[DID NOT ATTEND: July 14, 2023] Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds / Garbage / Metric
I was more than a little out of sorts that Noel Gallagher’s band had top billing on this tour. I just now realized that it was a co-headlining tour. Which is better, but still.
I was surprised (but not really) when Garbage opened for Blondie when we aw them a few years ago. [I GET that one, Blondie is an icon after all]. But Noel Gallagher? The dude from Oasis? I didn’t realize that his band of birds had four albums out. But I also see that half of the set is Oasis songs.
The co-headlining scam is a pretty good one for bands. Play for an hour instead of 90 minutes and charge more because its two bands instead of one. But whatever.
Had I known this was a co-headlining bill I might have looked into getting tickets (although really, the Mann center is such a pain, that I probably wouldn’t). We also wound up coming home from vacation on this day so that pretty much nixed any evening plans anyhow.
I did like Oasis when they came out (although I was always more Blur than Oasis). But I find that when he’s not taking liberally from The Beatles, Noel’s songs are kind of bland.
Now Garbage, I love. They were one of my favorite bands of the 90s. I’ve seen them four times and would happily see them more if they would just do another headline tour instead of always pairing with people i like less than them.
I saw Metric last year and they were wonderful. I would of course be happy to see them again, although seeing them in a shortened set like this wouldn’t be ideal (they played nine songs–but nine is better than none).
If this had been at an easier to get to venue, I would probably have tried to go. And, like a kindred spirit who has the same tastes as me said, I’d have gone for Metric and Garbage and maybe left after to Noel songs.
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…)
I found this CD through a connection to The Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon plays on a few of their tracks). Pugwash (what a crazy name–it comes from a series of children’s books (and a TV show) called Captain Pugwash) is an Irish band with four CDs (and this collection). And man, it’s hard to find their stuff over here (although their website has a wonderful collection of videos and such).
Giddy is a collection of songs from all of their albums. Their first album is represented by two songs here “The Finer Things in Life” and “Two Wrongs.” These two songs sound, with no disrespect intended, like great Oasis ballads. Say what you will about Oasis’ originality, they wrote some great songs, and these two sound like the best Oasis songs you’ve never heard.
Their other three albums sound far less like Oasis and far more like XTC. In fact, the XTC comparisons are well-founded as Andy Partridge eventually co-wrote a song with them and eventually signed them to Partridge’s Ape House records (which is how this collection was released in the U.S.).
The XTC comparison is unavoidable on a few tracks. The opening of “Song for You” (the “when we die” part) sounds like an uncanny XTC outtake, but when the chorus kicks in it sounds nothing like them and moves into more of the gorgeous orchestral pop that overflows on this disc. And the Partridge co-written “My Genius” is also a wonderful near-XTC outtake, clever, witty, and perfect.
And the song “It’s Nice to Be Nice” is just a wonderful cheery pop ditty. It sounds retro and charming; if the simple lyrics (and gorgeous harmonies) don’t bring a smile to your face you must be made of stone.
Although the album is primarily orchestral pop, there’s a wonderful array of styles on here. “Anyone Who Asks” has chipper keyboard bits in the verses, but the chorus is a wonderful mix of dark minor chords. And then, the absolutely bizarrely wonderful “Monorail” sounds like a fantastic Beck song (with lyrics that are as decidedly unusual as anything Beck himself might write). It even opens and closes with wonderful circa 1920s banjo.
Despite the obvious nod to XTC, Pugwash does something that XTC doesn’t. XTC is a very mannered band. They always seemed very rigid and formal (and were wonderful because of it). Pugwash uses XTC as a springboard, but Thomas Walsh seems like a guy who likes to let loose with unchecked silliness, so he can move past the strictures of XTC (and sound like Beck!)
And the packaging is just wonderful. The carnivalesque appearance of the cardboard case is enhanced by not just a cardboard sleeve but also by a second cardboard half-sleeve that you slide on top. Depending on which way you slide it on, it creates a different set of pictures. It’s a little thing but it’s a nice nod to the fun of non-digital products.
This is certainly one of my favorite albums this year (even if it came out last year).
[READ: September 21, 2010] One False Note
I enjoyed the first book of the series so much, I couldn’t wait to get to Book Two. In particular, I was interested to see if Gordon Korman’s writing style would differ much from Rick Riordan’s. As I said last time, I hadn’t read Riordan before, (although I have read a few by Korman) and while I wasn’t expecting them to write in the same manner, I wondered if they would try to keep the style the same (or if it would be really obvious that they were different writers).
I have to say that I didn’t notice the difference between the two. Korman’s seems a bit faster paced (but he had no exposition to deal with), and it’s possible that he made things seems a bit more scary/dangerous than Riordan, but not much.
The question I have with the series is three-part: Is the basic plot given to each new writer–like the writer is told what the 39 Clues are–or, possibility two, are they told very specifically, the clue is this and it is here and the writer has to figure out how to get the kids there, or possibility number three, they are free to do whatever they want.
Either way, this is an exciting series, and I’m looking forward to Book Three.
So in Book Two, Amy and Dan continue their adventure. This time, they go to Saltzburg and Venice. The Saltzburg trip leads them to the Mozart house. There’s a wonderful sorta subplot about Mozart’s sister, Nannerl (real name Maria Anna), who was also a great pianist and harpsichordist, oftentimes getting top billing when they played together. I’s never heard of her, and didn’t know of her talent, and that’s the point of the subplot–how Nannerl had to put her musical skills to the side because she was a woman. This works nicely with the pairing of Dan and Amy and how they are both good at different things and are both very useful on the quest. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 