not mewithoutyou

i am really happy that i just read this. it dashes all the rumors circling about how mewithoutyou was breaking up. this is from their myspace:

"the band has decided to start focusing on writing and recording again, so you might not see us on the road for some time. we are very grateful for all the love and support that we've been given particularly on the last winter tour. THANK YOU!! anyway in a week and a half or so, we start working out new tunes and it's exciting because we won't be writing with amps and a drum kit. just us with some acoustics and maybe some other odd things here and there. once we demo out some ideas in this mode, we will later add drums and give it a real live feel. I wonder what it will sound like."

yeah...anything from mewithoutyou is fine with us.

colour with an r...

so i've literally been watching the office with the guys from colour revolt for 12 straight episodes. seems like a good time to write a blog about them since they played kilby last night. despite wyoming's best efforts to wipe them off the road, they made it in time to close out the show and make 29 fans happy.

i can't pretend to know them or their music. i've heard good things for a while (from who i can't recall) and i remember about a year ago when they had everything ripped off (van, trailer, equipment, three macbooks, two cameras and more). other than that i know nothing.

seems like a good time to figure them out as a band. i've known them as people for a day now and they like good movies, are quite well read and extremely polite. they love their home state but don't share a lot of its "values" and agree that touring from denver to salt lake to reno to los angeles this time of year is a battle.

"say that we're good" jokes drummer len clark and thusfar, this the only usable quote i can get in between episodes of the office.

as a band, here are the basics: colour revolt are a five-piece from oxford, mississippi. they've played with brand new, as cities burn, menomena, okkervil river, anathallo, explosions in the sky and manchester orchestra (they claim to have known lead singer andy hull since "before he had a band"). they sound like...okay seriously i've put this off for a day and i can't come up with an honest comparison. if mewithoutYou and manchester orchestra were playing an evenly matched game of baseball, cr would be in the ballpark. if the ballpark had a bluesy edge with frenetic guitars and soulful lyrics. we all agree that comparing bands is impossible and if your band is any good and necessary then there shouldn't be any comparisons anyway.

[author note: they disagree with me on this comparison, but not enough to give me a differing comparison]

cr is on fat possum records which is the happy home of andrew bird and a cacophony of borderline criminal bluesmen that they describe as being the home of "two killers" and a guy "who doesn't know how old he is."

"we just try to stay vague and hope that comes off cool" says guitarist jimmy cajoleas when trying to describe the rigors of being on a tough blues label like fat possum without actually being a blues band.

three of colour revolt are full-time students at ole miss and still find time to play 150 dates a year (which explains why they're touring salt lake in december and almost getting stuck on the back roads of wyoming). they have an ep out now and a full length available in march 2008.

Aaron Weiss Hides Spice Packets From Ramen Noodles In His Shoes

i touched aaron weiss last night on the shoulder and he shared some secrets (did you know mewithoutyou buries all their money in a field outside philly? well they probably do). okay seriously, last night's mewithoutyou, thrice, brand new bill at saltair was a really good show. thrice was seriously good, much better than i remember. dustin kensrue and company played a solid set in classic thrice style (i call it "hard standing"). thrice did some interesting things besides hard standing like using an ebow on a bass guitar and messing with a transformers-voice-box-effects-dealie on the song digital sea.

and whoever brand new is, kids really seem to dig them. and by dig them i mean donate their kidneys, rename their babies, absolutely love them. i'm definitely not going to write about how i liked brand new's show, but don't really get why people love them. if i did write about that, the brand new super friends (bnsf) might hurt me. they were great to watch though and did everything they could to just about destroy the stage.

all in all, it was a great night. and definitely better than the 5,000-person rave that occupied saltair after the show.