Action-packed weekend here at the Her Jazz compound.

» What/where/when/whaaaaa did Buried Beds become so loud? Friday night’s show was probably the most rock I’ve seen of them. The band following them were so fucking awful. Do you ever get that way, where a band is so awful — I mean, like embarrasingly awful — you can’t even keep yourself in the stage area? Yeah, that happened to me.

» I really like when there’s a bunch of good shows in town, you can just pick and choose what you want to see, like dim sum. Additionally I’m thinking of titling Saturday as “The Night Where I Only Watched 1.5 Songs Per Band”, and no, I don’t need flashy graphics that look like a nu-rave flyer to suss out the statistical data. Simple math, brah — I saw a little bit of Black Moth Super Rainbow’s vocoded stoner rave rock, Fuck the Facts brutal grind and Electrelane’s energetic take on krautrock. Funny though, how the Electrelane show was packed to the gills with douchebags — in the short time I was there, I had beer spilled on me twice. You’d think the grindcore show would have been more problematic, but maaaan, was the crowd totally chill there.

» Caught Knocked Up this weekend as well. I have to say, there’s been a slew of somewhat decent films being totally ruined by completely shitty trailers and marketing plans (Georgia Rule, Knocked Up, etc). DAEREST HOLLYWOOD, if ur reading this, take noet. Anyway, KU was good, a subtle but scathing critique of the baby/marriage-obsessed culture/feedback loop that gets crammed down our throats. The fight scene between Rogen’s and Heigl’s characters, where a totally hormonal about-to-burst Heigl struggles to find her ground against Rogen’s immature comebacks (honed after hours of stoned, drunken arguments, no doubt) really rubbed me the wrong way. Out of his pack of loser friends he’s the most responsible and has the best chance of getting his shit together, somehow the script leaves the audience rooting for Rogen, which is kinda fucked.

» Annoying photography gripe #4,573,947,598,347: Blaming bad images on equipment. I’ve seen amazing images shot on disposable cameras, I’ve seen stunning work produced by 18×24 Deardorffs — so it’s not so much about the equipment. Technique is crucial. My own equipment is so barebones it’s downright laughable, but I understand the limitations of my various cameras, and in the words of the almighty Tim Gunn, I try to “make it work”. I wont lie — I’d be perfectly happy with a Leica M8 or maybe one of those crazy digital backs for my 500C (maybe then I will use it more than once ever five years). Maybe I should pull a SF/J and beg the internet to buy me new equipment? I promise to never photograph a rusty door for as long as I live.

» Inspired by Idolator’s Barbara Manning post on Friday, here’s one more track of hers, from the old Live at Dave’s Garage 7″ series:

S.F. Seals, “Back Again” (From Live At Dave’s Garage Vol. 5)

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2007 at 11:15 pm and is filed under general, live performances.