spoon & deerhunter

they played wonderful sets last eve. 5 new songs from deerhunter, who played for around an hour & a near two hour set from spoon. 'transference' is great, a return to the weird minimalism of 'kill the moonlight.' 'got nuffin' is the latest in a series of songs by them that completely captures how i feel about life at the moment. totally looking forward to hearing the new deerhunter jamz too, now only a four piece. and if your reading this bradford, your set was absolutely fine last night, nothing noticeable to the naked eye.

blowout review: friday

spent the night at paychecks, acting as a stage manager for locognosis showcase day one. my night went as follows-

first: forget. all i know is we clouded the entirety of paychecks in fog and jamie and steve scared the living shit out of everybody in the bar. all the members of the band were stoked about it too. i'll take it as a win. btw, we totally lived up to the metro times review of us.

second: woodman. outstanding performance. the whole band is in top form and is putting on the best shows i have ever seen them do. nice blur cover too!

third: jehovah's witness protection program. jesus christ, anthony and jehan totally killed it for me. pure ferocity that lit a fire under everyone's ass. these guys are going to take over this year, and they fully deserve it.

fourth: marco polio and the new vaccines. if there was anything left standing after the first three acts, there certainly wasn't after marco polio. fuck me. no band should ever have to play after them, it just wouldn't be fair. when their album drops, everybody in this town is going to be singing their praises, rightfully so i might add.

thanks for reading!

blowout review: thursday

first stop: jean's to see the ruggs. awesome as usual; still the soundtrack to all those inebriated sunny days i've had. special mention to their girlfriends starting up the dance party. even the little old ladies at the bar were getting into it!

second: seeing the suprise band of the blowout for me this year: isosceles mountain. total heavy drone post-rock/metal wonderfulness. the drummer busted his snare on the first hit but compensated (especially having his own set of noise making machines). can't wait to see these dudes again!

third: g of c hall for the meadowlarks. groovy kraut-folk that blossoms from beds of noise. anything any of the members of mother whale touches is gold. outstanding!

fourth: sey lui at whiskey in the jar. caught the last two songs; matt noah and alex do great work. it will sound even better when they put their brand of repetitive mathy/jazzy post-rock out onto a cd/record/mp3/wax cylinder/anything (hint hint guys! please do this soon! i wanna jam it on the home stereo soooooooo baaaaaaad!).

fifth: one mr. carjack @ paychecks bringin' the dance party. tons of on stage guests, including a certain red bearded gentleman in his disco king guise. catch carjack's other band, electric fire babies, at baker's street car on saturday @ 11:40.

sixth: a stellar performance by zoos of berlin also at paychecks. the most gentlemanly band in the city, with their wonderful bossa nova prog-pop/chamber rock. special shout out to mister who i missed, but hooked me up with a free cd (which sounds fab! hooray for detroit hip-hop!). also shout out to the motor city rocks crew, who i ran into here. they did this super sweet interview of some band i know...

seventh: back to whiskey in the jar for another surprise and new fav of the night, illy mack. a drummer/bass player (using two kick pedals to play kick and snare drums whilst playing bass and singing), and a singer/guitarist/keyboardist/sax player, with wonderfully frank and sweet pop songs. these two put all other musical multi-taskers to shame.

eighth: invincible at the g of c hall. great hip-hop with a full backing band. apparently i've slept on this one for years now, and am totally foolish for doing so. great way to end blowout night one

after: a night cap at sakana for the one year anniversary of rock lobster.

tonight: locognosis showcase @ paychecks! forget plays @ 9:40! come see the madness!

thanks for reading!

blowout review: wednesday

totally missed f'ke blood and chapstik, caught computer perfection, and talked with a ton of people. namecheck time:

johnny ill band
terrible twos
blueflowers
mahonies
pigeon
slow giant
meadowlarks
black lodge
old empire
high speed dubbing
kommie kilpatrick
duende!
bars of gold
oscillating fan club
devilfish
marco polio
rogue satellites
wctm gold
prussia
legendary creatures

too much more to remember, but was awesome. car stalled on the way home, hopefully i will have it back in time for my band on friday. yay!