Top 15 albums of 2010

Posted on December 7, 2010
Filed Under music | 8 Comments

I was asked to compile a best of 2010 list for QRO, and what was a 10-song list has turned into 15.  It might have been 20–maybe next year’s list will be.  If I were to redo the list in a few days it might look a little different as these things change all the time for me, but anyway, here’s what I’ve got.

1. School of Seven Bells-Disconnect from Desire


2. Autolux-Transit Transit



3. Buke and Gass-Riposte



4. Land of Talk-Cloak and Cipher



5. Male Bonding-Nothing Hurts



6. Dum Dum Girls-I Will Be



7. Dom-Sun Bronzed Greek Gods



8. Twin Tigers-Gray Waves



9. Crocodiles-Sleep Forever



10. Interpol-Interpol


11. Warpaint-The Fool


12. No Age-Everything in Between


13. Wild Nothing-Gemini


14. Suuns-Zeroes QC


15. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti-Before Today


There are probably a bunch of great albums that came out in 2010 that I haven’t even heard.  Recommend some.

Picture progress

Posted on October 13, 2010
Filed Under music, photography | 2 Comments

In addition to my various galleries at QRO, now and then you may find one of my photos for them elsewhere on their site. For example, their review of the Active Child remix of School of Seven Bells’ single “Heart Is Strange” features this image:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/5008737791_2c263d9332.jpg

And then a couple of my pictures of Basia Bulat and Warpaint (both cropped…) showed up in their Austin City Limits preview.

I also recently sold a couple of my concert pictures. Time to get terriwise.com up and running for real. Photo prints make good gifts, right?

I have been busy

Posted on September 27, 2010
Filed Under family, friends, music, photography, the interweb, travel | Leave a Comment

Yes, yes I have been busy.

I’ve covered a bunch of shows for the good folks at QRO Magazine including:

Autolux at the Middle East
8/27/2010 Autolux w/This Will Destroy You at The Middle East Downstairs


Interpol at MHOW

9/10/2010 Interpol w/Cloudland Canyon at The Music Hall of Williamsburg


School of Seven Bells at the Middle East
9/11/2010 School of Seven Bells w/Active Child at The Middle East Downstairs


Basia Bulat at TT the Bear's Place
9/21/2010 Basia Bulat and The Acorn at TT the Bear’s Place

The day of the Interpol show in Brooklyn I was invited in to the Matador Records office to help moderate a live video chat with Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler. It was all a bit off-the-cuff, and it was a lot of fun. The chat is archived here. I got a little tour of the Beggars Group office (I guess you’d call them Matador’s parent company) and met some of the very cool people who work there, too.

In amongst this hectic schedule of city hopping, picture taking, late nights, and hanging out with friends mixed with happy home-life and work work work, I joined friends Amy, Teresa, and Tomoko a few weekends ago for a couple breezy, decadent days at Top Notch Resort and Spa in Stowe, Vermont. Ah Vermont… We drove up on Friday night and stayed at Teresa’s friends’ ski lodge at Killington, and then drove up to Stowe on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we each indulged in Mount Mansfield Sauchas. What are those, you ask? From the Top Notch site:

Purity and simplification were the inspiration for the creation of this truly unique treatment. Drawing from the Sanskrit term to purify, our Mount Mansfield Saucha session allows you to experience an uncomplicated but completely luxurious three-stage herbal body service. To begin, a sea salt exfoliation removes tired skin and improves circulation. Organic lavender buds are added and then crushed with the salt to provide a sweet aromatic explosion. We use hot towels to remove the salt, leaving your skin velvety soft. Then, you are wrapped in thick linen sheets that have steeped in our detoxifying blend of indigenous Vermont herbs and flowers. In conclusion you may choose a 25-minute, 50 minute or 80-minute full body aromatherapy massage. We have developed a custom blend of sage, lavender, cedar and sandalwood essential oils for a completely soothing experience.

Now that I think of it… somewhere I have a small vial of the sage oil that my therapist gave me at the end of my saucha! That evening we had cocktails by the firepit and enjoyed the view of the mountains as the sun set before heading into the dining room for dinner–homemade local tempeh, anybody? The next day we got our pedicures and manicures, went into town and picked up sandwiches and a few gifts for our loved ones, and then set off on our return to Massachusetts. It was a lovely getaway, and just the beginning of our celebration of Amy and Doug’s upcoming nuptials!

Last weekend my darling friend Sarah came down from Portland and we had a girls’ night out on Saturday. I had a hunch that the bar at Gargoyles would be a good spot for drinks after dinner, and it was. This coming weekend we’ll have family visiting from Pittsburgh (yay!), and on Sunday night I’m covering The XX, Warpaint, and Zola Jesus at The Orpheum. Phew! Good things are happening. Stay tuned!

AND… if you’re so inclined… you can now follow me on twitter: @terkitty. Yep!

School of Seven Bells-Dust Devil

Posted on September 14, 2010
Filed Under Song of the Day, music | Leave a Comment


Video Chat with Daniel Kessler of Interpol

Posted on September 13, 2010
Filed Under music | Leave a Comment

Yes, I moderated a live video chat with Daniel Kessler of Interpol on Friday at the Beggars Group offices in New York. Here it is.

Warpaint with Javelin and Beach Fossils at Great Scott, 8/15/2010

Posted on September 8, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, photography | 3 Comments

I should have written about this show right after it happened. I’ve been playing catch-up. But anyway… Warpaint!

I first heard about Warpaint from a couple of my New York Interpol friends. They described Warpaint as an all-female band that comes out on stage looking really pretty, and then rocks really hard. Another friend mentioned them shortly after that. After our trip to Pennsylvania, I was going through a bit of show withdrawal, and when I heard that Warpaint were playing at Great Scott the night of our return, I wanted to go. We got home just in time for me to pull together my camera and batteries and get to Great Scott before the show sold out.

The first opener, Beach Fossils, sounded very poppy to me–jangly 80s-conscious stuff, which is apparently all the rage at the moment. It didn’t do too much for me, but they weren’t atrocious. What they looked like (silly and 80s conscious) struck me about as much as their music… not much –AND their whole vibe made me feel old.

Javelin made me feel old in a different way. With Beach Fossils, I could get why people would like it. Javelin just seemed totally foolish to me–like they were getting away with something by pretending to be musical, cool, or even interesting. The first thing they brought on stage was a tower of big old broken (except for one, I think) neon spray-painted boom boxes. Oh boy. Their sound was just a mish-mash of samples and knob-twiddling and falling-apart (literally) percussion. Samples and knob-twiddling and percussion can result in something good, but this did not. It felt sloppy. Like Beach Fossils, I guess Javelin are considered up and coming. I thought they were embarrassing and pretty terrible.


Warpaint at Great ScottWarpaint

After those two openers, I might have expected Warpaint to be a disappointment, but they weren’t at all. I think the evening’s line-up was a real mis-match. Warpaint are going out with The XX in the near future, and that tour makes more sense to me. The vocals and the music come from a much deeper, darker place than anything that Beach Fossils or Javelin offer up. My friends who told me I’d be impressed by their musical chops were right on. These chickies can play. They’re really pretty badass. At least a few of them are multi-instrumenatalists. The bassist and drummer switched places after the first song, and at the end of the encore three of the four band members went at it on the drum kit–and what resulted was a controlled chaos, not just mere chaos.

Their first full-length, The Fool, is set to drop October 26th (October 25th in the UK). I’m looking forward to seeing them again at the Orpheum October 3rd.

SXSW… and me!

Posted on September 7, 2010
Filed Under family, friends, music, travel, wide world of vacation | 1 Comment

2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the SXSW Music Conference and Festival in Austin, TX. I am going. I am SO FLIPPIN’ EXCITED! Ezra seems slightly confused as to why I’m so excited, but he is on board because 1) Houston–home to Simon, Frances, Eva, and Gia–is a mere two hours away, 2) Austin is supposed to be a pretty cool town, 3) March is the perfect time to get the heck out of Boston, and 4) some of his old college pals live in Austin and San Antonio. When all of this dawned on me–that all of those things come together with SXSW and that we could do it… Did I mention that I am SO EXCITED? The fest is 3/16-3/20. More on that later…

Interpol with Twin Tigers and The Postelles at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, NY 8/6/2010

Posted on September 1, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, photography | Leave a Comment

The Clifton Park show was bittersweet for me. I had SUCH a good time at the Interpol shows this summer, and I knew Clifton Park would be my last for a while. Even more than that, I knew that it would be my last time seeing Twin Tigers on the tour, and I feel like we became friends. I know when I’ll see Interpol again; with Twin Tigers I’m less sure. They’re a band with a lot of potential and they’ve done a lot of touring, so they’ll get up here eventually… But anyway, I knew it would be weird to say goodbye to everyone and it was a bit.

After the late night in Boston on Thursday I was pretty wiped out on Friday and had much to do. We would be heading down to Pennsylvania for a family visit immediately after the Clifton Park show, and in addition to needing to get myself ready for the show and to take pictures I had to pack and try to get the house together for our trip. It was a little bit of a struggle, but I managed to get on the road in time to make it to the venue just after doors opened.

I was on the guestlist in Clifton Park, and my photo pass for the night was actually labelled an all-access pass—though there was a note with it that specifically forbid me from photographing Interpol’s set. Alas. Northern Lights is a weird venue. It’s in what looks like an old strip mall kind of in the middle of nowhere. The stage is back in a corner and seems like it was just sort of dropped in the space. There’s a large bar that takes up almost half of the venue, and the whole place has an odd atmosphere (or lack thereof). There was a bathroom attendant—at least in the women’s room. My memory of the place is that all the walls were painted blue, there were glass doors at the back through which we could see the bands and crew walking past in between their sets, and the place was really cold. Whereas at some shows I end up sweating and frizzy, at this show I was very glad I’d grabbed a cardigan at the last minute. They had the a/c cranked the whole night. It just added to the weirdness of the night for me.

Some of Interpol’s gear was off to the left of the stage in crates and I could see labels on various drawers… things like “Paul’s strings,” “Daniel’s strings and cords,” and then a drawer labeled simply (if I’m not misremembering it) “Shite.”

The Postelles The Postelles at Northern Lights.


The PostellesThe Postelles at Northern Lights.


The Postelles
The Postelles at Northern Lights.

Even in this relatively little venue there was a tiny photo pit. I managed to photograph The Postelles’ entire set. I think I was only supposed to do three songs, but there was another photographer shooting them and he just kept going, so I did, too. The reception for The Postelles was a sharp turn from the reaction they enjoyed the previous night. People clapped politely but briefly after each of their songs, and their perky singer seemed to be almost apologizing for everyone’s lack of familiarity with them and with their music. Before launching into one song, he said, “This is a new one,” and then paused and said “but everything is new to you.” They played with their usual verve, but it was clear that they had to work for it.

beerTwin Tigers, running with the devil (a.k.a. Hoo-ray beer).

When Twin Tigers came out on stage, I wonder if I was the first person ever in the history of the world to feel a tiny bit sad to hear the opening notes of Van Halen’s “Running with the Devil.” They played well, and while it wasn’t as amazing as the previous night in Boston, I think they sounded good and a decent portion of the audience got into what they were doing. I photographed the first three songs of their set and then took my spot up front behind the barrier.

ForrestForrest Hall of Twin Tigers.


AimeeAimee Morris of Twin Tigers.


TTTwin Tigers.

Interpol’s set was really tight, but seemed to go by so quickly. My friends agreed that it felt short. The band played very well, but it felt business-like. During the encore, one song blended right into the next. The setlist was a good one. We got “Mammoth” instead of “The Heinrich Maneuver” and a beautifully played “Leif Erikson,” which I had not yet heard on this tour. During “Leif” I exchanged a nice little look of recognition with Daniel. I tried to take some pictures with my phone. It was kind of pathetic, really. Their lighting was pretty easy as far as concerts go, and the stage was on the small side so I could have managed a lot of nice shots. After the encore as they were leaving the stage both Daniel and Sam nodded, smiled, and waved at me. That was sweet! It was like they knew that this would be my last show for a while.

Afterwards my friends and I went over to the merch table to say hi to the Twin Tigers people. They were busy with merch boxes and stuff, but we chatted a little bit. As the venue was kind of out of the way, they were trying to figure out where to go to do something. I couldn’t hang around long as we were heading out for Pennsylvania, so I couldn’t help them with their plans for the night. I bought a copy of their album, Gray Waves (on blue vinyl!) and had them all sign it for me. Matthew wrote me a little message, signed the inner sleeve, and then signed on Aimee’s behalf since she had once again disappeared.

I looked up and through the windows at the front of the venue and saw Ezra standing there. I thought I was supposed to call him, but it was going on midnight and I can’t blame him for running out of things to do at that hour. I went outside and asked him if he could wait while I went to say goodbye to a few people. When I got back inside, it seemed like everyone had scattered. I headed back toward the stage and saw Matthew holding a box and talking to one of Interpol’s crew. While I was waiting for him, Sam’s drum tech came up to me and said he’d seen me at a lot of shows. I said that I’d been to a bunch and introduced myself. He asked how many shows I’d been to, and when I said twenty-something he said I won the prize. He dug into a black sack, pulled out three of Sam’s well-used (during the show, presumably) drumsticks, and gave them to me. Yay! He is really nice. I have heard people rave about what a good guy he is, and it was great to finally meet him after all this time.

CliftonParkstuffSam’s drumsticks, my pass, and signed Twin Tigers vinyl

A minute later, I got Matthew’s attention and he came over. He seemed a bit surprised and disappointed when I said that my ride had arrived. We hugged and I told him to keep in touch with me if he thought of it, and he said to do the same. Then I headed back to the merch table to see if I could find any of the others and ran into Forrest. He was kind of all over the place and asked where my friends had gone. He wanted to party! We said farewell. Unfortunately I couldn’t find either Aimee or Chris.

And that was the end of my Interpol/Twin Tigers/sometimes Postelles Summer 2010 adventures. I had such a great time and met so many cool people. I would do it all again right now if I could. My next planned Interpol show is on my birthday in NYC. And maybe… maybe… I will see some more shows in the UK in December. Twin Tigers… you need to get your southern butts up here. I’ll see you guys later.

Interpol with Twin Tigers and The Postelles at the House of Blues in Boston, 8/5/2010

Posted on August 31, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, photography | 1 Comment

This review/rundown has been much too long coming.

The Boston show crept up on me. For some reason after the New Haven show I thought I had about a month until my next Interpol show, when really it was only two weeks away.

As the show was right here in my town, I arrived very early. There was no one else in line, so I sat across the street near the WEEI studios where there was more shade. I drank an iced green tea, checked to make sure my camera, lenses, and batteries were all accounted for and working, and watched as a couple of House of Blues people played wiffle ball in the street. Eventually two girls showed up and I crossed the street to line up. Those first two girls were really anti-social, alas. They didn’t talk to me at all—one girl had her back to me in a sort of pointed way the whole time. Sigh… typical Boston. It was so unlike my experiences at all of the other shows this summer. After a while, though, two more girls showed up and they were much more friendly. At one point one of these new companions saw Paul entering the venue and went over to say hello to him. We’re not sure exactly what she said, but whatever it was it had quite an effect on him. A little while later someone poked out of the venue and gave her a wonderful hand-written note from Paul and a shirt signed by the band.

For the Boston show I was reunited with my girl Sarah. She took the bus down from Portland and made her glorious arrival around 4PM. The weather was so gross—very humid and then it started pouring. We had a little area of shelter, but it was pretty nasty weather for waiting in line. We got suitably straggly/frizzy and wandered down the street to try to hear some of soundcheck. Interpol played a couple of new songs with which we weren’t familiar, along with a nice drawn-out version of “The Lighthouse” and some of the other usual soundcheck suspects.

While we were down there the Twin Tigers guys showed up and started unloading their gear. I felt disgusting and shy (I always seem to get all shy at first), but Sarah said they were trying to get my attention—I saw Forrest and said “Oh hi.” They were looking roughly as wrecked as I was—no doubt they’d been riding in a van all day and the weather was unforgiving. Everyone was in crappy jeans/shorts/t-shirts/frizz.

Photo passesFree stuff! My photo passes (with the wrong date printed on them), the free ticket they gave me that I didn’t need, and a Twin Tigers sticker

Around 5:30 or so I went back to the car to change my clothes and attempt to neaten up. When I returned, Sarah and a few others had been moved to a different line. We were big enough suckers to go for the “Crash the Barricade” package, which gets you into the venue ½ an hour early. Oh, and supposedly the appeal of “free” water and “ice cream novelties” is also a part of the deal. Anyway, at this point I went to the ticket window, which can only be accessed from outside unless you work at the venue, to see about picking up my photo passes for The Postelles and Twin Tigers. They didn’t have the bands’ lists yet, though, so I had to keep going back to the window and checking. I ended up going into the venue with Sarah and having to go back out again twice to pick up my passes. The House of Blues staff were actually surprisingly cool about that. They’re not really supposed to allow re-entry, but they made an exception for me.

Sarah and I did manage to secure a good spot up front. Everyone around us was fine—mellow and not pushy.

The Postelles at HOB BostonThe Postelles. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

I photographed The Postelles from the photo pit. I’d been told there wouldn’t be one, which seemed odd to me. In fact, the pit was pretty sizable, and the venue let me photograph their entire set, which was great. The crowd reaction to The Postelles was definitely the best I saw on their brief jaunt with Interpol. People really seemed to like them, and I think there were more photographers covering them than there were covering Twin Tigers. They already have another date scheduled up here in December supporting a band called fun.

Postelles/Twin TigersAfter The Postelles. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

The opening notes of Van Halen’s “Running with the Devil” announced Twin Tigers’ set—they’d been taking the stage to that song for every show and I think I read in an interview somewhere that it was sort of their theme song for the tour. Uh-huh. They’d been slightly delayed as Aimee was having some kind of trouble with her gear and she was working with the Interpol crew to try to get it figured out. The crowd was really receptive for them, just as they had been for The Postelles, and they sounded as good as I’ve heard them, both in terms of their performance and especially in terms of the mix. Aimee told the crowd it was Matthew’s birthday and he looked a bit sheepish… like a little boy. Sweet! She said something about him being awesome. Aw… I’m pretty sure she invited the crowd to party with them afterwards. I particularly noticed Forrest’s guitar playing on this night and I was really impressed. At the end of their set (I was able to photograph their entire set, too) I bolted for the bar to get a drink and as I did Aimee got everyone to sing “Happy Birthday.”

Matthewathob
Matthew of Twin Tigers (with Forrest’s fluffy head in the bottom of the image). Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Interpol’s set was good. For some reason I never feel like the Interpol shows in Boston are as amazing as they are elsewhere. Maybe it’s just the familiarity of the town for me. The first time I saw them here in ’04 was quite good, and they did sound good at House of Blues. On this night, maybe it’s the setlist that made it a little less than perfect for me. They played “The Heinrich Maneuver” (blah) and didn’t play “Leif Erikson,” which would have been nice for Sarah—and the rest of us! I managed to take a small number of photos of their set from the crowd. The House of Blues staff had told me that all cameras were going to be allowed going forward anyway (really??). They seemed pretty confused about their own policy! I took advantage as much as I could.

Daniel at hobDaniel of Interpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Their full setlist from Boston went like this:

Success
Evil
Say Hello to the Angels
Summer Well
NARC
Lights
NYC
The Heinrich Maneuver
PDA
Barricade
Take You on a Cruise
Slow Hands
Not Even Jail
—
Hands Away
C’mere
Obstacle 1

They dedicated “PDA” to Wanda and made a point of giving setlists and sticks to a small group of fans that we’ve seen at a number of shows.

Interpol at hobInterpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Afterwards, I said a quick hello to Twin Tigers at the merch table. We went outside, and then the TT guys came out and invited us to join them at the Cask and Flagon. I’d never been there before. It’s a big old sports bar and it’s kind of goofy. I got myself a drink (probably my fourth on the night and not my last—a lot for me!) and bought beers for Aimee and Matthew. I asked them what they were drinking and they said they’d have pretty much anything. Aimee said she’s poor and honestly didn’t care what kind of beer she had–said she didn’t even have a place to live! I got her a PBR and Matthew a Bud.

Sarah and I both talked to Chris a bit. He’s a super nice guy. I told him how good I thought they sounded that night and he agreed that it was good.

After a while I was sort of off to one side hanging out with Matthew, who had been texting a lot at first—birthday stuff, he said. He is a Braves fan… said something about being a poet—not exactly an amazing one (his assessment)—and then made some comment to the effect that the former poet laureate was nothing special. It was interesting to hear him and Forrest pulling out all this literary stuff. He mentioned that Sam is helping them—with label business, I think. I think I asked about them working on new tunes—wish I could remember the substance of what he said about that. I also asked if he thought they’d be on the tour with Interpol much longer and he said something like, “Sam likes us, but they all have their friends.” I told him that Forrest’s guitar playing had especially impressed me that night, and he seemed to get a tad defensive (!), saying that it was about the interplay of the two guitars. I was only making an observation about Forrest’s playing on that night—not saying that one or the other of them was a better guitarist. I told him they’d sounded especially good and he agreed and said that it’s hard not to perform well when you come out on stage and see all those people.

The night got pretty drunk and silly from then on. Sarah and Chris danced in the next room. Forrest and his latest girlie friend were somewhat entwined and they may also have danced a bit—not sure. Several drinks were consumed and foolishness perpetrated. Though it would probably be blackmail material, I SO wish we had some snapshots of the debauchery.

Eventually it got late enough and the bar got lame enough that the band wanted to head out. I was sad to say goodnight. The bar was lame, but we were having a good time anyway.

I had NOT been thinking and as I’d had so much to drink poor darling wonderful Sarah was forced to drive the two of us home! Medals for Sarah.

Autolux-Robots in the Garden

Posted on August 24, 2010
Filed Under Song of the Day, music | Leave a Comment


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