Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Modern Painters



Hey i've got a few paintings in an art show! they're small and on paper, and the show is Noise Pop -related and it's called Sights of Sounds. i don't normally have time to make art unless there's a record cover due so i was glad to get the prod from former NC resident, photographer Andrew Paynter who's curating the show. It's taking place at a gallery / store called the Park Life Store and some other folks with art in there are Clare Rojas, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav, among others. So if you're in SF in the next couple weeks check it out! the opening reception is Thursday, March 1st and the show runs through the 21st.

in the listening pile recently are some cds i picked up on tour and since returning:
Bill Evans 1960 Birdland Sessions - kinda noisy but any chance to listen to this lineup...
Hard Workin' Man - The Jack Nitzsche Story Vol 2 - loved vol. 1, so far my favorite thing on this is the Everly Bros doing "Mr. Soul" which is awesome
Dirty Projectors - New Attitude ep it's nearly as crazy as seeing them live only with a bit of a cold electro edge
Sensacional Soul - 37 Groove Spanish Soul and Funk Stompers 66-76 still absorbing this but as you'd expect the music is pretty fantastic as is the package itself...

Monday, February 19, 2007

West Coast Noodling


Margaret and I finished up our west coast Portastatic swing last night in Los Angeles at the lovely art deco palace the El Rey Theater -- i think it's been gussied up since Superchunk last played there. Nice crowd, Camera Obscura was great and i've got their songs running thorugh my head as usual today. Annie Hayden brought her magic to a couple songs which was great, and Lee from Camera Obscura tore it up on the cabasa (sp?) in fine style. After the show hit the Sanamluang Cafe for some great Thai noodles, thanks to Marc for the recommendation. The night before in SF was an even better show on our end i think, prodded on by a couple of raving lunatics (in a good way) in the front row, who also joined us onstage for some percussion action.

LA El Rey set:

When Love Breaks Down
Noisy Night
Angels of Sleep
You Blanks
Sweetness and Light
Bobby Jean
A Cunning Latch
You Know Where to Find Me
San Andreas
I Wanna Know Girls

SF Bimbo's set (i think)

Song for a Clock
Bye Bye Pride
Through With People
You Blanks
Sweetness and Light
Noisy Night
Drill Me
You Know Where to Find Me
San Andreas
I Wanna Know Girls

thanks to Mogs for rocking the violin, CO for the tour and to Kerry and Molly for minding the details so kindly.

no celebs at the show last night that i know of, but i saw Terry Richardson at breakfast and Sam Cassell in the airport.

stepping onto the redeye back East...

Friday, February 16, 2007

Rainy V-day


the rainy town of Portland's show at the Wonder Ballroom was the best of the tour on the Portastatic side anyway, crowd was still filing in when we started but were quiet and appreciative the whole set. nice-sounding reverb in the room.
had a raging late night party at some friends' house after the show with the Scots in attendance. Dave from Norfolk & Western did a terrible Jimi Hendrix impersonation and lampooned Bono. i woke up groggy and feeling like i had somehow lost an argument in which my position was that nobody makes worse records than Sting. but i did win the argument that if you were making The River into one album you would not take off "Sherry Darling" first.

here was our set:

Valentine's Day (springsteen) -- kenny from C.O. joined us on this one
Center of the World
Autumn Got Dark
Sour Shores
Sweetness and Light
Skinny Glasses Girl (by request!)
When Love Breaks Down (p.sprout)
You Know Where to Find Me
San Andreas
I Wanna Know Girls

hanging in sunny SF, see you at Bimbo's....

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Obscurantism in The US and Canada


last night in Seattle was fun, the first Portastatic show ever in Vanouver was Ok, kind of a battle with Chatty Cathy and her 400 yammering friends, but still some good times, including a debut of a cover by Jim Wilbur's favorite band Prefab Sprout that we learned before soundcheck (always wanted to cover it, never took the time to dumb down the chord changes so i could play it....). Camera Obscura killed 'em at Neumo's last night (pictured), it's really just hit after hit when you see them.

seattle setlist:
bye bye pride
angels of sleep
sour shores
you blanks
sweetness and light
a cunning latch
you know where to find me
san andreas
i wanna know girls

vancouver setlist:
tonight i'll be staying here with you
angels of sleep
sour shores
you blanks
sweetness and light
naked pilseners
when love breaks down (prefab sprout)
white wave
san andreas
i wanna know girls

on KEXP we did
song for a clock
a cunning latch
you know where to find me
sweetness and light

on to Portland!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Projectors, Food, Seattle, Radio


it was 10 below in Minneapolis Saturday night when we played at the Entry, but the place was packed with excitable people ready for rock and roll music. Dirty Projectors (pictured) were the first band, i had no idea what to expect and by the time they were done i was kind of like "ok we can all go home now because nothing is going to top that!" -- it was like a crazy amalgam of afrobeat, highlife, spazzy punky moments and beautiful unison singing from Amber and Angel. seriously, awesome, and to top it off they did the best Black Flag covers i've heard -- yes covers plural -- they did Police Story and Rise Above and supposedly have recorded all of the Damaged album (except TV Party) and it will be released....i for one can not wait.

anyway we played after that and had a good time with it:
Bobby Jean
Angels of Sleep
Sour Shores
Sweetness and Light
Noisy Night
White Wave
You Know Where to Find Me
San Andreas
I Wanna Know Girls

then Grizzly Bear played, really cool to see how they replicate the records in the live realm, they sounded great.

flew to Seattle yesterday, ate at one of my favorite restaurants last night - Moonsoon - and got mostly a good night's sleep, i think we'll need it to keep up with the Camera Obscuras, who we start with tonight at Neumo's...
first off playing on the excellent KEXP at 1 pm PCT -- 4 Eastern....listen in!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Brrrrr Hello Minneapolis

as the plane was landing today coming into Minneapolis for our show tonight at the 7th St Entry, the pilot said "the temperature on the ground is One Degree," that was pretty funny.

when you go outside and it's One at first it just seems cold like "oh this is pretty cold but no big deal" but pretty soon you can't move your face and it feels like you're barefoot and wearing a tank top at the North Pole (pre-Global Warming North Pole).

i think the last time i was at the Entry Superchunk was playing with Pegboy -- good times.

anyway, looking forward to seeing Grizzly Bear tonight and don't know a thing about the Dirty Projectors except they have a cool name.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Sports are Great, Athletes are Embarrassing

it's predictable of course but you always hope for a little more enlightenment than you're likely to receive from professional athletes... former NBA player John Amaechi announces that he's gay in a new book, and we're treated to the idiotic musings of fellow athletes like Philadelphia 76er Steven Hunter:
"For real? He's gay for real? Nowadays it's proven that people can live double lives. I watch a lot of TV, so I see a lot of sick perverted stuff about married men running around with gay guys and all types of foolishness."

not to mention the more childlike homophobia of fellow Sixer Shavlik Randolph:
"As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine," Randolph said. "As far as business-wise, I'm sure I could play with him. But I think it would create a little awkwardness in the locker room."

how does one "bring your gayness on" someone else?
King Kaufman has a good column on the subject over at Salon.

speaking of embarrassing, last week the Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes paid a visit to the White House, wherein we learned that Rod Brind'Amour waited in line for four hours in order to vote for freaking Bush. ugh.

reminds me of the always-uninteresting Michael Jordan's line about "Republicans buy sneakers too" as to why he didn't campaign for Harvey Gantt when he ran against insane racist homophobe Jesse Helms.
do these guys live in the world?

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Portastatic, the Rock Band


no margaret for the show last night at the cradle, so that was sad but we did play our first set as a 4 piece, keyboard- and violin-less rock band and rocked it out. here's what i think the set was consisting of:

taking you with me
sour shores
through with people
a cunning latch
sweetness and light (feat. two guest nut-shakers)
drill me
noisy night
san andreas
i wanna know girls

keeping it short and sweet as the openers, and then yo la destroyed as usual, finishing up the last encore with a lovely piece of music from the score for the movie Junebug called "Green Arrow".

thanks to kevin sargent for the photo -- he's got a blog over HERE .

Monday, February 05, 2007

Let the Ass Beatings Commence


Yo La Tengo hits town tonight for a pair of shows at the Cats Cradle, and Portastatic will be opening tonight, with the Rosebuds taking over tomorrow night.

see you there!