ACROBATICS EVERYDAY

mount eerie yester-day with julie doiron and fred squire (nom de plume ‘calm down it’s monday’). great great performances, great sound + venue, great turnout! thanks for coming and sharing the afternoon!

some great fotos over at vivian lee’s flickr.

[mount eerie with julie doiron and fred squire - who?]

the show was recorded by myself and paul mceldowney - my recording is exceedingly quiet though, and i have seen or heard paul’s isight recording. we’ll try to get some up! the sound was truly impeccable.

next tuesday’s election day, and at night we’re gonna watch the electoral college while parts & labor, white fang, and adrian orange (aka thanksgiving) play songs. i’m not sure if gowns is playing. this show’ll be at the PHOENIX FOOD COURT, recently renamed from the PHOENIX GRILLE for reasons beyond me. this show will take place in the SMALL ROOM. we’ve always utilized the main phoenix space, but that has proved unworthwhile for a number of reasons, perhaps greatest of all the sometimes poor sound quality that results from the totally high ceilings. so yeah! we’re gonna do it in the small room it’ll be a blast.

i might redo the site soon. probably not though!

i should have written last week, after ponytail played. because. i’ve talked about ponytail so much in the past few months that i just feel like i am endlessly repeating myself about how goddamn amazing they are, how they are the most exciting, energetic, original band currently touring the world, and how much their music makes me smile.

[ponytail - …,,,, , , ___!]
last night ian mackaye came to uci and talked to a room so packed beyond capacity that he hardly had room to stand. he took questions from the audience, which in turn led to stories of the punk past that could come from no other source. totally inspirational, totally legit. i hope everyone thought it was as straight up cool as i did, like sincerely cool in the way that not many things are.

[minor threat - good guys (don’t wear white)]
we have a few shows coming up. usaisamonster with some local acts on sunday at 2pm in crescent bay, mount eerie for free! at engineering lecture hall 100 on wednesday the 29th at 3pm SHARP, and parts & labor with thanksgiving and white fang and probably gowns on november 4 at phoenix grile. the last one will be a doozy, so try not to miss it…

parts & labor - the gold we’re digging (mapmaker, jagjaguwar 2007)
[white fang - invisible handz]

coooooool 

yesterday’s show was super fantastic. ponytail really knows how to put on a show.

the crowd was just a mass of tangled limbs, dancing, and smiles.

here are some pix. an entry should be up shortly on the l.a. times music blog (exciting!).

60-Watt Kid

P-P-P-PONYTAIL.

more here.

i went to the eagle rock music festival yesterday, it was great. free, fun, pizza (not free), rain (very free). saw some great bands (this one, and this one, and this one, and more).

this saturday night PONYTAIL is going to play at uc irvine, at the phoenix grille. please come to this. this will be the best concert of the year. if you come, you will not regret it. you won’t. seriously. please come, please bring your friends, PLEASE!

a fantastic video for my favorite song on the field record.

here’s a track i have listened to a million times today. it is so good.

[new order - blue monday]

new show by STARFUCKER (no NIN relation) added to the schedule. look at it.

hey folks,

school and shows are proving to be a tough combo to handle when you have 0 time mgmt skills like myself. that said, last week was beautiful. across 3 grossly under-attended events, we hosted problems? (portland), voice on tape, john thill, pillars & tongues (chicago), chirgilchin (tuva), tara tuvi, 60-watt kidd (SF), and gowns (sf). all of these acts played brilliantly, and it’s a shame more people didn’t come to see them play. there are pictures on the main AE site.

here’s a song by problems? off of their demo.

[problems?-introduction]

and lastly:

more consistent posting to continue.

long time no blog–hope you’re all doing well.  i could say something about how summer is pretty much over, but we…don’t want to think about that.  onto concert news, site news, and other news:

1.  HOLY WOW do we have a bunch of awesome shows coming up!  no seriously.  these shows will be so solid.  a lot of talent coming ’round these parts, folks.  thanks to sam for setting up the shows and thanks to all the artists for coming out and agreeing to play.  john thill on monday, with voice on tape and problems?  it will be IN ALDRICH PARK, endless bummer-style.  let’s hope a baby shows up and frolics/runs around. 

2.  did you see the new map link on the main acrobatics everyday page?  yeah?  it’s pretty handy, isn’t it?  google map it up to find out how to get to the various showspots on the uci campus.  locating our “venues” can be tricky sometimes. 

3.  i’d like to share an mp3.  so i’m sitting home alone right now on a friday night (not asking for pity, people) and for whatever reason i’m feeling kind of low (REALLY, I DON’T WANT YOUR PITY) and i just overdosed on mixed nuts (too many peanuts in the mix, not enough cashews and almonds).  well anyway.  somehow i ended up listening to “while you were sleeping” by elvis perkins for the first time with my nice headphones (that i was lucky enough to receive as a gift and thus, not have to shell out big buck$$$).  let me tell you, a pair of quality headphones is a necessity for any person who gives a damn about music.  really.  they really do make a difference.  they pick up on the subtleties in the music that are usually lost when ipod earbuds or crappy laptop speakers are used.  something about the music encompassing/being pressed up right against your ear, i suppose.  there’s something very beautiful about being able to fully and clearly experience a song, with no part of it left behind.  so ANYWAY.  there i was, listening to the song, and realizing for the first time that it sounded so much better now that i could hear each kick drum thump and each plucked guitar string and each drawn breath and each violin flourish in the background and each soft cymbal crash and each low bass note and on and on.  there’s instrumentation in the song i wasn’t even aware of!  there’s a part that sounds like someone’s softly blowing across glass bottles filled with different levels of water to produce varying notes, and there’s a total in the aeroplane over the sea-esque theremin/saw sound.  it was just all so…pure?  and everything all together made me really appreciate and enjoy the song to the point where i feel a little strange/sad listening to it.  i don’t know.  okay i am rambling.  i’m not sure what the point of all this is…i guess this track just made me feel tonight, and if you’d like to, you can listen to it as well.  nice headphones are not required, but definitely encouraged.

:::::elvis perkins - while you were sleeping:::::: 

yep.  text-heavy, i know.  i am not like this normally, i swear.

that’s it for me tonight.  see you dudes and dudettes on monday and at the upcoming shows.  acrobatics everyday forever and ever.

okay so i’ve been lagging on the blog end but not on the more important ends of current life.

this fall will bring a lot of immensely talented, creative, lovely people to the UC IRVINE campus. look at the main site for all sorts of information seriously.

phil elverum of anacortes washington gave me this cd when his recording project mt. eerie played in march. he executive produced the cd. i don’t want to compare these two songs to anything form, god’s sake just listen to them you will be singing along, i promise.

an elegy for the almost over/over summer (say hello to the cloudy tomorrow)
[peace!! - summertime]

and an anthem about being hungry and not to be messed with
[peace!! - peace of me]

so i’ve got my first full-time job and i finally understand the life-drain.

this friday is going to be off the heasy heezy heasie heezee heizi

+ INFINITE BODY closing out the night, probably outside the grille. dude’s moving to portland really soon so be sure to stay for his set!

this is probably going to be the most fun show we’ve ever done.

here’s a tune by NOSE BLEED ISLAND, a band emily turned me on to. they rule, this song rules, nosebleeds rule.

one time i had a 10 minute nosebleed in the shower, with no apparent pretext. it was like i had been punched by donkey kong there was so much blood but 0 pain. it was weird.

[nose bleed island - nazo tears]
fall is looking like a tidal wave of sound.
see you cats on friday, be well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haven’t kept up with posting…but that’s about to change!
so i can’t stop listening to african music.

here’s an amazing record by a gentleman named saka aquaye and his ensemble entitled “ghana high-life & other popular music.” it was recorded in 1969.

[saka aquaye - ghana high-life & other popular music]

it’s compelling, totally fun, and dancable music. i loveeee it.

in other news - great shows today and yesterday. peter walker was a TREAT to host, and religious girls always bring the jam. thanks to death by panda erik and sprawl out for rounding out the bill with their respectively awesome brands of rock.

i also wanna extend a hand to all the folks who come out regularly to acrobatics everyday shows. it means the world to me and i hope you are all having as much fun as i am.

i am beyond excited for our shows in august. they will rule so hard.

awesome right? and then.

i feel like indian jewelry’s live show could be like the today version of the velvet underground 1966.

AND THAO!

all killer no filler.

check it, see you soon.

SO much good music from mali. this post is to highlight a new favorite.

Toumani Diabaté is a dude who plays a stringed instrument called the kora. I don’t know what it is, but it is big. It sounds like a lute and a harp and a dulcimer and a lot of other things but in the hands of Mr. Diabaté it sounds like perfect. This is definitely among the finest music in the world and I really love it a LOT. Here is a jam from his first album, Kaira, which came out twenty years ago.

[Toumani Diabaté - jarabi]

Here he blows minds in Brooklyn.