Bumpin It.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Outside Lands in San Franscisco

Okay so in actuality I was at a friend's house a few blocks from the show at Golden Gate Park. Good enough sound to hear the show. It was as to be expected from Tom Petty. Many of the same songs he's known for, played reliably as ever. The rest of the lineup wasn't particularly interesting and I went back inside for food.

Gnarls Motherfuckin' Barkley

I really don't think it is possible for this dynamic duo to put on a bad show. Playing a great mix of new songs and old favorites, topped off with an encore performance of Radiohead's Reckoner that gave Thom Yorke a run for his money. Halfway through the show they performed an acoustic version of Transformer, which was a highlight of the night. If you haven't seen them, do yourself a favor and partake in this fantastic foray of genre blending, mind melting goodness.
Opening for Gnarls, who couldn't himself make it to the show, was Deerhoof and a band from Senegal called Fallou Dieng. Deerhoof sounded like roadkill, with a wailing lead singer "blending" to upper register electric guitar. Sorry, Deerhoof, but after Robert Plant matching Jimmy Page so soulfully and spot on, you really have to blow me away due to comparison. Thankfully Fallou Dieng did not dissapoint as one by one different drums and instruments entered playing wonderfully polyrhythmic solos, punctuated by pounding accents. Definitely a band I recommend looking into.

Living Legends

Living Legends played at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center last week for a foundation to prevent teen drunk-driving. Thank's to Nick's uncle we were able to get in, despite the maximum-age limit. A few local bands opened, ranging from mediocre to pretty good. Living Legends tore down the place. Although the relatively low turn out (maybe 200 people high-school age kids) it was as loud and bumpin as ever.

The Presets

Never heard of Aussie's electro duo, The Presets, but they kicked ass. Walter Meego opened, a Chicago trio who were awesome but didn't get much love from the audience. The Presets were amazing and somehow got an audience of LA fuckers bouncing for their whole show. It was great, I really felt I was in 1985.

www.myspace.com/thepresets
www.myspace.com/waltermeego

Mason Jennings

I am fucking late. Apologies. Yes, it was quite random, and it felt like I was at the best high school talent show ever, but Santa Monica High is a legitimate venue. Mason Jennings, Brett Dennen, and Missy Higgins sounded great playing at Barnum Hall, which happens to be the theater for Santa Monica High. We missed Miss Missy, but Brett Dennen is amazing! He seriously got the whole place bumping. Everyone was a chilled out for Mason, but his new songs sound awesome. "I Love Jesus and Buddha Too" is probably going to be one of my favorites--can't wait for the new album.

www.masonjennings.com
www.brettdennen.net
www.missyhiggins.com

Flood in a Drought

Recently more and more music has become unsatisfying. I am not bagging on new bands but music I have been listening to regardless of conception date. Whether it be due to the amount I have listened to it or the fact that creating my own music has devalued other artists one unexpected fact remains: this is a good thing. It has caused those few really standout perfect albums to remain while the dregs are burned in the pyre of replay that is radio and friends' cars. I am beginning to see a few indisputably awesome albums that shine through the superfluous and vacuous muck that I once loved, but now trudge through disappointingly. So now I will call to those albums that really stand the test of time. First, Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary. If there was an album that encapsulated the sheer pain of life and the ecstasy of its freedom in one blaring, yodeling middle finger solute - this would be it. This is a true album that can only be fully appreciated in its entirety, and to listen to individual songs is at least negligence and at most a gross insult to this great piece of art. Second, Animal Collective's Feels. Despite the genius of the bands recent endeavors including Strawberry Jam and Water Curses this album still remains one of their most prolific and piercing albums. While I am a ridiculously huge fan of Water Curses it is too much in its infancy for me to be blaring my opinions (even if it may be the peak of AC as we know it). On a side note this album includes one of the most romantic lines in all of lyricdom short of The New Pornographers Sing me Spanish Techno. This is of course Flesh Canoe's universal "singing to you what to do if id ask you to make funny faces with me in the mirror of the bathroom". If you ever wanted to float into yourself backwards and come out upside down take an afternoon with this album in a small room with no windows. I guarantee you will rip your clothes off in a vain attempt to express the euphoria within this album before you get halfway. Third, Otis Redding's The Dock of the Bay. When people reference the great blows dealt to music as we know it from the unfortunate deaths of promising artists who would've surely changed the face of music, a few names come to mind. Buddy Holly, John Bonham, but no one loss is possibly as tragic to the fate of music as the loss of Otis Redding. One of the most soulful and heartfelt artists ever (as I hear the cries of Ray Charles fans everywhere) was taken before many people were able to appreciate his genius and that of this album. Blues cannot describe how blue this album is, the spectrum fails to find a color solemn, melancholic, and bitter enough to describe the bite and feel of this album. Finally, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson manages to capture adolescence in all of its innocence and perfection before the leap into experience. This album seems to define the cliff between adolescence and adulthood more than many people are able to, giving solace and fond reminiscence to an otherwise chaotic and desperate time. This album gives a window with which to recapture what was thought impossible to experience past its prime: youth. The irony of permanence this album gives to time itself would otherwise seem a luciferin attempt to decry the order of what is, if it were not for the calm harmonies and soothing falsetto of Brian Wilson. Pet Sounds is perhaps one of the greatest rebel albums ever made because it would seem ridiculous to call it as such.