sureshot

L-E-S S-A-V-Y F-A-V

I just about lost it after Tim Harrington went crowd surfing. Inside a garbage can. "I feel like Oscar. This place stinks!"

Boris. Nuff said. Spiritualized was tops as well.

I strongly dislike Spoon. Same goes for Animal Collective. So headliners held no interest for me.

Sucked that Cut Copy didnt get a full set (showed up very late). But they made the most of their 20 minutes.

Some random shots with the Lomo LC-A

I didn't really get on with the last one... but fingers crossed for this.

I thought it was OK. But hey, you kind of know what you're getting with the Sea and Cake. Which is fine with me.

Very nice.

I don't know. I think if Wall-E and Eve had been given human voices, the movie would have been really goofy.

There was actually an entire script of dialog written for the movie. But it was used as a guide for the animators to understand the emotions that they should be expressing.

The robots in Wall-E are not only non-human, but they don't talk like humans. In fact, they don't talk...though we can understand their thoughts thanks to superb animation and the noises by the sound guy.

Charlie Chaplin didnt talk. Buster Keaton didnt talk. But they were still able to create fully developed and emotionally deep characters. And Wall-E takes a lot of cues from them.

There was a good article in the Trib a couple weeks ago about the making of the movie, and the risk it represent for Pixar

Pixar's risky robot: Animator wants to make great, arty movies, not just kid stuff

Watching Pixar's new computer-animated "WALL

One of the big appeals of a fixed gear is it keeps your legs supple, and also develops a very efficient, fluid pedalling style (which is something sought by all cyclists). And as you develop strenth in your legs, you can actually tackle hills faster than you could before on a derailer.

The other appeal I find is that the maintenance is virtually nill. The ride is almost silent, and you don't have to worry about costly repairs (keeping the chain clean and oiled is about it). Fixies also allow you to have great control in rain or snow, because the braking power originates from your legs rather than friction on the wheel rims. They give you a great connection with the road.

you'd be surprised at how fast the human legs can turn. I've scraped 200 rpms. if you clipped out and let the pedals spin one would surely crash.

Thats why I've always been somewhat shocked at those who wear clipless pedals in a fixie...with no front brake.

Holy crap this is really really good! I wasn't planning on catching them on this tour, but after hearing the new album I went out and bought a ticket. I can already tell this will be on my year end best-of list.

I think their entire catalog is grade "A". By their own admittance, they are never going to tour again; but they may do some one-offs here and there. Isn't Kenny somehow affiliated with Broken Social Scene now? I vaguely remember reading words to that effect, which seems possible since SetFree was released on BSS's label, Arts&Crafts.

Yea, I do remember when I saw BSS touring behind Kevin Drew's album there was an AAS guy in the band and they played one of their songs as well.

The only album I have is From Our Living Room to Yours, but I love it. Perfect to just space out to.

My ride:

I still haven't made it through 12 Angry Months. The first few songs are pretty poor and I just haven't made the effort to get past them yet.

What?! No way..the beginning of the album is the strongest. One With Kid>Michelle>BMW Man>White Belt Boys= awesome. The album as a whole took me a while to come around to just because it was different than what I was used to. But Im really, really enjoying it now.

Did any of you get out to see Local H last week when they played all of their albums at the beat kitchen? How was it?

 

I got their new one, 12 angry months, and like it. It seems less like a local H album than I am used to.

 

Lastly, not being a musical elitist I have to say that I do like the Foxboro Hottubs album, that's Green Day by the way. It has a very garage band feel to it, and many of the songs could easily fit on the Nuggets box set. I think they pulled it off nicely.

I saw the shows for both Here Comes the Zoo and Whatever Happened to PJ Soles? HCTZ was fricking incredible. I'd kind of forgotten how amazing an album that is..its as hard hitting as they come and never really give you a chance to catch your breath. Guests performers all over the place that night (Wes Kidd, Simi from Suffrajett, etc). Brian St. Clair commented after the show that it was one of the most exhausting performances he'd ever done. Hearing What Would You Have Me Do live was nirvana...they dragged it out to 15 minutes too

Scott also joined the Tossers on stage for "Its a Long Way To The Top"

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=isYxDirtfQ8

And it was Scott's birthday, which was cool. They passed a flaming cake through the crowd up to the stage.

PJ Soles was kind of weak. I really like the album, but the crowd was pretty lame..a lot of people just standing around. But still cool to hear a lot of that stuff live, which they usually don't play (especially the title track. They really need to incorporate that back into their set). Buffalo Trace and Thats What They All Say are always good as well. I'd never been to the Beat Kitchen but I really enjoyed it...cool place.

Im actually kind of bummed I didnt make it out for 12 Angry Months night...that stuff looks even better live

White Belt Boys (With 3 drummers!)

BMW Man

The One With 'Kid'

24 Hour Breakup Session

I saw 3 or 4 semi-pro cameras set up every night, so I'm pretty sure all 7 shows will make it to DVD eventually.

Yeah i bike ride to Ravinia all the time. Its a nice venue to get cheap lawn seats to bands I only vaguely wish to hear while drinking cheap wine.

Hootie and the Blowfish this summer! lol

Pritzker Pavillion gets all the attention, but Charter One Pavillion isnt half bad (esp. considering its a temp venue)

Ravinia

Personally, it took me a long time to come around to. But at some point it "clicked" as others have mentioned. Its one of those things where you have to abandon the way you expect music to sound..especially on the production end. Kevin Sheilds whole thing was trying to create one, unified, androgynous, pulsing soundscape. Where vocals, guitar, and drum all blend and are treated equally to become one. The experience is akin to having a wave of sonic noise washing over you. And along with that theres still all sorts of subtlety and dynamics within it.

What I hear is a niche album for a very narrowly defined limited appeal niche.

Well sure. If you want to compare it to a fine wine, its probably not a bad comparison. A lot of people would just as well have Boones Farm and be happy. I'm not trying to sound elitist...but no you're not going to hear MBV on commercial radio, because for better or worse, most people arent going to "get" it. It just boils down to if its your thing or not. Hey, I dont for the life of me understand the love for Neutral Milk Hotel, although in many circles they're held as sacred.

But in any case, thus review pretty much sums up my feelings on the album:

http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/m/...-loveless.shtml

i saw them open for cut copy. disappointing in my book. sounded like they coudl have practiced a little bit more...

chicago is sold out according to XRT

I think yes.

Moreso than lots of stuff. Think about the band. Despite the bombast, there are a lot of subtleties to the songs -- a lot of nuance.

But with the hellacious acoustics in that cavernous space, you most-likely won;t even know what freaking song they're playing at all!

If you've viewed any of the live videos from their early 90s tour, its almost impossible to distinguish what song is playing...its just a lot of noise turned up to maximum volume. They were never know to be the most talented musicians either..they were just really good in the studio.

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WOO transaction complete! I will be at the Aragon in September. Anyone else going? (Shockingly there still appear to be a bunch of tickets still out there)

this album is a great introduction: