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.

Silver Jews Touring

March 17th. Webster Hall. No it's not an indie misprint. While they have performed near their home before, they have never toured to play their 6 album or so catalogue. Head Jew Dave Berman hinted that it will be something resembling a weirdo showcase of musci, def poetry from ex-pavement members, and "country comedy". He is probably kidding but you never really know with a guy who sings "I love you to the max!" without a drip of irony. As long as he plays "Tennesse", he can be as absurdly post-modern as he likes.

Blake You Beautiful Man

Pitchfork reports a new Elected album from everyone's favorite Rilo Kiley side project(sorry Jenny, though the Travellng Wilburies cover was a nice try) is hitting stores January 24th. It's called "Sun, Sun, Sun" and it should be leaking any minute. He will then tour the country baring his soul on stage while being called McFly by some mook in the back. Why is that guy here anyway?

Healthy Political Dialogue

I may have my opinions on this administration, and like everyone, sometimes they get a little passionate. But sometimes the best thing is to listen, really listen, to informed, articulate, intelligent people that happen to disagree with you. It's the only way we might connect in the center again, and it may be the only hope our country has.

Open your mind and listen.

Arrested Development Cancelled

Could the silver lining be the return of Tinkle, the mostly defunct comedy show starring Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin and David Cross? I think Arrested Development is what defuncted it in the first place when they were dicks enough to employ Mr. Cross. It was every Sunday night at Piano's, only $5 (free upstairs) and pretty consistently awesome. Invite Them Up has done a great job of filling the void since.

New Bright Eyes video

It's done by the same girl who did the stop motion video using yarn for "Bowl of Oranges". It's pretty durn good and you can watch it here.