2008 Wrapup

posted Jan 17, 04:51 PM by Rick Webb

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OKAY!

Let 2009 begin.

First, a few wrapups from last year. You’ll find my full gig list – you’ll find my full gig list – 280 some performances and five festivals – over here. Highlights from 2008:

65days of static at Boston
A Place to Bury Strangers at SXSW and Boston
Acid Mothers Temple at Boston
Auburn Lull at Boston
Bon Iver (three times) at SXSW & Boston
Broken Social Scene at Lollapalooza
Dean & Britta at Boston
Dinosaur Jr at ATP NY
Echo & The Bunnymen at NY
Fleet Foxes at SXSW
George Michael at Boston
Glasvegas at NYC
Goldfrapp at Coachella & NYC
Gutter Twins at Boston & Lollapalooza
Hot Chip at Boston, ACL and Coachella (ACL Wins)
James at Boston
Jarvis at NYC
Jason Collett at SXSW
Kanye West at Moline, IL and Lollapalooza
Kraftwerk at Coachella
Laurie Anderson at Boston
Leonard Cohen at Toronto
Les Savy Fav at ATP NY
Lilys at ATP NY
Loney, Dear at NYC
Mark Kozelek at SXSW
MC Hammer at SF
Mercury Rev at ATP NY & Boston
MGMT at Boston, SXSW, Lollapalooza and Coachella
Mogwai at ATP NY
My Bloody Valentine at ATP NY
My Morning Jacket at Coachella
Naked Raygun at SXSW
Neil Halstead at NYC
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at DC
Phosphorescent at SXSW
Portishead at Coachella
Prince at Coachella
Radiohead at Lollapalooza
REM at Boston
Rihanna at Moline, IL
Roger Waters at Coachella
Roky Erikson at ACL
She & Him at Northampton, MA
Shellac at ATP NY
Six Organs of Admittance at Boston
Spectrum at NY and ATP NY
Spiritualized Electric Mainlines at ACL
Spiritualized Acoustic Mainlines at Boston & Coachella
Submarines at NYC
Super Furry Animals at Boston
Swell Season at Coachella
Swervedriver at Coachella
The Cure at Boston
The Elephant 6 Collective at Boston
The Hold Steady at SF
The Magnetic Fields at Boston & Northampton, MA
The National at Lollapalooza and Boston
The New Year at Boston
The Shout Out Louds at Coachella and SXSW
The Smashing Pumpkins at Boston
The Vaselines at NYC
The Verve at Coachella
The Wedding Present at Boston and SXSW
Till We’re Blue Or Destroy at SXSW and Austin
Tilly and the Wall at SXSW, Boston
Ulrich Schnauss at Boston
Wilco at Lollapalooza
Yeasayer at SXSW and Boston

And then here’s my year-end wrap up/best of on the recorded music:.’‘

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New Music Purchasing Habits for the Digital Age, plus Yaz, British Sea Power, Built to Spill

posted May 14, 07:16 AM by Rick Webb

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I’ve been excited for a while about the upcoming US shows by Yaz at Terminal 5 in New York, even though Terminal 5 is a bastardization of everything a club should be. But whatever. It gets the job done, and when it’s a choice between going to some arena show or seats, often I’d prefer Terminal 5. But today I learned that after selling out two shows at Terminal 5, both of these for which I have tickets, they are adding a third show at the much nicer Beacon Theater. MAN. Not fair! Do I need to buy again?

In other news, I saw British Sea Power again last night. I think that band thrives on the crowd. They had a good sized crowd this time – compared to their last Boston show which was unfortunately timed to land on the day the Sox beat the Yankees for the title. Paradise was probably about 85% full this time. But they played for a LONG time, and a lot of mid-tempo stuff from their second album. I have a few theories about this. First, I think it takes a while for a band to realize and accept which album is their best, and which the fans like the best. BSP are still trying to make us like the second album, which I kinda like actually, but isn’t as awesome live. Songs from that one should be nuggets that suggest a deeper, richer offering in the recorded world. Goldfrapp does this brilliantly now, four albums in. She knows which songs from which albums work best live, and doesn’t push too much.

My other thought about this is that I think in this modern downloading age, there’s a trend in record sales bands may not have identified yet. I think that people do still purchase albums, but they purchase albums in a different way. They’ll discover a band, listen to a free-downloaded album over and over, and when the next album comes out, they’ll buy the album, as a sort of micropayment/patronage/makeup thing for the one they didn’t buy the first time. I have very little data to support this, save for some anecdotal stories by my friend the wife of an indie band of moderate fame who says people routinely try to just hand her $20 at shows when she’s working merch to make up for their downloading habits. And I could totally see BSP being under the impression that people like the second album better because it sold better, when every fan knows their first album is their best (though the new one is a strong contender), and thus playing a lot of songs off of it. Except every single one of us who discovered BSP on their first album pretty much discovered it on the internet, and didn’t buy anything of theirs till the second. Um, actually, to be honest I don’t think I’ve bought a single BSP album, but I have paid good hard cash to see them five times or so plus two rock tourist outings to Coachella and SXSW, so I think they made a buck off of me.

In other news, Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr and the Meat Puppets are playing a show together just after their appearances at The Greatest Rock Festival Ever planned. Will BTS and the Meat Puppets play their don’t look back sets? Man, that ATP lineup is so awesome. So Awesome that I keep forgetting that BTS are going to play all of Perfect From Now On, in order, which is like a great rock event in its own right.

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