the remote part

A bit late on the reporting... so i'll start with thursday night. The French Kicks opened the show for Idlewild with a nice power-rocky-poppy set. It was new drummer Hugh's first hometown gig... he was so into it that his face started to bleed... we hope he's feeling better. Nick looked somewhat at ease in his new frontman role, he definitely seemed to be enjoying himself. The more i see them play, the more i appreciate their music. They're the kind of band who i didn't love immediately, but definitely grew on me.
When Idlewild came on, the crowd cheered heavily. They were, as usual, very good and very loud, playing tunes mostly from the last two records. I didn't even realize that The Remote Part is not out in the US yet, which explained the over-enthusiasm when These Wooden Ideas and Roseability came on. Roddy was giving us a bit of a lazy performance at times, talking instead of singing. He still has the boyish charima that makes him the irresistible desperate singer that he longs to be. All in all, good rocking gig.

I'll review the first Interpol night a bit later, in the meantime, go get yourself a copy of The New York Times Magazine's Men's Fashion of the Times (part of tomorrow's Sunday New York Times) - the lads are featured in an 8-pages fashion spread called "Band on the run" inspired by The Beatles... some of the best shots of the band taken to date. All i have to say is i hope they got to keep the clothes!

i don't blame you

The Morning News interviews Hamilton of The Walkmen.

My Cat Power live story will probably be no different from yours... let me break it down:
10:37pm: Chan and her band appear onstage. Stage lights are very dimmed and will remain as such for the entire set. It's so dark that we can barely see Chan's face, what a shame. They start playing a nice set, mostly new songs.
11:01pm: Chan seems to be doing fine so far, her voice is soft and dreamy... during a song she sings to the band "sorry guys it was my fault"... the song goes uninterrupted, miracle.
11:23pm: the band exits the stage. Chan goes to the piano and starts playing bits and pieces of something... i'm starting to worry.
11:34pm: Chan mumbles "you know when your friends tell you you're a fuck-up... i am a fuck-up". more incoherence ensues.
11:36pm: audience screams some shit at her... please don't make her cry!
11:45pm: Chan asks for reverb...
11:58pm: Chan is still asking for more reverb, not this kind but that kind, get it? someone in the audience screams "give her the fucking reverb!!". my legs start to hurt, but i manage to get really close to the stage.
12:10pm: Chan goes back to the guitar, solo... she starts, she stops, she mumbles, she stops, she starts again, she plays some songs. my eyes are feeling very heavy.
12:19pm: i'm almost completely asleep... the band comes back, and surprise, a cover of Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground that would make Jack White very proud. i snap 5 not-so-bad photos of miss Marshall. Couple more songs with the band.
12:41pm: please tell me there's no encore...
12:42pm: whew, no encore! i wonder if i liked the show or not. i'm confused, i think i did... but maybe not.

dreaming of you

The march week of death has begun...

The Coral was once again great fun. I usually would hate 10 minutes jams that go nowhere, but these kids do it really well. Well, actually, the jams were reheased, that's probably why i liked them! Goodnight, one of my favorites, is one of the songs that they have turned into a 10 minutes anthem. I really like the the way they harmonize, and all six of them really are good musicians... hard to believe they're all around 19 years old!
The opening band, The Soundtrack, was pretty good. I don't really remember exactly what they sounded like, except being mostly pop-rock, but i do remember thinking that they were pretty good. I'm sure i'll be seeing these guys again sometimes soon.

I was a Cat Power virgin until now (i know, don't look at me like that!). As i was listening to her magnicent new album You Are Free, i noticed that Michael Goldberg posted this great review (as always). We'll be seeing her live for the first time tonight, i've heard so many stories about her live performances but right now i'm trying to remove them all from my head...

in a young man's mind

These days, a few almost famous bands play gigs under a "secret name" when they feel like playing tiny venues for their friends, family and hardcore fans (we all remember The Shitty Beatles aka The Strokes over a year ago)... last night, The Electric Sweathogs aka The Mooney Suzuki played Tiswas, the first party they ever played many moons ago. Not being a big Mooneys fan myself, i quite enjoyed the show. For once, there was no gimmick, no matching black outfits and sunglasses and no "number 1" nonsense. On stage were four lads playing good ol' rock'n'roll consisting of mostly old songs of theirs as well as brand new material. The crowd was grooving along, and when we looked at the headbanging guy to our left and realized it was Jimmy Fallon, we gave him the strangest "dude, it's saturday night, don't you have to be at work or something?" look...