marah, once again.

ok so everyone knows i love this band, right? good.

went to see them, same place as last time, only this time i took my sister. she had never actually seen them before, except for one of those in-store performances, which are just a watered down version of what they're really like live. she loved it. she actually kinda used to hate that song of theirs, "point breeze," but after hearing it live, she's like "that song was AWESOME." neat, huh?

i also wanted to talk about their opening acts real quick. i didn't mention that last time, justin townes earle (yeah, that's steve earle's son) opened. he is freaking cool, people. awesome songwriter. you can tell he's related but it's not like he's only someone because of his dad, you know? he actually has the talent to back up the name. gotta love that. this time, it was cary hudson. again: AMAZING SONGWRITER. his voice and his guitar and everything was so smooooth and he plays harmonica, which i kinda have a weakness for. i talked to him a little bit afterwards and he was super cool and nice and funny. in fact, he let me trade my band's cd for one of his. how many musicians actually let you barter with them??

anyway, this show did not disappoint, although there were more lineup changes since the last time i saw them. new bassist who also plays trumpet, which was pretty freaking cool. i'm not gonna go into that whole mess too much though, because i don't have a lot of nice things to say about the reason the whole band quit in the first place. but to be quite frank, to me, marah was always about the bielanko brothers, and now that serge has put it behind him, it's really just dave. yeah, the musicians are generally great and fit the marah sound, but still. it's dave's band.

new marah music news: they're putting the new album out on cassette and vinyl. not on cd. that kinda made me all warm and fuzzy inside. only the cassette was available at the show i was at so i had to get that, but i CANNOT wait for the vinyl. i really like the sound of the new stuff. some of it is lacking the...i don't know...balls, for lack of a better word...that is typical of marah music. but it still has a great sound and i'm really digging it. i hope everyone else enjoys it as well.

bad luck / buzzcocks

i'm really almost afraid to write anything in here, because in the last couple entries, i wrote about supergrass and dio. well, last month sometime i found out that supergrass are breaking up and it made me really sad as i'm sure you can imagine. but even worse was finding out yesterday that dio has passed away. i'm not going to repeat myself about how amazing dio is (just go read my heaven & hell post) but seriously, he was just such a cool guy and anytime i ever heard a story about someone meeting him they always said he was really polite and took the time to talk, which is rare these days. what really makes no sense is that dio replaced ozzy in sabbath, and ozzy was/is the biggest goddamn trainwreck, and somehow he is still alive...? no offense ozzy, but what the fuck?

ok. moving on to happier topics... and completely changing the subject from metal to punk, and hoping that my bad luck doesn't rub off on these guys...

i went to see the buzzcocks on friday night!!!!! what you must understand first and foremost is this: i listened to this band A LOT as a teenager and they were one of the first punk bands i ever got into and at one point or another i think i have related to every single one of their songs. i used to have lyrics from "just lust" written on my bag when i was in high school because i was cool like that. and also, i did see them once before, but like i said with the first time i saw heaven & hell, i was in the lawn at camden. it kinda takes something away from it, being so far away and seeing little miniature people on the stage that may or may not be who you think they are... you know what i'm saying. so this show was at the troc AND i was able to get right up front and that made me very happy.

the opening bands were pretty good, i don't know who the first band was but the bass player was definitely in one of my classes at temple. ha. the dollyrots were fun, it took me a song or two to get adjusted to her voice, but overall i did really like them.

so, the buzzcocks. pete shelley and steve diggle are the 2 members still in the band from the original lineup, and they are seriously cute old men. it makes me happy to see them. oh and did i mention that this is the "another bites" tour? meaning that they are playing through their first 2 albums IN THEIR ENTIRETY? another music in a different kitchen and love bites. OH YES. so the set list is easy to figure out if you weren't at the show. they sounded awesome and they looked like they were having fun, which made me have even more fun, and i was so so happy to be there. steve was smiling a lot and pointing back to the people who were pointing at him, and pete was smiling and making eye contact while he was singing. so there we all are, dancing around, singing along, and i was getting ready to record a song because i knew "walking distance" was up next. having found out recently that original bassist steve garvey lives in the area, i had a bit of a hunch that he might be there to play on the song that he wrote. well GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT? that's right. they introduced him, and he walked out, and the excitement level in the room went up about 20 notches. it was incredible. and super cute. so after they got through the 2 albums, they came out and played a few more songs: "harmony in my head," "promises," "love you more," "orgasm addict." yeah that's right they closed with ORGASM ADDICT. the first song of theirs i ever heard and my most favoritest to this day. it never gets old. so there you have it.

i'm still getting the warm and fuzzies when i think about this show, but it's been marred a bit by the loss of dio. we'll miss you, holy diver.

radio

so if anyone out there is doing nothing on mondays from around 1 to 2:30 ish i play music on temple's radio station. www.temple.edu/students/wrft
today's playlist was as follows: (oh and i try to have a theme, these are all songs that i like to listen to at this time of year)
afi - fall children
ours - leaves
alkaline trio - this could be love
travis - sing
the doors - summer's almost gone
the rolling stones - this place is empty
jeff buckley - so real
danzig - soul on fire
the cult - sweet soul sister
the coral - bill mccai
the start - the conversation
velvet underground & nico - i'll be your mirror
marah - for the price of a song
supergrass - kiss of life
moby - shot in the back of the head (is anyone surprised by this? hopefully not)
the music - bleed from within
stellastarr* - a million reasons
tom waits - lonely
elvis costello - i'm in the mood again
voltaire - graveyard picnic

moby. again.

so remember when i reviewed the new moby? well i said i was not going to miss his show, so i did go to see him a little over a week ago. and i totally stalked him. hey, if you post where you are eating on twitter, you are fair game, am i right? well, anyway, moby said he was eating at essene so i went there. and he was sitting in there. just sitting in there, eating with his friends. so i waited outside and ran after him when he came out. he was extremely nice. i brought his new album on vinyl, and he drew on it and signed it for me. and he left me 4 tickets at the box office for anyone else who decided to come. 4 tickets! unfortunately no one else could make it but it's the thought that counts. anyway, he was just really really nice to me. and his show kicked ass as well. i had never really seen him before*, and it was a great first show for me to see him. moby can do no wrong, and after that night, i will always love him, even more than i did before. this is me being really happy:

*ok, so this one time, my boyfriend took me to a tribute to marc bolan/t.rex in new york, and i was convinced we were going to just casually bump into moby, especially since we ate at teany earlier. which we didn't of course, because you don't just casually bump into people in freaking new york. however, he just happened to also be at the show, in the audience, unfortunately not anywhere near us (although we were front row which was pretty kickass). but he got asked to go up and play on a song, which he did (20th century boy). so technically, yes, i have seen moby before, but i didn't think that him playing guitar for one song, and not even one of his songs, actually counted.

heaven and hell

i went to see heaven and hell in atlantic city this past weekend. HOLY SHIT it was crazy. i had actually seen these guys once before but it was in the lawn in camden, which is not the ideal place to see a show. but in the house of blues, it was insanely good. dio is like a hundred years old and he still sounds amazing. all of the guys in the band kick ass so hard, it was probably one of the greatest shows i have ever been to. and i have to say, being a drummer, the drum solo was definitely one of the highlights...it wasn't your typical drum solo. vinny appice is surrounded by drums, they go all around the sides and above and behind him, it's ridiculous. and yes, he uses ALL of them. the songs off the new album (the devil you know) sounded great, but i think everyone loves the old stuff the best ("children of the sea", "heaven and hell", "neon knights"). one of my favorite things about dio is that in a good amount of his songs, he will, at one point or another, tell you to LOOK OUT. it's great. children of the sea - LOOK OUT. holy diver (no, not a sabbath song, but it's still dio) - LOOK OUT. also, i love the fact that he's about 4 feet tall but he sounds like a freaking giant. you just gotta love dio. oh, and he was in the tenacious d movie, bonus points for that as well. and also - being a vegan, i don't have many cool vegan role models to point out to people who think being vegan is lame. but i do have geezer butler. he's the most metal vegan ever. i think that's pretty freaking awesome.

anyway, i guess my point in all this rambling is that if you get a chance to go to a heaven and hell show, do it. i wasn't going to go originally, at 50 bucks a ticket, but yeah, totally worth it. just go.

moby

wow.

i finally listened to the new moby record.

wow.

i mean, i have always loved moby, but seriously.

wow.

it came out right at the end of june, and i just got around to buying it this weekend. miss dork here bought it on vinyl. WHITE VINYL. wee! it's really pretty looking. and seriously, seriously beautiful sounding. i waited to listen to it, because it's called wait for me. ha, i'm kidding. i waited because i wanted to listen to the whole thing at once, uninterrupted. moby wanted me to. today was my day to do that, and i'm glad i listened to it that way.

it's perhaps a tad darker than what he is generally known for, but i believe it just bumped its way up to my favorite moby record. sorry, everything is wrong and animal rights. it's melancholy and melodic and just really really pretty. i just can't stress enough how much i love this record. and he's finally doing a u.s. tour this autumn; you can bet your butt i will be there.

so besides the fact that i am in love with his music and i think he is a very talented musician...i happen to agree with him on many things (politics, animal rights, etc.). so that just makes him way cooler to me than he already was. plus, he looks cute in funny hats.

the damned

last night was BRILLIANT. as an early birthday present, my sister took me to see the the damned. i love this band. love them. as i was watching them play, i couldn't help thinking about how legendary they are, and here they are, right in front of me. legends! wow. i have actually seen them once before, but it was on that tour that was them, and the dickies and the misfits, and it was a while ago...i remember being impressed then also, but for some reason last night i was just totally blown away. also, they really shouldn't call themselves the misfits anymore..."misfit" would be more appropriate, seeing as jerry only is the only member of the band. whatever. so the damned! they opened with "love song." hell yes. and they closed with "smash it up." FUCK YES. they couldn't have picked a more perfect song to close with. and they had to do "new rose" and "neat neat neat" of course. captain sensible looked smashing as always, with the white plastic sunglasses and red beret, and tight leopard skin pants. dave looked like a mad scientist. and monty looked like...well...monty. ha. it was a really great time, and unfortunately the place didn't look as packed as i would have imagined that it would. i couldn't believe more people weren't there, but what can you do. and can i just talk about how much i love dave's voice? it's so unique, and deep and smooth...i guess not typically what you would assume a punk rock singer's voice to sound like, but that's what i love so much about it i guess.

these are my personal top 5 damned songs, and sorry that i already sort of gave a few of them away...

1. smash it up - starts off with a cool, sort of dreamy intro, and then kicks into this freaking amazing song...ahhh...if you have never listened to the damned, this would be a great song to start with.
2. i think i'm wonderful - this song rocks, obviously, but the lyrics made me smile the first time i ever heard the song, and they still make me smile to this day. "some stupid opinions on the way that i am, they can look at me and i don't give a damn, damn, damn." it's the perfect FUCK YOU song to people who think you dress weird, or act weird, or whatever. basically, my theme song.
3. wait for the blackout - well...what can i say...i just really love this song.
4. love song - it's just that, a love song, but certainly not a typical one. you should just listen to it.
5. **TOTAL COP OUT WARNING** the entired DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED album. told you it was a cop out. but honestly, my number five would have to be one from this album, but how can you pick only one? honestly the whole things kicks so much ass from beginning to end. i mean, i love new rose, but who doesn't? i also love born to kill, and so messed up, and see her tonite, and stab your back...you get my point, right? this was the first damned album i owned and it's hard to move past it because it's just so good. i wish i could have heard it when it first came out though, when there was nothing else that sounded anything like it...can you imagine hearing that in 1977? i feel like i missed out! there was so much great stuff happening in the 70s. oh well.

anyway, in case you haven't got the point yet - the damned are amazing! go see them if you ever get the chance, you won't regret it.