news

I was in Hanoi, Vietnam this weekend. It was quite an interesting trip that I made with my friends Justin and Sanna. Hanoi is a city of motorscooters, motorcycles, and mopeds; crossing the street means stepping from the curb and walking ever so slowly so that the sea of traffic can slowly move out of your way. Justin and I discovered the magic of bia hoi on the street with a bunch of older Vietnamese, but his wife was a little more afraid than we were. We visited Ho Chi Minh’s masoleum where he is still preserved in a Lenin like state. We also saw Fidel Castro leaving the opera house; he was in town for a special visit that coincided with our visit. We took a visit to a pagoda about an hour away where we spent another hour on a rowboat and then a two hour hike up a mountain. On the trail, a Vietnamese teenager was interested in one of the pins on my bag, so now his a future fan of The Trouble with Sweeney : Dear Life. We saw the famous water puppets with traditional music; I was so impressed I bought a dan bao…Continue reading

news

I’ll have some new titles to put up in the btv on-line store today. The new Godspeed You! Black Emperor is due in on Tuesday, so orders for that will ship immediately. I’ll also be putting the Denison Witmer Live cd into the store and start taking orders for the Pedro the Lion Christmas 7″ which should be arriving by the end of the week. I’ve tried to order a lot of the 7″, but I’m not sure how many I’ll get. So, the first pre-orders will only be for those who order btv releases along with the 7″. It was a busy weekend. Friday, Reels of White Softly Flow played with White Trash Inc. (Orchestra), Sopras, and Saxon Shore. Andy did play by cellphone during the Reels set, so that was something fun on the technological front. Lots of good friends were at the show, so it was a great time. On Saturday, my friend Joshua and Martha got married in the morning. It was a bit early to get up after Friday night, but I was glad I made it out of bed. Congratulations to them! Afterwards, a bunch of us hung out in the city and then…Continue reading

news

I made it to the Scientific/Seldom/Pedro the Lion show on Friday at the Trocadero in Philadelphia. The sound was a little more big and rock than I was used to experiencing, not often going to the Troc to see shows. It was great to see Scientific live for the first time in more than a year. Christian and Janie added the guys from Seldom (KC, Casey, and Yuuki) and Dave Bazaan to fill out the new songs. The recordings I’d heard have been very technical and angular, but live, the sounds had a warmer, more floating feel, recalling their debut s/t cd at times, but also continuing to progress in a new direction. Seldom was as good as I’d seen in the past, but didn’t seem to play any new songs, really. It’s always fun to see Pedro and with Christian playing some super noisy guitar, the songs sounded quite a bit different than previous shows. It was great being able to see everyone again, especially Christian and Janie. After the show, a few of us went to our friend Courtney’s house for a Halloween party. Courtney was dressed up as a dead Laura Palmer and Ethan was Joey Ramone.…Continue reading