I did my set inbetween jobs today and I was fucking exhausted. The only worthwhile track was "Mouvement 1" by Lex Talionis.
There was also an old episode of the Church of the Subgenius' "Hour of Slack", an old Maximum Rock'n'Roll tape with Los Crudos doing "Asesinos", a new M.I.A. track, and a "megamix" by Diplo.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
TwoSlaps Radio [WLUW]
ARVO:
James Chance - Sax Machine
Betty Davis - Anti Love Song
Dawn Silva/Brides of Funkenstein - Whole Lotta Game
Die Warzau - Gone Chemical
Marvin Tate - Town of 500
William Bell - Everybody loves a winner
Timi Yuro - Hurt
the Notations - A New Day
Rufus Thomas - The Dog
Broadneck - Psychedelic Excursion
Hank Ballard - Finger Poppin' Time
Mitchell Mitchell - Gene King - Never Walk Out On You
Eddie FLoyd - Good Love, Bad Love
Gil Scott Heron - ???
Delfonics - Tell Me This Is a Dream
Curtis Mayfield - Give Me Your Love (Love Song)
LAB RAT:
The Coasters - Down in Mexico
Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - If This Ain't Love (Don't Know What Is)
The Mighty Hannibal - Get in the Groove
Ann Peebles - I Can't Stand the Rain
Gospel Chandeliers - Honesty is the Best Policy
Isaac Hayes - Do Your Thing
Nina Simone - Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter
Nilo Espinosa y Orquestra - Baby Boogaloo
Los Van Van - Y No Le Conviene
Lon Rogers & the Soul Blenders - My Girl is a Soul Girl
Harlem Underground Band feat. Willis Jackson - Ain't No Sunshine
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Quincy Jones feat. Bill Cosby - Hikky Burr
Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse - Valerie
Saturday, August 25, 2007
one or two minutes in heaven
Date: 8/24/07
Location: Unnamed Warehouse
DJs: Vyle, Mr. Bobby, Trancid, Livewire and more
Cost: Cocks 10, Cunts 5
Things I missed to be there: Mahjongg and Chew on This at Subterranean; Carnivale at the Cat Mafia HQ
Reason for going: Coz raves beat all (and I couldn't find the Cat Mafia HQ)
Sarah and I snuck in like champions, only to sneak out just as quickly.
"Wow, this is like a Hispanic high school dance."
I think she hit the nail with that remark. The crowd was mostly teenagers, and by half past midnight, the cops already knew the party was happening, the doorpeople were freaking out, and very few people were dancing. Guys with guys. Girls with girls.
When we got there, Mr. Bobby was spinning some new wave. I don't remember what the song was, but it sounded like shit. Not a bad song, but the amps were all stacked on one side of the room turned up so that the sound could travel across the warehouse, and there was no real part of the room where it sounded good. Couple that with the facts that it was hot as snatch and that we already knew we were getting laid and there was no reason to stay.
The one bright spot is seeing how many young cats from the young Hispanic community are into punk/goth shit and rave/dance shit at the same time. I think I'm going to really enjoy the scene that these kids create over the next few years.
Location: Unnamed Warehouse
DJs: Vyle, Mr. Bobby, Trancid, Livewire and more
Cost: Cocks 10, Cunts 5
Things I missed to be there: Mahjongg and Chew on This at Subterranean; Carnivale at the Cat Mafia HQ
Reason for going: Coz raves beat all (and I couldn't find the Cat Mafia HQ)
Sarah and I snuck in like champions, only to sneak out just as quickly.
"Wow, this is like a Hispanic high school dance."
I think she hit the nail with that remark. The crowd was mostly teenagers, and by half past midnight, the cops already knew the party was happening, the doorpeople were freaking out, and very few people were dancing. Guys with guys. Girls with girls.
When we got there, Mr. Bobby was spinning some new wave. I don't remember what the song was, but it sounded like shit. Not a bad song, but the amps were all stacked on one side of the room turned up so that the sound could travel across the warehouse, and there was no real part of the room where it sounded good. Couple that with the facts that it was hot as snatch and that we already knew we were getting laid and there was no reason to stay.
The one bright spot is seeing how many young cats from the young Hispanic community are into punk/goth shit and rave/dance shit at the same time. I think I'm going to really enjoy the scene that these kids create over the next few years.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Ladies Love Tiny Tim; God Bless Cool James [WZRD]
Metal Urbain - Hysterie Connective
Can - Spoon
Young MC - Know How
CSS - Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (XXXChange remix)
Firewater - Is that All there Is?
Asmus Tietchens - Tango Fellatino
TTC - Travaillier Orgasmic
The 45 King - The 900 Number
Bonde Do Role - Gasolina
Tiny Tim - Livin in the Sunlight, Lovin in the Moonlight
Juiceboxxx - Thunderjam 4
Nina Hagen - TV Snooze
Muslimgauze - Hunting Out
Grossenhosen - Happi Voodoo Remix
Einsturzende Neubauten - Silence Is Sexy
Big Black - Texas
Revolting Cocks - Stainless Steel Providers
The Pharcyde - Ya Mama
Why? - 500 Fingernails
Of Montreal - Tulip Baroo
The Omens - Searchin for Love
Front 242 - Never Stop
Dandi Wind - Apotemnophilia
Cabaret Voltaire - Your Agent Man/Gut Level
Konstructivists - The Crimson Path
Tuxedomoon - Tritone (Musica Diabla)
Leonard Cohen - Master's Song
Fugazi - Waiting Room
Publish Post
Bad Brains - Sacred Love
Lard - The Power of Lard
more stuff where I compare stuff to other stuff and stuff
Date: 8/23/07
Location: Push
Bands: Rubbed Raw, Juiceboxxx, Horse Spirit Penetrates
DJs: OCDJ, Rand Sevilla
Video: Jimmy Joe Roche
Cost: Advertised as $5, but $8 requested at the door
Drinks: $1 Old Style or BYO
Things I missed to be there: Cophandz and Menowah at Liar's Club; Lord of the Yum Yum at Darkroom; 20Khz at Quennect Four
Reason for going: Half of the city was flooded and powerless. Where else would I want to be but a dance party?
A good reference point to start with would be Wonder Showzen. It's not a great starting point, of course, because it's not so big that it doesn't need reference points of its own. In fact, if you don't live in a dorm, or at least a place with a bong readily available, you probably don't know what Wonder Showzen is. Wonder Showzen is a fake kid's show that airs sporadically on Mtv2. Think of the gross-out cartoons that air on Comedy Central, or some of the post-Aqua Teen Hunger Force shows on Adult Swim. Wonder Showzen is like that, but grosser, smarter, more offensive, far more surreal, and oddly, fairly anti-corporate in a way that doesn't feel like lip service. Wonder Showzen is a cartoon-and-puppet show that aims to fuck with its audience, like Andy Kaufman animating some old Zap Comix, but angry.
It takes a lot to get under people's skin these days, at least the people who're watching Mtv2 at 1 in the morning. Show me grotesque cartoon characters eating shit out of their own ass or puppets performing sex change operations or using real children to tell pedophile jokes, and I'm fine. After a certain point, the racial stuff gets to me, and for some reason, a cartoon about homeless Vietnam Vets really got under my skin but I guess those are some of my hang ups.
It's not just the content of the show that makes it hard to watch, but sometimes it's that they literally make the show difficult to sit through. One episode played forward for fifteen minutes and then backwards for another fifteen. Cartoons and sketches are often separated by a quick blast, a barrage of jarring sounds and images, a woman screaming, Satan, napalm victims, the sound of a chainsaw, time-lapsed photography of molding fruit. These little vignettes, if you expanded them to five, ten, fifteen minutes long, that's what the films of Baltimore's Jimmy Joe Roche are like.
The first film had it all: a nude, masked chick with a knife performing a castration in the woods, a raw meat helmut, "Magic: The Gathering" cards shaped into a Swastika, mysterious cowboys, and more.
The video at the top of this page, was also done by him. If you haven't clicked on it yet, it's an ad for the tour that this show was a part of. If you haven't been paying attention, youtube concert adverts are the new animated .gifs, just like Daisy Dukes and lofts with electrical tape body outlines are to 2007, what 1930s swimwear and basements full of stencil graffiti were to 2006. All of the above was present at the show last night, which was pretty spectacular for a new-ish space, in a hard to get to part of town, on a night where the sky was out for destruction. The people who were there though, were there for business.
On any other night, Horse Spirit Penetrates might have been met with indifference. They were a good band, but they sounded like a two-piece Fantomas on a night when the rest of the bands were doing hiphop and the DJs were doing juke. Still, there was bumping, grinding, and a general spazzing out for them on the dance floor.
Rubbed Raw were next, a horny duo of DJ Dog Dick and Big Daddy Nugg, who played their own slooooooooooooooooooooooooooowed down blends of g-funk, b-club, and crunk. A lot of growling, a lot of sweating. If Big Daddy Nugg didn't get laid yesterday, it wasn't because he didn't put himself out there.
I can't even imagine Juiceboxxx getting laid, but that's part of his charm. He's underage. He's cute. He's from Wisconsin. He's rapping.
Juiceboxxx has an awesome presence, if he plays it right, he could be an arena rapper, like a one-man Naughty By Nature. The only thing is, he needs to go the Dan Deacon route and the hell away from legitimate venues to get there. If he keeps playing parties and spaces, where he can command the crowd and do whatever he needs to. Last night he was tearing around the room in a swivel chair, jumping up and down in a trash can full of empty beer bottles and climbing on motherfuckers backs to rap. When the long mic chord started shorting out and he had to switch to a short one, he was able to get the whole crowd to choke up around him. The second he gets on a stage and separates himself from the audience, he becomes MC Chris, a novelty act, at least until he starts writing hits.
Of course that's just my theory, based on what I've seen and what my friends have told me, and it's about to be put to the test. For the next month, Juiceboxxx is going on tour with Brazil's Bonde Do Role, whose debut full length, "With Lazers" is the sleeper party hit of the year. Anyone going to those shows is going to expect to party, and when they hit the Empty Bottle on the 29th of September, I'll be there, and I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong.
Location: Push
Bands: Rubbed Raw, Juiceboxxx, Horse Spirit Penetrates
DJs: OCDJ, Rand Sevilla
Video: Jimmy Joe Roche
Cost: Advertised as $5, but $8 requested at the door
Drinks: $1 Old Style or BYO
Things I missed to be there: Cophandz and Menowah at Liar's Club; Lord of the Yum Yum at Darkroom; 20Khz at Quennect Four
Reason for going: Half of the city was flooded and powerless. Where else would I want to be but a dance party?
A good reference point to start with would be Wonder Showzen. It's not a great starting point, of course, because it's not so big that it doesn't need reference points of its own. In fact, if you don't live in a dorm, or at least a place with a bong readily available, you probably don't know what Wonder Showzen is. Wonder Showzen is a fake kid's show that airs sporadically on Mtv2. Think of the gross-out cartoons that air on Comedy Central, or some of the post-Aqua Teen Hunger Force shows on Adult Swim. Wonder Showzen is like that, but grosser, smarter, more offensive, far more surreal, and oddly, fairly anti-corporate in a way that doesn't feel like lip service. Wonder Showzen is a cartoon-and-puppet show that aims to fuck with its audience, like Andy Kaufman animating some old Zap Comix, but angry.
It takes a lot to get under people's skin these days, at least the people who're watching Mtv2 at 1 in the morning. Show me grotesque cartoon characters eating shit out of their own ass or puppets performing sex change operations or using real children to tell pedophile jokes, and I'm fine. After a certain point, the racial stuff gets to me, and for some reason, a cartoon about homeless Vietnam Vets really got under my skin but I guess those are some of my hang ups.
It's not just the content of the show that makes it hard to watch, but sometimes it's that they literally make the show difficult to sit through. One episode played forward for fifteen minutes and then backwards for another fifteen. Cartoons and sketches are often separated by a quick blast, a barrage of jarring sounds and images, a woman screaming, Satan, napalm victims, the sound of a chainsaw, time-lapsed photography of molding fruit. These little vignettes, if you expanded them to five, ten, fifteen minutes long, that's what the films of Baltimore's Jimmy Joe Roche are like.
The first film had it all: a nude, masked chick with a knife performing a castration in the woods, a raw meat helmut, "Magic: The Gathering" cards shaped into a Swastika, mysterious cowboys, and more.
The video at the top of this page, was also done by him. If you haven't clicked on it yet, it's an ad for the tour that this show was a part of. If you haven't been paying attention, youtube concert adverts are the new animated .gifs, just like Daisy Dukes and lofts with electrical tape body outlines are to 2007, what 1930s swimwear and basements full of stencil graffiti were to 2006. All of the above was present at the show last night, which was pretty spectacular for a new-ish space, in a hard to get to part of town, on a night where the sky was out for destruction. The people who were there though, were there for business.
On any other night, Horse Spirit Penetrates might have been met with indifference. They were a good band, but they sounded like a two-piece Fantomas on a night when the rest of the bands were doing hiphop and the DJs were doing juke. Still, there was bumping, grinding, and a general spazzing out for them on the dance floor.
Rubbed Raw were next, a horny duo of DJ Dog Dick and Big Daddy Nugg, who played their own slooooooooooooooooooooooooooowed down blends of g-funk, b-club, and crunk. A lot of growling, a lot of sweating. If Big Daddy Nugg didn't get laid yesterday, it wasn't because he didn't put himself out there.
I can't even imagine Juiceboxxx getting laid, but that's part of his charm. He's underage. He's cute. He's from Wisconsin. He's rapping.
Juiceboxxx has an awesome presence, if he plays it right, he could be an arena rapper, like a one-man Naughty By Nature. The only thing is, he needs to go the Dan Deacon route and the hell away from legitimate venues to get there. If he keeps playing parties and spaces, where he can command the crowd and do whatever he needs to. Last night he was tearing around the room in a swivel chair, jumping up and down in a trash can full of empty beer bottles and climbing on motherfuckers backs to rap. When the long mic chord started shorting out and he had to switch to a short one, he was able to get the whole crowd to choke up around him. The second he gets on a stage and separates himself from the audience, he becomes MC Chris, a novelty act, at least until he starts writing hits.
Of course that's just my theory, based on what I've seen and what my friends have told me, and it's about to be put to the test. For the next month, Juiceboxxx is going on tour with Brazil's Bonde Do Role, whose debut full length, "With Lazers" is the sleeper party hit of the year. Anyone going to those shows is going to expect to party, and when they hit the Empty Bottle on the 29th of September, I'll be there, and I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Date: 8/17/07
Location: The Fox Hole
Bands: Environmental Encroachment, breakdancers, DJs
Cost: FREE!
Beer: While it lasts
Things I missed to be there: Sky Blazer, Young Adam, and Di Di Mao at the Co-Prosperity Sphere
Reason for going: Iunno.
I still haven't seen Ferdinand Fox play. Come 2005, they were starting to make a name around town. Unfortunately, that was right about the same time that Franz Ferdinand started coming up with their single "Take Me Out", and I was confused. I don't know if the band thought about changing their name, they had their own following and there was no telling whether or not we'd ever hear from the band from Scotland
Location: The Fox Hole
Bands: Environmental Encroachment, breakdancers, DJs
Cost: FREE!
Beer: While it lasts
Things I missed to be there: Sky Blazer, Young Adam, and Di Di Mao at the Co-Prosperity Sphere
Reason for going: Iunno.
I still haven't seen Ferdinand Fox play. Come 2005, they were starting to make a name around town. Unfortunately, that was right about the same time that Franz Ferdinand started coming up with their single "Take Me Out", and I was confused. I don't know if the band thought about changing their name, they had their own following and there was no telling whether or not we'd ever hear from the band from Scotland
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Two Slaps Radio [WLUW]
Mucca Pazza - Chick Habit (Serge Gainsbourg)
Charlie Palomares y su Yuboney - Vives Boogaloo
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Night-Time Intermission
Bebel Gilberto - Bring Back the Love (Ondular Mix)
Nublu Orchestra - Sciubba Diving
OMar Souleyman - Arabic Dabke
Los 5-U-4 - Baila Van Y Baila
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Rapid Fire Toll Booth
TV On The Radio - Wash The Day
Milford Reynolds - Lowe's Market
El-P - Flyentology
Chromeo - Tenderoni
Sarolta Zalatnay - Fekete Arnyek (with Locomotive GT)
Mark Ronson w/ Amy Winehouse - valerie
Gore Gore Girls - Where Evil Grows
The Coup - Laugh, Love, F*ck
James Brown - People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul
Houston Outlaws - Soul Power
Trevor Dandy - Is There Any Love?
Gil-Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Marvin Tate - If You See Jesus
Marvin Gaye - Right On
Artistics - Leave It Up to You !
Daisy Chain - Got to Get You In My Arms
DJ Shadow - This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
The Coasters - Great Big Idol With a Golden Head
Shangri-Las - I'm Blue
5,6,7,8's - I'm Blue
Monday, August 20, 2007
Do it Do it Go away
Date: 8/20/07
Location(s): 1. Empty Bottle; 2. Subterranean; 3. The Note
Bands: 1. Jai Alai Savant; 2. Chances Dances with DJs Nina Ramone, JackAttack, Dick Simmons and sCNa; 3. Girl in a Coma
Cost(s): 1. FREE! 2. FREE! 3. ?????
Things I missed to be there(s): Myopics Experimental Music Mondays with Bill Salas, Brian Labycz, and Frank Rosaly
Reason(s) for going: 1. Wanted to see if I should believe the hype; 2. and 3. wasn't ready to not be at a show while I was in the hood
1. Jai-Alai Savant is what Tool would sound like if Tool were a reggae band fronted by a well-dressed black dude who actually liked playing in front of an audience.
I wasn't sure whether or not to leave but I wanted some Fresh air, and didn't realize the show was sold out and a line had formed of people waiting for space to open up.
2. Chances Dances is where I would be every last Monday of the month if I was brave enough to go dancing by myself.
While I was there they played CSS' "Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" and Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground". Drinks are too pricey but it serves me right for not being sneakier. $2 dollar Schlitz cans for the wicked and desperate.
3. Girl in a Coma is what The Smiths would sound like if they were a Latina three piece from San Antonio that occasionally played surf rock in Spanish
Location(s): 1. Empty Bottle; 2. Subterranean; 3. The Note
Bands: 1. Jai Alai Savant; 2. Chances Dances with DJs Nina Ramone, JackAttack, Dick Simmons and sCNa; 3. Girl in a Coma
Cost(s): 1. FREE! 2. FREE! 3. ?????
Things I missed to be there(s): Myopics Experimental Music Mondays with Bill Salas, Brian Labycz, and Frank Rosaly
Reason(s) for going: 1. Wanted to see if I should believe the hype; 2. and 3. wasn't ready to not be at a show while I was in the hood
1. Jai-Alai Savant is what Tool would sound like if Tool were a reggae band fronted by a well-dressed black dude who actually liked playing in front of an audience.
I wasn't sure whether or not to leave but I wanted some Fresh air, and didn't realize the show was sold out and a line had formed of people waiting for space to open up.
2. Chances Dances is where I would be every last Monday of the month if I was brave enough to go dancing by myself.
While I was there they played CSS' "Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" and Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground". Drinks are too pricey but it serves me right for not being sneakier. $2 dollar Schlitz cans for the wicked and desperate.
3. Girl in a Coma is what The Smiths would sound like if they were a Latina three piece from San Antonio that occasionally played surf rock in Spanish
Friday, August 17, 2007
Ick Urgh Omigod [WZRD]
Negativland - Track 11
Bugz in the Dark - Silence is Treason
Rasputina - The Olde Headboard
M.I.A. - Bird Flu
Portion Control - Monsters Bulk
Cabaret Voltaire - Gut Level
Diplo - Must Be a Devil
Tackhead - Is There a Way Out?
My ife With the Thrill Kill Kult - Radio Silicon
The Residents - Anvil Forest
Solex - Solex's Snag
Laibach - Sympathy for the Devil
The Rolling Stones - Turd on the Run
Fugazi - Break
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Kannibal Komix - Love
Janko Nilovic - Chorus for Leslie
DBA - Business As Usual
Mc Pe de Pano e o Bonde do Bogdov - Retorno de Jedi
Tres Tenores - Os Carrascos
Kabo Kaki - Taty Quebra Barraco
Kasper Hauser's This American Life - Going Postal
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic (The Strawberry Bath and Jelly Soles Instrumental Version)
Defacto - Descarga De Facto
[Diplo]
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Two Slaps Radio [WLUW]
Arvo was holed up at a Slayer/Marilyn Manson show in the burbs and he couldn't make it back in time so it was all Labbers this week.
Sam Cooke - Twistin the Night Away
Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - Feeling Free #!!!
Mark Ronson feat. Lily Allen - Oh My God
The Counts - Why Not Start All Over Again
The Pharohs - Awakening
The Isley Brothers - Fight the Power
Mandrill - Fencewalk/Hagalo
Dudley Perkins & Georgia Anne Muldrow - Newniss
Sly & the Family Stone - M'Lady
Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - The Joker (on a trip thru the jungle)
Michael Jackson - Ben
Mauricio Smith - Doug's Room
James Brown - Even my Introductions are Funkier than Your Ass/I'll Go Crazy
War - Slippin Pt. 2
The Delfonics - Ready Or Not Here I Come
Marvin Gaye - Hitchiker
Billy Stewart - Summertime
Eddie Ray - Wait a Minute
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - Genuine
Mary Wells - The One Who Really Loves You
Brand New - Party Time
Bootsy Collins - Play With Bootsy
Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
R. Kelly feat. T-Pain - I'm a Flirt
Friday, August 10, 2007
I Used to Know a Guy Named Rezepka Who Did too Much and Died Too Young [WZRD]
RZA feat. MF Doom - Biochemical Equation
Bonde Do Role - Rap Do CB
James Blood Ulmer - TV Blues
Iggy & the Stooges - Search and Destroy
Paul Nero - This is Soul
Deise Tigrona - Injecao
Gaiola Das Popozudas - Vai Danada
Two Live Crew - Shake a Little Somethin
Diplo - There Must Be A Devil
Les Breastfeeders - I Can't Live Without You
The Mae Shi - Learn to Dance
Brother "D" with Collective Effort - How We Gonna Make A Black Nation Rise
Kid Sister - Let Me Bang
Polyphonic - Prostitute Karaoke
Skarekrau Radio - Future Insectoid
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - You Are What You Love
Horace Andy - Every Tongue Shall Tell
The Chamber Brothers - All Strung Out Over You
As Mercanarias - Panico
Mika Miko - Zombie
Artichoke - Seventeen
Water Babies - Taj Mahal
Elyse - Ironworks/Spirit of the Letter
Joanna Newsome - Sprout and the Bean
The Latest - ????
White Mice - Microjackass
Chris Brown - Alternating Currents
Thursday, August 09, 2007
rat heaven
Date: 8/3/07
Location: Hotti Biscotti
Bands: The Hatemoms, Eavil, William Sides Atari Party, Megan on her guitar
Cost: Roving donation bucket
Things I missed to be there: Gay Beast, Social Junk, NIMBY, and Stressape at Blog Cabin; Social Junk and Unknown/Unseen at Enemy
Reason for going: I had a feeling that the Blog Cabin bands would be better, but I would be around more friends and loved ones at Biscotti
If I wasn't working the next day: I would have skipped this and just bounced back and forth between the show all of these bands were playing at The Viceroy, the MEAH/Michael Michael Motorcycle show at the Flower Shop, and the OCDJ show at Les Beaux on Saturday
Now that I've thought of it, I don't think I will ever not think of it. Sir Vixx should program himself into that old videogame Lemmings. Imagine it, a hundred Sir Vixxes, dreadlocks flying as he holds out his hands like a traffic cop, digs holes with his hands like a dog, floats down through tunnels in parachutes, and generally does cute things. He is a very eager breakcore motherfucker, and it's cute, and funny, and cute.
Meanwhile, The Hatemoms have the world's greatest gimmick. They built a theremin where the wire loops into a box. Inside the box is a cute little rat named Mr. Steven. Wherever the rat sits in the box, no matter what she (yes, Mr. Steven is a girl) does, she affects the theremin, which one of the other band members switches on at the appropriate moment.
The human contingent of the band is two dudes who switch off on drums and keyboards. Together their music sounds like a cross between the Descendants and Quintron. Live, they sound more like the Descendants, and other bass heavy poppish punk bands. Recorded they sound more like Mr. Quintron. With Mr. Steven, however, they sound like a cross between The Descendants and Quintron THAT FEATURES MY FAVORITE TWO THINGS IN THE WORLD!!!
Location: Hotti Biscotti
Bands: The Hatemoms, Eavil, William Sides Atari Party, Megan on her guitar
Cost: Roving donation bucket
Things I missed to be there: Gay Beast, Social Junk, NIMBY, and Stressape at Blog Cabin; Social Junk and Unknown/Unseen at Enemy
Reason for going: I had a feeling that the Blog Cabin bands would be better, but I would be around more friends and loved ones at Biscotti
If I wasn't working the next day: I would have skipped this and just bounced back and forth between the show all of these bands were playing at The Viceroy, the MEAH/Michael Michael Motorcycle show at the Flower Shop, and the OCDJ show at Les Beaux on Saturday
Now that I've thought of it, I don't think I will ever not think of it. Sir Vixx should program himself into that old videogame Lemmings. Imagine it, a hundred Sir Vixxes, dreadlocks flying as he holds out his hands like a traffic cop, digs holes with his hands like a dog, floats down through tunnels in parachutes, and generally does cute things. He is a very eager breakcore motherfucker, and it's cute, and funny, and cute.
Meanwhile, The Hatemoms have the world's greatest gimmick. They built a theremin where the wire loops into a box. Inside the box is a cute little rat named Mr. Steven. Wherever the rat sits in the box, no matter what she (yes, Mr. Steven is a girl) does, she affects the theremin, which one of the other band members switches on at the appropriate moment.
The human contingent of the band is two dudes who switch off on drums and keyboards. Together their music sounds like a cross between the Descendants and Quintron. Live, they sound more like the Descendants, and other bass heavy poppish punk bands. Recorded they sound more like Mr. Quintron. With Mr. Steven, however, they sound like a cross between The Descendants and Quintron THAT FEATURES MY FAVORITE TWO THINGS IN THE WORLD!!!
Two Slaps Radio [WLUW]
Lab rat was held back by the CTA after leaving the Empty Bottle and got really sleepy and grumpy, so Arvo Fuckhead took the reigns for tonight's show
Altyrone Deno Brown - Sweet Pea
Eddie Ray - Wait A Minute
The MAjestic Arrows - We Love Together
Mitchell Mitchell - Gene King - Never Walk Out on You
Johnny Davis/The Arrows - Boogedy Boogedy
Sonny Boy Williamson - I Been Dealin With the Devil
Howlin' Wolf - Evil
Blind Willie McTell - Dark Night Blues
Rocky Fuller - Funeral Hearse at My Door
Snooks Eaglin - Mama Don't You Tear My Clothes
Hound Dog Taylor - Sitting Here ALone
Muddy Waters - My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble
Buddy Guy - Keep It To Myself
Sunnyland Slim - Fly Right, Little Girl
JohnLee Hooker - Motor City Is Burning
Elmore James - Dust My Broom
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - That's Alright
Little Walter - Blue Midnight (alternate take)
Abner Jay - I'm So Depressed
Fela Kuti - Coffin For the Head of State
Dawn Silva/Brides of Funkenstein - I'd Rather Be With You
Ohio Players - Skin Tight
George Clinton - Atomic Dog
Isley Brothers - Work To Do
Sly & The Family Stone - Loose Booty (live)
Al Green - Love And Happiness
Carla Thomas/Otis Redding - Tramp
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Jenny Lewis Loves Puppets and I love Jenny Lewis!
[Jenny Lewis on Pancake Mountain in a glittery short skirt]
[Jenny Lewis duets with a puppet on Puppet Music Hall]
my pet rat Bukowski and I review the movie Foxfire:
Eric: When Jenny Lewis came out with Rabbit Fur Coat, I couldn't escape her at the indie radio station where I worked. There she was, on the cover, with the Watson Twins, all of them beautiful. I demanded to see her tits. In Foxfire, she's the only one that keeps her top on. Apparently, because she's suppsed to be the "fat" one. If she continues to be a public figure/indie darling I'm going to get totally creepy about her. Meg White creepy. I saw this one when I was fourteen, and all the best films were about teenage lesbians or white gangbangers. Angelina Jolie as James Dean, heroin, homemade tattoos, and a soundtrack by Babes in Toyland and Kristine Hersch make me feel 1995 wonderful.
Bukowski: I liked how the movie added a riot grrl aesthetic to the slobs vs. snobs motif, but didn't think that Joyce Carol Oates' novel about women finding strength through one another in the repressive era of 1950s small-town America needed to be updated to uber-hip mid-90's Seattle. I also think that Jenny Lewis is better suited as Rilo Kiley's guitarist than as a solo songwriter.
[this Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins video doesn't have any puppets but it does have a guest appearance by Sarah Silverman. It's like two years of indie rock sex fantasies rolled into one awesome package:]
[Jenny Lewis duets with a puppet on Puppet Music Hall]
my pet rat Bukowski and I review the movie Foxfire:
Eric: When Jenny Lewis came out with Rabbit Fur Coat, I couldn't escape her at the indie radio station where I worked. There she was, on the cover, with the Watson Twins, all of them beautiful. I demanded to see her tits. In Foxfire, she's the only one that keeps her top on. Apparently, because she's suppsed to be the "fat" one. If she continues to be a public figure/indie darling I'm going to get totally creepy about her. Meg White creepy. I saw this one when I was fourteen, and all the best films were about teenage lesbians or white gangbangers. Angelina Jolie as James Dean, heroin, homemade tattoos, and a soundtrack by Babes in Toyland and Kristine Hersch make me feel 1995 wonderful.
Bukowski: I liked how the movie added a riot grrl aesthetic to the slobs vs. snobs motif, but didn't think that Joyce Carol Oates' novel about women finding strength through one another in the repressive era of 1950s small-town America needed to be updated to uber-hip mid-90's Seattle. I also think that Jenny Lewis is better suited as Rilo Kiley's guitarist than as a solo songwriter.
[this Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins video doesn't have any puppets but it does have a guest appearance by Sarah Silverman. It's like two years of indie rock sex fantasies rolled into one awesome package:]
Impermanence
Date: 8/6/07
Location: Empty Bottle
Bands: Permanent Midnight, Skarekrau Radio
Cost: FREE!
Drinks: $1.25 PBR
Things I missed to be there: Nightfoxxx, Protman and the Start at the Note; helping an old friend nurse legal system wounds at Delilah's
Reason for going: The price + the way some of my friends swoon whenever they talk about Skarekrau Radio
"This song's about an Alfred Hitchcock Movie. It doesn't matter which one."
I was talking about bands with this guy on a bus one time and he described Permanent Midnight as "a Bloodyminded cover band featuring everyone who's ever played with Bloodyminded."
I can't think of an apt-er description. The band featured members of Panicsville, The Coughs, Carpet of Sexy and a couple dozen other bands crowded around a table full of electronics. Every now and then, one of the people standing at the table would switch places with the person holding the microphone, announce something like "This song is called 'Hotdog stuck in a teenage girl's vagina... actually it isn't stuck but it's in there pretty good'" and then slam into the audience for somewhere between six and ninety seconds of tuneless, electronic hardcore.
Skarekrau Radio was a little harder to peg. There wasn't really anything special about them, as far as the noiise/experimental/whatever scene they roll in. Ten plus people. Homemade costumes. a naked guy. They were pretty much doing the bizzarro world jam band thing that midwesterners like Cave, Fuck 911, and Warhammer 48k and big time money makers like Acid Mothers Temple and Animal Collective do a lot of. The result is kind of like psychedelic tribal dance music. You can get a similar sound out of acts like Konono No. 1 and Waterbabies, but the difference is that they have a much more electronic sound.
[Here's a video of Skarekrau Radio doing their thing; all pictures above are of Skarekrau Radio, even when I'm talking about Permanent Midnight]
Location: Empty Bottle
Bands: Permanent Midnight, Skarekrau Radio
Cost: FREE!
Drinks: $1.25 PBR
Things I missed to be there: Nightfoxxx, Protman and the Start at the Note; helping an old friend nurse legal system wounds at Delilah's
Reason for going: The price + the way some of my friends swoon whenever they talk about Skarekrau Radio
"This song's about an Alfred Hitchcock Movie. It doesn't matter which one."
I was talking about bands with this guy on a bus one time and he described Permanent Midnight as "a Bloodyminded cover band featuring everyone who's ever played with Bloodyminded."
I can't think of an apt-er description. The band featured members of Panicsville, The Coughs, Carpet of Sexy and a couple dozen other bands crowded around a table full of electronics. Every now and then, one of the people standing at the table would switch places with the person holding the microphone, announce something like "This song is called 'Hotdog stuck in a teenage girl's vagina... actually it isn't stuck but it's in there pretty good'" and then slam into the audience for somewhere between six and ninety seconds of tuneless, electronic hardcore.
Skarekrau Radio was a little harder to peg. There wasn't really anything special about them, as far as the noiise/experimental/whatever scene they roll in. Ten plus people. Homemade costumes. a naked guy. They were pretty much doing the bizzarro world jam band thing that midwesterners like Cave, Fuck 911, and Warhammer 48k and big time money makers like Acid Mothers Temple and Animal Collective do a lot of. The result is kind of like psychedelic tribal dance music. You can get a similar sound out of acts like Konono No. 1 and Waterbabies, but the difference is that they have a much more electronic sound.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Mixtape for Sarah [WZRD]
The Coup - My favorite Mutiny
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Kooler than Jesus
James Brown - Take Me Higher and Groove Me
Mika Miko - Capricorinations
Spires that in the Sunset Rise - Crooked Spine
Indian Jewelry - Come Closer Abridged
Bunny Brains - Posterboy Gravesite
Drummers of the Societe Absolument- Juba
Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (remix)
Liars - Grown Men
Terry - Let Me See You Smile
The Coughs - Penal Colony
19th & Morgan - Surrender
Social Junk - Voting Riders
The Hate Moms - Mother's Day
Ornamentals - No Pain
M.I.A. - XR2 Turbo
Anty NY
Screamin Cyn Cyn & the Pons - slumber party
20th century steel band- heaven
los abandoned - a la mode
Delta 5 - mind your own business
esg
dj signify - winters gone
radioinactive - refrigerator
matt & kim - frank
vyle - tomos with the 3 spokes
insect deli - no more snacks
[This be the new M.I.A. single]
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Kooler than Jesus
James Brown - Take Me Higher and Groove Me
Mika Miko - Capricorinations
Spires that in the Sunset Rise - Crooked Spine
Indian Jewelry - Come Closer Abridged
Bunny Brains - Posterboy Gravesite
Drummers of the Societe Absolument- Juba
Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (remix)
Liars - Grown Men
Terry - Let Me See You Smile
The Coughs - Penal Colony
19th & Morgan - Surrender
Social Junk - Voting Riders
The Hate Moms - Mother's Day
Ornamentals - No Pain
M.I.A. - XR2 Turbo
Anty NY
Screamin Cyn Cyn & the Pons - slumber party
20th century steel band- heaven
los abandoned - a la mode
Delta 5 - mind your own business
esg
dj signify - winters gone
radioinactive - refrigerator
matt & kim - frank
vyle - tomos with the 3 spokes
insect deli - no more snacks
Thursday, August 02, 2007
more run on sentences as our hero visits the Blue Man Group
Taken on their own, the individual elements that make up the Blue Man Group- trashcan percussion, gross-out performance art, body movement and interpretive dance, mime, clowning, and prop comedy- are some of the most hated elements of busking. For years, evil aldermen like Burt Nataras have defended their yuppie constituents by attempting to shut down unlicensed street performance doing just this kind of thing. Somehow, while the guys on the street are struggling to get by asking for pocket change, the Blue Man Group is able to sell out the Briar Street Theater nightly at sixty bucks a ticket.
It's easy to get cynical about something like that, because the Blue Man Group isn't some local-grown industrial dada outfit, it's a franchise that sees the city as a market, with enough tourists to support them through waxes and wanes of local support, just like Six Flags Great America and the Hard Rock Cafe. There are little bits of commentary in the show, that are more dangerous or cutting than you'd expect, but more shallow than they seem, critiques on the pretensions of high art consumers (with Sturm und Drang references!), how computer culture separates people from one another, and on the lack of depth in pop and rock music and the music industry (which is a little the-pot-calling-the-kettle-black as you get to see a Grammy-nominated performance art troupe launch into crowd pleasing covers of Ozzy Osboune's "Crazy Train" and Devo's "Whip It" on a PVC pipe organ).
So the punches are more like love taps, and you just might notice, but if you do, it'll probably be in retrospect, because, fuck the bullshit, the Blue Men put on a good show. The music is listenable, even in recordings where you can't see how it's being made, there are some more than service-able electronic jams, and even though the stage show is time-tested and years' old, it still feels fresh. There are of simple, beautiful moments, too, that are more surprising than anything else in the show. Once you've gotten used to the three Blue Men vomiting through holes in their shirts, turning off the lights as they use scrolling lcd screens as drumsticks, or playing oil drums full of blacklight-sensitive paint, you're not expecting them to cover a windowpane with shaving cream and use it as a projection screen for a film about animation as it derived from shadow puppets.
The show ends the way it always ends. Bad techno. Strobes. Rolls of toilet paper overflowing and becoming a tidal wave as people pass them up towards the stage. Baby's first rave. In the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe talks about how Ken Kesey figured out how to use strobe lights, rhythms, and bright colors to simulate the best parts of an acid trip, and that pretty much happens here. Awed love feelings, slowed time, and a bit of a freak out.
Worth is a relative term. Because I don't have anything, sixty dollars seems exorbitant, and I can really appreciate the kids on the street, giving art away for free. Hopefully, if and when I ever have money I still will, but I'd wager to say, tht if I was a grown man, who wanted to hear some music, or feel a bit high, or just get some chucks out of a theater show, I wouldn't hesitate to drop sixty bucks on the Blue Men.
It's easy to get cynical about something like that, because the Blue Man Group isn't some local-grown industrial dada outfit, it's a franchise that sees the city as a market, with enough tourists to support them through waxes and wanes of local support, just like Six Flags Great America and the Hard Rock Cafe. There are little bits of commentary in the show, that are more dangerous or cutting than you'd expect, but more shallow than they seem, critiques on the pretensions of high art consumers (with Sturm und Drang references!), how computer culture separates people from one another, and on the lack of depth in pop and rock music and the music industry (which is a little the-pot-calling-the-kettle-black as you get to see a Grammy-nominated performance art troupe launch into crowd pleasing covers of Ozzy Osboune's "Crazy Train" and Devo's "Whip It" on a PVC pipe organ).
So the punches are more like love taps, and you just might notice, but if you do, it'll probably be in retrospect, because, fuck the bullshit, the Blue Men put on a good show. The music is listenable, even in recordings where you can't see how it's being made, there are some more than service-able electronic jams, and even though the stage show is time-tested and years' old, it still feels fresh. There are of simple, beautiful moments, too, that are more surprising than anything else in the show. Once you've gotten used to the three Blue Men vomiting through holes in their shirts, turning off the lights as they use scrolling lcd screens as drumsticks, or playing oil drums full of blacklight-sensitive paint, you're not expecting them to cover a windowpane with shaving cream and use it as a projection screen for a film about animation as it derived from shadow puppets.
The show ends the way it always ends. Bad techno. Strobes. Rolls of toilet paper overflowing and becoming a tidal wave as people pass them up towards the stage. Baby's first rave. In the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe talks about how Ken Kesey figured out how to use strobe lights, rhythms, and bright colors to simulate the best parts of an acid trip, and that pretty much happens here. Awed love feelings, slowed time, and a bit of a freak out.
Worth is a relative term. Because I don't have anything, sixty dollars seems exorbitant, and I can really appreciate the kids on the street, giving art away for free. Hopefully, if and when I ever have money I still will, but I'd wager to say, tht if I was a grown man, who wanted to hear some music, or feel a bit high, or just get some chucks out of a theater show, I wouldn't hesitate to drop sixty bucks on the Blue Men.
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