is there a question youve been dying to ask me? here’s your chance. the good, the bad, the ugly, the personal and mundane — post your question as a comment and ill answer it. otherwise, you’ll never know.

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Chris Smith of Espers sez:

i am 100% excited and happy about this. please tell any uk friends to join us when able. gonna have a blast playing shows goofing off with our buddies on ye olde roads on these dates. some of the non-devendra shows are still getting a bit tweaked, i think. the info gets updated here, here and here. new recorded musics real real soon.

Espers August 2005 UK Tour

08-01 Edinburgh, Scotland - Liquid Room
w/ Devendra Banhart, Sir Richard Bishop

08-02 Manchester, England - Comedy Store
w/ Devendra Banhart, Sir Richard Bishop

08-03 Leeds, England - City Varieties
w/ Devendra Banhart, Sir Richard Bishop

08-04 Nottingham, England - Cabaret on Fletcher Gate
w/ Richard Bishop, Jazzfinger, Number None Nottingham

08-05 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo

08-06 Cambridge, England - Downstairs at CB2

08-07 TBA

08-08 Cardiff, Wales - Coal Exchange
w/ Devendra Banhart, Josephine Foster

08-09 Brighton, England - Concorde
w/ Devendra Banhart. Josephine Foster

08-10 London, England - Bardens Boudoir
w/ Josephine Foster, Mi & Lau
(Rough Trade instore earlier in the day w/ devendra)

08-11 London, England - KOKO Theater
w/ Devendra Banhart

08-12 Bristol, England - Trinity Centre
w/ Devendra Banhart, Josephine Foster

08-13 Leicester, England - Summer Sundae Festival at Demonford Hall

Wont you come out to the 700 Club and help me celebrate my birthday in style? Bring you, your friends and their friends too. We’re gonna tear up the dancefloor thanks to awesome DJ Julia Factorial. All are welcome!

WHEN: Saturday 7/23, 10pm - ???

WHERE: 700 Club, 2nd & Fairmount

WHO: Me You and Everyone We Know

COVER: FREE

(click on the image to view a slideshow.)

rockpile has my exclusive take on intonation but in the meantime i thought id quickly recap the event. it was, um, awesome. im not sure what i expected when i landed in chicago, especially after the plane ride from hell; consider me pleasantly surprised at how it all turned out. day one wasnt that great but day two was the kind that made you remember why you started loving music in the first place.

» my flights were a nightmare. i have come to the realization that while i appreciate the humor of the flight attendants on airline, its not something i want to deal with in real life. case in point: during the emergency procedure song-and-dance, one of the stewardesses said “in case this flight turns into a cruise…”

you see, this is not something you want to hear especially since you’re already in your worst-case scenario mindset. i have my reason — as a teenager i was on a flight that didnt land on a runway! i was 14 and the flight was about to touch down in torino when a huge gust of wind knocked it from the tarmac to the grass beside it. yes, those emergency inflatable slides are like the kind you encounter at a carnival but terrifying nonetheless. the fact that i can get on plane is testament to the wonders of counseling.

anyway, this wasnt the only nightmare. my initial flight was delayed by a few hours, then cancelled and reassigned to another flight. the return wasnt any better, with a flight delay that lasted nearly six hours. not even the ferris bueller mention by the male flight attendants could calm my nerves. this may be the only time ill ever fly southwest.

» somewhere on the loop this young college kid sat down on the train in pajama pants that had stars on them, clutching a harry potter book and a wand-like thing (quite possibly a wand). it was kind of awesome and wish i had snuck a photo of him on my cellphone.

» the VIP area was kind of, uh, poorly planned. when you walked into the press entrance it was right there. however, if you went out of the gated area and did not have the proper credentials you were not allowed back in. so if you wanted to snag free water, food and booze you had to do it immediately. of course, i did not think about this until long after the fact.

» kudos to pitchfork for remembering their demographic, though. a two day pass was cheaper than a show at the electric factory (22$) and the concession stands were inexpensive. food options varied too — pulled pork, roasted corn, for starters. bottles of water were 1$! the last time i went to citizens bank park, it cost me 17$ for a hot dog, fries & soda. a decent meal at intonation ran like, 10$.

» however, the lines for food were ridiculously long. the fastest one was the beer line, which does not benefit the non-boozing population.

» the best show of day one wasnt part of intonation — it was the constantines at the empty bottle. quite possibly one of the best shows ive seen all year. the crowd went insane.

» afterwards, i rolled on over to the post-festival party at the hideout. members of various rock bands were djing but it was kind of empty when i got there. was chatted up by a relatively cute gentleman who mistook my friend for a musician. it was the kind of moment that begs for a craiglist post.

» salted pork at svea. OK, first the swedes invented ikea and that was kind of awesome but this? pure genius. the power of eight billion saltiest pieces of bacon crammed into a two-inch strip. allow me to say it again: GENIUS!

» ac newman’s accidental jazz version of “on the table”, in which he played the song one full step down. after realizing the mistake, he retuned and played the song again. he did a tall dwarfs cover, too.

» four tet: boring. there is nothing interesting about putting a dude and his laptop onstage at the afternoon’s most swerlteringly, disgustingly hot. whatever happened to intermissions?

» the hold steady: i understand CTSB’s gripe but better than i expected. craig finn talked about baseball and g’n'r. whats to hate?

» broken social scene: oh please. this is a post-”quality of life” america, you should know better than to troll for drugs in washington square.

i’ve returned from chicago only an hour or two ago and it will be a day or so before i can even post about it. with that said, i wanted to point out gerard’s beautiful remembrance of silkworm’s michael dahlquist, who was killed in a car accident right before the weekend. my condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

ive been resisting the urge to write about lilys in a philly-related blog because its just too damn easy. however, the band in so many ways is synonymous with our local music scene, a catalyst for things to come. kurt heasley & his revolving band of merry thieves steal from psychedelia’s richest moments and give to the indie rock poor. this is not to suggest that any lilys inspired group isn’t worthy of your devotion. in fact, its possible that these groups are even better than anything kurt’s released in recent years.

The A-Sides “Sidewalk Chalk”

What’s most striking about the A-Sides is that they weren’t trying to ape Lilys in the first place, yet they’ve stumbled upon making the best, most quintessential Philly record since Brief History of Amazing Letdowns. “Sidewalk Chalk “churns out its beat like a bike messenger racing across the city on call. It’s all heat, whirlwind and flash, pausing at moments to reflect on how far its come. I could gush more about this band, as I think they’ve made the best local release of the year, but I’ll leave the rest of it up to you. (Buy it from Prison Jazz Records!)

Hi-Soft “Country”

The homage is more obvious here, from the lazy but knowing lull of Gerhardt’s voice, to the layered guitars. And oh, members of this band backed up Kurt on his more recent efforts. While I was fond of the Hi-Soft’s previous incarnation as the Low Numbers in all their new wave glory [years before anyone else here caught onto the trend], I’m totally loving the atmospheric quality of this project. Getting wrapped up in this song is the best escape one can have from an increasingly hectic world. (Find out more about the Hi-Soft here.)

» last nights constantines / oxford collapse show was so good, i only got home three hours ago. the sad part about all the fun was the sparse crowd for last night. but i guess it was cutting into some major locust bar karaoke time.

get him eat him were like the perfectionists with 6 people in the band and pretty decent. loud. oxford collapse - teh awesomeness. the new record sounds fantastic live. love those guys.

the constantines summon forth everything that is good and holy about rock and roll. somewhere in between banging my head, clapping and finger pointing, i started thinking about edmund burke. in my mind i tried to apply the constantines to each chapter of on the sublime and beautiful, which if i had a friggin’ free moment, im positive i could make a good argument on why they fall on the side of the sublime. what can i say, im a believer.

i dont know how they do it: the cons awoke at an ungodly hour this morning, drove to princeton, recorded a set for WPRB and are now en route to pittsburgh for tonight’s show. gods and monsters of rock, they are. you’ll hear the set on jon solomon’s show soon enough. watch this space for more details.

» be sure to check out fluxblog today, “indie boys (dont deserve it)” is my new anthem.

» thats what charlie finch seems to say on this quick review of friedlander’s work at MoMA. cant help but think finch is a tad bit jealous of the successes and dare i say it, rockist in his tone. i mean, its not as if friedlander was the first and last photographer to network. geez, the whole field’s filled with careerist sleazebags, talent or not.

» saturday has been good to me: blowfly was dirty as expected and you should read sara’s blog to hear about how the night went. all i remember was that i was howling, tears of laughter streaming down my face. there’s photographic evidence which will appear here soon.

since it was an early show at silk city, i headed on over to the khyber to check out sal principato’s set at regan disko headache [did these dudes near-rip off my future band name, regan death party, or what? i should point out that i adapted the name from a message a friend once sent, so any future monies from my band’s successes should partially go to him]. sal was one half of the influential post-punk/no-wave/polyrhythmiriffic group liquid liquid. for the uninitiated, check out the primary beat of “white lines (don’t do it)” by grandmaster flash. tonight’s set didn’t disappoint in the least, as he played all sorts of leftfield italo disco stuff and what’s more amazing is that the kids danced. normally, if its not an instantly recognizable tune, the floors empty but tonight everyone just trusted him. if it wasnt for the burgeoning headache, i would have stuck around longer.

» also of note: i played wiffle ball yesterday. i actually caught the ball on one occasion to give my team an out and managed to make two runs. people seem pretty amazed that i was a competitive figure skater for nearly 15 years of my life, as if this means im some sort of amazing sportsperson. when they see me get hit in the face with the ball in a futile attempt to catch it and twist my ankle on an exposed root mere minutes into the game, finally, they understand the emperor has no clothes. there’s a reason i strayed to the dark side, uh, i mean indie rock, folks — im absolutely clumsy. what am i most bummed about? lack of coverage on this highly elite sporting event from CSTB, of course.

(if you want to see some somewhat recent footage of my skating abilities, here you go. as the camera pans to my adoring audience, i nearly fell on the ice due to dizziness.)

» oh yeah, its greek picnic. did you totally forget about this too?

(making poverty history, one meathead at a time.)

» check out phillyist, in its wonky beta state. my constantines preview is up. thats my non-sly way of saying you should go to that show.

» on rotation for close listening: db’s “black and white”, crash course in science “kitchen motors”, dif juz “hu”

» friday night dilemma, what do i do? im tired of making decisions, pick for me why, i’ll fall asleep at 9:30pm watching “dr phil” when i could have been to:

currituck county / dan higgs @ espershaus
aquila rose / this radiant boy @ millcreek [mere blocks from home!]
the teeth / make a rising @ khyber
plastic little @ silk city
violent students @ so. juniper warehouse

these are the kinds of dj nights i enjoy attending: beatles vs. stones [except when i sprain my ankle to “drive my car”], funk & soul and anything 80’s related. i know what you’re thinking: doesnt this describe almost every dj night in philadelphia? i suppose you’re right, but sometimes, certain events are better than others. sometimes its the dj, sometimes its the crowd. sometimes its something else entirely.

with that said, dear god, sir, whatever, please make sure hipsters never infiltrate marilyn’s 80’s night at l’hexagone. not that i ever think they would — the dancefloor is small, the attendees can be described at best “gawky” and no one gives a damn if my dance moves resemble a certain peanuts character or if i cant hit the high notes during “take on me”.