I’ve got to admit that I got a giddy little rush when I saw this promo resting on the stack when I came into work. Hopefully Happy Birthday are already mildly familiar to you, as they hail from our very own town of Brattleboro. You may have caught them at either their first show at The Monkey or opening for Devendra Banhart at Higher Ground. I alas,  narrowly missed them both times and have been thoroughly bummed about it. They kind of popped up out of nowhere. According to the Sub Pop website, they started playing together because member Kyle Thomas (aka King Tuff aka member of  Witch) was too scared to play his newly written pop songs by himself and asked Chris and Ruth to join him. After meeting Kyle by way of an “obsession” with his 2008 release Was Dead under the nom-de-plume King Tuff, Sub Pop was dying to get either some more tracks out of him. The result is Happy Birthday, a self titled album produced by local Ryan Power.

The best way I can describe this album is to describe the kind of birthday party Happy Birthday would play. It would be in honor of the well liked but eccentric (maybe even crazy) kid at school. They have this party in their parent’s backyard with kitschy decorations and bowls of chips and someone’s older brother spiked the punch so everyone runs around with party hats on playing tag with confetti poppers, and no one feels embarrassed. When it’s time for the band to play, the kid’s dad gets on the mic and makes a few jokes because he’s a little sloshed, and announces them all official-like. Then the band members just walk onto stage from where they were standing in the crowd and play with their party hats on. The crowd of misfits bop around to the grimy pop of “Girls FM” and “Zit” and slow dance and sway to “Subliminal Message” and “Eyes Music.” This is the alternate reality Adventures of Pete and Pete Polaris soundtrack set in Vermont. This is the band playing in a garage that you hear on your way to school and they get stuck in your head all day in a good way. This is AWESHUM, and on sale, so come buy it.

I’ve been having this recurring day-dream lately. It’s the first warm day of the year, the sun is beaming down on me as I cruise around on my purdy blue bicycle. The birds are chirping away on telephone wires like I’m in some sort of suburban snow white student film. I don’t have to worry about riding my bike home drunk and every night out is observed by fireflies. Then my feet lose feeling and I remember that I’m waiting for the bus and spring is teasingly out of reach.

Laura Veirs grew up in Colorado, and I have a feeling she is as intimate with summerlust fantasies as I am. Her latest album, released on her own boutique label Raven Marching Band Records, is a loving sentiment towards warmer days. The mix of oddly tuned nylon guitar, banjo and piano is as sweet and brightly mellow as the strain of peaches Veirs named the album and title track after.

If you caught Veirs opening for The Decemberists this past fall, you already know that she gives an excellent performance. Be sure to catch her this time around this Friday the 12th at Higher Ground.

And people, pick this up for your folky special friend for Valentine’s Day and reap the benefits like a bountiful summer garden.

You + me = something

I worked for Pure Pop after many years of distracting its employees from doing that very thing…so it’s only fair.

Pure Pop was one of the last of my iconic Burlington jobs…and although I was fairly certain I was unqualified for all those previous positions, I was least qualified of all for Pure Pop. I mean, sure…I was cynical, sarcastic, and opinionated and with a soupcon (Ed. – You mean soup can, right?) of misanthropy…but what Vermonter isn’t? Of all those employable assets, last on the list was musical knowledge. I couldn’t tell my Pete Zorn from John Cage (Ed – Never even heard of John Zorn…) …I just liked drawing pick cards, eating chips and salsa and putting on my fair share of Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. After work I would join those fabulous co-workers at Metronome or Higher Ground to just shut the fuck up and listen…and that was rapture.

My whole lifetime in Burlington feels like one gigantic rock show…my memories from the years 2000-2006 smell like cigarettes and beer…but they have a great soundtrack. I wasn’t a fan of music before I moved out east, but a few accidental friendships turned into a backstage pass to the thrill of a live show.

I miss those shows. Now that I’m back here in Cincinnati (Doing great! Working here! Doing this!)

I wish I’d taken better notes and taken more pictures…So my list for this article are some of the top shows I saw in those days and with those people.

Beginning with Casey nearly dragging me to the Frank Black in-store at Pure Pop – I had no idea who Frank Black OR the Pixies were…and most of what I remember from that show was that I was standing in the midst of about 40 people that were all just staring at Black Francis…I felt the appreciation in the tiny cavern of Pure Pop…and seeing those people who were becoming my friends openly thankful of the opportunity to be in such a tiny audience lit the flame of being a fan in me.

When I was unemployed, I traded a bootleg copy of Photoshop for a space on the list of The Beta Band show at the Winooski Higher Ground. For that show, I went by myself, ran into a crush who was making out with another girl…and then the band came on the night exploded. I had seen them before in Olympic Park, but being in a club on a freezing February night felt so much more intimate…

The Coral – first in Montreal and second in Boston – Although I would never be so presumptuous to say that I discovered The Coral, I felt like I got in on the ground floor with these guys. The first time, Mia and I drove to Montreal with only the Skeleton Key EP to listen to. The Coral was the opening act that night…and we knew all the words even then…six months later, Mia and I drove to Boston to see them headline, with Jet as the opener. I skipped Jet (unfortunately) but was back in time to make my way to the front and watch this 6 piece band from Liverpool command the room.

Did you know that Sue Norton can defy gravity? That’s what happened during the Interpol show…again at HG in Winooski. It was during NYC that Mia and I looked over and Nortie was full on floating. If you know Sue, you know that’s a true story.

I first saw the band Tarantula at 242 (I think….this is where the better notes come in) and I can’t remember who turned me on to them, but I remember seeing them at least 2 more times in rapid succession…at Metronome and in the new Higher Ground’s second stage. I loved them from the first moment because the crowd they drew was fabulous…they pulled members of ever musical fandom…although the audiences were sort of small, it still felt like everyone was there.

I can’t leave out the local bands…but I can’t narrow down even my top ten shows…I will however say that if it wasn’t for Carrigan, The Cancer Conspiracy, Brett Hughes, Neil Cleary, Missy Bly, Charles (Dead or Alive, Swale, Led Loco, The Interior, The Magic is Gone, The Jazz Guys, Barbacoa, The Smittens and a million others, my life would have been so boring.

Higher Ground and Pure Pop Records are giving away free tickets to see Les Claypool THIS WEEKEND, Sunday the 12th of July. All you need to be eligible is email us at purepopper@gmail.com and write “I Want Tickets to See Les Claypool” In the subject. Winners will be drawn on Saturday!

Winners will have their names put on the VIP list at the door, and invited backstage for a meet and greet with the man himself!