The Who are being rightly worshipped by VH1 for their annual “Rock Honors” (info @ www.Rock.VH1.com) and a promotional blitz they have hooked me up with the power to reign gifts of Quadrophenic goodness upon you, the AvantTrash faithful. And for you lucky Los Angelenos there will be miles and miles of WHO shennanegins and goings on during the week of the 10-17th that you can partake of including the ceremony itself (which I unfortunately don’t have any tickets to). DETAILS AT THE END OF THIS POST.

AliUptown and I saw these unbelievable legends play a couple years ago in Omaha and we were floored by how amazing and energetic these gents still are. It was post-Entwistle, Zach Starkey was on drums and Simon Townshend on Rhythm Guitar but of course Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend tore the roof off the place like they’ve been doing since they nearly invented the Arena Rock spectacle back in the 60’s. We caught The Stones in the same year and despite their similar *ahem* maturity, the Who defied their ages and played as if they were Live at Leeds. If you get a chance to check out these legends, we suggest you do so.

“WHO AM I?” CONTEST!

Up for grabs thanks to VH1 and Filter Magazine we have THE WHO: VH1 Rock Honors gift pack which includes:

- The Who commemorative flask

- The Who shot glasses

- VH1 Rock Honors custom t-shirt

- set-of-4 The Who guitar picks.

And all you have to do to win it is tell us “Who am I?”. Its simple, I will describe 3 characters from WHO songs in the first person and you just have to guess which song they are from. I’m not making this very hard, any Who fan should know them. Send answers to contest@avanttrash.com and you’ll be entered to win.

1. I can’t hear, I can’t talk, I can’t see. Who am I?

2. No one knows what it’s like to be me. I’m sad. Maybe even bad. Who am I?

Those were easy, but here’s the kicker:

3. I’m not old, I live on the Isle of Man. Kids can’t hurt me but they try, try, try. They ride on my head with furry donkeys. They can’t prevent me from being what I am. Who am I?

Send your answers to contest@avanttrash.com by 11:59am PST on Thur, July 10 and you’ll be registered to win. Then you can go drink like Keith Moon… well, hopefully not.

—–

LOS ANGELES EVENT INFO:

*FYI I will be attending the Steel Panther @ Keyclub and Greg Laswell CD Release show at the Hotel Cafe*

THURSDAY, JULY 10
6pm: Guitar Center Presents Sessions with Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) @ Guitar Center Hollywood
8pm: The Gutter Twins & Ed Harcourt @ The Roxy www.theroxyonsunset.com
8pm: Tribute to Sublime @ Malibu Inn www.malibu-inn.com
9pm: Supreme Being of Leisure @ Viper Room,featuring “Who Am I” mojitos www.viperroom.com
All night: The Who Karaoke Night @ Blue Goose Lounge www.myspace.com/bluegooselounge
All night: Quadrophenia Night @ Seven Grand www.sevengrand.la

MONDAY, JULY 14
Doors TBD: Indie 103.3 presents local bands @ Viper Room www.viperroom.com
8:30: Steel Panther (formerly known as Metal Skool) tribute to The Who @ Key Club www.keyclub.com

2 winners have been drawn from the 27 correct entries for the Elvis Costello Momofuku contest!

The grand prize winner of the Elvis Costello Vinyl LP is Jim Schaefer of Kannapolis, NC who says, “Wooooo…hooooooo.Thanks so much intr0vert! Avanttrash always rocks, always did, and always will! Thanks again.”
The winner of the Elvis Costello CD is Brenda Helgeson from Cotton Grove, OR who was drawn first but opted for the CD. She says, “omg! i love this win, i’m such a huge fan. thank you very much.”

Thanks to everyone who entered!
The Answers were: 1. Costello, 2. Costello, 3. Presley, 4. Costello.
The Answers to the Bonus Dealbreaker Questions were: Elvis Costello interrupted “Less Than Zero” on SNL to play “Radio, Radio” and went on to Interrupt the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” to play “Radio, Radio” with the boys as his backing band. Both winners got this right!

A couple people were kinda clueless and didn’t recognize #1 and 4 as Mr. Costello. I was looking for this seriously haggard photo of him playing in a gold bedazzled baseball cap, visibly overweight and bearded in the late-80s/early-90s from SNL or Letterman.

We will have another contest starting up this week so keep checking back and keep the comments coming! I’m super jealous to everyone who has tickets to the Police/Elvis Costello show at the Hollywood Bowl just a couple blocks away next week. If you have an extra let me know and I’ll let you park in my space!

Some albums get better over time. When an album comes out and you really like it you listen to the shit out of it and then you let it go for a while, and then if it’s really good you can come back to it and its just as great as it was. Sometimes those albums reach that “personal favorite” status by some magical form of musical inflation (even in a recession). Elvis Costello does that a lot (King of America, My Aim Is True). And sometimes I forget how good he is because he’s been making amazing music for so long. And I don’t think I’m being premature here but I’ve given his new record Momofuku (on Lost Highway) a few listens now and it’s pretty fucking good. You will hear a lot of that Attractions sound thanks to the keyboard work of Steve Nieve (see Vox Continental Organ in “American Gangster Time”) and the new addition that you’ll really like is the subtle backing vocals from the queen of Silverlake, Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis. (Perhaps most audible on “No Hiding Place” and the final track “Go Away”) When I’d heard they were working together I thought it would be like a duet album but really she is just a backing vocalist like it says in the liner notes. I guess they really couldn’t have called it just an Elvis album if she was any more prominent.

Momofuku has the right mix of moderate rocking in tracks like “Stella Hurt” and mellowness in the latin rhythmed “Harry Worth” and is super solid overall. Because of this, Momofuku has been added to my Saturday afternoon being-lazy-and-pretending-to-clean-my-apartment music. I never notice the lyrics in a piece of music first, I hear them and sometimes I note lines that stick out but I follow the melodies and let the music build in my head until after a few listens I hear the album overall as it is. This makes Elvis’ music last a bit longer to me because after you peel away all the layers of this bloomin’ onion of great musicianship and perfect songwriting there are some AMAZING lyrics waiting to find you. And the great thing about it is that when you get done with it, you can let it go for a while, come back, and it might be even better than now.

So I’m gonna give Momofuku an 8/10.

“…to the bridge”

And now the CONTEST! AvantTrash and Filter Magazine have teamed up again to give away Elvis Costello’s new album Momofuku on CD and VINYL to one lucky reader. Actually though, i think i’ll break this up and give the VINYL to the first place and the CD to the 2nd place winner.

So I’m gonna make this game easy. I’ll show you 4 Elvis’ and you just have to tell me whether its Elvis Presley or Elvis Costello:

1)

2)

3)

4)

Bonus dealbreaker question: What song did Elvis Costello interrupt on SNL to play “Radio, Radio” and with whom did he perform “Radio, Radio” years later on SNL?

Send your ANSWERS ONLY to: contest@avanttrash.com. I will ask for your info if you are a winner. Winners will be selected at random from the CORRECT entries. Dealbreaker is simply for my amusement.

This contest ends WEDNESDAY, MAY 21st at 11:59pm PST.

The Winner of the T-Rex Contest is Elinor Artsy of Somerville, Massachusetts. She was the first person to email me and her name was drawn at random from the 13 correct answers. There were 30-40 some entrants mostly disqualified because some d-bags just emailed their personal info and nothing else. Did they expect free stuff for NOTHIN’? Pa Shaw!

Elinor says,

“Thank you so much for the Wallpaper. goods and the colored disco ball (new dance party backdrop)! I rarely win online contests, so it’s an even bigger thrill to win something I want.

I <3 Avanttrash.com. Definitely in my favorites list.”

Thanks Elinor! And if you didn’t win then FRET NOT because we have 2 contests coming up in the next couple weeks. The next is coming tomorrow and involves some vinyl and and the bespectacled King of America… from England.

Stay tuned…

We’ve had quite a few entries for the T-Rex contest. We’ve also had quite a few CONFUSED people who have just sent their address and info (down to their birthdates).

So to clear up the confusion:
Here is a link to THE WALLPAPER T-REX CONTEST, in order to enter it you must answer the 4 T-Rex questions and send your answers to contest@avanttrash.com. M’Kay? Simple.

You have until 11:59 tonight, good luck.

My Birthday was great yesterday, thank you!