February; Februarie; Februari; Febrehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifro; Fevereiro; Février; Febbraio; 二月; กุมภาพันธ์;

The annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show is an event which the majority of people I know very rarely look forward to. Each year it comes to Tucson, snowbirds and gem collectors alike flock to our small town in the Sonoran desert from all over the world. In all reality, these people create more headaches than anything for locals here. City streets become saturated with heavy traffic and disoriented drivers, while restaurants and local businesses pose an even greater inconvenience. For the first time, however, I might actually be looking forward to this year's gem show. Not because of the gem show itself, of course, but because of a music festival being put on over that corresponding weekend.

I've been listening to Prefuse 73 for the past five years now and still have yet to see the man perform so I couldn't be more excited for his show at the Rialto Theatre on February 7th. Guillermo Scott Herren, the genius behind Prefuse, lives in Barcelona, Spain and creates a blend of hip-hop inspired IDM and downtempo electronic music. While he has continued to put out some extremely innovative and eclectic releases over the years, I feel that his peak, so to speak, was when he released One Word Extinguisher in 2003. Additionally, however, I was similarly enthusiastic about his collaboration with The Books on the more recent Reads the Books E.P. released in '05.



Over the years, Herren has made quite a fuss about the hot topic of music piracy. With Herren being one of the more outspoken critics of "illegal downloading" this side of the music indusry, I've tried to overlook his relatively conservative views on the matter and have learned to love his music regardless of them. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed pirating his other project's Savath and Savalas' Folk Songs for Trains, Trees and Honey off of BearShare a few years ago. C'mon, Scott, if your gripe with music piracy is truly about supporting the artists, try going a bit easier on us: I mean, I am paying $30 to see you play in Febuary.

The fifth annual "Gem and Jam" (blah blah blah blah) will also be featuring who I'm assuming will be the events headliners, Ghostland Observatory. The Austin, Texas natives put on one of the best shows I've seen all year at San Diego's "Street Scene" festival this past September. Their energy, or at least that of the duo's peculiar vocalist, Aaron Behrens, is quite a spectacle to see. Still, Ghostland Observatory is one of the few bands that I've really enjoyed seeing but for whatever reason have not spent much time listening to. I guess I'd just like to think of them as more of a live band.

The festival will also be featuring Elliott Lipp's live band who will be playing the same night as both Prefuse and Ghostland. In other news, I'd like to reward the festival's graphic design staff for creating one of the most unattractive fliers ever. I don't know what it is about the promotion of shows around here but maybe the designing of better-looking fliers would help aid Tucson's generally meager show attendance. That's all. Have a nice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Maybe enjoy those other days too.