He Knowingly Served Us Penis

Hey the Browns played a little better yesterday than they did last week. I would've been in attendance, but I wasn't invited. It was quite a game, though.

In other news, I forgot to mention in the last post that the B-side of that Jay Reatard 7" is a Go-Betweens cover. Also, Curb Your Enthusiasm premiered last Sunday and the second episode was last night. Both eps were classic Curb and it's great to see Mr. David and the gang back in action.

I had a birthday recently too. So that happened.

I've also been trying to learn how to burn DVDs, but haven't had much luck with that. I went to Best Buy last night and got these DVD+R DL discs. The DL stands for double layer, so apparently that means that they have twice the space, or four hours. But, when I tried to burn the DVD, I could only fit two hours on the disc. I guess I need to read the directions a little better.

The new Les Savy Fav is great, the new Jens Lekman is great, and I think that's all for now.

Until Then,
Later.

Some Things Never Change...

The sun rises in the east, sets in the west, and the Browns play like complete shit on Opening Day. You could set your watch to those three things, in my opinion. And another thing that's really grinding my gears today is all this rain. I set my iPod for a quick fun run and it's pouring outside. So, I figure I'd make a quick trip to the gym, but that's not happening since they close in 30 minutes. As a result, I'm sitting in front of a computer typing this instead of running off all the pizza I just ate.

In other news, I went to a pretty decent show the other night. I wasn't sure if I was gonna go or not, so I don't think I mentioned it in any previous posts. Here's what the flyer looks like:

I only attended the first night, and it was mainly to see Jay Reatard. I mentioned him and his band in a previous post. But, before I headed out to the show, my buddy Tommy and I made our way to the Spitfire Saloon. Now, this place has a pretty rough looking exterior, but once inside, the crowd was extremely diverse. It reminded me of the old Nyabinghi in Youngstown, where you'd see girls in their pretty dresses and high heels drinking Pabst and "punking it up" for the night. I could see the Spitfire turning into that. And, it would be no fault of the ownership, don't get me wrong. I don't know them personally and I'm not gonna act like I do. But, that doesn't change the fact that the bar itself could be the new hip place to be, so to speak.

The show itself was held at Now That's Class, a new(er) venue on the west side of Cleveland. I had been there in the past, but I don't make it out there as much as I should. That's due to the fact that I live a good forty minutes away from the place. I had a good time, though, and here are some pictures of Jay and the guys rocking:


Performing a fist raiser for the ages:

The crooner shot:

I think this one was taken right after he kicked some doof in the head after the kid knocked Jay's mic into his face:


All in all, a good time was had. Their set might have been under 25 minutes (it was definitely under 30) but I don't think anyone was complaining. The other bands were great as well, but we got there kinda late and I don't remember the names of the ones we caught. And, since beers were only $1.50 (yet another reason to attend shows at Now That's Class regularly), I had a little bit of extra cash. I used it on a 7" and here's what it looks like:

There are only two songs on the record, and it was a little pricey at $5. But, both songs are worthwhile. The A-side, I Know A Place, is quite serviceable. But, the B-side wins again, as Chuck D would say. Don't Let Him Come Back is featured on Jay's MySpace page, and it's one of my favorites. I'm pumped to have a version of the song that I can listen to away from the computer. Now, if only I can get a turntable with USB capabilities. I'd love to be able to convert all of my vinyl to mp3, but it'll have to wait.

I was gonna mention some other stuff, but I'm drawing a blank. So, that's all for now.

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.

A Quick One

I don't really feel like writing much after the whirlwind of the last few days. Tomorrow I'll post some pics of last night's Deerhunter/Ponys /Jay Reatard extravaganza, but that'll be then. I'm gonna catch up on all the wrestling I missed the last little while, and here's a movie I caught today at the Cedar Lee:




Jennifer Connelly got me going in 86, and she still does today. It'll be there until Thursday, so get to it. For me, it was nice to get through the entire movie in a theatre without screaming for the exits like I did the first time all those years ago. I guess that'll happen when you're four years old.

Until Then,
Later.