In the words of Clay Davis…sheeeeeeeeeeiiiiit.
I’ve seen a lot of music in the past week or so.
Sometime last week I got kind of sick, allergies, combined with some upper respiratory demon had me coughing up green and brown silly putty all day and night. Amazing. I didn’t reaaaaly let it stop me though…like an asshole I just kept going to shows between naps and sneezing all over people and looking like an emaciated corpse. Naturally I had my Flip camera with me most of the time.
It started last Saturday, my old roommate Clinth and I struck out to see Mastodon at Irving Plaza. Since I moved out of my place with Clinth, I don’t see him enough. Mainly because he likes to chill and play video games, while I prefer to run around like a ADD spazz with a broken compass. Differences aside, we always come together whenever Mastodon is in town. It’s become a bit of a tradition. I love hanging out with the guy, he loves metal, it all works.
After haggling with scalpers and drinking whiskey under a threatening sky, we made it in to see the last of Kylesa’s set. Kylesa is fucking awesome. They have two drummers.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. THIS FUCKING GUY. We saw him on the train, and Clinth named him the Human Tennis Ball. He’s the coolest motherfucker alive.
Anyway, Mastodon was great, they played their whole new album, Crack the Skye, and I really do like that new album, but it lacks a little of that riff-worship that I look for in a great Mastodon performance. Their best bits are when they find a good riff and hump it within an inch of its life. They still do that and do it well, but I didn’t really come alive until they played old songs at the end of the set. “Divinations” from the new album is brilliant though…@1:59 – made me love rock solos again.
Then the classic – “March of the Fire Ants”
What came next, coughing, spitting, dying, and then Crystal Antlers on a Tuesday night. Crystal Antlers never fail to impress me…they are everything thats good about psychedelic music, drugged, beaten and dragged through a tunnel made of burned and ruined Marshall stacks…or something.
The show was great, but for the first few songs there were these two kids fuuuuuuucked up (pills was my hypothesis, because they seemed ok in the beginning and got more and more out of control with each passing second and no alcohol) pinballing around in front of the stage, spilling beers and pissing people off. You can see them knocking around in the video (the music is AWESOME) until someone lowers their shoulder and sends them both flying flat on their asses. So on the ground, they start kicking everyone in sight, which really pissed off a guy next to me. At 1:28 you can hear him screaming “NOT FUCKING COOL” as he chokes one of the kids. Amazing. That dude got carried out kicking and screaming one song later by security. Asshole rodeo.
After that…uhh. Oh yeah, Clipse, at Webster Hall. Crazy fuckin dudes, Clipse. “Grinding” was an actual game changer, and that’s not hyperbole…there was and never will be a rap song like it. I’ve been into them since the first time I heard it, so naturally I was pretty psyched to see them do a short set for free at 8pm on a Wednesday at Webster Hall. I went with Ant and Shane (the guy who does awesome screw music). Naturally, they killed it. Their enthusiasm for their music is infectious, and they don’t do the fucking obnoxious thing where they give 400 of their jagoff friends a mic and put em on stage to make everything inaudible. Its just them, and thats great.
Clipse – “Grinding”
Clipse – New track, “Kinda Like a Big Deal”
Damn. Then Thursday we went to check out Jeff Taylor, a new artist signed to Rockwood Music Hall records. I came across Jeff from a friend who works for their label, they were looking for help with his online promo and since I dug his music (Tom Waits/David Byrne factor in) I was glad to help. Here he is doing “Heart Hard”. Jeff is fucking awesome, he is as outwardly insane as I am inwardly, and I can’t wait to start working with him.
After resting and getting “better”, Ant, Michelle and I went to the Bowery to check out Dan Deacon doing his thing, this time with his ensemble. Last time I saw the ensemble, it was kind of lackluster, because Deacon is most in his element fucking around with a bunch of weird electronics on his own. But this time was different, the sound really came together. It was an absolute blast, and because it was the midnight show, everyone was HOUSED having a great time. I don’t have video, but I did get this joke, from Dan’s bassist:
“What did the cannibal do after he dumped his girfriend?”
“He wiped his ass”
From one of Dan's many crowd participation exercises - The girl's iphone
NPR Has a stream of the entire show if you have the time. Its worth it.
Alright, we’re getting to the end. I’m a big Iron and Wine fan. I infected my girlfriend, though given our listening patterns, it should have been the other way around. Anyway, he was playing shows in NY around her birthday, but tickets sold out immediately and they were a bitch to get after-market. So, I jumped on the chance to see him do an in-store at Other Music. All I had to do was buy two copies of his new B-Sides collection “Around the Well” and I got two tickets. I didn’t tell her where we were going…and she didn’t know who it was until we got into the store. It was priceless.
It was an “intimate” show (which I think would be preferable to seeing him with a band…), so “intimate” in fact that he was the only one to say “bless you” when Michelle sneezed. At 3:58.
“Resurrection Fearn” (make sure to switch these to ‘HQ’)
“Communion Cups and Someone’s Coat” I love this song, and he did his whole set by request, so after asking for it like a hundred times, he finally played it, hence his pointing and smiling at the end of the song.
“Naked as We Came”
Well that about wraps it up. We capped this crazy run with a viewing of The Room, the best-worst-movie ever made.
Whew. Also, I started blogging for my good friend Katie’s new site at http://good-peoples.com writing about zombies, lightpainting, movies and other madness. Check it out.
Have a good weekend