Another reason why Mates of State are adorable

August 31, 2008 1 Comment


(Mates of State at NYC’s Highline Ballroom on Aug. 7)

I’ve been on a huge Mates of State kick lately, mostly because I was supposed to have their new album sent to me in late April-ish (it was released May 20), sometime before I left for New York. It must have gotten lost in the mail or sent out late, but when I got back to East Lansing a week and a half ago I had a pile of about 20 CDs in bubble mailer packages waiting for me at my co-op house (sorry to the people who lived here in the summer! They were probably confused), and one of them had their album, Re-Arrange Us, in it. I felt like I already knew half the songs because I saw MoS twice in the summer (three if you count their DJ set at Venus Zine’s pre-Lollapalooza party) and they played a lot of stuff from the album.

Anyway, it’s an amazing record, quite different from their older stuff. I think it’s less screamy (not that they scream much, but I’m not sure how else to describe it), more melodic, not as many distorted synths, and it’s still super happy and lovely and just great.

So while I was poking around online I came across Band on the Diaper Run, the blog singer/keyboardist Kori Gardner keeps about her and husband/drummer/singer Jason Hammel’s lives on the road with their two daughters, Magnolia and June, who are, respectively, 4 years and a few months old (the blog is part of Babble, a parenting magazine).

Among the many fun/funny/awesome things I learned from the blog:
- Kori left dirty underwear at Ben Gibbard’s house
- June loves A.C. Newman’s beard, and MoS are doing some backup-vocals on A.C’s upcoming solo album
- Magnolia was dancing onstage at Lollapalooza, and I was there and totally didn’t notice (but there’s a freaking adorable video of it)

There also are tons and tons of super adorable photos of Kori and Jason and their kids. I’m done gushing (for now), but go check it out! And check out their new-ish album, Re-Arrange Us. I’m going to see them again next month in Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo and am now even more excited.

Clip of Kori and Jason before their DJ set at the Venus Zine pre-Lolla party
Mates of State’s MySpace
Mates of State’s Web site

Filed under albums, blog Tagged with

I promise I’m still alive …

August 25, 2008 Leave a Comment

… but life as of late has consisted mostly of packing, unpacking, and packing again, and I haven’t really had anything to post. I left New York, moved home to my dad’s house for a few days, and then moved back to good ol’ East Lansing, Mich., for my last two and a half semesters at MSU.

On a scale from one to New York, Michigan is about a -47 so most posts will probably be about new stories and such, but I’ll try to keep this somewhat interesting. At the moment, I’m freaking out because all of a sudden I have this thing called free time. It’s a pretty new concept for me and I’m not quite sure what to do with it. Any ideas?

Filed under blog

Live review/photos: Wilco @ McCarren Park Pool

August 16, 2008 3 Comments

First of all, I am going to deny the fact that I’m leaving NYC today. Maybe I’ll post about that later, but I have some happier stuff first!

Tickets for Wilco’s Aug. 13 show at McCarren went on sale back in April, and I had a haircut appointment at the time they went on sale, but I figured I’d still be able to get tickets later that day. Unfortunately, it sold out immediately and I was left ticketless until a couple of days before the show. So I did get to go, and it was a perfect last show (for now) in NYC. It was my fourth time seeing them; Lollapalooza ’06 and ’08, and when they came to MSU two years ago. The MSU show was amazing, and this one was at least as good.

I got a photo pass, and while I felt like a jackass being the only one in the photo pit without a professional camera, I think I got some pretty awesome pictures (for a point-and-shoot). However, I really do need to invest in a digital SLR, so I think once I have a definite job set for the school year I’m going to buy one on a payment plan at Best Buy, or something like that.

Anyway, it was a great show and you can read my Filter review here.

Wilco’s setlist:

Via Chicago
Blood of the Lamb
You Are My Face
Hummingbird
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
A Shot In The Arm
Side With The Seeds
Misunderstood
Far, Far Away
Impossible Germany
Pieholden Suite
California Stars
Handshake Drugs
Pot Kettle Black
Poor Places
Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Encore 1:

Jesus, Etc.
Can’t Stand It
Hate It Here
Walken
I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore 2:

Heavy Metal Drummer
The Late Greats
Kingpin
Monday
Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
I’m A Wheel



LOTS of photos after the jump!

Filed under concerts Tagged with , , , ,

Live photos: Metric @ Highline Ballroom

August 15, 2008 Leave a Comment

Also a week late … originally Metric and Mates of State were supposed to play together on Aug. 7, but then Metric canceled, and then rescheduled for the next night. However, the show didn’t start till midnight, and Metric didn’t go on until about 1:30 a.m.

They were great (even though everyone seemed to be hating on them on Brooklyn Vegan after their All Points West show the next day … wtf, guys?), except I would have enjoyed it much more if it wasn’t so freaking late. I was exhausted and people around me probably thought I was wasted because I almost fell over about four times from nodding off. Yep.

These aren’t really great photos because well, I was half asleep, but figured I should post ‘em anyway.

Photos after the jump!

Filed under concerts Tagged with , , ,

Live photos: Mates of State @ Highline Ballroom

August 15, 2008 1 Comment

OK, this show was more than a week ago (Aug. 7) but I’ve been super busy and haven’t had time to post photos. It was my third time seeing Mates of State in a week … the night before Lollapalooza started they DJed our Venus Zine part in Chicago, then I saw them the next day at Lollapalooza, and the show at the Highline. Telepathique opened, and they were great to watch because the two guys in the band both DJed and played bass/drums, and the girl was pretty nuts.

More photos after the jump!

Filed under concerts Tagged with , , ,

Live review/photos: Amanda Palmer @ Spiegelworld

August 14, 2008 Leave a Comment

As previewed in my last post, Amanda Palmer rocks. If you’re not familiar, she’s one half of the Dresden Dolls (and if that still doesn’t ring a bell, you should take a listen to them here). She’s releasing a solo album in September (produced by Ben Folds), which I’ve been listening to nonstop, and I saw her on Monday as part of a small-ish tour she’s doing before the album comes out.

I reviewed the show for Filter Magazine’s Web site (yay, my first review there), so you can check that out here! I also interviewed her before the show for venuszine.com, so stay tuned for that in a few weeks.

Lots of photos after the jump!

Filed under concerts Tagged with , , ,

Amanda Palmer rocks

August 12, 2008 Leave a Comment

Hang tight — more on this in a couple of days!

Filed under blog Tagged with ,

Bye bye, Billboard

August 10, 2008 Leave a Comment

I know, I’m going blog-crazy this weekend (and there’s more to come!), but before now I haven’t really had much time to update … Friday was my last day at Billboard, and now I have a week to run around the city before I go back to Michigan on Saturday.

My last day was sad and the fact that I’m horrible at goodbyes didn’t help. I really don’t feel like I was there 13 weeks, but even though it went by insanely fast, I’m glad I left knowing I actually accomplished something. I got to do waaayyy more than I expected I would, and left with six stories and a review in the print magazine, a bunch of show reviews and other stories on billboard.com, and a ton of news stories on billboard.com and billboard.biz. And the issue that came out on my last day, with Jennifer Hudson on the cover, has my first story with a real byline (meaning it doesn’t just say “—Laura Leebove” at the end of it) and there was a teaser for it on the cover, so that was pretty awesome.

I loooved the internship and hope to end up working there someday, even if it’s not right out of school. But for now I’m going to keep freelancing. Sucks that the internship is over, but at least now I’ll make some money!

A few photos …

My delicious parting gift (thanks Katie!):

The wall o’ magazine covers:


My desk/the intern pod … yeah, we were kind of messy:

Filed under blog Tagged with

Sorry, Ed!

August 10, 2008 Leave a Comment


(photo by the lovely Kirstie Shanley)

I’ve seen Ed Droste, the fabulous singer from Grizzly Bear, twice in the past two days — yesterday on my way back to my apartment, and today when I was waiting for the L train (and also on the train). I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was him, considering the band played All Points West this weekend and had their own show at Music Hall of Williamsburg last night. Oh yeah, and they’re based in Brooklyn, which I think now is safe to assume means Williamsburg.

Anyway, I may or may not have accidentally poked him with my umbrella when I was getting off the train. Whoops, sorry!

Filed under blog Tagged with , ,

Live photos: Bon Iver and Bowerbirds @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

August 10, 2008 1 Comment

OK, this post is a little late but I’m still catching up on life from the past week or so.

The Bon Iver and Bowerbirds show on July 30 was phenomenal, as expected, but I didn’t have time to write a formal review since it ended at midnight then I had to go home and pack, sleep for two hours, and leave for the airport at 5:30 a.m. You’d think that fans would feel kinda ripped off by a headliner who only plays about 10 songs, but this definitely wasn’t the case with Bon Iver … but he only has one album so far. Also, some of those songs are pretty damn long. It actually seemed more like a co-headlining set because Bowerbirds probably playd eight or so songs too (but I also thought of it as co-headlining since I love both bands).

These aren’t the greatest photos because the lighting was so insanely dark during most of the show, but I tried. One of these days I’ll get a good camera …

Photos after the jump!

Filed under concerts Tagged with , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.