Oxford Collapse, Frightened Rabbit, Austin James Band @ Casbah, 6.23.08

Oh, Tim Pyles. How much do I love you and your Anti-Monday League? Let me count the ways. Honestly, the mix of local bands and occasional touring bands, knowing the regulars are going to be there, chatting and hanging out with some of my favorite local bands...they're just always perfect nights.

I had been looking forward to this particular show for a while because I love Frightened Rabbit. They did not disappoint. While I've been to many great shows this year, their performance is easily one of my top performances by a band this year. They're that good. And again, my inner groupie kicked in and I was imagining what my life in Scotland would be like when I marry them. All of them. Seriously. Don't worry, I'll still blog when I'm there.

The show started with the Austin James Band. Natalie wrote about their carnival cum Queen sound and it had been a while since I'd seen them. I dig their harmonies a lot and note to other bands, these guys personally e-mailed a handful of San Diego bloggers to their show. I was already going to the show, but when you're personally invited, there's more reason to show up on time for a show. Just a hint to other openers... bloggers are easily bought :)





Frightened Rabbit took the stage and I think part of what made me love the performance was that even though they had a good crowd, it wasn't packed in, so there was room to move around and really take in the band. They are so good. Seriously. If you haven't jumped on board for this band, you're missing out. I recorded a song, so I'll youtube it later.





And then poor Oxford Collapse. They were so good and sounded great, but Frightened Rabbit was a tough band to follow, especially since last time they came, they played with Swim Party so had gained a lot of Swim Party's fans. It was also a Monday night, so it appears a lot of the crowd had cleared out by the time they took the stage. Those of us who stayed got a great performance, however, so hopefully next time more people check the out.





Of course, after the show, the amiable boys in the bands (and their tour manager)hung out and chatted with everyone. I cannot wait to see these bands again.

Sun/Mon The words that accompany the pictures.

It was a really great week for me personally, albeit exhausting. Starting with the show on Sunday night all the way through Friday, it was quite fulfilling. I'll take it from the top.

Sunday I finally got to see sayvinyl, and it was an even better night because we were celebrating Andrea's birthday. You can see all the pics I posted here. I got to the show right at 7 pm and was one of the lucky handful of people to be there in time for the food, hosted by Bety's Mexican Restaurant in Encinitas. Abraham works there, so he hooked that up, though for future food contributors...make an extra tray of stuff for the Casbah staff, otherwise only about 10 people at the show actually get to sample your food, and the whole point is to get people into your restaurant, isn't it?

Anyway, A Beautiful Noise started the night and they sounded great. It was a challenge to take pics because the singer is so freakin tall, but their sound reminds me a lot of the early 90's Manchester stuff that I used to love...Stone Roses and The Charlatans UK and that first Blur album with "She's So High" on it. They also have some pretty instrumental stuff (thus the name). If you happen to catch them out, pic up their EP. They give them away free at shows and it's very good.

The Austin James Band was up second, and I really like them a lot, as I'd written here before but I ended up missing most of their set because we were all in the Atari Lounge, toasting Andrea's birthday and hanging out and mocking Tim while he was on-air. I did make sure to get my ass in for at least a few pics and their awesome rendition of The Band's The Weight. If you like layered harmonies, this is your band.

Last was sayvinyl and I was so glad to finally catch them live. There's something about the timing that kinda reminds me of Bright Eyes and I look forward to seeing them again soon. They are playing tonight at epicentre, but I don't think I can make it up there in time.

On Monday I went to The Casbah again, but missed The Donkeys. I watched The Vision Of A Dying World who make me happy as always, but I was pretty wiped out. I watched a couple songs from White Magic, but they rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know, maybe it was just me being grumpy, but when the chick kinda snapped at Jake on the soundboard, I kinda wanted to clock her. And she didn't really say anything, but the way she told him to "kill the reverb, I like to sound clean" was so irritating to me. So I left. Maybe I'm just more anti-Brooklyn than I thought.

As it turns out, I'm running late for a date with my niece...so I'll have to get to the rest of the week later. I'll post another Rocky video though.

The Pics: SayVinyl, Austin James Band, A Beautiful Noise, Andrea's Birthday

I'm still at the Ken Club and I will post comments about the last two days, but in the meantime, here are the pics...

Thursday Recap: Swim Party & Austin James Band, The Corvinas

As anyone who regularly reads this site knows, Thursday was a really strange day for me on account of this blog. In a day I went from about 250 hits to almost 10 times that because of my experience with Band of Horses, my posts about it all, and then an interview of Ben Bridwell by Pitchfork. I opted to not respond to commenters and I still won't, because most likely, they've come and gone and are now hating on the next indie nation whatever. I feel like that's all subsided now and while I appreciate many of the comments, I will keep my thin skin and my Mexican temper, thank you very much. It's who I am.

Anyway, it was nice that night to be surrounded by friends at my various stops of the night. Swim Party were already playing when I arrived, but I walked in on my favorite song so I was happy. I was also told that I could video whatever I wanted, though I guess I have to edit it down since the two songs I captured went over the 100 meg limit on YouTube.



The band sounded so great and they've added some light trees to their light boxes making for a better looking stage than the 4 Beauty Bar lights can provide on their own. As I mentioned in the other recap, a couple of the guys from Adam Franklin's band stuck around a couple days. Actually one of em missed his flight and I hear it was a great story, but that's neither here not there. So it was nice to chat with them a litle bit at the Beauty Bar.

The Austin James Band played after Swim Party and had these killer harmonies. And not just a couple of them, but the entire band including the drummer would join in. Their second song was a cover of Jumpin Jack Flash and in between their mostly originals, they'd throw in another cover that were singalong worthy. They have the look of a hippie jam band, but I loved their soaring harmonies and am glad I stuck around. I also liked how, much like Swedish Models, the band moved around a lot, switching up instruments between one another. I didn't ever find out if one of them is actually Austin James, but it didn't really matter.






Matt Binder's doppelganger?

Once the bands ended, I headed to Kadan for CatDirt's show, but I missed FOTH. I was in time for The Corvinas who rocked the enthusiastic crowd.





It was kinda claustrophobic for me, so I ended up talking with David the door guy about the shooting that occurred a week before around the corner from the bar. He was really nice and had a lot of strong opinions about the situation. Until the investigation is complete, however, he wasn't really passing judgment. A friend of mine wrote on his blog that there wasn't crime in the area until the A/C lounge opened and brought douchebags to the neighborhood. I didn't buy his argument, and neither did the door guy, who recounted instances of crime associated with the former tenants, Your Place. Bad shit happens everywhere.

After that, I returned inside to hang out for a little longer and then was on my way to close my evening at the Ken feeling better about all the drama that had occurred just a few hours before.