Not on the Guest List

SXSW Day 2

(NERD=Highlight amongst many highlights of Day 2)

I woke up on Day Two asking what time it was the next day (definitely not morning).

1:45 was the reply.

"Shit! Dev is playing in 15 minutes!"

Luckily his Lightspeed Champion set was at the Urban Outfitters right by the University of Texas and our apartment just happened to be but blocks away as opposed to the mandatory bus ride and/or cab ride necessary to reach 6th Avenue where the majority of other SXSW activities were going on.

So we headed down after I threw on my Health shirt, jeans (purchased at Urban Outfitters none the less) and my new Saucony sneakers. Not a run, not a jog, but a brisk pace. We got there and couldn't quite figure out where he was. Did we somehow get the wrong Urban Outfitters even though plastered on the store's windows were bright notifications of a Lightspeed Champion set. A full length set might I add. I expected him to be performing in the ladies underwear section as Bloc Party had in 2005, but he was actually in the courtyard behind the store. He was like two songs in when Chloe and I made it out. I sat down and he immediately noticed me - waving and saying a quick quiet hello before then getting on with his performance.

Who should appear right after?! Why only Leia Jospe - my fave youthful New York event photog (and BrooklynVegan resident photog)! We've been flickr friends for years and we both share an abiding love of Test Icicles (pretty much our first connection on the photo-sharing site) so there was excitement to meet in person for the first time. Before the fest we talked about syncing up schedules and happily we continued to meet up time and time again throughout the fest, unplanned and planned for fun-tastic results to be revealed in my Day 3 post.

Dev's set was awesome. He had Mike his violinist which made me happy since it not only benefits the sound, but makes Dev a lot more comfortable to have company onstage. And guess what!?!?! Is this a first? HE DID NOT PLAY A SINGLE COVER!!!! Not even the Eugene McGuinness song that is so bonded to him it seems to appear in his sets more so than his own singles. But yeah - it still rocked. Afterwards I brought it up with him and it struck him as odd too that he'd failed to include a cover in his set.

"Never Met To Hurt You" (Good Shoes cover) Lightspeed Champion MP3 care of Who Killed the Mixtape?

So we gabbed and gabbed - it was really good seeing him again since I hadn't seen him since December. The last time we met up was to shoot his Christmas EP portraits in his flat the Big Chill and he has officially moved on from there (as has Simon) and is technically homeless, though it doesn't factor into his life all that much given he is on the road so much.

I asked if he was still planning to relocate to New York and while moving to the US by year end is still on the cards, his sights are decidedly more southern. Austin, TX in fact. We wants to get a house there in November to record his double album. Stay tuned. At year end he filled me in on all his plans for the double album. Granted time and plans shift, but if some stays the same, about a whole album's worth of material could carry vocals other than his own.

He said he'd get me into the impossible Q magazine party on Saturday (with Kate Nash) and we made casual plans to bump into each other at Press Here's party, but I totally dropped the ball on Saturday with calling him.

Edward Larrikin made his way over for a chat, at SXSW in support of his The Pan I Am project.

I snapped the two of them together then Chloe and I departed back to the apartment for memory card uploading and internet geekery. And guess what? We totally stayed in so freakin' long that we missed Be Your Own Pet's set at the Filter arty - one of my must sees. Thank god I saw them less than a week prior in Portland at the Doug Fir (my photos of the BYOP show on Pitchfork)

We did however make it over to the Filter party in time for Robyn. The second we got there who did I spy ahead of me? PEREZ HILTON, which was fairly predictable given who was "soon" to perform. I got a polaroid with him:

The people working the "door" (it was the top of an outdoor staircase) didn't even check the RSVP list and just doled out wristbands to anyone attempting to enter.

Robyn's set got underway quite later than billed to the point people surrounding me began questioning out loud to themselves whether they had read the schedule wrong and began assuring themselves that indeed they had and just happened to miscalculate her set time and that it was never supposed to be at 5. Well it was, but she didn't start until like 30-45 minutes later. It wasn't an entirely uncomfortable wait though. BYOP were gathered above her soundchecking band on an upper patio.

When it was time for Robyn to bounce down the staircase and rock the mic, she made it through one song before issues erupted. And you know what? Actually she didn't. While some of her bigger issues were able to wait until song number two, she actually had a little Ashlee Simpson lip-syncing issue about 30 seconds into song one. She dropped her mic and what is that I hear? She's still singing at the same volume? Her vocals for "Cobrastyle" (MP3) are still going? Robyn is lip-syncing? It must be said that she when picked the mic back up she made sure to ad-lib some vocals at a volume slightly higher than the choruses and such seemingly to prove she could sing in the live arena and that the vocals we heard while the mic was on the ground for too awkwardly long of a time were just for assistance - you know like how Uffie sings "live." Yeah...

Well all her programmed music decided not to work starting with song two so she abandoned her set list, took requests and performed SUPER stripped down numbers. The first up? "Show Me Love"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It picked up, got great and we headed out and over to the Fader Fort, but not before I decied that I would fo'sho be at her PDX show and then promptly bumping into Danny Masterson aka Hyde from That 70's show aka DJ MomJeans and Steve Aoki's current bitch. By bitch I mean Franki Chan replacement. Wait - this isn't coming out right. Or maybe it is...

Danny was very pleasant with zero pretentiousness present.

HipsterRunoff celebrated his birthday. I recommend that if you didn't receive an invite, you get in late on the party by checking out the post, though I hope/suspect you already have.

Let's speed this up shall we? I don't have too many photos from the following because my iphoto messed up and didn't save my photos and I deleted my memory card before realizing this truth. Single tear(s).

So yeah - we made it over to the Fader Fort where a Lou Reed tribute was well underway. We caught Joseph Arthur with a chick who he introduced in a way that I couldn't tell if she was apart of his regular band or a guest star for the day. She reminded me of Metric's Emily Haines, former girlfriend of Simon White (I'm gonna see if I can find a way to mention him in all my SXSW posts seeing as I'm seemingly on a roll having mentioned him in my Day 1 post. This task is underway for no reason at all other than I am weird). They played two songs.

My Morning Jacket played one song.

I hadn't seen them since Quart Festival in Norway in 2005. They were great, but said absolutely nothing and ran - literally ran - offstage. So abruptly that it kind of erased their entire two minute performance we'd just witnessed. An announcer came on and said it was because they had to rush to another gig.

Thurston Moore played one song. I have never seen either him solo or Sonic Youth live before (let alone ever heard a Sonic Youth song. Yeah. I just heard my first Captain Beefheart song a week ago. I'm well behind) and was a bit surprised by how into it he was. Like I think for being as into it as he was that he must be to a certain extent higher than most performers in all the performances he gives, but I'm really thinking he went above and beyond during his Fader Fort set. He jumped into the crowd, momentarily crowd surfed and then returned to the stage in a state of undress to make good with his amp and indulge in a relationship of non-gratuitous feedback.

In the mean time between every set Fluo Kids played on which was a little weird to be honest. Sometimes such opposing genres can co-exist in perfect harmony and sometimes they don't gel. They didn't quite gel at the Fader Fort but that doesn't mean either weren't enjoyable. They were just enjoyable when thought of as independent of each other rather than a joint package. Some set change overs were quick, some lingered on for AGES. After the tribute was over NERD took the stage and their set change over was NEW LEVELS. Longest one I've ever witnessed at any concert, but we are jumping ahead of ourselves. There was still one act to perform under the Lou Reed banner before everybody could Nose. That was Moby.

The bald one and his girls did their thing for a set and then surprise, surprise an unexpected guest adorned the stage for the second song and that guest was Lou Reed himself. And that was actually a surprise. "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!" ha! How well does that Humphrey Bogart quote work?!!?! Because seriously - the only other chance to see Lou Reed during the fest was if you had a badge you could attend his key-note speech that was met with a lot of zzzzzs based on his stance towards new technology and music. Dave Allen has his say over on Pampelmoose about the address.

But anyway, I got to see him LIVE and without some $500 badge and I'm really thinking that worked out for me better in the long run - I wouldn't have preferred to catch him any other way.

They did "Walk on the Wild Side" which is maybe my favorite song or at least tied with "Perfect Day." My mom and I rewrote the lyrics to "Walk on the Wild Side" when I was in elementary school to sing to my cat Erin. Yeah. This family moment brought to you care of early Saturday morning broadcast (or maybe basic cable) TV. Or that shooting star at the end of NBC psa commercials: "The more you know..."

I wish I would've wrote something down about the set but I was too busy reliving it with everyone I know over the phone so sorry if details are sketch, but like Lou Reed said something really funny as he walked off stage about being punk. Like being first. I love his ego. He has earned it. Everyone cheered, he raised two fists triumphantly and then it was over.

So I walked back to Flou Kids because I was going to interview Pharrell and get a photo of him with NERD's Pharrell Williams, but things got a bit hectic.

In the mean time I hijacked TonyX's sunglasses while My!Gay!Husband! hijacked a photo of me. I like it better that way anyway.

Can we just say SoCo forever!?!!

And I met my URB editor Josh which was enjoyable! I snapped a pic of him but of course that was on the memory card whose files did not survive.

Now it was time for NERD.

NERD's set change over was INSANELY LONG. DISGUSTINGLY LONG, but I survived and it was worth it for a number of reasons. One - Chad Hugo was fucking WITH THEM. If you've seen NERD live before this album cycle, you know that Chad does not tour or perform live with them. But he was there! Rocking hot sunglasses! Their white backing band of Spy Mob as been replaced with a a new band that... isn't white.

Ch-ch-changes.

Set list:

"Anti"
"Brain"
"Killjoy"
"Back Seat Love"
"Maybe"
"Rockstar"
"Spazz" <<<< HOT TRACK
"Fly or Die"
"Tape You" (Paris Hilton style?)
"Lapdance"
"Everyone Nose" (MP3)

Encore:
"Run to the Sun"
"She Wants to Move" but yr hogging her, yr guarding her...

They were ace AND THIS IS HOW I GOT MY FIRST PHOTO CREDIT IN ROLLINGSTONE. As you may know from my SXSW Update post, my NERD photo appeared front-page on RollingStone.com for over three days, but the pic also appears in the mag with Chris Rock on the cover (currently on newsstands - page 35, soon to disappear into periodical heaven). But seriously. I don't know the word for it. Milestone isn't it, but like this was/is really meaningful for me. Something has been achieved. Much like an angel has earned it's wings, a concert photog has earned their camera. Or something. It's just really special, but let's save that for the Hallmark channel...

Yeah - so in the process of only catching NERD's first seven songs, we missed Thieves Like Us at the Beauty Bar. We made it over shortly after they had finished, but by that time they had disappeared. BOO!!!! I mean - seriously. Everyone I've spoken to over email about SXSW scheduling knows they were seeded VERY HIGH on my must-see list and their manager was SO NICE to add me to their glist given it was a wristbands and badges show and I of course am poor and didn't have one. So yeah. They're on the verge of signing so those looking for a follow-up to their Kitsune single(s) can start celebration preparations!!!

We even went on a mad hunt for some guy in a pink shirt who would apparently hold the key to Thieves Like Us' current location according to those working the event, but alas he was no where to be found.

Now it was 11. We were but an hour away from the Playboy party. Operation: Get in whatever it takes starts... NOW.

To be continued...

SXSW Day 1

Welcome to day one!

Why has it taken me this long to relive SXSW? Well, it hasn't really. I wrote this out a bit ago, but surprise, surprise - it's insanely long. Maybe embarrassingly long given there is documentation of four more days to follow. I couldn't tell. Whatever. I have now overcome my length inhibitions and am just posting it. Hopefully you survive! :D

SXSW Update

(No Age guerrilla gig on Lamar Bridge at 3am last night/this morning)

So I am partying it up in Texas right now at SXSW. Shooting tons of bands and not getting enough sleep or drinking enough... whatevs. When I get back to Portland I will be recapping the experience right here, but if you want to follow along on my flickr before then, check out my SXSW flickr set.

Some of my photos are also appearing on RollingStone.com in their SXSW gallery, so get in on that action too!

And of course I shot Pitchfork's Pitchfork/Windish Agency Party at Emo's yesterday so you can get a healthy dose of my Yeasayer, No Age, Times New Vikings and Fleet Foxes photos in that Pitchfork party photo post!!

(Dev aka Lightspeed Champion plus Edward from The Pan I Am)

(Justice at the Playboy party. Wait until you hear that story!)

(Bon Iver is too rad - as a person and band)

(Lykki Li is too stunning)

(These New Puritans didn't tell me what their favorite numbers are because I forgot to ask)

Anyway - I have ten million more photos already up across those three sites and many more on their way that are either on my hard-drive or yet to be shot.

I have A LOAD of polaroids too. My scanner and I have a date on the 18th.

My N*E*R*D* photo front page of Rollingstone.com:

My No Age photo front page of Pitchfork:

of Randy rocking out on some guy's shoulders! So awesome!

I've met so many bloggers and photographers that have been on my must-meet list for ages. Plus I met SO ME!! I love this festival. I will definitely be returning!

We Are Wolves = Total Solide

Belated We Are Wolves post Part 2

As I mentioned in earlier in another post (Part 1), the night began with an extended DJ set by me before Swim Swam Swum got up on stage to strum their guitars. Everyone seemed to arrive during it. Alex, We Are Wolves' manager (also acting as tour manager as a driver couldn't be found in time) appeared about a half hour in saying they'd just arrived in town.

Nathan showed up not only with his vinyl, but with his friend Mark who acted as a superb projectionist, projecting video throughout the night onto the white wall ahead of the DJ set up as Nathan spun. Over the top for such a small gig? Yes -- in the best way possible! It was awesome!

Of course we talked about his no-show to my night of noise. All is okay. He thought the gig was at Someday Lounge instead of Towne Lounge. He checked the listings to make sure the gig was still on and didn't see it in Someday's schedule so took off to LA to do some hardcore work on a MTV Gossip collaboration.
He's doing a show as Feather Figure with New Bloods sometime this month at Dunes apparently. That's a must mark-down on any calendar.

Justin from Fist Fite also approached while I got my DJ on which was fun. I remarked how long it had been since I last saw him then realized it was on his birthday about three weeks before, so not that long at all or at least not as long as my exclamation implied.
We talked about Fist Fite's upcoming gigs and one in April especially caught my attention! One in Portland with PRE!!!!!! Whoo! I talked about how Akiko and I had talked about Fist Fite when I spent the night at her flat in November, then I mentioned all the disco balls that are marooned in curious places around the flat. I immediately told Nathan and he showed me his left hand where he already had "PRE" written hahahaha. Also alongside the band name were those of No Bra and These New Puritans, the Gossip's support for their next London gig that has now come to pass.

(though my disposable camera made his hand pretty much illegible hahahaha)

At pretty much ten on the dot Swim Swam Swum began producing their tunes live and everyone including me gravitated into the other room where they were from the foyer where just second before "Sweaty" by Muscles had been booming.

They are skinny:

I did another set (which you can download in Part 1), this time 20 minutes-ish instead of a full hour. Just as Calvin Harris started singing about his self-proclaimed harem in "The Girls," it was time for Reporter to take the stage and sing about new days.

Wow - Reporter live! Wow! So danceable!!! The basslines! The drum beats! Right before I went overseas in November I interviewed them at Valentines. Janet Weiss was downstairs chatting up the bartender at the time. A couple weeks later I lounged in Leigh's Glasgow flat spinning it into a 400 word profile over the course a  day wrought with procrastination for Willamette Week. I had never seen their former incarnation Wet Confetti live (despite trying hard do the night of Yacht on a Yacht at Fist Fite's party) nor them as Reporter and seeing them on the Holocene stage made me wish I had seen them before the article. Like the essence of the band's songs are so, so different on stage as opposed on compact disc (or a myspace page).

I definitely think the article I wrote would've been different had I seen them live. My interviews are always better when I've been able to take a band in live... especially when it runs as a narrative as opposed to a straight-up transcription, having a whole-er idea of the band definitely shapes the piece in a different way.

I bumped into many lovely people over the course of the evening including former high school classmate Brittany and my former Outdoor School Counselor Jose. We took to the dancefloor during Nathan's sets, the only ones to do so! The attendees that evening were a bit inhibited. At one point we realized that as the only people on the dancefloor, we were also the only people of color there hahahaha

Next and right on time were We Are Wolves. Their arrival onstage was so rushed (though you couldn't tell) that they did not don their signature skulls, but it made little difference except in terms of backing visuals. Maybe it was even better that way because boy were they active!

While they danced it up over the stage oozing with appeal, I danced up front with wild abandon and that was maybe the upside of the turn-out being so-so -- that there was room to dance! It reminded me of the Copy/MSTRKRFT show there in 2006 where there was plenty of space to move.

It was pretty much hit after hit from We Are Wolves, mostly from new album Total Magique, all delivered ferociously. They introduced the track "Magique" as their French song. They finished out their set without "Little Birds," but appeared shortly after to encored with tune, Jose and my vocal pleas answered with an intense rendition that had us "yelling red and blue!"

Nathan stepped back up to the pitch and got his vinyl spinning again as the venue began to empty and some people ordered up more drinks.

Did you know that the French in France and French in French-Canadaland are different? Well, I do now. After remarking that I knew how to say "Are you playing hide and seek?" in French the members of We Are Wolves taught me how to say it in French-Canadian.

Mini-French lesson:

The France way: Jouez-vous à cache-cache?

Quebec way: Jouez-vous à la cachette?

More useful than a guidebook! I learned some other French phrases and feel confident that if I were to go there tomorrow I still wouldn't know how to communicate in any language other than English. They all seemed genuinely shocked/surprised that I wanted to go to Montreal which shocked/surprised me. Don't we all? I mean the music coming out of there is insane! And the people are enjoyable, no matter what Vice leads one to believe.

I had a departing chat with Alex who is very enjoyable. He asked what I thought they could do on a future PDX tour stop to improve turn-out and how their booking agent had warned them that Seattle and Portland were tough tour-markets and didn't recommend them, echoing what I've chatted to Tokyo Police Club about in terms of Portland. I actually advised Alex that they shouldn't play Portland again on a business stand-point. Me. To one of my favorite Canadian bands. But I was being honest...

Then the conversation picked up to how even Coldplay don't play Portland because even for them it's a tough tour market. That really says something. Their last PDX show was at Arlene Shnitzer with a capacity of 2776. Tickets remained day of. Alex said in Montreal, they sold-out a two day run at the stadium with 20,000 capacity. Britney Spears couldn't even sell out the Rose Garden (Portland's arena and biggest venue) on her Onyx Hotel tour. Only Disney fameball Hannah Montana can nowadays. Then I got talking about Holocene's last sold-out show, the magical Yeasayer show that had come to pass just days before. Alex hadn't yet checked out the band, but I assured him they're not some flash-in-the-pan - like they can back up the hype. About a week later their link was in his inbox, along with Miley Cyrus' myspace and the link for Hannah Montana's facebook group because that's how I roll.

Nathan spent some time talking to the group about some joint Gossip/We Are Wolves Canadian tour dates! Someone wants to go up north for that tour and that someone is me.

I had given Alex a ninja turtle ring earlier and he gave me a shirt! With that We Are Wolves were off to SF with a show in the Bay Area the very next day! Yikes! How did that get scheduled? (seeing as most bands have a day off in between the two given the commute)

I ended my evening at the venue with a very very fun chat with Jacob of Holocene who not only got me stocked with extras of my poster, but got me even more excited for Simian Mobile Disco's April appearance as if that was possible! The possibilities are what make it possible... :) Then me and Marisa took to the open road back to our residences sometime between one and two.

"Fight & Kiss" We Are Wolves MP3

We Are Wolves myspazz

Youtube: Nathan's video montage of karaoke in Tokyo

A round of virtual drinks and thank yous must be sent the way of Elhaam, she of GBH in NYC (hosts of my first Uffie live experience) and awesome playlists on Guilty as Pleasure and awesome blogging over at Retarded Fantasy. She's a true music fan and supporter through and through, lending her help and connections to bands she likes which in this case turned out to be We Are Wolves and their North American tour. She got in touch with me about being apart of the Portland gig at the end of last year and the experience was absolutely amazing! It was great recommending Nathan to be my DJ co-chair, getting to do the poster, DJing and other such activities in promotion. It was a privilege! Ten million thanks yous for involving me!

And look what I spied but two days ago -- my poster -- still up:

Party All the Time We Are Wolves DJ Set Podcast

Belated We Are Wolves post Part 1

(DJ pic taken back at 1/2ALIVE in B.C. Why am I clinging to those headphones for dear life?)

So.. yeah... Took me long enough to blog about We Are Wolves in PDX-land, but I was waiting on the disposable photos I took of the night to be developed, so I have an excuse... kind of... hahahaha. This time last month the magical We Are Wolves visited Holocene and Not on the Guest List helped throw the party. The second part of this post (with some of those trusty disposable photos) will follow this one. I split the evening's DJ bill with the Gossip's Brace Paine and got my Party All the Time on solo sans Meg and Louis. This is what I played that fine last night of January:

Set 1:
"Blag Flag" - Duchess Says
"La Nuit" - Robots in Disguise
"Cry Babies" - Comic Book Fever VS Crystal Castles
"Ready For The Floor" - Hot Chip
"Lets Make Out (Extended Mix)" - Does It Offend You, Yeah?
"Flex-it Formula" - Professor Murder
"Yr City's A Sucker" - LCD Sound System
"Drugs In My Body" - Thieves Like Us
"Can't Chose" - Naive New Beaters
"The Bears are Coming" - Late of the Pier
"Elvis" (original version) - These New Puritans
"Radio Ladio" - Metronomy
"in My Arms" - Kylie Minogue
"Sweaty" - Muscles

Download Set 1 Podcast (53 mins, 53 sec) (MP3)

Set 2:
"Lust In The Movies" - The Long Blondes
"Yea Yeah" - Matt & Kim
"Numerology" These New Puritans
"Circle Square Triangle" - Test Icicles
"Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks" - The Rapture
"The Girls" - Calvin Harris

Download Set 2 Podcast (21 mins, 40 sec) (MP3)

I was supposed to do a half hour set before the first band and then 15 minutes later on in the evening, but after the hands of the clock ticked their way through my first half hour, opening band Swim Swam Swum still hadn't taken to the stage so I played on which made me a slight bit unarmed, given it was my second DJ gig and my first solo. Nothing a quick shot of tequila and a previous podcast couldn't ease. I had my sets planned in advance - down to the minute and basically got a bit dependent on my Lost Will Podcast for the last few songs of the first one to help me fill the extra time instead of gettin' random.

I was SO psyched to play the Spank Rock remix of Sold Out's "I Don't Want to have Sex with You," but the atmosphere was sooooo not right for a song that spends about three of its five minutes endlessly repeating "I don't want to have sex with you." Next time! I also forgot I wanted to open with Marcos dos Santos' "Not on the Guest List" since it was NotGL's first official night in Portland, but alas... And Trash Fashion's "Mommy and Daddy" (MP3) never snuck its way in...
Somehow (I have no idea how) I refrained from playing Soulja Boy. Every time I go out I make sure to request "Crank Dat Soulja Boy (Supaman)" much to every DJ's chagrin. Just doing my part :) Apparently DJs don't like it when people do that [5th question, 2nd paragraph] <<< hahahaha - I mean 3 girls - that was totally Party All the Time - Louis is pretty girly.

Apparently Fake Shark - Real Zombie! has a Wikipedia page that somehow doesn't mention Louis' side project of Party All the Time. Baffling! haha Maybe it needs to be altered -- the Stephen Colbert way. Elephants anyone? I kid, I kid. Or do I?

Steve declares War (and peace) in Seattle

 (cause we know that diamond is so for the robots as opposed to Kanye based on Steve's setlist)

Of course I've had an interest in watching Steve Aoki DJ as it seems like a lot of people do. That's exactly what puts Steve in such a unique position. How many people go to watch a DJ? Don't they go to dance?
Equally inspired by Meg's unapologetic love of Aoki during my week spent in Vancouver B.C. and Panda Toes' recent assessment of his skills on the decks, I set out via Greyhound to Seattle on a Friday to take in Stevie live and in person at the War Room.

I arrived just around midnight to a crowd decked out in shoelace headbands, fur coats (yuck! I had to dodge the people wearing them like I was in a warzone. Ain't no way that's gonna touch me), a plastic crown, skinny jeans and suspenders. And someone was doing the running man. Un-ironically. That vision sums up where in the arch of hipsterdom a good majority of the people there were at... pretty well actually. And I'm not saying they're were ahead of the curve in that. The opposite. Run for cover, it's the Yuppies! Scarier than hipsters? That aside, there was a girl who looked like Kid Sister there. She was entirely too cute.

When I arrived there was no crowd-surfing, no screaming interaction between Steve and the attendees, no anything - just Steve fully engaged in the Serato set-up in front of him. WTF?! That wasn't the scene for very long though...

Soon Steve was drunk enough to start swinging from chords, standing on his set-up, falling over, jumping up and down and swinging his locks around with wild abandon to whatever it was he was playing at each given moment.

He played enough Daft Punk to make you think you were either at a Daft Punk concert or that you were catching a Flosstradamous set.

It was all rather hilarious. I had way more fun watching him spiral than I did when I was dancing to "Ready to Uff." The thing is, he's got some skills. I'm not going to skip through and omit how much shit (mostly from Gawker) he gets for being the DJ he is and the hipster backlash that gets pinned on him as if he's the mascot of the sect. How obnoxious can one be starting their career under the name Kid Millionaire when you are indeed the son of a millionaire; in Steve's case son of Benihana founder Rocky Aoki? hahaha But it was a tongue-in-cheek obnoxiousness...

I think the reason he gets the resistance is he is indeed a superstar DJ, but many other DJs of the globe-trotting caliber are less in your face - selling on their skills more than on personality. And a lot of Steve's success isn't hinged on having paid his dues in crummy clubs. I think that and the whole lifestyle tag may be what rubs people the wrong way.

But come on, how can you not automatically celebrate someone who uses what he has to release Pony Up!  Seriously!?! I will forever be thankful for his label Dim Mak's releases, from Pony Up! to Bloc Party's first American release(s) to the Mystery Jets and oh so much more.

And he's pretty rad at mixing songs too. A skill he displayed on and off because the power to his decks and laptop kept going on and off, again and again, messing with his flow, but in no way halting the party.

He doesn't come across as a caricature of some party DJ, but just as someone who wants to have a lot of fun and is doing so.
More power to him.
If he can and has the opportunity to do all that he does, then why not?

Steve 'space

Green Velvet is so sick. I discovered him through a mix CD during a trip to San Francisco back in 2003 that he appeared on. While the love affair has seen it's dormant periods, right now is a time of crushing excitement namely cause Joee Irwin's brand spanking new newsletter just linked "LaLaLaLaLa (Nside My Mind)," a tune that's completely gotten inside of my mind.
I love that when speaking to Edwin of Foals this past Saturday, he said he loved techno. My reply? "Green Velvet loves techno too!" hahahaha Love me his lyrics in "Shake and Pop"...
Aoki's true touch to the track kicks in at about 2:30

Shake and Pop (w/ Kid Sister's Guest Drop) Green Velvet Steve Aoki Edit MP3

More of my photos from the War Room on fffffflickrrrrr

Related/unrelated: I am so digging Mark the Cobrasnake lately. So digging him after watching this video interview on Jezebel.

Also from the Gawker stable: Aoki family shizz

Why must Michael Cera be just so damn cute... but only 19!? Boo!
 

Foals Showcase Showdown

Literally the first person I bumped into when I entered Chop Suey for the free Foals "showcase" was Yannis walking in the direction of the door. He didn't get too far before I had him on the subject of their Observer Music Monthly cover and their New York shows. When we got onto the subject of the Chop Suey show he was rather surprised to find out it was being advertised as a "showcase." He found it weird given they're already signed.

On stage were the Heavenly States - with a bit of Hold Steady meandering sing-song talk vocals. Before heading out I googled them only to note that Coldplay's name appeared in their results, something I remarked aloud on. Apparently Sleepy Eyes of Death were really good so I'm bummed I missed them! Yannis said they had an instrumental thing going on.

TV on the Radio played in between sets so I got to sing along with "Ambulance" as Foals took their spots on stage, first sound-checking, then leaving only to reappear within seconds for the start of their set. Hmmm... I wonder why the Brooklyn band would be providing their before show soundtrack?

Playing sans set-list, Foals charged away. Their second song in was "Cassius." Yannis soon took to the drums while Jimmy thrashed around with his guitar, hair apparent (flipping and flopping along with every jolt of his body) and providing top entertainment for how into his chords he was (while actually wearing jeans :).

Keyboardist Edwin rocked a Tiny Vipers T-shirt. I still think it a bit interesting for him to don their T of all acts seeing as their folky sound directly contrasts to his typical techno tastes. Do I want to be signed to Sub Pop just so Foals will wear my [as of now, non-existant] band T-shirt? Kinda. Hahaha.
Jack rocked an actual "Sub Pop" T. Does that mean I should form a label to outfit them? Maybe... hahahaha
He was also in stocking feet, something I'd yet to see before for a drummer.

While bassist Walter was clearly enthralled with his instrument on the left hand side of the stage, I was rather enthralled with how he played it. With his rhythmic  shrugs and arches, his body movements near mirrored the guitar playing of the Gossip's Brace Paine.

There was seemingly a camera mafia in the line directly in front of the stage and a dance-a-thon broke out.

Yannis jumped into the crowd on two occasions to strum his guitar.

Before the close of their regular set with their "love song" "Red Socks Pugie," they played "Hummer"!  They did, they really did!

Then they returned for an encore to appease the very very enthusiastic crowd calling them back out with unending applause and cheers.

Noting they don't do it too often, they luckily had one more song in their bag of tricks. Actually, they also had "Astronauts and All," but I knew there was no way they were gonna be bringing that to life onstage in Seattle.
It was an intense close to an intense set and an oh-so delightful way to dance an evening away.

And all this despite being dazed due to the time difference. You couldn't tell in the least, but many Foals members made a mention of it, Yannis saying the first thing he'd done off the plane was smoke pot, which doubled his out-of-it-ness. Jack stayed up until 12 the night of their arrival in an effort to adjust only to wake up 3 and a half hours later. Towards the end of their set they remarked from the stage how it was breakfast time in the UK.

I asked Jack about the inclusion of "Hummer" afterwards and he said despite how it comes off in interviews, they actually really enjoy it - keyword they - not just him and that it's one of his favorites because it's the track with the most surefire power to make people dance.

"Hummer" Foals MP3

We again spoke of their Observer Music Monthly cover and why the Andy Warhol-Basquait dual idea hadn't become reality. This conversation thread made way for These New Puritans (I didn't know the girl was considered a lead the band) and onto Hadouken who've gone all nu-metal from their origins of that song I actually liked. That song "That Boy, That Girl" whose title I couldn't actually remember at the time, so I sang "Hoxton hero, skinny fit jeans all dressed in pink" before Jack chimed in "Indie Cindy." Who knew we'd be having a Hadouken lyric sing off and that it'd be really fun? Apparently their new video is the worst ever, so I now of course can't wait to watch it. That provided a conversational inlet for me to mention the exploits of Ashlee Simpson's music video for "Outta My Head" which is clearly the best thing to happen to the motion picture since ever. Ever enjoyable Jack has yet to see it. Oh he will. Oh he will...

In the time a woman from the KEXP blog joined our company along with companion Chris/Sebastian/Eugene of Seattle label Sarathon. Last call had already gone out and soon the bar staff were shuffling us out of the main venue area, so we made our way back to the dressing room.

When I was packing my bag for the evening, I first emptied out all the previous contents before putting in my camera, lenses and flash. All previous content except for my hot pink bingo dabber with which I used to stamp people's hands after the show, including a very skeptical Edwin who has never played bingo nor goes bowling. Good god man, have you lived?! I actually asked him that too... hahaha
This led into a very involving conversation of internets, macbook, macbook air and the African nation of Chad leading someone in the dressing room to declare, "Fuck Chad!"
Also populating the room were chocolates with salt on them and a tray of Sex on the Beach brought in by Yannis.
Duncan, their manager (also manager to the Young Knives who are also Transgressive signed), was along for the trip and instantly recognized me, naming the exact gig I'd seen them and him at last. He's got a remarkable memory. He's apparently good in bed too - added by him only semi-facetiously when I asked what his other talents were. Fun times! (until he put out his cigarette in what was left of my third shot of tequila :)
It was fun times all around from Sexual Harassment speak (whose track "If I Gave You a Party"(MP3) I finally got my hands on in MP3 form just weeks ago) to Facebook stalking and onto hype and the Hype Machine talk aplenty until 2am departures. I'm so psyched for when they come back!

Foals will be back for a truncated US tour in April. First they'll do the west coast before returning to the UK for a week of promotion commitments and then return for an east coast jaunt.

Expect A HOUSE SHOW in Portland!!!

P.S. look what I spied on my way out of the venue...

(a gig poster for none other than my B.C. "educator" (or one of them) and one for Boys Noize who best be making an appearance at SXSW)

Foals on the Horizon

Quickly a laundry list of opiates and other drugs made their way from his lips as he asked if I liked to party. That would be the oddly endearing Yannis of Foals for you after their Rough Trade in-store in London back in December. And tonight I've ventured up to Seattle to take in their last of three US gigs at Chop Suey.

When I saw them live on my last day/evening in London I was caught in between whether to break it down and dance or stand there in awe of their intensity and musicianship. Luckily the night before, Simon White, Bloc Party's manager had shared a few tales about them culled from joint tour dates and also the fact that they kinda detest "Hummer" for its commercial viability at an aftershow. Therefore luckily I didn't expect it as I didn't receive it in the live setting.

The set was charged, but too many people were apparently too afraid to dance. What's up with that? You are going against nature by not dancing at a Foals gig! Like you literally have to fight your body in order to not to.

There were many cameras and many songs and lighting that trumped real gigs and totally took it out of the in-store atmosphere. Since Yannis had broken his foot/toe just a couple days earlier, he was semi-subdued in comparison to his usual onstage antics according to him, but what I saw was pretty full on energy.

Afterwards they had a signing during which I took in how prominent of a display the Chromatics were receiving up front! Whoo! Night Drive all the way! And who did I spy or rather who spied me? Rhys from Good Shoes!!

I looked up and our eyes met and he made his way over to me. How random! So of course I geeked out and squealed something along the lines, "Oh my god!!!! I haven't seen you forever!" Rhys reminded me of my vocal volume, by which time I'd already attracted the attention of a mother and daughter to him who were fans of Good Shoes. hahahaha. The last time we'd seen each other was in the hotel room of Be Your Own Pet in Glasgow January 2006. That night was entirely too much fun! Oh the memories! Oh the music! That was the first time I'd ever listened to Animal Collective.

He headed out for some beers shortly after and I stuck around to take some polaroids and candid photos of Foals after they'd sufficiently autographed everything being shoved their way.

Yannis came up to me and started chatting without any awareness I'd be taking pics of them in minutes. We talked about their sound during their set and he assured me it's typically much better even though I hadn't heard anything off. We talked about my photos, his foot and a little Observer Music Monthly. Yannis detailed an entire Andy Warhol and Basquiat based concept theme for the cover for them and Lightspeed Champion to be shot in two weeks. I asked how he already knew about it. Turns out he planned it. We now know how that actually turned out to look.

They are a very fun bunch! How much am I loving that I just wrote "fun bunch"? To collect them all for a photo proved to be a task as one would go missing in the store just as another was found. Yannis was particularly unlucky going to look for someone he'd put on the guest list in exchange for the promise of getting them high, hence our exchange up top. By the time I left, the attendee with the goods still hadn't been tracked down. I don't feel too much apprehension mentioning this as they're rather open to discussing their drug dalliances in the press.

In the mean time, Jimmy had "Rock Club" written across his knuckles.

I snapped a couple photos of it at which point Yannis appeared saying, "Look! I can do that too!," taking a sharpy and quickly scrawling a heart on his forearm for me to take a picture of.

We spent some minutes in front of one record set-up before moving to another, which spurred Yannis to remark if we were going to the other set-up (that was coincidentally shorter) in an effort to make him look taller and poking some fun at himself in the height category.

He definitely put himself in a position for attention the entire time - jumping off things and telling me to look and shoot while the rest of the band were happy to comb through records rather under the radar. Friendly, but not nearly as talkative or hyper.

It was really really fun. There were some matching hand formations:

and we ended the interaction with some polaroids. Jimmy, Edwin, Jack and Walter all posed for a brief moment before returning to other activities such as packing up while Yannis grabbed the instant image from my camera the second it started appearing and pulled it out. Running around Rough Trade East, he held it until it developed, then gave it back to me with the observation, "I look like a twat."

So what are we in store for in Seattle? The couplet of New York shows went down an absolute storm and maybe, just maybe there will be a house show. I didn't ask them because I have no space to offer and when I did in London, they mistook my questioning as an offer:

Party at a Sub Pop house?

Here's a song they're unlikely to play:

"Astronauts and All" Foals MP3

Judging by "Balloons," my mom pegs them as a mix between Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs.

Foals Myspazz

Oh, and keyboardist Edwin being named Edwin instead of Edward was inspiration enough to use his name in a story I wrote based on Worms' song "Dead in the Waves." It's a political "thriller" - go read it!

And in related/unrelated, a Basquiat mural was found in an apartment complex in NYC. For $8 million you can own a condo next to the creation, though it won't be there for long. Yearly maintenance fee for living in such luxury? Only $42,000.00 a year!

Liars in Portlandia (and Polaroidia)

(Angus has a very funky wardrobe)

Liars came to Portland and rocked! Of course frontman (and Maps-maker) Angus was battling on with the tour despite throwing his back out just days prior. That meant that there were three chairs set up across the stage for him to crawl to and flail on in an effort to give his all to the audience by utilizing all angles.

During the show there was a song dedication to their touring guitarists' girlfriend, plus a shout-out to drummer Julian's parents (who were in the PDX audience) followed by a momentary debate over just how long they'd been married.

For the encore, Angus came out with a red balloon emblazoned with the message "Skip, Hop and dance!" across it's front tied around his waist. He proceeded to look as if he was being terrorized by it.

It was funny because at one point, pre-balloon, Blake (not Lively) gently elbowed me in the ribs to remark "Quite a character, isn't he?" in response to Angus' absolutely bizarre behavior that wasn't hampered in the least by his Hunchback of Notre Dame-ness.

They thanked openers No Age for 'taking them on tour' and making them "feel old" hahahahaha

Setlist:
Leather Prowler
Clear Island
Houseclouds
Kingdom
Beach Boy
Freak Out
Smail
There's Always Room On the Broom
Pure Unevil
Plaster Casts of Everything
BYS
Broken Witch
Movie

Understandably heavy with material from their latest self-titled album for Mute, they didn't play "It Fit When I was a Kid" from Drum's Not Dead during their set. Boo! That was even a single! And my favorite track... Liars aren't necessarily a band I engage with so much on record. In terms of my taste, I prefer taking in their tunes in the live setting. But I love love love that track and especially the CC remix.

"It Fit When I was a Kid" (Crystal Castles remix) Liars MP3

So danceably subversive!

Drummer Julian (who wore a T-shirt made by No Age for most of the night) is currently filming a haphazard-ish (a descriptor he alluded to) tour diary. He filmed me in night vision and instead of the green grain of Paris Hilton's adventure, I came out in a blue-ish hue, including my eyes which was a trip given my skin-tone. He filmed his mom chillaxing in the above polaroid.

While I had fun eating corn-chips, Aaron had fun with an apple from their rider. Entirely candid. Entirely. Hahaha

My Pitchfork photo post from the night

The rest of my live Liars photos on flickr

What's that you say? Not only do Liars have bad backs, but bad stomachs a plenty too?

 

A No Age kinda day

(Somehow I have resisted the urge to draw hearts all over the picture given I just love them so much)

So my last Monday of January was spent in dedication to my favorite Los Angles duo. Literally. From 3pm to 2am I was pounding the pavement to take in their couplet of live shows and get personal with them in an interview for Pitchfork.

I'd lost my camera the night before at the noisy Night Wounds / failed Feather Figure show I threw at Towne Lounge. I left my apartment a little past three to go fetch it and then boarded a bus in route to Food Fight!, the grocery store No Age would be playing come 6 after our interview due to start at 5. I got to 41st and Division a couple minutes past 5 - as I'd already told guitarist Randy I would due to bus schedules, then wandered around with aim, but unsuccessfully to find the vegan storefront.

Luckily I had my computer with me (to record our scheduled interview) and luckily there were a million networks of free wifi so I again googled the store and again the address popped up dictating that indeed 41st and Division was the correct address, so I called. And Food Fight! had moved 3 months ago! To 12th and Stark. Whoo! Someone's gonna be late! I hopped on the 4, got off and transfered to the 70 and made it into the store a little past 5:30. At that point less than a handful of the faithful were gathered, but by 6 attendees had swelled to capacity.

The set was exactly what you'd expect from No Age playing in a vegan grocery store - obviously awesome! Dean rocked a T-shirt proclaiming "Fleetwood Mac" that looked like instead of being made from spray paint, that it'd come into existence via those Blo-pens you can get at specialty craft stores. Randy scaled some freezers to get his rock on and film crews from Vice's internet channel VBS.tv were there to record the action.

A full on mosh developed as did some crowd surfing according to a bandana accessorized Elliott who got lifted to the top of it. The aftermath left from such festivities included smashed glass jars of garlic and tomato paste that smelled entirely too good to someone (i.e. me) who had already grown hungry having to look at Amy's Kitchen products behind Randy and my favorite Tasty Bite next to Dean. There were so many smiles the entire time from No Age, the audience and employees alike.

After a quick detour to Whole Foods for some food and a purchase at Powell's of my first writing credit in URB Magazine (turn to page 40), it was off to the Wonder for No Age's 9pm set. Randy got his Lil' Wayne on by rocking some faux tattoos - including a tear drop beneath his eye.

I expect three next time! You can't get a Source, Vibe or XXL cover with only one. Dean ate a banana onstage before almost throwing up hahahaha. Oh yeah - they were playing music right? How did that go? Well... fun! At one point they kinda turned it into a pep rally at your local (hopefully long-forgotten by now) high school - splitting the audience in two and conducting shouts after some random occurrence (which I forget now) put the idea in their head. They were laughing as they did it and Dean shouted a facetious "Don't do drugs" into the mic before they chugged into their next song.

The set was again interactive just as it had been at Food Fight! and when I saw them supporting the Teenagers in London in December. Randy strummed some chords from inside the audience and then closed the set by handing off his guitar to someone in the immediate crowd while he controlled the distortion pedals from onstage. Dean got out from behind his drumkit for some singing front of stage. There was climbing too and general playfulness that makes you not want them to leave when their time on stage (and off) has elapsed to a close.

From onstage they'd announced a contest for best band name created during the night. The prize? A No Age tote bag! And I won - cue confetti and streamers! Their merch guy Jordan who bestowed me with the title rocks all around - from letting Elliott and I store our stuff with the merch to his obscenely terrific tailored skinny jeans. I don't know which of my band names won, but my entries were (in no particular order):
Space for Rent (an ode to Who Made Who song)
Lisa Frank Stickers
Valentines Day Massacre Part 2 (more of an ode to a rave Manny from Atole threw at age 15 than to the infamous shoot up)

Afterwards, Randy seemed partial to Lisa Frank Stickers, so expect a No Age remix EP under the name to drop sometime in the near future. I'm serious. Just you watch. I've already drawn the CDR artwork.

Eventually we settled down for the interview with a gaggle of No Age friends until the Wonder kicked us out five minutes into it in oder to close. We then boarded No Age's mini-van. First off, I didn't get to ask why they changed the background color of their blog from white to black (I found the former more inviting) or about the emphasis (or lack of) on vocals/lyrics in No Age, but there was some talk of Daoism, Bill Cosby and of course talk of having children. Don't you love how I added the "of course?" Don't you love that it came up multiple times more?

The interview was pretty personal and was in relation to their music as opposed to strictly about it. Those are the conversations I prefer. Of the interviews I've done, one I did over two hours in the basement of Berbati's with Sam from the now defunct band Hope of the States and the one I did in April with Simon from Klaxons have been my favorites. I.e. the ones where you get to know a little bit of what the person you are talking to is about instead of just surface stuff that you can and will find in any glossy publication over and over again over the promotion cycle for the album.

I really respect musicians that refuse to put up a barrier between bands in fans, which was a personal conviction of Hope of the States and what initially drew me to wanting to speak with No Age. That and their bevy of pop-culture references from the stage in London.

It was a really great conversation scheduled for a half hour and that ended up lasting well over the hour I was able to record before my computer died. It was great too - because we weren't all just hearing each other, we were listening to, made obvious by us all referencing things others of us had said earlier as basis for whole new points and questions. Boy is it gonna be a bitch to transcribe! And it was already due! Whoo!

At the end of the evening No Age drove me home!!! SO SWEET! I thought it was sweet enough that Dean was driving me downtown to catch a cab since the last 6 and 4 from the area had long gone past, but when we got downtown and I said they could drop me off on a corner, Dean said they'd just drive me the whole way since he didn't want me to have to stand out in the rain waiting for one. All the way to SW! - almost Washington County when the venue had been in NE and they were also staying in NE! So nice!!

I learned a lot during the chat, not only about No Age, but about myself too. When we were driving home, Dean asked me if I'd always lived in Portland and I gave a mini-run down of my moves starting as a kid. He said that he found my life exciting since he's always lived in LA and that while some people think being a touring band is exciting, he doesn't find it so much so - it just is what it is and asked if it was the case with mine whether I find it "exciting." I noted a few horror story hallmarks from my time living in Glasgow. Afterwards I also noted how I was just there again and really enjoyed my time there this past time around. In that realized for the first time I don't find moving blindly to international locations exciting, but I do find traveling exciting. Really exciting!! Maybe because there's also a timeline attached as opposed to being stranded in Scotland on a one-way ticket and not being able to afford to leave for a year and a half.

Dean has this combination of optimism and idealism that's anchored to realism, but not anchored by it. I see a difference.

Earlier he talked about a free beach tour he wants to do and I'm thinking he needs to get in touch with Harry and the Potters and glean some tips from them about their annual free library tours.

Randy Randall (god I love that that name exists) had so much progressive stuff to say about pretty much everything - elections, the realistic power of a rock band and tons of other stuff, but I was most enthralled by two of his points. One being about his desire to do a zine about free health care in the US and where it is available in each city. That is still in the idea form, but I'm hoping he brings it to a physical state because I know a lot of people would benefit. I have all of Portland's info already ready. He also talked about talking to moms. More on that once the interview runs.

When I got out of the mini-van outside my place, I felt like hugging Dean who got out to help me out. I felt like I really knew them and it was like saying goodbye to a friend I wouldn't see for a while.

What were my final words to the duo?
"I want you to meet my mom!" You know - without explaining that she lives in Seattle and not at the apartment they've just dropped me off at hahahaha And because our conversation had been along the lines of what me and F Mason already talk about.

God - I am such a geek! Love it! Love them!