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Archive for the ‘Ida’ Category

Ida / Tsunami (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

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[DID NOT ATTEND: March 28, 2025] Ida / Tsunami

Back in the 90s I liked Tsunami.  I was never a huge fan, but I liked them enough.  Listening again, I maybe should have given them a better chance back then.

Here’s what philty mag said

“Daniel and I have a 23-year-old daughter, and her friends are interested in music from the ‘90s, and they’re like, ‘You’re parents are in Ida?!  What?!’” says Elizabeth Mitchell of herself and husband Daniel Littleton, co-founders of 1990s indie rock legends Ida.  This past weekend, Ida kicked off their first tour in more than a decade.  The tour has them paired with longtime friends and fellow ‘90s legends Tsunami, who haven’t actually toured since 1998.

Ida and Tsunami are currently amidst the Coin Toss tour, which has the bands double-headlining, sharing equipment and van space, and determining each night’s set order by the flip of a coin.  “I think it’s gonna have kind of a celebratory feel, more than just a two-band bill,” Mitchell tells me of the show, which will be at Underground Arts this Friday, March 28th.  Tsunami co-founder Kristin Thomson chimes in: “I almost made a shirt that said, ‘Expect Whimsy!’”

Ida was based in NYC and Tsunami in DC.  Tsunami’s own Simple Machines record label released Ida’s first three albums (1994’s Tales of Brave Ida, 1996’s I Know About You, and 1997’s Ten Small Paces) and the two acts regularly found themselves touring and collaborating together throughout the decade.  “It will be a very Gen X time!” Thomson jokes of the Coin Toss tour.

Honestly it sounds like a great time, even if I wasn’t too familiar with their music anymore.  But I had tickets to Ninja Sex Party that night and I wasn’t going to pass that up.

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André Alexis–“Kawabata” (The Walrus, December 2009)

Posted in 19th Century, André Alexis, Antony and the Johnsons, Canadian Content, CocoRosie, Colin Meloy, Constantines, Devendra Banhart, Ida, Joanna Newsom, McSweeney's, Postal Service, Richard Buckner, Silver Jews, The Baffler, The Decemberists, The Mountain Goats, The Shins, The Walrus, Wolf Parade on December 11, 2009|

SOUNDTRACK: The Believer June 2005 Music Issue CD (2005).

The second annual Believer CD ups the ante from the first by featuring all previously unreleased songs. And, just to put more of a twist on things, the artists were asked to do covers of songs that they have been listening to lately. There was only one song that I knew the original of (The Constantines’ track), so I can’t say a thing about how well the covers were covered.

This becomes something of a fun rarities mix CD. As with the previous one, there’s not a huge amount of diversity in the musicians, but given the target audience of The Believer, it all seems to make sense.

We get The Decemberists (actually Colin Meloy solo) covering Joanna Newsom (who I don’t know but whose song I liked quite a bit). The most interesting track to me was by a band called CocoRosie who I’m totally unfamiliar with. The song is recorded as if it they were using a 19th century recording machine. It sounds so far away and yet it feels modern at the same time. I have no idea what they normally sound like, but I’m certainly intrigued.

There’s a few parings that are practically predestined: The Mountain Goats cover The Silver Jews, The Shins cover The Postal Service and Devandra Banhart covers Antony & the Johnsons. There’s also a track from Wolf Parade, a band I have recently gotten into. Only two bands perform and are covered on the disc: Ida and The Constantines.

It’s an interesting assortment of songs. As with any cover, it’s hard to know if you would like the original artist or if you just enjoy the new artist’s’ interpretation. But a song like “Surprise, AZ” by Richard Buckner is so well written that I don’t think it matters what Cynthia G. Mason’s cover sounds like (which is quite good).

The disc is largely folky/alt-rock, but once again, it’s a good distillation of the genre, and a very enjoyable collection.  The track listing is available here.

[READ: December 10, 2009] “Kawabata”

This story had the (in my estimation) fascinating attribute of reading as if it were written a long time ago. The writing was very formal. It also centered around a man and a woman who meet at a bed and breakfast and do little more than walk around town. Since no real clues as to the time it is set are ever given, I could imagine them dressed in nearly turn of the (20th) century garb.

A few things do dispel this fantasy: the use of the word “tits” for one, and the fact that no married woman would have been seen out with a widower while her husband was away. But despite that, I enjoyed the formality of the story. (more…)

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