So, my friend Rusty must feel pretty awesome right now, because two weeks in a row I’m writing about bands that he turned me onto, but what else can I say but the man knows music, and he knows what I’ll like? I guess that was a rhetorical question…anyway…
The Mae Shi is another one of those “marches to their own drummer” bands, totally awesome, full of energy, what most people would consider “experimental,” and tons o’ fun. I’ll be writing about them next week, so if you have anything you like about them, want to say about them, want me to feature, whatever, drop me a line, post a comment, you know the drill!
So, this is the video for “Mister Jung Stuffed,” which I believe is my profile song right now, so yeah, this is definitely the one I favor. Plus, it’s fun animation, and I’m a sucker for pretty much anything animated, computer or otherwise. (I just may be the biggest Pixar/Simpsons/South Park freak ever to exist, so watch out!) Anyway, watch the vid, lemme know what you think!
The only problem I see with this list is that it’s too short….oh, and that there are no places I can get to reasonably. Curse you, high gas prices! Well, if you’re lucky enough to be able to mosey down to any of these dates, tell me how it is, won’t you? I’ll be ever so jealous but I’ll try and keep a happy face on while you show me all your glorious pictures and gloat like I know I would…
July 26: Evolve Festival in Heatherton, Nova Scotia
August 2: Download Festival in Camden, New Jersey
August 27: Hawthorne Theater in Portland, Oregon
August 28: Richards on Richards in Vancouver
August 29: Rifflandia Fest -Lucky Bar in Victoria, British Columbia
August 30: Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, Washington
September 27: Austin City Limits Festival in Austin (duh) Texas
Not a whole lot has gone on this week on my MySpace. I just wanted to let any band who let a friend request my way know that I am working through them as quickly as I can, and I don’t want to accept any friend requests until I have a good long listen at your music, so if you think I’m a hypocrite for asking you to be my friend and then not adding you, you’re WRONG! I’m just trying to give your music a fair shake and then decide if I’d like to interview you and whatnot. Believe me, being my friend is a good thing, and I want everyone to be my friend, but I want to love the music I’m promoting as well. I may be eclectic, but I’m also picky!
Next week I’ll be featuring the Mae Shi, so I’ll have a song of theirs up. Right now I have “Mister Jung Stuffed” from Man Man on, a great song if you haven’t listened to it yet. I’ve been sending messages to a few bands about interviews, so if you’re a band and I haven’t interviewed you yet, or even if I have and you have new stuff going on, now’s the time to contact me. I’m looking! Drop me a line!
By the way, I’m really digging the Flickr picture of the cassette tape graffiti I found. Aren’t you? And don’t you hate that when cassettes do that? Me too.
Sound: A lot of folks compare these guys to Zappa, and for good reason. They are quite outside the normal conventions of music, although they’re damn catchy, and they do pretty much anything they want. Their music all has a signature sound, if you will, mostly due to the band’s singing voices (very deep and raspy and bluesy), but within it, you can find doo-wop, blues, experimental, indie, klezmer, and anything else under the sun. They also remind me a bit of Tapes ‘n Tapes for some reason, but no lie, these guys are 100% original in every way. You’ve never heard anything like Man Man, and after you hear them, you’ll never wanna hear any duplicates. They will keep you satisfied and then some.
You May Remember Them From Such Songs As…: Well, when my friend Rusty had me listen to their music, it sounded oddly familiar. Not just because I had gotten an album of theirs the year before and then completely forgotten about it, but also because I had more recently heard their music on the genius of a show called Weeds. If you’ve never seen that show, you should, it’s from Showtime and it’s astounding, even if you don’t like pot. Anyway, the songs “English Bwudd,” “10 lb. Moustache,” and “Feathers” were on episode 8 of season 3. They also sang the theme at the beginning, “Little Boxes.” Good times.
Next Performance: July 26 at the Evolve Festival in Heatherton, Nova Scotia
How I Could Just Kill A Man: “If I wanted to stay you won’t stand in my way/But I’m choosing to leave with your heart on my sleeve/It feels too good without you.” There’s usually that point in a relationship when things stop feeling as good as they first did. You’re painfully used to one another, and everything’s annoying, and something is holding each of you back, at least seemingly, from how you’d really want your life to be at that moment. This song reminds me of that specific situation, where you’re ready to leave, but you still feel connected, and maybe you’ll come back, but for the time being, you’re just enjoying your liberation. That’s this song.
Waves and the Both of Us: “I want the moon and the stars/I want the whole nine yards/I want your hands on my hips/I want you kissing my lips.” Definitely one of the more beautiful love songs I’ve heard. Sure, it’s a little cliche, but it’s with-the-times, and I love those songs where you can feel the closeness of two bodies just by listening. Whenever I listen to it, I long for that kind of intimacy, when I’m sitting in my car in the middle of traffic all by myself, off doing some errand or another. All I want to be doing at that very moment is lying with someone, their arms wrapped around me, listening to Charlotte Sometimes. That’s all. Simple.
Losing Sleep: “I’m awake and I’ve been losing sleep/I’ve been fighting all my demons, I’ve been getting weak/I’ve been trying, trying, trying to be/Anything other than me.” We’ve all been there. Everyone goes through that transitional phase where they do all kinds of crazy things to “find themselves.” For some, it takes years to get through, and others are a lot more confident with who they are, but to some extent, everyone goes through this discovery. I’m positive that I’m still going through this process, since my life is constant change, questioning, and searching. It’s sometimes really painful, but it’s all a part of life.
So, a good portion of the upcoming music I’ll be talking about will probably at least somewhat due to the influence of my friend, Rusty. He exposed me to a TON of new music a couple days ago, and also reignited my liking for other bands. One of these bands is Man Man, a group I was kind of into for a while, but it obviously wasn’t the right time for me to listen to it, because now I can’t stop listening to them. It’s starting to annoy some people that spend a lot of time with me, so you can verify with them how much I’m into Man Man. I may have to 12-step out of it. Anyway, after a couple more posts, I’ll start writing about Man Man, and aren’t you so excited about that?
Alrighty, now, I’ll be posting every time I update my MySpace blog (that’s myspace.com/52bands) here, so that maybe, just maybe, I can get some more of you to be friends with me! (Really, I’m a nice girl, I don’t bite….much.)
Anyway, click here to go to my newest blog. If you need to be my friend to read it first, do it! I want to be friends with you, for serious!
If you don’t ask to be my friend, trust me, you don’t want to see me cry. Not a pretty picture. Love you all!
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