• Saw This Town Needs Guns, Native, and Castevet last weekend at Beat Kitchen, before a disastrous night out with friends. Castevet is still one of the best little-known gems in Chicago, and the fact they have their record on vinyl right now makes me almost primally happy. Native was okay, a little too much on the hardcore posing, not enough of hardcore energy. This Town Needs Guns? Shit, son, if their new album lives up to the promise of what I saw that night, they’re going to blow the fuck up.
• Also saw Born Ruffians at Lincoln Hall last night. I didn’t realize they had the hardcore fanbase that they did, because the place was packed. Pretty much every song inspired singalongs, the encore was nothing short of fantastic, there was good natured moshing, crowd surfing, and even a short-lived stage invasion. If they come up with a few more pop singles like Hummingbird, they’ll need to move up past the Hall… Probably the best surprise concert I’ve had in a while.
• Related note, Pitchfork’s 3.8 takedown review of Say It a couple of weeks ago was SO INCREDIBLY UNCALLED FOR. While it’s not as twisty as Red, Yellow, and Blue, it’s hardly a bottom-of-the-barrel skunk like they made it out to be. Sometimes, P4k, you guys can really hurt my feelings. :(
• The new Gaslight Anthem album has some incredible cuts on it. It also has some really dull numbers. This is a band that’s really at its best when they’re at 75MPH, doing down some dusty American highway, and they are NOT at their peak while they’re pulling over and plucking around the towns off wonky exits, towns with names like Sorrowsburg or Bliss or whatever. Still, Orphans gave me shivers, and that’s hard to contest.
• Still on a massive Japandroids kick. Post-Nothing is a nigh perfect album, and Younger Us is still incredible. Disappointed that I didn’t see them play Chicago…
• Wavves crazy-ass new single is… Actually, incredibly good. I’m glad he did his terrible lo-fi stuff, because that makes him clean and well-produced that much more enjoyable.
• Superbly bored with Tokyo Police Club’s Champ. It’s like every album they come out with has less and less zest.
• By way of reminder, The Dismemberment Plan has aged incredibly well, and you should all dust off yr copies of Emergency & I and give it a listen.
• Might be starting a side project with Nick Nylen of Albatross and Jonah Kort of State and Madison. Fuckin’ excited to if it happens.
