PLaNETS - Scared Coyote

The day after I left for Chicago my wife went to Silver Lake's The Satellite (formerly Spaceland, where we saw one of the best shows ever in A Place to Bury Strangers) to see a band from LA that we love named Battle Tapes. As she tells it, she arrived before the first band went on, took a table on the floor and ordered a GlenLivet on the rocks and proceeded to be blown away by each band (Chastity Belt & Megafauna also played). PLaNETS however, stole the show, and again, based on how much I love the album and what she's told me about the performance, I can't wait to see this group live.

Psychic Teens Score Dementia AKA The Daughter of Horror

I don't really know much about Psychic Teens, but a friend pointed this out to me the other day and Although I've thus far only seen a small part of it, it looks and sounds amazing.

The Afghan Whigs - Lost in the Woods

I'm sure everyone that would click on this has already seen it; I'm behind. Very behind. I spent two and a half weeks running around the Midwest, played a show in Dayton with a total douche and then returned to LALAland just in time to hit eleven days straight at work AND manage my wife's business during my home hours. Simply put, there's but little to no time to consume any content other than what I could fit on an iPod or in a CD wallet. That said, I found some marvelous stuff that I will get to throwing down here shortly. First though, there's a handful of things that filtered in during the trip via various outlets and I wanted to add them here, not for any real informative reasons since, again, this is essentially old news at this point, but because I actually keep this blog more for myself than anyone else - so yes, I'm essentially at least 51% writing to myself at this moment.

"Can I play with madness...?"

The Forest Children - A Demon at My Door

New video for the first single off one of my band's new records, Angels Weep While the Devil Sings.

Formerly known as Darkness Brings the Cold.

Woman In Black 2 Trailer

The Woman In Black 2: Angel of Death (2014) U.S. Trailer - Click here for another funny movie.

The first Woman In Black was a film that passed right by my radar for a few years until a very picky, old-school horror fan I work with lent it to me with 'highest possible recommendations'.

He wasn't wrong.

I haven't even had a chance to watch this trailer for the sequel yet, but just based on the strength of that first movie I'm looking forward to this one.

Avengers - Age of Ultron Teaser

Second time through this today, still have chills.

Tuneyards Live Performance on KEXP

Last night my cousin Charles treated me to seeing Tuneyards live at Chicago's wonderful Vic Theatre.

A) Amazing. At one point Merrill apologized for her use of the loop pedal that helps create the textures in the band's music. No need to apologize - half the beauty of seeing this band live is watching Merrill create these intricate vocal and percussive loops and then have everyone throw down on top of them.

The band for this tour is: Merrill Garbus - vocals, ukelele, drums, loops, percussion, synths; Nate Brenner - bass (and he is a marvelous bass player), synths, vocals; Abigail Nessen-Bengson - percussion, vocals; Jo Lampert - percussion, vocals; Dani Markham - drums, percussion, vocals. What these people do onstage is amazingly layered, intricate and beautiful.

B) I had not been to the Vic since maybe Tomahawk in the early aughts. LOVE that venue. Great sound.

Also: I'd be remiss if I didn't promote the charity that Tuneyards talked about last night: carrefourcollaborative.org. I donated a dollar, as it was Merrill's humble suggestion. Read about it and then it'd be cool if you did too.