Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Hop Along’ Category

Japanese Breakfast (Fillmore Philly, Philadelphia, PA, October 31, 2023)

Posted in Crooks and Nannies, Hop Along, Japanese Breakfast, Little Big League, Philadelphia, PA, Sable, The Fillmore Philadelphia on October 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 31, 2023] Japanese Breakfast

This was my third time seeing Japanese Breakfast. But more importantly, it was my first time going to a show on Halloween (that’s not true, I saw Skinny Puppy on Halloween in 1988), but this is my first time since I had kids.

I wasn’t sure we could pull it off–my daughter wanted to go trick or treating after all.  And I was willing to not go to this show.  If my daughter wanted us home, I would have happily stayed home.  Although this did promise to be a super fun show.  Costumes, a cool poster and the notification that this would be the last J Brekkie show for at least a year.

Zauner had shared her plans for her second book, mentioning the year-long hiatus she plans to take in Korea.  “I’m moving to Korea December 29th to live for a year and work on my second book where I am going to study the language and document that process,” she told Hsu. “And I think it was such a natural response to writing a book that was so rooted in the past and so much of what was hard about it was like it was so obviously emotional, but also it was hard to remember all of that.”

Our daughter gave us permission to go out and we arrived at the show in time to see the opening act. I could (should?) have waited on line for a poster (the above picture with a foil outline), but I decided against it.

Originally Hop Along was supposed to open but that changed at pretty close to the last minute.  (Well, they had enough time to make posters with the new band, Crooks and Nannies) on it.  I’m not a huge fan of Hop Along, but I do like the and was a little bummed at the loss.  But Crooks and Nannies proved to be weirdly delightful.

After Crooks and Nannies finished (at 8:30) it was a short wait and then a woman in a clown outfit came on.  It was comedian Sarah Sherman who Michelle Zauner said “insisted she come out on stage.” She did her routine which was funny and irritating.  And when she was done, Japanese Breakfast’s crew started setting up for their show.  I was sure that the comedian was  a way to distract us while the crew set up.  But instead, it was just a delaying technique.  J.B. didn’t go on until 9:45.  Good grief.

And indeed, it was Sherman who returned, this time dressed as Gollum, ready to introduce the band.  And when she did, it was revealed that the whole band was dressed like Lord of the Rings characters.  And there were clips from the movie (and cartoons and more) projected behind them for the whole show. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Sarah Sherman (Fillmore Philly, Philadelphia, PA, October 31, 2023) [JAPANESE BREAKFAST]

Posted in Crooks and Nannies, Hop Along, Japanese Breakfast, Philadelphia, PA, Sarah Sherman, The Fillmore Philadelphia on October 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 31, 2023] Sarah Sherman

After Crooks and Nannies, we waited a few minutes, honestly hoping that JBrekkie would come on stage soon so we could get home early, when out came a a woman in a clown suit.  It took us a moment to realize that we recognized her from the Adam Sandler film You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.  She was weird and funny.

Turns out she was a special surprise Halloween guest for this show.  Michelle Zauner later said that she didn’t ask to perform, she just came out and insisted on it.  Which is pretty funny.

So Sherman started doing her routine.

I have no idea what her stand up is normally like.  If this was a typical gig for her, just shortened to twenty minutes.  Or if she was trying stuff out or what.  But her stand up is deliberately annoying, I believe.

I was annoyed by the guys behind us who kept saying things like “why would you have a stand up comedian come out between bands.”  I mean, it’s Halloween it’s supposed to be fun, shut up.

She does a lengthy bit about New York “you know what I’m tawkin’ about.”  She repeats that line “you know what I’m tawkin’ about” about forty times.  Funny, not funny, then funny, then not funny then funny again. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Crooks and Nannies (Fillmore Philly, Philadelphia, PA, October 31, 2023) [JAPANESE BREAKFAST]

Posted in Crooks and Nannies, Hop Along, Japanese Breakfast, Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia on October 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 31, 2023] Crooks and Nannies

This was my third time seeing Japanese Breakfast.  It was a Halloween show!  And her last show for at least a year.  So I grabbed tickets.

Hop Along was supposed to open. Hop Along is a band that I wish I liked more.   I like their music but there’s something about their songs that just doesn’t work for me.  I think it’s got something to do with the vocals, but again, I don’t really know.

But I was looking forward to seeing them live to see if they could win me over.  And then they were not playing the show and it on their place was Crooks and Nannies, a Philly band that I hadn’t heard of.

Crooks and Nannies is more or less a duo: Max Rafter and Sam Huntington.  For this show (and a tour opening for Lucy Dacus (!)), they were a five-piece.  I am pretty certain that Lucy’s own Jacob Blizard was playing with them on guitar.

Since it was Halloween, it was an opportunity for the band to dress up.  Amusingly, because of the lighting in the first two songs, I didn’t realize that guitarist/singer Saxophonist Max was wearing green face makeup to look like Frankenstein’s monster.  I did  wonder why they were dressed that way–the makeup definitely completed the picture.

Their bassist, Ryan Ficano was wearing a cow costume.  Ficano is also in a fascinatingly off kilter metal(ish) band called Ogre.  Their keyboard player, who I think was Addy Watkins, was wearing a fringed cowboy outfit. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Terry Moore–Five Years #3 (2019)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Bombs, Death, End of the World, Environmentalism, Frances Quinlan, Graphic Novel, Hop Along, Russia, Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Violence on May 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FRANCES QUINLAN-Tiny Desk Concert #974 (May 13, 2020).

I Wanted to like Hop Along, but there was something about them that I didn’t.  I think it came down to Quinlan’s voice which I almost like but I think ultimately don’t.

That’s true here too, although I like it better on these quieter songs than the bopping of Hop Along.

Quinlan is a Tiny Desk veteran, having played here in 2015 with her indie-rock band, Hop Along. You could argue she has even more Tiny Desk experience than that; as Quinlan pointed out during her set, a can of Hop Along-branded beer has been sitting on the Tiny Desk shelves through numerous previous concerts, including Lizzo’s.

This time around, she performed songs from her debut solo album, Likewise. She was accompanied by two musicians who played on Likewise: her Hop Along bandmate Joe Reinhart, on bass and guitar, and Molly Germer on violin.

There’s something weird in the first song”Your Reply.”  From time to time a note rings flat or out of tune.  I can’t decide if it’s intentional or not.  And the middle of the song sounds like bassist Joe Reinhart is just messing up all over the place.  Although he does add a nice solo at the end.  I do like the melody at the introduction of the chorus though.

She tells a joke about Presidents Day that I don’t get.  I don’e even know if it can be classified as a joke.

The second song, “Detroit Lake” has a note that sounds wrong but which I is intentional–it’s part of the opening guitar melody.  This song is primarily just Frances and Molly Greene adding interesting violin textures.  Mid way through, Reinhart starts adding nice bass harmonic notes.

She tells us a fun fact that George Washington did not have wooden teeth–they were made of animals and other people’s teeth.  How about that.

“Lean” opens with a pretty guitar melody and Quinlan’s whispered vocals.  Reinhart switches to acoustic guitar to flesh out her sound nicely.  This is my favorite song of the set as it feels the most complete.

[READ: May 15, 2019] Five Years #3

The voice over for this issue is by Tambi.  She is going to Washington D.C. to meet Ivy Raven and Julie Martin, two characters from the Echo series.  Julie Martin is the living Phi bomb.

Ivy reveals that there’s an alloy in the bomb that affects those around Julie.  It messes with their DNA. If you’re a threat to her, it destroys you.  If you’re not, well, Ivy looks younger and radiant.

Turns out the Cleopatra papyrus (from SiP XXV) has gotten out and seven countries are developing their own phi weapons programs. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Mary Lattimore (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, January 31, 2017) [PARQUET COURTS]

Posted in Hop Along, Jarvis Cocker, Jeff Zeigler, Kurt Vile, Mary Lattimore, Parkay Quarts, Parquet Courts, Philadelphia, PA, Quilt, Sharon Van Etten, Thurston Moore, Union Transfer on January 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 31, 2017] Mary Lattimore

2017-01-31-20-21-17I wasn’t sure who would be opening for Parquet Courts.  I was surprised and delighted to see that the opening act was going to be a harpist.   I had never heard of Mary Lattimore before, although on looking her up it seems quite likely that I have heard her before–she seems to be a go-to harpist for a lot of bands [a shortened list includes these records: Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts ; Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications ; Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo & Wakin on a Pretty Daze ; Sharon Van Etten – Are We There? ; Quilt – Plaza ; Hop Along – Painted Shut].

When I arrived her harp was onstage–lit up and gorgeous–and I was really excited to hear her show.

She came out while we were waiting and made some final adjustments.  And then a few minutes later she sat down at the harp, quietly thanked us for coming and began playing. (more…)

Read Full Post »

The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw and Never Will See, in The New Yorker–edited by Matthew Diffee (2006)

Posted in Alex Gregory, Ariel Molvig, Arnie Levin, Barbara Smaller, C. Covert Darbyshire, Carolita Johnson, Christopher Weyant, Comic Strips, Danny Shanahan, David Sipress, Drew Dernavich, Eric Lewis, Gahan Wilson, Glen Le Lievre, Hop Along, J.C. Duffy, Jack Ziegler, John O'Brien, Kim Warp, Leo Cullum, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Matthew Diffee, Michael Crawford, Michael Shaw, Mick Stevens, Mike Twohy, Mort Gerberg, New Yorker, P.C. Vey, P.S. Mueller, Pat Byrnes, Robert Mankoff, Sam Gross, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Cheney, William Haefeli on July 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

reject1SOUNDTRACK: HOP ALONG–Tiny Desk Concert #450 (June 22, 2015).

hopNot too long ago a friend asked if there were bands that we wanted to like but didn’t.  Some people just said no, of course not, you either like a band or you don’t.  But I knew what he meant.  There are a lot of bands that I’d like to like.  And Hop Along is one of them.

Lead singer Frances Quinlan has the kind of raspy voice that is practically iconic (think Janis Joplin after a rough day).  And their music, which is kind of folky, also has a rawness that should combine with her voice to make me listen all the time.

And yet, for all of that, I really don’t like her voice.  It should be right up my alley but it, well, isn’t.  And that goes a long way to me not really liking the band.

They play three songs and although the blurb about the band talks about the music being more than her voice, I really can’t get past it.

None of the songs is bad, although they all sound a bit the same to me (her voice again).  “Horseshoe Crabs” has a folky feel and some soft/loud sections.

“Well_Dressed” has some unusual dissonant chords thrown into the mix. It’s especially interesting given the pleasant acoustic guitar that accompanies this song.

“Sister Cities” has some lyrics about shooting your dog which is a bit of a turn off.

So yes, I would like to like Hop Along more, but I just don’t.

[READ: July 20, 2015] The Rejection Collection

I heard about this book because it was listed under Matthew Diffee’s books in his bibliography.  I enjoyed his Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People so much that I wanted to see what else he’d done.  Well, I didn’t quite understand the premise of the book.  Instead of it begin a collection of his rejected cartoons, he had edited a collection of cartoons that were rejected by thirty of the New Yorker’s regular contributors.

Which means there’s a lot more variety and a lot of funny stuff in here.

He gives us some context: each issue of the New Yorker has about 15-20 cartoons.  There are some 50 cartoonist vying for these spots.  Each of these 50 artists brings 10 cartoons each week and the editor pick the few that will make it (and those that are chosen are the only ones who get paid).

So that means that there are dozens of really good cartoons that just aren’t going to make it.  Many of those cartoons will be saved by their creators and submitted somewhere else or even back to the New Yorker in case the editors have a change of heart.

There are many reasons why cartoons are rejected.  Some aren’t very good, some aren’t appropriate for the magazine, and some just aren’t as funny as others this week (but may seem even funnier in two weeks’ time).

If you’ve read the new yorker (or ever been in a cubicle) you have seen the work from most of these people (even though you probably don’t know their names):

Leo Cullum, Pat Byrnes, Sam Gross, Mike Twohy, C. Covert Darbyshire, Drew Dernavich, Christopher Weyant, Kim Warp, William Haefeli, John O’Brien, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Danny Shanahan, Tom Cheney, Mick Stevens, Mort Gerberg, Michael Crawford, P.C. Vey, Barbara Smaller, Arnie Levin, Gahan Wilson, Glen Le Lievre, Alex Gregory, J.C. Duffy, Carolita Johnson, Ariel Molvig, Michael Shaw, Eric Lewis, P.S. Mueller, David Sipress, Jack Ziegler.

(more…)

Read Full Post »