I am admittedly a creature of habit, and I've gotta say I have been to 'most every Cat Power show in San Francisco over the last 10 years.  10 years!  I feel old.  I feel like I've seen Chan Marshall through a lot, and unlike most others, I never gave up on her.  The main thing that brought me back to see her time and time again was simple: her voice.

Despite her mini breakdowns, despite her half finishing songs, despite her spotting ghosts mid set at the Great American and her whispered apologies, despite that one time she had a broken finger and still tried to play a solo show, I have always shown up, cause I just don't think you can beat her smoky voice.  It's just unbeatable.

Last night at the Fillmore, it was in full effect, and this time she was fully fronting a rock band, cordless mic included.  While I was slightly disappointed she wasn't playing guitar or piano herself, I was delighted to see her smiling onstage, and often.  She seemed secure in her place at last.

The show was packed with soul covers; as always she twisted and shook the tunes until they became something almost unrecognizable and felt like her own.  I loved her sad version of "Tracks of My Tears", and I always have enjoyed hearing her sing "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)" -- that one will never die.  I love how she always references her Southern roots in her choices-- last night with Otis Redding.  She also sang "Dark Side of the Street" to fantastic, sultry effect.  Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" even was slipped in (She must be obsessed with that song, cause I've heard her do it before, over a year ago.) before she was off to Patsy Cline.  She even covered Joni Mitchell's "Blue", a personal favorite of mine.  Oh, and her version of "Satisfaction" was the opposite of anything I've heard her do: an almost dead on copy of the original-- she even sang the choruses of the song for the first time, despite the fact that she included the song on her album The Covers Record.

A couple of days ago I read this story in the paper about a Bosnian couple who are going through divorce proceedings as a direct result of each getting caught cheating on each other --but, here's the twist-- with each other.  It's a scenario that seems almost identical to that portrayed in Rupert Holmes' sappy but engaging 1979 number one pop hit single "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," in which a guy, bored with his relationship, answers a newspaper personals ad to find that he has a lot in common with this blind date (pina coladas, walks in the rain, and a dislike of yoga and health food, etc.). He finally meets up with this mystery woman only to discover it was in fact his own "old lady" that he thought he had little in common with. This unusual and unlikely situation brings the two formerly drifting lovers back together again and they all live happily ever after. But not so in the recent real life scenario with the couple in Bosnia. The disgruntled pair (Adnan Klaric, 32 and his wife Sana, 27) went online in search of new love. There, under the pseudonyms "Sweetie" and "Prince of Joy" each met some seemingly new soul in whom they could confide and find solace, complaining about how awful their marriages had become. Finally they felt they'd found someone who understands. They each thought they'd found their soulmate. So they arranged to meet up in person. And when they did: Shocker! Each accused the other of being unfaithful and they started divorce proceedings pronto.
    
                                               If you like Piña Coladas
                                               And getting caught in the rain
                                               If you're not into yoga
                                               If you have half a brain
                                               If you'd like making love at midnight
                                               In the dunes on the Cape
                                               Then I'm the love that you've looked for
                                               Write to me and escape.
          
So anyway, this whole story was just so reminiscent of the Rupert Holmes hit (except for the outcome) that I had to go back and track down "Escape," as it was originally simply known, on video. On YouTube there are close to a hundred videos that pop up when you put in a search of "Rupert Holmes Escape The Pina Colada Song)," including the Sims Movie 2 version above and a great many more "visual interpretations," and numerous lip-syncing takes, like the playful one posted by the young courtneySpace and her friend (scoll all the way down). One mime version of the song was done as a college class project for a final test. And of course, there are also numerous cover versions of the thematically timeless song. Interestingly Rupert Holmes himself doesn't have a visual version. He never made a video for the song. It was in the pre MTV/VH1 days, but there is one for the lesser hit "Him" taken from the same 1979 album Partners In Crime (the video clip is from Top Of The Pops, I believe). 

A couple of weeks ago in San Francisco at the big Apple computer "special event" titled The Beat Goes On -- to unveil all the new Apple iPod models -- the innovative company's mainman Steve Jobs gave Cali emcee P.E.A.C.E. of Freestyle Fellowship a major plug by featuring the artist on the giant screen at the Moscone Center during his September 5th keynote speech. As an example of a video-podcast, he played a short G4 segment featuring the Freestyle Fellowship emcee off a new Nano model.


Meantime, a couple of days ago I visited the Apple Store in Manhattan and even though it was near 11PM (the box-shaped Fifth Avenue store is open 24 hours), the place was packed to the rafters with salivating consumers in a long line desperate to part with their money in exchange for some shiny new iProduct. "This is nothing compared to earlier today," noted one iEmployee while eyeballing the line of about 40 customers all patiently queuing up for an average of twenty minutes to buy iPhones and iPods and other stuff.  

 iMazing!                                                             

I have been wanting to talk about this new album from Gravenhurst for over a month now. It seems like it has taken forever for this album to come out. The album is brilliant and I have been obsessed with it ever since I first heard it. I really liked their last album "Fires in Distant Buildings" from 2005. But this new one is so much better. It is called "Western Lands" and it comes out today. I don't even know where to begin. I just want everyone to go out and buy it and love it. Gravenhurst comes from that great country that I love so much. They are from Bristol, England and have been putting out albums since 2001. But it seems they have been a bit secretive about it. I didn't really hear about them until 2005 when they released an album on Warp Records. The album is really easy to get addicted to. So I would just like to warn you to be ready for that.



Gravenhurst are great because they are one of those bands that sort of combines lots of different genres and styles into one brilliant style that is all their own. It is like they have taken bits and pieces of all my favorite bands and put them into one brilliant album. They are very dreamy and ethereal but also very accessible. They really combine a lot of shoegaze style music with a more folky musical style. Imagine Elliott Smith combined with My Bloody Valentine. Nick Drake with Joy Division. Flying Saucer Attack with Piano Magic. Pale Saints with Pentangle. It really is something magical. They released "Trust" as the first single from the new album. But I am not really sure why. The second single will be "Hollow Men," which is so much better. It reminds me of some song from My Bloody Valentine's album "Isn't Anything." It really is that good. It is virtually impossible for anybody to not like this song. It is very catchy. But not in any normal pop song kind of way. It's also a nice little video.

This is the third and final part in the Yokohama, Japan graffiti series.These photos were taken recently by Amoeba Music and graffiti/hip-hop fan ACCO.