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The Libertines
Club Luxx
Brooklyn, NY
5/2/2003

Review by Mike Patterson

I have seen rock's present and it is the Libertines!!!

When I first heard this band in the late fall of last year I was instantly impressed. Struck me as a London Strokes, (which is the way everyone describes them now) but at the time it sounded to me that where The Strokes punked out NYC locals Television and VU, The Libertines did the same with British glam a-la Slade and the Sweet. The cultural parallels were undeniable, at least on record, but those parallels disappear almost completely with the live show these boys put on.

San Francisco will be going poptastic July 10-13 when the indiekids come to town. It's that time again for the SF Pop Holiday. This year's festival has a truly remarkable lineup including several international and renowned bands. The entire event will be held at Bottom of the Hill, which has apparently recovered just fine from that nasty bout of fire they had last month.

Ahh... My fourth Coachella. I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about how great it was, but I've been writing bits and pieces of my review for the past few weeks and I'm finally finished. So click on the 'read more' link to see what went down this year.

Continuum Books has started a new series of books in which artists, writers and musicians focus on one of the much-loved and critically acclaimed albums released over the past 40 years. Because each book focuses on a single recording, the typical biographical music story is thrown out the window in favor of focusing on the music. To be released on Sept 15, 2003 are Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis by Warren Zanes, Love's Forever Changes by Andrew Hultkrans, The Smiths' Meat Is Murder by Joe Pernice, Pink Floyd's The Piper At The Gates of Dawn by John Cavanagh and more. Some of the titles to be reviewed in 2004 include Radiohead's Ok Computer, MBV's Loveless and Jeff Buckley's Grace. What a brilliant idea guys!

The Polyphonic Spree
Aladdin Theatre,
Portland OR
4/21/2003

My first surprise of the night came when I got to the Aladdin Theatre just before the Polyphonic Spree was set to go on to discover that the theatre was maybe only half full. Quite a bit less than I would have expected given the advance press on this band. My second surprise came with the type of people that were at the show. It was a range from very elderly patrons to very small children. In fact, there were so many children that I thought I wandered into the wrong show.

Vice Recordings has an idea that the best rock music comes from New York City. They might have a point if you consider the new cd they will be releasing on June 3. The album, titled Yes New York, will be released as a benefit for Musicians On Call and contains tracks from Interpol, The Strokes, Longwave, Le Tigre, Ted Leo, The Rogers Sisters and many more.

I recently upgraded my Mac to iTunes version 4 and noticed that Apple's little "Music Store" has been built into iTunes now. I played around for awhile, experimented with finding a few things i'd want and have reached a conclusion: With the exception of not having to run other software to gain instant access to music, this is a pile of dung.

So it finally happened. I knew it would one day... I just wasn't prepared for it this weekend.

I was sitting on the computer, doing my usual multi-task scenario of downloading tunes, talking to friends, and working on site-related stuff... when a random instant message came across my screen.

Mundane Sounds has come up with a new idea called Instores Across America to bring attention to the benefits of independent record stores. According to the website, Instores Across America has a two-fold purpose,"First, Instores Across America is designed to bring people into their local independent record stores for some live music. In the "bigger picture," Instores Across America is designed as a day for the supporters of independent business and independent music to STAND UP to the "music" chains that are growing stronger, as well as to generally remind the world why smaller is better." Instores Across America is currently slated to happen on May 17, please check out their website for further information and to get involved.

The Datsuns/The Sights
Berbati's Pan
Portland, OR
4/10/2003

Once again, I was suckered in by hype. This happens a lot. There are certain types of people, sadly such as myself that tend to buy whatever shows up on the cover of particular magazines, as well as the artists that grace the tops of the prestigious indie charts.