10.26.05
Posted in muzak at 9:56 am by shawnz
I saw a showcase of bands at the Derby, which historically has had a 20% yield of bands that are quality. Last night, the first band to perform met the quota: univac. Four geeky guys (bass, guitar, drums, and keyboards) performed quality rock with cool melodies. They’re playing on Nov 17th at the Silverlake Lounge. I got a CD from the band afterwards, and had an awkward discussion with their bassist. Somehow, I asked him where he got his pants from, and when he responded, I went blank. I haven’t ever actually asked someone that question before, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with the response. How is this part of a live band review? I dunno. The pants were from Urban Outfitter, though.
The next band was from Oslo, but as a friend said, they sounded like they were from West Virginia. All three guys were blonde and tall - it was a little strange, and not very good.
It’s been confirmed - the Derby is slated for demolition. The new owners of the lot want to build high-rise condo’s. It’s a classic story of the evil condo developer versus the historical music venue. I’m channeling the spirit of resistance (a la Ernest Goes to Camp) and will be going to a neighborhood meeting in a few weeks (nov 10th, I believe?). I’ll post details later - if you’re a Hollywood resident, show up! This might be fruitless, as I’m sure the magnitude of money that could be made from condos vastly exceeds what revenue the Derby (and its adjoining restaurant) bring in. Still worth a fight, I think…
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10.08.05
Posted in muzak at 9:57 pm by shawnz
As promised, here is my review of the Sigur Ros show last Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl. They were cool.
Thats it. The rest of this review is dedicated to my first Hollywood Bowl experience. Our seats were really expensive and really far back and we basically watched the video feed on some big screens. Also, parking at the bowl is a complete wreck. Here is the set-up. Find a plot of land, lets say, 150 ft by 200 ft. Put some people in flashy reflective vests at the major entrance to plot of land. Have people collect $15 per car. Have cars park back to back to back to back with absolutely no aisles, filling up the back corner of the lot first.
Perhaps you can see where this is all leading….
Return to parking lot and stand by car for 20 or 30 minutes while all the cars that arrived later in the night remain idle, waiting for their owners to move them the fuck out of my way.
Okay, but seroiusly, Sigur Ros put on a good performance. The band consists of a 4 really skinny male Icelandians. They were bone thin. If I lived in Iceland, I’d probably be considered a sumo wrestler. Also, they had an all female orchestra, that occasionally put down their strings to play some of the glockenspiel-like instruments.
The grand finale of the show consisted of a giant semi-transparent screen that was vieled in front of the band. With the clever use of lights, Sigur Ros put on a really cool silhoutte light show on the screen that is better than most music videos I see on MTV. Needless to say, it’s hard to explain verbally.
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10.03.05
Posted in muzak at 11:52 am by shawnz
The confusing pun in the title refers to the fact that whenever my friend Rohini mentioned the ACL, I first thought about the anterior cruciate ligament, not the Austin City Limits.
Correct
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Incorrect
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Rohini is a med student, so it is actually entirely plausible for her to constantly reference a ligament in casual conversation. But alas, Austin City Limits took place last weekend — without me. Fortunately, spot reporter Rohini filed this report:
It seems that Shawn’s plan of stealthily parachuting onto the fields of Zilker Park for the third annual Austin City Limits music festival this year didn’t quite work out. But that’s ok, here’s my (hopefully not too long-winded) version of last weekend’s goodness.
Day One
We didn’t actually get to ACL until 5:30 or so on Friday mostly because of our final exam in the morning and my brilliant idea to take an alternate route from San Antonio to Austin to avoid the hurricane evacuees from Houston. Translation: we ended up getting stuck in traffic AND going a half an hour out of the way. It was worth it when we arrived to finally hear the jumbled up sounds of the different stages in the distance. Welcome home! We first decided to check out a local band, Soundteam (http://www.soundteam.net)–one of the members is a friend of our friend Peter’s friend (what is that, third degree separation?) They put on a great show, despite the heat! Apparently these guys have just started touring with bands like the Arcade Fire and the Walkman apart from ACL—they’ll be big someday! We saw Thievery Corporation after that- these guys are freakin awesome. Spoon played around the same time and rumor has it their performance was one of their best. One of the annoying things about the schedule is that we had to keep choosing between two potentially great shows at different ends of the park. So this time we opted for the band from DC over the band from Austin, which ended up being fantastic. I loved Thievery’s energy, and only in Austin does 100+ degrees not matter when there’s good music around! That night we started out at Keane, but weren’t too impressed. Some of us decided to check out Blues Traveler instead (three cheers for one hit wonders! Or two hit wonders?) I was thoroughly disappointed when they did not play “Hook” but I did enjoy the wonders of John Popper’s harmonica. And finally, Lyle Lovett ended the evening at the large Cingular stage, in classic ACL style. We were also touched that he introduced his band members (all eight or ten or so of them) five different times. I’ll be in your band Lyle!
Click ‘read more’ for days 2 and 3!
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in muzak at 12:06 am by shawnz
I have a rather severe man-crush on Kanye West. His performance last night on SNL only solidifies his pole position in my world. Kanye performed with an orchestra, a DJ, and that dude from Maroon 5. The spirited orchestra did a wonderful job of bringing ‘Heard ‘em Say’ and ‘Gold Digger’ alive, which are also, incidentally, the two best songs on the album. I want to find out who that orchestra is… they were all female, wore strange face paint, and seemed to be genuinely having a good time behind Kanye. I guess playing on SNL beats playing Beethoven in front of a bunch of old white people?
Speaking of Kanye, I like the new album, but I really hate the skits between the songs. And come to think of it, I hate skits on hip-hop albums in general. Thematic continuity is a nice thing, but it really unsettles my groove thang as I listen to a record. Maybe it’d work better for me if the skits were more fluid with the tracks - how about some beats?
“We want pre-nup” is currently leading the pack for my “Chorus-of-the-Year” award. We want pre-nup!
[Update: 2005-10-03 00:12:48] I forgot to mention the best part of Kanye’s appearance. Before he came on for Gold Digger, he runs into Mike Myers back stage, and they re-create their awkward telethon appearance. Kudos to Mike, who is, after all, a professional comedian, for redeeming himself in such a hilarious way.
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10.01.05
Posted in shawn update at 8:20 pm by shawnz
I’m going to start posting on this weblog again! And maybe I’ll enable comments again with some new blogging platform that makes you log-in, so I don’t have to spend 5 minutes everyday deleting stupid spam.
I moved to the los feliz neighborhood in LA about 3 months ago, and I’d like to start blogging about the neighborhood. It is far more interesting than Sherman Oaks, and is actually worth blogging about.
Other than that, been seeing some music lately. I saw Beck at an amphitheatre in Devore, CA which is in San Bernadino. Despite this location, the show rocked and I am officially a Beck-live-show prostylzer. What a great performer. I also saw Oasis (they sucked), Live (sucked), Garbage (eh..), Madness (cool!), Weezer (good), and a few others… of course, the fact I am neglecting to mention is that this was all part of a KROQ 106.7 show, which really takes a hit on my indie credibility.
To make up for this cred-loss, I am going to Sigur Ros show next week at the Hollywood Bowl. I am looking forward to not only seeing them, but seeing the Bowl, as this will be my first trip. Maybe some pictures will follow.
Working on some video clips, too.. this blog might soon be a video-blog. Woot!
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