Happy Nationalfeiertag 2005!

OK, better late than never, I can't believe I forgot about this 'till today. On Wednesday, 10/26/05, my native country of Austria celebrated its national holiday "Nationalfeiertag 2005"! Congratulations!

A couple of Austrian tunes for you:

mp3: Wolfgang Ambros - Es lebe der Zentralfriedhof (live)
mp3: Reinhard Fendrich - Strada Del Sole

Schöne Grüsse an die Familie und Freunde in Österreich!!!

OK, I'm out of here... Just about to put on my Cheerleading outfit and then it's off to First Avenue to watch The Go! Team. Tschüss, "Bussi", bis nechste Woche!

P.S. Yes, I'll be attending The Hold Steady and Broken Social Scene shows this weekend as well. 3 nights in a row @ First Avenue... we'll see if I can pull it off. Perhaps I should rent out the VIP room and just make it into my new loft!?

Spoon @ 400 Bar 12/8/05 ticket info

As promised, here's the info on how to attend the Spoon show @ 400 Bar, 12/8/05. Free tickets and beers for a dollar... I think I'll be there!

Nina / Felix

Check out Queenvick's Blog, she's updated her site, and is back from the wilderness! Horses, pigs, spiders, family members, it's all there...

I'm still "mp3ing" my whole CD/MP3 collection. Man, this has been taking ages! Very time-consuming process to say the least. However, it has its rewards... I found a couple of tunes which Anglopheliac gave me today which you might dig...

Funny thing, I was listening to a new CD I got by Felix da Housecat, I ran across this tune called "Nina"... then I started thinking, hmmmm, I know somebody with that name (right, Jan?). Anyway, here we go, some mp3s which relate to "Nina" which are really cool:

mp3: Felix Da Housecat - Nina
mp3: Felix Da Housecat - Sinnerman (Nina Simone Mix)
mp3: Nina Simone - I Put a Spell on You
mp3: Nina Simone - Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair (Verve Remix)

Nina Simone is sooooo great I could probably devote my whole blog to her, now that I think of it...!

I know there's way more tunes with "Nina" in it... anyway, Mr. & Mrs. BronxByNight enjoy...

Congrat's to the Chicago White Sox who just won the World Series! They came out of a good division...

Have a great day! Greetings to Braunschweig, Deutschland!!!

Whoops, almost forgot! Here's what Bill Maher had to say about the Minnesota Vikings scandal last Friday:

New Rule: Let Vikings be Vikings. Yes, there's outrage that some Minnesota Vikings may have gone on a party cruise and then...partied. Excuse me, but what's the point of getting your ribs crushed every week if you can't occasionally get blown on a boat? Besides, these are the Minnesota Vikings. They can't always be the ones doing the sucking.

'Nuff said...

Girls.Boys.Arts.Pleasure.Paninaro.Steve.Out.

Spoon / Longwave / The Cribs live update

Breaking news from More Cowbell! Spoon will be playing in Minneapolis @ 400 Bar, 12/8/05. More news on how to attend the show to come tomorrow... I'm pretty excited, as I'm a Spoon addict...

Also, just in case you haven't heard... The whole Longwave/The Cribs tour has been cancelled. Very unfortunate to say the least, I was really looking forward to seeing The Cribs (and Longwave). Poor Longwave, their last tour with Embrace got cancelled as well...

Cool stuff to check out:

Spoon
Website: www.spoontheband.com
mp3: Spoon Sister Jack (follow link)
My related posts: Austin City Limits - Day 1 - 9/23/05

Longwave
Website: www.longwavetheband.com
mp3: Longwave We're Not Gonna Crack (follow link)
My related posts: Weekend Rewind - Longwave

The Cribs
Website: www.thecribs.com
mp3: The Cribs The New Fellas (follow link)
My related posts: Up and running again (for the most part)

Embrace
Website: www.embrace.co.uk
mp3: Embrace Gravity (follow link)

Bonus "new" mp3 of the day
Band: The Strokes
Website: www.thestrokes.com
mp3: The Strokes - You Only Live Once (follow link). From the forth-coming album "First Impressions On Earth".
My related posts: Up and running again (for the most part)

Bonus "old" mp3 of the day
Band: The White Stripes
Website: www.whitestripes.com
mp3: The White Stripes - Astro (follow link). After all, the Houston "Astros" are in the World Series for the first time...

P.S. I'm trying a new mp3 download service which I found via Rock Snob ("Merci Beacoup" once again!). Seems to be working quite well, it doesn't make you wait a 1/2 hour to download your file (unlike some others). All mp3's I publish are highly recommended!

I win!

Congratulations to me! This morning I won 2 tickets from 89.3 The Current to The Go! Team's show Friday @ First Avenue. I still can't believe it... Now I just have to figure out who to take. Hmmmm...

Update: My buddy Vieng will be attending the show with me. "Sorry" to all my other local friends and family! Hope to still see you there...

Website: www.thegoteam.co.uk
My Space: www.myspace.com/thegoteam
mp3: The Go! Team We Just Won't Be Defeated

Stream live Death Cab for Cutie

For all you DCfC fans who either missed them on tour or would like to listen to an encore performance:

• NPR presents a live webcast: Death Cab for Cutie, 10/24/05, from Washington DC, beginning ~ 8:45pm CST. You can also find other great performances on NPR's website, including My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, Kings of Leon, The Secret Machines, The Decemberists, Bloc Party, and many more.

Did anybody get a chance to download and listen to the new "leaked" Strokes or Babyshambles tracks? Personally so far, I like the new Strokes tunes; I'm a bit underwhelmed by Babyshamles' new material. However, it's actually better than I expected... Any thoughts?

New Pornographers - cancelled, etc...

Bad news... The New Pornographers gig at First Avenue on 10/22/05 has been cancelled due to health issues (actually an appendix attack). Read more about it on More Cowbell. Looks like the date will be made up at some point, hopefully...

I'm with More Cowbell... I'll try to catch the Metric /American Analog Set combination instead.

I think I'm skipping The Decemberists tonight, just because I've already seen them @ ACL a few weeks ago, and to preserve some cash for next week's outstanding live shows (Go! Team, My Morning Jacket, Broken Social Scene, The Hold Steady).

If I don't get to my mp3 post this evening... make sure you check out Stereogum for some "leaked" tracks (4 and counting) off the upcoming Strokes record, and Rock Snob for a link to the full Babyshambles album (in addition to some other great stuff).

Yeah, I'm fairly sure the Strokes tracks are being leaked on purpose and have to do with their upcoming tour. I mean, come on, 4 leaked tracks in 4 straight days...

Have a great weekend!

LCD Soundsystem

Ahhhhh... it's crazy! I swear every show I've been to lately has been amazing... LCD Soundsystem last night was no different! Simply brilliant! 7 people on-stage, producing great music... I have no idea what to call it (the music that LDCSS play), however it's great not to classify once in a while...

Trust me... buy the CD and see them live! You shall believe! I sound like a preacher!???

Here's a couple of pictures...























The Decemberists and The New Pornographers are coming up this weekend!? Any of you locals going? Let me know... I believe I'll be attending both...

I just picked up my The Hold Steady / Constantines / Thunderbirds Are Now ticket tonight... Cant' wait!

Mp3s of bands I've seen the past month to come later today...

P.S. World Series in baseball should be amazing... Houston Astros vs. Chicago White Sox!

Live shows recap...

So this is way overdue! Time to recap some of the live concerts I've attended since getting back from Austin City Limits. It's been a crazy 2-3 weeks, I have never seen so many great shows in so little time. Counting ACL I think I've seen about 50-60 great bands in 3 weeks... Anyway, here's some comments and pictures of events I've checked out in Minnapolis/St. Paul (yeah right, like there's anything going on in St. Paul) lately.

Bob Mould (w/band) - Wed 9/28 - First Avenue
I saw Bob solo this summer @ Taste of Minnesota. Wow, what a difference a band makes! Sounded so much better... He played mainly Sugar stuff, as well as some stuff from his new record, as well as a couple Hüsker Dü songs. Excellent show, here's a couple of pictures:


















Arcade Fire - Thu 9/29 - First Avenue
Wow, simply amazing! What can you say about this band that has not been said already... the energy in First Avenue's main room was electric... Here's some (quite a few) pictures (Wolf Parade was amazing as well, but I have a seperate headline for them below):












M.I.A. - Thu 9/29 (after Arcade Fire) - Fine Line
After Arcade Fire I really took a chance... Can my First Avenue stamp get me into Fine Line? Yes... of course, just act confident! Great set, took a while for M.I.A. to come on though...












Architecture in Helsinki - Thu 9/29 (after M.I.A.) - First Avenue, 7th Street Entry
These Australian guys & gals simply blew me away at the end of the night. Brilliant... Here's a couple of pictures:












Baron Von Otto Matic - Sat 10/1 - Hexagon Bar
Surf night!? What else can you say... good stuff...














The King of France (opening for Robbers on High Street) - Tue 10/11 - Quest Ascot
Room
Not 100% sure I like these guys; they're ok. Funny thing though, all the stage lights went out during their set... You'll see a picture of a guy on a ladder fixing the problem 3/4 through their set. Quite funny when it happened...














Robbers on High Street - Tue 10/11 - Quest Ascot Room
I love these guys... Great show...










Death Cab For Cutie - Tue 10/11 (after Robbers on High Street)- First Avenue
Once again, I managed to sneak yet into another high priced show. This one would have definitely been worth the money. I wasn't even a DCfC fan, however now I am. Check these guys out live next time their in your town...










Wolf Parade - Thu 10/13 - First Avenue, 7th Street Entry
What can you say about this show?! Imagine seeing The Strokes in that venue... unbelievable! They sounded like Arcade Fire meets Iggy Pop meets The Strokes. Incredible night...













This is what you call a really long !@#$% post. I'm about to go blind... I'm heading out to LCD Soundsystem today, so next update Thursday. I'll probably give you some mp3s for a change... Cheers!

P.S. A couple of things I forgot to mention:

(a) Robbers on High Street invited me to go bowling with them @ Bryant Lake Bowl after the show. Unfortuntaly I had to decline as I was heading over to DCfC. However, my buddy Brody went and had a great time with the band...

(b) When I hung out with Wolf Parade a couple of the main guys in the band asked me: "Are you a reporter?". I replied "Nope, just a blogger!"