Just Announced Shows - SUPER DELUXE AWW YISS EDITION - David Byrne in Asheville!!!

Mr. Byrne & St Vincent announced a tour yesterday ...oh. em. gee.

The closest to the triangle they are coming is Asheville (June 15) or Charlotte (June 18) - June 15 is a Saturday, so that's where I'll be, folks. Haven't seen David since the Dec 2008 show at Meymandi for the Everything that Happens will Happen Today album which, by the way, was amazing.

Not sure if this is going to be like, St Vincent does some songs, Byrne does some songs, then THEY do some songs, (*hope*) but either way - this is happening, folks. THIS IS HAPPENING! YAY!!!!


 Here is a crap video i shot of the Meymandi show in 2008 of the song "strange overtones"

This show will be my third time seeing THE MAN and if I'm lucky, my third time meeting him, as well.

fyi, in case you didn't know... David Byrne is the 3rd piece in my holy trifecta of musical perfection and holiness. aka, I'm a huge fan. Here is an article i wrote about him/TH last year.

Tickets go on sale Friday here. ($47.00 & $59.50) If anyone knows anything about pre-sales, please contact me ASAP. thanks!

hello you strange and wonderful man, i admire you ruthlessly! thank you for coming to hang out with me!

The Heart is a Bloom

i AM IRRITATED WITH MYSELF.

I haven't been to any shows in a long time.  I went to LBLB with Roo (of course) a couple weeks ago in an attempt to see Leugo, but was so distracted by actually being out and about that i forgot to watch the shows (of course). Not so soon after, I wandered up to King's to see some low-fi deepthrashmetal band I have actually never even heard of, but i got in for free, so i went. and everyone was wearing black. and i was wearing a bright white U2 WAR shirt (of course). so I felt slightly out of place before suddenly realizing it was after midnight and i had to be up for work the next morning and bolting.
then i was sitting here on a Saturday night with $7 in my checking account and listening to my morrissey pandora station, feeling slightly sorry for myself, re-reading past entries and being frustrated with myself for not going to more shows. i miss shows.

then i had this crazy revelation. Imagine...! imagine if i had been writing reviews since the beginning; I was 15 years old the first time i saw U2 in 1992 when the Pixies were the opening act. And you know, in a weird way, i almost did. I have been a writer my whole life, to be honest. I made a list the moment we got home and stuck it inside the $25 ZOOtv program i bought that night in Hampton, VA and entitled it "THINGS I WILL NEVER FORGET ABOUT TONIGHT" ... there were things like "the screaming pixies guy" and "the guys with the big papier-mache heads wandering through the crowd before the show" and "BP Fallon in the Trabant before the show" and "the guy on the bus on the way home that kept softly calling out the "woo-woooooo"'s from BAD". I don't know why i felt it necessary to write that list, i apparently have a memory like a steel trap. i could tell you pretty much 99% of the occurrences, start to finish, of that whole evening despite the fact that, yes, it was 20 years ago.

and i'm suddenly realizing I've been a super duper mega-ultra U2 superfan for 20 years.... NICE. *self-high-five*

SO... I'm listening to the Moz Pandora, and we got a little "disappointed" popping up right now and I start thinking about wow... what if i had known what to do back then? If i had known that i could have written this sort of thing instead of hoarding NMEs and Selects and Spin magazines? I saw moz for the first time in 1995 at the Ritz (now Disco Rodeo) in Raleigh. he played three or so songs before storming off stage because of his discontent with the security at the show. (he said "Gently, Gently... It's not World War Three" before walking off stage. le sigh!) I was not disappointed. I was a weepy mess. I am a morrissey-cryer. He comes out, I sob like a baby until he walks away. that's how it goes. I have seen him several times since, including Dublin, Ireland, and the same thing happened... weepy mess.

So If i start listing it all out, from the early onsets of Raleigh's own Johnny Quest, to Elbow, or Moz, or James, or Tricky, or Beck, or Moby... If I really let myself think about it; i may not have the world's most impressive resume, you know? I don't have a degree from a super prestigious school and I've been in mostly administrative accounting positions for the majority of my adult career... but, man oh man, if you start listing out the shows... the bands... the amazing shows I have seen... the incredible musics that have gone in these slowly failing ear-holes, I do not know many who can top it, except my baby boomer friend at work who went to Woodstock... The ORIGINAL Woodstock. bad-ass.

So here is my idea. I am going to list out a few shows. Some real goodun's that I've had the absolute privilege to see, and let you guys vote, via comments as to which 'blast from the past' review i shall write for my next review. bearing in mind however, unless i find shit online, there will be no pics or proof of my attendance. it will be strictly a first person narrative and you will have to assume i really went. I am promising you now... I did.

here are the choices:

Midnight oil and Ziggy Marley - 1992
Johnny Quest - 1991
Hopscotch fest year one
Hopscotch fest year two
El Ten Eleven - 2011
Lollapalooza - circa 1995/1996
YES - 1992
OK GO - 2010
The Who - 1993
Major Lazer/Rusko - 2010
U2 - 1992, 2005, 2009 - (will probably be a MEGA post, whichever one, if not all. which i would happily do, btw)
Celine Dion - 2009 (HA!! FOR REAL!!)
David Byrne - 2001, 2009 and like, a few other times i can't think of right now.
Vienna Teng - 2010
Ozomatli - 2010 (includes real good heartbreak story and awesome video)
Muse - 2010
Any others you're thinking of you know I went to and I'm forgetting right now... bring it on... mama loves a challenge.


(ps - re-watching all kinds of U2 vids from shows i went to on the youtubes, getting all kinda sentimental... so if i can sway any sort of "vote", imma tell you right now; you want real me/all passion... pick the U2sers.... http://youtu.be/87Xl5GAzuBo - YOU GUISE.)

Same As It Ever Was

I’d like to say that I’ve had plenty of free time lately and that I’ve just been lazy. Those of you who know me in real-life know this isn’t at all true. I’ve been stuck up my boyfriend’s ass... He’s adorable and he is so super-good to me, I can’t help it. I’ve also been working two jobs, trying to chip away at some of my lingering hospital debts from the past couple years.

I’ve also been to shows. Granted, not quite as many shows as this time last year. But last year I was single and I was manically depressed and I was drinking like, 4 days a week. I was also heavily involved with a music project that is no more (as best I can tell?) But I have, in fact, gone to shows. I have also found myself pondering the more important musical mysteries of life: Now that Gotye is getting pop radio airplay in the states, does this mean I can’t like him anymore? Odelay or Guero? Graceland or Rhythm of the Saints? If I had only $50 for a ticket to a show and both David Byrne and Morrissey were in town on the same night; who would I choose?  And the ever present worry: Will I *ever* see Radiohead live?

I find myself reminiscing about the way I perceived music when I was a child. (I have spoken about this in my ancient format of this blog.) Mostly how extremely literal I was with lyrics. “Don’t go breakin’ my heart” was obviously about Dr Frankenstein and a patient needing a hearttransplant. “You Can Call me Al” was obviously a call for help, a literal job posting for a bodyguard position needed for Paul Simon.  I was almost always wrong, but I listened incessantly to certain songs over and over again until I solved the mystery of the songs. I spent the majority of my childhood on the floor of my family’s living room with dad’s gigantor headphones and massive record collection trying to solve the mysteries of Steppenwolf and The Beatles. (Don’t even get me started on “Ob-la-di ob-la-da” and where my little kid mind went with that.) Until I was about 7 years old I fervently believed that every time a song came on the radio the band was, in fact, in the studio performing their song, then packing up and leaving and moving on to the next town to play that song. Then my Grandpa died and then I understood the impracticality of that belief. Then I started getting all mopey.

Pathetic Segue into a random song/idea/thing I have been thinking about: 

The Moment David Byrne Changed My Life – A brief analysis and editorial re: the Talking Heads song “Burning Down the House.”

This video was one of my favorites as a child. I knew from a very young age I liked quirky. I liked standing out and being unpredictably expressive. I recognized this trait in musicians, artists, and friends very early on.  Imagine me, 6 years old, watching Byrne’s odd antics and projected face rolling down the road while wearing a tiny black beret, snapping my fingers, being all like “yeah man, I dig it.” maybe not literally, but probably.   

I grew up, I kept Talking Heads on my radar, but I didn’t lose my mind over them the way I did over U2 or Moz until much later when Byrne’s solo album Look Into the Eyeball came out whilst I was working at the Record Exchange. I played that cd to death in the store and was rabid to get the promo before one of my coworkers, which I did. I love that album, it re-kindled the love affair. I retroactively became a massive TH/DB fan.  I researched, I read, I watched old interviews and became obsessed with the Jonathan Demme film “Stop Making Sense” (which, if you have spent any time with me when I am drinking, I am sure to pull out and make you watch.) The live album remains to this day, my favorite live album of all time, even beyond U2 or Moz (followed only by Under a Blood Red Sky, which, let’s be honest, is practically mandatory.)

Basically, the song burning Down the House is about nothing. It’s just a bunch of random exciting catch phrases thrown together. There are tons of references to this fact online. And when I think about this, how I never really questioned the meaning of the song when I was a kid, or even as an adult, and I realize I am enjoying the music for the music, the sounds for the sound, and the art for the art’s sake – voilà. There is it. l'art pour l'art. Oscar Wilde, Igor Stravinsky and David Byrne. It all starts coming together about now, don’t it?  Now go listen to I Zimbra; now go READ about I Zimbra. David Byrne is a god damned genius and my hero in every way. I am lucky enough to have met the man twice now. He is kind and brilliant and I love him… YAY!

In the weird-ass self interview that David Byrne conducts to himself in the special features of Stop Making Sense, I felt my brain grow three sizes like the Grinch’s heart.

“I try to write about small things; paper, animals, a house. Love is kinda big. I have written a love song, though. In this movie I sing it to a lamp.”

On a side note: here are some of my adventures for the past few quiet months.

I’ll be around, folks. I promise.

Saw an amazing Talking Heads coverband in Asheville

Had a show at Deep South wherein I screamed at Jay (apparently) and lost my favorite jacket :(

Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas

Met Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall... NICE!

Took Jess to see They Might Be Giants

Saw Birds & Arrows PLUS Gray Young play a U2 song together and managed to live to tell the story

TREASURE FINGERS!

COC at Lincoln Theater

Chopped my hair off again. Taking lovely pictures, as per yooshe.

Coffee Time with Abe (aka Jess)

This dog is ridiculous.