Langhorne Slim @ Schubas (5/28)

Tuesday night was indie punk with Los Campesinos! and Wednesday was bluegrass with Langhorne Slim. This music variety is one of my favorite things about living in Chicago. Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles played at Schubas which is a really intimate venue since it holds less than a hundred people. Everyone there was just hanging out, having a good time and ready to hear some good music. I went up to the front so I could take some pictures. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my camera after Los Campesinos! so I only got a few pics which was really frustrating because there were some great shots to be had.

The Builders & The Butchers opened the show but we only caught the last two or three songs. I would have liked to see more of them. While they were playing I was busy trying to get a Langhorne Slim t-shirt. I do need to give Langhorne Slim props for their t-shirt offerings! There was a good variety of t-shirts, they had both men's and women's styles, AND they offered t-shirts in XL. I like mine roomy and I find at so many concerts that I don't buy a t-shirt because they are all too small. I got a cool black and white one that has the War Eagles drum on the front.


I believe I first heard of Langhorne Slim from some indie music bloggers. I can't remember which blog it was to give credit to, but I think I was just drawn to the name Langhorne Slim and I downloaded the sample mp3s. "In the Midnight" and "The Electric Love Letter" from the When the Sun's Gone Down album have been staples on my playlists for a good year or so. Since the Langhorne Slim namesake album was released last month I have heard "Rebel Side of Heaven" on the Sirius indie music stations and seen it all over the indie music blogosphere. I bought tickets a few weeks ago when I noticed this Schubas show. I have been listening to about 30 songs from both albums and I think they played almost all of them. One of the great things about Langhorne Slim is that most of their songs are intense and short. So during a performance that is just over an hour long you get to hear a huge variety of songs.

Near the beginning of the show Langhorne Slim mentioned that Schubas was one of the first places they ever played and that he remembered it seemed like such a big venue back then. Last night though it looked small :) He dedicated "Hummingbird" to the City of Chicago which was PERFECT! What a great song that is and I think his dedication to our city got everyone to listen to the lyrics of this new song.

Of course he played a whole bunch of awesome songs: "Checking Out", "The Electric Love Letter", "Mary", "In the Midnight", "Rebel Side of Heaven", "She's Gone". There were also a bunch more I didn't name.


Even though the fast songs are fun to dance around to, my FAVORITE of the night was definitely the performance of "Colette". This is a really cool song off of the new album that is kind of slow and catchy and gets faster as the song goes on. I will try to describe the scene for you (see battery problems above). The drummer and bass player from the War Eagles took a break and left the stage and Langhorne Slim was alone. He sat down on the drum (with the War Eagles name taped on it in black), lowered the mic, crossed his legs and propped up his guitar on his knee. After the first few lyrics of the song he laughed and said that he couldn't get up! The microphone was moved in too close to him so there was no room for him to stand without knocking it down. He did eventually weasel around it to stand up, but since the mic was lowered almost waist level he had to bend over to keep singing. Up in the front, we were giggling at him in between our singing along. At one point he got down on his knees to sing a few versus. And THAT was incredibly sexy - him on his knees singing his heart out with that unique voice and playing that ear candy with his guitar . . . yum!

For their last song the War Eagles came back on stage they did a very crowd-pleasing verion of "I Love to Dance". SO MUCH FUN!!!! Everyone should get to hear that song performed live by at least once in their life. You just can't help but feel happy.

Langhorne Slim is playing in Chicago again tonight (May 28th) at The Hideout to make up for the March 24th show he had to cancel so that he could appear on The Late Show with David Letterman. He'll also be playing at a variety of festivals this summer so make sure to check them out if you get a chance!

Los Campesinos! @ The Empty Bottle (5/27)

"I cherish, with fondness, the day before I met you."
from My Year In Lists

I had a blast at the Los Campesinos! show at The Empty Bottle. These guys LOVE to make noise! And I can't tell you how cute they are - not cute in a "bunny rabbit" kind of way, but cute in a "hella talented and gracious" kind of way. Of course it's a bonus that they are from Cardiff, Wales (home of Doctor Who's time rift and Torchwood).

I first heard Los Campesinos! on one of my alternative music channels on Sirius. The song was "You! Me! Dancing!" and it is super catchy so I downloaded it and added it to my playlist. When I noticed Los Campesinos! were coming to town, I was interested in seeing more shows so I got the tickets. In preparation I listened to their songs on Last.fm and became familiar with "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives", "Don't Tell Me to Do the Math(s)" and "Death to Los Campesinos!"



Even though we didn't get there until 10:15, Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters, the opening act, still hadn't played yet. I'm really glad we saw them perform though because they were so unique. At one point he performed a "movie" by speaking poem/song while flipping through a huge, hand-drawn comic book. And later they did a really cool "history of New York punk" by half speaking the history and interspersing clips of the songs.

Soon after Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters finished up Los Campesinos! took the stage to set up their instruments and do a sound check. Los Campesinos! are made up of seven band members and the stage at The Empty Bottle was packed - I'm surprised they weren't bumping into each other.



I wasn't all sure of what to expect from the show because their recordings, while catchy, have lots of instruments and tend to be a bit noisy. Would they be more punk? Would they just be a hot mess of clanging instruments? What I got was the personification of the word "cool". For real! When I was walking out of the club after the show, "cool" was the word everyone kept using. And it just was. On the recording Gareth (the lead singer) speaks so fast that I assumed when he performed live it would be just a great big jumble of words. But he as on point for all of them and I left fascinated with wanting to know all the lyrics of all of their songs because they are all just so . . . COOL!

While most of the comments about the band have to deal with Aleksandra's voice (she's the female voice you hear on most recordings), after last night I am absolutely obsessed with Gareth. He is an AMAZING performer! He had so much energy up on stage! I have never been so close to something like that so I was blown away. I think he might have been channeling Joy Division's Ian Curtis at times. I was in complete heaven. I wasn't really even dancing because I was so mesmerized by watching him and all his cool movements.



There was a really good turn out considering their album Hold On Now, Youngster... was only released in this US this past April AND this was the second show of a two-night run at Empty Bottle. Luckily for me I was able to get a great place right up and front so I could take some pictures of the band. (That in itself is harder than it seems because they move fast and the lighting sux.) They also had some really cute t-shirts but for some reason I didn't get one. Lucky for me their stuff is available in their merchandise shop online.

The band played a full set and ALL the songs sounded great! Even when they messed up every now and then which you could tell because they'd giggle. We got a special treat when they performed a cover of Pavement's "Frontwards". This is one of those bands that you will love more after you see them perform live. I didn't really like "Don't Tell Me to Do the Math(s)" because it was annoying but now after I've seen it performed live and I was able to feel all of the band's energy as they performed it, I have been won over. And of course I had an amazing time singing along when they finally played "You! Me! Dancing!" and it seemed like the rest of the crowd did too.

Set list:
Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats
Don't Tell Me to Do the Math(s)
Death to Los Campesinos!
This Is How You Spell "HaHaHa, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics"
Drop It Doe Eyes
The International Tweexcore Underground
Knee Deep at ATP
My Year in Lists
Frontwards (Pavement cover)
We Are All Accelerated Readers
...And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes In Unison
You! Me! Dancing!
We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks

Encore: 2007, the Year Punk Broke (My Heart)

When I'm 64

Mom's birthday fell on Memorial Day this year. She turned 64 today and yes, she has been singing the Beatles song all weekend! We decided to have a BBQ since most of the restaurants would be closed. Mom requested ribs for dinner and for me to make my Chocolate-Mayonnaise Cupcakes with Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting. Margie bought some babyback ribs at Costco yesterday and she put a rub on them to let them marinade overnight. Adam was on grill duty! The cupcake recipe is ridiculously complicated, especially the frosting, so I spent a good two hours preparing the cupcakes before dinner.

Of course it took about an hour to clean up. I did something wrong when I made the coffee and the filter must have gotten clogged because the coffee over flowed and there was coffee grounds and liquid everywhere! Of course we noticed this just as we lit the candles on the cupcakes so we had to leave Sharon to clean it up while we were singing "happy birthday" to my mom. But mom was oblivious to our chaos because she was having a great time - and that's how it should be for the birthday girl!

Rilo Kiley @ The Riviera (5/24)

Last night I went to see Rilo Kiley at The Riveria Theater. We got there around 9pm and The Spinto Band was still playing. I had never heard of them before but after seeing them perform live I definitely want to check them out a bit more.

We had such a blast when Rilo Kiley came on. The place was packed and while we weren't in the way back, it was still really hard to see. We had to shift around and try and find space between people's heads. The opened with three songs off of their new album Under the Blacklight, including one of my favs: "The Moneymaker". After a few songs we found a space on the stairs and I had a great view. We ended up chatting with some of the people nearby and hung out with them the rest of the night. During "Silver Lining" they dropped three huge balls filled with silver strips for the audience to bounce around. But my two favorite songs of the night were "Portions for Foxes" off of their More Adventurous album and "With Arms Outstretched" from The Execution of All Things. I had never hears "With Arms Outstretched" and it was clearly a crowd favorite since everyone sang along.


The clip above is Jenny singing "With Arms Outstretched" and the video is of the actual show I was at.

Indy's Back!

I just got home from seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I took my mom to see it as part of her "birthday weekend". We both enjoyed it a lot. While it was in no way realistic, the movie is just good fun.

It was great to see Indy again and the little love story between him and his old girlfriend was cute. Of course I haven't seen the first three movies in years so I'll have to go back and watch them to remember which movie she and the other characters were in and where they all came into the Indiana Jones timeline. Shia LaBoeuf was REALLY great and he is quickly becoming one of my new favorites. They set it up so that if they wanted to make a 5th Indiana Jones type of movie that Shia LaBoeuf could fill Harrison Ford's shoes quite well.

So You Think You Can Dance: Robert Moraine is AMAZING!!!

The highlight of tonight's season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance was "Mr. Fantastic" Robert Moraine, a popper from Los Angeles. I hope we get to see alot more of him!

What do you love about this world?

I love so many things about this world! And the fact that we humans can make such a cool commercial is one of them (and so is The Discovery Channel).

Garden Day 2008

This whole weekend has been filled with gardening with my mom. Friday night my mom stopped at the garden center at the Home Depot on North Avenue and got a few things. Then she sent me back there on Saturday. I had specific instructions to get a "snowball" bush and some pansies. No one there either a) knew what pansies were; or b) knew where the pansies were. And of course I had no idea. I also bought her a rhododendron plant (only because I LOVE the song by Bloc Party and am hoping to hear them perform it live this year at Lollapalooza), a hanging plant and two other small plants that were appealing to me. One was called a "fishnet stocking" or something like that. No idea about the other one but it had some kind of red flower and she likes red. Of course the hanging plant I got is way too heavy for the brackets we have to hang it on and today it pulled the entire bracket out of the wall as it crashed to the ground, missing a glass table by only inches.

This morning my mom, Sharon and I did some more flower shopping. First stop was K-Mart on Elston because my mom loves that she can get rose bushes there for only $9. I guess she hasn't had much success with roses lasting through the seasons so she doesn't feel bad if they die since they only cost $9. Of course she bought 5 of them! But in my mom's mind this works out.

Later the three of us went to Urhausen Greenhouses which is really overwhelming for a non-gardener who wants to learn. There are tons of plants, flowers and herbs. We were in heaven because there were so many interesting things to look at. They both bought a bunch of stuff that I can't report on because I don't remember what everything was, but I know they were both happy with their finds. I bought some blue grass stuff because I thought it would look neat next to all the other flowers my mom is planting in the back yard. I also bought some veggie plants (zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, bok choy, and melrose peppers) and several herbs (basil, cilantro, sage, thyme, and some others).

The funny part is that I have NO IDEA how to grow herbs or vegetables. I have been "city living" for so long and this is the first time I live in a house that actually has soil that can grow things (Florida has sand). Dick knows all about planting things because he grew up on a farm in Scranton, PA. He was laughing at me because of all the stuff I bought. He says we don't have enough room to grow everything and kept shaking my head. I don't get it because the plants are SO TINY! He insists that most of the things will grow to be quite big. Our solution is for me to buy a large planter for the herb garden. He is going to have to dig up a new section of the yard and I'm going to buy more soil so we can plant all the peppers and other things. Then we just have to hope the rabbits don't eat up all our food before we do.

Rhododendron by Bloc Party

Eddie Izzard: Stripped

Tonight I'm going to see Eddie Izzard: Stripped at The Chicago Theater. I love him from The Riches.They had a marathon of his stand up shows on Bravo earlier this month. I heard he does not dress in drag anymore. I am REALLY hoping he does some good historical jokes that I love him for and doesn't spend too much time on politics.


UPDATE: Just got back from the show. It was a TON of fun. My favorite part was in the beginning when he said that there should be a TV show called "Whose pig is this?" The concept is that you put a pig in random places and get people to say "whose pig is this" and then someone answers and then the person asking the question tells the pig owner to get the pig the hell out of there. I don't know why I find this so overly funny, but I do. The show in general was great. He went on a long time about cavemen and dinosaurs and that could have been shorter, but in general it was a very high quality entertainment night. Would definitely see him again if he comes to town.

"The Office" Season Finale

Tonight was the season finale of "The Office". If for some reason you do not know, The Office is like crack to me. I get completely high when watching it. The giggle factor is super good. And tonight I nearly over-dosed. The season finale was like combining 7 shows into one! There were lots of surprises [SPOILER ALERT]: Jan's pregnant, Jim was gonna propose, Angela and Andy, Angela and Dwight, the new girl liking Michael . . . it was SO DELICIOUS!

There are so many cliffhangers that make me wonder how different it is going to be next year. And there will be NO MORE TOBY! Michael's reactions to Toby have kept me giggling for years. Below is a clip of a tribute song Michael wrote for Toby to say goodbye.

Bret and Jermaine, How I've Missed You!

Flight of the Conchords video for "Ladies of the World" from their new album. Now I really need to go get myself a pair of roller skates!

An Enchanted Mother's Day

Today was all about mom - as it should be since it is mother's day. We started off by going to brunch at Brasserie Jo (one of her favorite places) with Adam's family as well. We all at too much but it was nice to get together. Since the day was cold and rainy we did not end up going to the garden center to stock up on flowers (or plant them) which is what mom wants for her present. Instead we came home and watched two movies: Dan in Real Life and Enchanted.



My mom LOVED Enchanted. She said it was very similar to Elf and she couldn't stop talking about what a cute movie it was. This kind of surprised me because I thought she would think it was stupid - but the movie actually held her attention and it was nice that she got to relax.

VHS or Beta: We missed them!

Look what we missed tonight! VHS or Beta played at the Empty Bottle tonight. It's all my fault because I didn't buy tickets and when we got there they were sold out. We actually bought one ticket from a guy on the street and then couldn't get a second one. I should have know better but I am way annoyed with myself. It's just that lately I have been buying tickets in advance and then I don't end up going and I just eat it. Oh well, it would have been really fun to see VHS or Beta and I know we would have loved it. I'll have to keep my eye out for when they come in town again.

8 Random Facts

I was tagged by @radix33 with this meme to list 8 Random Facts about myself so here it goes . . .

8 random facts about me
1. Sometimes I blast music and dance around the house, even though I'm 35.

2. I like the way my parrot's feathers smell.

3. I like the way my dogs feet smell too - kind of like corn chips.

4. Usually I have more than one life-list going on. Sometimes I have lists for lists. I just make them because I like crossing things off of them.

5. Most of the time I look through cookbooks for a recipe to make for dinner I get too tired and decide to order out.

6. I spend a ridiculous amount of time online finding new music. I believe in paying for it so I also spend a ridiculous amount of money each month on iTunes.

7. I do not like to wear nail polish on my fingers but I do like to wear nail polish on my toes.

8. I watch the video countdown on Vh1 on weekends just to I can get mad about the songs that are on there (still after a gazillion weeks).

Rules:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to read your blog.

Tag:
(will update this later tonight)