Matt Ulman

Southpaw’s a brand new place, owned by the same guys who own Maxwell’s in Hoboken, and if it draws anywhere near the talent that Maxwell’s gets it’s going to be great having in Brooklyn. From here it’s only 6 blocks away and will still be an easy subway ride from the new place. The acoustics are good, and it’s just the right size. The bar’s set up close to the stage – good for being close to the beer & bad for being close to the ever present socializers. For some reason the only bathroom is out big gym-doors which are right next to the stage. For quiet shows, like Grant last week, that means constant slamming as people come & go. For shows like this that’s not a problem.

Unfortunately, they forgot to adverttise that there were two opening bands, so I was there an hour before I should have been. I really hate it when people do that just to sell more beer. I like getting there at the right time, and I feel tricked when they don’t tell me what’s really going on. Yes, I played right into their hands. Both opening bands were horrible – generic country band started & generic Brooklyn emo band was next – I was ready to give up & go home at around 11 but somehow managed to stick it out. Good choice

From the opener, Lumberlung, to the end of the set there was nothing but pure, fun, rock. The guys looked like they were having lots of fun, and the crowd was really into it. Slobberbone has groupies! How very strange.

I was dragging the next day, but decided to go into town for the next show anyway. I missed the first few songs, but caught enough to see that it was basically a similar set. Evenly distributed through the four albums, including the new one that’ll be out in September. The new songs sound good – much in the same vein as the older stuff. I’m perfectly happy if they just keep writing good songs the same way, at least for another album or two.

No encores on the first night, but Friday they did an incredible cover of Free World. It would be hard to screw that song up, but it made seeing the show twice worth it.

Grant’s been touring solo lately – after many years of never leaving the cities – playing old Nova Mob, Husker Du, & solo stuff. Somone on the sugarlist compared him to the future Bart in the episode where Lisa’s president, & the comparison seems valid. The music’s still good, and he’s in good voice, but having seen him twice this year doing the same set makes me wish there was some new stuff.

Clint hasn’t really done much musically since MOB broke up. The reunion tour prompted a new band, & the new s/t album is one of the best I’ve heard this year. It’s beautiful music, and rocks quite a bit. Live, they added more energy to all the songs, and played a few new songs that make me look forward to the next album. All in all a very enjoyable show, made even more so by the fact that Jon came along & seemed to enjoy the whole experience.

Damn, why doesn’t this thing mail me when someone submits a story? I’ll have to look into that. Anyway, Dave I’m sorry. This was great. For the record, I’ve given you admin rights, so you can post stories yourself by going here – Matt

A very detailed schedule to the US television broadcasts from soccertv.com will help you sort out which matches you should watch live on Univision or catch as an afternoon replay in English. Unfortunately, I have been unable to solve the problem of how to watch a 5AM EDT live broadcast while remaining ignorant of the outcome of the 2:30 AM EDT match pending the tape delay rebroadcast. Salon has some decent short analysis of the prime team and match basics, but their feature article is a little weak.

It’s way too late for me to get back to what I was thinking after I saw this. I’ve been shocking people by telling them that I put it somewhere above Jedi & below New Hope. Maybe I’ll give it another shot when I get the DVD.

It looks like this is going to actually work, so maybe I’ll write a little more about it.

It’s a 720 sf one bedroom in Brooklyn Heights, in a large (140 unit) building on Clinton Street. We were only marginally looking for a place, and had pretty much decided that we were going to wait another year to buy. Still, we were going to see one or two places a week and that picked up a bit after we realized that our rent was going up another 20% this year.

The location’s great, the building’s ok, & the apartment’s good. We got (what we think is) a good deal, and are really excited. It will be nice to finally have a PLACE, and not have to constantly worry about a crazy landlord or schlepping laundry around, or a tiny kitchen.

As of now (7/21), everything’s set with the loan & we’ve put the application into the co-op board. Once we have their approval we’ll be able to close. We’re going to re-do the floors, and hope to move in at the end of August.

I swear, I’ll have time to write something about this soon. Until then, listen to it.

To give you an idea of how good I think it is – it has synthesizers… and I’m ok with that.

8 women & Connor… that’s Bright Eyes. A rotating orchestra sharing a magnum of Turning Leaf. The entire evening was perfectly summed up by the guy standing next to us, who shouted “Addicted to Love” in between songs. Yes, Connor Oberst is Robert Palmer.

The show itself was good – sometimes I’d really rather they didn’t remind us of all the pseudo-pretentions. I know it’s probably ironic, but the lyrics are such that they could be bad teenage poetry in the wrong light.

We missed all but the last two songs of The Good Life’s opening set. Of course, we didn’t realize that TGL was Tim Kasher, or we would have been there much earlier.

Big weekend for shows….

It’s ironic that I didn’t want to buy the new PW until Stereo was released because Mono was bundled along with it – implying , I guess, that Stereo was the main dish & Mono was the side.
Lemme tell you, Stereo’s good, but Mono rocks. If only Tommy hadn’t had to go back on tour w/ Axl, we could be listening to a reunion tour right now, w/ maybe even Bob lifting one wherever Bob is.
How’s that compare to the three or four disks that Bob’s (the other, the main?) releasing this year? Well, I’m still waiting for them to hit $6 at Amazon, so I can get one. They’re down to $9…

I’m going to try to do a better job of logging live things and such, but it’s 1:11, and I’m tired, and have to get up in 5 hours, so I’ll just add a placeholder for now.
Good show, would have been great had they played more old stuff, but truly a very nice suprise to see they (he?) had quite a bit of stage presence. Q&A all night long, which was good. Obviously lots of very big fans in the front who asked interesting questions. Suprised to see he came on for the encore (if you could call it that, one song on a borrowed guitar) w/ a beer. Managed to work man love & camel fucker (sarcastically) into his patter.
Great crowd, very white of course, but SILENT & appreciative. Never hear the BB quiet for a solo song.
Don’t be confused though, they rawked. Didn’t think I’d need the earplugs, and put them in my pocket out of habit, but not at all a laid back set on some of the new stuff.
Had my favorite spot for listening alone – upstairs next to the sound board & bar.