They’re like, the Eagles of death metal.

A few buddies and I went to see the Eagles of Death Metal on Saturday at the Glass House in Pomona. Short review: awesome!

Ok, while they were in fact awesome, I assume you want more details. It’s ok, don’t be shy. Ask and ye shall receive, my friend. You don’t even have to say the magic word, which in my case happens to be “platypus”. I could care less about that other p-word, but platypus are awesome. Also, if you’re wondering why I didn’t use “platypuses” or “platypi” for the plural form, it’s because us scientists can’t agree on which of the three to use.

ANYWAY, the show. There were two opening bands, only the latter of which I saw (and for them, only the last two songs). Nothing against them or anything, but, well, I was more interested in drinking more beer at dinner than seeing them. Surely you can understand. For some reason I’m blanking on the names right now, and the ticket site has since taken their info off. So, that’s that, as they say.

At around 10:30-ish the EoDM finally came on. And man, those dudes got some energy. Well, the lead singer and drummer, at least. I read later that lead singer Jesse Hughes’ biggest influence is “Little Richard”, and it’s funny, because I totally thought something along those lines while watching the show. He frequently dances around and does hand gestures similar to Little Richard or even James Brown. I know that probably sounds strange or something at a rock show, but it was actually all kinds of rad. Combine this with his sweet 70′s ‘stache, and I’ll be damned if you could call this guy anything but a rock star.

One thing I was a little disappointed with, at least initially, was the Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme was absent from the show. Though he’s not the lead in EoDM, he normally plays drums and other stuff, and I was looking forward to maybe seeing some of his infamous interactions with the crowd. Look up his name on youtube and you’ll see what I mean. I can only assume his absence was due to making a new QotSA album, which I am pretty damn ok with (as that is one of my favorite bands).

Regardless of Homme’s absence, the drummer on hand (who has actually done a lot of drumming for QotSA, and was referred to as the “sexy mexy” frequently throughout the show) was pretty damn awesome. Dude can wail, and combined with Hughes’ high-energy antics made the crowd feel an irresistible urge to shake that thang.

As far as the set list goes, they played a pretty good amount of tunes from all three albums. I think my current fav is the first album, Peace, Love, and Death Metal, but the other two (Death by Sexy and Heart On) are pretty damn solid as well. They played for about an hour and half, which covered quite a few songs.

The only “real” gripes I have are about the venue itself. For one, no alcohol is sold! Like, what the hell is that about? I was totally ready to pay $12 for a beer-flavored water like Bud Light, but was DENIED. I was also frisked just a little too thoroughly at the door…the people in front of me didn’t get any ball cuppage like I did, so that was a little off-putting. I do have some nice things to say about the place though, too. For one, the size was perfect. Not too big, not too small. And they were pretty relaxed about people taking pictures, though I think that’s because Hughes said at one point during the show “hey security dudes, we don’t mind if these people want to take pictures of us beautiful people on stage”. Of course, since we were frisked at the door, not many people had good enough cameras to even take pics in a dark venue.

So overall, it was a great concert! If EoDM come to your town you should definitely check them out, whether you know their music or not. The show is loud, fun, and unapologetically groovy.

Some Good Tunes

So for whatever reason I’ve been listening to hella new music lately. I mean, I usually like to listen to different kinds of music, but I always default to some Beatles or something similar when I just want some background music. Of course not all of this stuff is technically “new” music..but it’s new to me, so it still counts.

Eagles of Death Metal
Peace, Love, Death Metal (2004)
Death By Sexy (2006)
Heart On (2008)

I had heard of these fellas back in 2005/2006-ish, but never really gave them a listen due to the fact that I was under the mistaken impression this was a death metal band. Dude, turns out, not even a little. The name of the band is a reference to a kind of funny story. To me, musically they are kind of like if you twisted the Rolling Stones and Queens of the Stone Age together, with enough of a bluesy rock to match the former and enough hard rock to match the latter (edit: I read online somebody comparing the vocals to Canned Heat…and YES, THEY TOTALLY SOUND LIKE CANNED HEAT. Holy shit, how did I not notice that?). I’m a huge QotSA fan, so when a friend told me the lead singer dude from QotSA started EoDM it seemed like a natural fit for me to like. I picked up all three of the EoDM albums, and they’re all pretty darn good.  Check them and QotSA out, if you haven’t already. You’ll probably dig it.

Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)

I had never heard of these dudes, and I discovered them through Amazon’s “Top 100 Indie Albums”, where they were ranked number 2 (number 1 was..well, not really my thang). I’m not normally super into indie music with the exception of a few albums (Arcade Fire’s “Funeral” is one of my favorite albums from any genre), but I’ve been craving some raw struggeling rock since hearing some live small bands lately. Anyway, after listening to the previews of this band I was pretty impressed and decided to pick it up. It’s pretty fantastic all around, and is actually a pretty intese album lyrically (look it up on wiki if you’r curious). I dig that they use horns a little in some of the songs (like “Fools”), and really just wish more modern bands would o the same. Seriously, go listen to Cake and tell me it’s bad. Go ahead and try..you can’t! This is a good album, probably not for everyone but worth a listen in my opinion.

Zoé
Reptilectric (2008) 

This ia another Amazon discovery, as the album was really cheap for a day last week. They are like a weird Mexican psychedelic/alternative rock band. I know, sounds like something I would like, right? I speak just enough Spanish to be super super confused by the lyrics to the songs, like..I think the lyrics are just weird to begin with, and it’s not just a total misunderstanding or something. They’ve got a cool sounds going for them, I bet if it was in english they would have a decent following in the US. They’re playing here in L.A. this month, I may check them out if the price is right and will probably try out some of their other albums too at some point. 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)

This is my first foray into the genre of post-rock, and I must admit that it’s pretty unusual. But like, in a good way that is hard to describe. The album I picked up is “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven”, which I must admit, is just an awesome album name. It consists of four 20+ minute tracks that sound like soft-ish rock combined with a symphony. I have the feeling this style of music would be a turn-off to most people, but I actually kind of dig it. Maybe the correct way to put it is, “this is an acquired taste”. 

Maceo Parker
Roots Revisited (1991)
Mo’ Roots (1991)
Life on Planet Groove (1992)

You like James Brown, right? Hell yeah you do. Well, Maceo Parker played sax with Mr. JB, and he’s largely why that music was just so damn funk. A friend recommended picking up some of Maceo’s solo stuff, and it turns out this is some quality funk. It’s fun to listen to,  and is just plain good music. This is totally a dude you should check out.