Wanna see a show tonight that promises not only interesting, experimental indie-rock but the real potential for mayhem and broken/twisted/maimed body parts?  Then check out Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death -- the trio that features ex-Murder City Devils frontman Spencer Moody as well as Dann Gallucci (ex-MCD/Modest Mouse) -- over at the Rendezvous.  I saw them a couple of weeks ago at the Crocodile (check out the audio slideshow in my Feb. 10th posting) and it was pretty fuckin' over-the-top by set's end.

On the Road with The Long Winters Part Tres!  

John Roderick in Espana. . .

We crossed into Spain through Andorra, the tiny country high up in the Pyrenees mountains. At the top of the pass our little van chugged to a crawl- pissing off a few Porche drivers- high enough to look down on the French ski resorts to our north. Barcelona was our first stop, an unseasonably warm February day.

God , Spain is wonderful for a rock band. Every night the fans came out in droves. Madrid was a madhouse, made all the crazier by the Real Madrid/Bayern Munchen football game happening in the stadium a few blocks from the club. You've never known fear until you've been surrounded by German soccer fans all dressed like the Cat in the Hat. The morning after the Madrid show we taped an appearance for national television, playing six songs on a sound stage that was built in the early seventies for the fascist version of Laugh-In. Then a series of increasingly madcap shows, in Valencia, Huesca, and Bilbao. At the Bilbao show, which we played with the Datsuns, dinner was a steaming plate of beef tongue. Hooray!

 More John after the jump!

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Took in Scorsese's Last Waltz on DVD last night. It was late. I was tired and laying on my couch overlooking Puget Sound. Typically, DVD+Tired Mike+ Puget Sound Couch=Sleepytime. What a miscalculation: I'd forgotten what a scorching live band The Band were, consistently propelled into orbit by Robbie Robertson's ingeniously spastic guitar solos. Plus I'd forgotten how coked out the who's-who roster of guest musicians was during The Band's 1976 farewell concert at San Francisco's Winterland Theatre, which made for great eye candy. I stayed up for the entire 117 minutes and was so jacked up afterwards (from the music, not the coke) that I watched a featurette on the doc's making before retiring at approximately 1 a.m.

But here's my question, somewhat related to Rolling Stone's recent cover proclaiming morons like John Mayer as the "new guitar gods": As it relates to real guitar gods like Clapton, Hendrix, Page, Betts, Garcia and the like, where does Robbie Robertson rank? Side-by-side or a notch or two below this pantheon? Watching him trade licks with Clapton during the film, I'd say he's right there. Whaddy'all think?

It appears that I'm not the only one who got shut out from buying tix to The Police's mega reunion tour.

More than 400,000 tickets have been sold and all 16 stops currently on sale are completely sold out, including the June 6 stopover at KeyArena. Lucky for us, they added a June 7 at the Key. On-sale dates have yet to be announced but, a word to the wise: Don't wait for the public on-sale. I tried to buy my tickets less than two hours after the public on-sale with no luck. Then I noticed there were several pre-sales through the fan club and Best Buy. Get into one of those if you want to catch the show.

But, for those of us who are undoubtedly going to miss the  show, all we'll have of the reunion is their opening at the Grammys.

 

 

 

Here's the new Modest Mouse video for Dashboard- it features Isaac as a white-bearded fisherman swapping tall tales with some other old white bearded dudes that look like they're in some old dive bar in Ballard.  It's an Old Man and the Sea style tale that turns into futuristic creature battle and impromptu Mouse performance in a fantastical setting that doesn't look unlike the set from the crazy Grizzly Bear "Knife" video.  What do you think?

Well, the Arthur weirdness continued over the weekend. A story appeared in the LA Times on Friday, illustrating the widening rift between editor Jay Babcock and publisher Laris Kreslin. Here's the link to that particular story. Laris' note to Arthur readers was also made available today, suggesting further weirdness. Either way, it looks like Babcock will no longer be involved in the free zine.More >>

Did anyone else read yesterday's New York Times piece on the making of the Stooges' new record? Were you as amazed as I was to find out Iggy was into making lists and being organized? I don't intend for that to sound snarky. It really is intriguing that the guy is into prioritizing and multi-tasking. Has anyone heard the new record, The Weirdness, in its entirety?

Click the photo for an audio slideshow. Photos by Michael Alan Goldberg.

Brightblack Morning Light, with Mariee Sioux and Women and Children
Date: February 24, 2007
Venue: The Triple Door

As the dinner plates clinked and the two-thirds capacity crowd settled into the curved banquettes of the swanky Triple Door, the three hippies of wandering slo-jam combo Brightblack Morning Light took the stage — which was decorated only with vintage gear and, at the front, a bundle of large sticks propped up in teepee shape — and eased their way into an hour-long set that consisted of about five songs.

The math tells you that each number was lengthy — meandering, hypnotizing, trippy, too. Every tune was more of a sigh than a statement; Rachael "Rabob" Hughes' Fender Rhodes piano constructing the gauziest of grooves with the drummer's subdued, malleted thumps, while Nathan "Nabob" Shineywater's muted guitar melodies were like underwater mating calls to psychedelic whales. His vocals were drowsy, cobwebby; when he and Hughes harmonized it was a thing of beauty, rendered even more divine by the Triple Door's pristine sound system. (The rare times Shineywater did address the crowd between songs, it was in a stoner's croak -- at one point, he called for the release of imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier; another time, he mumbled something about hanging out after the show with anyone who had some reefer.)

The vibe of the set was so mellow, in fact, that the very sporadic moments of aggressiveness in the music -- a solid floor-tom smack, a forceful finger on a key, a strongly picked guitar string -- were like thunderclaps during a gentle summer rainshower, sudden and fleeting. As laid-back as the sonics they were presented with, the audience responded warmly, if not overly enthusiastically, to each song.

Of course, one person's "This is as boring as C-SPAN" is another person's "Dude, I'm totally blissed out," which was epitomized by the couple sitting next to me — curled up in her chair, she had dozed off, while he stared, glassy eyed, into his pint of expensive Belgian beer, an odd half-smile on his face.

As for the openers, solo-girl-with-guitar Mariee Sioux was captivating in her own odd,

More from the Long Winters European Vacation!  Just in time for the weekend!

 

Jonathan Rothman updates us from Spain amidst the chaos of Spanish futbol. . .

 

Madrid was the second show in Spain.  The night before we played Barcelona.  It was a wonderful reunion with old friends so we didn't get much sleep before setting off for Madrid.  An 11am departure became 1pm and the 1 hour lunch break didn't help things much.  Add to that the soccer game between Madrid and Bayer Munich that was taking place 5 blocks from the club.  When the traffic started 20 kilometers from the city, we realized we'd be lucky to make it to the venue by 9pm.  But even the traffic didn't prepare me for the scene around the stadium.  You've probably heard that Europeans like soccer.  When there's a soccer game in Spain, the entire country pays attention.  And parking congestion isn't going to stop them from attending a game in their city.  How does the city solve the problem of having a stadium that seats 100,000 and no parking lots?  Ah... they don't.  It's every Spaniard for themselves - they park on medians, curbs, even in the middle of the street.   It was a fun scene to navigate.  A lot of jerks driving 5 km/hour looking for a spot, hordes of pedestrians walking out in the streets cars and traffic signals be damned, horns, horns, and more horns. 

 

More after the jump!

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Seattle can welcome another independent record label to it's ranks: Aviation Records. Kerry Zettel (Das Llamas, See Me River) and Steve King (Weird Lords, New Luck Toy) have struck out on their own and have a decent sized roster to show for it already- including Archives- the new project of Mat Brook (Carisa's Weird, BOH), former New Mexican Jeff Montano, Curtis Hall (aka DJ Curtis) and Ron Lewis (Fruit Bats, Ghost Stories). Joining them is Loving Thunder, Weird Lords and more.  We wish them luck, for as DJ Cherry Canoe so eloquently noted in her myspace posting about the label, " having worked at a record label for many years, and briefly dabbled in one of my own. . . i can say that it is a venture filled with heartache, lost money, and lots of shitty demos that you would rather shove up your ass than be forced to listen to."