Ratatat

I just bought tickets to Ratatat 9/26 at Cat's Cradle and I'm also thinking about seeing Toubab Krewe on 9/17 which will mean that I need to do a little pre-partying. I should be out of my cave soon. In other news, I got my computer back and since XP was reinstalled, I can now view blogs with all of their boxes and frames which makes posting to the Music Parlour a whole lot easier. Peace

song in my head today: Please Read The Letter- Allison Krauss and Robert Plant

Scheduling Snafu

One year of residency down, head hurting from celebration, attention was then paid to the upcoming rotation this morning, noted that I'm scheduled for a peds-ED shift AND clinic tomorrow morning, after working until 1am tonight...hmmm... that beer right there looks tasty.

Searching for light in an already bleak schedule, I found these:

7/5 Big Fat Gap - The Cave
7/6 Fleet Foxes - Local 506
7/11 Langhorne Slim - Cat's Cradle
7/11 Joe Romeo & the Orange County Volunteers - The Cave
7/12 The Club is Open Festival (Roman Candle) - Cat's Cradle
7/25 The Strugglers - Local 506
7/27 Wolf Parade* - Disco Rodeo
8/6 Mike Gordon - Lincoln Theater
8/8 Wilco/Bon Iver - somewhere in Cary, USA
8/12 The Hold Steady - Cat's Cradle
8/16 Shooter Jennings - Lincoln Theater
9/11 Silver Jews* - Cat's Cradle, Tix on sale 6/28
9/12 Old Ceremony - Pour House
9/29 Stereolab - Cat's Cradle
10/5 Black Keys - Disco Rodeo
11/8 Black Crowes - Lincoln Theater

* CDs I'm hoping will be at CD Alley this morning, with alternates The Submarines and First in Funk

Also, diggin' this right now - James, Ward, & Oberst

Downhome Parlour

What a lovely evening we had at the farm. Music, food, a perfect sunset, and wide open space. I am content to leave well enough alone, so here is a list of what we heard:

silver jews
bowerbirds
hello kavita
death cab for cutie
bobby bare, jr
the waifs
frightened rabbit
gillian welch

And we also listened to Rob's finds, and poured one out for our homie.*

Feel free to elaborate via comments or new posts.

*Not true.

A find

Getting ready for a marathon drive to the Northeast tonight and started thinking about listening options in the car. I knew that I wanted to have a couple of podcasts of 'This American Life.' In downloading those, I stumbled upon 'Live in Concert from All Songs Considered' podcasts. Check it out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15681603. Some great looking sets from a lot of bands/artists that we shared during our parlours.

I will try to carry the flame in Boston and start up a similar club (maybe even with a similar name). Hope you all do well. I'll check the blog occasionally for updates.

-rob

apolitical

Really, it's all about the music. (GOBAMA)

Arcade Fire and Merge labelmates Superchunk will play at an Obama rally happening Friday May 2 at Carrboro Town Commons.

Showtime is 2 p.m. and admission is free, but tickets are limited -- first come, first served.

How to get tickets:

Tickets can be picked up during early voting hours starting Thursday:

Obama table outside Morehead Planetarium and Science Center , 250 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill. Hours: M-F: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Balloons and Tunes, 208 W. Main St., Carrboro. Hours: M-F: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 26: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Morning Times Café, 10 E. Hargett St., Raleigh. Hours: M-F: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 26: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Obama table outside of the Old Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Corporation and Morris streets, Durham. Hours: M-Sat: 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

and... we're back.

We met over homemade pizzas to get the night started. The turn-out was fantastic, and we added some new parlourites this fine evening. While the ultimate holla must go to Jimmy and his char-grilled pizza skills, I think we also came across some pretty fantastic music.

Vampire Weekend - you probably already know about them, but if you don't... drop everything and buy the self-titled release from these throwback punk rockers. It'll remind you why it was so fun to jump around your room as a teenager to the likes of Goldfinger and Rancid. I would consider it a more "informed" kind of punk.

Next was NC native daughter, Tift Merritt. She has a new album out, Another Country, and we are hoping to up the parlour's cred by inviting one of her touring guitarists to the next event.

Tegan and Sara. They are identical twins (not just sisters as previously mentioned!) and they play music. Ashley hopes you like it.

Then we heard Panda Bear, the loveable bamboo-eating offshoot of the Animal Collective menagerie. I vote we theme a parlour around bands with animal names.

Beirut's wikipedia entry talks about Eastern European and Balkan folk sounds. Funny how something that sounds so original can be so far from it.

We then shifted gears to the alt-country/folk portion of the night, leading off with Tarkio's re-release compilation Omnibus. Tarkio is Colin Meloy's late 90s alt-country band from Montana. I think they are perfection and still haven't quite accepted that they are not in existence anymore, and that I am 10 years too late. Seriously, try "Slow Down." (m4a)

Then I played a few songs from the Horse Feathers' album Words Are Dead. They remind me a lot of Great Lake Swimmers, particularly the vocals. I think the songs are sweet and airy and ethereal. For example, "Finch on Saturday." (m4a)

I also played The Dodos, whose myspace page describes them as happy hardcore. You'd be hard-pressed to convince me they are hardcore when they have made a song as lovely as "Walking." (m4a)

KJ played some Golden Smog for all the Jeff Tweedy lovers in the house. They apparently have an album coming out on 4/24. Then, holding it down for the ATL, we heard the new Gnarls Barkley. It prompted a great discussion of the use of retro beats and how utterly novel the Gray Album was. DSV then chipped in with The Strugglers, who appears to actually be the brainchild of one local named Randy Bickford. Free CD release show on 4/18 at 506. We'll be there? We saw Mia Todd open for Jose Gonzalez a while back. She has a really lovely voice. Brandy Carlile fits in here somewhere, as well. She was on the Cayamo Cruise with Emmylou Harris and Patty Griffin, so she must be good.

The last thing we heard was Jason Schwartzman of Wes Anderson fame's band Coconut Records. I can't help but think it's a bunch of songs from the soundtrack cutting room floor, but if you knew the depth of my affection for Wes Anderson you'd realize that's a big compliment.

Good parlour. Break!