Jimi sends along an article discussing how SUVs are actually banned on many residential streets because of their heavy weight. There is a 6,000 lb limit on thousands of streets in Los Angeles because of the danger vehicles that weigh that much pose, not to mention how they tear the road up more. What’s more interesting though is all of the loopholes allowed to SUV owners, letting them get tax breaks and being exempt from the gas guzzler law.
I’m all for going against government and leading the socialist revolution, but this is encroaching on the topic of environment more than it is on the topic of cheating taxes. Gluttony rules all.
Someone get me this Wicker Park Soundtrack. An acoustic version of “A Movie Script Ending”? A Postal Service cover of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds”? A cover of Coldplay’s “The Scientist”? Who cares that Josh Hartnett is in the movie, gimme the soundtrack now.
That last post kinda got me into the writing mood. Because I love shamelessly plugging myself and referring to past posts in the hopes that people will actually read the stuff I write here, let’s get into a first impression of Rilo Kiley’s latest effort, “More Adventurous“, the CD that was released at the show which I went to last week.
This is good stuff. My reviews blow, all the are is me saying, “This is good”, or “This is not so good” over and over again. So let’s see if I can make this a little bit more descriptive.
The obvious comparison I think most people are going to want is against Death Cab, since both lead singers were part of the Postal Service. There’s a huge difference here though.
Rilo Kiley’s sound is a lot less heavy on the instrumentals and rock, and it sounds almost like folk to me at times. Very “sing-songy” as a friend described their stuff, and definitely a lot more under the classification of “girl music”. It’s hard to remember the standout tracks on this album since I only listened to it once-through, but “Ripchord” was great just because the chorus consists of the line, “Because nobody loves you”. Classic.
On a side not involving Rilo Kiley…okay, maybe it does, in that three degrees way, but anyway. I’m totally obsessed with Postal Service. I keep liking each track on “Give Up” more and more and more.
Went to the Velvet Teen show on Saturday at 51 Buckingham in Pomona. The venue was really small, more like this tiny little side room in a bar, that had no airconditioning and really put a damper on my enjoyment. Plus my feet hurt like hell from standing the whole time. But it was only $8 to see three bands, so it was still okay. The opening band, The Pale, were actually pretty decent. Second band, The Polar Bears, had no clue what the hell they were doing. They seemed to really get into their own music and when I looked around nobody else was, so umm…at least they enjoyed it? The Velvet Teen finally came on around 11:30 and all was good, even did my favorite song of theirs, “Counting Backwards”.
It’s sad to say that I got really annoyed when the bands did the very thing I love that bands do - turn up the volume for the instruments way louder than the vocals so that I couldn’t make out a single lyric. I hate it when they do that, freakin’ idiots. Highlight of the show though is that I did get to pick up the Velvet Teen’s “Plus Minutes Equals” album for only $5. See, price CDs at $5 and I’ll buy, even at $8 (I got the Rilo Kiley album at their show for only $8). Thanks to Cindy and her sister Lisa for coming along, they did their fair share of ogling the bands and nabbing autographs afterwards.
As mentioned earlier, I went to the CD release show for Rilo Kiley tonight at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The theatre itself was really nice — very small and intimate, outdoors, yet every seat had a great view of the stage. Parking seemed somewhat odd though since it was stack parking and I didn’t even see much in the way of an actual parking lot; everyone got stack parked as far as I could tell.
The special guest was listed as Ben Gibbard, so I figured he was gonna show up and play a couple of songs with them. Turns out that he was actually the opening act…and man, what a great opening act. Seriously, if you ask me, he totally eclipsed the main act. Nothing but acoustic Ben Gibbard (Who is, again, for like the umpteenth time, the lead singer of Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie) singing stuff from Death Cab (An acoustic version of “405″, finally!), Postal Service, and even the special Home CD. One song after another he kept upping the ante, finally closing off with a duet with Jenny Lewis on “Such Great Heights”. Such Great Heights, man, I can’t believe they played it. No way. It wasn’t “Nothing Better” which I would have both expected and preferred, but can’t complain when they play the popular radio-friendly single.
Ben’s acoustic set was incredible. Way better than the Death Cab show I had attended earlier. If I had left the show right then I would’ve been incredibly happy.
Let’s get on to the main act — Rilo Kiley. Good music, although I must admit that I haven’t even heard a lot of their stuff so I wasn’t familiar with a lot of it. Managed to pick up their CD before the show for $8 and nabbed a free poster at that. Jenny and the lead guitarist had some fun with the crowd, and Jenny was cute boppin’ around the stage in an outfit where I swore she was wearing long white socks but turns out her feet are just that pale.
Great show. And I’m sorry to say it, but the first half with Ben Gibbard pretty much blew away Rilo Kiley. Thanks to the friends who came with: Julie (Who almost didn’t come), Brad (”Eric, remember that time you dated the black guy?”), RichardMary (They’ve become one entity, even though Mary’s trying to ditch him), and Tommy. He doesn’t get a cool parenthetical phrase with his name.
I need more acoustic Ben. And I need to find more shows playing at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.
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