Jenz

Woo!

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 18:44:16 GMT

First "clip" of sorts published on the Tripwire...the show was actually in San Francisco, but that was the only flaw. How exciting!

Raconteurs @ Amoeba SF

June 23 & 24 - gig review

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:39:46 GMT

Radiohead, Deerhoof
Friday, June 23, 2006
Saturday, June 24, 2006

I don’t even know how to begin this.

DAY 1:

Heavy on the Kid A/Amnesiac and new material. Ed really stepping up for backing vocals and guitar support. Still thinking “Big Ideas” from Meeting People Is Easy is the same title. Mini-drum sets and boxes that look like giant remote controls serve as instruments. The jagged mirror screens broadcasting Phil’s hands as they dance across his drum set. Colin taking it easy, sitting nearby and strumming away. A flawless version of “Pyramid Song” and “Like Spinning Plates” one after the other caused my tears to flow. The crowd didn’t seem prepared for such a moving and magical experience; most of us stood in the pit looking up, standing still unless the music called for our dance, awestruck at the beauty. Thom throwing a hissy fit during the beginning of “Iditoteque” (the synth was loud?) and screaming at the technician “DOWN!” before stomping loudly and then rushing through the song. “15 Step” and “House of Cards” became my favorites of the new material. Jonny’s arm brace mysteriously missing. Was on the floor, third row to the left of Ed and his cheeky antics. Phil looking sharp in a suit.

DAY 2:

Thom in a much better mood, making jokes and funny noises with his voice in between songs. I am hip-locked for most of the show and somehow get pushed/squeeze my way to second row status, this time directly in front of Jonny. The crowd is in a dancing mood, and the band delivers “Airbag,” “Paranoid Android,” and “Myxomatosis” to appease the fans. I always always forget that “The Gloaming” is kick-ass live; it just catches you off-guard as to how the bass rips through your skin. Flawless song for the night is “How To Disappear Completely” with Jonny at his weird-noise station ready to distort anything and everything that comes his way. Thom doing his rap-like singing to “Bangers N’ Mash” and spastic dancing to “Kid A.” I never thought for some reason I would ever see “Climbing Up The Walls” live, but I did, and it is even more creepier in person than I would have imagined. “Break down the government/They don’t/They don’t speak for us” during “No Surprises” garnering a large cheer afterwards. “True Love Waits” was a prelude to “Everything In Its Right Place,” Thom a one-man show as he threaded the songs together, back-to-back.

Radiohead: best band on the planet, in the world, live, beloved by fans, hailed genius by critics, pioneers in their field. It’s all true. For a fan like myself who came on late onto the admiration train for them, I had found it surprising easy for me to delve into their back catalog and find myself falling deeper in love and adoration. Saturday night, regardless of your history with Radiohead, with the start of every song, it was renewed energy: it’s like you’re seeing them perform for the first time, over and over again. Needless to say, I can truthfully admit I was exhausted by the whole ordeal in the end.

It’s wonderfully obvious that the band are ready to come back out of hibernation for their music. Each one of them looked deliriously happy at times to be on stage and a few times during Saturday’s performance, Thom would look out into the crowd and smile and in his eyes seemed to say, “How did we get here?” He mustered a “thank you” before carrying on to the next song.

Anyone who was lucky to witness the glory of this five piece truly can say they saw one of the best shows of the year.

Friday's set: (1) You And Whose Army (2) The National Anthem (3) 15 Step (4) Morning Bell (5) Exit Music (6) Arpeggi (7) Videotape (8) I Might Be Wrong (9) Street Spirit (10) Nude (11) Down Is The New Up (12) Pyramid Song (13) Like Spinning Plates (14) Bangers 'N Mash (15) There There (16) Spooks (17) Idioteque Encore 1 (18) A Wolf At The Door (19) 4 Minute Warning (20) Bones (21) Lucky Encore 2 (22) House of Cards (23) Everything In Its Right Place

Saturday’s set: (1) Airbag (2) 2+2=5 (3) Where I End And You Begin (4) 15 Step (5) Kid A (6) Dollars And Cents (7) Down Is The New Up (8) Nude (9) Paranoid Android (10) No Surprises (11) The Gloaming (12) All I Need (13) Climbing Up The Walls (14) Go Slowly (15) Myxomatosis (16) Bangers 'N Mash (17) How To Disappear Completely Encore 1 (18) Fake Plastic Trees (19) Arpeggi (20) Black Star (21) True Love Waits (22) Everything In Its Right Place Encore 2 (23) Bodysnatchers (24) The Tourist

Scribbles

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:09:33 GMT

Eagles of Death Metal :: June 14 @ Slim’s

Sometimes I’ll go to a show only knowing a little about the band and their music, and either (a) decide I like the group and dig deeper, or (b) run crying in the opposite direction because I don’t know how crap music can still be produced in this day and age.

Still trying to decipher this show.

Eagles of Death Metal at Slim's (June 14) was down Josh Homme on drums (he's of QOTSA, but I'm sure you knew that). Not that they might have been any better or worse with him there, but it's like Jared Leto starting 30 Seconds To Mars and then when you go to see them, he left for whatever reason. Bummer.

The crowd is what I found to the most interesting: handlebar mustaches, bad sleeve tats, trucker hats, bottles of Budweiser, shitty haircuts and dye jobs, and lots of denim. I mean, for real, more than a Wal-mart. It was sorta white trash but in a sorta okay way? The music started sounding all the same with the same guitars and lyric progression. I only recognized “Cherry Cola” and then some people next to me started to do a combination of slam dancing and line dancing. Way confused. And, their covers of a Ramones and then Rolling Stones cover was horrendous. Ouch.

Radio 4, Small Sins :: June 17 @ The Independent

I know two songs from headliner Radio 4, but first a little more on Small Sins from Canada:

They use the regular staples of discopunk: fast drums, cowbell, and bongos. Wait, what?
They dressed in all white and for a while had some choreographed moves.
The lead singer jumped into the crowd and pumped us up by encouraging us to clap our hands.
They have a song about San Francisco.

So, officially, I’m in love.

I’ve seen Radio 4 open for other bands (the more notorious one being the Libertines, and it just so happened I stood next to Ethan Embry at that show and I think he was wearing a lot of gold chains?), but never as a headliner. While I have to say I danced to my heart’s content and was pretty impressed by their live set, I spent most of my time assigning new identities to each band member.

- keyboardist: a dude from Arcade Fire

- percussionist: dad from Boy Meets World

- singer: art dealer

- guitarist: Perry Farrell’s younger brother gone indie and rehab-friendly

- drummer: “how the hell did I get in this band?”

Saturday, June 10 - gig review

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 17:45:34 GMT

I really hate festivals.

I walk from the alcohol carding station and then to the beer garden, and it takes no less then three seconds to get doused in other people’s Old Spice-infused sweat, from my hair to my knees. It’s crowded, my Fat Tire is overpriced (no way in hell I’m paying for MGD), and I’ll either have to watch the main stage band from seven miles away or hear them from the bathroom in the back of the amphitheatre.

But, I’ve been to enough Coachellas and radio-sponsored shindigs to deal, so here I go.

After counting the bands on the roster for Live 105’s BFD at the Shoreline (June 10), I realized I haven’t seen three of the 17 bands slotted to play, so I didn’t feel as bad for coming four and half hours after the day started. After figuring out that there was a no-alcohol ban in the Festival stage area, me and two friends downed our Sierra Nevadas and then took in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Even from the back of the parking lot where we stood (is this what we’re going to see them play in now?), Karen O’s yelps over Nick Zinner’s wailing of a guitar strum shocked my ear drums and I could see her mullet-esque hair bounce as she leaped across stage in frontwoman passion. They veered songs from both LPs and still dedicated “Maps” to the current people they are dating. Yawn, dudes.

My group met up for another group for some backstage and food action (thanks to my wonderful popscene boss), and we then settled in for some Ian McCulloch and Echo & The Bunnymen performance. I was totally born in the wrong era, about 10 years too late. I recognized some of the songs, but overall stood in the crowd wondering why his hair was so wiry.

Half of our group departed due to allergy struggles, so my partner Veronica and I departed to the backstage area to cut our time waiting in line for booze. Missing Every Move A Picture (snore) and H.I.M. (eh)’s set, we emerged for Franz Ferdinand, who always give 125% when performing their Scottish dance anthems. Most of the crowd was familiar with the import’s catalog, and FF danced in between the albums and early released EP material, “40 Feet” and “The Fallen” being highlights. Veronica and I are both big fans of Guitar Hero, so we pretended to shred on “Take Me Out,” which is featured in the game.

DJ Mike Relm spun in between the main stage bands, cutting a video show to synch up with his table scratching, which included a live Led Zeppelin performance, and scenes from Office Space about the “O” face and beating the shit out of the fax machine. Brilliant.

Thankfully The Strokes were not as drunk as they have been the other six times I have seen them (no joke), and their sound was tight as a result. Singer Julian Casablancas informed the audience that they were going to do their singles collection from most recently released to first released, and the audience went apeshit. The group tore through “Juicebox,” “12:51,” and my personal favorite, “Reptilia.” Casablancas’s voice is not as rough anymore around the edges, but raspy enough to still be sexy.

I was a little anxious to witness AFI take stage. Being a local-based band and myself having grown up in the Bay Area, I had never had the chance to see them perform. I suppose my time was well worth the wait, because I was utterly impressed

Weaving their punk background to a more contemporary rock sound (screaming vocals still in tact, of course), I found myself singing along to “Girls Not Grey” and “Miss Murder,” the new single from their album dubbed Decemberunderground. Davey Havok prowled the stage, jumping onto the barrier a few times to sing out into the crowd. “Fifteen years ago, I sat where you are at one of my first shows: Jane’s Addiction and Siouxsie and the Banshees,” he confessed while wiping his forehead after one precariously fast song, so much as to not smear the glitter eyeshadow and fake lashes he had on.

“We have come so far.”

We hit the after-party soon after AFI descended into their gothrock cave, and I learned the rhythm section of the Sounds can’t DJ. A bad house remix of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” AND playing your own song???? DOWNGRADE. Overall though, a pleasant time dancing on tables and running in between the upstairs lounge and downstairs main floor was fun.

Friday, June 9 - gig review

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:53:29 GMT

"How were the Streets?" my dad asked me over the phone the next day. I happened to be cooking.

"He poured a lot of booze on the crowd and then he jumped from the balcony," I responded. "Overall, pretty good."

I caught the end of Lady Sovereign's set where she opened for the Streets at the Fillmore and stood there asking myself, "How is she famous again?" I'll give her she knows how to carry rhymes over some bass-riddled beats, but that's it. Somehow I can't take her seriously as a hip-hop or rap artist when she about the size of my eighth grade cousin. I also couldn't help but wonder if Zach Slow got random with her yet (helpmegetrandomwithladysovereign.com). Details are yet to be posted on the site.

An explosion of applause and cheering erupted when Mike Skinner, lead frontman of the Streets, emerged on stage. He and chum Calvin wore matching gray t-shirts emblazoned with their own band logo, to which Skinner joked "We thought we should give the merch people a shout out" (there wasn't a booth set-up to sell any Streets gear).

The two flew harmoniously through their three disc catalog, hitting singles "Dry Your Eyes" from A Grand Don't Come For Free and "Push Things Forward" from Original Pirate Material, and then songs from their new CD The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living, "The War Of The Sexes" and "When You Wasn't Famous" a highlight of the show. A live backing band filling in the organ synth and fast drum loops, and it was impressive to note how tight their sound was.

Skinner was in a good mood that night, constantly stopping to chat with the crowd. He pointed out a guy in the front row apparently dressed in head-to-toe Lycra and asked his girlfriend "Are you okay with this?" Calvin joined in to serenade her with his rendition of the Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha," substituting "boyfriend" where appropriate. Skinner also nearly stopped the show indefinitely as he pointed out to Calvin an attractive concert-goer in the front. "Isn't she hot?" he asked his mate. Skinner launched into covering Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor," and probably after seeing the girl's red face, apologized. "I'm sorry to embarrass you. You're just really pretty."

Then the alcohol started. There was a tall rented cooler of not water, but brandy, posed alongside a stack of fist-sized cups. It started during "Has It Come To This?" (possibly appropriate) - over the course of the show Skinner would casually dispense the booze into a cup and pass it into an audience member of choosing (but not before checking to see if she or he had a "over 21" stamp - what a responsible bloke). He also took an additional dispenser and asked people to open their mouths as wide as possible during "Too Much Brandy." For having been in the first few rows when I first saw the Streets in 2003, I was jealous I wasn't closer. He uses the good stuff.

Stage antics aside, the Streets as a band and as a rapping duo nailed the show solely with their music. Skinner and co. never missed a beat; improvised bits flew without a hitch, and words flowed effortlessly through the two with the mic about women, drugs, street experience, life contemplation, money woes, and enlightenment. Skinner's heavy British accent prominently was displayed as he performed, and Calvin's soul crooning made a nice compliment. The group did a good mix of old and new songs, and the crowd loved them for it. Bodies were wall-to-wall, and every time Calvin asked for audience participation, they were happy to oblige putting up their hands, arms, and drinks, all dancing in unison.

And to give you my final impression of the Streets: During the last encore of "Dry Your Eyes," Skinner made the trek to one of the balconies overlooking the crowd. He had been up there twice during the night and made it clear throughout the gig he really wanted to stage dive from that height, but wasn't sure if everyone below was going to catch him. As I was watching his body second-guess his owner's decision, I received a tap on my shoulder.

"Hey!" the guy who I was super in love with in high school.

Stumbling over my words, I finally managed to greet him back and we chatted about how crazy Mike Skinner was to want to swan dive into a group of strangers.

"You know, I saw you earlier and tried to grab you...I feel like I need to tell you something. I owe it to you."

And then proceeded to come out of the closet.

Two seconds later, Skinner jumped to his rock stardom and crowd surfed around the Fillmore. Alcohol-induced applause then ensued.

I couldn't help but laugh. Somehow, this was the way things were supposed to end.

Thursday, June 8 - gig review

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:50:49 GMT

Oh, Jack White and your non-underwear wearin’ ways. (If you went to the show, this makes sense.)

I hate the fact that the Raconteurs are described in terms of being White’s new band, because these guys stand on their own. A little Black Keys, a little Led Zeppelin, and more soul than a Southern Baptist church, there is something to be in awe about with the electricity demonstrated from this four piece on their debut record Broken Boy Soldiers..

That being said, the Raconteurs are one baby step away from perfection. They sound like with just one more practice after school at one member's houses, they could win the high school Battle of the Bands. Thursday night’s free in-store performance at Amoeba Records in San Francisco was thrilling, entertaining, and indie rock-tastic. The store had closed down for the evening and then reopened specially for the band, with lines going down two blocks and winding around the corner at one point. Every aisle was full from the gospel and rockabilly section to the new age crap, and as a result, my puny head didn’t get to see much. But I know something fierce and unbridled took over that small platform stage, and though I couldn’t see a whole lot during the 40 minute performance, I did see enough long, stringy hair thrashed about during the guitar solos.

The Raconteurs don’t sound like ‘the next White Stripes album they should have done’ or ‘Brendan Benson’s way to garage band heaven.’ They sound like four guys who wanted to make a bluesy-folky-string-riddled album and got together over some good BBQ and beer. It’s obvious to see where White’s string plucking from the Stripes albums play an influence, and how the Greenhornes’ Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler rhythm section skills fall into place, and how everyone’s lyric skills come together for a cohesion of storytelling and raucous behavior.

But seeing “Hands” live, an explosive dynamic of slide guitar and White nearly screaming “The boy never gets older” while spasming onstage to Keeler’s loud bass drum, this is all the Raconteurs spotlight. No one else’s. Their energy last night was purely fueled by audience enthusiasm. I was actually surprised that so many people knew the words for as recent as the new album is.

The Raconteurs set last night consisted of jams from the LP, varying from first single “Steady As She Goes” to the album’s title track. As White bid the audience farewell, Lawrence started up the bass line to ending track “Blue Veins,” and it was incredible to note how quiet people became. The heavy and lulling sounds of that bass is its defining sound, and the sexiness eluded from a single set of notes and titter on the cymbals is utterly amazing. The band extended the two and half minute track to a good five minute jam session; I imagined running into them at the Boom Boom Room or Club Deluxe.

Come July, these guys are going to burn the Warfield down. Get excited.

My brother is all growed up now!

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:05:11 GMT

Josh's Graduation
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Evergreen Valley High School
San Jose, CA

the happy graduate and his papa

josh and jessica

starting with the whole 'not smiling' thing early on

dad on the effects of gingivitus

we are such myspace cheeseballs

aw, look at the parentals

a planned, or unplanned, pose?

passing the time as josh says hi to friends

dave letterman?

coach slaton STILL likes to tell the story about me and water therapy
for my track injury

some of the following were taken by dad:

pinballin'

pizzzzzzzza!!!!!!!

i started reading books at the dinner table around 6 and still haven't stopped

now for the "josh and (insert family member's name here)" pictures:

please note how goth my mom looks.

some weird variation of a brady bunch pose that obviously did not work out

me and bro bro. i am so proud of you joshie!

Welcome welcome

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:14:21 GMT

Hi friends and familia,

This is a journal I created to upload digital pictures y'all ask me for, and to also start showcasing my work as a photographer (finally).

What you will find:
- photo stuff I've been working on, class-wise and portfolio stills
- digital pictures from my little camera of family events
- journalism clips I'm writing for the Tripwire, and other freelance things

For photos, I will usually post what I feel are final products.

Comments always welcomed.

Love!
Jenn