back from LA...burnt-out, tired, feeling like a cow...more later...

off to LA for the eBay convention - plus lotsa other stuff ...namely Amoeba records, the Paul Frank store and an evening at Largo.
Here's hoping all those size zero bodies tucked neatly into expensive designer clothes will not depress the hell out of me...
when i return I promise to bore all of you with the details of my mid-life crisis....

is it just me or does that Eels song "Souljacker" sound like Beck doing Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life"?

Q magazine disagrees - or rather thinks it's the other way around:

" Everyone will say this sounds like Beck, but at the last count Beck would be lucky to sound like Eels."

I say tomat-O, you say tomat-OH..
in other words, whatever

Still on my Winona fix...
Just to reinforce my anti-Winona-bashing mindset I thought I'd give her some props...
following are my favorite Winona Ryder films....if you haven't already seen them, go rent one today

in no particular order:

• Heathers


• Edward Scissorhands


• Reality Bithes


• Little Women


• The Age of Innocence


• Lucas


• 1969 (anyone else remember this one?)


• Mermaids

I'd like to add "Girl Interrupted" to that list but I actually haven't seen it yet - even though I loved the Susanna Kaysen book by the same name...

....in case you felt the cosmic shift of the universe today, yes it's true Mary-Kate and Ashley -- i.e."The Olsen Twins" - turned 16 today.
Which is all fine and dandy, but I know what you really want to know - is when are they legal?
Your answer is here (perv!)

I am officially declaring this a Winona-bashing-free zone. Sure I thought her stint on the MTV Movie Awards was pretty sad but from what I've heard she was actually quite funny on Saturday Nite Live and frankly I'm sick of the way the media is pouncing on her - it's like they're bored and hungry and she's an easy target.
First Newsweek gives us its two cents, quoting a "famous actress" as saying

"She lost that kind of cool a long time ago and watched the Gwyneth Paltrows and the J. Los take over.”

and then Entertainment Weekly chimed in with its reasons on why her career is probably kaput...
give her a break already. She may or may not have swiped a few thousand dollars worth of crap from an over-priced store. It's not like she ran over someone with her car and then called them white trash.
It's not like she killed anyone.
It's not like she abused anyone.
It's not like she slept with every young rock star in Hollywood.
Oh wait, she did do that.
But still.
And besides, for me, picking on Winona feels like I'm picking on my own teenage self. Shoplifting. Sleeping around. Bad choices all around ... it's like she's going through an extended puberty...
Just leave her alone.
Free Winona indeed.

Wednesday night was the White Stripes show at the Fillmore and all I can say is that if I wanted to see Led Zeppelin I would go and hunt down Robert Plant.
OK, that's not all I can say. In fact, I'll say this - they really sounded great. I loved how Jack White moved around between the various microphones on the stage and I loved how Meg White looked like a punk rock, stoned-out, black-pigtailed Strawberry Shortcake. I think it's amazing that such a big sound can come from two people - and when they powered their way through songs such as "We Are Gonna Be Friends", "Apple Blossom" and their pretty, haunting cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" it was the stuff rock'n'roll dreams are made of.
However - and unfortunately - much of the night was noodled away by way of several self-indulgent jammy guitar solos. Now, don't get me wrong, I agree with SF Chronicle reviewer Neva Chonin (whom I respect quite a bit) on her observation that Jack White is very charasmatic, but I don't agree with the gist of her review:

"It's been said before, but it bears repeating: Every decade has its defining sound, and the White Stripes might well be honing one for the first 10 years of the 21st century. When and if they do, they'll take the last century's musical legacy with them and make it sing again in a voice as familiar as it is unique.

I don't think they're honing anything. I could have tolerated - no enjoyed a guitar solo or two or even three - but the night seemed to quickly spiral out of control.
When the White Stripes do the straight-ahead rock/pop/garage stuff they truly shine, but when it goes into Jam Land it becomes trite and boring. That set could have easily been trimmed down by thirty minutes and I'll bet you my entire record collection that nobody would have complained. I'd like to see them again sometime - for a set when they're not allowed to play indefinitely (and when they don't wait until 11pm to go on). As it is, I'd had enough at about the hour and 10 minute mark and we ended up leaving during the last song of the first set. We didn't even stick around to hear "Fell in Love With a Girl" or "Hotel Yorba" (my favorite).

Oh well, Dee Dee Ramone is dead and I guess there are bigger things to worry about.

Like Winona Ryder for instance.
I think she sunk to a new low on the MTV Movie Awards last night - feeling herself just so she could whore out her new movie with Adam Sandler (and I didn't think she could go much lower than doing that film). You know, I used to be a big Winona Ryder fan - she was great in "Heathers" and "Edward Scissorhands" and other earlier films. But now she seems to be just a watered-down parody of herself....bad film after bad film, bad groupie experience after bad groupie experience, that whole shoplifting thing...it's really sad and pathetic...

and yes, I do think she is more pathetic than Kelly Osbourne who warbled her way through "Papa Don't Preach" with her vocals squeezed through about a million different effects....Actually she didn't sound that bad and the fact that you could tell she was nervous made it all that more endearing....
C'mon, she's 17-freaking-years-old, give the wealthy teenager a break already! Mama made her do and you'd do it too if you had the chance.

Hell, I know I would.

Though if it was me I would've sang "Like a Virgin" and writhed around on the floor...I mean, you have to...right?

From Billboard
This day in music -1997:
"The body of Jeff Buckley is found floating in a harbor leading to the Mississippi River. Buckley had disappeared the previous Thursday while swimming with a friend in a Memphis harbor."

I can’t believe it’s been five years since Buckley’s death….it still seems unreal. “Grace” is one of my all-time favorite records (It's almost even more strange to realize it's been nearly 8 years since that album's release). Songs such as “Last Goodbye”, “So Real”, “Lover, You Should Have Over” spark with a fervent intensity. still when I listen to it I hear something raw – unfinished. I don’t think Jeff Buckley ever really had the chance to make the record he was truly capable of. Despite its title there are moments of inelegant gracelessness on the album – those clumsy instances, however, make me love the record even more – with its flaws, it’s endearingly human to me.
There are some traces of greatness of “Sketches (For my Sweetheart the Drunk” – but one could easily trim that two-CD set down to one disc and save the demo versions for another record.
As such, tonight I will play “Grace” in memory of the boy with the angel voice. For further reading on Buckley and his father Tim Buckley you should check out David Browne’s excellent biography ”Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley”.

Mondays are notoriously sucky as it is but there's something particularly disheartening about this one.
I am emotionally exhausted following this weekend of Tape Op shows, Cory's first show with Forever Goldrush (note: bio not updated), the Kings-Laker tragedy and the last episode of "Six Feet Under" one of the best shows on the telly...Sigh...what is there left to live for?
Now as summer starts to descend on the valley and I can feel the heat shimmering in the early morning air I am plotting ways to escape Smog City....don't get me wrong I love Mint Juleps, tank tops and the sound of early morning dew drops hissing on summer lawns...but god save me from the 98 degree and above days....once the mercury starts going all willy nilly I intend to find the nearest cool dark dungeon and hole up until October.
In the meantime, things that are keeping me a few notches above the Ativan-IV-drip stage:

• the upcoming Rock'n'Roll Yard Sale at the True Love Coffeehouse


• eagerly anticipating the new DJ Shadow record


• upcoming eBay Live convention in Anaheim


• Mike Bibby -- still my NBA boy.


• Media Whores Online

NP: Blackalicious - "Blazing Arrow"

Oy with the poodles already, it's been a full week since my last post and here I was promising you an Elvis Costello show review and everything. Well, what do you want to know? The show was great despite its location at the Reno Hilton. The sound was great and our seats were decent (though it was a bit disheartening to see all the aging highrollers who couldn't tell one Elvis from another yet had better seats than us....).

After sitting through an utterly generic set by American Hi-Fi (think: a mishmash of modern-era rock radio, everything from Train, Matchbox 20 and Blink 182 to Nirvana, all rolled into one utterly boring package), EC and Co. (including Steve Nieve on keyboards) took the stage and completely rocked it out. They played for two hours including four encores and there were only two ballads in the entire bunch - Alison, and the show's final closer, "I Want You". I was surprised but happy to hear that last song because it's one of my favorites.

They played a majority of the new album - "Alibi", "Tear off Your Own Head", "Spooky Girlfriend," "When I Was Cruel", etc - and the great thing is how instantly familiar these songs seem. The album's only been out for a few months and these songs already sound like classics. Chalk it up to both great songwriting and the fact that Elvis and the band barely breathed during the entire set - but just rocked through with an incredible fierceness.

Indeed, that Mr. C is still one smart and sexy m.f...alas, there are no in-bed-with-a-rock-star photos to boast of...I must try harder next time...Perhaps it is just that my head was clouded by all the cigarette smoke (I always forget California is the only state that's banned smoking in public places) and the perpetual din of clanging shot machines.

Oh and for the record, I put $10 into the nickel machines and all I got was a watery rum-and-diet....
I need to work on my own high-rollerin' techniques, I guess...I am a bit of a joke among the blue hairs and cotton tops, it seems....

On to other shows: Sunday night was the Jay Bennett / Edward Burch show at Old Ironsides. Bennett, formerly of Wilco, is a great songwriter in his own right and the evening's show (their last acoustic set before going out with a full band) was a spontaneous, intimate two-hour set that highlighted most of their new album, "The Palace at 4am (Part 1)". Yummy, sugary pop songs served up with a twist of bitter...oh and just for kicks, after Edward Burch took off his hat to reveal just how much he really does look like Elvis Costello with those thick, black glasses, the duo busted out half of EC's "Alibi".

Last night was the Calexico show at the Capitol Garage. Playing as part of the Tape Op conference entertainment, Joey Burns, John Convertino and friends played a fairly short headlining set that was nonetheless stellar. Can these guys do no wrong? They sounded great (duh, they were playing a RECORDING convention, ferchrissakes), looked super-cool and even played a Smog cover, "Red Apple Falls" ...yep, be still my beating, indie girl heart....

on to other thoughts....just in case you were wondering, yes I really do like the Pink record.. You got a problem with that?
Listen, Ms. Pink is tough and cute and the song "Get this Party Started" busts a super Madonna-esque groove. Much of the credit goes to Linda Perry who helped Pink break out of her pop diva cookie cutter shell and into something far more rocking and fun. I'm interested in hearing what Perry does for the new Christina Aguilera record....Anyway, in my opinion, Pink is the new Madonna - not Britney. She's got the same earthy, slightly-trashy sass. Judging by interviews I've read, she's not afraid to open her mouth and say what she means and, unlike Britney "I've got a poodle face but because of the big boobs, everyone loves me" Spears, she's actually quite hot...so there you go, I don't care if it's not cool to like her and, in fact, I kind of like confusing people who think I'm seriously compromising my indie cool cred when I stick up for her.

Indie cool cred is highly overrated anyway.