Patton Oswalt - Werewolves and Lollipops

Patton Oswalt has a new CD/DVD out called Werewolves and Lollipops on Sub Pop. The album was recorded here in Austin last December at Cap City Comedy Club. It comes as no surprise that the album is hilarious. If you liked Feelin' Kinda Patton there is no way that you won't love this album. The one complaint I have is a universal complaint of comedy albums, I hate it when comedians use old material on a new album. It happens very rarely on this one, but it seems to happen all the time on other comedian's albums. I guess it's a rare thing when a comedian with really funny material just drops it all and does only new material at a show, so it's kind of a mute point, but it has killed some of my favorite comedians past albums (Lewis Black in particular). Sub Pop has had a really great run of comedy album releases since they released their first one (David Cross's Shut Up, You Fucking Baby) back in 2002 and Werewolves adds to their hot streak.

Buy Patton's CD

Secret Mohawk show *UPDATE*

I am now saying with 99.99% accuracy that Spoon will indeed be playing at The Mohawk on this Friday night. I did some internet sleuthing about the secret show and this is what i came up with.

1) On the Mohawk myspace events calendar, it lists the show on friday as a private event featuring the bands "Sweatband" and "Das Messer".
2) I did a google search for Sweatband and didnt really come up with anything plausible.
3) I did a google search for Das Messer Band and one of the top results was the wikipedia page for Spoon.
4) Within the History section is the following:

"The band was formed in 1994 by lead singer/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno during a party on Kimbolton Avenue. The name Spoon was chosen as a respectful salute to the 1970s German avant-garde band Can whose hit song "Spoon" was the theme song to the movie Das Messer. Incidentally, the film title translates to another utensil (and band)—The Knife."

Now I'm not going to say that Spoon is 100% playing the Mohawk on Friday, but this is a pretty huge coincidence if they aren't. I'll keep snooping around about the Sweatband connection, so far all I have found is that Bootsy Collins released an album called Sweatband in 1980. Now that would be a ridiculous show.

Another "Secret" show

So the rumor going around right now, mostly fueled by this article on Austinist, is that the folks at The Mohawk are going to be having a big show on Friday night. It hasn't been announced yet who the big band is, but I'd put my money on it being Spoon. They have a pretty sizeable gap in their touring schedule and it would just make sense for them to do some sort of homecoming type show to further promote their excellent album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. The other name that I've heard is that it might be a Butthole Surfers reunion show of some sort. I'll believe that when I see it. Another possibility is that this could just be another band that's in town for an ACL taping and decided to play a small show while they are in town. I'll be sure to update when it's either officially announced or leaked to the point of ridiculousness.

New Rilo Kiley

Rilo Kiley have a new album out on August 21st. It's called Under The Blacklight and the first song to hit the web for it is "The Moneymaker". The song has an accompanying video, and the word surprising is definitely applicable here.

The video is themed around an adult movie called "The Moneymaker" and takes place almost entirely in a Strip Club. I am in no way offended by any of this, and the video isn't all that risque' to me, but it is definitely pretty far from what I'd expect from the California group. The song itself, I'm not so sure about. I don't hate it, but it just doesn't grab me like the old Rilo songs did. Maybe it's a grower. It's certainly catchy, but so are lots of terrible songs on the radio. I'm reserving judgement for the moment. Now I'm going to go watch that video again.

Will Johnson Daytrotter Session

The wonderful folks over at Daytrotter have recently added a session with Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel) that was recorded in Rock Island, IL. They also recorded a David Bazan session at the same time. Both are available for download at the Daytrotter website. Will and his band of merry men in Centro-matic will be playing a show at The Mohawk with Jason Isbell, the recently departed Drive By Trucker guitarist, on August 14th.

Stereogum is awesome

Yep, awesome. I have been a devout 'Gum reader for years and they have really turned the corner lately from a homemade music blog to a completely professional media machine yet they haven't lost any of the personal feel that Founder Scott Lapatine instilled in it from day one. The latest in Stereogum's series of impressive features is OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer. The album, which was conceived and given away for free completely by Stereogum, features covers by such great bands as Doveman, The Twilight Sad, Cold War Kids, Dave Bazan, My Brightest Diamond, and many more. I am always so torn by the thought of covers. Some of my favorite songs of all time are cover versions (Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley and Cortez The Killer by Built to Spill being two shining examples) but the vast majority of them just leave me wanting to hear the original version. A cover should be an interpretation of another artists words and music, not a cheap advertisement for the original song. Sadly, most covers fall squarely in the second category. I'm not saying that every song on OKX is from category one but several of them fit the billing. The Cold War Kids completely strip down "Electioneering" to the bare bones and in doing so really highlight Thom Yorke's lyrics. The Twilight Sad throw layers and layers of the distortion and noise that made their debut album so good all over "Climbing Up The Walls" and really make the track their own. My personal highlight is Dave Bazan's Black Cloud's version of "Let Down". Bazan's sleepy vocals really work well with this song and it just seems like the song could have been written by Bazan. It would not feel out of place on one of the old Pedro the Lion albums.

It's definitely worth checking out, and though I doubt any of these versions will attain the lofty status of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" or Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" in the upper echelon of the covers universe but it's still a unique project and it's free, which I fully support. Check it out.

Decemberists Secret Show at Mohawk

(The above photo and many more can be found over at the fine folks from Austinist's Flickr page)

Last night The Decemberists played a secret (more a title than a reality) show at The Mohawk here in Austin. News of the show was spread via the Decemberists Myspace page, Austinist, and about a bajillion personal myspace bulletins in my inbox. The show was part of the Myspace secret shows series.

I went with a few friends and we decided early on that gaining entrance to this event was of paramount importance to us, so we showed up at 1pm, 6 hours before the doors were to be opened, and a 7 and a half hours before the Decemberists were set to take to the tiny inside stage at The Mohawk. When we arrived there were 15 or so brave souls sitting out in the midday sun alongside the Mohawk fence. They all seemed pretty well prepared with coolers, chairs, umbrellas, and water bottles aplenty. We managed to survive on a deck of cards and several trips to the gas station for bottled water. 6 hours, and several dozen games of Gin Rummy later, the gates were opened and we were ushered in to the Mohawks inside room.

The line was separated at the door into an over 21 line and an under 21 line, luckily the over 21 line moved much quicker than the under 21 line, so I was even able to stop by the bar and get a beer from Mark, one of the best and friendliest bartenders in town, before the rush of underagers came in. I got a pretty good spot a few people from the Mohawks newly built inside stage. The mirrored wall behind the stage was beautifully decorated with lots of Decemberist-y drawings. Images of birds and other woodland creatures surrounded "The Decemberists" in big fancy lettering.

When we had first arrived at 1pm there were signs posted explaining how the entrance process would go. It worked as follows; 500 people would be admitted to the venue, the first 200 of which would be allowed into the inside room, after 200 were inside, the door was operated with a One In/One Out policy. Til We're Blue Or Destroy and Dj Markus with a K entertained the masses outside while they waited to enter the inside room.

By the time Colin Meloy and Co. (in this case Co. consisted of Jenny Conlee on Accordion, Nate Query on Upright Bass, Chris Funk on Guitar, Mandolin, and Banjo, and John Moen on Drums) took the stage the room was packed and it was absolutely sweltering inside. The windows that looked into the room were also packed with people. Colin made sure to acknowledge these outsiders, even taking a request from a fan outside. The show was just fantastic. Quickly upon entering the room Colin told the crowd that they hadn't made a set list and so people should feel free to request songs. This was of course met with nearly every person in the room shouting his or her favorite song as loud as they could. All of the shouts merged together to form a cacophonous din of humanity. My request for "The Legionnaire's Lament" unfortunately fell upon deaf sweaty ears, oh well, can't win 'em all. The band played a discography spanning 90 minute acoustic set that included such highlights as "The Island", "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect", "16 Military Wives", and "Eli The Barrowboy". The mood was light and aside from the heat everything went off great. The band sounded really good, and it's just so much fun to be so close to a band when they play. After fulfilling several crowd requests, covering The Doobie Brothers, and making a few body odor jokes the band left the stage to a raucous applause. The crowd was not ready to end the night there however, so the band returned to the stage amidst some of the loudest cheering I've ever heard at such a small show. Colin grabbed his guitar, stepped to the mic and suggested we take the show outside, since it was so hot inside. And with that the band grabbed their instruments, and paraded the 200 strong crowd out into the considerably cooler evening and played a majestic, unamplified version of "The Mariners Revenge Song". Til We're Blue or Destroy watched intently from the outside stage and The Decemberists played on the ground in the center of the crowd. At the songs whale chomping crescendo Meloy jumped on a table and did their trademark pantomiming of the whale eating the Mariner with his arms. The flashbulbs were popping left and right and it truly was a magical sight. The constant flashes gave a strobe light effect that was just marvelous. At the end of the song Colin thanked the crowd for coming and turned to the stage to give Til We're Blue Or Destroy the cue to go on.

At the end of the day, this was well worth the wait. I have sunburn in a very strange pattern on my legs, and I was exhausted and drenched in sweat by the end of my 9 hour day at the Mohawk, but it was well worth it. I was somewhat disappointed with the last Decemberists show I had seen at Stubbs last fall, but the intimacy of this show reminded me of the wonderful Decemberists shows of a few years ago, when crowd interaction and witty banter to a small room full of people made every show a memorable one.

Kudos to the band and the Mohawk for doing a wonderful job with everything. From Mohawk owner James Moody passing out water bottles to the 30 or so fans in line early in the afternoon, to the wonderful door staff and bartenders, to the band itself, everyone did a great job and I and 199+ other people really had a great time. Well done all.