Scent Weakly 2.0

San Francisco Pics

2009-04-09T00:04:00.000-07:00

New Vampire Weekend

2009-03-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

VW premiered a new song on Fallon last night.

Rockville, CA

2009-03-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

Josh Schwartz (The OC, Chuck, Gossip Girl) has produced a new web series, Rockville, CA. The show is about about a fictional rock club in Los Angeles. By the look of the preview it doesn't like it will push the characters and story telling beyond the cliche, but the list of real musicians and bands performing on the show looks cool.

It debuts on Tuesday, March 17.

The bands:

* Kaiser Chiefs
* Phantom Planet
* Travis
* The Duke Spirit
* Eagles of Death Metal
* Earlimart
* Frightened Rabbit
* The Kooks
* The Little Ones
* Lykke Li
* Nico Stai
* Passion Pit
* White Lies
* Anya Marina
* Bishop Allen
* The Broken West
* Cass McCombs
* Lights
* Oppenheimer
* The Republic Tigers

Field trip: Dead Confederate

2009-02-25T19:26:00.000-08:00

I went a bit out of my pop/countryish music comfort zone last night when I caught Dead Confederate's show at The BellyUp. DC is a rock band, dense and full of angst. They hale from Athens, Georgia and their music often gets characterized as southern rock. Which is bizarre. Clearly DC's primary source of inspiration is Nirvana, and that presents a problem. DC is not Nirvana and Hardy Morris is not Kurt Cobain. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the show. I did. And, DC's record is one of my favorites from 2008. It's just that when you clearly model your band after a rock legend it's hard not to make the comparison and not come off lacking.

On Radar: Chairlift

2009-02-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

Winners of the Apple Idol sweepstakes Chairlift have caught my attention. Check out their video. The technique is called datamoshing.

SLO Motion

2009-02-16T00:34:00.000-08:00

Carly came home this weekend and on Saturday she let me go with her to watch a few of her friends play in an ultimate frisbee tournament at UCSD.

Michael Phelps Rants

2009-02-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

Bobby McFerrin & McNally Smith Faculty Judi Donaghy - I Can See Clearly Now

2009-02-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

Blogging About How Comfortable I Am

2009-01-29T13:09:00.000-08:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I Agee

2009-01-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

Nothing to report except that the blog It's Too Sunny Out Here agrees that Sunday's Theresa Andersson set was something special.

Field Trip: Tapes 'N Tapes - Theresa Andersson

2009-01-26T21:22:00.001-08:00

Last night I went to The Casbah to see Tapes 'N Tapes, but the opening act,Theresa Andersson, stole the show. She works solo, but with the help of a couple looping machines she creates a rich multi-layered sound. Actually I'll stop here and let her YouTube video do the explaining.

Note: This vid must have gone viral. Check out the number of hits.

While the technology is cool, it was Andersson's voice and dynamic performance that won over what can be a skeptical Casbah crowd. I'm now a fan.

My Live Music Calendar

2009-01-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

Here are the shows currently on my calendar. Buy some tickets and join me.

Sunday, January 25 - Tapes 'N Tapes - The Casbah
Thursday, February 5 - Todd Snider - The Belly Up
Tuesday, February 24 - Dead Confederate - The Belly Up
Sunday, March 1 - Ra Ra Riot - The Loft - UCSD
Saturday, March 21 - Missy Higgins - The Orpheum Theater - Los Angeles
Friday, April 17 - Calexico - The Belly Up

On Radar: Vast Atlantic & Musikanto

2009-01-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

My favorite music genre resides somewhere near the nexus of rock and country. A musical space inhabited by the likes of Neil Young, Wilco, Ryan Adams, Kathleen Edwards etc. As much as I like those artists it's been awhile since they have recorded something interesting, so recently I went on a search for some new music.

Vast Atlantic the first band I found is almost local (The OC). They describe themselves as the illegitimate child of Wilco, Bright Eyes, and Ryan Adams. They're a relatively new band that will improve, but they're solid now. You can listen here Vast Atlantic

Musikanto hails from Chicago, but plays in the same country/rock territory. You can check him out on his MySpace page.

There's a A Bailout Coming, But It's Not For You

2009-01-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

Grampa rock rules.

An Apartment Tour

2009-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

The "Before" tour of A&A's new digs.

Field Trip: San Fracisco Day 2

2009-01-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I met Will at Four Barrels for coffee and donuts. From there we headed to Golden Gate Park and the Academy of Sciences. The AoS is a brand spanking new museum in the heart of the park. It encompasses several major exhibits that span many different scientific disciplines. Highlights include the four story rain forest enclosure, the aquarium, and the state of art digital planetarium/movie theater. But as good as the exhibits are, the star of the museum is the building itself. It's a stunning achievement in green architecture.

Check out the roof.

After sending Will back to St. Mary's "to do homework" I went over to Annie and Adrian's apartment to make sure they put their oluvfundor together correctly. They had, so we celebrated over sushi and beers at Tokyo Go Go. Delicious.

SW Recommends: The Hype Machine

2009-01-11T20:22:00.001-08:00

The Hype Machineis a music blog and mp3 aggregator that I use often to listen to and discover new music. They have recently put up a very cool new resource, the Music Bog Zeitgest. At the site you can listen to the top 50 albums, artists, and songs based upon traffic statistics at The Hype Machine.

Field Trip: San Francisco Day 1

2009-01-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

I flew up to San Francisco on Tuesday on a nearly empty Virgin Airlines flight. With attendants dressed in black, the cabin bathed in pink lights, and an oh so hip color scheme the plane looked like a scenster night club. Although the 100 empty seats gave it the air of a club whose hipster clientele decided to do their clubbing down the street.

The flight was uneventful and I met up with Annie and Adrian at their new apartment in the Mission district of San Francisco. It's located above a Korean BBQ in a gentrifying neighborhood. The place is a big improvement over their previous digs and my parental side was happy to see a police station across the street. We made a video of the apartment which I posted on YouTube, only to realize after viewing that Annie had revealed a wee bit too much information about the apt's location. I have since taken it down.

The first item on my itinerary was to complete Annie's Xmas present - a trip to Ikea. We spent a hour or so across the bay in Emoryville buying urkenlivers, olovfundors, velovduls.

After hauling everything up to their third floor apartment (no elevator)we walked to Ike's Place for sandwiches. Wow! Next time you're in The City do yourself a favor and head over to Ike's for a Napoleon Complex sandwich on a Dutch crunch roll. Absolutely delicious. I ate the whole thing when half would have easily sufficed.

At this point all I wanted was a nap, so I headed to my deluxe accomodations and let the kids put the olovfundor together by themselves.

Ike's Place

History Lesson: Presidential Portraits

2009-01-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

This is kinda cool.

Time Sponge

2009-01-02T00:27:00.000-08:00

If you feel the need to be productive you probably shouldn't play this game.

Auditorium

Top Gun: A Gay Parable?

2009-01-01T22:37:00.001-08:00

NSFW

A Music Video

2009-01-01T22:18:00.000-08:00

For a lot of reasons music videos are a dying art form. (MTV doesn't even play them anymore.) But, when they're done well they are very compelling.

Here is one of my favorites.

Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog

2008-12-30T17:07:00.000-08:00

Until I can think of something interesting to blog about here's a very good list of blogs to read.

30 Great Blogs

America's Most Eligible Bachelor?

2008-12-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

I think Obama's speechwriter, Jon Favreau, will get a few votes.

Jon Favreau Profile - Esquire

A Cool Picture

2008-12-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

McCartney & Lennon, 1964. Christmas Show Rehearsal, Donmar Hall, London