Music News

While the below-referenced conference call drags on (and on and on) about issues irrelevant to me, I think I'll talk about music.

Sleater-Kinney is breaking up! This is terrible news. They are the best rock band in America. I say this definitively, even though I mostly listen to jazz. If you have heard their last (sniff) record, The Woods, you are missing out on some awesome rawk. (Grrrl rawk, no less.) You have about six and counting chances to see them live--if you can, do! I might even break down and buy a ticket to the dreaded Lollapalooza to catch their final Chicago show. Anyway--thanks, ladies.

With S-K going going gone, my new favorite rock band is Art Brut. I was in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago for my cousin's wedding, and made a side trip (er, two side trips, actually) to good old Vintage Vinyl, where I spent a good deal of time in my late high school years. Naturally, I first went to the jazz section, but the jazz section happens to be on the riser in the back of the store where they present live acts. They were setting up for somebody, and they said, "Sorry, dude, but I need to push all the jazz aside." "How long have I got?" I asked. "Now." Okay then!

Well, so I was forced to spend some time looking at rock, and I checked out some of the listening stations. I rather randomly listend to Art Brut's Bang Bang Rock 'n' Roll and fell in love. How can you not like an opening track like "Formed a Band"?

Formed a band, we formed a band.
Look at us! We formed a band!

I was on a business trip in San Antonio last week and listened to Art Brut in my rental car. It was such perfect, such fun, driving music that it made me want to buy a car. I'll be checking them out at the Pitchfork Festival, and possibly at the Empty Bottle the night before that.

Conference call update: No, they haven't gotten to any issues that affect me yet. Thank god for speaker phones and mute buttons.

I'm wearing my new Vintage Vinyl T-shirt right now, by the way. I bought it on my first trip to VV on the Saturday I was in St. Louis, I was wearing it on Sunday, and ended up without advance planning going back to VV, wearing their very own shirt. What a dork I am!

It's not specifically music, but I just bought and watched the new Criterion Collection DVD of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused. What a great movie. Better even than I remembered. And if you've seen it you'll know it fits the music theme of this post because, boy, what perfect music in that film.

Best line the movie:

"It's like the every other decade theory you know? The fifties were boring, the sixties rocked. The seventies, oh my God they obviously suck. Maybe the eighties will be radical, you know? I figure we'll be in our twenties and hey, it can't get any worse."

Still waiting for something relevant to me to come up on this damn call. I hope everyone else is having a nice Saturday night. Say a prayer for me, please.