TrickyBuddha Studios

I have not posted about new music in a while so I thought I would take a moment to mention a few new (to me) albums on the iPod, as well as some concerts on the horizon:

• The Dead Weather: Horehound. This is a band featuring Jack White (White Stripes, Raconteurs), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), and Jack Lawrence (Raconteurs, The Greenhornes). They just released the album (July 2009). Some big names in rock. Still getting a feel for the album, but it seems good so far.
• The Dears: Missiles. It’s been out a little while (Oct 2008) but, like I said, it’s new to my iPod. I’ve really gotten into the Dears ever since we saw them live. What a great (Canadian) band. I need to listen to this one more to familiarize myself with it.
• The Cliks: Dirty King. Another Canadian band, parenthetically speaking of. They’re not widely known but they’re definitely worth checking out. Their new album came out about a month ago (June 2009).
• Wilco: Wilco (The Album). Another recent release (June 2009). I’m not much of a Wilco listener but their latest is on the iPod now so I’ll have to give it a few listens to see what I think. The Wilco Song is a catchy start to the album.

As for concerts, there are quite a few on the horizon!

• The Dead Weather is first on the list of shows, coming up at the end of this month. I’m looking forward to the show. It always helps me to get into new bands by seeing them live.
• They’re followed by the Warlocks in early August. We saw the Warlocks once before and that live performance hooked me on the band. They’re a slower, moodier kind of band but very good when you’re in the mood for that. I’m excited.
• Late August brings us Brendan Benson. I really know nothing about him, other than that he is in the Raconteurs, so that’ll be an introduction for me.
• At the start of September is the Dandy Warhols! Yay! I’ve seen them twice, and this time will make the third. It’ll be a road trip to a tiny club in Indianapolis to see them, but it’ll be worth it.
• And our current run of shows ends with Autolux. I am so excited to see Autolux. I completely overdosed on their first album when I first got it (it was the first album Candice recommended me to get, I think). Seriously. They’re in my top-ten listens of all time on last.fm, and 9-of-my-top-15 individual tracks are all Autolux. It’s going to be great to see them live for the first time. Hopefully their album, Transit Transit, comes out by then (but I’m not holding my breath).

Candice and I saw the Dears tonight at Lakeshore Theater. It was our first time at Lakeshore and our second time seeing the Dears together, but the first time we saw the Dears was when they played with the Secret Machines. And they only played like five or six songs. Tonight, they played about 90-100 minutes – so, obviously, much better.

The venue was a cozy little theater, complete with seats and popcorn. The stage was up high so you could see the bands playing even if you stayed in your seat while people danced in front of the stage.

The first act, Great Northern, was OK. Not my cup of tea. No tea for me, thanks. Don’t drink the stuff. Couldn’t have a tea. No, wait! I do drink tea! I love tea! But the band still wasn’t for me. Candice reports we saw them once before when they opened for The Gutter Twins. I don’t think I cared much about them one way or the other then. Or now. They were just OK. We stayed in our seats for them.

Then there was the set change. And then the lights went down. And then the music started playing. And then there was singing.

But… no singer.

I looked to my left and spotted the singer walking down the aisle toward the stage. Hilariously (though he was stone-faced), he *slowly* worked his way to the stage, then crossed the room left-to-right first, through the crowd – stopping frequently along the way to get ultra-close to just about everyone. We were still sitting at that point, but that didn’t stop him from leaning over to get inches from Candice’s face and then inches from mine – while leaning his weight on her leg. Then he leaned his weight on my shoulder to push himself back up before moving on to the next person. At other points, he sat down in a seat next to one guy and hugged a girl for a while – all while singing. It was great.

After that, it was a little more traditional. The Dears rocked out on the stage and played a great set. There was a little crowd interaction between songs here-and-there – a reference to their appreciation of Chicago, an acknowledgment of the bad weather outside… and a funny bit after they came back for the encore where the singer, Murray Lightburn, said, “You know how when you’re black and you’re walking down the street and everyone’s looking at you funny?” I forget how he phrased it, but he joked about wanting to become a comedian so he could do non-inclusive humor like that.

They only played one song for an encore, but, sadly, it was probably just as well. With the show having started a little after midnight and with it being, at that point, almost 2am, “on a school night,” much of the room had cleared at the end of the set. So the last song was dedicated to us hardcore fans, the 40-50 or so who remained.

There are probably a few other bits I’m forgetting (Candice?), but overall it was a really good show and I was glad to have seen them.

I’m heading to Chicago today for a show (The Dears, Secret Machines) and when I get back I’ll probably be playing Fable 2 – so I may not have time to post. I’m taking the lazy route and excerpt a couple (in my opinion, great/must read) links for today’s entry. If you want to read the full post, click on the links. Comments on the articles?

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McCain’s Hero: More Socialist Than Obama!
McCain can call Obama a socialist or he can call Teddy Roosevelt his hero. He can’t do both.
By Timothy Noah

Imagine that instead of telling Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher that “when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody,” Barack Obama had said the following:

We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. … The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and … a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.

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“Socialist” Is Not an Epithet
posted by John Nichols

John McCain hopes to revive his campaign by suggesting that Barack Obama is some kind of socialist.

The Republican nominee for president says that his Democratic rival’s plan for stimulating the economy sounds “a lot like socialism.”