I Bring Her Home Everything I Want, Nothing That She Needs

Made my way over to Madison Square Garden the other night to catch Interpol playing their biggest NYC show yet. It's pretty crazy to think they are now big enough to play MSG, and not the Paramount Theater at MSG, but the main floor. You know, where the Knicks and Rangers play. To think, I remember seeing them 6 or 7 years ago at Brownies(R.I.P.) and Mercury Lounge. You have to give this band some credit, they've worked pretty hard and toured endlessly to get where they are. And what a great night for a fantastic show featuring the New York quartet. The band seemed perfectly at ease on the large stage at MSG. Sam, as always, was powerful and precise on the kit, Daniel's guitar soared all night long, as he was found doing his shuffling dance moves and White Guy rap on 'PDA'. Carlos, for once looked happy, posturing himself with his new urban cowboy look, all over the stage. Paul, always seemed reserved and never strained with his trademark monotone vocals, while busting out the black wristbands ala James Hetfield style. They rolled through a powerful set, trading new tunes from their solid new album, Our Love To Admire, with classics from the first two albums, such as 'PDA', 'Stella Was A Diver', 'Obstacle 1', 'Narc', 'Hands Away', 'Slow Hands' and 'NYC'. The audience went nuts when they played recent single, 'The Heinrich Manuever', and worked themselves up into a frenzy when they played singles from the first two albums.

Now, I will say, despite a great set from the band, I can easily do without seeing another concert at MSG for some time. At one point I found myself in a bar that wouldn't have been out of place in Hoboken watching the Yankee game. Strange.
And later on, as I tried to make my way down to the floor to meet up with friends, I ended up in some random hallway deep inside the Garden. I swear, I think the ghost of Ernie Grunfeld must have been following me around. Anyhows, a great show and certainly a good time had. I didn't see Liars open, even though I really wanted to. Cat P ower, seemed oddly out of place on the large stage, and I really don't understand what's up with that backing band. Makes her sort of sound like a bar band. Really it doesn't do her justice, as she's a great singer, albeit certifiably insane.

Listening Pile:
I've been meaning to write up something about the SoftLightes for some time now, but have managed to completely forget to even mention this band. Guys, I apologize. This band is great, as are their electro-tinged indie-pop tunes and videos. ‘Heart Made of Sound’ maybe their best jam, though it's one of many great ones, is a light tune with hints of faint piano keys embellishing the harmonies. The Softlightes, from San Diego, is the latest project from Ron Fountenberry, who's better known as The Incredible Moses Leroy. He put out a fantastic album a few years back, and has now resurfaced with a new band and sugary pop gems. Fans of Leroy will instantly absorb The SoftLightes, who continue where Leroy left off with their new album Say No! to Being Cool. Say Yes! to Being Happy. The album may have come out last winter, but it’s a great album and now there is a new ep w/ some remixes and alternate takes.

While we're here, I came acoross this Cadillac commercial the other day. I have to say, I was more than a little shocked to hear one of my favorite songs from the mid 90's as the background music. Yes, listen again. It's Hum, with their hit, 'Stars'. Very, very strange indeed. I was taken back by it. Add to that, the introduction by Grey's Anatomy star Kate Walsh and it's a strange moment in time. Cadillac is really reaching for a new crowd huh. I used to think only old men drove Cadillacs. Guess they are trying, desperately maybe, to change that.

How Are Things On The West Coast?

Things have been strange lately to say the least. July 4th hit me hard in the middle of last week. I keep reading all this stuff about how people want to move a holiday like the Fourth to the first thursday of the month. Now, theoretically, it sounds like a great idea. Like how Presidents day, MLK, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving are always fixed. Plus you get the extra day off, for a Thursday holiday. Lets give it up for the four day weekend. Last week was just a pain in the ass. The holiday did nothing for me, as I had to work half the day anyway, with one of the artists I work with playing a show that day. It killed my day. Killed it. Plus the weather didn't hold up and that just made things worse.

This past weekend was also a baseball induced blur, with old timer's day on saturday, then a marathon 14 inning game, then a regular 9 inning blow-out on sunday. The all-star break landed at just the right time. Those two games in two days, plus 2 games the previous Sunday and Monday proved to be way too much in such a short period of time. Which makes me think, those Ultimate Roadtrip folks have kind of got to be out of their minds. 4 games in 8 days made me kinda go nuts, I can't imagine what 162 games in 6 months would do to me. I'm thinking at some point it starts feeling like Groundhog's day and you're just begging for the toaster to fall into the tub. I ""mean, I LOVE baseball, but really, that's got to be just mind-blowing. I got to a point, when I could not even look at another hot dog. I was literally trying to figure out what beer I hadn't had yet. I'll say this, the Beers Of The World stand they have is a total rip-off. You literally pay $8 for a 12 oz beer, that if you bought at the grocery store, would cost you, no more than a $1.25. And, there's nothing special, it's Pilsner Urquel, Blue Moon, Amstel Light, Grolsch, and Corona. Nothing special really. Meanwhile, you could just go to the Heiniken booth and get a 24 oz. beer for $10. Now, which one sounds like the good deal. hmmmm. That's one of those things that drives me crazy. It's not up there with the great subway challenge, but it's up there.

So, while I'm on the subject of baseball, I'll throw this out there. The Yankees have 77 games remaining. It's been said that they would have to win about 95 games to make it to the postseason. The Yankees currently sit at 42-43. That means they would have to win approximately 52 games out of 77 to end up in the postseason. Aside from those two weeks in early June when they won something like 12 out of 13, they have not looked like a team that could win 52 out of 77. But here is where it gets tricky. 54 of those games are against teams below .500. 14 against the Rays, 10 against the lowly Royals, 12 against the Orioles, 10 against the Blue Jays, and 3 more versus the stumbling White Sox. There's some room to really get back into the swing of things. Now, I know the Yanks can win against those teams, but honestly it seems the Yanks have played pretty poorly against bad teams this year. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can see a big let down if they don't get going fast after the break. And, if they don't get off to a good start and get themselves 7-10 games over .500 before mid-August, they could be done for. As maybe their toughest stretch starts August 16th when the Yanks, start a series against the Tigers, followed by the Angels and then the Red Sox. That's 14 games against 3 very good teams, and possibly the 3 division winners. If the Yankees can pick up those 7-10 games, and play decent ball in those 14 games, this season has a shot, otherwise, we'll start looking towards 2008 a lot sooner.

Wow, now that's kinda depressing huh!

Listening Pile:
Interpol's new album, Our Love To Admire, has been in heavy rotation on the iPod. Their third full length, sees them sort of pick up right were Antics left off. It's dense, dark and brooding album, with the usual vague lyrics and swirling guitars. My biggest beef with the album, is that the production, while a bit excessive at times, tends to drown out a stellar drummer in Sam Foggarino and a superb bass player in Carlos D. In fact, it's a distraction because while Interpol have never been ones to beat you over the head with a sharp melody, the dense structure of the low end on most of their previous work, kept things intact and flowing with ease. I hear a few songs that sort of go nowhere and miss that deceptive low end. However, the record is pretty darn good. I love the melodramatic first song, "Pioneer To The Falls", as well as the confessional, "Rest My Chemistry". "Heinrich Maneuver" is a great first single, but lacks a solid follow-up. This album needs one more really solid rocker. Mammoth", almost pulls that off, but just lacks a catchy hook. There are a few other solid tracks on the album, but a good portion of the record sort of just sounds like filler. It almost seems like they came up a few songs short and just came up with a few uninspired tracks to finish the album.