Internet Hibernation

Things have been pretty hectic at work and I haven't had much Internet time. For this I apologize and I feel it sorely.

Friday night I went to see Interpol at the crappy Aragon Ball Room. I had this weird flashback to seeing Jesus Jones there back in the day. I also remembered very distinctly a how I felt so social there at the time. I was in high school and there were a bunch of people there I knew. It was pretty fun. It sort of brought me back to that time. This time however, I ran into several customers from my store, which was kind of neat. Sort of a more adult experience to be sure. Unfortunately, I had to miss Washington D.C. band, Q and not U, because I was working. I guess since I've never seen them live, though, that this wasn't the best venue in which to introduce me to them live.

Here is an audblog of most of the song "Slow Hands." I recorded it for JF, as it is his favorite Interpol song and because he's special.

The following night I went to see Make Believe at The Bottom Lounge. Make Believe is the newest incarnation of Cap'n Jazz, one of my favorite bands from the 90's. Tim Kinsella looked pretty much the same except now he smokes, sports long messy hair, and wore this crazy Jim Morrison-like shirt. The bassist and guitarist I'm pretty sure are original to Cap'n Jazz, though the drummer was definitely not Mike Kinsella. Of this I was a little disappointed. I always thought Mike was a phenomenal drummer, though this guy held his own pretty well. Standing next to me and JF in the audience were these guys around my age who seemed to be as much reliving a Cap'n Jazz show as I was. It was pretty great. The one guy had the 90's emo dance moves down just right and it was a little contagious. I guess it was a weekend of semi-nostalgia in that I was revisiting old things with new twists.

Opening for Make Believe was a band called Ume. They were dangerously close to sounding like early Sonic Youth. But I didn't care. The singer/guitarist also slightly resembled Kim Gordon. Though the bassist did not really look like Thurston Moore, the two of them had matching wedding bands on, and their cd sleeve (yes, I bought a CD) indicated that they shared last names. Weird. Anyway, they had a lot of the punk rawness of early Sonic Youth but I think her Guitar skills weren't quite on par with Moore's. All in all, though, I liked them a lot and would see them again.

Speaking of nostalgia, though, the singer reminded me/looks a lot like this girl I knew in high school. Interestingly, I'd just bumped into her profile on Friendster like early last week, so it kinda freaked me out.

I went CD shopping yesterday for the first time in about forever. Here's my list of new acquisitions, including the two I picked up from the show.

• Azita : Life on the Fly [C-] (I had thought this was going to be weirder, so I gave it the benefit of doubt that my preconceptions soured my opinion, but I almost feel like this was a D+. I'm not sure, but I think this is the same Azita who used to date Elliot, the sound guy from Fireside. She also used to be in the band The Scissor Girls back in the nineties who were this riotous noisy riot grrrl band. This cd was all about mellow folksy stuff. Azita matured? Maybe it's not actually her. I mean, how many Azita's can there be?


• Isotope 217 : The Unstable Molecule [B] (I first heard them off some comp and every time I've heard that song, "Kryptonite Smokes the Red Line," on my iPod list, I've loved it. The other tracks on this album aren't quite as good as that one, but I still like it tremendously. Sort of a nu-jazz kind of thing.)


• Make Believe : self-titled [A-] (What can I say, I'm a sucker for Tim Kinsella and crazy dissonant guitar and arpeggios and finger tapping. I felt a little jipped when I realized there were only 5 songs and I paid a full $10, though. Bitches.)


• Ume : Urgent Sea [C+] (Liked it but didn't love it. As I said, hints of Sonic Youth, but only Sonic Youth can do Sonic Youth. Listening to the CD, I was reminded of the one most annoying thing about her singing style, and that's that she often followed her guitar too closely. It always strikes me as amateurish when a singer follows the guitar during the entire chorus or verse and she did this quite a bit. I still liked her voice and the overall energy though.)


• Camera Obscura : I love My Jean (not yet rated)


• Laurie Anderson : Life on a String (not yet rated)


• Sonic Youth : NYC Ghosts and Flowers (not yet rated)


• Cheer Accident : Introducing Lemon (not yet rated)(been wanting to check this out for a while)


• The Beta Band : The Three E.P.s (not yet rated)


• The Detachment Kit : Of This Blood (not yet rated)

I'm pretty excited about all this new music. I've had a good day today of starting to listen to it.