Blog

Venue - Mr. Smalls Theater - Millvale, Pa (Pittsburgh)
Bands - Twin Tigers, As Tall as Lions, Minus the Bear

We came in right around the start of the show, but the first act was already performing on stage (a change from the usual delay). They seemed decent, but their sound setup was definately lacking, making them seem worse then they probably were. +1 Female Bassist. Not sure what it is about the bass that attracts the ladies. Wouldn't mind seeing a girl drummer for once.

Next up was As tall as lions. Not quite as good as when I saw them opening for Mute Math in Baltimore. Only played about half the songs as well. Short set to get right to the headliner around 10. Maybe a curfew? They're bassist has more fun playing an instrument then anyone Ive seen.

Minus the Bear. Different then what I expected. Seemed more Grunge-ish than Indie. Pretty straight forward in their playing, nothing fancy, just what we've come to expect on their albums. Don't recall them playing Bury My Luck, but they did White Mystery, so my night was made. Came out almost immediately after their main set to bang out two encores. Short and sweet. Out of there by 1130.

Interested in acquiring more:

tape deck mountain
Via Audio
Stars
Thom Yorke
Owen
Bowerbirds
American Analog Set
Dear and the Headlights
Blind Pilot
Deerhunter
Margot and the Nuclear So & So's
Andrew Bird
Bat for Lashes
Paper Rival
Minus the Bear
Death Cab for Cutie
Neutral Milk Hotel
Cursive
Foreign Born
Silversun Pickups
Underoath
Lydia
Grizzly Bear
Dr. Manhattan
Fear Before the March of Flames
Foreign Born
Colour Revolt

y muchos mas!!

...tengo una cantidad vasta de DC4C y Underoath pero sólo los álbumes nuevos. Debo fijar todos "lack thereof's."

**End note to self.

Andrew Bird
Apostle of Hustle
Arcade Fire
Arctic Monkeys
Atmosphere
Battles
Beck
Ben Folds
Bill Callahan
Black Joe Lewis
Bloc Party
The Black & White Years
The Black Keys
City and Colour
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah x 2
The Cribs
Damien Rice
Death Cab for Cutie
The Decemberists
Deerhoof
DeVotchKa
Eagles of Death Metal
Explosions in the Sky
Final Fantasy x 2
Fleet Foxes
Foreign Born
Franz Ferdinand
Frightened Rabbit
Ghostland Observatory
Gogol Bordello x 3
Grizzly Bear
Heartless Bastards
Here We Go Magic
Hollywood Gossip
Icy Demons
Islands
Jaguar Love x2
Jamie Lidell
Jenny Lewis
Kaiser Chiefs
The Killers
The Kills
Larkin Grimm
Living Things
Minus the Bear
The Mountain Goats
Muse
The National
The New Pornographers
of Montreal x 2
Okkervil River x 2
Patrick Wolf x 2
Plasticines x 2
The Raconteurs
Regina Spektor
Ringo Deathstarr
sharon jones & the dap kings
Sondre Lerche
Spoon
St. Vincent
Stars
The Strokes
The Swell Season
Thomas Dybdahl
Vampire Weekend
Voxtrot
We Are Scientists
Willy Mason
Yeasayer
Yellow Fever

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 30 songs that play, not matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Bold out the songs when someone guesses both artist and track correctly.
Step 4: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is cheating!

Artists: Bayside (x2), Set Your Goals, Say Anything (x2), Farewell, Charlotte Sometimes, The Forecast, Minus the Bear, Automatic Loveletter, The Maine, Snow Patrol, The Format (x2), Mayday Parade, Saosin, Death Cab for Cutie, Cartel, Ace Enders And A Million Different People, Secondhand Serenade, Fireworks, Matchbook Romance, Modest Mouse, Unwritten Law, The Ataris, Something Corporate, Straylight Run, Alkaline Trio, A Day to Remember, Patent Pending

1. Waiting here for something I know I'll never see. And I know I asked for some things I could never reach.
2. Ashes to ashes, some dust on the dash. I've got my cigarettes but I can't find the fire that's calming me down.
3. What would you say if I asked you not to go? To forget everyone, forget everything, and start over with me.
4. If you keep running your mouth I'm gonna cut you a new smile. Bring those teeth to the front so I can knock 'em out, knock 'em out.
5. The girl could move, and she did. We were captives on a casino ship, where the midwest lay out hours and burnt to crisp.
6. I backed my car into a cop car, the other day, well he just drove off, sometimes life's ok.
7. So I stayed the night hoping you and I would fix this shit, sorry, can I get it right? But the lights are off, and I had my doubts, she can't be gone.
8. These last few weeks I've been confused. Sometimes I wonder if I'm better off alone.
9. If I could open my arms and span the length of the isle of Manhattan, I'd bring it to where you are.
10. If I die and go to hell real soon, it will appear to me as this room.
11. I kissed a drunk girl, I kissed a drunk girl, yes I did.
12. Today I woke up, younger than I've been in years. Not concerned with what's outside, and peers, I don't have any.
13. From ocean to sky, summer and fall, I have been there though it all. From laughing and crying, to pain that comes easy.
14. So later that year, the bodies came home to Dover wrapped in flags and lined up in rows. With no one to see and no one to know, they had to keep morale from getting low.
15. I dream a lot, I know you say. I've got to get away. "The world is not yours for the taking" Is all you ever say.
16. Breathe kids, the mold is getting old, it'll be gone any day. The hipster empire of tomorrow will fall to the common kids of today.
17. Nothing feels right, but my fake smiles paint pictures like everything's fine.
18. Tell me something that I know, just something that I understand. I need to taste the warming glow of your medicating hands.
19. Well I made my way back down to the valley, right on past 83rd street. That's where we once belonged, but I’m gone, I swear I’m long gone.
20. Who are you to say what is real and what is fake and who here matters anyway? It's nothing that I haven't heard.
21. Life hurts so bad, don't want you sad. Just look back to good times we had.
22. I had a dream last night where I woke up too late, and everything I loved I began to hate.
23. You'd better learn that this will not blow over, and over. High above, they're taking over you.
24. So now you'll know exactly what it feels like to be an obstacle in my way. You won't remain.
25. I'm standing in the road and I don't mind your headlights. You say I've lost control but you're driving down my road with pockets full of secrets never said.
26. Baby, I sorely miss the vibrant gleam that's in your eyes. I'll write a song about it and maybe if the melody's just right, I hope tonight it will find you.
27. She said Los Angeles has never been this cold. She said we shouldnt even bother. She said the ways thing have been going, we've been showing no signs.
28. Please don't mind what I'm trying to say cause I'm, I'm being honest.
29. That was the last time I ever saw her-through a shop window, sleeves to her elbows. I walked past and kept on walking and lit a smoke with my hands shaking.
30. You can have me dye my pale skin. You can beat me, I'll love you while I bruise. You can take me, drug my chapped lips. You can hurt me, I'll love you while I trip.

Seeing as I only allow full-length LPs in my end of year charts, I thought it was about time to recognise some brilliant wee records...

1. Secondsmile - I Am Not Romeo, You Are Not Juliet
2. Hot Cross - Fair Trades and Farewells
3. Metric - Static Anonymity
4. King Biscuit Time - No Style
5. BlakFish - See You In Another City
6. Jesu - Sundown/Sunrise
7. Hopesfall - No Wings to Speak Of
8. Johnny Foreigner - Arcs Across The City
9. Manchester Orchestra - You Brainstorm, I Brainstorm. But Brilliance Needs A Good Editor
10. Saosin - Translating the Name
11. Jesu - Silver
12. Miss Conduct - Sinner vs Sinned
13. Reuben - Pilot
14. Constants - The Murder of Tom Fitzgerril
15. Curl Up and Die - But The Past Ain't Through With Us
16. Botch - An Anthology of Dead Ends
17. Minus the Bear - They Make Beer Commercials Like This
18. Devil Sold His Soul - Darkness Prevails
19. The Blood Brothers - Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck
20. Heavy Heavy Low Low - Fuck It

Yeah, I know it's a little early, but this madness has some method to it. Namely that things are going to be insane for the rest of the month and I wanted to get this out of the way before then. Also I want to do this month and next month early so I can do a best of the year fairly early in January. Because these things are important to me, obviously.

November has been pretty good so far, if a little irresponsible. I attended three concerts in the past week, all of which were rather great. First up was Pinback, who I've been hurting to see since I made the mistake of watching Nine Inch Nails instead of them at Coachella 2005. It was an excellent show and definitely worth the wait, though it did make me regret my Coachella decision even more in retrospect. The next night was Malajube in London, which was slightly less awesome but still a lot of fun. Way more French, too. Finally, I checked out the Wooden Sky in Windsor, along with local band Michou and Evening Hymns from Peterborough. All three put on good performances and the show was a great value at $5. In other concert news, I accidentally saw Corbin Murdoch last month (I meant to go for Dan Mangan but he played the previous night), and will be checking out the Rural Alberta Advantage on the 21st. Then there's that Phoenix show to consider for December! I really wish they'd spread these things out a little more, but I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

As far as school goes, I finally got some feedback on my thesis proposal, which is good, but now I have to work on it again, which is less good. I've also started with my first real therapy client - a fairly intimidating prospect! I'll manage, though. Probably maybe.

Oh, right, the music. This month's mix opens with a rather silly Canada-related ditty, then rocks it up a little with help from the new Josh Homme/David Grohl/John Paul Jones "supergroup". Up next is some country-type stuff, including tracks from an Edmonton artist and that guy we accidentally saw. He's been doing a (free) song-a-month project this year, which you can check out at his website. There is of course a healthy dose of indie on here, some more rock, stuff by Pinback-related groups, a Scottish triumvirate, more indie/country (another Edmonton band!), and finally a track which the Dandy Warhols said they would cover a number of years ago in the lyrics to one of their songs. They did so last month...for an interesting reason.

When Michael Jackson dies,
We're covering Blackbird

I applaud them for following through on their silly lyrics!



1. Group of Seven - Passport
2. Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains - It's A Living
3. Them Crooked Vultures - Mind Eraser, No Chaser
4. Ayla Brook - After The Morning After
5. Corbin Murdoch & The Nautical Miles - 37,000'
6. Said the Whale - Camilo (The Magician)
7. Minus the Bear - Into The Mirror
8. Systems Officer - Shape Shifter
9. Three Mile Pilot - Planets
10. Tegan and Sara - Don't Rush
11. Emma Pollock - Acid Test
12. De Rosa - Stillness
13. Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs - Knock On The Wall Of Your Womb
14. The Swell Season - The Rain
15. The Avett Brothers - Kick Drum Heart
16. The Wooden Sky - Angels
17. The Wheat Pool - Peniel, SK
18. Evening Hymns - Mtn. Song
19. The Dandy Warhols - Blackbird

Download: http://www.mega upload.com/?d=TTQU66MY

PS: that photo is actually from last year. Fall is far less pretty this time around.

Panel: interview with Matt Bayles of Minus the Bear

Minus the Bear

_andregret's top albums (overall)
1. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (556) 2. Cassino - Demos (433) 3. Rocky Votolato - Makers (392) 4. Minus the Bear - Highly Refined Pirates (382) 5. The Honorary Title - Anything Else but the Truth (324) 6. Northstar - Pollyanna (322) 7. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (312) 8. Minus the Bear - Menos El Oso (295) 9. Cassino - Sounds Of Salvation (294) 10. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (281) 11. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (273) 12. Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs (271) 13. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary (268) 14. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People (262) 15. Arcade Fire - Funeral (261) 16. Augustana - All the Stars and Boulevards (256) 17. The Good Life - Album of the Year (252) 18. He Is Legend - I Am Hollywood (224) 19. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha (212) 20. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (209)