The Polyrhythm

Another Amscray show last night, another good time had by all. Thanks to The Polyrhythm for playing, they did the Central Valley's version of Cap N' Jazz meets Unwound quite well and garnished applause from about the room. We played just fine, if not a bit sloppy here and there. An extended version of "He's Waiting" ended the regular part of the set with Eric joining in on vocals for the first time, which sounded mighty fine.

After the show we all piled into the van, I think there were nine of us in there cruising the streets of San Francisco at 1:30 AM. We also spent a good ten minutes double parked outside the venue while Mike ran inside to find his jacket, me stuck on top of the loft looking out the back window at all the freaks on Geary street in the middle of the night.

So, at lunch, Miss Rodeo America and I braved yuppie-central and hooked it up. She got pecan, I got apple-peach, and we sat on the steps in the shade saying things like "I pe-can't belive this is so good" and lots of "mmmmm.......pie." It made going back to work not seem so bad at all.

Perhaps it will save a band that I used to like quite a bit, perhaps it won't, but Isobel Campbell, the singer who can't sing, has quit Belle & Sebastian. Apparently she walked out on their current tour, but nobody seems to miss her anyways. Time to avoid that solo album!

Got some things done before the weekend gets all busy busy. All kids know that the weekend starts on Thursdays these days, don't ya'll? Finally put up some Charmless pictures from the last few shows, as well as added some text to the Hansi photos posted earlier. Drank a couple Rocks and generally had me a pleasant evening, which included watching the first half of The Seven Samurai. No complaints on the western front.

101 Degrees / Russian River

I'm about a shade darker than when I left the house this morning. Yes, that does say 101 degrees, no, I do not have air conditioning, yes, I feel like I've been baked like a potato.

Sitting here wasting away the last few minutes at work, I decided that it might be fun to you know, go and see the Doves show at a smallish venue in San Francisco. I knew the event was sold out, but to my surpise, people are paying $50 or $60 per ticket for the show. Egat! Good thing I'm not a White Stripes fan, as those are going for even more.

I think I'll just clutch my Mercury Rev / Shins tickets and wait a week and a half for my rock intake.

Midnight Cowboy

We watched Midnight Cowboy last night, nobody in the room had ever seen it, so it was an interesting experience to say the least. I really liked the whole opening sequence, checking out those fly western shirts, fancy-pants boots, and the Lone Star Beer truck driving by.

MP3 of the week: One of the most calm moments during last year's Amscray tour was during the last week, driving west through Texas just over the Arkansas border. The CD player wasn't working too well, so I was in the driver's seat fooling around with the radio. I found this really great Bluegrass show a few hundred miles outside of Dallas, and we listened to that show for a couple hours, watching the sun go down ahead of us instead of behind. The next day in Austin I went down to the local record store and picked up some Bill Monroe for the drive home, and these days I find myself listening to it more and more every week. "Shine Hallelujah Shine" is a more spiritual/gospel song than some of his other straightup Bluegrass stuff, but it used to bring down the house at the Opry all the same.