don't forget - the echo on monday

this monday, march 27th is the final night of residency for Division Day at the echo. The Movies are on the bill as well so you'll see at least two good bands with fiarly different approaches to the genera we call "indie".

see you a the echo.

The Mark Of A Good Band

Spoon - I Could Be Underground

The last Spoon record got so much pub. i liked it and all, but i didn't really give a damn about that record like i did Kill The Moonlight - that was one of those rare albums were nearly every song was my favorite at one point or another during a 6 month span.

And if you liked Kill The Moonlight, you really gotta take a look back at the previous album. As far as i can tell, Girls Can Tell is the record that started this rise for Brittt Daniel and Spoon. They've released some great material between here and there - as you would expect from a band of excellent musicians. It seems obvious, but it's a trait that good bands have: even their "worst" material is still no less than good. This is a B-Side from the 30 Gallon Tank single off A Series Of Sneaks (1998 - the album before GCT). The 4th song on that single - I Could Be Underground - was originally a song from Daneil's solo side project Drake Tungsten dating back to 1996. 10 years ago britt daniel was making songs that sounded like Prince fronting Guided By Voices... now THAT'S a band...

Selfies

Self - Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?
Self Website

today is a post dedicated to my baby: Sintake. i've done treated you bad and left you all alone for too long. i'd call up KOST FM and tell them i wanted to dedicate this to you, but i know you don't listen to the radio. except maybe Little Radio... enough of this digression. let's talk about this guy Self for a second.

i've seen a lot of shows over the years, some bad, some good. frequently the ones that stand out from the crowd are the shows by the musical savant of the world. individuals (or teams) who have a knack for pulling sounds and songs out of thin air. seeing a jon brion show is just such an experience. seeing SELF is also such an experience. it's the kind of show where you wish this person had been born with a physical mutation to match their musical gifts - extra arms and legs to play more instruments in simultaneity.

Self's recording career dates back to 95 and includes some 10 albums, mostly on Spongebath records, but there was a 2 album sting on Dreamworks. Baby Can You Dig Your Man comes from Selfafornia (nice title). Self head honcho Matt Mahaffey may have been a casualty of the ill conceived Dreamworks Records business strategy - sign any every artist that seems in any way interesting with no plan on how to sell their records. the Dreamworks roster was staggeringly dissident. artists like Self and the Eels sat in a catalog along side The All-American Rejects...

Mahaffey began on drums as a kid - which may explain why his tracks are frequently beat-centric - and his influences are highly diverse ranging from Prince , early hip-hop of Run DMC and Beastie Boys to this quote from his bio: "At one point I was playing in square-dancing bands with these old men, It was totally bluegrass."

the Self catalog is inconsistent, but the gems are very precious without being all that rare. if you have a chance, take a listen to his 2000 release Gizmodgery.

oh, and nice to see you again.