Innerpartysystem

This band is better than you, sorry.

Piebald: 4/17

I go to a lot of shows. It happens. Sometimes, I go to enough shows in a given amount of time where I come home and look at my bed and wonder where it came from (see CMJ 2007 for pointers on that one). But if I didn't go to as many shows as I do, I'd have never come into a Piebald love. Me and my best friend have seen them loads of times so the name is familiar when it appears on the bill. But the last time--oh dear, the last time was enough to make us willing to back our groupie bags and get on the road to follow them. But we didn't. Instead, we cried hysterically when we heard they'd be leaving us and the music world. It was a sad day.

The show at Bowery Ballroom was a last show done right. With Blackberry to text in one hand and a beer that never seemed to empty in the other, things felt right. The video their friend made that they played before the show was ridiculously funny but right in place. I'm still laughing just thinking about it (you know, this one IS funny like haha and not like I told you so). The set was one of those massive body infused sing-along's. Everyone...right on top of each other. But at the same time...no one really touching. Enough room to get your hand up and enough personal space to keep the beer in the cup. The normal carnage of plastic cups from a Piebald show was evident on the floor. At one point, I lost a shoe. I found it again moments later. This is the inevitable problem with wearing ballet flats as if they were fused to my feet.

I could have cried during American Hearts. I think a lot of people could have. Everyone was a part of it at that moment and it was heartbreaking.

I'm going to go cry in the corner and tell Piebald to come back now.

INNERPARTYSYSTEM Radiohead Remix

Really, at this point in my life I should just have an Innerpartysystem appreciation blog but, you can listen and vote below for Innerpartysystem's remix of Radiohead's "Nude" below:



I don't really get the point of this contest but damn...the combination of Radiohead and Innerpartysystem can sure make a girl pretty damn giddy.

I'm still convinced that I'm at least 500 of the plays on their Transmission cover...make that 501.

Kevin Devine's "Fever Moon"

I keep saying that any day now I'll stop failing at life and actually post again.

Expect some backdated Innerpartysystem love.

Moving along, I can't stop listening to this song. I love Kevin Devine. More than life itself. When I graduated high school, the boy who I was in love with band played a show at the Continental with Kevin Devine direclty after Make the Clocks Move dropped. There was something kinda quirky in him and my best friend bought his CD. Fast forward to finding Spilt the Country, Split the State for for a dollar immediately after it came out. And then fast foward to an absolute obsession a few years later. It was a joke this past summer when I always said that from May to early October (when my ipod broke), I listened to nothing but Kevin Devine in route to anywhere. The thing is, it was no joke--I have the 4-digit-high playcounts to prove it.

"Fever Moon" is one of Devine's new demos. He's been posting them like a frenetic (and infrequently unscheduled) mad-man--once every few weeks. A good deal have them have been Devine show staples as of late (such as "Mr. Murphy" and "It's Only Your Life"). Those of us with Kevin Devine obsession problems have been collecting them feverishly like Pokemon cards or pogs (remember pogs, kids?).

But I found that for the most part, I wasn't too much a fan of them.

But then there was "Fever Moon."

I will never see how this sounds like an Elliot Smith song (I'm sorry, just because he's known to cover them doesn't mean it's there). But the song is sexy. It's the type of song that takes you somewhere--instantly. It takes me to a place where having sex in the middle of summer with your back facing a barely sputtering fan. To one of those dripping dates where cities look like their melting. The song is sexy. The song is sensual. The song can't seem to leave my ears.

MP3 Download: C/O TMDecomposer

Duffy 3/17/2008 Hiro Ballroom NYC

So, I'm in every sense of the word a born Anglophile (which is ironic, considering I read French). If there's a trend that comes from that part of the world, I'll normally be down with it (shoegaze, take notice). I consider Wales to be a part of that too, and as a result, I love Duffy.

Monday night, I got the chance to see her at Hiro Ballroom. For New Yorker's who have never been there, Hiro Ballroom is the oddest venue known to man for one simple reason: it shouldn't be a venue--it should be a high caliber venue. A top shelf-bar dedicated to only Asian beers and quality spirits, an upstairs dinning area and more seats than standing room (not to mention enough candles to scare the fire safety bear shitless) make seeing any shows at Hiro an odd experience. Duffy was no excuse to that. I don't think I've ever seen a show that didn't have any openers and I don't think I've seen a stage that small in all of New York.

Nevertheless, Duffy killed it. Contrary to the winners on Itunes, "Mercy" is catchy-solid music. Duffy showed her foreign nature when introducing the song by stating the she didn't know what song of the week really meant. For those who haven't had a chance to listen to her album legally, the highlight of the album is going to be "Stepping Stone." I say this because I can't really tell you how any other song she played (though I can tell you she played "Rockaferry," "Warwich Avenue," and "Serious") went because in my mind...the show was over as soon as "Stepping Stone" went down. The song is essentially the song that every female whose ever cared about someone who didn't care as much about them will end up singing in the shower for years to come. Yes, it's that good. It's slow, it shows soul and I don't care if I can't dance to it: I think it's fucking phenomenal.


Up next, I may actually update this blog within a regulated time period after a show! I know, novel idea right there.