Review: Cursive @ the Bottleneck [5/30/07]

Sometimes I do things on weird, unexplainable impulses. Like going to a show with three bands I really do not give a damn about by myself on a Wednesday night. I mean, I guess I can sort of justify it: 1) I wanted to play with my new camera (a Nikon D40, a graduation present from my lovely parents), 2) The Show Is The Rainbow sounded like he could be cool (he wasn’t), 3) I wanted to listen to some music I downloaded, and there’s no better place to do so than on the highway, and 4) a freak storm system materialized over Kansas City that was really bumming me out. So I headed out west.

So okay. The first band that played was Dead Girls Ruin Everything. I think. Yeah, that was it. Too bad about that name. Dead Girls Ruin Everything “is the white-hot super group formed from the molten ashes of Ultimate Fakebook and Podstar” (thanks Lawrence.com!). Yes, they call themselves a super group. Obviously, Ultimate Fakebook and Podstar left an important and permanent mark on the Lawrence scene. That sort of lame rockstar mentality was disturbingly abundant throughout their performance. I wish I would have kept count of the alcohol references and the “you guys are fucking awesome’s,” because it would have been pretty high. Oh yeah, their music. Pretty typical power-pop/emo fare, I guess. I wasn’t really paying attention.

Then, The Show Is The Rainbow. This guy annoyed the hell out of me, and made me wish I had stayed at home and just played Galaga or something. He really, really, really, really wants to be that idiot-savant spazz-pop guy with the totally cuhh-razy! persona and phuckin weird videos, but he fails miserably. I mean, that schtick has been done well (listen to Dan Deacon). His set consisted of him projecting brightly-colored, annoying videos with equally annoying music made in FruityLoops or something in QuickTime on his iBook and dancing around in the audience, singing along to pre-recorded vocals. Fucking rad. I mean, I guess performance art types can get away with stuff like that, but there is no art involved here. And calling it a performance would be a stretch. Most of the kids there seemed to get a kick out of it (“DUDE THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!”), which is exactly what he wants. He tries so hard to be interesting and arty, but it’s so self-conscious, it’s just embarassing. Literally everything he said was completely phony and scripted. When he was dancing around, he kept saying, “oh man, I just ate some ash!” THERE’S NO SMOKING AT THIS VENUE, DUDE. Do your homework. I feel so bad for the kids who live in Lincoln and undoubtedly have to put up with this loser at every show they go to.

Cursive. You know, they’re a pretty alright band. Not really anything I’m ever compelled to listen to, but they play some solid, uh, post-emo or whatever the kids call it. I have some respect for that Kasher fellow. They are definitely the only tolerable band to emerge from the scourge to humanity known as Saddle Creek, and probably from the city of Omaha (I sure can’t think of any other decent bands from there). They played a pretty solid, if predictable set. And if it was predictable to me, far from a fan, then it must have been painfully obvious for followers. But, it sounded pretty good! They played as a six-piece, enabling them to include all the touches of synth and horns/flutes which are sort of essential to a lot of their songs. Kasher’s voice, definitely the best aspect of Cursive, sounded fantastic all night. The mix was pretty impeccable overall, actually. They played every song I know by them (that is, “Big Bang,” “Art Is Hard,” “A Gentleman Caller” and “The Recluse”), and some, uh, other stuff. They didn’t play for very long, but that’s generally a good thing.

Overall, hey, there are worse things I could have been doing. Although playing Galaga probably would have been more rewarding. But really, when isn’t Galaga more rewarding?

Look at my pictures on Flickr.

Fun with SongMeanings.

You have probably been to SongMeanings, a cool little website on which critically-thinking music listeners analyze songs by their favorite bands. Over the past couple of days, I’ve found a great deal of amusement from reading people’s keen interpretations of painfully obvious songs, as well as their gross over-analyses of shallow ones. Observe.

Scorpions – “Rock You Like A Hurricane”

i think this song is abt the band when they’re gonna perform/are performing.any other interpretations
by a_fake_plastic_tree

its about fuckin a chick. (so obvious) like “mr. no name” said they wake up in the morning after having sex. “feed her inches” means put your cock in her. fuck her so hard she feels like she was hit by a hurricane. “the wolf is hungry”, means the guy wants pussy. “love at first sting” means falling in love after the first time you had sex. and every other line has something to do with sex.
by MetallibangeR

i think song is about vampires/werewolves
by lilcrow

WOOO!!! I remember when this woz on the OC in the background ages ago in like the 2nd or 3rd season. Awesome song.
by JimBob

Twisted Sister – “We’re Not Gonna Take It”

this song is about the gov. telling us how to live, in an error where we are put last, as americans..it’s about long haired rockers taking whats rightfully ours, our own freedom and dignity.. and thats why the gov banned this song in the 80’s but now in 2003 as u may know the banned pact on this song revoked, cause there is way too much music to banned everything, ex: eminem
by CoNjOutsidersLsSm

I see this song as being about how we should be able to listen to whatever we want and not take crap from any1… but hey thats just my oppinion
by postulio

This song rocks no matter what it means. Personally I think of it as rebelling against the mold society has prepped for us before we were even born…”BUY THIS SHIT WEAR THIS SHIT DO THIS SHIT LISTEN TO THIS SHIT”. Society is turning us into robots, live how u wanna live not how others want u to live.
by ledz4evr77

Black Eyed Peas – “My Humps”

Does ‘all that junk inside your trunk’ refer to her ass or does it mean like when she sings the first verse all the stuff that the guys buy her inside her like car ‘trunk’. ‘Cause later in the song he says about all that ass inside those jeans so wouldn’t that be the same thing. Or am I being stupid lol
by chicken_wing

I don’t like this song. I think it makes the woman singin sound like a slut.
by matt55

My Humps is the WORST song ever written. It’s about demeaning women sexually.
by redwolf_2k

Linkin Park – “Crawling”

crawling is an awesome… its amazing how these words are so true… you want to change you want to walk a new path… but something is dragging you down… and its hard to overcome that… sometimes you do but you have the thought of falling again.. its cool cause these words are true.. everyone has something holding them back… maybe this isnt what the song means… but to me this is how i take it to mean… linkin park really is awesome though…
by artsymusic1

To me this song means that u cant figure out who u are so ur “crawling in ur skin”. It majorly defines my life because when ur really seaching for who u r (as all teens do at one point or another) everything just seems so fucked up and u confuse wut is real from wut is faked and its all a big confusing thing. And no matter how hard u try it seems like u just lose urself all over again (confusing….i cant seem to find myself again).
by famous

Alice Cooper – “School’s Out”

would it not be the greatest day ever if school really was out forever. I think its about being glad that schools out
by angeleyes07

Whatever, I think it’s funny.

Review: Animal Collective @ the Granada [5/20/07]

I am fucking wrecked from last night. I got maybe a couple hours of sleep before having to wake up and go to my pointless second-to-the-last day of high school, and the majority of my body is in excruciating pain, both from the physical exertion of the show and the dumb and rather random decision to work out yesterday morning (Seriously, who works out?). It has taken me all day to work up the ambition to write this.

Any discomfort I’m feeling now, is absolutely worth seeing — nay, experiencing — some of my favorite musicians playing absolutely beautiful music. I am not one to make grand, bombastic statements, but it is very tempting to equate the evening to a religious experience, or at least the closest to one I’ve ever had.

Okay, confession. My friends and I painted our faces before this. Normally I would scoff at such lame fanboyism, almost as much as I do at sharpie-on-Hanes homemade t-shirts at Decemberists shows or whatever, but I think Animal Collective is the one band for which such theatrics are not only acceptable, but almost necessary.

The arrangements for the shows on this tour are not really what you would expect from the collective. Really, besides a few drums and cymbals, there were no instruments on the stage. Essentially, the performance consisted of Geologist, Panda Bear and Avey Tare (Deakin is sitting this one out) playing with their samplers. I’m sure there was more than a little head-scratching going on, but it sounded fantastic and is necessary to perform the new material.

Yes, new songs. Lots of them. Setlist:

Doggy
Hey Light
Who Could Win A Rabbit?
(a very long string of new material + some unreleased Panda Bear stuff)
Loch Raven
We Tigers
Leaf House

They’re playing this exact set at every date this tour, an idea which sounds cheap at first but makes a lot of sense after a while; they’ve assembled this show the same way they would assemble an album, in the sequence which makes the most sense. And the selections of old material make me very happy. One song from Campfire Songs, one from Here Comes The Indian, three from Sung Tongs, and one from Feels? I love it. I personally know several people who went expecting them to regurgitate a bunch of Feels songs, and I almost feel bad for them. Well, not really.

But yeah, this new stuff fucking rules. Very swelly and very electronic. They’re continuing in the cuddly, lovey lyrics they’ve have always been moving towards, which is by no means a bad thing. I wish these songs had some working titles, but, well, highlights were: the first new song they played, with this very very pretty line about how this girl has “flowers in her hair,” this unbelievable song with this looped pan-flute bit, this one with this really cool super-slow synth swell, this utterly transcendant song with a chant of something like “I want to walk around with you,” and all the Panda stuff was rad. I can’t wait to hear this stuff recorded, which won’t be anytime soon. (The recently announced Strawberry Jam will have slightly older jams which they will probably pull back out later this year).

Honestly, though, a lot of the set is a blur of intense emotion and sheer ecstatic energy. Towards the front, we were having a good time through basically the entire show with body gyrations/tribal dancing/clapping/chanting. Lots of touching, lots of sweat; very free love. I danced with more enthusiasm and less self-consciousness than ever in my life. Basically, it was everything I hoped it would be. I did, however, inspect my body for ringworm this morning.

Oh yeah, no encore. I knew they weren’t doing them because, well, I’m really cool and look up setlists on internet message boards. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show when people wanted one more badly than last night, though. I almost tricked myself into thinking we’d be the special audience that gets so excited that they HAVE to play more! But no. After a couple minutes I picked up a pretty cool shirt and a Pullhair Rubeye LP (so I can’t listen to it reversed even if I want to!) and headed out feeling thorougly intoxicated and pretty fucking great about life in general. Until, uh, I woke up this morning.

IMDb plot keywords are hilarious.

These IMDb plot keywords are getting ridiculous. But they sure are funny! For the classic disaster film Twister:

Natural Disaster / Weather Girl / Blockbuster / Babe Scientist / Cow / Disaster / Science / Scientist / Tornado / Weatherman / Gasoline Truck / Drive In / Weatherwoman / Weather / Wind / Obsession / Aunt Niece Relationship / Actor Shares First Name With Character / Title Spoken By Character

Mmmm. Babe scientists.

Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer has an absolutely absurd amount of keywords. Highlights:

Disembowelment / Masochism / Vomit / Breasts / Vomiting / Naked Man / S&M / Nipple Clipping / Painful Sex / Cigar / Drug / Brutality / Death / Broken Neck / Dead Girl / Erection / Cruelty / Syringe / Rough Sex / Stabbed Through Chin / Beaten To Death / Depravity / Man Punching A Woman / Arm Ripped Off / Hypodermic Needle / Volkswagen Car / Gang Rape / Dead Prostitute / Eating / Masturbation / Tasting Blood / Child Murder / Cut Into Pieces / Deep Frying Fat / Shrimp / Severed Arm / Severed Face / Severed Foot / Severed Head / Severed Tongue / Shot In The Leg / Stabbed In The Face / Stabbed In The Head / Twin Brother / Hook / Death Of Father / Character Name In Title / Number In Title

If you haven’t seen the film, this should give you an idea of how sweet it is. I think you can almost infer the plot.

18.

Today is my last day as a minor. It seems like an 18th birthday requires at least a certain amount of pre-planning. I mean, there has to be a lot of ways to take advantage of one’s adulthood, right? Allow me to brainstorm.

• Buy a slingshot. I wanted to get a slingshot a few years back, and was surprised to find that one had to be at least 18 to purchase one, at least at a Wal-Mart store. And, well, slingshots are pretty handy tools to have.
• Get a hotel room. Hey, I’m allowed to! I could totally go book a hotel room. And like, totally make a bunch of trips to the ice machine. Hang out at the swimming pool. Or watch HBO! Hell yeh!
• Buy pr0n. I’m not really much of a pornography guy. That said, I just might go out in search of a certain adult film entitled 1,001 Ways to Eat My Jizz, Part 3: Biscuits and Gravy Edition. No explanation required.
• Register to vote. It’s all of our responsibility.
• Buy some spraypaint. Or maybe some glue. Because I can.

Fuck. Conclusion: being an adult = being a minor plus a few small advantages, and much more accountability.

Good documentaries via Google Video.

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, or: how large media conglomerations threaten the public’s right to information, as exemplified by Murdoch’s Fox News.

Wal-mart: High Cost of Low Prices, or: the human cost at which Wal-mart offers its low prices.

Why We Fight (1, 2, 3, 4), or: an exploration of the motives behind the neo-Conservative obsession with endless warfare.

Month in Music: April

Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan – Pullhair Rubeye

Man, this shit’s backwards! I’d never really listen to this in its retail form, but the reversed/pitch adjusted versions available on the internets to any slightly resourceful person is pretty awesome! Soothing, psyched out pop. If you don’t know, Avey Tare is one half of the core of Animal Collective. And Kria Brekkan is his wife. And a member of Mum. “Lay Lay Off, Faselam” (reversed, of course) is one of my favorite songs right now. Dig “Sis Around The Sawmill.”

The Field – From Here We Go Sublime

My most listened-to album of ‘07 so far, and maybe my favorite. I’ve been listening to it on a nightly basis for a good month or two. Prolific artist Axel Willner’s work under his Field moniker is characterized by minimal, trancy 4/4 drum beats and broken-record repetition of samples. It’s ambient, but never boring. Never has a sequencer been played so warmly and organically — every song was sequenced live and kept intact, mistakes included. But don’t take my word for it! Listen to “A Paw In My Face.”

All Smiles – Ten Readings of a Warning

Ex-Grandaddy guitarist Jim Fairchild recorded this album in his shed with the help of such percussionists as Joe Plummer (Black Heart Procession, Modest Mouse), Danny Seim (Menomena) and Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney). He certainly always had a lot to do with why Grandaddy was awesome, although his role in songwriting was nominal. The songs here embody the kind of breezy melancholy of Beulah or old Modest Mouse. Should be a good summer album. Listen to “Moth In A Cloud Of Smoke,” the best song on the album.

Venetian Snares – Pink + Green EP

A new EP that basically sounds like most of drill’n'bass artist Aaron Funk’s other material, aside from the transcendental Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett. It’s glitchy and noisy and agressive and cathartic and I LOVE IT. Great for turning up way too loud in the car and annoying your passengers/cars around you. MP3: “Pink + Green.”

Xiu Xiu – Remixed and Covered

A bunch of cool artists covering/remixing Xiu Xiu songs! Good stuff: “The Wig Master” by Why?, “Fabulous Muscles” by Kid 606, “Apistat Commander” by Sunset Rubdown, “Hello from Eau Claire” by Gold Chains and Xiu Xiu’s own cover of Joy Division’s “Ceremony.”

APPEND: Forgot a little something, for the fans.

WORST ALBUM OF THE MONTH: Bright Eyes – Cassadaga

Look, I tried to like this thing. I tried to love it. I wanted to be able to say, “you know, I’ve always despised Bright Eyes, but this album is really something!” I heard “Four Winds,” and thought it was a pretty okay song, if not good, even. I used the time and bandwidth to pirate this. Unfortunately, though, it is still self-conscious, unlistenable tripe. It’s not even comically bad like I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning (seriously, that first track is pure hilarity — “we all love you very very very very very very very very very muchhh!”), it’s just boring and irritating. I DO NOT APPROVE. And I’ll have you know, I’m a real authority on the matter!