adrian is rad

I like the scolding tone of this spam subject line:

Obesity is dangersous, stop it

I just passed 1000 comments on the old blog here and number one thousand was one of those stupid trackback comments on one of my previous posts. I was hoping it’d be some lucky blogfan who I could give some useless prize to!

Oh well.

On Friday, Laura and I went over to see David Bazan (ex-Pedro the Lion, Headphones) at the Swedish American Hall. It was an odd billing. I had never seen DB play anything but a headlining (or co-headlining) slot and here he was opening for someone I’d never heard of Kristin Hersch (of Throwing Muses, apparently). It was also an early show (doors at 7:30pm–DB was on by 8:30ish) which led to an odd mix of older people and even some infant kids.

We got there as the first opener was in her last couple songs. She was good enough but, honestly, I didn’t pay much attention. Tip to artists, by the way: say your name or band name fairly often, and at least once at the end of your set. I don’t know the opener’s name.

David came up next. It was immediately obvious that this was going to be the most laid-back show of his that I’d seen yet: he was sitting down and playing a nylon-string guitar. (Later I also learned that he was sober, apparently a new thing for solo shows.)

I can’t remember the exact order of songs he did but he definitely did a nice mix of old (Ptl) and new songs (DB) and even one Headphones (H) song, in no particular order: “Transcontinental”(PtL), “Hot Shit” (H), “Fewer Broken Pieces”(DB) (on which he tacked on parts of a new song that he was working on), “Cold Beer and Cigarettes”(DB), “the Longer I Lay Here” (PtL), “Priests and Paramedics”(Ptl), “The Poison”(DB/ PtL), “Of Up and Coming Monarchs”(PtL), “Bands with Managers”(PtL), and “Bad Things to Good People”(PtL) (which I hadn’t listened to for quite a while but had been actually listening to earlier in the same day—good song!). I’m sure he did half-a-handful of other songs, but I can’t remember them all.

He played well and sang well—it’s sort of snuck by me that he actually has a great falsetto. I missed that some how, or at least I’d never noted it before.

It was obvious that crowd was not all DB or Pedro fanatics as some of his ‘quirkier’ lyrics ellicited giggles from the audience.

He also did his usual question-and-answer session during songs. These are always fun. One of the kids (~5 years old) asked him why he said “smokes a lot” during one of his songs (I think). DB sort of winced like he does and then awkwardly tried to explain that he said that because he doesn’t have a very good vocabulary and instead uses hyperbole to try to say what he means. He also said he uses explitives in his songs for the same reason and basically apologized to the father for swearing around this kid. (A few minutes later he launched into “Hot Shit” of course…) The same kid also asked him if he was married and that got DB into a story about how the minister that married him left the church because he tried to go on a date with the secretary and the minister’s wife didn’t like that, “but that’s another story…”

The one question I asked was whether he regrets releasing any of his songs; if you’ve listened through his catalog, this question may occur to you as well as it sort of “switches gears”, one could say. His response was “the Promise”, the last song off of It’s Hard to Find a Friend. His reasoning was mostly that he likes the somber mood that he created with the three songs before that (”The Bells” to “Secret of the Easy Yoke” (still one of my PtL favorites) to “The Well”) and then it jumps into this “pop jingle” as he calls it. He we was too scared to end on a somber note then. He also doesn’t particuarly like “the Promise.”

After the show, it was still early so Laura and I headed over to Sparky’s for a milkshake and a slice of delicious pumpkin pie. I think I am currently suffering from a heart attack due to consuming these foods, but, dang, it was worth it. The milkshake was possibly one of the best I’ve ever had: a perfectly blended vanilla ice cream with a dollop of peanut butter shake.

After the break, check out more photos and my list of David Bazan/ Pedro/ Headphones shows.
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You have one more day to grab the Online Mixtape, Vol 4 (October) before I wisk it off to a sooper sekret location to never be seen by the public again despite any public relations campaigns you start or slanderous accusations you make.

I had a dream last night where something had happened where I’d been signed or discovered or been given a good review online or something and suddenly I was going to play a show as a headliner. I was trying to get enough material together. I was going to play some originals on wurly and guitar. I was going to play some old songs (Greetings from Johannesburg? Where’s Luke??) and some new stuff. I wasn’t very good at the songs and playing wurly and guitar (in the dream, of course not in real life) so I needed to practice. The night of the show came and the openers went and were good and I was thinking I shouldn’t be the headliner of the show. Then it was my turn to play and I realized that I really hadn’t practiced much and I was totally unprepared.

I don’t remember my dreams much.

wow. that was just embarrassing. 4 interceptions! Two for TDs? Come on, Ben~

good thing I paid way too much for tickets to be there!

(Out of ~63K people there, I’d say 5-10K were baseball fans though.)

Possibly my favorite Halloween tradition is when we buy candy “to give out on Halloween” and then we eat all or most of it before Halloween such that we need to buy more in order to have some to give out on Halloween. Oh man, I love it.

There’s this sign (I know, awesome picture!) on the outside of a firehouse (SFFD Station 6, for the record) near the Cafe du Nord:

The first time I saw it, I think I did a double take. That’s a picture indicating a person handing over a baby.

There was a passing mention on the TV a week later of a Safe Surrender Baby Law that apparently exists in California. New mothers can give up their baby at a hospital or some fire stations without fear of legal ramifications.

Wikipedia has an article and it looks like most states have laws on this topic of varying degrees. I find it strange.

I did my radio show tonight. Playlist.

And!!! the SPECIALNEWFUN: I recorded it and thanks very much to mim who’ll be hosting the mp3s.

I Once Was Canadian October 25, 2006 (mp3)

The recording starts a bit into the show this week (and might, actually, cut off a little bit before the end–ack!). I am trying to get it to automagically record it, but there was a hiccup this week. I’ll try again next week!

Here’s a clip of the Times are a Changin cast performing “Like a Rolling Stone” (the greatest song of all time) on the View.

I couldn’t make it all the way through. Can you?

Ouch. Ouch!

It takes talent to produce something that horrible.

(via stereogum)

Last Friday I managed my third (I believe) ever two show night [1] [2]: with Damien Jurado w/ Rosie Thomas followed by Beirut.

The night started with meeting Dave and Dasha outside the Swedish American Hall at about 8:15. We got inside and Rosie Thomas was on, having already started her set. Rosie is really funny in a goofy way. She has this tiny voice but has a huge voice, easily filing the hall when she wanted to. Her set was good: her music’s a bit on the sappy side, but it’s still nice. Her between set banter was very funny; I’m not entirely surprised she’s also sometimes a stand-up comic (as “Sheila”). Apparently she’s friends with Sufjan, which makes me happy.

[full write up and pics continue after the break]
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Note to self: try to work the word “slypod” into everyday speech.

Yeah, I’m running a little late on these. Oh well. Here’s October’s mixtape.

You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)

(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2006sept playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).

If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. There are some old favorites here, some new discoveries and some new songs from old favorites. Pinback, Beulah, Damien Jurado and local indie pop stars the Light Footwork all make appearances.

Adrian’s October 2006 Mixtape [zip file]

This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.

If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.

One of my roommates: “What else is there to do besides watch TV? I mean, if we weren’t supposed supposed to watch it all day long it wouldn’t work all day long, would it?”

Despite liking the book and Clint Eastwood’s previous directorial work, I hadn’t been looking forward to Flags of our Fathers much. Maybe I just felt that the World War II movie had been played out or that Eastwood’s touch wouldn’t be as deft in a subject that tends to be done in an epic and over-the-top manner. But the critics seemed to be liking it, so I thought I’d catch a show yesterday at the new megaplex down in Redwood City.

It’s about the photo and the people in the photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima and more broadly about World War II, and “heros”. The book is written by one of the flag raisers’ sons and it goes through the story of each of the six flag raisers, the story of the flag raising, the history of the battle of Iwo Jima and other related topics.

I was surprised by how closely it stayed to the book. I was expecting that everything that wasn’t the battle of Iwo Jima would be stripped out. It’s not really a battle movie, as such, because of this because a lot of it takes place after the battle. The movie bounces back and forth between the post-battle scenes and the battle scenes; it might be a bit hard to follow for some, but I didn’t have much of a problem.

The cinematography has a very gritty quality to it for the battle scenes. It’s filmed in a way that it’s almost black-and-white for the battle scenes and, like similar scenes in Saving Private Ryan, it’s sometimes filmed in an unsteady manner such that it’s closer to what a soldier would have seen. The whole film is gritty too. Eastwood doesn’t sugar coat the situation or truth, here. It’s all here and laid out for you to see. He leaves out a lot of the feel good parts you might see in another war movie.

It’s good. Not amazing, but good. It is a film with some weight: it hits you and doesn’t leave immediately.

I was talking to a WWII veteran earlier in the same day who had served at Okinawa. He was 19 at the time and was in the campaign for 75 days. I don’t know about you but when I was 19 I couldn’t have handled that. I mean at 22 I lived in Germany for 75(ish) days and was marginally able to handle that. No killing people, no enemy combatants, no watching friends die. That was it, either: he was scheduled and was training to be in the second wave to invade Japan, if that had happened. And then they, for the most part, just went back to school or work and went about their lives. I always take the opportunity to talk to WWII vets when I have a chance. If you think about it, if a soldier was 18 when he was fighting in the last battles in 1945, then he’s 80 now. It’s a shrinking group of people, I imagine rapidly at this point.

I don’t know what it is about WWII, something gets me about it. All these young kids went off and fought, hopefully, the last war of that magnitude (110,000 Japanese died on Okinawa alone—the population of more than Menlo Park and Palo Alto put together died on one side during one battle). It was the whole country too. The whole country mobilized and supported the effort and sacrificied. (Interesting fact: we went to war with Japan because they attacked us. Why did the US go to war with Germany? They declared war on us.) I’m not saying anything for or against war here: just that the sacrafice of the WWII generation gets me.

Most of you are probably not near a Sonic so you don’t see the commercials. Heck, the closest one to me is 45 miles away so I probably am at the edge of Sonic commercial range.

There’s a series of funny ones with two guys in a car (for example). One they’ve been running is for the breakfast burrito and I find it pretty funny.

It goes like this: two guys are sitting in a car eating the breakfast burritos. They’re talking along about how full it’s going to make them.

Guy 1: It’s so filling it’s like a feast for breakfast. A breakfeast!!

Guy 2 (not impressed with the new word coinage): uh huh

Guy 1 (again and with weight as if it’s profound): a breakfeast!

Guy 2 (still unimpressed): Uh yeah sure, man.

Brilliant! I am mostly amused by two things: the stupidity of the conversation and the similarity that it bears to many conversations I’ve had.

I hope it shows up on youtube so I can share it with you.

I’m all musicy lately, but here are three more things of interest:

• Sort of an update to that Sufjan @ Zellerbach post: the East Bay Express has an interesting article about how the Pacific Mozart Ensemble got to sing with Sufjan
• TW Walsh is now giving away (free! with artwork!) his band, the Soft Drugs’ latest EP, In Moderation. Solid stuff and I particularly like Defending the Paint (mp3)
• It looks like Dave and I (as Greetings from Johannesburg) are going to enter “Thaw” in Salon’s Song Search Contest

Pitchfork went at music bloggers this morning:

Zing!

I have no love for the Cold War Kids, but, man, that’s so petty and childish. It doesn’t even mention what kind of music it is, let alone if it’s good or not!

Either endearing or unbearably socially awkward:

her: Yeah, I’d like that.
me: Um, I don’t know how to do this. I guess I get your phone number or something?

Come on endearing. No whammies no whammies…

do you see this? Such a good playlist. I’m really good at this.

In the comments of my Rogue Wave benefit post, Mie from Our Lady of the Highway (who I saw open for Zach Rogue’s solo gig over the summer.) She sent me links to a few songs which I listened to.

OLofH is sort of hard to pinpoint as to what they sound like. They sort of stradle a lot of sounds: indie rock, alt country, dareIsayemo, folk, classic rock. “I get the sense” is a cool song with some Built to Spill-ish stylings. It’s a single off of their latest album and sounds sort of singley (that’s not always bad).

Our Lady of the Highway - I Get the Sense (mp3)

“Brown Dress” is folkie sort of song with a dark, distorted side. Man, I’m horrible with these descriptions.

Our Lady of the Highway - Brown Dress (mp3)

How local are they? They’re based in SF, I believe, but it appears Mie works around the corner at Stanford.

I’m still catching up from my crazy week last week.

On Thursday, I hung out with the nicest man in indie rock, John Vanderslice for a few hours and saw him play a solo gig at the 750 Pub at Stanford.

A couple weeks ago I talked to JV after the Rogue Wave show and since he played on my show we’ve had some rapport. I mentioned that it was cool that he was playing at Stanford and he asked if I wanted to hang out before the show. Well, yes!

I showed up at the 750 around 5:30. It’s kind of weird describing hanging out with someone, so maybe I’ll just skip most of that part. I met Chris, the guy from Pattern is Movement who was also on the bill, as well and he was pretty cool. JV is still just about the nicest person I’ve met.

A bunch of cool people showed up at the show, including KZSU DJs galore: Matt, Kirstle, Eel, and Megan, who helped organize it. Jay and much of his band, the Light Footwork also showed up and we got to hang out a bit again. I also met a few new cool people at the show.

First up on the bill was Pony Pants. They were sort of math-rocky with some classic rock influences and drum machine drums (played off an ipod) with female vocals. They were entertaining. The lead guitarist pulled out all the stops, playing being his head, standing on his amp and up in the face of an audience member.

Next up was JV. He was playing solo, acoustic. The room actually (somewhat surprisingly) got pretty packed. At some point during the show he said that earlier he was walking around Stanford with his “friend Adrian” and I felt pretty cool. He played a handful of new songs and a bunch of old ones. He got us all clapping along for a great version of “Pale Horse.” He is apparently doing a 7″ and wrote the B-side two weeks ago and recorded it the same morning as the show. He was saying that he’s never written a b-side before and he kept worrying that it was too good or that he was spending too much time on it. He played it and it was good.

Pattern is Movement was last; I missed most of their set chatting outside with JV.

All in all a great evening. Fun chatting with JV and a great set.

After a few weeks of disappointments, I’m happy the Steelers can still beat a crappy team. Their domination of the game encourages me that this might not just be a one-week-against-a-crappy-team spurt. As always, the post game quotes are somewhat interesting.

My team won the Mixed Draw Pairs Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club tournament on Saturday and I was playing vice rather than my normal role of lead. I’ll be getting a trophy.

Yes, you may be very impressed.

Starting last Friday, totally crazy 8 days:

• Friday:
  • Oakland A’s ALDS game 3: tons of fun
  • Jose Gonzalez at EBF, Stanford: packed and sweaty and good
• Saturday: Earl Scruggs, Gillian Welch and Jerry Douglas at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2006 (Day 2), SF: good
• Sunday: day of rest. (And watching the Steelers): disappointing
• Tuesday: ALCS game 1 @ Oakland: disappointing
• Wednesday: Sufjan Stevens @ Zellerbach, Berkeley: amazing
• Thursday:
  • hanging out w/ John Vanderslice: awesome
  • JV concert at 750 Pub, Stanford: tons of fun
• Friday: Long Winters at Cafe du Nord, SF: excellent. John Roderick is fantastic

What could you call a cross-dressing Sarah Michelle Geller impersonator?

Sarah Michelle Feller!!!@@@

Tonight I saw Sufjan Stevens in Berkeley at the Zellerbach Auditorium. He had a full choir (the Pacific Mozart Ensemble) along with a string octet, a brass trio and a backing band.

Holy crap. That was really good. Amazing, really.

I actually wrote down the setlist this time:

• unknown instrumental
• Sister
• The Transfiguration
• The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders Part I: The Great Frontier Part II: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now
• He Woke Me Up Again
• Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!) [1][2]
• The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get us[3]
• Abraham
• Casmir Pulaski Day
• Seven Swans
• That was the Worst Christmas Ever[4]
• Jacksonville[5]
• Majesty Snowbird[6]
• The Man of Metropolis Steals our Hearts[7]
• Encore: Chicago

The concert was so theatrical and, to use an entirely over-used word, epic. All the songs were added to in weight, joy or emotion by the massive number of musicians on the stage. There was certainly some surprise in the number of songs that ended in a cacophonous ‘freak-out.’ Notably, freak out at the end of “Predatory Wasp,” a particularly subdued song for much of it’s length, was a parculiar juxtaposition.

I’d also recommend being a nut and being online when the tickets go on sale for future concerts at the Zellerbach. I was in the third row in the wings (tiers) that come down and touch the stage and the vantage point was excellent.

One last note: the show was so good that even the usher, would was advanced in her years, gave the band a standing ovation at the end of the show.

[1] Acknowledging that it wouldn’t be a popular sentiment in this area before he said it, he dedicated this to the Detroit Tigers.

[2] He inserted the lyrics “Tigers Stadium” “‘84″ into that repeated section with the various locations in the middle.

[3] This was so incredibly gorgeous. My eyes literally welled up during this song.

[4] 100 inflatable Santas were throw off the balcony during this song. I did not get one.

[5] Funky. Move your booty.

[6] New song about the dark eyed junco. It’s pretty great. You heard it here first: my prediction is that Sufjan’s next album will be about birds. (Think about it: Majesty Snowbird and Great God Bird? Not a coincidence.)

[7] similar to [4], lots of inflatable supermen were thrown off the balcony during this song. I did not get one.

I am undecided as to whether I’ll liveblog this game as well. We’ll see. Check back here early in the game and see if I’m updating or not.

4:23pm. I made good time to the south hayward BART after leaving work late. I’m taking BART because I decided that it definitely wasn’t worth trying to mess with traffic and parking around the stadium again. looks like I’ll get to the stdium with plenty of time.

4:47pm. I’m at my seat. wooo. I like being here, you know, before the end of the first inning. I’m meeting some people here and they haven’t arrived yet. on the bart we passed either an ambulance storage or sales place and it had the ghostbusters ambulance!!! or one of the same design.

5:25pm tigers go down 1 2 3 in the first

5:44 dug says hhgvcfhgfesth. I say another 1 2 3 inning down the tigers

6:11pm zito got into some trouble in that inning. he didn’t look very good at all. there is a very drunk and somewhat entertaining girl in the next row back. she’s talking about her boobs.

6:37pm white won on the diamind vision dot race. zito got in trouble and another 3 scored before he was pulled. it’s now 0-5.

6:57pm a’s had runners on 2nd and 3rd withno outs and didn’t score. and dead seriously there was just cheering in the bathroom. cheering and chanting and pounding on the wall. and the a’s just retired the tiger’s side.

7:41pm a’s get more on base and don’t score. come on!!

7:56pm alright. I’m all 7th inning stretched now. time to score some runs…

8:17pm another no out, runner in scoring position situation. let me guess the outcome…

8:27pm they finally scored one. there was a seriously bs call at first. they wouldn’t show a replay of it here.

9:08pm on the bart. they lost. oh well.

my goodness! gasoline is practically free these days.

When I first heard about Jose Gonzalez playing at Enchanted Broccoli Forest from a fellow DJ I couldn’t believe it. Why would Jose Gonzalez be playing a weird coop at Stanford? Well it turns out that it was real and being put on by the Stanford Concert Network, which, it turns out, is being run by yet another fellow DJ these days.

The space in EBF where they had the concert was maybe a dining room or a living room. The posted maximum occupancy was 65. I’d guess there were closer to 222 people in there. It was packed and hot and sweaty. I couldn’t see Jose for most of the show.

But the sound was good and Jose played a good show. He didn’t say much and just ran through his songs and covers. He doesn’t have a giant repetoire yet, so he played most of Veneer and most of the covers he plays.

Final four songs:

• Heartbeats (the Knife cover)
• Crosses
• Hand on Your Heart (Kylie Minogue cover)
• Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)

Encore:

• Love will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division cover)

Pretty dang good final five songs.

So starting Friday, totally crazy 8 days:

• Friday: Oakland A’s ALDS game 3. Jose Gonzalez at EBF, Stanford (to be blogged)
• Saturday: Earl Scruggs, Gillian Welch and Jerry Douglas at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2006 (Day 2), SF
• Sunday: day of rest. (And watching the Steelers)
• Monday: nothing
• Tuesday: ALCS game 1 @ Oakland. Go team!
• Wednesday: Sufjan Stevens @ Zellerbach, Berkeley
• Thursday: dinner w/ Vanderslice, concert at 750 Pub, Stanford
• Friday: Long Winters at Cafe du Nord, SF

In 8 days, 5 concerts and 2 baseball games. Goodness.

So I’ll have plenty to blog about but probably won’t be blogging a lot, probably.

I found a copy of the Rolling Stones’ Let it Bleed at the station the other day with an interesting handwritten note on it.

The note reads:

Just a reminder from your Lakewood FLA Baptist Church. Out of 1000 who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 did so while listening to rock music. Music like this.

I’m going the A’s-Twins game in a couple hours and I’m going to try to liveblog it from my sidekick. I’ll do it between innings and stuff. Check back for updates!

11:40am. we’re in the car in palo alto. there is traffic on university ave.

12:49pm. we’re in traffic around the stadium. total mess.

1:54pm. we got to the game late after having to park a while away. chavez hit a home run and a pair of doubles made it 2-0. sweet. I picked up a total fratboy a’s hat on the way in.

1:58 1-2-3 inning with a’s on d. there’s a guy dressed as a banana in the next section. I don’t know his deal. he’s yelling a lot.

2:12pm. milton bradley hits a 2 run homer. pass go and collect $200!

2:19pm. twins hit a home run and the fans yelled at the guy who caught the ball until he threw it back

2:43pm. a bit of a hiccup with 2 outs on D but no damage in the end

3:17pm. twins scored one last inning though they had three on base. a’s side went down pretty quick. this inning they took haran out.

3:21pm. twins went down quick. 6 outs left. 7th inning stretch now. singing ‘god bless america’. I’d like to point out that though it’s a patriotic song, it’s not the national anthem so no need to take off your hat and face the flag.

3:32pm. chavez came very close to hitting a 2 run homer on a 3 2 pitch with 2 outs. ended up being foul. next pitch was at his head. now the bases are loaded on an error

3:44pm. a walk with the bases loaded and then a bases clearing double!!@! mark scutero!

4:07pm. they win the series!!@!!

post game notes: this was a fun experience, a fun game to go to. The crowd was really into it. The guys with flags were there; the guys with the whistles and drums were there. As were the flags and banners. People cheering at every instant. It was cool to see a team win a series in person. I’ve been to 3 game 7’s (2 Pirates and 1 Penguins) where the team didn’t win and that’s always disappointing.

I seriously love high fiving people I don’t know. It’s great.

As Moneyball make the point, salary doesn’t necessarily determine the final standing in the league, but I wanted to see who and at what team salary made it to the playoffs.

Playoff Teams:

Pretty interesting.

Out of the top 10 team (Yankees, Mets, Twins, Tigers, Athletics, White Sox, Angels, Dodgers, Paders, Blue Jays), four were in the bottom half of team salaries (Twins @ 19, Athletics @ 21, Padres @ 17, Blue Jays @ 16) and one was close (Tigers @ 14). While low pay doesn’t preclude one from being in the top of the majors, a high salary does appear to help keep you from the bottoms. 7 of the 10 highest paid teams were in the top 11 and all but 1 of the top top highest paid teams were in the 17.

The total unexpecteds are teams that are either at in the top ten rank and bottom ten in salary or visa versa. Turns out they’re not entirely unexpected: the Athletics were 21st in payroll but 5th in the majors. On the other side of things, the Cubs were 7th in payrol but 28th in the majors.

The most impressive performance, I must say is the Marlins who fielded a team on under $15 million and came in 20th overall. You can field a team on $15 million? That’s well less than half of the second to lowest paying team (the Devil Rays at $35 million).

My playlist for tonight.

John Vanderslice also did a little call in (mp3) to promote a show he’s doing on Stanford’s campus next Thursday, October 12. We ended up chatting on the air for a bit.

I just ordered the Nikon D80, body only. I’m pretty excited.

It’s raining right now; I can hear it on the roof. It’s supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. It was supposed to rain last night and this morning and I found myself wanting to go to bed so I could wake up sooner to see the rain—it was like Christmas in anticipation. It hasn’t rain in Menlo Park since May. This is every summer in Palo Alto/ Menlo Park: no rain, highs of 72-88 for pretty much the whole thing. I love it.

Airbus A380 woes may or may not help Boeing

• Took a train across the country (Boston to Emeryville)
• Cycled around Lake Tahoe
• MIT
• Lived in Germany

My radio show is going to be staying on at the same time, Wednesdays 10pm-midnight (Pacific time) at KZSU until at least January.

Yesterday was my housemate Mr. Dylan Stiles’ last post on Tenderbutton which has made him totally internet[1] famous[2].

I read from the beginning (literally, I think I was the first non-Dylan reader) to the end and enjoyed it thoroughly. If you’re not familiar with it or have missed some posts, it’s going to be up for only a month more (before being password protected) so check it out now.

Good work, Mr. Stiles [3]. It’s quite something you had going there.

[1] Boingboing is obsessed with ear wax? I guess so.

[2] More famousness not from tenderbutton.

[3] Yes, these explanatory notes are totally inspired by Tenderbutton’s footnote style notes (for instance).

Last night Rogue Wave hosted a benefit concert for Pat Spurgeon, their drummer, who was born with one kidney and now needs a transplat for his now-failing second kidney (the first failed in the early 90s). They are also taking donations at their website so you can donate if you have the means and feel compelled.

When I heard about this two weeks ago from Laura, I was floored by the line up: Rogue Wave, Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie,) Matthew Caws (Nada Surf,) Ryan Miller (Guster,) and John Vanderslice; it was to be mc-ed by the sometime Magnetic Field (on accordion) Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket. I like or love all of those bands and seeing them on the same bill would be incredible, I thought. It also helped that it was at the fairly intimate and cool Independent in SF.

(Incidentally, benefit concerts are awesome.)

We got to the venue right as it was starting, probably 5 minutes before Daniel came on to introduce the first band, the Wine Chuggers. They played a short set; they played some rock. It was pretty good. Next up were the Moore Brothers. Despite playing down this aspect on stage, they do sound sort of like Simon and Garfunkle. They traded off guitar playing duty and both sang, which brings me to a Rule for Rock Bands (#12): guys need an instrument on stage unless (a) they are backup singers in a soul band, (b) are Bono or Mick Jagger (and honestly, both of them look a bit silly too). It just looks stupid; you don’t know what to do with your hands and then just start doing bad dance moves. I’m sorry, that’s the truth.

I expected the bill to go in exact reverse order (Wine Chuggers, Moore Brothers, Ryan Miller, Matthew Caws, John Vanderslice, Ben Gibbard, Rogue Wave) of billing[1], so I was a bit surprised when my close personal friend [2] and nicest guy in indie rock John Vanderslice[3] came on next. He did a couple nice versions of recent songs solo acoustic (”Trance Manual”, “Angela”, “Radiant with Terror” among them). Then he brought on Ben Gibbard, who looked very English Professor with his glasses, scruffy hair and brown blazer, to play the upright piano on stage right and sing harmonies on an old mk ultra song (I think it was Letting Go). All the hipster were going crazy with the camera phones! Later he brought up 2/3 of Nada Surf (the bass player and the drummer) to act as his backing band on “Pale Horse” and finally the full Nada Surf with Matthew Caws doing harmony vocals on a song. All in all, it was an awesome set from JV.

Up next was Nada Surf whose latest, the Weight is a Gift, I’ve enjoyed a lot. Their basic set up was Matthew Caws on guitars and vocals, the drummer on a cajon box drum and the bass player on the bass (well, mostly on the smoking and drinking, but sometimes on the bass as well). They went through a good set of tunes mostly from their last album, like “Do it Again”, “Your Legs Grow” (see mixtape 1), and a really fun version of the gratuituously expletive-laden “Blankest Year.” (These guys were apparently a one hit wonder in the ’90s, but they didn’t play that song).

And then!! what all the ladies were screaming for: Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service, of course)! He started out on a borrowed guitar[4] playing a version of a Postal Service song, I think “Brand New Colony.” It’s cool to see him do PS songs live on guitar because they sound so different from the recordings. After that he moved over to the piano for a cool, slow, dark version of “Soul Meets Body” and a couple other Death Cab songs, including “Passenger Seat” Again the crazy cross-band collaborations happened with Caws helping out on a Harry Nilsson-penned Monkees number, “Cuddly Toy”. Daniel Handler came out next (insulting the “Cuddly Toy” choice of song, incidentally), to play accordion on a couple song with Ben switching back over to guitar. He finished up his set with “Title and Registration” and a folksy version of “Such Great Heights” (strummed, interestingly enough, because last time I saw him solo he basically did the Iron & Wine version, fingerpicked, even acknowledging that it was a “cover of his own song”.) I was probably about 12 feet from him during the guitar portions of his set (not to be all fan-boy about it) and I can’t imagine with the current stage of things ever having a chance to see him in such an intimate venue or at such a close distance again. I understand backlash toward Death Cab—they’re giant, by indie standards, they’ve jumped ship to a major—but Gibbard put on a thoroughly entertaining set: he was funny, good musicianship, good singing.

At this point, there were actually a bunch of people who left. I understand that Death Cab is a lot more popular than the other bands on the bill, but did you see the rest of the bill? Worth staying for, people.

I’ve talked a lot about music and before I get to Rogue Wave, I’ll talk about other stuff for a bit. There was a lot of talk of Pat’s kidney, Pat, people’s love for Pat. Gibbard referenced Woody Guthrie’s sticker that said “this machine kills facists” and suggested that all the guitars that night should have stickers that said “this machine buys kidneys.” Heck even Pat’s mom was there to talk about Pat’s story and to introduce Rogue Wave. The Small Stakes designed an awesome poster and shirt for the event with all the proceeds going to Pat. You can see the poster and buy it. I got a couple of the posters.

Finally, last up were Rogue Wave. They started out with Zach on the piano for “10:1.” After Zach switched to the guitar they then went into an interesting and not-exactly-like-the-recording cover of “I’m only Sleeping” which was good (an exception to the rule that Beatles covers are overdone and don’t add anything to the song). Around this point they talked about the bill and thanked all the other artists. They joked that they’d opened for all these bands and now they wrangled them into opening for Rogue Wave. They did a nice set of songs off of Descended like Vultures (”Love’s Lost Guarentee”, “Salesmen on the Day of a Parade”, among others) before bringing on Ryan Miller of Guster (whose “Demons” was my obsession song of October 2000) to play guitar on a freak-out jam version of “California.” They joked that he plays to a million people a night and now he was being relegated to playing with them. To finish up the night they brought up everyone that played that night (plus Dominic of Our Lady of the Highway who opened for Zach’s solo gig over the Summer) for a couple covers, the first of which was (What’s so Funny ’bout) Peace Love and Understanding). It was a indie pop style love-in there.

The crowd, I image, had to have gone home happy. An amazing bill with great sets and once-only on-stage collaborations. What more can you ask for?

[1]It all made sense, the strange order of the bill, when I realized later that Nada Surf was opening for Guster that same evening in Berkeley, so they were probably finishing up their sets and rushing over for their sets at the Independent.

[2] not actually. I do like making a big deal out of whatever affiliation I have with JV. During the last song, he saw me out in the audience and pointed out at me. After the show he said that when he saw me he thought “that’s my boy!” He also told a bunch of people around him that I was famous and that I’m rad. I can’t argue there, JV; I can’t argue there.

[3]Dug was complaining on Friday that I write too much on my blog about John Vanderslice (and someone else, I forget who). Well he’s awesome in so many ways it’s rediculous. So sorry, Dug.

[4] One of the cooler things about the show was that it was obvious that all these guys knew each other and were friends. They used each other’s instruments and joked around and gave each other hugs a lot. During the last couple songs with everyone on stage, I’m pretty sure they were having as much or more fun than the audience.

It’s time to take down the latest mix tape from public consumption.

You have one more day to grab it before it’s password protected.