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Archive for the ‘Snail Mail’ Category

Snail Mail / Swirlies / Sharp Pins (Fillmore Philly, Philadelphia, PA, April 16, 2016) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Lifeguard, Philadelphia, PA, Sharp Pins, Snail Mail, Swirlies, The Fillmore Philadelphia on April 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 16, 2016] Snail Mail / Swirlies / Sharp Pins

I have been wanting to catch Snail Mail since 2018, when I missed her opening for Alvvays at Union Transfer.  You don’t always get to see a singer progress so clearly up the ranks of popularity.

In 2018 she was opening for someone at Union Transfer and now 8 years later she was headlining The Fillmore.

I haven’t actually listened to her in a few years so I don’t know if I even like her music anymore, but I’ve enjoyed watching her succeed.

Swirlies are a band that I knew back in the late 90s.  I have their first album (they are a Boston band and I was living in Boston at the time).  I don’t really know why I got the record in the first place, although it’s kind of in my wheelhouse–noisy, not exactly shoegaze, very weird.  Not a chance of making it big.  And yet, they persisted.  Well, Damon Tutunjian persisted.  He’s the only person to have remained in the band from 1990 on.  And the sound is much different on their more recent recordings.  Seana Carmody was in the band in the early days and she went on to form Syrup USA who I had also forgotten about but have a fond memory of.   Although it turns out they play mostly stuff from their earlier days, so I probably would have enjoyed this.

I didn’t realize I knew anything about Sharp Pins, but it turns out I have seen the mastermind of this band, Kai Slater, in his other band, Lifeguard (who I loved) and I had singled out Slater as a great guitar player.  Imagine my surprise to find out he is the driving force (and sole member, I think) of Sharp Pins.  And, in fact, I love one of their songs that I hear on the radio a lot, I Don’t Have the Heart.  It has a retro pop feel and is a totally tasty pop song.  Indeed, Kai writes a lot of wonderful retro pop songs.  Although I did find that a full album was too much for me, I’ll bet seeing him live would be great.

So I think overall this would have been a really enjoyable show, but I had been to two shows in a row the nights before and had another event for the following night.  Maybe some day I’ll get to see them all.

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Dinosaur Jr. / Snail Mail (The Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, July 19, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Dinosaur Jr., J. Mascis, Snail Mail, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage on July 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: July 19, 2025] Dinosaur Jr. / Snail Mail

I saw Dinosaur Jr. right here ten years ago almost to the day.  They were opening for Jane’s Addiction and it was a terrific show.  I have seen them two more times since then and kind of felt I didn’t need to see them again.  Although it has been four years now.

I don’t love this venue, although if you get there at the right time and in the right spot it can be pretty great.

I’ve ben trying to see Snail Mail since 2018.  Every time they play–either opening or headlining, something comes up and I don’t see them.  I’m not even sure if I like them anymore.  But I love that she keeps popping up on my radar.  They seem like an odd band to open for Dino Jr.

 

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Waxahatchee / Snail Mail / Greg Mendez (Fillmore Philly, Philadelphia, PA, September 8, 2024)

Posted in Greg Mendez, Philadelphia, PA, Snail Mail, The Fillmore Philadelphia, Waxahatchee on September 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 8, 2024] Waxahatchee / Snail Mail / Greg Mendez

I would have liked to go to one of these two Waxahatchee shows.  I wouldn’t have gone to both shows, but I had a hard time deciding which one to go to.

It turns out in the end that it didn’t matter, because we wound up going to Pearl Jam shows on the 7th and the 9th.  I joked with my wife that I was going to try to go to this show too, but we had been standing for hours for Pearl Jam and then would be standing for Pearl Jam for hours the following day. So I had to give it a miss–even though I’ve heard the show was outstanding.

I love Gladie and would love to have seen them again, but when I saw this lineup, I had to choose the night with Snail Mail, a band I have wanted to see them since about 2018, but it keeps not happening.  This is now the seventh time I could have seen them but didn’t. (more…)

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Turnstile / JPEGMAFIA / Snail Mail (Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, October 6, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, JPEGMAFIA, Snail Mail, The Stone Pony Summer Stage, Turnstile on October 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 6, 2022] Turnstile / Citizen / Ceremony / Ekulu / Truth Cult

I was planning to see Turnstile back in May, although the overall bill–5 heavy bands–seemed a little too much.

This new show, just a few months later since they are always touring, had a much more interesting bill.

But, once again, this show was the same night as Cate Le Bon, who tours less frequently than Turnstile, so Cate won out.

JPEGMAFIA is a rapper and producer who I know more from his remixes than his actual music.  He draws from noise and punk and, frankly, sounds like someone I would really like and like someone I would really have liked to see live.

I have been wanting to see Snail Mail for quite a while.  Indeed, I was supposed to see her back in April, but I decided to stay home.  So I’m missing out on her once again.

This bill, though–a quiet folkie indie rocker, a noise rapper and a punk band was pretty interesting.

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Frantic City 2022 (Orange Loop Amphitheater, Atlantic City, NJ, September 24, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Atlantic City, NJ, Car Seat Headrest, Control Top, Frantic City, Fred Armisen, Protomartyr, Snail Mail, Superchunk, Titus Andronicus, Yo La Tengo on September 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 24, 2022] Frantic City 2022

When I saw this show listed, I knew that it would be a fun opportunity for my son and I to go to a Festival. Only one day, kinda far but not too far, and headlined by his favorite band Car Seat Headrest.

The whole lineup was pretty exciting, in fact,

  • Car Seat Headrest
  • Yo La Tengo
  • Snail Mail
  • Titus Andronicus
  • Superchunk
  • Rocket from the Crypt
  • Protomartyr
  • Murder City Devils
  • Shannon and the Clams
  • The Raveonettes
  • Samiam
  • Control Top

And Fred Armisen will serve as host, so you can expect his specific brand of musical comedy to move the acts along.

I wasn’t sure what time we were going to arrive.  I wanted to see Control Top, who it looked like would go on first, then I was kind of okay with not seeing some of the other bands.

I feel like I should know Samiam, but I don’t exactly.  I feel like I don’t like The Raveonettes.  I didn’t really want to see Shannon and the Clams.  I don’t know Murder City Devils.  I have seen Protomartyr, and would have been happy to see them again.  I liked the first Rocket from the Crypt album, but haven’t thought of them in years.  I have seen Superchunk twice in the last few years and don’t need to see them again, although they are great.  I have not see Titus Andronicus who I don’t love, but who I understand are amazing live.

I do want to see Snail Mail (who I was supposed to see in April, but didn’t).  I have liked Yo La Tengo for years and have never seen them.  And then there was Car Seat Headrest, whom we had both seen in April.

Then on September 17, Car Seat Headrest pulled out of the Festival because of Will Toledo’s health.

I probably should have turned in the tickets right then, but I didn’t want the Festival to crumble from people returning their tickets–I do hope it comes back next year.

But that really put the kibosh on my son’s desire to see the festival.

On the day of, he said he really didn’t want to go and honestly that was fine by me.

 

 

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Snail Mail / Joy Again (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 5, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Joy Again, Philadelphia, PA, Snail Mail, Union Transfer on April 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 5, 2022] Snail Mail / Joy Again

I wanted to see Snail Mail back in 2018 and couldn’t make the show.  I really liked her debut album.

I hadn’t enjoyed songs from her new one a much, so even though I bought a ticket as soon as this show was announced, I decided not to go.

I didn’t realize at the time that my daughter had a Joy Again song on her playlist.  “Looking out for You” is a bouncy song with lots of banjo, although it doesn’t sound folky at all.  I wonder if she would have enjoyed going to this show with me.

 

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Christine Mari Inzer–Diary of a Tokyo Teen: A Japanese-American Girl Travels to the Land of Trendy Fashion, High-tech Toilets and Maid Cafes (2016)

Posted in Adventure, Airlines, Christine Mari Inzer, Consumerism, Culture Shock, Cute, Ex Hex, Fashion, Feminism, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Hamburgers, Helium, Homework's, Huh?, Japan, Katsudon, Mary Timony, Memoirs, Mos Burger, Palehound, Snail Mail, Soba, Sushi, Technology, Toilets, Tonkatsu, Travel, Tuttle Publishing, Waxahatchee on September 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SNAIL MAIL-Tiny Desk Concert #650 (September 15, 2017).

It’s always encouraging that young musicians are still picking up guitars and writing catchy and interesting songs.  I’d never heard of Snail Mail, but finding out that lead singer/guitarist Lindsey Jordan graduated high school last year is pretty cool.

I think that it helps to have some connections, though:

Jordan started Snail Mail at 15 and released the quietly stunning Habit EP via Priests’ in-house label last year. She’s quickly found fans in Helium and Ex Hex’s Mary Timony (who also happens to be Jordan’s guitar teacher) and just went on tour with Waxahatchee and Palehound.

They play three songs.  On one it’s just her, but on the first two, she is joined “by what’s become her consistent live band (drummer Ray Brown and bassist Alex Bass).”

“Slug” has a propulsive verse and a cool thumping bridge.  It’s an ode to a slug, in fact, but it also looks internally: “I have waited my whole life to know the difference and I should know better than that.”  I really like the way the song builds and builds and then drops out for a second for a few curlicues of guitar.

Her lyrics are wonderful mix of maturity and teenager (I do like the “my whole life bit,” but I really like this couplet from the next song “Thinning.”

I want to face the entire year just face down / and on my own time I wanna waste mine.
spend the rest of it asking myself is this who you are / and I don’t know it just feels gross.  (And her delivery of the word “gross” is wonderful).

From her reaction and this blurb, I guess the band is a bit louder than what they play here:

Because we often ask bands to turn down for the office space, she jokes, “I guess I don’t really know what we sound like because we’re so loud. Now we’re quiet and Ray’s using the mallets and my guitar’s all the way down — I was like, ‘We sound like this?'”

For the last song, the guys leave as she re tunes her guitar:

Jordan closes the set solo with a new song, “Anytime.” It is, perhaps typically for Snail Mail, slow and sad, but the alternate guitar tuning and Jordan’s drawled vocal performance gives this song about a crush an aerial motion, like acrobats sliding down a long sheet of fabric.

With just her and her guitar this song is far more spare and less bouncy but it works perfectly were her delivery.  I also like watching her bend strings with her third finger while playing a chord–she has learned some mad skills from Timony for sure.  I wish I had seen them open for Waxahatchee, that’s a bitchin’ double bill, for sure.

[READ: October 20, 2016] Diary of a Tokyo Teen

Sarah brought this book home and it seemed really fun.  It’s a look at Japan through the eyes of a girl who was born there about 15 years earlier but then moved to the U.S. with her family.  She is older and somewhat wiser and is delighted to have a chance to explore what is familiar and unfamiliar.

And it’s all done in a simple comic book style diary which she self published at age 17.

So Christine flies to Kashiwa, a small city outside of Tokyo to stay with her Baba and Jiji (grandparents).  She says the best reunion (aside from her grandparents) was with her favorite fast food chain unavailable in America: Mos Burger (you eat the wrapper because it would be messy to take it out of the wrapper).

What I love about this book is that unlike a more formal guide book, Christine is a typical teenager with typically American experiences.  So she notices that the people who work fast food are happy–or at least appear to be.  She’s also aware right form the start how trendy the other kids are.  And while an adult might not care, for a teen aged girl, that’ pretty devastating. (more…)

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