Not getting up to NY this fall is sort of killing me. In addition to everything else, I'll be missing this photography show at the Steven Kasher Gallery on the high times at Max's Kansas City NY during its two eras of awesomeness in the 60s and then late 70s.
It wasn't until a few years ago that I found out about Max's Kansas City's central role in the NY art scenes of those decades. I only knew about it because the Misfits' Crimson Ghost logo comes from a poster for their show at Max's in 1979. It's odd to think that the place cycled through Tim Buckley and Janis Joplin and Warhol to Debbie Harry to Devo to Johnny Thunders and then the Misfits in oh about 10 years.
Obviously, music can match seasons. Just ask Vivaldi. Cooking out in July? Put on some rocksteady. David Bazan sounds pretty good when your windowsill is collecting snow. Fall is good for two things: cerebral indie rock (Superchunk, Built to Spill) and jazz. Thelonius Monk's 52nd Street Theme as played by Bud Powell and his band in October 1959. Feel like sitting on a park bench, pulling my jacket close, and reading some Paul Auster.
You know you've made it. The new Thermals record, Personal Life, seems to be getting lukewarm reviews, and sure it may never bring the fire like 2006's smart-punk opus The Body, The Blood, The Machine, but it's definitely the standout in my Recent Additions playlist. I don't mean to force the Thermals in a standard band-maturation arc but the new one is older, honest, and a little wise. Their previous album, Now We Can See, acclimated me to slower, less shaggy Thermals, and Personal Life follows its lead with skeletal guitar lines that let the rhythm section lead. Some of the tracks--Power Lies, I'm Gonna Change Your Life--almost sound like Social Distortion, up an octave. That tendency was hinted at a few years ago on songs like Returning to the Fold, but now it's more, well, personal. I don't mind that.
It's been nearly 7 years since the Meadowlands came out, and it still sits atop my personal pile of best of the aughts. The Wrens have a preternatural ability to make songs that don't necessarily worm their way into your brain on first listen, but move in slowly--first a lamp, then a chair--and eventually take up residence and never leave. Point being, the band and their songs are deliberate and wonderful.
The 5-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina occasioned a benefit CD and, as it happens, a new Wrens song. Over the last 2 years, a coupledemos from their allegedly forthcoming album have leaked, and at this point I may prefer the earliest (In Turkish Waters), but I'm guessing in Wrens standard operating procedure I'll be humming Crescent absentmindedly in a matter of weeks.
Among the clutter that is magnet-bound to my refrigerator are four reminders that I'll be seeing Pavement play in Philadelphia in less than a month. I last saw Pavement play July 30, 1995, at Lollapalooza in Camden, NJ. That was the tour when this happened:
Since then, a number of things of minor historical import have happened.
-The Lollapalooza festival itself changed focus (1995 headliner: Sonic Youth; 1996 headliner: Metallica), was the subject of an excellent lampooning by the Simpsons, collapsed, was resurrected, collapsed again, and now has scaled back its ambitions considerably, although Soundgarden is still occasionally involved. (Lollapalooza lineups by year) Such is to be expected of things originating from Perry Farrell.
- Pavement dude Stephen Malkmus has played on nine studio albums (two Pavement albums--Wowee Zowee was their most recent at the time of Lolla 95 and is still their best). His brand of thrift-store-clad-post-ironic-pretension, which I happen to find endearing, was pretty much the essence of the dominant mid-aughts cultural theme of hipsterdom, so it's not altogether surprising that a band mudded off the stage at Lollapalooza 15 years ago recently headlined its 2010 equivalent.
- I finally kissed a girl.
I'm hella looking forward to the show, which, with Lolla 95, will nicely bookend my young adulthood.
First Fort Reno of the season last night and I think I picked a pretty good one. Hiding Places started it off with a sound that is pretty basic but definitely in the DC sound spectrum -- cleanish guitars, boy/girl vocals. Very 90s; a little Most Secret Method, a little Dismemberment Plan. They're pretty new and were just a little raw. They didn't really click with me, but not bad.
I left in the middle of Ra Ra Rasputin's closing set, but they appeared to be in good form.
Give, the second act of the evening, was easily the standout. Tight, growly, riff-heavy rock n roll. They had an improvised marquee on stage, spelling GIVE in tall Technicolor. Preferred they're quicker paced material but it was all good. Will keep an ear out for new stuff from them. Check out Amphetamine Dream.
