The Monday Show Low Down (Or "All The Best Things in Life Cause Brain Cancer")

One of the odder points of the last week was ending up covered in fire retardant in the smoking area of The Echo during the Division Day Monday residency night, because some sanity assassin of a showgoer decided to run amok with a fire extinguisher, right before proceeding to yell at me that I needed to "have some blowjobs and loosen up."

Maybe he’s right ... because now I’m convinced I have brain cancer after breathing that stuff in. I mean, geesh, it tastes like what would happen if aspirin and sulfur pounded out a compound. That just can’t be good for you.

On the other hand, one of my main show highlights in the last week was catching Tapes N Tapes -- who make me think what The Pixies would've sounded like if they popped out of the recent Montreal music scene -- with local indie rock/blues band Cold War Kids at Spaceland last Wednesday.

It took me a bit to step away from all the hype that Tapes N Tapes have been getting and just enjoy them on their own merits, but eventually they really clicked for me. And it also helped that the band members have as much effortless charisma as Jet Li in The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk.

Ironically, after gushing so much about the Light From Here recently, I ended up missing their show at Zen Sushi last night (and the Languis cd release party at Spaceland) because I came down with that stupid achy flu that’s going around.

And I’ll probably have to opt out of going to the final free Division Day residency show tonight at The Echo too, which, y'know, suxxors since LA pop oddity The Movies are putting in a rare appearance and Division Day will finally have their new album Beartrap Island on sale there.

In The News:
- Members of The Ship collective, Let’s Go Sailing report that they’ve finally finished recording their album, which has been four years in the making. No word on a release date yet, though.

- The super-tight indie pop act Army Navy will be playing the Spaceland Monday night residency throughout the month of April. So, every Monday night at 11, it’s Army Navy for free.

- The following bands have all announced LA show dates: Brian Jonestown Massacre, Prefuse 73, Built to Spill, Drive-By Truckers, The Mountain Goats, Youth Group, Quasi, dios malos, Rainer Maria, and The 88. (See the right-hand column for details.)

- Final warning: Don’t forget. Do not skip the Irving cd release party on Wednesday night at King King. Besides getting a chance to hear these indie pop superstars play their new material (with a home field advantage), local favorites Army Navy, Great Northern, and Lavender Diamond are all opening up.

I mean, c’mon...