Sunday, May 27, 2007

Cradle Show

thanks to everyone who came out last night, great crowd at the cats cradle, especially for a holiday weekend. strugglers, an unusually rocking work clothes (w/new drummer chuck garrison), and des ark all contributed great sets and a good portion of the crowd stuck around for Portastatic. somehow we were all awake as well despite starting our set a bit after when i'm usually hitting the hay...here's our set:

noisy night
sour shores
angels of sleep
oh come down
drill me
sweetness and light
a cunning latch
ask (the smiths)
san andreas
i wanna know girls
song for a clock

paratrooper
smothered in hugs (gbv)

our first show with Zeke on drums in quite a while and it was a fun one. see you in barcelona....

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Playoff Hockey! also Portastatic.


yes, the 'Canes are playing golf and resting up in order to dominate the East again next year, but watching the third period of the Ducks / Wings game yesterday had my heart pounding as if i actually cared about one of these teams. i did want the Ducks to win, and they did, but Detroit made it extremely "interesting" when they woke up in the third to find themselves about to be on a plane home and threw everything they had at Giguere, Pronger and the rest of the Ducks, who (barely) withstood the onslaught. what a great finish, and after completely stealing Game 5 in Detroit when they should have been dead, the Ducks have earned it. i'm pulling for the Sens but mainly just looking forward to one more series before the ice melts for the summer.

luckily the finals don't start until Monday, so Game 1 will NOT conflict with the Portastatic show on Saturday night:

Portastatic
Des Ark
Work Clothes
The Strugglers

Cats Cradle , Saturday May 26th, proceeds to benefit the Save Darfur Coalition .

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Listening, Enjoying


the cd store shelves seemed kinda barren for a few weeks there, not that i ever have trouble finding SOMETHING i wanna hear, but now there's tons of new things, good things even...

Bjork - Volta
i'd buy a cd of Bjork reading the footnotes to an algebra textbook, so of course i was gonna get this, but seeing her at Coachella and on SNL had me really looking forward to hearing recorded versions of "Wanderlust" and others on here. as usual it's gorgeous and pretty wacked out so will take some time to absorb.
Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline i didn't even know SOTL were still a band. i enjoy listening to this kind of slow-developing music, and i admire those who have the patience to make it. it's on Kranky who has steadily released a coherently great catalog since '93.
Elliott Smith - New Moon nice liner notes by Larry Crane of
TapeOp magazine (& Jackpot! Studios) explain in detail the provenance of these tracks from '94-'97, the Kill Rock Stars era, plus rememberances from Sam Coomes and Rebecca Gates, but it's the songs of course that you're after and they're familiar and immediate and excellent of course.
Sea and Cake - Everybody love this band. this one seems warmer, maybe softer than past releases? after one listen i just know i like it, and more specific critiques will likely not follow!
Feist - The Reminder i read Feist described as a "Canadian sultry sensation" and she is all of those things, but she also made a record that totally crushes my onetime held idea that Let it Die was a pleasant diversion that would be followed up by diminishing returns...this totally delivers, even rocks in places, goes total lo-fi in others and engages throughout.
Tujiko Noriko - Blurred In My Mirror more music i would love to try to make but don't have the patience (much less the know-how), mysterious, kinda grown-up vibe for Noriko & maybe not as "pretty" as her other records, still sucks you in. i just noticed that she has a new website where i can keep track of her prolific ways (ie all the cds she releases that i can't find in stores).

also saw on Idolator that there are new Betty Davis deluxe reissues out on the fine Light in the Attic label. i think i have crappy bootleg cds of these albums, i'm really looking forward to picking those up.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Portastatic on The Hill

well Carrboro to be exact...it's near the hill. we figured why get together and get all rehearsed and everything just for one show in Spain so we've put together a Memorial Day weekend show for those who aren't getting out of town:

Saturday, May 26
Cats Cradle

Portastatic
Des Ark
Work Clothes
The Strugglers

Five -- Count 'em, 5 -- bucks to get in & proceeds to go to the Save Darfur Coalition.