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Simon Rich–New Teeth: Stories (2021)

Posted in Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, Amelia Meath, Babe Ruth, Babies, Baseball, Corporate skewering, Death, Fantasy, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Josh Gad, Megafaun, Molly Sarlé, Monsters, Morality, Mountain Man, New Yorker, Pirates, Short Story, Simon Rich, Sylvan Esso, Technology, Wye Oak, Yuck! on August 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FLOCK OF DIMES-Tiny Desk Concert #246 (August 10, 2021).

Flock of Dimes is a fun band name.  It’s the solo project of Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner (I thought Wye Oak was a solo project as well–no, it’s a duo).  [Gee, why wasn’t Andy Stack invited to this sing along?]

For this Home Concert, the solo project turns huge with nine people sitting around having a big ol’ sing along (I’ll assume they are all vaccinated and that this was filmed before Delta took off).

The setup is pretty simple: three guitars (I love that the guys on the couch are lefty (Michael Libramento, baritone guitar) and righty (Alan Good Parker, tenor guitar) so it looks appealingly symmetrical). some percussion and a lot of voices (the men on the right of the screen seems somewhat less invested).

The friends who are singing along include the three singers from Mountain Man: Amelia Randall Meath, Molly Sarlé and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig.  Meath is also in Sylvan Esso and her bandmate Nick Sanborn is also present (he’s one of the less invested men).  The set is filmed at Sylvan Esso’s new studio in Durham, N.C., called Betty’s.

“Two” is a bouncy number with lots of percussion.  I like the way the backing singers join in from time to time, but not constantly–it introduces new voices throughout.

One of the invested men is percussionist Matthew McCaughan from Bon Iver–he’s got a full complement of instruments at hand.  Joe Westerland (from Megafaun) is the other percussionist, he’s just a bit more subtle in his actions, but you can see him gently tapping through “Two.”

“Price of Blue” is a little slower but it has a wonderful melody.  The harmonies really standout on this song.

I don’t know the originals of these songs, but I have to assume the blurb is correct

These acoustic performances actually shed new light, thanks to radiant and radically different arrangements, while fully capturing the warmth we look for from Tiny Desk concerts.

Whatever the case, the backing vocals are tremendous.  You can really hear Molly Sarlé’s gorgeous harmony vocals.

“Awake For The Sunrise” feels like an old fashioned fire side sing along.  I’ve enjoyed Wye Oak’s music but I don’t know it very well.  I rather like Wassner’s delivery here–but i feel like these songs might not be as good without these harmonies!

[READ: August 12, 2021] New Teeth

I’m guessing that Simon Rich had a baby.

This collection of stories is loaded with stories about little kids.  And that’s all right because he has a very funny take on being a parent.

The other stories tackle the corporate environment and are full of fish-out-of-water stories.

“Learning the Ropes” is about being a new parent.  But it is written from the point of view of two pirates. And hilarity ensues.

What’s odd to me is that in his first books, his stories were really short, but I feel like lately his stories have gotten much longer–sometimes too long.  This one in particular kind of dragged at times, because it’s pretty much a one-note joke: what? pirates raising a little girl?!  One pirate is a concerned parent which means he wants them both to care about the child.  It’s got a few very funny moments, and of course, when the pirates who speak in pirate style (“The only man I trust is me first mate”) say things like “Arr… it be called ‘limit testing.’ She be acting out because she be craving discipline,” well, that’s classic Simon Rich right there. (more…)

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Japanese Breakfast (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 7, 2021)

Posted in Dolly Parton, Japanese Breakfast, Little Big League, OHMME, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on August 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2021] Japanese Breakfast

A few nights before this show, Union Transfer sent out this message

Japanese Breakfast have requested that all attendees for the remainder of their tour be vaccinated OR have tested negative for Covid in the 48 hours prior to attending a show.

And nothing made me happier than reading that.  We arrived especially early thinking that the vaccination process would be slow, but the UT staff were efficient and friendly and I think everyone was pleased to feel safe and secure.

And anyone not vaccinated?  Well, fuck em, they can stay home.

I saw Japanese Breakfast three years ago and found the show to be a lot of fun.  I also bought a fun poster that proudly adorns our breakfast area.  Since then, they have released a new album and S. has really gotten into them.

When it was announced that Japanese Breakfast would be playing the first post-pandemic show at Union Transfer, I knew we’d want to go.  I grabbed tickets immediately and it sold out almost as fast.  They added a second show and then a third show.  One of those shows was actually BEFORE our show, which meant we didn’t get to go to the venue’s inaugural show, which was a tiny (very tiny) but disappointing.

She ultimately wound up selling out five nights in a row–a Union Transfer record.  Go Michelle!

She also noted that the folks on our night were “spicier” than the Friday night crowd.  No doubt because we were the big fans who grabbed tickets right away.  Or she was just saying that. (more…)

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Mannequin Pussy (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 7, 2021) [JAPANESE BREAKFAST]

Posted in Best Coast, Japandroids, Mannequin Pussy, OHMME, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on August 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2021] Mannequin Pussy

I had tickets to see Best Coast back in March of 2020.  I like them, but the primary reason I wanted to go was because Mannequin Pussy was opening.  I had seen them open for Japandroids in 2018 and really wanted to see them again.  Best Coast had cancelled their tour and while they are coming back early next year they had a new opening act.

So I was pretty psyched to find out that Mannequin Pussy were opening for Japanese Breakfast (whose tickets we had for a while already).

Mannequin Pussy are now officially a trio (they were a quartet when I saw them last), with the core of marisa “missy” dabice–guitars & vocal; colins “bear” regisford–bass & vocals and kaleen reading–drums.   Although they were a five piece on stage with a “new” guitarist and keyboardist (not sure who they were).

They came out, the red lights went on (I forgot about those terrible-for-photos lights at Union Transfer) and proceeded to play two brand new songs.  Somehow I had missed that they released the Perfect EP earlier this year.  They sounded great–Missy’s voice a terrific mixture of pretty and screamy.  “Control” set the stage followed by “To Lose You.” (more…)

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Modest Mouse (The Met Philadelphia, PA, August 5, 2021)

Posted in Modest Mouse, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on August 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 5, 2021] Modest Mouse        [pictures to come]

I wasn’t planning on Modest Mouse being my first show back after 500+ pandemic days.  In fact, I didn’t even think they were my first show back (Japanese Breakfast on Saturday was first, I thought). I bought tickets for this show but forgot to write it on the calendar.  Thankfully, a reminder email got me totally psyched to be back.

This was my fifth time seeing Modest Mouse.  I laughed when I saw that last time I wrote:

I don’t ever plan to see Modest Mouse, they just sort of appear and they worm their way into my calendar.  And frankly … I’ll definitely go again if I can.

Obviously that was true as well this time.

I wish that there was a vaccination and mask mandate in place at The Met, because regardless of how vaccinated everybody may have been, there were a lot of unmasked faces in the pit with my masked one.

After a year and a half it was almost comforting to se that all of the irritating people came out for the show as well.  But I was in a good space, so I acknowledged their irritations bit didn’t get irritated.  I was fairly close to the stage, but there were some last minute pushers who forced me a little back.  I also tried my best to leave some distance between me and the others (but that was nigh impossible).  There were the requisite tall boys right in front of the stage and (I had forgotten about this behavior) a short girl (woman? it was hard to tell) who barreled her way right in front of me, dragging her boyfriend (father?) with her.  She also later tried to start a mosh pit but no one was biting.  And of course, by the end of the night there was the very sloppy drunk woman who was falling all over herself (and her boyfriend) who had to leave early.

After a 30 minute wait between bands, Modest Mouse came out.   And the crowd went nuts.

I noted last time that

The main draw for me at a Modest Mouse show is the thought that I’ll hear songs I haven’t heard live before.  I didn’t know if that was possible on my now fourth show but amazingly, they played 8 songs that I hadn’t heard live before.  They have over 100 songs officially released, so I don’t imagine hearing all of them, but I have heard 55 songs at four shows, which again, is amazing

That was not an issue for me this time.  I just wanted to hear live music.  They did play seven songs I hadn’t hear live before.  But six of them were from the new album The Golden Casket.  One was from the Interstate 8 EP.

(more…)

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The Districts (The Met Philadelphia, PA, August 5, 2021) [MODEST MOUSE]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Districts, The Met Philadelphia on August 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 5, 2021] The Districts

I was supposed to see The Districts play at Union Transfer on March 12.  COVID-19 had just found its way into New Jersey and Pennsylvania and I was being very cautious so I decided to skip the show.  It was a safe decision, but one that I now regret as it would have been a pretty great final show of the year.  Shows pretty much completely stopped after that.

I was able to watch The Districts play at (virtual) Philly Music Fest which was fun (but not the real thing).

So I was pretty excited to hear that they were announced as the opening act for Modest Mouse.  They would be the first live band I’d seen and the symmetry made me pleased.

They sounded great, but I was a little bummed that their set was only 6 songs in 30 minutes.  I didn’t keep track of the songs, assuming someone out there would have updated the setlist page, so I only know four of the six songs played.  And the shows around it have slightly different setlists, so I guess I’ll never know.

They opened with “If Before I Wake” and introduced their new drummer (who was really good).  I feel like the crowd was a little subdued for these Philly favorites. (more…)

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Richard Rayner–“After the Movie” (New Yorker, April 30, 2007)

Posted in Aurora, Massive Attack, New Yorker, Norway, Richard Rayner, Short Story, Suicide, The Beatles, Verftet Festival on July 31, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AURORA-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 20, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

Aurora played a 45 minute home concert for Verftet which you can see online.

The show starts with her at the piano (an unusual sight), playing the lovely ballad “Animal Soul.”  Then the drums start and Aurora and her band play a fantastic cover of the Massive Attack/Liz Frasier song “Teardrop.”  It sounds pretty cool on piano and even though Liz Frasier’s voice is unique in the world Aurora sounds terrific.

“Warrior” sounds very different from the recorded version, because it’s still rather quiet (although louder than the other songs).  Silja Sol has taken over piano and sings absolutely gorgeous harmonies.  Hearing the song stripped down shows what a powerful song it i

“All Is Soft Inside” opens with quiet echoing guitars and features more great backing vocals from Silja.  Although when Aurora sings a capella for a few beats it shows how great her voice is.  This song is really terrific.

Then she says something very Aurora: “I’m itching on my bum but I don’t want to do it on camera,  can you just film Magnus while I scratch my butt.”

Followed by some sage advice for pandemic times: “Its okay to be worthless, no not worthless, unproductive… we don’t have to do more than just exist sometimes.”

“Through The Eyes Of A Child” is a beautiful with just her and Silja on the piano.  The a capella verse with the deep and high harmonies sounds wonderful.  The song builds with the rest of the musicians adding in the guitar and drums.

“The River” grows bigger but is still restrained.  As is “Queendom,” her huge dance hit.  But even in this stripped down very it is still catchy and super fun.

“The Seed” is a wonderfully dark and powerful song.  For this quiet version, Silja plays quiet echoing guitar and the song builds into an intense climax (which is still quite restrained compared to the original).  But we can’t overlook the deep vocals from Magnus on the drums.

The set ends with a beautiful cover of The Beatles’ “Across The Universe” a song that will “take us away, a dreamy song… a perfect world… a beautiful hippie paradise.”  It’s a lovely gentle cover with amazing harmonies from Silja.

[READ: July 20, 2021] “After the Movie”

This is a very dark story.  It’s about Ed, a writer and filmmaker whose recent books have flopped.

He and his wife had just come back from the movies and his mood was foul.  He went to bed without saying good night to the kids.  Instead of falling asleep, he found himself sitting up and crying,

He genuinely considered killing himself.  He had no money coming in, they had borrowed against the house.  They had nothing left.  He was nothing,

Muldoon had called him this afternoon from Amsterdam.

Ed sat in bed and remembered back to when he was trying to perk up his friend Muldoon who was then having a similar slump. Ed encouraged him to hang in there.  And look at Muldoon now. (more…)

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Built to Spill (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, July 30, 2021) [rescheduled]

Posted in Cancelled, Coronavirus, Jersey City, NJ, Kraftwerk, Marshall Poole, Newport Folk Festival, Philadelphia, PA, Prism Bitch, Quarantine, The National, Union Transfer, White Eagle Hall on July 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: July 30, 2021] Built to Spill [rescheduled from July 31, 2020; moved to May 13, 2022]

indexI’m not entirely sure if this show was even scheduled.  It seemed to show up on their website and then was taken down.

Whatever the case, they are officially on the calendar for 2022, and I’m really looking forward to seeing this new line up.

~~~~

I’ve seen Built to Spill a bunch of times. The last time I promised myself I wouldn’t get too close to the stage, but I did.  The problem with being so close is the way Doug Martsch has his guitar set up.  His amp is right next to him and it is so loud.  From where I was you could barely hear anything else.  Of course I’m there to watch Doug play, so it’s not too bad.  But I promised myself I would stand back to fully appreciate his band.

On this newly announced tour, his whole band was going to be different.  In fact, I have seen at least three different lineups for the band over the years.  This tour was going to feature drummer Teresa Esguerra of Prism Bitch (who opened for Built To Spill last time) and bassist Melanie Radford of Marshall Poole.  I knew it would be a very different show.

Unfortunately, I had tickets to Kraftwerk on July 30 and tickets for The national on July 31 (not to mention we were supposed to leave for the Newport Folk Festival on the night of the 31st as well).  So I sure hope he keeps this line up when he;s ready to play again.  And I will stand back and take it all in.

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Bright Eyes / Lucy Dacus (Steelstacks, Bethlehem, PA, July 29, 2021) [rescheduled] [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Better Oblivion Community Center, Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, Coronavirus, Lucy Dacus, Postponed, Quarantine, Steelstacks, The Replacements on July 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 29, 2021] Bright Eyes / Lucy Dacus [rescheduled from June 16, 2020; couldn’t attend, vacation]

This is one of the first shows that actually went on as (re)scheduled.

It also happened to be the week that we took a vacation.  Oh well,

~~~~

I’ve never been much of a fan of Conor Oberst.  Although after seeing him in Better Oblivion Community Center, I gained a new respect for him and found I actually liked him.

I don’t know a lot about Bright Eyes (except that the songs sound strangely like The Replacements to me).  I wasn’t planning on going to this show (even though Steelstacks is a cool venue).

However, I kept getting notifications that Lucy Dacus was playing at Steelstacks.  I have seen Lucy a couple of times and would be more than happy to see her again.  When I got the notification, I assumed it meant she would be playing inside in one of the smaller venues (which would be outstanding).  I didn’t realize it was because she was opening for Bright Eyes.

This show was in fact postponed until next July–over a year away.  I have no idea what my calendar will be like then, but I think maybe by next July, I could be ready for Conor and Lucy again.

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Patrick Freyne–Ok, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea (2020)

Posted in Babies, Essays, Funny (ha ha), George Saunders, Hospitals, Humiliation, Irish Writer, Military, National Prayer Breakfast, Parachutes, Parenting, The Irish Times on July 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

[READ: Summer 2021] Ok, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea

I saw this book at work and loved the title.  I actually assumed it was a novel.  I’d never heard of Patrick Freyne and had no idea who he was.  In fact, by the time I’d read the first few essays I still had no idea who he was.  And that didn’t really matter all that much.

I suppose if you know him as a features journalist for The Irish Times, you would have some preconceived notions of what to expect.  But I tend to like “memoirs” by unknown-to-me people better than those by celebrities.  This is even addressed in the Preface.  His best friend says

“If I was going to read a book about someone’s life, it would be someone like Julius Caesar or Napoleon or some famous general”
…
“You know  there’s a whole genre of work that’s basically memoir writing,” I say.  “People who aren’t particularly famous witting about their lives.”
“Really?  Are you sure?”

That made me a little nervous abut going in but I figured if he put that in, it would probably all be pretty funny. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“Road Trips” (New Yorker, November 27, 2006)

Posted in David Sedaris, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Hitchhiking, Iris, Lars Vaular, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Norway, Sex, Verftet Online Music Festival on July 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: IRIS-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 1, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

I was completely unfamiliar with Iris, but she was the only other singer whose set was still streaming.  Because Aurora is a Norwegian singer in the same range, I feel like Iris’ voice sounds similar to hers.  But that’s a lazy comparison.

I suspect that she is a bit more poppy than this set lets on.  Like the Silja Sol set, it feels like a more “unplugged” kind of show.

It opens with “crawl for me” with she her singing to a guitar.  It’s quiet and powerful.  The rest of the band comes out for “mercy” which is “how i would like to to not show me any.”  There are washes of guitar s and keys, including a very cool, almost sinister keyboard sound in the end.

A cellist arrives for “kroppsspråk” which is a cover of a Lars Vaular song.  It’s kind of rapped–but in Iris’s more singing way.  It seems like the original is very dancey and she has dialed it back.

After a gentle piano solo version of “giving in” (her voice is lovely in the spare setting), she played “from inside a car,” my favorite song of the set which  has a breathy quality that I really like.

Then she throws in a Beatles cover.  “Here, There and Everywhere” is a beautiful gentle cover with just her voice and an acoustic guitar.

“hidden springs” stays with the acoustic sound, but she moved to a more techie processed vocal for “your mind, the universe.”  She has a few technical glitches for this song but when they are resolved her voice sounds very cool as it starts and then turns into a much bigger song.

As they prepare the next song she jokes that you shouldn’t eat crackers in bed, which proves to be the opening line of “hanging around you/crackers,” a sweet sounding breakup song.

Before the final song she mentions that all of her band is wearing band T-shirts: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Kiss and um, Reservoir Dogs(?).  It’s an amusing look for such a gentle show.

Before starting “romance is dead” she encourages everyone to visit my You Tube channel for recipes.  This set ending song is soft and lovely, just piano and strings and her beautiful voice.

[READ: July 15, 2021] “Road Trips”

When David was a kid, his father rallied the families on their street in Raleigh to plant maple trees.  For years they were tiny, pathetic things.  Now, decades later they are tall and majestic creating a canopy down the street where his father still lives.

He was home visiting his father who brought him to a block party.  At the party a teenager saw David’s father and groaned “Lou Sedaris, who invited her?”

“My son is gay,” the boy’s mother announced as if none of us had figured this out yet.  David was blown away that someone could casually announce this on the street where he grew up.  As a young homosexual David played all the games that the other closeted kids did.  Dated girls and claimed that sex before marriage was what dogs did–a true union of soles could take eight to ten years!

He kept his secret until he was twenty.  But he would have kept it longer had a couple not picked him up when he was hitchhiking.  It was 1 AM and he was picked up by a Cadillac with people his parents’ age in it. (more…)

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