1. Folksongs For The Afterlife - Good hooky rock song. Nothing to complain about here.
2. Laptop - Really, this is a pretty stupid song. But... there IS something catchy about it, i must admit.
3. North Of America - Wow. Great song. I can't stop listening to it.
4. Poor Rich Ones - Reminds me of The Posies, or at the very least Ken Stringfellow solo. If you know me at all, you know that that is a good thing.
5. Summer Hymns - I bet this songs functions best in the album format, but it's a good one. I think they might have just played.
6. The Escape Engine - After reading the NY Times, I decided to look into this screamo thing... (that's a joke. if you don't know that's a joke, please unsubscribe from this mailing list.)
7. The Jealous Sound - Another great Jealous Sound song. I might actually start liking emo again. maybe.
8. The Wrens - Just announced that they are playing on Aug. 22 with The Hold Steady. I'm going to quote an email I wrote a little while ago word for word:
9. Uncle Tupelo - The thing that annoys me most about all the Wilco worship going on is something really quite simple: Uncle Tupelo were way better. I could expound, but after that marathon wrens entry, i'll save you some brain cells.
10. Rye Coalition - Great band. As simple as that.
11. Crispy Ambulance - Darla Records finally re-issued this old Factory Records band. Good stuff. Kinda reminds me of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry crossed with Stone Roses.
12. The Deathray Davies - Wow. Great song. I didn't think I liked this band.
13. Cul de Sac - We're gonna end this thing on a sublime note. I'm glad these guys are still making music.
14. Lowfish - Perfect pop song.
15. Ogurusu Norihide - and a perfect "last song". One of my favorite "mp3's of the week" lists ever. i'll still be listening to this one months from now.
truly one of the greatest bands to ever walk the face of this planet.
i first did a show with them in Bethlehem, PA in 1993 a couple of months before "Silver" came out. i booked lots of one-offs from DC, NYC, Boston, Philly bands, and The Wrens came recommended to me from a friend of a friend. i had never heard them / heard of them.
total punk show... about 65-75 mostly 16 year old kids, and up come these "old guys" (read: 25-28) wearing matching gray mechanic coveralls and bad black sunglasses.
within 30 seconds of the first song 65 jaws hit the floor, not one but TWO people come up to me independently of one another and yell in my ear "this is the greatest band you have EVER booked" (this about 18 months after i started doing shows in allentown / bethlehem, including shows with Jawbox, Poster Children, Hum, Best Kissers In The World, Holy Rollers, 7 Seconds, Weston, Bouncing Souls, Green Day, Built To Spill, Archers Of Loaf, Christie Front Drive, Heatmiser, etc.)
At the end of the first song the bassist starts fiddling with his bass... it's not working. plays with his bass head. plays with the knobs on his bass. replugs in the cord to the bass... replugs in the cord to the bass head. can't figure out what's wrong. checks all the pedals. finally starts tracing the cord, and gets to the point where the cord is ripped completely in two... totally not connected to either side.
somewhere during all the jumping around and craziness of the first song he managed to rip his cord cleanly in half.
something i have NEVER seen before, and i'm sure i will never see again.
and to this day one of the best shows i have ever seen.