[DID NOT ATTEND: December 2, 2022] Open Mike Eagle / Serengeti / Video Dave
This was the first show I saw advertised at Silk City. I was intrigued (I’m always intrigued by a new venue).
Open Mike Eagle is probably my favorite rapper at the moment. His lyrics are clever and thoughtful with bite and I really enjoy the music he puts with the lyrics.
I was in a bit of a concert burnout by this time of year though. December is not my favorite time of year to go to shows, so I never got tickets or anything.
This was Open Mike’s first tour in Philly since the pandemic, so I probably should have gone. But I do hope he comes back (in the fall, maybe).
I have not heard of Serengeti and his bio says something like: a rapper from Illinois who has released many albums since the 2000s. His latest song is called “a okey test,” featuring sicker man, and is streaming now.
But this article from The Guardian makes him sound amazing: [some highlights here but the whole article is fascinating] Continue Reading »
Distortion and reverb are their friends, but none of their music feels consumed or overwhelmed by such effects. A mix of dreampop, shoegaze, and grunge, the LA-based trio balance their stone-heavy rhythmic section of bassist Hunter Martinez and drummer McCoy Kirgo with the swirling melodies and heaven-reaching vocals of singer-guitarist Shawn Marom.
Their music is quite stark and spare, though for all the reverb. There’s also a sense of 50s girl group about them. I’d be curious to see how that translates live.
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my fifth time reading the Calendar. I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable. Here’s what they say this year
Like we always do at this time: the Short Story Advent Calendar is back for 2022. We had such a great time last year working with our first-ever guest editor, the one and only Alberto Manguel. This year, however, we’re bringing things back to basics. No overarching theme or format, just 25 top-class short stories, selected in-house, by some of the best writers in North America and beyond. It’s December 1. To officially kick off the 2022 Short Story Advent Calendar, here is a story about faith and carbs from the author of The Prince of Mournful Thoughts.
This story was dark and twisted and quite funny.
The narrator is thinking back about a kid she used to babysit called Ruth, a plain, blocky sort of girl. The narrator was brutally honest with her–to teach her how to survive. Ruth was eleven but acted eight.
This was tough for Ruth because her family were Bread of Lifers–a religious group that was very strict and emphasized having no fun. They never tried to convert the narrator’s family (don’t shit where you eat, I guess).
So when the narrator told her things like “Most people will hate you. On sight. For no reason,” Ruth, whose face was almost always hopeful, would fall and harden. But Ruth was perpetually full of love for everyone. Especially her babysitter. “I love you,” Ruth would say. “I sometimes like you” is as far as I was willing to go. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: FLEETWOOD MAC-“The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)” (1969).
I know this song from Judas Priest, who made a killer cover that they played for years. Rob Halford’s voice on the song (in their live version from 1976) is incredible.
I didn’t even know there was an “original” until a decade or so ago. It seemed out of character that Judas Priest would cover a trippy Fleetwood Mac song (of course they also covered Joan Baez, so…). But wow, this song is a trip.
I mean, the lyrics alone are the stuff of legend at this point. There’s dozens of places where you can read about the song. Here’s a few paragraphs from Uncle Stylus.
Peter Green said it’s a song about the corrupting influence of money, which he equated with the devil. In 1969, the huge success of Fleetwood Mac had brought them a considerable income and Green had agreed with the band that they would would give it all to charity. One can imagine that “morning after” moment when he demanded they made good on their idealistic rush of blood. A massive quarrel ensued, and Green never forgave the other bandmembers for reneging on the idea and claimed that this was what inspired the song.
Manalishi is a word that Peter Green made up for the song. The sound of it rolling around the tongue is exotic and menacing, suffused with the mystery of demons and gremlins from a medieval Italian dark night.
Listening now it’s clear that he was really, whether consciously or unconsciously, telling us about his depressive schizophrenia and even the dark persona unleashed within him when he took certain drugs, the “green” of the manalishi being Green himself. It reads like the beginning of a story by Edgar Allan Poe.
The Judas Priest cover doesn’t really follow the original all that much (the ending wailing is so much cooler the way Halford does it). But the riff here is pretty spectacular (understandable why they’d want to cover it). Also, it was a big hit in England when it came out, so it’s not like the band was crate-digging for rarities. I had just never heard of it.
There is something some sinister about the slow menace of the Fleetwood Mac version. It’s incredible to think that this is the same band who put out Rumours (although really it isn’t, but whatever).
Check out the live from Boston version for some real heaviness. And marvel that this weird song was a hit.
[READ: November 2022] Collectibles
Evidently Lawrence Block has created several of these anthologies all loosely based around a theme. This is the first one I’ve read, although I see another one called Playing Games is on the horizon.
This collection is about collectibles. Most but not all of the stories are crime or mystery based. A couple have a touch of the supernatural as well. The term “collectible” is pretty broadly defined from one story to the next, but it’s a decent prompt to let you know what you’re getting.
Lawrence Block – The Elephant in the Living Room (An Introduction)
This is an essay about the book which includes an amusing story about Lawrence’s Uncle Jerry who ha a collection of giraffes. There were presently none in the collection because he hadn’t found one up to his standards. Continue Reading »
Back in May of 2021 I was pretty excited that Måneskin won Eurovision 2021. I am in no way a Eurovision watcher, but during the lockdown I decided to do some dives into recent Eurovision happenings. Måneskin was unusual–a rocking band who were glammy but heavy. Their song “Zitti E Buoni” had it all (in a tidy three minute package).
I enjoyed the song, played it a few times and then kind of forgot about them.
So it was weird when, a few months later, my daughter became obsessed with them. I realized that in 2022, it’s easy to be obsessed with a band from a non-English speaking country, but it still made me happy because obviously I am obsessed with lots of bands from far away places.
Måneskin announced a small concert in October 2021 and I missed out on the announcement and it sold out very quickly. That sucked because she would have loved to see them (and it would have been pretty cool to see them in a small club before they toured the States).
It took almost five months for Måneskin to announce a proper U.S. tour. There was no way I could miss out on these tickets and I grabbed them immediately. She was thrilled and I was pretty excited to see them as well. I was somewhat surprised, but not really, that it sold out. But I was a bit more surprised that they announced a second show in Philly.
That one didn’t sell out and as the show approached, the idea came to us to go to the non-sold out show instead. There was also the possibility of a few her friends going to–we may have been our own crowd. Various things came up and it turned out to be just my T, S and me. But i did manage to sell our Monday tickets, so it worked out. Continue Reading »
I bought tickets to this show back in march–the day they went on sale and old out. My daughter and I were excited to go, although wasn’t sure how much she’d enjoy a sold out show.
As the day grew closer, we thought it might be more fun to go to the second night–not sold out, tickets still available. I also bought one for my wife so the three of us could enjoy the show together.
I was able to sell these tickets and all was well. We may have gotten more poseurs at our show, but it was still more fun.
~~
Back in May of 2021 I was pretty excited that Måneskin won Eurovision 2021. I am in no way a Eurovision watcher, but during the lockdown I decided to do some dives into recent Eurovision happenings. Måneskin was unusual–a rocking band who were glammy but heavy. Their song “Zitti E Buoni” had it all (in a tidy three minute package).
I enjoyed the song, played it a few times and then kind of forgot about them.
So it was weird when, a few months later, my daughter became obsessed with them. I realized that in 2022, it’s easy to be obsessed with a band from a non-English speaking country, but it still made me happy because obviously I am obsessed with lots of bands from far away places.
[DID NOT ATTEND: November 25, 2022] The Menzingers / Touché Amoré / Screaming Females
I have seen The Menzingers twice. The first time I missed most of their set. The second time I was in a terrible location and the sound was dismal. I told myself that I really wanted to see one good set with them.
I had tickets to this show and then the Guster show came up. So clearly we pick Guster over this. But when we decided not to go to Guster, I didn’t feel like going to this either.
I think I’m done with them.
I love the name Touché Amoré, although I don’t know much about the band. This Pitchfork review of their album Lament, gives a fascinating look into the lead singer’s headspace. Sounds like a pit was inevtiable.
Screaming Females is another band that I really liked for a pretty long time but I’m a little over at the moment. Maybe I’ll come back to them again.
[DID NOT ATTEND: November 25, 2022] Guster / Alex Edelman
When we saw Guster at the Wellmont, they announced that they would be playing Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall!
We went on vacation and I grabbed tickets from a museum on vacation.
And then late November rolled around and we realized that it was the Friday after Thanksgiving. BLACK FRIDAY. There was no way in hell we were going to New York City on Black Friday. I’m going to posit that this is something only someone from New Jersey would say.
So, we did not see Guster at Carnegie Hall.
Alex Edelman is a comedian. I just watched a clip of one of his bits on Stephen Colbert and it was hilarious. Must check him out more. And, frankly, I think a comedian is a good opening act for certain bands.
[DID NOT ATTEND: November 24, 2022] Ty Segall / Charles Moothouse
I have become a fan of Ty Segall in the last few years. He releases far too much music to keep tabs on him, but I’ve wanted to see his fuzzed out live show for a while now.
He has been in Philly three times this year. Once with his band Fuzz. Next with the Freedom Band and now as an acoustic solo artist.
I was trying to slow my shows down a bit by the end of this year (I had seen so many!). Plus, when I finally do get to see Ty Segall, I want it to be with a big noisy fuzzy band, not as an acoustic performer.
So, I opted to give this one a miss. Wonder if I’ll regret it someday.
Charles Moothouse was an unfamiliar name to me, but that’s because I’ve never read Ty Segall’s liner notes. Wikipedia tells me
Charles Frances Moothart is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. … Moothart is the drummer for Ty Segall’s current backing band, The Freedom Band. He was previously the guitarist for Segall’s backing band, the Ty Segall Band, and is the guitarist and vocalist in the pair’s hard rock project, Fuzz. Additionally, he is a member of Segall’s collaborative project with Ex-Cult’s Chris Shaw, GØGGS.
I saw Jinjer almost exactly one year ago to the day. It was also the night before Thanksgiving (that’s kind of weird, no?}
When they announced this show I bought a ticket immediately. Last year, there was no war in Ukraine. There was no crisis or concern. This year, I wanted to support them and their country. I didn’t even really pay attention to the rest of the bill.
P.O.D. (really?), Vended and from Ukraine, Space of Variations.
I didn’t want to see any of these other bands (well, maybe Space of Variations). And I didn’t want to spend two and a half hours standing around listening to bands I didn’t really want to hear.
So I thought I might not go. But I listened to some Jinjer and decided that I did want to see them after all. Especially when I saw that they were playing “Pisces” on this tour (which they didn’t play for us last time). Continue Reading »
This was the first show I saw advertised at Silk City. I was intrigued (I’m always intrigued by a new venue).
I Just Read About That... 