(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
