Ta!

Surely you've noticed that I'm with all the hep kids at WordPress. Ciao, category-less suckers.

Couch Surfing How-to

Tags: couchsurfing, party.

I haven't updated for a while because I've been in Boston. This would be no excuse to update if I lived in Boston, but I don't; instead, I have many, many friends who live in Boston. These friends have couches.

So, given that I've been couch surfing at Northeastern University's dorms, here are some tips I've gathered:

• Give up the couch when someone else needs to crash. Sleep on the floor or on another person's couch.
• Have a way home in an emergency. For example, I have my bike locked up less than a mile away.
• Clean. Put your blanket and pillow away, tidy up the couch, pick up the kitchen from last night's party, take out the trash, etc.
• Do food-related services for the hosts. If you can cook well, do it constantly (breakfast and dinner). If you can't cook, buy them groceries or dinner. The $20 or $80 worth of food is a lot less than they're paying to house your sorry ass.
• Hide the fact that you're using their toiletries. Squeeze the toothpaste tube from the bottom, use a minimal amount of shampoo, don't use their towel without asking first, etc.
• You don't live there. It's funny to pretend that you're a roommate, but when it comes to an actual decision or vote you shouldn't be in the way.
• Ask permission before throwing the party. It's fine, fun, and funny to throw a party at someone else's house, just make sure they're in on it and can veto it. Remember that if they get in trouble for the party, you're out on the street.
• Be prepared to leave. They might need the couch for someone else that night, or might want time away from you, or are just plain annoyed by your mooching. Back-up couches and a way to get home quickly are useful for this.
• Be friendly. Really, who wants a jerk crashing on their couch? Deal well with the roommates and their jackass friends, too.

The Beatings, Caspian, Barnicle, The Subject

Tags: livemusic, upcoming:25401, thesubject, subject, barnicle, caspian, beatings, thebeatings.

On August 25th, 2005, Matt joined me at TT's for The Beatings and whoever felt like opening for them.

The Subject

We arrived late and only heard the last two songs of The Subject's set. The first one we heard was excellent post rock (in the Godspeed You! Black Emperor vein), and the second one we heard was bad indie (whatever that is).

Barnicle

Modern rock; sounded like that dog.. Wasn't amazing, but didn't suck.

Caspian

More post rock similar to The Subject, with a neat twist: a half hour after their set they have free CD-Rs of a song, live from the set that night. Worth seeing again.

The Beatings

One of my favorite Boston bands (I'll admit that I also have a crush on the bassist), and they were excellent as always that night. We even convinced them to get back on stage and play one more.

Kinski, Major Stars, Invisible Rays

Tags: upcoming:26402, livemusic, invisiblerays, majorstars, kinski.

A week back, on August 23rd, 2005, Matt, and I stopped by TT's for some math rock.

Invisible Rays

They had a neat projector behind them hooked up to the keyboard guy. Various waves representing the current notes he was playing scrolled by on the screen. In addition to this, the music was great math rock.

Major Stars

An interesting rock group who seemed to only be interested in having fun. Sometimes a chick would come on stage and scream into the microphone, then leave for a beer and come back a few songs later. Worth seeing again.

Kinski

Excellent math rock.

Mad Man Films, Polaris Mine, Signal to Trust, Animal Hospital

Tags: livemusic, upcoming:28021, madmanfilms, polarismine, signaltotrust, animalhospital.

Way back on August 18th, 2005, Matt and I went to Great Scott for some rock.

Animal Hospital

A man, guitar, drum kit, headphones, and mixer. Amazing performance with surprisingly good music. I'm not convinced the music can be as good separate from the performance, however.

Signal to Trust

I'm having the same problem as others; I really can't remember this band. They didn't suck, though.

Polaris Mine

Really good rock without Weezer covers.

Mad Man Films

Of course they rocked, that's their role in life. Heck, they even played an extra song just because we refused to leave.

83 Elm St.

Back on August 13th, 2005 I went alone to the Elm St. Benefit, with 13 bands perfoming to raise money for the burned-down 83 Elm St. They also had a bake-sale!

Wild Zero

Excited, young punk band. Fun and good.

Fragile

I only remember that they were mediocre; I wish I remembered why. Sorry.

Big Bear

They shocked their fans by doing very faithful Weezer covers. I later saw the same band members in Polaris Mine and my guess is that the Weezer covers were part of a very sick joke.

Tiny Amps

Good rock.

Tramps Like Us

Pop punk. Gah.

Dorkbot

The vocalist/guitarist from Mad Man Films on vocals with the vocalist/guitarist from Tiny Amps on guitar. Really good rock.

Modelo '78

They were missing half the band, including the bassist, so I thought they sucked. They might rock when the whole band is together, though. (Perhaps not—the drummer looked very bored with his work.)

Mad Man Films

One of the greatest rock bands of Boston. This is a fact.

Prime Movers

Mediocre rock. Good, but bored me at times.

Certainly, Sir

Great, danceable techno-rock!

Helms

The drummer wore a Slint t-shirt and they played post rock really, really well. For their last song they swapped out everyone but the drummer, called the band a different name (I couldn't hear it), and played even better post rock (apparently this was the first time that group had played together in six years).

Victory at Sea

Pretty good, sounded slightly like the Dresden Dolls.

Neptune, Thank You, Wzt Hearts, Donna Parker

Tags: livemusic, upcoming:23588, neptune, thankyou, wzthearts, donnaparker

I've been extremely busy since the beginning of August so this and the following five posts will be quick, to the point show reviews.

It was August 8th, 2005 when I ventured out to the Midway Cafe alone. It's really a bar with a stage stuck on to it, yet it bored me. At least the music was great.

Donna Parker

Donna Parker (who it turns out is a regular in the local noise shows' audience) had an equipment failure during set up, which is a disaster for her. She did buy a new mixer, but didn't know how to use it. By the time she quit she had figured most of it out, but spent most of the set swearing. What I heard sounded great, though.

Thank You

An absolutely amazing noise rock group, comparable with Neptune. Absolutely worth seeing again

Wzt Hearts

Good, a little too ambient for my tastes, but good.

Neptune

Perhaps the best noise band in Boston. I bought their very, very rare, just-released E.P. which has the song The Late Worm.

Lycaon Pictus, The Pick-ups, Model Down

Tags: livemusic, upcoming:25402, lycaonpictus, modeldown, pickups,

August 4th, 2005 by myself at TT's.

I've been getting bands annoyed with me because of short reviews, but I really don't have time for anything more. However, I don't like a lot of music so me thinking your band sucks doesn't mean much.

Lycaon Pictus

Picture Devo with only two members, neither of whom is Marky. Now imagine that you like it. That's Lycaon Pictus. I bought their album.

The Pick-ups

At first I didn't really like them—a little too neo-post-punk-ish—but after a few songs I started to get into it. Kinda twangy, in a good way.

Model Down

Didn't really get into this. Left.

Flag Day Party 2005

With the help of many I threw a party! It went down on August 5th and probably fifty people showed up. According to those in-the-know, it went extremely well.

Music

Matt and myself invited five bands to perform; of those, only Silencio showed and played. This turned out to be fine; after four songs the police came and told us to stop.

For Silencio, and perhaps just for fun, Matt rented speakers from Daddy's Junky Music and borrowed a microphone from his neighbor. The microphone cable turned out to be bad and technical problems spoiled it slightly for Matt and myself, but the audience didn't notice or care and just concentrated on enjoying the awesome music. After Silencio stopped I played CDs through the beautiful speakers:

1. Lycaon Pictus - Deviation Amplifier
2. Dr. Frog - Erector Set
3. Darediablo - Feeding Frenzy
4. Anal Cunt - I Like It When You Die
5. Lola Rennt
6. Godfathers of Hardcore volume 3

Music went well overall and special thanks for that goes to Marcelo, Dave, and Marvio of Silencio and to Matt. Thank you!

Beer

After much debate and discussion it was decided that since we'll be serving liquor in addition to the beer we'll only need one keg. This turned out to be correct; most people left the party before the keg was finished around 1AM. We used Matt's chiller again to keep the beer cold; as always it worked perfectly.

Nate was in charge of picking up, paying for, and dropping off the keg, and the kegmaster position was given to him after much argument among people who didn't want the job. Nate held the job quite well for three hours when his judgement started to fail and the job was handed to Matt.

The keg went quite well and thanks to Nate and Matt we made back some of the money we lost by throwing this party. Thank you!

Liquor

Many people don't love beer—shocking but true. To combat this problem we had available one bottle each of the following:

• vodka,
• whiskey,
• rum;

• cranberry juice,
• orange juice, and
• tomato juice.

In addition we had Coca Cola, Sunkist, Mountain Dew, and Sprite.

Much discussion was had with Mosier about these, but ultimately Sarah pulled through and told me exactly what to buy. She was wrong but still helpful.

All hard liquor was gone by midnight. The vodka went immediately; next time we need twice as much, if not more. The whiskey went next, followed by the rum. The cranberry juice went quickly too; next time we need twice as much. A half gallon of orange juice was gone by the end of the night, and the tomato juice was unopened (this is where Sarah was most wrong). I still have lots of soda left.

To help with this momentus undertaking, Anne constructed a bar for me. It fell apart when Matt leaned on it and was used to keep the fire lit.

Many thanks to Mosier, Sarah, and to Dicky for carting my ass around. Thank you!

Food

For food our mothers helped out: my mom provided chips and dip, while Fred's mom provided a watermelon (which my mom cut). Thank you!

People

People everywhere! As usual it started off with just the party-throwers looking at each other, wondering if people will show up. Then, bam!, everyone and their friend shows up. My best guess is that fifty or sixty people passed through the yard by the end of the night.

Highlights of the evening related to this include the group of people looking for 30 Elm St., which is where their friend Matt Ch-something lives, they think. We found out later that this Matt character told people that he was throwing the party, and in addition he gave out the wrong address. Genius!

Somewhat related is another highlight for me: walking up to the strangers standing around in my yard and introducing myself. Inevitably someone will walk up to us and point out that I'm the one throwing the party (I'm too modest to do it myself). The surprised look on their face never gets old while they piece together why I was asking if they were having a good time.

Advertising was done on The Facebook, Upcoming, and word of mouth. During the party I passed around a notebook and pen for people to sign up for the party announcement mailing list; twenty-six people signed up. I don't know if anyone from Upcoming showed up and I think only one or two people from The Facebook showed up, but word of mouth brought in tons of people. In the future we plan to concentrate on word of mouth and experiment with the mailing list as a far-reaching word of mouth.

A big thanks to all who showed up: thank you!

Police

Fred and I had discussed when we guessed the police would show up: my bet was on twice, once at 9:15PM and once again at 11PM. We were both wrong: they showed up once at 10:08PM. Apparently the entire west side of Wakefield called in complaining about the noise. The cops also said that people were in the street and they'd arrest anyone they found in the street; this was fine by me since if they're in the street then they're not at my party.

They politely requested the music be stopped as Dicky was walking over, so I asked Dicky to go ask the band to stop. Marcelo stopped, but Marvio and Dave kept on enjoying themselves on their respective instruments. Inspector Cass wasn't having any of that so he marched over himself and told them to stop. They reluctantly did.

After the police left we started up with CDs. The band packed up after a bit and left in an hour or two, but nobody at the party left (so far as we could tell). Great!

Thanks

Throwing parties can't be done alone, so thank you again, in no particular order, to Fred, Dicky, Nate, Matt, Anne, Mosier, Sarah, Silencio, and everyone who came. Thank you!

Tags

party, flagdayparty, flagday