Oil Can Boyd

New Pornographers

Juliana Hatfield Three

Saw her last night opening for (and then playing with) Richard Thompson and she was fantastic.

Are you going both nights?

Richard Thompson

Bummed that I'm passing on this. Just sold my tickets to a friend because I'm feeling pretty crappy.

If you like the new album, the show is great. As you may know, for this tour they are playing songs 1-25 of the 50 Song Memoir on the fist night and songs 26-50 on the second night. It feels a little more like a Stephin Merritt solo show than past Magnetic Fields tours in that he has a bigger new band (with only Sam Davol and Shirley Simms as holdovers) and Merritt is more at the center of the stage.

I do - but I am a big Merritt fan. It doesn't have the range of styles of something like 69 Love Songs - and he sings all 50 songs - so it can start to blend together if you are listening to it straight through. But it is also autobiographical and more personal than anything else he has done so it is interesting to get that insight into his life.

The Magnetic Fields (night 1 of 2)

J Geils found dead in his home: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/guitarist-j-geils-dead-at-71-w476279

Lambchop

Ha - yes! Including singing "a ship without a rudder is like a ship without a rudder" in the middle of their first song ...

Tim - do you know who the woman was singing back-up with Dando? It was incredibly awkward for that half-song because she kept asking him if she should stay on stage and he wouldn't answer then he played that Jayhawks song.

At the Paradise (in Boston).

Benefit for the ACLU with Bill Janovitz, Gravel Pit, Evan Dando, Belly, Juliana Hatfield, and Nada Surf

Wow - that should be awesome. Please report back ...

And apparently Al Kooper is going to sit in for a few songs ... !

Yes! Are you shooting or just enjoying? And it's Hitchcock's birthday too so maybe we can get the crowd to sing happy birthday.

Robyn Hitchcock

I really like the two versions of In Between. The electric rave-up version is them at their VU best.

New Feelies!

It does beg the question: what are other four?

I'm a big fan of that record.