My Kingdom for a Suit of Armor and an Accompanying mobile Brass Band

Not your normal post but I sure do love it.

Friday Night at the Empty Bottle

The one, the only, Jens Lekman.
Katy took this picture and touched his hand. I may be jealous.

As you may or may not know I really like Jens Lekman (follow the hyperlink for more details or stand pat with the knowledge that he is the Swedish King of Pop). You also may or may not know that last weekend I was in Chicago, You probably don't know that Mr. Lekman was also in Chicago. Seeing as how I have previously stated that I would fly anywhere in the Western Hemisphere to see Mr. Lekman perform one can assume my trip to Chicago was centered around the show. It was.

Details of Chicago and what not will unfold in the next week or two, believe me I have the time. Wedding work has completed and the benevolent overlord is in Egypt being heavily guarded (Yes I know what benevolent means and for those of you thinking that A) I don't or B) that you the reader does not then here is the definition). But first I would like to share with you my Jens experience.

First I must admit I was not the most enthusiastic person in the room that goes to the girl standing to the right of Daniel, to you unknown Jens fan I award the "Superduper amazingingly into it fan" award, cherish it.

Second I despise live DJing and people who seem to think its quote: AMAZING! :end quote.

Second.5 It probably is not a good idea to drop some ecstasy and then come out and play cds as your set, and then try to continually open bottles of beer with your hands that can only be opened with an opener and then upon failing to open it you hand it to your DJ partner (i find that having a DJ partner is odd) so he can open it with his teeth x5. I know, I too heard my orthodontist crying somewhere in my brain (crying out of pleasure of the money he was about to make or out of pain I don't know).

A couple of inebriated Swedes

Thirdly if you don't know more than the word "skål" for it's respective language(s) please do not shout it at the top of your lungs while you drink PBR, have an awful mustache, wear tight pants, flanel and a terrible trucker hat. In fact just go back to the hell in which you crawled out of and stay there, i'm sure they have pointlessly made bikes there as well for you to ride, after all they are forms of torture. I mean really gears and breaks were invented to make riding a bike easier and painless yet you choose to forgo them????

Picture this concept applied to a car.

That's what I thought.

I digress....

4th I witnessed a woman typing with one hand on her iPhone, people like that (and people who have the "sent from my iPhone" signature) are people who should not have them. I should have them, but one will do.

Cincoth All this aside I really really really like Jens Lekman and when the show started I was no longer tired from only getting 3 hours sleep the night before nor was I mad about anything. I really enjoyed myself, to put it plainly. In my short career of shows I have never anticipated a moment quite like this one and it did not disappoint, complete with new music that I liked and which featured parts of Paul Simon songs ( I like Paul Simon) to every song I would have wanted to hear (save Happy Birthday Lisa).

You should have noticed by now I am very bad at conveying happiness and appreciation through words or speech. In my mind it's simple; I either liked it or I didn't, albeit it in varying degrees. If I don't like it I can tear it apart and stomp all over it (as seen at the upper part of this post). If I like it then I just do (with a "really" or two thrown in there). Sorry if it appears that I dreaded the evening, because I really really really enjoyed myself (I must have liked it because you just got a really cubed).

Stock Photo of an excited Kevin

Some Things

Just a few quick things;

1. I am back from Egypt
2. I put a new set of links up on the left side of the blog title "Upcoming Shows" which are the next bands/musicians I will be seeing. Seeing as how I always have show to go to I figured it would be something interesting to put up there. The name will probably change in the next couple of days, I just can not think of anything right now.
3. I'll write something about Egypt in the coming days, I just have a lot of work hours scheduled and a bunch of school work to catch up on so just bear with me.

Update

Can't believe I forgot this one, was the whole reason I was writing this post in the first place: Because I don't post everyday but the Little Grumblings are released nightly that means occasionally you get back to back posts of Little Grumblings. So to remedy this I have decided to combine any Little Grumblings posts that end up going back to back (2 or more in a row). If you use RSS I apologize that you get so many posts from me, I apologize even more if you have my RSS and follow me on Twitter. Sorry.

A Vampire & Bill Simmons Weekend

Bill Simmons listens to Vampire Weekend while he types up his columns. Is it a coincidence that I happen to like both him and Vampire Weekend on almost an equal level? I think not! Okay now I'm going to Egypt....

Encore!

If you enjoyed the Peter Murphy clip in Thursdays post, I now give you Peter Murphy singing Head Like A Hole, which I did not see live but a song I enjoy just as much if not more so. Sorry just the audio this time, so no you can't stare at Trent's sexy self.

On Encores, M. Ward and a Top Five

Two music posts in one day, you lucky dogs!

I pose a question to you the reader; when was the last time you went to a show (that was not a festival) and an encore did not occur? In my brief concert career I have never not witnessed an encore. It is just a forgone conclusion that barring a disaster of epic proportions that there will be an encore. Nothing short of the lead singer dropping dead is going to stop it. It has gotten to the point where the actual encore is not really an encore, it's just the second act of the overall show, if the crowd kept cheering after the house lights went up and then the band came back. That would be a real encore.

Anyway let's not dwell on negative thougths...onward to the show!

A couple thoughts:

- M. Ward is sneaky good on guitar. His albums do him no justice, you can not see the passion he puts into playing nor is the guitar as prominent on the album as it is at the show. His performance was by far the best I have seen on guitar out of any show I have seen. Having said that Katy pointed out that I may just not know what it means to be good on guitar. This is true, I don't and between M. Ward and Jack White, White is considered by most everyone to be the better guitarist and that is probably so, but what I witnessed was a far superior performance.

- The Somerville Theatre was a great venue to see a concert at. It was small enough that anywhere in the auditorium would have felt like an intimate setting. That and they had four Harpoon drafts on tap for $4 each!

I characterized it as a mini version of the Orpheum, too which Katy said "so it's a small version of very old theatre". Which I guess is true, but what I meant was it was a kind of unkempt theatre that is more geared towards affordable younger generation shows rather than The Wang, The Colonial and the like which are geared towards Broadway shows and ballet performances. And if that place serves beer during movies then it is the best place on earth.

It was a great show, it really was, and it got me thinking what is my Top 5 shows I have seen. Granted I haven't seen too many shows yet (13) but there is a clear distinction between my Top 5 and the rest. After I thought about it I came to the conclusion that there are two separate types of shows making up the top five which led me to break them down into two groups "The Unknown Show" and "The Show You Thought You Knew"

Top 5 Concerts (By type and in no real order)

Tier 1 - The Unknown Show

The premise, which I will elaborate on, of this tier is that your expectations going into the show were pretty much non-existent but you walked out in a daze of sorts.

M Ward - The Somerville Theatre

I first knew this show was going to be a good one when the opener closed with a great rendition of this song:



After they finished Katy mentioned that this is probably the only Beatles song I have ever heard live, and as big of a Beatles fan that I am that is slightly amazing.

Anyway going into this show I didn't expect much, to be honest I was kind of a little nervous that it was going to take away from my Spanish test today (which I aced!) and was only looking forward to a couple songs.

The result was anything but that, I completely forgot about Spanish, I got really into it; moving from side to side and playing the drums on the seat in front of me and if you know me that's not me. But the biggest thing is that I was left wanting more. Katy pointed this out when we were leaving the show and I think it correlates to the way I feel about really good books, you lose yourself in the show (not the hippy, I had an out of body experience moment, lose yourself but the I forgot what time it was lose yourself) like in a good book you forget the page numbers and when it ends it leave you thinking.

All in all there were a lot of unknown factors coming into the show that really ended up being great and not something that you could get from an album; M. Ward's guitar skills are more prominent on stage than in the studio, his band fits him, the band feeds off each others enthusiasm, they are not just playing the album onstage and the music lends itself to a good performance.

Those factors boil down to an amazing, and unfathomable to myself beforehand, experience.

Jamie Lidell I - The Paradise

Much like M. Ward I went into this show with little to know expectations and nothing but a overview of the artist and his work as a whole. I walked away from that show with not only a Jim T-Shirt that to this day makes people think my name is Jim but also with my first great concert experience.

Having listened to Jamie Lidell a few times going into the show I thought it would be a decent rock/pop show. What I got was a certified crazy man on stage with a band that consisted of a porn star complete with mustache, a rocket man complete with onsey zipup and Will Ferrell's character from old school. And they were all high, like really high.

Lidell was nothing like his album, he sang harder, louder and made all his songs longer. To top it off for the encore he came out with a TV set with spinning antennae on his head.

It was above and beyond anything I could imagine.

Tier 2 - The Show You Thought You Knew

These shows are best characterized as shows that I could sing along with every single word, and still I got more than I came for.

Jamie Lidell II - The Paradise
If drugged up, porn starring oafs with TV sets weren't enough the second show added bagpipes, a middle-aged Keith Richards looking guy, being the last show, a crazy little black woman who threw instruments around the set as the opener, and a Mr. Lidell out in the crowd.

Nine Inch Nails - DCU Center
Nothing could have made this show better in my mind going into it, I was prepared for an amazing mind blowing show. Well I was wrong, the lighting and visual presentation was more intense and technologically advanced than I thought possible. That and the guy sitting next to me gave his seat up for Katy (who had because the Egypt debacle and Trent's voice had to sell her ticket only to be able to go later with a lesser ticket) and I was introduced to the glory that is Peter Murphy singing Reptile:



Vampire Weekend - The Orpheum
I have been enjoying Vampire Weekend for over a year now and for the majority of said year not many things would have made me as happy as seeing Vampire Weekend live, nothing could make the experience more enjoyable then just being there. Oh contrare monfrare! Having a bunch of drunk kids who thought they were seeing a bunch of Vampires performing sitting in front of you makes it more enjoyable.



Next show will be Of Montreal at the Paradise in April, that show should be real interesting.

Music of the Day: Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

I have been listening to Jens and this album for over a year now, but as of late it is all I have been listening to. Jens sings about posing as a boyfriend of a lesbian for her fathers benefit, getting his hair cut by a tax evading hairdresser, drive in bingo games, and leaving women because he does not love them. All on one album!

He is currently the only artist I know of outside of Rap & Hip Hop to reference Warren G's song Regulate in a song.

I have become slightly obsessed with Jens as of late, checking for any news or signs of a tour. It has gotten to the point that if Jens was to have a show somewhere in the Western Hemisphere I would fly there. And I'm dead serious when I say that.

Unfortunately he has been suffering from depression for the past year or so and has not been touring nor creating at all and he lives in Australia. Some day I will see him I'm sure.

I leave you with a acoustic version of my favorite song, A Postcard to Nina. It takes a minute to get going.

Music of the Day: Red, Yellow & Blue - Born Ruffians

First of all I want to address a common misconception about this series of posts, it does not mean Music of the Day in the literal sense, I will not be posting daily. It means it in a figurative sense, more like "Music of the Moment".

Now in my last music post I mentioned how Red, Yellow & Blue by Born Ruffians

It is safe to say that I am slightly obsessed with this album almost as obsessed as I was a year ago when I was introduced to Vampire Weekend. And in a way like Vampire Weekend I just like the feel of the album, from song to song I just like it, no real reason to describe it. It puts me in a good mood and makes me want to sing along and bop to the beat (sorry for the visualization there, if you need medical attention please stop reading and go get some).

Now days after I started listening I checked to see when when and if they are coming to Boston. Much to my dismay it said that they came to Boston on October 29th (the day before my birthday and the Of Montreal Show! Damn it all!) so it appears as if they won't be coming back any time soon. Sad.

But not as sad as I was when Katy listened to them and told me that the lead singer sounded like the lead singer of Saves The Day. At first I thought this was just a dig at me, but she is right, he does, and I really don't like Saves the Day. I couldn't justify the difference in why I like one over the other, I thought I had finally been proven to like emo music, and ironically I felt like an emo kid at that moment (all I wanted was to look like a sad kitten!) Then I remembered the Born Ruffians sing happy songs and not depressing, I want to kill myself music like, their much less talented colleagues Saves The Day.

Plus they are Canadian, and I like Canadians (not to be mistaken with Canadiens, who I despise). They like hockey and I like hockey. Which means they aren't from New Jersey (take that!).


Hat Tip: John Strubing

Three Things I Learned Today

1. Paul McCartney needs to stop making music.

2. Bob Dylan needs to stop making music.

3. And Bruce Springsteen forgot how to write lyrics that make sense.

Music of the Day: Medusa - Annie Lennox

New feature here! I listen to music a lot, and usually the specific artist comes in spurts and gets played a few times a day or week and the just peters out and isn't heard for a while. Some make it into the normal rotation, like Red, Yellow & Blue by Born Ruffians did. Others can just be nostalgic listens like today's post.

Before you start questioning my manliness let me explain. As a child I loved to play with toy cars on the window sills in my living room. For my mother this was awesome, because it left her to do what she needed to do (namely deal with my brother Brian who was not as independent as myself) all the while listening to her feminist music. I never realized until fairly recently how much female empowering music I was subjected to as a child; K.D. Lang, Bonnie Rait, Sinead O'Conner, Joni Mitchell and of course Annie Lennox.

A particular album sticks out in my mind when I reminisce about yesteryear, that album being Medusa by Annie Lennox. Besides having a cover of my favorite Clash song (Train In Vain) Medusa brings with it a hard hitting feminist style that I think subconciously put the fear of God (rather my mother) in me as a young child. The more I think about it I don't know if my mom actually liked that music as much as it was a form a psychological warfare. Regardless I know every word of every song Medusa and poor Mumkin (our cat) was privy to many examples last night and this morning.

I don't see this one making it into the rotation anytime soon but rather coming out when I'm alone and feel like I need a heavy dose of 80's early 90's female empowerment.

Some Thanks

I would like to thank McKenna for linking me in her guest blog post about the Vampire Weekend show that she and I happened to both attend. My original post can be found here.

McKenna should start posting again in January at her on blog, mckBLOG.



And yes I posted alot today even though I did not have the ability to do so for half the day. How? I have my ways.

We Want Vampire Blood!

This Sunday I got to see Vampire Weekend at the Orpheum. I really, really, really like Vampire Weekend, and I don't think I could stress that enough. I like their slight African style and it makes me think of Paul Simon (who I aslo really like) when I hear them. I am incredibly happy that I got to see them live and the show ranks up there as far as my favorite shows (NIN still wins out though). But that's not why I'm writing this post because hell I'm no music critic, nor am I good at stressing why I like things or what they compare to. What I am good at is observing and commenting on life. In other words, I'm a life critic. So here goes.

To start I got to go to the show with Daniel, my former room mate from Belgium, who was the first person to turn me on to Vampire Weekend (something I can not thank you enough for Daniel). Anyway I'm very excited and it appears Daniel is as well, and it is fucking freezing out, I mean nose fall off your face cold.

We show up to the Orpheum and there are scalpers outside selling tickets, which is funny to me because these guys are 40 and probably have no idea what kind of show is going on inside. I comment to Daniel that they probably think its a Vampire show springing from the love of Twilight and True Blood.

Side Note: I work at Borders (details of which will come, I promise) and we have the trailer of Twilight running up at the registers all day. Really predictable storyline is all I will say.

After seeing the scalpers and talking about them we proceed inside. First order of business: buy a beer. Well last time we were at the Orpheum Daniel had the gaul to bring his Texas issued drivers license, acceptable at most drinking establishments as a form of ID, but apparently not the Orpheum. This time he came prepared, he brought his US passport accepted by every country on the planet as proof that he is who he says he is. Here is how I recollect the transaction going down.

Beer Gremlin: "Not so fast Mr. Slomka! Do you have a back up?"

Our Hero: "For my Federally Issued ID, accepted by all as the be all end all form of identification?"

Beer Gremlin: "I must have a backup!"

Our Hero: "I've gotten into Europe on an expired visa with this thing and you won't give me a fucking beer?"

Beer Gremlin: "I must have my precious second ID!"

Our Hero: "Do you think I faked a passport, which is a federal crime, to get a beer as opposed to getting a fake MA ID which would probably get me in far less trouble?"

Beer Gremlin: "Give me the ID!"

Our Hero produces his Texas ID and receives his Miller Lite.

Beer Gremlin: "That will be $9."

Our Hero: "First you call me a liar and now you rob me?"

With that dialogue (which may or may not be completely truthful) over with (I mean really $9 Miller Lite?) we move to our seats. Our seats which turn out to be in the last row of the balcony (not a bad seat though). We get to our seats just in time for the opener Black Kids (who really were not too bad, I recommend them if you like Vampire Weekend) Daniel and I decide to stand because sitting is not an option (legs won't fit) and we are in the last row so we can stand on our seats and lean against the back wall (that is why the seats were not too bad).

Well about 5 minutes later these two humongous guys (football players at one point, clearly) and their girlfriends (dressed a bit too nice in my opinion) waltz in, they proceed to dance in place and make out for the rest of the current song. That and one of the girls insists that Daniel and I chug our $9 Miller Lites which I respond with a "Not happening honey" to which she does that frowny face that girls do when they want you to do something, a face that they think makes them look cute, I choose to tell her instead that I paid $9 for a shitty beer that will not be chugged, she then turns around and makes out with her boyfriend the Ogre.

As the song goes "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong" these 4 did not belong here. If you didn't already know most Indie kids and people who like Indie bands look like Daniel and myself; skinny, with tight jeans, tight shirts and we don't work out much. These people were far from that. The guys clearly spent more time in a gym than most other places, had the classic preppy jock attire of Khakis and a button up and had the normal stupid smirk on their face. The girls were dressed like they should be at a club with dresses and lots of jewelry. Let it be known that they were not your normal Vampire Weekend fans by any stretch of the imagination.

Well Black Kids finishes up a song and is talking to the crowd a bit about the next song and at this moment Ogre 1 & 2 decide to heckle the band shouting "We want Vampire!" "Give me Dracula!" "I want vampire Blood" "Play some Dave!". Everyone in our section is cracking up, I mean who heckles the opener? Who pays attention enough to heckle the opener? They keep doing this for a few songs, as well as one of the girls keeps telling Daniel and I to keep drinking and to stop texting our girlfriends. She then proceeds to call me a pussy for not taking shots before the show (I was at work and yeah I hate shots). Then the boys left to do something (maybe give some poor indie kid a swirly) and at this point the girl who is not giving me shit (she has moved on to the guys next to us) tells me that they actually have no idea who Vampire Weekend is (shocker!) and bought their tickets for $5 each (saddening because I paid $15) because they thought it would be cool. To which I replied

"You do realize Vampire Weekend has nothing to do with Vampires right?"

Not as drunk girl: "Oh, no I didn't"

Me: "They are an Indie band from Columbia University in NY"

Drunk Girl: "So daddy paid for their college?"

Me: "No, I think they might just be that smart to get in there"

Drunk Girl: "So daddy paid for your college?"

Unfortunately Papa Doyle will not be covering the whole tab and I currently have three jobs, which I tell the drunk girl.

At which point the Ogres come back and join the conversation.

Not as drunk girl: "So who are they like?"

As I said earlier, I'm not good at comparing bands or critiquing them, not to mention these poor souls won't know anyone I mention so I say a few bands (Ra Ra Riot, Tokyo Police Club) names that I know come up in the What.cd artist web and then hope they will just think I'm stupid and then stop asking me questions. No, no they don't stop.

Not as drunk girl: "Can you name some more mainstream bands?"

Ogre #2: "Yeah like OAR?"

Ok let's stop it there for a second. Combined with the Dave comment earlier, this question if Vampire Weekend is like OAR just rubbed me the wrong way. I have no problem with OAR, they sound good, I just don't care for them Same with Dave, just not my cup of tea. The thing is, everyone likes Dave and OAR, if you aren't big into music you like Dave and OAR, all jocks like them, all preppy kids, everyone. And on top of that their fans love to insist that their shows are the best on Earth and "How can you not like them?! They are ssssooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!"

You know why I don't like them? Because you people insist that I should and act like these mediocre bands (yeah I said it) are amazing and everyone should like them. I don't want to bash your music taste, whatever makes you happy fine, but please don't insult my choice of a concert in a couple thousand seat concert hall, which you were able to scalp tickets for for $5 by asking me if they are anything like OAR a band that sells out 15k seat venues all over the country. No sir, I think my taste is a little more defined than Dave and OAR (on second read that sounds really bad. Let me clarify: I don't think Vampire Weekend is better than other bands nor do I think I'm better because I like them what I am trying to say is I try to find what I like in the music world and don't just settle on something that is easy to listen to. I pick a band because they get me going, put a smile on my face and make me want to move around, not just give me something to talk about when the subject of music comes around).

Well after that they left, ironically because of the Orpheum Gestapo and their drinking policy which wouldn't let them get their $9 Miller Lites. After their departure all of us in the section started laughing about them and talking about how happy we were to be at the show.

As for the show. Great show. Vampire Weekend is a bunch of goofy geeks up on stage who haven't gotten over the fact that people actually like their music yet. The venue was great (a little hot though) all the fans new every word and were belting them out, the place was rocking (literally, Daniel and I were a bit worried) which I would like to say I have never experienced.

In other words, I had a great time listening to a great band. I highly recommend them, check out their myspace, buy the album (or steal it) just give it a listen. No they don't sound like Dave or OAR, no they don't dress like vampires (dress more like college professors) and no you don't have to like them. But if you do, great. Learn the lyrics and next time they come by your city go to a show and sing along.