Vampire Weekend @ the Riviera - 4/26/10

First time I've seen them live, and they pretty much lived up to the hype. It might have been the few beers beforehand, but this was a really easy show to get into. A nice thing about Vampire Weekend is that they've only got two records, and most of their songs are short, so they can play a pretty full set that covers virtually all of their album material. They played the entire new album, except for Giving Up the Gun (surprising, since that's a new single), and and I Think Ur a Contra. They played the entire first album except The Kids Don't Stand a Chance. They also threw in Ladies of Cambridge, a b-side from the Oxford Comma single.

This was only the second time I've been to the show at the Riviera (first show was Spoon about two and a half years ago). It's a little bigger venue than I normally frequent. It's got a capacity of about 2,500 people, about 10-15 times the size of a place like Schuba's, which is a bit more up my alley. But the acoustics at the Riv are excellent, so it's hard to complain. We skipped Abe Vigoda, who opened (a band on my radar that I haven't gotten around to yet), and by the time we got in, the venue was fairly full, so visuals weren't easy to come by. But compared to my companion/date, who is about 5'3", I had it pretty easy.

Morning Mix 11/5/09

Today's random commuter music:

• What the World is Waiting For - the Stone Roses
• Testimony - Grant Lee Buffalo
• Waking Up Tired - the Hoodoo Gurus
• In Between Days - the Cure
• Going Down - the Stone Roses
• Generals and Majors - XTC
• Jean - Billy Bragg (cover of the Smiths B-Side)
• Fight - Art Brut
• the Commuter - Simple Kid
• Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend
• St. Expedite - Grant Lee Phillips

This was like two sides of a mix tape, with the classic stuff on the first side and the contemporary stuff on side 2. Five of the first seven songs were released in the '80s, and the other two were mid-'90s. Also notable, three of these were released as b-sides (the other two from the Stone Roses). Finally, Art Brut followed Billy Bragg, and the song 'Fight' repeats the variations on the lyric "Some things are really best left unspoken but I prefer it all to be out in the open", which is lifted directly from Billy Bragg's hit 'Sexuality'. Funny coincidence.

I'm going to throw a change up today and post the Smiths' version of Jean.

Morning Mix 11/4/09

Here's today's commuting music:

• Tornado Alley - Viva Voce
• Streethawk I - Destroyer
• M79 - Vampire Weekend
• Big Sur - The Thrills
  
• M62 Song - Doves
• Low - Cracker
• Empty - Metric
• Ain't That Enough - Teenage Fanclub
• The State I Am In - Belle and Sebastian

Two things stand out today. After yesterday's sausage fest, we had some ladies today, with Anita Robinson taking vocals on Tornado Alley, and Emily Haines on Empty. Also, pretty poppy, with the exception of maybe Cracker. Also a bit odd to have both M79 and M62 Song in the same morning.