6/10/16, Palisades: The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die (Northside press pass)
6/11/16, Rough Trade: Deradoorian (covering Masters of Reality), Ava Luna (covering Histoire de Melody Nelson) and Frankie Cosmos (covering Exile in Guyville) (Northside press pass)
6/12/16, McCarren Park: Hinds, ROSTAM and Brian Wilson (playing Pet Sounds)(Northside press pass)
6/23/16, Market Hotel: Deerhoof (press pass)
6/24/16, Shea Stadium: Ben Seretan with Wet Leather
7/12/16, Knitting Factory: The Gambles (performing Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea), The Tell-Alls (performing Doolittle), Beach Slang (performing Pleased to Meet Me)
7/21/16, Webster Hall: The Super Furry Animals
7/27/16, Madison Square Garden: Radiohead with Dawn of Midi
8/5/16, Rough Trade: Dinosaur Jr.
8/16/16, Terminal 5: PJ Harvey
8/21/16, Festival Pier, Philadelphia: Ween
9/4/16, Metropolitan: Wet Leather
9/15/16, Music Hall of Williamsburg: Cymbals Eat Guitars with Field Mouse
10/8/16, Webster Hall: Green Day
10/13/16, Aviv: Greys and Patio (Psychocandy release party)
10/15/16, Shea Stadium: Cymbals Eat Guitars with Bueno and Field Mouse
10/28/16, Knitting Factory: Japandroids
11/2/16, Good Room: Silver Apples
11/12/16, Union Pool: Ben Seretan
11/25/16, Capitol Theatre: Ween
12/1/16, Rough Trade: Foxygen
12/7/16, Gold Sounds: Ben Seretan
12/13/16, Baby’s All Right: Sad13
12/14/16, Shea Stadium: Ava Luna with Sarah Kinlaw
12/30/16, Mercury Lounge: Cymbals Eat Guitars with Haybaby
For this piece I spent hours on the phone getting berated by Scott Baio and discussing the climate (“I feel like it’s actually gotten better!”) with Tila Tequila. Here is where I stumbled into a beat that defined a lot of my writing this year— the intersection of Trump’s campaign with the celebrity and entertainment world at large.
Spent all my free time in October writing essays about every Leonard Cohen album. I started working on this before You Want It Darker came out and when I did hear that record I was even more astonished by the quality and breadth of this discography. Hope I did it justice, idk.
I spent much of August calling up Andy Kaufman’s friends and family and asking about Trump and Andy conspiracy theories and they had so much to say and I learned so much about Andy. This is the strangest thing I wrote on the intersection-of-Trump-campaign-and-pop-culture beat and also the best.
Spent April 19 driving around Portland with Matt blasting Musicology(which I’d bought a couple days before) on a gorgeous day. Spent April 21 hunched over my cubicle processing the unthinkable and writing the obituary I thought I wouldn’t have to write for another 20 years.
Feels weird to write an obituary for a business when we lost too many flesh-and-blood humans in 2016. But I spent so many fucking hours in Other Music between 2008 and 2015. I miss it. I am glad I wrote this for Noisey.
2016 was sort of the year that I gave up trying to write celebrity profiles but I guess you could loosely call this a celebrity profile in which case it is the best celebrity profile I’ve written.
ok reading back on this I wish it didn’t read so much like a press release, but I am still so proud that I wrote this painfully inevitable trend piece before the Timesdid.
At 26, my grandfather had fled Germany and served in World War II. At 26, I’ve ranked Is This Desire at #2 on a list of PJ Harvey’s albums. Bravery comes in different forms.
wanted to do the drawfee prompt from their most recent speed draw ep :>
My songs were:
1. Dracula - Bakar
2. Working for the Man - PJ Harvey
3. Kinfolk - Mereba
This is Dusk and Dawn, two sisters. Basic concept i came up with, is that Dawn is a celestial being sent by God to hunt demons and such, but when she’s sent after Dusk (a vampire-like demon), they realize they’re sisters, so instead of carrying out her mission, the both of them decide to run away from their former lives. idk
So yesterday I went to the Rock-En-Seine festival. But I only went there for the two last live The KillsandPJ Harvey. But those lives started at 20pm and I went at the festival at 15:30pm. I had to take the bus but there was too many people in the bus so i went there on my feet halfway through.
I planned to sit on the grass, eating a kebab, drink two sodas and reading 3 mangas (Gantz) and Blood Meridian but when I go to a stand to buy food I couldn’t because of this cashless bullshit. I did not go to a festival for quite a time so I did not know that crap existed. So I was told that I could not pay with real money and have to get this damn bracelet. But I did not want to.
So i spent 15 minutes to find a stand to get food with my money and I did but that experience bugged me. So I sat eating, drinking my sodas and watching the crowd here and there. It did not feel as warm as it did before in 2003 or in 2005. But I see the same type of people many with their cool rock t-shirt to show they know music (acdc, joy division, kiss …). I made that mistake and put a t-shirt Queen and I should not have because this t-shirt was crap. I should have put my Great Teacher Onizukat-shirt.
The Kills start. I got close the most i could but the crowd is already there. Great live though. i filmed some of it but in front of me there was this tall girl with that thing with flowers on her head. it was distracting.
The live ends. The crowd disappears. Good occasion to get the closer to the stage. So I sat, smoked a cigarette and calmly waited. Until a dumbass ginger hipster comes close and start dancing and screaming. Later he will be close to ruin the live for me. He was screaming “youhou, youhou” between the songs. But strangely we got along whenPJstarted“Down By The Water” because i started dancing and singing like crazy too.
The live was mostly “Let England Shake” and “the Hope Six DemolitionProject” added to that “50ftQueenie”,“Down By The Water” maybe some others i don’t remember. but I was happy.
I filmed some of it but my camera did not have enough memory.
BesidesPJ HarveyandThe Kills It was kind of a shitty experience but it’s my bad for coming too soon when the artists i wanted to see started way later.
Back in 2003 PJ Harvey was already headlining the festival and the live was more explosive. I went with my sister at that time and that’s when i discovered Polly Jean so going to see her again goes full circle.
The festival is over. I missed the last train. The railway station is closed and opens at 4am.So i just take a walk, buy some drink in a grocery store and sleep in a bus shelter. Fuck.
I take the first train, go back home at 7am, watch the mcgregor-mayweather results (not that I cared that much anyway) and sleeps while listening brandon tenold’s reviews.
I just bought my ticket for PJ Harvey live. August 26 in Paris. i am very excited sorry for not posting since forever. This will be the second time I will see her live. It’s excessive but I am close to consider it like one of my personal accomplishments.
