when the lights go down in the city

The Gutter Twins

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:34:19 -0700

This is mainly for Simmons, but also for anyone else who might be a fan of The Gutter Twins, Screaming Trees and/or The Afghan Whigs:

Fire up your DVRs because The Gutter Twins are playing Letterman tomorrow night. Look for my roommate behind the keyboards!

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Post Roundup: art is the new religion

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:51:07 -0800

AITNR is on a light holiday posting schedule, but I have do have a few updates for this roundup.

First of all I want to give a huge thanks to my Vox peeps who heeded all my fishing for comments to my other blog. You guys are true friends! In other commenting news, last week brought my first few comments from strangers since the redesign! Rome wasn't built in a day.

Here's what happened on art is the new religion last week:

12/18 - "What if I don't become famous posthumously?"
Arab Strap's Malcolm Middleton gets drunk and existential in a Santa suit. Was this song intended to be a Christmas single, or is it just a brilliant marketing scheme? Doesn't really matter to me, as it's now in my list of top 10 favorite holiday songs.

12/20 - BEAT IT, Fergie
Fergie + bad, unnecessary covers = fury.

12/27 - Tacks, the boy disaster
My roommate finally got the organ he's been wishing for (the instrument, not, like, a kidney) and I finally had no excuse not to listen to a great band that I keep hearing about. Bonus: this post features the third video I've ever uploaded to YouTube! Aw, what the heck -- I'll post it here too:

Organ Music with Jeff Klein & Evan Jacobs

Thank you for reading!!

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It's band practice in the living room

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:18:17 -0700

JJ & Jeff

They may be providing the background music to my conference call in a few minutes.

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Stranded starfish have no place to hide

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:48:02 -0700

My friend Jeff is sending me links to the beauty and wonder of Peter Gabriel, and I had to share this one with you all. His voice is so gorgeous.

Peter Gabriel - Here Comes The Flood

The black suit and black background blend together at certain angles so that if you squint it kind of looks like a performance by Peter Gabriel's disembodied head. Combine that with how wired up and surrounded he is with gear and this looks like the concert of the distant future, when we've figured out how to thaw his cryogenically preserved noggin to sing for our kids' grandkids.

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Sleepwalking

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:05:53 -0700

Me and Jeff, no flash

My friend and frequent character in this blog Jeff Klein has a nice writeup on Spin.com today.

Go there to listen to the track "Sleepwalking" from his forthcoming digitally-released EP I Sing The Body Electric.

Jeff's doing a residency at the Living Room in NYC this month, so go see him and tell him I sent you.

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Missing My Faraway Friends

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:46:46 -0700

Dave at the bar

I've been missing my friends who live far away.

Yesterday I got a text message from my friend Dave Doobinin in NYC:

"F**ing whale sank my van"

He followed it up with a wine-soaked voicemail last night, and it made me nostalgic for nights walking around Manhattan or drinking at Luna Lounge, singing Vanderslice lyrics to each other.

I also found some photos on my phone from my trip to Austin in June.

The first thing I did after I dropped my stuff off at Chad's house is drive over to Chris, Monica, Booher and Jeff's place. Chris showed some Texan hospitality by greeting me with a frosty beverage.

Welcome to Austin

While grocery shopping with Jeff, I witnessed my first self-serve checkout stand.

self-serve checkout

Here's Jeff at the Longbranch Inn, their friendly neighborhood watering hole.

Jeff @ Longbranch Inn

One night Jeff and I squared off with Chris and Monica in a game of Cranium. For one of the challenges, I had to look at word on a card, then draw it with my eyes closed. Jeff had to guess the word before the little sand counter ran out. Here is what I drew (remember, I couldn't see what I was drawing):

Cranium clue

Jeff watched me for about seven seconds, and then, to my amazement, blurted out the word on the first try. Click the photo to see what the word was.

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation in Austin, Texas

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 18:13:22 -0700

Texas Longhorn

Most of you already know I just took a weeklong vacation back to my ol' stomping grounds of Austin, Texas (for the few of you who don't already know, I'm from Texas and lived in Austin for 6 years). It was wonderful to see friends, eat copious amounts of Tex-Mex (I consumed more butter, eggs and cheese in one week than I have this entire year), wear a dress and sandals all day long (without having to carry a jacket around), move at a snail's pace, and never have to fight for a parking spot. Austin's airport is probably the best one I've personally been to (which isn't saying a whole lot) and before I got out the door I was talked up by three different people, and not in a single-girl/sitting-duck kind of way. I forgot that most people in Texas are just friendly. They talk to you. For no reason at all. After having spent the past 7 years in San Francisco and NYC, the random friendliness is almost shocking.

Car

Prince's gear

My rental car was a surprising shade of Longhorn burnt orange, so a few people on the street gave me the hook 'em horns sign. It was of course really hot there - in the 90s during the day but getting down to around 75 at night - but it felt really nice. Not a whole lot was going on the week I was there, oh except for a gigantic biker rally, which meant the city was overtaken by roaringly loud motorcycles with burly dudes at the front wheel and their scantily clad women sitting on the back. I guess there's no helmet law in Texas, but some women really tempted fate by riding around in a bikini top and short shorts. I said a silent please-don't-wreck prayer for all of their exposed skin. Oh yes, and the big news was the private party played by Prince, which three different people told me three different stories about before all swearing me to secrecy, ha. My friend Chad's neighbor was the only person I knew who got in, by donning a catering outfit for his friend's company, and he said the setlist was meh because he only played two recognizable songs. (Sorry Anil.)

Chad and Eno

Eno

Speaking of Chad, I stayed at his adorable two-bedroom house just north of Hyde Park, and plotted the entire time about how I could somehow steal the house out from under him. We made pretty good roommates though. Chad and I have been friends for probably ten years now, and he's always game to chat for hours, swap music, and suggest really good shopping trips. I think his beagle Eno took a shine to me after all that togetherness.

One afternoon Chad and I visited Trail of Dead's Mob House Studio to see my friend Mike McCarthy. He's currently recording The Sun, but also played us recent tracks he's done with my friend Booher's band Zykos and Spoon.

Jeff is my pretend boyfriend

I did a lot of driving around, drinking coffee, eating, shopping and hanging out with my pretend-boyfriend Jeff Klein (who's been on a rare break from constant touring before heading off to LA to record with the Gutter Twins). He is also great for hours of chatting, talking about music and shopping. I think I see a pattern here. Last Sunday night Chad, Jeff and I went to Chuy's for more Tex-Mex and then saw the film Once which was fantastic. It's the most accurate depiction of music and musicians that I've ever seen in a non-documentary film (usually movies with a 'musician' in them are chock-full of eyeroll-worthy cliches and implausible situations), but aside from the great music in the film (made by the main actor/musicians themselves) the story itself is brilliant, understated and believable. Go see this film before it leaves the theaters, especially if you love music or tear up at any sort of live performance (I'm looking at you, Patty.)

Austin hasn't changed much, but there is a lot of new condos going up and the East side is really growing. I also saw three or four scooter shops; I guess scooters are popular there now. I had some oats-cream at a vegan bakery, which tasted like soft serve ice cream without all the sugar. Chad also took me to a great vintage store called Feathers on South Congress, and Jeff took me to Allen's Boots to look at fancy $500 cowboy boots. Alas, neither of us bought a pair.

This does not instill confidence

I did break down and buy a digital camera while I was there though, a Casio Exilim with a discount courtesy of my friend Chris. It came with some truly frightening software that I finally uninstalled after a few days (see photo). I obviously still haven't gotten the hang of how to use it though, and Chris tried to school me when I met up with him and his wife Elise for dinner. My dear friend Julia joined us and Chris obliged my request for him to get a good shot of Julia's bacon wallet. Later on Julia and I had a bottle of wine in the Hotel San Jose courtyard with my friend Richard. For you pop culture aficionados, Julia is the real-life inspiration for the character Jungle Julia in Quentin Tarantino's films. If you knew her, you'd know why - she's six feet of self-assured sass.

That's all for now. Austin is friendly, colorful, laid-back, genuine, hot, inspiring, and the only city to ever visit in Texas.

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Marimba Ponies!

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:15:01 -0700

I was feeling a little stressed out just now, but then Jeff sent me this with the description "next tour opener". And I felt a whole lot better.

Marimba ponies

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Coffee Art

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:07:56 -0700

My right hand man Jeff Klein sent me this page of amazing coffee art. I can't decide which is my favorite -- the bear, the grinch or the bunny.

They are the percect size for LJ userpics, so of course I had to forward the link to my girl coffeechica.

I think I like the coffee bear best. Anyone know where can I get one of these?? I want to print these out and bring them to the Blue Bottle baristas.

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Hit The Lights

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:23:51 -0700

Jeffklein

My main squeeze Jeff Klein just uploaded a rough mix of "Hit The Lights" from his forthcoming album.

Hear it here.

About the song: "'Hit The Lights' features help from Atom boyd of The Honorary Title on drums, Mike Dillon of Critters Buggin on percussion, Rick Nelson of Polyphonic Spree on strings, and Mark Lanegan lending background vocals. This is an unmastered rough mix preview."

It's dark and beautiful at the same time, kind of like Klein himself.

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