Music Is Cooooool

Haha, oh my God, who's excited to play the fun-as-fuck game of school tomorrow?!

I had Cat Power tickets for over a month and the time came Friday to hand them to the doorman (who would be cool, no doubt, since he works for R5). OK, so first, the Starlight Ballroom grooves. That place is just so strange, but a wonderful venue for a show. We did lots of hanging around in our great spot, close to the stage: Anna, Dude, Alexa and I, my dad drinking at the bar in the back (he was so excited). This French duo, Appaloosa, opened. Guy/girl. The guy looked like Beck Hansen and had the best dance moves and the girl was very Nico. Their sound was like a less intense version of the Knife and they grew on me throughout the set. Chan Marshall kept us waiting so I talked to this girl behind me.

"So, are you a journalist?"
"Yeah, kind of I guess. For my school paper."
"Where do you go?"
"LaSalle."
"Do they still have a prep? I think my grandfather went there."
"Yeah they still have a prep."

And it continued and it was exciting because it's not every day I meet a female that not only likes but writes (gah!) about music. Kind of tragically, her boyfriend was there standing on her left. But we conversed uninterrupted. Early on, it was the usual. Then we went through our best-of 2007s and mine was you know, kind of typical I guess, save for the inclusion of Eddie Vedder, Los Campesinos! et al. Hers was crazy different; Electrelane and No Age were the only bands I was familiar with. Then I told her I was on a Scottish music binge and I told her who and she was like no no no, you're twee but so mainstream. "I'm twee too, but you're mainstream twee." Oh my god she was twee, which is like, GAH, so hot, but she was so much cooler than me and she had a boyfriend. She told me about all these labels that I was familiar with in name and name only so I kept having to tell her "look I'm not stupid I know these labels, I'm just caught in a routine. But thanks for writing them down." She seemed kind of condescending after awhile, but no hate, I realized later that I am just as cool. No hate.

After that breathless craziness, Chan and her band emerged, smoking, and they. were. tight. These are like, pro-as-fuck session men (and one fashioncore holdover keyboard player). And Chan, she stalks the stage like the singer of an overtly expressive hardcore band, making hand motions and dancing and reaching out to the crowd. Literally speaking to us. Waving to me, I swear! I couldn't help myself, she was right there so I waved and immediately wrung my hands in self-disgust and nervousness while she reciprocated. It was hot.

[There's this part in High Fidelity where they are watching Marie DeSalle perform and talking to each other about how awesome it would be to date a musician. Chan Marshall is that musician you would want to date - something tells me she seems very interested in her men, but only for limited amounts of time. If you played an instrument, she'd probably put you in her band. Your inside jokes would be included in the liner notes of her records. You'd be mentioned in interviews and features. Maybe cameo in a video. Not to mention, she's gorgeous and has an amazing body.]

Her set was long and, admittedly, mostly unfamiliar to me. The new material from Jukebox sounded great, she's really meant to sing everything she touches. It's surprising. I think she played "American Flag," I'm not sure, but the encores were fucking awesome. I think she really liked us too, as an audience. We were pretty polite and she lingered for a good five minutes after her band left the stage, touching hands and finding a clever way to give someone the set list.

Yesterday I worked, Leanna gave me her number. I'm not going to get into the strange and erm, yeah connotations of that. Haha! I love work. Then, we saw Tim Finn. We as in Mom, Dad, Mimi. He's really wonderful, his lyrics and songs ahhh... So he's a good songwriter, pretty much.

Today was a typical Sunday, which is a great thing. Afternoon downtime with Alex, Trey and Mimi, with a little bit of musical creativity somewhere in there. Now I'm watching the Grammy's, which are whack. It's obvious, but, they miss so many bands. Spoon, for instance. Why weren't they nominated for best rock album or best alternative album? Something like that...there's tons more. But they did nail some people like Lily Allen and the White Stripes and Amy Winehouse and Kanye West (both of whom won big tonight :)). I want to make an award show. The bulk of the nominees will come from Pazz and Jop. Lifetime Achievement honorees will include Steve Albini, Stephen Malkmus, Ian Mackaye etc. Awards will be doled out in quick succession, in cool categories by cool people, in order to save room for the performances. Those will be like no one has ever seen and will include collaborations initially deemed as whack until they end up making a record together or something. I'm tired, I love Amy Winehouse and getting over women. And friends! But that's the usual and no one really cares, but it should be expressed.

School should fuck off and die, life is too lovey.

P.S. Best summer ever coming May 2008! Be. Prepared. Get. Involved.