iamserio.us

What a great band these guys are. They played with full energy for 70 minutes straight and never missed a beat. All around, a very fun show as I pulled a pretty good stealth tape and I saw a bunch of old friends from various places.

Yeah, I guess I don’t have much to say other than, here you go:

Liars – 2006-06-10 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
Download: liars2006-06-10.at943.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: liars2006-06-10sample.mp3

Sometimes I go to shows and tape for people when I normally would have just sat at home. Usually it’s a good experience, like when I taped Massive Attack and Murder By Death. Last night I taped The Fall Of Troy for a friend of mine and, overall, it was a good show.

The low points of the show were:

The high points:

The opening bands weren’t terrible but they weren’t really my scene. The whole night was like being transported back to freshman year of college when I would go to shows at this venue all the time (back when it was called The Graceland). The first band, Classic Case, sounded a lot like Thrice. The second and third bands, Showbread and He Is Legend, were both Christian rock acts that I can’t say I hated or loved. They just sort of exist.

The Fall Of Troy, though, can do no wrong. They’re head and shoulders above the other bands on this tour, and not just because Thomas Erak can fucking shred his way around six strings either (because, let me tell you, he can). The band is just so damn tight and spot-on. They’re very good at creating segues into and out of their songs and you’ll never hear a song just like you heard it on the CD.

So here are all of the sets from last night. For all you punk rock kids who need to re-live last night’s get together.

The Fall Of Troy – 2006-06-09 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
Download: fot2006-06-09.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: fot2006-06-09sample.mp3

Update: Someone filmed the new song Excreations with a digital camera and the video turned out decent, so I mixed it with my audio.

Download: Excreations_fixed.mpg

EDIT: Removed opening sets to make space on the server.

I don’t think Eluvium will ever get the sort of attention he deserves at a concert. I fear that he’ll never be a headlining act and that he’ll always be placed as an opening act at a concert where people want to talk, drink, be merry and not pay attention to the beautiful music he’s making. All throughout his set people chatted with their friends instead of listening to the beautiful music he was creating, though, a lot of people shut their noiseholes during the crescendo of “Under The Water It Glowed” because it’s hard not to appreciate how gorgeous that song is.

I loved that he took the stage and did not say a word. He sat up there at his piano and waited for the soundguy to kill the house music, then he just started playing. Between songs he didn’t say anything and I don’t think he even had a microphone. When he finished his last song he just looked up, smiled and waved his hand as if to say “Thanks for listening. Bye.”

During Mono’s set, he walked by my stand, pointed to the mics and smiled at me. I told him “I’ll send you a copy.” and he touched my shoulder lightly and did a scooping head nod (you know, where your head just kind of swoops down with your shoulders). He said “Thanks.” I half expected him to add “…my son” after. He’s just so humble and meak and unassuming and I would pay to see him play everyday of my life if I could.

Eluvium – 2006-06-03 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: eluvium2006-06-03.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: eluvium2006-06-03sample.mp3

Mono is one of my favorite post-rock bands of late. As far as the genre goes, few bands can build a crescendo as beautifully as these four tiny Japanese musicians can. I love how they can draw a song out to a point where you really can’t say when it will be finished, but at the same time you would be completely satisfied if they played the song for hours. At least I would. Because I’m a sucker for post-rock.

Much like Eluvium, the band did not say a word during their set. This may have partly been due to the language barrier but I think it’s more to do with the fact that their music says everything they need it to. Words are for losers and Mono knows this.

Also, I really am not good with their song titles or knowing where the tracksplits are. Sorry. (Update: Thanks to Skim for the song titles. The text file has been updated.)

Mono – 2006-06-03 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: mono2006-06-03.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: mono2006-06-03sample.mp3

I wasn’t too familiar with Pelican’s body of work before the concert but I decided to give them a try. Unfortunately, they bored me to the utmost degree. Their music never seemed to build up to anything. There was no crescendo and no payoff, no big breakdown that made you say “Hell yes I want the world to end.” I think that’s what I like in a lot of instrumental rock bands and Pelican just didn’t do it for me. Every once in a while the guitarist would bust out a really cool little riff or the drum beat would kick into double-bass action and I’d get excited, but those moments were not very frequent.

I will say that upon giving the recording another listen at home, I enjoyed it more than I did last night. Maybe Eluvium and Mono had just tired me out on the whole instrumental rock thing.

Pelican – 2006-06-03 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: pelican2006-06-03.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: pelican2006-06-03sample.mp3

UPDATE: I’m turning off commenting for this entry because the numerous mentions of the word “mono” (you know, like the illness) has drawn the spambots like moths to a disease-ridden flame.

I hadn’t planned on going to this show but Beckah at Suicide Squeeze called and asked if I wanted to be put on the list, and who am I to turn down any sort of free entertainment? No one. That’s who.

The upside of this concert was that a) it was free and b) it was early and I like that because I am turning into an old man. The downside was that, other than Metal Hearts, I had no clue who the other bands were. The downside of the upside is that I actually didn’t get to bed any earlier and the upside of the downside is that the bands I hadn’t heard of were actually pretty cool. I don’t think it can get any more confusing than what I just wrote.

Metal Hearts were the openers so I had to get there early so I didn’t miss anything. I really like this band because they use drum machine tracks without sounding cheesy and they make a concerted effort to incorporate saxaphone into their music. I like me some saxaphone, let me tell you what.

Metal Hearts – 2006-06-01 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: mh2006-06-01.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: mh2006-06-01sample.mp3

After them was William Elliott Whitmore, a solo artist who seems to have been dug up from early twentieth century dustbowl-era America. He sounds like he’s coming at you over an AM radio and thematically bounces from damnation to redemption in all of his bluesy ballads. That he’s not yet thirty years old and a tattooed guy in a fedorah makes it that much more odd to watch. Odd in a good way I mean.

Also, this quote from him during his set cracks me up every time I hear it:

Thursday! Is today Thursday? Right on. ‘Thursday night? Fuck or fight.’ That’s my motto.

The quote is hilarious to me because it could have been any night of the week and that saying would still work. I bet that’s his motto for every day of the week and you know what? That’s a damn fine motto to have. If you’ve gotta hold a motto I suggest you use “[Day of the week] night? Fuck or fight.”

William Elliott Whitmore – 2006-06-01 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: wewhitmore2006-06-01.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: wewhitmore2006-06-01sample.mp3

Once Mr. Whitmore wrapped up, Murder By Death went on. I checked out their MySpace page before I left for the show because I was worried that somehow Metal Hearts had been booked to play with a metal/hardcore band by accident. As it turns out, they just have an unfortunately undescriptive name for their style of music (but they share a name with one of my favorite films ever).

A guy at the show I was talking to described them as “Cursive but harder”. I didn’t find that to be true exactly. I mean, they share some common characteristics with Cursive since they have a cello and all, but I think the similarities stop there. If I were to use other bands to describe Murder By Death, I’d say this:

If Johnny Cash had sons instead of daughters, and then one of those sons ended up writing country songs while hanging out with Nick13 of Tiger Army, he might be the lead singer of Murder By Death.

All in all, I dig their style. Some of the songs seemed like they should have been hookier but they weren’t. I expected them to use a driving snare cadence a lot more than they did… I love country songs that do that (so maybe I just wanted them to do that deep down). Also, the cellist is amazingly proficient at her task and she’s pretty cute too. These are the things I notice.

Murder By Death – 2006-06-01 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: mbd2006-06-01.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: mbd2006-06-01sample.mp3

And now I must admit that I left the show before the last band went on. I had already started tearing down when I realized there was another band coming. At that point, I really had to pee and I just wanted to get home before the rain got worse. If I knew who the band was (I didn’t) or had paid to get into the show (I hadn’t) then I might have stayed, but as it was, I just got the hell out of Dodge.

Eluvium/Mono/Pelican is on Saturday. Now that’s a show to get excited for! Hell yes that show is going to destrory.

Started that job last week and I already get into shows for free. Look at me bein’ Mr. Rockshow Tuff and swaggering into venues like I own the place.

It’s funny, though. Even though I work for the label that the headliner is on and the guy who owns the label (my boss) was at the show, I still got hassled by the venue’s sound guy for not having documented permission to tape. Admittedly, he was right… you shouldn’t assume that you can just tape whomever you please. In fact, I’ll quote him because even though he came off as hostile and a bit mean, I think what he said is probably the general consensus of venue staff in regards to the taping community (however true or untrue it might be):

I resent the attitude that tapers have. That they just walk into a venue with their gear and think it’s their right to tape, as if they have carte blanche over the situation.

After the show I apologized and told him that next time I tape at The Crocodile I’ll make sure I have documented permission (and if I don’t I guess I’ll just stealth it).

In any case, last night’s show was good. The opener, Tiny Vipers, was a little shaky and odd to watch. I’ve seen her play before but she seemed nervous or maybe she was just trying some new songs because her guitar playing was really hit and miss. Following her was another local act, The Fleet Foxes. Their sound reminds me of Crystal Skulls a good deal… they’re a decent group. The final opening act was The Can’t See, John Atkins’ new band. I’d seen them play just recently at Neumo’s and this performance was just as good if not better than the previous. Some really nice hooky pop coming from those guys.

The Six Parts Seven are one of my all-time favorite instrumental acts. I like that they make post-rock that doesn’t have to be confrontational and boisterous in order to be genuine. I think that too many post-rock groups try too hard to be the next Godspeed (or, more recently, Explosions In The Sky) without first seeing if there is something new or different they can try.

The Six Parts Seven – 2006-05-21 The Crocodile Cafe – Seattle, WA
Download: sps2006-05-21.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: sps2006-05-21sample.mp3

Fleet Foxes – 2006-05-21 The Crocodile Cafe – Seattle, WA
Download: ff2006-05-21.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: ff2006-05-21sample.mp3

Jason Lytle is the lead singer of the sorely missed band Grandaddy. He’s doing a small tour of in-store performances; playing acoustic arrangements of the band’s tunes and doing meet ‘n greet signing sessions.

Tonight he played at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records in Seattle. I’d say there were about 50-70 people in attendance if I had to guess. I wasn’t the only taper at the show either. Another guy who I’ve met before was taping as well as running two (maybe three?) digital video camcorders. Hopefully a really nice multi-cam comes out of this performance, that’d be really neat.

The recording turned out decent enough. The first track is pretty quiet since I was futzing with the levels early on. It was tough to strike a balance between the low-level PA system and the super loud crowd noise, but by the second song I just said screw it and boosted the levels up way high. This caused the recording to clip a lot when people clapped but I don’t really care… as long as the actual songs are clear (and they are), I’m happy.

Enjoy the recording and go see Jason Lytle if he rolls through your town’s record store.

Jason Lytle – 2006-05-19 Easy Street Records – Seattle, WA
Download: jlytle2006-05-19.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: jlytle2006-05-19sample.mp3

I know I know, what a stupid pun. Wait, you don’t get it? Probably because I haven’t told you yet, anonymous ‘netizen.

I got a job working part-time for Suicide Squeeze Records this week. I actually had my first day on the job today. It’s not much but I’m still super excited.

Basically, my job is simple: help the two people (!!!) who run the label with tech stuff. You know. E-mail, web related tasks, banner ads, networking. That sort of stuff. In the three hours I was there today I set up a new e-mail address on their domain and got it working in Thunderbird, secured their wireless connection, and networked their iBook with their PCs. I also spent a good chunk of time talking to them about music and artists and what concerts I’m looking forward to etc.

The best part of the job is all the free shit they give me. Ok I’m kidding, but they did give me a lot of free stuff (a bunch of CDs and a shirt). Actually, the best part of this job is that I’ll get to go to a lot of concerts for free and it will be really easy for me to get permission to tape.

If you didn’t know, the label’s 10th anniversary is coming up and they’re having a three day celebration at Neumo’s at the end of the month. Even better, my birthday is right smack in the middle of the dates. And even better than that, check out the lineup:

If I can tape all of these bands (plus whoever the “Super Surprise Secret Special Guest” is), I’ll be so stoked. Hell, the fact that I’ll be able to see all of these bands in three nights is awesome, plus my brother will be in town for those dates so he can come with (if he wants I guess).

All in all, I’m super excited about this job. I don’t think the label really has the income to have another person on board full-time, but maybe that will change in the future. I just hope I can keep working there for a while and prove that I’m actually worth a damn to someone.

I love that this band has such an affinity for hip-hop. So much so that they bring hip-hop artists on tour with them as their only supporting acts. I also love that the artists they brought to Seattle were actually talented rappers.

Last night Islands ripped through Seattle and brought rappers Cadence Weapon and Busdriver with them. Not really a packed house which might be because not many people realize the link between Islands and The Unicorns or maybe people are just stupid. It’s a toss-up really.

From a taper’s perspective, the show was a good one. I didn’t have any kind of permission from the band to tape but I decided to just bring my open rig and hope for the best. The band hadn’t disallowed taping so venue security didn’t stop me from bringing in my gear and once I was all set up, Islands’ sound guy came up and talked to me and was very nice (he even poked fun at my less than stellar mics… ouch). I’m glad I used the open rig because it let me tape all three acts and I didn’t have to stand still for three hours straight.

Without further ado, I give you all three sets from last night in order of appearance:

Cadence Weapon – 2006-05-10 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: cw2006-05-10.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: cw2006-05-10sample.mp3

Busdriver – 2006-05-10 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: busdriver2006-05-10.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: busdriver2006-05-10sample.mp3

Islands – 2006-05-10 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: islands2006-05-10.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: islands2006-05-10sample.mp3

I’ve always been a fan of TV On The Radio, but never had a chance to see them live. Last night I had a chance to rectify that so I did. The show was sort of annoying because they opened the doors at 8:00 and the first (and only opening) band went on at 10:00. I figured since the venue opened at 8:00 that there would be at least two opening bands to see, but Rachel and I just ended up sitting around the venue for an hour and a half while we watched people drink and waited. Bleh.

The recording turned out nice for a stealth job. No glitches that I’ve found so far and a good sound field. It’s a little low since I didn’t amplify it at all in Audition, but Foobar’s ReplayGain takes care of that for the most part. Enjoy.

TV On The Radio – 2006-05-05 The Showbox – Seattle, WA
Download: tvotr2006-05-05.at943.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: tvotr2006-05-05sample.mp3

EDIT: Someone who saw the setlist made two corrections to my original setlist. Tracks 9 and 10 are Wolf Like Me and Let The Devil In instead of the original songs I had listed (so make sure you re-tag with the correct names in the updated info file). I guessed based on the titles from the album leak but apparently some of the titles aren’t correct. Thanks to Jerry for the corrections.

This band has been slept on so hard it’s ridiculous. They put on such a great show and their music is so powerful and full of energy that it amazes me that they don’t sell out clubs every time they play. Also, Benjamin Weikel is far and away the most entertaining drummer to watch play. He’s like a muppet playing drums. Mouth hanging open in a huge smile. Eyes all huge and wide. You can tell he’s genuinely excited to be playing the songs.

Crystal Skulls – 2006-04-28 The Paradox Theater – Seattle, WA
Download: cs2006-04-28.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: cs2006-04-28sample.mp3

The Helio Sequence – 2006-04-28 The Paradox Theater – Seattle, WA
Download: hs2006-04-28.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: hs2006-04-28sample.mp3”

Silversun Pickups – 2006-04-28 The Paradox Theater – Seattle, WA
Download: ssp2006-04-28.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: ssp2006-04-28sample.mp3