Cursive singer Tim Kasher has recruited our very own Lewis Patzner to play bass, cello and trombone for upcoming dates on his fall solo tour. Get ready for some awesomeness.

We first met Tim way back in 2004 when we went and played on the street outside of a Cursive show at The Great American Music Hall. Apparently someone shouted out “they’re covering Cursive songs!” and next thing we knew, we were surrounded by a bunch of people including members of the band. We actually were just playing our own original Judgement Day songs but it didn’t matter. People were stoked and Lewis and I both got jobs.

For this Fall tour, Tim Kasher’s band will be performing songs off of his newly-released debut EP, The Game of Monogamy as well as some songs from his other bands’ earlier works including the bad-ass, cello-heavy 2003 Cursive album, The Ugly Organ.  Lewis is juiced. Here’s what he had to say:

“I’m excited for sure. I’m a longtime Cursive fan so I think I’ll be sharing a lot of feelings with the other fans in the audience, which will be pretty special.”

Catch Lewis playing with Tim Kasher in your town! Here’s where they’ll be:

OCT. 18 EUGENE, OR WOW HALL*
OCT. 19 SAN FRANCISCO, CA THE REGENCY*
OCT. 20 SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA DOWNTOWN BREWERY*
OCT. 21 SANTA CRUZ, CA RIO THEATRE*
OCT. 22 LOS ANGELES, CA WILTERN*
OCT. 23 TUCSON, AZ RIALTO*
OCT. 24 ALBUQUERQUE, NM SUNSHINE*
OCT. 25 LUBBOCK, TX JAKE’S*
OCT. 26 TULSA, OK MARQUEE*
OCT. 27 AUSTIN, TX STUBB’S*
OCT. 28 DALLAS, TX HOUSE OF BLUES*
OCT. 29 HOUSTON, TX HOUSE OF BLUES*
NOV. 1 DENVER, CO HI DIVE#
NOV. 3 SALT LAKE CITY, UT URBAN LOUNGE
NOV. 5 VANCOUVER, BC MEDIA CLUB
NOV. 6 SEATTLE, WA TRACTOR TAVERN
NOV. 7 PORTLAND, OR DOUG FIR LOUNGE
NOV. 10 VISALIA, CA CELLAR DOOR
NOV. 12 POMONA, CA GLASS HOUSE RECORD STORE
NOV. 13 SAN DIEGO, CA THE LOFT
NOV. 14 PHOENIX, AZ TBA
NOV. 19 OMAHA, NE THE WAITING ROOM
NOV. 20 CHICAGO, IL SCHUBAS
* supporting Minus The Bear
# with Azure Ray and Tim Fite

On Wednesday I went to see Thom Yorke play at The Fox Theater in Oakland with his new band Atoms For Peace. Thanks to Ting for the ticket! The band is a super-group with a very impressive lineup:

Thom Yorke - The  always-entertaining Radiohead singer on guitar and vocals.

Nigel Godrich – Radiohead’s mad scientist producer, out from behind the curtain to play guitar, keyboard and laptop.

Joey Waronker - A top LA studio drummer who has also toured with Beck and many more.

Mauro Refosco – A bad ass multi-percussionist with a a very impressive box of toys.

Flea - Yes, that Flea: The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, laying down funk-metal grooves for the foundation.

This was one of nine shows on the Atoms of Peace tour and quite possibly their only tour ever. As I waited, standing about twenty five feet back in the beautiful Fox Theater (the new APE venue which is very similar to The Warfield but much more grand), I thought for sure that this would be one of the top ten best shows I had ever seen.

Review:

Finally the lights went out and the band came on. Within minutes of the first song it was clear that this show would not make my top ten; not even close. For some reason I expected Atoms for Peace to be just as tight and well-oiled of a machine as Radiohead, a band of musicians who have been writing and touring together for over twenty years. That was foolish. No level of individual musicianship could ever equal the bond of twenty years of collaboration. In the end, Thom Yorke’s new band came off as exactly what they are: thrown together for a short tour.

It was still a great show. The drummers remained extremely tight and fun to dance to for the duration of the night. Maura Refosco played tons of different crazy instruments including hand drums, a berimbau and two giant shakers that looked like medieval maces. It makes sense that Thom would want a groovy rhythm section; he is a dancer. He danced for pretty much the entire set, and it was awesome.

Although he occasionally played keyboard swells and a bit of guitar, Nigel Godrich’s main job seemed to be running backing tracks off of his laptop. There were a lot of backing tracks, which at times was a bit of a bummer; too many tracks can make a set feel like karaoke. Most songs luckily had enough real musicianship to avoid this effect.

I wish I could have heard Flea better, but for most of the set the backing bass tracks were drowning him out and it was hard to tell what (or if) he was playing. Towards the end he had a few moments to shine where he came to the center of the stage and went into some funky bass lines. They were classic Flea, which was funny and somewhat out of place in the context of the rest of the band, but definitely something that everyone in the crowd was excited to see. He did it pretty well. Overall he didn’t groove as well as the rest of the rhythm section, but he did give an inspired theatrical performance (which sometimes also seemed out of place).

So did this concert make history?

Here’s what we watched:

1. Jay Z on the MTV Video Awards

Even if you are sick as shit of this song you can’t deny that’s it’s one of the catchiest anthems to hit the radio in a long time. This live performance from the 2009 MTV Videos Music Awards is bad-ass. If you want to learn how to perform, you should take some notes from Jay Z: hands in pockets,cool as ice, straight killin’ it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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2. Radiohead on the Grammys

Radiohead never ceases to apocalyptically blow my mind. In this performance on the 2009 Grammy Awards they joined forces with the USC Trojan Marching band for a high-energy spectacle that will raise the bar of award-show performances for years to come:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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3. Radiohead: “Jigsaw Falling to Pieces” music video

After watching one Radiohead video we knew we needed more. Although the music from this video comes from a recorded track, the footage is taken from a live studio performance. Embracing the lo-resolution aesthetic of youtube, Radiohead strapped light-weight security cameras to their heads to create one of the most imaginative and insightful live performance music videos of all time:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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4. OK Go, “This Too Shall Pass”

No internet music video session would be complete without an entry from OK Go. Their home-video treadmill dance routine for “Here We Go Again” changed the way that we think about music and film on the internet, garnering over 50 million hits views with a shoestring budget. Their newest video they for “This Too Shall Pass” may have topped it by effectively creating and capturing the most elaborate chain-reaction “Rube Golberg device” ever imagined. Skeptics claim that portions of this video are computer generated but the band denies it. Regardless of  the controversy, the creativity and ambition of this video alone will carve it an important place in film history:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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5. Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, “Quiet of a Mouse”

Seeing as how we were partying with half of the old members of this band we really wanted to see at least one of their videos. This is the one that they said was the best. It’s a beautiful narrative animation of some very original art by Stacey Novak which must have taken hundreds of hours to put together. It’s amazing to see independent artists going above and beyond to make something unique, and just as amazing to count them as friends:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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6. Judgement Day, “Cobra Strike”

It’s always kind of lame to be the guy who puts no his own video at the party, but in the friendly, supportive context of the night it seemed appropriate. Here is our attempt at an entry into the world of fun, creative internet music videos:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tour with dredg and Torche has been so awesome that we really haven’t had time to blog. We’re really excited for the grand finale – Chico, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and LA! What a way to go out. Here’s something really awesome for you to check out if you are into instrumental rock music. It’s our fellow San Francisco musicians Silian Rail playing on this really sweet local podcast Chasing the Moon. Enjoy: