Today while in the dressing room at Garment District, one of the girls working there mentioned that the editors of Jane were in the store poking around. Laura excitedly chimed in that I'd been in Jane (er, it was Nylon) and when I corrected her, the girl ran after the editors and told them to wait for me.. So now Jane Magazine is gonna be at the Plan tonight. Holy shit. This week has been weird.

Plug In to the Muffin Mix

I said this about three times last night, but when I worked at KUGS about three years ago, I SWEAR I interviewed Stars of Track and Field. I remember because one of them had funny pants and they made me show them the way to Boundary Bay Brewery. They tried to get me to join them but I had other college duties to attend to, like drinking somewhere else and probably embarassing myself. Anyway, imagine my surprise when three slick lookin dudes calling themselves Stars of Track and Field saddled up to the Great Scott microphone last night. What? What are these pre-recorded bass tracks? Do they even HAVE a drummer? What happened to awkward hippies that came to my studio that day? Thanks but no thanks Portland.


Broken West came out the gate playing Down in the Valley, which is one of my favorite songs off the new record. I almost wished they'd hidden it deeper in the set so I could wait for it. But they played it, and it was great and so was the rest of the set. I did a lot of foot tapping and and bobbing back and forth and I'm still trying to find out how a band this good came out of Los Angeles, the city without a soul.


Finally it was time for the Long Winters and all of the super fans to come out of the woodwork and give muffin mix and be sorta creepy. I mean, it was sorta cute, but sorta creepy. Who gives muffin mix to a band and then gets so excited about it that they can't explain WHY they've given it? The set was great.. Instead of making us wait around for an encore, they played straight through, no McDonalds trips included. Highlights: Ultimatum (acoustic) , Cinnamon, Hindsight, and (It's A) Departure (with group kazoo-along.)

HA!

At least I know someone likes my DJing ???

Addis Rea Sea

Last night Hunter and I ventured to Addis Red Sea, an authentic Ethopian restaurant in the Back Bay. We stuffed our faces.

Appetizer:
Sambusa - Pastery filled with:
a. Lentils and green peppers spiced with cumin, garlic, onion, with a touch of nutmeg.

Entree:
Vegetable Combination - Your choice of four vegetarian dishes and house salad.
1. Butecha - Chickpea paste blended with oil, lemon juice, green pepper and black pepper.
2. Tikle Gomen - Cabbage cooked with vegetable oil, garlic, ginger and green peppers.
3. Yesmsir Alcha - Lentils mixed with tumeric, onions, green peppers, garlic and ginger root.
4. Mittin Shuro Wot* - Ethiopian style ground split peas simmered in a spicy berbere sauce.

Beverages:
Royal Mead - Honey Wine
Harar- Dark Ethiopian Beer

Our meal was served on a traditional woven straw table (with a sign instructing us not to "lean on.") The giant platter was covered with a spongey flatbread called injera on which the various dishes were piled. The bread served as our utensils, we just ripped some off (they gave us a big pile of extra bread on the side as well) and scooped up the various flavors. All in all it was a great meal (and affordable!) and I would defintely return to try more dishes.

This is all an elaborate plot for Hunter to get me to like Indian food. I'm onto him.

ACK!

Man. Cathy really drives me nuts.

No Longer Hiding

I like going into something with neutral expectations and being, maybe not surprised, but impressed. Like really impressed. Like really impressed and happy and satisfied. That was last night. Yes sir/ma'am.

To be honest, I hadn't spent much time with Land of Talk, Field Music OR Menomena. Shame on me, I know. Sometimes I get lazy on listening to new music cause I'm too busy being fixated on something else, like other new music. So Land of Talk, never heard. Field Music? Maybe a song or two. Menomena: a few times through the last record, a few times through the new. Didn't listen closely, bad bad Bethany.

So I got to Great Scott, toting my cds and wondering how I was gonna wade through the crowd to the DJ booth. Land of Talk were on. They were great. Straight-up. I know it's pretty obvious, but I think the best thing a band can do is write good songs, and these guys do it flawlessly. Even after only one listen, their melodies have dug themselves into my head.

I didn't pay attention to Field Music as closely as I should have. I was busy discussing dogs with Aaron and Caitlin. But they sounded good from a distance! The obvious comparison is The Futureheads, but I'm not that obvious so I'll compare them to Eric Clapton, who they sound nothing like. Ben said they sounded like Steely Dan. I like vocal harmonies. Ok.

Finally Menomena came on and played me some sweet baritone sax. I mean really, add in any instrument that reminds me of being 13 and in band class and I'll instantly fall in love. I'm only halfway joking. Besides sounding absolutely killer, the band were likable on stage.. sincere and natural. After playing nearly an hour, the band was cheered back onstage for one last song only to find their drummer missing. Apparently he had run to McDonalds. The crowd had to wait five minutes before he returned (to a chanting of "Danny! Danny! Danny!") I've been inspired to listen to Menomena 348779 more times. Thank you Portland.


Tonight Hunter and I are heading to Addis Red Sea for dinner. Date night! I've never had Ethopian food, so it should be delicious. And we're supposed to try the honey wine. Mmm.

Other things:
- Asleep In the Sea broke up. Stupid Asleep in the Sea.

- Caitlin pointed out that my blog is linked on the Deep Ellum website. Thank god I liked the place and wasn't saying "vomit vomit puke puke." I should go back there. I tested out the mint julep last time. Very excellent!

- Long Winters, Broken West and Stars of Track and Field at GS tomorrow, Mason Proper and Birdmonster at Mideast upstairs on Friday, Rocky Votolato at GS on Saturday. Whew!

- My new love is The Eames Era. I heard them on WOXY and fell in love. I'm beginning to think Lousiana is a hotbed for good new music. Hmm.

-This is pretty funny.

-Team Courage is presenting the Suburban Kids with Biblical Names show on May 1 at Great Scott. Hooray Sweden!

The Peekers

I would like to introduce you The Peekers. They're young, they're from Louisana and there's six of them. They've totally grabbed my heartstrings and tug-tug-tugged them. Where do these sorts of kids exist? Why didn't I grow up with them and play the xylophone in a pop band? My friends growing up were into The Gap or skateboarding or Bud Light. I know it was a different time then, but I still kick myself and ask why why why. I imagine The Peekers running barefoot through grassy fields and catching fireflies in glass jars at night. I used to hide MTV from my parents and spend nights driving down Silverdale Way in Tricia's Toyota.

I'm going to raise my family on a farm and only give them handmade wooden toys to play with. They'll be my untainted pop-music making machines. I will stay home and tend the field until my hands are rough with calusses. It will be perfect.

Hunter located some acoustic versions of two new National tracks (I guess Pitchfork had a link to them too but blah blah blah to them,) which can be found here. Start A War had me within the first few notes. I am biting at my nails with anticipation of this record.

Also, I know I promised not to talk about S--- anymore, but I forgot to go off about The Teeth. They played Saturday night at Habana Calle and completely blew the roof off the place (which was hard, cause we were in the basement.) Park the Van gave me their new record a while back, but their was my first time seeing them live. I'm not sure if it was the exhaustion, the mojitos, or the comfort of knowing that everything would be over by the next day, but the energy in the room was completely perfect. The crowd went absolutely wild and I had an ear-to-ear grin on my face the entire set. When they finished, everyone begged for more (and they weren't even the closing band.) They're on tour with right now and will be joining up with Dr. Dog at the end of April. They hit the Middle East Upstairs on April 26th. I swear to you, if you're in the area, you do not want to miss them. Or me, losing my shit.

Oh, and Ben King in 6 weeks from today. aaaaaaaaaaa

First Day of Spring

So now that S--- is over, it shall not be mentioned again until January of 2008. It's driving me crazy and it's driving you crazy. Anyway.

After being out and about WAY too much last week, I've entered into my annual week of solitude. Which is fine cause right now my insides want to be on my outsides. I suppose if this keeps up another few days I'll have to visit the doctor. How come having health insurance gives me all sorts of medical conditions out of the blue?

Last night between bleaching the bathroom and grabbing my angry stomach, I watched American Idol on good ol' Fox. It was a typical episode except for this amazing hysterical child sitting a few rows back from the stage. Brace-faced and pig-tailed, the little thing was absolutely SOBBING through the entire show. I admire her if only because during my childhood I had too much pride to be a superfan. While my friends had pictures of Devon Sawa and JTT pasted on their bedroom walls, I spent my time trying to pretend (at least to my mom) that I had no interest in boys at all. Screaming and crying was out of the question. Fainting? Yeah right. I remember going to the Champions on Ice performance in Tacoma with my mom (you know, after the Olympics with Nancy Kerrigan) and her looking at me in shock after hearing the bellowing "WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" that escaped me. She turned to me and asked "where did you learn how to do that?" and I just shrugged. I guess it was just buried somewhere underneath my pride.

Blah By BlahWest

My head is still in a fog. I'm spending the week hiding in my room and trying to salvage whats left of my soul.

Bands I saw:

This Is Me Smiling, Eli Paper Reed, Finally Punk, Uncut, The Trucks, Mando Diao (twice), Canada, Birdmonster, Tally Hall, The Isle, Les Savy Fav, Matt and Kim (warming up), Pipettes, Relay, Sage Francis, Prosser, The Dears (twice,) Immaculate Machine, The High Strung (twice,) David and the Citizens, Youth Group, Peachcake, Age Rings, Grand Island, The Sammies, Dead Bodies, Young Galaxy, Amy Milan, Apostle of Hustle (twice,) Photo Atlas, Annuals (a smidge), Winterkids, Apollo Sunshine, The Laughing, Chris Bathgate, Little Brazil, The Cops, Zykos, The Teeth, White Christian Romance, The Peepers, Unbusted and Junior Senior.


There are a ton ton ton of pictures on my Flickr page.

I'll miss you Texas.

Worst Blog By Blogwest Ever

So I set out to give ya'll the intimate details of sxsw 2007 day by day but have ultimately (and unsurprisingly) failed. So here I am. It's 4:41am of day 7 of sxsw. I am sitting on the floor eating bad sugared cashews fully clothed with dried sweat clinging to me I'm sure. ooo. glamour.

i saw at least 15-20 bands today. I lost my shit to Junior Senior. Literally. Lost. My. Shit.

oh hm.

Blog By Blogwest Day Three

Ahh I'm wiping the sleep from my eyes and thanking myself for calling it an early night last night (early=1am after several different parties and several different drinks.) Steve is rolling around on his rollaway bed saying something jaeger and too much jaeger and "why why why." Blah blah blah Steve, blah blah blah.

We spent the majority of yesterday working from our hotel and partaking in the free food/wine/wifi. We left to get dinner at Chez Nous as well as to pick up out badges.. but it was nearly 8pm by the time we left for the night. First, we met up with Justin, Dan and josh from Fanatic and went down the street to enjoy the free drinks and Wii at Purevolume (again.) Brooke figured out new uses for the Wii controller...

(photos coming)

Then it was on to Champions for their lackluster late night menu and more beers. MORE BEERS! AHHHHHHHH. And then Peachcake showed up. Steve was already at Hi-Lo with Meredith, so we all went over there for the Facebook party. Facebook makes me uncomfortable. I will die before I ever have a Facebook. Plus they have awkward young people doing sexy dances at their parties. Free jaeger and redbull and vodka though. Meh.

I lasted all of 10 minutes there before I went back and met up with Darin, who shared with me his desire to be known as someone other than "Greg's twin." He's the one starting up Dinner With The Band. Ran into The Lashes. Got tired, went back to the hotel with Brooke. She cross-stiched and we chatted until bedtime.

The real SXSW starts today. I promise it'll be more exiciting than this post.

Blog By Blogwest Days One and Two

Ahhhh Austin, Texas, home of the $4 ATM charge, $2 Shiner Bock and hundreds of blackbirds ready to poop on you. We are here folks, yes yes we are.



Our planes got in Sunday morning and we promptly jumped in our rental sedan for an hour and a half drive to San Antonio.. Destination: Fiesta Texas, or as its commonly referred to, Six Flags. With a light rain coming down, we ran into the park (only to be yelled at "NO RUNNING.") for a full day of rollercoasters and Looney Tunes (have I mentioned how much I HATE Looney Tunes?)



We got to dress like hoes for our old-timey photo shoot.. so naturally we had a sexxxxxyyyy photo shoot in the dressing room.


The best ride of the day goes to Poltergeist (sorry Superman,) which started you out at like 40mph before looping, throwing you upside down, spiraling, coming dangerously close to the ground an basically knocking your brain loose. Worst ride of the day goes to Scooby Doo's Haunted Manor which was a bunch of neon cardboard cutouts that you could shoot at with a fake gun. Ugh. Honorable mention goes to the Rattler, which we stood in line for twice, only to be turned away at the last second do to an incoming thunderstorm.

Since it started to downpour/flood, I had time to get my super awesome airbrushed tank top

Oh and just in case you need some Starbursts, here's 8,000 of them.


Yesterday we worked from the "banquet room" and then went down the street to check out the Purevolume Lounge (free drinks, free Wii, free extreme dancing.)


Then we headed over to Beerland too meet up with Vitriol for some karaoke with the worst karaoke host known to man. We were there almost 2 hours before any of us got to perform. We were angry, so we took it out on our songs.




And finally, it was back to Purevolume, where we were whisked in through the back entrance (hahaha) and danced, drank and god knows whatd until 3am+

agh

it's 12:37am, but with daylight savings, it's technically 1:37am. Steve's picking me up at 4am. Our plane leaves at 6:30am. i hate the letters a and m right now. my belly is still full of nachos and onion rings so i hate the coolidge corner clubhouse too. there's so much hate going on in my body that i wanna barf. but i just changed my sheets. i guess i'll just continue watching Flip This House.

THIS ALMOST MAKES ME FEEL BETTER

Great Scott
07.11.07
Wed
The Fenway Recordings Sessions present:
Maximo Park
DJ Carbo

Forever Indebted

Last night Ian and I each paid $150 to see Shout Out Out Out Out and Cassette.

While the stress of trying to figure out what the hell we were gonna do took a little away from my actual enjoyment of the show, I think everyone there had a good time. And I learned to use the fake DJ equipment that makes you look like you're Djing with vinyl! And I drank too much.

So I think I need to take a little time off from putting on shows (not that I even put on that many.) It's pretty frustratiing to do everything right (press, promotion etc) and still not get the turn out you were hoping for, but thems the breaks I guess. Maybe when I win the lottery I will return...


Cassette sans pants:




oooo Nate oooooo


Shout Out Out Out Out



No fun Ian??


Taking a break from journal writing


WTF??


Oh, and this is Andy's steak. I'm just throwing this in for fun


I leave for Austin in 2 days! Six Flags on Sunday! Warm weather! Jessica Toon! Imperial Teen! It doesn't get much better (well maybe if H. was coming with me. aghghghghgh)

Sell Out Or Die Trying

The Shout Out Out Out Out show is finally here.. thank god. Balancing the going-to-sxsw with trying-to-get-people-out-to-the-show crap is getting a little tiring...

Click away:


• The Boston Herald Edge section: Shout Out Out Out Out


• Karmaloop Blog Feature: Shout Out Out Out Out


• Editor's Pick in the Phoenix: Shout Out Out Out Out

How Many Calories are in a Cough Drop

Recently I've been testing out this thing called "not relaxing on the weekend." What I do is, make so many plans and get so wound up that I can't possibly feel refreshed come monday morning. This weekend was a stellar example.

After running home after work on Friday, I hopped on the 66 down to Harvard and walked down to the Lizard Lounge to meet up with Mike and MP. After much frazzled "omg my phone is dead, i don't want to hang out in central again, hunter is in practice still, why don't i just go home" whining, I settled in with some Anna's Taqueria's at the FoF house. We ate, pet the dog Moses and Mike called me an asshole at least once (I think this was cause I told him everything that came out of his mouth sounded like a lie.)

MP played a great set (included Carousel! Carousel! which I adore and they never play live) and I snuck out during one of the last songs to head home for the night.

Saturday I woke up early and took the bus to NYC to spend some quality time with Mel and Sean, who were in town from Seattle.


After I dropped my stuff at their hotel, we headed out with Sean's friend Helen to Brooklyn for some pizza and nice views




Anyway, since it was Sean's birthday, we went to Del Posto for dinner, which is Mario Batali's restaurant.You might remember Mario Batali from such shows as Iron Chef. Ahaha. I was expecting the world... I mean, he's the IRON CHEF.. but meh, they only halfway delivered.

ORECCHIETTE with Spicy Pancetta and Bitter Greens (I got without the pancetta)


Tiny portion! $15! WHAT?! Where's the presentation?!

You could also have lard with your bread.


After we finished up our desserts, we went to a bar called the White Horse, where I was pretty much falling asleep in my beer, so I went back to the hotel while they continued the night. I am getting old. And lame. Agh.

Oh and by the way

I put that little counter whoopdeedoo on my blog a few months (weeks? ehh??) ago and even if you consider that half the hits might be me checking to see how many hits i've gotten, that's still like 500+ hits! WTF people, comment! I want your love and attention! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Have You Read Stereogum Today

Braden and I used to out-Stereogum eachother every day. He'd im me with some tidbit and hopefully I'd be able to reply with "already read it!" It went back and forth like this for a while (this is what really occurs in the music industry, not gold records) but lately, I mean really, is ANYONE reading Stereogum? I know they're not always groundbreaking, but now it sorta just seems like a snoozefest. Where's the spark? Where's the magic? Where's the "Why is Gwen Crying" contests? Are blogs just losing their edge? Am I losing my edge by having one? Should I start writing my thoughts with sparklers in the dark sky? Should I hand-stencil them on your neighborhood sidewalk?

This morning I managed to completely embarrass myself in front of the one person I'm constantly trying to impress. The sky decided to pour buckets so at 8:45am, there I was trying to tiptoe my way through puddles in my thoroughly abused cowboy (?) boots on the way to the bus. Then, right as I was about to step from the slippery ice hill onto the cleared bus stop pavement, my left foot went out from under me and there I was, left cheek, calf and boot soaked, battered and bruised. The only person around to help me up? Hunter of course! He assured me that no one else saw, but honestly, I'd rather some stranger see me fall than person I see on a regular basis. Every time we hang out he's gonna replay my awkward stumble. All respect will be washed away. He will no longer see me as the completely cool and collected girl he thought I was. Not at all. Not like before.

Last night I met up with Andrea, Heather, Michael Pace and Laura at Burkowskis for some drinks and good ol' down-home bremerton fun. Andrea's moving here in June, so she came to check out the city for a few days. After drinking a couple Side Ponytails (wtf?) we headed to Middlesex for what Bouvs calls "new rave" aka Make It New. Then it was on to The Field, which was more Andrea's speed.. I copped out early at 11:30pm, but not before Andrea told some homeless guy that her and I were married after he told us he wasn't "hitting on us for sex" and directed us to the two bus stops he usually hangs out at.

Tonight I'm gonna meet up with MP and Cirino for some foods and then head out to meet up with Andrea again.. Tomorrow I leave early for NYC to get myself some Melissa Gill and Sean! Wooooooo