It was a little unusual to go to a show and there be no opening band.  The show was billed as Julie Doiron with Herman Dune, and that was exactly what it was.

Even though the Bell House said that Julie would go on at 9:30 the show started a little early.  It was a little strange seeing her on stage by herself…in the past she had always had Fred Squire accompany her (or Squire and Phil Elverum).  Julie was a little more awkward on stage this time being up there by herself, but could not have asked for a more attentive audience.  The Bell House was not sold out, but very full and the crowd was completely attentive during her set.  Julie’s little bit of awkwardness ended up turning into conversation with the crowd, and from there into song requests.

Julie played for almost an hour, and for the most part off of older albums.  For some musicians it is hard to hold their own on stage with just an electric guitar, but Julie does this very well… even though the Bell House is a large venue the show felt extremely intimate.    She played both “Will You Still Love Me In December,” and “Spill Yer Lungs” two of my favorites:

off of the Will You Still Love Me EP. Buy it here.

[mp3] Julie Doiron- “Spill Yer Lungs”

off of I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day. Buy it here.

At the end of her set she brought Herman Dune up on stage to play a couple songs were her as well…it was nice seeing the three of them on stage together, and it was obvious that the tour had been going really well…they all looked very happy to be there.

I really am looking forward to Julie releasing new music, and after seeing her merch table delving into her back catologue…it’s not to often I got to a show and see a musician that I love have 9 cds that I have never heard…I have lots of catching up to do….but I was able to decipher this one:

from Goodbye Nobody.  buy it here.

If you haven’t heard Julie’s newest album I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day I highly recommend it.  I feel that it didn’t get the attention it deserved this year, and it is truly a wonderful album.  Pick it up here.

Links:

• more on Julie Doiron here.
• buy music by Julie Doiron here.
• more gprecs video (Dum Dum Girls, Destroyer, Best Coast, Los Campesinos!, and more) here.

End Note: the lighting wasn’t so great for my camera, but I love these songs so much that I still had to post them.  The audio came out really good though…and I’m going to see if I can rip it to an mp3.  I’ll re-post those if it works out.  Cheers.

Halloween is a holiday that always has really high expectations, and typically doesn’t live up to them…so when I heard that Mount Eerie was playing my decision was made for me…Mount Eerie never disappoints.

This was my first time hearing Malkuth and Liturgy.  Malkuth went on shortly after we got to Market Hotel, and played for what seemed like forever…and not forever in a bad way, but more like…wow this opening band is playing for over an hour.  I was pretty impressed, but as I soon found out it is hard for any band to share the stage with Liturgy. I haven’t been to a metal show in a couple months, and I really did enjoy it…even klk got into Liturgy, and the metal typically isn’t her thing.  As far as black metal goes I got more out of Liturgy’s performance on Saturday than I did out of Wolves In the Throne Room earlier this year. Liturgy can keep the underlying melodic guitars even during a full blown thrash session.  Totally worth checking out:

[full album] Liturgy- Live on My Castle of Quiet at WFMU (via FMA)

Mount Eerie took the stage in a form that I have yet to see, and this was due to the recent release of Wind’s Poem.  Not only was Elverum on stage, but he was accompanied by both Julia Chirka and Nick Krgovich of No Kids as well as two drummers.  Their set consisted entirely of songs from Wind’s Poem, and Phil let us in on something that I was previously unaware of…Wind’s Poem was written by himself and Nick Krgovich (last time I saw Nick play it was less than exciting, but he redeemed himself on Saturday night).  Mount Eerie sounded thunderous, and the amazing part was that there was only one guitar on stage.  Krgovich and Chirka both played keyboards, and Elverum stood center with the guitar. For me heavier music can sometimes get lost in the wall of sound created by too many guitars, and I think Elverum has found the perfect combination for his live set up to show off both his song writing and vocals.  With only one guitar Elverum was able to shine over the the heaviest music he has ever written.  Mount Eerie’s set was near perfect, and Krgovich even interjected a dance beat into what I consider one of the best songs of the year:

Mount Eerie still have most of their tour to go…I highly recommend catching them…only good things can come of it….tour dates can be found here.

In other Mount Eerie related news….

Julie Doiron, who collaborated with Phil Elverum on last year’s wonderful Lost Wisdom, will be gracing NYC this Thursday, November 5th, accompanied by Herman Dune at the Bell House. Julie released an excellent album this year, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (which will also be making my best of 2009 list), and was great when she played Cake Shop this past spring.  If you are unfamiliar with Julie she used to play in Eric’s Trip, and has been making music on her own since the early 90’s.  Check out one of my favorite tracks from last year’s Lost Wisdom:

[mp3] Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron & Fred Squire- “Voice in Headphones” (from Lost Wisdom, buy it here.)

Links:

• more on Mount Eerie and Phil Elverum here.
• buy Mount Eerie and P.W. Elverum and Suns releases here.
• more on Julie Doiron here.
• buy Julie Doiron’s releases here.
• more from the free music archive here.
• more gprecs video (Karl Blau, Dum Dum Girls, Los Campesinos! and More) here.

End Note: There has been a lot going on in my real, non-internet, life this week…so blog posts will be scarce until sometime next week.  My stress will greatly decrease tomorrow, and I am looking forward to enjoying Julie play in one of my favorite venues in Booklyn…beer will be calling my name.

Tonight Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain (click through and follow them on twitter!) will host a screening of The State’s rarities at the Bell House…and supposedly a hang session?  Fingers crossed for more cast members too…but in the end…I’m always happy seeing Michael, Michael, and David.

The event tonight is sold out, but I would like to take this opportunity to present what I consider some very special State moments.

First up is probably the most strangest The State skit that was ever produced:

“Porcupine Racetrack”

And now here are some of my favorites (ones that MTV was nice enough to make available…for more click here.):

“Doug and Dad”

“$240 Worth of Pudding”

“Bacon”

“Planet Groovy”

If you aren’t attending the event tonight I at least hope you will watch some clips.

Getting the entire series of The State this summer was amazing, and I was finally able to watch The State in its entirety. If you haven’t seen it, or want to see it again,  consider this a very good investment: The State Complete Series on DVD.

Tonight there are several amazing shows, but I’m really looking forward to seeing Woods and Ducktails play at a place like the Bell House (not to mention Dungen! get tickets here!).  If you happen to have a ticket stub from Animal Collective in Prospect Park the word is you get $5 off admission.

This is one of those shows where I’m hoping to pick up a couple records that I have been meaning to get for quite a while.

Record #1

The Ducktails split 7″ with Julian Lynch that the wonderful Underwater Peoples put out:

I hope most of you reading this are familiar with Underwater Peoples by now…they were the first ones to bring us a record by Real Estate, and this is their second piece of vinyl.  Just as the Real Estate 7″ came with a CD of the tracks…this release also has a bonus, but this time it is a DVD of Richard Law’s portrait art.  Underwater Peeps were nice enough to post two of the tracks from the 7″ in video from (which I assume are coming from the DVD!):

Ducktails- “Parasailing”

although Julian Lynch isn’t playing tonight…his tracks on this record are rad.

Julian Lynch- “Garden 2″

Buy this Ducktails/Julian Lynch split 7″/DVD combo from Underwater Peoples here!

On top this wonderful Ducktails’ 7″ Matt Mondanile is on a role with his second LP this year…this one is out on Olde English Spelling Bee!

Record #2

The new Ducktails LP is titled Landscapes.  I haven’t heard the LP, but this song happens to be on it:

Ducktails- “Landrunner”

I always forget how crazy that video is until I re-watch it, and the song is awesome…so if that is any indication of what to expect we should all be snagging this LP as well.  I really can’t get enough of this surfy psychedelica, and it seems to be what Ducktails does best.  Olde English Spelling Bee seems to do pretty limited releases so this one might not be around too long.

Buy Ducktails’ Landscapes here.

On the topic of limited re-leases Woods has out a 4 song “bootleg” out.

Record #3

This record is titled Acoustic Family Creeps (Play Live In the Woods), which I’ve come to think is a collaboration between Woodsist and Captured Tracks (not sure?).

This record isn’t very common on the internets…but you can get it at Woods shows and Academy Annex in Brooklyn, or try Florida is Dying (or email Captured Tracks or Woodsist?).  It seems to be going for about $12-$15 for the four songs, but people seem to be raving about it (which is expected these days…Woods have been putting out great records one after another).

This last one will be a game time decision for me, but the Ducktails records should be coming back to my house for sure.

Recently Ray Concepcion put together this compilation video of Woods playing at the Whitney.  It’s a pretty rad video, and is making me really excited for the show tonight (thanks to ChocolateBobka for the tip on this one):

Woods- “Rain On”

Ahhh now all I have to do is wait a couple more hours.  Hope to see you there, and if you are make sure to grab some vinyl…records should be plentiful.

If you aren’t going to this show tonight, you should think about hitting up the Underwater Peoples monster Late Summer Showcase at Market Hotel featuring Real Estate, Air Waves, Ducktails, and Beach Fossils, Family Portrait, Pill Wonder, Andrew Cedermark, Dana Jewell, Liam the Younger, Fluffy Lumbers, Alex Bleeker & the Freaks, Frat Dad, Big Troubles, and DJ Etienne.  More to come on this as it gets a little closer…meaning next week.

End Notes:

• Although I will not be buying these records via mail order they are definitly This Week In Mail Order worthy!
• More on Ducktails here.
• More on Woods here.

As much as I love the Lame Drivers I honestly won’t be attending.

Michael and Michael will be doing comedy leading up the premier of their new show Michael and Michael Have Issues at the Bell House tonight!

The Bell House is sold out for tonight, but that doesn’t mean you can’t watch their show on Comedy Central.  Michael and Michael Have Issues premiers at 10:30pm!

here is a taste:

Greg the Intern

Also The State is out on DVD! Buy it here.

This is more of a reminder than anything, but by far the best thing happening this weekend has nothing to do with North Side Festival at all…. So Cow is coming back to New York to play two more shows before heading back to Ireland! If you haven’t caught him already this might be your last chance for a while.

Sunday June 14th: This Show is now part of North Side Festival!

So Cow (10:30pm)
with Knight School (9:30pm), The Gutsies(8:30pm), and Specific Heats (7:30pm)
At Live At Shea Stadium
Doors @ 8pm  ($7)

Monday June 15th

So Cow
with Die Hard, and Free Energy
at The Bell House
Doors at 7:30  ($5)

[mp3] So Cow- “Shackleton”
[mp3] So Cow- “Casablanca”
(off the S/T LP on Tic Tac Totally.  Buy it here!)

More on So Cow here.

UPDATE: As of this afternoon So Cow at Shea Stadium is now part of North Side Festival.  I have been told that badges will get you in.

So Cow is coming back to NYC for one more show (maybe two?) before he heads back to Ireland.

Monday June 15th Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House w/ Diehard and Free Energy

other tour dates here.

And the show is only $5! The Bell House is a superb venue, and I’m really excited to get to hear So Cow play at a venue with such a great sound system.  If you missed the other four NYC So Cow shows this might be your last chance.   If this is like all other shows at the Bell House I’m probably going to have to much to drink (the drinks are cheap and they have great beer).  I hope to see you there.

Here are a couple pictures from So Cow’s May 15th show at Cake Shop:

[mp3] So Cow- “Shackleton”

[mp3] So Cow- “Casablanca”

(off the S/T LP on Tic Tac Totally.  Buy it here!)

So Cow’s s/t LP is one of the best records to be released in 2009 (maybe the best!)…do yourself a favor and order it from Tic Tac Totally…you won’t be disappointed!

More on So Cow here.

UPDATE! 6/3/09: According to Brooklyn Vegan commenters and Live at Shea Stadium’s myspace:

Sunday June 14th- Brooklyn (Greenpoint!), NY @ Live At Shea Stadium- So Cow w/ Knight School and The Gutsies!

Here is this weeks batch of Weekend Recs.  Above all I recommend trying to catch So Cow over the next couple days…you won’t be disappointed!

Tonight: Friday 5/8/09

• So Cow w/ the Procedure Club @ The Silent Barn

• Crystal Stilts and Blank Dogs @ The Bell House

• Drink Up Buttercup @ The Cameo

Saturday 5/9/09

• So Cow w/ Pink Reason and others @ Death By Audio

• Cause Co-Motion, The Beets, and Liquor Store @ Bruar Falls

• Karl Blau, Doug Gilliard (x-GBV) and more @ Cake Shop

• USAISAMONSTER’s Last Show Ever @ Market Hotel

• Ghost @ MHOW

• Real Estate @ Santos Party House

• Lucky Dragons @ The Stone

Sunday 5/10/09

• Karl Blau @ The Stone

• Frodus @ Death By Audio

• Times New Viking, Blues Control, Woods, Blank Dogs, Pink Reason @ Market Hotel

Monday 5/11/09

• Jason Anderson @ Cake Shop (Free!)

• Times New Viking w/ Vivian Girls @ Bowery Ballroom

• Karl Blau @ Zebulon