pop arazzi

Her Political Heart @ the Beauty Bar 06.20.08, posted by youtuber "sknook". whoever you are, rock, rock on

the ratatat cometh

new album LP3 out on the 8th, same day as Beck's Modern Guilt, same day as Best Buy beats me in the Battle of who gets to keep my $20. but also, friday september 12th, which just might be the anniversary of one of the Modlins entering this world (which, you ask? all i'll say is, when he greeted the doctors for the first time, they had never seen a more glorious beard) ... ack, now i lost my train of thought. anyways, friday september 12th, ratatat, house of blues downtown san diego. and now, some Mirando:

great success

ah cafe la maze, you have yet to disappoint. granted the waiter wasn't too excited when i tried to order the "la maze cut", but mispronounced it, and, well, yea. and the two stone ipa's there, plus the two from downtown bareback grill happy hour after they evacuated my building ( you hear sirens coming down Broadway, and then the loudspeaker comes on saying "this is not a drill. evacuate now. only use the stairs on the west side of the building" ) , made for even more of a good time. and i was passed out within minutes of getting home. thanks to everyone who came down to national city on a tuesday night. look for more modlins ala la maze in upcoming months!

and now, for your wednesday pleasure, an arm :

tomorrow : cafe la maze : 103 vs 98

i wish i had some fancy flier to post, but i am swamped elsewhere, so this is it for now. maybe we can throw together a very modlins photoshoot (whatever that means) in between sets tomorrow night at cafe la maze. which is a great segue for me to talk about that : tomorrow night : modlins : cafe la maze. i don't even have time to do more than repost how solid the place is, but what i can do is give a little glimpse of what goes on in the land of daily modlin email chains...

stoph commented that he counted up our shows, and the Chasers' show was our 100th show. being the way i am, i had to go count for myself, and pointed out that, while Chasers' is indeed the 100th show posted there, The Modlins were not the 4 piece we are today until i joined up with the other 3 at the Whistlestop 05/15/05 show. so while tomorrow is the 103rd show Matt & Eric have played together, it is only our 98th show as the four Modlins, making the Casbah Anti-Monday League awesomeness at the end of July our 99th, and leaving Show #100 TBD, most likely sometime in August. maybe a birthday present to me? who knows.

islands today, modlins tomorrow!

yes, tonight, at least 50% of the modlins will most likely be in mira mesa, at the epicentre, to see The Islands. Arm's Way, and their first Return To The Sea, have both been Modlins' listening choices of the past, and i, for one, am excited.

and speaking of excitement...



of all the shows going on tomorrow night, i personally guarantee that this one will be THE one ... at the beauty bar ... with us, and some other people (Lemon Sun before and Get Back Loretta after, i think) who aren't us. which is all you can really ask for, these days. and i mean, at the Death Cab show, are you going to be able to hear such Modlin classics as "Matt and Alex lovingly insult each other" , or the latest single, "Alex attempts awkward smalltalk while Matt and Eric tune their guitars" ? yea, i didn't think so. we've really been practicing that last one too, so you know this'll be a good one.

and now, i think i'm going to go get a haircut, and maybe, a sandwich!

wolf parade!

if you haven't read / heard / whatever already, wolf parade's new album, At Mount Zoomer, which comes out tomorrow, is all up on their myspace page. which might mean absolutely nothing to you if your place of work blocks such things (sorry eric), or generally frowns upon listening to music off myspace pages (sorry matt and stoph and roommie zak). and might mean very little if you are in the education field and already on summer vacation and, as such, not stuck in front of a computer for the remaining 6 hours of today (sorry arlene, and sisters). but to the rest of us, monday just got a lot better. so there.

Septh 19th-21st weekend ....

here's looking at the short list of your options.

- Street Scene (SD), Sept 19th & 20th -

Beck, The Black Crowes, Justice, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Michael Franti & Spearhead, The National, Nortec Collective presents Bostich + Fussible, Spoon, TV on The Radio, Cat Power, Hot Chip, Tegan and Sara, The New Pornographers, X, Vampire Weekend, The Hives, Atmosphere, Cold War Kids, Ghostland Observatory, Spiritualized, Antibalas, Man Man, The Mother Hips, Tokyo Police Club, DeVotchKa, The Night Marchers, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Del The Funky Homosapien, Eagles of Death Metal, Foals, The Muslims, Dengue Fever, MGMT, Sea Wolf, West Indian Girl, Chester French

pros: $75 for two days, that's pretty damn good.
cons: if you've been hitting up these artist shows that have been coming around, and have hit up a festival or two, you've probably seen 95% of these bands. so really, you're going to this show to the The Black Crowes and Atmosphere.

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- Treasure Islands Festival (SF), Sept 20th & 21st -

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 20
Justice, TV on the Radio, Goldfrapp, Hot Chip, CSS, Antibalas, Aesop Rock, Amon Tobin, Foals, Mike Relm,Nortec Collective: Bostich + Fussible, Chester French

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 21
The Raconteurs, Tegan & Sara, Vampire Weekend, Spiritualized, Okkervil River, Tokyo Police Club, The Kills, Dr. Dog, John Vanderslice, The Dodos, Fleet Foxes

con: $115 - limited number of two days. $40 more, for less bands ... but they did some pretty nice work with Dr. Dog and Okkervil river, no surprise hometown favs the dodos are playing. i really like them, but does it bother anyone else that their song "winter" is a complete rip off of the magnetic fields "born on a train"?
pros:at least these guys had this lineup secured (or at least posted) well in advance ... perhaps the Street Scene folks saw this lineup, just booked all the same people they could, and then just added a few more they'd read about in blogs? or as catdirt put it... the hype machine top 20.

-----------------------------

and hopefully you weren't lured in by the "shiny ball" that is the hollywood bowl for the:

Sept 17th - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Spiritualized, Cat Power (cause you're seeing Nick Cave at 4th and B right?)
Sept 20th - Beck, Spoon, MGMT (ouch! sorry Al)

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as previously stated, i'll be headed to upstate NY for ....

- All Tomorrow's Parties, NY 2008, Sept 19th-21st -

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 19TH - DON'T LOOK BACK
THURSTON MOORE PERFORMING PSYCHIC HEARTS »
TORTOISE PERFORMING MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE »
MEAT PUPPETS PERFORMING MEAT PUPPETS II »
BUILT TO SPILL PERFORMING PERFECT FROM NOW ON »

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 20TH - CHOSEN BY ATP
FUCK BUTTONS »
LOW »
GROWING »
EDAN WITH GUEST DAGHA »
SHELLAC »
THEE SILVER MOUNT ZION ORCHESTRA »
THE DRONES »
POLVO »
WOODEN SHJIPS »
HARMONIA »
OM »
AUTOLUX »
APSE »

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 21ST - CHOSEN BY MY BLOODY VALENTINE
MY BLOODY VALENTINE
DINOSAUR JR. »
LILYS »
YO LA TENGO »
MERCURY REV »
MOGWAI »
LE VOLUME COURBE »

and still more to be announced!! i'm also hoping that Sigur Ros will be joining this bills. check it:

they are in NY the 17th and 18th, boston the 19th, montreal the 20th. nothing set for the 21st, on my bloody valentine's day, they'll be kicking it around the upperwest of north america, and they ain't going to far cuase they've got chicago on the 24th. come on guys, take one for the team.
so in short, local bands - "don't book anything over this weekend. it's a lost cause."

SD Album Release Shows acomin' ...

albums are like babies to musicians ... one passionate night of writing and there's no turning back, a few weeks thinking about what you've done, fear of things going wrong, the hard work, preparing for it's arrival ...

i don't have a baby, so it's probably nothing like it, but it's as close as i can get right now (kinda like passing a kidney stone is the closest i could come to giving birth) ... but it's an important time for us. and we want to share what we've done with everyone.

there's been quite a few albums i've been anticipating, and it appears they're all gonna get dropped on our collective laps in a whirlwind of release shows. ready?

July 9th, The Belly Up - Matt Curreri and The Exfriends - "Joy of Life"
July 14th, Casbah - Joanie Mendenhall - "On a String"
July 25th, Whistlestop - Swim Party - "Pixie Dust on the Blood Range"
Aug 1st, Whistlestop - Secret Apollo - ... i dunno what it's titled, but it'll be good, promise

damn. and i know the guys in Writer are putting the finishing touches on their new one, and i hear The Donkeys have an album in the works as well .... so i'm really glad we don't have all that to compete with. and thank you to all of them for coordinating so we could actually catch each show. that makes it easier.

brought to you by the letter B

i'm not sure why, but in followup to my apparently-letter-A-sponsored Art Around Adams post, this one is brought to you by the letter B. seems like the letter B is, um, the bee's knees right about now. Beer starts with the letter B. Beards start with the letter B, and even though eric shaved his a bit ago, i'd say that the ghost of it still lingers (ha). at the Beauty Bar last thursday, following our Frantic Romantic buddies, Sayvinyl was sporting at least a couple of nice beards themselves, even if they only got 5 songs before Marshall made them clear out to keep the Annuals on schedule. but thats another story, one in which i got their God Forbid and am not regretting that purchase, but still, back to the letter B.

while eric has a few posts for the beloved Broken Social Scene, i'll attempt to hold my own with the B's. First: Beck! If you haven't heard/seen/read, there is a July 8th release date for Modern Guilt, and still lots of anticipation (by me) for him at SF Outside Lands (with tons more awesome) and the Hollywood Bowl (with Spoon and MGMT) in the upcoming months. useless me trivia : Beck, on his Midnite Vultures -era tour, was the first show i saw in ucsd's RIMAC arena, 8 years ago, two years prior to my move down to America's Finest City.

and more letter B news : tonight, our Boyish Charms friends are set to play back to back nights, tonight at the Beauty Bar, opening for The Submarines, and tomorrow at the Habitat, with Manuok, which could make for one heck of a double-header, with Apes of Wrath and Scarlet Symphony also at the Beauty Bar later tomorrow night.

and, speaking of the Apes of Wrath, and not the letter B, but now, the letter C, i'll take this time to announce the exciting Modlins news : mark your calendars : Monday July 28th : The Modlins return to The Casbah as part of Tim Pyles' Anti-Monday League, along with The Apes of Wrath, and our friends in The Happy Hollows. word.

Broken Social Scene, HOB - Friday, Aug 22nd

okay.... looks like Cali's got a weekend of BSS on there hands. which starts in our city!! i'm probably bailing on the sunset junction show now (but you LA folks best not miss it) ... but Broken Social Scene is playing the House of Blues (HOB presented by the Casbah) on Friday August 22nd. tickets go on sale tomorrow morning here (or drive down to the venue to avoid some of the service charges) ... more details here.

Broken Social Scene playing Sunset Junction, Aug 23rd

i make it known that Broken Social Scene is one of my favorite bands. last time i saw them was with the Spirit If ... tour under the watchful eye of pseudo-leader Kevin Drew back in Oct in LA. well, it's already been too long, and when the SF date was announced for OutsidelandsFest, i jumped on ... (how could you not with a bill that also had Wilco, Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, etc)

well, looks like BSS got the best of me, as they are now also playing Sunset Junction up in LA on August 23rd (the day before) check out the schedule here. tickets are only $15!!!! pick up some on ticketweb. also playing that day, Happy Hollows, Castledoor, Radars to the Sky ... all hip bands from the LA scene ....

we're working on remedying Happy Hollows getting bumped off our Beauty Bar bill w/ Get Back Loretta .... so look for an upcoming show with us and them in the near future.

and if you haven't heard ... some unmastered version of the new BSS album "something for all of us...", fronted by Brendan Canning, was leaked and he was bummed about that, so you can now purchase the whole album for download on their website, just go here.

art around adams

another post mostly for my own good, but

http://www.artaroundadams.org/performance.htm

if you haven't seen it, some good stuff on there. apes of wrath @ the ken @ 2:10pm, with echo revolution thereafter, and team abraham after them. predicates @ "smitty's service" at 4:35. anna troy band at lestats around 6pm, and the might that can only be described as Secret Apollo back at the ken at 6:30pm. what a saturday. wham bam bamina. just hoping i can recover from the casbah night tonight early enough to get to my grandparents' house early enough tomorrow AM to eat lunch quick enough to get to adams ave by 2... keeping fingers crossed...

where i'm going this week

oh, i know what you are thinking. can it be true? a whole week without any modlins shows? i know, i know. i'd claim time off for good behavior, but it's more that eric has had to put overtime in on work behavior, shipped up to the bay area. anyways, with no shows from us to you, it leaves plenty of opportunity for me to plug other shows featuring great friends of ours, that you should go to, because that's where i'm going, and it will undoubtedly be a most excellent thursday-friday 1-2 punch. or something. anyways, with friends like these, your weeknights need not remain un-rocked:

thursday @ the beauty bar : the annuals / sayvinyl / the frantic romantic . i can't remember if ryan still has his mustache, but either way, yes. also, a reminder mostly only to myself, if you don't smoke cigarettes, don't wear clothes to the beauty bar with the intention of wearing them the next day as well, because they will smell as though you personally chain-smoked a pack and a half while watching the bands. i wonder if that is like a well-known rule anyways : don't wear clothes to the beauty bar that you plan on wearing the next day as well?

and, friday @ the casbah : calico horse has a cd release party (flyer) to kick off their 2-week loop through most major cities west of the mississippi, joined by swim party and the donkeys.
also, the red feathers' 'space picture is a flyer for their LAST SHOW (ever?), with a vision of a dying world and the growlers @ the tower bar. last show?! i wonder if i can be at two places at once...

update: reposting from show details off the vision's page :
Marco (of Red Feathers) is moving to New York so this will be his farewell show! Please come out and help us send him off right!