Category Archives: reviews

reviews, san diego

High Fiving Hipsters or: San Diego Loves the Avett Brothers

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High Fiving Hipsters

The last time I was at the Belly Up I high fived a hipster. The results were fascinating and hilarious; I came out after the show to see my “victim” sitting on a ledge outside being consoled by his girlfriend.

“It was a good show though, right baby?” she said with a hopeful and worried tone.

He responded with his head hung low, “Yeah it was okay…I just can’t believe that guy high fived me.”

I had apparently ruined the guy’s life. I spent the car ride home making obnoxious phone calls at 1am telling my friends the story of the wounded hipster. Why the hell did I high five him anyways? The moment had come right after Built to Spill finished an extended version of “Randy Described Eternity” and I was in heaven. It was one of those concert moments that I live for; it felt like there was no way anybody in the audience could have been on any level other than the one I was on: pure stupid bliss. Continue reading →

reviews

Breaking: Pitchfork to Give Wilco’s New Album a 5.8

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Wilco the AlbumYesterday, we received a disturbing email from a Pitchfork Media staffer, detailing how senior management re-shaped his review of Wilco (The Album), which is set to be released on June 30, 2009.

The distressed staffer writes, “With high profile releases like this one, management will tell writers what an album’s rating will be. You have to write your review around the predetermined rating, which is partly why our reviews often contain weird metaphors and seem so hackneyed.”

He goes on to write that Pitchfork goons threatened to remove him from their staff—and office—if he didn’t comply with their wishes; he quotes one manager as saying “As you know, Pitchfork is so over Wilco, and the rest of the world should be too, whether it’s right or not. Actual merit is irrelevant. Look how much attention we got from our review of the Black Kids album. If you care about quality, you can go write somewhere else.” 

According to the writer, here’s a breakdown of what should’ve been vs. what is. Continue reading →

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Review: Leonard Cohen; April 7, 2009 at Copley Symphony Hall; San Diego

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Leonard Cohen

The setting at the Copley Symphony Hall is not unlike Leonard Cohen himself. With its stained-glass windows and walls of intricately sculpted marble, the building seems as though it should house sermons rather than symphonies. But at the center of the basilican architecture lies the stage itself, lit in smokey reds and swanky purples that would feel more at home in a brothel than a cathedral. The juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane has long been a tenet of Cohen’s distinguished career, which has been as defined by prayer songs like “If It Be Your Will” as it has by the lurid recounting of trysts with Janis Joplin.

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Review: Elvis Perkins in Dearland; March 15, 2009 at M-Theory Records; San Diego

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There are worse fates than being compared to Jeff Mangum. As the frontman for Neutral Milk Hotel, Mangum spearheaded one of the most influential and revered bands in indie rock history, finally creating an album—1998’s In An Aeroplane Over The Sea—that was so perfectly realized even Mangum himself never dared attempt a follow up. So, nearly a decade later, after everyone had given up hope, a guy named Elvis Perkins quietly stepped up to the plate and did the job for him.

Perkins’ 2007 debut, Ash Wednesday, established him as a brilliant artist with a penchant for crafting songs of poignant sadness and profound beauty. The son of Anthony Perkins (Psycho‘s Norman Bates) and Berry Berenson, Perkins channeled his much-publicized real life tragedies into a soul-baring masterpiece of catharsis. For his newly-released sophomore album, he added a backing band and adopted the moniker Elvis Perkins In Dearland.

And somehow, local record shop M-Theory Music was able to lure the band into their store for an exclusive, free performance on a beautifully sunny San Diego afternoon.

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reviews, san diego

Review: The Builders and the Butchers; February 19, 2009 at The Casbah; San Diego

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It takes a lot to work the crowd at the Casbah into a frenzy. Most nights, crowd members can’t be bothered to unfold their arms—let alone dance—regardless of their affinity for the band that’s playing. Whether you chalk it up to the laid back Southern California vibe, or to scenesters who care most about how apathetic they seem, San Diego’s hipsters aren’t exactly known for cutting loose. But maybe that’s just because they had never seen The Builders and the Butchers before.

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