Brad Barrish

Last night’s Black Angels show was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. You’d be hard pressed to find a better psychedelic rock band today. And don’t be quick to dismiss them as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on a few more hits, because The Black Angels are in a class of their own, giving life to a genre that has been fairly underground for years. If you’re a fan of bands like Spacemen 3, Darkside, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Secret Machines and The Black Keys you will enjoy The Black Angels.

The Troubadour was packed with music fans. The real music fans that came to dance, be sonically mesmerized and by all means blown away. It always helps to have a lively crowd. There were moments throughout the show that I just forgot where I was part of a crowd. I was so focused on what was happening on the stage and coming out of the PA that when I came to it looked like everyone else was on the same page. The guitars roared through your head, the drums shook your insides and sometimes you’d lose focus on the players for a moment to see the porn, cartoons and collage of images playing on the screen behind the band. The band were masters of complete visual and auditory warfare. They were determined to take you on their trip and who were you to say no?

The Quarter After opened the evening with an amazing set that made The Tyde look like a bunch of wanna-be posers, but both bands played great sets.

Being a music fanatic has some drawbacks. The main one is that there are a ton of bands that I love, but don’t have time to look and see where they are playing and what other people are saying about them. Two recent technologies have started to change my life.

OnTour is a new widget released by PassAlong Networks. It simply scans my iTunes library and shows me who is playing around town. I refer to this widget at least once a day. An example of a simple idea executed well. I highly recommend this for any Mac-using music fanatics.

earFeeder is a JavaScript application that scans your iTunes library and creates a customized RSS feed that contains music news, tour dates, ticket sales, etc.

I have a really nice skin for my iPod to protect it, and I just ordered a cool Koobnik for my black MacBook.

Mad editing skillz.

[youtube]o9698TqtY4A[/youtube]

If you attended the show in LA (or any of the other cities on her promo tour), you’ll know I’m talking about Lily learning her owning songs.

When I first found out about Lily Allen, she was one of the coolest artists I had come across on MySpace. Between the beats and her great storytelling, I was hooked immediately. I downloaded everything I could get my hands on and listened to it often. When the album was announced, I was looking forward to hearing a proper album from her instead of all the demos I’d been spending time with. Around the time the album was released in the UK, the hype really started picking up. Despite the album not being released in the US, people were learning all the songs.

Last night Lily played a show at the Troubadour, her first in LA, as part of a short US promo tour. Domino and Mark Ronson opened the show. You’d think that having Mark Ronson open a show would get the crowd moving, but then I remembered - I was in LA and people just don’t like to move in LA. It blows my mind how totally uncool an LA audience can be. They sure made some noise when Lily came out though.

Lily looked awesome in her prom dress. She ran through songs like “LDN,” “Knock ‘Em Out,” “Everything’s Just Wonderful” and of course “Smile,” among others. When Lily actually knew the lyrics from her own songs, she was a joy to watch and seemed comfortable in front of the crowd. For most songs though, she was staring at the floor, which was littered with lyrics. She seemed terrified to be on stage and couldn’t even get into her own music. The show was a bit of a mess except for her amazing backing band of horns, bass, keys and sampler. She mentioned getting into trouble in NY and SF for not having a long enough set, so she added a couple of songs that she hadn’t played yet. I’d tell you which ones those were, but they all seemed new to her.

Lily will be a star, make no mistake, but she had better learn her own songs. I was really bummed out that she couldn’t let lose and enjoy the show. I’d be especially insulted if I had paid for a ticket to the show.

This is just a test post for my Technorati Profile

If you haven’t seen the trailer for Grind House, you must.

[youtube]bUuuBe4Glmk[/youtube]

Daniel Eran writes a good article on why Microsoft can’t compete with iTunes. I was listening to The Business a couple of days ago and Jeff Leeds talked about how Microsoft not only can compete, but they will. Ultimately, I believe Microsoft will lose this battle, but we’ll see millions of dollars being thrown behind Zune in the coming months. While I hate DRM and don’t purchase much from the iTunes store for just that reason, the fact that the Zune is Windows only is the nail in coffin for me and probably a good chunk of their target audience.

As much as I try to use the NATO phonetic alphabet when I’m spelling my name or street name or whatever, it never works out and I just end up thinking of my own words. Some people over at Grupthink came up with The Big Lebowski Phonetic Alphabet, which I will be using from here on out. My favorite - S Is For Shomer FUCKING Shabbas. Amen.

A bunch of companies came out with some neat stuff today as part of product RED. My favorite item, of course, is the Converse Chuck for Change, which you can design on their site. I needed a new pair, so I designed my own.