Remember all the fun things I said I was doing instead of having a job? I don't know what's wrong with me but they're getting kind of boring. Maybe it's the melancholy of winter, or that my impending birthday always makes me so sad I need to throw house-wrecking parties and drink 40s and kiss boys and fall over in the snow and almost get arrested just to cheer myself up.

I'm feeling kind of schlumpy. Having achieved relatively little as a 23-year-old besides finding a creative way to get fired, I'm in the career equivalent of a K-hole, and only the sun's rays can bring me out of this hangdog, emo-vampire-hermit state. I think I'm going to hibernate until SXSW, emerging only to eat cake and check on my torrents. I'm also not drinking until my birthday, which gives me a good six days (as of this writing) of sobriety to reflect on things. I love you, New York, but you're bringing me down.



Grizzly Bear

When I hear the name Grizzly Bear, I often think of Werner Herzog's insane film Grizzly Man, about a guy who thought bears were his friends until one of them ate him. But it is an indie folk band that makes damn beautiful music. The other night, I saw them play with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and their compositions stood trial by orchestra amazingly well. I got to hear some songs off the new album, and they're as lovely, layered and expansive as people are saying. Fleet Foxes' Robn Pecknold called their forthcoming album, Veckatimest. "The best record of the 00s." It makes me hopeful that Animal Collective's Merriwether Post Pavillion was just the first of many great albums to come in 2009, our time to shine.

Unfortunately for Edward Droste and company, Veckatimest leaked far in advance of its May 26 release date, and though they are taking it in their stride, Grizzly Bear are understandably sad that a "bummer-quality" version of their baby is making the rounds. I love Ed almost enough to change into a boy for him, so for once I'll wait patiently for a real copy. In the meantime, you can hear the new songs at their numerous upcoming tour dates.

Grizzly Bear's super sharp "Knife"




Nick Cave Reissues

If there's one band that unites goths young and old, it's Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Cave was in his forties the first time I saw them, and he rocked my pasty little mall goth face just as hard as he rocked dirty new wave clubs before I was born. Though his music has always defied genre, its darkly misanthropic streak (Christian awakening aside) warms the hearts of death rockers everywhere, if such a thing is possible.

With Mute Records' imminent reissues, fans can re-live each one of Cave's fourteen albums with the Bad Seeds. Each is a shiny new and improved "5.1 surround sound-enhanced remastered" version of its former still magnificent old self, and comes packaged with B-sides, videos, and various and sundry extras, including a series of short films called Do You Love Me Like I Love You? by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. From Her to Eternity, The Firstborn is Dead, Kicking Against the Pricks, and Your Funeral...My Trial are due out April 7 in North America, with the rest soon to follow.

And if that's not enough, the band has a slew of fall tour dates lined up, so go re-live the darkness and/or discover it anew.

'Ver Seeds on Jimmy Kimmel Live with their "Red Right Hand"




No Doubt Reunion Tour

Do kids still listen to No Doubt? I try to stay away from those awful little balls of hormones with their angsty haircuts and lipstick parties and incessant chatting on the AOL. In any case, the mid-nineties sensation will reunite to cover Adam and the Ants' "Stand and Deliver" on the May 11th episode of "Gossip Girl," a teen-targeted television program with which I am not in the least obsessed. (OMFG!)

The appearance will preface a summer tour of ginormous stadiums across the land, thrilling scores of overgrown teenyboppers and finally giving my parents a chance to make amends. You see, when I was but an 11-year-old ska fan (shut up), I won a pair of tickets to see my idols at the Meadows Music Center, but my horrible parents refused to let two eleven-year-old girls go to a rowdy, beer-soaked amphitheater un-chaperoned. I haven't spoken to them since.

Sweetening the deal is the inclusion of a high quality digital download of the band's back catalog with every ticket purchase, which should save lots of twelve-year-olds the ten minutes it would take them to find it via torrents, and me the two hours (my cassette copies of No Doubt and Tragic Kingdom wore out long ago).

The band is also working on a new album, though I'll probably be regressing from an even more advanced life stage by the time that comes out.

No Doubt -- "Trapped in a [Teenage?] Box"


I'm so glad I saved my sparkly lip-gloss and stuffed animal backpack for this! The sad part is, I'm not even kidding.



NIN Farewell Tour?

As if the No Doubt thing weren't enough to rocket me back to seventh grade, Trent Reznor has announced a tour with Jane's Addiction, both bands I was listening to in the summer of '97 when I first grew boobs, painted my nails black, and got a crush on a boy of nebulous sexuality. Only the boobs remain, and my affinity for NIN, so maybe I'll fork over the money my parents save me on those No Doubt tickets. It's Trent's fans' last chance to see him before he goes off to "disappear for a while" (DO IT YOU WON'T!), making this an especially exciting affair, though all NIN shows are guaranteed to turn you into a pool of quivering puberty juice.

I'll be surprised if I can drink anything but alcopops or give anything but hj's after this summer. You will find me with many barrettes in my hair, muttering about the mean kids at school and how cute my fellow cast member in Gypsy is. I should probably get off this website before my parents catch me. See you at prom? Right, that already happened. Well, I hope yours was as totally awesome as mine.





Hunter is a Brooklyn-based writer currently contributing to Vice, The New York Press, Impose, and The L Magazine. If you email her at hunter.suicide AT gmail DOT com, chances are she'd love to add your publication to that list. Seriously, she's got some time on her hands.

Orange County’s Spare The Air was the music festival that made bus passes cool. Held at the Fullerton Transportation Center, headliners included SoCal rockers Saosin, Lit, Death By Stereo and Sugarcult, alongside Utah’s The Used and Seattle’s Aiden. The event aimed to introduce the generation next demographic to the delights of public transportation. Entry was a very reasonable $10.67 or was free with a flash of a bus pass.

Things got seriously rockin’ around 2.30 pm when Street Drum Corps hit the stage, though somehow we doubt they used the 721 bus to transport themselves and the assortment of drums, oil barrels and power tools they use to make noise. (We’ll give ‘em a free pass in this regard since the express LA to Fullerton OCTA service doesn’t run on weekends.) Having just signed to Interscope, the collective have had a plethora of writing teams coming up with material for their first major label release. The process is starting to pay off, and their set showed improvement when compared to earlier recordings posted on their MySpace page. The boys also deserve major props for using and abusing a theremin, which added geek power to their otherwise testosterone-driven antics.

Aiden were the next band to rock our world, with lead singer wiL Francis indulging in, and orchestrating some extreme audience sports while delivering a rock solid show. But the day belonged to the most local of bands, Lit. They had no need to utilize public transportation to cover the distance from the Transport Center adjacent Slidebar, which serves as their second home and is co-owned by guitarist Jeremy Popoff, to the main stage at the other side of the parking lot-cum-venue.

Lit are going through a particularly tough time right now due to drummer Allen Shellenberger’s recent brain cancer diagnosis. Sadly he’s suffering from the same type of vicious malignant glioma that struck Senator Edward M. Kennedy. But while fighting bravely on with double-doses of chemo, Shellenberger and his fellow band mates continue to play the gigs that are important to them. Pal Adrian Young (from No Doubt) was on hand to take over the drumming duties when exhaustion got the better of Shellenberger. On a couple songs they made a powerful team, playing in tandem on kits set up side by side. Fellow No Doubter Tony Kanal came out to show support, as had much of the crowd. Our love and best wishes go out to Shellenberger and his family.

Though the South Coast Air Management District-sponsored festival won't be able to repair the systematic damage done to our public transportation system by oil-loving corporations overnight, the event did achieve its objective: to raise awareness for the need for public transportation. And as the patrons of the local bars staggered out after what was a very long and thirst-making day, one can hope they didn’t reach for their car keys for more reasons than one.