dEAR eRIC,
Please write reviews of the following shows you've been to in the last mointh

1. Bludwulf and Disrobe at the Albion House
2. BunnyBrains, Sir Richard Bishop, Jackie O Motherfucker at Union Pool [Brooklyn]
3. The Chicago Sound, Gays in the Military, and Black Bear Combo at the Beat Kitchen
4. No Fun Fest at the Hook [Brooklyn]
5. Lord of the Yum Yum, To Catch a Wace, Nick Butcher at Mister City

i keep going to shows, but all I write are playlists [WLUW]

Pedestrian - The Toss & Turn
Eliot Lipp - Rap Tight #!
Coldcut - New Skool #

Blondie - Bang a Gong/Funtime (live)
The Contours - Just a Little Misunderstanding (from Mod Club Party)
Smack - For a Daqui (from The Sexual Life of Savages)

The Highwaymen - Highwaymen
Bad Brains - Right Brigade

Eyedea & Abilities - Act Right
The Free Design - Never Tell the World !!
Nous Non Plus - Tant Pis Pour Toi #!

David & the Citizens - Summer is No Man's Land
H.P. Lovecraft - Homemade Time Machine !
Josephine Foster - Der Konig in Thule #!!!!

Smashing Pumpkins - Cinnamon Girl
Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down Quartet - The Curse of Being in Love
Shopping - Dan-Nat-Dun-Uh (from Regime Change)

I-Attack - I-Attack
The Groodies - Carcrash
Naked Raygun - Bananacuda

Manu Chao - Clandestino
SamaraLubeski - Sister Silver #!
Felix Da Housecat - Rocketride

OOIOO - Mountain Book
Eels - If you see Natalie (live) #
Gogol Bordello - 60 Revolutions *

zZz - Godspeed
Acid Mothers Temple - L'Ambition dans le Miroir

. [WLUW]

Cocteu Twins - Iceblink Luck
The Infrasonics - The Job #
McClusky - To Hell With Good Intentions

Daniel Knox - Cake 4 #
The Capricorns - Don't Close Your Eyes #
Tom Waits - Ice Cream Man

Tortoise - Tin Cans and Twine
Odd Nosdam - 11th Avenue Freakout Pt. 2
Sun City Girls -Space Prophet Dogon

Busdriver - Unemployed Black Astronaut
Kickball - Brown #

Screeching Weasel - Anthem for a New Tomorrow
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts #
Doveman - Teacup !

Judas Priest - Diamonds in the Rust
Gorillaz - El Manana
Da Beatminerz feat. Wordsworth and the Last Emperor - It Ain't Enough

Kraftwerk - The Man Machine
Looper - Sugarcane
Lord of the Yum Yum - Flight of the Bumblebee

Four Tet - and then patterns
Ween - Don 't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)

Massive Attack - Leave with me
Polkaholics - Polka Your Troubles Away

meh

Why? - Dumb Hummer #
Serge Gainsbourg - Initals B.B.
Medeski Martin & Wood - I Wanna Ride You

The Flaming Lips -There You Are - Jesus Song No. 7
The Business - Do Anything You Wanna Do
Billy Bragg - The Marching Song of the Covert Battallions

Velvetron - Snoozebar #
R.E.M. - I Walked with a Zombie (Roky Erikson cover from Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye)
Butthole Surfers - Earthquakes (Roky Erikson cover from Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye)
zZz - Ecstacy #

Howe Gelb - Neon Filler#
Two Gallants - 16th St. Dozens #
The White Stripes - Red Bowling Ball Ruth

Slayer - Mandatory Suicide
Dengue Fever - 1000 Tears of a Tarantula
Talking Heads - Crosseyed & Painless

Bunny Brains - Mr. Tommy (Poor henry Style)
the Bad Plus - Anthem for the Earnest
Antipop Consortium - Ghostlawns
Voices & Organs - Idle Words #2 #

Love and Rockets - It Could Be Sunshine
Sondre Lerche - You Sure Look Swell #!
Jel - All Day Breakfast

Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - 13 Moons

Don't Tell Me I Look Like I need Rest, it Throws Me Off and Makes Me Feel Bad

Ghostigital - Good Morning
Chris D/Divine Horsemen - Heat from the Sun
The Residents - Lord, It's Lonely/ The Knife Fight

Fred Frith/Tom Cora - It's Fine !
White Flag - Middle Class Hell
Jody Foster's Army - Charlie Brown/ I want
The Fall - Smile (from Speed Trials)

Beastie Boys - Egg Raid on a Mojo (from Speed Trials)
Itals - Jah Glory (from Calling All Rastafari)
Yellowman - Wreck a Pum Pum

Samhain - I am Misery
Roomfull of Blues - Dressed to Get Messed Up
SVDB - Chain Reaction
Shattered Faith - Rise & Fall
Anne Waldman - Uh Oh Plutonium (from Better an Old Demon Than a New God)

Richard Hell - The Rev Hell Gets Confused (from Better an Old Demon Than a New God)

Mark Stewart & Maffia - Learning to Cope With Cowardice
Arto Lindsay - Alisa
Wha Ha Ha - Keiro no hibi
Ornament - Ulrich Susse
Beaver Harris - Land of the Pharohs

the Dogmatics - Sister Serena
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
Rapture in Baghdad - Taal
The Android Sisters - Huh?

The Deprogrammers -America
The Crucifucks - By the Door/ Oh Where Oh Where
The Ex - Blueprints for a Blackout

Billy Bragg - Weird things happen
Plasticland - Elongations

16 Bitch Pile Up - ???

Chocolate Hamentashen

Bikini Kill- Thurston Hears a Who
Holy Roman Empire - Your Side
The M's - Never do this Again

Jel - Thrashin #!
Trio - Hearts are Trump
Tarantella - Hidden track 1

Bakelite 78 - St. James Infirmary
Os Mutantes - Hey Boy
Polysics - Wild One <-Omigod, these guys get better every time I hear them

Descendents - Dog and Pony Show
The Frogs - And Now You Know You're Black
Nightmares on Wax - The Sweetest

Daniel Wang - Berlin Sunrise (from Idol Tryouts 2)
Agent Orange - Too Young to Die
IFIHADAHIFI - Chance-Medley

King Crimson - Level Five
The Pedestrians - Left on Destruction
East West Blast Test - Unwanted Inches

Johnny Cash - Wanted Man
Clouddead - Rhymer's Only Room
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me

Pink Mountaintops - Lord Let Us Shine
Yea Big - Perverse Display of Friendship
Greenlight - Head Erased (10110)

Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Goon Squad
The Dutchmen - ??? (from their split with Velcro Lewis)

Angel Eyes - By the Time he was my age, Orson Wells had made Citizen Kane

jenny lewis has some big ass titties [WZRD]

[I regret not taping this show more than any in years]

Acid Mothers Temple - Starless and Bible Black Sabbath #

report from the protest Tom Robb at the pro immigration march

Minutemen - Glory of Man/Nothing Indeed
The White Lie - Postcard from Dachau (from Rat Music for Rat People)

Public Image Limited - This Is Not A Lovesong
45 Grave - Party (the Story of Sabine)
Battalion of Saints - Intercourse

[this set made me come]
Laurie Anderson - Song from America on the Move
The Fall - Eat Y'Self Fitter
The Effigies - A Tight Blue Cut

Out of Order - Concerned (from The Middle of America)
Aggression - The Smell (from Nardcore)
TheSplendor of Fear - Mexican Bandit
Clock DVA - Silent (from The Industrial Records Story) !
Dorothy - I Confess (from The Industrial Records Story) !!!

Root Boy Slim - 21st Century Man !!!
Terveet Kadet - Outo Mas (MaximumRocknroll presents Welcome to 1984)!
Olho Seco - Nada (MaximumRocknroll presents Welcome to 1984) !
Tragic Mulatto - Gossip

Hiller Hibber - Bass schlafen Rabe... !!
Gothic Girls - Glass Baby (MC Megamix)
Big Boys - History

Soloman Kane - Twilight Kane(from The Sound of Hollywood Girls) !!!
Couch Flambeu - ADM 12/ Last Scorpion Hunt
The Smiths - Girl Afraid

Siouxie and the Banshees - Dazzle
Helene Sage - frissons dans la cochlee (from In Fractured Silence)
T.S.O.L. - What If They Gave a War and No One Came? (from Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Vol. 1)

Butthole Surfers - Bar B-Q Pope
The Dickies - Gigantor (from Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Vol. 1)
Was (Not Was) - Ba-Lue olivar Ba-Lues Are (from A Tribute to Thelonious Monk)
Mark Bingham - Brilliant Corners (from A Tribute to Thelonious Monk)
Bitch - I'm in Love (from The Sound of Hollywood Girls)

Ghostigital - Good Morning #!

what would we do?

Mick Jagger - Music from the 1969 Kenneth Anger film "Invocation of My Demon Brother"

Itchee Fingers -
Jay Dee - Track ten from Donuts

Nico - Nibelugen
The Fall - Living Too Late
Roky Erikson - Creature With the Atom Brain

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Melt Your Heart #
7 Heures Du Matin - My Generation (The Who cover from Girls in the Garage, Pt. 2)
Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On #

The Dynotones - Night of the Ghouls #
DJ Dolores - Ciranda da Madrugada #
P:ano - I felt his presents/Doing the Can Can #

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Mystery Babylon
Trio Macato - Beleza! Beleza! Beleza!

The Frogs - Jewels
Scott Walker - Jackie !
Jacques Brel - Les Prionoms de Paris

The Fabulous Wailers - Tall Cool One !
The Avett Brothers - Matrimony #
Superdanger - Good Vs. Evil # <--they make me want to beat up nerds, also superdanger

New Radiant Storm King - From a Roof #

Mott the Hoople - Ready for Love/After Lights
Butthole Surfers - Goofy's Concern

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Famous N Dandy (Like Amos N Andy)!
Ladysmith Black Mambazo w/ Taj Mahal - Mbube

for the love of pete, even if you hate the player, don't hate the game

So I was just listening to the Spanish hip hop and reggaeton station (93.5, apparently) and I heard a song featuring recent Oscar-winners Three 6 Mafia where they were imploring me to "shake it like a rattlesnake", which seemed a bit more of a stretch than certain other metaphors I've been invited to shake (i.e. a polaroid picture, a salt shaker, etc.)

As many of you know, I've always wanted to be a rap superstar, but I busted my flow eight years ago in a tragic rollerblading incident. After much soul searching, I've decided that I'm willing to settle for a carreer as a ghost writer for rap superstars. As such, I've decided to compile a list of shakey things.

BEHOLD!

Things That Shake or Are Shaken
maracas
dice
bottled juice
diet shakes
subterranean California faultlines
happy dog's tails
Lotto balls
Spirograph
googly eyes
the very cold
aerosol cans
jackhammers
James Bond's martinis
rattles
roll, as in shake, rattle and
epileptics, grand mal
epileptics, petit mal

I really like that last one, check this out:
"Shake it like a petit mal, come on and swallow that tongue"

Things That Do Not Shake in and of Themselves, but Bend, Twist, Fold or are otherwise Stretched Out (i.e. "that Laffy Taffy")
bendy straws
a paycheck
the time we have on this planet
waistbands
Plasticman
joins, ball-and-socket
joints, hinge
space age polymers
chewed gum
joy buzzers
Chubby Checker
Twister, the Milton Bradley foreplay game
Twister, the Bill Paxton/chick from"Mad About You" weather-adventure film
folding chairs
fresh laundry

that one works as well:
"Fold it like fresh laundry bitch, I wanna Snuggle"

please forward this to any and all famous rappers you may know. thank you.

that hippie shit

[note to self: rip all these albums,burn all these cds, everything kicked taint]

Genesis - The Return of the Giant Hogweed
Finch - Pisces

Billie Holiday - body and Soul
David Bowie - See Emily Play
The Electric Prunes - Sold to the Highest Bidder -!!!
Brian Auger's Oblivion Express - The Sword

Lou Reed - Take aWalk on the Wild Side
Mandalaland - Determination
Tomorrow - Three Jolly Little Dwarfs

Polysics - I My Me Mine #
Yid Vicious - A Vicious Bulgar
Measles Mumps Rubella - Algorithm of Desire

Sly Stone - I get High on You
The Other Half - Feathered Fish (Country Joe & the Fish Cover)/Flight of the Dragon Lady
Paul Horn + Nexus - Somba
Paul Revere & the Raiders - Good Thing

Tic Code - exembox #!
Kraftwerk - Airwaves
The Jimmy Castor Bunch - Drifting <--song sucked ass, had to cut it, but flowed seamlessly into....
Dewey Redman - Seven and One

the Deviants - Billy the Monster
the Kinks - Sweet Lady Genieveve
Frank Zappa - Rudy Wants to Buy YezaDrink

Patti Smith - Gloria
Surrealistic Pillow - 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds
Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson - The Summer of 42

Gabriel Bondage - Babylon 5
Mutantese Arnolpho Lima Filho - Top top

Eric Burdon & War - Paint It Black

a lovely day in chicago [WLUW]

the frogs - and now you know you're black
the coctails - alderaan
the melvins and jello biafra - caped crusader

the feelies - let's go
the chinese stars - cheap city halo
gal costa - mamae, coragem (from Tropicalia: Ou Panis Et Circencis)
the hells - he's the devil !


[the all local all awesome set]
orso - milanesa two !
colossal - i'll look at you when the dying starts !
hirudin - matthew, what the fuck

inch worm - nowhere bound #!
beans - you're dead, lets disco !
nick cave & the bad seeds - cannibal's hymn

the pixies - cactus (live)
bakelite 78 - willie the chimney sweep
the firebird band - obsessive compulsive

the pedestrians - wire to wire #
tapes 'n tapes - buckle #
silkworm - penalty box !
genders - slip into the nightcrawlersclub

k-os - the love song !!!!
le tigre - don't drink poison
lsd march - rokoku no honu

the '89 cubs - oh, the things we put in our heads
tortoise and bonnie prince billy - thunder road
liz janes - wonderkiller !!

johnny cash - we'll meet again

a night on the town

or "unnecessary weekend party wrap up, pt. deux"

1:10: I love you but I must bid you ado. The wonderful people are trickling from the Glamarchist Benefit. The rum is gone.
1:15: Why is my phone not working> I always pay my bill. Can I use yours?
1:30: The Twinkie Party looks like it was a thing not to be missed. Nevertheless, it ended promptly at one. The only people I know are the only people under thirty. They are poets, all three of them. They are also the only blacks and hispanics at this cavernous place, and they were kicked out more harshly than I.
1:45: Hi Ramon, what's up? You're at a party, where at? Oh, the people are assholes? Maybe I'll see you there. I'll call you if there are better things to do.
1:46: There are better things to do.
2:00: We arrive at the Monkey Haus, or what once was the Monkey Haus. Never trust a place with bouncers that look different than the rest of the crowd.
2:01: I decide to play with them.

Bouncer: Show me your hands [the nails are bitten, they are unmarked]
Me: What's goin on in here?
Bouncer: Five bucks.
Me: [coy] What for?
Bouncer: What do you think? [the last time I paid five bucks, it was for an Anarchist legal defense fund, and also beer. I don't think that's the case here]
Me: Well. I want to know if it's worth it. [I want a sales pitch]
Bouncer: Look... [and he's looking mean] I'm not here to accomodate you.
Me: [Wondering how close I am to getting hit] What an odd thing to say. Am I going to have fun?
Bouncer: Look [he is defeated?] it's crowded and sweaty, there's good music, beautiful women, and shitty beer that 'll cost too much because you don't know anyone.
Me: Here's five.

2:05: Alex is here. This is nearly a given.
2:07: His name isn't Marat?
2:08: This is an afterparty for some band called The Gaylords which features suckbags from lameass bands Kill Hannah, Local H, and the Smashing Pumpkins. I do not see any local celebrities I know/hate/recognize, they are probably all doing blow at the VIP party downstairs.
2:10: A cute, boyish lesbian type nods to me on the dance floor. I nod back.
2:12: Cute, boyish lesbian type is really trying to work my dick with her ass on the dance floor. Uh oh, I think.
2:13: Cute boyish lesbian type starts kissing my neck.

Me: Umm, I gotta go. I'll be right back.

2:14: Me: So, what's the deal with drinks.
Bartender: We got beer left.
Me: Cool, I'll have one.
Bartender: [pouring already] That's three bucks.
Me: I don't have it.
Bartender: Well ya gotta give me something if you wanna drink.
Me: What's the least I can give you?
Bartender: Three dollars.
Me: Lady, I ain't never had a beer at a house party worth three dollars [although technically, this is a loft]
Bartender: [incredulous] Really?

2:17: I walk in a small circle, Cute Boyish Lesbian Type finds me.

Me: Drinks are fuckin expensive here.
CBLT: Yeah, you wanna go fuck?
Me: Um, I can't.
CBLT: Why not?
Me: I'm trying to be monogamous. It' like, a trial thing I need to see if I can do [Why do I say this instead of something like, 'I'm in love' or 'I'm really not into you'? I think I'm trying to sound cool and noncomittal. I hate that I do that. Also, it's the same answer I give when people ask me why I'm not eating red meat this month]
CBLT: That sucks.
Me: Yeah, I guess, but not really. What's you're name?
CBLT: Mike.
Me: Nice to meet you, Mike [perhaps Cute Boyish Lesbian Type is actually Cute Girlish Gay Guy Type. It doesn't matter]

2:25: Fight between two very tall, pretty effeminite hipster boys wih bad haircuts. It is broken up too quickly for my tastes.
2:26: Dance awkwardly.
3:10: DJ plays "Sex on Wheels (Motor City Remix)" by My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. I dance awkwardly but with much more force.
3:15: D.J. Demchuk rolls me a cigarette. As a nonsmoker I have had very few cigarettes and the ones I've had were of the mass produced variety. This tastes plain and harsh in comparison.
3:20: So long suckers.
3:30: I am a much better tipper when my girlfriend is in the car. I'm not a bad tipper, but as a former waitress and dater of Indian men, she respects cab drivers and people who rely on tips for a living more than I do. At the same time, I am not a shitty tipper and have him drop me off a few blocks from home so I can give him that much extra money.
3:35: Nick is looking for typewriter stores in the phonebook. I like living with him.
4:00 Write blog, dick around online, go to bed.

I am happy with this evening. I am proud of myself for my restraint but I expect that I will get some shit from Sarah for letting Mike get close enough to kiss me. I have had a wonderful friendfilled week. It is somewhere around my tenth annversary of writing and for two shows this week, I broke out a dusty old book of poems spanning the many phases I've gone through. I'd like to thank Chris Basaraba, Christian Duckworth, Meshell, Sam, Deanna and Breanna for coming out to the In One Ear on Wednesday, anyone who took the time to actually look at my photos at Inventive Expression yesterday or listen to my poems at A Cold Day in the City tonight, all the people I just met, anyone who reads my blog, and especially Sarah for dragging her ass out to nearly every performance I have. I know that a lot of what I do isn't particularly most of your cup(s) of tea, but I spend a lot of time working on it and I feel really good about myself when you give it a chance. Namaste.

post script - in the initial typing of this blog, I wrote 'monogamous' as 'monotonous'...hello, Doctor Freud!

scratches and pops [wzrd]

klaus nomi - nomi song
second step - oppurtunity (from Hit and Run: New york Beat) !
sturm group - fetish
la muerte - ecoute cette priere/make it easy

poi dog pondering -wood guitar
snatches of pink - midway
cro-mags - then and now
baaba maal & mansour seck - muudo hormo

borghesia - she is not alone (sonic youth cover?) !
sturm group - fetish
spanking bozo - tell you something (from Maniacs from the Motor City)

o.v. wright - to you i shall cling (from Deep in the Soul of Texas)
the citations - that's what it is (from Deep in the Soul of Texas)
zaar - ce n'est pas triste # !
morcheeba - over and over

greater than one - i don't believe in god
occasional detroit - tse tse fly
tragic mulatto - hardcore bigot scum get stabbed i say !

the wedding present- Vasa Vasyl'ok !
big audio dynamite - start !
les thugs - dead dreams
big trouble house - getting near the end

red hot chili peppers - magic johnson
frontline assembly - prayer
kinothek percussion ensemble - a rumble (on the track)

crazyhead - jack the scissorman
twang bang - ten feet tall

agnostic front - liberty & justice
suicide - wild in blue
typewriter - let the bomb go
kmfdm - rip the system

am syndicate - kicking a sailor in the teeth #!
lao kouyate - ppt les amis

all while talkin to some asshole on coke [WLUW]

lard - 70s rock must die
i need sleep - natural disasters
the creeps - down at the nightclub

the ranchgirls & the ragtime wranglers - if you don't love me somebody else will (Wanda Jackson cover from Hard Headed Woman)
cat power - love & communication #
brian wilson - mrs. o'leary's cow
ariel pink's haunted grafitti - hardcore pops are fun

onyx - slam
the 88 - hide another mistake
the fall - bo demmick

stiff little fingers - no more of that
gabby la la - be careful what you wish for
dosh - rock it to the next episode
pharcyde - passin me by

the ramones - pinhead
vashti bunyan - here before !
ween - israel !

swearing at motorists - northern line #
bakelite 78 - dark eyes !
the faint - hypnotised (from Lagniappe: SaddleCreek Benefit for Hurricane Katrina)#

brad peterson - nine #
orange juice - falling and laughing
talib kweli - get by

blondie - atomic
farm crew - do it all again (from The Chicago Drop Vol. 1)

small change - atmofear #
kmfdm - you're no good [technical difficulties...oops]
the photo atlas - the walls have eyes #

sham 69 - hey little rich boy
ghislair poirier - refuse to lose
kadaa & patton - pilie mes larmes !

already been chewed

my favorite TV show, based on what I watch the most regularly, would have to be World News Now. It's a lightweight news magazine that airs on ABC from like 1:55 to 4:00 in the morning, in between the rerun of the local nightly news and the similarly titled World News This Morning. It runs for a little less than an hour and repeats two-and-a-half times. The only thing I can really say in its favor is that wacky banter and entertainment news makes up less than ten per cent of each broadcast and that the newscasters or veejays or whatever the fuck you're supposed to call them don't give a fuck if I know who tthey are. For all I know they switch the smiling guy and ethnic girl every week and send the old ones back to the mailroom. Whoever they're using, they're familiar, can easily be placed in the background, and are far less unpleasant than the locals.

They just had some music industry dick with a sandblasted face and a Pat Riley haircut talking about the new acts to look for.

I hate when magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin do shit like this and I hate when TV stations do it. It's really easy to predict which 'underground' acts are going to make it when you're already privvy to who the labels have decided they're going to pour money into, and when you only need one or two of the artists to actually make it to pat yourself on the back a year later.

So they've got this man, who looks a little like a lizard who's got it in with the Brooks Brothers and he's talking about Matisyahu (who's already got songs on mainstream radio) and he says

It's all about the forelocks, not the dreadlocks with this guy

and for some reason that pisses me off. I think because it's a catchphrase, a catchphrase that no one would actually use. Not only that, but it's a catchphrase that was just a little too clever for this reptile. Some executive ordered it up and told him to say it. Obviously.

There's also something a little sinister about it, like finally, reggae without all those Jamaicans!

I'm fine with Matisyahu being a novelty act; he does some good shit and if novelty is the only way people are gonna hear it, that's fine. My sister was playing the cd for my Dad today. He hates reggae but he loves giving Jewish musicians a chance (as opposed to, you know, liking reggae while not being that fond of black people). He couldn't jive with his fellow Tribesman though, pondering for a second and saying, "you know, if Bob Marley had a couple of rockandroll Latinos, maybe a guitarist and a timbale player from Santana's band, I probably could've dug his music."

I was reading one of the Rolling Stone's my dad keeps around the can. Another music industry dick was talking about Matisyahu:

and Matisyahu's got some real reggae credibility, we're not talking about Snow, here!

That's another thing that sounds clever and in-the-know when some asshole tells some other asshole about it, but anybody who listened to Snow's album (the admittedly terribly-titled "12 Inches of Snow"), they would see that Snow wasn't just faking it. Snow came off as Vanilla Ice ..2, but he wasn't. His music hasn't aged well but he was serious about his reggae, working with cats like Ninjaman and Junior Reid. The reason he was dismissed so quickly is that half his album was much reggaer than his single "Informer" and half his album was poppier (think K7 and the Swing Kids).

Nevertheless, here are things I like about Matisyahu, that have nothing to do with music:

1. He's got a beard that no one else but Will Oldham or ZZ Top would leave the house with.
2. Because of his extreme, adopted orthodoxy, he has taken concessions that guarantee a poorer performance, i.e. refusing to do shows on Friday nights, not stagediving out of fear that he might come in contact with a woman he's unrelated to, not signing women's autographs for the same reason.
3. He's obviously not in anybody's pocket
4. His upcoming album with Bill Laswell will either develop his guitar heavy rasta sound or deepen the dub elements (though really, I think he should be working with someone like Manu Chao who could get some interesting shit out of his vocals)
5. Any Jewish-identified rap that can be taken seriously as real hiphop is a step up from Hip Hop Hoodios, Blood of Abraham, Remedy and the goofball JewBu dreck the Beastie Boys put out on 11/12ths of their last few albums.

still, he's not the best

I've been on a serious white-guilt, racial aggression trip lately, but it seems kinda suspect to me that Matisyahu is becoming a staple with the khakis-and-sandals crowds at dorms everywhere (see: Dave Mathews, Jack Johnson, and John Mayer, who isn't entirely terrible). For years, the familiar sounds of Bob Marley's Legend album have plagued quads and residence halls across the country. It's become nothing less than cliche but until now, no reggae crooners have come along to carry the torch.

No classics like Toots & the Maytals, the Wailers, Desmond Dekkers, Lee Perrys, or Peter Toshes. No 2-tones or third wavers like the Specials or the Skatalites. No crooners like Barrington Levy or Max Romeo. No scatmasters like Eek-A-Mouse or dubmasters like Lee "Scratch" Perry and Sly & Robbie.. No rap hybrids like Beenie Man, Just I.C.E. or Mad Lion. No dirty motherfuckers like Yellowman. No Pato Bantons or Mad Professors or Buju Bantons, most-if-not-all of them, better than Matisyahu and at least as good as Legend.

I want to decry the racial element, the inherent country clubbiness of the Greek System, but I've been doing that a lot these days and I don't want to be a one-trick pony. It's not most frat boys fault that they like reggae but have never heard it. Perhaps, it is just that none of these artists were lucky enough to have a record exec box them into a neat little phrase.

But please, please, don't call that forelocks

International Noise Fest

Cost: Free
Things I missed to be there: Nothing, absolutely nothing, at lease not in Florida.

The biker looked to be somewhere in his forties or fifties. His arms were full of tattoos and none of them looked new. Picking his gums with a curved blade, he turned to looked at me. "This shit ain't music...this is noise pollution." I shrugged. "I work on engines all day. Motorcycles. HARLEYS. They ain't half as loud and sound twice as pretty.

My Mom is one out of a litter of seven. When her folks moved from New Jersey to Florida, all but two of their kids followed. Every year since I was born I've taken at least one trip a year to South Florida. Boynton Beach. Boca Raton. Ft. Lauderdale. There's never really anything to do there, and whenever I find something, I end up getting myself in trouble. In twenty-three years I've never seen a good show in the Panhandle. It finally happened today.

I'd like to give a shout out to the nation of Wizards who made it happen. I was talking to Skateboard Dan Demchuk, who happened to be from Florida, and was asking me what I was doing over the weekend. When I told him I'd be in Florida, he said, "That's awesome! [WZRD dj] Rotten Milk is playing a show in Miami this weekend."

The show was The International Noise Conference, organized by To Live and Shave in L.A.'s Rat Bastard. Nobody could tell whether or not the name was a joke, or just ambitious, as there weren't any performers from outside the country. It took place in this fantastic dive bar Churchill's in the middle of Little Haiti. Churchill's was everything that places like Exit could be but aren't. It wasn't trying so hard to look all punk as fuck. It was just fun (after lookingitt their piece of shit website, I was more than hapilly surprised. It claims to be an authentic English pub. I'm willing to believe it, because outside of the red, black, and white facade and the burnt out double-decker buses in the parking lot, there wasn't a damn thing in the place that was English, and I kinda doubt that a traditional(e) English Pub would be as Anglocentric as the ones you'll see in Lincoln Park.

The front room was bright, too bright for a bar. It looked like it had once been a diner and had been shut down and incorporated into the rest of the bar, which was dark and wonderful. There was a bartender who was beautiful. An Amazonian I couldn't look at directly for fear that she was reading all the disgusting thoughts in me. She had a tattoo hat started in her cleavage and went...somewhere. From what I could see, it was just two curved lines that formed a mock shadow, making her tits look even more pronounced. There were two well-stocked jukeboxes in the front, and one out back but nobody played anything but the Clash. Fenced in, behind the bar, was another bar. Every surface was tagged with big murals. Most of them were new, and done in a spray-can anime noir style, one was an old, hand-painted New Orleans piece full of joyous, dancing skeletons.

I got there at around ten and the show was already half-over, which is fine by me cause ten-plus noise acts in a row is more than I could tolerate on even the best days. As far as I can tell, this was what I saw:

2:00 - Dynasty (Providence RI)
1:45 - Otto Von Schirach
1:15 - Can't (Boston)
1:00 - Taiwan Deth (Nashville TN)
12:45 -Temple of the Bon Matin
12:30 - Projexorcism (Asheville, NC)
12:15 - Heart2Heart (Providence RI)
12:00 - Leslie Keffer (Athens OH)
11:45 - Mouth Pet (Nashville TN)
11:30 - Brian Miller & Kevin Shields (Los Angeles)
11:15 - Donna Parker (Boston)
11:00 - Unicorn Hard On (Providence RI)
10:45 - Social Junk (Baltimore)
10:30 - Newton (Philadelphia)

The show was everything you could expect from a good noise show held at an actual venue with a license to worry about. Wires snaking in and out of mysterious directions, battling reels of 8mm found footage, homemade clothes and percussion, on-purpose ugly people with terrible haircuts and body odor*, animal costumes, headaches, etc.

From what I can tell, I got there just as Valerie Allen was finishing up some droney vocal stuff and Newton was starting. Newton's set consisted of a guy in a bee costume beatboxing what sounded like the soundack to a Darren Aronofsky film about strangling puppies.

The highlights of the night (for me) were Social Junk and Temple of the Bon Matin. They were both fairly jazzy noise bands. Social Junk brought as big a ruckus as I've ever seen done with an amped clarinet. Temple of the Bon Matin reminded me a lot of Lozenge, percussion-wise. They had a number of huge pieces welded together that they played wiyh intense, pounding synchronicity. I think I veer towards more traditional bands at these kinds of shows. It seems to me that, unless you're a genius or a savant, you can'd do anything with electronics that I would classify as anything other than cool. There's just so much more that a number of musicians working together can do.

Some other notable acts were Brian Miller and Kevin Shields. Brian wrapped tape from person to person around pipes, merch tables and light fixtures before starting a ferocious pit and attempting to destroy everything on the wobbly table his kit sat on. Their songs ended whenever the power strip got knocked loose and started as soon as they could be plugged back in. Donna Parker sang over a repetitive beat, something that bordered on trip hop. She did some beautiful stuff with her voice but I couldn't understand what the shit she was saying. Her act was this shy/coy sultry geek spazz thing. It's probably a good thing I couldn't hear the lyrics. It's cynical to say, but I can't remember the last time I heard a good lyric in concert.

There was one other thing. Shuttle Lounge. Shuttle Lounge was the band playing the outdoor patio. I needed them. In their first set they were for funny looking guys, think a guy who looks like a skinny Jeff Lebowski, a guy who looked like Don Ho dressed up as Elvis for Halloween, a guy who would've been a shoe in for the Fat Boys if they wanted a Mexican, and a quiet bass pleyer who looked like Deepak Chopra's younger brother. They played country and rockandroll. The mexican guy came on to every girl who walked in front of him and flashed the "Have A Nice Day" tattoo on his ass for anybody that put a dollar in his pocket. They played a lot of funny songs and a lot of classics. I lost my shit when they played a straightforward country version of the Outkast song "Caroline" from the Love Below (later they played "Hey Ya" though, and it sounded a bit too Weird Al for my tastes. I would've left a few hours earlier if it wasn't for them. I needed the melody and the humor to break up the monotony of noise noise noise. What can I say? I'm weak. At least now there's one place I can go to the next time I'm in Florida,

my ears are burning with VD, i refuse to play love songs [WLUW]

tom waits - goin out west
tarantella - southern cross
lemon jelly - in the bath

nullsleep - level 2 (from VGM Mixtape # 8)
the monks - shut up
ira! - la fora pode ate morrer

paul kelly - the upset (from Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label)
mf doom - vomitspit
they shoot horses don't they - seeds

chrome - zombie warfare
my barbarian - ryan (police psychic)
alice cooper - below your means

tuung - no man can find the war (from Dream Brother:The Songs of Tim + Jeff Buckley) #!
piglet - plastic stars, cotton highways #
frigg - meltaus

beige - the rhythm! the message? (from Check the Water: Leaf Compilation 1995 - 2005)
klaus nomi - lightning strikes
erwan band - khon muangkhan (from Thai Beat A Go-Go Vol. 3)

waterdown - recruit
the ex - apathy disease

jason forrest - stepping off !
stone jack jones - smile #!
the gourds - shake the chandelier #

bill janovitz and crown victoria - mary kay

the elected - did me good #!

2/3/06 [WZRD]

dove rock - designer gasmasks (from The World Can't Wait: Chicago)
don drummond + drumbago - stampede ( from Calling All Boys And Girls)
skatalites - independent anniversary ska ( from Calling All Boys And Girls)
dj /rupture w wayne lonesome - dem nuh know me

fab two - virgin boy
kingdom scum - articulate your screams !
dave bartholemew - get down blues

leaf - step aside
sir mix a lot - aunt thomasina
the mysterians - lullaby of the leaves

shockabilly heaven - when you dream about bleeding !
ghost - coming home
the fall - states, slags, etc.

dufus - wutcolors
aids wolf - the hat collector #
bushido - high rise *

clarence "gatemouth" brown - jumpin the blues
wanda sa - medicatao
the bombay ducks - carnival courtesy of a daughter

beton combo - ???
chrome - my time to live
hawkwind - assassin (remix by zion train)
east west blast test - unfantastic voyage #
yoko ono - mrs. lennon

varttina - synti (the sin) #
material - ghost light/dread recall
ten-ton - dick joke (revised)

ravi shankar - raga simhendra madhyamam

basic food group - perdurabo

Another Saturday Night

Dear Chicago hippie ravers,
leave your goddamn hula hoops at home before I find a way to kill you with them.

I'm angry this week. The rest of this blog is bitching.

Something weird happened the other day. I wasn't able to get into a show. This isn't because I have any clout or anything, it's just I don't go to many shows other people want to see, let alone shows at venues I can't sneak into somehow (this building was airtight), or that care about capacity violation issues. I thought getting into a Gays in the Military/Billy Carter Band/Functional Blackouts/ Mudqueens show all the way over at 5600 W. Belmont would be a piece of cake. Somehow, I underestimated the power of titties.

The Mudqueens are a group of women who hold charitable mudwrestling events to benefit various women's issues (empowerment, self defense, shelters for victims of abuse), all with a live trashpunk soundtrack. So with clean shoes and an ill temper I went to a genderfuck glamarchist party. The boys (bois?) were all hairless and naked and the whole first floor was dancing. This is where I learned something about myself: I can't dance to Modonna. It wasn't for lack of trying either. The theme was Madonna. It wasn't danceclub Madonna, Madonna with Mirwais, Madonna with William Orbit or anything, this was Madonna singles from the 80s and 90s and I tried for a good half hour to dance to them, only to find that I could not appreciate her music on a sincere or ironic level. No matter what I tried, I couldn't find a groove, so I left and hit up the EE loft.

We got there just as EE was playing their last song. We danced to the best of our ability (which was very good as my roommate and I can jive to EE much better than we can jive to Madonna). Then they stopped. Then the hula hoops came out. Dozens of them. It was, I was told, a hooping party. Even so, I was lacking in hh skills and I wasn't alone. There were not enough hoops to go around and people were getting hurt. Apparently hula hoopers do not care about what is around them and have no qualms about walking right into you with a giant spinning disc. These same assholes also seem to need hula hoops that have a diameter of at least five feet. Now I have no problem with hula hoopers. Some of my best friends are hula hoopers. I don't know why I seem to lose hip control whenever I am ringed, but I do and I'll never be one myself. Still, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that anyone who thinks they're too good for a regular size hula hoop in a crowded room is an arrogant cocksucker who should be shot in the face. My roommate, herself a hooper, did not seem to mind, I said it was time to go.

The last stop before burrito heaven was a black light party at Transamoeba, which carried a hefty ten dollar suggested donation even at 3 in the morning. Suggested that is. Except for the size, which was not-spectacular but well-utilized, it had all the makings of a rave: ample water, trance music, backrubs, skeezy white guys, a chill nook, a dance floor that was half prop-exhibition, et cetera. But something was off. These people were the biggest assholes of the night. It was like the entire party consisted of only-childs who refused to share their toys.

Tania, lacking a hula hoop, asked the guy holding the only pair of glowsticks in the room if she could twirl for a minute or to. The guy sent her to the girl who lent them to him, who proceeded to give us the crossest stare I've ever seen at a place where people were rolling. Tania did her tricks for a minute before she has the tubes of toxic gel snatched from her hands. We exchanged glances, stole some beer, and moved on to the next toy. Some men and women were showing off for the circle they forced around them by twirling weighted squares of fabric. Tania begged. More cross stares, and a few warnings not to "fuck up our fabric." Tania got to do this for a whole minute-and-a-half before one of the pieces of fabric touched the ground and she was scolded.

"Do you even know what the fuck you're doing?"

Apparently, there was some skill involved. I could notice a slight difference in what they were doing and what she was doing but not enough to brag about. It was some wack bush-league rhythmic gymnastic bullshit anyway. Tania and I exchanged glances, stole some wine, and moved onto the last toy: a huge bouncy ball covered in rubber nubs like a sea urchin. Tania and I began a game of catch that required us to dance whenever we weren't holding the ball and incorporate every toss and catch into a dance. A few other people joined in. The first was an overrly-aggressive breakdancer. He was harshening flows and invading personal space, but who were we to remove him? It wasn't even our ball. Next to join was a little guy who showed obvious concern about what the breakdancer was doing. He pretended to play happily alongside us until , out of nowhere, he looked around snatched the ball and, faking passes to us the whole time, backed off into lord knows where. We'd had it. These were the least friendly ravers we'd ever encountered. It was time to go.

I've never had so much fun and gotten so pissed off consistently over the course of an evening.

p.s. I missed Eleanor Balson's shows Saturday and today and that blows. I missed her (as Soft Serve at Heaven) on Saturday because of the aforementioned gobbledygook and I missed her today (opening for Bobby Conn and the Detholz as the drummer for Lovely Little Girls) because it just plain sold out. That sucks. Eleanor is a great person who I only kinda know (so I guess I can only call her kinda-great for sure). She's leaving town indefinitely for a new life on the left coast and I wish her the best.

p.p.s. Leslie from E.E. is exempt from whatever I said about hula hoopers because she doesn't abuse her privelage. Plus, when she does that thing where she plays an upside-down saxophone and hoops at the same time, it's damn sexy.

That is all.

only one sub-par song [WLUW]

lead in: twelfth gate - mortal coil

chicago underground quartet - tunnel chrome
death comet crew feat. ramellzee - extreme st. (protein version) (from Anity NY: Early 80's Underground & Contemporary)
amadou & mariam - m'bife blues

nausea - extinction
martin denny - the girlfriend of the whirling dervish (from Mondo Exotica)
john p. strohm - nobody wins (from Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down: A Tribute to Kris Kristofferson) #

the replacements - here comes a regular
crush kill destroy - metric midnight #
dj zinc - 138 trek (from Vital 2 Step)

the gossip - coal to diamonds #
the germs - we must bleed
wire - strange

otto von schirach - smelly mustard
aids wolf - we multiply #
low - anon (spore) (Neotropic remix)

tekulvi - tetrahedron
fantastic plastic machine - beautiful days
catfish haven - you can have me [<--the only shitty song of the night] #

the dead milkmen - surfin cow
tarantula - esqueletos [<--song of the night!!!] #
the gourds - hooky junk #

[popular indie pop set for all the moms out there set]
the clash - london calling
portishead - western eyes
the smiths - girlfriend in a coma

pink floyd - interstellar overrdrive
novasonic down hyperspace - no continents

pendable, posable dolls of meh

date: 1/27/06
wheres: Reversible Eye, the Ice Factory
whos: Mucca Pazza and contortionists, Pkdores
cost: 5 beans
what I missed: Daedalus, Elliot Lipp, Slicker Six8 the Shocker, and the dude from Telefon Tel aviv at Sonotheque
why I went: I thought I wouldn't miss the animal acts, when do I get to see animal acts?

Chicago is starting to get weird again, in that anything-is-possible way. It's cyclical, I think. It feels like it did in 2001, when Buddy Gallery opened up and the Azone moved into the Congress Theatre Building, when Fred Burkhart, Bopcamp, and the Peoples Republic of Delicious Food showed me just how much you could get away with in this city. It feels like it did in 1999, when Environmental Encroachment, the Nervous Center, and WZRD changed my way of thinking about the city I live in. It feels like 1996, when the Fireside Bowl was a home away from home and every time I got off the train in a new neighborhood I would find adventure. The last few years have shown an extremely dedicated party scene, but it looks like more people are interested in putting on decent shows these days, in various parts of the city, and with more challenging juxtapositions of performers/

So I finally saw Mucca Pazza, my third favorite marching band in the city, which is not a slight in any way. While their music isn't as doesn't get my feet moving as quickly as Environmental Encroachment or Black Bear Combo, there's something to be said for sheer scale. Now Reversible Eye Studios, the part that's open to shows, is just one not-so-big room, and it would probably seem crowded with twenty five people inside. Mucca Pazza consists of over twenty musicians and two cheerleaders, all wearing costumes that fit somewhere between a high school marching band's uniforms and those of Civil War infantrymen (North and South--and for the record, I'm pretty sure the Confederacy would have won if they had cheerleaders; have you seen the girls at the schools down there?) I'm pretty sure I've only seen that many (active) people on stage once, and that was a Parliamentfunkadelic type thang, and when I saw P-Funk they were at an actual venue with an actual stage. Reversible Eye has more of a raised platform, about 3 feet by 5 feet. Obviously, the band spilled over, and the room was pretty packed. I kept waiting for the cops to show and hoping they didn't. Maybe that's why they got everything over with so quickly.

It was impossible to dance without slamming into people, so most people didn't try (as it wasn't exactly a slam dance type of thing). Mucca Pazza's music was standard brass band funk, but there were a few stand-out numbers. One song was a whistly, Ennio Morricone funeral march that could have, and might have, come straight from "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly". Another was all surf. It was pretty breathtaking to see twenty-some people playing surf music, but even moreso to see them get quiet. I would have liked for it to have gone on longer, for there to be one of those songs where one-by-one, everyone in the band gets to solo (P-Funk did it) but it never happened.

Next up were the Bendable Posable Dolls of Doom, who are part of the Aloft Aerial Dance Troupe. They were billed as contortionists but their act was more of a burlesque gymnastics routine. I don't know if it was their name or their reputation but they drew a pretty thick crowd from the Nocturna set. After a couple dozen pro-girl/grrl/womyn burlesque shows, their somersaults and suspensions weren't that impressive, despite the dayglo wigs and pleather bikinis. This might have been my fault though, since I missed the first set where founder Shayna Swanson did her aerial stuff. Worst of all, I missed the "Amazing Acro-Cats", featuring trained cats doing tricks.

Everyone seemed pretty surprised when they found out the show was over. We stood around, smoking and pining aimlessly before heading to the Ice Factory. We missed most of the bands, including Dancing Knuckles, whom one of my friends described as "Irish, without too much of that Boston sound." The last band up was Pkdores. Two years ago, when they had a saxophone player, they were one of my favorite bands in the city. They were really sloppy, with a high pitched sax that couldn't always keep up and could never solo, leading the way. They sounded a lot like the X-Ray Spex (earning them the title, the Mex-Ray Spex behind their backs), but their sound stood out a lot from the rest of the Pilsen/Little Village scene. They've tightened up a little since dropping their sax player. Their guitarist is far more prominent, and he's good, but they just don't seem that special in comparison. Oh well, these things happen. That show ended early too, but I was already drunk. I guess it's time to go to bed.


A clip of Mucca Pazza at Lollapalooza 2006]

poof [WZRD]

the streetwalkers - downtown flyers
israel vibrations - we da rasta
the hangman's beautiful daughters - something about today
band of outsiders - what goes on
c-rayz walz - the essence

daedalus - greatly exaggerated, our demise
the orb - komplikation #
pedestrians- in the end #
vertonen - deplete to ruination, the wide shift

the defoliants - rectal inferno !
shockout - rootsman/he-man: killer
amon duul - nada moonshine
stan getz and joao gilberto - corcovado

tarantula a.d. - prelude to the fall #
genders - clothesline mimes #
ween - doctor rock
coldcut - everything is under control (return of the underdog)

the bad plus - let our garden grow
bunny brains (another) glass of milk
neurosis - belief !
streetlight manifesto - everything went numb!

noah creshevsky - vol-au-vent
beats r us vs jay-q - sextramental (from Mother Tongues) !
glitter pals - lovepump's birthday song #
magas - lovecompressor

vaz - sink the swan #
hr - youthman suffer (dub)
men's recovery project - stubble #
jackie o motherfucker - bone saw

chiks all around; at least it started out alright. i don't blame the songs [WLUW]

nouvelle vague - guns of brixton (clash cover) !
Tabakin - spank (from The Chicago Drop) #!
martin denny -swamp fire !
emperor x - right to the rails

thunder! thunder! thunder! - the sounds of leisure (from Homemade Hits Vol. 2) !
supervillains - eternia's greatest
gza & ras kass - liquid swords (from Wu Tang Meets Indie Culture)

tortoise & bonnie 'prince' billy - daniel (elton john cover) #3
elkland - i never
daft punk - human after all

autechre - ipacial section
aids wolf - panty mind #
radiant darling - familiar

bakelite 78 - it's a sin to tell a lie #!
andre afram asmar - scientism
ariel pink's haunted graffiti - life in l.a. !

boduf songs - grains #
22-20's - devil in me
i need sleep - my girl #
zZz - ecstasy !

screeching weasel - the science of myth
stnnng - ready the replicas #
drekka - exactioning
big jus - everything must coincide/supa nigga #

billie holiday - speak low (bent remix) (from Verve Remixed Vol. 3) !
benzos - all the king's men
bobby conn & the glass gypsies -we come in peace

Why is there a naked guy drinking tea at the table?

1/19/06
Show: Loto Ball, Grace Kulpa, Lord of the Yum Yum, and Black Bear Combo
Cost: $5
Things I missed to be there: Iunno.

Reversible Eye is quickly becoming my favorite place to see shows in Chicago. Then again, I haven't been going to shows as much as I should be. Last week I missed out on shows at Betty's Blue Star, Underground Lounge, Beauty Shop, and South Union Arts. Our omnipresent friend Party Steve moved to Portland months ago. He came back to visit a week or two ago and he was telling me about party spots I'd never even heard of before. Magical Forest? What the fuck is that? South Union Arts has been putting on all kinds of shows lately and I still haven't made it out to one. The Orphanage is holding occasional shows as well as a weekly open mic/jam for the burning man rave hippie set. For nearly a year, The Studio (formerly the Heartland Studio Theatre) has taken over the Fireside Bowl's gig of holding nightly all-ages punk shows and I still haven't made it out. For even longer than that, any poet worth their shit in this city has made it out to the Lyricist Loft. Not me. Sigh.

Why do I love ReversibleEye though?

1. It's a gallery that actually functions as a gallery instead of just a place to see shows.
2. It's a gallery that currently has puppets and dolls.
3. They're regularly holding interesting shows there, mixing music and performance art.
4. It's less than ten blocks from my house.
5. BYOB

So, um, yay. I don't have a point there. I totally lost my train of thought. Good for me. Blog.

When I first got there, Loto Ball Show was playing. Their mp3s they have online are all industrial-tinged waltzes and circus songs, but live they sounded like the soundtrack to a children's adventure film, as if Gogol Bordello had taken over Giorgio Moroder's soundtrack for "The Neverending Story." I could picture an adventure for each song. Flying through the air, running blindly through the woods as the light of day escapes. I don't know if that's what they were going for, but it was pretty phat.

Next up was, I beleve, was Grace Kulp. They were kind of a droney folk band so we all sat on the floor. I couldn't tell if I liked them or not. The final verdict was that I liked them but wasn't in the mood for them. They were very-goth friendly, right down to the singer's forced Peter Steele/Peter Murphy vocals.

Third was Lord of the Yum Yum (and his roadie, Maximum Happy). Lord of the Yum Yum was awesome. He's always awesome. Move along.

Ifihadahifi was supposed to play, but they got scared of the snowy roads so they hid in Milwaulkee and Black Bear Combo closed out the show. One by one, everybody in the room started dancing. "It's your bar mitzvah, Eric. Let's dance!" my roommate yelled. It wasn't Klezmer, exactly, but very old world Eastern European and very funky. I'm glad to live in a city where we have such a glut of bad ass marching bands. Next time someone starts badmouthing the Windy City you tell them that. And look at the fun, blank stares they give you. Good times.

against all odds [WLUW]

frank zappa - cucamonga
the shadows of knight - bad little woman
sebadoh - brand new love
tortoise & bonnie prince billy - thunder road#

king god - morning sky#
billy nayer show - mama hen
grip weeds - waiting for a sign
j.o.y. - sunplus (d.f.a. remix)

sound directions - the funky side of life #
mike boo - curdled #
dosh - rock it til the next episode

ham 1 - wrong way marshall #
single minded pros - feels so good (w/ earatik statik & pace won)
del psychos - sick and tired of people

brian wilson - good vibrations
dj signify - peekadoo part 3
dirty dozen brass band - feet can't fail me now

stoat - boys and girls !
belly - dusted
einsturzende neubauten - kalte sterna
karmelia's game - crazy girl

puffy amiyumi - december
fitness & runway - smash your mirror
las malas amistades - el country

handsome boy modeling school - if it wasn't for you (w. de la soul & starchild excalibur)
moonpedro and the new farm street orchestra - birthday #2
albert ayler - our prayer

the smiths - william it was really nothing

mats gustaffson/sonic youth - hidros 3 (track 3)

I Don't Wanna Get Buried in No Jew Ass Cemetary

So I just got my third tattoo. It's a boy with a jetpack. The art was done by this guy Tom at No Hope No Fear. The design is his, influenced by Dick and Jane books, based on a drawing by my girlfriend, also influenced by Dick and Jane books. It was my first tattoo done at an actual shop, as opposed to somebody's house. Lets take a look down memory lane.

2002 - Mikhail. A version of my hebrew name that I used to tag all over the city. I was named after my great-grandfather, who brought the family to America. Some guy's house in Arlington Heights.
Music playing: A NoFX greatest hits cd

2004 - The 32 tiers of the sephiroth (tree of life) down my spine. The 32 stages of meditation between manhood and godhood. I'm still on stage one. Some guy's house in West Rogers Park.
There was no music. I watched Insomniac,Chapelle's Show, and Adult Swim

2006 - A shop in Wicker Park. Because of a broken iPod we were at the mercy of the very-limited cd selection in the shop. We listened to a cd by 16 Horsepower, which was good (especially so for a Christian band) and an album by Coldplay (which was not as bad as I'd suspected it would be, although some songs were)

fake ass punk gangs

So apparently, there are exponentialy more official punk crews than there were when I left high school five years ago. At the turn of the century there were only two big crews (although I'm sure that a number of northwest side fringe groups will argue that distinction): the 77s and the CMS kids. CMS stands for Chicago Mafia Skins. Ben Stupid told me years ago that he was there when the idea for CMS was born. It was in a church basement in Evanston, where the Mushuganas or someone was playing, and in between bands some skinhead kid was asking, "Wouldn't it be cool if we had a gang? We could call it, like, the Chicago Mafia Skinheads or something."

Soon after, sharpied CMS tags started appearing on lamposts, windows and bathroom walls on Belmont. I don't know if this is really how it happened or not, but it seems about right. The CMS kids weren't Nazi skinheads (anyone remember being able to use the term Bonehead?), but a fair amount of them were racist. They weren't Trads either, though they uniformly dressed the part. Pretty much, they were thugs. They got drunk and fucked people up in groups.

The 77s were pretty much the same thing, only back in the day they dressed like English punk rockers did back in 77. Crass and Pistols. Stretch pants, spikes, blah blah blah.

In 2000, I only remember seeing pockets of 77 kids now and again, spunging on the street. The CMS kids (and Chicago skinhead numbers in general were dwindling)

Well, apparently, they're back, and they aren't primarily 16-year olds anymore, and they're calling themselves gangs. Somehow, whenever my friend Karlye has a party, the 77s take it over. Last week she had a couch thrown off her balcony, the time before she got punched in the face, and the time before that a whole bunch of little things got fucked up or stolen. Somehow, she has yet to figure out who keeps inviting them. Somehow, in 7 years of regularly throwing parties with over a hundred people in attendance in various parts of the city, I've never had a problem with them.

I think I figured it out: I have a lot of black and hispanic friends. This could be a specious argument (i.e. I've never seen a tiger by a BP station, therefore tigers must be afraid of Venezuelan crude oil) but I just don't see these fuckers when there are a fair amount of blacks or hispanics around. This brings up the first point, on why these guys can't be real gangs.

1) Gangs can't be afraid of people based on their skin color. Sure, a gang can be racist, but they can't be pussies.

Howsabout another?

2) Real gangbangers have either much better or much worse weapons than switchblades, especially polished, ivory-handled, engraved switchblades. Use more lead pipes and mack-10s.

The third point, came out of a session with one of my tuttees. We were arguing about the punk scene in the better Chicagoland area, and the 77 kids.

"They're like a real, punk rock gang," he tells me.
"No they aren't," I (masterfully) countered.
"Yes they are, they really fucked this one guy up I know badly."
"Okay, lets talk about real gangs. Shit that's organized. I don't know if there are still Vice Lords around but lets say that I'm a Vice Lord and you're a Vice Lord."
"Okay."
"I'm not gonna go and fuck you up...because I'm drunk or BORED, because that would cause ripples throughout the organization."
"Oh, yeah. I guess you're right."

So he agreed with me, or wanted me to shut up. Either way I won. So if these punk crews aren't gangs, then what are they?

FRAT BOYS

That's right, run of the mill oafs. Trade white hats and Aeropostale for back patches and liberty spikes and whaddya got? A frat boy who couldn't make it through high school.

I'm gonna make my point in a way that's fun for me, but a bit of a reach for you. Are you ready?

There's this sketch comedy show that hasn't been on in years. Upright Citizens Brigade. It's awesome. It should be on all day. That and the State. Well, in its first season, there's an episode based around the Greek Fraternity System. Throughout the night, dudes trae high fives and yell, "Chumbawumba, man!" "You know it, Chumbawumba."

Okay, so the show was made in 1998; usually they avoid dated references but this one was apropos. If you don't remember, Tumbawumba were a group of anarchists who reached unexpected heights of one hit wonderdom, when they're song about drinking with the boys and "pissing the night away" became an omnipresent hit. The song was on every station. It was kinda rocky, kinda dancey, hell when one of the guys was talking it could've even passed for hip hop. It was the song that would have people yelling at parties, and it completely ruined Chumbawumba's carreer (which is fine since they kinda lost their integrity by signing to a major after bashing it for so long, and kind of a shame because no one's going to care to listen to the cool albums they did with The Ex or Negativland)

Anyway, I'm at Karlye's house, and I'm pretty sure that everybody there that I don't know (and some of the people I do) are all douchebags or teenagers. I step in off the back porch where a bunch of kids were having an outdoor singalong, into the kitchen where there's a flank of 77 kids by the window.

One of them slaps the other ones hand and goes, "GG Allin."
The other one responds in kind, "Fuckin GG-fuckin-Allin, man!"
And they do this for, I swear, five fucking minutes, and each time, GG Allin's name is funnier than the last. Weird. I saw this once before, again with 77s, different kids but again in Logan Square, and the word was "bukakke."

So there you have it. Problem solved. These wannabe punk rock gangbangers are all just frat boys. Now, how is it we take care of frat boys again? Outside of not going to their keggers, of course.

chicago music at bars

starting in January, Brandon Wetherbee, Kelsey Snell and I have been playing bars in support of Machine Media, a magazine that does not yet exist in the dead-tree format God intended for it. Currently, we have residencies at the Liar's Club, Delilah's, and the Underground Lounge with more in the works. At Machine events, we play nothing but music performed by Chicagoans and former Chicagoans.

The first event took place on Thursday, January 5th (it will always take place on the first Thursday of the month). We were moving and switching off too fast for me to make a setlist but I will list the songs that got responses from the audience.

-Playing a track off of a Mary Tyler Morphine demo ("Damaged", I believe), two people came up.
The first, defiantly announced, "Ha! This is Tilt and they're not from Chicago."
The second beligerently thanked us.
-A song from Articles of Faith's album Core led a pretty girl to ask who I was playing. She was disappointed that AoF is not a current band.
-I got a loud "Yyyyeah!" for ending the night with Revolting Cock's "Linger Fickin Good"
-A dude in a Black Sabbath shirt chastised us and left for playing a Howlin Wolf song (he was a friend of ours, too)

feel free to post requests here for any music you'd like to see and come out to the next one.
(Not that anybody reads this, but, you know, if you end up here and all)

rife with inaccuracy and confusion [WLUW]

johnny cash - 25 minutes to go
black future - eu sou o rio
mancino - babel by the mouthful#

i need sleep - natural disasters#
mong hang - mesopotamia
cyran shames - greenburg, glickstein, charles, david smith & jones

ghislain poirier - synthetic rhythms#
mf doom - one beer
eyedea & abilities - glass

books on tape - surly ambassador
morcheeba - coming down gently
gabby la la - butter and eggs

hightower - the force and the fury #
vindictives - 1900-ilu-vyou
minutemen - i felt like a gringo/jesus and tequila

manu chao - clandestino
atmosphere - musical chairs
tweaker - it's still happening (feat. hamilton leithauser)

seu jorge - chatteron#
captain beefheart - ela guru
las malas amistades - necesidad (electro mix)/la parca#
gotan project - el capilalismo foraneo

storm inc. - rape me
bigg jus - energy harvester (swallow the sun)#
the icarus line - caviar

the highwaymen - the highwaymen
healthy white baby - it's over#
moldy peaches - greyhound bus

william shatner - hey mr. tambourine
butter 08 - shut up

maniac on the dancefloor

Fantastic. Only one week into the new year and I've already seen two great hardcore shows. Perhaps I should see some more non-hardcore shows but perhaps said shows should be cheaper and held in the same shitholes the punks are willing to play.

Unfortunately, I'm growing irritable in my old age. It seems as though I can't see four or five bands in a row anymore without getting tired of the sound of guitars. Soon I'll be complaining about that trash the kids are listening to these days...it sounds just like noise.

At the Big Horse on Tuesday, Sweden's Imperial Leather was set to rock the house after seven bands. I missed them and the other touring band, the Cooters. I did see however, two of my favorites: Condenada and Tras de Nada, as well as Disrobe, Riotous, and some young, sweatpantsed metal band from Wisconsin. It was all just a warmup for tonight.

We arrived in the Beauty Shop with forties in hand, just as Global Genocide was starting. Global Genocide consists of four fifteen year old girls playing loud, fast slightly melodic punk rock. It was adorable and there was absolutely no standing room (The Beauty Shop is, in actuality, a two-bedroom apartment. The bands play in what would otherwise be considered a dining room). We gave up and drank in the kitchen. I perused merch.

The first thing I noticed was a zine called Griot. I read it a month ago after finding it on a free rack at Quimby's. I was instantly compelled because the word griot represents an incredibly funky brand of traditional African music that is performed as a way of telling a story, but here it was written in a shaky, heavy metal font (what could it be?). Inside was a punk rock love story full of well written cliches and some interesting turns. The writer seems to need to identify punk rock as an entity a lot in the story. Without knocking it, I'd describe it as something I would have written ten years ago if I had the life experiences and writing skill I have today, if that makes any sense. I bought a copy from the author who was shocked I'd seen it. He was from Ohio, and had come along for the ride with Piedmontster from North Carolina. He said I could take one for free, but I insisted on paying because I was drunk, and had already read one for free.

The place was full of familiar faces. There were four other current and former djs from WZRD there, Beth, Dave Cavasos (now performing as David Diarrhea), James with the tits and Rotten Milk. Cassie, a girl I went to grade school with, stood heads above the crowd. She'd just gotten back from New Orleans, she said, and didn't expect to see anyone she knew at the show. It's always fun to see kids I haven't seen in over a decade, but it's even more fun to see them all grown up at a punk show.

Condenada played, but I've said enough on this blog about how much I like them so let's move on.

The next band, Piedmontster, was loud and fast and silly. They played synth-driven dance music, punk and a tiiiiiny bit of ska and overpowered the entire apartment with a smoke machine. My girlfriend, my roommate and I danced, jumped and pushed around, exhaling plumes of gas every time we yelled. Two of the kids from Intifada, who at 17 look years younger, found room to crowd surf. Every now and then I'd retreat to a bedroom and watch the show framed by the doorway. A face, or a body would appear on the left, from the kitchen, standing still and bobbing their head. Then all of a sudden they'd be pushed all the way past the other end of the door frame. It was great.

The last band I had the tolerance to see was Maniac Mansion. I think it had some of the people from KK Rampage in it. Maybe all of them, I can never tell. Like KK Rampage, they played energetic noisepunk and violently thrashed around in the audience but they did it better. The singer yelled as someone crawled up to his shoulders and brought him to his knees. Fists threw up into the air. The light ficture swung, and was batted. People wiped sweat on each other. When it was all over, someone from the kitchen yelled,

"Congratulations, you all smell like punk rock. You should...market that. Somehow."
Guy next to him: They already do. It's called CK One.
Guy with dreads: (a second later) I have a deal inked with Calvin Klein!
Guy next to him (again): I already made that joke.

things you should know before attending your first mexican hardcore show

When the singer says, "Fuck the Minutemen," he's not badmouthing Darby Crash so calm down

look mom, i'm djing with the sun out

roxy music - out of the blue
sham 69 - money
gris gris - mademoiselle of the morning #

aesop rock w/ doseone - odessa
talib kweli - get by
ghislain poirier - close the news #

las malas amistades - el country #
vivian goldman - lauderette (from anti ny)
as mercanarias - loucos sentimentos

edith frost - emergency
coctails - penguin/powerhouse
tom waits - hang on st. christopher

one self - sd2
pharcyde - ya mama
mc jack e chocolate - pavroty

bonnie prince billy - i see a darkness #
the vipers - tears (only dry)
vashti bunyan - here before #

sir alice - l'amour made in taiwan#
klaus nomi - lightning strikes
princess - miss adventures

death from above 1979 - blood on our hands (justice remix)#
chicago afrobeat project - talking bush#
gogogo airheart - so good#

romanteek - dumb (from DMBQ Benefit)
luxury - one in a million (from Yellow Pills)
schizowave - my baby

really strange and weird things - sein sah thin
they might be giants - the statue got me high
matisyahu - king without a crown

top things of 2005

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?

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

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

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

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