Exclusive Album Premieres on "The MySpace"- Flight of the Conchords & The Night Marchers

I don't like posting press releases verbatim, but got this little nugget in the inbox today:

MYSPACE TO EXCLUSIVELY PREMIER ALBUMS BY ATMOSPHERE, FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS, THE NIGHT MARCHERS APRIL 18

The release goes on to talk about each artist and their labels and myspace and yadda yadda, but hello? Flight of the Conchords! and San Diego's own The Night Marchers!!

When this special aired on HBO, I must've watched it 25 times OnDemand. I'm so glad someone posted the clips on MySpace.

Hiphopopotomous vs Rhymenocerous
flight of the conchords


"Be more constructive with your criticism"

Things To Do In San Diego: Friday, July 1 -Monday, July 4, 2016

It's Friday evening and I'm laying on my bed enjoying the perfect breeze that only happens this time of day with certain weather when I leave my balcony and front door open simultaneously. I should be motivating soon to The Lafayette, but decided to take advantage of the empty house while Darren works so I can get my email inboxes down to near-zero. Nova is now in St. Louis for a month and I have some extensive to-do lists to work through while she's gone. I decided to update listings at the last minute so they're easier to navigate this weekend. Have a good one out there and stay safe! Friday through Monday archives are after the jump. 

Flight of the Conchords Preview

I have mentioned my elation that Flight Of the Conchords was picked up to be a full show on HBO. And now I've watched the episode and while not quite as funny to me as the stand-up, I will still be viewing the show regularly during the season that starts on Sunday, June 17. MySpace has the full first episode here. Check it out. They're also touring and performing LA in LA on July 11. Tempting.

Tuesday Newsy Bits

Today is Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day! Meet me at Seaport Village for lunch anyone??

April 17th is Ben & Jerry’s Free Ice Cream Cone Day!

"Ben & Jerry ’s Free Cone Day is an annual event, held in late April or early May, in which Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops give out free ice cream cones all day. According to the Ben & Jerry’s web site, the free ice cream will be available from noon until 8pm."
*****
Just announced: Fri July 06 Band of Horses and guests @ Cane's 21+, 8pm, $15. (Buy through CasbahMusic.com. I'll announce the on-sale as soon as I find out.) If you skipped out on seeing them last year (maybe you were at my birthday party instead?) now's your chance to see them.
*****
In TV News, production has begun on half-hour HBO comedy The Flight of the Conchords, which focuses on the adventures of transplanted New Zealanders Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who live on New York City's Lower East Side. The series kicks-off on Sunday, June 17 at 10:30 p.m. ET out of the fourth season of Entourage.

If you have never seen Flight of the Conchords comedy, check them out here:



*****
And just a follow up regarding Susan Suffecool's heart attack...according to Bart Mendoza, she is doing well and plans on missing work for just a week, so shows and events should be back on track at the Starlight Bowl.

Rambling For The Sake of Rambling

The benefactor I've been seeking has found me:

DEAR FRIEND,
I am Mr.paul leech Executive Director of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd, taiwan. An Iraqi named Haider Hanoon, a business man made a numbered fixed depositof (346,736,899.68 TWD) for 18 calendar months, this is valued to FourtyFour million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only in my branch. Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war, four years ago (2003). Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him.

blah blah. i love spam. So I just thought I would do a quick update on my week. Tuesday I didn't do anything noteworthy, Wednesday I went to the zoo, saw Superbad, then went to the Ken Club and after, a few of my friends came over and we watched Flight of the Conchords until 5 in the morning, Thursday I did the Great Northern show and finished the night at the Pink Elephant, and last night, after an afternoon with my family, I got stinko at the Ken Club while watching The Spits, The Creepy Creeps, and Nihilist (I missed The Dissimilars). The bar was packed and at one point they had to restrict ins and outs because there were so many people spending so much of the night outside hoping to get in. I'll get to all my recappin later, but just thought I'd give a Saturday shout out before I head to a BBQ at the parental units' home. I have a lot of pics to post and Greg wrote a great review of Great Northern that I'll post this evening as well.

By the way, I didn't expect to get so many Jack Bauer/Kiefer Sutherland/24 hits. Guess he's worth the cash they're paying him, huh?

Port O'Brien, The Builders And The Butchers, What Laura Says @ Casbah 7.7.08

Yes, I'm only a week behind in posting. It's gonna be a busy week ahead so I don't know how much of last week I'll even get to, and admittedly, it's a little challenging coming home from a great show tonight from Joanie + Secretaries to try and write about what I was doing a week ago, but I'll do my best.

I arrived early to the Casbah for last week's Anti-Monday League because of Brooke's recommendation. She commented that she'd seen What Laura Says at SXSW and said they were not to be missed. Immediately upon my arrival I noticed one thing about the crowd- it was about 80% male and it seemed everyone had a beard. Thank god I've overcome by fear of beards (known as pogonophobia, according to Google), because all three bands were deliciously entertaining.

What Laura Says (Thinks and Feels) started off the night. Someone noted that they're 'a jam band for grown-ups'. Their instrumentation and harmonies were perfect. They even had a table of mixed tin cans and jars that they used as percussion. At times I thought that this was the band that Flight of the Conchords would be if they weren't a parody music act- if Brett and Jemaine took themselves seriously, they'd probably sound like What Laura Says. I was especially happy to meet them and their manager after their set, and then a few days after the show to get the promo CD in my mailbox. Love when that happens, and it's just as great as they were live. I just wish I had met them before and perhaps I wouldn't have been as shy as I was about taking pictures.

It was a really fun night at the Casbah (though when is it not for Anti-Monday League?) because I got to hang out with some people I hadn't seen in a while, like the guys from Transfer and The Silent Comedy. There's something infectious when really good bands appreciate the bands onstage, and I was feeling all the good energy at the Casbah.

The Builders and The Butchers took the stage second and though the singer was beardless, kept the vibe going from What Laura Says. A little more serious, perhaps, but equally full and rich sounding. I especially loved the banjo and mandolin. There was something about them that made me think a tour with Two Gallants might really work for them- that emotive shouting with a slight quiver in the voice fit right with them. Plus, it would only take a couple more shows for San Diegans to find the right sing along moments to their music.


While the bands changed over it was back to the patio. I am such a lucky girl to hang with the beautiful people. (Josh & Justin from The Silent Comedy; Cooper & Matt from Transfer)


Any of these bands playing alone would've made for a good show- the three put together made for quite a fabulous night. Port O'Brien closed out the night and they continue to impress me everytime I see them. As if their CD isn't perfect (which arrived in the mail shortly after their last show at Beauty Bar), their live show just blows me away every single time they're in town.

I've already uploaded the videos from the night, so click my YouTube link in the column for some (dark) videos of awesomeness, but here are some pics of Port O'Brien (and more after the jump).

Barack Obama Wins A Grammy!

I have to admit, I've been enjoying the Grammys this year. Daft Punk & Kanye killed it. Foo Fighters are rocking as I type. I'm not so much into the awards themselves because I almost always disagree with the academy (I'm not a fan of Amy Winehouse, and she pretty much swept the categories and I really believe that Once was robbed more than once), and I'm more interested in the awards that usually aren't announced during the show. Anyway, the full list of winners is here in case you lack patience like I do.

Some highlights:

Our next president won a Grammy! (Beating out Bill Clinton, fyi)

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Story Telling)

The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream
Barack Obama[Random House Audio]


Best Comedy Album (For comedy recordings, spoken or musical):

The Distant Future
Flight Of The Conchords
[Sub Pop]

And anyone paying attention- local boys As I Lay Dying lost the best metal category to Slayer. Boo.

Things To Do In San Diego: March 23-25, 2014

It has been a lazy Sunday after all the fun of Friday (Irenic & Casbah) and Saturday (Jeremy Messersmith), so after some house cleaning, I got this week's listings done a little early. I'm looking forward to catching London Grammar tonight at House of Blues, and I think Darren has his mind set on Pants Karaoke later tonight. This week should be a good one with plenty to get you through to next weekend. Sunday through Tuesday archives are after the jump.

Patton Oswalt Live In San Diego To Kick Off Comic-Con, Tickets Onsale Today at 10am

I am trying to catch up with email and I really wanted to post about this earlier this week, but never had the chance. I love Patton Oswalt and seeing comedy shows at Spreckels is actually better than seeing a concert there, in my opinion. Full press release is after the jump.

Patton Oswalt
SPRECKELS THEATRE – SAN DIEGO, CA
Thursday, July 12, 2012
On Sale Friday, May 11th at 10 AM
Ticketmaster Link

Things To Do In San Diego: May 20, 2009

Wednesday, May 20, 2009:

• Fever Sleeves, Marasol, This is Not My Life, Lands on Fire @ Casbah
• X1FM presents Local Gold: Grey Ghosts, Silverleaf, Team Abraham @ Ruby Room
• New York Dolls, The Cliks, DJ Le Chud @ Belly Up
• Agua Dulce, Science Fiction @ U-31
• Flight of the Conchords @ RIMAC Arena (Sold Out)
• Palace of Buddies, The Beautiful View @ Beauty Bar
• Fischerspooner, Ssion, OrganicArma @ House of Blues
• Son Sin Fronteras, Vankioje, Panorama, Radiante, Los Hollywood, The Weatherunderground @ Che Cafe
• Red Hot Wednesday with Robin feat. DJs Trevor Young and Charlie Rock @ Bar Pink
• IronLungCircuit, Archie Dean, Cal State Generals, Higherarchs, DJ's Adamnt and Mike 2 Bless on the 1s and 2s + Art Display @ Kava Lounge
• The Bleeding Irish(CD Release Party), Secret Samurai @ Radio Room
• Aaron Bowen, Bhi Bhiman @ Lestat's
• Clovers & Spades, Don Julio Band, Wild Winds, Soup @ O'Connell's
• Roxy Monoxide, Jenny Buss @ Portugalia
• Manwhore Wednesdays @ Ken Club
• The New Lead Detectives, To Walk the Night, The Ghost Orchid @ Brick By Brick
• Dueling Pianos @ Winston's
• Sharelle, Jen Knight, Mad Martigan, Vas Scene @ Canes
• DJ Mikey Face Spring Fling @ Whistle Stop
• Trivia Plus hosted by Edwin Decker @ 710 Beach Club (6-9p)
• 3rd Borough, Outta Control, The Even Keel @ 710 Beach Club
• New Voices (A Rock Musical Mix-Tape) @ The Loft, UCSD (8 & 10 pm)
• Ghost Riders in Disguise @ Hensley's Flying Elephant
• Blow By Blow (Jeff Beck Tribute) @ Humphrey's Backstage Lounge
• Alex Esther, Jenna Mammina,V Child, Code @ Bitter End Backstage
• "Artist in Residence" Series featuring Charles McPherson, Gilbert Castellanos @ Anthology (7:30pm)
• Jones Revival @ PB Bar & Grill

More YouTube fun: Flight of The Conchords Rap

I can't even tell you how many times I watched this special when it was on HBO OnDemand.

Weekend Recap: The Vision Of A Dying World, Red Feathers, Bunky, Kleeman and Mike

If there's one thing I can say this week is I can't adequately express how happy I am that Independence Day is going to break up this week. My weekend was good but maybe I didn't take full advantage of the time.

Friday night I napped too long before heading to the Tower for the cd release show for The Vision of a Dying World. I passed the Beauty Bar on the way and was glad that I wasn't gonna have to wait in the line that was forming outside. The Tower Bar, while no line, was still really crowded which for some reason is more tolerable in a place like the Tower than at the Beauty Bar.


The Vision of A Dying World played first blew me away with how good their new material is. It had been a while since I'd seen them, and the Atari Lounge at the Casbah doesn't quite get the full effect. It seemed to me like they did pretty well moving merch, too, so good for them finally getting the attention they deserve. The harmonies especially set the band apart from a majority of San Diego bands. I guess it was unfortunate that they played first, because I knew about a dozen people who missed their performance thinking that they were playing last. Still, it was nice to see so many other local bands represented in the crowd considering how many good choices there were for the night.








During Red Feathers I got to talking and was in and out of the bar so I didn't watch their full set. It was their EP release and again, the room was packed as people crowded toward the band. I like the Red Feathers a lot but by that point of the night, I was getting a little claustrophobic. Some people who were at the Battles show started filtering in making it that much more crowded.






It seemed a lot of people left before Bunky played. They were great as usual, but Emily's sweet voice had to compete with all the bar noise. They should've definitely played first, when the crowd was a little less chatty and way less liquored up.

I only stayed for a couple Bunky songs, then headed home an walked to the Ken. All the bands were done but I did get to say hi to everyone, though of course, RoL all left before last call so there was no after party action. I did go home and I guess from having napped too long, ended up staying up till 6 in the morning. Part of it was my neighbor brought home a screamer, part of it was that I ended up watchin "You, Me and Dupree" on demand as well as some free music stuff on Concert.tv and catching up on Flight of the Conchords.

Saturday was a bit of a waste in the day, saved for housecleaning and laundry mostly, but the night was fun. My friend Randall writes a comic book and does computer animation, so he screened his new 6 minute animation of his new Kleeman and Mike comic at Cream. A lot of people came out and since Cream put all beers on special for $1.50, we ended up staying til 10. A group of us then headed to Triple Crown in hopes of playing ping pong, but the patio closed shortly after we arrived and the bar was hot as hell, so we wrapped it up after just a beer, with Andrea, Matt, Ethan and Andrew going to Lancer's, Petro, Chris, Eric and Camilla heading home, and me heading to the Ken Club where it was sadly empty compared to the night before. I did watch Mex do a great Whiskeytown cover of "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart" but otherwise just sat at the bar with a couple friends until it again was time to go home and again, ended up staying up until the sun was rising.

Sunday I spend time with my family at my sister's place in PB, enjoying an early dinner and ooohing and aaahing over all the baby stuff my sister got from her shower. I made sure to get to sleep early so I could get back on track for real life and the dayjob. I'm looking forward to a good week: Pirate Pete's birthday at the Ken Club tonight with The Postals, The Dissimilars, and Rat City Riot, again at the Ken on Tuesday for Transfer and Apes of Wrath after seeing Avenue Q, a day off on Wednesday with a family bbq then the Padres game with Sara. Then for me I'll probably lay low on Thursday, Friday it's Band of Horses at Cane's followed by the Vinyl Radio show at the Ken, then Saturday it's Sophie's big birthday bash at the Beauty Bar with Fifty on Their Heels and The Vultures. Phew. I love summertime in San Diego.

Sasquatch Festival, Gorge, WA 5.24-25.08

Sasquatch 5.24-25.08 (from super secret correspondent Ray Suen)


One of the best things to come out of the Louis XIV tours was meeting Chris Chandler. As tour manager and front of house man, he had to put up with a lot of shit that a man with a lesser patience would surely have collapsed under the weight of. Seeing his work with the Flaming Lips though, made me realize that our experience with Louis was child's play compared to what we did at the Gorge in Washington for two days.

I had been looking forward to working with the Lips ever since the end of the Louis tour. The anticipation had been building and building until the Killers called a few weeks ago and my world became about learning how to play keyboards. After that situation finally settled, nothing was more of a relief than getting to fly out to Seattle and see how the Lips do things. They had just finished playing two festivals in Chicago and Philadelphia, running on almost zero sleep for the two days previous. We went straight from the airport in Seattle to the Gorge in Washington.

The two big things about this particular show for the Lips were the return of the giant UFO show, and the world premiere of the Flaming Lips movie, "Christmas on Mars." Wayne bought a revivalist tent to screen the movie, and as soon as we stepped off the bus, we set to work building the theater. There was a lot of work to be done between driving four foot stakes into rock hard dirt, setting up the lighting and PA, and figuring out how to make the damned popcorn machine pop.









Nothing builds a sense of team like uniforms. The Lips crew all had matching orange suits and hard hats that made people stop and move out of the way when we would walk to lunch. There was no place in the entire festival that was off limits to us and people knew we meant business. I made the mistake of walking around alone a few times. You can be badass in a team of orange suits or a freak just wandering around. The tripped out masses were less reticent about poking and hitting my hard hat when I was by myself.


read the rest by clicking the jump.

After the tent was built, I checked out Mates of State, the Kooks, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. The Jicks were solid, Stephen being a surprisingly virtuoso guitar player, and I finally got to fulfill my dream of watching Janet Weiss play drums.

Hundreds of people had been waiting to see the movie all day, we were busy doling out popcorn, and unfortunately we had to turn most people who wanted to see the movie away. I got to see the first screening at 10 PM (as the Cure played at the main stage, apparently with a new drag queen Liza Minelli as their frontman), and I'll say this. It's loud, it's crazy, and there's a lot of vagina in it. Highly recommend it.





The crew got a few hours of much needed sleep before the 3 AM load in at the mainstage for the UFO. The main stage at Sasquatch is massive, and I learned later, it requires a massive stage to support the giant UFO show. It was made more epic by its backdrop, the great Gorge whose magic I was too unskilled to capture in my pictures. Imagine the Grand Canyon but greener and full of water. The UFO took five hours to build and we worked as the sun was coming up. Most everyone's coffee jolt had worn off at this point (even though it was damn good coffee the Portlanders brought, Stumptown, check it out) and we were all getting a little loopy. I, doing this all for the first time, put my head down and tried to do as much as I could without breaking anything. The end result was this massive, metal, orange jellyfish that would loom silently over the acts on the mainstage, forewarning the festival goers of the jubilee to take place later. Again, highly recommend any chance to see the UFO show.





















Wayne Coyne is an amazing human being. He is genuinely curious about people and their stories and spent limitless amounts of time talking to fans and signing things while supervising the stage setup. He and his wife Michelle are one of the loveliest, most sophisticated, well-dressed couples I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. There is no other crew or band in the business that is so interlinked. You'll see Michael Ivins in a few of these pictures setting up as if he was merely a part of the crew. There was no sense of ego with these guys, everyone just wanted to do good work from the band on down.





After all the building was done, I got to watch the Hives, Built to Spill, Rodrigo y Gabriella, The Flight of the Conchords, and the Mars Volta all on the main stage. The Hives were so much fun, and their schticky power pop and ribald Swedish energy really should have earned them a spot playing later in the day. Built to Spill played a pretty low-key, low-energy set which lulled me into watching Rodrigo y Gabriella instead of going to watch Battles, my one regret for the weekend. If you've not seen them, Rodrigo Y Gabriella are two flamenco guitar players who play well intentioned covers of Metallica and other rock groups with gusto and great skill. But, in my opinion, that kind of material needs to be kept strictly to college quads and youtube. I had been looking forward to the Mars Volta all day and was disappointed as I was smacked in the face by in an incomprehensible wall of prog-noise that sent not a few folks in the crowd to find dinner. I love the Mars Volta, don't get me wrong, I love their recordings and have been to a few live shows that were brilliant. But the manic energy of Cedric combined with the growth of the ensemble and penchant for free jazz breakdowns and schizophrenic solos really turned a lot of people off. For a whole 90 minutes. Cedric came out and threw a cymbal stand into the audience as soon as he stepped on stage later proceeding to fuck with the camera guys almost throwing a few cameras on the ground. This from a man who refuses to play if his audience is moshing. I don't get it.







Time for the Lips! It was damn near the closest thing I've had to a religious experience at a rock and roll show or in my life, even. The band descended from the giant UFO and Wayne did his famous ball routine over the audience. Balloons, confetti, teletubbies, smoke, lasers, and general fun and mayhem made for an audience response I've never seen before. Everyone, from the kids in the front, to the people on the hill in the back had their hands up singing along and rocking out. It was near impossible not to, with the show the Lips put on. Wayne has said, "rock bands just don't try anymore and it's a shame. We should be trying our hardest to put on a show for these people." Words to live by. The highlights of the show were the Lips' rendition of Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same" when we recruited five girls to come up and dance naked and, as it was Memorial Day, played Taps through Wayne's horn speaker. The entire audience held up peace signs, the reverence was deafening.















I've never had this much fun busting my ass for 48 hours. Even during teardown I couldn't help thinking that this was the way to live, to be rock and roll, to do good work and love every minute of it. In any case, I'll hopefully be going back out to do a few more Lips shows this summer. I can't imagine a better way to spend my time before going on tour with the Killers in August. That tour will have a lot to live up to.