Boris, Empty Bottle 7.20.08

In 22 years(jeezis!) of going to shows, I've seen some of the loudest bands to blaze the earth- Black Flag, Dino Jr., Flaming Lips, My Bloody Valentine, Melvins, Killdozer, Motorhead.

And now, Boris. Really fuckin loud. But oddly, crystal clear. A lot of loud bands just lose it in fuzz and dulls the loudness. These guys do not. Lots of swirling, beautiful music that rocks the fuck out. It's really hard to describe this band and do them justice. There are so many different influences and styles to pigeonhole them. Shoegaze, punk, doom, you name it and they have a song or two that reflects it. Great band. Check them out on both cd or live if at all possible. But you may need earplugs.

Here are flacs and mp3s I recorded of their recent performance at the Empty Bottle in Chicago. This was after playing what I gathered was a shorter set at the Pitchfork Festival that same afternoon. They were joined by Michio Kurahara from Ghost on second guitar, adding to the beauty. Awesome guitar player. Hope you enjoy these! Nikolaus says it's yummy!



Flac disc 1
Flac disc 2

boris live mp3s

Animal Collective Logan Square Auditorium 2.26.06

Animal Collective are an amazing band. They usually tour with loads of new music instead of playing the hits every time. This makes some concert goers confused and pissed, but is the main reason I like them so much. This is an older boot I recorded and just recently remastered. The first take was real boomy and I never was happy with it. It's still got plenty of bass but now it's at a decent level. At the time, my mac was on the outs and I was working on a pc with programs I didn't know. Luckily, my mac has since been repaired/upgraded and I felt it time to redo this one. This has never been shared or distributed in any way.

A lot of this was new tunes at the time, but they've since been legitimately released on the awesome Strawberry Jam. It's kind of amazing how fleshed out Peacebone, #1, and Safer were even at this early date. This was one of the first shows of that tour. Deakin was still playing with them-I hope he comes back for the next batch of shows. He seems to add a loose element to the band that is missing when it's just samplers being triggered. He may not actually add much to the sound but I love watching him dance. As you should already know, the band has a new ep, Water Curses, which is just as great as the rest of their releases. Buy it and go see them when they come near.

I'm upping both flac files and mp3s so everyone should be happy. Nikolaus loves the Collective and bounces like crazy to the up numbers and zones out nicely to the spacy ones. What an awesome baby he is. Can't wait to start taking him to shows. Enjoy!
animal collective flac
animal collective mp3

Fiery Furnaces Empty Bottle 9.17.04

Here is an old bootleg I recorded that I've upped to share on other sites, but thought I'd add it here to keep the link alive. It's one big file plus the encore since they really never stopped. This is when it was one long medley. Blueberry Boat had just recently come out and they weren't as infamous as they would become. Love 'em or hate 'em they are definitely one of the more hardworking innovative bands performing today. The fact that the songs never sound the same from one tour to the other attests to their creativity. Enjoy.

Fiery Furnaces medley mp3

I will be posting more often as time allows. I have some animal collective boots to share along with a bunch from my archives depending on my mood. And now, the cutest baby in the world, Nikolaus Jo.

Black Moth Super Rainbow Empty Bottle Chicago 3.29.08

Let out your inner child! Black Moth Super Rainbow tripped into the Empty Bottle Saturday night and proceeded to spread the happiness that is their brand of odd, techno rock. They played a rather short set-only 48 minutes- but it was great nonetheless. No chatter, talking to the crowd or encore, just warping their way into yer heart. The crowd screamed for an encore after the band gathered at the back of the stage after 35 minutes or so, but that was a fake out. Their videos projected behind were hilarious and disturbing, but weren't directly behind them so they were a bit hard to see. Some cheesy ultraviolence, dead animals, porn, Richard Simmons workouts, and 80's toy commercials(BOGLINS!) were some of the fodder for the eyes. I picked up their DVD, Fucked Up Friends, and it's full of that stuff and more-awesome. My wife came in while I was checking it out with my baby boy, Nikolaus, and she said she wasn't sure she wanted either of us watching it, so you know it's great. They also obviously learned a couple of tricks touring with The Flaming Lips, tossing out balloons and pinatas, which the crowd seemed to not know what to do with. All in all a short, but fun show. Blissful brilliance.

I didn't really care for either of the openers, although the chick singer for Brilliant Pebbles had a fantastic range, from a growl to an operatic trill. One of the more on key singers I've heard in a live setting. The music just didn't really do it for me for some reason. Good sounding, but had a lack of hooks or something that kept me from getting into it. Magical, Beautiful, the opening act, just bored me.

The Empty Bottle is a great venue to record in and this boot is no exception. The place is small with low ceilings and I got a choice spot up in the raised area just off center stage. I'm uploading the flac files, along with mp3s, for this one cuz it turned out great, in my opinion. I'll be listening to this a lot. Please do not sell. Oh, and buy BMSR cds-their website has a ton of mp3s if you aren't familiar with them. If anyone knows the titles that I didn't, please leave in comments. Thanks and enjoy!

http://www.blackmothsuperrainbow.com/

Flac Files: Black Moth Super Rainbow Empty Bottle 3.29.08

MP3s: BMSR Empty Bottle 3.29.08 mp3

Black Lips 3.1.08 Logan Square, Chicago

The Black Lips stormed into Logan Square Auditorium this past weekend. All ages, so there were lots of sweaty shirtless boys jumpin' around and actually crowd-surfing without security stepping in. Surprising. Pretty good show-the band was fairly full of energy for what they said was their third performance of the day! Wow! I'm not crazy familiar with the band, but loved their newest, Good Bad Not Evil. Great energy and it's clear they love what they do. Saw a number of people leave mid-show and a trio of bimbos in front of me took off as soon as they kicked in. Obviously not their style of music-glad they wasted 15 bucks to get in. Idiots. Oh well, I thought it was great. The highlight for me was the guitar player with "grills" leading a chant of "Friendship! Friendship!". Fuckin' hilarious.


Quintron and Miss Pussycat were the touring partners, with Chi's Hot Machines opening up. The Machines were rockin' , but just basic garage stuff. I went to this show to see Quintron mainly. There were some equipment troubles and Miss Pussycat had laryngitis, so they seemed a bit off. I still thought they were great(love that fuckin' organ sound) and will definitely try and see them when they come back. Miss Pussycat's puppet show was a crack up. I picked up Q's Swamp Tech cd/Electric Swamp dvd and can't wait to watch the puppet show on the vid.

Below are links to mp3s of the Black Lips set and Quintron's set. Not necessarily the best sound(although Quintron's is nice and clear for the most part), but it captures a nice, raw feel that works for the tunes presented. If anyone feels a need for flacs, please post in the comments and I'll see what I can do. I'm not one to give a shit either way about the mp3 vs. flac debate and I'm not sure the traffic I'll get with this anyway, but I will try and oblige for you anal types. I'm not sure of all the titles, so I marked the ones I knew. If anyone knows the setlists, please leave in comments, por favor.

Please do not sell, but do with these as you will. If you like what you hear, please buy cds from either artist, you can't go wrong.

http://www.theblacklips.blogspot.com/
http://www.quintronandmisspussycat.com/

here's the black lips set: black lips logan square
and now quintron: quintron logan square

take off

This is my first post. I'm old and trying to get modern. This is my son, Nikolaus- he's three and a half months old and completely precious. He loves to rock out with me to all kinds of music, and staring at colorful objects like my paintings and television, which we'll try to fight off as much as possible. He'll usually be your visual host on this blog, which will bring you bootleg live music and various photos of said paintings. Hope you enjoy it all and come back often!