Get 'Em Before They Are Gone

wow

glad we saw them when we did. but if this means more handsome furs, i'm only mildly bummed.

Gobble, Gobble, Bobble

i couldn't come up with a top ten, but here's a few of my least favorite things (songs):

Eye of the tiger Survivor (plus i can never get it out of my head)
We've got tonight Sheena Easton and Kenny Rodgers (skreechy, skreechy, skreech)
Old time rock and roll Bob Seeger (this was the last dance in one of my junior high dances. ugh.
Been caught stealin' Jane's Addiction (i hate these guys, not sure why, probably cos they suck
Tears in heaven Eric Clapton
Babe/the best of times Styx (could be any of their ballads, they are all awful
The girl is mine MJ and Paul Mac

Sexy, Sensual and......Sloppy

Billy Bragg
September 8, 2010
Cedar Cultural Center

You'd think that waiting forever would make this a breeze to write up. But i'm still of two minds about this show.

On one hand, it's billy bragg, lads! I've been a fan since i checked out a crappy cassette of Back to Basics from the minneapolis public library way back when. And other than seeing him play out in the cold in front of coffman union when i was a freshman in college (he was his firebrandy best--even though i didn't know him from adam---i just figured he was a student) i'd always been meaning to see him in concert.

on the other hand, he was entirely too casual and lackadaisical for a packed house and a $25 ticket (does anyone else see the slight irony of a kinda pricey ticket when he's touring solo?---just askin', just sayin').

so...you got your super wobbly start, with stops and starts on songs, forgotten lyrics and a really really awful out of tune voice (nobody would think he has a great or even good voice, but this was bullfrog being stepped on bad). repeated bids to pick up merchandise (i know the economy is bad, but et tu, billy?) and although you expect politics from mr. bragg, suddenly it didn't seem so much politics as lectures and even a little hectoring...i want righteous anger and indignation, not peace, love, understanding and a fifteen minute discourse on being good to your neighbor (clearly he hasn't seen my 60 year old downstairs neighbor come flying out of her unit in a rage---and her see through nightie). (ooh, just realized how much my politics have changed over the years) hell...even his accent was bad. for this i left the couch? (oh yeah, some tall a-hole decided to come late and sardine his way to stand right in front of me..."i gotta stand somewhere." grrr)

but then you got your positives. mr. bragg (regardless of the topic) is still an utterly charming story teller (if i'd let anyone lecture me, he would be the one), and after a cup of tea (at least i think it was tea) his voice more or less came back to a reasonable facsimile of the creak (not croak) we know and love. and really, the loose ramshackle nature of the show certainly had an off the cuff charm, like he was in your living room instead of the cedar room.

and the songs, the songs, the songs. i guess the songs made the difference.

my favs:
a new england
tank park salute
the new brunette,
sexualaty
everywhere

i really liked the pressure drop songs too. (memo to self, see if those are still on the bragg website)

so what am i saying? i dunno. not sure if it was worth $25. (more like $18) just guess there's a little caveat emptor with him and that was a bit of a surprise. so.... go if you wanna go, let him be who he wants to be, do whatever?

High on Violet

I picked up the expanded version of the National's High Violet yesterday (7.99 at the fetus, how awesome is that?) 2 b-sides (Walk Off and Sin-Eaters--this track really should have been on the album proper), 2 unreleased tracks (Wake Up Your Saints--boozy, shambling and glorious
and You Were A Kindness--we heard this performed at first ave in august), an alternate version of Terrible Love (not a remix, so my distaste for remixes remains in place) and three live tracks (the version of Bloodbuzz, Ohio is a nice change-up from the High Violet version) what a great bonus for music fans (i just assume everyone who is a music fan is a national fan.)

Listening to the ep (and then another run through High Violet) i am again struck by how the National are the musical equivalent of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Instead of documenting the debauchery and decline of the elite of the Roaring Twenties, the National are brilliantly detailing the endless tail eating demise of the Jay and Daisys of today's comfortably complacent.

Note how i'm listing song titles...

AI vs Glee

Is it too much to ask glee for some original music? instead of a billy joel greatest hits episode, how about if mr. joel writes a new song for the show? and for the record, i'm pretty glad that Glee has delivered the death blow to American Idol. there can only be one, and if i must have media overload, i'd rather have the Rachel and Mercedes of Glee than the endless parade of untalented hacks that america "votes" for.

I Lost on Jeopardy

sometimes i get weird al and tiny tim confused. is it just me?

and is girl talk just a different flavor of weird al?

cameoverload

meh

meant to post my wisconsin drive listens but i forgot:

daft punk discovery (can you say tron? and i can't believe human after all slipped by me)
national high violet (somebody needs to take this away from me)
delta spirit history from below (hated the show, but still really like this cd)
books the way out (i bet there are at least 5 songs i compulsively replay)

and yes, i will post show comments. i owe:
billy bragg
calexico/arcade fire
menomena
mumford & sons
and something else i'm forgetting.