So I was reading the fantastic Done Waiting - Houston Calling Music Blog - probably the single best source for info on live music around Houston - and saw a post about a girl named Julin playing her first show at the Brasil, a local bar/coffee shop.

Im a big fan of female vocalists so I clicked on the link to check out her site. Well, as you can see from the pictures above, shes quite a lovely girl - and after checking out the mp3 I decided I was definitely going.

It was a great time - Brasil had just rolled out Stella Artois on tap (the best beer on Earth, though what you get on tap in the UK is significantly better then what you get in the States), and it was Julin's birthday so they gave everyone cake.

I met some great people - including Edwin from Phuz. Check out their site - I havent got to see them live yet - but hopefully that will happen sooner then later. K'Monte, the main act, also kicked ass (their set will be up at a later date) and it all happened in a tiny venue. Only way to see music kids.

For your listening pleasure I've posted the mp3s from Julin's set. Check it out - and be sure to check her site often - her debut record should be out in the next month or two...

01 Intro
02 Within
03 Don't Turn Back
04 Empty Reel
05 Stars Collide
06 Sweet Intensity
07 Outro

So its Halloween weekend, and like most everybody I know, I went out to Halloween costume party last night.

I love costumer parties - everyone gets to be a little bit creative, and most girls use it as an excuse to put on the naughtiest possible costume - yep, naughty stewardess, naughty nurse, naughty police officer, naughty catholic school girl, and of course some people go a little too far with the "im-so-naughty-my-ass-is-hanging-out-of-the-back-of-my-teeny-skirt" costume.

Heres some of my favorite photos from last night.

so im not trying to make this blog totally rilo related, cause god knows ive taped lots of shows, but recently i keep finding myself coming back to this band.. cause i love them

so Jenny Lewis is the lead singer, and both she and the lead guitarist, Blake Sennett, have been working on their side project records while they've been touring in support of their 2004 record More Adventurous.

Jennys releasing a solo record called "Rabbit Fur Coat" and its credited to Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins on the Team Love record label. Team Love has actually put out some pretty good shit including the Tilly and the Wall record. Check out their site here.

Check out Jennys new My Space page - I got the pic above this site and Its currently my wallpaper. I know this question is kinda wrong, but is it just me - or is the twin on the right hotter?

Blake's side project is called the Elected and their second record is called "Sun, Sun, Sun," coming out on Sub Pop. Both records are coming out on January 24th, 2005. It should a pretty damn good day.

So back in 2004 the Elected announced they were going to have a show at the Echo in Los Angeles. This was a little bit after the end of their national tour opening for Azure Ray, in support of their first LP. What made this show interesting was that Pierre (bassist for Rilo), Jenny (singer for Rilo) and Vagtown2000 (now Whispertown2000, featuring Jennys best friend Morgan) were opening.

Realizing that this was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity, I bought tickets and booked a flight to Los Angeles. Im here to tell you that that was about the best decision that I've ever made. I ended up triple angle filming and getting soundboard for every band. I have no idea how I pulled this off. I actually ended up going to Frys the day before the show and bought a big ass Sony camcorder (a really nice one) and I took it to the show. I swear I walked in with a veritable arsenal of recording gear.

On entry into the club the security guy at the door asked me to open my bag(s) and when he looked inside, said - "Shit, what the hell are you doing with all that." He then conferred with another security guard who told him - its cool let him in. Well thank God - I think that I and legions of Jenny internet fans have that second guard to thank for the recordings that have been floating around for the last year and a half.

So a few days after the show I released all of the audio from the soundboard and the rest is history. Its actually pretty cool now to see all the kids on the various Rilo boards referencing how much they are looking forward to the Jenny record, because they love the live recording of "X" or "Y" from the Echo show. Remember kids - tape shows you go to and give them freely to everyone who wants a copy. The love you give will be returned.

You can download the Soundboard versions of the various sets at the following locations -
Jenny Lewis - Shelma's Cutting Room Floor
Pierre - Shelma's Cutting Room Floor
Elected - Shelma's Cutting Room Floor
Vagtown2000 - Whispertown2000

So fast forward a few months - I went back and rendered a matrix version of the Jenny audio - incorporating the soundboard version wih the audio from the external mic on the big ass sony camcorder referenced above. The results were absolutely beautiful - with the vocal clarity of the soundboard version, coupled with the live ambience of being in the Echo. Ive made these files available here for you. Spread the word kids - I want Jenny to immediately become the highest selling artist on Team Love. ;)

Matrix 01 Intro
Matrix 02 Run Devil Run
Matrix 03 The Big Guns
Matrix 04 Melt Your Heart
Matrix 05 You Are What You Love - False Start
Matrix 06 You Are What You Love
Matrix 07 Somebody Elses Clothes
Matrix 08 Rabbit Fur Coat
Matrix 09 Rise Up With Fists!
Matrix 10 Outro

Okay - Im not sure how many people know this but Jennys done at least 2 more live solo shows since June 2004. One was in August 2004 opening for the Elected and then there was a show opening for Jonathon Rice in Nashville (date escapes me right now.)

So this lovely girl I know actually went out and taped Jenny playing in August 2004 and sent me the masters to copy. Jenny ended up doing a couple more unreleased songs - which are not going to be on her solo record. The first is "Dorothy's Song", and the second is "A Warm Bed Is Something" which is the Dntel song she contributed vocals too. The Dntel record was supposed to come out by the end of 2003... and for those of you who havent noticed we're closing in on the end of 2005. Every once in a while I google Dntel wondering when the hell the record is coming out, but no news yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

Here are these two songs from the 08/23/2004 Jenny show opening for the Elected at Hotel Cafe in LA.

Dorothys Song
A Warm Bed Is Something
Portions For Foxes (Sung by Mike Runion)
Sword

Aight - its my bed time.. I hope you enjoy. Remeber Rabbit Fur Coat drops on Jan 24 2006 - pre order a copy, tell your friends, and play these mp3s in your car as often as possible and tell your friends to buy copies too...

Nite..

Esthero at Sonic Bloom

For those of you who dont know Esthero, I demand that you go out and buy all of her records immediately.

Austin City Limits the show (as opposed to the festival). What a great experience.

I had never gone before, which truth be told is a bit odd considering how into music I am, and how close Austin is. Anyway - when I heard that Rilo was playing an intimate performance I knew I had to go.

rilokiley.net managed to get some free tickets to give away in a contest, and unbelievably, I ended up winning some!! Even cooler - the ACL performance was right smack in the middle of a string of Texas dates, so I was going to end seeing them at ACL, then in Austin at Stubbs, Houston at Numbers and Dallas at Gypsy Team Room. AND it fell over a weekend, so I didnt have to take any time off work.

ACL itself was a pretty magical experience. I arrived on UT's campus about an hour or so before the doors were scheduled to open, and met my friend who was taking my extra ticket. We wandered up to the doors and were about 10th in line to get in. When the doors opened they let us in, and onto an elevator which takes you up to the floor that the studio is on. As we walked in they handed us a Rilo Kiley ACL tri fold "program." I scanned it and have put the front image at the top of this post, and the back at the bottom. If that wasnt enough, they also had free BEER (oh blessed be kids, blessed be.). I grabbed two and walked into the actual studio.

I actually have some extra programs that people left behind in their seats after the show. The first 5 people to reply to this post will get a free one in the mail. Leave me your reply-to email and ill send you a note for your address

I'd always wandered whether the background view you see on the show is actually a window overlooking Austin, but its actually a backdrop thats fairly fake looking. I guess its just a testament to the power of television really. The studio space itself is also fairly small - there's bleachers on the left, right and back of the studio, with standing room space in front of the back bleachers.

People who call in to get ACL passes end up standing, while season ticket holders get reserved seats. They actually opened up the seats for people who wanted to sit down, but we had gotten first row standing spots and weren't about to move an inch. Well that's not actually true - I actually needed to throw away my beer cups at one point, and I saw a trash can to the left of the stage in front of me. I talked to my neighbors, made sure my spot was secure and headed over to the trashcan to drop off my cups. As I approached I noticed that a copy of the setlist had been discarded behind the trashcan. Marveling at my luck, I grabbed it and took it back to my spot. Ill scan it at some point and stick it up (the exgirlfriend took her scanner/printer with her when she left ;) I do miss it!)

05.05.05 Austin City Limits Taping Austin, TX
Its a Hit
Hail to Whatever
Portions for Foxes
I Never
Pull Me in Tighter
So Long
More Adventurous
Ripchord
The Absence of God
The Execution of All Things
Somebody Elses Clothes
Accidntel Deth (take 1)
Accidntel Deth (take 2)
Does He Love You?
I (Heart) LA

The show itself was pretty amazing - though the television series only shows 20-40minutes of any given artist, they actually tape a full hour and a half set. When I asked around later I found out that the band gets a copy of the show and pick the songs they want aired.

Well yesterday they finally aired the taping - and they cut down the amazing setlist into a 6 song broadcast. Personally I was amazed that they aired two unreleased songs - Pull Me In Tighter and I Love LA. I Love LA is absolutely one of my favorite songs right now and its awesome to finally have a soundboard version of it. I really wish they had played Accidental Deth, but you cant have it all! I ripped the audio and here it is for you in all its glory.

Intro
Pull Me In Tighter
More Adventurous
Ripchord
The Absence of God
Does He Love You?
I Love LA
Interview

so jasons this British musician I met a few years ago, when I was on holiday in the uk.

so im a bit of an ethnic lad, and you know, I get it from my mama. well when i went to visit i found my mom was working at a perfume counter at one of the big national retailers.

Mom worked with a young cutie of the same ethnicity, and of course, the girls with cultural ties are always going to be mama's favorite. so we were introduced and got along well. she was from Norway (Sweden, Denmark? Somewhere) and going to university in the UK. we ended up hanging out a lot during my time there going out to bars and pubs and such.

So one night we end up at some coffee shop/bar where shes meeting other friends. one of the guys there is Jason. he was very obviously into my friend ;) Jokng aside - he was absolutely one of the best guys i met in the UK, good time, good conversation, and he even took me for a curry at 2am because I wannted on after drinking!

Through conversation we found out we were both musicians and go to talking about music. It was pretty imediate that our musical tastes ran in the same veins - with both us heavily influenced by Counting Crows and Tori Amos.

After drinks and curry we actually ended up driving around, in the middle of the night, on deserted Cardiff roads listening to a copy of my Lullabyes record which had been recently finished. We swapped CDs and have been email buddies since.

He recently put out a new record on cdbaby and its awesome, he's just got this powerful delivery coupled with sincere lyrics. Instrumental you can hear the Tori piano influence that allows the songs to be built to emotional crescendos. but dont listen to me, check it out yourself - get it here

Check out his site and his myspace to listen to songs
Jason Soudah
Jason's MySpace

He gave me a very early copy of the record (fairly different track list from the final version) and I've posted my favorite track here for your listening pleasure.

MP3 Jason Soudah - Sail

so I went to my old roommates birthday party last night.. good times, lots of drinking, and lots of new people to meet (be social! go out and say hello to a stranger!)

I try not to piss my friends off in these blogs, but I just had to post this picture. a couple of people were wandering around the party slapping name tags with funny comments on them onto unsuspecting party goers. I had a good laugh out of this one, and wanted to share ;)

Click on the image to see a larger version.

i had a pretty phenomenal Rilo Kiley experience at Austin City Limits. i ended up getting backstage passes (dont ask how!) for Rilo, and wandered back there to see what I might see before the show began.

good news for me, Jenny was wandering off stage with Blake and we ended up hanging out and chatting for a few minutes. she confirmed some news about the new solo record. its coming out on January, will be credited to Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, will be on team love, will be full band arrangements. I told her I was pretty excited since I'd heard the songs at the Echo show in LA in 2004. She seemed suprised and said that she was so nervous before that show. The plan for next year is that Jenny and the Elected will both tour at the same time in support of their new records, and then back to the studio to record a new Rilo record. Personally im pretty pumped - Jenny solo (oh my god kids, if you havent heard her live performance from the Echo you are seriously missing out) and then a new Rilo record. 2006 is going to be a good time.

Jenny was even lovely enough to take a couple of pics with me. Ive posted one above, but cut myself out of it. You know, im fairly good looking (wink wink) but I looked like sun burnt death by the time I met her. I'd been roasting in the sun for 3 days, and was brown and hurting!

Heres the full show for the fans. As mentioned on a previous post one of my buds also taped the last 25 minutes (with much better mics). When i get a copy ill post it here (probably lossless).

Intro
I Never
Pull Me In Tighter
Its a Hit
Love and War
Does He Love You
Ripchord
With Arms Outstretched
More Adventurous
Intro to...
Execution of All Things
Portions for Foxes
A Better Son Daughter

After the show some girls came up to me and told me they were with Relevant magazine. They'd seen my backstage pass and wanted to know if I would take some questions, go back stage, interview Jenny and bring them the answers.

Never being one to turn down a new challenge, I grabbed their note pad and headed back stage. Jenny was chilling talking to a girl about the yellow balloons that were going to be dropped during coldplay later that evening. Seeing me walk up Jenny turned around and made a comment on the unabashed heat - that playing a gig is a work out in and of itself, but pulling in blazing 102 degree heat was unreal. She then gestured to her skirt and said, at one point there was a little gust of wind and my skirt went WHOA (gesturing to her skirt flying up) and I thought - wrong outfit! wrong outfit! I laughed and told her she had looked perfect. (That and im sure that the thousands of young lads at the show would have been just fine with a "wardrobe malfunction")

I told her about the girls from Relevant and her graciously agreed to be interviewed. I asked her about why she played music, austin, checking out other ACL gigs, the tour with coldplay and whether "Does He Love You?" had personal relevance for you. Ill let the Relevant girls write up the answers to all the other questions, I just have to post her response to the Does He Love you question - because its too perfect.

Q "Does 'Does He Love You' have personal relevance for you?"
A It does, but im no homewrecker! (laughter) Its really about a series of relationships.

Nuff said. Jenny Lewis is no homewrecker!

so one of the coolest aspects of the Austin City Limits fest is that they allow non professional audio taping. wandering from stage to stage at ACL you see these massive stands in front of most the soundboard booth with the hard core tapers chilling, monitoring levels, and generally having a good time.

the good news on all this taping is that it makes it pretty damn easy to get solid recordings of nearly every band.

one show which hasnt surfaced (read - probably not taped by other tapers) is Rilo Kiley. Fortunately I was at the show and got some (not very good) audio. I know one of my buds got the last 25min of Rilo, but there were no other stands there. I plan on releasing Rilo soon and will post links to the altenate source once i have it.

heres links to some of the best recordings ive seen so far.
Coldplay
Jason Mraz
Franz Ferdinand
Keane
John Prine
Govt Mule
Bloc Party
The Fiery Furnaces
Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Widespread Panic (i)
Widespread Panic (ii)
Rachael Yamagata
M83

for a comprehensive list of sets pulled, and for more info on taping, visit -
TaperSection