A few weeks ago I received an email from the girlfriend of a member of the band, The Carps. In the letter, she told me that they had written a song called “Veronica Belmont,” and that it was based on Internet culture and feeling like you know the people you meet online. She linked me to their MySpace page, and there it was! It’s a fun song, and some of the lyrics definitely made me chuckle:

Dark light as we expire,
But go ahead, just dance, dance, dance

He pwned in that disco,
When they played chocolate rain, rain, rain.

Apparently the band is really starting to blow up, because I’ve been getting emails every day from people telling me they’ve heard it on XM, indie stations, and even on RCRD LBL (where you can download the track for free!). It’s awesome (and humbling) that they thought of me, so I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to those guys. I hope they tour in SF sometime!

Waves and Shambles, the EP with the single on it is coming out this Tuesday, the 8th! I can’t wait to pick it up. But of course, all bets are off if they steal my Google juice. (I kid, I kid!)

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This blog is technically called Music and Medicine (a line from one of my favorite bands, Neutral Milk Hotel) so once in a while I like to throw down a little music blogging for fun. There were a lot of tracks this year that I loved, but seeing as though it’s very fashionable this time of year to write a Top 10 list, I’ve compiled my favorite songs that came out in 2007. In no particular order, here they are!

1. Chromeo - “Bonafied Lovin’ (Tough Guys)”: My best friend Nick turned me on to this band last summer, and it became my feel-good dancing around album for months. “Bonafied Lovin’” is good track to get you going in the morning.

2. MIKA - “Love Today”: I saw MIKA for the first time at South by Southwest in Austin, and I was blown away by his energy and upbeat songs. This is my favorite track off of the album Life in Cartoon Motion.

3. The Arcade Fire - “Intervention”: Yes, I know that it’s very typical to have The Arcade Fire on a list like this, but c’mon! Neon Bible is an amazing album. A lot of the tracks on this album had a very Bruce Springsteen feel to them, and “Intervention” just takes epic to a new level. See them live. Seriously, do it.

4. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - “When Your Mind’s Made Up”: This track from The Swell Season album (also found on the soundtrack to the amazing film Once) blew me away. Most of the accolades have gone to “Falling Slowly,” which was a huge track in the U.K., but this one really sinks in for me.

5. The Mother Hips - “Time We Had”: OK, I’ll admit it: I discovered this band on Rock Band. This group from Chico, CA, has a that great alt-country/folk rock vibe that’s so popular with the kids these days.

6. Kanye West - “Stronger”: I don’t listen to a lot of rap music (judging from this list, that’s painfully apparent) but I do love Graduation. Way to cross genre bridges and bring the people together! Also, Daft Punk sampling is always OK in my book. As Kanye says, “me likey.”

7. The Cinematics - “A Strange Education”: This is one of those songs that I listen to over and over and over until until I realize that Last.fm is recording all of my listens, and that people are going to think there’s something wrong with me (or that I left iTunes in repeat mode by accident).

8. Bat for Lashes - “What’s a Girl to Do?”: This album is dark and cute in all the right places, and this is perfect song to listen to after you dump someone:

We walked arm in arm
But I didn’t feel his touch
A desire I’d first tried to hide,
That tingling inside was gone
And when he asked me:
‘do you still love me?’
I had to look away
I didn’t want to tell him
That my heart grows colder with each day

Ouch!

9. Shout Out Louds - “Tonight I Have To Leave It”: Yes, they kind of sound like The Cure (and maybe even Stellastarr*) but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, right? I only recently discovered this band, and the album has stayed in pretty heavy rotation.

10. Jonathan Coulton - “Still Alive”: The final song from the fantastic video game Portal is the icing on the cake… sorry, it’s obligatory when writing about Portal to make a cake reference. The song perfectly exemplifies the quirkiness and fun of the game, and Coulton is a masterful lyricist.

There you have it! I now return you to your regularly scheduled top 10 list-free viewing. Let me know what you would have put on your list!

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Tuesday night I was finally able to live out a dream of mine since I was 12 years old - I saw the Smashing Pumpkins live. For whatever reason, I always missed them when I was in high school (and before that, I was “too young” to go to concerts, according to my mother). When I heard that they were getting back together and playing no less than ten shows here in San Francisco, I immediately had Ryan buy us tickets for my birthday.

The show was good, albeit way too long (I never thought I’d say that an SP show could ever go too long). It was over 2 hours, and by the end I felt like my back was about to break, or my feet were about to disintegrate… whichever came first. They started off the set with some new tunes, and although I have Zeitgeist I’m not all that familiar with the new songs. Then they played a few surprises, like “The Aeroplane Flies High” (from the box set), “Drown” (another B-side), and “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”

Jimmy Chamberlin stole the show towards the end with an amazing drum solo, and we got a peek into the personality of the new bassist, Ginger Reyes, when they skipped a song without telling her. She seemed very sweet, and joked about it with Billy on stage. OK, now I’m just getting too involved, sorry.

Billy was kind of down on San Francisco, saying that everyone he met was “mean.” Really? But I guess it gave him the inspiration to write a new song, called “Peace and Love and All That Other Shit,” which is the video I took that you see above. It’s sad that SF wasn’t his cup of tea (and too bad they’re playing so many shows here, I guess) but the song was one of the highlights of the evening for me.

I’m having trouble finding the setlist for the show, but I remember them also playing “Tonight, Tonight,” “Disarm” (one of my all-time favorites), “Tarantula,” “Doomsday Clock” and “United States.” A mix of old and new, but as Billy said at the opening of the show, “This is 2007, not 1992. Welcome to the new decade.” It would have been nice to see them back in the day, but it was still totally worth the sore feet.

See this review and others at PLAYBACK:stl

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On Sunday night, Chow.com, Webshots and Consumating had a party at the Mohawk. It was unbelievably crowded (and intensified by the fact that it was thunderstorming, and so the outdoor sections weren’t being used) but the bands that I saw play there were awesome. One of those bands were The Lemurs, and Jesse and I talked to them a little bit after their set about being an unsigned band and how the Internet has made it possible for them to promote themselves.

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The other band that I saw was called What Made Milwaukee Famous, and they were phenomenal. I’ve seen so many good bands since I’ve been here, I don’t even know where to start! Yesterday I hung out with Kurt Woolf from Download.com, and we were to a few different venues on 6th Street. We saw a band called Office (I saw James Iha in the crowd and I totally freaked out), and then we went to go see The Silos play down the street.

Later, I met up with Cameron, Tantek, Ryan K. and Sarah, and we headed over to Zona Rosa for another show. The Pipettes were playing when we got there, and I think we all fell in love with them a little. Go check out their site, and you’ll see why. Then as we were getting a drink, I heard that The Rapture were playing next, who I love! That was a nice surprise.

OK, gotta head back downtown. More later.
CNET TV Report Day One
CNET TV Report Day Two
LonelyGirl15 Interview

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