one of the few instances in which pop music was a lot more than pop music was the band big star and the songs of alex chilton. super huge bummer that he just died of a heart attack. dudes songs have always been somewhat of an unattainable moment in music that i have been trying to get to unsucessfully for years.
i remember being in spain during hurricane katrina when you were missing in new orleans and no one knew if you were alive. i remember being super bummed and wishing i had gotten the chance to see you guys play. then news came a few days later you were alright. relief.
then a couple years later there was a big star show at the fillmore in san francisco, one of my favorite venues. it was pretty under the radar. not a lot of publicity and im prtty sure it didnt even sell out. i wound up going with bryn and lexie. i remember the opening moments of the show, before they kicked in with “in the street,” had to be one of the more awkward moments in rock shows ive seen history… you seemed pretty flustered and almost like a professor putting on his glasses getting ready for a lecture rather than a rock dude. but once the music started and you guys pulled out the old harmonies none of that mattered. i remember that show as being one of the most fun shows i’ve been to, we all lost our minds. and it was one of the closest things to a religious experience someone like me could possibly have… theres no telling what songs like yours have done for me… i cant thank you enough…
this song blew me away the first time i heard it…i tried to cover it for a while but theres no way to come close to this:
holocaust
from that show at the fillmore october 17, 2007:
ballad of el goodo oct 17 2007 in san fran
september gurls
thirteen
these were the things I enjoyed the most this year.
1. LOS ANGELES LAKERS
“the easiest team to root for” reclaims its rightful throne. anything less this year will be disappointing. we love ron ron. we love crazy buzzer beaters like this one.
2. bellingham washington
we moved here and it is dope. really cold though it turns out.
3. sasquatch
that video pretty much sums it up. tons of dancing, sweating, living goin on for three days and some insane live performances including (but not limited to): animal collective (!!), mos def (!!!!!!), erykah badu, explosions in my mind, yyys, bon iver, crystal castles, chromeo, tvotr, murder city devils, king kahn (insane), santigold, girl talk, fleet foxes and beach house…. not sure how they will top that next year.
4. holy fuck
managed to see these dudes twice in a day and about 4 times in a few months. they bring it, one of the best shows you could hope to see.
5. the lodge
too many good times were had here to count, miss all you homies.
photo by amart.
6. projector
watching everything on a projector is the way to go. we will never use a tv set again. whats the point when you have a wall? now we have league pass hooked up to it so we never leave the house.
7. rooftops
dudes are tight and also tight bros.
8. tour
the road was hard this year, so tour dropped a few spots in this years standings, but we still had a shit ton of fun and managed to do it twice and hit a bunch of new spots. thanks to everyone who came.
9. raaaaaaandy
that movie funny people sucked but one good thing came out of it, aziz ansari’s character RAAAAAAAANDY. quoted this shit probably the most all year…
10. Canada (Vancouver)
managed to make it out of there alive twice but didnt really to spend enough time there. but as randy would say, that shit is craaazy.
HEY !!!
we are booking our tour right now and getting down to the wire. there are a few spots we are having no luck getting shows (portland were lookin at you) where we usually have no problem. do you know of any D.I.Y. spaces/living rooms/coffee shops/dive bars/easy places to book???? if so please help out.
also, several of these dates we need to find bands to play, if youre interested or know some bands let us know!!!
thanks!!
MAY 18 HIGH DIVE SEATTLE WA W/ KEVLAR FASHION SHOW, PRODUCT OF MEXICO
MAY 30 WILD BUFFALO BELLINGHAM WA W/ SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR
JUNE 4 CONOR BYRNE PUB SEATTLE WA
JUNE 19 TOUR KICK OFF BELLINGHAM WA TBA POSSIBLE ROGUE HERO??
JUNE 20 SEATTLE OFF
JUNE 21 SEATTLE/TACOMA? TBA HELP?
JUNE 22 PORTLAND TBA HELP?
JUNE 23 ANYWHERE OREGON TBA HELP??
JUNE 24 ANYWHERE NOR CA TBA
JUNE 25 CASBAR SANTA ROSA CA
JUNE 26 PLEA FOR PEACE CENTER STOCKTON CA *
JUNE 27 THE PARTISAN MERCED CA *
JUNE 28 SANTA CRUZ TBA
JUNE 29 FROG AND PEACH SAN LUIS OBISPO CA *
JUNE 30 SANTA BARBARA/VENTURA TBA
JULY 1 MR TS BOWL HIGHLAND PARK (LA) W/ NEXT OF KIN* NEED 2 BANDS
JULY 2 THE GOOD HURT VENICE CA *
JULY 3 OFF
JULY 4 OFF
JULY 5 OFF
JULY 6 ANYWHERE SOCAL TBA???
JULY 7 KIMOS SAN FRANCISCO * NEED BANDS
JULY 8 THE STORK CLUB OAKLAND * NEED BANDS
JULY 9 PRIMARY CONCEPTS TATTOO SHOP DAVIS CA *W/ MISSOURI MULE
JULY 10 BLACK FORREST EUGENE OR *
JULY 11 TBA HELP/???? PORTLAND OR
JULY 12 LE VOYEUR OLYMPIA WA * NEED BANDS?
JULY 13 COMET TAVERN SEATTLE WA * NEED BANDS??
JULY 14 BELLINGHAM—HOME
*CONFIRMED
has it really been a month since weve posted something?? apparently. in the midst of moving from southern california to bellingham washington this blog fell by the way side. well now we are settled in our new underground lair and livin the drife every day. we are playing many many shows in the future which you can find out about at myspace.com/keatoncollective
we are going to get back on it. get ready.
2008 started out great and pretty much was consistently (mostly). this picture was taken new years day cruising up the 5 with my friends amart and josh prince. it doesnt really feel that long ago. but apparently it has been. these are the best things this year.
1. barack obama
could not be more stoked to have this dude take over this year. this is as close as i got. even dilley voted for him.
2. my morning jacket
i was lucky enough to see this band, one of my favorites, 3 times this year. all 3 times they blew my mind. they put out a great album and put on a better show than anyone. and they cover kool and the gang.
3. livin the drife part 2
this summer’s tour was epic. we played many fun shows with some really cool folks like hockey, paper brain, devon williams, pokey lafarge, springtime panther, dot matrix, and many others. our van died in the best possible location and didnt take too long to get fixed. everyone took good care of us and we had the time of our lives. still not sure how we survived olympia.
4. the love house
this year i moved out of the coolest house ever aka love house. so many good times went down. so many dinners and acoustic sessions. i will always miss this home.
5. nyc
never really been there until a week ago. now its one of my favorite places. epic!!
6. la lakers
the additions of pau and trevor have put us over the top. we will win the championship this year. i was lucky enough to see them beat the kings this year.
7. tv on the radio- dlz
best song to come out this year. some kids covered it.
8. consenual/lodge
these two houses are inhabited by really awesome people. i spent more time at these houses than at my home. managed to record and play shows at both. thank you to those who live there.
9. naomi klein- the shock doctrine.
best book this year hands down.
10. roger waters
we still don’t need no education. seeing dark side of the moon performed in its entirety twice in a week was nuts.
11. basketball
somehow bball made a huge resurgence this year (playing wise). thank god. reys cross overs, adams kobe move, dilley on the boards, and kenny doing his best white trevor ariza. sick!
12. r.e.m.
will always love this band even if their new album is ehhhhh. saw them three times and had a great time each time.
13. summer heights high
the musical in the last episode is one of the funniest things i have ever seen in my life. fuck you miss!
14. graham nash “simple man”
listen to this song on repeat.
15. the constantines
i listened to this band A LOT this year. somehow i still dont have their new record though. anyway they kill.
16. james franco
homeboy happened to be in the two best movies of the year- milk and pinneapple express. good lookin dude.
17. chris rock – kill the messenger
so many good quotes came from this. “I DONT GIVE A FUCK!”
18. the hold steady
best bar band in the world!
19. street scene
in one day we saw mgmt, the new pornographers, foals, beck, spoon, cat power, tv on the radio and justice.
20. detroit octane
best parody rock band ever.
21. bon iver
hate to jump on the bandwagon but homie wrote the songs that killed this year, particularly flume and wolves.
22. capitol hill block party
in one day we managed to see the cave singers, darker my love, fleet foxes, jaguar love, kimya dawson and the hold steady. we ate some ginger snaps, jay puked in a bag and got mistaken for franz from the hold steady and we got a bunch of shitty jones soda for free. all in all it was a great time.
23. august weddings
congratulations kyle and denali, brian and cara!
24. my bloody valentine
k-swish took me to the ultimate reunion show. my bloody valentine at the santa monica civic. words cannot describe.
25. stereogum.com
wasted more time on this web site and found more good tunes here than anywhere else.
26. darker my love
only managed to catch these dudes in seattle but their new album is excellent.
27. sigur ros
one of the best albums this year, this band kills me live.
28. the tree in moorpark
best new hang out. 3rd of july fireworks went down in history.
…..
worst of 2008
kanye west
zach and norah make an infinite porno
vampire weekend
adams pedal board getting jacked
boston celtics
Filed under: life
I am shocked and appalled that our district has chosen to elect Tony Strickland as our State Senator. Lets call a spade a spade, when it comes to the environment, Tony Strickland is a fraud. The environment is the most pressing issue facing our planet today, something that Californians have had the ability to take the lead on and show the world that we understand the fragility of the situation we are currently faced with, and it has been left up to a man that has chosen only twice out of over 100 votes since 1999 to vote for the environment . Whats worse than Strickland’s non support of any substantive environmental policy is his bold faced capitalization of this issue in order to get elected. The Ventura County Star framed it as such: Strickland “has decided to present himself to voters this year wearing the mantle of a newfound vocation: ‘Alternative Energy Executive.’” To do so, he formed a new wave energy company with four political friends, but didn’t even put up the $5,000 the others had pledged to start the company”. Worse still is Strickland’s inability (until a very recent pre-election change of tune) to see that global warming is a real, man made phenonmenon. I don’t understand how our fellow citizens are complacent with this kind of obvious pandering and non-understanding of the issues at hand when the stakes are so high if we let our environement go to the wayside. Strickland has never done a thing to help the problem we are in, whereas Hannah Beth Jackson had a proven record of voting for all environmental policy decisions Strickland faught against. 900 votes made the difference. 900 votes and we could have elected a leader who doesn’t need to manufacture an environmental record to hide their true record.
Alex Jones
happy thanksgiving…good things are coming our way. rival schools are back together. missed their show when they were here but i feel like i will see them sometime soon. hopefully. things are looking up. we have a new president. a new year ahead of us. cynicism is becoming a thing of the past, something that you see on fox news or hear from people who are old. eventually a majority of the people will be informed and intelligent and on the same page about the new directions our society and world needs to go in in order to survive and not only that create a more positive and rational place to live for all people. there are good things coming and there is always reason to give thanks and be grateful.
Filed under: life
lets get it together.
Filed under: life
last week i heard thomas friedman give a talk and if you aren’t already freaking the fuck out about the state of the world you need to hear what he has to say. here is his appearance on letterman-
Filed under: life
Yesterday, a group of friends and I held signs with phrases like “No on 8” and “Love is Love” on a street corner in Simi Valley. After being shouted profanities at such as “Faggot” and worse, by everyone from teenage girls to a father in the car with his whole family and at least about 20 other people, something started to become clear. The Yes on 8 side is not about teaching anything in schools or church policy, or any of the other nonsensical reasonings they will try to present. It is about hate and bigotry, plain and simple. The people who shouted profanities at us have a hatred for people with different lifestyles than their own despite the fact that it does absolutely nothing to them if two gay people get married. They cannot follow the basic idea of Jesus Christ to “Do unto others,” so clearly they are not real Christians. They are the hate filled and disgusting. I want nothing to do with a father who leans over with two small children in the back seat to tell me I am a “faggot” for holding a sign that says “Love is Love.” Furthermore, I don’t understand how anyone can try to debate against a sentiment such as “love is love.” Do these people all disagree with that idea? Some love is different than other love? Their love is better than gay love? Less sinful? Either way count me on the said of the ones getting yelled slurs at; I never want to be on the side of those yelling them.
Alex Jones
1. barack obama.
2. ian mackaye q and a sesh.
3. we’re all friends now
4. finishing no logo.
5. tv on the radio – dear science.
6. graham nash.
7. pwrfl pwr
8. palinaspresident.us
9. hard rock hotel.
10. snow angels.
keaton collective 