los huevos diablos

tuesday night i saw los huevos diablos (no site yet, myspace soon) perform some classic old-time jazz. they shifted between latin sounds, straight ahead jazz, gypsy-tinged, bebop, and sweet jazz. some of their selections were even folk based. we got there to hear dizzy gillespie's "muskrat ramble" and "estrellita" (most likely by manuel maría ponce cuéllar).



their next set began with mostly latin tango rhythms and flavors. at one point they switched phrases in a linear fashion: guitar 1 played a brief phrase, fiddle (i thought it was a viola, but my man disagreed) played a phrase, and so on). it was a refreshing take on the trading riffs and soloing that goes in at typical jazz shows. usually it's one guy does a solo, golf clap. another guy wails, golf clap. they kept it fresh and alive.
they then played "take the a train" made popular by duke ellington and written by billy strayhorn. classic awesome. you can't go wrong with that song, and that's one of npr's picks of the 100 most influential songs in american history.


things got extra exciting when an older redneck couple (although the female obviously kept her figure and other attributes) slow danced (read:leaned on each other) and then met in the bathroom to have sex. they emerged with giant smiles and disappeared into a booth behind us. ahh, old love.

red clay river, the fox hunt

red clay river was one of two openers for mason dixon disaster's cd release show saturday. dan bivins played banjo and steel guitar while his associate, aaron parker, played his custom-made (by himself) guit-cell. that is, it had a cello base and a guitar head for a sweet sound. being from roanoke made for a realistic, rusty sound as bivins' voice spread on grisly charm.

the fox hunt was made up of four gentleman, two of whom switched between double bass and guitar. they are also here. the other two were a fiddler and mandolin player (who also switched to banjo). their blended four part harmony was impressive, especially when they went a capella. the final song was "old drinking song" during which the female singer from MDD joined in (drunkenly). below please see a horrible snippet youtube of them from another performance. it was the only one i could find. anyway, their music was swinging and hollering and just lovely. oh, and the fiddler's arms were beautiful:




i didnt stay for much of MDD because 1)the show started about two hours later than advertised and we had some other plans and 2)MDD isnt my thing. they are loud, but that doesnt make them good. the female singer is alright, but she just stands there during half of the songs doing nothing (sometimes using a harmonica to do that nothing). they have a new bassist (who is in marionette and barstool heroes, both of whom i've mentioned in this blog before).

welcome home, son

what i'm listening to this week:

seabear - the ghost that carried us away
folk

radical face - ghost (link in comments for album!)
folk

the national - boxer
indie folk rock

black moth super rainbow - dandelion gum
drug rock

dan deacon - spiderman of the rings
quaint folk experimental

battles (like everyone else) - mirrored
instrumental rock

bill callahan of smog. woke on a whaleheart
singer/songwriter folk

paul mccartney - memory almost full
POP (also, the letters in the title rearranged spell out "for my soulmate LLM" which was apparently inadvertent, but you never know)

the shaky hands - the shaky hands
rock pop folk

hella - there's no 666 in outerspace
experimental, electronic, shoegaze
album for review

fatback circus - the elephant king
jamband, funk, rock, pop/punk
album for review

hopeful shows this week

soulive (which may not happen as it's friday cheers (aka crowded as fuck) and a funky jamband (my boyfriend dislikes that genre)

pink razors, roman holiday (RH's last show), antlers, punch you in the face, big (guessing it's not along the lines of PYITE), segway cops cd release.

maybe botox party again? it's close and convenient and fun.

mason dixon disaster cd release, perhaps.

los huevos diablos - apparently some "old time jazz"

the hotdamns! who have just gotten their new CDs in....

the fucking champs!

mermaid skeletons

tonight i wish i could have gone to see animal collective. c'est la vie.

the roots, botox party

the roots played richmond's rock the boat which was a celebration of the godspeed landing in richmond on the james river from jamestown. as the roots told us, they almost did not play this show as, they said, it marked the beginning of terrorism. regardless, they played a whole show for probably 50,000 people.

the stage was to the left. this was taken before the sun set and before the 'rocking' began.


they played some of their originals over horrible sound (really, it was hard for me to even see the stage, and the bass just clouded everything). they ended up covering dylan, hendrix, and zeppelin in a medley of sorts. most of the drunk rednecks had a blast.
again, the stage was on the left of the photo, and i could not even see the stage at this point.


i did manage to get something of a picture of ?uestlove, though:


next we walked about ten blocks to a bar to see our buddy's band botox party everyone was fairly drunk at this point, so it was nice to hear some rowdy, loud rocking.
fyi: this photo is gayer than the band itself:

and i am obsessed with the decorations in the establishment wonderland:

loves it.

medeski, martin and wood

assholes on the website said the show would start 30 minutes after they actually started, and i showed up even later than that. so i paid $20 (what's up with paying for shows?) for probably two whole songs. don't get me wrong, those two songs were on point. one of the raddest things about seeing bands in this venue is the beautiful scenery. it's in a botanical garden, so you walk by paths and trellises filled with all kinds of botanical items. the natural amphitheater is one i've been going to since i was born. i have seen mmw about three times before that, and i have almost all of their (proper and collab) albums. this was the most straight-ahead jazzy i'd heard them. chris wood was clearly the star of the evening, both from my own observation (solos, rockin amidst others taking the lead) and from hearing "oh man, that bassist was awesome!). john medeski was playing on a beat up wooden grand piano.







here is a snippet i found on youtube:

tulsa drone

tulsa drone played a gig last thursday night at the hyperlink cafe. with their new stage set up, the hyperlink hosted a total of four bands that night including marionette and caspian. caspian was blessed shoegaze while marionette was chamber indie. another loud band played as they were on tour with caspian. sorry, can't remember their name.
TD was as their name suggests, droning. they were loud and by the time they took the stage i was fairly drunk. being drunk = lame reviewing.

that picture is badass, i dont care what anyone else thinks.
the night was basically pure post-rock.
CASPIAN (hopefully the right one):

ukulele hotness, new reviews, arcana

hooray. learning this ukulele now for a couple months thanks to my adorable, loving man.

up for review next:
PANDA BEAR
hella
jenn grant
the dynamites
david vandervelde
lafayette gilchrist
will bernard
will harrison
fatback circus

currently loving that hipster darling amy winehouse. esp "you know i'm no good" and "fuckery"

and in a couple days i will go see arcana
(scroll down to the end of the post)
could be cool.