Guess which band isn't working with me?
Nine Inch Nails
With their not-North-American tour well under way, I am heartbroken to see the addition of one new song and a handful of stuff they haven't played since 2006 or 2008, which is almost a long time ago.
And, while "Hand Covers Bruise" segueing into "Beside You In Time" sounds utterly fantastic...yeah, a bit of a letdown.
Here's hoping that Trent ups his game for the NIN/Soundgarden tour this summer, for which I have tickets to both Holmdel, NJ and Wantagh, NY. Neither as good as I wanted but, hey, Musictoday isn't required to function properly, so, no big.
It's cool to see Mariqueen popping out occasionally for them to play a few HTDA songs, but, still.
It's cool to see Mariqueen popping out occasionally for them to play a few HTDA songs, but, still.
Also, I am calling it. Once NIN is through with their Soundgarden leg, the goddamn, motherfucking Fragile ultimate erection juice reissue is going to happen.
It's the fifteenth anniversary of its release and if Reznor thinks I'm going to keep holding my dick for another five years?
Well, he might be right.
But let's hope that doesn't happen.
Or I may pout.
Beck
Such ambivalence here.
While he is touring, I don't believe he's going to do so with the string section seen here, but rather with the guitar army seen here and here. I'm still not sure, but the fact that his New York show is outside at Central Park's Summerstage...well, I just don't think it's going to happen. Which is a crushing bummer, but, like I said, after seeing "Blue Moon", "Say Goodbye" and fucking "Waking Light" with the Strummin' Gentry, I'm probably going to be all right.
Yet: "Debra" with a full string section.
Bite.
Eels
The new album comes out in less than a month and the tour begins in May.
A tour which I am more excited about that usual.
All the venues on the "Eels Perform Live in Concert" tour* are seated. I've only seen Eels in seated venues twice; once, at the Highline, where the show was E and the Chet, a drum kit, two guitars and a piano with them playing stuff from all over E's catalogue, including Man Called E material, an amazing and singular experience, while the other was the legendary "With Strings" show at Town Hall, my favorite Eels show to date.
This time, it's at the Apollo Theater and I'm thinking, based on the feel of the album**, that we might get another miracle.
If only I liked what I've heard from the album more.
Granted, only two songs are out, but neither of them are really doing anything for me; "Agatha Chang" is all right but feels like the Souljacker b-side "Jennifer Eccles", while "Mistakes Of My Youth" is just bugging me. The chords feel sloppy and reused and the lyrics are so general that a computer program might have created it based on the input of the words "regret"and "young". Thus far, this thing is feeling pretty End Times, which was, for me, the weakest of their trilogy released a few years back. Sometimes, I find it hard to focus on the solid, tearjerking lyrics when I don't dig the setting they're in.
But, two songs of thirteen do not an Eels album make.
As the old saying goes.
I'll be at the Apollo on the first of June and I'm probably going to love what I see and hear.
If you want to join in my disappointment or tell me that I'm insane, head over to the Eels Soundcloud page and check out the two new tracks.
They Might Be Giants
I wasn't planning on going to the one day of TMBG shows this year.
Really.
It's two free shows at some science thing in Washington D.C. and I was okay missing it.
Until I got tickets to three of my five favorite bands.
Then it felt silly not to slip into collector mode and go for it.
Are they going to play "Drink!"? Maybe.
Are they going to play "Damn Good Times"? Of course they fucking are.
But.
The numbers, people.
The numbers.
And, if a certain band of non-music-making-muscians finds their way to New York City before the year is out, say to, oh, I don't know, Terminal 5...I'll buy a ticket to that as well.
And then, having seen five of my five favorite bands in one Earth year, I shall return to my home planet, so the Elders of my race can finally destroy this mudball pisshole you humans call home.
On the 28th, we got our first taste of the new Tori Amos album, something I've been nercous about since I heard she was dropping the whole amazing orchestra thing.
While listening to "Trouble's Lament" for the first time, I was indifferent, then puzzled, then intrigued, then I dug it.
I want her to play this while wearing a cowboy hat.
Check it out here.
Not much else happening, musically, for me this month.
I did take in the recent Brooklyn Bowl Mother Feather show and, as always, they tore the place down.
They switched some stuff up, weaving their new track, "Mirror", throughout the set; opening with a little taste before blasting into "Egyptology" and another before "Trampoline", and then, finally, closing with it, the first time I've seen them close with something other that their fist-pumping anthem, "Mother Feather". As much as I dug "Mirror", it really can't beat "Mother Feather" as a closer.
But, this is their party, and they can set it alight however they see fit.
Go, now. And know that I am Grod.
* Eels always wins for best tour names.
** "A live orchestra made up of cello, viola, violins, bassoon, English and French horn, clarinet, flute, saxophone, trumpet, musical saw, glockenspiel and celesta."
It's the fifteenth anniversary of its release and if Reznor thinks I'm going to keep holding my dick for another five years?
Well, he might be right.
But let's hope that doesn't happen.
Or I may pout.
Beck
Such ambivalence here.
While he is touring, I don't believe he's going to do so with the string section seen here, but rather with the guitar army seen here and here. I'm still not sure, but the fact that his New York show is outside at Central Park's Summerstage...well, I just don't think it's going to happen. Which is a crushing bummer, but, like I said, after seeing "Blue Moon", "Say Goodbye" and fucking "Waking Light" with the Strummin' Gentry, I'm probably going to be all right.
Yet: "Debra" with a full string section.
Bite.
Eels
The new album comes out in less than a month and the tour begins in May.
A tour which I am more excited about that usual.
All the venues on the "Eels Perform Live in Concert" tour* are seated. I've only seen Eels in seated venues twice; once, at the Highline, where the show was E and the Chet, a drum kit, two guitars and a piano with them playing stuff from all over E's catalogue, including Man Called E material, an amazing and singular experience, while the other was the legendary "With Strings" show at Town Hall, my favorite Eels show to date.
This time, it's at the Apollo Theater and I'm thinking, based on the feel of the album**, that we might get another miracle.
If only I liked what I've heard from the album more.
Granted, only two songs are out, but neither of them are really doing anything for me; "Agatha Chang" is all right but feels like the Souljacker b-side "Jennifer Eccles", while "Mistakes Of My Youth" is just bugging me. The chords feel sloppy and reused and the lyrics are so general that a computer program might have created it based on the input of the words "regret"and "young". Thus far, this thing is feeling pretty End Times, which was, for me, the weakest of their trilogy released a few years back. Sometimes, I find it hard to focus on the solid, tearjerking lyrics when I don't dig the setting they're in.
But, two songs of thirteen do not an Eels album make.
As the old saying goes.
I'll be at the Apollo on the first of June and I'm probably going to love what I see and hear.
If you want to join in my disappointment or tell me that I'm insane, head over to the Eels Soundcloud page and check out the two new tracks.
They Might Be Giants
I wasn't planning on going to the one day of TMBG shows this year.
Really.
It's two free shows at some science thing in Washington D.C. and I was okay missing it.
Until I got tickets to three of my five favorite bands.
Then it felt silly not to slip into collector mode and go for it.
Are they going to play "Drink!"? Maybe.
Are they going to play "Damn Good Times"? Of course they fucking are.
But.
The numbers, people.
The numbers.
And, if a certain band of non-music-making-muscians finds their way to New York City before the year is out, say to, oh, I don't know, Terminal 5...I'll buy a ticket to that as well.
And then, having seen five of my five favorite bands in one Earth year, I shall return to my home planet, so the Elders of my race can finally destroy this mudball pisshole you humans call home.
On the 28th, we got our first taste of the new Tori Amos album, something I've been nercous about since I heard she was dropping the whole amazing orchestra thing.
While listening to "Trouble's Lament" for the first time, I was indifferent, then puzzled, then intrigued, then I dug it.
I want her to play this while wearing a cowboy hat.
Check it out here.
Not much else happening, musically, for me this month.
I did take in the recent Brooklyn Bowl Mother Feather show and, as always, they tore the place down.
They switched some stuff up, weaving their new track, "Mirror", throughout the set; opening with a little taste before blasting into "Egyptology" and another before "Trampoline", and then, finally, closing with it, the first time I've seen them close with something other that their fist-pumping anthem, "Mother Feather". As much as I dug "Mirror", it really can't beat "Mother Feather" as a closer.
But, this is their party, and they can set it alight however they see fit.
Go, now. And know that I am Grod.
* Eels always wins for best tour names.
** "A live orchestra made up of cello, viola, violins, bassoon, English and French horn, clarinet, flute, saxophone, trumpet, musical saw, glockenspiel and celesta."
