Monolith is this coming weekend Sep 13 - 14 at Colorado's famed Red Rocks Amphitheater. Devotchka, Silversun Pickups, Vampire Weekend, Superdrag, Mickey Avalon, Holy Fuck, A Place to Bury Strangers, Blitzen Trapper, Justice, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Akron/Family, The Kills, Handsome Furs, and Hearts of Palm are just some bands playing.

Click through the jump for full band listings.

Ting Tings, Neko Case, and the Heavy are no longer playing Monolith [News]. Hercules & Love Affair was also once part of the lineup but now appear nowhere on the Monolith site. Their Myspace shows nothing either. Guess they canceled too?

If carpooling to Monolith, make sure to buy Green Ticket packages for $85, a $25 savings off regular 2 day tickets:

***Tickets must be purchased in quantities of 4 or 8 Reduce your carbon footprint; carpool to Monolith and save some green. Green Tickets are the same as a 2-day festival ticket but the only catch is you need to arrive to the festival in the same vehicle.[Buy Green Tickets]

Kiss hours of productivity goodbye by playing the recycling themed, space invadersesque game at the Monolith site [Monolith game].

Monday, September 8
Foo Fighters @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
Terror @ Marquis Theater

Tuesday, September 9
Centro-Matic/The Broken West/South San Gabriel @ Hi-Dive
Crime In Stereo @ Marquis Theater
Tanner Hall's @ Fox Theatre
Tyrone Wells @ Walnut Room
Vitelloni @ Larimer Lounge

Wednesday, September 10
Black Diamond Heavies @ Larimer Lounge
The Builders And The Butchers @ Hi-Dive
Kinetix @ Fox Theatre

Thursday, September 11
Back To School Rock Night @ Gothic Theatre
Band Of Heathens @ Soiled Dove
Dead Bubbles @ Marquis Theater
Eek-A-Mouse @ Fox Theatre
foma* @ Bluebird Theater
Love Like Fire @ Hi-Dive
Tijuana Pillbox @ Larimer Lounge

Friday, September 12
Blind Boys of Alabama @ Gothic Theatre
Cloud Cult @ Bluebird Theater
Dirty Dozen Brass Band @ Fox Theatre
Federico Aubele @ Walnut Room
G. Love & Special Sauce @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
Hello Kavita @ Hi-Dive
Jucifer @ Larimer Lounge
Soul School @ Soiled Dove
Sweatshop Union @ Marquis Theater

Saturday, September 13
The Bodeans @ Ogden Theater
Control @ Fox Theatre
Hypnautic and His Crew @ Bluebird Theater
Jason Vigil @ Soiled Dove
Monolith Festival @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
Regret Night @ Marquis Theater
Santana @ Fiddler's Green

Sunday, September 14
Big Time Entertainment Show @ Hi-Dive
Icarus Thump @ Larimer Lounge
Monolith Festival @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
Underneath The Gun @ Marquis Theater

Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.

I was looking to You Tube to solidify my stance on Portland's impending it-band Starfucker, but really I think this just complicates it. This art damaged footage, sculpted from the tape of a hometown show earlier this year, is mysterious in its ability to frustrate while it compels. Unless you are a die-hard fan of "psychedelic" color saturation and precious costumes, the first two minutes are a total wash. All we get is indulgent laptop drone that suggests these kids have embraced the very worst patience trying impulses of live shows by Brooklyn experimentalists like Animal Collective and Black Dice. Plug in, fade up, fuck you, as it were.

But then, at 2:35, as the tones begin to congeal into actual melodic components, things start looking up. An odd bit of video foreshadowing comes next, as the band is seen rocking out incongruously to the still-building tones. But, then, right about three minutes, some confidently day-glo pop materializes from the midst of the sonic sadism, and the band easily betters the studio version of their "Burnin' Up" b-side, "Ahhz." I'm still slightly torn, I guess, but the moments in which Starfucker are on, display a certain something enough to justify the wave of hype I feel increasingly confident in forecasting for our digital shores.

I missed this one during the listings flurry last week. While on the way back from Invesco I practically stumbled into Clipse performing atop a fenced in stage off downtown Denver's 16th Street Mall. The Miami coke rappers were cranking out "Chinese New Year", promoting forthcoming releases, and shitting on their competitors.

More photos after the jump.

I arrived a little late to Rage’s midday show at the Denver Coliseum last week. Too late to pick up my credentials as the band and/or promoters had a firm cut off on doors that was not previously publicized. Still though, I got in. Not through any battle past clouds of tear gas or shock grenades, nor did I bravely confront any member of the ominously present and sizable force of riot-clad DPD officers, but by walking straight through the doors acting the part so as to not appear suspicious. Sometimes what cannot be accomplished through brute force can be carried out with coolheaded confidence alone. Viva la revolución.

Rage’s set was an unsurprising, high spirited call to arms. Though the typically unrestrained Zach de la Rocha kept mum for the most part, when he finally did unleash, it was with fiery oratory style, spewing unrelenting and sweeping accusations at imprecise officials constituting what he described as the "lying racist genocidal murderers who tricked Iraqis and Afghans with promises of democracy". Stern warnings of violence towards the orchestrators of war mixed with revolutionary justifications. De la Rocha plainly placed government officials supporting current war policies on notice by declaring they'd be "in harm's way". "Bullet in the Head" followed. Rage Against the Machine has never been a band keen on subtlety and this concert was no exception. Whether the crowd genuinely heeded such incendiary rhetoric or preferred the visceral experience of sharing sweat with fist pumping thousands is another question altogether.

The first half of the daytime show featured former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, the infamous 1968 DNC protester, joining Rage as they tore through the punk classic "Kick Out the Jams."

MC5 - "Kick Out the Jams"

Upon ending the show the band huddled together for a bow and announced the immediate start of a march to the convention arena led by the veteran protest group, Iraq Veterans Against the War. I bailed, but you can read a detailed account on the march from the Coliseum to the Pepsi Center in this detailed account [MTV News].

[Wayne Kramer with Rage]

After day 2 of the John McCain biography Republican National Convention commenced, this happened. Prefaced with legendary quotes from history and lines from the US Constitution before things get weird.

Related:
Obama's Invesco Speech had Music

"Unlike the others I'd do anything, I'm not the same, I have no shame"

The pop music of the moment when I became aware of pop music, as an active, shaping, cultural force, was all loud guitars and jaded deadpan. I like that still, as it was the crucible in which my sensibility was forged. As a result, my younger years were spent in denial of Madonna, as the insincere predecessor to my beloved sarcastic truth and light. But now, with the great and fleeting alt revolution behind us, I have to say that I've spun Madonna's self-titled debut far more lately than, say, Siamese Dream. "Burnin' Up" is one of the record's classic singles, though the video's iconography is quite up to her later memorable best. It would however, be amazing as in a shot by shot remake for a song from the Hercules & Love Affair album.

Of course, ragged grunge types who were then far hipper than my middle school self dug her from the start...

But I'm always sort of torn about whether Sonic Youth's 1988 larf side project Ciccone Youth was was designed to exalt Madge as sort of a 80s pop-art icon, or if they were really just taking the piss out of the chart toppers of their day. Maybe those aren't mutually exclusive. Mike Watt's demo of "Burnin' Up" isn't quite convicted enough to do either, despite an occasion flirtation with an Elvis snarl.

Ciccone Youth - "Burnin' Up"

It's certainly not as deconstructive or lightly mocking as Kim Gordon's Robert Palmer take...

Kids these days have embraced Madonna without much ironic distance.

Starfucker - "Burnin' Up" (stream)

A questionably named Portland band digs into the song here, finding complicated synth patterns to co-exist within the original's sleek frame. Watt's demo sounds unfinished, like the end result of a dare barely pulled off. This version is the work of musicians who respect the pop hit, and not just in a shits and giggles, dress-up sort of a way. How it both embellishes on and dials down the original might actually be some sort of minor miracle.

Times New Viking - "Call & Respond"

The first track offered from Times New Viking's forthcoming Stay Awake EP would certainly fulfill the release's titular goal of preventing you from nodding off on a long-haul trucking route. "Call & Respond," however, contains nary a whiff of it's own monicker's back and forth vocal shouting; the blood-red hollerin' is, as usual, sloppily overlapped and built from the primal essence of melody, rather than easily discernible and immaculately articulated lyrics. Fevered snippets like, "to move on/ taking too long," are all I can glean for now. But maybe the title is referring to the track's dueling instrumental impulses, which are, to be accurate, actually going on simultaneously. The trudging Neanderthal guitar riffs seem unmoored from the playful, perhaps taunting even, Westing (By Musket & Sextant) countermelody that prances above it. As both are enveloped by thick, soupy production fog, I feel somewhat unsettled in proclaiming that that nagging line is supplied by organ, but that's the usual set up, so I'm assuming. Anyway, it's not got the faded romance of Rip it Off's finest, but it is still totally lovable...if you're a bit of a misanthrope to begin with.

Previously:

- A, shall we say, minor interview with Times New Viking.

I'm a bit behind the hype curve in praising Denton, TX, band Fight Bite. Blogs have been going slightly ape (a clinical condition) over the dreamy duo for some time now, as their self-released debut, Emerald Eyes, slowly disseminates. Above is video from a home town gig, in which member Jeff Louis is completely and utterly ignored in favor of the attractive girl with the Julee Cruise voice, aka Leanne Macomber. Understandable, yet still poor form. New Yorkers will be able to get the panoramic view of the group shortly. I can't discuss it much yet, but trust me I know. Those who've swooned to airy music by bands like High Places and Beach House in this calendar year will be thrilled by their first single, which perhaps has a more heartbreaking pop finesse than anything those two fine bands have offered.

Fight Bite - "Swiss Ex-Lover"

Whether it's a niche business forum, a large pan-business convocation, or quadrennial political party coronations, all conventions bring groups of like-minded, or at least like-interested people together. Somewhat more specifically, people armed with the holy grail of business travel - expense reports while in fun locales. Not that such perks are even necessary when parties get hosted, ahem - sponsored by free spending corporations and organizations looking for ears to whisper into, or a foot to pass through the influence door.

The DNC's sweep through Denver, naturally, brought with it the aforementioned entertainment scene and the spectacle of people making their case to be on the fun side of the velvet ropes. Exquisite bullshit artists pining for entry to Olympic level schmooze competitions. Warning: metaphors may be mixed without regard to peril.

Last week the Democratic party landed in Denver and this week the Republicans start the same protocol-filled assembly in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota. If Denver was any indication - caterers, liquor distributors, high-end restaurants, and rickshaw jockeys are about to bank big. So will the shrinks tending to frazzled clipboard porters nervously tracking headcounts with an eye to both the fire marshall and enough available space for late arriving uber-VIPs. During the DNC this could mean anyone from Jessica Alba to Bono to Democratic governors. A starfuckers paradise or a super economic way to keep entertained, fed and hydrated amidst the complicated glamour of Washington D.C.'s political culture.

The tally of my lifetime's forays to our nation's capital are limited to short pleasurable stopovers and touristy trips full of white marble and museums. After a week (or so) of partaking to just some of the DNC's periphery entertainment options, I feel like I can safely surmise what a semester might be like for Public Administration graduate students at Georgetown. I might also be full of shit. Given the often bloviated subject matter, no matter which view one has, at least the latter is true for the respective opposition party.

Our first DNC event with notable music was last Tuesday's "Concert for a Cooler Planet" at the elegant Sherman Event Complex presented by the League of Conservation Voters. Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie performed acoustic. Introduced by a phalanx of members of congress and even the governor of their home state.

The fired up Rep. Ed Marckey (MA) began what would be a long introduction preceding Ben & Chris's set with a litany of attacks on the environmental records of John McCain and George W. Bush by pairing them with sugarplum fairy promises of crisp, delicious air and fresh, clean drinking water flowing from the rivers of a President Obama. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of RI followed and the very excitable Rep. Jay Inslee (WA) continually referred to the great "Death Cab for Cutie from Seattle", but it was Washington State governor Gov. Chris Gregoire who finally introduced the duo. I'm not going to infer that Rep. Inslee may have had a few drinks in him since I don't know what his demeanor is otherwise, but he was as animated as anyone can be. Madam Governor Gregoire inadvertently dropped an unintentional diss of the host city during an appeal for Seattle tourism by saying, "we have real music there". Oh snap! I'll be nice and let it slide just this once, attributing the misspeak to Colorado's thin air and its effect on escalating grandiloquence.

[Gov. Chris Cregoire]

Ben and Chris both played acoustic guitars with Chris also spending considerable time in front of the black grand piano. The song selection was exclusively from Death Cab's songbook, making the Walla-Gibbard duo a real treat for fans of the group. No word whether any of the sharply dressed attendees count themselves as such. The songs were played as lovely as you might imagine acoustic Death Cab to be - inoffensive and crisp. Walla and Gibbard both kept fairly mum when it came to politics outside of a few lighthearted moments. Early on Walla not-so-eloquently ruminated on how interesting it was for him to meet with people around the country "who are into the same stuff we're into. Anyway this is our first convention and we're having a lot of fun." Ben added his thoughts much later when mentioning something of a WTF moment when hearing Bon Jovi might be playing "Living on a Prayer" alluding to Sen. Obama's campaign, "we got better than living on a fucking prayer [laughter]."

Photos of Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla and a very unofficial setlist continued after the jump.

As I mentioned previously, Prof. Klein is a bit of a stickler about getting these Numerology pieces right beyond a shadow of a doubt. Instead of chalking early attempts up to the blogging learning curve like the rest of us, he stays awake at night, shaking with regret that a number as primary as, say, 1, was not given it's proper due. So here, as with 4 on the 4th, is a retooled essay, appropriate to the holiday at hand. (JK)

Lists of the 100 greatest movies, albums, and novels tend to begin at 100 and work their way down. It’s different with number songs. Here, we begin at 1 and work our way up. At the outset, the field is so crowded that choosing the definitive #1, 2 or 3 song is a purely subjective act. With 40 or 50 good choices, it’s pretty hard to say: This is it, the Ultimate No. 1 Song in the Universe. It’s later on, when you encounter a number that offers only one or two viable choices, that the process seems imbued with some measure of objectivity. But so many songs have 1, 2, or 3 in their titles that I make no claim to objectivity for the winner’s of these slots. After that, something strange happens: 4 comes up, and suddenly you can count the contenders on one hand. And a little later 12 comes up, and it dawns on you that you have some serious digging to do. Thus, the real work of this list really begins after the initial flood of 1, 2, and 3. But what a flood it is.

One is undoubtedly the most common number found in the world’s song titles. A cursory examination of hit songs in the U.S. and UK over the past 40 years shows no less than 50 hit songs that begin with “one”—and that doesn’t even include songs that have the word somewhere else (e.g., “Just One Look”). One is such an essential concept in human existence, and it crops up in so many critical figures of speech that it looms over its numerical brethren like the monolith in 2001. No other number can come close to boasting this many sublime (and occasionally ridiculous) songs. Here’s a sampling:

“One Way or Another,” “One Fine Day,” “One Love,” “One Way Out,” “One Way Street,” “One More Time,” “One of a Kind Love Affair,” “One Bad Apple,” “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show,” “One on One,” “Little Bitty Pretty One,” “Long Cool One,” “Could You Be the One,” “This is the One,” “I’m One,” “I Am One,” “I’ve Been the One,” “Still the One,” “She’s the One,” “You’re the One” “Going for the One,” “Special One,” “You’re the One That I Want,” “The One I Love,” “The Only One I Know,” “One More Cup of Coffee” “One Too Many Mornings,” “One More Night,” “One of These Days,” One of These Nights, “One Summer Night,” “One Night in Bangkok,” “One O’Clock Jump,” “One Mint Julep,” “One Headlight,” “One Piece at a Time,” “One on One,” “One Nation Under a Groove,” “One After 909,” “One For My Baby,” “One Draw (I Want to Get High), “One Step Up,” “One More Colour,” “One of Our Submarines is Missing,” “One of These Things First,” “One of a Very Few of a Kind,” “One World,” “One Word,” “One Way Ticket,” “One Will Be the Highway,” “One Long Pair of Eyes,” “Just One Look,” “One of Those Sometimes is Now,” “Just One of Those Things,” “My One and Only Love,” “You’re the One,” “Inspection Check One,” “One Tin Soldier” (The Legend of Billy Jack).

the Chiffons - "One Fine Day"

Bob Dylan - "One More Cup of Coffee"

As great as these songs are, they all lack something crucial: They aren’t about one or oneness; they’re about a headlight, a tin soldier, a night in Bangkok. Thus, in order to whittle down this enormous field, I’m only going to consider songs with a pronounced sense of one-ishness. And still, there are tons of choices. “One Two Three Four,” the infectious single from Feist’s much-lauded The Promise, fulfills the criterion by using 1 as a number. The problem is—and I know this may sound churlish—1 in this case is no more important than 2, 3, or 4. Manfred Mann’s “5-4-3-2-1,” “1-2-3 Red Light” by 1910 Fruitgum Co., and others of that ilk share this same basic shortcoming. (Actually it’s their only shortcoming, and I apologize for exposing it.) “One,” the mighty antiwar epic from Metallica, never mentions one at all, so that won’t fly.

Songs called “Number One” are legion, making strange bedfellows of Joni Mitchell, John Legend, Styx, Pharrell, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Deep Blue Something (remember them?), Etta James, Helloween, Martha Reeves, and my favorite “Number One,” the one by Alison Goldfrapp. “Looking Out for Number 1” is a title employed by BTO, UFO, the 5th Dimension, and Travis Tritt. Also worth noting is “No. 1 Blind” (Levolour/Lev-o-lour”) by Veruca Salt, “1” by Throbbing Gristle, and a bevy of songs called simply “One” –by the likes of the Bee Gees, Busta Rhymes, Creed, Dokken, Vince Gill, Ghostface Killa, Alanis Morissette, and Sunny Day Real Estate. (For those of you planning on making a #1 Songs Mixtape, I recommend segueing from “No. 1 Dominator” by Top into “Number 1 Lowest Common Denominator” by Todd Rundgren—and honestly, not because it rhymes, just because it just happens to flow perfectly.)

U2 - "One"

For me, it comes down to a trio of great songs that wear “one” proudly on their sleeves. (And “Number 1” by the Rutles isn’t one of them.) “One” is among the greatest songs in the U2 catalog. The slow building arrangement showcases the band’s individual parts beautifully, leading to a truly joyful release, and the lyric is sharp and powerful, however you read it. It’s the kind of song that even the band’s detractors might grudgingly admit digging. “One” is U2’s most covered song, with versions by Johnny Cash, Mary J. Blige, Warren Haynes, Joe Cocker, and most alarmingly, Jim Dubois and Ethan Chandler of the Bank of America, (which itself earned a cover by David Cross.)

“One” (as in “is the loneliest number”)—a magical pop single with a concept everybody gets—is also one of a handful of songs about a number that didn’t debut on Schoolhouse Rock. In 1968, “One” was the first in a run of 21 consecutive chart hits for Three Dog Night. In Aimee Mann’s version of the song, which is prominently featured in Magnolia (1999), the song’s essential charms are maintained without the falsetto bathos of the original.

Aimee Mann - "One"

The only critique I can offer of “One” by U2, Aimee Mann or Three Dog Night is that they are all seriously earthbound. A mad quest needs to begin in a high and exalted place, and you can’t get any higher than “The No. 1 Song in Heaven” by Sparks. I have another reason for choosing Sparks. It’s this: After first witnessing Sparks—pre-puberty, at soccer camp, on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert—I went out and bought my first album. I had other records, of course, but Propaganda was the first one I went out and bought with my own money. I’m proud of it now, but for a long time chose to withhold from my teenage friends how impressed I was by the sight of the prancing, falsetto-voiced, staccato-singing Russell Mael and his winsome, Hitler-mustachioed, keyboard-playing brother Ron, and their performance of “Reinforcements.” The song was just so stuffed: stuffed with layers of fat glam guitars; stuffed with tasty words like “subterfusion,” “coup d’etat,” and “Denise” (the name of the girl I was obsessed with at the time); and all of it tricked out in a baroque Queen-like arrangement featuring multiple buildups and breakdowns. The rest of the record did not disappoint: there were more interesting words (potentate, impetus, ornithologist ) and an abundance of astounding Les Paul hooks, not to mention the drum stylings of Norman “Dinky” Diamond, whose VH-1 profile beckons to be made. The highly enlightened music writer Jim O’Rourke will forever be my hero for calling Propaganda “the standard to which I hold myself and everything else” and “one of the few perfect pop albums.”

Sparks had a go at nearly every musical idiom that cropped up in the past three decades. The L.A. natives never tried grunge, but they aced the exam for lethal glam rock, orchestral bubblegum, and calibrated slabs of oomph like “No. 1 Song in Heaven” (1979). When they decided to go disco, the Maels went straight to the top, enlisting the Eno of Disco himself, Giorgio Moroder. Not surprisingly, the entire platter pulsates like a finely crafted soul mechanism delivered from on high.

The song filters down, down through the clouds

It reaches the earth and winds all around

And then it breaks up in millions of ways

It goes la, la, la, la-- la, la la la la…

Sparks - "No. 1 Song in Heaven"

Numerology is our pal Dave's ill advised quest to find the definitive song for every number from one to a hundred. The higher the digit, the lonelier the climb.

Previously: No. 1, 2-4, , 4 (redux), 5-7, 7 (counterpoint), 8, 9, 10/11, 12/13. 13 (counterpoint), 14/15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26/27, 28 , 29 , 30, 30 (counterpoint), 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 , 47, 48, 49 , 50, 51, 52, 53, 54

Monday, September 1
Das Kapital @ Larimer Lounge
Umphrey's McGee @ Fox Theatre

Tuesday, September 2
Nine Inch Nails w/Deerhunter @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
Quentin Young @ Larimer Lounge
Ratatat @ Gothic Theatre
Tussle @ Hi-Dive

Wednesday, September 3
3 Doors Down @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
Back To School Jam 2008 @ Fox Theatre
Crooked Still @ Walnut Room
Intronaut @ Marquis Theater
Nebula @ Larimer Lounge

Thursday, September 4
Brokencyde @ Marquis Theater
Deer Creek @ Larimer Lounge
Pnuma Trio @ Fox Theatre
STS9 @ Boulder Theater

Friday, September 5
The Archive @ Hi-Dive
Fear Before The March Of Flames @ Marquis Theater
Gregory Alan Isakov @ Walnut Room
Little Brother @ Fox Theatre
STS9 @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre
The Swayback @ Larimer Lounge
Tim Finn @ Soiled Dove
Trombone Shorty @ Bluebird Theater

Saturday, September 6
Come Forth By Day @ Marquis Theater
The Dreaming @ Walnut Room
Eminence Of The Undead @ Larimer Lounge
Epilogues @ Bluebird Theater
John Hiatt @ Ogden Theater
Motorhead @ Fillmore Auditorium
One On One @ Soiled Dove

Sunday, September 7
Big Time Entertainment Show @ Hi-Dive
Hot Water Music @ Gothic Theatre
Ice Cube @ Ogden Theater
Katey Laurel @ Walnut Room
Mountain Standard Time @ Larimer Lounge
The Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet @ Bluebird Theater

Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.

A co-worker recently disclosed that there is one band she would be willing to pay an unlimited amount of money to see. That band: the Eagles. (This month is her chance, in Houston on the ninth.) I would pay about one dollar to see the Eagles, but in coins only, no paper money. For the longest time, my answer to that hypothetical question was Pixies, and in the fall of 2004, I was able to come true on that claim, forking over $90-somewhat for a one day Austin City Limits pass. I haven’t been to the ACL festival since then.

Hopefully that will change this year, but even if I don’t make the main show, there’s a good chance I won’t miss everything. Most of the artists heading to Austin for the annual concert are taking the slow routes in and out, and the rest of the state is the better for it. Much like what happens in March with South by Southwest, the overflow of acts provides Beck, Manu Chao, David Byrne, Gnarls Barkley, Conor Oberst and numerous others the opportunity to double dip this month, playing shows across the state. What's better, worthwhile acts not on the Festival bill are being drawn here like moths to the flame. Now is the time to come to Texas.

Did I mention this?

Here's a map to Glasslands.

A DJ Set by Numerology's own David Klein will greet you if you show up when doors open at 9.

Tonight's the night. I've gven you previews and persuation related to the first three bands on tonight's Neon Lights bill at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn. The Beets will bring some ramshackle grage charm, the Capstan Shafts a fiercely intelligent, singular vision, My Teenage Stride has sharp edges played smoothly, but it's the Pains of Being Pure at Heart who bring the swoon. Head over heels in love with indie-pop as a genre and philosophy, POBPAH bring fierce intelligence and wit to their contributions. Plaudits have poured in from impressive commenters like the FADER, Dusted, the L Magazine, Stereogum, and Germany's apparently hipper version of Rolling Stone. Like any fuzzy pop band worth their salt, they are appreciated on a higher level in the UK, where they'll be opening for Peel show legends the Wedding Present on their upcoming tour. This is the last NYC show the Pains will play before heading back to the indie-pop mecca of Sweden. While they plan to return in winter, the land of herring and high cheekbones has permanantly ensnared stronger folk then they. Come tonight before its too late!

the Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction"

This most recent track from the band, slated for inclusion on their impending debut LP, is to my ear their best. The rhythm is winter-morning crisp, the vocal interplay between singers Kip and Peggy is gorgeous, and there's even a muscular guitar bridge. It sounds effortless and complex, at once. It also works the word "microfiche" seemlessly in to a story of library humping. It's sort of the perfect specimen of its type. Check this stanza; "I never thought I would come of age/ let alone on a moldy page/ you put your back to the spines/ and you said it was fine/ if's there's nothing really left to say."

the Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Kurt Cobain's Cardigan"

While it would be uncharacteristic for the Pains to express their iconic love for Kurt Cobain and his shoulder-warming wardrobe, the cleverly take the next best tactic of aping Kurt's favorite band, the Vaselines. After an opening that gets the Pavlovian "Son of a Gun" juices flowing, Kip's "tweeverbed" vocals rush in to soothe the young, myopic, and lonely hearted. "It's the last night of our young lives, tonight." Well, at least until tomorrow...

the Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "A Teenager in Love"

If this one doesn't trigger a fey make out avalanche, I might be slightly disappointed. The remarkable thing here is the black humor, sincerely delivered, amidst a backbeat that would make Molly Ringwald do that one dance. The model for the success there is clearly Belle & Sebastian. They see B&S's confused protagonist, preoccupied with "S&M and bible studies," and raise them "a teenager in love with Christ and heroin." Not everyone's cup of tea, indeed.

--

So, the stage is set, the line-up elaborated on, the hours ticking away. If you haven't left town for the long weekend, I sincerely believe that this is the best show here tonight. Come, dance, drink, yearn desperately to make a connection with a foxy concert goer, and a) regret saying nothing, or b) feel guilty about your succesful dalliance. Go home and write a song about it. It's the indie-pop tradition. See you at 9.

All photos by Merry Swankster

The DNC and its many entertainment options has officially wiped me out. Denver's place in the national spotlight concluded with Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. I have lots to share on the week's musical happenings, but before the delving begins in earnest, here are some images from the musical aspects of last night (and a few others for good measure).

Merry Swankster's view from the cheap seats:

[Wil.i.am & John Legend]

[Sheryl Crow]

[Stevie Wonder]

[Michael McDonald]

The Headliner:

[Barack H. Obama, Democratic Nominee for President of the United States of America]

Good night. - M.S.