James,
I got the comment in this journal with your new email address back in October, but you haven’t responded to any of my messages. Are you actually getting them? Let me know!
sean
james
Wow
The show was amazing last night…. James and I left my work around 6ish, and showed up at the Middle East about 20 minutes later. Since we were so early, we decided to grab something to eat, but as we were walking away, Jon Whitney and friends (Jessica and Ed) popped out of the club and said Hi. After some chit-chatting, we went to the (terrible, terrible, almost as bad as California) pizza shop and grabbed some chow. We then wandered down to this coffee house (1369, I believe) down the street. Jon must have bumped into like 20 people he knew on the way, and it took us like 30 minutes to walk 2 blocks. :)
We chilled outside the coffee shop for a while (I didn’t get anything, however), and we made our way back. When we returned to the club, the line was already around the side of the building, but Jon saw someone he knew and we cut into line.. :) This show sold out weeks ago, and there were lots of people trying to get in… I am glad I picked up the tickets when I did. We descended into the club and as we arrived the warm-up DJ (Rob Hall, I believe) was spinning, obscured by Matmos‘ equipment. This DJ was only ok, a few notches above annoying. :) Around 9pm, Matmos took the stage, and they were amazing. They did a cool thing: Facing their equipment towards the audience, and (sometimes) sitting with their backs to the audience. While this would be considered travesty at a normal rock show, it was cool being able to see them at work. They turned around and aside quite a bit, so you could tell that they were doing this for the show. Their new album is entitled “A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure”, and it is riddled with lots of disgusting medical samples and visions. Their opening number had Drew (i believe that is his name) pressing some kind of biofeedback probe into his skin (not breaking the skin or anything), and another guy followed the probe with a video camera, projecting it onto a screen. Their set was amazing, and they were the first people I have ever seen to use a metal rat cage as a musical instrument (and it sounded really cool too).
After Matmos left the stage, Russell Haswell took the stage, with his laptop and little other gear. His wall of sound lasted longer than any of the other artists… He was only OK, but he needs to learn some control. He had some really interesting stuff, and some terrible stuff, but in either case, he stretched it out way too long…
Finally, Autechre took the stage, and by this point, my heels were killing me. I was right up towards the stage, and my boots were starting to really hurt my feet (Note to self: buy some Dr. Scholl’s). Fortunately, Autechre has a stage presence that doesn’t really command viewing… I made my way to the back of the club (the bar, actually, where I obtained a Margarita) and met up with James.. We were both taken aback by what Autechre had to offer, they were simply mind blowing. They amaze me with their ability to come up with music that is completely alien yet still sounds great. They wrapped up their set around 12:10, which gave us little time to catch the last train. We didn’t have a chance to hang around, say goodbye to Jon and friends, etc. I wish the subway ran later, especially on weekends… Oh well, it was still a great night, and I am looking forward to more great concerts in the near future. In fact, Other Music was handing out flyers to a free in-store show next week… Free music is always a good thing. :)
James left around 7 this morning, and while in theory I was going to go back to bed for an hour or two, I decided to just come into work and get it done with. Today will probably be a long day, but after it is done, I can go home, get some sleep, and be normal for the rest of the week. :)
What a wonderful weekend!
I had a ton of fun this weekend exploring Boston with James, as it is the first chance I have had to really explore what is available to me. Friday night we wandered around Government Center, went to some stores and just enjoyed some of the beautiful (and not-so beautiful) architecture around. We got back really late, as we kinda got a wee bit lost and had trouble locating a T stop. :)
Saturday, we met up with Jon Whitney, who runs Brainwashed, which hosts the Coil and Meat Beat Manifesto official pages. He was a really good guy, and he showed us around Harvard Square, which is a wonderful area. It turns out that one of my favorite NYC record shops, Other Music opened their second store in Harvard Square recently, which is awesome in my book.. :) I also browsed around some other record shops in the area, and discovered that CDs are simply way cheaper in this town for some reason. I picked up a few CDs used:
- All Tomorrow’s Parties 1.0 – A cool IDM comp
- Clicks & Cuts 2 – A 3 disc comp
- Cyclo. (Ryoji Ikeda & Carsten Nicolai) – Similar sound to Pan-sonic, but by far more musical (and listenable (and enjoyable))
Sunday, James and I headed back into Harvard Square and ran head first into a street festival… We had some good Barbecue on the street, and heard some street musicians and looked at the vendor’s boothes (but I really couldn’t spend much money, although I could use a pair of sunglasses sometime in the near future). We then headed back and watched Galaxy Quest and the Sopranos.. :)
Tonight is the Matmos/Autechre concert, which should be lots of fun. I will report on it tomorrow… :)
i like music
I made another pilgrimage to Cafe Soundz with James last night, and I picked up one of the 3 missing Skinny Puppy CDs (Remission), and also a good-ol’ random CD based on the recommendation of the store owner, Bobby. It is a pretty good cd, by Alder & Elius, and it is out on Skam Records. Skam is usually fairly reliable, and this disc hasn’t disappointed me yet. It is experimental electronic music, and the first few tracks seem like they were experimenting with microtuning and such, while the later tracks seem a bit more straightforward… I will have to see if it grows closer to me or farther away…
Later, we ended up hanging out at the Budd Lake diner with Chuck and Amy. We were out for a long time, but I met a few new people, which never hurts. Later tonight those three are coming over to watch Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D. with me and my father (who bought the movie). Should be fun!
I failed to return a movie to the video store last night, so I guess I have to do it some time today.
Mu-tard
Chuck is coming over in a minute and we are going to grab some lunch. I just jumped out of the shower, after talking with Chris for a decent clip this morning. (sometimes I don’t know why she puts up with me some days [and vice-verse, of course]). Going to play some pool tonight with Chuck and potentially some other people, as yet undetermined, and we might end up at a diner afterwards to hang out with James
Taking the dog to the vet was a hellish experience yesterday. She is smart enough to know that shots suck. :)
My sister, Aimee, surprised me with some Samoas, which is something someone was unable to accomplish in Rochester. See, New Jersey is a great place… :)
Cabin fever
Last night I started to acknowledge that I was going stir crazy from staying at home doing nothing, so I made a pact with myself to get the hell out of the house. :)
Chuck and I decided to go out and play pool, which was alot of fun. We played 9 ball for about 3 hours, and we were pretty even (although I was ahead by 2 games). Afterwards, we met James and Amy Bauer at the Victoria Diner. That was a fun time as well, even though Victoria’s has slipped from real diner status (no longer open 24h on weekdays).
Today, I have to run some errands, then I have two things planned, and I am not sure which order they are going to occur. I am helping James buy some network equipment for his basement studio. I can’t believe that he has made so many albums and not had his computers networked together….. Especially given how cheap ethernet gear is… After I help him out with that, I am going out with Amy to see her boutique out in Long Valley… She has some space in this larger store and sells antiques and modern stuff as well. I told her that I was going to visit it a long time ago, but my sentence in Rochester had prevented me from doing so. Now that I have been released on good behavior, it is time to keep my promise. :)
Yesterday and beyond
Since I never really mentioned what kept me busy yesterday, here goes nothing:
I took care of all the donation stuff, and headed to Fuddruckers for lunch with Chuck. Afterwards, I came back to the house to chill for awhile, and then went out to Café Soundz in Montclair to pick up some CDs. While I was there I picked up a new pair of boots and the latest Autechre EP (Peel Sessions 2). Bobby (who owns the shop) gave me a great deal on both the boots ($40) and the disc ($10).
James and I then went to the ultra-trendy Café Metro in Denville for dinner. Seems like a really nice place, and the Grilled Chicken with Peanut Sauce I had was really good. It is difficult to get a peanut sauce done right, it usually ends up too salty or too sweet, and they did a good job, so I might end up back there again.
We then came back to my house to watch my copy of Time Bandits on DVD and afterwards I went to bed.
Today I went to the mall with Chuck, had some Chicken Teriaki, and came back and chilled for awhile. Tonight will probably (hopefully?) be a quiet night for me.