Vol 72 - Signal To Noise

I’ve been thinking a lot about what tools I would use to try and improve my curation for this. I’ve used them for a long long time in one way or the other, from the City Pages (RIP) listings way back in those Twin Cities to services like Bandsintown and a lot in between. I follow a lot of artists on social, I get their emails, I get venue emails, I pay attention to their Bandcamp pages, etc, etc. And what I come back to is, the curation is the hard part. This is not to say it would be de minimis to simply get some scraper and put everything that’s announced everywhere on a list. And that itself is a kind of service.

But that’s not the kind of service that I’m aiming for, or even why I started curating my own concert calendar in the first place. I suffer some occasional misses when I don’t know what to monitor, but on the whole, I’m happy with the regimen and have my ways of finding new sources which is where services like Bandsintown really fall down imo. I know the signal to noise now, which venues are likely to have a lot I am interested in and which rarely do. I started doing it because I was looking for something that catered to what I wanted, and that meant taking the time to sift through and find shows I care about and figure out how to hear about them without also being bombarded by a mountain of shit. 

In this day and age, we are all bombarded by the shit. Let’s be real, it’s the world in which we live. AI slop fills up our timelines and our inboxes and our brains whether we want it to or not. The act of creating is in some way diminished or devalued now that it is so easy for just about anyone to “create”. So it really comes down to intentionality. The act of choosing to create, the act of curating or putting your own touches on something, though? That’s enhanced. That’s increased value. That’s something unique and not just the latest in a long line of…whatever. 

And here’s the thing…curation takes time. I like to put effort into this. I end up doing a little bit more work to prep this, but not that much more. The bulk of the time is actually digging through the calendars, making sure mine is updated or I didn’t miss anything. Part of the genesis of this whole exercise is I have literally doublebooked myself more than once in the past. Now I don’t (unintentionally at least). This stuff, the record blurbs, that’s just things that have been kicking around my brain anyway, it’s fun to share that.

Which isn’t to say I’m not on the lookout for ways to improve my curation or follow what I want. I just realize it’s a bit of an imperfect game, it’s impossible to know about everything, let alone do it. So occasionally some stuff slides by without my notice that I’m a bit annoyed about. A show at an offbeat venue, for example. A new artist that I just don’t hear about in time. That’s okay. That’s living. It’s inherently not about optimization or the perfect way to track shows or go to everything. That’s a fool's errand and  the antithesis of what I’m going for anyway. You cannot do it all. Trust me, I have tried, that way lies madness. Find the level that works for you. It’s probably not 75-100 shows a year. And if my curation isn’t working completely for you, may you find the tools that set you on your way.

Anyway…let’s get to that curation, what’s new on the calendar this week or just caught my ear enough to be added?

This is a shareable calendar. You should be able to add it to your calendar here if you use Google calendar

Not ready for that kind of commitment? Just take a peek here. I do not think you can see the colors this way though

✅ means I have tickets to a show

❌ means I can’t make it but I thought it was worth putting on there at some point, I’ve already purchased tickets to another show that night, whatever. You can still benefit!

💸 means it’s sold out (which we all know is a construct)

Not a ton to add this week, we are in the lull where many fall tours have been announced, and anyone coming back post-festival circuit may not announce until after Outside Lands. That’s okay October is already plenty full!

Interpol - 8/10 at Great American Music Hall (tix on sale Monday) 

Bikini Kill - 9/8 at the Warfield

Squeeze - 9/15 at the Warfield

Dogstar - 9/22 at the Fillmore (you know you want to see Keanu’s band)

I’ve waxed ecstatic about her songs before, her first two records are quite good! And I’m not much of a folk person, but idk…something in the way she sings, the way she plays just really does it for me. Once again, I have a scheduling conflict of my own designs and bought at ticket for Old 97’s that night. But I’ve seen them a bunch and worst case, I eat the ticket (though if you want a free Old 97’s ticket, lmk, I’ve seen them plenty!)

Folk is the genre where there is not a lot of space to hide, and in a room like Swedish American, I expect these songs to really sing. I’ve seen some louder shows, but it’s at its best when it’s a quiet show with an attentive room (Grouper, Mount Eerie both come to mind as exemplars of that). I expect this to be no differentSomething Old -

Another Sarah Records fav of mine that I’ve been listening to a bit again this weekend. This is another prototypical weird “put out a few singles in the late 80s and got culled onto a comp in the early 90s” kinda band, with catchy jangle put out on flexis and 7”s. For my money, the track that pulled me in is the 1 minute and 50 second banger “Can’t You Tell It’s True?”, but they are all pretty fun. This is basically a solo project of Harvey Williams who was in and around all of the other Sarah Records stuff and the later offshoots (The Field Mice, Blueboy, Trembling Blue Stars). I dunno, do you like bright jangly sad boy pop? If so, here you go

I was listening to Sean on KEXP on Monday nights (like you do) when he played something that I can only describe as video game music. And by that I mean it sounded like something that soundtracked a JRPG like Final Fantasy IV. Talk about a way to my heart. It’s from a reissue of a New Age ambient record from Shiho Yabuki, who is described as a legendary Japanese musician and magician (!). I had never heard any of this stuff before, but it is very much my jam. Besides I haven’t tried to put y’all up on any New Age in a bit, and I would not be doing my job if I didn’t. If you want something that’s pretty good to zone out to while working but also slyly has a bit more going on, I’d highly recommend this!

This makes this category because it was just recently reissued a couple months back. New enough for me

Alright, that’s enough for this week! See you at a show soon