Tokyo Police Club at the El Rey, 10/23/2007

photo by optionthis
Energy level: Middling to a few isolated displays of disturbing Shakira-like hip shaking from some girls in the under 21 set

Would See Again?: Maaaybe. They only have one EP of music right now and only enough material to play one song during their encore. They clearly have some work ahead of them establishing what is going to make them different from all the other floppy-haired bands out there. I would actually be interested in seeing/hearing more of the middle act, the White Rabbits, who add tropicalismo style vibes to their indie rock. Hmmm! Give them a listen.

The Go! Team at the Echoplex, 10/21/2007

photo by optionthis
I must say it's been a while since I arrived at a show so early I caught both opening bands. I'm a little sad to say I wasn't particularly blown away by the two bands that had the terrible duty of having to go on before the Go! Team. The Grand Ole Party serves up a pretty catchy blues-tingued brand of retro-indie rock but their lead female vocalist might remind one a little too much of Karen O, so your feelings on that microphone gobbling rock banshee might color your perceptions of this band. Middle act Bodies of Water (from Highland Park - eastside represent!) was definitely not this writer's cup of $7 beer despite their rather buoyant and good-natured set. A lot of their songs they performed last night sound very similar to each other...and everything was a few steps away from becoming an Abba song. (Note: their Myspace page claims they sound like Abba meets the Muppets and that's an apt description. I like Muppets but I don't like no Abba.)

If you haven't been to a Go! Team show, I will only say this much. This morning my butt actually hurts. From shaking it SO DAMN HARD. The Go! Team is a band that has limitless energy and inspires an equal and passionate response from their audience. Frontwoman Ninja is exactly that...a dance-inspiring, sweat drenched ninja goddess who never stopped working the crowd - even after tripping and nearly falling on some cords, she recovered by doing the running man for approximately 3 straight minutes. I can't be sure of the accuracy of how long she took because I was probably doing the running man myself at the time.

Energy level: Extremely High with 90% Chance of Dance Floor Exhaustion
Would See Again?: Yes

See more photos of The Grand Ole Party, Bodies of Water & The Go! Team
Listen to the Go! Team

For No Apparent Reason Again

...here is a pointed commentary about the Phil Spector case (photo by apollosputnik)

For No Apparent Reason

...here is Dali using a woman as a desk.

Sedaris in LA! Everyone Freak Out Together!

Our favorite This American Lifer and New Yorker contributor David Sedaris will be coming to LA on January 15th, at the Macgowan Little Theater on the UCLA campus. I am pretty sure this is a small theater with less than 300 seats so good luck to you on the onsale date of 10/22, Mr. Lucky Jerk Reader Person.

We Was Hacked But Later We Will Get Something to Drink and Forget About It

Some very clever bozos hacked my site. All they did was destroy the index pages but of course! I have nothing backed up nor the nerd knowledge to rebuild. So here we are. It's very plain, all the writing I did over the last three years is gone, and...there isn't a Pinkberry nearby. I am very sorry.

Anyhow. In the meantime, read this link about how Francis Ford Coppola loves burning bridges.