i heart asobi seksu

so the asobi seksu show last was a-may-zing! it was just as great as i hoped it would be. not only did they rock mightily, but they also unveiled some new tracks, as well as the new album title ['hush']. they played pretty much everything i hoped to hear [strawberries, thursday, new years, pink cloud tracing tiger, i'm happy but you don't like me, me & mary], but highlight was definitely 'red sea.' as expected, it was the set closer before the encore and it was downright euphoric. now i knew yuki was freaking rad already, but about five minutes into the song, she ditched the keyboards, jumped on the drum kit, and proceeded to beat holy craps out it for the next three minutes. i swear, it was the hottest thing i've experienced up to this point in my life. i nearly passed out on the spot.

the best part, however, was after the show when my friend kevin asked he could take a picture of me and yuki [this was after a i gloriously failed to ask myself]. naturally, i was super nervous so i pulled my friend chris into the picture with me. chris speaks japanese so he rapped a little bit with yuki while i was dry-heaving in the background. chris, being the cool cat his is, casually threw up the thumbs up while i stood in the background with a goofy smile and tried, unsuccessfully, not to look like a five-star clod. oh well. hopefully they will come back and i can actually drum up conversation with them.

now, i know it looks like yuki was superimposed in the photograph, i can assure you she is really that little. she can't weigh more than 90 lbs in steel-toed boots. girl is tiny! but you kind of have to to hit the notes on the upper register!

i don't know that i've fully come down from the asobi seksu high, and that's quite all right with me. thankfully i have a new album to look forward to. when it's due for release i don't know. but i do know this: asobi seksu has permanently cracked my 'favorite bands of all-time' list.

amazing stuff. thanks, gang!

MY BLOODY VALENTINE

i'm in tears. literally. hot, hot diggity! who wants to go?


��� my bloody valentine: only shallow
��� my bloody valentine: slow
��� my bloody valentine: you made me realize
��� my bloody valentine: soon

Morrissey @ Thanksgiving Point

when he walked on stage last night and the first few notes of 'stop me if you think you've heard this one before' began to bleed out the speakers, it was a clear signal that the mozfather has lost none of his ironic wit. in fact, for a man who spent the better part of his gladioli-in-back-pocket career advancing his self-adoring, lonely poet image, this new found self-depricating humor was almost revelatory. oh, moz, you contradictory old git.

monday night's show @ thanksgiving was my fourth morrissey concert, but the first since 1998 [the other's being park west in 1990, the huntsman center in 1992, and san diego in 1998]. i've passed on other local morrissey shows in recent years, but when i heard this was likely his last u.s. tour for quite some time, i didn't want to miss out on the opportunity. after all, i don't know i would have made it out of my adolescence were it not for the smiths. so, plopping down 45 clams plus ticketmassah's service charges was an insignificant price to pay.

it was as classic a moz show as one might expect. moz appeared from the darkness to rousing applause, trailed by his band who were all dressed in mtaching white pants, brown shirts, and light brown/white[?] bowties. it's nice to see boz boorer is still playing with moz, but i wonder what happened to alain whyte. anyone know? i might have to look that one up. the rest of the band, for their part, looked about five days outta high school, but what they lack in age they more than made up for with their superb musianship.

the set itself was a nice mix of old and new, with equal chunks coming from 'ringleader of the tormenters,' 'you are the quarry,' and 'vauxhall and i.' conspicuously absent were tracks from 'viva hate,' 'your arsenal,' 'maladjusted,' and 'southpaw grammar' [he didn't play anything from 'kill uncle,' but that's ok 'cos that album's a big, fat turkey]. the biggest surprise to me was 'sister i'm poet.' not only is it my favorite moz song, i think it's one of his most underappreciated. i went nuts when i heard it and i might've given barbie whiplash after giving her a good shake and screaming, 'this is my favorite morrissey song!!' 'jack the ripper,' which moz referred to as 'the thoughts of jack the ripper' was also another pleasant surprise. i would've loved to hear 'suedehead' or 'everyday is like sunday,' but i've heard them live before, so i'll have to suffice myself with that. the stars of the show, as they usually are, were the smiths' songs: 'how soon is now,' 'stop me if you think you've heard this one before,' 'stretch out and wait,' and an incredible performance of 'death of a disco dancer.' for me it was the highlight of the show. the night ended with a one-song encore, 'the first of the gang to die.'

between songs moz was downright chatty, offering a few thoughts on 'the munchkin' [george bush] and tony blair, taking a few barbs at rolling stone magazine ['it's not even a music magazine!'], giving the mic to a couple of people in the front row and asking for 'wise' words, and spilling out a few more self-depricating one-liners. [i thought i was going to have to administer cpr to barbie both times he shed his shirt. he is one good-looking and distinguished sonuvagun]. it's always nice when a performer interacts with the crowd instead of remaining essentially a two-dimensional figure.

through it all, however, i couldn't help but feel that mozzer is sensing that his own bright, shining star is begining to fade. i don't think that's necessarily true, but he expressed some surprise with someone in the front row who 'knew all the words.' we all know all the words, moz. we really do!

he may not be the icon he once was, but given the number of kids under the age of twelve i saw there, i don't think his legacy is an any danger. things are just different now. we've all grown up a bit, that's all [there were plenty of thirty- and forty-somethings in attendance]. the once rabid cult-of-moz, instead of storming the stage with reckless abandon and draping its collective arm around his neck, now treats its hero with quiet reverance and respect, and above all, appreciation.

you have nothing to worry about, stephen. everyday is like sunday...

→ morrissey: sister i'm a poet ['everyday is like sunday' b-side] / video
→ morrissey: a good looking man about town ['you have killed me' b-side]
→ the smiths: death of a disco dancer

Arcade Fire w/ LCD Soundsystem @ Thanksgiving Point

by the time the arcade fire strolled into town wednesday night, the only question that remained was, 'what took so long?' it's taken arcade fire three years to come to utah in the wake of 'funeral' [wake, funeral-get it? hey-o!]. even the 50 degree outdoor weather at thanksgiving point couldn't keep away the throngs of hipsters assembled for a lesson in rock. and in the immortal words of joe in say anything, arcade fire imparted these words of wisdom: 'yo, hang with us man. we'll teach you [neon] bibles full of truth.' ahhh, where's a rim shot when you need one?

truth be told, i think i was a bit more excited about seeing lcd soundsystem. 'sound of silver' still holds the top spot in my favorite albums of 2007 and i can't imagine someone knocking it off that lofty perch. james murphy and company put on an electric performance. and in the strangest of strange things, they actually took the stage on time. kate and i were still in line along with a couple hundred other people when they came one, so we got to listen to the first two songs from a distance. thankfully the line moved pretty quickly and by the start of 'north american scum' we were in. and just in time to see win butler and jeremy gara do the background screaming during the chorus. great. great. great. great. great. take me to outer space, mr. murphy. i'll gladly go so long as you're the pilot.

and speaking of james murphy, i don't know how much he got for his soul, but i imagine it was a pretty hefty sum. the man is all sorts of nutty pants talented and some sort of secret genius. [if you've not yet had the chance to listen to 'sound of silver,' please do. you're not likely to find a more exhilarating record.] he's got great stage presence and more charms than a night at hogwarts. they only bummer was that they didn't play 'get innocuous' or 'daft punk is playing at my house.' BUT they did play for a solid hour, so this lcd fan was more than happy. and hey, they still get spitcake's not-at-all-coveted 'album of the year.'

after some collective post-lcd shivering in the cool utah night, arcade fire took the stage. all i can say is that was well worth the price of admission. it's kind of impossible to describe what an arcade fire show is like. it's part frat party, part high art, part multi-media experience, part musical chairs. it's organized chaos. every last member of band never met a drum stick he or she didn't want to bang against something. the great thing is that it never came across as pretentious or glib. whether it was a solitary high hat set off to one side of the stage or the stage itself, nothing was safe from the barbarian-esque drumming.

and taking a page from the belle and sebastian approach to music, members of arcade fire don't play an instrument. they play instruments. plural. multitudinous. one minute ranee's playing a hurdy gurdy. the next she's playing drums on 'neighborhood #1.' one minute richard perry's playing the guitar, the next he's hitting something with a drumstick, the next he's playing a cello. not to be outdone, drummer tim kingsbury stepped away from the skins to rock out on the guitar. and win? well, he plays the guitar, pipe organ, and yeah, he bangs on stuff, too. and did i mention the megaphone seems to be the vocal projector of choice?

and this is seems to be the ethos of arcade fire: the end result is what matters, not necessarily how you get there. if you want to play the drums, go ahead. if you want to run around the stage shaking a tambourine with demonic-like possession, please do. you say you want to just yell into the microphone? don't let anyone try to stop you. and as chaotic as it all sounds, it was seemless. aside from win forgetting a few words, the band was tight.

after spending ninety minutes watching them tear through a grueling set [including 'old flame,' a song that pre-dates 'funeral' that win couldn't remember playing last] with terrific energy, verve and gusto, i get the feeling that they would've played the exact same show even if there hadn't been a single soul in attendance. that, my dear friends, is magic.

→ arcade fire: intervention
→ arcade fire: old flame
→ arcade fire: surf city eastern bloc ['no cars go' b-side]