Strange Pulse

I saw Brant Bjork play last night in Long Beach. I’ve gotten used to having my son Nathaniel come along with me to shows, and he *loves* Brant and was really disappointed he couldn’t come along. It was at Alex’s Bar, a place very tight on age limits. I got there at 9 and Brant’s van was just pulling up. As I went in I overheard the bouncer telling the guitarist since he didn’t have any ID with him he couldn’t hang out inside the bar, he could only come in to perform.

I snagged a seat off to the side. The bar is basically a big squarish rectangle with a small stage in one corner and the bar runs along the opposite wall. There are a handful of tables and chairs and a few long sofa-like benches. I think there’s a pool table near the back, too. I snagged a seat on one of the benches that was way off to the side but faces the stage.

And then the wait began. Fortunately, I brought my PSP, so I kept myself busy with Lumines…for hours.

The first band didn’t go on until about 10:30. They were called The Ramonas: a Ramones cover band made up of five guys dressed in drag. With really bad wigs, fake boobs, and denim miniskirts.

Here is where Long Beach differs from LA: rather than everyone crowding out into the parking lot during their set, as I’m sure would’ve happened in most LA venues, everyone crowded around the stage and cheered them on. It was torture. I was dying for their set to end. They hinted that it was almost done but then played a dozen more songs. They finally left the stage, only to come back out and do an encore! At this point I got a little freaked, thinking maybe I was there on the wrong night? What’s going on? But then I remembered seeing Brant unloading his stuff and relaxed. I mean, as much as I could while screaming, “Just end it already, please!” in my brain.

Then it was Brant’s turn. I went up to the left of the stage and spotted a couple people I know, got to catch up for a few minutes with them before Brant’s set started. I saw Sean (commenter here that I know via an Internet music forum but haven’t met IRL yet) with his girlfriend but didn’t have a chance to say hi.

Brant started with “Lazy Bones/Automatic Fantastic:”

I ended up recording the entire song because I kept thinking Nathaniel would want to see it.

The crowd thinned out as Brant’s set went on. The venue is a funky bar with goofy decor (tacky paintings, weird/scary sculptures, the whole place is painted red) and they don’t always have bands playing. I got the impression it was very much a neighborhood hang out and the regular crowd were either there just for the Ramonas or they got bored with Brant’s stuff and left. There was still a semi-decent sized crowd there after they took off, and I figured the ones who stayed were all of Brant’s fans who came because he was playing and not because it was their regular Saturday night thing to do.

There’s something about Brant’s guitar tone, or maybe it’s the way he writes music, that I find really compelling. I can’t quite describe it right—it’s like it’s uplifting, relaxing, sad and sweet all at the same time. All I can think of to call it is groovy.

Set list:

Lazy Bones/Automatic Fantastic
Turn Yourself On
‘73
Low Desert Punk
Dr. Special

Too Many Chiefs… Not Enough Indians:

Hydraulicks:

Punk Rock Guilt
Oblivion
Get Into It
Sounds of Liberation

We actually got the exact same setlist he played in Hollywood a few nights ago, only without the encore, and without “Adelante.” He closed with “Sounds of Liberation” after being warned by the venue he had time for one more. The really enthusiastic guys up front kept singing it loudly throughout the show in between songs.

Some of the songs he turned into longer jams. At one point Brant said, “you go to Long beach, you gotta jam,” which he’s very likely to do live—one reason I love him live. “Hydraulicks” (a Che song) was a highlight. He didn’t do my favorite song, “Defender of the Oleander” (does he ever?), but he did plenty of other favorites. It was a great setlist.

He made a comment on the opening band. Said something like, “I don’t know about you guys, but the Ramonas are bad,” then introduced “Punk Rock Guilt” as being for the Ramonas, “because they obviously got none.” He also pointed out someone being there, but I didn’t catch who it was. Kim? Ken somebody? I saw a guy wave in the back. The enthusiastic guys up front offered to buy him some beers. He said thanks but he was drinking whiskey. They brought him some beers anyway and I’m pretty sure he chugged them as soon they’d played their last song, when the sound guy jumped on stage and started dismantling their gear.

I like a lot of Brant’s stuff even more live than I do on CD. I love the jammy stuff he does live. I love it when a song sort of crests and just suddenly feels really heavy and loud and you’re not sure how you got there.

Some pics:

It was great.

Upcoming shows I plan on attending next:

Megadeth - next Wed
Ladyhawk - May 29 @ Spaceland
Dax Riggs - June 13 @ the Glasshouse
Warbringer/The Ocean/Lair of the Minotaur - June 17 @ Knitting Factory
Earth/Jesse Sykes - June 19 @ the Echo

A recent IM conversation with my husband:

Sue: missed you at lunch
DanielM: yea i missed you
DanielM: i am pretty sure i got you a birthday present today,
DanielM: but i can’t tell you what it is.
Sue: aw
DanielM: your going to freak when you find out
Sue: really?
Sue: when will I find out?
DanielM: maybe by the end of the day
DanielM: putting it together right now.
Sue: wow

I’m weird about gifts. Mostly, I don’t care if anyone gets me anything for my birthday or Christmas. Just isn’t very important to me. But occasionally someone will get me something amazing and I’ll be ecstatic.

My birthday is right after my youngest son’s, so I’m always focused on his birthday and mine is barely even an afterthought. Mostly, Daniel hasn’t ever tried to get me much for my birthday, cuz I don’t care. But occasionally he’s blown me away.

One year he splurged and bought me a digital camera. It was my first digital camera and I was *so* happy.

One year, more recently, I put a joke birthday gift wishlist on the white board. See, every year my son Elijah makes out a big gift wishlist for his birthday. So to poke a little fun I made one and put it on the board. I went all out, too, since it was a joke, and asked for a PSP, some games for it, and some other stuff. Well the joke was on me, because Daniel actually went out and bought everything on my list.

I think I might be a hard person to buy for. Partly because I never can think of anything I want. But also because I never really want a lot of things people end up getting for me. That sounds horrible, right? I mean I’m rather picky about stuff. I don’t like typical movies, typical music, typical clothes. Like, there’s a DVD I really want. But no one’s going to know what it is, even. As in they’d never have heard of it. (A documentary about the Danielson Family. Oh, and there’s a documentary about T. Rex I’d love to have, too.) So for me, gift cards are probably a good idea.

I have this sort of rule about gifts, though. I think they should be something extra. I think the best gifts are gifts that the person wouldn’t go out and get for themselves. Not something they need. (Unless they can’t afford it.) For instance, my son needs new shoes. But there’s no way I’d ever get him shoes for his birthday.

However, I need a new external hard drive. A large one. A super large one. (I fill mine up quickly with pictures.) But they’re so expensive I’ll probably not buy one for myself anytime soon. Especially with Elijah’s birthday and Cat’s prom all happening the week before my birthday. So as a gift, it’s a good one. But I probably wouldn’t ever ask anyone for it because it would be expensive.

Most of the best gifts I’ve been given were from bosses at Christmas. Last year, the guy I do freelance work for got me an iPod Touch. It’s something I’d never have gotten for myself or even thought I would want. But I have to admit it is *super* cool!

My boss before that got me a giftcard to Best Buy, and with me, you can never go wrong with a gift card to Best Buy.

My boss before that I worked with for a few Christmases. The first year, he got me a portable DVD player. This was when they were just out, so it was a really cool gift. I still have it. I think it even still works. The next year, he got me an mp3 player. Again, this was when mp3 players had just come out, and it was soooo cool. It held about 10 songs. (I don’t still have it, and it doesn’t still work.)

The next year, he got the other two women in the office trips to a day spa. He knew me well enough to know I’d hate that. So he got me tickets to see Bo Diddly w/Mudhoney instead. How cool is that?

So what are some awesome gifts you’ve been given? Are you a person who feels slighted if you don’t get a gift? How are you at getting gifts for people? Some have a real talent for it.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what Daniel’s gift for me was…it didn’t come through. Someone at his work knew someone with a connection at Sub Pop and Sub Pop is having a 20 year anniversary concert, a two day festival, with all kinds of bands playing—including a reunion by Green River, a Seattle grunge band I never got to see. Daniel figured he’d splurge on plane tickets if he could get the concert tickets for free, so he called this connection (former drummer of the band Juno, I think) and the guy works at Sub Pop but couldn’t get us free tickets.

Funny thing is, I might be able to get myself a free ticket. I have my own Sub Pop connection. And Daniel might try the singer of Juno, too, who he now works with down here—that guy has all kinds of connections. (We’ve known the singer since high school.) I’m just not sure I want to blow the money on plane tickets that we’d have to spend.

But it was a lot of work.

So, last week I moved all our furniture around to make room for our windows to be replaced. Then they rescheduled our window replacement for this week. We had to live with all our stuff piled in the middle of our rooms for days. Actually, I had to move some of it back, and then move it again when they finally did come to replace our windows.

The good thing about all this was I finally cleaned some stuff out and moved some things around. It used to be my vinyl records were in the TV cabinet, floor-level, behind all of our dvds. So if I wanted to listen to anything, I had to get down on the floor, move all our dvds out of the way, and dig around way down low for the record I wanted. But since we had to take them all out to move the TV cabinet, I decided to get rid of some old books and make room in our large IKEA bookshelf. Now they’re at eye-level with nothing in the way!

I also decided to clean out and organize my bedroom closet. It’s all storage, but it’s all neatly in boxes now. I used to keep my cameras in big plastic bins and it was a bit of a hassle to drag them out when I wanted one. So I moved some cabinets that used to be in the dining room into my bedroom and voila, camera cabinets!

My latest camera purchase was this waterproof $15 camera from Sport Chalet. I haven’t tried it out yet—the pool is still a little cold. Daniel’s sister’s family is visiting in June for a couple days, though, so I’m sure we’ll have fun with it then.

The record that was still on my turntable when I moved all my records was the Psychedelic Furs’ first album (self-titled), so I thought it’d be a good one to highlight today.

I took my blog name from two of their songs, both on this album—”Susan’s Strange” and “Pulse.” (My cool older brother’s suggestion.) I couldn’t find either song on youtube, but here’s another good one from the album:

Saw them live twice in the 80s. Great band.

I figured I should do a good music post after my Shania lovefest.

I realize most bands that exist for a long time will evolve in their sound, like, say, U2 or the Who. But I’m thinking of bands that changed pretty radically. Here’s some:

Journey
Genesis
The Gathering
Everything But The Girl

Of course, most of these bands had significant line-up changes which affected the way they sound. Except for Everything But The Girl.

Journey - Have you ever heard early Journey? Before Steve Perry became the singer? I’ll post a song to the radio.blog. You won’t recognize them. I guess Neil Schon is the only member in the band who has always been a member.

Genesis - Did you know Genesis started out in 1969? With Peter Gabriel as the lead singer.

Way different, huh?

The Gathering started out as a death metal band:

But then they got a different singer and turned into…something else:

Everything But The Girl - One of my favorite bands of all time. There’s just two members—Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn. They started out—how to describe it? Allmusic.com says they were one of the leaders in the “lite-jazz movement.” Nowadays they’re an electronica band, I consider them rather trip hoppy, definitely club music.

Here they are in the 80s:

Here they are more recently:

Can you think of anyone else?

Not sure why I like her.

Is it because she’s so…Canadian?

Is it because she married Mutt Lange?

Is it her awesome, um, boots?

The amazing hair?

Yeah right.

I don’t know why I like her, but I do. (She’s what was playing when Elijah went off on anti-ballads.) I even like her stupidest song, “Man I Feel Like A Woman.”

Forget Madonna. Shania needs a comeback.

…It would look like this.

In fact, when we had a yard, it was just like that. I mean, it was that. That was our yard.

Daniel dug it all by hand. With a shovel. It started out small…

and grew…

and grew…

Nathaniel used to be quite the bmxer.

So was Daniel. (Note Nathaniel filming him with the videocamera.)

Elijah tried:

But wasn’t always successful.

But that didn’t slow him down much. (I’m pretty sure he’s actually holding the leg that he didn’t hurt.)

King of the Road says you move too slow:

Waiting for Dad…

Waiting…

Dad arrives!

Bonus points if you caught:

• Daniel’s bike has two different types of wheels (mags/spokes).
• Nathaniel’s bike has two different color tires.
• Elijah’s bike is one of those bikes for 2 year olds without even a bike chain—but the training wheels have been removed.
• Elijah is NOT wearing socks.
• All of our neighbors, except the one with all the piles of junk, had lovely yards. (You think your kids get dirty?)

Developed another roll of film. I’ve been slacking on the photography lately.

Dog beach:

It’s really fun to hang out there and watch the dogs. They’re in heaven.

From our trip to Hollywood to try to see Flight of the Concords at Amoeba:

My City Screams…Subway:

This last is my favorite. It’s our neighbor’s doorstep. I just put the camera on the ground outside our door and clicked it. I just wanted to use the last frame so I could develop the roll.

Our neighbor is a smoker.

My mom, playing videogames with my little brother in the 70s:

Things I notice about this picture:

• Under the TV are two little figurines my older brother and I got for our parents. One is a boy and one is a girl, both with their arms spread wide, and they say, “I love you this much!”
• My older brother’s shoes: Adidas.
• The game: Atari Combat.
• My little brother’s robe that my son ended up using when he was the same age.
• My little brother’s shadow: someone was using a flash.
• Stuff on the piano: my mom’s stereo; bronzed baby shoes; wonder what those books were?
• The pink towel with the flowers on it: my little brother just got out of his bath.
• The green towel in the foreground: someone else probably also just had a bath. Maybe even me. Or my brother used two towels.

My parents aren’t in a lot of our childhood pictures, so it’s fun to have this one.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

My sister-in-law Audra tagged me for this meme.

3 Joys…

• Arguing over what movie to watch with the kids, when it turns into a massive laughing insult-fest over what movies we each like/dislike.
• A song that makes me marvel.
• Taking pictures.

3 Fears…

• Spiders.
• Heights. Well, not really afraid of them, they just make me dizzy, and that’s scary.
• Mosquito-eaters. They’re a lot like spiders, but they fly.

3 Obsessions…

• Music
• Music
• Music

3 Surprising facts about me…

• To some, it’s the fact that I’m Mormon. To others, it’s the fact that I love doom metal. (I just asked my son what’s surprising about me and he said, “You’re into doom metal. Oh, three things? Uh…you’re into funeral doom metal.”)
• Surprising to my blog readers? Hmm. That’s tough. I pretty much let it all hang out around here. Have I ever posted anything about myself you thought was surprising? How about that in person I’m completely boring.
• I have a shoe fetish, which is surprising when you consider how few shoes I own. I remember people by their shoes, too. Daniel laughs at me when I try to describe someone we knew in high school by the shoes they wore.

I’m not gonna tag anyone, if you feel like doing the meme, go ahead. Or just post your threes in the comments here.

I’ve updated the list of shows I’ve seen and posted it finally. I need to get back into keeping track of all the shows I go to—had to hunt around for ticket stubs and reviews and pictures I’ve posted various places to get this thing updated.

Here it is.

I’m sure there’s some I’ve forgotten.

Some favorite live pics I’ve taken over the years…

Opeth:

Low:

M Ward:

Goatsnake (Scott Reeder):

Players Club: