10 Grand Don't Come for Free

I have reached 10,000 visitors! Most of them being from two or three obsessive daily blog-checking friends. You know who you are. You're reading right now. Well, I owe this achievement all to you. And also to those people out there who keep Googling "quaker porn." I know you're doing it, stop hiding! Brother Jebediah's Bang Buggy is no longer a site!

I have one thing to say about the awesome Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks concert: wowee zowee! (Oh, I'm so clever.) Shout-out to Anni for being nearly as cool as me and coming with. The opening band was some insane, tripped-out post-rock/experimental stuff by some band from Detroit. They tried to do Sonic Youth without the singing and crazy on-stage antics, and they succeeded. The guitarist looked like Jimi Hendrix on acid, the bassist looked like Ashlee Simpson, and the drummer looked like... well, a white man with an afro beating on a drum set that included a timpani. He sort of reminded me of Beakman from Beakman's World (remember that show?)

SM&J rocked the house with mostly new tracks from the new album, for which I was happy, because I could recognize the songs and feel superior to most of the I'm-waiting-for-it-to-be-available-for-download-on-BitTorrent folks. I think I liked the Jicks more than Stephen Malkmus. There were a couple of times where Malkmus would start a song and then go, "Shit, never mind, I can't remember the lyrics." It was funny, and I didn't really mind, but the band always looked a little disappointed, like, "C'mon Steve, we came here to do a show for these people. Don't disappoint." Also, their drummer was hilarious, and came out and played a song for us on the guitar, also, and they had a second guitarist who, like, did everything. All of a sudden he'd bust out the tambourine, or a salt-shaker thing, or switch to the keyboards, or play more guitar, or just slap his thighs. Every band needs that one team-first guy who does all the little things. Their bassist was also female (has Kim Deal circa Pixies really been that influential?), and didn't look like any of the Simpsons, or any other pop star. Anyway, this post shall end as an ode to the Jicks, culled from www.allmusic.com: "2005's Face the Truth -- on which Malkmus embraced domesticity with a whimsical feel missing from his work since Wowee Zowee -- featured Malkmus with and without the Jicks, who also supported him on tour that summer." Damn right they supported him on tour this summer!

Now I have to decide if I liked this show or the Walkmen more.