Two Step

Here's another post about shirts. I think more posts have had the label "Chromeo" attached to them than any other since I started this thing. Here comes another one.

A couple months ago (07/13/07 to be exact), I saw Chromeo and Flosstradamus give one of the best performances I've seen all year, occurring in Buffalo, NY. I vaguely remember Dave from Chromeo telling the crowd that there were t-shirts for sale, but to grab them quick because they were almost gone. I, however, didn't bother to look because I didn't want to lose my awesome spot (which I have discussed in a prior post).

Anyway, fast forward a little bit and I see a picture of someone from Flosstradamus (I forget who) rocking what appears to be the Chromeo tour shirt. I also don't remember where I saw it (probably MySpace) and I didn't save the pic so anyone reading this will have to take my word for it.

Then today I'm perusing the old turntablelab.com as I've been known to do and I see that they are apparently selling said tour shirt and it looks like this


I thought I remembered the guy from Flosstradamus wearing a white version of this tee. I'd much prefer that color over this black one. If you ask me, it's kinda blah for a band that is anything but. Like the Hundreds one from yesterday I think I'm gonna skip this one too, but maybe I'll grab it if it's still available during a free shipping sale or something.

Oh yes, and fuck having little to no money and being stuck at home eating nothing but tasteless boring food every night because I can't afford to go out and get something good. I feel like I wanna eat a fucking lobster when I finally get paid again. That and/or get someone in my life that knows how to fucking cook. I think I'm gonna stop now before I really get going. That's all.

Until Then,
Later.

I Went To the Scene Music Festival Last Night and All I Got Was This Lousy Free T-Shirt (pics included) and These Five Chili Dogs (pics not included)

So yesterday afternoon I was screwing around on the internet (otherwise known as working) when I got a call from Mr. Tommy Teabagger asking me if I wanted to go to the Scene Music Festival on W. 6th. Since I didn't have any plans, I said what the heck.

I made it to Tommy's in due time, but not before stopping at Music Saves to grab tix for the Smoking Popes tomorrow and Ted Motherfucking Leo on Wednesday. Everyone reading this should try to make it to both shows, since they'll both be a load of fun. Anyway, the soundtrack for the ride consisted mostly of the Flosstradamus Scion mix from a little while back.



Speaking of that, I'm listening to the new(er) album by Charlotte Gainsbourg known as 5:55 as I type this. She has two songs on the mix, and that was enough for me to track the album down. It's pretty chilly (would make great winter music) but I like it a lot.



Her father is the famous Serge Gainsbourg, and here's the time he met Whitney Houston (if you don't feel like sitting through the whole thing, go to the 50 second mark):


Pretty f'n badass if you ask me. Anyway, when I made it to the Teabagger estate, he had other listening ideas. He produced a copy of the Spread Eagle CD, which is cock rock of the highest order.

Some favorites include Back on the Bitch, Suzy Suicide, and of course, Scratch Like a Cat


Good times indeed. So, getting to the gist of what this post is supposed to be about, the Scene Music Festival occurred at bars along W. 6th St., including Bar Flyy, The Blind Pig, Liquid/Fusion, Tequila Ranch, and Velvet Dog. The good bands we saw were Lords of the Highway and American Werewolves. Jack Fords were pretty good too. I wanted to catch Mick Boogie & Terry Urban but they went on too early. We saw some bands that were fairly terrible, but I'm not gonna name names. They know who they are. And, I was wearing the Durkl Warrior Tee again and got accosted AGAIN by a bunch of drunk idiots that not only called me Batman but sang the theme totally off-key. At least nobody called me Elvis though...

Although, when we went to claim our free shirts, the cute female thought my shirt was "fancy". I'll take that as a compliment. So here's what the free one looks like from the front(I've posted the Durkl one enough times):

And the back:

And the goofy design on the side (can never get enough of those):


I kinda like the color, but I don't know if I'd wear it out. Free is free though. Speaking of which, thanks to the dude that got us in for free. I forgot his name, but he probably doesn't read this anyway. If he does though, thanks. Big thanks to the chili dog guy for the free dog in exchange for watching the stand while he did something. I had a great time. Thanks to the Blind Pig for the $5 Molson pitchers, but too bad the crowd were total jerks. The free Vitamin Water was very refreshing, as were the free Tequila shots at the Tequila Ranch. I might go there more often. If I forgot something, oh well. I forgot my camera last night, so I tend to be forgetful lately. Smoking Popes tomorrow. I'm gonna try to make it to the Waterloo Arts thing, but we'll see. I'd also like to make an appearance at Touch tomorrow night for I Got 5 On It, but that might not happen either. The Popes for sure, though. Let's have fun.

Until Then,
Later.

Deerhunter / Ponys / Jay Reatard and Whatever Else

I used to hear about The Reatards a lot in my maximumrocknroll reading days. But, I never knew anyone else cool enough to be into them (living in Youngstown, Ohio at the time might have something to do with that) and I never took the initiative to seek their albums out. Now I wish I had. Jay Reatard started the night off right after a fairly lengthy delay. The Ponys and Deerhunter were both coming from Pitchfork Fest in Chicago (you may have heard of it) so they were a little late. My buddy Noah and myself were running late ourselves so I'm glad it started late since we didn't miss anything. Above is what Jay and his band look like when Jay's singing.



And here's another one. Note the punk rockers in the shot.




And here they are rocking the fuck out. I can probably learn to crop the ceiling out of the picture, but, like the Chromeo/Flosstradamus shots and every other picture I've posted, I'm gonna keep it as is.



Here's more rockin, along with more gratuitous ceiling. It was tough to stay in one spot to get these shots since there was a small mosh pit that kept shaking everything up. It was great to see kids into the show, though. Also, it was interesting to see a Jay fan that I don't think I'd seen since the Rapture show at the Grog in 11/06. She had short cropped sandyish blonde hair, and if by some miracle that she actually reads this, I hope to see her again because she seems like someone I'd like to get to know.



The Ponys were next. I'd missed them each and every time they'd been in town, so it was great to finally catch them in action. I'd heard good stuff about their live show, and I've gotta be honest, they don't really wow me on record. Every album I'd heard just seems to be missing that little ooomph to take it over the edge. They found that ooomph on this night.




Those are some tight jeans.



I knew that keyboard was there for something other than to add stage decor.




Another tight jeam shot, although I was standing on her side of the stage, so what are you gonna do? In all seriousness, she was super nice when I talked to her after the show. And, I don't get into soap opera type BS of who's in a relationship with who and all that, but I think I saw a ring on her finger anyway. Great set by a great band.




Deerhunter is the group I knew the least about, since I just heard of them recently and tried not to get caught up in the hype machine. I've heard numerous bands name My Bloody Valentine as an influence through the years, but Deerhunter may be the best of the lot. I know that's the most obvious comparison, too, but TS.




This shot's a little better. I didn't get a lot of Deerhunter pics, since it was getting late and I was getting tired. After they were done, I had the aforementioned conversation with the Ponys bassist and purchased Jay Reatard's Blood Visions CD. Here's what it looks like:


I really like it, and I'm glad I made the purchase. It's been a while since I bought a CD at a show. And, between CDs, LPs, 7"s, and shirts, he had plenty of merch. I almost forgot that I swiped a flier the night I was at the Grog for Fujiya and Miyagi. Here's that one:



I think that's enough fanboyishness for one post. Although, this flier brings me to a point I was gonna make. The fact that the first act of the night had fliers all over the place, in addition to everyone else, let everyone know that this show was pretty important. Another thing the night had going for it was the immense diversity of the bands involved. The jumpy late 70s-early 80s sounding punk/no wave/new wave/whatever of Jay Reatard, the rock of the Ponys (I hate the term indie), and the shoegaze/ambient/rock/whatever of Deerhunter. I like seeing bands from such different areas of good music get together like that. I think that was my point, anyway.

In other news, the TNA Pay Per View was mostly boring, although the Steiners came back, so I'm pumped about that. Somehow, I don't see Scotty getting any smaller after the upcoming crackdown on steroids from the Benoit situation. Social D's playing Y-Town tomorrow, so that'll be a lot of fun. I probably won't be able to bring a camera, but we'll see. Cedar Point(?) sometime this weekend. Let's have fun.

Until Then,
Later.

My Weekend Was Better Than Your Weekend (Unless You Went To Pitchfork Fest)

It all started Thursay with Fujiya and Miyagi Thursday at the Grog Shop



Their sound was super tight and contrary to these pics, their were plenty of vocals. The opener was a group of guys named Ken Rei. They weren't too terribly bad, but not really my thing. Three guys making noise out of pressing buttons doesn't really appeal to me. I like me some rhythm in my music. I didn't get any shots of them, though. Some time was also spent downstairs at the b-side Liquor Lounge. They have an outside patio now, and it was pretty nice. I had a chance to try the new Smirnoff Source, which is basically alcoholic spring water. It was awful. The flavor was a real turn off, and I had hoped that it would be flavorless. I'm glad I tried it, though. It was a good conversation piece throughout the night. Next stop: Buffalo.



We got a room at the Lenox Hotel & Suites (not my pic). I had read some real horror stories online about this place but everything else was booked. Our room was about 90% renovated, and the 10% that wasn't was the bathtub. Needless to say, I didn't shower there and I don't know if I'd have stayed there if the rest of the room was in that condition.



One place I check online fairly frequently is krudmart.com. I saw on their site a little while back that they have a store in downtown Buffalo. It was a block from the hotel. Here's what it looks like from the outside (not my pic).



I had been eyeing this shirt on their site and I picked it up at the store (pic taken from krudmart.com). The guy working there (who may or may not have been the owner) was super nice and it was a great experience overall. "Streetwear" (I fuckin hate that word) boutiques generally have a rep for being elitist and stuff, but I don't have anything but nice things to say about Krudmart. FEEL THE POWER OF THE WARRIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Here's what their bag looks like. I told the guy at the store where I was from and what I was doing in Buffalo, and he couldn't believe that I and my buddy Noah (took way too long to mention him, sorry) would come all that way for a Chromeo show. He seemed as surprised as I was that they didn't play Cleveland, but what are ya gonna do? We agreed to see each other there and that was that. Downtown Buffalo was interesting. You had scattered hipsters and oldsters and yuppies and idiots and everything in between. We stopped at some bar before the show and went up to their rooftop patio. Then I got hit in the back of the head with the thing you use to open a beer can (I'm drawing a blank on the name). Some dude must've had a problem with me. I'm guessing either he caught his girlfriend checking me out or he thought I was hot and wanted my attention. Since I'm neither gay nor a fan of the girlfriends of meatheads, we decided to hit the bricks.



Flosstradamus tearing shit up on the outdoor patio. The venue was an outdoor patio (obviously) of a really small bar. It was nice and cool out, and the vibe was great.




I like this one. Chromeo chills while Floss slays (check Dave texting).




This text was so important that Dave had to stand up. And yes, these are my pics and I was that close. No zoom was used in any of my stuff in this post.



The crowd shot.



I was browsing through Flickr pages related to the show and saw this one. It was really unfortunate that this chick was surrounded by douchebags, since she was super hot. We gave each other a lot of knowing glances, but every time we crossed paths, she was with the people above. Note to any ladies reading this: if you want to get me to notice you, looking as close to this as possible is a good place to start.



Jacked from the same Flickr account. This one made me laugh, since all the pics I took were from this exact spot. I was standing directly to the left of the girl in the black, but I must've been getting drinks or something when this was taken. Speaking of her, she had a really nice ass and it felt marvelous (I said it). Her hair smelled really good too. The less said about the blonde, the better. Also, the kid in the pink Mishka New Era and the one next to him in the purple Mishka hoodie were in Krudmart when we were there. They had that hoodie in black for 40% off, but I didn't wanna spend the cash.




Noah's middle finger gets some face time from the same Flickr page as the other noted pics. I'm in the shot in front of the dude in the green shirt dancing like I mean it. Let's get back to some of my pics.



One's throwing up the horns while the other's crying tears of joy. Or wiping the cold out his eyes.



Nice to see the band having as much fun as everyone else.




Flosstradamus closed the night with a second set. One major highlight was Bone's Thuggish Ruggish Bone, at which point I let out a CLEVELAND!!!!!!!!! yell that was heard throughout the entire state of NY. The rest of the night isn't going to be posted on the internet for a variety of reasons. If you wanna know the story, get at me. Time to get back to work.

I hope I didn't forget anything, but if I did,




Until Then,
Later.

Coming Up For Air

I've been working off and on for more than the last twelve hours, but it's all in preparation for the long weekend that starts tomorrow (technically later tonight I guess) with Fujiya and Miyagi. Then the next stop is Buffalo for Motherfucking CHROMEO and Flosstradamus.

But the main point of this post is to rave about the latest from the New Pornographers, Challengers. Yesterday I forgot to mention I bought into their Buy Early Get Now promotion when I picked up the new Spoon. And as I write this I just realized that I missed Spoon on Letterman after waiting for it all day and night. Oh well. I'll see it tomorrow online. The internet is a wonderful thing. Speaking of the internet, I can currently only listen to the New Pornos album on an online stream, so I can't play it in the car or away from a computer. I'll make due though, but I don't get the physical CD until August 21! That's a long time to wait, but I got the Executive Edition Box Set (nothing but the best for me) so I get a ton of b-sides and such to hold me over. The album's so incredible that I don't want to overplay it before it's commercially released. It's gonna be tough, but I'll try my best.

Back to work for me. The weekend can't come soon enough.

Until Then,
Later.