I think I am sometimes easily persuaded by advertising...but I like to think of myself as a pretty strong person. I usually turn off my brain during commercials or at least think of other things while they are on... and these days I usually just fast forward through them! I try to ignore billboards, and while I might look at ads in magazines, I don't usually pay attention to what they are advertising. But I most certainly have nothing short of Star Trek fever. I think sometimes advertising and promotion is just right and my mind is already open to the idea. Sometimes, like this time, I just can't resist, even though I have never been a huge Star Trek fan. I have always loved science fiction and did watch the first couple of Star Trek movies, but I never made it past the fourth movie, which came out in 1986. I might have to venture back and watch them all over again. Maybe I will make it up to the fifth one this time. It does sound a bit interesting, if not a bit absurd as well-- Spock's half brother kidnaps the Enterprise to go on a search for God! Sounds a bit like a big budget, sci fi soap opera plot. I think the time is just right for this film. We were all horribly let down by the three prequel Star Wars movies. We grew up loving those movies and I sort of had a little bit of hope at the time, but they were just not good, as much as I tried to like them. I have much higher hopes for this new Star Trek. Let's just hope there is no Jar Jar Binks in the new Star Trek. The Star Trek movie is really more of a reinvention than the Star Wars movies ever were-- George Lucas would never let that kind of reinvention happen, but it would still be interesting to give the Star Wars franchise over to someone like Quentin Tarantino or Danny Boyle just to see how it could be revinvented. Maybe Robert Rodriquez and Quentin could codirect it. It would be interesting at least! J.J. Abrams seems like a great director for this new set of films, and the cast seems perfect: choosing Zachary Quinto as Spock and Simon Pegg as Scotty is just brilliant. I also think Winona Ryder as Spock's mother is perfect casting. Enough about Star Trek! It doesn't really need any more promotion! I am just excited. I couldn't get my favorite seat at the Arclight Dome until next Monday, and I was also not so sure I wanted to see the movie with all the crazy super fans on the first weekend -- although maybe I will be missing out on some great costumes in the audience.

Anyway, I really thought I had gotten over Peaches. I was a huge fan of her first album-- I just couldn't get enough of The Teaches of Peaches. She had recorded an album before that one, but 2000 was the year the first real Peaches album came out. It was the year she made her way into San Francisco, into my small little world and she seemed to sort of take it over and reinvent a whole new sort of music. She made dance music fun again and made pop music more interesting. Her shows were amazing and out of control. I know there are Peaches haters out there, but you really can't really understand what she is all about until you see her live. Seeing her perform with John Waters in Los Angeles many years ago was the perfect lineup for her. It just made sense. As much as I loved her and listened to this first record, I sort of started to lose interest over the last couple of years. Was I now a bit to old to listen to Peaches? Was she too old to be Peaches? The new album is out this week and is called I Feel Cream. It will manage to offend just as many people as the other albums have, but it should also please all her old fans. She even manages to sing on the album. The song I keep going back to is "Lose You" -- mostly because I can't even believe it is her. It is a song that could easily end up on a Kylie Minogue of Royksopp album, but it is Peaches and she actually has a good voice. I also love the song "Mud." "Mommy Complex" and "Trick or Treat" are also fantastic songs on the album. I can't really imagine anyone but Peaches being able to pull these songs off. There is really nobody like her and nobody else should even try to be. Peaches is Peaches, and I am happy to know that she is still in my life. I don't know if I will still be listening to her in 10 years, but I imagine she will have reinvented herself by then. Maybe she will start doing modern opera or some classic bluegrass. I would really love for her to reinvent every genre. She could do a fantastic comedy album. I could also imagine her putting together a really good blues album. But I do know one thing for sure: in 10 or 20 years Peaches will be performing showtunes in Vegas. And I will most certainly make the drive out there for that one! She will never be as big as Cher or Bette Midler, but it sure would be fun to see her perform in some big Vegas production! A Peaches Cirque Du Soleil would mosty certainly be fantastic and amazing. Somebody please steal my idea! Peaches in a sort of animal revue would also work. We do need another Siegfried & Roy! Can't you just imagine Peaches and her lesbian assistant performing on a Vegas stage with some wild birds and monkeys?

My new favorite album of the week is most definitely the debut album from Esser. Ben Esser is most certainly from England -- that much is obvious early on in the album. My first thought when I heard this record was Patrick Wolf. They have a similar style and both seem to play all their own instruments and record albums in their bedrooms. They both also have that young, early 20's energy that is hard to capture once you are beyond your early 20's. This excellent album is called Braveface. Equal parts Blur and Lilly Allen, plus Patrick Wolf singing with the Ordinary Boys. His lyrics are not as magical and ethereal as Wolf's though. They are more rooted in the angst of new relationships and love. The best song on the album comes at the very end, so make sure you make it all the way to track 10, "Stop Dancing." It is the song that you will keep coming back to. The whole album is less than 40 minutes long, so it doesn't take you long to get there and you also have fantastic, perfect pop songs like "Headlock," "Bones," and "I Love You." The album is not replacing my favorite of last week though! I still love that Thieves Like Us album more than anything, but this Esser album comes in close second. Pop music is usually so horrible -- it is nice to find a great little pop album every once in a while. They mostly all seem to come from England. But I guess that is just my taste in pop music! I am already looking forward to his next album. He may have not even written the songs yet but I can already imagine it in my head. I am gonna go back and listen to "Stop Dancing" again, probably a couple of times. I love it. Thank you, Ben Esser for sharing your album with us. It is just what I needed to start my summer.

127 Bands, 5 Stages, 3 Days and 1 Mean Sunburn.

"Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - April 17-19th, 2009 or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Find 30 Reasons To Love a Weekend in the Desert."

- By Scott Butterworth


Day #23 - Artist #23 - Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band:

It's not the most recognizable name...yet it sits suspiciously high at the top of the Coachella lineup for Friday April 17, 2009, just under icons Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, and Leonard Cohen.

Conor Oberst, born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, started his professional music career in 1993 at age 13. His first significant project was forming the band Norman Bailer (which later became The Faint), while he was only 14 years old! After sharing this info with my roommate, he exclaimed, "That makes complete sense now. I've been wondering for years why The Faint was his backing band during his Coachella performance in 2005!"

It's been yet another eventful year here at Amoeba San Francisco, our 11th here on Haight Street! Below is a sort of best-of, a bunch of the highlights from the year for us, from instores to holiday events-- read on to celebrate the end of 2008 with us!

Going back to January 2008, we kicked off the new year with a groovy instore from Devendra Banhart.

I don't know if it was intentionally planned or not. But this week The Faint is in a battle with old label mate Conor Oberst for the number one indie album. It may not be as publicized as the album battle of Kanye West and 50 Cent, but it is no less significant...for me, at least. Conor Oberst was actually a member of the early incarnation of The Faint for about 5 minutes and they both remained on the same label up until now. Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst) has put out a couple more albums than The Faint. Saddle Creek helped to make them both household names across the world, at least in the indie rock community. I was always more of a Faint fan. I didn't give in to Conor until years after my Faint obsession began. But I became a Faint fun much like how I became a Bright Eyes fan. I was sort of forced into it-- I had resisted The Faint for a couple of years. I had heard about them and knew some of my friends were fans but just had not gotten around to listening to them yet. I was going through a big R & B phase in my life at the time, so indie rock was not as much of a priority. I was intrigued as soon as I found out that The Faint were using keyboards and sort of adopting a more synthy sound. My first Faint album was actually their third album, Danse Macabre. A friend of mine gave me the record for my birthday. It was actually just a couple of months before I made the first big move back to Los Angeles. He told me that he knew I would love it, and I fell in love with the album, as did many of us. Sort of like with the Teaches of Peaches album by Peaches, I became obsessed. The album just seemed to take over many peoples lives. I couldn't stop listening to it, it was so good. It was one of those albums that I was so glad to have discovered. I was just so glad that it existed.

I still can't believe that summer has already started. I am sure that it will be over even quicker. Soon it will be Christmas time again. The year is a little more than half over and I have been back in Los Angeles for about 6 months now. The boyfriend just moved down last week and it has been a busy couple of weeks for me, but it has been a bit slow for the new releases the last couple of months. Some big things are right around the corner for the next couple of weeks, but not so much for this week or the last. Last week was the week of the debut album for the Black Kids and the release of the second album by CSS. There was another Nine Inch Nails album and a new Dr. Dog.

This week is basically a new Neil Halstead album and a new one by Rick Springfield. Not a very big week. I am a huge fan of both Slowdive and Mojave 3, so I am a bit excited about the new Neil Halstead, but I have not yet heard it. Next week we get new albums from both The Faint and Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes. They both were on the label Saddle Creek Records up until these new albums. Bright Eyes put out a ton of albums on Saddle Creek and helped to make a name for the label, but he has made the jump to Merge Records for his new solo album. The Faint decided to go with their own new label for this new album. Conor is one of those guys you either love or hate. Most people I know have some passionate opinion about him. I know I have talked about this before. I was on the hating side for a bit, but crossed over to the fan side about 4 years ago. Conor Oberst will also be playing a free show at Amoeba in both San Francisco and Hollywood. The Hollywood instore is this coming Monday, August 4th. We will also be selling the album the day before it comes out since the actual street date is the day after the instore. He is playing at the San Francisco store 3 days before the album comes out, on Saturday August 2nd. There will be tons of people at both these instores, but I think it is worth dealing with the crowds just to see him perform live. It might convert you to a fan as well.