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Flashback: Headlights at the Bell House, Brooklyn (24 April 2009)

Read More Headlights With only four members, Headlights initially had a more subdued presence than TLL, but they immediately proved their pop prowess with gems like “Market Girl” and “Your Old Street.” Keyboardist Erin Fein provided her signature crystal clear vocals … Love Language Who needs some Love Language? You can currently stream their new record Ruby Red on spotify. These indie rockers from North Carolina put on a show! I caught them three years ago at the Circle Bar in New Orleans. …

Another adventure in Brooklyn with Kate G. This time she attended the Headlights show at the Bell House in Brooklyn, on April 24, 2009. Opening for them was The Love Language.

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About halfway through the opening set of The Love Language, I couldn’t help but notice something odd: where was the flannel? Perhaps it was the slightly warmer weather or the fact that neither bands were from Brooklyn, but it’s a strange sight these days, going to a show with no trace of the hipster staple. The lack of flannel continued onto Headlights’ set, and it was somewhat telling, as both bands offered up refreshing doses of unpretentious, enthusiastic pop.

The Love Language, a six-member troop hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina, proved to be ideal openers for the somewhat more polished Headlights. Stuart McLamb, lead singer and wearer of dilapidated wife-beaters, charmed the stoic audience with his off-beat lyrics and undeniably catchy melodies. There seemed to be an endless supply of tambourines, an occasional accordion, and when Missy the keyboardist started dancing around barefoot, it seemed wholly appropriate. Their entire set gave off the vibe of an indie pop country hoedown.

TLL ended with their fan-favorite, “Lalita,” McLamb’s viciously sweet ode to an ex-girlfriend, and a somewhat creepy, somewhat endearing (but ultimately catchy) cover of Ricky Nelson’s “Hello, Mary Lou.” When their set ended, they left a palpable energy in a crowd, which is always a noteworthy accomplishment for a relatively unknown opening act.

With only four members, Headlights initially had a more subdued presence than TLL, but they immediately proved their pop prowess with gems like “Market Girl” and “Your Old Street.” Keyboardist Erin Fein provided her signature crystal clear vocals, while guitarist Tristan Wright took the lead on some songs, offering a nice contrast with his rougher but equally sweet vocals.

Midway through their set, they called up TLL up to the stage to join them for the stand-out hit from their second album, “Cherry Tulips.” It was obvious the two bands enjoyed touring together, and since this was their final show together, there were several “I love you, man!” moments – punctuated with tambourines and more barefoot hijinks. When they ended the night with “TV,” the two-minute favorite from their debut album, the audience was completely mesmerized. They had just put on a glam-free, wonderfully sincere show in the heart of Brooklyn. Quite a feat for this flannel-free band.

There are only so many alternatives the Merriam-Webster thesaurus can offer for “precious” and “cute,” but Headlights literally exemplified the two when Fein called attention to bassist Nick Sanborn’s sweat-soaked t-shirt. Apparently, his chest hair has the awesome habit of forming a sweat stain in the shape of a perfect heart. Seriously, how twee can you get?

The Love Language at the Bell House, Brooklyn (24 April 2009) photo by Andrew Keller

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Flashback: Ice Palace at the Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (23 April 2009)

Ice Palace Setlist Outside the Gates Phonebook Pillow Pirates by Thirty Just Wait Lily Hubris Younger in a Year Nuance and Spark Coliseum Slow Motion Fall Devil's Tower Thoughts/Facts Dark Dark Dark Setlist Silver Spade Trouble No More All The Things The Hand Junk Bones Flood Bright Bright Bright Make Time Caroline Smith Setlist Grizzly Bear Tying My Shoes Five Month Too Long Shotgun Green To Grey Lack Of Height Birch Trees & Broken Barns Sally Clench My Teeth Gracie Closing the Doors Read More Ice Palace Ice Palace “ Wonder Subtly Crushing Us Wonder Subtly Crushing Us opens like pure indie rock beatitude; the knee-jerk impulse to look not happy and wearing tiny pants is overwhelming. Phonebook Pillow is probably …

This was a last-minute request to cover this Ice Palace show at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, on April 23, 2009. Unfortunately, during the rush to the venue, I had forgotten to bring my camera.

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Ice Palace just held their CD-release party (Wonder Subtly Crushing Us, released on Earthology Records) last night at the lovely Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. Helping them celebrate are three local bands: Dark Dark Dark, To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie, and Caroline Smith And The Good Night Sleeps.

Judging from last night's audiences, there was a huge influx of alt-country/americana folky crowd of young people. I am told that this kind of music is massive, especially in the mid-west. It's only too bad that, in my opinion, Ice Palace is more guitar indie rock, and To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie is far too experimental and tribal - which had their own sort of audiences. Still, it all balanced out, I suppose.

Caroline Smith And The Good Night Sleeps: The first time I heard of Caroline Smith was when Brody was raving about her. I think at the time, she didn't really a record or a full band (?), but from the looks of things last night - she seems to be doing quite well so far.

I think the highlight for me was the one acoustic-only song (her upright bassist and percussions took a break), I think on the setlist it's listed as "Gracie", the song after "Clench My Teeth".

To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie: I thought this was the most interesting of all the bands. I think if they had opened up for the Japanese noise band, The Boredoms, they would've fitted right in. Unfortunately, the midwestern folky audience didn't know what to do with Bourgeoisie.

The singer looks half-Asian or something, she's a small thing. I thought she was exclusively the singer, but she did play a little keyboard and also guitar at some point. The best songs on their setlist was when they had live drumming, but the highlight for me was when the violinist joined them on stage for the third song.

Dark Dark Dark: Their name is a bit of a misnomer, they don't seem very dark to me (in fact, Bourgeoisie is a darker band). If their name sounds familiar, that's because we've previously mentioned them a few times, check out Andrew's review.

I was actually kind of excited to see them, their set consists of mostly accordion songs (which sort of made many of their songs to sound Frenchy or even carnival-y). I asked singer Nona about their EP, Love You, Bye, because I wanted to pick it up (since I already had their LP), but she said it was out of print (edit: see tweet below.)

Ice Palace: Clearly, having been touring the country with Cloud Cult has been good to Ice Palace. They were very confident on stage, and everyone had an especially good time rocking out. I will tell you what though: for their first two songs ("Outside The Gates" and "Phonebook Pillow"), they had three guitars, one bass, and drums. Yes, lots of loud clashing layers of guitars, particularly on "Phonebook Pillow".

My favorite songs from the set was the trumpet songs ("Devils Tower", "Thoughts/Facts"). For their finale, they had, I think the drummer from The Good Night Sleeps' Arlen Peiffer joining them on stage to do tambourine.

Please note: This was really last minute, so I didn't have time to prep for a camera. Also, everyone had about a 30-minute set, with the exception of Ice Palace, for obvious reasons. Plus, all the bands had setlists, except for Bourgeoisie - who apparently are rebels... :)

Caroline Smith And The Good Night Sleeps Setlist

Dark Dark Dark Setlist

Ice Palace Setlist

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Flashback: Wye Oak at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (19 April 2009)

Read More Wye Oak Wye Oak will be returning in 2014 with a brand new yet-untitled album from Merge Records, the follow-up to their 2011's Civilian. Singer Jenn Wasner talked to Spin Magazine about the new album… Pomegranates Pomegranates took the stage and introduced themselves as "Jesus Christ and the Fire Eating Five!" as they set in their energetic music set.…

The Wye Oak and Pomegranates co-tour stopped by the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis on April 19, 2009.

Brody ended up on stage (by invite) for the Pomegranates’ song finale, “Southern Ocean”. Watch the video here: Pomegranates’ “Southern Ocean”.

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Jenn Wasner, singer from Wye Oak* joked that their touring teamup of Wye Oak and Pomegranates should be called "The full spectrum of human emotions tour" because while Wye Oak brought the "sadness", Pome brought the "happiness".

Opening up was Minneapolis' Bill Caperton, who, when not playing solo, is part of the band Ela. He played a pretty long set, surprisingly since it was a Sunday evening and there were two other bands on the bill. I think he might have realized this just ended after one song when he announced that he had two more... saying "I think I'll just leave it at that."

Pomegranates

Pomegranates (myspace) took the stage and introduced themselves as "Jesus Christ and the Fire Eating Five!" as they set in their energetic music set.

The band name shenanigan continues on as Isaac Karns introduced them again as "Three Ninjas Plus One", and would continue with "as Joey said, we're called the E-Flat Band!". Apparently, the last name never fail to get a laugh.

My personal favorite from their set list is "Late Night Television" from their debut album, Everything Is Alive (2008). Anyway, for some reason, the aggressive music doesn't seem to go with the depressing lines: "I want to know where you've been at night. I've been lying awake, I left on the lights. ", but it worked (and it rocked).

I think the highlight of the show was for their last song, they asked Brody to come on stage for their finale song "Southern Ocean".

So embarrassingly enough, I actually have listened (and own) Wye Oak's first album, If Children, I only realized this after I picked up their album again.  Anyway, that would explain why they sounded so familiar to me.

They sounded really good live, with this constant guitar fuzz, and melodic girlie vocals of 'singing waitress' Jenn Wasner. But let's not forget with Andy Stack's contribution with his right arm on the drums, while his left on keyboard thing, while his mouth on blow-y thing.

Wasner said they have a new recorded already recorded, and that it was coming out on July 21^st. A quick check reveals the album is called The Knot. At the moment, you can get If Children via their record label, Merge Records.

As for Pome, you can get their records at Lujo Records - check out the free MP3 downloads!

So, definitely go see the rest of the "the full spectrum of human emotions" tour in a city near you.

* Incidentally, the band's name comes from their homestate Maryland's honorary tree of the same name.

Wye Oak at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (19 April 2009)

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Flashback: The Hive Dwellers at 92YTribeca, New York City (17 April 2009)

Read More Calvin Johnson Calvin Johnson is many things: founder of K Records, twee patron saint, notorious baritone… and spastic dance machine? Yes, Calvin Johnson’s dance moves were front and center at 92YTribeca, where he unveiled his latest project, The Hive Dwellers. Fusing the stark ... Saturday Looks Good To Me Okay, I'll just get it out of the way, I like Saturday Looks Good To Me. Anyone that likes Belle & Sebastian and Saves the Day will probably like them by association. Saturday Looks Good To Me is back. Their new album, One Kiss Ends It All, just came out last Tuesday ...

New York’s Kate G (not to be confused with our Kate & Lara) went to see Calvin Johnson (of famed K Records) in his then-new projected called The Hive Dwellers.

We’re actually big fans of K Recs, so this was a great opportunity to talk about the label and its founder.

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Calvin Johnson is many things: founder of K Records, twee patron saint, notorious baritone… and spastic dance machine?

Yes, Calvin Johnson’s dance moves were front and center at 92YTribeca, where he unveiled his latest project, The Hive Dwellers. Fusing the stark catchiness of his influential band, Beat Happening, and the rock sensibility of his other influential band, The Halo Benders, The Hive Dwellers put on a hypnotizing set Friday night before a crowd of K Recs disciples and cardigan-clad pop fans. (Of which I admit to being both, but I refused to wear a cardigan to this gig. Too easy.)

Fred Thomas, of Saturday Looked Good to Me, opened as City Center: a one-man outfit with a microphone and a synthesizer. The mostly instrumental set was largely ignored by the audience, who seemed to be more concerned with the impending presence of Calvin and the tiny hope that he might play “Indian Summer,” the twee-equivalent to “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” (He did not.)

Half an hour later, Calvin appeared, wearing his familiar uniform of a too-tight, too-small shirt. As this was the Hive Dwellers debut performance, none of the songs had titles yet, but this was of little concern to audience, who were too enthralled by Calvin’s erratic dancing to notice.

Compared to Calvin’s past work, The Hive Dwellers are much more fleshed out, with a bass player, synthesizer/keyboard, guitars, and City Center Fred on drums. Not to mention the mouth organ, acoustic guitar, and maracas Calvin occasionally whipped out between dance moves. As always, Calvin’s deep baritone was impossible to ignore as he rhapsodized about sitting alone in movie theaters and building pinewood coffins – typical subject matter in his case. He continued to charm the audience with his sardonic stage banter, in which he compared Manhattan to the Vatican and extolled the virtues of midriff-bearing t-shirts.

The Hive Dwellers ended on an exceptionally high note, finally plugging in the electric guitar that had been sitting in the corner throughout the whole show. (Too bad it also drowned out most of the vocals.) Though Calvin’s lyrics were unintelligible, his enthusiasm was evident –of course—through his frantic dancing.

Surprisingly, they were not the last act of the night. That honor went to Ian Svenonius’ latest project, Chain and the Gang. Unfortunately I had a midnight birthday party to attend and had to opt out of seeing them. Despite this, I left happy. I had just witnessed Calvin Johnson do suggestive things to a pair of maracas. What more could I want?

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Flashback: Death Cab for Cutie at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St Paul (15 April 2009)

Setlist The Employment Pages Your Heart Is an Empty Room The New Year Crooked Teeth President of What? My Mirror Speaks No Sunlight Grapevine Fires Title Track I Will Possess Your Heart I Will Follow You Into the Dark Title and Registration Cath... A Movie Script Ending Long Division The Sound of Settling Bixby Canyon Bridge -- Encore -- Little Bribes Soul Meets Body Transatlanticism Read More Death Cab for Cutie Anyroad, before we get to Death Cab for Cutie, I have to explain that I've seen the band before in 2001 at the 7th Street Entry for $5. People who live in Minnesota know that the 7th Street is a tiny venue. …

I actually didn’t get a photo pass for this Death Cab for Cutie show at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium (for April 15, 2009), since I was primarily there to cover Cold War Kids. I also typically don’t cover shows in St Paul, so this was a learning experience for me.

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Blame rush hour traffic, but the drive to St Paul took me nearly an hour to get to the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. I got there a little late, but was very impressed at the sheer size of the venue. My floor ticket was just great, I never understood those people that pay for the balcony seated tickets, but there were plenty of people up there.

Ra Ra Riot started the show exactly at seven and went off the stage by 7:20pm. What a brief set list.

Cold War Kids came on around 8 and did about forty-five minutes of music. They did their big hit songs ("Hang Me Up To Dry", "Hospital Beds") early in their set, but failed to get the audience to move along. I suspect this has more to do with the youth crowd to be mad Death Cab fans, because when Cold War are in their elements (headlining with their fan base), they perform exceptionally well.

I am speaking from experience because I recently saw them headline and the audience loved and the energy they gave off, fed into Cold War Kids and they sweated and teared through their setlist. Unfortunately, not tonight. Tonight, mostly saw the band singing songs and heading right into the next without so much as pauses for applauses.

The last three songs, singer Nathan Willett snuck behind his piano and did three piano-type songs and basically away from center stage view.

Also, whoever was working the lights, they must've really had it in for Cold War Kids.  The lights was either white, yellow-ish, or none at all.  This is in huge contrast to Death Cab, who enjoyed a variety of reds, blues, and smoke machine...  The lighting really made a huge difference, if you ask me.

Anyroad, before we get to Death Cab for Cutie, I have to explain that I've seen the band before in 2001 at the 7th Street Entry for $5. People who live in Minnesota know that the 7th Street is a tiny venue. We reckon it can only hold about 200 people without choking itself. So that was then, a very nice and smokey and not to mention intimate setting to see Death Cab.

How far they've come! They are now doing 5,000 capacity sized venue. And although it didn't sell out, I would hazard at least 60% of tickets was sold, based on my asian math perception skills (that didn't even make sense, it's 1:30am as I'm writing this). Anyway, floor tickets are the cheapest - at a whopping $49-ish a ticket. The guy next to me said with all the fees involved (this is why I hate ticketmaster), he paid $98 for two tickets online!

For the fans, it was worth every penny... they sang (yes, they all sang along) to every song. HUGE reception to "I Will Possess Your Heart" with its 300-minute epic music intro. This is followed by everyone's favorite acoustic-only song, "I Will Follow You into the Dark", followed by "Cath...", followed by the ba-ba song of "The Sound of Settling". Ben Gibbard had the audience eating out of his hands.

For the encore, they did three songs, I'm sure one of them was brand new from their new EP and the other was "Transatlanticism".

It looks like they're continuing on their very successful, mostly sold-out tour. So even if you wanted to see them, you're probably already out of luck - but of course, if you're a huge fan, you probably have your tickets in advance.

Cold War Kids' latest album is called Loyalty to Loyalty from Downtown Music (get a copy at amazon) and the very popular Death Cab's latest is called Narrow Stairs from Atlantic Records. Not sure what their current relationship is with Barsuk, but Ra Ra Riot is on it and it's still one of my favorite record label :)

PS, no photos for this show, because of the strict anti-camera from the security people.

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Flashback: Paper Route at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11 April 2009)

Read More Paper Route The last time we saw Paper Route, they opened for Copeland in 2009 at a really crowded all-ages show, and said “Paper Route are also from Nashville, Tennessee ... Copeland Florida's Copeland started off their set badly... Singer Aaron Marsh started singing the first song again on their second song. He realized this right away and pulled the song to a halt and made it an ...

This was a co-headlining show of Paper Route and Copeland (he closed out the show) at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on April 11, 2009.

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Paper Route played with Copeland, This Providence, and Brooke Waggoner at Minneapolis' Varsity Theater last night. This is an all-ages show, which means it started early. Wow, like 5 o'clock early.

The turnout was really good, mostly underage kids.... so the three bartenders were really lonely. The young photographers were out in droves as well... capturing every movement made by Copeland. Seriously photographers, take it easy.

Anyway, of course I got there late, caught a bit of Nashville's Brooke Waggoner on stage with her women band of strings and cellos. Most of the songs toward the end was mostly Waggoner and her keyboard... I did end up downloading her free 2007 EP called Fresh Pair of Eyes if you sign up for her mailing list.

Seattle's This Providence (formerly known as Sunday Best) did their high energy rock set, I had a feeling I would like them when lead singer Dan Young did Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger" song during their brief soundcheck. They did a lot of songs from their new 2009 album Who Are You Now?, such as: "Sure as Hell", "Letdown", "That Girl's a Trick", "Keeping on Without You".

Florida's Copeland started off their set badly (sorry I'm not familiar with the band enough to tell you what song they started, but it was two keyboard-driven songs). Singer Aaron Marsh started singing the first song again on their second song. He realized this right away and pulled the song to a halt and made it an inside joke about time travel and ABC's "Lost" or something. I think he was really embarrassed about it and claimed that he was "really drunk". (I think he was kidding though).

Like Waggoner, Paper Route are also from Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of dueling vocals between J.T. Daly (keyboards) and Andy Smith (guitars). Although this sounds cool, it was kind of hard to hear their vocals for this show - perhaps it was the overpowering guitars and drumming or something.

Although I'm complaining, listening to their latest EP Are We All Forgotten (you can hear the entire EP on their official website), they are sort of going for that distorted vocals-kind of thing.

Already hailed by Filter, Daytrotter, and Paste, as a band to watch out for, they certainly must be excited to launch their second album Absence on April 28^th.

I ran into Greg (I've been running into a lot of local bloggers lately - it's weird because I never recognize anyone), who seems very excited about Absence and complains that no one is talking about the album. Well if you pre-order now you get one downloadable song, "Carousel" and a 7-minute documentary tomorrow (April 13^th). Plus buttons.

Paper Route at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11 April 2009)

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Flashback: The Drones at 400 Bar, Minneapolis (09 April 2009)

Little Man Setlist Miss Some Everyone Not Quite So Close Your Eyes Soulful Undertow Seal Love of All Lifted Gold Tarots Love It Call My Name Light Years Read More The Drones As for Sleepy Sun, I The Drones are "an unconventional rock band", currently based out of Melbourne (originally from Perth). I used those quotes because I believe their current album, Havilah, fits more in the realm of psychedelic/space rock band with lots of guitar finger noodling and … Little Man Little Man is back with new music and video for “BLVD”, which you can see on YouTube. The single was recorded and mixed by producer John Fields (Soul Asylum, Jonas Brothers). .…

Australia’s The Drones headlined the 400 Bar in Minneapolis on April 9, 2009. The Perth band’s been around since 1997, and won numerous awards…. They don’t do a world tour regularly, so it was fairly exciting to finally catch the band at a small club/bar.

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Setlist

Opening up for The Drones is Little Man. I'm actually embarrassed to admit talking to singer Chris Perricelli before the show that I didn't know Little Man the warmup band. Andrew seems to know all about Little Man and filled me in about how there was a local television commercial that showed Little Man playing while some student explained how he got his degree in video editing (apparently the 'acting' in the commerical really stunk).

Anyway, Little Man played a pretty full set, which is a relief since I was so used to the 30 sets from SXSW. Sometime they would pause for applause and sometime each song leads directly into the next.

Halfway into the set, Perricelli picks up his acoustic guitar for two songs (I think "Seal Of Secrecy" and "Love Of All Time"), before going back to electric for the rest of the set. The acoustic was a nice treat, especially with the harmonica (which sort of made me think of Bob Dylan).

You can tell right away that Perricelli is an excellent guitarist with his left hand moving quickly up and down the neck of the guitar. It's no surprise why the City Pages called Little Man the Next Big Thing on their cover story for February 27^th, 2007. I did ask Perricelli the story behind this and he told me that they had sent someone over the house to interview and take some photographs. He honestly didn't know it was going to be a cover story, so he was a little shocked when he learned about it.

Anyway, I have their latest album Of Mind And Matter since early February, but haven't had a chance to give it a listen. (If you've ever seen my ridiculous pending review pile, you can understand why it takes me so long to get to things).

Listening to the album post-concert, I did recognize many of the songs on the album. This is evident on songs like "Everyone On The Floor", which is my personal favorite. Slower/sensitive songs like "Did You Now" was left off the setlist, probably for pacing.

"Tarots And Arrows" is catchy, although I felt was kind of repetitive with the lyrics at the end, but hearing this live, it made sense. The repetitive lyrics of "she's into tarots and arrows" suddenly comes to a halt, by the way.

Little Man

The majority of the album feels very 60s, early 70s to me. Some people cited that they sound like T.Rex, and I can see where they are coming with that. In some songs, I thought I hear Beatles influence ("Don't Pray To Fantasy") and even a bit of The Zombies (check out "Talisman" with that "ch-ch-ahh" sound). So if you like "classic rock", you need to check out "the next big thing" Little Man.

Clicking on the 'discography' images on the sidebar will take you to websites to buy the album. You can find out more about his record label at Eclectone Records.

PS, when I talked to Perricelli, he was generally really excited about being interviews by life-sized muppets. So I leave you with part one of the Buzz Show:

The Drones came a long way to be here at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. I have previously mentioned that singer Gareth Liddiard had a "heavy, heavy" accent. I have to correct that by adding that I did not understand a word the man said.

Kidding aside, but it was seriously hard to understand the man. They were also surprisingly louder than I thought, lots of distortion and odd feedback (probably unintentional). Listening to their Havilah album and seeing them live are two very different experience. I have concluded that this is a LIVE band.

There was no set list, I think the song order were all given out by bassist Fiona Kitschin. They started out with "Nail It Down", followed by some song, and then "The Minotaur". Right after Minotaur was an amazing bass-y song "Six Ways To Sunday", from their first album Here Come the Lies (and also their very first EP). Clearly one of the band's favorite song to play live.

I also caught "She Had An Abortion That She Made Me Pay For", from their third album, so basically their set is a mix-mash of new and old songs - making it for an effective playlist.

There were no encores, which didn't surprise me, as it was a work day and there was a moderate turnout for the show.

They have a few more US dates left, so be sure to catch them in Seattle and Portland if you can. Their latest album is called Havilah and it is available for purchase at ATP Recordings.

The Drones at 400 Bar, Minneapolis (09 April 2009)

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Flashback: Sleepy Sun at the 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (02 April 2009)

Sleepy Sun Setlist Marina New Age Desert God Sleepy Son Wild Machines White Dove Read More Sleepy Sun As for Sleepy Sun, I managed to catch the band in 2009, when they were touring in support of Embrace. The San Francisco band recently released their new 7" on Dine Alone Records…

After the cold and the snow, I managed to head out to see Sleepy Sun (previously known as Mania) play the 7th Street Entry on April 2, 2009. The actual show was headlined by local band First Communion Afterparty, who closed out the show.

With a 30-min opening slot, Sleepy Sun only played a few songs, as seen on their setlist.

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It's official: I'm now accepting live music assignments, now that it's not snowing.

First Communion Afterparty looks like a pack of gypsies doing spacerock for their hippy listeners, at least they tried to bring some 'sun' into Minnesota with their two opening acts: Daughters of the Sun and Sleepy Sun. It should be noted that Daughters of the Sun are also from Minneapolis and actually have no women, which makes it doubly ironic.

Setlist

Since I was there for San Francisco's Sleepy Sun, I did manage to listen to their album, Embrace to get an idea of what to expect. I think I prefer their slower songs, such as "Duet With The Northern Sky" and "Lord" - mostly for clearly hearing the vocals, but as expected, these don't make for good live performances (since it seems the key here is to make people rock out to their psychedelic space rock).

Surprisingly, they had a pretty short setlist (as did Daughters of the Sun with I think only four or five songs), but they seem to stretch out each song to about 6+ minutes, especially with the drone-like guitar and experimental effects usually reserved towards the end of each song. I particularly liked how "White Dove" and "New Age" ended on their live set.

If they're not singing (and sometime harmonica), Bret, with his tongue out, and Rachael thrashing her head in the picture pretty much sums up what the band is about: just having a great time.

They're heading to Fargo tomorrow (today), which I thought was still a flood disaster zone? They're also heading into Europe and Italy, so be sure to catch them if you're in the UK. Incidentally, the album won't be released in the UK until May 2009, presumably because they're landing in the UK just time time for the ATP Festival in early May. Details of the UK records be seen on ATP's website.

By the way, iTunes spotlighted the band as "Indie Spotlight Best of 2008" among not-so-indie Radiohead and Deerhunter, so they are in great company, and it would be interesting to see where their music takes them in the future.

Sleepy Sun at the 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (02 April 2009)

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How to upgrade your Asus ROG Strix G15

ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk Read More Asus So when I saw this ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk laptop for $899, I couldn’t pass it up. Both New Egg and Walmart are selling this same laptop for over $1,100… so getting the laptop sub-$1k is still a good price. ...

You can configure the Asus ROG Strix G15 to have 64GB RAM, 17-inch screen, and GeForce RTX 2070 Super… but the asking $2999 price was too much. Going in for sub-$1000 for the Electro Punk edition meant that some sacrifices had to be made… meaning a smaller screen, a less-powerful GPU, less storage, and RAM.

With the ROG Strix laptops, Asus made it really easy to open and access the storage and Ram, so upgrading your Ram and adding storage is a snap.

I decided to replace the Micro 8GB Ram that came with the laptop with two 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666Mhz Unbuffered SODIMM (for a total of 32GB). While it’s true that the installed Ram is clocked at a higher 3200mhz, in my tests, it shows a slower speed of 2900mhz (I believe you may have to manually overclock it in BIOS to get the maximum clock). The new Corsair DDR4 Ram showed a much faster read/write speed (23GB a second) than the Micron DDR4 Ram (11GB a second).

As for storage, I have added two 2TB NVME PCIe. The two SSD drives I used were Inland 1TB NVME PCIe and Western Digital 1TB Blue NVME PCIe. The WD drive is rated, and tested, faster (at 1.3MB a second) than the “genetic” Inland brand (at 1.1MB a second). It’s only by a hair, so I recommend saving some money and using the generic brand.

The new parts I added were:

Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 2666MHz CL18 Unbuffered SODIMM ($111)

Western Digital 1TB WD Blue NVME PCIe ($119)

Inland Professional 1TB NVME PCIe ($95)

For about $350, I was able to turn my Asus ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk into a respectable gaming laptop with enough storage (2.5TB) to store and carry around a lot of large triple A games.

Note: While some gamers might think 15 inches is too small, I think it is fine, especially because I want the lightness and portability of a laptop. In fact, I would’ve preferred a smaller screen. Since the screen can only handle 1080p, the 1650Ti GPU is perfectly fine for that screen. I was able to push 120 frames a second running Doom, and every game runs smoothly at 1080p (providing I use the power adapter).

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Flashback: Kaiser Chiefs at Enmore Theatre, Sydney (31 Mar 2009)

Setlist Spanish Metal Everyday I Love You Less and Less Everything Is Average Nowadays Na Na Na Na Naa Modern Way You Want History Ruby Never Miss a Beat Can't Say What I Mean Half the Truth Good Days Bad Days Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning) I Predict a Riot -- Encore -- Like It Too Much The Angry Mob Oh My God Read More Kaiser Chiefs It had been a long seven years since their last appearance in Minneapolis (the band skipped us in 2012), but Leeds, UK band Kaiser Chiefs re-stormed the city and stage for an animated, back-to-glory performance in First Avenue’s … Razorlight Razorlight were pretty much exactly what I expected they would be. Sold out show. No disappoinments. Good old Johnny Borrell... I developed a negative opinion of him around the same time I developed a negative opinion …

Sally went to see a triple billing of Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and Temper Trap… but unfortunately, for whatever reason, Temper Trap never showed up to the show. At $90 AUD, it sounds like a very expensive show.

>>>
After not actually planning to attend this show, thinking $90 was a bit steep for a band that will probably tour Australia a few more times before they vanish off the face of the planet, I went. But honestly... the Kaiser Chiefs with Razorlight and the Temper Trap... of course it was going to be worth it.

I had only seen Razorlight a few weeks previous (click here for review), so no surprises really. Pretty much exactly the same show. Except the drummer seemed to have morphed into a different person (with brilliant facial expressions). On that topic, interestingly enough, the internet has provided me with two interesting pieces of information:
    1. Andy Burrows, Razorlight drummer, has recently quit the band; and
    2. Andy Burrows, Razorlight drummer, has a knitting addiction.

Hmm.... i wonder if these two things are related (or true, for that matter).

Anyway, Johnny was maniacally bouncing around, not a lot of talking... or any engagement of the crowd for that matter. To tell you the truth, it was slightly boring. Specifically, I'm talking about the long, self-indulgent rendition of In The City, which went on for about 7 hours (give or take a couple of hours). It's possible though, that it was because I'd seen it all before.

Overall, despite my short attention span, Razorlight do put on an excellent and entertaining performance.

Kaiser Chiefs

The band i was actually there to see, however, were the Kaiser Chiefs. These guys never disappoint and were true to form. It's simply beautiful, the way in which young (I say young, but secretly hope he's older than me) Ricky Wilson engages the crowd; gets everyone riled up. I thought I was sure to cop a fondle this time (after missing out last time when he "crowd surfed from the stage to the back bar at the Metro theatre) after he was carried him on their shoulders as far as the barrier in the middle of the lower floor of the Enmore and proceeded to "crowd surf" back, but alas... no.

Brilliant show, completely unpretentious. Never Miss A Beat, The Angry Mob, Good Days Bad Days, Everyday I love You Less and Less, Ruby..... all sing-a-long-able tunes. Ricky getting slowly more trollied as the night went on, culminating in dragging one of the shirtless yobs up on to the stage, only to be hoisted onto his shoulders. Gold. The only unfortunate thing about it was the borderline view of the guys front bits (and the not so borederline view of his arse).... oh and that the drum stick that was aimed at his arse crack by drummer, Nick Hodgson, missed it's target.

I don't know about you, or anyone else, but to me, The Kaiser Chiefs transport me out of Australia, back to England, specifically the Northern half of England. Laid back... with a pint and a sausage butty (*shudder*).... or specifically a seedy student bar in Preston.... but we don't need to go there!

So next time, when you think.... "deary me, $90 for a band", if it's the Kaiser Chiefs... say "Yes, please!".

For more info and other treats, pop long to their website

Hang on! What happened to Temper Trap? Ripped off!

See you later.

Sally
sally@weheartmusic.com

Kaiser Chiefs at Enmore Theatre, Sydney (31 Mar 2009)

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