The Man who gave us a ride to the airport in Long Beach, CA. Capt Shabbin.

The objectivity of journalism is typically a farce. The author can never completely hide their intentions in writing what they’re writing, no matter how pedestrian the topic. At the very least perceptions and attitudes that they’re not even aware of as being the basis from which they’re writing color their work.

That being said it’s probably best just to be out with it: I’m not even going to attempt an unbiased account of the following events involving a trip in which two friends – Capt. AKAK and George Pants – traveled from Los Angeles to New York to witness and participate in 2009’s All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival. It begins, as many stories begin nowadays, on Craigslist.

After the festival we wanted to drive back across the country to Los Angeles on old US Highways: US 20, US 12, US 2, etc. Being the cheap bastards we are, or more accurately I am, I figured that we’d try to find one of those mythical situations that are assumed to exist but probably don’t: the family who needs their car driven from one side of the country to the other and is willing to pay you to do it. We never found them. Instead, we found a man identifying himself as Yang Wang.
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A place to Bury Strangers needs to be experienced by everyone at least once in their life. Their self-titled album is good but does absolutely no justice to their intensity as an extremely dark, noise band live.  If you need further understanding, please read my past review here or just watch the video above.

In a venue the size of the Echo please remember to bring ear plugs if you care to keep your hearing. Personally, I will be attempting to go deaf but I understand that is not everyone else’s intentions. Additionally, Darker my Love will be opening for them which also promises to be a great performance. I got 6 tickets at $15 a piece.

1. Capt AKAK
2. Capt Shabbin
3. MRoyed
4. G Pants
5. James
6. JP

Have you ever wandered what it would be like to watch pure love and light on stage while enjoying some of your favorite tunes? Well YLT live is just your chance to experience such an event.

About 10% of my 500 album cd collection is from Yo La Tengo….yes they have that many records. Last time TSS ventured out to see YLT was during their “Free wheelin” tour which consisted of them taking requests directly from the audience and answering any questions your heart might desire. I believe OceanRain got the answer to his question of “where were you when you first heard yourselves on the radio”. It was a beautiful night.

This concert promises to be more powerful than that night as this one will not be unplugged and feature many of their new tracks from Popular Songs. I got 8 tickets at $25 a piece.

1. Capt AKAK
2. Capt Shabbin
3. George Pants
4. Jewels
5. JP
6. Kia
7. Ocean Rain
8. ??

1. alhp
2. Evelyn
3. the.colonel
4. JP

1. Chabs
2. THE Canadian
3. Dan (the other Canadian)
4. Ashley

“These songs were meant to be heard live. The drums, which are a bit buried on the album, come out in full force live, making the songs a completely different beast all together. Logan is a machine on drums and Meric’s mastery of the southern picking tradition is still there as well. Simply put, the man can play, better than that… the man can wail.” [Bay Bridged]

The Dodos are back in town in support of their new album “Time to Die”. I am yet to hear the album but my understanding is that it is a bit softer than prior recordings of theirs. Nevertheless about two years ago I considered this duo one of the better acts to see live in the underground scene. So we shall see if they still got the magic.
I got three tickets to the show this Sunday at the El Rey at $22 a piece.

1. Capt AKAK
2. J Kelley
3. ??

Sidenote:  The name of this site was derived from an email exchange between Meric Long and myself.

Canna believe none of you guys posted this yet.  Is Pavement really the greatest indie rock band ever?  Or the most overrated?  Happy or a tiny bit sad because you saw the almost-the-last-show ever and you don’t wanna soil the memory?  Will they run it into the ground (Hi, Pixies!)? Should they put out another album?  Is this Bobby’s big chance to score with the soon-to-be unemployed Jicks’ drummer, Janet Weiss?  So many questions, so many possible permutations and computations…it’s mind boggling!