Tunes Tuesday, "Stare at the Sun," Eleanor Friedburger

Eleanor Friedburger writes a great summer song, the kind of carefree, jangly tune that makes you want to roll your car window down. In fact, her last album was called "Last Summer," and this summer, she's back with a new record. Here's her catchy first single. I love her lyrics, it feels like you are listening to a friend tell a story. OK, an especially witty friend. But that's the only kind of friend I have anyway.

Listen to Eleanor Friedberger / Stare At The Sun | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.

I caught her show at U Street Music Hall last month, and she was just hanging out in front of the ticket booth. We thought she might be the person taking our ticket! Gotta love a small venue.

Tunes Tuesday, "All I Ever," Gems

Been meaning to post this: I was so fortunate to write about D.C.'s creative class for Refinery29 DC's first ever "30 under 30" list and two of the people I profiled make up the band Gems. I had their Soundcloud page on repeat while writing, and all their stuff has an icy, 80s vibe that sounds both epic and intimate. Take a listen, starting with "All I Ever," because I can't resist a good boy-girl duet. I'm definitely going to try to see them live at the Black Cat on July 22!

www.GEMS-band.com www.facebook.com/GEMSband GEMSbandinfo@gmail.com Recorded in Outer Banks, NC - October 2012

Brazilian Girls, 9:30 Club

I ended my birthday this year at one of my favorite places in the world, a place where I've spent a lot of time and money over the years: the 9:30 Club. Joe got me tickets to go see Brazilian Girls, a band that can only be described as EDM meets world music meets cabaret. I've loved their song "Don't Stop" ever since I heard it back in 2005.

The band is widely known for another song however, with a very NSFW chorus and a "better not Google it" title. I saw Brazilian Girls at a festival years ago and the audience consisted mainly of frat boys, which made me wonder. The guy next to me at this show confirmed my suspicions. He actually said out loud, "I bought my ticket for that one song." Knew it!

But I knew that they'd put on a good show beyond that one song. The lead singer Sabina Sciubba is a force of nature. She wandered through the crowd, made everyone dance the waltz, smoked cigarettes and more onstage, and accessorized her strappy sandals with a beer tucked in the pocket of her oversize blazer. She's got Euro sex appeal, alright. Miley, forget the twerking for a minute - you'd be well-served to take notes.

Horribly blurry photo goes here. The one thing I was disappointed about was that Sabina seemed to actively loathe "Don't Stop" and totally phoned it in. They really hyped it up for the encore, but she could not be bothered. Oh well. Their new stuff sounded interesting, I thought. As Sabina said, "We are going to overwhelm you with new shit."

Oh! And this must be mentioned, because I've never seen this before at the 9:30 Club.

Someone in the audience had one of those rave kites (I don't know the teminology?) and twirled it around through half of the show. I don't know how he found a spot so devoid of people to pursue this hobby, as it takes up a lot of space. Our fellow concertgoers were breathing down our necks and we were just standing there. "Maybe he bopped people on the head until they left," Joe said. The best part about it was that he was wearing a camping head lamp too. Gotta keep track of all that twirling neon fabric.

I went dancing at U Street Music Hall a couple years ago and someone was doing this. The same person perhaps? My friend said, "I just want to throw that thing in the trash," which was funny because she is the most unflappable, peaceful person. The secondhand embarrassment was that pervasive.

Tunes Tuesday, "Long Time Coming," The Delays

Bringing you back to 2004 with today's song by Brit band The Delays. Remember this one? When I studied abroad in London in 2005, we didn't have Internet in our dorm, a fact which seems laughable today. We'd go to the public library to write emails, and I would check out dozens of CDs, rip them to my computer and return them. That's where I discovered this song, and there's something so perfect about the intro/chorus. it seems meant for a sunshine-y day like today.

Father John Misty in Concert

Just posting a quick picture from the fourth row or so at Thursday's Father John Misty 9:30 Club show. I might sound like a Father John Misty superfan at this point.

I went to Brightest Young Things today to read about how awesome the show was, and instead I was left scratching my head at this review. The Post's review was less obtuse, of course, but even more withering. I just feel like they missed the point. From my vantage point (fourth row), the man puts on a show that's plenty entertaining. That includes the dance moves, laugh-out-loud banter, and vocal chops. He's charming, and that's not the case for a lot of indie acts. And I actually like the album, the writing is memorable. Maybe everyone needs to take it less seriously.

But then again, I am a super fan.

PS - No one mentioned this in the reviews, but Tillman talked about playing the 9:30 Club in front of 50 people and it looking like a performance art installation of what failure looks like. Ha! Now he is selling out shows...

My Coachella Playlist

Finally, a post about the music we heard at Coachella Week 2! We managed to see about 40 bands in three days. OK, some of those were for like 10 minutes, but still I add it to the tally. Emily did the calculations, and she says it works out to about $8 a band. Ha, a bargain! But really, nearly everyone who is touring this summer hits Coachella so it is a worthwhile investment.

This is mainly for my own edification, but here is a list of everyone we heard. In the grid, you'll see a few pictures I took from the shows.

Friday: You Me & Us, IO Echo, Lord Huron, Youth Lagoon, The Shouting Matches, Stars, Divine Fits, Of Monsters and Men, Local Natives, Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Band of Horses, Jurassic 5, Tegan and Sara.

Saturday: Kids These Days, Wombats, Guards, Shovels & Ropes, Wild Nothing, Savages, 2 Chainz, Bat for Lashes, Major Lazer, Grizzly Bear, The Postal Service, The XX, Janelle Monae, Sigur Ros, Phoenix

Sunday: Smith Westerns, DIIV, Jessie Ware, Thee Oh Sees, Grimes, The Lumineers, Tame Impala, La Roux, Father John Misty, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We basically had our schedules out constantly, always on the move to the next show. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the stages were close enough together that you could check out half of one set and half of another.

Just a few obvious observations:

You realize just how talented these folks are, in that they can not only write a fantastic song, but play it in the desert in front of thousands of people in 90 degree heat. That isn't easy.
It was interesting to see 2 Chainz on 4/20, that's for sure.
Smith Westerns are soo young. They looked like they were in 8th grade, tops.
Karen O is a force of nature, especially when she's wearing a gaudy yellow suit.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers really should have a special guest or brought something surprising to the table. I guess that's the problem with week 2: we found their set list online and followed along and they played the exact same songs.
Lord Huron and Wild Nothing's albums will be my new chill summer soundtrack.
La Roux has a new album coming out!
Jenelle Monae, why are you not more famous? She is an electrifying performer, and she can really crowdsurf!
After seeing Father John Misty, we immediately bought tickets to see him again. He's going places. In fact, today's DC show sold out. I hope his stage banter is just as funny and charming as was in Coachella. He had a great riff about girls wearing floral crowns needing to have a more hippy attitude.

And I made a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from some of the bands I saw at Coachella. I'm excited about this, I hope you check it out if you are in need of some tunes today! And click here for all of my Coachella 2013 Week 2 posts.

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