even though death cab was so dry when i saw them last year at the paramount, i secretly kinda still want to see them play again this fall. I think the key is that i need to be sitting down - standing around listening to moody music isn't as appealing as it might seem.

i've heard a bit of plans and i likey. plus, it doesn't hurt that my fave canadian band, Stars (who I still remember trying to sneak into see at the croc with fil) is opening. I checked out the show listings and looks like stars is opening for all their east coast and some midwest shows. go canada!

check out their blog:

Make No Little Plans - on the road with death cab for cutie

Once in a while working here has some perks above and beyond the rare free latte.

MSN Spaces (greatest product ever!) was a sponsor of EndFest - the annual all day music festival put on by 107.7 The End. And since I work here, I got some free passes to go 'work' the event and watch the show.

Anyway, in addition to getting the opportunity to tattoo hundreds of kids with msn spaces tattoos and pass out msn spaces flyers (which let me tell you is just LOADS of fun, especially when teenage boys try to hit on you), I got the chance to go backstage and listen in on interviews with Harms and Jennifer White - two of my favorite DJs (Harms because he is by far the nicest guy on air and off air when we met the DJs a couple weeks ago, and Jennifer White because I listen to her almost every morning when I'm not trapped on a conference call).

I got to sit in on interviews with the Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery, The Ceasars, Mike Ness from Social D (who is one intimidating guy - minus the fact that he wore his slippers to the interview) and the drummer and bassist from Interpol. I'll blog more about the interviews later when I have a bit more time...

Towards the end of the night after the interviews and our booth wrapped up, the bunch of us headed over to the VIP area to check out Interpol and Queens of the Stone age - QOTSA rocked!

Check out the pics on the endfest space...

this time from the NY steve:

Annie - more goodness coming out of Norway (home of my faves Kings of Convenience and Royksopp). My fave is "Me plus one". Catchy happy music. It makes me want to rollerskate. Well, if I had rollerskates.

From Amazon:

Album Description
Perhaps one of the most interesting musical trends of the past couple of years is the number of fine acts coming out of Norway. Think Kings of Convenience, Royksopp and the criminally ignored Magnet. Now you can add to that list Annie, perhaps best described as the Scandinavian Kylie. With the release of the first single, 'Chewing Gum', the NME was quick to name it Pop Single of the Year. For that track, Annie has recruited the help of producer Richard X (Sugababes' 'Freak Like Me'), who brings his trademark squidgy basslines and synths to the proceedings. It is indeed perfect pop. That said, 'Heartbeat', 'No Easy Love' and the Madonna-sampling 'Greatest Hit' (which actually dates back to 1999) are better vehicles for Annie's voice. These songs are more classy, less trashy, due in part to lighter production-the good clean air and fjords are almost tangible in her vocal tones. 679 Recordings. 2005.

update @ 5:26 PST - the NY steve would prefer to be known as "better cuter more available steve"

Thanks to Steve and Jasmine I have some new tunes to listen to...I'm totally digging Stars and I'm looking forward to seeing them at Neumo's (legit of course, no attempted sneaking in). Also checking out The Black Keys, Kasabian (the new hotness in every frickin' magazine) and the Go! team.

i've been so out of the music loop lately (listening to a lot of NPR and stupid top 40) its nice to get something new on my ipod.

I am SO annoyed at myself, I missed one of my favorite bands this past weekend - the kings of convenience. They played at Neumo's and I missed them! BOOOOO on me.

I totally didn't know about it until now (when I recieved some spammy mail from their mailing list) so its not like my saturday night would have gone differently anyway (Slint @ showbox), but I'm still kicking myself over not seeing them live.

next time i suppose. le sigh. (that ones for you, tony)

update: Ooops, typo - KOC, not KOF :) I'm smart.

Went to the rendezvous last thurs to see moc moc play. It was a pretty good show, though that theatre room is pretty damn loud (not to mention the tapestry walls kind of creep me out and make me feel claustrophobic). The funniest thing had to be the drunk girl who hopped up on stage and tried to join the band - singing backup, trying to play the drums, knocking clint off the stage. standard procedure for moc moc band members.

I hung out with Nikki & DeEtte for a bit before the show, catching up on the girl talk - you know, who's dating who and other random stuff going on. Like you'd think showing up at R's holiday party would be a give away, but I guess Mr. Chair and I are so unlikely that it was actually more probable that we happened to show up at the exact same time than it was that we showed up together. ha ha ha.