April 26, 2011

# 77. If I had planned this shirt blog better, I would have successfully grouped all my Elephant 6 shirts for a tribute week. After the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise show, I thought I'd worn the remaining E6 shirts I owned, but I just discovered one more.

Apples in Stereo are one of the poppiest bands to come out of the Elephant 6 scene, yet still retain that rough, low-fi quality that was a common thread for many of the early E6 acts. Tone Soul Evolution and The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone still sound fun, but I have to fully embrace their more recent, ELO Discovery-era sound.

April 25, 2011

#76. Mike bought me this shirt shortly after a Lobster Festival we attended at the rather dismal Ports O'Call in San Pedro. The shirt wasn't purchased there but it commemorated one of the few lobster meals we've had together. Actually I didn't even eat lobster that day. I don't really like it much.

I wish I had a shirt that commemorated the one lobster meal I liked, and that is the lobster roll I had at the McDonald's in Maine.

April 24, 2011

#75. From deep in the archives, this shirt is from my 2nd trip to New Orleans, and my first (and as of today, only) trip to the Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Lots of things about this trip are cloudy. Trying to keep up with the locals, and my friend who had been living out there a few years, I drank way too much. But I do remember seeing Dr. John, Danial Lanois, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and...um...well...I ate and drank a lot.

April 23, 2011

#74. Love this band. I'm most fond of Mars Audiac Quintet and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and the shows played during those releases were stunningly hypnotic.

Sadly, Mary Hansen died in 2002 after being hit on her bike. She added great counterpoint vocals to Lætitia Sadier by swirling and circling around her voice. She is missed.

April 22, 2011

#73. Obviously still adding to my collection, this shirt is from last week's Coachella.

Although it's not one of my favorite Coachella designs, this year ranks as one my favorite years at Coachella. And that makes me happy to say this after the mess that was Coachella 2010.

One of the great things about Coachella is we could both go, see completely different bands, and both have the time of our lives.

This year's new discoveries for me were The Joy Formidable, Tame Impala and The Presets. For established acts, BAD and Duran Duran both played impressive sets. And for the Coachella Moment that will rank with Pixies, Daft Punk and Kraftwerk, the Arcade Fire set is still giving me goose bumps.

April 21, 2011

#72. For 8 of the past 9 years, I have attended the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.  And for most of these years, I have paid a visit to Hadley's for snacks and a date shake.  But 3 years ago I discovered Shields in Indio.  Not only do they offer samples of whole dates, not the little cubes Hadley's offers, but they have a superior date shake.  

I also buy a bag of grapefruit at Shields, although this last trip a local admonished me.  "Why are you buying those?  No one buys grapefruit here."  I still bought them, but I tried to find the trees she claimed I could pick my own from.  No luck.

Shields is also the only place I know that continuously screens The Romance and Sex Life of the Date. 

April 20, 2011

#71. This shirt was a gift from a friend. I hope he was being ironic. I never thought of myself much as Grumpy, but after this past weekend in the windy desert, I am probably more like Sneezy.