The one question every San Francisco native has been asking me all week is "Have you been to Amoeba yet?" I got it so much I joked about making a shirt that said "Not Yet. (But thanks for asking)" or something like that. I also kept telling everyone that while I was sure Amoeba was great and all, I was pretty sure I was past the point of ever being excited about going to a CD store ever again. I don't think I've bought a physical CD in at least 6 months, if not longer.

Well..that whole not getting excited thing? I was wrong.

The selection at Amoeba is mind blowing. They have three copies of every CD you could ever want (except for this one, which I couldn't find anywhere, although maybe I should have checked the DVD section). I was definitely a kid in the candy store. I didn't have much space in my camera bag for a lot of stuff, so I went with quality over quantity for my purchases. Here's what I got:

Spiritualized - Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997 Live
Out of print. Price paid: $7.99
Elbow - Cast of Thousands
With special CD ROM featuring 11 live songs. Price paid: $7.99
The Jam - Live at the BBC
Double disc set. Price paid: $9.99

Hard to beat that. All three I've been trying to track down for a while and they had multiple copies of each. Name any recently released album and the had at least two used copies ready for you to purchase for under $10. Needless to say D.C.'s glaring lack of decent places to buy CD's really hit home yesterday.

I'm going to try to get my Pela photos up later today, but at this point, I'm totally frustrated by the slow as molasses wireless connections I have here. It took me like 30 minutes to upload these three photos to Flickr.

Tonight I'm hoping to take BART to Oakland and catch the A's v. The Twins. If I was back in D.C., I would definitely be going to see Nethers play the Black Cat. I haven't even seen my beloved Nethers play a single time this year! I am seriously in withdrawl. But you should go and tell me how it was. They're going to play some new stuff!

I have two other shows to see over the weekend, however. The Pipettes and Smoosh on Saturday and Bloc Party on Sunday. Expect lots of photos next week.

Although I hear and read their name everywhere, I'm not that familiar with Voxtrot, other than the non-stop Smiths references and that one EP I got off of Emusic. Still, I was excited to have the chance to catch them while I'm here in San Fran, especially since I have another engagement when they play D.C. in a few weeks.

Keeping with my recent posts while I'm out of town, I'll have to keep this somewhat quick. My kneejerk reaction: Voxtrot sure lived up to the hype for me. Great tunes, a burgeoning stage presence, engaging personality...you name it, they've got it. All the teenage girls standing next to me during the show (and there were A TON of them) wanted to have the lead singer's babies right then and there. Seriously. They have some serious crossover potential as far as that's concerned. Also, their bassist looks like Paul McCartney, Hoffner bass and all. I'll let you decide if that's a positive or a negative.

[MP3] Voxtrot | Kid Gloves
[MP3] Voxtrot | Trouble
[MP3] Voxtrot | The Start of Something

On Tuesday, I had dinner & drinks (she had dinner, I had drinks) with fellow music industry refugee SFist Krissy, and she called the venue, The Great American Music Hall, her favorite in the country. I'm not sure I'd agree (I'm pretty spoiled with the 9:30 Club - which has it's faults, but is still great), but I would be remiss if I didn't give TGAMH its collective propers. Great sight-lines, top notch sound, nice staff, friendly vibe, photographer friendly camera policy. It's kinda like a West Coast Bowery Ballroom. Color me impressed.

During said get-together with Krissy, she mentioned that Sound Team was recently dropped from Capitol, which was news to me. But after seeing them again, I can see why. I want to like this band, but their lack of anything resembling a hook in their songs makes it very hard. They're the anti-Supergrass, great verses in search of a decent chorus. I would be hard-pressed to hum a single tune they played last night. Also, no "Your Eyes Are Liars." WTF?

Au Revoir Simone weren't really my thing either. Top notch harmonies, but the whole recreating Pet Sounds with organs and drum machines thing got old really quick.

Tonight: Pela and Mary Timony at Bottom of the Hill.

PS - I have no idea how the photos look, so I'm just putting them here and not on Flickr. Now I know why people don't use Dell Laptops to edit photos. I'll have edited photos up on Flickr sometime next week.

I have to make this quick since I am swamped with work and I still need to go through all the photos I took at last night's Voxtrot show (which is much harder on my work computer since I don't have Lightroom loaded on it).

Here is a sampling of the photos I took on my first day in town. I got to my hotel around 3:00, did some work, checked email and then went out wandering around, mostly in the financial district and the waterfront. It's really chilly here. Very glad I packed my coat. Not the type of weather I am used to in May.

Still numb from last night. I'm afraid to go on the interwebs. I just can't look at Greg Oden's mug right now.

The optimist in me says the Celtics will still be pretty good next year, Al Jeff is a 20-10 guy now, PP is still PP, Rajon Rondo will get the keys to the car and maybe, just maybe, Gerald Green will start to get it. Add in someone like Corey Brewer or Brandon Wright and we'll improve quite a bit. But then the pessimist in me keeps crying out "FOR FUCK'S SAKE! This is what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket!" over and over again. Well, if nothing else draft time should be full of suspense for Celtics Nation. Do we keep the pick or trade it? How will Atlanta screw up this year? Will we be able to capitalize?

I'm really, really glad I went out last night. It was much better for me than sitting at home and stewing over this all night. Many thanks to Ms. Smith for expertly talking me down off the ledge as the night wore on.

Due to the draft debacle I missed Le Loup's set. Let's just assume they were awesome and move on. I did see The Rosebuds, and they were pretty great. Very peppy and full of energy and every song had some sort of "la la la," "oh oh oh," or "yeah yeah yeah." Right up my alley! They just started their tour, so be sure to check them out when they roll through your hood. Here's a taste of their musical stylings:

[MP3] The Rosebuds | Bluebird

OK, now you're just piling on.

You too. Argh! Make it stop!

Reasons Not To Sign With The Major Labels.

William Orbit brought electronica into the mainstream and gave Madonna back her cool. Now he's ditching the synths altogether in favour of an orchestra.

City: Antwerp, Belgium
Soundtrack: Sea Ray - Stars At Noon
Accommodations: Emporer's 48, a two room bed and breakfast run out of the town home of artist and photographer Bart Michielsen and his cat Chance. We stayed here because Bart sounded like an interesting guy and we wanted to try out all sorts of places during our trip and I'm glad we did. Bart's place was lovely and he was a great host. It's a bit off the beaten path, yet only eight or so blocks from the Grote Markt and the waterfront. There were roughly 50 bars within stumbling distance from his place. We went to as many as we could. Each morning Bart serves a fully stocked breakfast and both mornings we stayed there, we got to chat with the couples that were staying in the other room. The only drawbacks with Bart's place is that 1) you have to share a bathroom with whoever is staying in the other room and 2) the rooms are on the fourth floor of a four floor walkup.
Best Bar: There were soooo many is Antwerp, but the best was the last one we went to. The second night we were there, we were a bit restless after dinner and drinks and wandering around trying out different bars. At the end of the night, we decided to have a nightcap on the way home in one of the bars near Bart's place, away from the Grote Markt. Soon we found ourselves in the tiny Cafe Le Kat with seven other patrons, two of which were friends with the bartender. I was overjoyed to find out they had Hoegaarden (pronounced Whogaarden in Belgium - also, Duvel is DOOvel, not duVEL) for the low, low price of Euro 1.70. That was such a good deal that I had three (even though I didn't necessarily need any of them at that point). Best. The bartender was super friendly as well, even though we were obviously tourists in the locals bar. That place had the same vibe and feel as O'Connor's in Park Slope, only with a better ceiling.
Best Meal: Our lunch at Cafe Zuid, near the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (Museum of Contemporary Art) was wonderful, but the frites we had later that night at Fritbot Max were to die for (look at all those toppings!). So best. We ate them in a drunken haze outside in the Grote Markt, at the base of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal church, which was built over the course of about 200 years, starting in 1351. We enjoyed every last bit.
Sights Seen: Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (lots of Peter Paul Rubens), Mirr Street shopping, waterfront, City Hall, Grote Markt, a slew of bars and cafes.
Best Bit: The whole town. Ms. Smith and I loved Antwerp. It was my favorite city on the whole trip, which is funny because we went there on a whim. I saw that there is a Photo Museum there so I decided we should go and see it, but we never actually made it there because Bart said it wasn't all that (which was fine, because there was no way it could top the World Press Photo Exhibit). Antwerp is basically Manhattan's Soho and Meat Packing Districts thrown together and turned into a city with a bunch of architecture dating back to the 1300's. The people in the city were young and vibrant, and it made going out a lot of fun. There are two big squares at Grote Markt, one in front and another off the back, filled with cafes and bars and since we were in town over a Friday and Saturday and the weather was superb, every place was hopping. There was also this network of back alleys and side streets branching off from the two town squares and they were lined with bars as well. Lets just say there was never a shortage of places to go. I can't recommend Antwerp highly enough. We loved the city and promised each other we'd come back someday.