Back to Reality; Broken Bells at the Regency Ballroom

I've been MIA from the blog for a month or so, thanks to studying for (hopefully!) my final licensing exam- wrapped that up this week, so back to "real life." I have not, however, been MIA from live music- since my last post I saw Miike Snow, won free tickets to see Aqualung (yeah free!) and also took the aforementioned T to see the Hold Steady at the Fillmore. I have actually been getting to about one show per week - pictures and recaps coming soon!

Little Dragon at the Independent 4.13.10

Update 2015-03-17: I had a witty little paragraph here about how Little Dragon was "on fire" at the show, and the fire alarm even went off three times and the fire department showed up... but the text got corrupted in the post editor and now it's lost forever. Sadness.

It was a sold out show and the Independent was packed-I managed to get head and shoulders above the crowd somehow. Little Dragon is a pretty kooky act- Yukimi Nagano has a great, nuanced voice, and she danced all over the stage and struck some really great poses (seriously). Also some very strong work with the tambourine.

It was a great show- would have been even better if someone could have taken my extra ticket... just to have some company. And now I've just had to sell my extra ticket to the (also sold out) Miike Snow show on Friday. I'm reminded again that I have no music friends out here- kinda feel like maybe I should tape a sign on my back saying "Will you be my music friend?" when I go to shows...

Banjo for Beginners

I have acquired the use of an excellent banjo, borrowed from a coworker. So far with the help of Youtube I've managed to tune it, and establish that it is definitely harder than it looks to play- I think I'll be able to get the fingerpicking eventually, and it will be time well spent because it will improve my guitar fingerpicking skills too, which are nascent at best. Every time I try to learn a new sequence (or pattern, or roll, I'm not sure what it's called on the guitar) I can feel the brain cells shifting and straining, kind of like learning to speak a new language.

The banjo's got a great sound- it's kind of rowdy and the definition of twang, and it somehow sounds more aggressive (in a country kind of way) than the guitar when it really gets going. I'm short one or two picks (it seems that people generally wear a whole knuckle sandwich full of finger picks when playing the banjo.) Maybe I'll find one on the floor of the Little Dragon show next week, although I doubt Little Dragon has a banjo in their lineup...

The Low Anthem at GAMH 03.26.10

I stole that picture of Jocie Adams of The Low Anthem from the SF Chronicle... I was there too, but with no camera. More Chronicle pictures here.

The Low Anthem put on a great show- their style is hard to describe. They played a set of slow sort of atmospheric tunes like Charlie Darwin and To Ohio, with soft ethereal harmonies... and then the guy on standup bass (Jeff) starts playing a pretty intense solo, and the rest of the band busts out with Don't Let Nobody Turn You 'Round, and the singers are howling and the drums are banging... They played about 2/3 soft and 1/3 loud overall. I really enjoyed it, but I think my friends were a bit dismayed at the dichotomy (I took pity on their jetlag and we ended up leaving after the first song of the encore). The band members switched instruments every few songs- they all sang, I think they all took a turn on the drums, the guitar, the WWI organ, and the ringing bowed xylophone bell thingy. Also involved- the standup bass, clarinets, tenor saxophones, and a saw. Yep, a saw. I really love the "all hands on deck" multi-instrumentalist approach- it's something I aspire to. I'd love to be able to play drums, guitar, bass, banjo, violin and whatever else comes to mind at a passable level- and then just jump in wherever.

What Does a Musician Look Like?

The question is kind of tangential to the main issue at hand- playing music- but the more I think about it, the more I feel some sort of inner musical persona really struggling to get out. When I look in my closet I feel like I might have a personality disorder- there are clothes for three different people in there. One person is a fairly conservative office worker who likes lightweight sweaters, the occasional cotton blouse and pointy-toed shoes. She's the one who keeps running up the balance on my Bananacard. The second person is a martial artist with a running hobby who wears mostly fleece, stretchy, and/or black fitness wear- she's the one the sales ladies at Lucy know by first name. The third person is harder to find- she wears very casual, unexciting clothes like dark jeans and simple black shirts, occasionally raids clothing from the other two personas, and she is the one who struggles on a friday or saturday (or sometimes even wednesday) night to find something interesting to wear to a show or a club. Can we get her some help please?

When the idea of bedazzled leather pants as "rockstar clothes" was raised on FB, I realized that in this area of my life (as in all the others), I know more about what I don't like than I know about what I do like. Persona #3 needs a role model, so I'm now on the lookout for examples. It's complicated by the labyrinthian genre-ization of music styles- "rock star" is the only household word I can think of to describe music fashion, but I think my own style is closer to acoustic indie folk chick something or other with an underlying desire to rock out without really knowing how to go about it. So as much as I'm digging Joan Jett's latest leather ensemble I don't think it's going to work for me...

How did the cookie know?

Laura Veirs and Drum Instigation

Laura Veirs is playing at Cafe du Nord tomorrow night- initially I was only a little bit excited, even though I love her latest cd July Flame, because I wasn't impressed with her live performances on youtube. I need to get over my miserly, judgemental nature- she just played a live set on KCRW this morning (8 months pregnant no less!) and it was great, so now I'm totally stoked! (Can I really say that? I guess so.) Plus it will be my first chance to check out Cafe du Nord and the Swedish-American Music Hall, which I hear is a great venue.

My friend T is slowly picking up the drums... and I am totally instigating. She got an electronic drum set ages ago, and is just now trying them out- I think last week was literally the first time she put the drumstick to the pad, and I went over to have a listen and try and "tune" them a little (I know only the barest amount of what to do with electronic drums). It's awesome because I'm at the same level with my electric guitar (more or less) and it would be so much fun to be a beginner rock band! With headsets on and not making too much noise though- her condo development in Emeryville is quieter than the Pineview Cemetery, by a comfortable margin. It's strange how densely inhabited urban spaces can be so eerily silent... and then a train comes through.

On a side note... if I get laid off before summer, I wonder if I could switch gears to music for a bit?