Miike Snow

MP3: Miike Snow-Cult Logic (c/o TheBurningEar)

MP3: Capleton-Hidden Secrets

Best. Show. Ever.

Dr. Dog sold out back to back nights at the Fillmore TLA this past weekend. I attended the Friday show and to tell the truth, almost bailed on it since I’d seen them so often and I haven’t been listening to them much lately. Well as soon as they came on stage they blew me away and I can’t believe I almost didn’t go. They had the packed house singing to every tune and the set was amazing- something out of a dreamscape. They played almost 2 straight hours.

Apparently Saturday night’s show topped Friday’s as the band ordered pizzas for the entire audience. I forgot my camera that night so I don’t have any pictures of my own and so far I can’t find any online. However, I did find a video of the pizza party:

Here are a few pictures from earlier in the tour but the set isn’t quite as elaborate as the Philly shows. I’ll keep an eye out for pictures of this magic night.

Choose Blue

I wish I could find the original track sampled here…

MP3: Ghostface Killah- Stay (c/o fluxblog)

When I know that you with him, you ain’t calling me back
It be that thing down there that got me way off track

From Ghostface’s EXCELLENT new LP Ghostdini-Wizard Of Poetry In Emerald City

This Morn

I love October. There’s about 102 thing to do this weekend and next.
Dr. Dog tonight with Jeffrey Lewis, then my youngest turns five on Sunday.

MP3: Dr. Dog- Ain’t it Strange

No Kids are playing three shows in the Philly area starting this Sunday. One of them will be held at my place of employment, Swarthmore College next Friday Oct. 30 w/ Mount Eerie.
I love this No Kids tune- its mellow indie with a dash of dubstep:

MP3: No Kids- The Beaches All Closed

More goods:

Post disco boogie TSOP from 1980:

MP3: Sugar Bear Johnson- When Your Jones Comes Down (re-edit)

MP3: Big Boi- Shine Blockas (c/o fluxblog)

Camel Walk

Ike Turner is one of the top five funky figures of all time. The Ikettes were he and Tina’s backing band and hell of a band on their own but didn’t gain fame like other girl groups of the 60s supposedly because of constant lineup changes due to Ike’s constant hiring and firing.

This one is a stomper. Plus it teaches the little ones now to count!

MP3: The Ikettes- Camel Walk

More girl groups I dig this week:

Haunting sound with odd lyrics from the EP Exquisite Corpse released this month.They lyrics simply spell out Billie’s first and last name a few times, then they sing the lyrics to “My Guy”, yet it really works:

MP3: Warpaint- Billie Holiday

Warpaint will be playing the Millcreek Tavern in West Philly this Saturday Oct. 24.

From Minneapolis, Total Babe:

MP3: Total Babe- Gary Coleman

This is my song of the year. NEVER tire of it. Still haven’t gotten my tix for her show at the First Unitarian Church on Nov. 5 and if I don’t hurry I’ll get the door shut on me again.
MP3: Thao Nguyen with The Get Down Stay Down- Know better Learn Faster

I’ll leave you with this northern soul classic:

MP3: Maxine Brown- One In A Million

I Woke up Today

I managed to get out of the house exactly one time all weekend and that was for the Sea Wolf / Port O’Brian show at the North Star Bar on Saturday:

Van Pierszalowski, the lead singer of Port O’Brian told me that the band has been living off the proceeds from this cute Australian paint commercial for two years. It features my favorite song of 2007:

Port O’Brian’s new LP Threadbare dropped just this month.

They added a couple members for this tour:

MP3: Port O’Brian- Sour Milk/Salt Water

Sara Lov was the opener. She was able to save a bit of money by pressing all of her backing instrumentation onto vinyl:

Sea Wolf was the headliner:

These pictures are a little late in coming, but I also managed to get to the North Star for a show two weeks ago.

Scotland’s We Were Promised Jetpacks:

England’s Brakes Brakes Brakes:

Sorry, I didn’t stay for Twilight Sad.

I took this picture of a woman standing in front of me by mistake but I remember thinking at the time that it’s nice seeing shows in Philly because everyone is so much shorter than people in the corn-fed Midwest where I grew up. After seeing the picture I notice that this woman has no neck… something I see more and more, most likely a product of our ever-fattening society. She looks like a snowman made with only two balls.

Identify This

Went camping up near Allentown for the bike swap last weekend. While out in the woods gathering firewood and squirrels for dinner I found an old dump. “Dumping” is one of my old favorite pasttimes. Old farmers’ dumps were the best place to find old beer cans when I was a kid.

So I found this awesome hood ornament. It looks like an impala, but I didn’t think Chevy made Impala’s until 1960 or so. This looks too old. I couldn’t find much online, but according to the Taillight King, it’s a ‘51 Chevy. No picture of the car except for this:

I also found a depression glass bowl, totally intact with not even a chip. I carried it a mile then proceeded to drop it on the pavement and it shattered into a hundred pieces.

Some more pictures of the trip:

The countryside is beautiful in upstate PA, but it’s getting quite developed around Allentown.

Katching Krayfish at the KOA Kampground.

The bike swap was OK- I didn’t have too much luck. I found a bottom bracket, cranks, SPD pedals, a rain jacket, and a couple tubes but that’s it. Oh, and my rain jacket is canary blue so I look like a girl.. but it was 20 bucks so I don’t really care. Eat it.

This group rode up from Philly for the day. I think they said it took them 4 hours.

There’s always a young group of Pennsylvania Dutch dudes buying tricked out bikes… mountain and road. It’s cool that the bike is such a huge contrast to the garb. Neato.

The swap is definitely the place to buy a wheelset. This was the coolest one I saw- American Classic hubs with Velocity rims…. but it wasn’t much of a bargain so I passed.

PBR 16oz were only $ two-fitty!

My bday present:

Park Tool Stool
Park Took Stool
Park Tool Stool

Before and After

I bought this ugly old desk when I first moved to Philly. Now it’s perfect for my daughter’s room.

Before:

Most of it is solid maple so I tried to strip and refinish it but the top isn’t original- it’s some sort of plastic laminate and the edges are raw cut with no veneer, so it didn’t look good. The only fix was to paint it.

During:

The final painted product, with new, more “girly” knobs:

Soon I’ll post “before and after” pictures of all of my other projects- a homemade TV stand, my basement den/ home theatre, and an after-market car roof rack are just a few of them.

Someday.

My Dad made this table for my sister’s wedding. There’s not a nail or screw in the entire thing:

Beer Nerd Pictures

Once in a while I take pictures only a beer nerd could appreciate. Here are some of them.

I picked up the Fat Tire while I was in Nashville. This is arguably one of the prettiest beer cans in 30 years. Straub recently updated their can. My brother in law’s 92 year-old neighbor keeps a keg of Straub on tap in his beermeister at all times. That should be a lesson to you: Drink beer, live long.

By the way, when traveling and visiting other cities I sometimes get the “grass is greener” feeling and start hating my town and wishing I was elsewhere. This hasn’t happened the last few towns I visited.

Case in point: While in Nashville recently I stopped at the ONE beer store everyone told me had “everything”. I shit you not, they didn’t have ONE SINGLE bottle of IPA. I think I only saw one or two brands of pale ale. Fat Tire was everywhere for some reason.

Makes me appreciate Philly, even if we are, once again, the ugliest, dirtiest, and meanest city in the US. (bad news out today: It’s Always Ugly in Philadelphia)

Unlike Nashville, New York has beer everywhere:

I like the way Yuengling reuses their advertising from the turn of the century!:

These are two of my most recent purchases. Coronado is a new-to-the-east-coast California brewer and this Islander IPA is a perfect example of a West Coast IPA. The Lagunitas Hop Stoopid is supposed to be 102 I.B.U’s but it didn’t seem like it to my tastebuds.

I’m headed up to the bike swap this weekend so I’m going to swing by Shangy’s on the way. I really hope they have some GABF gold-winning Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, but I’m sure they won’t, so I’ll have to settle for the regular ol’ Big Eye IPA.

Wknd2

It was a nice fall weekend in the city. The best time of year. I hit a few venues on the on the bus and by bike.

The Midtown Village Festival/Octoberfest was fun. Lots O’ taps.

Fergies had Yard’s new Cape of Good Hope IPA on draft which was cool. I wouldn’t consider it an imperial IPA- more like an “East Coast IPA and a half”.

Fergies also had some bands. This was a local reggae act but I forget the name.

The kids got tuckered out from the bouncy castle.

This is Saint Claires church, rectory and convent on Girard Avenue. All long-abandoned yet still beautiful. Available for your purchase.

Everything is pink in the city for breast cancer awareness month.

America’s oldest zoo.