I know — it’s Tuesday night and you don’t feel like doing anything. All the weekend holiday parties have worn you out and you just want to get home to hand out treats to a bunch of greedy little fuckers dressed as Darth Vader, and their nerdy fathers dressed as Spider-Man. “It’s for my sick kid at home,” yeah right.
I mentioned this show briefly last Friday, but I must insist again that you attend. I hope by now you’ve seen The Questions and Siddhartha before — both are bands I’ve recommended at one time or another, and both give live performances you won’t forget, but I’ve got to assume you’ve never seen Freer. You need to see Freer. The three of these bands together on the same night is going to be rad. I admit I’ve never seen Friends of Dennis Wilson or Bird Dogs, but the fact that they’re on the same bill leads me to believe I’m going to be impressed. There’s also a whole bunch of other Halloween and magic-type activities going on to celebrate(?) the death of Harry Houdini. So go, yo. And wear a slutty costume. 

“Hello to all of you fellow pirates, who have downloaded and stolen our latest album, who have listened with bleeding ears to what you should have never heard, who have taken what is rightfully ours, seized our precious things with rapacious, grubby hands, despoiled the sanctity of our hallowed artifacts and raped the sacred effigy of our trust.”
I wonder if the welcoming message on …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead’s website would have been any different if, I don’t know…the new album had maybe gotten one good review. I love when bands complain about people wanting to listen to their music. Shouldn’t that be your goal, as a musician? Grow up. Evolve. Stop whining. Half your audience wouldn’t have discovered you without teh googleweb anyway.

Trail of Dead is playing the Majestic Saturday night with Blood Brothers, a band who I’ve missed time after time. Unforch, Electric Six is playing the same night so I’ll be missing them yet again. If you’ll be at E6, but still want to see Trail of Dead — they’re playing an acoustic in-store set and signing at Rock-A-Billy’s in Utica, wherever the fuck Utica is. It hasn’t been advertised, and isn’t even listed on Rock-A-Billy’s site, but my blogger membership card allows me special inside information. The performance is scheduled for 3pm, so line up now. And tell them I said to grow up, evolve and stop whining.

There’s a great interview with The Hold Steady at Tiny Mix Tapes. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll appreciate it — and if you’re one of those people who’s still wondering why everyone’s talking about them, you may learn something.

I know — it’s Tuesday night and you don’t feel like doing anything. All the weekend holiday parties have worn you out and you just want to get home to hand out treats to a bunch of greedy little fuckers dressed as Darth Vader, and their nerdy fathers dressed as Spider-Man. “It’s for my sick kid at home,” yeah right.
I mentioned this show briefly last Friday, but I must insist again that you attend. I hope by now you’ve seen The Questions and Siddhartha before — both are bands I’ve recommended at one time or another, and both give live performances you won’t forget, but I’ve got to assume you’ve never seen Freer. You need to see Freer. The three of these bands together on the same night is going to be rad. I admit I’ve never seen Friends of Dennis Wilson or Bird Dogs, but the fact that they’re on the same bill leads me to believe I’m going to be impressed. There’s also a whole bunch of other Halloween and magic-type activities going on to celebrate(?) the death of Harry Houdini. So go, yo. And wear a slutty costume. 

“Hello to all of you fellow pirates, who have downloaded and stolen our latest album, who have listened with bleeding ears to what you should have never heard, who have taken what is rightfully ours, seized our precious things with rapacious, grubby hands, despoiled the sanctity of our hallowed artifacts and raped the sacred effigy of our trust.”
I wonder if the welcoming message on …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead’s website would have been any different if, I don’t know…the new album had maybe gotten one good review. I love when bands complain about people wanting to listen to their music. Shouldn’t that be your goal, as a musician? Grow up. Evolve. Stop whining. Half your audience wouldn’t have discovered you without teh googleweb anyway.

Trail of Dead is playing the Majestic Saturday night with Blood Brothers, a band who I’ve missed time after time. Unforch, Electric Six is playing the same night so I’ll be missing them yet again. If you’ll be at E6, but still want to see Trail of Dead — they’re playing an acoustic in-store set and signing at Rock-A-Billy’s in Utica, wherever the fuck Utica is. It hasn’t been advertised, and isn’t even listed on Rock-A-Billy’s site, but my blogger membership card allows me special inside information. The performance is scheduled for 3pm, so line up now. And tell them I said to grow up, evolve and stop whining.

There’s a great interview with The Hold Steady at Tiny Mix Tapes. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll appreciate it — and if you’re one of those people who’s still wondering why everyone’s talking about them, you may learn something.

I know — it’s Tuesday night and you don’t feel like doing anything. All the weekend holiday parties have worn you out and you just want to get home to hand out treats to a bunch of greedy little fuckers dressed as Darth Vader, and their nerdy fathers dressed as Spider-Man. “It’s for my sick kid at home,” yeah right.
I mentioned this show briefly last Friday, but I must insist again that you attend. I hope by now you’ve seen The Questions and Siddhartha before — both are bands I’ve recommended at one time or another, and both give live performances you won’t forget, but I’ve got to assume you’ve never seen Freer. You need to see Freer. The three of these bands together on the same night is going to be rad. I admit I’ve never seen Friends of Dennis Wilson or Bird Dogs, but the fact that they’re on the same bill leads me to believe I’m going to be impressed. There’s also a whole bunch of other Halloween and magic-type activities going on to celebrate(?) the death of Harry Houdini. So go, yo. And wear a slutty costume. 

“Hello to all of you fellow pirates, who have downloaded and stolen our latest album, who have listened with bleeding ears to what you should have never heard, who have taken what is rightfully ours, seized our precious things with rapacious, grubby hands, despoiled the sanctity of our hallowed artifacts and raped the sacred effigy of our trust.”
I wonder if the welcoming message on …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead’s website would have been any different if, I don’t know…the new album had maybe gotten one good review. I love when bands complain about people wanting to listen to their music. Shouldn’t that be your goal, as a musician? Grow up. Evolve. Stop whining. Half your audience wouldn’t have discovered you without teh googleweb anyway.

Trail of Dead is playing the Majestic Saturday night with Blood Brothers, a band who I’ve missed time after time. Unforch, Electric Six is playing the same night so I’ll be missing them yet again. If you’ll be at E6, but still want to see Trail of Dead — they’re playing an acoustic in-store set and signing at Rock-A-Billy’s in Utica, wherever the fuck Utica is. It hasn’t been advertised, and isn’t even listed on Rock-A-Billy’s site, but my blogger membership card allows me special inside information. The performance is scheduled for 3pm, so line up now. And tell them I said to grow up, evolve and stop whining.

There’s a great interview with The Hold Steady at Tiny Mix Tapes. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll appreciate it — and if you’re one of those people who’s still wondering why everyone’s talking about them, you may learn something.

I know — it’s Tuesday night and you don’t feel like doing anything. All the weekend holiday parties have worn you out and you just want to get home to hand out treats to a bunch of greedy little fuckers dressed as Darth Vader, and their nerdy fathers dressed as Spider-Man. “It’s for my sick kid at home,” yeah right.
I mentioned this show briefly last Friday, but I must insist again that you attend. I hope by now you’ve seen The Questions and Siddhartha before — both are bands I’ve recommended at one time or another, and both give live performances you won’t forget, but I’ve got to assume you’ve never seen Freer. You need to see Freer. The three of these bands together on the same night is going to be rad. I admit I’ve never seen Friends of Dennis Wilson or Bird Dogs, but the fact that they’re on the same bill leads me to believe I’m going to be impressed. There’s also a whole bunch of other Halloween and magic-type activities going on to celebrate(?) the death of Harry Houdini. So go, yo. And wear a slutty costume. 

“Hello to all of you fellow pirates, who have downloaded and stolen our latest album, who have listened with bleeding ears to what you should have never heard, who have taken what is rightfully ours, seized our precious things with rapacious, grubby hands, despoiled the sanctity of our hallowed artifacts and raped the sacred effigy of our trust.”
I wonder if the welcoming message on …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead’s website would have been any different if, I don’t know…the new album had maybe gotten one good review. I love when bands complain about people wanting to listen to their music. Shouldn’t that be your goal, as a musician? Grow up. Evolve. Stop whining. Half your audience wouldn’t have discovered you without teh googleweb anyway.

Trail of Dead is playing the Majestic Saturday night with Blood Brothers, a band who I’ve missed time after time. Unforch, Electric Six is playing the same night so I’ll be missing them yet again. If you’ll be at E6, but still want to see Trail of Dead — they’re playing an acoustic in-store set and signing at Rock-A-Billy’s in Utica, wherever the fuck Utica is. It hasn’t been advertised, and isn’t even listed on Rock-A-Billy’s site, but my blogger membership card allows me special inside information. The performance is scheduled for 3pm, so line up now. And tell them I said to grow up, evolve and stop whining.

There’s a great interview with The Hold Steady at Tiny Mix Tapes. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll appreciate it — and if you’re one of those people who’s still wondering why everyone’s talking about them, you may learn something.

The Rapture was better than I expected Saturday night. I think they only played five songs from the new album – the rest was Echoes and pre-Echoes material which, in my homo opinion, is much better. The venue was only about a quarter full, but the crowd was really into singing and dancing along, and that got the band even more into the show. There's a bit of shitty YouTube-quality footage of them performing the title track from Echoes here. I kinda wish I'd stayed up in the balcony to capture Luke jumping off the stage and singing his way through the crowd during their performance of Olio. But I didn't.  We left St. Andrews and went to a real dance party — ZDP3. There were more people here than at The Rapture, and everyone was Halloween-ed out in costumes. It was more than just three really good bands playing, there were dance contests, horror-film trivia competitions, two short films — it was impressively organized into more of a Halloween party than a "concert". The night in (blurry) photos:
Great Lakes Myth Society. Amazing, as usual. I think they played some new stuff. Either that, or I just didn't recognize a couple of the songs. But they do have that new album coming out, so…    
Impostors of the Deep Society. They only play once a year because getting this group of musicians on stage all at once is some sort of health risk. Chad and Keith from Johnny Headband, Steve and Jimmy from The Beggars, Tony from The Muggs and Jonny Belmont (who makes a very convincing Danny Methric). See you in 2007, boys.
    
The battery in my camera died after the first photo of Troy Gregory and the Zambees. Fortunately it was of whoever was wearing the skeleton leotard, diamond studded codpiece and Burger King mask. Fucking creepy.   

This guy(?) wins the Web Vomit award for Best Costume: Drunken Ranger. He didn't move for over an hour. He didn't throw up in his costume either, so I guess it was successful night.      

The Hold Steady
October 27, 2006
Stuck Between Stations // The Swish // Chips Ahoy! // Cattle and the Creeping Things // Massive Nights // Girls Like Status // You Can Make Him Like You // Don’t Let Me Explode // Steve Nix // Multitude of Casualties // Your Little Hoodrat Friend // Southtown Girls // First Night // You Gotta Dance // Killer Parties
(They also worked in a little of Seger’s Night Moves for a laugh, and can anyone tell me why Galen emptied his wallet into the crowd during Southtown Girls? Free money rules.)

I’m going to leave the post below on the site as a reminder not to drunk blog. Drunk dialing and drunk texting are one thing, but drunk blogging is just embarrassing. I have to teach myself a lesson.
The show last night was epic. There’s a photo collage below because words aren’t going to do the night justice. All I’m going to say is that if you haven’t been won over by The Hold Steady yet, you’re a little “slow”. This is the band that’s getting the younger generations to finally put down the mascara and discover rock ‘n’ roll again.
I’ll also point out that the last three photos below were taken of the stage. Yes, that’s the stage. I’m not sure if it was made to support that many people, but we were all pulled up to share in the singing, dancing and drinking. There was an audio/video crew crawling through the place all night. I’m not sure if a tour DVD is in the works, but I’d put money on footage of this show turning up somewhere.
Oh, and check out the tour poster. Pretty sweet, and it was only $10 for the set. Be sure to read the description — I’m not the only one in love with this band. Click to expand for the photos.

There are some nights you’ll always remember. Good or bad, some dates you’ll know exactly where you were, what song was playing, and what you were drinking.

S. Thayer is either me, or my biggest fan. You decide: This week.  Last week.

Blanche’s new EP, What This Town Needs, was released yesterday. I waited a full 24 hours after the release date but couldn’t find it anywhere to download. I had to actually go to the store and buy it. Since when does a V2 release not get leaked onto the torrent sites? Terrible, terrible marketing. If no one can hear it, no one can talk about it. Here’s the title track for everyone to enjoy:
Blanche - What This Town Needs.mp3
The EP contains three more Blanche tunes, a Rolling Stones cover and video of their New Year’s Eve performance in Chicago with the Flaming Lips and White Stripes. You can buy it right here for $4.47, which is fucking hilarious since I drove to that actual store during lunch and they charged me $5.99. Or, you know…wait till tonight when it hits the torrents.

And while we’re on the topic of sharing, I know someone reading this site has the 45:33 LCD Soundsystem track. In six months LCD will get the rights back for a release, but for right now it’s owned by iTunes and Nike. My hatred for iTunes and Nike is only rivaled by my impatientness. Give it. [Nevermind. It's not that good.]

Thank you. I love you.

As far as live music this weekend, I saw Bob Seger, John Mellencamp and Anita Baker. They each performed one song. Anita was my favorite. Mellencamp’s new song was written by an advertising agency, I’m pretty sure. A redneck-y one. This was all at the World Series. Of baseball. Yes, I know you didn’t come here for sports. 

Hilarious.

Even funnier, Grizzly Bear’s “Best Of” list makes Stereogum. Not the whole thing, just the part about Detroit getting the Least Attentive Crowd award. At that particular show, I’m sure half the conversations were about how uncomfortable of a venue St. Andrews is. And I’m sure the other half was just your average Detroiter being rude, spoiled and jaded. Like me.

Spin pimps another Detroit act, The Silent Years, who I’ve told you about before. They’ve got a nice little write-up along with a really cool video for “Someone To Keep Us Warm”. Watch it. The Silent Years are currently on a national tour that swings back this way on Sunday, playing Gracie’s Underground with Paleo and The Satin Peaches. You should go.

The Black Keys:It’s about damn time. It’ll be close to two years since they last played Detroit, and that was for the MC2 clusterfuck.