Good morning. Hello. How are you? #869
Samia at Cats Cradle, a bunch of other music stuff, and RIP Netflix aka DVD.com
Good morning! Hello there! How are you? G’day mate, throw another shrimp on the barbie. I did that for Lexi. I miss you, Lexi. I love your early morning texts.
Went to see Samia last night at Cat’s Cradle. A young gentleman named Ralphie Kent opened. I cannot find him on Spotify. He reminded me of early Elliot Smith. Seemed slightly toxic and immensely romantic and talented. Will go far. Samia was great. She has great energy, and her fans are dedicated. I love her weird blend of electronica and folk, making it all her own. She recorded her latest album, Honey, down here in the Triangle at the studio belonging to Sylvan Esso. She had a Chapel Hill resident in her band. She played my favorite song seventh which meant we could have left early if we wanted to. We did not. Emma liked it too, that was nice. Grammy watched Jane. We got a nice date night. I also remembered to bring along a Bud Zero to keep in the car for after the show so I could feel transgressive and drink a beer on the way home.
A sad thing I noticed, evidence of the continuing enshittification of the internet, is that you can no longer rely on Instagram for nice photos of the shows you go to. For… god, decades now, I’ve not really bothered to go get good photos of a show because you could just go to the internet the next day and get some from Flickr, then Instagram. Especially in these pandemic timez it’s been great. Emma and I stand in the back, in our masks, Cat’s Cradle isn’t huge and the sound is awesome back there and the sight lines are fine. And then after the show if I want a few memento photos I just grab em off the internet from the eager beavers in the front. But now? No longer possible! They’re all shooting video! And putting it on ephemeral apps like Instagram stories. Maybe Tik Tok but its search sucks. This is a super useful aspect of the internet that is just… disappearing. Bummer.
I wore my Pailhead shirt. I bought a Samia shirt. I now aspire to one day wear a Samia shirt to a Pailhead concert. Is it a reunion if you never played a single show when you were a band? Can you imagine Pailhead reuniting? The fact that notorious one-man-drug-economy Al Jorgensen and notorious straight-edge punk Ian MacKaye were ever in a band together is mind-boggling. You’d also have to convince Paul Barker and Al Jorgensen to be in a band together, which is not a small undertaking. And you’d have to get their first drummer, that dude from Naked Raygun, since Bill Reiflin passed away. RIP.
Well that was a tangent. Anyway, if you were wondering about the state of various social networks and their potential to replace Twitter, I give you the results of this experiment last night.
Bluesky:
Substack notes:
Twitter:
I mean I guess Twitter wins. Ten thousand followers, 275 views, two likes (shoutout to Ryan and Scott). Now, I recognize that knowing about both Samia and Pailhead, and understanding this stupid irony is a tall ask (Nick this is why you are my friend) but c’mon. That was half the fun of Twitter! Inside baseball! What is the point of this now? Man, social media is just not fun anymore. No wonder no one tweets anymore. You guys are so much better. You understand me you complete me, etc etc.
I guess we’re just doubling down and making this a music issue because I took a few other notes yesterday about musical topics and we should probably go through them all right now.
First off, Live. Ed Kowalski is a lucky man. A monstrous talent, yes. Probably a monstrous ego, who knows. But what is clear to me now is he was a true first class weirdo. And I have known a lot of egotistical, monstrously talented weirdos in my life, and you know what none of them ever got to do? Be one of the biggest bands in America. Do you know how many records Throwing Copper sold? It is a stunning number. Eight million copies. In America. Eight million copies. More than Pearl Jam’s Vs and Vitology. More than Nirvana’s In Utero. My god, Throwing Copper sold so many copies. The Metallica album released in time closes to Throwing Copper sold half as many records. I really do wonder what Ed Kowalski is doing these days. Also I feel really bad for all the mockery I gave them when they opened for PiL and Big Audio Dynamite. I stan for Live these days what was I thinking.
Daddy Jane Dance party last night, abbreviated edition, before she went to Grammy’s. And she asked to see “Hung Up” again, which is fine because that’s a great pop to dance to. Then I showed her some more Madonna this time but this time I didn’t go high concept, just straight ahead with “Ray of Light” which is still a great song but man that video has aged, and “Material Girl” which she just loved loved loved of course. Then she wanted to see Hole again so we watched “Violet” which is still a great video and I have mixed feelings about my daughter preferring all the teeny bop stuff but then I have equally mixed feelings when she’s like “yeah Courtney Love!” at the age of five. But man, I do have to say that that Pretty on the Inside tour was so great, so great, god, Courtney Love in her early years was just a fantastic frontwoman. This is not to say Courtney Love in her later, ballooned years was not a fantastic frontwoman. Man I could means so many things by “ballooned” there what a perfect adjective that just came to me. I wonder how Courtney is doing these days. Also I should re-read Julian Cope and Bill Drummond’s autobiographies to revisit Courtney’s teenage years as a Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes groupie that feels worth my time.
We also watched the Metric “Now or Never” video which is so good. I mean it’s a beautiful little film. It could have been a three-minute montage in the middle of Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum or Mann’s Miami Vice movie. Miami, service workers, the sex industry, white nights. Beautifully shot, and every member of the band inhabits their roles perfectly. Deserved more credit.
Also imagine being one of those dudes in Metric. Headline a stage at Coachella, festivals around the world, one of the world’s most consistently solid, popular for twenty years, and no one would recognize you in person literally anywhere in the world except for Toronto. That seems like the dream.
Also have you ever thought about how many people with day jobs play Coachella? My god, I bet a lot of people with day jobs play Coachella. I bet through the years hundreds of people with day jobs have played Coachella. I wonder if a thousand people with day jobs have played Coachella. If I were one of those asshole job interviewers at Google, this would be my interview question: please walk me through the logic of how you calculate how many people with day jobs have played Coachella. Be specific in your methodology and considered variables. As a hint please do not forget to factor in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Hrm well I guess I lied no more music thoughts today. I will just leave you with this very sad news: Netflix is shutting down their DVD mailing service this fall. This, of course, affects almost none of you but I am still a loyal customer — I am, in fact, ripping the 2019 film The Goldfinch, which I got from Netflix, right now. This is very sad. Though I have to admit, the service has been getting bordering-on-unusable lately. Those of you who had the service “back in the day” remember movies showing up in a day or two. These days? Nah. Maybe a week, usually more like two. Is it the postal service’s fault? Netflix’s? Probably both but it sure puts a damper on things. Also they no longer have those ridiculous plans like the 4-disc and 6-disc plan where you could have a million at once. These days the max is two, so most of the time you don’t actually have a single movie in your posseession. They are right to kill it off, but boy, I sure still love it. There is something deeply nostalgic, pre-enshittified-internet about receiving that red envelope in the mail still.
All right look, yes, sometimes I phone these mixes in I’m not gonna lie it’s hard to make one every day. But I’m telling you right now this one is the best one in a while. It really has everything, man. Everything. Eden Ahbez right off the bat. Mandalorian ripped that shit off, yo. And then we have the single best Sinead O’Connor song of the last thirty years and do you know how huge this song would be if some new young irish singer lady came out with it as one of her first singles? This song is amazing, it has everything, Sinead O’Connor rules. If you can’t make it past there thats fine but do try and make it that far. We have a mid-period underrated Love and Rockets cut for Liz and her kid, we’ve got Hole for Jane, we’ve got Pailhead for me, we’ve got a solid new M83 album, I mean, it’s an M83 album that sounds like M83 that’s enough for me. Luscious Jackson Vivian Trimble RIP, Samia au currant, stars of Coachella Blackpink and a stunning new Feist number what more could you want out of a mix.
Okay I have to go do a company meeting and update the employees on the board meeting now and do grown up things. BYE.
If you haven't read, this is mind blowing: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/live-alt-rock-band-crime-lawsuits-1234677011/