international geographic

This year was something of an anomaly for me: I only went to five shows. Two of those shows, however, were music festivals and easily made up for the otherwise quiet concert calendar — Lollapalooza with a staggering 35 shows in three days and the Newport Folk Festival with another 6.

I also went to 3 free shows at Madison Square Park: Jonatha Brooke, Raul Malo, and the John Scofield Trio. I’m a huge fan of Raul Malo and the Mavericks so we ended up braving some of the worst rain of the summer to see him. It rained through most of his shortened set, but it was still worth it.
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I’ve been procrastinating publishing this latest post for several weeks now. I’ve had ample time to write it; that’s not the problem at all. No, I simply find it painfully, frustratingly difficult to narrow my collection down to only a handful of records, especially in a year with so many fantastic releases to choose from.
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I’ve been to a bunch of shows lately and even though they were all really good I haven’t been moved to write anything about them. Well, here they are… recorded more for my poor memory than anything else.

• March 25 – Crystal Castles with Health (Studio B)
• April 8 – Explosions in the Sky (Terminal 5)
• May 5 – The Teenagers (Bowery Ballroom)
• May 18 – Black Kids (Bowery Ballroom)

It’s always tough trying to pick my favorite albums of the year. The biggest problem is the sheer amount of music I listen to in a given year. By December it’s difficult to remember what I was listening to in January and February. This year it was even tougher since my main computer crashed over the summer and since then I haven’t listened to most of the stuff from the first half of the year, opting instead to only listen to newer albums for the most part.

There were a few clear favorites this year, like any other year, and then some which got off to a fast start but quickly fell by the wayside.

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I was bored last night so I decided to go back to the Bird’s Eye and catch the second set at 10:30pm. For some reason, as soon as I took a seat and the set started, I got really sleepy. I couldn’t stop yawning for about 3/4 of the hour long set even though I really enjoyed the music. The band this time was the Jürgen Seefelder – Ingrid Jensen Quintet and they were really quite sharp. Loud, energetic, and at times playful, it was a fantastic show. They really put the great acoustics of the Bird’s Eye to good use.

On Tuesday I went to see the Thermals and the Lords of Altamont in Zurich. Zurich is Switzerland’s largest city and cultural capital — and nothing screams culture like Iron Maiden and the Thermals playing shows on the same night! Luckily for me (and a whole lot of Maiden fans) it’s just an hour away by train.

I actually saw them about a month ago at Fontana’s for the Brooklyn Vegan CMJ show but they only played a half-hour set and the place was so packed I could barely get in the room. They kicked ass, though, so there was no way I could pass up a chance to see em again.

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I found the liner notes for Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday in Restaurant Gundeldinger-Casino. Pretty random. Wish I took a picture of it, laying there on top of the booth. I didn’t actually keep it, either, so if it’s yours and you want it back, you better hope it’s still there…

Last night I checked out the Bird’s Eye jazz club which seems to be one of the few regular live music venues in town. Regular in this case means they have shows two nights a week, with two sets each on Fridays and Saturdays. I found this out all too late, of course, as I showed up late, about 15 minutes before the second set ended just after 11:30pm.

The set was alright but a little too experimental for my tastes. During the encore the pianist got up to pluck the piano wire directly. A little much, if you ask me. Kinda like seahorses.

The venue itself was very small. Not at all unusual as far as clubs of this sort go, but judging from the outside you expect a lot more on entering. The upside to the small size (and the semi-cylindrical ceiling) is fantastic sound that reaches every inch of the room with perfect clarity.