2005 was just another one of those sad years in between Outkast singles the whole world could get off on. Here's some things that didn't suck.
ten bands that put out awesome albums in 2005
-Gabby Lala - Be Careful What You Wish For (finally, an English language answer to Puffy AmiYumi, why are we always five years behind the Japanese)
-Konono No. 1 - Congotronics
-The Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing my Choir
-Amadou & Mariam - Dimanche a Bamako
-Diplo/M.I.A. - Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1 (despite the hype)
-Lady Sovereign - Vertically Chgallenged EP (soon to be the next M.I.A., i.e. hyped to death)
-Seu Jorge - Cru (this is a really good album but it's kinda only serving as space filler because I have a shitty memory)
-Dengue Fever - Escape From Dragon House (not as good as their last album, but better than most the shit I heard this year)
-Heiruspecs - A Tiger Dancing
-Brzowski - MaryShelleyOverdrive
honorable mention:
Nouvelle Vague - Nouvelle Vague (actually 2004 but I just found out)
here are ten bands that I should have found out about before 2005 but didn't
Black Merda
The Screamers
The Deviants
Klaus Nomi
As Mercanarias
Big Boys
Articles of Faith
The Coctails
Os Mutantes
Hawkwind
2005's biggest disappointments:
1. Blockhead's "Downtown Science" - mesdiocre followup to my favorite album of 2004
2. Aesop Rock's "Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives" - mediocre followup to a mediocre album...Aesop come back to us!
3. Busdriver's "Fear of a Black Tangent" - Busdriver's work has always been hit or miss but nothing on this album really did it for me
4. Sage Francis' "A Healthy Distrust" - first album for Epiitaph. Guest spot by Will Oldham...meh
5. Intonation Fest - yawn
Biggest pleasant surprise:
GZA vs. Muggs - Grandmasters (Omigod, ten years ago I would've came over this)
Best local release:
Dove Rock - Sylvia Plath Easybake Oven
Best Album by a Chicago Expatriate
Common's new one
Worst album by a Chicago Expatriate
Billy Corgan's new one
Most overrated artist
Bloc Party
Best label
Sublime Frequencies
Most entertaining movies (not best, just the most entertaining):
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Kung Fu Hustle, and Sin City
and for the record, the best song of the year was
"Act Five" by Why?
Friday, December 23, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
top twenty local shows of 2005
[note: this list leans very heavily on the last few months because I have a terrible memory. It was also written in no particular order. Local bands are listed in bold and linked where possible]
1. the Walkie Talkies and There Must Be Others in some basement in Wicker Park-two awesome bands, although neither exist in the same way they did that night. Brigham left the Walkie Talkies to do derranged hiphop as the Minotaur and in three shows. There Must Be Others have had three lineup changes over the course of three shows. the only thing that remains consistent is that they really like to destroy baby dolls.
2. Sin Orden, Condenada, 30/30 and Cinder at Juevos Ranchos - Sin Orden reunited and are here to stay!!! Hit me Back played that night and blew. Stay on the West Coast, Hit me Back.
3. Chicago Fest at Pulaski Park Fieldhouse with No Slogan, Condenada, the Repos , Riistetyt, and over 20 other hardcore bands - this was the only hardcore show this year that came close to 2004's "Ratas de Ciudad" warehouse release party
4. Lozenge, Remember the Maine, and the Coughs at Mr. City - the best show of autumn. I hadn't seen Lozenge since the Nervous Center closed and I'd been falsely informed that they'd broken up. They were amazing. My tricycle was stolen earlier that night so by the time I left I was raging drunk. On my way to a party I wandered into a gallery space off Western/Milwaulkee/Armitage featuring a number of largesize (7' by 5') paintings of nude, older women (40s-60s), in war scenes brandishing weapons. The band that was playing had no name. Unfortunately, they had come together to jam for that night and that night only. The music was this psychedelic soup of reggae and hiphop. I wish I could see them again.
5. G.O.A.T., Satan 3000, Mister Fuckhead and the Machinist at 3030 (followed by the last show at Camp Gay, I don't know who was playing but it was I believe three bands at the same time and it was the shit)
6. Typewriter and the Mathematicians at Texas (the people living/working at Texas were real assholes that day; whoever says that the City of the Future festival was devoid of people who thought they were bringing culture to Bridgeport did not have to deal with these Wicker Park expat divas. I'm glad the cops shut their shit down...also Typewriter is the shit)
When my friends couldn't get into this show we wandered down the street to a house calling itself "the house of the future." This house used to be in Bridgeport but because of redistricting, I think it's in Pilsen. Anyway, these guys have lived here for years throwing awesome parties and pig roasts and shit. They're a bunch of class acts and they know how to throw down. The bonfires were lovely. The crowd was sophisticated and some band, I believe they were called Model Rocket Scientists, rocked my ass.
7. V8, Vyle, the Minotaur, K to the I, Bryzowsky, Radioninactive at Gunther Murphys- it was awesome to see a tri-coastal hip hop show. the minotaur sucked that night but has been getting progessively better all year. When he played the Mutiny with Indian Jewelry and the Electric Set on Halloween, he was much better, awesome in fact.
8. Lord of the Yum Yum with Dan Deacon and a million and a half noise bands at the Fireside Bowl - I always love Lord of the Yum Yum but this was the first time I saw him where most of the crowd "got" him.
9 Ellissa P and Brenmar Someday at 3030 - Two people bump into each other: Hey! You got jarring noise in my well crafted piano pop! No, you got pop in my ethereal soundscapes! brilliant!
10 Gays in the Military and Panicsville at the Empty Bottle (Bloodyminded is terrible!)
11.Ejercito Sin Son, 30/30, Crimenes de Guerra, and a rockabilly surf band at the Crevice (I miss that spot) - ska en espanol? si!
12. Intifada with Religious Sex and Caustic Christ at the Albion House (actually, any show at the albion house)
13. Small Change (live band hiphop) with a bunch of SxE bands at a gallery in West Town. So after a couple bands have these long tyrades against alcoholism, meat-eating and religion ("fuck Buddhism"), Small Change comes out and one of the emcees, completely oblivious, asks, "You know what's good? Beer. Beer makes you strong. You drink beer and you can fight anybody," before tearing in.
14. Quasar Wut Wut at Redmoon's "Sink, Sank, Sunk" at the Jackson Park Lagoon - funk band on a boat! funk band on a boat!
15. Debase, Soft Serve, Condenada and others at the Beauty Shop - I got trashed and had to leave early; Debase kicks ass for a high school punk band
16. the Coctails at Rotofugi - free show! singing saw! toy store! ...SENSORY FUCKING OVERLOAD!!!
17. Apartment Burlesque Orchetra's last show with Marvin Tate, Miss VonLivid and others at the DANK Haus. Apartment was the band that got me into the whole cabaret freakout scene five years ago when I saw them at the Fireside Bowl with Novasonic Down Hyperspace (who are now a shittier band with a better name) and My So Called Lice (who stand out as the worst band I have ever seen live). At the time the bass player was doing The bass lines with a tuba which was enough for me, plus I was in love with their cellist and their singer Caila was doing this geek/stripper/spazz theatrical routine, and less singing than reading poetry (sometimes very bad poetry). When she left town for a bit, Marvin Tate became the singer, he had a really commanding James Earl Jones-as-a-filthy-minded-preacher thing going for him and did a lot of poetry himself. He was the singer for one of my favorite local funk groups, Marvin Tate's D-Settlement (which featured Articles of Faith drummer Spyder!) . When Apartment didn't have a singer they were usually scoring a burlesque show or experimental film. They will be missed.
18. The John Cage Musicircus w/ Environmental Encroachment, Princess, and hundreds of others at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
19. Radiant Darling at Burkhart Studios. I could look at Ami Saraiya all day, and I could listen to the song "Familiar" for weeks on end.
20. Stag Party at the Elks Lounge. The Elks Lounge is my basement in Ukranian Village. Every now and then I throw a massive party and weird stuff happens. Over the summer, I was in a Manifest Theatre spectacle in the Wicker Park park with Stag Party's singer, Gabe. To raise money to build a giant mastodon puppet, Stag Party played a fundraiser at my house. It was more than a little great.
Honorable mentions:
- Bobby Conn at a puppet show Reversible Eye in Humbolt Park
-Chicago Summerdance DJ nights - all of them
-Hannibelectro and Gabriel G. at the Elks Lounge
-hip hop with live drum and bass at the Darkroom (I don't know the performers name, it was a Mondo Exhibition. Why don't I know this awesome fat rapper's name?)
-C.H.A.O.S. Fest at Nihilist - shit went crazy. was supposed to be at Texas but the cops kicked us out, then the cops showed up again, but just stood around shaking their heads
-AIDS Wolf and Panicsville at Enemy - This show was only the shit because of AIDS WOLF. I missed Carlos Gioffinni, I already listed Panicsville, and Bloodyminded still suck
-I-ATTACK, World Inferno/Friendship Society, the Subhumans and crappy East Coast hardcore band at the Logan Square Auditorium - an amazing show and I-Attack played the best set I've ever seen them play but it was not really a local show
R.I.P. 3030*, Buddy Gallery**, Burkhart Studios, Camp Gay***, the Crevice, Schizoclub, the Needlehouse, the Command Center, 556/Mestizo, El Colibri, Bottom Lounge and the Lakeview Lounge
*Which is soon to be putting on shows again as Elastic Arts (which, I believe, was the name they went by when it opened)
**now putting on shows as Happy Dog
***I believe there are some Camp Gayites holdin it down at a spot called Magical Forest but I ain't been there so I don't really know
1. the Walkie Talkies and There Must Be Others in some basement in Wicker Park-two awesome bands, although neither exist in the same way they did that night. Brigham left the Walkie Talkies to do derranged hiphop as the Minotaur and in three shows. There Must Be Others have had three lineup changes over the course of three shows. the only thing that remains consistent is that they really like to destroy baby dolls.
2. Sin Orden, Condenada, 30/30 and Cinder at Juevos Ranchos - Sin Orden reunited and are here to stay!!! Hit me Back played that night and blew. Stay on the West Coast, Hit me Back.
3. Chicago Fest at Pulaski Park Fieldhouse with No Slogan, Condenada, the Repos , Riistetyt, and over 20 other hardcore bands - this was the only hardcore show this year that came close to 2004's "Ratas de Ciudad" warehouse release party
4. Lozenge, Remember the Maine, and the Coughs at Mr. City - the best show of autumn. I hadn't seen Lozenge since the Nervous Center closed and I'd been falsely informed that they'd broken up. They were amazing. My tricycle was stolen earlier that night so by the time I left I was raging drunk. On my way to a party I wandered into a gallery space off Western/Milwaulkee/Armitage featuring a number of largesize (7' by 5') paintings of nude, older women (40s-60s), in war scenes brandishing weapons. The band that was playing had no name. Unfortunately, they had come together to jam for that night and that night only. The music was this psychedelic soup of reggae and hiphop. I wish I could see them again.
5. G.O.A.T., Satan 3000, Mister Fuckhead and the Machinist at 3030 (followed by the last show at Camp Gay, I don't know who was playing but it was I believe three bands at the same time and it was the shit)
6. Typewriter and the Mathematicians at Texas (the people living/working at Texas were real assholes that day; whoever says that the City of the Future festival was devoid of people who thought they were bringing culture to Bridgeport did not have to deal with these Wicker Park expat divas. I'm glad the cops shut their shit down...also Typewriter is the shit)
When my friends couldn't get into this show we wandered down the street to a house calling itself "the house of the future." This house used to be in Bridgeport but because of redistricting, I think it's in Pilsen. Anyway, these guys have lived here for years throwing awesome parties and pig roasts and shit. They're a bunch of class acts and they know how to throw down. The bonfires were lovely. The crowd was sophisticated and some band, I believe they were called Model Rocket Scientists, rocked my ass.
7. V8, Vyle, the Minotaur, K to the I, Bryzowsky, Radioninactive at Gunther Murphys- it was awesome to see a tri-coastal hip hop show. the minotaur sucked that night but has been getting progessively better all year. When he played the Mutiny with Indian Jewelry and the Electric Set on Halloween, he was much better, awesome in fact.
8. Lord of the Yum Yum with Dan Deacon and a million and a half noise bands at the Fireside Bowl - I always love Lord of the Yum Yum but this was the first time I saw him where most of the crowd "got" him.
9 Ellissa P and Brenmar Someday at 3030 - Two people bump into each other: Hey! You got jarring noise in my well crafted piano pop! No, you got pop in my ethereal soundscapes! brilliant!
10 Gays in the Military and Panicsville at the Empty Bottle (Bloodyminded is terrible!)
11.Ejercito Sin Son, 30/30, Crimenes de Guerra, and a rockabilly surf band at the Crevice (I miss that spot) - ska en espanol? si!
12. Intifada with Religious Sex and Caustic Christ at the Albion House (actually, any show at the albion house)
13. Small Change (live band hiphop) with a bunch of SxE bands at a gallery in West Town. So after a couple bands have these long tyrades against alcoholism, meat-eating and religion ("fuck Buddhism"), Small Change comes out and one of the emcees, completely oblivious, asks, "You know what's good? Beer. Beer makes you strong. You drink beer and you can fight anybody," before tearing in.
14. Quasar Wut Wut at Redmoon's "Sink, Sank, Sunk" at the Jackson Park Lagoon - funk band on a boat! funk band on a boat!
15. Debase, Soft Serve, Condenada and others at the Beauty Shop - I got trashed and had to leave early; Debase kicks ass for a high school punk band
16. the Coctails at Rotofugi - free show! singing saw! toy store! ...SENSORY FUCKING OVERLOAD!!!
17. Apartment Burlesque Orchetra's last show with Marvin Tate, Miss VonLivid and others at the DANK Haus. Apartment was the band that got me into the whole cabaret freakout scene five years ago when I saw them at the Fireside Bowl with Novasonic Down Hyperspace (who are now a shittier band with a better name) and My So Called Lice (who stand out as the worst band I have ever seen live). At the time the bass player was doing The bass lines with a tuba which was enough for me, plus I was in love with their cellist and their singer Caila was doing this geek/stripper/spazz theatrical routine, and less singing than reading poetry (sometimes very bad poetry). When she left town for a bit, Marvin Tate became the singer, he had a really commanding James Earl Jones-as-a-filthy-minded-preacher thing going for him and did a lot of poetry himself. He was the singer for one of my favorite local funk groups, Marvin Tate's D-Settlement (which featured Articles of Faith drummer Spyder!) . When Apartment didn't have a singer they were usually scoring a burlesque show or experimental film. They will be missed.
18. The John Cage Musicircus w/ Environmental Encroachment, Princess, and hundreds of others at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
19. Radiant Darling at Burkhart Studios. I could look at Ami Saraiya all day, and I could listen to the song "Familiar" for weeks on end.
20. Stag Party at the Elks Lounge. The Elks Lounge is my basement in Ukranian Village. Every now and then I throw a massive party and weird stuff happens. Over the summer, I was in a Manifest Theatre spectacle in the Wicker Park park with Stag Party's singer, Gabe. To raise money to build a giant mastodon puppet, Stag Party played a fundraiser at my house. It was more than a little great.
Honorable mentions:
- Bobby Conn at a puppet show Reversible Eye in Humbolt Park
-Chicago Summerdance DJ nights - all of them
-Hannibelectro and Gabriel G. at the Elks Lounge
-hip hop with live drum and bass at the Darkroom (I don't know the performers name, it was a Mondo Exhibition. Why don't I know this awesome fat rapper's name?)
-C.H.A.O.S. Fest at Nihilist - shit went crazy. was supposed to be at Texas but the cops kicked us out, then the cops showed up again, but just stood around shaking their heads
-AIDS Wolf and Panicsville at Enemy - This show was only the shit because of AIDS WOLF. I missed Carlos Gioffinni, I already listed Panicsville, and Bloodyminded still suck
-I-ATTACK, World Inferno/Friendship Society, the Subhumans and crappy East Coast hardcore band at the Logan Square Auditorium - an amazing show and I-Attack played the best set I've ever seen them play but it was not really a local show
R.I.P. 3030*, Buddy Gallery**, Burkhart Studios, Camp Gay***, the Crevice, Schizoclub, the Needlehouse, the Command Center, 556/Mestizo, El Colibri, Bottom Lounge and the Lakeview Lounge
*Which is soon to be putting on shows again as Elastic Arts (which, I believe, was the name they went by when it opened)
**now putting on shows as Happy Dog
***I believe there are some Camp Gayites holdin it down at a spot called Magical Forest but I ain't been there so I don't really know
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
the striking return of radio dysentary (this time on real radio!)
dengue fever - tap water
dirty projectors - we are swaddled
radio pyongyang - commie funk? #
coctails - dark green
lady sovereign - fiddle with the volume #
14 year old girls - this is a devo cover/grand theft auto 3
90's hip hop!
pharcyde - passin me by
onyx - slam
wu-tang clan - c.r.e.a.m.
serge gainsbourg - bonnie & clyde
sufjan stevens - say yes! to m!ch!gan!
the chills - pink frost
they might be giants - why does the sun shine? (the sun is a mass of incandescent gas)
the minders - chatty patty
os mutantes - ando meio desligado
balkan beat box - bulgarian chicks
stag party - sun explodes
helium -pat's trick
meat puppets - plateau (live)
tom waits - filipino box spring hog
four tet - iron man (black sabbath cover)
books on tape - bubblegum #
the warlocks - angels in heaven, angels in hell *
lashio thein aung - you got what you got(from guitars of the golden triangle: folk and pop music of myanmar)
saing saing maw - lake thay mah shoke (from guitars of the golden triangle: folk and pop music of myanmar)
non-prophets - cure
escape mechanism - today (with the meters)
the weather - glorified hype man
sarah's 18-year-old nostalgia set
kristin hersh - your dirty answer
braid - a dozen roses <--Boo! bad form, Sarah
neutral milk hotel - in the aeroplane over the sea
lovage - anger management *
the messengers of god - army of me (bjork cover)
storm inc. - rape me
biz markie - just a friend
salt-n-pepa - push it out
a tribe called quest - i left my wallet in el segundo
best set of the night
subarachnoid space - trainable (from the DMBQ Benefit Album)
5ive style - the lost oar
twink - pussy cat *
sigur ros - #8, a.k.a. Popplagio
old time relijun - the king of lost light (reprise)
new duncan imperials - gizzards, scrapple & tripe
sonic youth - screaming skull
negativland w/ chumbawumba - the ABCs of Anarchism
hella - madonna approaches r&b blonde wreckages #
secret mommy -daycare #
mark mothersbaugh - blue joy
the flaming lips - the spark that bled
the bug ft. daddy freddy - politicians & paedophiles
the blacks - new new waltzing blues
sleeping in the market - laluyeah (yearning song)
the ex & tom cora - the big black
why? - act five
gabby la la - butter & eggs
thanks, sarah
dirty projectors - we are swaddled
radio pyongyang - commie funk? #
coctails - dark green
lady sovereign - fiddle with the volume #
14 year old girls - this is a devo cover/grand theft auto 3
90's hip hop!
pharcyde - passin me by
onyx - slam
wu-tang clan - c.r.e.a.m.
serge gainsbourg - bonnie & clyde
sufjan stevens - say yes! to m!ch!gan!
the chills - pink frost
they might be giants - why does the sun shine? (the sun is a mass of incandescent gas)
the minders - chatty patty
os mutantes - ando meio desligado
balkan beat box - bulgarian chicks
stag party - sun explodes
helium -pat's trick
meat puppets - plateau (live)
tom waits - filipino box spring hog
four tet - iron man (black sabbath cover)
books on tape - bubblegum #
the warlocks - angels in heaven, angels in hell *
lashio thein aung - you got what you got(from guitars of the golden triangle: folk and pop music of myanmar)
saing saing maw - lake thay mah shoke (from guitars of the golden triangle: folk and pop music of myanmar)
non-prophets - cure
escape mechanism - today (with the meters)
the weather - glorified hype man
sarah's 18-year-old nostalgia set
kristin hersh - your dirty answer
braid - a dozen roses <--Boo! bad form, Sarah
neutral milk hotel - in the aeroplane over the sea
lovage - anger management *
the messengers of god - army of me (bjork cover)
storm inc. - rape me
biz markie - just a friend
salt-n-pepa - push it out
a tribe called quest - i left my wallet in el segundo
best set of the night
subarachnoid space - trainable (from the DMBQ Benefit Album)
5ive style - the lost oar
twink - pussy cat *
sigur ros - #8, a.k.a. Popplagio
old time relijun - the king of lost light (reprise)
new duncan imperials - gizzards, scrapple & tripe
sonic youth - screaming skull
negativland w/ chumbawumba - the ABCs of Anarchism
hella - madonna approaches r&b blonde wreckages #
secret mommy -daycare #
mark mothersbaugh - blue joy
the flaming lips - the spark that bled
the bug ft. daddy freddy - politicians & paedophiles
the blacks - new new waltzing blues
sleeping in the market - laluyeah (yearning song)
the ex & tom cora - the big black
why? - act five
gabby la la - butter & eggs
thanks, sarah
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
untitled wluw set
hawkwind - you shouldn't do that
tom waits - step right up
themselves - good people check
blockhead - roll out the red carpet
quintron & miss pussycat - squirrel gardens/witch in the club
lady sovereign - the battle
iggy pop - the passenger
weird war - track 2 (untitled)
jackie & the cedrics - cedric's theme/hard rock jackie
atmosphere - if i was santa claus *
abstract giants - thick skin
m.i.a. - pull up the people *
azalia snail - hidden track
boredoms - mogo?
folk implosion - fuse
muggs - morta <--best album of 2003, why do i still not own this?
the walkie talkies - nicotine girl
happy ashtray - 4 times daily
jeff hanson - just like me
danava - eyes in disguise <-!!!!!!
daniel johnston - living it for the moment
mecca normal - what about the boy? <--sounds like a twangy v. of Apartment
johnny cash - don't take your guns to town
the crew - red chevrolet
sin orden - nuestra historia
vishten - mariez moi
seu jorge - tive razao (voltair mix)
the woven hand - the good hand
bosco & jorge - you holdem ill punchem
the lonely world of the dudley corporation - stutter
ulele! - sleep and you
matthew shipp - select mode 2
as mercanarias - lembrancas
radio java - radio jakarta #2
edith frost - emergency
OYogSothoth
inspiral carpets - weakness
television - the fire
thurl ravenscroft - you're a mean one, mister grinch
princess - buildings
snow - runway
roky erikson & the aliens - white faces
pigface - du liebst mich nicht, ich lieb' dich nicht
dj spooky - absentia absentia (dialectical triagulation iii)
mi and l'au - i've been watching you
sun ra & his solar arkestra - sketch
tom waits - step right up
themselves - good people check
blockhead - roll out the red carpet
quintron & miss pussycat - squirrel gardens/witch in the club
lady sovereign - the battle
iggy pop - the passenger
weird war - track 2 (untitled)
jackie & the cedrics - cedric's theme/hard rock jackie
atmosphere - if i was santa claus *
abstract giants - thick skin
m.i.a. - pull up the people *
azalia snail - hidden track
boredoms - mogo?
folk implosion - fuse
muggs - morta <--best album of 2003, why do i still not own this?
the walkie talkies - nicotine girl
happy ashtray - 4 times daily
jeff hanson - just like me
danava - eyes in disguise <-!!!!!!
daniel johnston - living it for the moment
mecca normal - what about the boy? <--sounds like a twangy v. of Apartment
johnny cash - don't take your guns to town
the crew - red chevrolet
sin orden - nuestra historia
vishten - mariez moi
seu jorge - tive razao (voltair mix)
the woven hand - the good hand
bosco & jorge - you holdem ill punchem
the lonely world of the dudley corporation - stutter
ulele! - sleep and you
matthew shipp - select mode 2
as mercanarias - lembrancas
radio java - radio jakarta #2
edith frost - emergency
OYogSothoth
inspiral carpets - weakness
television - the fire
thurl ravenscroft - you're a mean one, mister grinch
princess - buildings
snow - runway
roky erikson & the aliens - white faces
pigface - du liebst mich nicht, ich lieb' dich nicht
dj spooky - absentia absentia (dialectical triagulation iii)
mi and l'au - i've been watching you
sun ra & his solar arkestra - sketch
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
shortstack-my brain does not works!!!!
non-prophets - cure
bonzo dog band - i'm bored
princess - miss adventures
the adicts - joker in the pack
the godfathers - this damn nation
erase eratta - tongue tied (from Weasel Walter's "Phat Mixe")
dead kennedys - the prey
firewater - is that all there is? (Peggy Lee cover)
seu jorge - tive razao (i was right)
aparat organ quartet - romantica (from Screaming Masterpiece OST)
sushirobo - rat or mole?
cabaret voltaire - nag nag nag
einsturzene neubauten - krieg in die stadten
pere ubu - 30 seconds over tokyo
abstract giants - internal auditory
c-rayz walz - jello
saul williams - black stacy
the thin man - molly o <--this song's more'n a little badass but the album lacks
love and rockets - it could be sunshine <--would be awesome if it weren't for vocals
sacha sacket - the prodigal
ravi shankar - village dance
busdriver, daedalus, & radioinactive - pens oil
the dukes of stratosphere - vanishing girl
sicbay - suspicious icons
neu! - negativland
magas - toys (redux)
the three o'clock - with a cantaloupe girlfriend
bonzo dog band - i'm bored
princess - miss adventures
the adicts - joker in the pack
the godfathers - this damn nation
erase eratta - tongue tied (from Weasel Walter's "Phat Mixe")
dead kennedys - the prey
firewater - is that all there is? (Peggy Lee cover)
seu jorge - tive razao (i was right)
aparat organ quartet - romantica (from Screaming Masterpiece OST)
sushirobo - rat or mole?
cabaret voltaire - nag nag nag
einsturzene neubauten - krieg in die stadten
pere ubu - 30 seconds over tokyo
abstract giants - internal auditory
c-rayz walz - jello
saul williams - black stacy
the thin man - molly o <--this song's more'n a little badass but the album lacks
love and rockets - it could be sunshine <--would be awesome if it weren't for vocals
sacha sacket - the prodigal
ravi shankar - village dance
busdriver, daedalus, & radioinactive - pens oil
the dukes of stratosphere - vanishing girl
sicbay - suspicious icons
neu! - negativland
magas - toys (redux)
the three o'clock - with a cantaloupe girlfriend
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
in a wagner mood
rachel's - water from the same source
jaylib - nowadayz
pearly sweets - a weekend at home
the pirahnas - bitches wheel
evil beaver - the nutcracker
bride of no no - the gypsy's song
lady sovereign - fiddle with the volume
plaid - marry
kraftwerk - radioactivity
kids of widney high - life without the cow
sun kil moon - carry me ohio
montgolfier brothers - koffee pot blues
emma bush with johnny noble and his hawaiian music - lei e (from Hot Women: Women Singers from the Torrid Regions of the World)
the gay - opulent canine
girls are short - the natural
matt smith - lay down in the leaves (from Amos House Collection Vol. 3)
count basie - something (beatles cover)
reifenstahl - (track 8 from die wunderwaffe)
king tubby - rude boy dub
quintron & miss pussycat - fly like a rat
naked raygun - rat patrol
apocalypse hoboken - joyful is the day
the manhandlers - medicate me
articles of faith - buried alive
astrud gilberto - tu meu delirio
gogogo airheart - dub ii
mathematicians - binary girl
yoko ono with yo la tengo - hedwig's lament/exquisite corpse (from Wig in a Box)
the animals - boom boom
the undertones - let's talk about girls
bjork - ruby baby
neko case - lonely old lies
nina hagen - tv-glotzer (white punks on dope) (tubes cover)
u.s. maple - my lil shocker
the flying luttenbachers - thrumm'd hte (for m)
blondie - bang a gong/funtime (marc bolan / iggy pop covers)
m.o.t.o. - deliver deliver deliver
dengue fever - tap water
90 day men - too late or too dead
neung phak - cheer <--OH SHIT!!!!
edith frost - good to know
pelican -nightendday
le tigre - mediocrity
murder by death - the crown don't make you a prince
crack we are rock - the skull
wagner - lohgerin, disc 3
jaylib - nowadayz
pearly sweets - a weekend at home
the pirahnas - bitches wheel
evil beaver - the nutcracker
bride of no no - the gypsy's song
lady sovereign - fiddle with the volume
plaid - marry
kraftwerk - radioactivity
kids of widney high - life without the cow
sun kil moon - carry me ohio
montgolfier brothers - koffee pot blues
emma bush with johnny noble and his hawaiian music - lei e (from Hot Women: Women Singers from the Torrid Regions of the World)
the gay - opulent canine
girls are short - the natural
matt smith - lay down in the leaves (from Amos House Collection Vol. 3)
count basie - something (beatles cover)
reifenstahl - (track 8 from die wunderwaffe)
king tubby - rude boy dub
quintron & miss pussycat - fly like a rat
naked raygun - rat patrol
apocalypse hoboken - joyful is the day
the manhandlers - medicate me
articles of faith - buried alive
astrud gilberto - tu meu delirio
gogogo airheart - dub ii
mathematicians - binary girl
yoko ono with yo la tengo - hedwig's lament/exquisite corpse (from Wig in a Box)
the animals - boom boom
the undertones - let's talk about girls
bjork - ruby baby
neko case - lonely old lies
nina hagen - tv-glotzer (white punks on dope) (tubes cover)
u.s. maple - my lil shocker
the flying luttenbachers - thrumm'd hte (for m)
blondie - bang a gong/funtime (marc bolan / iggy pop covers)
m.o.t.o. - deliver deliver deliver
dengue fever - tap water
90 day men - too late or too dead
neung phak - cheer <--OH SHIT!!!!
edith frost - good to know
pelican -nightendday
le tigre - mediocrity
murder by death - the crown don't make you a prince
crack we are rock - the skull
wagner - lohgerin, disc 3
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
T R L
quintron w miss pussycat - shoplifter
sole - every single one of us
the rapture - alabama sunshine
pixeltan - get up/say what
fur cups for teeth - christmas presence
blondie - accidents never happen
blockhead - quiet storm
brian wilson - wind chimes
schizowave - my baby
cex - [from Know Doubt] *
lee scratch perry & the upsetters - croaking lizard
prefuse 73 reads the books - pagina cinco *
new order - senses
octopus project - all of thechamps
kokeshi doll - song for hasuike
dresden dolls - bank of boston beauty queen (live wmbr)
mf doom w/ pns - kon queso
negatones - the godfather
the youngs - breakdown
the byrds - thoughts and words
black dice - smiling off (luomo remix)
call and response - rollerskate *
the cramps - call of the wighat
washington social club - backed to the future *
heiruspecs - 5ves
smith jubilee singers - just a little talk with jesus
electric eel shock - killer killer
chicago afrobeat project - bmw
lady sovereign w/ frost p. zuz rock & shystie - a little bit of shhh
beck - girl
the ex and tom cora - the big black
franklin delano - matter of time
the aerovons - world of you (demo) <--the album's weak but this track's great
[technical dificulties]
hawkwind - master of the universe
john cage and boris berman - the perilous night no. 3
mathematicians - subtract my life
edith frost - emergency
ween - the rift
this song is a mess but so am i - bedridden and dancing
morcheeba - wonders never cease
boom boom sattelites - dive for you
messer chups - not made in japan <---fucking smooth
8 bit weapon - arcade
the go! team - huddle formation
yodship - suite two
sole - every single one of us
the rapture - alabama sunshine
pixeltan - get up/say what
fur cups for teeth - christmas presence
blondie - accidents never happen
blockhead - quiet storm
brian wilson - wind chimes
schizowave - my baby
cex - [from Know Doubt] *
lee scratch perry & the upsetters - croaking lizard
prefuse 73 reads the books - pagina cinco *
new order - senses
octopus project - all of thechamps
kokeshi doll - song for hasuike
dresden dolls - bank of boston beauty queen (live wmbr)
mf doom w/ pns - kon queso
negatones - the godfather
the youngs - breakdown
the byrds - thoughts and words
black dice - smiling off (luomo remix)
call and response - rollerskate *
the cramps - call of the wighat
washington social club - backed to the future *
heiruspecs - 5ves
smith jubilee singers - just a little talk with jesus
electric eel shock - killer killer
chicago afrobeat project - bmw
lady sovereign w/ frost p. zuz rock & shystie - a little bit of shhh
beck - girl
the ex and tom cora - the big black
franklin delano - matter of time
the aerovons - world of you (demo) <--the album's weak but this track's great
[technical dificulties]
hawkwind - master of the universe
john cage and boris berman - the perilous night no. 3
mathematicians - subtract my life
edith frost - emergency
ween - the rift
this song is a mess but so am i - bedridden and dancing
morcheeba - wonders never cease
boom boom sattelites - dive for you
messer chups - not made in japan <---fucking smooth
8 bit weapon - arcade
the go! team - huddle formation
yodship - suite two
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
there ain't nothin wrong with a little bump and grindcore (unfortunately we have neither)
sex and love
devo - girl u want
felix da housecat - rocketride
fatlip - cook
christ-y set
king missile - jesus was way cool
crush kill destroy - why people believe weird things
loretta lynn - god makes no mistakes
morcheeba - ten men
the stranglers - toiler on the sea
asobi saksu - walk on the moon
blockhead - crashing down
reggae
transglobal underground - cikan - le message
the eternals - track 6
matsiyahu - fire and heights
motherfuckers what can play their instruments
roxy music - beauty queen
minutemen - hell (second take)
mong hang - mesopotamia
ampersands!
dangermouse & jemini - bush boys
tracy & the plastics - OOO!
j+j+j - high school? you mean inverted caste system
lo fi motherfuckers
moldy peaches - nothing came out
why? - act five (i needed my fix)
the kinks - drivin
i don't need to justify shit
puffy amiyumi - can-nana fever
david bowie - be my wife
bikini kill - resist psychic death
opposite ends of 1980s New York
klaus nomi - you don't own me
grandmaster flash - it's nasty
dj shadow - blood on the motorway
clint mansell & the kronos quartet - summer: crimin'
atmosphere - musical chairs
mustard plug - insomnia
sham 69 - i'm a man, i'm a boy
les sequelles - monstre-a-go-go
volcano - fire fire
m83 - i'm happy, she said
cast king - wino <--bad fuckin ass
victor daniel - carnaval <---also bad ass
mary lou lord - speeding motorcycle
quinine - police station blues
bohren & der club of gore - skeletal remains
joanna newsome - bridges & balloons
maraca - descarga total
murs - bad man!
pale3 & goldfrapp - bodo
pixel panda - comienda tierra
caetano veloso - paisagem util
mick harvey - louise
micah blue smaldone - new orleans bump
the spades - we sell soul
no neck blues band - boreal gluts
devo - girl u want
felix da housecat - rocketride
fatlip - cook
christ-y set
king missile - jesus was way cool
crush kill destroy - why people believe weird things
loretta lynn - god makes no mistakes
morcheeba - ten men
the stranglers - toiler on the sea
asobi saksu - walk on the moon
blockhead - crashing down
reggae
transglobal underground - cikan - le message
the eternals - track 6
matsiyahu - fire and heights
motherfuckers what can play their instruments
roxy music - beauty queen
minutemen - hell (second take)
mong hang - mesopotamia
ampersands!
dangermouse & jemini - bush boys
tracy & the plastics - OOO!
j+j+j - high school? you mean inverted caste system
lo fi motherfuckers
moldy peaches - nothing came out
why? - act five (i needed my fix)
the kinks - drivin
i don't need to justify shit
puffy amiyumi - can-nana fever
david bowie - be my wife
bikini kill - resist psychic death
opposite ends of 1980s New York
klaus nomi - you don't own me
grandmaster flash - it's nasty
dj shadow - blood on the motorway
clint mansell & the kronos quartet - summer: crimin'
atmosphere - musical chairs
mustard plug - insomnia
sham 69 - i'm a man, i'm a boy
les sequelles - monstre-a-go-go
volcano - fire fire
m83 - i'm happy, she said
cast king - wino <--bad fuckin ass
victor daniel - carnaval <---also bad ass
mary lou lord - speeding motorcycle
quinine - police station blues
bohren & der club of gore - skeletal remains
joanna newsome - bridges & balloons
maraca - descarga total
murs - bad man!
pale3 & goldfrapp - bodo
pixel panda - comienda tierra
caetano veloso - paisagem util
mick harvey - louise
micah blue smaldone - new orleans bump
the spades - we sell soul
no neck blues band - boreal gluts
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
turned on, tuned in dropout
millions of dead cops - corporate deathburger
tin hat trio - the last cowboy
turbonegro - high crime
ibrahim ferrer - naufragio
two gallants - you losin' out
ukrainians - polityka
gogol bordello - underdog world strike
irma thomas - loving arms
mr. oizo - late
desoto reds - tupper in the fridge
icy demons - track 5
daedalus - taking wing
toots and the maytals - funky kingston
descendents - bikeage
ministry - never believe
roky erikson - stand for the fire demon
sham 69 - you're a better man than i
kabul workshop - trigana
gang of four - to hell with poverty
omar a rodriguez-lopez - of blood blue blisters
bela fleck - spanish point
mattithius - vietnam
carla bozulich - lonesome roads
femi kuti w/ mos def - do your best
atmosphere -guns and cigarettes
ry cooder & manuel galban - caballo viejo
adam fitz - last summer
stiff little fingers - state of emergency
howlin wolf - moanin' at midnight
dillinger escape plan - phone home
boom bip - in the tree top
druha trava - spain
the thermals - a stare like yours
the aeffect - always artificial
j+j+j - jobs that require headphones
taj mahal toumani diabate - tunkaranke
dove rock - designer gasmasks
the velvet underground - heroin
seu jorge - chatterton
metal urbain - anarchy en france
fishbone- party at ground zero
operation ivy - junkies runnin dry
count five - psychotic reaction
arab on radar - mind is a muffler
dr. timothy leary - turn on, tune in, drop out
instruments de musique du monde - cithare sur caisse
fiery furnaces - seven silver curses
juana molina - no es tan cierto
lady sovereign - random
pit er pat - man
messer chups - anton lavey 66.6
ween - transitions
flatt & scruggs - get in line brother
jethro tull - from Rock & Roll circus
tin hat trio - the last cowboy
turbonegro - high crime
ibrahim ferrer - naufragio
two gallants - you losin' out
ukrainians - polityka
gogol bordello - underdog world strike
irma thomas - loving arms
mr. oizo - late
desoto reds - tupper in the fridge
icy demons - track 5
daedalus - taking wing
toots and the maytals - funky kingston
descendents - bikeage
ministry - never believe
roky erikson - stand for the fire demon
sham 69 - you're a better man than i
kabul workshop - trigana
gang of four - to hell with poverty
omar a rodriguez-lopez - of blood blue blisters
bela fleck - spanish point
mattithius - vietnam
carla bozulich - lonesome roads
femi kuti w/ mos def - do your best
atmosphere -guns and cigarettes
ry cooder & manuel galban - caballo viejo
adam fitz - last summer
stiff little fingers - state of emergency
howlin wolf - moanin' at midnight
dillinger escape plan - phone home
boom bip - in the tree top
druha trava - spain
the thermals - a stare like yours
the aeffect - always artificial
j+j+j - jobs that require headphones
taj mahal toumani diabate - tunkaranke
dove rock - designer gasmasks
the velvet underground - heroin
seu jorge - chatterton
metal urbain - anarchy en france
fishbone- party at ground zero
operation ivy - junkies runnin dry
count five - psychotic reaction
arab on radar - mind is a muffler
dr. timothy leary - turn on, tune in, drop out
instruments de musique du monde - cithare sur caisse
fiery furnaces - seven silver curses
juana molina - no es tan cierto
lady sovereign - random
pit er pat - man
messer chups - anton lavey 66.6
ween - transitions
flatt & scruggs - get in line brother
jethro tull - from Rock & Roll circus
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
la bouche
foe the ladies, rom the ladies
frank zappa, john lennon, and the plastic ono band - don't worry kyoko
morcheeba - over and over
dengue fever - lake delores
up the punx? no, these fuckers ain't hardcore no more
the misfits - i turned into a martian
the screamers - i'm a mensch
the bomb - bring the shotgun
motherfuckin geetar
quasar wut-wut - the tramps of taro sound
gordon terry - it ain't right
gogol bordello - 60 revolutions
mf doom breaks up the drudgery of white boy hiphop
snow - drunken styles
blockhead - cents
mf doom - hoe cakes
alienating my audience? only the fuckers
wooden wand & the vanishing voice - not on
elvish presley - water troll
j+j+j - highschool? you mean inverted caste system (feat. magas)
cant's stop the weirdness cold turkey
??? - the munsters theme
the fugs - i saw the best minds of my generation rock
ween - monique the freak
rocque
tom waits - dead and lovely
kinski - fell asleep on your lawn
nellie mckay - if i needed someone
chicago punk black sandwich
articles of faith - wait
blackalicious - lotus flower
the tyrades - dance like a maniac
cool pop shit
the merry go round - missing you
bugskull - recorder
the coctails - road hog
more of the same
the fall - trust in me
the oranges - falling and laughing
harry - you have gone wrong (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
a half hour to jam
mum - awake on a train
yes - heart of the sunrise
shit i burnt this afternoon
elliot smith - a fond farewell
spires that in the sunset rise - ???
sage francis with art official intelligence - can i kick it
just that new shit
ladytron - destroy everything you touch
fiery furnaces - seven silver curses
tralala - all fired up
spaz, post-spaz, euro-spaz
olivera katarina i orkestar - "romalen": usti, usti, babo, o davulja maren (from Balkan Blues)
ruins - celledomi guazto
the gunshy - call me home
arab on radar - god is dad
frank zappa, john lennon, and the plastic ono band - don't worry kyoko
morcheeba - over and over
dengue fever - lake delores
up the punx? no, these fuckers ain't hardcore no more
the misfits - i turned into a martian
the screamers - i'm a mensch
the bomb - bring the shotgun
motherfuckin geetar
quasar wut-wut - the tramps of taro sound
gordon terry - it ain't right
gogol bordello - 60 revolutions
mf doom breaks up the drudgery of white boy hiphop
snow - drunken styles
blockhead - cents
mf doom - hoe cakes
alienating my audience? only the fuckers
wooden wand & the vanishing voice - not on
elvish presley - water troll
j+j+j - highschool? you mean inverted caste system (feat. magas)
cant's stop the weirdness cold turkey
??? - the munsters theme
the fugs - i saw the best minds of my generation rock
ween - monique the freak
rocque
tom waits - dead and lovely
kinski - fell asleep on your lawn
nellie mckay - if i needed someone
chicago punk black sandwich
articles of faith - wait
blackalicious - lotus flower
the tyrades - dance like a maniac
cool pop shit
the merry go round - missing you
bugskull - recorder
the coctails - road hog
more of the same
the fall - trust in me
the oranges - falling and laughing
harry - you have gone wrong (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
a half hour to jam
mum - awake on a train
yes - heart of the sunrise
shit i burnt this afternoon
elliot smith - a fond farewell
spires that in the sunset rise - ???
sage francis with art official intelligence - can i kick it
just that new shit
ladytron - destroy everything you touch
fiery furnaces - seven silver curses
tralala - all fired up
spaz, post-spaz, euro-spaz
olivera katarina i orkestar - "romalen": usti, usti, babo, o davulja maren (from Balkan Blues)
ruins - celledomi guazto
the gunshy - call me home
arab on radar - god is dad
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
motherfuck highway
The themed shows are really working for me at WLUW. This week's theme was electronic and weird shit. It worked pretty well but I probably tested people's patience with the 25 minute long track i started out with. meh
volcano the bear - side two
ladytron - high rise
herbert - bonnie & clyde (from I Heart Serge)
alias w/ markus acher - unseen sights
quintron - latin #
pere ubu - small was fast
(set for my dead spider)
dengue fever - one thousand tears of a tarantula
four tet - glue of the world
pendulum - tarantula
bjork - scatterheart
j+j+j - insomnia is a sleeping disorder
Mr. len, jean grae & the melon bayside high drama club - taco day
ween - boys club
that dog - we must bleed (from a small circle of friends)
flea - media blitz (from a small circle of friends)
wesley willis - rocknroll mcdonalds
mr. bungle - chemical marriage
public enemy - power to the people
syd barrett - wouldn't you miss me (dark globe)
the ex - rara rap
daedalus w/ busdriver - quiet now
the elastik band - spazz
wagon christ/jello biafra -thick stew/machine gun in the clown's hand
frank zappa - i'm the slime
winepress - all for you
public image ltd. - albatross
deerhoof - spirit ditties of no time
operation ivy - hangin out
papa m - sabotage
iggy pop - the passenger
negativland - i still haven't found what i'm lookin for
broken social scene - our faces split the coast in half
nick drake - hazey jane i
adult - in my nerves
captain beefheart and his magic band - abba zabba
diverse - certified
guided by voices - titus and strident wet nurse
the ramones - i wanna sniff some glue
the warlocks - inside outside
gza - auto bio
the typewriter - new mexico
why? - [/earworm]
vic chesnutt - look at me
volcano the bear - side two
ladytron - high rise
herbert - bonnie & clyde (from I Heart Serge)
alias w/ markus acher - unseen sights
quintron - latin #
pere ubu - small was fast
(set for my dead spider)
dengue fever - one thousand tears of a tarantula
four tet - glue of the world
pendulum - tarantula
bjork - scatterheart
j+j+j - insomnia is a sleeping disorder
Mr. len, jean grae & the melon bayside high drama club - taco day
ween - boys club
that dog - we must bleed (from a small circle of friends)
flea - media blitz (from a small circle of friends)
wesley willis - rocknroll mcdonalds
mr. bungle - chemical marriage
public enemy - power to the people
syd barrett - wouldn't you miss me (dark globe)
the ex - rara rap
daedalus w/ busdriver - quiet now
the elastik band - spazz
wagon christ/jello biafra -thick stew/machine gun in the clown's hand
frank zappa - i'm the slime
winepress - all for you
public image ltd. - albatross
deerhoof - spirit ditties of no time
operation ivy - hangin out
papa m - sabotage
iggy pop - the passenger
negativland - i still haven't found what i'm lookin for
broken social scene - our faces split the coast in half
nick drake - hazey jane i
adult - in my nerves
captain beefheart and his magic band - abba zabba
diverse - certified
guided by voices - titus and strident wet nurse
the ramones - i wanna sniff some glue
the warlocks - inside outside
gza - auto bio
the typewriter - new mexico
why? - [/earworm]
vic chesnutt - look at me
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
slip slop
i really needed this. a short 2-hour set and it kicked ass. i meant to play mostly hiphop and love songs but i fell short on the love songs. it felt better than usual sending this set into the stratosphere, Jody Foster Contact-style
doseone - the candle (w/ slug)
dengue fever - tapwater
chicks on speed - sellout
blackalicious - world of vibrations
johnny cash - oh what a dream
heiruspecs - dollar
old no. 8 - somewhere down the line
gogol bordello - mala vida
dizee rascal - girls (w/ marga man)
tub ring - fall back
talking heads - don't worry about the government
busdriver - low flying winged books
black flag - damaged II
pilotdrift - caught <-FUCKING INCREDIBLE!!!
sage francis - crumble
madlib - mystic bounce
the bad plus - rhinoceros is my profession
the bad seeds - doris
ween - freedom of 76
zion i - doin my thing
screeching weasel - johnny are you queer?
sugar & spice - come of over (from 60's Girl Groups comp)
the cows - death in the tall weeds
why? - act five
naked city - heretic 1
Lichens <--left to go to the bathroom, came back and immediately had to fade it cuz it sucked. bad job, mister rob lowe!
the ex and tom cora - dere geliyor dere <--awesome song, great recovery
sole - every single one of us
the jam - the dreams of children
the white noise - firebird
atmosphere - little man
the monks - love came tumblin down
the residents - swastikas on parade
doseone - the candle (w/ slug)
dengue fever - tapwater
chicks on speed - sellout
blackalicious - world of vibrations
johnny cash - oh what a dream
heiruspecs - dollar
old no. 8 - somewhere down the line
gogol bordello - mala vida
dizee rascal - girls (w/ marga man)
tub ring - fall back
talking heads - don't worry about the government
busdriver - low flying winged books
black flag - damaged II
pilotdrift - caught <-FUCKING INCREDIBLE!!!
sage francis - crumble
madlib - mystic bounce
the bad plus - rhinoceros is my profession
the bad seeds - doris
ween - freedom of 76
zion i - doin my thing
screeching weasel - johnny are you queer?
sugar & spice - come of over (from 60's Girl Groups comp)
the cows - death in the tall weeds
why? - act five
naked city - heretic 1
Lichens <--left to go to the bathroom, came back and immediately had to fade it cuz it sucked. bad job, mister rob lowe!
the ex and tom cora - dere geliyor dere <--awesome song, great recovery
sole - every single one of us
the jam - the dreams of children
the white noise - firebird
atmosphere - little man
the monks - love came tumblin down
the residents - swastikas on parade
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Orwellian Truthspeak
Show: Intifada, 30/30, Condenada, Cinder, Hit Me Back, Sin Orden
Where: Bridgeport basement
Cost: $6
Things I missed to be there: Lumpen party at Heaven
Reason I went: Be-all-and-end-all cure for depression
I've been depressed lately, one of those black cloud-on-my-ass, bad roommate-girlfriend-school trouble kind of things. In an attempt to self-medicate, I've upped my poison intake. It's fun to see what new, surreal color I can cough up in the morning but it's otherwise not helping, but I had a plan, and Saturday gave me an opportunity to see it to fruition. Maintain my strict regiment of cheap whiskey and expensive cigarettes, and drag my ass to a hardcore show. It was guaranteed to work.
In my opinion, the best punk comes from outside the country. It's not meant to be some elitist, namedroppy music geek thing; it's just that I love punk rock and I can't stand most punk lyrics. With the exception of a handful of clever bands and a few essential punk anthems, the lyrics are pointless. More often than not they're too preachy, too whiny, or screamed just short of unrecognizable.
That's why I like the Pilsen scene. I can't understand shit. The words could've all been crafted by Leonard Cohen but I don't have to know, and I don't have to be disappointed when they're not.
Tonight's show was in a shoddy house in Bridgeport. It was a typical hardcore crowd, all backpatches and balaclavas. There were a few studded-jacket 77 Kids, a few hawks and a few skins, but not many. Unlike the Northside, there aren't a lot of scenemakers or people looking to hit big. It just is what it is; it's a working class crow and a laid-back scene.
When I got there, 30/30 was just starting. Thrash en espanol. They're a fairly new band, built up of dudes who've been on the scene for a while. The last time I saw them, Junior from Reaccion was filling in on drums. He was a fine punk drummer but wasn't fast enough for what the band was doing. The new guy played like he had extra hands. Swave, their singer is a fucking mountain of a man. He could've taken the basement down on his own if he started swinging. The place seemed too small to support a pit, which meant the pit was fucking incredible.
Everybody was playing that game where they refrained from moving as long as they could, waiting for a catalyst, which came in the form of a short guy in a hoodie who bulldozed headfirst through the crowd room. The room exploded.
The beerspitbloodarmtopus.
The rest of the set was pretty hard, but it didn't hold many surprises (except for the Cubs hat on the bass player - what the fuck was up with that?). I understood maybe two words, barrio and policia, which I used to make my own song, "Policeman in the barrio."
Holeeee SHIT!
That's Mariam. If you go to a lot of shows, you've probably heard her, high pitched and completely at random. She used to be in Human Order and now plays in Condenada and my heart goes aflutter whenever she walks by.
Condenada is one of the best bands in the city. It's definitely the best girl-band. It's four women who play really fast thrash with vocals in English and Spanish. I almost like them as much for what they aren't as for what they are. They're not the Manhandlers, they don't coordinate their otfits, they don't cute it up, they just fucking rock.
As good as 30/30's frummer was, Trish blew him out of the water. Someone busted a pipe on the last song, and the half of the room that could see it froze, waiting to see if steam or refuse would start shooting out through the cracks. It didn't, and they finished the song.
I'd never heard Cinder before, but they should've headlined. They're a skatepunk band from Spain and their set had a fair amount of pogo and thrash thrown in. I bought the 7" split they did with Hit Me Back, the band they were touring with from California (I think). I couldn't tell if it was that I'd just seen three thrash bands in a row or that I subconsciously discriminate against everyone from California, or if they really just weren't as good as the bands that preceded them, but I didn't dig it.
Fat on punk and poison, I left to try and test my luck and ease my pain with a party far too far away. I'm a little down about the bands I missed, Intifada and Sin Orden, the youngest and oldest bands at the show. Intifada opened the show and they're some yound angry dudes, which is, of course what it's all about. Sin Orden have been around for years, but just re-formed this year after a long hiatus and blew me away. They're older and a bit more willing to experiment with things time signatures, slower songs, and hiphop.
The party was too far away. I fell off a deck, and pissed some people off but I managed to kill off a night's worth of memories and buy a new record, so I guess it was worth it.
Double-pluss good.
Where: Bridgeport basement
Cost: $6
Things I missed to be there: Lumpen party at Heaven
Reason I went: Be-all-and-end-all cure for depression
I've been depressed lately, one of those black cloud-on-my-ass, bad roommate-girlfriend-school trouble kind of things. In an attempt to self-medicate, I've upped my poison intake. It's fun to see what new, surreal color I can cough up in the morning but it's otherwise not helping, but I had a plan, and Saturday gave me an opportunity to see it to fruition. Maintain my strict regiment of cheap whiskey and expensive cigarettes, and drag my ass to a hardcore show. It was guaranteed to work.
In my opinion, the best punk comes from outside the country. It's not meant to be some elitist, namedroppy music geek thing; it's just that I love punk rock and I can't stand most punk lyrics. With the exception of a handful of clever bands and a few essential punk anthems, the lyrics are pointless. More often than not they're too preachy, too whiny, or screamed just short of unrecognizable.
That's why I like the Pilsen scene. I can't understand shit. The words could've all been crafted by Leonard Cohen but I don't have to know, and I don't have to be disappointed when they're not.
Tonight's show was in a shoddy house in Bridgeport. It was a typical hardcore crowd, all backpatches and balaclavas. There were a few studded-jacket 77 Kids, a few hawks and a few skins, but not many. Unlike the Northside, there aren't a lot of scenemakers or people looking to hit big. It just is what it is; it's a working class crow and a laid-back scene.
When I got there, 30/30 was just starting. Thrash en espanol. They're a fairly new band, built up of dudes who've been on the scene for a while. The last time I saw them, Junior from Reaccion was filling in on drums. He was a fine punk drummer but wasn't fast enough for what the band was doing. The new guy played like he had extra hands. Swave, their singer is a fucking mountain of a man. He could've taken the basement down on his own if he started swinging. The place seemed too small to support a pit, which meant the pit was fucking incredible.
Everybody was playing that game where they refrained from moving as long as they could, waiting for a catalyst, which came in the form of a short guy in a hoodie who bulldozed headfirst through the crowd room. The room exploded.
The beerspitbloodarmtopus.
The rest of the set was pretty hard, but it didn't hold many surprises (except for the Cubs hat on the bass player - what the fuck was up with that?). I understood maybe two words, barrio and policia, which I used to make my own song, "Policeman in the barrio."
Holeeee SHIT!
That's Mariam. If you go to a lot of shows, you've probably heard her, high pitched and completely at random. She used to be in Human Order and now plays in Condenada and my heart goes aflutter whenever she walks by.
Condenada is one of the best bands in the city. It's definitely the best girl-band. It's four women who play really fast thrash with vocals in English and Spanish. I almost like them as much for what they aren't as for what they are. They're not the Manhandlers, they don't coordinate their otfits, they don't cute it up, they just fucking rock.
As good as 30/30's frummer was, Trish blew him out of the water. Someone busted a pipe on the last song, and the half of the room that could see it froze, waiting to see if steam or refuse would start shooting out through the cracks. It didn't, and they finished the song.
I'd never heard Cinder before, but they should've headlined. They're a skatepunk band from Spain and their set had a fair amount of pogo and thrash thrown in. I bought the 7" split they did with Hit Me Back, the band they were touring with from California (I think). I couldn't tell if it was that I'd just seen three thrash bands in a row or that I subconsciously discriminate against everyone from California, or if they really just weren't as good as the bands that preceded them, but I didn't dig it.
Fat on punk and poison, I left to try and test my luck and ease my pain with a party far too far away. I'm a little down about the bands I missed, Intifada and Sin Orden, the youngest and oldest bands at the show. Intifada opened the show and they're some yound angry dudes, which is, of course what it's all about. Sin Orden have been around for years, but just re-formed this year after a long hiatus and blew me away. They're older and a bit more willing to experiment with things time signatures, slower songs, and hiphop.
The party was too far away. I fell off a deck, and pissed some people off but I managed to kill off a night's worth of memories and buy a new record, so I guess it was worth it.
Double-pluss good.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
help!
I'm trying to drink as much soda I can and write a paper at the same time. The show is suffering. I feel like I'm creating bad karma. I apologize, 2 - 6 am listeners. You will be avenged.
tom waits - dead and lovely
brzowski - live at the lesson
clap your hands say yeah - the skin of my yellow country teeth
the bomb - the western world (this is a shitty song)
l'amico di martucci - invierno y verano
guitar wolf - rock de kerose
pivot foots - coffin nail symphon # 1
fellini - teu ingles
kukl - a mutual thrill
delia gonzalez & gavin russom - black spring
jane's addiction - so what
Dr. Dog - easy beat
new duncan imperials - mystery date
atmosphere - say hey there
kraftwerk - die mensch-maschine
the walkie talkies - son of sam
claire lynch - children of abraham
the monks - monk time
snooks eaglin - one scotch, one bourbon, one beer
broken spindles - burn my body
NEU! - Super 78
Klaus Nomi - Wasting My Time
At the Drive-In - Napoleon Solo
Mutantes - Oh! Muhner Infiel
The Stranglers - Outside Tokyo
The Mohawks - Beat Me Til I'm Blue
Captain Beefheart - Moonlight on Vermont
Tortoise - Stretch (You're All Right)
Deerhoof - Rrrrright
Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes - Benny's Nightmare
the Joggers - Era Prison
Brazilian Girls - Lazy Lover EP trk 2
Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles
Japancakes - Westworld
Matt Pond PA - Halloween
Phantom Cowboys - Voodoo Bunnies
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
Konono no. 1 - Mama Liza
Snapcase - Make Us Blind
Echo & the Bunnymen - Stormy Weather
The Ex - Keep on Hoppin
The Nerve Speech - God is Alive
The Creatures - Slipping Away
Why? - Act Five (I will keep playing this song until the station moves it out of my sight)
Tom Waits - Shake It
OOIOO - emeraldragonfly (fuck up ejection)/I'm a Song
Roxy Music - The Bogus Man
tom waits - dead and lovely
brzowski - live at the lesson
clap your hands say yeah - the skin of my yellow country teeth
the bomb - the western world (this is a shitty song)
l'amico di martucci - invierno y verano
guitar wolf - rock de kerose
pivot foots - coffin nail symphon # 1
fellini - teu ingles
kukl - a mutual thrill
delia gonzalez & gavin russom - black spring
jane's addiction - so what
Dr. Dog - easy beat
new duncan imperials - mystery date
atmosphere - say hey there
kraftwerk - die mensch-maschine
the walkie talkies - son of sam
claire lynch - children of abraham
the monks - monk time
snooks eaglin - one scotch, one bourbon, one beer
broken spindles - burn my body
NEU! - Super 78
Klaus Nomi - Wasting My Time
At the Drive-In - Napoleon Solo
Mutantes - Oh! Muhner Infiel
The Stranglers - Outside Tokyo
The Mohawks - Beat Me Til I'm Blue
Captain Beefheart - Moonlight on Vermont
Tortoise - Stretch (You're All Right)
Deerhoof - Rrrrright
Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes - Benny's Nightmare
the Joggers - Era Prison
Brazilian Girls - Lazy Lover EP trk 2
Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles
Japancakes - Westworld
Matt Pond PA - Halloween
Phantom Cowboys - Voodoo Bunnies
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
Konono no. 1 - Mama Liza
Snapcase - Make Us Blind
Echo & the Bunnymen - Stormy Weather
The Ex - Keep on Hoppin
The Nerve Speech - God is Alive
The Creatures - Slipping Away
Why? - Act Five (I will keep playing this song until the station moves it out of my sight)
Tom Waits - Shake It
OOIOO - emeraldragonfly (fuck up ejection)/I'm a Song
Roxy Music - The Bogus Man
cock crazed and face glazed
Show: Gays in the Military, Panicsville, Bloodyminded, Vertonen, Sixes, and 16 bitch Pil Up
Venue: the Empty Bottle
Placess I'd otherwise be: Delilah's with old roommates, Carol's with Brandon
Reason I went: hadn't seen a show in a few days
Price: beer
"This goes out to our quickly diminishing Northside fans" - Bloodyminded
When puks don't die young like they're supposed to, they have three options:
1. become noise enthusiasts
2. become country enthusiasts
3. grow old and sell out
Tonight at the noise show, I saw a lot of faces I don't see sweating it out in basements anymore. One of the fun things about noise, that also applies to performance art, orgies and really good raves, is that you'll see them portrayed in movies and tv shows and it's always taken to such an absurd degee that you go "Oh cmon!". Over and over again, when I see someone slapping themselves with raw meat or a mountain of coke at some casual party, I'll turn my nose up, thinking they're just laying it on way too damn thick. Then I'll go out and see it. I don't know if it's art imitating life or life imitating art or trash imitating trash or what, but the Empty Bottle was a fun place to be tonight.
The first band was Gays in the Military, who erred on the side of trying too hard, but put on an immensely fun show. They looked like a fagged-out version of every film I've ever seen about Vietnam. There were army helmets, cutoff shorts, tie-dyed bandanas and camouflage butterfly wings. They had a handful of dancers including two women in plaid skirts and roller skates, one in a rubber, sexy police officver costume, and one wrapped in nothing but fringe, who flopped around like a caught fish (after the set, she changed into a tasteful cocktail dress).
So you had your screaming, you had your sonic guitars, your synth freakout, your tits and your Velcro Lewis guest vocals, it's the Empty Bottle so nobody's venturing a few feet forward to join the dancers; the show still needs something, so out comes the Porn Fairy, a bikini clad vixen in a plastic Peter Pan mask with a sack full of smut. I guess I wasn't naughty or nice enough for the good shit, 'cause while other people are gettin 'Young Live Girls', 'The Women of Starbucks' and some straight up DVDA shit, I get "Scorched" a straight-to-video heist flick starring Alicia Silverstone and John Cleese. Maybe she'll show her tits. It is Rosh Hashana, after all.
By the end of the set, one of the rollergirls was flashing one of the biggest pairs of tits I'd ever seen while the hot-cop beat them with a plastic nightstick, the Porn Fairy was riding the girl in the netting like a mule and the dancer with the bad wig had unleashed a dozen light-up bouncy-balls in full seizure-inducing splendor. The band was doing some cool shit too but by this point, it was just background. See them.
When Panicsville pulled out a table with a couple of children's toys, an old fashioned alarm clock, and literally dozens of pedals with hundreds of cords snaking around them, I just about came. I cannot believe hat in twelve years of Panicsville and nine years of going to shows I've never seen them. From what I've heard, this was one of their tamer sets.
The set (a full set consisting of maybe three songs) had was real percussive. At one point, Andy Ortmann was shaking a miked saucepan full of gravel and it sounded like an earthquake, an avalanche, just the fucking end of the world. Good stuff. Go see them.
The third band was Bloodyminded. I saw them play at Enemy a month or two ago but they weren't my thing. Everything they did seemed boring and cliched. The singer talked longer than the duration of the songs which themselves were only distinguishable by length. It seemed like typical wall of noise shit. I was surprised it took more than one person, but the crowd went completely apeshit over it, so I probably just don't get it.
"Give ush zee money Lebowshki!" This came courtesy of their biggest fan/drunken heckler. I don't like to get hung up on how bands look, but these guys really did look like Nihilists/German industrial band from "the Big Lebowski," all black and black-leather. The singer, lean and bald with a couple earrings and maybe a hint of eyeliner looked like every picture of every neo-Nazi I'd ever been shown as a child. Not that he was, that's just what I got from it. There nothing even wrong with looking like a Nazi. He just seemed so movie-perfectly so. See this band, and tell me what I'm missing.
"That was Bloodyminded, and next up is Yo La Tengo." Thank you drunken heckler. You rock.
Next up were the Sixes, Vertonen, and 16 Bitch Pile-Up. Unfortunately, I had to leave a hair before midnight to make it to the radio show and missed them all. Hopefully, I'jll get to see them next time. Good night, and l'shana tova.
Venue: the Empty Bottle
Placess I'd otherwise be: Delilah's with old roommates, Carol's with Brandon
Reason I went: hadn't seen a show in a few days
Price: beer
"This goes out to our quickly diminishing Northside fans" - Bloodyminded
When puks don't die young like they're supposed to, they have three options:
1. become noise enthusiasts
2. become country enthusiasts
3. grow old and sell out
Tonight at the noise show, I saw a lot of faces I don't see sweating it out in basements anymore. One of the fun things about noise, that also applies to performance art, orgies and really good raves, is that you'll see them portrayed in movies and tv shows and it's always taken to such an absurd degee that you go "Oh cmon!". Over and over again, when I see someone slapping themselves with raw meat or a mountain of coke at some casual party, I'll turn my nose up, thinking they're just laying it on way too damn thick. Then I'll go out and see it. I don't know if it's art imitating life or life imitating art or trash imitating trash or what, but the Empty Bottle was a fun place to be tonight.
The first band was Gays in the Military, who erred on the side of trying too hard, but put on an immensely fun show. They looked like a fagged-out version of every film I've ever seen about Vietnam. There were army helmets, cutoff shorts, tie-dyed bandanas and camouflage butterfly wings. They had a handful of dancers including two women in plaid skirts and roller skates, one in a rubber, sexy police officver costume, and one wrapped in nothing but fringe, who flopped around like a caught fish (after the set, she changed into a tasteful cocktail dress).
So you had your screaming, you had your sonic guitars, your synth freakout, your tits and your Velcro Lewis guest vocals, it's the Empty Bottle so nobody's venturing a few feet forward to join the dancers; the show still needs something, so out comes the Porn Fairy, a bikini clad vixen in a plastic Peter Pan mask with a sack full of smut. I guess I wasn't naughty or nice enough for the good shit, 'cause while other people are gettin 'Young Live Girls', 'The Women of Starbucks' and some straight up DVDA shit, I get "Scorched" a straight-to-video heist flick starring Alicia Silverstone and John Cleese. Maybe she'll show her tits. It is Rosh Hashana, after all.
By the end of the set, one of the rollergirls was flashing one of the biggest pairs of tits I'd ever seen while the hot-cop beat them with a plastic nightstick, the Porn Fairy was riding the girl in the netting like a mule and the dancer with the bad wig had unleashed a dozen light-up bouncy-balls in full seizure-inducing splendor. The band was doing some cool shit too but by this point, it was just background. See them.
When Panicsville pulled out a table with a couple of children's toys, an old fashioned alarm clock, and literally dozens of pedals with hundreds of cords snaking around them, I just about came. I cannot believe hat in twelve years of Panicsville and nine years of going to shows I've never seen them. From what I've heard, this was one of their tamer sets.
The set (a full set consisting of maybe three songs) had was real percussive. At one point, Andy Ortmann was shaking a miked saucepan full of gravel and it sounded like an earthquake, an avalanche, just the fucking end of the world. Good stuff. Go see them.
The third band was Bloodyminded. I saw them play at Enemy a month or two ago but they weren't my thing. Everything they did seemed boring and cliched. The singer talked longer than the duration of the songs which themselves were only distinguishable by length. It seemed like typical wall of noise shit. I was surprised it took more than one person, but the crowd went completely apeshit over it, so I probably just don't get it.
"Give ush zee money Lebowshki!" This came courtesy of their biggest fan/drunken heckler. I don't like to get hung up on how bands look, but these guys really did look like Nihilists/German industrial band from "the Big Lebowski," all black and black-leather. The singer, lean and bald with a couple earrings and maybe a hint of eyeliner looked like every picture of every neo-Nazi I'd ever been shown as a child. Not that he was, that's just what I got from it. There nothing even wrong with looking like a Nazi. He just seemed so movie-perfectly so. See this band, and tell me what I'm missing.
"That was Bloodyminded, and next up is Yo La Tengo." Thank you drunken heckler. You rock.
Next up were the Sixes, Vertonen, and 16 Bitch Pile-Up. Unfortunately, I had to leave a hair before midnight to make it to the radio show and missed them all. Hopefully, I'jll get to see them next time. Good night, and l'shana tova.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
in a metaindustrial mood
This was one of my better shows in a while. I was in a really noisy mood that gave way to a need for industrial I haven't had in a while. I did a few rounds of punk from around the world which I like a lot (especially if I can get a multitude of languages in too)
ROUND ONE
the nips - all the time in the world (Ireland)
the ex - lied der steinklopfer (Holland)
naked raygun - system (Chicago)
mohammed rafi - jaan pehechaan ho
aesop rock - holy smokes
golem - mito
pantyraid - i wanna be your tiger
adam green - he's the brat
kompressor - represent
radio berlin - eyes like lenses
bunny brains - drugs no way
dadbot - free cake
general elektriks - facing that void
m.i.a. - pull up the people
cidinho & doca - cidade
nitzer ebb - join in the chant
andrew bird - banking on a myth
veronica lipgloss and the evil eyes - strip mall glass
roxy music - do the strand
paint line plane - open yr midnight
bgoom bip - soft & open
ROUND TWO
bad brains - fearless vampire killers (DC hardcore)
articles of faith - in this life (Chicago Hardcore)
television - friction (CBGB-era guitar hero NY punk)
the groovie ghoulies - the lost generation (Chicago pop-punk)
x-ray spex - germfree adolescents (First-Wave UK Punk)
tin hat trio - willow weep for me
mwc - certain fate
petra haden - i can see for miles
the clash - brand new cadillac
jello biafra w/ the melvins - enchanted thoughtfist
pedestrian - toss & turn
nouvelle vague - friday night, saturday morning
chai muasing - ghosts come and go
muddy waters - got my mojo workin
johnny cash - cocaine blues
the gossip - sleepers
devil in a woodpile - long way from home
ukrainians - cherez richku cherechay
rjd2 - exotic talk
defacto - fingertrap
why? - act five
dangermouse & jemini - track 1 (26" EP)
bullfrog feat. kid koala - reverse psychology
puffy amiyumi - tomodachi
robyn hitchcock & the Egyptians - vibrating
cex - get in yr squads
negativland - i still haven't found what i'm looking for
morissey - i have forgiven jesus
wolsheim - a million miles
roxy music - in every dream home a heartache
pest - cous cous
m83 - i'm happy she said
acid mothers temple - la le lo
ROUND ONE
the nips - all the time in the world (Ireland)
the ex - lied der steinklopfer (Holland)
naked raygun - system (Chicago)
mohammed rafi - jaan pehechaan ho
aesop rock - holy smokes
golem - mito
pantyraid - i wanna be your tiger
adam green - he's the brat
kompressor - represent
radio berlin - eyes like lenses
bunny brains - drugs no way
dadbot - free cake
general elektriks - facing that void
m.i.a. - pull up the people
cidinho & doca - cidade
nitzer ebb - join in the chant
andrew bird - banking on a myth
veronica lipgloss and the evil eyes - strip mall glass
roxy music - do the strand
paint line plane - open yr midnight
bgoom bip - soft & open
ROUND TWO
bad brains - fearless vampire killers (DC hardcore)
articles of faith - in this life (Chicago Hardcore)
television - friction (CBGB-era guitar hero NY punk)
the groovie ghoulies - the lost generation (Chicago pop-punk)
x-ray spex - germfree adolescents (First-Wave UK Punk)
tin hat trio - willow weep for me
mwc - certain fate
petra haden - i can see for miles
the clash - brand new cadillac
jello biafra w/ the melvins - enchanted thoughtfist
pedestrian - toss & turn
nouvelle vague - friday night, saturday morning
chai muasing - ghosts come and go
muddy waters - got my mojo workin
johnny cash - cocaine blues
the gossip - sleepers
devil in a woodpile - long way from home
ukrainians - cherez richku cherechay
rjd2 - exotic talk
defacto - fingertrap
why? - act five
dangermouse & jemini - track 1 (26" EP)
bullfrog feat. kid koala - reverse psychology
puffy amiyumi - tomodachi
robyn hitchcock & the Egyptians - vibrating
cex - get in yr squads
negativland - i still haven't found what i'm looking for
morissey - i have forgiven jesus
wolsheim - a million miles
roxy music - in every dream home a heartache
pest - cous cous
m83 - i'm happy she said
acid mothers temple - la le lo
Sunday, September 25, 2005
the greatest show on urf
Show: the John Cage Musicircus
Location: the Museum of Contemporary Art
Cost: free
Things I missed to see it: The Rats at the South Side Punk Haus, Black Bear Combo and Quasaar Wut-Wut at the Darkroom (which happened much later but I was still fucking exhausted)
Dan Flavin's work explores color and space. Living space. In his current exhibit, he arranges colored fluorescents in different ways to completely transform rooms of the MCA. One room is entirely red, with a small prism behind the tube lights. Another is the same green you get from gas station bathrooms. It puts your head in a weird place. In the green room, there's a guy, an older gothindustrial cat licking a small plane of glass and rearranging the saliva with his tongue. On the floor, a grad student is making tick-marks in his sketch pad each time the guy flicks his tongue across the plane. This is the kinda shit that makes steam come outta Republican's ears. There was a little boy, a two-foot, blonde apple-cheeked thing standing at the top of the stairs. He was licking the air, mimicking the old man's movements. There's no way his parents are gonna be able to get him to stop for weeks. The sheer fact that a single American tax-dollar might be going towards something like this gives the GOP nightmares.
Today is the greatest fucking day of the year. Over a hundred musicians and performance artists converging on the MCA for the John Cage Musicircus. A free day of all things art, following a tradition started nearly forty years ago by composer John Cage. All of the Chicago stalwarts were there. At the start of the event, Environmental Encroachment was doing their funk-clown-marching band act on a ledge above the stairs. If you haven't seen them, you should. For the past six years they have been bar-none my favorite band to see live in the city. The original concept was that their concerts would be full stories, incorporating rhythm, music, tribal dance and theater into shows with a moral. "Tofishy vs. Squidbot" was about the perils genetically engineering food and was just about the greatest thing I've ever seen.
Inside, Terry Plumming zine and Princess were providing the noise. The Columbia College Vocal Ensemble were performing alongside some fierce djembe players; cheerleaders enticed you into a side room to chant along with men in alien jumpsuits; a woman dressed as Salvador Dali stuck handlebar moustaches to your face and drew your portrait on a post-it; a theorist wrote page after page on donated concepts, homemade instruments abounded: something that looked like a harp but wasn't, a man played a metal goblet with a bow, mic-ed through a host of effects; at least two theremin players courted spaceships and made me smile ear-to-ear; the big bad wolf gave Rorshack tests on a seesaw, and Insect Deli, in Ace bandages and underwear drew all the flashbulbs in the room her way. I couldn't even find some of the acts I was looking for, like Radiant Darling or a jazz group doing a full set of Zappa freakout.
When I ran into Rotten Milk in the mens room, he told me that this was the first time in years the MCA acted like it actually cared about the Chicago community. The last time was probably back when they did the all night jam on the solstice. Every facet of art in Chicago was covered and it spanned generations. Back in the day the place was packed. My friends' parents would dance to Brazilian music on the terrace out back, and come back the next morning for tai chi. Motherfuckers would get high in corners and stairwells and crash out watching the Video Ape and the TV Cowboy play short films in the theater. Redmoon turned the entire facade of the building into a two-story shadow puppet show. It was one of those magical evenings where nothing could go wrong.
Then it all got fucked up. Originally, they had only asked for a donation of two canned goods. Then, a few years ago, they changed it without realy warning people. They set up tables to collect the bags of cans people brought in for admission, and charged them anyway. I remember at one point, everyone I'd ever met was gathered in the park across the street trading forties and blunts. Gen Schock was drawing hand stamps on everyone with a Sharpie and the place filled up fast. There was a lull around 3 and I left to get some food. This is the conversation I heard on the redline.
Gangbanger: Hey, where's that party, where's that party at?
CTA Person: Excuse me?
Gangbanger: That party, that party at... the motherfuckin Art Institute and shit
So things got fucked up. A lot of the walls got tagged on and a fight broke out. I forget which photographer showed up that night (an older European guy who took aerial shots of raves and stock exchanges and made kaleidescopic mural prints of them) took a picture of blood dripping down one of his photos after this cat threw a bottle. That was the last one, it was the same year that Redmoon had top stop doing their Logan Square Halloween spectacle for similar reasons. It would be nice to think that the MCA may be able to pick up that torch again. And hopefully they could keep their shit together next time.
Location: the Museum of Contemporary Art
Cost: free
Things I missed to see it: The Rats at the South Side Punk Haus, Black Bear Combo and Quasaar Wut-Wut at the Darkroom (which happened much later but I was still fucking exhausted)
Dan Flavin's work explores color and space. Living space. In his current exhibit, he arranges colored fluorescents in different ways to completely transform rooms of the MCA. One room is entirely red, with a small prism behind the tube lights. Another is the same green you get from gas station bathrooms. It puts your head in a weird place. In the green room, there's a guy, an older gothindustrial cat licking a small plane of glass and rearranging the saliva with his tongue. On the floor, a grad student is making tick-marks in his sketch pad each time the guy flicks his tongue across the plane. This is the kinda shit that makes steam come outta Republican's ears. There was a little boy, a two-foot, blonde apple-cheeked thing standing at the top of the stairs. He was licking the air, mimicking the old man's movements. There's no way his parents are gonna be able to get him to stop for weeks. The sheer fact that a single American tax-dollar might be going towards something like this gives the GOP nightmares.
Today is the greatest fucking day of the year. Over a hundred musicians and performance artists converging on the MCA for the John Cage Musicircus. A free day of all things art, following a tradition started nearly forty years ago by composer John Cage. All of the Chicago stalwarts were there. At the start of the event, Environmental Encroachment was doing their funk-clown-marching band act on a ledge above the stairs. If you haven't seen them, you should. For the past six years they have been bar-none my favorite band to see live in the city. The original concept was that their concerts would be full stories, incorporating rhythm, music, tribal dance and theater into shows with a moral. "Tofishy vs. Squidbot" was about the perils genetically engineering food and was just about the greatest thing I've ever seen.
Inside, Terry Plumming zine and Princess were providing the noise. The Columbia College Vocal Ensemble were performing alongside some fierce djembe players; cheerleaders enticed you into a side room to chant along with men in alien jumpsuits; a woman dressed as Salvador Dali stuck handlebar moustaches to your face and drew your portrait on a post-it; a theorist wrote page after page on donated concepts, homemade instruments abounded: something that looked like a harp but wasn't, a man played a metal goblet with a bow, mic-ed through a host of effects; at least two theremin players courted spaceships and made me smile ear-to-ear; the big bad wolf gave Rorshack tests on a seesaw, and Insect Deli, in Ace bandages and underwear drew all the flashbulbs in the room her way. I couldn't even find some of the acts I was looking for, like Radiant Darling or a jazz group doing a full set of Zappa freakout.
When I ran into Rotten Milk in the mens room, he told me that this was the first time in years the MCA acted like it actually cared about the Chicago community. The last time was probably back when they did the all night jam on the solstice. Every facet of art in Chicago was covered and it spanned generations. Back in the day the place was packed. My friends' parents would dance to Brazilian music on the terrace out back, and come back the next morning for tai chi. Motherfuckers would get high in corners and stairwells and crash out watching the Video Ape and the TV Cowboy play short films in the theater. Redmoon turned the entire facade of the building into a two-story shadow puppet show. It was one of those magical evenings where nothing could go wrong.
Then it all got fucked up. Originally, they had only asked for a donation of two canned goods. Then, a few years ago, they changed it without realy warning people. They set up tables to collect the bags of cans people brought in for admission, and charged them anyway. I remember at one point, everyone I'd ever met was gathered in the park across the street trading forties and blunts. Gen Schock was drawing hand stamps on everyone with a Sharpie and the place filled up fast. There was a lull around 3 and I left to get some food. This is the conversation I heard on the redline.
Gangbanger: Hey, where's that party, where's that party at?
CTA Person: Excuse me?
Gangbanger: That party, that party at... the motherfuckin Art Institute and shit
So things got fucked up. A lot of the walls got tagged on and a fight broke out. I forget which photographer showed up that night (an older European guy who took aerial shots of raves and stock exchanges and made kaleidescopic mural prints of them) took a picture of blood dripping down one of his photos after this cat threw a bottle. That was the last one, it was the same year that Redmoon had top stop doing their Logan Square Halloween spectacle for similar reasons. It would be nice to think that the MCA may be able to pick up that torch again. And hopefully they could keep their shit together next time.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Millions of Dead Clubs
Bands: Raining Bricks, Chronic Seizure, IATTACK, Millions of Dead Cops
Venue: the Bottom Lounge
Things I missed to be there: Black Bear Combo at a gallery, the Herc variety hour with Lord of the Yum Yum and Rotten Milk
Reason I went: I needed to go to a good punk show after missing them for weeks
Price: $8
My father and I were talking about all the geezer punk acts doing reunion tours.
"If I was a young punk, and I saw one of these assholes touring again I'd pull them off the stage and fucking piss on em." I know, my Dad's a charming fellow. "When the first wave hit, they were pissin' on the Who for being bloated and old, and out of touch and they were only fucking thirty, and now these asholes are doing reunions?"
I'm not sure if I agree. A lot of these bands are just doing what they love to do, supporting the local youth scene wherever they go and generally organizing the community. ome of these guys are diehards, they didn't think they'd live this long so they didn't think to stop. They're keepers of the faith. But then, some are just in it to make a quick buck off some half-hit they had, butching about Raegan.
Either way, this is a good weekend for dinosaur punk. On Saturday, the Effigies are playing at the Note; on Monday, the Exploited are playing the Double Door, and tonight MDC played the Bottom Lounge. I don't like seeing shows at any of those places but for some reason I hate the Bottom Lounge the most. I can't say why, if it's the vibe or the drink prices or the crowd or what, but I pretty much refuse to pay for shows there. The CTA is grabbing the land and shutting down the Bottom Lounge. They plan to reopen in a location in the West Loop early next year, which could be awesome in that the Bottom Lounge would be the Southernmost big concert venue in the city, or it would just bring the same kind of suck further South.
Tonight, though...Millions of Dead Cops. Perhaps the greatest name in punk rock since Flux of Pink Indians. I missed the first band, Raining Bricks, but got there just in time for Chronic Seizure, a pretty by-the-book hardcore act featuring members of the Repos and the Rat Bastards. They didn't do anything for me but they did a pretty hot Angry Samoans cover towards the end of their set.
The third band was IATTACK, a skate punk band from the Pilsen/Little Village scene. Unlike a lot of their peers, they're pretty fairly apolitical. The only thing I can say bad about them is that they have a truly Hispanic sense of time. No, you can't be offended by that. I've seen a number of their sets cut short because one or more members of the band were missing by showtime. Their set was generously fifteen minutes long and fierce. They played five or six songs, ended with their theme song, and spent about the same time they spent on stage tearing down their set.
Millions of Dead Cops came out of Austin in 1981, and had all their original members on board for their 25th anniversary tour. After the first few songs I started to think that maybe my father was right. Unlike other old punks I've seen recently, like the Subhumans, the Damned, and Riistetyt, they haven't spent the last two decades mastering their instruments. It just wasn't that good. There was a medley of songs about dead cops, which was pretty entertaining, but it wasn't until they played a straight-up rockabilly song that I really gave a shit. Their punk songs sounded as raw as they ever did, and not half as good as they do on record, but the motherfuckers can play a country song. They played a set full of their own, erm... hits, like "John Wayne was a Nazi" and everyone went nuts. The Bottom Lounge turned on a light that illuminated the pit, and it really got the kids off and they went wild.
In the end, I got really drunk and really into it and then the Bottom Lounge kicked us out because they suck and it was an early show and they needed to let in all the Lucero fans.
Venue: the Bottom Lounge
Things I missed to be there: Black Bear Combo at a gallery, the Herc variety hour with Lord of the Yum Yum and Rotten Milk
Reason I went: I needed to go to a good punk show after missing them for weeks
Price: $8
My father and I were talking about all the geezer punk acts doing reunion tours.
"If I was a young punk, and I saw one of these assholes touring again I'd pull them off the stage and fucking piss on em." I know, my Dad's a charming fellow. "When the first wave hit, they were pissin' on the Who for being bloated and old, and out of touch and they were only fucking thirty, and now these asholes are doing reunions?"
I'm not sure if I agree. A lot of these bands are just doing what they love to do, supporting the local youth scene wherever they go and generally organizing the community. ome of these guys are diehards, they didn't think they'd live this long so they didn't think to stop. They're keepers of the faith. But then, some are just in it to make a quick buck off some half-hit they had, butching about Raegan.
Either way, this is a good weekend for dinosaur punk. On Saturday, the Effigies are playing at the Note; on Monday, the Exploited are playing the Double Door, and tonight MDC played the Bottom Lounge. I don't like seeing shows at any of those places but for some reason I hate the Bottom Lounge the most. I can't say why, if it's the vibe or the drink prices or the crowd or what, but I pretty much refuse to pay for shows there. The CTA is grabbing the land and shutting down the Bottom Lounge. They plan to reopen in a location in the West Loop early next year, which could be awesome in that the Bottom Lounge would be the Southernmost big concert venue in the city, or it would just bring the same kind of suck further South.
Tonight, though...Millions of Dead Cops. Perhaps the greatest name in punk rock since Flux of Pink Indians. I missed the first band, Raining Bricks, but got there just in time for Chronic Seizure, a pretty by-the-book hardcore act featuring members of the Repos and the Rat Bastards. They didn't do anything for me but they did a pretty hot Angry Samoans cover towards the end of their set.
The third band was IATTACK, a skate punk band from the Pilsen/Little Village scene. Unlike a lot of their peers, they're pretty fairly apolitical. The only thing I can say bad about them is that they have a truly Hispanic sense of time. No, you can't be offended by that. I've seen a number of their sets cut short because one or more members of the band were missing by showtime. Their set was generously fifteen minutes long and fierce. They played five or six songs, ended with their theme song, and spent about the same time they spent on stage tearing down their set.
Millions of Dead Cops came out of Austin in 1981, and had all their original members on board for their 25th anniversary tour. After the first few songs I started to think that maybe my father was right. Unlike other old punks I've seen recently, like the Subhumans, the Damned, and Riistetyt, they haven't spent the last two decades mastering their instruments. It just wasn't that good. There was a medley of songs about dead cops, which was pretty entertaining, but it wasn't until they played a straight-up rockabilly song that I really gave a shit. Their punk songs sounded as raw as they ever did, and not half as good as they do on record, but the motherfuckers can play a country song. They played a set full of their own, erm... hits, like "John Wayne was a Nazi" and everyone went nuts. The Bottom Lounge turned on a light that illuminated the pit, and it really got the kids off and they went wild.
In the end, I got really drunk and really into it and then the Bottom Lounge kicked us out because they suck and it was an early show and they needed to let in all the Lucero fans.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
the only man in chicago who hates babydolls as much as billy roberts
The Mutiny was the first bar I legally drank at. One Last Walk was playing their first show in a while there on my 21st birthday and John promised a half pitcher of whiskey. That night, Mike the Midget did a full standup act during what must have been the longest string change in history.
I love the Mutiny. Nothing ever goes right there. Last time I was there, the Wanderers were playing with Second Story Collapse. Andy , the Wanderers' singer, got really pissed because his drummer didn't show up. They tried to play with SSC's drummer but it ended up with Andy doin song after song of GG Allin covers the band didn't really know, with his nutsack pulled through his jeans.
Tonight was Fast Fast 45 and There Must Be Others, two bands apparently on the verge of merging. Fast Fast 45 was a two-piece that played straight-up rock. They didn't prepare for the show, their first in a while, but it came out decent. Bryan, who's among the better guitarists I've seen in the city, was doing a par job keeping the beat, while Briton was pulling some Lou Reed affectations with some touches of late-seventies CBGB Television-style yowling. They did a short set and Bryan stormed out, pissed off.
Fun.
There Must Be Others, now a one-piece, took the stage. This band was great, especially for their third show and third line-up. The band had gone from a trendy moog-driven synthnoise outfit to a thing of weirdness. Brian Other looks starved and crazy when he comes out on stage, with wild, thinning hair and bugged out eyes. He started with what he said was a Lionel Ritchie cover: "I'm Sorry For Unleashing the Horror that is my Daughter onto the unsuspecting Populace."
The song was played by a babydoll in a blender, on different settings and ended abruptly as the doll caught fire and filled the room with noxious gas and smoke. For the rest of the set, he played guitar and sang through a host of effects. The show had a real King Missile quality to it, at least until my girlfriend started getting nauseous from the fumes and we had to leave.
I love the Mutiny. Nothing ever goes right there. Last time I was there, the Wanderers were playing with Second Story Collapse. Andy , the Wanderers' singer, got really pissed because his drummer didn't show up. They tried to play with SSC's drummer but it ended up with Andy doin song after song of GG Allin covers the band didn't really know, with his nutsack pulled through his jeans.
Tonight was Fast Fast 45 and There Must Be Others, two bands apparently on the verge of merging. Fast Fast 45 was a two-piece that played straight-up rock. They didn't prepare for the show, their first in a while, but it came out decent. Bryan, who's among the better guitarists I've seen in the city, was doing a par job keeping the beat, while Briton was pulling some Lou Reed affectations with some touches of late-seventies CBGB Television-style yowling. They did a short set and Bryan stormed out, pissed off.
Fun.
There Must Be Others, now a one-piece, took the stage. This band was great, especially for their third show and third line-up. The band had gone from a trendy moog-driven synthnoise outfit to a thing of weirdness. Brian Other looks starved and crazy when he comes out on stage, with wild, thinning hair and bugged out eyes. He started with what he said was a Lionel Ritchie cover: "I'm Sorry For Unleashing the Horror that is my Daughter onto the unsuspecting Populace."
The song was played by a babydoll in a blender, on different settings and ended abruptly as the doll caught fire and filled the room with noxious gas and smoke. For the rest of the set, he played guitar and sang through a host of effects. The show had a real King Missile quality to it, at least until my girlfriend started getting nauseous from the fumes and we had to leave.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Dear RiotFest 2005,
Dear Riot Fest 2005,
You know that Minutemen song where Mike Watt goes like, "Punk rock saved my life"? Fuck yeah, Man. It's the same way right fuckin here with me. When I was younger I was aimless, adrift in a sea of gangster rap and radio metal. Then along came punk. It had always been there but it took thirteen long years for it to find its way to me. Without it, I'd surely be dead now.
Sure, I wasn't nothin better with it than I was before, just a vandal scumbag takin money from my parents an' tryin to cum on things but I had FOCUS. I truly believe in the transformative powers of punk rock. I am glad that your festival is bringing back bands like the Dead Kennedys and the Germs that even I never got to see. Punk is a young man's game and most of the kids have never been exposed to bands like this in a live setting because either their singers went and overdosed a couple decades ago or they're embroiled in contract disputes with the rest of their bandmates or because they're irrelevent dinosaurs who haven't written a song since Reagan left office.
None of that shit'll matter, though, once that guy from ER comes out onstage to the opening chords of "Lexicon Devil". Media blitz!
But I got to thinking. The Clash is probably my favourite band of all time. You can tell because I have that killer back patch on my army jacket. With Joe Strummer passed away, it looks like I may never get to see them live. That's just about more than I can bear, not just because of my loss but for all the little punks out there who don't know what they're missing. Well you know as well as I do that the only thing that seperates punk from all the other shit out there is the fierce DIY spirit that bands a bunch of nothingshits into a true force. I will take the bull by the horns, and offer hear and now to front the Clash MYSELF at your concert in November.
Don't worry, I know all the songs on "Combat Rock" and a good third of "Sandanista" and I'm free to practice every Wednesday night, so you give Mick and Paul a call and I'm ready. Oi! Motherfucker. 77 Style, yeah!
Sincerely,
Eric Strom
P.S. If the Clash have prior obligations I would also be willing to front GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, Jabbers, or AIDS Brigade.
You know that Minutemen song where Mike Watt goes like, "Punk rock saved my life"? Fuck yeah, Man. It's the same way right fuckin here with me. When I was younger I was aimless, adrift in a sea of gangster rap and radio metal. Then along came punk. It had always been there but it took thirteen long years for it to find its way to me. Without it, I'd surely be dead now.
Sure, I wasn't nothin better with it than I was before, just a vandal scumbag takin money from my parents an' tryin to cum on things but I had FOCUS. I truly believe in the transformative powers of punk rock. I am glad that your festival is bringing back bands like the Dead Kennedys and the Germs that even I never got to see. Punk is a young man's game and most of the kids have never been exposed to bands like this in a live setting because either their singers went and overdosed a couple decades ago or they're embroiled in contract disputes with the rest of their bandmates or because they're irrelevent dinosaurs who haven't written a song since Reagan left office.
None of that shit'll matter, though, once that guy from ER comes out onstage to the opening chords of "Lexicon Devil". Media blitz!
But I got to thinking. The Clash is probably my favourite band of all time. You can tell because I have that killer back patch on my army jacket. With Joe Strummer passed away, it looks like I may never get to see them live. That's just about more than I can bear, not just because of my loss but for all the little punks out there who don't know what they're missing. Well you know as well as I do that the only thing that seperates punk from all the other shit out there is the fierce DIY spirit that bands a bunch of nothingshits into a true force. I will take the bull by the horns, and offer hear and now to front the Clash MYSELF at your concert in November.
Don't worry, I know all the songs on "Combat Rock" and a good third of "Sandanista" and I'm free to practice every Wednesday night, so you give Mick and Paul a call and I'm ready. Oi! Motherfucker. 77 Style, yeah!
Sincerely,
Eric Strom
P.S. If the Clash have prior obligations I would also be willing to front GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, Jabbers, or AIDS Brigade.
unevening
The Screamers - 122 Hours
The Mohawks - Funk Broadway
Bleach - Raikou (Karekini Hanaa Sakani)
Non-Prophets - Damage
the Standelles - Why Pick On Me?
Phantomsmasher - scrolling sideways
Printer - American Dream
Printer - Goodnight
Jello Biafra and the Melvins - Halo of Flies
Rachel's - Forgiveness
Moist Boyz - the Spike
Urban Renewal Project - Wylin Out (k-kruz remix)
Marianne Faithful - Broken English
Atom & His Package - I'm Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With a Hammer
Pest - Delucid
Klaus Nomi - Total Eclipse
Patsy Cline - I don't Wanna
Royksopp - So Easy
Asylum Street Spankers - Breathin
Blondie - One Way or Another (live)
the New Process - More Mess on My Thing Pt. 2 (from Raw Funk)
Madvillain - Meat Grinder
XBXRX - Hope Until We Can't
Black Merda - Over and Over
Dresden Dolls - Bank of Boston Beauty Queen (live
the Juan Maclean - Dance Hall Generator Dub
Lee Scratch Perry - Dread Lion
Butter 08 - 9mm
Massive Attack - You've Never Had A Dream
Why? - Act Five
Billy Bragg - Accident Waiting to Happen
Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend - You're Out of the Computer (fromSongs in the Key of Z)
Rasputina - Secret Message
Tom Waits - Starving in the Belly of a Whale
Illogic - Live to Die
Lali Puna - Nin Com Poop
Nouvelle Vague - Guns of Brixton (Clash cover)
TV on the Radio - Walking the Cow (Daniel Johnston cover)
Kimya Dawson - Movin On
Handsome Boy Modeling School - Class System
Hisashi Yoshino & M.A.G.O. - Furimukuna
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Girl of Mine
Sigur Ros - Hopipolla
Butthole Surfers - 22 going on 23
Flying Luttbachers - Into the Vastness of Stupidity
Dillenger Escape Plan w Mike Patton - Come To Daddy (Aphex Twin cover)
Dee Lite - Groove is In the Heart
Devendra Banhart - Heard Somebody Say
the Cramps - I Was a Teenage Werewolf
DJ Shadow - Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
the Flaming Lips - One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning
Trouble Funk - A
The Mohawks - Funk Broadway
Bleach - Raikou (Karekini Hanaa Sakani)
Non-Prophets - Damage
the Standelles - Why Pick On Me?
Phantomsmasher - scrolling sideways
Printer - American Dream
Printer - Goodnight
Jello Biafra and the Melvins - Halo of Flies
Rachel's - Forgiveness
Moist Boyz - the Spike
Urban Renewal Project - Wylin Out (k-kruz remix)
Marianne Faithful - Broken English
Atom & His Package - I'm Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With a Hammer
Pest - Delucid
Klaus Nomi - Total Eclipse
Patsy Cline - I don't Wanna
Royksopp - So Easy
Asylum Street Spankers - Breathin
Blondie - One Way or Another (live)
the New Process - More Mess on My Thing Pt. 2 (from Raw Funk)
Madvillain - Meat Grinder
XBXRX - Hope Until We Can't
Black Merda - Over and Over
Dresden Dolls - Bank of Boston Beauty Queen (live
the Juan Maclean - Dance Hall Generator Dub
Lee Scratch Perry - Dread Lion
Butter 08 - 9mm
Massive Attack - You've Never Had A Dream
Why? - Act Five
Billy Bragg - Accident Waiting to Happen
Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend - You're Out of the Computer (fromSongs in the Key of Z)
Rasputina - Secret Message
Tom Waits - Starving in the Belly of a Whale
Illogic - Live to Die
Lali Puna - Nin Com Poop
Nouvelle Vague - Guns of Brixton (Clash cover)
TV on the Radio - Walking the Cow (Daniel Johnston cover)
Kimya Dawson - Movin On
Handsome Boy Modeling School - Class System
Hisashi Yoshino & M.A.G.O. - Furimukuna
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Girl of Mine
Sigur Ros - Hopipolla
Butthole Surfers - 22 going on 23
Flying Luttbachers - Into the Vastness of Stupidity
Dillenger Escape Plan w Mike Patton - Come To Daddy (Aphex Twin cover)
Dee Lite - Groove is In the Heart
Devendra Banhart - Heard Somebody Say
the Cramps - I Was a Teenage Werewolf
DJ Shadow - Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
the Flaming Lips - One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning
Trouble Funk - A
Sunday, September 18, 2005
bad moon rising 3
Third: Deus Ex Machina 3 (again)
How much: $5
Why: Puppets.
3D has rarely been good to me. Or you, or anybody. With the exception of Captain EO. That shit rocked. Otherwise it's pretty dismal. A couple of years ago some friends and I went to a 3D porno. I was expecting we'd be holding up umbrellas afraid that old Peter North was about to blow a few quarts at our faces. The whole affair was pretty tame. Not to mention the projectors were a little too far apart and we never achieved the real 3D effect. Don't get me wrong though; we were high, we heckled, laughed our asses off and had a hell of a time. It was just...disappointing.
The RubberMonkey guys are the only practitioners of 3D shadow puppetry. They achieve this by spacing out both a red and blue light to create the shadows. In past shows, like "Looong", they focused on a mix of shaddow puppetry, music and traditional European storytelling with a rod-puppet narrator. In their old collaborations with the Mammals theatre troupe, Boris Karloff's head appeared massive and impressive like the Wizard of Oz or a million Gods in a million issues of Heavy Metal magazine in 3-dimensions. The puppetry worked as more of a bridge between live action segments. It'd been a couple years since I'd seen them so I was excited when someone told me at the opening that I should come back the next night for a puppet show.
The show was all shadow puppets. Some were made of thick hinged cardboard and others were rod marionettes. The music was performed live by members of the Guild of Acquired Technology, who play instruments made from rewired electronics, mostly old children's toys from thrift stores. It was the first collaboration between the circuit bending and puppetry arms of RubberMonkey and, to be honest, it was less than the sum of its parts. The show had a pretty straightforward linear narrative, but I was too dumbshit to get it. There was a dragon, eating houses (as dragons are wont to do), and it either fell in love with some lady or ruined her life. And there were skeletons. The 3D worked half of the time and was a little jarring when it didn't and the music never seemed to come togethor. It all ended up in a heartless mesh of noise (and I don't mean that in a good way). The circuit benders instruments are pretty awesome creations but the majority of them are pretty limited and sometimes fall flat when it comes to performance time. Especially when you can't watch them at work. I'm not sure if the performance was improvised or not, but it didn't work (at least not for me). They're trying it again next week, with a more established show, The Palm Wine Drinkard. Also Lord of the YumYum, so ignore what I have to say and head out over there.
How much: $5
Why: Puppets.
3D has rarely been good to me. Or you, or anybody. With the exception of Captain EO. That shit rocked. Otherwise it's pretty dismal. A couple of years ago some friends and I went to a 3D porno. I was expecting we'd be holding up umbrellas afraid that old Peter North was about to blow a few quarts at our faces. The whole affair was pretty tame. Not to mention the projectors were a little too far apart and we never achieved the real 3D effect. Don't get me wrong though; we were high, we heckled, laughed our asses off and had a hell of a time. It was just...disappointing.
The RubberMonkey guys are the only practitioners of 3D shadow puppetry. They achieve this by spacing out both a red and blue light to create the shadows. In past shows, like "Looong", they focused on a mix of shaddow puppetry, music and traditional European storytelling with a rod-puppet narrator. In their old collaborations with the Mammals theatre troupe, Boris Karloff's head appeared massive and impressive like the Wizard of Oz or a million Gods in a million issues of Heavy Metal magazine in 3-dimensions. The puppetry worked as more of a bridge between live action segments. It'd been a couple years since I'd seen them so I was excited when someone told me at the opening that I should come back the next night for a puppet show.
The show was all shadow puppets. Some were made of thick hinged cardboard and others were rod marionettes. The music was performed live by members of the Guild of Acquired Technology, who play instruments made from rewired electronics, mostly old children's toys from thrift stores. It was the first collaboration between the circuit bending and puppetry arms of RubberMonkey and, to be honest, it was less than the sum of its parts. The show had a pretty straightforward linear narrative, but I was too dumbshit to get it. There was a dragon, eating houses (as dragons are wont to do), and it either fell in love with some lady or ruined her life. And there were skeletons. The 3D worked half of the time and was a little jarring when it didn't and the music never seemed to come togethor. It all ended up in a heartless mesh of noise (and I don't mean that in a good way). The circuit benders instruments are pretty awesome creations but the majority of them are pretty limited and sometimes fall flat when it comes to performance time. Especially when you can't watch them at work. I'm not sure if the performance was improvised or not, but it didn't work (at least not for me). They're trying it again next week, with a more established show, The Palm Wine Drinkard. Also Lord of the YumYum, so ignore what I have to say and head out over there.
bad moon rising 2
Second: Funkadesi at Angelfest II
When: 7:30
Things I missed to be there: Noise benefit at Enemy II, Pal and Doug Travis at Hollywood Mirror.
Reason I went: Seemed like the natural progression of my weekend
God bless Catholic Schools, not only are they the world's foremost producers of crazy girls who're great in bed but they have enough money to have big neighborhood festivals with beer and live bands. We didn't have that shit at public school. At Stone all we had was a fuckin cafetorium. I say give em more money, at least if they'll put up bands like Funkadesi. ESPECIALLY if they put up bands like Funkadesi who sing about Jah.
Funkadesi is one of my favorite local bands. Back in high school their EP was one of the cassettes that never left my mother's car (the others were Social Distortion's Self Titles, Black Sabbath's first, a Red Hot Chili Peppers/George Clinton mix, and the Tar Babies' "No Contest"). I would usually make people listen to "Piya Tu/Black Magic Woman" two or three times before I'd let em flip to side B. They're just a kick ass band. Their name is derived from the words 'funk' (no shit) and 'desi, a term that means something akin to 'countryman' in Sanskrit and something closer to 'Indian Party People' in local slang. Though I don't really know any Desi's who'd actually be seen at a Funkadesi show (they're more into hip-hop), the band is always a good time. Their music is a mix of funk, reggae, and traditional African, Cuban and Indian music. Today they were playing as a ten piece with old members joining in and a beautiful new singer who was playing her first gig with the band.
The band takes well to festivals, and don't play out enough otherwise. Their Summerdance appearance is the highlight of a lot of my friends' summer every year. It's not the enviroinment I usually find myself in at the beginning of a Saturday night, but it was pretty great. There were dozens of children running around, doing their oblivious childhood fun thing; there were a couple dozen cats chomping fat, black cigars and noddin their heads, and a couple hundred parents getting drunker and drunker til they were wooed on the dance floor. Old Catholics + beer + music = awesome. They were trying their hardest to match the movements of bassist Rahul Sharma as he danced and orchestrated the band. Overall, the band was a bit unwieldy with their new singer (who I am ten kinds of in love with) and extended lineup but they played fierce and fast and didn't fall into any of that cornball shit that defines a lot of what gets served up as world music these days. They'll be playing the Lotus festival next week. Go see them.
When: 7:30
Things I missed to be there: Noise benefit at Enemy II, Pal and Doug Travis at Hollywood Mirror.
Reason I went: Seemed like the natural progression of my weekend
God bless Catholic Schools, not only are they the world's foremost producers of crazy girls who're great in bed but they have enough money to have big neighborhood festivals with beer and live bands. We didn't have that shit at public school. At Stone all we had was a fuckin cafetorium. I say give em more money, at least if they'll put up bands like Funkadesi. ESPECIALLY if they put up bands like Funkadesi who sing about Jah.
Funkadesi is one of my favorite local bands. Back in high school their EP was one of the cassettes that never left my mother's car (the others were Social Distortion's Self Titles, Black Sabbath's first, a Red Hot Chili Peppers/George Clinton mix, and the Tar Babies' "No Contest"). I would usually make people listen to "Piya Tu/Black Magic Woman" two or three times before I'd let em flip to side B. They're just a kick ass band. Their name is derived from the words 'funk' (no shit) and 'desi, a term that means something akin to 'countryman' in Sanskrit and something closer to 'Indian Party People' in local slang. Though I don't really know any Desi's who'd actually be seen at a Funkadesi show (they're more into hip-hop), the band is always a good time. Their music is a mix of funk, reggae, and traditional African, Cuban and Indian music. Today they were playing as a ten piece with old members joining in and a beautiful new singer who was playing her first gig with the band.
The band takes well to festivals, and don't play out enough otherwise. Their Summerdance appearance is the highlight of a lot of my friends' summer every year. It's not the enviroinment I usually find myself in at the beginning of a Saturday night, but it was pretty great. There were dozens of children running around, doing their oblivious childhood fun thing; there were a couple dozen cats chomping fat, black cigars and noddin their heads, and a couple hundred parents getting drunker and drunker til they were wooed on the dance floor. Old Catholics + beer + music = awesome. They were trying their hardest to match the movements of bassist Rahul Sharma as he danced and orchestrated the band. Overall, the band was a bit unwieldy with their new singer (who I am ten kinds of in love with) and extended lineup but they played fierce and fast and didn't fall into any of that cornball shit that defines a lot of what gets served up as world music these days. They'll be playing the Lotus festival next week. Go see them.
bad moon rising 1
Yo, everytime I post on this blog, I get inundated with spam. Fake comments make baby Lab Rats cry. C'est levie. Another saturday night.
First: Some kickass Uptown Hair Salon on Broadway and Wilsonn (5pm)
What: MC battle on the street
Me and Pinky are driving around and we see this crowd of like fifty people crowded around this line of stores on Broadway. We jump out to see what's going on, and it's seriously the worst battle I've ever heard. There was a DJ who was pretty good, and these two guys (a big one from Uptown and a little one from Rogers Park) are battling. Every time the redline passes overhead, they stop. All of them. The rappers, the DJ. We all just wait. This cat from Uptown Bikes tells us that this is the final match and this is the best the little guy can come up with:
"You look like/ a girl named Erica!/You look like a car-toon CHARACTAH"
Yeah motherfucker, that was awesome. Thank you.
First: Some kickass Uptown Hair Salon on Broadway and Wilsonn (5pm)
What: MC battle on the street
Me and Pinky are driving around and we see this crowd of like fifty people crowded around this line of stores on Broadway. We jump out to see what's going on, and it's seriously the worst battle I've ever heard. There was a DJ who was pretty good, and these two guys (a big one from Uptown and a little one from Rogers Park) are battling. Every time the redline passes overhead, they stop. All of them. The rappers, the DJ. We all just wait. This cat from Uptown Bikes tells us that this is the final match and this is the best the little guy can come up with:
"You look like/ a girl named Erica!/You look like a car-toon CHARACTAH"
Yeah motherfucker, that was awesome. Thank you.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
cd review: Dadbot
True Story
Me: Hi, Do you have anything that sounds like Atom & his Package fronting an all-cracker version of TV on the Radio?
Record Store Guy: Sure [hands me Dadbot cd]
Me: How is it?
RSG: It has some great moments, but between the passe laptronica pop, the wack lyrics, and the cardboard sleeve, you'll forget you have this in two months' time.
Me: Oh. Um. Are all the tracks clean?
RSG: Cleaner than your Mom.
Me: Cool.
RSG: I'm gonna go smoke some heroin.
Me: Hi, Do you have anything that sounds like Atom & his Package fronting an all-cracker version of TV on the Radio?
Record Store Guy: Sure [hands me Dadbot cd]
Me: How is it?
RSG: It has some great moments, but between the passe laptronica pop, the wack lyrics, and the cardboard sleeve, you'll forget you have this in two months' time.
Me: Oh. Um. Are all the tracks clean?
RSG: Cleaner than your Mom.
Me: Cool.
RSG: I'm gonna go smoke some heroin.
the way things are and the way things should be
Event 1: Deus Ex Machina 3 at the Peter Jones Gallery (FREE)
Event 2: Saddle Champ at Bar Vertigo ($5)
Event 3: the costume party that wasn't
Things I missed to get there: Minibosses and Moistboyz at DoubleDoor, noise benefit at Enemy, Redmoon show, exgirlfriend's bodypaint party
Reasons I went: Robots, the thickness of my blood v. the thickness of water, fall is a time to reminisce (sic)
Noise enthusiasts and experimental artists are among the most interesting people you'll ever meet, and the worst conversationalists as well. That is why you make the booze cheap. For the third installment of RubberMonkeyPuppetCompany's celebration of Machines and Art they've moved back to Ravenswood, in a tucked away warehouse space on Cuyler. Among the things you'll see is a paint catapault (representing the most primal robots), an adding machine that reads the surface of a jar of water to paint seascapes, and a television built into a tidycat container that breaks down everything it sees into a dozen pantone squares. It's extremely minimalist and extremely complicated at the same time. Most of the art on the walls has never been influenced by human hands (with the exception of changing batteries and brushes). It is a festival of humans making machines making art.
For the opening reception, they loaded up on rum, Old Style and disgusting white castle cheese burgers which everyone consumed with looks of shame on their faces. Bands and video artists performed behind a curtain and asked for a 5 buck donation but everything else was free. There were slips of paper everywhere encouraging you to bid in the silent auction. Some of the art looked like Pollack, some looked like Spirograph. Shannon Korchinski dipped a robotic hand in paint and loosed it on a piece of paper. It maneuvered like you'd expect Thing Addams to move if it was binging on gin. She picked it back up off its side a dozen times before unleashing a n arachnid cupie doll reminiscent of Toy Story. It was an event done the way events should be done, I'll probably go back tonight for one of Patrick McCarthy's 3d shadow puppet shows or next week for Paul Velat (Lord of the YumYum).
Fearing an early case of White Castle shits would cripple my evening if I stuck around, I left early. My cousin's bands, Saddle Champ and Crispus Attucks, were playing at Bar Vertigo. Saddle Champ was his country band. They played really accessible (pop?) altcountry. The guitarist had a serious David Lowery vibe; it was all a little late Meat Puppets/Eyes Adrift. We didn't stay for Crispus Attucks, which is a shame because they're a lot of fun. They march out in tri cornered hats and minuteman coats and intersperse songs like "Ring My Bell" and "Surfin USA" to Revolutionary War themed songs like "Liberty Bell" and "Sunshine for Democracy." Come to think of it, there's a bit of Camper Van Beethoven to their music. Go David Lowery! (Even if that last Cracker album did suck serious ass)
We ended up lost in a neighborhood I thought I knew front to back. I guess it's been a few years since I've lived in Logan Square and I was punching the steering wheel, all pissed off, uptight and 'Where the fuck is Medill?"
Yahoo directions, I will eat you.
We finally got there and there wasn't too much costume. There was a Spiderman, an Andre 3000, a girl on girl Robin Hood and Maid Marion. The hostess was Marisa, a girl I taught improv when she was 15 or 16 and I was 18, just outta high school. She was dressed as Lisa Simpson but her Liberty spikes had fallen by the time I got there. It was her 21st birthday; she's damn near the last to go. The place was packed with old heads, all these cats who were the underraged kids at my old parties were legal. All these old Kokomo kids and Fireside kids and Wicker Park heads. Artsy fuckers who went to magnet schools, LP and Lakeview and Northside Country Dayschool, a bunch of great motherfuckers I've known for years now. It was odd to see them all still in the same groups, but it was good, too. I'll be 23 next week, and it'll be nice to see all the same fucking people I see every other weekend, and have it be every bit and not at all special.
Event 2: Saddle Champ at Bar Vertigo ($5)
Event 3: the costume party that wasn't
Things I missed to get there: Minibosses and Moistboyz at DoubleDoor, noise benefit at Enemy, Redmoon show, exgirlfriend's bodypaint party
Reasons I went: Robots, the thickness of my blood v. the thickness of water, fall is a time to reminisce (sic)
Noise enthusiasts and experimental artists are among the most interesting people you'll ever meet, and the worst conversationalists as well. That is why you make the booze cheap. For the third installment of RubberMonkeyPuppetCompany's celebration of Machines and Art they've moved back to Ravenswood, in a tucked away warehouse space on Cuyler. Among the things you'll see is a paint catapault (representing the most primal robots), an adding machine that reads the surface of a jar of water to paint seascapes, and a television built into a tidycat container that breaks down everything it sees into a dozen pantone squares. It's extremely minimalist and extremely complicated at the same time. Most of the art on the walls has never been influenced by human hands (with the exception of changing batteries and brushes). It is a festival of humans making machines making art.
For the opening reception, they loaded up on rum, Old Style and disgusting white castle cheese burgers which everyone consumed with looks of shame on their faces. Bands and video artists performed behind a curtain and asked for a 5 buck donation but everything else was free. There were slips of paper everywhere encouraging you to bid in the silent auction. Some of the art looked like Pollack, some looked like Spirograph. Shannon Korchinski dipped a robotic hand in paint and loosed it on a piece of paper. It maneuvered like you'd expect Thing Addams to move if it was binging on gin. She picked it back up off its side a dozen times before unleashing a n arachnid cupie doll reminiscent of Toy Story. It was an event done the way events should be done, I'll probably go back tonight for one of Patrick McCarthy's 3d shadow puppet shows or next week for Paul Velat (Lord of the YumYum).
Fearing an early case of White Castle shits would cripple my evening if I stuck around, I left early. My cousin's bands, Saddle Champ and Crispus Attucks, were playing at Bar Vertigo. Saddle Champ was his country band. They played really accessible (pop?) altcountry. The guitarist had a serious David Lowery vibe; it was all a little late Meat Puppets/Eyes Adrift. We didn't stay for Crispus Attucks, which is a shame because they're a lot of fun. They march out in tri cornered hats and minuteman coats and intersperse songs like "Ring My Bell" and "Surfin USA" to Revolutionary War themed songs like "Liberty Bell" and "Sunshine for Democracy." Come to think of it, there's a bit of Camper Van Beethoven to their music. Go David Lowery! (Even if that last Cracker album did suck serious ass)
We ended up lost in a neighborhood I thought I knew front to back. I guess it's been a few years since I've lived in Logan Square and I was punching the steering wheel, all pissed off, uptight and 'Where the fuck is Medill?"
Yahoo directions, I will eat you.
We finally got there and there wasn't too much costume. There was a Spiderman, an Andre 3000, a girl on girl Robin Hood and Maid Marion. The hostess was Marisa, a girl I taught improv when she was 15 or 16 and I was 18, just outta high school. She was dressed as Lisa Simpson but her Liberty spikes had fallen by the time I got there. It was her 21st birthday; she's damn near the last to go. The place was packed with old heads, all these cats who were the underraged kids at my old parties were legal. All these old Kokomo kids and Fireside kids and Wicker Park heads. Artsy fuckers who went to magnet schools, LP and Lakeview and Northside Country Dayschool, a bunch of great motherfuckers I've known for years now. It was odd to see them all still in the same groups, but it was good, too. I'll be 23 next week, and it'll be nice to see all the same fucking people I see every other weekend, and have it be every bit and not at all special.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
9/13/05 [wluw]
Articles of Faith - I've Got Mine
As Mercenarias - Inmigo (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Akira S Et as Garotas Que Erraram - Eudirijo O Carro Bomba (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Viparat Piensuwan - Mia Chaa (from Thai Beat A Go Go Vol. 2
the Kinks - Two Sisters
Divine - Jungle Jezebel
14 yr Old Girls - Slush Puppy
Agent Orange - Living in Darkness
Friend and Doctor Kosmos - I Love You (Huh)
Mong Hang - Fingers
Mau Chao - La Vie IE
DJ Spooky and Dave Lombardo - A Darker Shade of Bleak
Arizona Amp & Alternator - Where the Wind turns the Skin to Leather
50 Herz feat Haxor och porr, slagsmalsklubbin - Army of Djur (Bjork cover from Army of Me)
Jake Shimbakuro - Shake It Up!
The Soft Boys - You'll Have to Go Sideways
The Delays - Ride It On (Mazzy Star cover from Stop Me If You've Heard this One Before)
Storm Inc. - Rape Me (Nirvana cover from Nearvana)
Murder By Death -Those Who Stayed
The Vindictives - the Invisible Man
Las Guitarras de Espana - Chicago [Rumbas]
King Missile - The Neither World
Her Space Holiday - Forever and a Day
OOIOO - I'm a Song
Why? - Act Five
here I started to play a Violent Femmes song but it was a grating acoustic version of American Music" that I thought didn't deserve to follow the superb Why? song. This allowed me a chance to ramble off for a bit too.
The Weekends - I want You (fucking awesome track from the fucking fantastic Girls in the Garage pt. 2)
The Violent Femmes - Gimme the Car
Apocalypse Hoboken - Misguided Memories (Freeze cover)
Blind Willie McTell - Lonesome Day Blues
Madlib - Where Do I Go (from the Free Design: the Now Sound Resigned)
A Moving Sound Theatre - Mongani
The Dead Milkmen - Surfin Cow
Butthole Surfers - Jingle of A Dog's Collar
Layton - Tu Le Jours (from Homemade Hits, V.1)
Gang of Four - Outside the Trains Don't Run On Time
Purple Wizard - I Idolize You
The Morlocks - Get Out of My Life, Woman
the Fugue - Gunwolf
Negativland - Downloading
Kenny Rogers - What Condition My Condition Was In
Odd Nosdam - 11th Ave Freakout Pt. 2
The Last Poets - White Man's Got a God Complex
Nobody - the coast is clear (for fireworks)
Johnny Cash - Country Boy
Nico - Ari's Song
Noisettes - Don't Give Up
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, Drug of the Nation
Nicole Meyer - Nowhere by MIR (from Girlz: Women Ahead of their Time
Amadou & Mariam - Coulibaly
Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam
fulanito - merencumblanco (from Future World Funk on the run
Lord of the Yum Yum - Rossini's William Tell Overture
As Mercenarias - Inmigo (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Akira S Et as Garotas Que Erraram - Eudirijo O Carro Bomba (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Viparat Piensuwan - Mia Chaa (from Thai Beat A Go Go Vol. 2
the Kinks - Two Sisters
Divine - Jungle Jezebel
14 yr Old Girls - Slush Puppy
Agent Orange - Living in Darkness
Friend and Doctor Kosmos - I Love You (Huh)
Mong Hang - Fingers
Mau Chao - La Vie IE
DJ Spooky and Dave Lombardo - A Darker Shade of Bleak
Arizona Amp & Alternator - Where the Wind turns the Skin to Leather
50 Herz feat Haxor och porr, slagsmalsklubbin - Army of Djur (Bjork cover from Army of Me)
Jake Shimbakuro - Shake It Up!
The Soft Boys - You'll Have to Go Sideways
The Delays - Ride It On (Mazzy Star cover from Stop Me If You've Heard this One Before)
Storm Inc. - Rape Me (Nirvana cover from Nearvana)
Murder By Death -Those Who Stayed
The Vindictives - the Invisible Man
Las Guitarras de Espana - Chicago [Rumbas]
King Missile - The Neither World
Her Space Holiday - Forever and a Day
OOIOO - I'm a Song
Why? - Act Five
here I started to play a Violent Femmes song but it was a grating acoustic version of American Music" that I thought didn't deserve to follow the superb Why? song. This allowed me a chance to ramble off for a bit too.
The Weekends - I want You (fucking awesome track from the fucking fantastic Girls in the Garage pt. 2)
The Violent Femmes - Gimme the Car
Apocalypse Hoboken - Misguided Memories (Freeze cover)
Blind Willie McTell - Lonesome Day Blues
Madlib - Where Do I Go (from the Free Design: the Now Sound Resigned)
A Moving Sound Theatre - Mongani
The Dead Milkmen - Surfin Cow
Butthole Surfers - Jingle of A Dog's Collar
Layton - Tu Le Jours (from Homemade Hits, V.1)
Gang of Four - Outside the Trains Don't Run On Time
Purple Wizard - I Idolize You
The Morlocks - Get Out of My Life, Woman
the Fugue - Gunwolf
Negativland - Downloading
Kenny Rogers - What Condition My Condition Was In
Odd Nosdam - 11th Ave Freakout Pt. 2
The Last Poets - White Man's Got a God Complex
Nobody - the coast is clear (for fireworks)
Johnny Cash - Country Boy
Nico - Ari's Song
Noisettes - Don't Give Up
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, Drug of the Nation
Nicole Meyer - Nowhere by MIR (from Girlz: Women Ahead of their Time
Amadou & Mariam - Coulibaly
Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam
fulanito - merencumblanco (from Future World Funk on the run
Lord of the Yum Yum - Rossini's William Tell Overture
Monday, September 12, 2005
The Caribou, the Impala, and the Mollusk
Remember that chick in high school whose Dad was a personal trainer? She was mousey and quiet and really attainable even though she could do gymnastics and shit, but to date her you'd have to have dinner with her family first? So you'd go to her creepy house with a torture-chamber looking workout room in the basement and you're sweating balls at the table with your hands folded and this big bald motherfucker steps in with a carving knife and he's so fucking intense- even when he's being nice, even when he's chatting- asbout everything he says that you jet out of there as soon as you finish the extra slice of pie her Mom baked you and you don't even kiss her goodbye because you know that you'll never, ever be able to get it up for her again?
That's what seeing a Henry Rollins spoken word show is like. It just leaves you fucking impotent for a couple hours. Monday night he performed at Columbia College for an audience of 250, which meant it took a good 20 minutes for the room to stop laughing extra hard at every single thing he said and just that long for me to get the cynical chip off my shoulder and enjoy the show. He's a good performer, he's kinda like the dumb punk's Jello Biafra (albeit way more open minded) or maybe Susan Powter's male counterpart, or the lder brother that liked to prove he was the smart and down to Earth one as he beat the shit out of little kid Dennis Miller.
He always does well in Chicago. One of the discs of "Think Tank" was recorded at the House of Blues here. He's just so intense (there's no other word). When Jello Biafra gave a talk at Loyola a couple years back, they had to pull him off the stage after over three hours. Roillins is the same way, unrelenting, except he puts the same intensity towards whatever he's saying so the bureaucratic bungling of Hurricane Katrina is weighted the same as masturbating on the Trans Siberian express, or Dave Barry-ish tales about taking care of a friend's toddler for 20 minutes or comically mistranslated signs in Japan. He brought the house down early calling Barbara Bush the "6 nippled, hairy chested mother of our president". There was no real way to top that, but he kept going, and nobody wanted him to leave any more than he did.
I saw a bunch of cats from the reading that night at the empty bottle, where the aptly titled honky tonk whiskey rockers Hony played with the more sludgey Nebula. Older girls with sleeve jobs, all beautiful. Everyone was a small catalyst away from throwing shit, but it was still the empty bottle so they mostly just stood still. There was still some serious hootin/holerin for theserious beards in Honky, which outshined Nebula a great deal. One question: is it a new fashion in the fake ID crowd to dress to the nines below the belt but dress like a lumberjack's wife above? Iunno, good times.
Cost: Free
What I missed: Environmental Encroachment pirate parade in Wicker Park
Reason I went: Geographic proximity to yogaclass
That's what seeing a Henry Rollins spoken word show is like. It just leaves you fucking impotent for a couple hours. Monday night he performed at Columbia College for an audience of 250, which meant it took a good 20 minutes for the room to stop laughing extra hard at every single thing he said and just that long for me to get the cynical chip off my shoulder and enjoy the show. He's a good performer, he's kinda like the dumb punk's Jello Biafra (albeit way more open minded) or maybe Susan Powter's male counterpart, or the lder brother that liked to prove he was the smart and down to Earth one as he beat the shit out of little kid Dennis Miller.
He always does well in Chicago. One of the discs of "Think Tank" was recorded at the House of Blues here. He's just so intense (there's no other word). When Jello Biafra gave a talk at Loyola a couple years back, they had to pull him off the stage after over three hours. Roillins is the same way, unrelenting, except he puts the same intensity towards whatever he's saying so the bureaucratic bungling of Hurricane Katrina is weighted the same as masturbating on the Trans Siberian express, or Dave Barry-ish tales about taking care of a friend's toddler for 20 minutes or comically mistranslated signs in Japan. He brought the house down early calling Barbara Bush the "6 nippled, hairy chested mother of our president". There was no real way to top that, but he kept going, and nobody wanted him to leave any more than he did.
I saw a bunch of cats from the reading that night at the empty bottle, where the aptly titled honky tonk whiskey rockers Hony played with the more sludgey Nebula. Older girls with sleeve jobs, all beautiful. Everyone was a small catalyst away from throwing shit, but it was still the empty bottle so they mostly just stood still. There was still some serious hootin/holerin for theserious beards in Honky, which outshined Nebula a great deal. One question: is it a new fashion in the fake ID crowd to dress to the nines below the belt but dress like a lumberjack's wife above? Iunno, good times.
Cost: Free
What I missed: Environmental Encroachment pirate parade in Wicker Park
Reason I went: Geographic proximity to yogaclass
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Gutterpop. Bubbles up my Nose
Bands: The Violent Femmes, the Tossers
Date: 9/10/05
Venue: Wicker Park street fair
Things I missed to see the show: tras de nada, disrobe, no slogan, intifada at the South Side punk house, a buncha under 21 bands fighting for a RiotFest slot at a Ukranian American Hall, Gabby LaLa and Particle at someplace legitimate, and a crew of girls Mudwrestling in Wicker Park.
Cost: Free
Why I went: Poverty, sentiment
I used to live in a flophouse. I talk about it ad nauseum. Ten or more of us at any given time, stuffed into a three bedroom stuffed into a sixflat in Andersonville. Through it all there were only two cds that everyone would always agree with. One was the copy of the Violent Femmes' Greatest Hits that I bought used in eight grade. The other was a Violent Femmes sampler Ken burned for his girlfriend and kept for himself. If we put either album on at just the right time, it would be with us all week. We'd be blind drunk stumbling through alleys with "American Music" on our lips.
They're an underrated band, stuck on the street fair circuit. Back in 98 or 99, you couldn't walk down a street in the summer without coming across the band Cracker. That is where the Violent Femmes are now. They're an 80s nostalgia act, and they don't sound enough like Gang of Four to cash in on it. I've seen them four times now; thrice at festivals and once at some bloated Q101 holiday bill with Weezer, Sheryl Crow, Gravity Kills and Korn. It's too bad, because they're real fun to watch. Gordan Gano still works Billy Corgan's voice better than the Pumpkin ever could, and he can sell some of the dumbest lyrics you've ever heard if he needs to. They're a real rocknroll band. Fun shit for the sake of fun shit with touches of country and gospel and saxophone jazz freakouts. They even play 'Blister in the Sun' third or fourth in their set so Yuppies can get home early.
I've heard that their shows are either mind blowing or unlistenable, with no inbetween. To this point I'd only seen them play the former. I guess they broke new ground today with a completely mediocre set. They were a three piece today but I've seen them with four and five and seven before. I've seen them stoned to shit on pot and opium, banshee drunk and dead sober. All those times, they've been able to knock me on my ass, even in a sea of graduated frat boys and dollar-an-ounce beer.
Maybe the band's showing their age. Residue from the Stones show last week still in the air or something. They just didn't sound right. Their drummer could still wail, so could Gano and so could the bassist, just not at the same time. They seemed more like a really confident cover band. With a real good crowd response. They reminded me of the Night Watchmen, that group of dirty old fuckers that rocked the Lakeview Lounge til it closed recently. Unfortunately, what works at 3 AM in a bar in Edgewater can't keep me up at a street fest on Division. My girlfriend, was brought to tears when the band played 'You Are My Sunshine' nut it had nothing to do with how they played it (bad). She was tugging at my sleeve and rolling her eyes soon after. We left during the opening strains of 'Add It Up' and didn't look back.
One time in high school, I went to the Fireside Bowl. Many times actually but this time I was there to see one of my teachers' bands, the Phantom Three. I don't know if I fucked up or they did but I was treated to two bands I'd never heard before: The Tossers and Mary Tyler Morphine. Immediately they became two of my favorite bands to see live and I would as often as I could. At that point I had never heard of the Pogues. Shane McGowan had gone all country on my Dad's mix cds and I'd never seen a punk band pull out a tin whistle or an electric violin.I was enthralled. It was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
I was excited when I found out they'd be playing in walking distance. I left late and Sarah left late and somehow we got there just as they were starting their set. They were playing some old shit. Dancin Shoes. Buckets of Beer. I watched new groups of highschoolers push through the crowd, leaping like maniacs to the front for some Celt moshing, but I just wasn't into it. Maybe it was the crowd. Maybe the sun, or the heat. They launched into 'The Crutch' and nothing; no fistpumping, no 'Oi!', just watching. There was something wrong, it was a band I used to love, playing fierce versions of songs I liked and I couldn't give a shit. So we left, for cheese fries and art in the former Buddy gallery, shrugging and vowing to come back for the Violent Femmes.
I hate fuckin streetfairs.
Date: 9/10/05
Venue: Wicker Park street fair
Things I missed to see the show: tras de nada, disrobe, no slogan, intifada at the South Side punk house, a buncha under 21 bands fighting for a RiotFest slot at a Ukranian American Hall, Gabby LaLa and Particle at someplace legitimate, and a crew of girls Mudwrestling in Wicker Park.
Cost: Free
Why I went: Poverty, sentiment
I used to live in a flophouse. I talk about it ad nauseum. Ten or more of us at any given time, stuffed into a three bedroom stuffed into a sixflat in Andersonville. Through it all there were only two cds that everyone would always agree with. One was the copy of the Violent Femmes' Greatest Hits that I bought used in eight grade. The other was a Violent Femmes sampler Ken burned for his girlfriend and kept for himself. If we put either album on at just the right time, it would be with us all week. We'd be blind drunk stumbling through alleys with "American Music" on our lips.
They're an underrated band, stuck on the street fair circuit. Back in 98 or 99, you couldn't walk down a street in the summer without coming across the band Cracker. That is where the Violent Femmes are now. They're an 80s nostalgia act, and they don't sound enough like Gang of Four to cash in on it. I've seen them four times now; thrice at festivals and once at some bloated Q101 holiday bill with Weezer, Sheryl Crow, Gravity Kills and Korn. It's too bad, because they're real fun to watch. Gordan Gano still works Billy Corgan's voice better than the Pumpkin ever could, and he can sell some of the dumbest lyrics you've ever heard if he needs to. They're a real rocknroll band. Fun shit for the sake of fun shit with touches of country and gospel and saxophone jazz freakouts. They even play 'Blister in the Sun' third or fourth in their set so Yuppies can get home early.
I've heard that their shows are either mind blowing or unlistenable, with no inbetween. To this point I'd only seen them play the former. I guess they broke new ground today with a completely mediocre set. They were a three piece today but I've seen them with four and five and seven before. I've seen them stoned to shit on pot and opium, banshee drunk and dead sober. All those times, they've been able to knock me on my ass, even in a sea of graduated frat boys and dollar-an-ounce beer.
Maybe the band's showing their age. Residue from the Stones show last week still in the air or something. They just didn't sound right. Their drummer could still wail, so could Gano and so could the bassist, just not at the same time. They seemed more like a really confident cover band. With a real good crowd response. They reminded me of the Night Watchmen, that group of dirty old fuckers that rocked the Lakeview Lounge til it closed recently. Unfortunately, what works at 3 AM in a bar in Edgewater can't keep me up at a street fest on Division. My girlfriend, was brought to tears when the band played 'You Are My Sunshine' nut it had nothing to do with how they played it (bad). She was tugging at my sleeve and rolling her eyes soon after. We left during the opening strains of 'Add It Up' and didn't look back.
One time in high school, I went to the Fireside Bowl. Many times actually but this time I was there to see one of my teachers' bands, the Phantom Three. I don't know if I fucked up or they did but I was treated to two bands I'd never heard before: The Tossers and Mary Tyler Morphine. Immediately they became two of my favorite bands to see live and I would as often as I could. At that point I had never heard of the Pogues. Shane McGowan had gone all country on my Dad's mix cds and I'd never seen a punk band pull out a tin whistle or an electric violin.I was enthralled. It was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
I was excited when I found out they'd be playing in walking distance. I left late and Sarah left late and somehow we got there just as they were starting their set. They were playing some old shit. Dancin Shoes. Buckets of Beer. I watched new groups of highschoolers push through the crowd, leaping like maniacs to the front for some Celt moshing, but I just wasn't into it. Maybe it was the crowd. Maybe the sun, or the heat. They launched into 'The Crutch' and nothing; no fistpumping, no 'Oi!', just watching. There was something wrong, it was a band I used to love, playing fierce versions of songs I liked and I couldn't give a shit. So we left, for cheese fries and art in the former Buddy gallery, shrugging and vowing to come back for the Violent Femmes.
I hate fuckin streetfairs.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
WLUW September 6, 2005
stag party - rachel (my dear)
why? - sanddollars
russian futurists - paul simon
big black - passing complexion
roots manuva - awfully deep
quintron - festive
dwight trible & the life force trio - the tenth jewel
ry cooder and manuel galban - caballo viejo
dance disaster movement - hello
don byron & existential dred - blinky
noisettes - don't give up
clem snide - better
andrew bird's bowl of fire - 50 pieces
nouvelle vague - in a manner of speaking (tuxedo moon cover)
ukrainians - koroleva ne polermo (smiths cover - the queen is dead)
minibosses - nija gaiden (nintendo cover)
penny wineblood - jc's nuts
the groodies - head rape
evelyn - so so fresh
too much joy - take a lot of drugs
daedelus - a sneaking suspicion
sam phillips - i wanted to be alone
balkan beat box - 9/4 the ladies
hillbilly hellcats - double time (Black Jacket Racket)
Friends of Dean Martinez - So well remembered
RL Burnside - shake em on down
the negro problem (bobby fuller four cover)
mr. scruff - limbic funk
die sterne - widerschein
the residents - two lips
nutley brass - teenage lobotomy (ramones cover)
nick cave & the bad seeds - deanna
dave crimmen - baby shake it up
the hellhounds - wartime blues (blind lemon jefferson cover)
omar a rodriguez lopez - deus ex machina
servotron - i sing! the body cybernetic
boom bip - first walk
nomo - movin in circles
blonde redhead - 10
autechre - fermium
gaetano fabri vs kocari orkestra - siki siki baba
cosmic corridors - dark path
crappy Cracker song
temple - black light
descendents - myage
mc paul barman - joy
matthew shipp - pulsar
dion and the belmonts - runaround sue
lullaby for the working class - hypnotist
ian dury - sex & drugs & rocknroll
zykos - mrs
amadou & mariam - senegal fast food
kanda - they'll need cocaine
sylvie lewis - rockwell's blues
deformo - rich kid
patti smith - tramplin
domenico + 2 - algria, vai la
nouvelle vague - guns of brixton (clash cover)
bad religion - american jesus
ammon contact - temple jam
why? - sanddollars
russian futurists - paul simon
big black - passing complexion
roots manuva - awfully deep
quintron - festive
dwight trible & the life force trio - the tenth jewel
ry cooder and manuel galban - caballo viejo
dance disaster movement - hello
don byron & existential dred - blinky
noisettes - don't give up
clem snide - better
andrew bird's bowl of fire - 50 pieces
nouvelle vague - in a manner of speaking (tuxedo moon cover)
ukrainians - koroleva ne polermo (smiths cover - the queen is dead)
minibosses - nija gaiden (nintendo cover)
penny wineblood - jc's nuts
the groodies - head rape
evelyn - so so fresh
too much joy - take a lot of drugs
daedelus - a sneaking suspicion
sam phillips - i wanted to be alone
balkan beat box - 9/4 the ladies
hillbilly hellcats - double time (Black Jacket Racket)
Friends of Dean Martinez - So well remembered
RL Burnside - shake em on down
the negro problem (bobby fuller four cover)
mr. scruff - limbic funk
die sterne - widerschein
the residents - two lips
nutley brass - teenage lobotomy (ramones cover)
nick cave & the bad seeds - deanna
dave crimmen - baby shake it up
the hellhounds - wartime blues (blind lemon jefferson cover)
omar a rodriguez lopez - deus ex machina
servotron - i sing! the body cybernetic
boom bip - first walk
nomo - movin in circles
blonde redhead - 10
autechre - fermium
gaetano fabri vs kocari orkestra - siki siki baba
cosmic corridors - dark path
crappy Cracker song
temple - black light
descendents - myage
mc paul barman - joy
matthew shipp - pulsar
dion and the belmonts - runaround sue
lullaby for the working class - hypnotist
ian dury - sex & drugs & rocknroll
zykos - mrs
amadou & mariam - senegal fast food
kanda - they'll need cocaine
sylvie lewis - rockwell's blues
deformo - rich kid
patti smith - tramplin
domenico + 2 - algria, vai la
nouvelle vague - guns of brixton (clash cover)
bad religion - american jesus
ammon contact - temple jam
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
best set in recent memory WLUW
[WARMING UP]
tom jones w portishead - motherless child
mr. quark - requiem for mr. quark
defacto - coaxial
[ALL AROUND THE WORLD HEAVY FUNK SET]
cidhino & doca - cidade de deus (from Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats) [BRAZIL]
konono no. 1 - libula mibunda [CONGO/ANGOLA]
red hot chili peppers - hollywood [HOLLYWOOD]
amon tobin - rosie [ENGLAND]
[A TRIBUTE TO RANDY "BISCUIT" TURNER, R.I.P., ALL BIG BOYS SET]
big boys - apolitical
big boys -hollywood swingers (Kool & the Gang cover)
big boys prison
i am kloot - coincidence
flamin groovies - blues from phyllis
deerhoof - our angel's lulu
[HOT FEMALE VOCALS SET]
patsy cline - three cigarettes in an ashtray
ladytron - evil
astrud gilberto - tristeza
[TECHNO SET]
mr. scruff - chicken in a box [BREAKBEAT]
pendulum - fasten your seatbeltd [DRUMNBASS]
eels - jelly dancers (from Dimension Mix: the Music of Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson)
the gris gris - necessary seperation
my life with the thrill kill kult - martini built for two
[TIGHT HORN SECTION SET]
youngblood brass band - brooklyn
drums and tuba - igor rosse
tom waits - step right up
[MORE FUNKINESS]
dwight trible & the life force trio - waves of infinite harmony
medeski martin & wood - i wanna ride you
dele sosimi - turbulent times (from ASAP: Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project)
[THE PLAY IT FUCKING LOUD SET]
nick cave & the bad seeds - get ready for love
sepultera - policia
riistetyt - elintilla
[THE ALL AMERICAN WEIRDNESS SET]
ween - freedom of 76
frank zappa - magdalena
13th floor elevators - you're gonna miss me
[BEST SET OF THE NIGHT]
public image limited - rise
prefuse 73/the books - pagina siete
john prine w iris dement - lets invite them over
[CHICAGO PUNK SET]
mushuganas - breaking tradition (from Achtung! Chicago Drei)
effigies - body bag
choke jackers - zombies make perfect lovers (from Hyde Five)
rasputina - stumpside
eric burdon animals - paint it black
m.i.a/diplo - china girl
gabby lala - elf
[ROCKNROLL SET]
ram jam - black betty
bloody hollies - dirty water
mission of burma - that's when i reach for my revolver
(I got pissed at myself instantly for playing "...revolver". It's a great fucking song but just like the Dead Boy's "Sonic Reducer" and Fugazi's "Waiting Room", after meeting up with people at Delilah's for two weeks, I just can't stand it anymore. The bands have other fucking songs, people)
hoppy kamiyama - fantasm b (from Japanese Independent Music)
manu chao - desperacidos
john zorn leviathan
tub ring habitat
asylum street spankers -lullaby of the leaves
colonel claypool's bucket of bernie brains - elephant giant
tom jones w portishead - motherless child
mr. quark - requiem for mr. quark
defacto - coaxial
[ALL AROUND THE WORLD HEAVY FUNK SET]
cidhino & doca - cidade de deus (from Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats) [BRAZIL]
konono no. 1 - libula mibunda [CONGO/ANGOLA]
red hot chili peppers - hollywood [HOLLYWOOD]
amon tobin - rosie [ENGLAND]
[A TRIBUTE TO RANDY "BISCUIT" TURNER, R.I.P., ALL BIG BOYS SET]
big boys - apolitical
big boys -hollywood swingers (Kool & the Gang cover)
big boys prison
i am kloot - coincidence
flamin groovies - blues from phyllis
deerhoof - our angel's lulu
[HOT FEMALE VOCALS SET]
patsy cline - three cigarettes in an ashtray
ladytron - evil
astrud gilberto - tristeza
[TECHNO SET]
mr. scruff - chicken in a box [BREAKBEAT]
pendulum - fasten your seatbeltd [DRUMNBASS]
eels - jelly dancers (from Dimension Mix: the Music of Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson)
the gris gris - necessary seperation
my life with the thrill kill kult - martini built for two
[TIGHT HORN SECTION SET]
youngblood brass band - brooklyn
drums and tuba - igor rosse
tom waits - step right up
[MORE FUNKINESS]
dwight trible & the life force trio - waves of infinite harmony
medeski martin & wood - i wanna ride you
dele sosimi - turbulent times (from ASAP: Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project)
[THE PLAY IT FUCKING LOUD SET]
nick cave & the bad seeds - get ready for love
sepultera - policia
riistetyt - elintilla
[THE ALL AMERICAN WEIRDNESS SET]
ween - freedom of 76
frank zappa - magdalena
13th floor elevators - you're gonna miss me
[BEST SET OF THE NIGHT]
public image limited - rise
prefuse 73/the books - pagina siete
john prine w iris dement - lets invite them over
[CHICAGO PUNK SET]
mushuganas - breaking tradition (from Achtung! Chicago Drei)
effigies - body bag
choke jackers - zombies make perfect lovers (from Hyde Five)
rasputina - stumpside
eric burdon animals - paint it black
m.i.a/diplo - china girl
gabby lala - elf
[ROCKNROLL SET]
ram jam - black betty
bloody hollies - dirty water
mission of burma - that's when i reach for my revolver
(I got pissed at myself instantly for playing "...revolver". It's a great fucking song but just like the Dead Boy's "Sonic Reducer" and Fugazi's "Waiting Room", after meeting up with people at Delilah's for two weeks, I just can't stand it anymore. The bands have other fucking songs, people)
hoppy kamiyama - fantasm b (from Japanese Independent Music)
manu chao - desperacidos
john zorn leviathan
tub ring habitat
asylum street spankers -lullaby of the leaves
colonel claypool's bucket of bernie brains - elephant giant
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Animals Know When You're Out of Film
-For Andre Noseworthy-
Monday night at 1
I was returning to WLUW
there was this lone man, an older guy sweating bullets as he ran around
Loyola's racetrack.
One of those brown rabbits
who've just this year
forayed to Roger's Park
had become startled and run onto the course.
Unsure of where to veer
it just made sure
to stay ahead
and let itself be chased
by this crazed older man
I picked up an infant
waiting to get bitten,
and put it back down
by 2 I was unusually tired
and well aware that the entire school
in its first week of classes
had picked up the undeniable smell of urine
It's a Jesuit school full of Muslims
I don't completely get it
Northeastern
with the exception of WZRD
smells like a hospital
and put me in a foul mood
I used to arrive at WZRD just in time to see the sun setting over a Slavic graveyard.
WLUW has a lot more rules than WZRD, even after the big shakeups.
perhaps that's the difference between freeform and commercially-viable, uncommercial product.
The place lacks history. It's pristine, with walls completely undefaced. Their turntables are hidden like some bastard behind a locked door.
Their no alcohol and drug policies seem more than winks and nudges and Don't get caught. By the time I was done at the Wizard I was practically straightedge anyway, at least within its hallowed halls.
Two years ago we were kings. We owned monday nights and the city had no counteroffer to distract us. It was James with the tits, Skateboard Dan, and then myself. Me and Dan and random skate kids and coeds til classes started. Brett would come in and play us ragtime covers of punk songs. Mountain Dew and Popov and corn moonshine and random games of truth or dare and the school security showing up just as someone was getting dressed again. Half a dozen fake bands, a few handfulls of mushrooms. There was a time when anyone could just show up and everyone did.
One night, nearly everyone who was a part of my life decided to visit me in groups of two or three. Twenty people, including my roommate's drugdealer Coco, whom he wanted to impress. It was pretty beautiful, even though the station manager showed up and had me kick out the lot.
It was a smaller group then: Miriam, Budros, Vicky, Brett, Dan, Livewire, Sosa, Casey, Tourettes Liz, Tania, Cowboy, Duo, whoever I was dating. We went through the couch one night. It was the comfiest couch in the world even if it did smell like anus, and half the city's avant noise community had probably fucked on it at one time or another, if not at the Wizard, then afterhours at the Nervous Center, where it had lived before. Inside the cushions we found a dagger laced with powder. The dagger, we found out, was placed there by Carol. She's placed a Wiccan protection spell on the blade for the sanctity of a place we freely acknowledged housed ghosts that had as much options for places to stay as we did.
She was outraged by the cocaine though..
As I walked home Tuesday morning, the sun was just rising out of the lake. The water looked like a white newborn's head, all soft pink with ripples and tremors of purple. No one was out but the combers and residents of the beach, who shifted and turned to try and hide from morning. They had set up forts, in groups of twos and fours all along the park. Soon there would be joggers and dew, and everywhere you look August in Chicago's fat spiders. By 7, the streets were packed with girls who looked like pornstars walking dogs that looked like wildebeests.Not wildebeests as they exist in nature, but more wildebeests the way they appeared in your head when you first heard the word. I locked myself in a basement in my old neighborhood and closed my eyes, vowing to wake up earlier from now on.
---
lab and pack rat-i do this more for me than for you
here's a set list
the Eric Burdon and War set:
Eric Burdon and War - "Paint it Black"
the crazy saxophone set:
Les Baton Rouge - "Chloe Yurtz"
Essential Logic- "Music is a Better Noise"
Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist Horns - "Theme de Yo-Yo"
softer shit set:
Nick Drake - "Three Hours"
The Baptist Generals - "Creeper"
Wire - "Practice Makes Perfect"
the teensy, tinsy set:
Colin James and his LITTLE Big Band - "Marry Anne"
Stiff LITTLE Fingers - "The Only One"
LITTLE Richard - "Bama Lama, Lama Loo"
ANNOUNCEMENT: Get it? Teensy? Little? I'll keep pulling that cornball crap if you don't call in and make requests.
the female vocalists enticing the wrong element set:
Portishead - "Strangers" (by request)
Gabby La La - "Pirates"
the loud rock bands that we may see again but not in the same form ever set:
Dead Kennedy's - "California Uber Alles" (playing soon if you can stomach the band sans Jello)
Guitar Wolf - "Highway Baby" (RIP Hideki Sekuguchi)
the Wayouts - "Better Days" (old Chicago pop punk, broken up I think)
dj shit set:
DJ Shadow - "Stem/Long Stem" (request)
4th Pyramid - "Aquatic"
Felix da Housecat - "Everyone is Someone in LA"
the I don't know set. One of the best
Bob Marley - "Judge Not"
Opium Jukebox - "Paranoid"
Sun Ra and his Arkestra - "Pleasure"
female vocalists:
Sons and Daughters - "Broken Bones"
Siouxie and the Banshees - "Happy House"
Azita - "Wasn't in the Bargain" (faded out after a minute because the song sucked so much ass)
hip HOP and dance:
Felt - "Marvin Gaye"
DJ Signify w Buck 65 - "Winters Going"
Gold Chains and Sue Cie - "No Tomorrow"
By this point it was 4:30 and I dropped the idea of sets and everything gets more interesting
Skamaphrodites - "Claw Hammer"
Tom Waits - "Shake it"
Dizee Rascal - "Learn"
Nobukazu Takemura - "Conical Flask"
Kinski - "Hot Stenographer"
Nancy Sinatra - "2 Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad"
The Damned - "Neat Neat Neat"
The Residents - "Easter Woman"
Mutantes - "Hey Boy"
Hayden Thompson "Rockabilly Girl"
Ursula 1000 - "The Shake"
Max Cloud - "The Informer"
I am Kloot - "An Ordinary Child"
Balkan Blues - the Romanian track
Elvis Costello and the Attractors - "Green Shirt"
Ravi Harris and the Prophets - "Path of the Blazing Sarong"
Quasar Wut-Wut - "Beaver Fever"
Firewater - "Some Velvet Morning"
Monolake - "Pipeline"
Lord of the Yum Yum - "Habanera"
OOIOO - "Sister 001"
Twang Bang - "I feel Weird"
Folksongs for the Afterlife - "Death by Melody"
Mayumi Chiwaki and Pilar Stupa - "Slice of Life"
Blondie - "X-Offender"
Zolar X - "The Horizon Suite: Overture or Air/Tomorrow is Sunrise/Inside the Outside/Sound Barrier"
Currently listening:
Lillian
By Alias
Monday night at 1
I was returning to WLUW
there was this lone man, an older guy sweating bullets as he ran around
Loyola's racetrack.
One of those brown rabbits
who've just this year
forayed to Roger's Park
had become startled and run onto the course.
Unsure of where to veer
it just made sure
to stay ahead
and let itself be chased
by this crazed older man
I picked up an infant
waiting to get bitten,
and put it back down
by 2 I was unusually tired
and well aware that the entire school
in its first week of classes
had picked up the undeniable smell of urine
It's a Jesuit school full of Muslims
I don't completely get it
Northeastern
with the exception of WZRD
smells like a hospital
and put me in a foul mood
I used to arrive at WZRD just in time to see the sun setting over a Slavic graveyard.
WLUW has a lot more rules than WZRD, even after the big shakeups.
perhaps that's the difference between freeform and commercially-viable, uncommercial product.
The place lacks history. It's pristine, with walls completely undefaced. Their turntables are hidden like some bastard behind a locked door.
Their no alcohol and drug policies seem more than winks and nudges and Don't get caught. By the time I was done at the Wizard I was practically straightedge anyway, at least within its hallowed halls.
Two years ago we were kings. We owned monday nights and the city had no counteroffer to distract us. It was James with the tits, Skateboard Dan, and then myself. Me and Dan and random skate kids and coeds til classes started. Brett would come in and play us ragtime covers of punk songs. Mountain Dew and Popov and corn moonshine and random games of truth or dare and the school security showing up just as someone was getting dressed again. Half a dozen fake bands, a few handfulls of mushrooms. There was a time when anyone could just show up and everyone did.
One night, nearly everyone who was a part of my life decided to visit me in groups of two or three. Twenty people, including my roommate's drugdealer Coco, whom he wanted to impress. It was pretty beautiful, even though the station manager showed up and had me kick out the lot.
It was a smaller group then: Miriam, Budros, Vicky, Brett, Dan, Livewire, Sosa, Casey, Tourettes Liz, Tania, Cowboy, Duo, whoever I was dating. We went through the couch one night. It was the comfiest couch in the world even if it did smell like anus, and half the city's avant noise community had probably fucked on it at one time or another, if not at the Wizard, then afterhours at the Nervous Center, where it had lived before. Inside the cushions we found a dagger laced with powder. The dagger, we found out, was placed there by Carol. She's placed a Wiccan protection spell on the blade for the sanctity of a place we freely acknowledged housed ghosts that had as much options for places to stay as we did.
She was outraged by the cocaine though..
As I walked home Tuesday morning, the sun was just rising out of the lake. The water looked like a white newborn's head, all soft pink with ripples and tremors of purple. No one was out but the combers and residents of the beach, who shifted and turned to try and hide from morning. They had set up forts, in groups of twos and fours all along the park. Soon there would be joggers and dew, and everywhere you look August in Chicago's fat spiders. By 7, the streets were packed with girls who looked like pornstars walking dogs that looked like wildebeests.Not wildebeests as they exist in nature, but more wildebeests the way they appeared in your head when you first heard the word. I locked myself in a basement in my old neighborhood and closed my eyes, vowing to wake up earlier from now on.
---
lab and pack rat-i do this more for me than for you
here's a set list
the Eric Burdon and War set:
Eric Burdon and War - "Paint it Black"
the crazy saxophone set:
Les Baton Rouge - "Chloe Yurtz"
Essential Logic- "Music is a Better Noise"
Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist Horns - "Theme de Yo-Yo"
softer shit set:
Nick Drake - "Three Hours"
The Baptist Generals - "Creeper"
Wire - "Practice Makes Perfect"
the teensy, tinsy set:
Colin James and his LITTLE Big Band - "Marry Anne"
Stiff LITTLE Fingers - "The Only One"
LITTLE Richard - "Bama Lama, Lama Loo"
ANNOUNCEMENT: Get it? Teensy? Little? I'll keep pulling that cornball crap if you don't call in and make requests.
the female vocalists enticing the wrong element set:
Portishead - "Strangers" (by request)
Gabby La La - "Pirates"
the loud rock bands that we may see again but not in the same form ever set:
Dead Kennedy's - "California Uber Alles" (playing soon if you can stomach the band sans Jello)
Guitar Wolf - "Highway Baby" (RIP Hideki Sekuguchi)
the Wayouts - "Better Days" (old Chicago pop punk, broken up I think)
dj shit set:
DJ Shadow - "Stem/Long Stem" (request)
4th Pyramid - "Aquatic"
Felix da Housecat - "Everyone is Someone in LA"
the I don't know set. One of the best
Bob Marley - "Judge Not"
Opium Jukebox - "Paranoid"
Sun Ra and his Arkestra - "Pleasure"
female vocalists:
Sons and Daughters - "Broken Bones"
Siouxie and the Banshees - "Happy House"
Azita - "Wasn't in the Bargain" (faded out after a minute because the song sucked so much ass)
hip HOP and dance:
Felt - "Marvin Gaye"
DJ Signify w Buck 65 - "Winters Going"
Gold Chains and Sue Cie - "No Tomorrow"
By this point it was 4:30 and I dropped the idea of sets and everything gets more interesting
Skamaphrodites - "Claw Hammer"
Tom Waits - "Shake it"
Dizee Rascal - "Learn"
Nobukazu Takemura - "Conical Flask"
Kinski - "Hot Stenographer"
Nancy Sinatra - "2 Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad"
The Damned - "Neat Neat Neat"
The Residents - "Easter Woman"
Mutantes - "Hey Boy"
Hayden Thompson "Rockabilly Girl"
Ursula 1000 - "The Shake"
Max Cloud - "The Informer"
I am Kloot - "An Ordinary Child"
Balkan Blues - the Romanian track
Elvis Costello and the Attractors - "Green Shirt"
Ravi Harris and the Prophets - "Path of the Blazing Sarong"
Quasar Wut-Wut - "Beaver Fever"
Firewater - "Some Velvet Morning"
Monolake - "Pipeline"
Lord of the Yum Yum - "Habanera"
OOIOO - "Sister 001"
Twang Bang - "I feel Weird"
Folksongs for the Afterlife - "Death by Melody"
Mayumi Chiwaki and Pilar Stupa - "Slice of Life"
Blondie - "X-Offender"
Zolar X - "The Horizon Suite: Overture or Air/Tomorrow is Sunrise/Inside the Outside/Sound Barrier"
Currently listening:
Lillian
By Alias
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