Andy Gapin

We tried to have our cat wear a fake bloody finger around her neck for our Halloween party, but it didn’t really pan out so well.

I had another great show last night and I had a lot of fun doing it. Nice mix of music and a bit more diverse than usual. I’ve been saying that a lot recently, but it’s true!

I’ve been listening to the new albums by Frank Turner and World’s Greatest Ghosts a bit and I have to go ahead and recommend both of them. Frank Turner is becoming one of my favorite British acts and World’s Greatest Ghosts sounds a lot like a mix of The Paper Chase and Jukebox The Ghost. Check them out.

Vivian Girls	Can’t Get Over You	Everything Goes Wrong
Old Canes	The Last Collapse	Feral Harmonic
Dutchess And The Duke, The	Let It Die	Sunset/Sunrise
Teenage Cool Kids	Queer Salutations	Queer Salutations
Gossip, The	Dimestore Diamond	Music For Men
Swimmers, The	Shelter	People Are Soft
Rose Melberg	Truly	Homemade Ship
World’s Greatest Ghosts	On The Shore	No Magic
Echo And The Bunnymen	I Think I Need You Too	Think I Need It Too [Single]
Fanfarlo	Ghosts	Reservoir
Lucky Pineapple	Moment In An Empty Street	The Bubble Has Burst In Sky City
Silver Starling	Ghosts	Silver Starling
Frank Turner	The Road	Poetry Of The Deed
Happy Hollows, The	Silver	Spells
Mason Jennings	Tourist	Blood Of Man
Black Heart Procession, The	Rats	Six

Source: 90.3 The Core

I wanted to get something up about the show sooner, but I haven’t had a chance. I’m going to completely ignore the openers and get to the point, The Lawrence Arms are one of the best bands playing right now. An hour and forty-five minutes was a long time for a punk band to play, but I’m going to be honest, I could have done a lot more. A LOT MORE. Hell, they could have played the set twice and I would have been giddy as hell about it.

The band came out on stage with a nice rockstarry entrance, but after that, it was clear that they were just three dudes having one of the best nights of their collective life. You could tell that they couldn’t take themselves too seriously if they tried. They tore through thirty songs with enough talking to break it up a bit and engage the audience, but never enough for you to want them to shut up. I’ve never seen a band get through that many songs that quickly. They were on a mission.

They played songs from all over their catalog, just like they promised they would. They kept things slightly more to the last couple records, but I’m not complaining about that. They played some stuff that they don’t play often, like A Wishful Puppeteer–they had only played this once before–and left out only a couple other songs I would have liked to hear. I’m starting to accept that I’ll never get to see them play Drunk Mouth Kitchen Smile.

They even had Neil sing a song. According to Brendan, Turnstiles is the best Lawrence Arms song “for your money” and I have to agree, in recent months, it has shot right up to the top of my list.

This was a fun set and seeing this band in Chicago was amazing. I love these guys. This was show number 1000 for them and I swear, the next 1000 better be made up of at least 1001 on the East Coast.

Here’s a list of the songs they played. It’s not in order, but you get the idea…

• An Evening of Extraordinary Circumstance
• The North Side of the L&L and Any Number of Crappy Apartments
• Uptown Free Radio
• Smokestacks
• 16 Hours
• Turnstiles
• Light Breathing
• 106 South
• Nebraska
• Quincentuple Your Money
• 100 Resolutions
• Hey, What Time is “Pensacola: Wings of Gold” On, Anyway?
• Your Gravest Words
• Boatless Booze Cruise
• Brickwall Views
• Presenting: The Dancing Machine
• Necrotism: Decanting the Insalubrious
• Intransit
• Raw and Searing Flesh
• On With The Show
• Alert The Audience
• Chapter 13: The Hero Appears
• The Ramblin’ Boys of Pleasure
• A Wishful Puppeteer
• The Disaster March
• Cut it Up
• Great Lakes/Great Escapes
  
• Recovering the Opposable Thumb
• Are You There, Margaret? It’s Me, God
• Lose Your Illusion 1
• Like a Record Player

PS: Chicago really is the best city ever. Every time I go there, I love it more and more. Friendly people, amazing food, awesome vibe, tons of great music.

I went to see The Gaslight Anthem, Murder By Death, and The Loved Ones in Philly last night at the Trocadero. It was an all around great show.

The Loved Ones played what was probably the best set I’ve ever seen them play. I can’t really describe why it was so great, but they just felt really on and didn’t talk too much compared to other times that I’ve seen them. Their set list was well chosen and leaning way more to the Keep Your Heart side of things than Build & Burn, which works out great for me since I think Keep Your Heart is a much better record.

Murder By Death was slightly worse than the last time I saw them, but that was also about five years ago. They played well and sounded good, but I think I miss them being a five piece. Having a dedicated keyboardist made them able to keep more of their recorded sound when playing live. Sarah did a great job switching between cello and keyboards, but it wasn’t quite the same. The last time I saw them was before their last two albums came out so they had fewer songs to play. This gave them time to rock out and jam a little more. I’m not into jam bands, but I love when bands that I like just jam out for a little bit during some of the instrumental parts of songs. It adds something extra to the live set that you don’t get from a record. This is something that they seemed to do a lot in the past and it was one of my favorite things about seeing them, but now with all the extra songs that they have, there is a lot less time to do it. Still, they sounded great and picked a good selection of songs to play. I think they covered everything that I wanted to hear.

And then there was Gaslight Anthem. They sounded amazing and were tight as hell with a great stage presence. It may have been the tightest that I’ve ever seen them play out of the six or seven times that I’ve seen them. But the selection of songs that they played was a bit disappointing. The ’59 Sound is a really great record, one of the best to come out in 2008. However, it lost a lot over the last year for me. Most of my interest in it waned. Sink Or Swim has stuck with me though. That’s what I wanted to hear. I didn’t expect a lot, but the entire first half of their set was from The ’59 Sound. By the end, we only got a couple Sink Or Swim songs in total. I guess normally it would be expected to hear only a few songs from a band’s first album…if they have more than two, but with only two of them, it’d be nice it at least a third of the set was from the first album. Oh well. At least everything they played sounded great.

Even accepting the fact that I’ll never get to hear them play much from Sink Or Swim again, I don’t know that I’ll ever want to see them live again. I’m not sure how to describe it, but they felt very rock starry last night. It was a little too much. They stopped feeling like this band from New Brunswick that used to play basement shows and the Court Tavern to small crowds and more like a band that has their eyes set on stages set in front of thousands and thousands of people. It wasn’t to the point where it was terribly upsetting and bothersome and a lot of it was subtle, but it was enough that I feel as though my love for them will start to decline if I keep on seeing them.

Last night was also the first time that I’ve been to the Troc in about seven years. I’ve generally avoided it as I was never a fan of the place and I was reminded 100% of this last night. The sound is terrible. It might be the worst sounding venue I’ve ever been to. Ugh.

Last night was another fantastic show. Almost perfect all around. Great music, great segues, and the phone was ringing off the hook. Not even just the phone, but the instant messages too. So much so that it was almost stressful trying to keep up. I was actually sweating because of it.

I found out last night that our station streams perfectly fine over an iPhone just by going to www.thecore.fm and clicking to listen. I’m assuming this will work on any other smartphone too, I guess I never thought about it before.

Apparently, we’re supposed to get a Nor’easter this weekend so that’s going to put a damper on my Field of Terror plans, but I’m still excited to see Gaslight Anthem, Murder By Death, and The Loved Ones on Sunday in Philly. And it seems that there are still tickets for the Monday night show as well. You may want to check that out. Either way, expect a full report next week.

Anyway, here’s what I played…

Sunny Day Real Estate	In Circles	Diary
Lou Barlow	Gravitate	Goodnight Unknown
Fresh And Onlys, The	Dude’s Got A Tender Heart	Grey-Eyed Girls
Splinters, The	Sorry	Splintered Bridges [EP]
Vivian Girls	When I’m Gone	Everything Goes Wrong
Sondre Lerche	If Only	Heartbeat Radio
Old Canes	The Last Collapse	Feral Harmonic
Fanfarlo	Fire Escape	Reservoir
Black Hollies, The	Lead Me To Your Fire	Softly Towards The Light
Frank Turner	Poetry Of The Deed	Poetry Of The Deed
Imogen Heap	Swoon	Ellipse
Girls	Morning Light	Album
Echo And The Bunnymen	I Think I Need You Too	Think I Need It Too [Single]
Yo La Tengo	Periodically Double Or Triple	Popular Songs
Monsters Of Folk	The Right Place	Monsters Of Folk

Source: 90.3 The Core

Last night’s show got off to a bit of a late start, but I still managed to fit in most of what I wanted. Other than that, it was was a relatively average show. Nothing of note to mention.

Echo And The Bunnymen	I Think I Need You Too	Think I Need It Too [Single]
Jupiter One	Come On	Sunshower
Fanfarlo	Fire Escape	Reservoir
Eva And The Heartmaker	Please!	Let’s Keep This Up Forever
Orba Squara	New Guitar	The Trouble With Flying
Imogen Heap	Between Sheets	Ellipse
Cougar	Thundersnow	Patriot
Steve Shiffman And The Land Of No	Frog In My Throat	Steve Shiffman And The Land Of No
Splinters, The	Sorry	Splintered Bridges [EP]
Vivian Girls	Can’t Get Over You	Everything Goes Wrong
Girls	Morning Light	Album
Choir Of Young Believers	Next Summer	This Is For The White In Your Eyes
Dutchess And The Duke, The	I Don’t Feel Anything	Sunset/Sunrise
Lou Barlow	Gravitate	Goodnight Unknown
Monsters Of Folk	Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)	Monsters Of Folk

Source: 90.3 The Core

I think everyone liked Whip It more than I did. I mean, I liked it a lot, but everyone that I’ve heard talk about it loved it. The movie was entertaining and I actually didn’t find Jimmy Fallon to be annoying which was unexpected, but there wasn’t really anything about it that grabbed me like I wanted it to. I feel like for a movie about roller derby with Ellen Page and all the other people that are in this, I want a little more.

Ellen Page is awesome and I love her, but I feel like sometimes that innocent little girl, deer in the headlights look she normally pulls off so well doesn’t always fit. In Whip It, it only felt appropriate about half the time. The look felt overused and Bliss (Ellen Page) seemed like she was more confident than her face was showing in a lot of scenes. I don’t think the problem was Ellen Page so much as it was Drew Barrymore’s directing. Okay fine, I just don’t want to fault Ellen Page. Deal with it.

I don’t know, I really don’t have much else to say about this one.

Rating: B

PS: Andrew Wilson should change his name to Beef Surpreme in real life because that’s all I see when I see him.

You know, if you had asked me a year ago, before I had even heard of Zombieland, if I would have said “yeah, I think Woody Harrelson could wreck some zombies.” Now, ask me this after seeing Zombieland and the answer becomes something more along the line of “why the hell isn’t Woody Harrelson in every zombie movie?” Seriously, it’s a no-brainer. Dude knows how to kill some zombies.

Zombieland is one of those movies where you get so hyped up for and so obsessed with it before seeing it that the day before it comes out, you start to worry that it can’t live up to your expectations. Don’t worry. You will not be disappointed. Zombieland does everything right. It really does. Zombieland actually delivered more than I could have hoped for.

The obvious thing to do here would be to draw comparisons to Shaun Of The Dead. And while that’s not the most inaccurate statement ever, Zombieland isn’t just a U.S. version of Shaun Of The Dead. While both are more romantic comedy than zombie-focused, Zombieland stands on its own without needing a comparison.

Zombieland gives us a lot of great zombie kills, but keeps it light on the flesh eating. In fact, there are actually very few human kills to be seen in the movie. The ones we get are excellent, but like I said, the movie doesn’t focus as much on the zombies, it sticks with good old-fashioned romantic-comedy. This keeps the gore down a bit, but it’s not missed either. It just goes to show, that you don’t need gore for a good zombie flick…and you also don’t need to actually kill any of the characters either.

Bill Murray’s cameo was absolutely wonderful and Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin were all wonderful too, but the start of Zombieland is Woody Harrelson. This dude was born for this role.

Rating: A+

Last night’s radio show was another great one. I’m really starting to like the 9pm slot…maybe even better than 10pm. I have more energy and it feels like less of a drag towards the end of the show.

There was a lot of good new stuff to play this week which made it easy to get a nice flow from song to song and from genre to genre. I was able to cover a lot of musical ground and also get in some bigger named bands, something that has been missing for a few weeks. Bands like Yo La Tengo, Echo & The Bunnymen, and Lou Barlow.

The Monsters Of Folk album is pretty awesome if you’re into those guys (M. Ward, Conor Oberst, Jim James, Mike Mogis). It sounds exactly the way I was expecting it to, but in the best of ways. And I think prior to last night, I had never actually heard Imogen Heap before, but they’ve got a new album out and I decided to play a song for my girlfriend who is into them. I kind of always thought I’d hate them, but it wasn’t too bad. I’m not in love with it, but I’d play them again.

Here’s what I played…

Yo La Tengo	Periodically Double Or Triple	Popular Songs
Throw Me The Statue	Noises	Creaturesque
Orba Squara	Treasure Map	The Trouble With Flying
Fanfarlo	Drowning Men	Reservoir
Splinters, The	Sorry	Splintered Bridges [EP]
Jay Reatard	My Reality	Watch Me Fall
Electric Tickle Machine	Ask Me Anything	Blew It Again
Eva And The Heartmaker	Charming Sexy	Let’s Keep This Up Forever
Monsters Of Folk	The Right Place	Monsters Of Folk
Imogen Heap	Between Sheets	Ellipse
Or, The Whale	No Love Blues	Or, The Whale
Inner Banks, The	Blame	Songs From Disko Bay
Lou Barlow	One Machine, One Long Fight	Goodnight Unknown
Cougar	Endings	Patriot
Echo And The Bunnymen	I Think I Need You Too	Think I Need It Too [Single]

Source: 90.3 The Core