More New Whigs

Get thee to The Whigs' MySpace page to hear two more new songs - "Hot Bed" and "Already Young" - from their forthcoming Mission Control LP.

Gotta say... fantastic songs. Can't wait to hear this album. It comes out January 22nd.

So now I'm considering skipping Elvis Perkins and Bon Iver next week to see The Whigs again. Hmm....

Edited to add: You can hear yet another new song from the album, entitled "Right Hand on My Heart", over at Spin. If you've seen them live, you should recognize it.

It Ain't In n' Out, But I'll Take It

Fatburger coming to Metro D.C.

(Photo source.)

Dinosaur Jr., Dead Confederate @ Black Cat [11/27/07]

Know I'm a little late on this, but wanted to do a real quick wrapup of the Dinosaur Jr. show at the Black Cat the other night.

First off, let me repeat what I said the other night -- Dead Confederate are incredible. I'd heard good things about them prior to the show, and had meant to catch their show at The Red and The Black a month or so ago, but for one reason or another kept missing them.

Simply put, they blew me away. They're loud, they're tight, they've got great songs, and their live show is amazing. If you want proof, check out this set they did for KEXP a couple of months ago. (I can't find a link on the KEXP site itself, otherwise I'd post that link directly. That said, if you haven't subscribed already, be sure to sign up for KEXP's podcast series, and definitely check out Thurston Moore's fantastic recent set.)

The band is scheduled to start recording their debut LP in January. For now, I can't recommend their EP enough.




As for Dinosaur Jr., they were pretty fantastic as well. This was, I think, the fourth time I've seen them since they reunited two years ago, and it was one of the best. This was the first time that I remembered to actually bring ear plugs with me, and it's a good thing I did -- I could barely tell I was wearing them. I can only imagine how loud it would have been without them.

The set list was essentially the same that they've been playing since releasing Beyond earlier this year, i.e., switching back and forth from new song to old song. While it's still weird to see Lou play them, I'm thrilled that they've added "Out There" and "Feel the Pain" into the set. Sadly, I had to skip out before the encore in order to make the last Metro of the night (friggin' D.C.), so I missed "Freak Scene", "Tarpit" and "Chunks" (or at least that's what the setlist said).

My pics from the Dino set were pretty unspectacular, so here's a video of the band playing "Tarpit" instead:



Oh, and Awesome Color were the second opener. My friend Matt really liked them, and I'll admit they were a pretty fierce trio, but there are only a couple bands who can do the "1 riff for 6 minutes straight" thing, and Awesome Color isn't one of them. (For future reference - The Stooges and Mudhoney.)

Who's Playing SXSW 2008?

I mentioned the other day that I might try to do this. Since names of bands are just now starting to leak out, it seems like it might be a reasonable thing to try to attempt. I'm sure I'll give up long before the full list of 1,000+ bands is announced.

I can't even pretend to link to all of the sources, so just assume I either found it on the bands' individual sites or, more likely, via Brooklyn Vegan.

Bands Playing SXSW 2008 (specific dates if available)
Wussy
The Cribs (3/13-14)

Foo Fighters @ MSG Presale

Foo Fighters have never done a whole lot for me. I'm more interested in knowing if Nate Mendel's other band, The Fire Theft, is gonna put out a second album (and if so, when).

But for those of you so inclined, and in the New York area, presale tickets go on sale tomorrow (Thurs., 11/28) at 10am via Ticketmaster. Password is: patience

Public onsale is Friday.

New Pornographers Playing Soho Apple Store

Haven't seen this anywhere yet... apparently The New Pornographers are playing a free in-store set at the Apple Store in Soho on Tuesday, December 11th. Show starts at 8pm, but you're probably gonna want to get there a whole lot earlier to make sure you get in.

I think this puts us at about Reason #1,214 why I miss New York.

Tereu Tereu / Light Footwork Split EP

It's been a while since I posted about The Light Footwork. It's been hours since I posted about Tereu Tereu.

The two bands have a brand new, 6-song split EP which I've been listening to a lot over the last week or so. You should go buy it now.

I've been going back and forth trying to decide which band's contributions are better than the other's. Let's just call this one a draw.

The Light Footwork, "Rebellion Time"
Tereu Tereu, "Don't Be Sore, Farmer John"

DC Concert Update

Ah, there it is... Early 2008 is finally starting to fill out a bit.

As always, I'll add new shows if and when they're announced. Updates will be in italics.

9:30 Club
Thu., 1/10: Killswitch Engage, Dillinger Escape Plan, Everytime I Die
Tue., 1/15: Editors, Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV
Wed., 1/16: Blonde Redhead, School of Seven Bells

9:30 Club tickets go on sale via Tickets.com tomorrow at 10am.

Black Cat
Mon., 1/14: Tereu Tereu, Perfect Souvenir, The Bronze Episode
Mon., 1/21: The Birthday Massacre, Schoolyard Heroes, Creature Feature
Sun., 1/27: The Max Levine Ensemble (CD release), Pink Razors, Turboslut
Thu., 2/7: The Loved Ones, Gaslight Anthem, The Ergs
Wed., 2/27: Dean and Britta, Keren Ann

Black Cat tickets go on sale via Ticketmaster on Friday at 5pm.

A quick note -- I just recently got turned on to Tereu Tereu, and am really liking what I'm hearing. I'll post something from them soon. I also saw that they're playing at Murky Coffee in Arlington on Saturday. Considering that I spend much of my waking life at Murky these days, I think I just might have to stop by...

Ram's Head Live (Baltimore)
Sat., 4/26/08: Ministry, Meshuggah, Hemlock

Rock and Roll Hotel
Thu., 1/17: The Rosebuds
Sun., 1/27: Bedouin Soundclash, Westbound Train, Beat Union
Tue., 2/26: St. Vincent, Foreign Born

Rock and Roll Hotel tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am via Ticket Alternative, except for the St. Vincent show, which goes on sale on Friday, 12/7 at 10am.

The Barns at Wolf Trap
Sat., 2/2/08: Jeff Daniels (two shows) (ed: really?)
Thu., 2/21/08: John Waite (ed: I was just wondering what happened to him. seriously.)
Sun., 4/6/08: Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen
Thu., 4/10/08: Roger McGuinn

Wolf Trap tickets are available here.

Zeppelin

While this doesn't excite me as much as most of the rest of the world, it's still pretty cool to see these guys together again. And, yeah, I'll definitely put serious thought into seeing them if they come to the U.S. as rumored.

Snoop Goes 1983

Awe. some. Except for the vocoder/auto-tune. Why, Snoop, why? We don't care what your damn voice sounds like.



Thanks to Rock Daily for the heads up.

Chuck Ragan / Ben Nichols Tour in January

As I've mentioned here before, Chuck Ragan, the once and future member of Hot Water Music, has been touring in support of his excellent solo debut, Feast or Famine.

I just noticed that Chuck has added a short series of dates in January with Ben Nichols of Lucero. Sadly, there's no DC date as of now, but I guess that makes sense considering that Chuck is playing the Black Cat this Friday already.

Chuck Ragan Dates

Wed., 11/28: Carrboro, NC (Cat's Cradle)
Thu., 11/29: Richmond, VA (The Camel)
Fri., 11/30: Washington, DC (Black Cat)
Sat., 12/1: West Babylon, NY (Looney Tunes Records) [ed: it's reopened already?!]
Sun., 12/2: Philadelphia (First Unitarian Church)

Mon., 1/21: Atlanta (Vinyl), w/ Ben Nichols
Tue., 1/22: Wilmington, NC (Soapbox Laundrolounge), w/ Ben Nichols
Thu., 1/24: Hoboken, NJ (Maxwell's), w/ Ben Nichols
Sun., 1/27: Boston (Middle East Upstairs), w/ Ben Nichols
Tue., 1/29: Cleveland, OH (Grog Shop), w/ Ben Nichols
Thu., 1/31: Chicago, IL (Schuba's), w/ Ben Nichols

Zookeeper Tonight at The Red and The Black

Zookeeper is the new project from Chris Simpson of Mineral and The Gloria Record, two of my favorite bands of the last decade. Unlike those bands, however, Zookeeper has very little to do with emo -- instead, the band has a looser, organic, rollicking Americana vibe. However, like those earlier bands, though, Zookeeper is pretty great.

The band's debut album, Becoming All Things, was released on the Belle City Pop! label on November 6th [BUY]. I'm currently trying to figure out where it fits on my year-end list.

The band is playing tonight in Washington D.C. at The Red and The Black. If work permits, I plan on being there. They're also in New York, Boston and Chicago over the next week or so, so be sure to catch them if you can.

Zookeeper, "Snow In Berlin"

Zookeeper Tour Dates
Wed., 11/28: Washington DC (The Red and The Black)
Thu., 11/29: New York (Pianos)
Fri., 11/30: Rutgers University, NJ (House Party)
Sat., 12/1: Boston (House Party)
Sun., 12/2: Brooklyn (Sound Fix)
Wed., 12/5: Chicago (Beat Kitchen)
Thu., 12/6: Des Moines, IA (Vaudeville Mews)

For info on the Rutgers and Boston house parties, go here.

Fell In Love With a Band

Fucking A... Dead Confederate. Start with "The Rat" and go from there. Wow.

More about them (and Dinosaur Jr.) tomorrow.

A New Viewpoint on the BCS

Dear god this is awesome. AWESOME I tell you.

Thanks to JoVa for pointing me to the always excellent Every Day Should Be Saturday blog, and for EDSBS for finding the clip in the first place.

I wonder who Hand Banana would like to see in the BCS championship...

Lollapajersey

As if it weren't hard enough already to decide each year between SXSW, Lollapalooza, ACL Fest, Bonnaroo, Noise Pop, Bumbershoot, Coachella and Moe. Down (I kid!), there is apparently a new entrant into the field of music festivals -- the Vineland Music Festival.

The new festival, which is being put together by the same folks behind Lollapalooza and ACL Fest, will take place in Vineland, New Jersey on the weekend of August 8-10, 2008 (the weekend right after Lollapalooza in Chicago, and about 5 weeks before ACL Fest in Austin). This is apparently their "fallback" plan after a year's worth of discussions about doing a festival in Philadelphia recently fell apart.

You can find more info on the festival here.

I still love visiting Chicago in the summer, so I may still lean towards Lollapalooza, but you gotta assume they're gonna pull out their big guns for the inaugural festival and that the Vineland lineup will be great. Plus, Festival Republic (the folks who book Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds) are involved in the show as well, so it's a good bet Vineland will get some top British acts as well (cough cough Radiohead). We'll see...

Edited to add: The press release for the festival claims that "[t]he festival will be held on a 550-acre private farm within an hour’s driving distance of New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.." Maybe I'm not too good at geography, but how exactly is that possible? Wouldn't that mean I could drive from D.C. to New York in 2 hours? That would rock.

Is This Justice? You Decide

Frankly, I can't think about this situation anymore. It still disgusts and depresses me.

SKOKIE, Ill. -- A former model was sentenced Monday to 8 years in prison for causing a high-speed crash that killed three people during an apparent suicide attempt.

A tearful Jeannette Sliwinski, 25, apologized to victims' relatives at the sentencing hearing.

"There's not a day that goes by I do not think about the grief and the pain I have caused," Sliwinski said. "I'm sorry."

Cook County Circuit Judge Garritt Howard found Sliwinski guilty but mentally ill last month of reckless homicide and aggravated battery in the July 2005 deaths of rock musicians Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29.

Sliwinski allegedly told investigators she had been in a fight with her mother and wanted to take her own life. She was driving at least 70 mph and ran three red lights when her car rammed the musicians' car in this northern Chicago suburb, police have said. Sliwinski broke an ankle.

Thanks to Eric for the heads up (via Washington Post).

SXSW Speculation Begins... Now!

I just saw what I think is my first solid lead on a band playing the upcoming South by Southwest festival in Austin... Wussy.

According to the band's website, the band will be playing SXSW and then immediately hitting the road for their first East Coast tour since 2006. Still no firm dates/locations yet, but I'll post when I see them.

So, now that we've got our first confirmed SXSW participant, I guess it's fair game to start speculating who else will be on the list. Presumably SXSW "acceptances" have started going out, so we should be seeing more and more bands listing Austin dates in the near future. I'll keep my eyes open, and will probably start some sort of list of another listing what I find. Feel free to drop any news/info in the comments.

Curb Your Enthusiam Finale

So I'm a little behind, but I finally watched the season (series?) finale of Curb Your Enthusiam last night, and I gotta say... it was completely and utterly brilliant.

I've had serious problems with the show over the years, primarily due to its tendency to use unbelievably unrealistic situations or misunderstandings as a basis for its storytelling, as well as it's over-reliance on the "everyone gangs up on Larry" plot device.

But I gotta say - the last minute or so had me laughing as hard as anything I've seen in a long time. Somehow it all just fit perfectly, and makes you wonder if this is (or should be) the way the show ends.

If you're not familiar with the show, this may not mean as much to you, but man... I think it's great.



Chuck Norris approved.

Best Campaign Ad of the Year (So Far)

This is fantastic. You just knew that Huckabee would find a way to use this endorsement to his advantage.

Thanks to Product Shop for pointing this out.

The Clean Are Playing Philly on 12/2

The rumors are true... Legendary New Zealand rock band The Clean have added a fourth night to their short set of shows this week. The first three nights are in New York at Cake Shop (Thurs. 11/29 to Sat. 12/1), and the newly announced fourth night is in Philadelphia at Johnny Brenda's (Sun. 12/2).

I had been hoping to hit the Philly show if it was announced, but now realize that I have to be in Richmond on business that night.

I guess it would be out of the question to add a fifth show in DC on Monday night?

A Leon Primer

If you didn't watch this past season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, then you missed one of my favorite TV characters of all time -- Leon. I've been hot and cold on this show over the years, but Leon (actor J.B. Smoove) pretty much singlehandedly made this season worth watching.

Leon Gets In That Ass


Leon Brings the Ruckus

2008 Noise Pop Festival Headliners Announced

Four headliners of the 2008 Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco have been announced:

Magnetic Fields
The Mountain Goats
The Gutter Twins (finally!)
Cursive

This is just the start, obviously... there were about 100 acts in total last year. The show will take place over six nights from February 26th to March 2nd. No word yet on whether WOXY.com will be simulcasting shows from the festival again this year or not.

Hmm... can I afford both this and SXSW two weeks later? Probably not.

P.S.: The Gutter Twins are the long-gestating side project of Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan. As far as I know, they've either done no shows in the U.S. or they've only played in Seattle.

It's About Freaking Time

BBC America has finally announced a date for the return of the excellent Life on Mars series. The second (and final) series will begin on Tuesday, December 11th.

The show, which centers on a London detective who has either traveled 30 years back in time or is having coma-induced delusions (or both?), is also being developed by David E. Kelley for a U.S. version. My advice? Catch up on the BBC version, because every British show brought to the U.S. other than The Office has been complete garbage.

Teenage Fanclub in Sweden, 7/5/05

If you're not checking out Nargothebort's Deviant Subculture regularly, you're missing some fantastic live bootlegs. They post anywhere from one to ten shows a day, ranging from the Beatles to Bob Dylan to the dB's to R.E.M. to Springsteen, and everywhere in between. Excellent stuff.

One of my favorite shows they've posted recently is a Teenage Fanclub set from Sweden in 2005. I saw the band do two shows at Bowery Ballroom that summer (two of the best shows I've seen this decade), and while I'd still love to get copies of those shows at some point, this one will do just fine. Check it out:

Part One
"Near You"
"Start Again"
"About You"
"It's All In My Mind"
"Nowhere"
"Mellow Doubt"
"I Need Direction"

Part Two can be found over at my other blog.

D.C. Show Update

I assume that there won't be anything new announced tomorrow or Friday, so now's as good a time as any to post my weekly update.

9:30 Club
Fri., 12/28: Patti Smith

Tickets for Patti's show went on sale today via Tickets.com.

Birchmere
Tue., 4/8: Asia (all four original members)

Tickets for Asia are on sale now via Ticketmaster.

Black Cat
Sat., 12/29: Benjy Ferree, The Points, The Shirks
Thu., 1/3: Ingrid, Kathy Cashel, Now Sleepyhead, Sean Mcardle, The Vonneguts
Fri., 1/4: Telograph, The Red Romance
Sun., 1/13: Cloak/Dagger, Scanner Freaks, Police & Thieves
Sat., 1/26: Jukebox the Ghost, Bellman Barker, Pash

Tickets for all Black Cat shows go on sale this Friday at 5pm via Ticketmaster.

Jammin' Java
Fri., 1/25: The Von Bondies

Tickets for all Jammin' Java tickets are on sale via Prestocart.

Rock and Roll Hotel
Thu., 1/17: The Rosebuds

Rosebuds tickets go on sale this Friday at 10am via Ticket Alternative.

I Had No Idea

I was watching TV the other day (no idea what) and saw a new Converse commercial featuring a young girl playing a simple 3-chord rock song on a guitar. I took it as yet another sign that Madison Avenue has truly decided to embrace indie rock as the current "it" way to reach consumers, but then pretty much forgot about it.

Interestingly, I just discovered that the girl in the commercial is the daughter of a partner at my former law firm in New York. She is also a member of the band Care Bears on Fire (MySpace).

Very cool.

Meet Philly Boy Roy

It's been a while since I've talked about the humor genius of Jon Wurster (who is also Superchunk's drummer). Thankfully, Matt pointed out a YouTube video over on the Chunklet blog of Jon on stage with Patton Oswalt at the recent Comedians of Comedy show in Philadelphia. Check it out:



Edited to add: Just saw over on Brooklynvegan that Wurster plays on the new Mountain Goats album. Awesome.

Hold Steady/Art Brut/1990's @ 9:30 Club [11/20/07]

So The Hold Steady, Art Brut and The 1990's hit DC tonight as part of the NME Rock N Roll Riot Tour. It should have been called the Are You Tired of Our Shtick Yet? tour.

If you're not familiar with them, let's do a quick recap:

The Hold Steady: A talented band with a frontman (Craig Finn) whose "lyrics" are intelligent, funny, and sometimes even moving. However, I use quotation marks around lyrics because they're not so much lyrics as merely dialogue. Finn doesn't sing so much as rhythmically talk over the band's songs. While their music is good (and can be great at times), I admit that the shtick is starting to wear thin for me.

[Sidenote: Part of what makes their shows difficult for me is the legions of fan-boys in the crowd who feel it necessary to "sing" along all of the "lyrics" with Craig. If you can't envision how ridiculous this is, imagine attending a speech given by Noam Chomsky, and then imagine 200 frat-boys in backwards hats yelling along with Chomsky word for word:

"The consistent anarchist, then, should be a socialist, but a socialist of a particular sort. He will not only oppose alienated and specialized labor and look forward to the appropriation of capital by the whole body of workers, but he will also insist that this appropriation be direct, not exercised by some elite force acting in the name of the proletariat." (via WikiQuote.

While not quite this, um, political, Craig's lyrics can be just as dense at times, and the idea of "singing" along to them is just absurd. Yet people do it.]

Art Brut: A not-as-talented band with a frontman (Eddie Argos) whose "lyrics" are sometimes funny, not particularly intelligent, and not even moving accidentally. Argos "sings" in the same way Craig Finn sings -- by talking loudly and occasionally slurring words together. While there's no denying Argos' skill as a frontman or his ability to write a clever, funny song, that's really about all there is to Art Brut. The shtick wears off with Art Brut about 2 songs in.

The 1990's: The 1990's shtick isn't that they have a clever frontman who speak-sings their lyrics. No, their shtick is apparently that they suck. And that they copped the guitar part for one of their biggest hits from the theme to The Cannonball Run. They seemed like nice enough chaps on stage, but their music was essentially warmed over Arctic Monkeys, which is itself warmed over Franz Ferdinand, which is itself garbage.

So, yeah, I wasn't real thrilled with tonight's show.

In fact, I left about 30 minutes into the Hold Steady's set. Not because their set was bad (it was OK), but because someone at the 9:30 Club decided that it would be a good idea to RIDICULOUSLY OVERSELL the show. I had a pretty good spot near about 10 feet from the stage, but as the Hold Steady's set started, it literally got so tight that I was having a hard time breathing. So I tried moving back, but the entire floor was so crowded that the only spot I found was a small gap in the far back corner of the room (where it was impossible to see the stage). So after trying without success to find a better spot upstairs, I left. It simply wasn't worth my time any more.

New Mystery Jets

Just saw over at Brooklyn Vegan that the Mystery Jets have posted a video for a new song called "Flakes" over at YouTube. From what I can tell, it seems as if it's only a partial video (see the whole awkward fade-out at the end).

It turns out that this isn't the only new, partial video floating around on the net. The band's website links to a second, unnamed song clip which is about a minute long.

Both videos are pretty cool, but I definitely like what I can hear of the second song better.





Edited to add: A quick review of the band's blog suggests that song #2 is called "Hand Me Down". Makes sense.

This Week In DC

It appears that this is gonna be another kinda crazy week work-wise, so I wanted to do a quick post about two lower-key shows that you might have missed:

Tuesday
If you don't have tickets to the sold out Hold Steady show (or even if you do, and you don't mind missing The 1990's like me), be sure to hit the Black Cat to catch Julie Ocean and Gist on the Backstage. Julie Ocean are getting closer and closer to the release of their debut CD, and they've been sounding better each time I've seen them. I haven't heard anything from Gist yet, but I plan on remedying that soon.

Saturday
One of my favorite, under-appreciated bands of the moment, Maritime, is playing the Rock and Roll Hotel with The One AM Radio, Paul Michel and Tereu Tereu. I've only seen about 20 minutes of the band's live show before (at SXSW this past spring), but I really enjoyed what I saw and I'm looking forward to catching them again. Their latest album, Heresy and the Hotel Choir, is their best yet (IMO).

That's about it for this holiday week. I did just notice one new show next week that I'm gonna do my best to hit:

Wed., 11/28: Zookeeper (Chris Simpson from Mineral and The Gloria Record) at The Red and The Black.

More about Zookeeper soon...

The Greatest Song Ever?

No, probably not. Great outfits though.

David Kilgour / The Jet Age @ DC9 [11/14/07]

I'm a few days late on this one. Things have been kinda crazy, sorry.

Anyway, I managed to catch David Kilgour for the first time ever the other night. I only started getting into David and his other band, The Clean in the last few years, and it's not often that he makes it over to the U.S., so there was no way I was gonna miss this one. Unsurprisingly, David and his band, The Heavy Eights, were fantastic. They played a bunch of songs off of David's excellent new CD, The Far Now, as well as his other solo discs. Can't say I recognized everything, but it all sounded great.

If you happen to be in New York next week, be sure to get down to Cake Shop on November 29th or 30th, or December 1st, because The Clean will be playing three very rare U.S. shows. I also heard a rumor about a Philly show around then too, but I haven't seen anything solid on that yet.



Opening the night was DC's The Jet Age. This was the second time I'd seen them, and the first time I'd seen them in a "real" music club, and I thought they sounded great. The band is in the middle of recording their second album, and based on what I've heard so far, the album is going to kick major ass. I'll be sure to post something as soon as I get it, as long as you all promise to check them out when they come through your town (in the spring?).



Euros Child, formerly of Gorky's Zygotic Mynki, actually headlined the night, but I only stuck around for a couple of songs so that I could be sure to catch the last Metro train of the night. (Not that this needs to be said, but Metro sucks.) I liked what I heard, and would have liked to have stuck around... oh well.

Buzzcocks Live Album, UK Tour

Just saw that The Buzzcocks are set to release 30, a brand new live album, on November 26th. The album includes 28 tracks, including just about everything you'd expect ("Orgasm Addict", "Every Fallen In Love", etc.). The album is available for pre-sale exclusively at the Cooking Vinyl online store.

The band also has a number of shows coming up over the next month, though nothing in our neck of the woods.

November
23 Leeds Cockpit
24 Edinburgh Liquid Room
25 Manchester Ritz
27 Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
28 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
29 Oxford Academy
30 London Indigo

December
08 Possible festival show in Macedonia
13 Cambridge The Junction (Love Music Hate Racism benefit)
15 Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena (Maximo Park show)

Evens Playing DC on Sunday

I noticed this over on the 9:30 Club message board a few days ago but keep forgetting to post it.

The Evens

$5 all-ages
Sunday, November 18, 2007
7:30pm doors, The Evens will begin at 8pm SHARP

Capital City Public Charter School
(formerly the WILSON CENTER)
3047 Fifteenth Street Northwest
(16th & Irving Streets NW; S2, S4,42 buses, Columbia Heights metro)

Benefit for Neighbors Consejo and Anne Frank house, two great groups that provide essential services to the homeless and the formerly homeless in the Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant/Adams-Morgan communities.

Please bring peanut butter, whole grain cereal, or canned veggies for the We Are Family food bank to be delivered to low-income community seniors.

The band also plays tonight at the Gallery Mystique in Nashville, TN and tomorrow at the YMCA Thrift Store in Blacksburg, VA.

I'm considering skipping Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on Sunday to see this show...

Wussy Update

Well, it looks like the long-fabled 2007 Wussy East Coast tour is off... until March 2008, that is.

I just saw over at the band's website that the band has set aside March for a tour of the East Coast. Exact dates still TBA, but you can be sure I'll post 'em as soon as I have them.

In the meantime, the band is playing a number of shows in the Cincinnati area, one show in Columbus, and one show in January in Asheville, NC. There's also a TBA date the night before Asheville (i.e., Fri., Jan 25th). PLUS, Lisa is also doing a few solo/duo shows around Cincy as well. So if you're in Cincinnati, you've got no excuse for catching at least one show.

Wussy/Solo Dates
Fri., 11/16 (tonight!): Beachland Tavern (Cleveland) [full band]
Sat., 11/17: Southgate House (Newport, KY) [Lisa, Chuck and Jeff Roberson]
Sun., 11/18: Cincinnati Entertainment Awards [full band]
Wed., 11/21: Southgate House (Newport, KY) [full band]
Tue., 11/27: Southgate House (Newport, KY) [Lisa, Alina Simone]
Fri., 11/30: Andyman's Treehouse (Columbus) [full band]
Sat., 12/8: Northside Tavern (Cincinnati) [full band]
Fri., 1/25: TBA [full band]
Sat., 1/26: New French Bar (Asheville, NC) [full band]

By the way, if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out Lisa's solo MySpace page. She has several excellent songs streaming, including an early version of "Jonah" (which is on the new Wussy album).

Finally, if you haven't bought Left For Dead yet, buy it now. Both CMJ and SPIN think you should.

DC Show Update

This is really starting to get painful... when exactly will we start seeing 2008 dates getting scheduled?

BTW, I've added in The Red and The Black into the listings for the first time. The shows there have been announced for a while, but I'm just now getting around to posting them.

9:30 Club
No new shows of note.

Birchmere
11/19: John Corbett (ha!)

Black Cat
No new shows of note.

DC9
No new shows of note.

Iota
Thu., 12/13: Richard Buckner, Bitch

The Red and the Black
Thu., 11/29: Planes Mistaken for Stars (Farewell Tour)
Tue., 12/4: Gil Mantera's Party Dream

Rock and Roll Hotel
Fri., 12/21: See-I, Mat the Alien, Jonh, Rex Riddem
Sat., 12/22: MisShapes (I thought they were broken up??), The Drugstore Cowboys

Reigning Sound, Mary Weiss and Others in NYC

While I'll repeat my earlier exhortation that you join me on Staten Island on Saturday, December 15th, I really can't blame me if you choose to instead spend the evening in the borough of Brooklyn instead.

Why? I just saw that the Norton Records Holiday Spectacular is taking place at Southpaw that night. The show will feature Reigning Sound, Mary Weiss, Roy Loney (of the Flamin' Groovies), Handsome Dick Manitoba and many, many others. Tickets are on sale now.

I've still never seen Reigning Sound, and I get so few chances, but I still prefer to see The Figgs and The In Crowd. So Richmond County it is for me.

Fascinating

This was posted by an anonymous reader in the comments to one of my old Spoon posts. It's fascinating to me, so I figured I'd repost. I really need to get myself a Pollstar account.

Artist: The Shins, Spoon, Vetiver
Venue: Merriweather Post Pavilion
City/State: Columbia, Md.
Event Dates: Oct. 22, 2007
Gross Sales: $112,825
Attendance: 2,889
Capacity: 10,000
Shows: 1
Sellouts: 0
Prices: $45, $30
Promoters: I.M.P.

Truthfully, this isn't a bad number. The Shins played two nights at Terminal Five in New York (capacity 3,000) this fall. I wouldn't expect the greater DC/Baltimore area to pull the same crowd as New York, so if you equate their Merriweather crowd with one night at Terminal Five (or DAR Constitution Hall, for comparison's sake), then this isn't too bad. Plus, add in the fact that Merriweather is a bit of a hike to get to (especially in late October), and this isn't really a bad number at all.

But it sure is a pretty depressing number when taken out of context.

New Delays, "Love Made Visible"

One of my favorite, under-appreciated bands (at least in the US) of the past few years is England's The Delays. The band's debut LP, Faded Seaside Glamour, was a near-perfect disc of lush, dreamy pop. And although their second album, In Colours, didn't quite measure up to their debut, it's grown on me quite a bit in the year and half since it's U.K. release (as far as I know, it never got a U.S. release).

The band had fallen off my radar a bit recently, but I just discovered on their website that not only do they have a brand new EP that just came out three days ago, but they've also finished recording for their third album, entitled Everything's the Rush. The album was produced by Youth (Verve - Urban Hymns / Primal Scream - Riot City Blues), and should be out early next year on the highly-regarded Fiction Records.

You can hear the lead track from the band's new Love Made Visible EP at their MySpace page. The band has also made the song "Panic Attacks" from the EP downloadable at their website. You can also check it out here:

The Delays, "Panic Attacks"

The Love Made Visible EP is a limited edition of only 2000 copies, and can be ordered here.

Edited to add: Just noticed that they actually have a video for "Love Made Visible". Check it out. I'm loving the tune.

The Concert Event of 2008

On sale Friday at 10am via Ticketmaster:

FOGHAT
Blender Theater at Gramercy
New York, NY
Fri., 2/8/08

Foghat, "Slow Ride" (live) [BUY]

New Years Eve with The Frames

Man am I gonna be pissed if this show sucks.

I just woke up at 3:55am so I could be sure to get tickets when they went on sale at 9am Dublin time for The Frames' New Years Eve show at Vicar Street in Dublin.

I've been saying that I wanted to catch the band in their homeland for a while now, and this year seemed as good as any, given that this is the first New Years in several years that I haven't had any obligation to be anywhere else. Plus, my 18 year-old brother has decided to join me on the trip, so it should be fun introducing him to Dublin (and Guinness).

Anyway, tickets are still available if you care to attend. We'll be the Americans up toward the front.

Edited to add: I may have spoken too soon about tickets still being available. It's 4:28am and Ticketmaster is now saying "this event no longer exists in our database." Either TM screwed something up, or the thing sold out in 13 minutes. Wow.

FX Gets It Right

Just saw over at the LA Times that FX drama Damages has been renewed for two more seasons of thirteen episodes.

Wow. The show got pretty awful ratings, and there was a lot of speculation that it wouldn't even be back for a second season, let alone a third.

I'm glad to see FX continuing to stick to its guns (a la It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia). If you didn't see it, Damages was one of the best written, thrilling shows I've seen on TV in years. Think 24 before it started to suck, and without all of the cheap plot devices (i.e., Kim got kidnapped!, Kim's babysitting for a murderer!, Kim's gonna make out with a mountain lion!, etc.). Well... Damages isn't completely without the iffy plot devices, but it keeps them to a minimum.

And, as a former attorney in a large New York firm, I gotta say - Glenn Close's portrayal really hit home and reminded me of one or more partners that I had the distinct pleasure of working for over the years. And that's all I'll say about that.

Oh, and speaking of Sunny, don't miss the season finale this Thursday. Yep, it's over already. :^(

The Figgs and In Crowd Set to Rock Staten Island

This show's been in the works for quite a while, and I'm happy to announce that The Figgs are returning to New York on Saturday, December 15th. They'll be joined by Staten Island heroes The In Crowd for a night of pure rock and roll bliss.

The details
Saturday, December 15th
The Figgs and the In Crowd
The Cargo Café
120 Bay St., Staten Island, NY

Now I don't want to be hearing any complaints or excuses about the show being in Staten Island. My white ass will be trekking up for the show from D.C., so my wonderful friends in the greater NYC area have no excuse for not finding a way to cross the Verrazano or take the ferry (it's free, and your ferry captain is 99.9% sure to be sober!).

See you there!

Edited to add: While I'm at it, here's a full list of Figgs shows coming up.

Fri., 12/14: NYC (Cake Shop)
Sat., 12/15: Staten Island (Cargo Cafe)
Sun., 12/16: Brooklyn (Magnetic Field)
Sat., 12/22: Albany (Valentines)
Sun., 12/23: Saratoga Springs (Caffe Lena)
Sun., 1/6: Green Bay (Oneida Casino)
Mon., 1/7: Green Bay (Oneida Casino)
Tue., 1/8: Green Bay (Oneida Casino)

Daniel Kitson In Brooklyn for 2 Nights

Just noticed a brief mention over at Brooklynvegan that British comedian Daniel Kitson is going to be appearing at Union Hall in Brooklyn next month. Actually, he's doing THREE shows, on Sunday 12/2, Monday 12/3 and Tuesday 12/4. Tickets are on sale now. Seriously, do whatever you gotta do to see him.

Unfortunately for me, it doesn't look like Daniel is going to be appearing anywhere else in the US right now. And, even worse, I'm supposed to be in Atlanta that weekend scouting out a potential global headquarters (ha!) for Rogomo. Dammit dammit dammit.

Kevin Shields Talks MBV

As I (and everyone else with a blog) mentioned last week, My Bloody Valentine is officially back in business.

If you want to hear the interview that started it all, head over to VBS.TV to check out Part 1 of Kevin's interview on Soft Focus. There's 3 more parts coming throughout the week, so keep an eye out here for the rest.

If you haven't heard of Soft Focus - and I hadn't until recently - it's an interview series taped at the Guggenheim in New York. The inaugural season has featured Chan Marshall, Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, Will Oldham and others. Check it out here.

WOXY Lounge Act Reminder

Just a reminder that there are two great Lounge Acts over at WOXY.com today.

First up at noon EST is The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. Then, at 3pm is Cincinnati's own Seedy Seeds. Although I've been making more and more exceptions as I get older, I don't tend to like female-fronted rock bands (I still have no real idea why). The Seedy Seeds are one of my more recent exceptions. Be sure to check 'em out.

Eric Bachmann @ Iota, Arlington, VA [11/11/07]

I spent most of the day yesterday trying to decide whether to use the ticket I had to see Bright Eyes at DAR Constitution Hall (3rd row center) or Eric Bachmann at Iota. I'm a huge fan of both artists, but at the end of the day it came down to timing. Bright Eyes had two openers I wasn't familiar with, wasn't scheduled to go on stage until 10pm, and I wasn't in the mood to sit in Constitution Hall for 4 hours, especially after Ryan Adams' lackluster show there a couple of weeks ago. Plus, Iota serves Shiner Bock on tap. So my decision was made.

I haven't read any reviews of the Bright Eyes show, but I'm pretty happy with my decision. The show was just Eric and one woman (whose name I don't know) singing backing vocals and playing various instruments (drum, strings, etc.). They played a 45-minute set including songs off last years fantastic To The Races album, several Crooked Fingers songs, and the classic Archers of Loaf song "White Trash Heroes". While not the longest show I've ever seen from Eric, it was pretty much a perfect set for a Sunday night. And definitely better than sitting in a seat at DAR all night.

I was glad to see that Eric pulled a pretty respectable crowd for a Sunday night, though I'm not sure how many people were specifically there to see him or Paul Sanchez, the lead singer of Cowboy Mouth, who was second on the bill. I've always heard that Cowboy Mouth has a pretty big following in DC, so who knows.

Eric's got a few more dates on this tour as he heads home to Denver after spending the last month or so touring with Josh Ritter. Be sure to catch him if you can.

BTW, no pics because the lighting was too low and I didn't want to be the only person using a flash.

Eric Bachmann Tour Dates
11/12: Pittsburgh (Diesel Club Lounge)
11/13: Columbus, OH (Andyman's Tree House)
11/14: Iowa City (The Picador)
11/15: Kansas City, MO (Record Bar)
11/16: Omaha (Slowdown Jr.)

My Desert Island Is Stuck in 1997

So I happened to catch about 30 minutes or so of High Fidelity on TV this morning. It was the first time that I'd seen any portion of the movie in years, and possibly since I saw it in the theater.

Let's be honest here -- the movie is awful. Whereas the book was clever, honest and funny, the movie felt completely fake, whether it was John Cusack's awful voiceover and non-believable turn as an obsessive music fan, to Todd Louiso's annoying portrayal of Dick, to the complete and utter ridiculousness of casting Iben Hjejle (a lovely and talented Danish actress who wasn't believable as an American, let alone a Chicagoan, for a second) as Laura. It was an altogether misguided attempt to turn a book into a movie. (That said, the Weitz brothers' adaptation of About a Boy was excellent, aside from the change to the whole Ellie subplot and the somewhat schmaltzy ending.)

And while watching the movie reminded me of how bad it was, it also reminded me of the concept of the "Desert Island List" -- i.e., the list of things (albums, books, etc.) that you would want with you if you had to spend the rest of your life stranded on a desert island. Yeah, it's a pretty silly concept, but it can still be a slightly entertaining exercise to try to figure out what your favorite all-time albums are. Honestly, I don't think I've considered the question in years.

For much of my 20's (i.e., late 90's, early 00's), I had a pretty easy Top 5 at the ready -- Afghan Whigs, Black Love; Dinosaur Jr., Where You Been; Guided By Voices, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars; Son Volt, Trace; and Sunny Day Real Estate, Diary (depending when you asked me, I'm pretty sure I alternated Wilco's Being There and Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne with the Son Volt disc).

Amazingly, as I thought about the question this morning, I realized that my list really hasn't changed much over the last decade. Every single album on my 1997 list would still get strong consideration for my list today. The only albums that I would consider putting in the list now that weren't in the original list are: Guns n' Roses, Appetite for Destruction; Jawbreaker, Dear You; Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea; Teenage Fanclub, Bandwagonesque; and maybe The National, Alligator. And even then, I'm not sure which, if any, of these would displace any of the original five.

What does it mean that all of these albums (except for Alligator) are from the 90's or before? Am I stuck in the musical past? Is music not as good today? Do I not relate to music the same way in my 30's that I did in my 20's? Am I just getting old and cranky?

The answer probably includes aspects of all of these things. The one thing I know for sure, though, is that I'm gonna have to make room on that list for Chinese Democracy whenever it finally comes out.

DC Show Update

Another lackluster week in new shows, another late update posting. I'd say sorry, but I wouldn't really mean it this time. :^)

Black Cat
Mon., 11/19: Yell Country, Ra Ra Rasputin
Tue., 12/4: Evan Bliss & The Welchers, O'Tasty (on sale 11/16)
Thu., 12/13: Matthew Santos (on sale 11/16)
Sat., 12/22: The Hackensaw Boys, These United States (on sale 11/16)
Sun., 12/23: Marfa, Farewell Republic, Sonic Survivor
Fri., 1/11: No Second Troy, The Vita Ruins, Lejeune
Fri., 1/18: Rhett Miller
Fri., 1/25: Buffalo Tom

Unless otherwise noted, Black Cat shows go on sale today at 5pm via Ticketmaster.

9:30 Club
Sat., 12/15: Washington Social Christmas (Washington Social Club, Jukebox the Ghost, Exist Clov, Caverns, guests)
Sat., 12/29: The Word (John Medeski, Robert Randolph, others)
Fri., 1/25: Cornelius
Sun., 2/10: Angels and Airwaves

Also noticed that night #2 of the Cold War Kids has been canceled. Buy tickets for 9:30 Clubs via Tickets.com.

Rock and Roll Hotel
Sat., 12/8: RRIICCEE (Vincent Gallo and Eric Erlandson)

Also, Sam Champion and These United States have been added to the 11/30 Ra Ra Riot and Jukebox the Ghost show. This show just became the most indie-tastic show of the month. I've got my ticket, do you have yours?

Rock and Roll Hotel tickets are available at Ticket Alternative.

Finally, not a whole lot new on tap at Iota, unless you're the kind of person who gets excited when you find out that Chris Baron of the Spin Doctors is doing a solo set on Sunday, December 9th. Considering that it took me until 2001 to get "Two Princes" out of my head, I most certainly will not be at this show.

My Bloody Valentine "Definitely" Back

According to Kingblind, Kevin Shields confirmed in an interview to be published next week that the legendary My Bloody Valentine are definitely back together. And, even more surprising, they're already 3/4 of the way finished with a new album.

Holy freakin' awesome.

Reason #1,432 Why The Concert Industry Sucks

Like numerous other people, I bought tickets to see both the "Long" and "Short" nights of The Decemberists' stopover in D.C. scheduled for this weekend. I bought my tickets through the Musictoday presale and paid $60.

As you have likely heard by now, the entire "Long and Short Of It" tour has been canceled due to one or more rather serious illnesses among the band members. The cancellation is completely understandable and I wish the band nothing but the best in their recovery.

That said, I noticed today that I finally received my "refund" from Musictoday in the amount of $50.

Yep, that's right -- I paid $60 and got $50 back, meaning that Musictoday (not the band, as far as I can see) kept nearly 17% of my money for merely sending me two tickets that I can't use. Oh, and I also got a cheap little tour 12" x 18" tour poster which went directly from my mailbox to my garbage can.

I understand that Musictoday has expenses, and regardless of whether or not these concerts take place, they're in the hole for those costs. Postage, paper, printing, labor, etc. But I can also guarantee you that this expense was nowhere near $10 per customer. Moreover, even if it were $10 per customer, why should the customer be responsible for these fees? Why are the customers the ones forced to bear the risk of a cancellation?

Perhaps it makes sense from an efficiency perspective to divide the costs of the cancellation up among the many fans rather than force Musictoday or the band to bear them alone. But efficiency does not equate with fairness, especially when you're an indie band and the majority of your fans are between 18-30 and don't tend to have a ton of money to throw away for no real reason. (Yes, beer is a real reason.) It's bad enough that we have to pay exorbitant service charges when we actually get to SEE the band, but when the show is cancelled and we're stuck with the fees anyway, it's even worse.

Just another in a long list of ways that the current model of the music industry is alienating its customers, I guess.

Even More Metal

I guess these songs were more on the poppy, hair-y side of metal, but I love 'em anyway.

Badlands, "Dreams In The Dark"


Dangerous Toys, "Scared"


Dokken, "In My Dreams"


Faster Pussycat, "Poison Ivy"


Phil Collins and Philip Bailey, "Easy Lover"


Ratt, "Round and Round"

The DC Scene Turns On Itself

There's an absolutely fascinating article and comments over at Brightest Young Things about DC's Black Cat venue. To sum it up, they don't like it. And by "they" I mean the author Martin Royle (lead singer of Washington Social Club).

I have absolutely no idea how many of the facts quoted are accurate, but the anger and bile from many of the commenters is really entertaining. It reminds me of the flame wars that break out in the Brooklyn Vegan comments every time the whole Bowery Presents vs. Live Nation vs. THE FANS, MAN! comes up.

As a recent transplant to DC, my own take on the Black Cat is that it's fine. Nothing great, nothing terrible.

The folks that work there have been nothing but pleasant to me. Yes, the lines and hand stamps are annoying, but they're primarily the fault of the fact that the club has multiple rooms and the main stage is upstairs. It's not a big deal. My only real complaint about the club is that the stage is too low. It's way too easy to find yourself, whether you're 5 or 50 feet from the stage, blocked out by someone just a hair taller than you. Oh, and the ceiling's too low too, though I'm sure that's part of the reason for the stage being low. It's not anything they can change at this point, obviously, but the overall effect is to make the room feel claustrophobic. And the post-show egress down the single staircase can be sloooow.

That said, the Black Cat has had a consistently good lineup of bands in the months since I've been here, and I'm sure I will go back many, many times.

NPR Music

The NPR-ization of indie rock continues.

NPR today launched a beta version of NPR Music, a new site that focuses, of course, on music. The site features on-air and online content aggregated from NPR and 12 member stations, including KEXP in Seattle, KUT in Austin, WFUV and WNYC in New York, WXPN in Philadelphia and Minnesota Public Radio. Among other things, the site includes the ongoing NPR Concert Series, KEXP's recent sessions from CMJ, interviews and profiles, reviews and blogs.

Overall, it looks pretty promising. Hopefully it will be a one-stop-shop for all of its member stations' content, so I don't have to jump around between KEXP, NPR, WXPN, etc. constantly to see what new sessions have been archived.

Rogue Wave @ Black Cat, DC [11/5/07]

We're in our final push to get Rogomo out the door and launched, so don't have a ton of time to update right now.

Enjoy some pics from last night's Rogue Wave and Port O'Brien show at the Black Cat here in DC. Both bands put on solid sets. If you haven't gotten Asleep At Heaven's Gate yet, I gotta recommend that you remedy that. Stat.

John Pike Memorial Benefit

If you'll recall, John Pike, the drummer for Ra Ra Riot, sadly passed away earlier this year.

I just saw over at The Futurist blog that a benefit show for the John Ryan Pike Memorial Foundation has been scheduled for December 15th in at the Middle East Downstairs in Boston. The show will feature Ra Ra Riot, Tokyo Police Club, Vampire Weekend and special guests.

Tickets are on sale for $15, and the show is 18+.

I'd love to be there, but the geography of it won't let me. For those like me who can't attend, donations to the memorial fund can be made to:

John Ryan Pike Memorial Fund
c/o Citizens Bank
37 Enon Street
Beverly, MA 01915

Or via Paypal to: johnryanpikememorialfund(AT)Gmail.com

I'm Not There

The buzz around the new Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There, has become pretty deafening over the last few weeks. The movie, which was co-written and directed by Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine), stars Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, and Cate Blanchett, all playing Dylan at different times in his life. As you can imagine, most of the buzz around the movie has dealt with the fact that Cate Blanchett is playing Bob. Hollywood sure does love its gimmicks.

Anyway, the movie doesn't come out until November 21st (in limited release), but the movie's soundtrack is out now. And it's pretty freakin' cool. It's two discs of covers of Dylan's songs from the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Eddie Vedder, Roger McGuinn, Glen Hansard, Bob Forrest, The Hold Steady, John Doe, Willie Nelson, Calexico, Iron and Wine, Yo La Tengo, Sufjan Stevens, Stephen Malkmus, Jim James, Sonic Youth, Tom Verlaine, The Black Keys, Antony and the Johnsons and... ahem... Jack Johnson. And more. Got your attention yet?

I've just started listening to it, bouncing around from song to song. This one is my favorite so far:

Willie Nelson and Calexico, "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)"

Cat Power also does an excellent version of "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again". Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is pretty good too. But you knew I'd like that one.

My least favorite, by far, is the Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers' (Nels Cline, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, John Medeski and others) cover of "Maggie's Farm". Seriously, what in the hell happened to Stephen Malkmus?

You can buy the soundtrack over at Lala.com for $12.69. If you're a fan of Dylan's, or any of the artists named above (other than Malkmus), definitely check it out.

The Whigs Return to DC on 12/5!

Just noticed that The Whigs have been added to the lineup for the Redwalls/Jonathan Rice show at Rock and Roll Hotel on Wednesday, December 5th. (Buy tickets here.) In fact, it looks like the Whigs have been added to the Redwalls/Jonathan Rice tour for eight shows right after Thanksgiving. Excellent.

Sadly, the D.C. show is the same night as Elvis Perkins and Bon Iver at Jammin' Java, which I bought tickets to a while ago. Not sure which way to go on this one...

Whigs/Redwalls/Jonathan Rice tour dates
11/29: Detroit (The Crofoot)
11/30: Toronto (El Mocambo)
12/1: Buffalo (Mohawk)
12/3: Boston (TT the Bear's)
12/4: New York (Knitting Factory)
12/5: Washington DC (Rock and Roll Hotel)
12/6: Cleveland (Beachland Tavern)
12/7: Indianapolis (Radio Radio)

Patti Smith Playing 9:30 Club on 12/28

Just saw this over at Brooklyn Vegan. The legendary Patti Smith has scheduled a 4-show run for New Years this year, including a December 28th show in D.C. at the 9:30 Club. No word on when tickets go on sale yet.

Patti Smith Dates
12/28: Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
12/29: New York (Bowery)
12/30: New York (Bowery)
12/31: New York (Bowery)

Patti's also playing some sort of kids show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on January 18th, and an American Songbook show at Lincoln Center on March 1st.

D.C. Vaults Into 21st Century

I was wrong... D.C. hasn't just entered the 20th century, it very well might just finally be in the 21st century.

DCist is reporting that, not only are D.C. taxis switching to a meter system (instead of its ridiculous zone system), but the new meters "will be connected to the light on top of the cab allowing passengers to see if a taxi is available." In other words, like the rest of the civilized world, a lit-up light on top of a cab will now mean that that cab is empty and available.

Wow, who'da thunk it?

Does this also mean that the old rule allowing drivers to pick up additional passengers at their discretion is also gone? (Yep, even if you're in a rush, D.C. cab drivers just loooove to pull over and pick up random strangers on the street when you're already in the cab so they can double their fare. It's an awesome system, trust me.)

Decemberists Tour Cancelled

Via Brooklyn Vegan:

With much regret The Decemberists have cancelled the remainder of "The Long and Short of It" tour.

One of our band members has been ill for a while but we thought all would be well in time for these tour dates. After a couple shows, though, it has become clear that the illness is much worse than we had initially realized. We need to return home so our friend can mend.

It saddens us to disappoint our fans. We hope everybody understands it is only because of an extreme situation that we had to cancel a tour we've all been excited about doing since the idea was originally hatched.

Our deepest apologies but at this time no plans are being made to reschedule the dates. Ticket holders should seek refunds at poin of purchase.

This means that the band's four shows at the 9:30 Club next week are cancelled. I had tickets to both the Friday and Saturday night shows, so I'm waaaay bummed.

No word yet on how exactly to get refunds yet, especially if you bought through the MusicToday pre-sale. I'll post info here when I find out.

DC Show Update

I'm late again this week, mainly because there's not a whole lot interesting... (other than GWAR, of course)

9:30 Club
Wed., 11/28: Cold War Kids, Richard Swift, Rumble Strips (second night)
Thu., 12/6: GWAR, Three Inches of Bloods, Mensrea
Fri., 12/21: Rufus Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche
Sat., 12/22: Rufus Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche
Sat., 1/5: Kate "KT" Tunstall

9:30 Club tickets go on sale today via Tickets.com today at 10am.

Black Cat
Wed., 11/14: The Opposite Sex, Police & Thieves, Hollywood
Mon., 11/19: Yell Country
Fri., 12/7: Detroit Cobras, The Ambitions, Pessimist Parade
Fri., 12/14: Junior League, Olivia Mancini & the Housemates

Black Cat tickets go on sale via Ticketmaster on Friday at 5pm

DC9
No new shows of note announced this week.

Iota
No new shows of note announced this week.

Rock and Roll Hotel
No new shows on sale this week.