I'm Not Vic Chestnutt, I'm Not Bob Mould

M. Ward played a sold-out show at Warsaw last evening. Michael Pitt, famous for playing Kurt Cobain in Gus Van Sant's biopic, opened with his band Pagoda. Apparently, when Gus yelled "Cut" on the final shot of that movie, Michael didn't hear him and is still in character. The look was pretty spot on. The song-writing was not. The crowd was not into it and his decision to smash his amp into smithereens for a big finale was not the right move. He got booed. Then he had to come back onstage and pick up the smithereens. As Sam said, he was an actor-turned-rock-star-turned-janitor.

Ugliness behind us, Matt Ward took to the stage with a rhythm guitarist, bassist and drummer. Halfway through his set, Jim James came out for a few numbers and the crowd was happy a lot. The set spanned M.'s three albums. He did his whole "Look how fast I can touch every part of my guitar" thing. He did a lot of piano numbers. He played a couple new ones including a song about our president being a "punching bag that's gonna get hit". Smart career move after Conor won the Song of the Year Plug Award for his "The President's a Jerk" song. The crowd absolutely demanded a second encore and he obliged with a solo version of "Carolina".

Sorry no pics. They're pretty strict at Warsaw.

Bishop Allen Resurface, Declare 2006 "Their Year"

The Harvard Popsters are releasing a new album soon, but in a pretty well-concieved gimmick, they are realeasing an EP every month until the full length drops. The new one is out today, only 1,000 will be pressed. I ordered one for anyone that wants to burn it. It will also be on iTunes eventually.

They have the first track as an mp3 on their site. It's not any of the new songs we've heard live and is pretty mellow. Check it.

They're playing Piano's on Friday, Feb 10th. San Loco afterparty, yo.