I never wrote about February 9th’s Sparklehorse show at the Henry Fonda Theater in L.A. It was the last night of one straight month on the road, and when I got home, well, I didn’t really feel like writing about much of anything. If it had been some mind-blowing show a la Eels I might have been forced by experience to write about it, but it wasn’t. It was merely a good show, and especially good for people like me: the People Who Love Mark Linkous.

Mark Linkous IS Sparklehorse. He’s this sort of quiet, mellow, introverted, mysterious, enigmatic, tripped out genius. His records are, at the same time, scratchy and harsh and lush and gorgeous; his songs are discordant lullabies. He’s a studio guy, a loner, a dude who probably won’t be looking for a blow job after a show. (Not that I know of, but what do I know? Maybe he is totally looking for a blow job after the show.)

I saw Sparklehorse in Germany once, and it was a quiet and mellow show, so quiet and mellow that on the night of the L.A. show I almost wanted to drive straight home instead of stopping in L.A. But I couldn’t help myself, so stop I did.

The show was, well, like the one in Germany, with an adoring L.A. audience who all love Mark Linkous. It only lasted an hour, but there were moments of true beauty and I was very happy I went in the end.

The reason I bring this up after all this time is, Bradley has the Boston show up on his blog, and listening to all the songs again is bringing it all back. It is really great stuff – check it out.

Is it just me, or is this year flying by?

My brother Tom, who moved to Berlin last month, now has a myspace music page. I find this pretty humorous, as even though I am an internet junkie I would never have a myspace page. That’s what I have this website for, I guess. I can have a page AND control it. Plus, I can see all the sick and twisted things people search for in my site. And I never have to invite anyone to be my “friend.”

I guess if I were a musician I would have a myspace page and I encourage all you myspacers to head to Tom’s page and sign up to be his “friend.”

In other news, the new Arcade Fire record is out and it is dark and deep and crazy. Kind of sags in the middle a bit, but it’s pretty epic. I have also heard the new Wilco , and as you all know I am sort of a freak about Wilco, so of course these are Happy Times for me. What do I think? It doesn’t have the harsh creativity of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or the orgasmic reverb of A Ghost is Born, so at first I was, well, unsure. It’s one of those records that grows on you, slowly, and I am starting to really love it. After a while you start thinking about how it will sound live.

So how will it sound live? AWESOME. It’s sounding more and more awesome even as we read.

This morning I got an email from the Lollapalooza people and they were selling tickets for sixty bucks for all three days; even though I can’t really afford it I tried to buy a ticket. So I got in the waiting cue and waited, and waited, and waited. After an hour I gave up. Oh well.

Myspace. Giggle. Tommy must have a lot of time on his hands.

Yesterday I got an early morning call that The Shins have a San Diego date, and that tickets were going on sale today.

It’s true, they are coming to San Diego, but for some reason this is all totally under the radar. I bought tickets on the Shins website YESTERDAY. Just like that, got tickets. No racing heart, no trying to put the stupid code into a box on Ticketmaster and failing to get it right three times as the clock ticks.

They are playing at the hated SOMA, but beggars can’t be choosers, right? Lucky San Francisco gets them for two nights at the Warfield. Tickets go on sale at Ticketmaster tomorrow but you can get them from the Shins website TODAY. Go! Go!

Mark is pretty bummed about the SOMA thing. We both HATE that venue. And they are playing a show in Berlin just a few days after I get home (causing me to go into fits.) Still, I am just happy that I got tickets, because I love, love, love this band.

Arcade Fire at the Greek in Berkeley also goes on sale tomorrow at 10:00. This year is looking pretty stellar so far, show wise. I’m kind of jealous of the Bay Area peeps at the moment, but having tickets to see Arcade Fire in Berlin doesn’t suck, does it?

This is totally cool. Someone morphed the fight scene from Rumble Fish and Arcade Fire’s Intervention. Motorcycle Boy!

Also, whatever happened to Vincent Spano?