Christopher Owens posts tour diary

explore the world of the Girls frontman below:

Girls to play a free in-store at Amoeba SF on Sunday

I miss Amoeba.

Girls to play a free in-store in Chicago next Thursday

Girls will visit the Broadway Reckless location on Thursday, September 29th at 2PM to warm up for their sold-out Lincoln Hall show that night. Deep dish pizza is involved, although I'm unsure how...

on a sidenote, the Reckless on Broadway has the biggest selection of records out of the three Chicago locations. The clearance section is fantastic...I found the first AC/DC album there for 25 cents. Make sure you browse through those bins if you go.

new video: Girls - Honey Bunny

I love how they always film their videos in San Francisco.

stream: Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost (highly recommended!)

I was planning on listening to this over the weekend but I got caught up doing other stuff...I only just listened to it today

this album is really spectacular, and it shows much progression from their debut, Album

stream it HERE

the record officially drops tomorrow. review forthcoming.

Girls - Vomit

Girls - Vomit (click to stream or enter your email below for a free download)

listen to the whole song through. trust me.

at first, it begins soft and slow, then it gets a bit feistier. finally, it ends in a 60's soul feel that is absolutely divine.

SF based Girls will release their third album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost on September 12th.

Girls cover Radiohead

title is self explanatory



I love you, Christopher Owens, you beautiful man, you.

My Top Ten Albums of 2009

head on over HERE to find out how you could win any of these albums!

10. Cage The Elephant - Cage The Elephant

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

9. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE


8. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

7. Girls - Album

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE


6. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE


5. Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

4. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW #1; #2 // AMAZON // OFFICIAL SITE


3. Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE


2. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // AMAZON // OFFICIAL SITE


1. Telekinesis - Telekinesis!

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // INTERVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

honourable mentions/albums that would have made the list if it were 20 and not 10:

Audrye Sessions - Audrye Sessions
Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose
Cut off Your Hands - You & I
The Dead Weather - Horehound
The Dodos - Time to Die
Peter Doherty - Grace/Wastelands
Morrissey - Years of Refusal
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Regina Spektor - Far
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor

four new songs from Girls

the band has recorded a cool acoustic session on KDHX (a St. Louis radio station) and you can snag the mp3s at Fuck yeah! Go team! or you can download them below.

1. Heartbreaker [mp3]

2. Lovelife [mp3]
doesn't this remind you forcibly of Bob Dylan? especially the end?

3. Broken Dreams Club [mp3]

4. How Can I Say I Love You [mp3]

additionally, they'll be playing Bottom of the Hill the day after their Cafe Du Nord show on the 20th. I'll be going to both shows, but I'm more excited about the one at BOTH, as it is my favourite venue ever. Nick even mentions it in one of The Strokes' interviews. every time I look at the calendars on the wall and see "The Strokes" in August of 2001, I cringe in envy.

record review: Girls - Album

When you study literature, you learn about something called New Criticism. It emerged in the ‘20’s and was essentially the idea that one should be able to read a piece of poetry or prose without any information about the author or even know who the author is. In this way, they could judge the piece on its quality rather than with preconceived ideas of whether or not it should be great.

When I embarked on my journey to Album, I unknowingly took the opposite route. I first read multiple articles( in magazines like SPIN and all over the blogosphere) about how singer/songwriter Christopher Owens was raised in a cult, had a tumultuous childhood that lacked proper nurturing, and then proceeded to write an album to help himself move on and leave his dark past behind.

There were two things that really got me to want to hear the music. The first one was a quote in his SPIN interview, where he said that he wanted to be a great songwriter like John Lennon. This really struck me strongly, because he was obviously serious about music and actually wanted to create a legacy. I really respected that. The second thing that got me to listen to the much-buzzed about album was the ever-quoted set of lyrics from “Lust for Life”: “I wish I had a father, maybe then I would have turned out right…I wish I had a suntan, I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine”. The careless juxtaposition of the two desires was strikingly honest and refreshing. It really proved that Owens no longer dwelt on the past, but looked to the present and future for brighter prospects. Or at least the ever comforting distraction provided by alcohol and an interesting group of friends.

Girls are from San Francisco, and their debut LP Album is one of the most eclectic offerings of the year. The album is obviously derivative, but not boring or unoriginal. It does really interesting things with music that already been perfected, and adds in the occasional clap or tambourine shake every now and then just for good measure.

Owens sings like a scratchier but noticeably less bitter Elvis Costello who was raised in the California sun. Album opener “Lust for Life” is clearly the best song of the bunch, and simultaneously more cheerful and heartbreaking than Costello’s “Alison”. The short song (just under 2:30) sounds like a day spent being intoxicated at the beach, with the wind in your hair and being liberated by the ocean. It’s a good thing it was placed first, because it makes way for the rest of the songs, which flow together like a Pacific Ocean filled with heartache and hangovers.

“Big Bad Mean Mother Fucker” is a fun song because it’s like a Beach Boys song for a slightly cynical adolescent audience. “Headache” screams of the sexy depressed music which Jarvis Cocker perfected in Pulp, and “Morning Light” evidently looks to My Bloody Valentine for inspiration.

The one uniting theme is the feeling of partial nostalgia evoked in the songs. I say partial nostalgia because—background information or not—it is obvious that Christopher Owens is ready to move on. The songs are like a final goodbye—to the past, to our demons, to the summer.

Try not to let this album break your heart, because it probably will. Just remember, Owens has created a soundtrack to a renewal, and wants to reconcile—not dwell on what could have been.

Highly recommended.
4.5/5

Album was released today, buy it HERE

Girls to play an ALL AGES show in SF!

I love my Cafe Du Nord email subscription, even though it usually mocks me with 21+ shows.

Girls, a band I've had a recent fling with, will be playing an all ages show at the Swedish American Hall (located above Cafe Du Nord) on Friday, November 20th. buy tickets HERE

incidentally, I love the following video (just saw it yesterday or perhaps the day before):



I was really mad because I missed the free Amoeba SF show they played last week (they released their record early in their hometown's best record store) but this makes me quite happy because it's gonna be a full night of music, not just a short set!

see you there!

Girls - Lust for Life

I have not been able to stop listening to this song, or the album for that matter, ever since Saturday.

it's absolutely stunning, and probably my favourite song at the moment. stay tuned until Monday for a full review of the album

Girls - Lust for Life [mp3]