Okkervil River coming to the Belly Up, Sept 24th!!

i first heard about okkervil river 2 years ago from our friend Patrick (guy who's been doing all the modlins cover art since forever). he was talking about his favorite bands, and when he said that one my reply was "who?" ... oh how little i knew. since then, they've become one of my favorite bands, one of which i haven't been able to see as of yet (i was out of town for work the last time they came through) ..... so i'm ecstatic about this show. and it's 2 days after i come back from ATP ....

anyway, you should really check them out if you haven't heard them already. but the details for the show. Belly Up, Sept 24th

head here: http://okkervilriver.frontgatetickets.com/

To purchase tickets, you must first create an account and become a registered member of The Okkervil River Fan Community by entering in your email address, name, and phone number.
Immediately after registration, you will receive an email with your password. Use the password provided to access pre-sale tickets with reduced service charges as well as get the latest Okkervil River updates, contests, and special fan community extras. There is no fee to join. Each customer must have his/her own account.

full details of their tour and their new album "The Stand Ins" (an accompanying/2nd disc to a psuedo double album with "The Stage names"): http://www.okkervilriver.com/index.php

Plan B!!!

friday's show has been dubbed "Plan B" by CityBeat, so unless you're seeing the French Kicks at the Casbah, you have no excuse not coming out:

PLAN B: The Apple Miner Colony, The Modlins @ Chasers. It’s never really a good idea to have 20-plus members in a band, let alone a band that plays self-described “friend rock.” But, at least in the case of AMC, it sure is entertaining.

okay, sure they have the old touring act listed (sorry Apple Miner Colony, we really want you guys to come through, we'll hook something up at the Che next time, we didn't know!!!) but Mount Righteous treks some similar musical territory as Apple Miner Colony and though they are a 20+, Mt. Righteous is a 14+, and they didn't list Red Pony Clock who is what, a 11+ peice, so we're talking a full 5+ more!!!

so come on out, for a full night of pop goodness!!! need the details? look down two posts or just click here.

Thurs May 29th!!! The Modlins return to Los Angeles!!!

we know it's been far too long. what can we say? we've been busy. regardless, we're heading back up to LA and joining our Spanish Archer friends The Hard To Get for an ALC Scholarship benefit show at The Scene Bar in Glendale next Thurs, May 29th. also on the bill is The Black Kites, a LA band who's been getting quite the buzz surrounding them. check out some reviews and interviews here, here and here. also on the bill closing out the night is our good friend Mark and his amazing pop outfit, Hot TV. here's the lineup:

-9pm The Black Kites
-10pm The Hard To Get
-11pm The Modlins
-12pm Hot TV

Friday!!! Chaser's w/ Red Pony Clock and Mount Righteous (TX)!!!

Extra Extra!!~!

This Friday, may 23rd, the Modlins take to the Chasers stage with the great Red Pony Clock (you may have heard of them) and Mount Righteous, from Texas, who appear to be getting a bit of blog love lately as well. They remind me of Red Pony Clock if they started to head in the Polyphonic Spree direction ... it's good stuff. in short, come to this show, starts around 9pm ... goes until our hearts can beat no more.

raconteurs @ the henry fonda (LA) sunday!

i got my info via text message as i was trying to eat some $5 ... $5 ... $5 footlong action, but i also found this Indie Schmarm post to verify - tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday) at noon to see The Raconteurs at the Henry Fonda in LA on sunday, this sunday, for $25. there are many places you can find people telling you how you should already know how awesome Consolers of the Lonely is, so all i'm gonna say is, i was a weekend too late to catch them at the new orleans jazz fest, and opted for taking it easy in (hopefully) sunny san diego on saturday rather than drop the $55+ for kroq's metalli-weenie roast, so sunday sunday sunday, henry fonda here i come.

more ambitions

i've been harassed because my previous q2 ambitions post got pretty flaky around these dates, so here's what i have on the calendar for the next month and a half. which might be helpful if, say, you were looking to book some time to, maybe, get away from it all. maybe go to the east coast. or something. anyways...

today, 5/13 : new death cab album is out. also, modlins @ cafe la maze. eat dinner, and watch us entertain from 8:30pm until whenever we get tired and go home.
fri 5/16 : ucsd sungod 08 : full list of bands here
mon 5/19 : roxy jones @ casbah w/ the childballads & the kills
tues 5/20 : both the islands & mates of state release new albums. also, word on the street is i am going to the padres game.
thu 5/22 : red feathers @ beauty bar w/ scarlet symphony and the jamuel saxon experience
fri 5/23 : modlins @ chasers w/ red pony clock & friends
mon 5/26 : memorial day. i am not going to work.
wed 5/28 : the national @ HoB downtown sd?! thats what their 'space says...
thu 5/29 : the national @ hollywood bowl w/ REM & modest mouse
thu 6/5 : frantic romantic @ beauty bar w/ annuals & the day after
fri 6/6 : calico horse cd release @ the casbah, w/ swim party, the donkeys, and joey barro. two words : heck yes
thu 6/12 : boyish charms @ the beauty bar
fri 6/13 : boyish charms @ habitat (early), and then? apes of wrath @ beauty bar w/ scarlet symphony
sat 6/14 : apes of wrath @ che cafe all ages w/ blues ruby
sun 6/15 : fathers day
tue 6/17 : new Wolf Parade album
thu 6/19 : The Islands @ epicentre. word.
fri 6/20 : modlins & get back loretta @ beauty bar. w/ super special guests TBA
sat 6/21 : frantic romantic @ lestats w/ irradio
sun 6/22 : secret apollo @ zombie lounge
wed 6/25 : roman spring @ beauty bar
fri 6/27 : frantic romantic zombie lounge ryan's bday krunkfest 08. also, 311 + s n double o p d o double g @ cricket wireless amphitheater, if you are into that sort of thing.
mon 6/30 : swim party @ the casbah anti-monday league w/ the henry clay people.

and thats all you get. now, its lunchtime. ok i lied, coworkers taking longer to get ready than i thought, so just a few more longer-distance july-ish dates:

fri 7/4 : the 4th of july. duh.
wed 7/16 : frantic romantic @ u31
fri 7/18 : vision of a dying world @ beauty bar w/ the sess & christmas island
tues 7/22 : feist @ humphreys by the bay. worth $45/ticket ? meh. worth stealing a boat and seeing for $0/ticket ? yar.
fri 7/25 : swim party CD RELEASE w/ writer @ the whistlestop. o m g.
tue 7/29 : less than jake & goldfinger @ HoB. yay 1996!
fri 8/1 : secret apollo CD RELEASE w/ alpha channel @ the whistlestop. back to back whistlestop cd release parties? oh yea.

if you were me ... casbah tonight, cafe la maze tomorrow

if you were me, you'd be pulling your moves right out of the catdirt playbook. tonight, muslims take to the casbah stage for a show ArtFag is recording .... the muslims are the next grand ole party which is the next .. i dunno. they're all getting huge. don't miss it.

but i'm almost more excited about the supporting bands tonight, Fantastic Magic (which based on the description i read sound pretty cool) and The Carrots, a band from austin that's 50s doo-wop ish .... very modlins friendly.

and of course, tomorrow night, cafe la maze goes off with us playing a set or two. i think we're set to play around 8:30, but i'll correct this tomorrow if that's not the case. anyway, you don't want to miss either.

if you're a staple around ucsd, you've probably heard of both bands (the modlins/the muslims) as both will be playing the awesome north stage for friday's Sungod Festival along with the likes of Lady Dottie and the Diamonds, Frantic Romantic, The Drowning Men and many more.

To UCSD & Beyond

While the Celtics trounce King James in the East semi-finals, the Modlins receive semi-final official word on Sungod 08 plans : we are set to rock the North Stage at 4pm, next Friday, May 16th. So if, like me, you weren't too excited about dropping $60 to see the Offspring XFest, maybe this will excite you: Modlins @ 4pm, Frantic Romantic earlier in the day (1pm-ish), fellow SDiegans The Drowning Men, The Muslims, Lady Dottie & The Diamonds, plus Matt Costa, The Aquabats, Say Anything, Sean Kingston (you're way too beautiful, girl) (just as long as you stand, stand by me), and Coheed & Cambria. Just to name a few...

And in anticipation of that, we Modlins will play a few songs for all of you, on UCSD's own KSDT radio station, tonight at 8pm. And if you say "but I'm not going to go to KSDT to watch you play, and I don't even know if they broadcast..." then to that, we say this: you will (in theory) also be able to stream Modlins, live, to the living/dining/family/computer/bath -room of your choice, just by going to

ksdt.ucsd.edu

at 8pm tonight.

And in case after reading all that, you are now thinking "man, this is weird, but now I am thinking I could really stand to have a nice dinner next Tuesday evening, maybe with some good background music...", well then boy are you in luck. Because in between all this UCSD madness, The Modlins are also coming to Cafe La Maze, in National City, to entertain the dinner guests therein, next Tuesday (May 13th). Word on the CatDirt street is that it is, in fact, a "totally awesome place to hang out". So there.

If You Were Me (Early Friday Edition)

so this friday is gonna be jam-packed, and i think you can make it to three (count it THREE!) amazing shows in one night, if you've had enough caffeine. First up, The Modlins at KSDT Studios on UCSD campus. we're playing a free all ages set at KSDT to support our appearance at UCSD's SunGod the following week. Why not catch us early in a far more intimate environment? that's from 8-9pm ..... after our set wraps up, don't bother helping us with our gear. there's no time! you gotta jet off (assuming you're 21+) to the Whistlestop to catch our arch-nemesis's The Frantic Romantic kick off their set, approx 9:30ish, and following them is the massive pop outfit Red Pony Clock (whom we will be playing with later in May at Chasers, don't miss it!).

"but eric, how are we going to make it to a third show if we're already at the whistlestop?"

oh well, i'm glad you asked that ... see whistlestop shows are notorious for ending pretty early. Sam's a cool guy and doesn't want to ruffle the feathers of the neighbors, so that show's gonna wrap up by midnight, maybe sooner .... on the other hand, the Ken Club is notorious for running late. the earliest i've seen a friday ken club show start is 10:30.... so i'm guessing you might only miss Thin Man (or Wild Weekend, depending on who's playing first, i've heard good things of both), but you're almost guaranteed to make it in time for part of one of their sets and the entirety of Grand Ole Party's set. there's really no need to go into detail of the musical juggernaut that Grand Ole Party has become (coachella anyone?), so we'll just hope that the room isn't too packed. worst case scenario, head to the bar side and share a drink with rosey. not sure if they'll be charging for this show (i wouldn't be surprised), but since the first two are free, it's like 3 shows for the price of one (or none, depending)

so that's right, get your beauty rest on Thursday, it's gonna be a long night.

ATP NY 2008 announces more bands, 1/4 of the modlins cave

so they announced a few more bands (Yo La Tengo and The Lilys being a couple) release more tickets and, well, i caved. i'm heading out to upstate NY in Sept for the NY debut of All Tomorrow's Parties. i went to one of these a few years back in London when The Shins, Sleater Kinney and Dinosaur Jr. joint headlined a weekend. it was pretty out of control awesome. here's the line up thus far (only 2/3s of the bands)

ATP NY

MY BLOODY VALENTINE
FUCK BUTTONS
POLVO
LOW
EDAN WITH GUEST DAGHA
MOGWAI
THE DRONES
BUILT TO SPILL PERFORMING PERFECT FROM NOW ON
WOODEN SHJIPS
SHELLAC
THEE SILVER MOUNT ZION ORCHESTRA
AUTOLUX
MEAT PUPPETS PERFORMING MEAT PUPPETS II
TORTOISE PERFORMING MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE
THURSTON MOORE PERFORMING PSYCHIC HEARTS
DINOSAUR JR
MERCURY REV
HARMONIA
LILYS
GROWING
YO LA TENGO

thinking of going? all the details are here. seriously ..... wow.

and so it's monday ... let's talk about wilco

after a weekend in san jose for work, coming back early on sunday to see kerrie caldwell blow my mind with her vocal abilities, and watching the Burn To Shine - Chicago, i dunno, i've got music on the mind (what else is new) ....

i feel the need to say wilco is amazing, and on top of that jeff tweedy is amazing. their performance of muzzle of bees (nels aside) is awesome on the burn to shine video. so much so, we didn't get our fix so we had to bust out "I am trying to break your heart" ... quite possibly my favorite music documentary. easy to say, since i haven't seen too many, but of the ones i have seen, this one stands out. perhaps this is because yankee hotel foxtrot would make it to my "desert island discs" or because Radio Cure is a song that can still bring a tear to my eye when i hear it (why they didn't play it at their last san diego show, i don't know) ... but man, if you haven't seen that dvd, remedy this and rent it. and if you haven't heard the album, please go out and listen to it. and if money is an issue, there's a little thing called the public library. i just checked, they have 3 copies of the album at the Central Library, Rancho Bernardo and University Heights locations. they also have the DVD in the stacks at University Heights, so if you head after work you can probably pick it up. go here: www.sandiego.gov/public-library.

anyway, it just got me thinking, and that outsidelands fest up in san francisco this summer is looking more and more appealing. Broken Social Scene, Wilco, Andrew Bird all on sunday.

Live at KSDT Studio, Friday May 9th!!

sad about the cancelled all ages show? well turn that frown upside down, The Modlins are coming to KSDT studios on UCSD Campus May 9th at 8pm, one week before the uber-huge SunGod Festival goes down. Catch a sneak peek of us in a much more intimate environment, tearing through the hits. The show is free, all ages, and if you live on campus, or in the general UCSD area, it's close. super close (know the old student center?)

details to get to the show here. if you can't make it out, but want to listen live you can stream the show here. just follow the "listen" link.

91x Loudspeaker 4/28/08 love

if you missed it, most likely because, like me, you were already sound asleep from 1am - 3am on 4/28, 91x had a most awesome 2 hours of Loudspeaker. lucky for you, though, you can stream the whole show, and a few of the past ones as well, at 91x.com/loudspeaker.html. lots of some harder-rock-than-Modlins in the first hour, but even that all has solid rock and backup vocals. i thought about making some sort of muxtape after the review of the Staring At The Sun comp came out, because there were comments that that comp. didn't really reflect on San Diego music. i think this most recent loudspeaker fills in for that quite nicely, even if some of our bestest best friends are missing...

the playlist includes, just to name a few, and entice you a bit more :

Get Back Loretta (who we are playing with on June 20th at the Beauty Bar), Vision of a Dying World, Japanese Sunday, Dynamite Walls, Cosmo Speedway (another one of the many excellent bands on the Spanish Archer One compilation), Calico Horse, Red Pony Clock (who we are playing with on May 23rd at Chasers), Thin Man, and your very own The Modlins. and not to hint at too many things all at once, but, you just might see a very awesome music video for the very same song that 91x played, You Said, sometime in the near future. when? well, that is for us, and the master of disaster, Adam, who also happens to be one-third of Secret Apollo, to know, and you to find out at some not-too-much-later point. word.

Cafe La Maze

for those catdirt readers out there, you probably already hit this up, but he's got a good review of the old/new Cafe La Maze place we're playing May 13th. sounds like this could be a new hot spot for the young kids (since turf club is always a bit too packed)

http://catdirtsez.blogspot.com/2008/04/show-review-seesaw-ensemble-cafe-la.html