). Should be SICK.
Perusing one of my favorite blogs (www.theselby.com) I was thrilled to come across a photo of my book on a bookshelf.
It's the hot aqua one just right of center on the top shelf and it belongs to artist Cheryl Dunn. Granted, she likely got it for free from Picturebox who also published her book.
It reminded me of another bookshelf I came across online a ways back. This one belongs to Phil from the Microphones/Mt.Eerie.
Again, he got his book for free as he contributed a beautiful song to the accompanying cd, but still! Pretty rad. Also, I just love looking at O.P.B. (other people's bookshelves). Take a picture of yours! Send it to me!
My friends over at Describe the Ruckus posted a story today about the soon-to-be-released photobook "Frezno" by Tony Stamolis. My first reaction was one of disappointment - that someone had beaten me to the punch - but my second reaction was "Neat!" (And let's be honest, I was never going to get around to making that dream a reality). Many folks seemed to have similar sentiments after "Real Fun" was released and my response is generally something along the lines of "Less talk, more rock." My guess is that the move from F***no to NYC instilled a similar ethic in Mr. Stamolis.
I'm pretty sure this lady used to run Penny Candy, a rock-n-roll sex shoppe at the end of my street. If it's her, she was batshucks crazy and had this weird policy of charging you to enter only to refund the money if you actually bought something. It was the first place I ever saw edible underwear. Still need to try those. Also, I'll bet that's the McDonald's that my Dad used to bike to EVERY NIGHT to get me a big mac. It was the first McDonald's franchise IN THE WORLD. Sometimes I miss Fresno.
Why the heck not? I am always astounded when people tell me that they actually read this thing. It makes me think I should take it a tad more seriously. Recently this fellow from The Mid-Century Modern League of Portland asked me to pimp his event but then went the extra mile to ask about the status of Preston School of Industry. Way to butter a dude up! Portlanders (and I suppose Seattlites, as well) should be aware of this fellow and his goings-on: http://www.charlesphoenix.com - The M-CML event takes place at the Clinton Theater on Sun. Oct. 23.
PSOI is now simply Spiral Stairs and there is a record making it's way to the can. Should be out come springtime. Here's iphone proof that we actually spent some time in a studio:
Furthermore, I'm going to go ahead and call it now. Dodos "Visiter": 2008 album of the year.
[TENDER WEIRDNESS] Ashod Simonian, a.k.a. Panty Lions, has plenty of musical experience with his former bands Earlimart and Preston School of Industry (alongside Pavement guitarist Spiral Stairs) and as a rock-related photographer (his book, Real Fun, was released last year). But Panty Lions is a whole 'nother game, and Simonian doesn't play out much under the solo moniker. Too bad, because his delicate, off-kilter latest offering as Panty Lions, Do Luv, is full of interesting, endearingly impulsive stuff that seems equally inspired by Pavement (only one degree of separation there, after all) and Daniel Johnston. OK, so I cheated on both of those—Simonian says he wrote the album after a Panty Lions tour opening for the latter fell apart (Johnston sometimes disappears). Instead of getting depressed about it, Simonian wrote Do Luv in speedy, Daniel Johnston fashion. Tonight he plays his first show in an awfully long time, and he's in good company: Geoff Soule (formerly of the band Fuck) is the man who lured Simonian out to play. CASEY JARMAN. Valentine's, 232 SW Ankeny St., 248-1600. Free.
My friend Sue just IM'd me the polaroid below and reminded me that today marks the seventh anniversary of our friend Doug's death.
From L to R: "Mike Shea," me (with polaroid dangling), BT (currently the drummer for Earlimart), and Doug.
Doug, who I *think* earned the nickname "Pikul" during this very trip to Fresno, was also the inspiration for the Silversun Pickups album of the same name.
Losing friends sux and seven yrs doesn't make it any easier. I love you and miss you something awful, Pikul.
Since I am still cameraless, maybe I will post some other images that are making me hot these days. Came across this one today and was kind of blown away. Can't figure out who is responsible for this genius but high-five to whomever.
Someone smashed the window of my rental car and snatched my little camera. Of course, the memory card was loaded to the gills with hilarious pics from Sub Pop's 20th anniversary party over the weekend. I am so sad I can't even tell you. Here's one last one from Sled Island.
Brendan, Broken Social Scene
Updates will likely be few until I get a new picture machine sorted. Sars.
What a weird thing it must be to write a setlist when your repertoire contains a gajillion songs. Sled Island did a find job of booking some classics. I was happy to catch little bits of Jonathan Richman, Mogwai, and Yo La Tengo.
Yo La brought some "Big Day Coming" which made me especially happy (even if the riff just went on and on and on and on). It's also a joy to watch James McNew. What a dude.
I was especially pumped to finally see Wire but their set was a little eh. It was disappointing to learn that Bruce Gilbert was no longer in the band, and they definitely suffered from "not playing enough songs that Ashod loves" syndrome. Still, what a joy to open for them and also, what a joy to see Colin wandering around the main site the following evening snapping photos with his little elf (just like me!)
I wrote about the Still Flyin' kids a little ways back. Since then, I've purchased their two available EPs and have continued to baffle myself with the fact that I am into a ska band full o' young, hip, whiteys. I missed their first twelve sled island appearances but was pleased as punch when one of the flyettes ended up in my room on my first night in town.
Becky had some Kokanees in her bag and was just a ball of laughs. Fell in love instantly. As did my roommate who announced to her, "Welcome to you are now my new girlfriend." This is her cleaning her crotch.
The next night we ended up in their room. I still hadn't seen them play but I was slowly falling for each one of them. What a rad group of kids. Somewhere around six in the morning (five hours to soundcheck) Sean pulled the plug on the party.
Drummer, Yoshi, pulled the plug some time earlier. We found him in the closet: the only room not raging.
I made a special effort to make it to the field in time for their early set and it was maybe the best decision I had ever made in my life. As expected, they owned it. Sean kept mentioning what a great day it was for volleyball, and then sure enough, the last song rolls around, the volleyballs come out, and the whole band leads a procession to the volleyball courts at the rear of the field. Brilliant! I whipped out my camera and was able to capture the video below before my battery died for the weekend.
I accidentally, but happily, caught Still Flyin' two more times that day. Sadly, I don't have any photos of hacky sack spiderman or any of their other kooky shenanigans. For a weekend full of highlights, Still Flyin' really took the cake.
Despite some close calls, I survived Sled Island. Man, what a festival. Those Calgarians really know how to do it up right! Over the next few days, I hope to upload some pictures and some stories and stuff of that ilk. I'll start with the first show I stumbled into. One in the morning, fresh off the plane, I got some texts notifying me that Broken City was blowing up. I missed Still Flyin' but as I was collecting hugs and doing my best to catch up with the full-on drunkies, a beautiful racket began. "I know this song!" I thought. Funny how I live in the same town as Blitzen Trapper yet had to fly to Canada to actually see them. Their last album, Wild Mountain Nation, was a fave of '07 and their live show did not disappoint. These kids are going places. Unfortunately, Partyville is not on that list of places. After graciously giving me a ride back to the hotel, the dudes disappeared into their dens of rest and I was left to invent my own party. T'wasn't so bad. Guess that's what I get for showing up late.
Countdown to Calgary. I am very excited to catch up with some old friends (including dudes in the video below) and suck down some caesars in the summer sun at this year's Sled Island Festival. Some fruits were ripened at band practice this past weekend and I think we will be debuting a few new jams. Also, there is this.
Hopefully this time next week I'll have lots of good gossip for y'all. In the meantime, enjoy this heartwarming video...
It's rare these days for music to give me the chills. Even rarer, that it can do so via a little box on my computer screen. Apparently we are opening up for these dudes in a couple of weeks. I was afraid they wouldn't play any of their old jams, but this footage from the South Street Seaport this past weekend has me all giddy with anticipation.
A couple weekends back, I was superbummed to find out that the Radar Bros were playing in Portland while I was in Seattle, and then playing in Seattle after I had returned to Portland. We did some algebra via text messaging and found the mile marker in which our paths would cross. There, we ate burgers and launched model rockets that they had been laboring over all morning. Here's the pics to prove it:
I also convinced them to let me buy the brand new Jim Putnam solo disc, Mt. Wilson Repeater, which is fantastic and may be gotten here. As per usual, The Radar Bros can be found at www.mergerecords.com
Preston School of Industry! This Saturday! Neumo's in Seattle! Early show! 8:15pm! (As part of The Posies 20th Anniversary Blowout)! (?)
One of my favorite bands, Yuppie Flu, has their new album available for free-ish download on their website. I paid seven euros and encourage you to pay what you can, as well.
Also, pitchfork reviewed the new Pattern Is Movement cd yesterday. I still haven't picked up a copy but this line was heart-warming: "It takes special musicians to make a sound like this work, but three LPs into their career, Thiboldeaux and Ward seem to have it figured out, creating an accessible album that nonetheless sounds unlike anything any other band is doing."
I really hope you all are doing ok out there. K.I.T.
When you get a text late on a Monday night that reads, "Thurston Moore is playing a house party. Get over here!," you get over there. I'm glad that this stuff still happens to me and I find it funny that I took way more pictures of people taking celphone pictures than I did of Thurston shredding. The shredding, by the way, was hilarious as he was playing through some kid's crappy little amp and you could actually hear the pick hitting strings over the quiet squeal of feedback. Had it been anybody else performing in the exact same manner the kids would've been bored out of their minds, but THURSTON FREAKING MOORE?!? PARTY!!!!!
I'm so sad this picture didn't come out because this kid is drinking a JUG OF CARLO ROSSI...BLUSH!!! Oh man, to be seventeen again! He was also asking Thurston all kinds of cute fanboy questions which were fielded with style and class. I felt so old. Ugh.
This is the only picture I took of the show. I think maybe Thurston was going for a stagedive sort of thing but not really succeeding.
Far more interesting to me were scenes like this. You know that dude in the stripes is like, "Do I throw these devil horns in the air? Do you think he'll see it through those foggy windows?"
Here's a short video I took to give you a sense of the vibe. Sadly, this lacks some of the cushion tossing that really rubbed in the "This is some kid's livingroom!!!" aesthetic, but you get the idea.
Thurston is single-handedly responsible for me turning my back on Christian rock so if this post sounds all hipster-blase, that is simply not the case. I was just as floored as Blushboy. Had I had the foresight to pick up a jug, I would've been chugging along. Thankfully, my years of experience led me to the crisper where I stealthily snagged the last beer in the house. ALWAYS CHECK THE CRISPER!!!
The Preston School of Industry "tour" turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. The perfect bender. I kind of blew it as a guitar player but lots of folks said I was their favorite part of the show so hopefully Spiral will ask me back. Here's some pics with more to come.
As it was Easter weekend and the train was sold out, I caught a ride up with Dengue Fever. Way more laughs than Amtrak.
First night, last call.
Scott's basement has lots of fun Pavement ephemera that never ceases to amaze.
Fan mail...
I love Elastica and I love that Pavement had a song called "Elastica."
in an odd turn of events, this band i play in (with spiral stairs of pavement fame) called preston school of industry is playing it's first and, as far as i can tell, only show in four years this tuesday in calgary, alberta, canada. i am pretty jazzed as i have never been to calgary before and also my life is kind of sucking these days. if you know someone who rules AND lives in calgary, please encourage them to come down to broken city and say hi. i think that's what the place is called. apparently, tuesday is hot wing nite.
when i reluctantly started this blog a little ways back, i thought it would be a good forum to share some stories and photos that didn't make it into the book. i imagined lots of hub-bub and audience interaction. sadly, it's been more "me" and less "you," but with so many billions of blogs out there to peruse, i can't say that i am surprised. that said, i have had my fair share of private interactions with folks i have met thru the book, and i figured i should make more of an effort to make some of those private conversations more public. for example, this missive recently popped up in my box:
"Great book! I was wondering what the story was behind Gretchen (Slumber Party) black eye. Is it a black eye? Also, do you have any other SP photos? Thanks! Kim"
many polaroids from the book were purposefully left without stories as it seemed the reader's imagination would do a far better job than the truth ever could. i met slumber party on halloween2000, when our bands ended up on a bill together in houston (there is mention of this show in the book). we hit it off and a couple of years later we recreated the scene with our own halloween show in los angeles. it was the last show i would ever play with earlimart and man, was it fun (somewhere out there, someone has a picture of me with bunny ears on humping a pumpkin-splattered guitar and i want to see it). the photo you are asking about was taken the next day when slumber party played at this sad venue in orange county called koo's cafe. to kill time and combat boredom before the show, the girls pulled out their recently-purchased halloween make-up. that photo was from the resulting "photoshoot," as is the one of leigh, getting her face kicked in below. i've also included a photo of aliccia, who, to this day, remains one of my favorite friends (and sharpest dressers!) in the world.
thanks for taking the time kim, and if anyone else out there wants to hear some stories, just ask. who knows what weird memories you may unearth...
