Little Kings:

Ryan Anderson
I was already inclined to like him because his myspace title quote thing is a Mountain Goats lyric, and I did. He started out playing in the center of the floor, making it more intimate.

So L'il
I don't really like their name, but their music was pretty good.

63 CrayonsI liked them too ( Read more... )

popfest day two!

Dog Paloma
Terrible name, but solid solo guy-with-guitar songs.

The Besties
I already completely love the Besties (plus they're a lot of fun to see other NYC indiepop shows with!) and they were incredibly good. I especially loved "Zombie Song" live (it's my favorite).

Bugs Eat BooksI've wanted to see them for a long time too, ( Read more... )

I wasn't really sure where the bus station was going to be in relation to downtown, but as we were arriving in Athens the next morning, suddenly off to the side was the steeple of the church where REM played their first show ever! Then there was the Tasty World (home of the afternoon shows during Popfest 2004)! And it turned out the bus station ( Read more... )

It turns out that Greyhound travel is not bad at all. The only major drama of the 20 hours and 45 minutes each way from New York to Athens was the woman and her daughter getting themselves trapped in the bathroom just as we were arriving in the station in Richmond. Then a bunch of passengers from the back of the bus were yelling at the driver to ( Read more... )

The Mountain Goats are playing free shows around the release of Get Lonely at Amoeba Music in Hollywood and San Francisco in a couple weeks, and oh how I wish I were there. I miss Amoeba.

But it's also sad in a bigger way, in that Amoeba is the only one left of the three major independent record stores that defined my Los Angeles, since Aron's ( Read more... )

When I moved to Los Angeles five years ago, I chose an apartment in Los Feliz based solely on the fact that it was across the street from Skylight Books, since I thought it would be nice to have a neighborhood independent book store (especially as I was quite excited to be able to read for pleasure again, a fringe benefit of being a college dropout ( Read more... )

I was there last Thursday-Saturday, primarily to run the half marathon at the Gay Games. I haven't really been running all that much over the past few months - the Queens Half at the end of April was pretty miserable, since I went out at a 9:00/mile pace that I can absolutely hold for 13 miles but after about 5 miles it just felt like my body shut ( Read more... )

Not only are there tons of great-looking immigration documentaries at the New York International Latino Film Festival this week, but there are also free film screenings at Carlitos Cafe y Galeria that are somehow affiliated with it, and I am really really excited about "Chicago Boricua" tomorrow night. As I was catching the bus at Western and ( Read more... )

This editorial pisses me off. Of course it's not the boys' fault that they're less represented in other extracurricular activities and less likely to graduate, and there should be large institutional changes (e.g. adding football teams at small schools) to recruit them and keep them motivated in college. But when girls are less likely to try out ( Read more... )

It's probably not normal to wake up from nightmares about being at a large outdoor concert with a bunch of friends, except they're not really talking to you and you're feeling isolated and then they do talk to you but it's just to tell you that you're being a drag and they're annoyed that you came. And then to have to spend the day telling ( Read more... )