my top albums of 2007 #40-31

40

Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated
Great sophomore effort from these guys. Witty, tongue-in-cheek humor, hooray!
TLOBF review

39

David Dondero - Simple Love
I still can't believe I'd never heard of this guy before this year. For lovers of the sensitive singer-songwriter type with a keen sense of humor.
TLOBF review

38

Handsome Furs - Plague Park
I'd almost forgotten about this one until I was revisiting some 2007 albums last month. Consistently very very good.

37

Dr. Dog - We All Belong
Sure, the album is great, but all the cool kids know that live is the only way to experience Dr. Dog...

36

Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Excellent debut album. Unique mix of lots of different genres. Fun!
TLOBF review

35

Emma Pollock - Watch The Fireworks
I fully admit this one is a recent "discovery" for me. But oh, how I fell in love with Emma's voice and songwriting.
TLOBF review

34

1990s - Cookies
My cult status keeps me fucking your wife. Good god I love this album.

33

Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
This one didn't quite live up to the lofty expectations set by last year's Everything All The Time, but a solid album nonetheless.
TLOBF review

32

Pela - Anytown Graffiti
Nothing more than a lot of straight-forward rock n' roll!!

31

Loney, Dear - Loney, Noir
Swedish pop is so great.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow...

indie vs. corporate: have we become too snobby for our own good?

In an attempt to get something constructive done today, I put some football on in the background and sat down at my laptop to finish up some writing. Before long my ear was caught by the familiar "take another picture with your click click click click camera" lyric from Bishop Allen's "Click, Click, Click, Click" off their excellent The Broken String. I was drawn into the commercial, but really only paid attention because I wanted to know who one of my favorite bands had jumped into bed with. Sony, it turns out.

It all got me thinking about how much "selling out" uproar there's been recently: Wilco + Volkswagon; Of Montreal + Outback Steakhouse a while back, now T-Mobile; and of course the now infamous Band Of Horses + Wal-Mart. I've always been for bands being able to quit their day jobs to make me happier with more music and more tours, but I will admit the Wal-Mart thing was a bit wrenching... probably because it's Wal-Mart, which is less like selling out and more like selling your soul. Ben Bridwell & co. did semi-fix it in the end, though, by opting out of the commercial deal they had with the mega-corporation. The website that featured their song was only active for a couple of weeks, so THAT mess is over now. I just wish people would get over calling them Band Of Whorses. Boy, did THAT get old fast.

Anyway, though this is now pretty old news, hearing Bishop Allen on the TV today caused me to recollect the brilliant Kevin Barnes brilliant essay on selling out:

Selling Out Isn't Possible
by Kevin Barnes

Are you a sell out? Yes. Don't let it bother you though, cause apparently I am also a sell out, and so are your parents and everyone you've ever known. The only way to avoid selling out is to live like a savage all alone in the wilderness. The moment you attempt to live within the confines of a social order, you become a sell out. Once you attempt to coexist you sell out. If that's true, then selling out is a good thing. It is an important thing. If we didn't do it, we'd be fucked, quite literally, by everyone bigger than us physically who found us fuckable.

The pseudo-nihilistic punk rockers of the 70's created an impossible code in which no one can actually live by. It's such garbage. The idea that anyone who attempts to do anything commercial is a sell out is completely out of touch with reality. The punk rock manifesto is one of anarchy and intolerance. The punk rockers polluted our minds. They offered a solution that had no future. Of course, if the world would have ended before Sandinista! was released then everything would have been alright. It didn't. Now we have all of these half-conceived ideas and idiot philosophies floating around to confuse and alienate us. I think it is important to face reality. It is important to decide whether you are going to completely rail against the system or find a way to make it work for you. You cannot do both -- and if you attempt to do both you will only become even more bitter and confused.

When I was younger, and supported my parents, I chose to float between the two. A lot of people choose to do this. There are so many confused young people running around now polluted by this alloyed version of the tenets of the punk rock manifesto. Of course they're confused. It isn't possible to be in chorus with capitalism and anarchy. You must pick one or the other. Very few people are willing to do it, though. The worst kind of person is the one who sucks the dick of the man during the daytime and then draws pictures of themselves slitting his throat at night. Jesus Christ, make up your mind! The thing is, there is a lack of balance. When capitalism is working on a healthy level, everyone gets their dick sucked from time to time and no one gets their throat slit. It's impossible to be a sell out in a capitalist society. You're only a winner or a loser. Either you've found a way to crack the code or you are struggling to do so. To sell out in capitalism is basically to be too accommodating, to not get what you think you deserve. In capitalism, you don't get what you think you deserve though. You get what someone else thinks you deserve. So the trick is to make them think you are worth what you feel you deserve. You deserve a lot, but you'll only get it when you figure out how to manipulate the system.

Why commercialize yourself? In the art industry, it's extremely difficult to be successful without turning yourself into a cartoon. Even Hunter S. Thompson knew this. God knows Duchamp and Warhol knew it. Some artists are turned into cartoons and others do it themselves. I prefer to do it myself. at least then I can control how my cock is photographed. Why should it be considered such an onerous thing to view the production of art as a job? To me, the luckiest people are the ones who figure out a way to earn a living doing what they love and gain fulfillment from. Like all things in this life, you have to make certain sacrifices to get what you want. At least most of us do. If you're not some trust-fund kid or lotto winner, you've got to slave it out everyday. People who wanna be artists have the hardest time of it 'cause we are held up to these impossible standards. We're expected to die penniless and insane so that the people we have moved and entertained over the years can keep us to themselves. So that they can feel a personal and untarnished connection with our art. The second we try to earn a living wage or, god forbid, promote our art in the mainstream, we are placed under the knives of the sanctimonious indie fascists. Unfortunately, there isn't some grand umbrella grant that supports indie rockers financially and enables us to exist outside of the trappings of capitalism.

The thing is, I like capitalism. I think it's an interesting challenge. It's a system that rewards the imaginative and ambitious adults and punishes the lazy adults. Our generation is insanely lazy. We're just as smart as our parents but we are overwhelmed by contradicting ideas that confuse us into paralysis. Maybe the punk rock ethos made sense for the "no future" generation but it doesn't make sense for me. I like producing and purchasing things. I'd much rather go to IKEA than to stand in some bread line. That's because I don't have to stand in a bread line. Most people who throw around terms like "sellout" don't have to stand in one either. They don't have to stand in one because they are gainfully employed. The term "sellout" only exists in the lexicon of the over-privileged. Almost every non-homeless person in America is over-privileged, at least in a global sense.

Obviously, I've struggled with the concept. I've struggled because of the backlash following my songs placement in TV commercials. That is, until I realized that the negative energy that was being directed towards me really began to inspire my creativity. It has given me a sense of, "well, I'll show them who is a sellout, I'm going to make the freakiest, most interesting, record ever!!!" ... "I'm going to prove to them that my shit is wild and unpolluted by the reach of some absurd connection to mainstream corporate America."

I realized then that, for me, selling out is not possible. Selling out, in an artistic sense, is to change one's creative output to fit in with the commercial world. To create phony and insincere art in the hopes of becoming commercially successful. I've never done this and I can't imagine I ever will. I spent seven years not even existing at all in the mainstream world. Now I am being supported and endorsed by it. I know this won't last forever. No one's going to want to use one of my songs in a commercial five years from now, so I've got to take the money while I can. It's the same with pro athletes. You only get it while you're hot and no one stays commercially viable for long. It's not like Michael Vick is going to be receiving any big endorsement deals anytime soon. As sad as it may seem, one of the few ways most indie bands can make any money whatsoever is by selling a song to a commercial. Very very few bands make enough money from album sales or tour revenue to enable themselves to quit their day job.

Next time you see a commercial with one of your favorite bands songs in it, just tell yourself, "cool, a band I really like made some money and now I can probably look forward to a few more records from them." It's as simple as that. We all have to do certain things, from time to time, that we might not be completely psyched about, in order to pay the bills. To me, the TV is the world's asshole boss and if anyone can earn some extra bucks from it and they're not Bill O'Reilly, it's a good thing.

The question now becomes, how do we go about getting that grand umbrella grant that supports indie rockers financially?

So that's about it for my feeling-guilty-for-not-posting-anything-but-upcoming-shows-Sunday-afternoon-stream-of-consciousness-post. Indie bands that I love, go forth and sellout, I don't care. Just try to stay away from Wal-Mart. And Starbucks.

boh heavy

OK, so there's been a lot of talk about Band Of Horses here lately... but Ben Bridwell seems to be attracting a lot of attention these days. And sadly not in a good way.

via Pitchfork (there are lots of links in the article on their site if you're not hip to the latest BoH goings-on):

Call Band of Horses what you will: totally awesome, meanies, sellouts... Wait, sellouts? When did this happen? Do we have a link for that?

Er, yeah, unfortunately. Seems the Band has licensed a song apiece to a forthcoming Ford commercial and a really tacky Wal-Mart website-- the latter of which suggests some link between cheap warez and existential satisfaction.

Though the marriage of cool tunes and uncool companies is hardly news, any whiff of indie rockers making nice with corporate interests tends to raise a bit of stink among purists. So we asked Band of Horses main man Ben Bridwell if he'd like to comment on the thinking behind the band's decision to lend their music to Wal-Mart and Ford.

He responded with the following statement,

"Dear friends,

"As you may have heard, there's been some recent discussion of a couple of licenses for BoH songs. Just to provide some clarification...

"I did allow Wal-Mart to use a song for a new website they created and have also given permission to Ford Motor Company to license a song from our new album. Because some people see Wal-Mart as a huge, evil corporation, they seem to be especially bummed about this license and see us as posers and/or corporate whores as a result.

"I'd like to just state for the record that we let all kinds of folks use our songs in all kinds of mediums - TV, films, school projects, etc... My personal stance is that once that music is recorded and released to the world then I don't really care where it goes. "The Funeral" has been licensed to death (ha, wretch) at this point and if somebody wants to throw down some duckets for it, then feel free. It also beats the hell out of stealing batteries from Wal-Mart to sell them back for 8 bucks.

"As for Ford: I drive a 1986 F-150 that still runs great. Maybe I'll get the a/c fixed with the cash they kicked down. I'm also stoked that people will hear our song on TV and we might pick up some new listeners in the process. I see no negative.

"That's our reasoning and I'm okay with it. I hope fans of the band are, too.

"We promise to use the money to buy camcorders (at Wal-Mart) for people to film "The Funeral," so I can get mad and crap my diaper. Fuck it.

-bb"

Dub these Horses sellouts if you wanna (we report, you decide, etc.): Just don't call 'em slackers. Having wrapped a short run of late summer dates last night in Portland, the band has just announced their fall plans, which include a stampede throughout North America in October and November. Hey, kinda like how they made that one album, then cranked out another one real quick-like!

And about that album they cranked out: it's pretty good! You can find it at stores much less depressing than Wal-Mart October 9, thanks to Sub Pop. Preordering the disc directly from Band of Horses' site will not only get you a fine rock'n'roll record, but a handsome Band of Horses beer koozie to boot!

Also in the works of the Band: hanging with friends and going to the record store.

Band of Horses:

10-14 Atlanta, GA - Park Tavern
10-20 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (Sub Pop/Hardly Art CMJ showcase) *
10-30 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom
11-01 Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre
11-02 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
11-03 Providence, RI - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel
11-04 New York, NY - Terminal 5
11-06 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place
11-07 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
11-08 Montreal, Quebec - La Tulipe
11-09 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
11-10 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
11-11 Chicago, IL - Metro
11-12 Chicago, IL - Metro
11-14 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
11-15 Fargo, ND - Aquarium (Dempsey's Upstairs)
11-17 Bozeman, MT - Filling Station
11-18 Boise, ID - Neurolux/Crazy
11-19 Seattle, WA - Showbox
11-20 Seattle, WA - Showbox
11-21 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
11-24 Los Angeles, CA - Avalon
11-25 Los Angeles, CA - Avalon
11-26 Pomona, CA - Glass House

* with Le Loup, Foals, the Brunettes

Seriously, no Colorado? WTF? That Bozeman show looks tasty... If they don't add more shows and if I can get someone to drive with me I might actually consider that.

As for selling out... hey, I'm all for bands I love making some money. That Band Of Horses is getting money from Wal-Mart... well, that is a little sad, but whatever. Besides...

"We promise to use the money to buy camcorders (at Wal-Mart) for people to film "The Funeral," so I can get mad and crap my diaper. Fuck it.

That there is funny shit. Rock on, Ben, rock on.

brilliant albums for brilliant people #6

It finally leaked last week, hooray! I'm still not sure how it will compare with last year's Everything All The Time (my #1 of 2006), but what is clear is that I am completely in love with Band Of Horses. Despite the move from Seattle to South Carolina and all the lineup changes, BoH have done it again: Cease To Begin is another collection of pretty songs from Ben Bridwell & co. The reverb is toned down some, the atmosphere is a bit sunnier, but the end result is still lovely. If you know what's good for you, you'll pre-order this one now. Do it.

Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
available: 10/9/2007
Sub Pop Records

Haha, I love this picture:

is there a ghost

Who wants to hear the opening track on the new Band Of Horses album? I thought so...

http://gvsbchris.com/isthereaghost.mp3

It rocks. Here's the artwork for Cease To Begin again because it's so glorious:

cease to begin

I can't wait for the new Band Of Horses album. Set to be released on October 9, Cease To Begin now has artwork to go along with the tracklist. It's lovely:



Tracklist:

1. Is There a Ghost
2. Ode to LRC
3. No One’s Gonna Love You
4. Detlef Schrempf
5. The General Specific
6. Lamb on the Lam (in the city)
7. Islands on the Coast
8. Marry Song
9. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
10. Window Blues

Here's a sampling - an MP3 courtesy of my friends at The Line Of Best Fit: No One's Gonna Love You (live).

modest mouse & band of horses touring!

It's been entirely too long since I've seen my beloved Band Of Horses play. I can't say no to Modest Mouse at Red Rocks either...

08-01 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
08-03 Kansas City, MO - City Market
08-08 New York, NY - Keyspan Park !
08-15 Columbus, OH - LC Amphitheater
08-16 Cleveland, OH - Warner Cable Amphitheatre
08-18 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center (Download Festival)
08-19 Philadelphia, PA - Festival Pier

Love As Laughter is also playing these dates

trying to catch up...

OK, it's not my fault, I was in southern California for 8 days, OK?!?

It was supposed to be a vacation, but... I was with my sister and brother-in-law and their 3 kids. So NOT a vacation!!! I love those kids, but damn... there's a reason why I don't have any of my own. Incidentally, if you want the most effective birth control ever... spend 8 days and 7 nights with other people's kids. Trust me.

Anyhoo, I'm back in town and feeling quite out of the loop. I haven't posted in a while, and am just catching up on all the news. So here are some blurbs that are of interest to me, if nobody else.

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Prince played the Superbowl halftime show on Sunday. Kick ass... except that I was watching the game with a bunch of NON Prince appreciators. Prince is a God. Sadly I had to resort to youtube the day after to get the full effect of his performance. He still kicks ass on that guitar. Especially in the pouring rain, oh yeah. Of course, NOW the FCC "broadcast decency" watchdogs are accusing Prince of using his guitar as an "inappropriate phallic symbol". [sarcasm] Prince? Nooooo.... [/sarcasm]. As for me, I'd much rather see Prince's penis guitar than Janet Jackson's nipple. Am I right?

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Will Sheff and Josh Ritter scheduled a handful of west coast dates for later this winter. Unfortunately, however, Will Sheff lost his voice and consequently had to cancel the tour. Too bad, except that they weren't coming to Colorado, so fuck 'em. BUT... Okkervil River is heading to the studio and will hopefully release an album this year. Happy, happy!

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Band Of Horses will be back in the studio/on a little tour of the southeast come March:

03-10 St. Augustine, FL - Cafe Eleven *
03-11 Sunrise, FL - Langerado Festival
03-12 Orlando, FL - The Social *
03-13 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds *
03-14 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
03-15 Knoxville, TN - Blue Cats *
05-18-20 Minehead, England - ATP vs. the Fans Festival

* with Cary Ann Hearst and the Gun Street Girls

I so cannot wait for the new album...

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We've got a tracklist for the new Bright Eyes album, Cassadega, which will be released on April 10 (Saddle Creek):

01 Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)
02 Four Winds
03 If the Brakeman Turns My Way
04 Hot Knives
05 Make a Plan to Love Me
06 Soul Singer in a Session Band
07 Classic Cars
08 Middleman
09 Cleanse Song
10 No One Would Riot for Less
11 Coat Check Dream Song
12 I Must Belong Somewhere
13 Lime Tree

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Arctic Monkeys revealed some album details: Favourite Worst Nightmare will be released on April 23rd in the UK, very next day in the US (Domino). Tracklist:

01 Brianstorm
02 Teddy Picker
03 D Is for Dangerous
04 Balaclava
05 Fluorescent Adolescent
06 Only Ones Who Know
07 Do Me a Favour
08 This House Is a Circus
09 If You Were There, Beware
10 The Bad Thing
11 Old Yellow Bricks
12 505

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More album news, you say? I've got some! Maximo Park have announced April 2 as the release date for their sophomore effort, Our Earthly Pleasures. I'm not sure if there's a definite US release date as of yet.

Tracklist:

01 Girls Who Play Guitars
02 Our Velocity
03 Books From Boxes
04 Russian Literature
05 Karaoke Plays
06 Your Urge
07 The Unshockable
08 By the Monument
09 Nosebleed
10 A Fortnight's Time
11 Sandblasted and Set Free
12 Parisian Skies

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Chin Up, Chin Up and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are touring together this month:

02-15 Grand Rapids, MI - Division Avenue Arts Cooperative
02-16 Toronto, Ontario - Sneaky Dee's
02-17 Montreal, Quebec - Casa del Popolo
02-18 Allston, MA - Great Scott
02-19 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall
02-20 Medford, MD - Tufts University
02-21 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
02-22 Washington, DC - Black Cat

No Colorado... bummer. But SSLYBY will be stopping by in April:

02-08 Springfield, MO - Jefferson Starship *
02-11 Springfield, MO - Borders (instore performance)
03-09 London, Ontario - Salt #
03-10 Montreal, Quebec - Club Soda #
03-11 Boston, MA - Axis #
03-13 New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre #
03-14 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts #
03-15 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-16 Austin, TX - SXSW
03-17 Norfolk, VA - NorVA #
03-19 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club #
03-20 Winston Salem, NC - Ziggy's #
03-22 Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theatre #
03-23 Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre #
03-24 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse #
03-25 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel #
03-27 Cincinnati, OH - 20th Century Theater #
03-28 Chicago, IL - House of Blues #
03-29 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues #
03-30 Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall #
03-31 Grand Rapids, MI - Intersection #
04-01 Urbana, IL - Canopy Club #
04-03 Milwaukee, WI - Rave #
04-05 Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line #
04-06 Omaha, NE - Rock #
04-10 St. Louis, MO - Gargoyle Club #
04-12 Lawrence, KS - Granada #
04-13 Little Rock, AR - Revolution Room #
04-14 Norman, OK - Union Court at University of Oklahoma #
04-16 Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre #
04-18 Boise, ID - Venue #
04-20 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards #
04-21 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater #
04-22 Seattle, WA - Neumos #
04-24 San Francisco, CA - Slim's #
04-25 Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues #
04-26 San Diego, CA - House of Blues #
04-29 Phoenix, AZ - Clubhouse #
05-01 Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater #
05-03 Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa #
05-04 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom #
05-06 Houston, TX - Meridian #
05-07 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues #

* with Drew Danburry, BIGBIGcar, Andy Zipf, Them Damn Kids, Nathanial Carroll
# with Mute Math, the Cinematics

Of course they have to come to the Fox the same night that Sunset Rubdown is at the Hi-Dive. Probably won't make it to this one...

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Deerhunter will be touring come March in support of their fantastic new album Cryptograms:

03-02 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn *
03-03 Charleston, SC - Music Farm +
03-04 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse +
03-14 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon (Gas Food Lodging Music Festival)
03-15 Austin, TX - Soho Lounge (SXSW)
03-16 Austin, TX - Emo's Jr. (SXSW; Pitchfork party) #%
03-18 Houston, TX - Mink ^%
03-31 Jackson, MS - George Street Grocery
04-04 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle $
04-06 Kansas City, MO - Record Bar %
04-07 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge %
04-10 Seattle, WA - Neumos %
04-11 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards %
04-12 Portland, OR - Dante's %
04-13 San Francisco, CA - 12 Galaxies %
04-14 Los Angeles, CA - Echo %
04-23 Toronto, Ontario - Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
04-25 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Upstairs
04-26 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
04-28 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
04-29 Washington, DC - Rock & Roll Hotel

* with Grizzly Bear, the Papercuts
+ with Sparklehorse, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter
# with Girl Talk, Menomena, RJD2, the Pipettes, Do Make Say Think, Simian Mobile Disco, Fujiya & Miyagi, Beach House, Marnie Stern, Crystal Castles
^ with the Black Lips
% with the Ponys
$ with Nudge

Holy crap, SXSW is going to be amazing this year.

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Alright, that's it. I'm all newsed out. Here are some albums that I've been enjoying lately:



In case you're wondering, they are: Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha; The Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On; Roddy Woomble - My Secret Is My Silence; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder; The Shins - Wincing The Night Away; The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible; Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?; Alkaline Trio - Remains; Deerhunter - Cryptograms; Jamie T - Panic Prevention; The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America; M. Ward - Post-War; Menomena - Friend & Foe; Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity; Bright Eyes - Four Winds EP; Oxford Collapse - Remember The Night Parties; Richmond Fontaine - Thirteen Cities; Okkervil River - Overboard & Down EP. Good, good stuff.

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Here are some upcoming shows that I would really like to attend, though I'll have to get a second job to pay for March's concerts alone...:

Feb 8 Camera Obscura @ The Bluebird
Feb 13 Glen Phillips @ Soiled Dove OR Grizzly Bear @ Larimer Lounge (which one???)
Feb 15 The Shins @ The Fillmore
Feb 17 Sparklehorse @ The Gothic OR The Roots/Lupe Fiasco @ The Fillmore (decisions, decisions...)
Feb 21 Alexi Murdoch @ Fox Theatre
Feb 24 The Autumn Defense @ Soiled Dove
Mar 2 Cold War Kids @ Hi-Dive
Mar 5 Clipse @ The Gothic
Mar 6 Snow Patrol/OK Go/Silversun Pickups @ The Fillmore
Mar 7 Dropkick Murphys @ The Fillmore
Mar 9 Malajube @ Larimer Lounge
Mar 10 Midlake @ Hi Dive
Mar 17 Sebadoh @ Fox Theatre
Mar 18 Badly Drawn Boy @ Fox Theatre
Mar 19 Viva Voce @ Hi-Dive
Mar 20 TV On The Radio @ The Ogden OR Dr. Dog @ Larimer Lounge (leaning toward Dr. Dog...)
Mar 22 The Hold Steady/The Thermals @ Hi Dive
Mar 30 Subtle @ Larimer Lounge
Apr 5 Neko Case @ The Gothic
Apr 7 Menomena @ Hi-Dive OR Deerhunter @ Larimer Lounge (damn it...)
Apr 10 The Long Winters @ The Bluebird
Apr 15 The Frames @ Boulder Theater
Apr 16 Sunset Rubdown @ Hi-Dive
Apr 22 Ted Leo + Pharmacists @ The Gothic
Apr 22 The Decemberists @ The Fillmore

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. I only now realized that I have tickets to both Ted Leo & The Decemberists... I gotta start writing this shit down. Why oh why do The Decemberists dates always clash with other shows I want to see?!? Anyone need a ticket for Ted Leo + Pharmacists?

you don't have to call me darlin', darlin'...

I saw Band Of Horses in Boulder tonight. Holy fucking hell, did they sound good!

I'd never heard of them until a few months ago when someone recommended their "Everything All The Time" (EATT) album. I liked it immediately. I hear them compared to My Morning Jacket a lot, but I don't know - to me they kind of sound like The Shins. At any rate, it's a fabulous album.

I didn't know what to expect from the show, as it turned out it was way more rocking than I thought it would be, based on EATT... they started with The First Song (well, obviously...) I can't remember what was next, but song 3 was The Funeral. The Funeral is far and away my favorite song on the album, and the live version just blew the album version away.

After a new song, they did a cover of Steve Goodman's (or David Allan Coe's?!?) You Don't Even Call Me By My Name. I think this was the precise moment that I stopped really liking Band Of Horses and started loving them. Indie pop meets country & western, indeed.

After that, details of the setlist are sketchy at best. I know they played another new song, a few more from EATT, and they closed the show with covers of The New Year (don't know this band) and ELO.

Definitely a rocking good time. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Now playing - well, clearly: