Things I come across in my free time

Silversun Pickups at the Fillmore...Finally!

I have attempted to see the Silversun Pickups twice over the past year. The first time, they were the opening act for Ok Go and Snow Patrol at the Bill Graham Civic Center in San Francisco, and for some reason, they decided to go on stage at 7:30PM even though the show started at 8:30PM, so I missed them. I never really figured out why that happened, but needless to say, it was a bit frustrating. Ok Go made things whole, because they were incredible. Snow Patrol...what I expected. Really good show, but didn't blow me away.

The second time was at Live 105 BFD at the Shoreline Amphitheater. The whole reason for going was to see Silversun Pickups and Cold War Kids.  Alas. Had to work for most of that Saturday and missed both bands. I did get to see Social Distortion, which was very entertaining, and Bloc Party who had their show cut short because Social Distortion went over their time. Like I said. Pretty entertaining.

I will finally get to see them this Friday at the Fillmore, which is probably my favorite venue in San Francisco. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be worth the wait, but fairly confident I won't be disappointed.

The horizon for online Music

A couple things that have occured in the past few weeks that have given rise to some excitement in the hallway discussions about the online music industry. Two of the primary events: Radiohead's album release via its website, with Oasis and Jamiroquai following their lead, and Nine Inch Nails breaking away from the labels with some rumors of other notables following their lead. 

I will leave the bulk of the editorial to Ian and last100 who did a pretty good job of summarizing things. Truth is that there are a number of ways that the online industry can evolve from this point, and I think that Ian is in one of the best positions to be catalyst. I have had the pleasure of sharing thoughts and ideas about music, Yahoo! and technology in general with Ian for the past couple years, and although I wasn't in the audience for this presentation, am excited about sitting down with him in the coming week to talk about the "next 8 years". Take a read, its an energizing perspective

"...all the go in betweens"

Stumbled upon an older album of a band that is starting to get some airtime on the radio. Silversun Pickups are an LA-based band gaining traction with their new song "Lazy Eye", but while I was digging into their music a bit, came across their first album "Pikul". It Rocks!! Turns out that the current members all started out playing in different bands, but found each other a couple years ago and just began playing live venues without any rhyme or reason and discovered their sound in front of an audience. It shows and I love it.

Somewhat rough around the edges, but still an incredible sound. Definitely a hint of The Smashing Pumpkins, which aside from a couple songs (Soma and Mayonaise), are not atop my favorite band list. SSPU is, however, making a case to be atop that list. "...all the go in betweens" is the last song on the Pikul EP. Great title and great song.

Check em out. They are going to be in San Francisco for "Not So Silent Night" in early December. Definitely going to make one of their shows.