Category Archives: Music

Music and 2011

About three months ago, on a clear and cool night in early September, I made the short trip to Midtown to watch Bon Iver play at the Uptown Theatre. (That makes sense if you live in KC.)

On most nights, this would seem like a pretty simple plan.

Drive to said show. Sip a beer and act sufficiently curious during the opening act. Experience the concert. And then head back out into the Kansas City night, content, inspired, ready for more music.

The circumstances of this night, however, were something different. After planning for a couple weeks to go with two friends, life interfered in the days leading up to the show, and I was left with two extra tickets.

The Uptown was sold out that night, and I knew this. So I knew it wouldn’t be a problem to unload the extra tickets at the last minute, but I also felt a little hesitant about going to the show by myself.

Do people do this? I thought.

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Russians, Adele and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize I Have the Consumerist Soul of a Suburban Woman

GoMusicNow.com is a music website that offers full albums for about two dollars and songs for about 15 cents. It is heaven, and it is likely (HAS TO BE) illegal. And I think it is based out of Russia.

One day in the not too distant future I will almost certainly take three steps out of my apartment and then three KGB agents will grab my arms and legs and cover my mouth with a chloroform rag before transporting me to a secret underground missile silo that doubles as a gulag for punk Americans who think they can cheat the music industry. I know this. Their names will be Dmitri, Boris (pronounced bo-REEEES) and Vladimir. I wait attentively like a minuteman for this regrettable day. Until then, GoMusicNow.com is worth it.

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#MusicMonday: VII

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “The OtherSide” — The Roots, from their new album, “Undun” (LA Times Review: Here)

Thanks for stopping by The Brew House…

Konichiwa, Bitches

This weekend, Robyn is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, Saturday FREAKING Night Live. At Rockefeller Center. On national TV. As part of one of the most famous shows in American history. In terms of excitement level, for me, this pretty much equates finding a $20 bill on the ground with no one else around and then discovering that a Champion replica Bryant “Big Country” Reeves Grizzlies jersey is available for $20 on EBay, so yeah, VERY high excitement levels. Continue reading

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#MusicMonday: VI

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Heart to Hang Onto” — Pete Townshend and Eddie Vedder, live on David Letterman

It took me a few months, but I finally saw “Pearl Jam Twenty”, the Cameron Crowe project about the band’s first 20 years. Plenty of great stuff — some of the unseen footage from the early 90s might have been the most compelling part — but there was also a great moment where Eddie Vedder is talking about the first time he met Pete Townshend.

Vedder, he recalls, was paralyzed. This is Pete Townshend. His hero. What do you say? And then, (and I’m paraphrasing here) Townshend spoke.

“I’ve waited so long to meet you,” he said.

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Unsolicited Endorsements: V

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Album: “Nothing is Wrong” — Dawes

Ever since the first time I heard the first few riffy bars of “If I Wanted Someone”, I’ve tried to place Dawes in a certain time and place. By most contemporary definitions, they are not purely indie rock — at least, if we determine that a band can be classified as indie if a music director at a college rock station would want to put their album into rotation. And they don’t quite fit in with the stringy acts that have proliferated today’s alt-country scene — the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, the Devil Makes Three — or even the kings of the indie/alt-country world, Wilco. Continue reading

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#MusicMonday: V

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Knotty Pine” — Dirty Projectors and David Byrne, off the compilation album “Dark Was The Night

Thanks for stopping by The Brew House

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