Saturday night was nu-gaze blog hype du jour A Place To Bury Strangers at Pilam. If the system’s as bloated as folks claim, chances are this band’s next show in town will cost 15+ dollars — so five bucks is a paltry sum to get in on the ground floor. (Strange truth: the show was a benefit for breast cancer awareness/charities?)

OK, here’s one thing I don’t get: nu-gaze as a movement. Why are people talking like there’s some huge enormous shoegaze revival? It never left. Look at messageboards, the guitar pedal industry/racket, dance parties — people still get weak in the knees thinking about whammy bars and notes that quiver like a baby’s bottom lip. Maybe we were all too busy getting rad, covering up our shoegaze intentions with a pseudointerest in metal, or whatever that’s popular at this moment, but it’s been there all this time. I’m sure there’s some agenda-setting & cultivation theory I could cite here to explain why shoegaze has been suppressed, butyouknowwhatimtalkinaboutamirite?

APTBS were solid. They are not, despite Pitchfork’s claim, the loudest band in NYC. When I was younger, a concert caused me to lose my hearing for three days straight. I know loud. APTBS are loud, but entirely tolerable with earplugs. So chalk this up to a bunch of indie rockers being pussies. If they were such a thing, Pilam’s board would have gone up in flames after the first chord was struck. (Have you seen Pilam’s sound system? It makes Tritone’s PA look like the Wachovia Center. I think my shitty home stereo — which has only one working speaker — is more powerful.)

They also sound a whole lot like Loop. Yeah, Loop! That long-forgotten Creation band has been overlooked for too long; let’s make some Loop love happen folks. I mean, have you heard some of these “heavy” bands who get namedropped these days? All I ever hear — and what I loved last night — is loud, relentless, garage-drone-throb that was Loop. Loop, Loop, Loop.

But whatever. The band was not the highlight of my evening. It being “Greek Week” for the fraternities at Penn (yes, it’s weird to think of Pilam as one of those, but they are), every frat had party monitors at the door checking I.D.’s. Don’t ask why I went to crash another fraternity party with friends (watching a whole dancefloor of douchehammers fist pump along to “Stacy’s Mom” was penance enough, thank you; I have learned my lesson), but I did. The doorman would not believe my driver’s license was real, nor that I was 21. I’ve been cursed with looking young for my age, but seriously — SERIOUSLY FOLKS — I don’t look 18, 19, 20. I will just happily accept the ego boost and move along, thankyouverymuch.

This Saturday 11/3 I will get another shot at being 21 (forever?) when I DJ Pilam’s record release party for DFA artists Holy Ghost. Also on board are Dave P, the Broadzilla dudes, DJJJC and live musical act Murder Mystery. I know I’m the sore thumb on this bill, so screw the cocainesexjams†, my set’s gonna be a long distance dedication to that select segment of the audience who won’t get the special opportunity to make poorly-informed choices about their sexual partners. You’re my people. I promise to disappoint everyone else but you.

With that said, I think it will be a good time, it is BYOB and the Philafunk space is gorgeous. It’s a shame a piece of me dies every time I have to utter the venue’s name.

† with all due respect to Dave P that is. I mean, you don’t want me attempting c.s.j.; better leave it to the master, you know?

Illustrator Susie Ghahremani (and the brains behind Snoozer) lives in the SD area. Thankfully Susie & co. are safe, but a lot of people and animals have been displaced. If you’re interested in donating to relief efforts, here’s a couple of suggestions from her:

a lot of domestic animals and wildlife have been displaced and injured during the fires, so if you’d like to help out, there are a few different places that could really use the funds:

please consider donating to the san diego humane society or project wildlife (both have buttons online to click to donate)

the red cross has been organizing a lot of excellent relief efforts in the area for families.

if you can’t make a monetary donation, consider using the search engine goodsearch to search the internet — a penny goes to the non-profit of your choice everytime you search (and there is no limit to how many searches you can do a day) and if we all do it, it can really add up. (don’t forget to select your default non-profit before searching)

thanks everyone and be safe.

In the meantime, enjoy Snoozer’s take on the B-52’s “Legal Tender”…

Update: Seems that Susie has a show coming up in San Franscisco in November as well… check the invite.

Just got this from the good folks at the Prometheus Project. It seems they’re putting on a public hearing with Stopbigmedia.com; FCC commissioners Adelstein and Copps will be present to hear your thoughts on the subject. So if you liked what you heard at yesterday’s meeting on the hill with Mac MacCaughan and others, now it’s your chance to participate — let your voice be heard!

Public Localism Hearing
at the Federal Communications Commission
Room TW-C305 following open commission meeting
FCC, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20554 (map)
Date: Wednesday, October 31
Time: 9am - 2pm

More details here; if you would like to hear Prometheus’ thoughts on media consolidation, visit their website.

Merge Records Mac McCaughan, among others, is at the Senate speaking on behalf of the future of radio today. Did you tune in? Thoughts?

Update: Damn, they were awfully quick about getting the archive & statements on the sites — not even 5 minutes after it was finished!

We all complained about the hierarchy of music writing — too few deciding for many — and depending on your perception blogs decimated and/or leveled the playing field. But there’s a world of difference between even ground and the riotous free-for-all feeling pervading that particular end of the business. I can’t help but wonder if the OiNK shutdown is like a virtual Gas-X, attempting to cut down on the bloat of the business.

Shannon & Michaela were these two awesome ladies who attended the SXSW music blogging panel I spoke on a couple years back. Aside from being one of the few women in the audience, they were snazzy dressers and knitting while the panel rambled on.

They’ve kind of moved on from blogging, but not the knitting — looks like they’ve started up a small custom knitwear biz called Kindling & Tinder:

Hi All,

I hear you saying, “Michaela and Shannon, those nice girls who used to run The Rich Girls Are Weeping, that amazing music blog? Didn’t they used to go out all the time? How come we haven’t seen them at shows lately?”

(Alternatively, some of you reading this may know us from our Austin days, or elsewhere… Hello!)

Well, I’ll tell you: we have a little side business called Kindling & Tinder and we make custom knitwear — gloves and scarves for now, but we’re mocking up sweaters as we write this! — for all you handsome gents out there.

And hey, we have a website, even! http://www.kindlingandtinder.com

We coerced the lovely Anthony and Curtis to model and Aubrey to take the pictures — then Michaela hacked away on the CSS and in Photoshop, and Shannon provided moral support and design assistance.

And look: we’re open for business! Check out the site, let us know what you think!

Thanks to everyone who’s been of utter invaluable assistance so far. We’ll probably be bugging you for help again.

Thanks for reading!

xo
Shannon & Michaela

I am a total slacker when it comes to the whole link reciprocation thingy, so please let me know if I’ve missed your site/blog/etc by commenting on this entry.

While the rest of the world was buying into/perpetuating the indie rock culture industry, I spent my weekend in Burlington, Vermont. If one threw in more humidity, took away half the beards and added a bunch of good bands, I would have thought I was in Chapel Hill. Just kidding! It was gorgeous, simply gorgeous. And the weather they’re having is what all of us in the tri-state area (PA/NJ/NY) exactly need right now.

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SeanAgnew posted this on October 17th, 2007 @ 1:23:20 pm

okay - so that band THE BLACK KIDS - who less than 10 days ago were just a local young band from FL w/ a myspace page - well they got a great review on Pitchfork last week and today it’s reported that they are now being managed by The Arcade Fire and Bjork’s manager.

Totally Makes Sense

I feel like everyone is just throwing shit at the wall and just waiting to see what sticks

Who needs CMJ when you’ve got a messageboard? Hooray for careerist indie rock?