Club crawls on a Wednesday night. First off, to the Rivoli to catch Hawaii and Mellonova, the latter featuring ringer Clay on bass.

I was pretty eager to hear Hawaii as they’d gotten some favorable comparisons to bands I like, and I was reasonably impressed. The male singer/guitarist was a one-man riff machine, churning out non-stop wacky guitar licks – mostly tasteful but not all. The female singer/guitarist was boredom personified. When she took her turn at vocals, she stood absolutely immobile, save for the occasional strum at the guitar. Her voice was remarkable, with a real Hope Sandoval quality, but points off for negative stage presence. They were definitely at their strongest playing the melodic, dream-pop numbers, but unfortunately there were also a couple of heavier riff-rockers that just didn’t fit or play to their strengths (the second guitarist didn’t seem to play a note for one of the songs – she just stood there, absolutely still, while the other guitarist went to town). Hawaii could do very well if they get the arena rock out of their systems and play to their strengths.

Clay and Mellonova served up some proficient song-centric space rock that reminded me more than a few times of material from OK Computer. I think the keyboardist was also a ringer, judging from the crib notes, but for a jury-rigged lineup they sounded impressively tight and cohesive. Apparently after Saturday night’s show, the Mellonova name will be retired in favour of something indicative of a new lineup/direction – tonight’s show was a worthy send-off.

After that, I biked up to Rancho Relaxo to meet up with 517 for Saturday Looks Good To Me, from Ann Arbour, Michigan as they were sure to inform us. Playing as a three-piece instead of the Spector-esque cast of thousands that appear on the records gave the material a markedly different presentation, but it was still a good set of pop music with strong Motown inflections and some crazy guitar work. Bloody loud, too. I used to carry earplugs around in my bag in case of emergency. I have to start doing that again.

np – The Wedding Present / Seamonsters

My credit check cleared with no problems and I pick up the lease on Saturday. This is very exciting.

The Claytron Rock Machine kicks off a very busy week of shows filling in on bass for Mellonova at the Rivoli tonight (an UmbrellaMusic Live show with Hawaii), and then again on Saturday back at the Rivoli. This is in addition to rocking the skins for Lake Holiday at the Silver Dollar on Monday (subtle plug!). Clay will be one tired boy.

Not really much else going on. I’m tired. Went to sleep at 11 last night after Vic tried, partly in vain, to give me a crash course in object-oriented programming. He also lent me a book on Python that is making a decent pillow.

np – Slowdive / Pygmalion

Epitaph has a track – “Plea From A Cat Named Virtue” – from the new Weakerthans album available for download on their website. And on a related note, the Weakerthans are seeking a tour manager and guitar tech for their tour this Fall. Anyone interested, contact tyler@threegutrecords.com.

I got a copy of Nada Surf’s Let Go in exchange for my copy of The Strokes’ Is This It. I think I will be much happier with Nada Surf.

My Friendster network has exploded exponentially in the last few days. I now have four – count ’em – FOUR – friends. Faaaaantastic.

I spent the afternoon with a puppy asleep in my lap. Good times.

np – Nada Surf / Let Go

Awwwwwwwwww.

The official word on the Pixies reunion from Frank Black:

Finally, as for the latest rumor (#398) that the Pixies are going to reunite for a tour (as mentioned by FB on London’s Xfm radio)… here’s the lowdown from the inside : The Pixies will get together later this year to record a new double album of Latvian children’s lullabies, after which they will tour each and every country whose name begins with the letters Cz.

Cheeky monkey.

We have a puppy in the office today. He is a 17-week old beagle and his name is Fokker and he is the cutest puppy in the universe. I want a puppy. Right now he is whimpering because we’ve closed him into one of the offices, lest he pee everywhere whilst frolicking. But rest assured I will be rescuing him several times today. My timesheet for today will read: “Puppy – 9 hrs”

Rehearsal last night went late-ish, doing some recording after a couple run-throughs of the set for next week. We will also be doing an acoustic-thingie in a park on the 27th for the release of a vegan cookbook of some kind. Nothing more rock’n’roll than that.

np – Guided By Voices / Alien Lanes