ich bin ein auslander

stayed up until 4am working on some client site updates… for various reasons, it all came down last minute. but whatever.

anyway, two clients have albums out today… they’re both good, go buy them.

alanis - i want the artwork / fuck it, i’m digital

charlie mars - i want the artwork / fuck it, i’m digital

goodnight.

just enjoying my last hour and 30 minutes of being 30. sigh.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/cold_turkey

i suppose it’s not fair to hope for an 81 year old man to write continously. i’ll take what i can get.

Listened to the new Morrissey during my bike ride today… mixed emotions… on one hand, it’s a total return to form… the music is driving, well done, the best thing since the Last Great Album, “Your Arsenal”… his voice is great, spot on… but the lyrics. Very few things really grabbed me, and let’s be honest here - anyone that’s into Morrissey is into him for what he has to say, and the way he says it. He’s one of the finest lyricists of our generation, always there with a clever phrase or insight - and not clever in that “oh gee, that’s clever” sort of crap way, but in that sucking in the breath, tear to the eye “my god i’ve felt that exact feeling and never dreamed of a better way to express it” way. You know, the one that makes you sick when you sit down and try to write because you just end up tossing off pale imitations.

And, quite frankly, that’s not there for me. Maybe I’m too old now. Maybe he’s too old now. Maybe it’s just been too long since he’s put anything out there and I’ve wallowed in his world… who knows. I’m writing this an hour later, and there are a few nuggets that are bouncing around still in my cranium… maybe it’ll be a grower.

I also listened to the new Gomez single and b-sides… man, I love that band, and man, are they a strange band for me to love. Almost classic americana sound, jug band and country and all those things I despised, all tossed in with some weird electro and distorted guitar and english accents. Leave it to me to only like americana when done by pale, lanky english guys with bad haircuts.

I hate to once again bring up Coachella, since most of the people reading this didn’t go and all I’ve done over the past two weeks is rave about it, but I’m pretty sure my love of Gomez can be directly attributed to the Coachella experience. I was aware of them - they were highly touted by the english music press when they put out their first album, winning things like best new band and all of that - and then, typically, dumped by the press the next year.. they’ve since kept at it, keeping a loyal fan base but never really getting above the radar again. Never got into them, never really checked them out… then last year at Coachella, Simon dragged me over to see them play on the outdoor stage since some crap way too mainstream alternative band was playing the main stage, and I was just blown away. They had just gotten off an 11 hour plane flight, they were up against some huge band so had a small (in comparison) crowd, but they were all over the place, playing with massive energy, bouncing around like muppets, swapping instruments, just giving it their all, and they had a really cool crowd, a great group of people who were all just really into it. I’ve loved them ever since then…

One last thing - the single as a format is supposedly dead. Stores have stopped carrying cd-singles, blah blah blah. All I can say is this is one area where the internet and digital distribution shines. The songs are all there already - you’ve got your single, picked and put out before the album is released to get the word out, and every band has a few tracks that didn’t quite make the cut, for whatever reason, and aren’t on the album. If you’re doing digital distribution, there are NO associated manufacturing or distribution costs.. so it’s almost pure profit to put it out there. And on the consumer end of things… $3.97 off iTunes to get a new single from a band you like and three other tracks? Sign me up. Even if it isn’t a band I know or really like, if I’m into the single, I’ll pay a little extra to hear some other songs and really get the measure of the act… beats buying the full album right away.

First Coachella, then a kick-ass Lollapalooza two day date announced… and now this….

THE CURE are to launch the CURIOSA festival with support from INTERPOL and THE RAPTURE.

The band will also be joined on the 16-date travelling bash, which kicks off in LA, by Mogwai, Cursive, Head Automatica, Thursday, Muse, The Cooper Temple Clause and Auf der Maur.

The Cure will play material from their forthcoming self-titled album, which will be released on June 29. The tour will give many fans to hear the new material, including first single ’The End of the World’, which the band played at the Coachella Festival earlier in the month.

According to posting on the band official website, more dates for the touring festival will be announced shortly.

Confirmed tour dates are:

West Palm Beach (July 24)
Tampa (25)
Nashville (28)
New York (31)
Camden (August 1)
Cincinnati (3)
Cleveland (4)
Boston (7)
Detroit (11)
Chicago (12)
Dallas (14)
Houston (15)
Denver (17)
Salt Lake City (18)
Los Angeles (27)