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Archive for the ‘Mitski’ Category

Mitski (Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ, February 28, 2026)

Posted in Her New Knife, Mitski, Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom on March 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 28, 2026] Mitski

I saw Mitski in 2018 at Union Transfer.  Then in 2022, my kids wanted to see Mitski and I scored tickets to Franklin Music Hall.  We couldn’t get tickets to her 2024 show and when she announced her 2026, I knew we weren’t going to go.  Why?  Because she had decided on a residency at The Shed in New York City, somewhere I didn’t know and didn’t want to go to.

And then, out of the blue, four days ago Mitski announced that she was going to do an album release party at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville.  What? Why there? Was this real?  And would I be able to get tickets?

Well, the answer to the final question was yes, yes I could.  I had asked my kids and neither one of them wanted to go.  I didn’t ask why, but I grabbed two tickets, just in case one of them changed their mind.  But neither one did so my wife and I went to see her.  Which means that I have now taken everyone in y family to see Mitski.

We arrived what I thought was pretty early but boy was I wrong.  I used the ADA entrance to avoid the massive line and we managed to get a great spot in the center near the front of the elevated area behind the soundboard.  Obviously I would prefer the floor but it was PACKED!  And this location was much better than being on the floor in the back.

At 8:30, Mitski’s band came out on stage.  The set was remarkably bare.  As in, there was nothing on stage except the instruments and a black curtain. (more…)

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Her New Knife (Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ, February 28, 2026) [MITSKI]

Posted in Her New Knife, Mitski, Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom on February 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 28, 2026] Her New Knife

Mitski announced a series of shows in New York City.  Then four days before this show, she announced this show. I couldn’t believe I was able to get tickets.  The way it was displayed it looked like Her New Knife was the name of the tour.  I didn’t realize they were a band until I looked them up.

So Her New Knife is a band from Philadelphia.  They are categorized as shoegaze although I don’t really hear it.  They’re more of a noise band.  At least they were live.

The guitarist/singer was making lots of interesting scratchy sounds with the guitar.  The drummer was hitting lots of splashing cymbals.  And the singer was whisper/mumbling. (more…)

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Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Five Orange Pips” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1891)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Australia, Blackmail, Lady Lamb, Magana, Mitski, Murder, Mystery, Racism, Regrets, Robbery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story on March 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: February 4, 2024] “The Five Orange Pips”

The fifth story in this collection is notable to me for the context of the mystery more than the mystery itself.

A gentleman named John Openshaw tells Holmes that his Uncle Elias has been killed.  As a young man, Elias went to Florida, joined the Confederate Army, made some money and came back to England.  John lives on his estate.

Recently Elias received a mysterious letter from India with the initials K.K.K. on it.  The only thing the letter contained was five orange seeds (pips).  Elias frekaed out and became even more reclusive.

Elias was found dead on the grounds of his house, but it was ruled a suicide.  John did not believe it was a suicide.

John’s father inherited the estate.  He soon received a similarly peculiar note with orange pips.  This note told him to leave Elias’s papers at the sundial.  But Elias had burnt the papers.  John’s father was dead soon after–this one ruled an accident.

John has now received a letter asking for the papers and that’s why he has come to Holmes.

What’s most notable about this story is that the K.K.K. (and this seems really obvious now, but who would have guessed) stands for Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was effectively defunct at the time he wrote this.  Sadly it has been revitalized since this writing and remains the scourge that it was at the time.

Obviously, Holmes didn’t go after the Klan, but it’s nice to know that the ship carrying the Klansmen was destroyed in the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The four novels of the canon:

  1. A Study in Scarlet (1887)
  2. The Sign of the Four (1890)
  3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
  4. The Valley of Fear (1915)

The 56 short stories are collected in five books:

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
  2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
  3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
  4. His Last Bow (1917)
  5. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) contains 12 stories published in The Strand between July 1891 and June 1892

  1. “A Scandal in Bohemia” (June 1891)
  2. “The Red-Headed League” (August 1891)
  3. “A Case of Identity” (September 1891)
  4. “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” (October 1891)
  5. “The Five Orange Pips” (November 1891)
  6. “The Man with the Twisted Lip” (December 1891)
  7. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” (January 1892)
  8. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (February 1892)
  9. “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” (March 1892)
  10. “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor” (April 1892)
  11. “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” (May 1892)
  12. “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” (June 1892)

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Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Boscombe Valley Mystery” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1891)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Australia, Blackmail, Lady Lamb, Magana, Mitski, Murder, Mystery, Regrets, Robbery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story on February 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MAGANA-Teeth (2024)

I saw Lady Lamb back in 2019 when they opened for New Pornographers.  In my post I had singled out her bassist Jeni Magaña

fantastic bass from Jeni Magana.  Magana is also the bassist for Mitski and she has such a dynamite sound.  I could have listened to Magana play all night long.

I recently got a DM from Audio Antihero saying that since I seemed to be a fan, would I like to hear the new Magana solo record?  I initially assumed that it was a new album by the singer of Lady Lamb (Aly Splatro), it had been five years, I can’t be expected to remember everything.

The record didn’t sound anything like Lady Lamb, and that’s when I read the liner notes and saw my mistake.

Teeth is available next month, and you can hear a few songs now.  The bandcamp page says Magana describes the album

as “Witchy Rock,” … unlike any of her past works. An album about “regrowth and a new view on the world,” its sound touches on Acid Folk, Alternative Pop, and even Krautrock as she tackles the bleakest and most brutally honest subjects of her songwriting career.

I liked the album a lot and although I haven’t had time to write about albums so much anymore, I wanted to give this indie label a shout.

All other instruments: Jeni Magaña

The album opens with strummed guitar that sounds slightly-off–in an intriguingly (minorly) dissonant way that I found really intriguing.  Then “Garden” introduces Magana’s lovely full voice.  Keys float in to flesh out the sound as it builds somewhat.  It’s not really an indication of what will come next, but it does hint a little at the unusual music within.

“Beside You” introduces a starkly fuzzy guitar line and what sounds like electronic toy piano.  But most of the music fades back for the verses as an electronic drum (the snare is close to a clap sound) keeps the music going.  It’s like eccentric bedroom pop, but it sounds really clean.  The song is about 3 minutes long and half way through it’s like a full band joins in and the song explodes into fullness–with some terrific harmony vocals.

More unusual instrumentation follows on “Matter” which features not one but two (I think) clarinet melodies to introduce the song.  Then comes in a cool electronic bass sound to propel the song.  Incidentally, Jeni Magaña plays everything on the record except for drums (Jonathan Smith) and strings: Violin: Jenna Moynihan and Cello: Marie Kim.  The mixing of the clarinets and the big synth sounds works wonderfully together–in one of those moments where when the bass notes return after the middle part it’s like an old friend returning.

“Paul” strips the music back to a quiet, prepared-sounding guitar and her beautiful voice.  Magana’s voice sounds familiar in a way that I find very comforting (although I can’t place who I think she sounds like).  After a verse the song builds up with a few flutes and strings.  The melody is lovely.   And I love the return of the clarinets. (more…)

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Mitski / Tamino (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, February 6 & 7, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Mitski, Philadelphia, PA, Tamino, The Met Philadelphia on February 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 6 & 7, 2024] Mitski / Tamino

Everyone in my family loves Mitski.  Unfortunately, everyone else in the world does too.   So when her shows are announced  they sell out in a second.  I thought that maybe seeing her at The Met would be better than elsewhere since we would be pretty much guaranteed to actually SEE her from any seat.

But of course the first show sold out in a second.  And the second added show also sold out in a second.  There was supposed to be some kind of anti-bot policy in place and I even got on a waiting list to be notified when non-scalped tickets were put back into the process.  And I was notified.  but every time I went to the site, I couldn’t find these tickets and there was no where to put my special code.  So much for that.

It’s now a week before these shows and there are more than 100 resale seats for eat show available.  Each of these seats is over $100, with some pushing $300.  I mean, that’s disgusting as there are definitely 100 people who would love to go to the shows.  But you’d be insane to pay that much

If the prices drop to something reasonable I might grab some, but I don’t really see that happening.

I knew the name Tamino from somewhere but wasn’t sure who they were.  Then I remembered he had played a Tiny Desk Concert several years ago.  I had written

Tamino is a 22 year-old singer of Belgian, Egyptian and Lebanese descent.

I didn’t know anything about him.  But the blurb mentions his voice.  As soon as I read Jeff Buckley and I heard it in the middle part of the first song I knew it was right on.

He sounds like he’d be an amazing opener for Mitski.  Sounds like a great night of music.

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Mitski (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, July 24, 2022) [rescheduled]

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Mitski, Philadelphia, PA, The Weather Station on July 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 24, 2022] Mitski [rescheduled from March 25, 2022]

I saw Mitski back in 2018.  She sold out Union Transfer and while I enjoyed the show very much, I remember being disappointed that I was so far back and behind so many tall people that I couldn’t really see her performance all that well.

In that time, Mitski has taken off even more with the young people.  Both of my kids love her (as does a large section of the youth).  When this tour was announced, there was no question that I would get four tickets for my two kids and one of their friends.

I figured it wouldn’t be that hard, since she was playing at a pretty huge venue.  But the presale sold out in like 5 seconds.  And the main day sale also sold out in like 5 seconds.  The bots were all over this tour.  It was so obnoxious.

My kids really wanted to see her but there was no way I was spending a ton of money on her, so we were SOL.

Then a few days before the show was to happen, it was postponed because of COVID.  It’s not often that we are happy that things are postponed, but this one worked out very well for us., because a rescheduled date meant a possibility of new tickets being made available.  I put my name on the waiting list.  But didn’t really have much hope. (more…)

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The Weather Station (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, July 24, 2022) [MITSKI] [rescheduled]

Posted in Franklin Music Hall, Mitski, Philadelphia, PA, The Weather Station on July 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 24, 2022] The Weather Station [rescheduled from March 25, 2022]

Back in March, Mitski was forced to postpone a few shows, including Philadelphia, because of a COVID case in her touring party.  She rescheduled her shows in the summer.

Unbelievably, I was able to get tickets for this show and I was a hero to my kids.

We arrived early and the line to get in was around the block and half way down the street.  But it was warm and pleasant and the mood was good on line, so we didn’t mind the wait all that much.

We finally got into the building a few minutes before 8PM.

Everyone wanted merch.  It’s Mitski, after all!  Since I had seen her a few years ago, I offered to wait on line while they all found a spot as far up as they could get (which wasn’t very far).  My son and his friend went off to the left, but my daughter hung out with me. (more…)

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Mitski / The Weather Station (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, March 25, 2022) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, Franklin Music Hall, Mitski, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, The Weather Station on March 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: March 25, 2022] Mitski/The Weather Station [moved to July 24, 2022]

I saw Mitski back in 2018.  I enjoyed her theatrical show quite a lot.

In that time, Mitski has taken off with the young people.  Both of my kids love her (as does a large section of the youth).  When this tour was announced, there was no question that I would get four tickets for my two kids and one of their friends.

I figured it wouldn’t be that hard, since she was playing at a pretty huge venue.  But the presale sold out in like 5 seconds.  And the main day sale also sold out in like 5 seconds.  The bots were all over this tour.  It was so obnoxious.

My kids really wanted to see her but there was no way I was spending a ton of money on her, so we were SOL.

Then a few days before the show was to happen, it was postponed because of COVID. (more…)

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Eric Spitznagel–Rock Stars On The Record: The Albums That Changed Their Lives (2021)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adam and the Ants, Against Me!, Alice Bag, Alice Cooper, Amanda Shires, Asia, Bad Brains, Beach Slang, Bjork, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Buggles, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Craig Finn, Crass, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Dip-in Books, Don McLean, Donny Osmond, Drive-By Truckers, Elton John, Eric Spitznagel, Fishbone, Frank Turner, Frank Zappa, Fugazi, Gwar, Henry Rollins, Hole, Interviews, Iron Maiden, John Lennon, Kiss, Kristin Hersh, Laura Jane Grace, Leonard Cohen, M.I.A., Mac Demarco, Mannequin Pussy, Mark Mothersbaugh, MC5, Minor Threat, Mitski, Nickelback, Oasis, Pom Pom Squad, Procol Harum, Rainer Maria, Sex Pistols, Soul Asylum, Stevie Wonder, Superchunk, Suzi Quatro, The Buggs, The Left Banke, The Mothers of Invention, The Runaways, The Velvet Underground, The Who, Todd Rundgren, Van Halen, Wendy & Lisa, White Denim, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yoko Ono on August 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: see below.

[READ: August 2021] Rock Stars On The Record

I saw this book at work and rolled my eyes.  I thought well, here’s another book about musicians talking about music.

Really, most musicians aren’t very interesting and it was probably just the same old same olds talking about albums that have been praised to high heaven already.

But then I saw a few names that intrigued me.  So I read it.  And it was fantastic because Eric Spitznagel did a magnificent job with this task.

Not only because he chose diverse people (some hardly even rock stars, really) who had interesting things to say, but because of the way he followed up his questions with better questions–questions that the musicians seemed excited to answer.

And also because the list of people turned out to be really interesting.  I didn’t recognize a number of names, but that’s because they might have been the guitarist for a famous lead singer).  And this made it really interesting.

I don’t know if it’s worth stating the why’s of each person here (each interview is basically four pages) but I will state each person’s favorite record (with a few extra comments here and there). (more…)

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Lady Lamb (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 8, 2019) [THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS]

Posted in Jeni Magana, Katie Von Schleicher, Lady Lamb, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Mitski, Neko Case, South X Lullaby, The New Pornographers, Union Transfer on November 8, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 8, 2019] Lady Lamb

I didn’t know anything about Lady Lamb before this show.  Normally I look up a band before seeing them, but for some reason, I didn’t really investigate her at all.

Lady Lamb is the stage name of Aly Spaltro, (it was formerly Lady Lamb the Beekeeper).  She is a musician from Maine.

I really enjoyed her set a lot.  Her vocal style is direct and powerful (she can reach the back of a room with no problem) and yet the backing vocals added all kinds of interesting layers to her songs.

What I loved about her music was how unexpected it was.  I mean, yes, it was drums, guitar, keys and bass, but there were so many times when the music would briefly get loud or change directions for a few bars and then move on to something else.  As if her indy rock was battling a dose of prog. (more…)

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