Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Teenage Wasteland, Indeed

So what do you get when you put one of the world's biggest bands together with one of the world's greatest songwriters? You get Robert Pollard with Pearl Jam performing "Baba O'Reilly."

All I can say is fuck yeah.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Steady As We Go

Saw the Raconteurs at the Henry Fonda Theatre on Wednesday, June 7. Great show. One of the loudest and best shows I’ve been to in a long time, maybe since I last saw the White Stripes at the Glass House in Pomona. Went with my wife and step-daughter. We all left the show sweaty and exhilarated, with diminished hearing.

Funny thing about bands with one album, they don’t play long sets. They left the stage after about 50 minutes after ripping through most of their album, then returned for an encore of two songs. We were out of the venue about five minutes after 11 p.m. In addition to the originals they played, the band also performed wonderful versions of "It Ain’t Easy" by David Bowie (with Brendan Benson on vocals), and Love’s "A House Is Not A Motel" (with Jack White on vocals). It was interesting to see four excellent musicians (augmented with a keyboard player) performing at the top of their game. The yin and yang dynamic of White and Benson was held together by the stellar rhythm section of Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler.

It will be interesting to see where this band goes.

Also, saw the Arctic Monkeys on Saturday, June 3, at the Wiltern. While the band played well, the house just seemed too big for them. I admit, we were sitting in the Mezzanine, but it felt like we were watching them from behind glass. And I’ve been to other shows at the Wiltern and thought they sounded great from the Mezzanine, but this show seemed muted and lacked a certain energy. Of course, I’ve kind of hated the Wiltern since they reconfigured the floor.

Picked up the new release by Be Your Own Pet and I think it is one of the finest albums I have heard in a long time. The easy comparison is to a punkier (is that I word?) version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but I think that would be selling this band short. Pick it up, I think it is cheap at your finer retailers. Really like "Bunk Truck Skunk" and "Fuuuun."

Got the new Ice Cube as well. On this release we find Mr. Cube fiercely reasserting his dominance in the game and trying to dispelled any notions that he has gone soft with his other career in Hollywood. Standout cuts include "Child Support" and "Stop Snitchin’." Enjoy.

And now a word from my iPod:

1. "Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand" by Beulah
2. "Tatyana" by Archers of Loaf
3. "Lady Jane" by the Rolling Stones
4. "Girl Who Live on Heaven Hill" by Husker Du
5. "I Wanna Know Why" by Aerosmith
6. "Sick Again" by Led Zeppelin
7. "Good Morning Spider" by Sparklehorse
8. "The New Soft Shoe" by Gram Parsons
9. "Best of Both Worlds" by Midnight Oil
10. "I Started a Joke" by Faith No More