YOU'RE MY SHINING BOY

photo by Mrs. Des Noise

Asklandaganza IV can only be described as a huge success. It would be hard for me to say much more about the fourth annual birthday party of Vaudeville Mews booker Ladd Askland-- particularly anything analytical or rock critic-like-- because I was just having too much fun. Nick Lambert was named Man of the Year, a move that surprised him because he had thought he was helping Ladd choose the Poison Control Center's Patrick Tape Fleming (a mere ruse!). Wolves in the Attic and the Land of Blood & Sunshine and the Seed of Something and Canyons and Derek Lambert & the Prairie Fires (in their debut performance!) and of course PCC played awesome sets. John Huffman distributed Ladd's traditional everybody-in-the-place Black Velvet shots. Bob Nastanovich, back in Des Moines after touring the world with beloved group Pavement, was upstairs spinning records-- I asked him the name of one particularly danceable song three times, hoping to write it down, before he sort of jollily ("jollily"?) told me he had even better ones coming up so I should get back downstairs and keep dancing. It was Mrs. Des Noise's birthday, too, so we were back and forth from a little gathering with some friends at our place-- thanks a ton to everybody who came, glad our cat didn't kill anyone and our dog only peed on one person (at the same time the cat was vomiting) (sorry, Andrew). PCC played some new songs that I remember being a blast but couldn't tell you much more about. I don't think they played new plastic plate 7" "Porcelain Brain." (Wait, now I'm suddenly remembering singing along with it...) When we left I was pretty sure we had lost both Ladd and Chet Boom. But they were both found. Like I said, a huge success. You shoulda been there.

They once was lost but now am found.

CAN YOU HELP ME FIGURE THIS OUT?

I'm a fool now that it's over.

"I wish somebody would do a Pazz & Jop-style list made up of only people's #1 albums and songs," I tweeted Nov. 10. "Feel like #10s (and #50s!) are irrelevant." This led me into a really fun and enlightening e-mail back and forth with my friend and the person who used to hand me wines I'd love but then immediately forget how to describe intelligently (I'm telling you I must just have a terrible sense of smell, which would also explain why I dislike bland foods such as mayonnaise or American cheese but will gladly quaff a red wine recommended to me-- accurately-- as tasting like "fried ice cream and green peppercorn"), Cole Chilton. Now, Cole started with the premise that, as previously niche interests have become more popular, a narrow top 10 list tends to miss a lot, which seems inarguably true. In our conversation, he also (it seems to me correctly) noted that top 50s and other long lists constitute a form of "signaling"; a longer list signals that a critic has taken the time to listen to so much and with such critical attention that you should take this person's top pick very seriously. And then we started talking about how he approaches rating the wines he tastes, which was super interesting but really none of my business to start sharing here.

I guess it's Cole's second point that starts to nag at me. Readers of this blog and its Tumblr are probably bored by now with my constant crusade for the idea that there's always at least a slight potential gap between a sign and what it signifies. (I just finished reading this great book called The Gift by Lewis Hyde, and I found out that Albert Einstein, of all people, made sort of a similar argument in a different context: "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.") By the same token, I start to wonder if all the effort that gets expended signaling expertise risks taking away some of a list's communication of any actual expertise. It might be the journalist in me talking, too: If we're signaling our own expertise, are we really serving the readers' interests first? Or our own? (Like, when you're a reporter, sometimes you want to quote a source in an article, because the source took the time to speak with you and you want them to speak with you again, but it only muddles up the account for the reader, whose interests come first, so you cut the quote and apologize to the source.)

But mostly, I worry about the effect that lists of a gazillion albums can have when they're assembled into a poll. For all the greater potential for diversity that has come with the internet, you ultimately seem to have more critics working for less money and listening to the same basic universe of albums. I have plenty of disagreements with Chuck Eddy's essay for the Village Voice at the beginning of the year, "The Year of Too Much Consensus," but I, um, agree that there's an awful lot of consensus. When everybody is filing a list of 10 or 50 or 100 "top" albums of the year or whatever, does this basically mean that the medium-profile, critically safe stuff that ends up in people's 8th spots or 35th spots is going to rise to the top, just because it's going to be on everybody's list somewhere, given a long enough list? Someone with access to the actual data could correct me on this, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if year-end lists end up being more in accord with critics' #1 albums than with their #12s. If my worries are at all well-founded, though, here's where I again think about the reader: As a music fan, how much do I care about an album that some critic ranks at #10 but not a single critic in the country ranks as #1? (Might such choices sometimes be as much about "signaling"-- ooh, a token [insert niche] pick!-- as about how much, if we really thought about it, we'd expect ourselves to enjoy the record if we were in our readers' shoes?) Could the cumulative effect of year after year of longer and longer lists be not to give readers more choices, as the numerical growth might indicate, but rather, to constrict them by providing an unnatural consensus based on what looks good on a list more than on what makes us passionate?

As with all of these debates I constantly find myself stumbling into on the internet, there are of course shades of gray, and I recognize there's probably never a clearcut situation where one choice is purely "signaling" and another is purely based on how passionate we are about a record. And I mean, really, here's the worst part: While it's easy for me to come up with my top album, or even my top 3 albums, once we get past that, I keep coming up with more and more records I enjoy and want to share with you in case you might like them, too (or is it partly, as with my example earlier of quoting a source in a news article, because I want to show the artists and other critics who like them that I'm not a hater? Who knows!). So here are a whole bunch of records that while I'm listening to them make me feel stuff and think stuff and maybe occasionally wanna move around and shout stuff and I hope if nothing else I can pass some of those feelings along to you.

So here's my 2010 year-end wrap-up post. For the albums list, I used an expansive definition of what constitutes one album, which I think is appropriate considering artists are experimenting with new ways of releasing music now that the album is in decline; for the tracks list, I tried to limit choices in the top 50 to two per artist, although The-Dream kinda sneaks through because I wasn't counting guest appearances (or songwriters, for that matter).

DON'T GO BACK ALL FOR THE SAKE OF A DOLLAR

I agree with you-- who needs stuff?

On Friday we drove to the small town of Fairfield in southeastern Iowa. I drove, actually. It was probably the longest I've ever driven-- two-plus hours!-- and I promised Mrs. Des Noise I would do it, sort of as a sweetener for making the trip to see bands on a Friday night instead of, I dunno, going to Fong's Pizza or something. I guess you could say my efforts at re-learning driving are going well.

There wasn't much traffic. To get to Fairfield, you take a four-lane state highway that turns into a U.S. highway, or a U.S. highway that turns into a state highway, I forget. Once you're past Des Moines and its suburbs, you go through miles and miles of farmland. The "American Gothic" house is off from one exit. Roseanne & Tom's Big Food Diner used to be around that area somewhere, too.

And then there's Fairfield. Once home to Parsons College, remembered by my Midwestern mom as a "party school," this town of 10,000-ish now holds the Maharishi School of Management, which bought Parsons after it went bankrupt in 1974. Yes, we're talking about the same Maharishi the Beatles studied under during their time in India. In fact, Fairfield is a huge hub for practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. David Lynch is a regular, among many others-- the town likes to respect its Hollywood visitors' privacy. (I can say that Paul McCartney's son James made his U.S. performing debut less than a year ago at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.)  Jammy psychedelic guitar was emanating from the town square when we arrived-- my wife was behind the wheel at this point, because we had to stop to check the directions and I didn't want to parallel park-- and the overall feeling of the charming downtown reminded us of sort of a cross between Madison, Georgia, where my parents live, and the Northern California coastal town of Sebastopol. Way more food options than you'd expect from a place like this: Thai, Indian, Turkish, and on and on. We met our gracious hosts at a delicious cafe/bookstore called Revelations, which has a menu with more vegan-friendly options than just about any place I've seen in Iowa. Locals were walking around in white, flowing pants. They were some of the healthiest, happiest-looking people I have ever seen. All that organic food will do that for you, I guess. Not to mention living someplace where you can see the stars and the Milky Way actually looks milky. Or might there be something to that meditation stuff, after all?

THE WORLDS COLLIDE, BUT ALL THAT WE WANT IS A SHADY LANE

Maybe we can dance / Maybe we can dance / Maybe we can dance together?

Hey so we saw Pavement again on Saturday, Sept. 11. Last time was the Pitchfork festival over the summer, this time was at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Mo., a 1,700-capacity theater built in the 1920s, with seats in the back half of the main floor and in the ample balcony. Josh and Jessie of another central Iowa-based blog, Nothing Gets Crossed Out, kindly gave us a ride and booked the hotel rooms-- it's like a two-and-a-half or three-hour drive, but the traffic got really bad-- and Chet Boom came along, too*. There's something about Pavement that Mark Richardson touched on nicely in his three paragraphs hailing "Gold Soundz"-- sort of an underdog single, from the band's 1994 album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which also featured the more-often-shown-on-MTV "Cut Your Hair"-- as No. 1 song of the 90s. "Pavement went around like regular schlubs and played messy shows with songs that took strange turns and didn't quite sound like guitar rock songs are supposed to sound," Mark writes. Their bemused, down-to-earth shrugginess was exceptional at the time, but it's not the type of thing that necessarily translates well to non-believers when set up on a reunion-gig pedestal at a festival of younger bands. I was trying my best not to look silly in front of a few other writers by singing along too much during the band's Pitchfork set, but next to the theatrics of Major Lazer or the fiery declamations of Titus Andronicus, I could understand if somebody unfamiliar might've been wondering to themselves: What's the big deal?

"Hey, you're not in Poison Control Center."

Not so Saturday night. Dudes opened with "Gold Soundz", another shrug maybe, but one with a triumphant undertone: We do remember, in September, the August sun. As a group, we're not as empty as we (they) protest. And yeah, consider the past un-quarantined. There was sadly no "Summer Babe"-- as Kansas City Pitch points out-- and no "Two States", but there were plenty of favorites, including songs from my own Pavement entry point, 1997's Brighten the Corners (I found out about them by being a huge fan of Britpop group Blur, who were saying in interviews back then they were huge American indie rock fans): "Here", "Shady Lane", "Stereo", "Unfair", "Cut Your Hair", "Date With Ikea", "Rattled by the Rush", "Conduit for Sale", "Debris Slide". Sorry to name so many songs; these guys just play hit after hit. I never saw Pavement live before their latest tour, but what struck me most both times was not the frontman or the guitarist but Bob Nastanovich-- a familiar smiling face around Des Moines (and supposedly the guy who inspired Blur's "Song 2")-- stalking the stage screaming gleefully like a teenager. Or banging on a tambourine. Or blowing into a harmonica, or some kind of pull-whistle, I didn't get a good look at either. Stephen Malkmus was decked out in a Kansas City Chiefs jersey, which he explained at one point, but I didn't quite hear. I guess this was Pavement's first non-Lollapalooza show in K.C., which is crazy. Anyway, I don't know if the band did much out of the ordinary, but it was the kind of crowd where you can just tell a lot of people actually know the songs and are super happy to be singing along with them or else just watching fondly. As someone who mostly grew up near Sacramento, it was fun to finally be able to shout along to lyrics arguing for the supremacy of Northern over Southern California. For "We Dance", Bob and his wife Whitney, another Des Moines fixture, well, danced. Devin Frank from Ames, Iowa-based opening band the Poison Control Center-- more on them in a sec-- ended up onstage singing along for encore finale "Range Life", which segued into a goofy "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". How'd he do that?

THERE'S NO LOVE WITHOUT ACTION

No, this isn't high-igh-igh-igh-igh.

So the Poison Control Center, 71 shows and 80-some days into their "Neverending Tour," made a triumphant return to central Iowa last night with a gig at the Des Moines Social Club. I've already said so much about how great I think they are that I didn't really know what I could add about last night's show, but Aaron Z. said he'd be looking forward to my Des Noise post, so here I am. Aaron was catching PCC and fellow locals-made-good Christopher the Conquered for the first time, and he said he had a blast. As you can (hopefully) see from the blurry iPhone photo above, he wasn't the only one. Social Club rented this big ol' PA setup, and they hired security guards and everything-- I guess they thought PCC fans are more dangerous than we actually are?-- so at first I wasn't really sure how everything would pan out. But Patrick, David, Devin, and Joe have really gotten tighter in their time on the road, and longtime drummer Donald-- he "writes the hits," as Patrick said at one point, and that includes first Sad Sour Future video selection "Being Gone"-- was no slouch on guitar and vocals, either. PCC were on friendly territory here, so they could play new songs and also some older stuff with their usual boundless energy and know there'd be plenty of people to shout along. "Friends in the Band" is the latest to get the DIY video treatment, and that made it an even sweeter moment live; "Magic Circle Symphony" got the usual fists-pumping crowd participation going. The highlight without a doubt had to be when they launched into "When the World Sleeps", the flip side of recent-ish non-album single "Give It a Try", as a finale, and the crowd-- having been to PCC shows before, apparently-- bumrushed the stage (security, thankfully, stayed out of the way) and proceeded to lift each member of the band on their collective shoulders, including the drums but not drummer David (apparently me and Ladd should've gone up there, too). I gotta admit I was a little nervous for Joe, though, who was crowd-surfing with a broken collarbone. Christopher the Conquered put on their usual really fun live set, though I suspect Chris saves his really big spectacles and surprises for special occasions so there was no monk-ish robe like at GDP or hidden microphone by the sound guy like at 80/35-- the band member with the suspenders and amazing dance moves, though, whose name I'm really embarrassed I don't know, did offer one little surprise: He used to be recognizable by his long hair, beard, and glasses but last night was all buzz-cut and clean-shaven (you ARE still the same guy, right? Nobody else can dance like that!). Oh and CTC did a new one, too, a slower song about "The Greatest Pop Record Ever Made" (did I get that right?), which suggests we can hope for another album from these guys before too long, maybe. Got there while the Atudes were playing, and they sounded good from what I heard, and Patrick had high praise for earlier openers Why Make Clocks (their "Revolver" is one of the best songs he's ever heard out of Iowa, he said! and it's a good un, a waltzing, organ-streaked slow burner) and the Seed of Something, too (speaking of the Seed of Something, another reason this show was special was because it was all-ages, which PCC shows at Vaudeville Mews generally aren't, so the Seed of Something guys and their friends were there dancing, too, and generally being livelier than we boring twenty- and thirtysomethings tend to be, which was great). Oh yeah and Patrick turned 30 today-- golden birthday. Hope it was a happy one, sir, and we'll see ya in Kansas City next month with Pavement.

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN VERY MUCH OF US AROUND, WELL, CHECK THE SHADOWS

This is our new calling card.

For a lot of people in central Iowa, the big weekend for live music this spring in Des Moines happened last month. Elton John played Wells Fargo Arena on a Friday night. AC/DC followed on Saturday. The same night, Ani DiFranco hit Hoyt Sherman.

For me, the weekend that had been circled-- mentally, at least-- on my calendar for ages in advance was the one that just passed. Local heroes the Poison Control Center played their album release party at the Vaudeville Mews on Friday night, joined by Des Moines up-and-comers Christopher the Conquered, Wolves in the Attic and Derek Lambert, plus critically acclaimed Saddle Creek folk-poppers the Mynabirds. Scott Yoshimura of another successful local band, the Envy Corps, played the album release party for his new outfit, Canby (previously known as Menlo), on Saturday night, again at the Vaude, accompanied by the debut performance of Golden Veins (a new band featuring members of locals Beati Paolo), plus a set by Omaha's Skypiper. If you came downtown for the year's first farmers' market and didn't stick around for the late show, you missed out.

Little by little by little by little.

Put it this way: Minneapolis rapper Brother Ali, who played Sunday night, was probably the Vaude's biggest draw this weekend, but at that point, I was too exhausted to go. (So if anyone was there and wants to say how it was, please don't hesitate to comment below!)

Let's make it easier than it is.

PCC's new double LP, Sad Sour Future, is already a shoo-in for my albums of the year list, although I feel like I'm too close to the band and its music to review it professionally. It's best if you imagine it as four EPs, the way they originally conceived it-- the title is a nod to Stereolab singles collection Fab Four Suture-- and finally being able to pick up the vinyl has helped me to do just that (it also made sense when one of the members mentioned at the concert that they were inspired by the 70-minutes-plus albums of singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren). Spread across each of the four sides, you can hear four distinct types of songs: Patrick Tape Fleming's guitar-blazing classic-rock love songs, in full 1970s Electric Light Orchestra mode, as filtered through the low-budget psych sensibility of a guy who loves Elephant Six, Guided by Voices and Super Furry Animals; Devin Frank's laconic, slightly askew mini-narratives reminiscent of Pavement or Silver Jews; Joe Terry's poignant, simple and honest tunes that bring to mind Neil Young; and of course, Donald Ephraim Curtis's poppy, hook-filled numbers, including first video selection "Being Gone." Patrick mentioned to me once how each of the band members has such a different clothing style now in the album artwork. I think he was sort of wistful about it, longing for the days they were all more similar. But in my opinion, that's part of what makes PCC so great: Its members are all really interesting and cool, each in really different ways. Unlike all those bands out there with only one or two creative/dynamic members, everybody in this group writes songs-- sharp, well-crafted sing-alongs, at that. They all seem like just your average friendly Iowa dudes when you meet them-- then you see them play, or get to know Patrick's deep knowledge of basically every good rock or pop record ever, or find out about the time Joe stopped talking for a few weeks or gave the amazing impromptu speech upon winning Mews booker Ladd Askland's first annual "Man of the Year Award," or you talk to Devin about his philosophy studies at the University of Missouri, or you chat with Donald, himself a grad student at Iowa, over Twitter about, well, whatever people are twittering about that day. And-- man. Here's hoping that touring drummer David Olson, who will fill in for Donald while Donald is literally "being gone," can play an essential role of his own in the group; that's the kind of band they are.

I'm understanding how it feels

to understand.

As much as I love the record, though, what makes PCC even more special are their live shows. I've heard it said they were crazier in the early days, even before they opened for Elephant Six-ers Apples in Stereo-- like, back when they were wearing matching costumes to tie in with the idea that they were from the poison control center. I'll never know, but I do know that as many great bands as I'll probably see at 80/35, Pitchfork and wherever else this summer, I probably won't see any-- well, except maybe Robyn-- who work harder to (gasp!) actually ensure you're having a good time. I could bring along just about anybody to a PCC show and be confident they'll enjoy themselves. Friday's set at the Mews leaned more heavily on the new material, as it should have, so some of the usual crowd interaction wasn't there until triumphant finale "Magic Circle Symphony." But still, you had Devin soloing on his head, Patrick jumping off of the drum set and doing the splits, David joining Donald on auxiliary percussion, and members of Christopher the Conquered providing a horn section-- all for a ridiculous $5 ticket price (compare that to the $90 you could've spent for just one ticket to Elton or AC/DC, decades after either act's prime). Positioning myself right in front of the speaker might not have been the best call, but any long-term hearing loss was totally worth it. I'm sure PCC's show in Ames the next night with a reunited Keepers of the Carpet was even crazier, and I bet somehow they managed to top that Sunday in Iowa City, too.

 Filmmaker's dream:

Clint Curtis, Best Supporting Actor

Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival 2010

More on this weekend, plus upcoming Des Moines shows and PCC's full tour dates, after the jump:

BEFORE THE HATERS GET TO THEM

Health care has been in the news for well over a year now, most recently with President Obama's visit to Iowa City after finally signing a bill last week. Most of the bands I tend to write about in this space probably don't have health insurance, however. Meanwhile, in Scandinavian countries and Canada, musicians not only don't need to worry about health coverage (their taxes pay for it), they also can apply for significant amounts of grant money. Pitchfork was kind enough to publish my 4,000-plus-word piece of reporting on these two related subjects today: "What's the Matter With Sweden?".

The effect of the health care legislation for musicians, as best as I can tell, will be modest-- they'll be required to buy health insurance, but it will hopefully be cheaper than it is now, and some musicians will be able to stay on their parents' coverage until age 26, while those with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage. Still, this isn't an issue limited to places like Brooklyn or Austin. A few Central Iowa connections:

•  Pavement's Bob Nastanovich, who lives in Des Moines when he's not touring the world as part of his iconic indie-rock band's reunion tour, has type two diabetes (the Iowa State Fair will do that to you), but he doesn't have health insurance. Here's Bob in my story; one detail to note is that when he said, "I need to take care of myself," it was in response to the question, "Anything else to add?" Bob is not a me-first kind of guy.
• The Poison Control Center's Patrick Tape Fleming, who is going on a U.S. tour this summer upon the release of new album Sad Sour Future, does have health insurance-- in Iowa. Fleming and his wife Ashley pay $81 a month, and if they need to go to the doctor they can see medical students at the University of Iowa. "Knock on wood, I have never had to go," Patrick says. "But if I was on tour, and I broke my collarbone jumping on [bandmate] Devin [Frank]'s face I might be kind of screwed. 'Cause my Iowa Care would not cover it... Unless I could get to Iowa City."
• Christopher the Conquered's Chris Ford-- who has brought an increased theatricality and tighter stage presence back from his band's recent U.S. tour with Leslie & the LYs, based on Friday night's impressive set at the all-local GDP music festival-- does have health insurance. But not through his position at a small engineering firm, though Ford is one of the lucky few touring artists able to figure out a way to maintain a full-time job. He opts to buy his own. "Given that I don't smoke, have basically no negative medical history, and am young and healthy, this is notably affordable compared to what I know some people can pay," he says. "Granted, I don't have amazing insurance and it is far from a so-called 'cadillac' plan, but I pay about $90/month for what I consider to be reasonable plan."

Thing is, most Pitchfork-level touring bands (probably except for groups as big as Wilco or the Flaming Lips) don't have health insurance, suspects Fleming. "As somebody who is going to be on tour a lot in 2010/2011 I'm glad I have at least Iowa Care, but I would also rather have peace of mind, where I could just pay monthly and go to a doctor if I needed," he says. "Like Canada, or whatever. I'm not the type of person who goes to the doctor when I get a little sore throat or something. I try to take care of myself. But in the indie-rock touring world, there is no really good answer."

It's a good thing Ford does have insurance, though, because he was careening through the audience even more than usual during Christopher the Conquered's set Friday night. The energetic renditions of songs from this year's You're Gonna Glow in the Dark took on the air of a revival meeting. In fact, Ford ended the set in an ecclesiastical-looking black robe, running down from the stage and climbing on top of people before running back up to the microphone and letting his robe blow in the air. It was an off-kilter touch of glam that really nicely suited the band's off-kilter, piano-based sing-alongs about the apocalypse hitting Polk County, and other eccentric topics-- the songs work even better in this theatrical mode, I think. Unfortunately, I wasn't well-positioned to take pictures. We also caught another fine set from Canby, this time debuting new material with a full band, but unfortunately missed Hanwell, Why Make Clocks, and several others either because they were onstage at the same time as another band or because we were grabbing a belated dinner.

Red Pony Clock know their Rugburns lyrics.

Also! Also! We caught a solid early-show lineup at the Vaudeville Mews on Sunday night. Red Pony Clock, whose mustachioed singer Gabe Saucedo I met when he was here last fall with Still Flyin' (to paraphrase Saucedo: Not many people were there, but everyone who was there bought the band shots!), played a winsome set of vibraphone- (not marimba or glockenspiel!) and accordion-assisted twee-pop. A standout was "Take a Side", off of 2007's God Made Dirt, on the Happy Happy Birthday to Me label; you've heard the boom (pause) boom-boom "Be My Baby" beat a zillion times by now, but probably not in a mariachi-tinged tune about relationship strife. "If you're not game, that's super lame, 'cause it's totally all up to you," Red Pony Clock sing. If twee ain't your thing, then-- at least per Saucedo-- Red Pony Clock's new unofficial name is Lazer Boner. Smells as sweet, doesn't it?

Zoos of Berlin did it their "Electrical Way."

Anyway, a fine time, preceded by an excellent set of suave, sophisticated, jazzy art-pop by Detroit's Zoos of Berlin (previous Des Noise faves) and some promisingly skronky post-punk by Wham City-aligned cityfolk/tourmates Child Bite. A lot of mustaches at the Mews last night.

Child Bite get psyched to take a bite outta Fong's Pizza.

(Plus: Des Moines' own the Seed of Something, whose drummer now sings a couple of tunes, staring intensely (and awesomely) toward the ceiling, and Marshalltown's Land of Blood and Sunshine.)


UPCOMING:

- Pocahaunted at Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City March 29
- Electric Six at Vaudeville Mews March 31
- Booker T of the MGs at Mission Creek Festival March 31
- Xiu Xiu and tUnE-yArDs at Mission Creek Festival March 31
- David Bazan, Headlights, and the Poison Control Center at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Chuck D, Bomb Squad, Harry Allen: A Discussion on the Making of Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Acid Mothers Temple at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Bomb Squad with the Hood Internet at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Christopher the Conquered at Mission Creek Festival April2
- Tim Hecker at Mission Creek Festival April 2
- Little Dragon at Mission Creek Festival April 2
- Meat Puppets with Joe Jack Talcum of Dead Milkmen at Mission Creek Festival April 2
- Camera Obscura with Princeton at Mission Creek Festival April 3
- Grant Hart of Husker Du at Mission Creek Festival April 3
- Love Is All at Vaudeville Mews April 8
- the Morning Benders at Vaudeville Mews April 9
- Dum Dum Girls at Vaudeville Mews April 12
- Cowboy Mouth at Vaudeville Mews April 14
- A Weather at Vaudeville Mews April 15
- Julian Casablancas at People's April 23
- Manchester Orchestra and Thrice at People's April 25
- Poison Control Center's Record Release Party at Vaudeville Mews April 30
- Brother Ali at Vaudeville Mews May 2
- MONO and the Twilight Sad at Vaudeville Mews May 18
- Mark Mallman at Vaudeville Mews May 19
- Damien Jurado at Vaudeville Mews June 6
- Keith Urban at Iowa State Fair Aug. 13
- Pat Benatar and REO Speedwagon at Iowa State Fair Aug. 17
- Darius Rucker at Iowa State Fair Aug. 19
- Sugarland at Iowa State Fair Aug. 21
- Sheryl Crow at Iowa State Fair Aug. 22

HIS BOOK OF PLOTS WAS THE ONLY THING LOST

"Let's experiment w/ captions, shall we?"

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but there's no rest for Mrs. Des Noise, the teacher (unusual, I know!)-- or for Des Noise either, of course. Is there ever? The two-day weekend certainly didn't feel like three days, but it felt like we packed in enough for them. After dinner Friday with my wife's family in honor of her birthday, a fun-filled Saturday peaked with ASKLAGANDAGANZA III, i.e., the third annual birthday concert for Vaudeville Mews booker Ladd Askland. If you weren't in the room to see the Poison Control Center headline that night, there's nothing I can say to convey what an un-self-consciously awesome time it was. Just, a roiling, fist-pumping crowd sing-along of spilled drinks and bodies flying back and forth between stage and floor. I missed Derek Lambert's opening set, but I did get to see him up there grinning, fighting to keep his shirt on, after helping PCC out as one of a rotating cast of two bass players along with Elliot Imes. I did get to see Ladd stage-dive. I saw PCC's guest drummer, Dave, who was totally coincidentally (no! really!) wearing a purple Northwestern shirt. I saw TJ win third annual Man of the Year honors (congrats, TJ!). I saw Patrick Tape Fleming do the splits, and Devon Frank, who had driven up from grad school in Missouri, rolling around on the floor with his guitar in the air. I saw Pat carrying Ladd's brother on his shoulders. I didn't see PCC drummer Donald Curtis (grad school-related conflicts) or bassist and past Man of the Year Joseph Terry (North Carolina)-- they were missed, but the crowd energy was better than New Year's Eve (but what is Asklandaganza if not better than New Year's Eve?). I also saw the Autumn Project, who I'd never seen before, and who put on a conversation-stoppingly loud, masterfully precise, slightly epic (but what is Asklandaganza if not epic?) set of emotion-wracked instrumental rock, "post-rock" really.  I saw Amedeo and @namedpipe and many other Des Moines friends, too. A dance party broke out; the DJ played Beck and Depeche Mode and early New Order.

  Philosophy Ph.D. students use their heads.

Sorry for the trivial post (went to trivia night with Bob Nastanovich at the Hessen Haus, too!)-- I wish I had a good quote from Dr. King to share on this important holiday (check out Pat's blog, or a Virginia professor's excellent column in the Register this morning, or your usual commentary sources, for that), or deep thoughts on all the tragic headlines. I'm thankful for what I've got.

Derek rocking out with PCC... he still has his sweatshirt on here.

The Autumn Project

TJ accepts his Man of the Year award. 

TOO EARLY FOR FLAPJACKS?

I hereby resolve not to be one of those bloggers who starts every blog post apologizing for the lack of updates. But I gotta admit, what with life and work and everything else, the posting on here is never gonna be super consistent-- I try to write only when I have something to say, not just constantly post mp3s and concert dates as done for $$$ by the more promotional blogs I still have in my RSS reader from New York. Still, I always feel like I could be doing more. So Kimberly Isburg's column in last week's Juice really struck a chord with me.

Isburg writes about how she used to consider herself an "overachiever," but 2009 left her more with items lingering on her to-do list than sense of accomplishment. She keeps thinking about that paint she bought in September and hasn't put on the walls yet. Or the unpacking she hasn't quite wrapped up since moving. The friends who are having babies, getting advanced degrees, earning promotions, "cooking gourmet meals on weeknights." And all that time wasted on social networking websites. (Which, a recent study says, lead to bigger and more diverse social networks-- duh. But they don't give me the same sense of satisfaction as having talked with somebody in person.)

Anyway, I could relate. 2009 was the first year when I didn't feel like I was making big leaps in either my business journalism or my music writing. I didn't have my work published in any new publications or take on any major new roles. I didn't compose any sprawling think pieces that someone could recommend for one of the Da Capo best music writing books. My most ambitious idea never quite came to fruition, making me just another annoying schmuck with a half-formed concept for a book, maan. And, like Isburg, I moved-- from Brooklyn to Iowa, in my case, meaning that I was also removed from a decent barometer of how my year was stacking up against those of my peers.

Then again, I had one hell of a year. I moved! I bought a home! I decided living 1,000 miles from my employer and the center of my music universe was actually an awesome idea! I met a bunch of new people, got my head out of my Brooklyn/indie bubble (sort of), and continued to write tons of stories and discover new music that moved and entranced me. I made it so I could basically walk across the street to see the Japandroids. I went to the 80/35 festival. I went to the Pitchfork festival. I saw more movies. I took time to read more. It may have been below zero around here the past couple of weeks, but with the skywalk and all the great restaurants and bars downtown, I have been spending less time in the cold than I would have had to in New York. A guy I met the other night at Hessen Haus, a Greenwich Village native, told me living in Iowa "feels like cheating," and he's right. So what if I still don't have enough shelves for all my books and CDs, or if I haven't put anything on the walls yet in my "office"? I won.

Then why do I still feel as if-- right now, while I'm productively typing these words for publication to my friends and neighbors and relatives and even total strangers-- there are a million other things I should be doing? Yesterday! In more places! Harder, better, faster, stronger! For great internet justice...

Isburg's resolution this year is to give herself a break. I don't know if I can do that. In fact, I probably can't. But it's good advice to remember.

Lots going on here lately, not much I can comment on interestingly at length. Poison Control Center, Christopher the Conquered, and Wolves in the Attic sounded great as usual during the New Year's bash at the Des Moines Social Club (whole scene was a little crowded, though). Hanwell, a band out of Newton, Iowa, were a nice surprise at the Vaudeville Mews the other day, peppering their set of Wilco-tinged rock with covers of songs by the Kinks and Elvis Costello. I stopped by the Mews again Saturday night to check out another local band, Cleo's Apartment, who I recall being really fun this summer at 515 Alive, but as I realized the show wasn't going to start until the a.m. hours, I resolved to catch them next time instead. Lame, I know. But give me a break.

I noticed only too late they were giving away free pancakes.

UPCOMING: Asklandaganza on Saturday at the Mews (I'll be there fer sure), Pentagram 01/26 at the Mews, Jemina Pearl 02/05 same place, Headlights 02/23, A Sunny Day in Glasgow 03/04, Zoos of Berlin 03/28, Electric Six 03/31, Morning Benders 04/09. At bigger venues, Brad Paisley plays Wells Fargo Arena on Friday but I'll miss due to the cost and Mrs. Des Noise's birthday, Tim McGraw 02/13, Black Eyed Peas 03/25.

YEAH WE DO THINGS THAT NO ONE WILL EVER DO AGAIN

David Cook's publicist never got back to me. So what else did I have to do, I figured than quaff a $1.25 beer on the patio at the Miller High Life Lounge, scarf down a Thai chicken pizza at Fong's in my ongoing effort to hang out wherever that Adrien Brody dude chills around here (not that I've seen his movies or would've even recognized him if he hadn't been pointed out to me that one time), and check out Friend of Des Noise and all-around nice dude Patrick Tape Fleming of the Poison Control Center playing a solo show over at the Des Moines Social Club. Wasn't sure what to expect, indie rock dudes strumming their acoustic guitars by themselves aren't always great entertainment, but I was sort of blown away by his band's acrobatic psych-pop singalongs at Vaudeville Mews a couple of weeks ago, so I figured why not come out and show some support?

Look, dudes. Quickly becoming biased as all get-out here-- like I said, Friend of Des Noise-- but I have seen a lot of guys with guitars, OK? Patrick was in Jonathan Richman, Jens Lekman, Gruff Rhys territory: managing to entertain a potentially tough crowd generously, daringly, and thoroughly.

Musta been only a few dozen people there, tops. There had been a fancy dinner function, $75 a plate, a bellydancer with a birthday cake on her head. Des Moines Social Club is arguably the place in Des Moines most reminiscent of Brooklyn-- art exhibits, theater modeled after the one on 1st Ave. in Manhattan, casual vibe at the bar, free live music. This used to be the Howard Dean campaign headquarters in 2004; in 2008, it was Barack Obama's. Before Patrick took the stage, a woman with a nice voice and her band were doing Fiona Apple and Sara Bareilles (sp? On phone!) piano stuff. Pretty good, but more in the background.

One minute I was talking to Patrick about how ballsy the Strokes had seemed back in 2001, or how Lou Barlow can kind of be a dick but for some reason that just makes us come back for more, or whether Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips likes to be called Steve (he didn't). The next minute Patrick was at the microphone debating whether to unplug and play in the crowd, saying he wasn't gonna tell everyone to "shut the fuck up," noting he'd played to crowds before that needed to "shut the fuck up," trying to gauge whether the $75-plate crowd wanted to participate or ignore him. Of course, he jumped right into where everybody was sitting. No mic, no amp, just shouting himself hoarse getting them invested in the songs. It helped that a few friends were there, too, including sometime PCC drummer Christopher the Conquered. In that kind of environment, people actually need to understand what you're singing, the songs actually need to go somewhere-- and you need the superhuman awareness that can only be developed through countless hours performing in front of people, so you remember to involve the woman who wants something "danceable" (she got to dance) as well as the guy who adds to your factoid about Toto backing MJ on Thriller by mentioning they did Dune too (thanked at least twice, asked his name). Sure, Patrick forgot words, and he didn't really know the bridge to Tom Petty's "American Girl"-- the sole cover, a good choice because it brought some departing $75-platers back and Patrick happened to have a friend there who sings it-- but he was also impossible to ignore. He revealed stuff about himself, his family, and well-known TV pitchmen that I'd feel like I was intruding upon if I posted it here. He scrambled around rooms, jumped on tables, did the splits. And all to make a roomful of mostly strangers with no prior interest in his music focus on the songs: simple, catchy, colorful, with top-of-his-lungs vocals, lots of personal detail, and communal themes (love, a maybe Buddhist-inspired sense of modest tranquillity). He asked us to sing along, and pretty soon I think even some of the $75-platers did. One refrain, which I love for being so true and unpretentious but also for performing a spectacular feat by removing mortality and extreme anguish from the realm of the sacred or profane and bringing 'em right back into our dang absurd human comedy: "Love/ Love is the answer/ Until you get cancer/ Then you're lying...dying... dead." Show was free, all merch proceeds to DM Social Club.

On road to Pitchfork festival in Chicago as I type this-- more soon! And thanks for letting me ramble.

IT BEATS NEW YORK IT BEATS SEATTLE

I am not a photographer... (Bob Nastanovich with the Poison Control Center)

This whole local-music-blogging thing is going to be a lot harder than I thought. In Des Moines, I want to be friends with the bands. What's happening to me?

Ames, Iowa's own the Poison Control Center pushed, cajoled, and surfed the hometown crowd into arms-splayed fun-having with exuberantly gimmicky stagecraft (a good thing!) and some super impressive indie rock singalongs during last night's free pre-80/35 party at Vaudeville Mews. I had listened to their MySpace a bit before, I have the CD, and PCC guy Pat Fleming was kind enough to do a quick interview with Des Noise last month, but I still had no idea what awaited me at the Mews. A set of new material as well as songs from the band's 2007 debut album was melodic, energetic, and uniformly strong, with lyrical themes often addressed to the audience (touring/coming-of-age song "Driving", darkly optimistic help-us-sing song "Magic Circle Symphony"). They had the propulsive squall of early Pavement with the chops to pull it off: vocals ranging from Wayne Coyne beatific to Conor Oberst cathartic, and an overall presence that would fit in easily alongside late-2000s indie rock disciples Titus Andronicus or Los Campesinos! (and would blow Tapes 'N Tapes out of the water of 10,000 lakes). Oh, plus Fleming was a genial lunatic of a showman, clambering all over stage and the crowd. Doing the splits while playing guitar in the audience. No wonder we both like Super Furry Animals.

I'm totally biased now, though, because Fleming is also a really nice dude. Ryan Foley recently tweeted a quote from UK critic Nick Kent: "If these people turned up on your doorstep, would you invite them in? If not, why are you listening to their music?" In this case, the answer to the first question is a resounding yes. So much for being a cranky old rock critic.

Local singer/songwriter Derek Lambert opened with a solid solo acoustic set of whispery and introspective lo-fi folk-- occasionally drowned out by the crowd, but I'm looking forward to seeing him play again sometime. He was also among the most awesomely amped people in a crowd full of awesomely amped people during PCC's set. I came here hoping for audiences that wouldn't be the usual arms-folded Brooklyn variety, and I wasn't disappointed. I also met Kelly from the Besties, a sadly overlooked New York indie-pop band-- she just moved from Greenpoint to North Carolina, so I guess I'm not the only one looking for a change of scenery.

Pavement's Bob Nastanovich? Repeatedly mentioned from the stage as someone who will end up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? He was there, too, as promised. Between sets by Lambert and PCC, Nastanovich sat upstairs spinning records, including New Order's "Ceremony" and Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone". At the end of the night, he joined PCC for a Pavement cover-- I think it was "Conduit for Sale"? "Two States". Sounded like the Fall. Ridiculous.

After the song, Nastanovich declared, "This is the only fucking proper city in the United States of America." I obviously hope he's right. Too early for me to tell. But I can say this: I had a really, really great time last night, and so did a lot of other people.

...Anybody catch Toots and the Maytals? How was it? Also missed the fireworks over the Capitol building, though we did see the end of the ones from Principal Park. See you at 80/35 tonight!!

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH... PATRICK FLEMING

Ask anyone about the current Des Moines music scene, and the first band name that seems to come up is the Poison Control Center. Originally from Ames, the foursome followed a handful of releases for their own Bi-Fi Records with debut LP A Collage of Impressions on Minneapolis-based Afternoon Records in 2007. Now, I'm not necessarily the type to discriminate by genre-- as you'll probably see, I'm just as likely to fall for a Top 40 hit or electronic dance track as a potential Gummy Award winner-- but I gotta say it's exciting to hear a band making such lovingly skewed, Elephant 6-style indie pop in my soon-to-be home city.

Singer/guitarist Patrick Tapes Fleming shares my affection for Welsh weirdos the Super Furry Animals, among other things, and he also does sound at Vaudeville Mews. Our edited e-mail conversation is below. (I repeated a few of the same questions I already asked Ladd Askland, 'cause I still have a lot to learn before I actually know what I'm talking about here. I'll catch up fast, I swear!)

1. What's next for the Poison Control Center?

PF: Well we just spent 10 days on the banks of the Mississippi river recording our 2nd full length record with Pat Stolley of Daytrotter fame. PCC is pretty spread out right now (I live in Ames, [drummer/singer] Ephraim in Iowa City, [guitarist/singer] Devin in Columbia, Mo., and [bassist/singer] Joe just moved to Ashville, N.C.). So for the past 6 months we have been doing this thing called "DEMO OF THE DAY" where we e-mail each other demos we have written, since we all 4 write songs. And we went into the studio NEVER having played any of them together.. so we took 3 days filtered through the 38 songs, practiced them and we ended up recording 12 songs!

We said whatever we get put to tape in this week that is the album, NO IF's, ANDS, or buts about it!

We actually recorded the album on a 1-inch, 24-track tape machine I just sold to Pat Stolley that was once owned by the guy who is now CARROT TOP and Jon Lovitz's manager.. 2009 is the first year in 5 years we haven't toured at all and I'm getting pretty antsy to hit the road again.. last year we went on 4 tours and it was amazing.. The last one we did was with the Apples in Stereo and we got Bill Doss of the Olivia Tremor Control to do "Jumping Fences" (OTC song) with us in Dallas and I need more of those kinda crazy dream come true magical moments in my life that only come with touring! Hopefully when the record gets released we can get back out there in the trenches! But I can't say for sure!

2. How would you describe the Des Moines music scene?

PF: Well it's really vibrant right now and the best it's been in the 10 years that I have lived here. There is a 60-year-old banker who works at US BANK in Ames and he told me today his wife has been getting mad at him since he has been spending so many nights at the Ames Progressive Space watching bands! It's really becoming a place where you can spend every night watching great music if you want. In 1999 when I moved here you had to wait till the weekend to see any music.. Or drive to Chicago, Omaha, or Minneapolis to see the touring bands that you like. I started bringing my favorite bands to Des Moines just 'cause I was sick of driving to Minneapolis and having to use a FAKE ID to see ELF POWER or whatever. Ladd and the Vaudeville Mews has done an amazing job of bringing in great touring bands and giving locals a chance to play with these bands! Also the amount of DIY and house shows has grown as well! It honestly feels like a community. I know that's cliché, but I have toured from coast to coast and I feel like we have something small but special here.

3. Any other local bands we should be watching?

PF: Oh so many to name but I will give you a quick few for your first months in town.. Christopher the Conquered, Wolves in the Attic, Pennyhawk, Derek Lambert, Brad Unit, the Autumn Project, Aeon Grey, Volcano Boys.. just to name a couple! I could give you 5 bands per style of music but I'm already an Allman Brother in this interview-- get it, "Rambling Man"? Got my bad joke in, OK. Next.

4. What shows are you most looking forward to this summer?

PF: Well 80/35 of course. Not too often [Stephen] Malkmus, Broken Social Scene, Chuck D, and Man Man are eating hummus and chips 15 feet from you. And I always get excited when friends are playing in town so Casper and the Cookies in August, David Dondero in July, and Alexis Gideon in September!

5. All right, I'll give... I'm a huge Jonathan Richman fan. Anything you can tell me about his performance at the Vaude last night?

PF: Fantastic crowd that was totally into it and Jonathan and Tommy ruled! We got a bunch of classics and quite a few off the latest album! It was the 2nd time I have seen him this year and I must say he makes me so inspired to play music! ABSOLUTE GENIUS!

You can catch the Poison Control Center this Fourth of July at the 80/35 Festival. Patrick Fleming plays solo at the Des Moines Social Club July 16 and Ames Progressive Space Aug. 9.