Diario

10. The Black Keys - Chulahoma
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/32141377.jpg
Released 2/5/2006


9. The Black Seeds - Into the Dojo
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/33017869.jpg
Released 13/7/2006


8. Mogwai - Mr. Beast
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/8759399.jpg
Released 6/3/2006


7. Railroad Earth - Elko
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/33132245.jpg
Released 24/1/2006


6. Twinklehead - Twinklehead
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/30157759.jpg
Released 22/6/2006


5. Gomez - How We Operate
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/57941875.jpg
Released 2/5/2006


4. The Album Leaf - Into The Blue Again
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/10325683.jpg
Released 8/9/2006


3. The Black Keys - Magic Potion
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/10336689.jpg
Released 11/9/2006


2. The Stills - Without Feathers
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/174s/55608753.png
Released 1/1/2006


…

So I have gotten myself a nasty little habit. It is just weird enough to promote jokes around the office just enough to make me wish I had never mentioned what the fuck I was doing at lunch.

Things have gotten kind of crazy at the house and the baby is somehow off of daddy playing guitar before bed-time. This has completely thrown off my whole practice playing schedule completely.

It also makes things more complicated because I have fallen into the habit on nights where the wife is watching trash tv to winding down in the basement listening to albums. This is far easier than what I should be doing which cataloging the damn albums instead.

So what have I been doing? Playing guitar on my lunch hour at Best Buy.

This is completely not the same as walking into a local music store and trying to pull this off. Unless you are real good friends with the owner and a killer player no shop owner wants some guy walking and strumming on his instruments for a half hour every damn day.
…

Irritatingly, although there are plenty of tools for analysing last.fm listening stats, I can't find an equivalent for event listings, so this has had to be fairly painfully manual.

I attended 126 shows this year, up 3 from last year and an average of a gig every 2.9 days. I've watched approximately 238 distinct bands/artists.

My most frequently seen artists were (showing everybody I caught three or more times):

Unit Nine (7 shows)
Aidy (5 shows)
The Mekons (4 shows)
Sachanovak (4 shows)
Eureka Stockade (3 shows)
Spiers & Boden / Jon Boden (3 shows)
Midway Still (3 shows)
The Pony Collaboration (3 shows)
The Travis Waltons (3 shows)
The Whybirds (3 shows)

Strangely, this will bear little resemblance to the meat of this article, my favourite gigs of the year. Notable by their absence, though, are The Broken Family Band. Sob.

So, breaking with my usual convention and starting with #10 first, to preserve suspense:

…

This is the first journal entry of a three part series dedicated to the three primary songwriters of one of my favorite bands, the Drive-By Truckers. The three-headed monster that makes up the core of DBT's songwriting includes Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and Jason Isbell. Specifically, this piece will detail the songwriting talent and mastery of the latter -- the ever enigmatic Jason Isbell.

http://www.hearya.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/jason-isbell3.jpg

In a similar folk/country tradition, admirers of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, or more recently Jeff Tweedy, Jim James, and Ryan Adams will find much to love about Isbell. In my humble opinion, his songwriting during his DBT tenure is undoubtedly more impressive than that of either Adams, James, or Tweedy.

Isbell's stay with the Drive-By Truckers spanned 6 years (2001-2007) and three spectacular albums. He would only contribute eight songs to the band's catalogue, but nearly all of them are the product of legend; aural masterpieces to behold.
…

http://en.smalltownromanceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/NelsNew.jpg

My first encounter with the guitar of Nels Cline, was when I first heard one of the best guitar solos I’ve heard in a long time. It was a new song by Wilcocalled Impossible Germany. The year was 2007. That solo left me speechless, especially because I didn’t know Jeff Tweedy was such an amazing guitarist. Checking the booklet, I found out it wasn't Jeff and that there’s a new Wilco member I don’t know. His name is Nels. And he played of the most amazing solos.

This year, he released a double album for Cryptogramophone, one of my fav experimental jazz labels and yesterday, half a year later, he releases his second album this year –Dirty Baby
Now Dirty Baby is not REALLY a jazz album, it’s much more than that.

Read full post here : http://en.smalltownromanceblog.com/i-love-you-nels-cline

I've Seen Live

The Books
Pronto
Deep Blue Organ Trio (x2)
Coldplay
Wilco (x4)
Mavis Staples
The Baseball Project
Vetiver
On Filmore
Elbow
Brenda
The Nels Cline Singers
The Autumn Defense (x2)
Jeff Tweedy (solo)
Levon Helm
Pajama Club
Syl Johnson
Glenn Kotche
Darin Gray
Thurston Moore
Liam Finn
Nick Lowe
Jamie Lidell

Under the Radar review: Lollapalooza Day One

Fri 6 Aug – Lollapalooza 2010

Los Amigos Invisibles
Mavis Staples
Jeff Tweedy
Ana Sia
Caspa
Devo
The Black Keys
Chromeo
Lady Gaga

The Flaming Lips (7/19/09, Pitchfork Music Festival 2009)
Grizzly Bear (7/19/09, Pitchfork Music Festival 2009)
Japandroids (7/19/09, Pitchfork Music Festival 2009)
M83 (7/19/09, Pitchfork Music Festival 2009)
Muse (3/12/10, United Center)
Vampire Weekend (3/23/10, Pabst Theater)
The Tallest Man on Earth (7/16/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Liars (7/16/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Broken Social Scene (7/16/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Modest Mouse (7/16/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Real Estate (7/17/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Titus Andronicus (7/17/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Raekwon (7/17/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Wolf Parade (7/17/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Panda Bear (7/17/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
LCD Soundsystem (7/17/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Lightning Bolt (7/18/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
Big Boi (7/18/10, Pitchfork Music Festival 2010)
…