- fiqsibtysr in New Single: Patrick Wolf’s “Accident and Emergency” british glamour girls
- ezpeza in New Single: Patrick Wolf’s “Accident and Emergency” blond gets fucked
- nwagukisicap in New Single: Patrick Wolf’s “Accident and Emergency” jenna jameson threesome
Instead of compiling a list of ten albums/artists that I liked in 2007 (which would, of course, involve confessing that I listened to more than my usual share of Timbaland and Timberlake), I’m going to wax poetic (prosaic?) about one record and one show, and why they made my year. Here goes:
Best album of 2007: The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour
Unlike earlier Weakerthans albums, which tend to fade in, build up, and fade out, Reunion Tour is, with a few exceptions, a highly successful exercise in decrescendo. The deceptively-titled opener, “Civil Twilight” (it sounds, you know, slow), throws down. Three songs later, “Tournament of Hearts”–likely a dark horse by Weakerthans standards but my personal favorite on the album–sets impulsive lyric energy (“have to stop myself from climbing / on the table full of empties / to yell…”) against a backdrop of growling guitar and insistent drums. I’m still not quite sure how Jason Tait manages to make his kit sound like the entire percussion section of a high school marching band, but the result is infectious.
After “Tournament,” the album shifts into a set of down-tempo elegiac tracks: the heart-wrenching “Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure” (the followup, of course, to Reconstruction Site’s “Plea from a Cat named Virtute”); the spoken-word “Elegy for Gump Worsley”; the bittersweet tribute to moving, “Sun in an Empty Room”; and, finally, the kick-drum laced “Night Windows,” which–if the song’s casualty is indeed a fallen solider–is the most moving anti-war ballad I’ve heard in a very long time.
Following this potential sobfest, the short, slow “Bigfoot” makes peace with the album’s losses (“the visions that I see believe in me”), and then “Reunion Tour” (slightly more upbeat) and “Utilities” carry the album to a hopeful close. It’s this thematic arc, plus John K. Samson’s almost-but-not-quite-through-the-nose plaintive singing style, plus the deceptively simple musical arrangements, that makes Reunion Tour simultaneously so comforting and so smart. I dub it “album I would like to curl up inside”: pretty much the highest rating I give.
Best live show of 2007: John Vanderslice at The Middle East Upstairs (September 28, 2007, Cambridge, MA)
I generally believe it’s a huge mistake to conflate a musician’s stage persona with the rest of their real-life existence, and vice versa–to me, it seems similar to mistaking a novelist for one of his or her characters. But that doesn’t mean that a stage act can’t give me warm fuzzies, because this is what John Vanderslice does every time I see him. On this particular occasion, it certainly didn’t hurt that Boston-based Bishop Allen were opening: they played a flawless set. Ultimately, though, John Vanderslice’s set was the memorable one, because it was horrifically flawed yet completely awesome. Read more »
Hi everybody, i’m Conan Neutron, I play in the band Replicator from Oakland, CA. There are many tour diaries, but this one is mine. Thanks to the SSC gang for asking us to do it here.
There are no two ways about it, by the time we had reached Boston we were pretty spent, emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted with a series of shows that, while featuring good performances and some great people, were definitely less then stellar. Morale was low and our cash flow situation even lower.
Luckily, our time in Boston was JUST what we needed, a chance to recharge the mental and emotional batteries with a day off in a kick ass city, and a well and truly wicked awesome show!
And indeed, Replicator had a wicked awesome time.
Conan telling it like it is at the show…
Replicator posing all crazy go nuts like.
But first we stayed at this place:
Our crappy hotel, which Todd dubbed “the Moneyshot motor lodge”
Replicator tour diary 2007.
Hi everybody, i’m Conan Neutron, I play in the band Replicator from Oakland, CA. This is our tour diary, thanks to the SSC for asking us to do it here.
We’ve been around making crazy artynoisyrock music since late 99’-early 2000. Chances are you haven’t heard of us (although Joie did see us play in Denver, Colorado with two other paying customers at 6:30 at night in 2002, and we’ve played with the super excellent Ifihadahifi many, many times, of which Dj is a member). Patton Oswalt kinda likes us, Warren Ellis wrote some nice stuff about us once, and we were once featured on an Awesome TV show with Les Savy Fav.
We’ve played with bands you probably know, Trans Am, Melt Banana, Big Business, Blood Brothers, Oxes, Rye Coalition, BABYLAND, Hella, Akimbo.. etc. Etc.
But when it comes down to it, we’re just another band out there. We do this because it’s an honest expression of what we are trying to achieve creatively and… when it all comes together it gives us a lot of enjoyment, sometimes other people enjoy it too, that rules. We like to think we put our all into this thing and never give anything less then 100%. The idea is we try to return the asskicking that music has given us, plain and simple, we want to add to the greater whole and give something back. Also we want to be given bowls of only red M&MS and have nobody look us in the eye at the venue. Read more »
“We’ve played that song 5,000 times, and we’ll play it 5,000 more,” frontman Cy Curnin said drily after The Fixx finished their trademark track “One Thing Leads to Another” at Avalon Ballroom on Tuesday evening. Though his devil-may-care quips were amusing–and coupled with some of the most eccentric dance moves I’ve witnessed to date–I’m guessing that some of them might have been fueled by the fact that his band was opening for the Furs. At the other end of the spectrum were the night’s openers, The Alarm: Mike Peters, who was happy to be back on tour after winning a battle with cancer a few years past, was as cheerful and radiant as Curnin was dour and devil-may-care. It appeared that Peters’ attitude and not Curnin’s mirrored most of the audience’s appreciation of the show; by the end of the night, however, I found myself identifying with Curnin’s skepticism.
The Psychedlic Furs started their set with a sax-filled, pile-driving rendition of “Heartbeat,” only slightly occluded by frontman Richard Butler’s strange arrangement of his hands into a rhombus shape just above his crotch as he gyrated Read more »
California has Amoeba. New Jersey has the Princeton Record Exchange. New England has… Newbury Comics.
What is Newbury Comics, you uninitiated ask? Well, if you listen to some of our more mookish locals, it’s the Best Record Store Ever–you know, much in the same way that Fenway is America’s Favorite Ballpark, even though it features “Fan Service” instead of Customer Service and the aforementioned fans are generally jerks to anyone who dares to enter the hallowed space wearing the opposing team’s colors.
Okay, so I’m obviously jaded NOW, but when I first moved here, I naively believed that no lover of America’s favorite pastime would jeer at me (not to be confused with “heckle me,” which is fine because it requires some measure of intelligence) for four entire innings of a ballgame. I also did a lot of retail therapy at Newbury Comics because I was lonely and bored, and the store was a warm place to go on a frigid winter night. That, of course, should have been my first tip-off. Much in the way that Fenway (albeit historic) is not terribly representative of America’s other ballparks (where middle-to-lower class folks can generally afford to take the kids on a family outing), Newbury Comics (although convenient) isn’t much of a record store.
Whereas your average REAL record store devotes ninety percent of its (linoleum) floor space to dusty racks of CDs and vinyl, relegating most extras to wall displays, Newbury Comics gives up about forty percent of the (carpeted) floor to New England sports paraphernalia.* Worse, because all of the Hot Topic locations in the greater Boston area are located in the South Shore suburbs (hmmm…) Newbury Comics has decided to pick up the slack. For this reason, at Newbury Comics one can buy such classy bumper stickers as “Fuck Me I’m Irish” and “I’ve Got the Biggest Dick in the Band.” In short, the store’s interior looks suspiciously like the bastard child spawned when a Spencer’s Toys and Gifts drunkenly hooked up with a Tower Records to celebrate the Pats’ victory in Super Bowl XXXIX. Kids, remember that the closer you are to that cherry bedroom set from Jordan’s Furniture when you open that six-pack of Narragansett, the more regrets you’ll have the morning after.
Speaking of beer, Newbury Comics has now combined all of its 
best elements–novelty items AND music–to bring you the Newbury Artist Pint Glass* series. The first musical “artists” featured in the series were The Used, whose limited-edition pint glass debuted on May 22, 2007 and almost certainly sold out (only 1,000 copies were made!). The next musical artist is Marilyn Manson, whose pint glass will be guaranteed to those who pre-ordered a copy of Eat Me, Drink Me and available to the rest of the public starting Tuesday, June 5.
Tragically, I won’t be able to make it to the store on June 5 because I’ll be at the Paradise seeing The Sea and Cake (a band that believes in a kinder, gentler form of drinking and eating). If anyone wants to pick up a Marilyn Manson pint glass for me, that’d be… um… wicked cool. Yeah!
Release date: June 5, 2007
Label: N/A
Rating: 3/10 (the text on the glass is clearly a credsuck, but the heart is kind of cute)
So, it’s not really a secret that I’ve always admired the work of Massachusetts musician Elijah Wyman, especially after reviewing his albums that aren’t even in print.
But what may be a secret, or at least not particularly well known, is that the man’s got an extremely rare kidney disorder that’s nearly killed him. (It’s kind of a novelty, actually — a musician suffering from a kidney ailment that’s not self-inflicted.) Anyway, he’s got a transplant lined up now, but as someone trying to make a living from his music, the expenses are pretty high.
So, he’s got a site lined up at which you can contribute anything you’re able. If you like his work, or like supporting independent musicians, or just like being nice, I’d recommend you swing on by.
