It seems that Pitchfork got shut down by their internet provider for posting naked pictures of The Oxes in the news section of their site. The photos, which grace the cover of their upcoming oXXXes record are part of a promotional hype that also includes faux protests and LPs sealed in paper bags. Hell, for all I know, the whole idea of shutting down the Pitchfork site could just be to generate *more* hype for the gimmicky Baltimore duo. I wonder how much thier label paid the site if the latter is true. (Note: None of this is true, but it's fun to think about.)

The Sunshine Plague Travelling Revue & Charles Atlas at the Edinburgh Castle tonight. I'll be there, drinking beer and rocking softy in my seat.

Two days of badness washed away with a French Hotel Latte and three repeated listenings of Lambchop's How I Quit Smoking. The wind is kicking up, the clouds have blown away, and there's hot soup on the table. Hells yes.

New links: Ashley likes good music and lives in my favorite part of Northern California, the part I cruise through alone blasting Red House Painters every Wednesday, and the city project makes things look pretty. I really need to take more Oakland pictures.

The Modest Mouse shows over the past few days were both very, very good, but also incredibly different from each other. Songs that people were literally crowd-surfing to in Chico (it felt like we were at Lollapalooza or something), people barely swayed to in San Francisco. Not that either show was better than the other, they were just, *different*. One thing that I found curious was that they didn't play any new songs. Instead, they played *old* songs that I had never heard them play live before like "Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset" and "Interstate 8." Those songs were a treat, but I was hoping to at least hear a little bit of new material.

We drove the three hours to Chico on Thursday night after work, squeezing through commute traffic until the subdivisions disappeared and the long stretch of Interstate 5 appeared in front of us. We rolled up to the venue downtown just in time to go inside and catch the horrible opening band, Stagger Lee. They were basically the band from Almost Famous, all full of bad 1970s wardrobe choices, little body fat, and long hair. They tried to get the crowd into things by saying things like "Hey! You all live in the sticks man, this is just, like, the STICKS. But you know, that's cool yo. That's cool." It was irritating, and we blame The Black Crowes, The Strokes, and Cameron Crowe for their existence.

In order to get a beer, you had to go out through a side door to a smoker's patio, then get IDs checked and enter an area separated by a chain-link fence, then pay $2.00 for a Budweiswer that was being sold out the backdoor of the restaurant next door. I felt like I was being ushered away with the bad kids as I took down my bottle in about two minutes

Modest Mouse came on after a bit of a wait, after they turned on the smoke machine, the blacklights, and the flashy discoball over the main dancefloor. The sound was great, and the addition of a keyboard player who played with tones and hints of melody throughout the set was a welcomed addition. The crowd went absolutely crazy when they came on the stage and right at the beginning of every song, and I felt like the oldest person in the room. We danced a little bit, but I mostly observed the scene of 200 kids jumping up in down in unison to the music, doing hippie-dances, and getting excited about every song. Here's the setlist: