Josh Ritter at the Rivoli

Hello,
Fran and I went to see this great little show by Josh Ritter at the Rivoli on Saturday night. Josh is a folky type singer/songwriter from Idaho and is the final track on my 2004 album for those of you that have it.
It was just Josh and his guitar at the Rivoli which is a very nice, intimate venue.
He started off by playing away from the microphone which meant the audience had to really hush to hear him. It was a very effective way of shutting everybody up which was good. He then played a nice friendly set with lots of stories and audience interaction. For the encore he sang a great version of Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel" and then pulled Kathleen Edwards (great Canadian singer/songwriter who's first album "Failer" came out in 2003) out of the crowd to do a duet.
Next up Steve Earle in March which will be awesome.
Also I picked up Bright Eyes "I'm wide awake, it's morning" on Friday which is the first great album of the year. He writes such intelligent songs and his quivering voice adds an extra dimension.
Looking forward to the next meeting,
Alan

A couple of cool things from the net

Hey,
I regularly go on this site:
http://www.fabchannel.com/
It's a club in Amsterdam that streams it's shows (err I mean, like rock shows). They have almost 300 bands archived with some real cool stuff, Damien Rice, Snow Patrol, Morcheeba...... Check it out.
Also if you haven't see the Electric Six video for "Gaybar" it might make you laugh:
http://www.electric6.com/media_video.html
Go to the Gaybar-original version. If you are a fan of Abraham Lincoln you might be offended.
The "Danger High! Voltage" video is good to.

Next meeting?

Hey Dudes,
When's the next meeting?
After the fecking run?
Alan

This week's music list

So, it's the calm after the storm. I'm ready to blaze the trail again.

Music currently on my "music to go" list on my ipod.

My Favorite - monster
Low - sunflower
The Faint - so sexual
Architechture in helsinki - fumble kindling
Le Tigre - deceptacon
David Bowie - life on mars
Iron Wine - such great heights
Elefant - ester

If you have a personal cd/mp3 player, what's on your favourites list?

Neko Case - Review

Hello,
Well Fran and I just got back from seeing Neko Case play the Pheonix and it was a fantastic show.
If you don't know her she has a deep country voice in the style of Patsy Cline and sings soaring 3 minute alt-country songs that make you feel like you are crossing America on the back of a train.
Her voice is tremendous and filled every corner of the Pheonix. She even came on to do a couple of tracks with the support act and they had to turn down her mike as her voice was to powerful.
Once the opener finished up Neko stuck around and set up stage with her backing band for the night, The Sadies. It's rare to see an artist who will help with the setting up and come on and help out the support.
Most of the tracks she sang were from her excellent new disc "Tigers have spoken" which is a live disc recorded in Toronto and Chicago. On it she covers Buffy St. Marie and Loretta Lynn as well as some of her own stuff.
It was a great night and I highly recommend her next time she is in town,
Alan

This week I have been mostly listening to...

Howdy,
I guess one of the main purposes of the blog is to let everybody know about new music that they have discovered and are listening to.
This week I found a band called Azure Ray who are from the states. It's two women and they make very lovely sort of ambient/folky music with some occasional electronic touches, very feminine. Seems perfect for the wintery journey's into work.
They are on the excellent Saddle Creek record label that is also home to Bright Eyes and Rilo Kiley, 2 of my other favourites.
I have also been listening to Ella Guru who are from Liverpool. They were on Uncut magazines top 50 of last year which is how I discovered them. Musically they are very mellow with some Country tinges. Think Neil Young vocals with Portishead-esque instrumentation (I stole that from a review).
Alan

Late night rock n roll

Howdy,
I wanted to let everybody know that Tim and I are planning to go see Razorlight at Lee's Palace tomorrow night (Jan 12th). Tickets are $12.50 and we are just going to pay at the door.
The only downside to this (apologies to those who heard me bitch about this already) is that it is an 11:30pm showtime. It amazes me that shows are put on so late on a weeknight but there you go, I guess rock stars get to lie in.
So if anybody fancies some good British rock music (kind of like the Strokes) we are planning to meet at Lee's at around 11.
Rock on.
Alan

Jen's Top 10

With a sampling of my favourite tracks:

The Beatles, 1967-1970 (A Day in the Life, Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps)
The Doors, Morrison Hotel (Peace Frog, The Spy, Waiting for the Sun
Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Possession, Plenty and title track)
Bad Religion, Against the Grain (Modern Man, God Song, Walk Away)
Bad Religion, Stranger Than Fiction (The Handshake, Marked, Inner Logic)
Weeping Tile, Cold Snap (title track, Westray, Handkercheifs and Napkins)
Sinead O’Connor, Universal Mother (John I Love You, Red Football, All Babies)
Tori Amos, From the Choirgirl Hotel (Spark, Cruel, Hotel)
Loreena McKennitt, The Book of Secrets (Prologue, Marco Polo, Night Ride Across the Caucasus)
Poe, Haunted (title track, Wild, Spanish Doll)

Honourable Mentions

Pearl Jam, Ten
Temple of the Dog, Temple of the Dog
Propagandhi, How to Clean Everything
Pennywise, About Time
Face to Face, Big Choice
Ruby Blue, Down From Above
Elastica, Elastica
Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville
Morcheeba, Who Can You Trust?
Aimee Mann, Lost in Space
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Mediaeval Baebes, The Rose
Sarah Slean, Day One

Here's my list..
We are the music makers..and we are the dreamers of the dream.

I had an awesome time. It was great to hear so many different kinds of music and sounds...
We are the music makers..and we are the dreamers of the dream.

Alan's top 10

Hey folks,
Last night was fun.
Here is a re-cap of my top 10 (plus a few others that din't quite make the cut):

1-Nick Drake "Five Leaves Left"
2-Nick Drake "Pink Moon"
3-Del Amitri "Change Everything"
4-Van Morrison "Moondance"
5-Oasis "Definitely Maybe"
6-Morcheeba "Big Calm"
7-Johnny Cash "Live at San Quentin"
8-Damien Rice "O"
9-Coldplay "Parachutes"
10-Radiohead "Ok Computer"

On the bubble:
Kris Kristofferson "Kris Kristofferson"
Led Zepplin "IV"
Crowded House "Crowded House"
Frank Sinatra "Songs for Swinging Lovers"
The Eels "Beautiful Freak"
Nat King Cole with the George Shearing Quartet
The Kinks "Village Green Preservation Society"

I look forward to looking over everybody's list so get em' published
Peace out
Alan

Submit Your Concert Pics!

Hey all! I'm planning to design a template for this blog (my tagline is super-fitting), and I'm going to need you to bring me some concert pics you've taken. I'm looking for night shots mostly, but I can tweak them if necessary. If you're going home before we head to Nik's tonight, feel free to grab some pics, so I can scan them on the weekend and return them. If you have digital files, even better!

I will probably use only one or two, so I'm looking for quality, not quantity.

And Lali, can you give me write access to the blog, please? Thanks!

How things will go tonight

Because there are so many of us tonight (I think about 7 or 8 confirmed), everyone should get at least 20-25 minutes. 2-5 minutes to talk about their list, then 15-20 minutes of their music. I think as time goes by, and more people want to join our fabulous group, we'll have to keep things pretty short. Since this is a social thing, we'll probably get off track once or twice so we'll probably be done around 11:30-12. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Ya-this is gonna be great!

I wander through my days,
Pull a million ways. -Ride

K-I got it down to 15 songs but I wouldn't say this is my top 10. More like the 10 that would define my main music likes.
We are the music makers..and we are the dreamers of the dream.

How things should work

Aloha,
I think that the music club should be a way for everybody to share anything music-related that anybody has to offer be it CD's, DVD's, magazines, books, opinions, etc.
The first couple of meetings are obviously for us to find out exactly what everybody likes to listen to.
So meeting one is mostly about top-10 all time albums to get a general musical background and then meeting 2 can be "Best of 2004" so we get an idea of what everybody has been listening to lately.
Then (assuming it all takes off and is as cool as it should be) we can think about how it should progress. Obviously at each meeting everybody should get a chance to tell everybody about cool musical discoveries they have made, as I think the main idea behind this is the sharing of new (and old) music. We can discuss the progression of the club once we see how the first 2 meetings go.
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, china cups and virginity

Who wants a copy of my Best of 2004 CD? Alan already has one (I gave it to him as an Xmas pressie--cheap, eh?), and I don't know how many more to make. It includes tracks from Etro Anime, Feist, PJ Harvey, Sarah Slean, Bad Religion (natch), Norah Jones, and many more. Post a comment and let me know if you'd like one.

K-so how everyone's lists going? I'm still having a hard time and it's only 2 days away. Surely, I'm not the only one..
music for music sake

Big Brains Making Music

Greg Graffin, lead singer of Bad Religion, recently published a dissertation entitled Evolution, Monism, Atheism and the Naturalist World-View. I've always been drawn to BR because of Graffin's lyrics on man, religion and nature -- he's the first person I've found who has ever been able to verbalize how I feel about mankind's place in the world. All this time, I didn't know it had a name: Naturalism. I must learn more! (Though the belief's contention that by following evolution to its natural conclusion, we determine that humans have no free will, kinda frightens me a little.)

I'd love a copy of the book, but I'm afraid to use PayPal. Also, I'm afraid that most of it will be over my head. Anyone want to read it and summarize it for me?

A cool website

Howdy again,
I get alot of my musical ideas from metacritic.com. I've told a few of you about it before.
Basically it's a site that compiles reviews of albums and then posts them all giving an average score out of 100 based on the reviews.
The site is: http://www.metacritic.com/music/
It's pretty cool right now because they have posted all the year end top 10 album lists from music websites and magazines, i.e. Q, Uncut, New York Times, etc. They cover both British and North American reviews so you get the view from both sides of the pond.
"But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowing I hang my head and cry"

Alan's first post

Howdy,
Happy New Year to one and all.
I just wanted to get my first post in.
Anybody score on the Christmas CD's?
I got Brian Wilson's "Smile" and the new Antibalas CD.
I also picked up 2 Cd's by Richard Buckner (kind of cold and wintery folk/country music) as a gift to myself.
Looking forward to a great new year of music. This month alone I have 3 shows to got to. Razorlight, Jan 12th.
Neko Case, Jan 16th
Josh Ritter, Jan 29th
and I am considering trying to get a Scalper ticket for the Bright Eyes show on Jan 21st but probably won't.
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

So I was taking a little trip down memory lane this afternoon, and stopped at archive.org for a little web archive hunt. Lo and behold, from the archives of my old music website I found some musical New Years resolutions I wrote in December 2000. Some of the resolutions have been met (listening to more diverse music and getting off my top-40s kick), some I've outgrown (trying to decide whether Justin or JC from *NSync is cuter -- girls, you're lying if you say you've never thought about it), and some - like attending a concert after 1998 -- have yet to be achieved.

Speaking of *NSync, I'll have to one day post the most popular article on my old defunct website: Where I describe the shame and humiliation I endured while buying No Strings Attached in the summer of 2000.