FINALLY!!

I feel like I've been waiting months for this music video to make it's way to the internet! This is, without exaggeration, the best thing I've ever seen :)



This song is off Lose Your Illusion, Too and has definitely been stuck on repeat for the past few months (due to a stolen promo copy out of the flameshovel office) do yourself a favor and get to know this band.

Sad Day in Rock History

Almost 2 years ago I came to Chicago for the very first time - and within hours of getting off the plane I met Radley.

Most notable family member of the Empty Bottle and favorite feline. At the estimated age of 19 Radley had experienced more than some humans, had more friends than I ever will and saw some seriously awesome shows.

Radley, you will totally be missed.

our first meeting

Rest In Peace

Lollapalooza

This past weekend was Lollapalooza

To me Lollapalooza evokes memories of Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden; also it reminds me of being 7 years old. Once it stopped touring in 1997 I figured I would never go...then it started up only in Chicago and I thought I'd never go.

There is no such thing as never I guess :)

Day 1 was brought to you by my friend Chad who scored us passes

Oversized and Overpriced

My love of Piña coladas knows no end

Mistakenly saw Kings of Leon instead of the Killers - totally rad none the less

Day 2 photos are brought to you by Bobby Burg!

Bobby took this photo during Atmosphere because there was a Canadian flag

Randy separated his shoulder the night before in Milwaukee :(

No Age backstage

Grant Park is a beautiful location for a festival, or a picnic

Day 3, late in the day, thanks Bobby for slipping off your pass for me :)

Caught the end of Deerhunter but no worries I'll be seeing them later

Band of Horses - fuck I love them

Jumbotron view - best seat in the house backstage, climbed on a pile of stacked folding chairs

perfect moment

Yay finally got to see The Killers!!!

Not going to lie - I fucking loved it

That photo was stolen off flickr, this is where I actually was standing
They saved "He doesn't look a thing like Jesus" song until the encore and every single person sang along - which made me realize something fucked up
Every single person knew it because of Rock Band.

10s of thousands of people leaving at once

Did I mention how much I love Chicago?

Because it's a lot

Ran from downtown to Logan Square to see No Deachunter show - Bobby loves Dean

..and I love Bobby

I can't remember the last time I was this exhausted - wake up at 630 work all day run to Lollapallooza then head to another crazy show

I could not have done it if I had to stand a second longer - best seat in the house

Dan Deacon is a fucking Puppet Master

Last song - everybody played Everybody's Down!!!!!!

To be perfectly honest I think that No Deachunter made a lot more sense on paper than in reality. I could feel a definite divide in the audience, people stoked to see No Age huddled up with people stoked to see DeerHunter and all the Dan Deacon fans getting in the way.
For me, definitely not enough No Age.

Sidenote: I ran into Bradford Cox at Guitar Centre in Atlanta just the other day and tried to say hi but he got all rockstar on me and I tried to explain that I was not from Atlanta and just saw him in Chicago and then things got even more awkward....oh well

I am disgusted by the youth of today

What did I do this weekend?

15 years ago I was 10 years old, and a little too young to go to Warped Tour. But by the time I was 13 I had crowed surfed during Green Day at my first full blown festival. I've been to 4 warped tours and had so much fun at all of them, but it's been 3 years since the last one (which I went to only because of my little brother). I was very excited this year to have an excuse to go...if only I had known was I was getting into.

This is what I walked into - Millionaires

I had no idea that this existed, I did however know (and hate) the fact that 3oh!3 and BrokenCYDE were on Warped Tour, but this THIS I was not prepared for.

They're not a band, they are not talented, they are the worst thing on earth.

Songs about a-l-c-o-h-o-l, and "talk shit" perpetuate everything that is wrong in this world.
photo stolen from CM on Flickr

yay - Canadian Band! I missed Alexisonfire the past few warped tours somehow, it was really nostalgic hearing them/seeing them

This is Zach, he'll fuck anything that walks

Black Tide is sharing a bus with my friend so we got to hang out with some funny kids from Florida
photo stolen from myspace

The reason we came - POS

30 minutes was definitely not enough, the song Purexed is currently blowing my mind

Wanna know what's sad?

Bad Religion playing at 3:55 to practically no one

They even played Fuck Armageddon!!
Come on Children - this is punk rock history!

Second reason that I came - Anti-Flag
They only slightly disappointed, but that was expected.
They played Die for your Government 3rd - it's supposed to be last
One Trillion Dollars really summed it up
"One trillion dollars, makes me wanna kill myself!"
photo stolen from Jazmin Millions

Things that made me cringe this year at Warped Tour

• This band 30h!3 and the fact that everyone loves it (Millionaires and BrokenCYDE also included)

• The large number of girls not wearing shoes and boys not wearing shirts it was like 60 degrees and raining

• Incredible line ups for everything that made it near impossible to walk from one stage to the next

• Dyed green goatees

photo stolen from someone on Flickr

Had to avoid the idiots - hung out by the bus with Tracy doing a crossword

said idiots

Group photo: Ashleigh, Stef, Friend, James, myself and Brian

I have a mustache on my face and a mustache on my chest

So after Warped Tour we drove the hour long drive back to Chicago from Tinely Park just in time to see our other friends from Minneapolis - what was majorly surprising was seeing Paypes!!!

John aka Paper Tiger aka PAYYYY-AYPES!
Eventhough we knew that Doomtree was preforming we just assumed that if Paypes was witht them he would have texted us...he did not haha

Well I'm going to go dj for 5 hours

Doomtree at Reggies - wish we could have stayed for the entire show but it was just too long of a day for us

Music has really changed over the past 15 years, there's always been something to be outraged about. I remember being so disgusted at the likes of Britney Spears, but her songs seem totally tame compared to the bullshit that's being produced today.
Reason #31 why I'm never having kids has just been added to the list: Thanks Warped Tour

Beard of Bees Band

On Sunday night Chris Hansen, who is featured a whole lot on this blog because he came to Europe with us, played at the Hideout.
It was really awesome hearing all those songs again, but what was even more awesome was the special guest appearance by Jeanine.
Quite possibly not a dry eye in the house - I think this photo by Claire Mooney really captures the moment.



sidenote: between bands was a game of Bingo and I totally won!!

Pitchfork '09

This is my second time at Pitchfork, mostly because this is the second July I've lived in Chicago. Last year I had way too much fun, had way too much sun, and drank waaaaay too much Sparks. This year I actually saw a lot more music, made a lot of new friends and ate a lot of free ice cream.

Friday night's write the night was the highlight for a lot of people, not so much me. We went, but were late and ended up running into 1000 friends and never actually saw any of the music. I could hear Built to Spill in the background and that was good enough.

Saturday morning I had to go to the airport to pick up Baptiste so I missed Disappears; which is ok because they're friends from Chicago, I've seen them before and I know I'll definitely see them again. Also missed Dutchess and the Duke but that was ok too because I was going to see them play at the Hideout later that night. The only major disappointment was missing Fucked Up - being the proud nationalist that I am, I always try to see Canadian bands when they come to town, plus The Chemistry of Common Life is fucking amazing.

Early morning (like noon) at Union Park

Bowerbirds were my unknown surprise of the weekend, I had only heard a bit about them and with no expectations I totally fell in love with it. I can't wait to see them at a small venue because they were just a bit too quiet to compete with the poppy fuzz of The Paints of Being Pure at Heart coming from across the park.

Fudgsicle 1 - Lee Cohen 0

Every time I see Ponytail they are better than before; which surprises me every time.

They blew me away at SXSW and rocked it even harder at Pitchfork. Everyone talks about Molly's crazy singing, Ken and Dustin's retardedly awesome guitars but what really kills me is Jeremy's drumming. Really just one of the best bands at the whole festival.

I'm glad this year Pitchfork was oversold and crowded as shit, because it prevented me from attempting to walk through the crafts section - I would have bought these and every other adorable thing in there

I had to return to the airport in the evening to pick up The Thermals which made me miss Beirut and Matt and Kim, which were 2 bands I was really stoked to see, but the hilarity that ensued during the van ride back to the hotel was almost worth it. The Thermals are some funny mother fuckers :)

Day 3 of the festival started out with another favorite band The Mae Shi who were super rad and let us sing "Run To Your Grave" with them onstage.

Mahmood, Bolen and Bobby watching Frightened Rabbit from the shitty VIP side, actually C stage has an ok view everywhere else was totally bullshit.

Frightened Rabbit shoes, what I love most about these guys is their inbetween song banter, but I'm a sucker for a Scottish accent

Alright Blitzen Trapper, I've tried to like your album Furr, and I tried to enjoy your set but I just can't do it. Luckily they were playing at the same time as Killer Whales so I ran over to the B stage for some dancing

The Killer Whales are my favorite Chicago band (or at least in the top 3) and I was totally proud of them for getting to play pitchfork, they don't have anything recorded, they don't have a write up on wikipedia, and their songs are bizzare, beautiful and totally punk. I saw them play a basement show last month where I danced my ass off until it was 2am and I was covered in my own sweat, the bands sweat and the fat dude who took off his shirt's sweat. I hope everyone else loved them as much as me.

The Thermals covered Basket Case by Green Day - I needn't say anything else

YAY! JAPANDROIDS!

ok, so I feel like a douche because these dudes are from Vancouver and have played about a million shows. Lots of times with my friend's bands and sometimes just steps away from where I lived and yet this was the first time I saw them play. I wanted to find them after the show and tell them they were rad but I never found them. They mentioned they'd be back in a few months and I know I'll totally go to see them again. Japandroids were totally the No Age of Pitchfork '09

Sidenote: their promo photo that appears on the Pitchfork website was taken by my freind Leigh and it's totally the best photo ever.

Jacob and Moses trying to escape the brief yet annoying sunshine

Things I would complain about at this years festival:

• shitty viewing for VIPs; hey I'm a Very Important Person
• The Weather - most people liked the cooler temps but I wanted it blistering hot, Dena said it best "I have no Patience for Pants"
• needing a photopass to bring in a camera with a detachable lens, reason why I had to steal photos from flickr

by the time M83 took the stage it was like 6:00 and I hadn't sat down, eaten or drank any water so I had to take a little break and only caught part of their set. I really liked it and I also really liked her outfit. The more sequins the better :)

My morning started 9 hours before this moment with Wayne Coyne pracitcing his ribbon dancing backstage - finally got to see the Hamster ball in real life

The Flaming Lips have got some serious fans, I saw no less than 10 people dressed up as Aliens, a few bunnies and a Banana which may or may not have been related

Totally goosebump inspiring moment, ending the whole weekend with "Do You Realize"
It's hard to make the good things last...

Photo's stolen from Flickr
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