The Mutiny was the first bar I legally drank at. One Last Walk was playing their first show in a while there on my 21st birthday and John promised a half pitcher of whiskey. That night, Mike the Midget did a full standup act during what must have been the longest string change in history.
I love the Mutiny. Nothing ever goes right there. Last time I was there, the Wanderers were playing with Second Story Collapse. Andy , the Wanderers' singer, got really pissed because his drummer didn't show up. They tried to play with SSC's drummer but it ended up with Andy doin song after song of GG Allin covers the band didn't really know, with his nutsack pulled through his jeans.
Tonight was Fast Fast 45 and There Must Be Others, two bands apparently on the verge of merging. Fast Fast 45 was a two-piece that played straight-up rock. They didn't prepare for the show, their first in a while, but it came out decent. Bryan, who's among the better guitarists I've seen in the city, was doing a par job keeping the beat, while Briton was pulling some Lou Reed affectations with some touches of late-seventies CBGB Television-style yowling. They did a short set and Bryan stormed out, pissed off.
Fun.
There Must Be Others, now a one-piece, took the stage. This band was great, especially for their third show and third line-up. The band had gone from a trendy moog-driven synthnoise outfit to a thing of weirdness. Brian Other looks starved and crazy when he comes out on stage, with wild, thinning hair and bugged out eyes. He started with what he said was a Lionel Ritchie cover: "I'm Sorry For Unleashing the Horror that is my Daughter onto the unsuspecting Populace."
The song was played by a babydoll in a blender, on different settings and ended abruptly as the doll caught fire and filled the room with noxious gas and smoke. For the rest of the set, he played guitar and sang through a host of effects. The show had a real King Missile quality to it, at least until my girlfriend started getting nauseous from the fumes and we had to leave.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Dear RiotFest 2005,
Dear Riot Fest 2005,
You know that Minutemen song where Mike Watt goes like, "Punk rock saved my life"? Fuck yeah, Man. It's the same way right fuckin here with me. When I was younger I was aimless, adrift in a sea of gangster rap and radio metal. Then along came punk. It had always been there but it took thirteen long years for it to find its way to me. Without it, I'd surely be dead now.
Sure, I wasn't nothin better with it than I was before, just a vandal scumbag takin money from my parents an' tryin to cum on things but I had FOCUS. I truly believe in the transformative powers of punk rock. I am glad that your festival is bringing back bands like the Dead Kennedys and the Germs that even I never got to see. Punk is a young man's game and most of the kids have never been exposed to bands like this in a live setting because either their singers went and overdosed a couple decades ago or they're embroiled in contract disputes with the rest of their bandmates or because they're irrelevent dinosaurs who haven't written a song since Reagan left office.
None of that shit'll matter, though, once that guy from ER comes out onstage to the opening chords of "Lexicon Devil". Media blitz!
But I got to thinking. The Clash is probably my favourite band of all time. You can tell because I have that killer back patch on my army jacket. With Joe Strummer passed away, it looks like I may never get to see them live. That's just about more than I can bear, not just because of my loss but for all the little punks out there who don't know what they're missing. Well you know as well as I do that the only thing that seperates punk from all the other shit out there is the fierce DIY spirit that bands a bunch of nothingshits into a true force. I will take the bull by the horns, and offer hear and now to front the Clash MYSELF at your concert in November.
Don't worry, I know all the songs on "Combat Rock" and a good third of "Sandanista" and I'm free to practice every Wednesday night, so you give Mick and Paul a call and I'm ready. Oi! Motherfucker. 77 Style, yeah!
Sincerely,
Eric Strom
P.S. If the Clash have prior obligations I would also be willing to front GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, Jabbers, or AIDS Brigade.
You know that Minutemen song where Mike Watt goes like, "Punk rock saved my life"? Fuck yeah, Man. It's the same way right fuckin here with me. When I was younger I was aimless, adrift in a sea of gangster rap and radio metal. Then along came punk. It had always been there but it took thirteen long years for it to find its way to me. Without it, I'd surely be dead now.
Sure, I wasn't nothin better with it than I was before, just a vandal scumbag takin money from my parents an' tryin to cum on things but I had FOCUS. I truly believe in the transformative powers of punk rock. I am glad that your festival is bringing back bands like the Dead Kennedys and the Germs that even I never got to see. Punk is a young man's game and most of the kids have never been exposed to bands like this in a live setting because either their singers went and overdosed a couple decades ago or they're embroiled in contract disputes with the rest of their bandmates or because they're irrelevent dinosaurs who haven't written a song since Reagan left office.
None of that shit'll matter, though, once that guy from ER comes out onstage to the opening chords of "Lexicon Devil". Media blitz!
But I got to thinking. The Clash is probably my favourite band of all time. You can tell because I have that killer back patch on my army jacket. With Joe Strummer passed away, it looks like I may never get to see them live. That's just about more than I can bear, not just because of my loss but for all the little punks out there who don't know what they're missing. Well you know as well as I do that the only thing that seperates punk from all the other shit out there is the fierce DIY spirit that bands a bunch of nothingshits into a true force. I will take the bull by the horns, and offer hear and now to front the Clash MYSELF at your concert in November.
Don't worry, I know all the songs on "Combat Rock" and a good third of "Sandanista" and I'm free to practice every Wednesday night, so you give Mick and Paul a call and I'm ready. Oi! Motherfucker. 77 Style, yeah!
Sincerely,
Eric Strom
P.S. If the Clash have prior obligations I would also be willing to front GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, Jabbers, or AIDS Brigade.
unevening
The Screamers - 122 Hours
The Mohawks - Funk Broadway
Bleach - Raikou (Karekini Hanaa Sakani)
Non-Prophets - Damage
the Standelles - Why Pick On Me?
Phantomsmasher - scrolling sideways
Printer - American Dream
Printer - Goodnight
Jello Biafra and the Melvins - Halo of Flies
Rachel's - Forgiveness
Moist Boyz - the Spike
Urban Renewal Project - Wylin Out (k-kruz remix)
Marianne Faithful - Broken English
Atom & His Package - I'm Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With a Hammer
Pest - Delucid
Klaus Nomi - Total Eclipse
Patsy Cline - I don't Wanna
Royksopp - So Easy
Asylum Street Spankers - Breathin
Blondie - One Way or Another (live)
the New Process - More Mess on My Thing Pt. 2 (from Raw Funk)
Madvillain - Meat Grinder
XBXRX - Hope Until We Can't
Black Merda - Over and Over
Dresden Dolls - Bank of Boston Beauty Queen (live
the Juan Maclean - Dance Hall Generator Dub
Lee Scratch Perry - Dread Lion
Butter 08 - 9mm
Massive Attack - You've Never Had A Dream
Why? - Act Five
Billy Bragg - Accident Waiting to Happen
Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend - You're Out of the Computer (fromSongs in the Key of Z)
Rasputina - Secret Message
Tom Waits - Starving in the Belly of a Whale
Illogic - Live to Die
Lali Puna - Nin Com Poop
Nouvelle Vague - Guns of Brixton (Clash cover)
TV on the Radio - Walking the Cow (Daniel Johnston cover)
Kimya Dawson - Movin On
Handsome Boy Modeling School - Class System
Hisashi Yoshino & M.A.G.O. - Furimukuna
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Girl of Mine
Sigur Ros - Hopipolla
Butthole Surfers - 22 going on 23
Flying Luttbachers - Into the Vastness of Stupidity
Dillenger Escape Plan w Mike Patton - Come To Daddy (Aphex Twin cover)
Dee Lite - Groove is In the Heart
Devendra Banhart - Heard Somebody Say
the Cramps - I Was a Teenage Werewolf
DJ Shadow - Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
the Flaming Lips - One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning
Trouble Funk - A
The Mohawks - Funk Broadway
Bleach - Raikou (Karekini Hanaa Sakani)
Non-Prophets - Damage
the Standelles - Why Pick On Me?
Phantomsmasher - scrolling sideways
Printer - American Dream
Printer - Goodnight
Jello Biafra and the Melvins - Halo of Flies
Rachel's - Forgiveness
Moist Boyz - the Spike
Urban Renewal Project - Wylin Out (k-kruz remix)
Marianne Faithful - Broken English
Atom & His Package - I'm Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With a Hammer
Pest - Delucid
Klaus Nomi - Total Eclipse
Patsy Cline - I don't Wanna
Royksopp - So Easy
Asylum Street Spankers - Breathin
Blondie - One Way or Another (live)
the New Process - More Mess on My Thing Pt. 2 (from Raw Funk)
Madvillain - Meat Grinder
XBXRX - Hope Until We Can't
Black Merda - Over and Over
Dresden Dolls - Bank of Boston Beauty Queen (live
the Juan Maclean - Dance Hall Generator Dub
Lee Scratch Perry - Dread Lion
Butter 08 - 9mm
Massive Attack - You've Never Had A Dream
Why? - Act Five
Billy Bragg - Accident Waiting to Happen
Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend - You're Out of the Computer (fromSongs in the Key of Z)
Rasputina - Secret Message
Tom Waits - Starving in the Belly of a Whale
Illogic - Live to Die
Lali Puna - Nin Com Poop
Nouvelle Vague - Guns of Brixton (Clash cover)
TV on the Radio - Walking the Cow (Daniel Johnston cover)
Kimya Dawson - Movin On
Handsome Boy Modeling School - Class System
Hisashi Yoshino & M.A.G.O. - Furimukuna
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Girl of Mine
Sigur Ros - Hopipolla
Butthole Surfers - 22 going on 23
Flying Luttbachers - Into the Vastness of Stupidity
Dillenger Escape Plan w Mike Patton - Come To Daddy (Aphex Twin cover)
Dee Lite - Groove is In the Heart
Devendra Banhart - Heard Somebody Say
the Cramps - I Was a Teenage Werewolf
DJ Shadow - Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
the Flaming Lips - One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning
Trouble Funk - A
Sunday, September 18, 2005
bad moon rising 3
Third: Deus Ex Machina 3 (again)
How much: $5
Why: Puppets.
3D has rarely been good to me. Or you, or anybody. With the exception of Captain EO. That shit rocked. Otherwise it's pretty dismal. A couple of years ago some friends and I went to a 3D porno. I was expecting we'd be holding up umbrellas afraid that old Peter North was about to blow a few quarts at our faces. The whole affair was pretty tame. Not to mention the projectors were a little too far apart and we never achieved the real 3D effect. Don't get me wrong though; we were high, we heckled, laughed our asses off and had a hell of a time. It was just...disappointing.
The RubberMonkey guys are the only practitioners of 3D shadow puppetry. They achieve this by spacing out both a red and blue light to create the shadows. In past shows, like "Looong", they focused on a mix of shaddow puppetry, music and traditional European storytelling with a rod-puppet narrator. In their old collaborations with the Mammals theatre troupe, Boris Karloff's head appeared massive and impressive like the Wizard of Oz or a million Gods in a million issues of Heavy Metal magazine in 3-dimensions. The puppetry worked as more of a bridge between live action segments. It'd been a couple years since I'd seen them so I was excited when someone told me at the opening that I should come back the next night for a puppet show.
The show was all shadow puppets. Some were made of thick hinged cardboard and others were rod marionettes. The music was performed live by members of the Guild of Acquired Technology, who play instruments made from rewired electronics, mostly old children's toys from thrift stores. It was the first collaboration between the circuit bending and puppetry arms of RubberMonkey and, to be honest, it was less than the sum of its parts. The show had a pretty straightforward linear narrative, but I was too dumbshit to get it. There was a dragon, eating houses (as dragons are wont to do), and it either fell in love with some lady or ruined her life. And there were skeletons. The 3D worked half of the time and was a little jarring when it didn't and the music never seemed to come togethor. It all ended up in a heartless mesh of noise (and I don't mean that in a good way). The circuit benders instruments are pretty awesome creations but the majority of them are pretty limited and sometimes fall flat when it comes to performance time. Especially when you can't watch them at work. I'm not sure if the performance was improvised or not, but it didn't work (at least not for me). They're trying it again next week, with a more established show, The Palm Wine Drinkard. Also Lord of the YumYum, so ignore what I have to say and head out over there.
How much: $5
Why: Puppets.
3D has rarely been good to me. Or you, or anybody. With the exception of Captain EO. That shit rocked. Otherwise it's pretty dismal. A couple of years ago some friends and I went to a 3D porno. I was expecting we'd be holding up umbrellas afraid that old Peter North was about to blow a few quarts at our faces. The whole affair was pretty tame. Not to mention the projectors were a little too far apart and we never achieved the real 3D effect. Don't get me wrong though; we were high, we heckled, laughed our asses off and had a hell of a time. It was just...disappointing.
The RubberMonkey guys are the only practitioners of 3D shadow puppetry. They achieve this by spacing out both a red and blue light to create the shadows. In past shows, like "Looong", they focused on a mix of shaddow puppetry, music and traditional European storytelling with a rod-puppet narrator. In their old collaborations with the Mammals theatre troupe, Boris Karloff's head appeared massive and impressive like the Wizard of Oz or a million Gods in a million issues of Heavy Metal magazine in 3-dimensions. The puppetry worked as more of a bridge between live action segments. It'd been a couple years since I'd seen them so I was excited when someone told me at the opening that I should come back the next night for a puppet show.
The show was all shadow puppets. Some were made of thick hinged cardboard and others were rod marionettes. The music was performed live by members of the Guild of Acquired Technology, who play instruments made from rewired electronics, mostly old children's toys from thrift stores. It was the first collaboration between the circuit bending and puppetry arms of RubberMonkey and, to be honest, it was less than the sum of its parts. The show had a pretty straightforward linear narrative, but I was too dumbshit to get it. There was a dragon, eating houses (as dragons are wont to do), and it either fell in love with some lady or ruined her life. And there were skeletons. The 3D worked half of the time and was a little jarring when it didn't and the music never seemed to come togethor. It all ended up in a heartless mesh of noise (and I don't mean that in a good way). The circuit benders instruments are pretty awesome creations but the majority of them are pretty limited and sometimes fall flat when it comes to performance time. Especially when you can't watch them at work. I'm not sure if the performance was improvised or not, but it didn't work (at least not for me). They're trying it again next week, with a more established show, The Palm Wine Drinkard. Also Lord of the YumYum, so ignore what I have to say and head out over there.
bad moon rising 2
Second: Funkadesi at Angelfest II
When: 7:30
Things I missed to be there: Noise benefit at Enemy II, Pal and Doug Travis at Hollywood Mirror.
Reason I went: Seemed like the natural progression of my weekend
God bless Catholic Schools, not only are they the world's foremost producers of crazy girls who're great in bed but they have enough money to have big neighborhood festivals with beer and live bands. We didn't have that shit at public school. At Stone all we had was a fuckin cafetorium. I say give em more money, at least if they'll put up bands like Funkadesi. ESPECIALLY if they put up bands like Funkadesi who sing about Jah.
Funkadesi is one of my favorite local bands. Back in high school their EP was one of the cassettes that never left my mother's car (the others were Social Distortion's Self Titles, Black Sabbath's first, a Red Hot Chili Peppers/George Clinton mix, and the Tar Babies' "No Contest"). I would usually make people listen to "Piya Tu/Black Magic Woman" two or three times before I'd let em flip to side B. They're just a kick ass band. Their name is derived from the words 'funk' (no shit) and 'desi, a term that means something akin to 'countryman' in Sanskrit and something closer to 'Indian Party People' in local slang. Though I don't really know any Desi's who'd actually be seen at a Funkadesi show (they're more into hip-hop), the band is always a good time. Their music is a mix of funk, reggae, and traditional African, Cuban and Indian music. Today they were playing as a ten piece with old members joining in and a beautiful new singer who was playing her first gig with the band.
The band takes well to festivals, and don't play out enough otherwise. Their Summerdance appearance is the highlight of a lot of my friends' summer every year. It's not the enviroinment I usually find myself in at the beginning of a Saturday night, but it was pretty great. There were dozens of children running around, doing their oblivious childhood fun thing; there were a couple dozen cats chomping fat, black cigars and noddin their heads, and a couple hundred parents getting drunker and drunker til they were wooed on the dance floor. Old Catholics + beer + music = awesome. They were trying their hardest to match the movements of bassist Rahul Sharma as he danced and orchestrated the band. Overall, the band was a bit unwieldy with their new singer (who I am ten kinds of in love with) and extended lineup but they played fierce and fast and didn't fall into any of that cornball shit that defines a lot of what gets served up as world music these days. They'll be playing the Lotus festival next week. Go see them.
When: 7:30
Things I missed to be there: Noise benefit at Enemy II, Pal and Doug Travis at Hollywood Mirror.
Reason I went: Seemed like the natural progression of my weekend
God bless Catholic Schools, not only are they the world's foremost producers of crazy girls who're great in bed but they have enough money to have big neighborhood festivals with beer and live bands. We didn't have that shit at public school. At Stone all we had was a fuckin cafetorium. I say give em more money, at least if they'll put up bands like Funkadesi. ESPECIALLY if they put up bands like Funkadesi who sing about Jah.
Funkadesi is one of my favorite local bands. Back in high school their EP was one of the cassettes that never left my mother's car (the others were Social Distortion's Self Titles, Black Sabbath's first, a Red Hot Chili Peppers/George Clinton mix, and the Tar Babies' "No Contest"). I would usually make people listen to "Piya Tu/Black Magic Woman" two or three times before I'd let em flip to side B. They're just a kick ass band. Their name is derived from the words 'funk' (no shit) and 'desi, a term that means something akin to 'countryman' in Sanskrit and something closer to 'Indian Party People' in local slang. Though I don't really know any Desi's who'd actually be seen at a Funkadesi show (they're more into hip-hop), the band is always a good time. Their music is a mix of funk, reggae, and traditional African, Cuban and Indian music. Today they were playing as a ten piece with old members joining in and a beautiful new singer who was playing her first gig with the band.
The band takes well to festivals, and don't play out enough otherwise. Their Summerdance appearance is the highlight of a lot of my friends' summer every year. It's not the enviroinment I usually find myself in at the beginning of a Saturday night, but it was pretty great. There were dozens of children running around, doing their oblivious childhood fun thing; there were a couple dozen cats chomping fat, black cigars and noddin their heads, and a couple hundred parents getting drunker and drunker til they were wooed on the dance floor. Old Catholics + beer + music = awesome. They were trying their hardest to match the movements of bassist Rahul Sharma as he danced and orchestrated the band. Overall, the band was a bit unwieldy with their new singer (who I am ten kinds of in love with) and extended lineup but they played fierce and fast and didn't fall into any of that cornball shit that defines a lot of what gets served up as world music these days. They'll be playing the Lotus festival next week. Go see them.
bad moon rising 1
Yo, everytime I post on this blog, I get inundated with spam. Fake comments make baby Lab Rats cry. C'est levie. Another saturday night.
First: Some kickass Uptown Hair Salon on Broadway and Wilsonn (5pm)
What: MC battle on the street
Me and Pinky are driving around and we see this crowd of like fifty people crowded around this line of stores on Broadway. We jump out to see what's going on, and it's seriously the worst battle I've ever heard. There was a DJ who was pretty good, and these two guys (a big one from Uptown and a little one from Rogers Park) are battling. Every time the redline passes overhead, they stop. All of them. The rappers, the DJ. We all just wait. This cat from Uptown Bikes tells us that this is the final match and this is the best the little guy can come up with:
"You look like/ a girl named Erica!/You look like a car-toon CHARACTAH"
Yeah motherfucker, that was awesome. Thank you.
First: Some kickass Uptown Hair Salon on Broadway and Wilsonn (5pm)
What: MC battle on the street
Me and Pinky are driving around and we see this crowd of like fifty people crowded around this line of stores on Broadway. We jump out to see what's going on, and it's seriously the worst battle I've ever heard. There was a DJ who was pretty good, and these two guys (a big one from Uptown and a little one from Rogers Park) are battling. Every time the redline passes overhead, they stop. All of them. The rappers, the DJ. We all just wait. This cat from Uptown Bikes tells us that this is the final match and this is the best the little guy can come up with:
"You look like/ a girl named Erica!/You look like a car-toon CHARACTAH"
Yeah motherfucker, that was awesome. Thank you.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
cd review: Dadbot
True Story
Me: Hi, Do you have anything that sounds like Atom & his Package fronting an all-cracker version of TV on the Radio?
Record Store Guy: Sure [hands me Dadbot cd]
Me: How is it?
RSG: It has some great moments, but between the passe laptronica pop, the wack lyrics, and the cardboard sleeve, you'll forget you have this in two months' time.
Me: Oh. Um. Are all the tracks clean?
RSG: Cleaner than your Mom.
Me: Cool.
RSG: I'm gonna go smoke some heroin.
Me: Hi, Do you have anything that sounds like Atom & his Package fronting an all-cracker version of TV on the Radio?
Record Store Guy: Sure [hands me Dadbot cd]
Me: How is it?
RSG: It has some great moments, but between the passe laptronica pop, the wack lyrics, and the cardboard sleeve, you'll forget you have this in two months' time.
Me: Oh. Um. Are all the tracks clean?
RSG: Cleaner than your Mom.
Me: Cool.
RSG: I'm gonna go smoke some heroin.
the way things are and the way things should be
Event 1: Deus Ex Machina 3 at the Peter Jones Gallery (FREE)
Event 2: Saddle Champ at Bar Vertigo ($5)
Event 3: the costume party that wasn't
Things I missed to get there: Minibosses and Moistboyz at DoubleDoor, noise benefit at Enemy, Redmoon show, exgirlfriend's bodypaint party
Reasons I went: Robots, the thickness of my blood v. the thickness of water, fall is a time to reminisce (sic)
Noise enthusiasts and experimental artists are among the most interesting people you'll ever meet, and the worst conversationalists as well. That is why you make the booze cheap. For the third installment of RubberMonkeyPuppetCompany's celebration of Machines and Art they've moved back to Ravenswood, in a tucked away warehouse space on Cuyler. Among the things you'll see is a paint catapault (representing the most primal robots), an adding machine that reads the surface of a jar of water to paint seascapes, and a television built into a tidycat container that breaks down everything it sees into a dozen pantone squares. It's extremely minimalist and extremely complicated at the same time. Most of the art on the walls has never been influenced by human hands (with the exception of changing batteries and brushes). It is a festival of humans making machines making art.
For the opening reception, they loaded up on rum, Old Style and disgusting white castle cheese burgers which everyone consumed with looks of shame on their faces. Bands and video artists performed behind a curtain and asked for a 5 buck donation but everything else was free. There were slips of paper everywhere encouraging you to bid in the silent auction. Some of the art looked like Pollack, some looked like Spirograph. Shannon Korchinski dipped a robotic hand in paint and loosed it on a piece of paper. It maneuvered like you'd expect Thing Addams to move if it was binging on gin. She picked it back up off its side a dozen times before unleashing a n arachnid cupie doll reminiscent of Toy Story. It was an event done the way events should be done, I'll probably go back tonight for one of Patrick McCarthy's 3d shadow puppet shows or next week for Paul Velat (Lord of the YumYum).
Fearing an early case of White Castle shits would cripple my evening if I stuck around, I left early. My cousin's bands, Saddle Champ and Crispus Attucks, were playing at Bar Vertigo. Saddle Champ was his country band. They played really accessible (pop?) altcountry. The guitarist had a serious David Lowery vibe; it was all a little late Meat Puppets/Eyes Adrift. We didn't stay for Crispus Attucks, which is a shame because they're a lot of fun. They march out in tri cornered hats and minuteman coats and intersperse songs like "Ring My Bell" and "Surfin USA" to Revolutionary War themed songs like "Liberty Bell" and "Sunshine for Democracy." Come to think of it, there's a bit of Camper Van Beethoven to their music. Go David Lowery! (Even if that last Cracker album did suck serious ass)
We ended up lost in a neighborhood I thought I knew front to back. I guess it's been a few years since I've lived in Logan Square and I was punching the steering wheel, all pissed off, uptight and 'Where the fuck is Medill?"
Yahoo directions, I will eat you.
We finally got there and there wasn't too much costume. There was a Spiderman, an Andre 3000, a girl on girl Robin Hood and Maid Marion. The hostess was Marisa, a girl I taught improv when she was 15 or 16 and I was 18, just outta high school. She was dressed as Lisa Simpson but her Liberty spikes had fallen by the time I got there. It was her 21st birthday; she's damn near the last to go. The place was packed with old heads, all these cats who were the underraged kids at my old parties were legal. All these old Kokomo kids and Fireside kids and Wicker Park heads. Artsy fuckers who went to magnet schools, LP and Lakeview and Northside Country Dayschool, a bunch of great motherfuckers I've known for years now. It was odd to see them all still in the same groups, but it was good, too. I'll be 23 next week, and it'll be nice to see all the same fucking people I see every other weekend, and have it be every bit and not at all special.
Event 2: Saddle Champ at Bar Vertigo ($5)
Event 3: the costume party that wasn't
Things I missed to get there: Minibosses and Moistboyz at DoubleDoor, noise benefit at Enemy, Redmoon show, exgirlfriend's bodypaint party
Reasons I went: Robots, the thickness of my blood v. the thickness of water, fall is a time to reminisce (sic)
Noise enthusiasts and experimental artists are among the most interesting people you'll ever meet, and the worst conversationalists as well. That is why you make the booze cheap. For the third installment of RubberMonkeyPuppetCompany's celebration of Machines and Art they've moved back to Ravenswood, in a tucked away warehouse space on Cuyler. Among the things you'll see is a paint catapault (representing the most primal robots), an adding machine that reads the surface of a jar of water to paint seascapes, and a television built into a tidycat container that breaks down everything it sees into a dozen pantone squares. It's extremely minimalist and extremely complicated at the same time. Most of the art on the walls has never been influenced by human hands (with the exception of changing batteries and brushes). It is a festival of humans making machines making art.
For the opening reception, they loaded up on rum, Old Style and disgusting white castle cheese burgers which everyone consumed with looks of shame on their faces. Bands and video artists performed behind a curtain and asked for a 5 buck donation but everything else was free. There were slips of paper everywhere encouraging you to bid in the silent auction. Some of the art looked like Pollack, some looked like Spirograph. Shannon Korchinski dipped a robotic hand in paint and loosed it on a piece of paper. It maneuvered like you'd expect Thing Addams to move if it was binging on gin. She picked it back up off its side a dozen times before unleashing a n arachnid cupie doll reminiscent of Toy Story. It was an event done the way events should be done, I'll probably go back tonight for one of Patrick McCarthy's 3d shadow puppet shows or next week for Paul Velat (Lord of the YumYum).
Fearing an early case of White Castle shits would cripple my evening if I stuck around, I left early. My cousin's bands, Saddle Champ and Crispus Attucks, were playing at Bar Vertigo. Saddle Champ was his country band. They played really accessible (pop?) altcountry. The guitarist had a serious David Lowery vibe; it was all a little late Meat Puppets/Eyes Adrift. We didn't stay for Crispus Attucks, which is a shame because they're a lot of fun. They march out in tri cornered hats and minuteman coats and intersperse songs like "Ring My Bell" and "Surfin USA" to Revolutionary War themed songs like "Liberty Bell" and "Sunshine for Democracy." Come to think of it, there's a bit of Camper Van Beethoven to their music. Go David Lowery! (Even if that last Cracker album did suck serious ass)
We ended up lost in a neighborhood I thought I knew front to back. I guess it's been a few years since I've lived in Logan Square and I was punching the steering wheel, all pissed off, uptight and 'Where the fuck is Medill?"
Yahoo directions, I will eat you.
We finally got there and there wasn't too much costume. There was a Spiderman, an Andre 3000, a girl on girl Robin Hood and Maid Marion. The hostess was Marisa, a girl I taught improv when she was 15 or 16 and I was 18, just outta high school. She was dressed as Lisa Simpson but her Liberty spikes had fallen by the time I got there. It was her 21st birthday; she's damn near the last to go. The place was packed with old heads, all these cats who were the underraged kids at my old parties were legal. All these old Kokomo kids and Fireside kids and Wicker Park heads. Artsy fuckers who went to magnet schools, LP and Lakeview and Northside Country Dayschool, a bunch of great motherfuckers I've known for years now. It was odd to see them all still in the same groups, but it was good, too. I'll be 23 next week, and it'll be nice to see all the same fucking people I see every other weekend, and have it be every bit and not at all special.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
9/13/05 [wluw]
Articles of Faith - I've Got Mine
As Mercenarias - Inmigo (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Akira S Et as Garotas Que Erraram - Eudirijo O Carro Bomba (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Viparat Piensuwan - Mia Chaa (from Thai Beat A Go Go Vol. 2
the Kinks - Two Sisters
Divine - Jungle Jezebel
14 yr Old Girls - Slush Puppy
Agent Orange - Living in Darkness
Friend and Doctor Kosmos - I Love You (Huh)
Mong Hang - Fingers
Mau Chao - La Vie IE
DJ Spooky and Dave Lombardo - A Darker Shade of Bleak
Arizona Amp & Alternator - Where the Wind turns the Skin to Leather
50 Herz feat Haxor och porr, slagsmalsklubbin - Army of Djur (Bjork cover from Army of Me)
Jake Shimbakuro - Shake It Up!
The Soft Boys - You'll Have to Go Sideways
The Delays - Ride It On (Mazzy Star cover from Stop Me If You've Heard this One Before)
Storm Inc. - Rape Me (Nirvana cover from Nearvana)
Murder By Death -Those Who Stayed
The Vindictives - the Invisible Man
Las Guitarras de Espana - Chicago [Rumbas]
King Missile - The Neither World
Her Space Holiday - Forever and a Day
OOIOO - I'm a Song
Why? - Act Five
here I started to play a Violent Femmes song but it was a grating acoustic version of American Music" that I thought didn't deserve to follow the superb Why? song. This allowed me a chance to ramble off for a bit too.
The Weekends - I want You (fucking awesome track from the fucking fantastic Girls in the Garage pt. 2)
The Violent Femmes - Gimme the Car
Apocalypse Hoboken - Misguided Memories (Freeze cover)
Blind Willie McTell - Lonesome Day Blues
Madlib - Where Do I Go (from the Free Design: the Now Sound Resigned)
A Moving Sound Theatre - Mongani
The Dead Milkmen - Surfin Cow
Butthole Surfers - Jingle of A Dog's Collar
Layton - Tu Le Jours (from Homemade Hits, V.1)
Gang of Four - Outside the Trains Don't Run On Time
Purple Wizard - I Idolize You
The Morlocks - Get Out of My Life, Woman
the Fugue - Gunwolf
Negativland - Downloading
Kenny Rogers - What Condition My Condition Was In
Odd Nosdam - 11th Ave Freakout Pt. 2
The Last Poets - White Man's Got a God Complex
Nobody - the coast is clear (for fireworks)
Johnny Cash - Country Boy
Nico - Ari's Song
Noisettes - Don't Give Up
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, Drug of the Nation
Nicole Meyer - Nowhere by MIR (from Girlz: Women Ahead of their Time
Amadou & Mariam - Coulibaly
Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam
fulanito - merencumblanco (from Future World Funk on the run
Lord of the Yum Yum - Rossini's William Tell Overture
As Mercenarias - Inmigo (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Akira S Et as Garotas Que Erraram - Eudirijo O Carro Bomba (from The Sexual Life of Savages)
Viparat Piensuwan - Mia Chaa (from Thai Beat A Go Go Vol. 2
the Kinks - Two Sisters
Divine - Jungle Jezebel
14 yr Old Girls - Slush Puppy
Agent Orange - Living in Darkness
Friend and Doctor Kosmos - I Love You (Huh)
Mong Hang - Fingers
Mau Chao - La Vie IE
DJ Spooky and Dave Lombardo - A Darker Shade of Bleak
Arizona Amp & Alternator - Where the Wind turns the Skin to Leather
50 Herz feat Haxor och porr, slagsmalsklubbin - Army of Djur (Bjork cover from Army of Me)
Jake Shimbakuro - Shake It Up!
The Soft Boys - You'll Have to Go Sideways
The Delays - Ride It On (Mazzy Star cover from Stop Me If You've Heard this One Before)
Storm Inc. - Rape Me (Nirvana cover from Nearvana)
Murder By Death -Those Who Stayed
The Vindictives - the Invisible Man
Las Guitarras de Espana - Chicago [Rumbas]
King Missile - The Neither World
Her Space Holiday - Forever and a Day
OOIOO - I'm a Song
Why? - Act Five
here I started to play a Violent Femmes song but it was a grating acoustic version of American Music" that I thought didn't deserve to follow the superb Why? song. This allowed me a chance to ramble off for a bit too.
The Weekends - I want You (fucking awesome track from the fucking fantastic Girls in the Garage pt. 2)
The Violent Femmes - Gimme the Car
Apocalypse Hoboken - Misguided Memories (Freeze cover)
Blind Willie McTell - Lonesome Day Blues
Madlib - Where Do I Go (from the Free Design: the Now Sound Resigned)
A Moving Sound Theatre - Mongani
The Dead Milkmen - Surfin Cow
Butthole Surfers - Jingle of A Dog's Collar
Layton - Tu Le Jours (from Homemade Hits, V.1)
Gang of Four - Outside the Trains Don't Run On Time
Purple Wizard - I Idolize You
The Morlocks - Get Out of My Life, Woman
the Fugue - Gunwolf
Negativland - Downloading
Kenny Rogers - What Condition My Condition Was In
Odd Nosdam - 11th Ave Freakout Pt. 2
The Last Poets - White Man's Got a God Complex
Nobody - the coast is clear (for fireworks)
Johnny Cash - Country Boy
Nico - Ari's Song
Noisettes - Don't Give Up
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, Drug of the Nation
Nicole Meyer - Nowhere by MIR (from Girlz: Women Ahead of their Time
Amadou & Mariam - Coulibaly
Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam
fulanito - merencumblanco (from Future World Funk on the run
Lord of the Yum Yum - Rossini's William Tell Overture
Monday, September 12, 2005
The Caribou, the Impala, and the Mollusk
Remember that chick in high school whose Dad was a personal trainer? She was mousey and quiet and really attainable even though she could do gymnastics and shit, but to date her you'd have to have dinner with her family first? So you'd go to her creepy house with a torture-chamber looking workout room in the basement and you're sweating balls at the table with your hands folded and this big bald motherfucker steps in with a carving knife and he's so fucking intense- even when he's being nice, even when he's chatting- asbout everything he says that you jet out of there as soon as you finish the extra slice of pie her Mom baked you and you don't even kiss her goodbye because you know that you'll never, ever be able to get it up for her again?
That's what seeing a Henry Rollins spoken word show is like. It just leaves you fucking impotent for a couple hours. Monday night he performed at Columbia College for an audience of 250, which meant it took a good 20 minutes for the room to stop laughing extra hard at every single thing he said and just that long for me to get the cynical chip off my shoulder and enjoy the show. He's a good performer, he's kinda like the dumb punk's Jello Biafra (albeit way more open minded) or maybe Susan Powter's male counterpart, or the lder brother that liked to prove he was the smart and down to Earth one as he beat the shit out of little kid Dennis Miller.
He always does well in Chicago. One of the discs of "Think Tank" was recorded at the House of Blues here. He's just so intense (there's no other word). When Jello Biafra gave a talk at Loyola a couple years back, they had to pull him off the stage after over three hours. Roillins is the same way, unrelenting, except he puts the same intensity towards whatever he's saying so the bureaucratic bungling of Hurricane Katrina is weighted the same as masturbating on the Trans Siberian express, or Dave Barry-ish tales about taking care of a friend's toddler for 20 minutes or comically mistranslated signs in Japan. He brought the house down early calling Barbara Bush the "6 nippled, hairy chested mother of our president". There was no real way to top that, but he kept going, and nobody wanted him to leave any more than he did.
I saw a bunch of cats from the reading that night at the empty bottle, where the aptly titled honky tonk whiskey rockers Hony played with the more sludgey Nebula. Older girls with sleeve jobs, all beautiful. Everyone was a small catalyst away from throwing shit, but it was still the empty bottle so they mostly just stood still. There was still some serious hootin/holerin for theserious beards in Honky, which outshined Nebula a great deal. One question: is it a new fashion in the fake ID crowd to dress to the nines below the belt but dress like a lumberjack's wife above? Iunno, good times.
Cost: Free
What I missed: Environmental Encroachment pirate parade in Wicker Park
Reason I went: Geographic proximity to yogaclass
That's what seeing a Henry Rollins spoken word show is like. It just leaves you fucking impotent for a couple hours. Monday night he performed at Columbia College for an audience of 250, which meant it took a good 20 minutes for the room to stop laughing extra hard at every single thing he said and just that long for me to get the cynical chip off my shoulder and enjoy the show. He's a good performer, he's kinda like the dumb punk's Jello Biafra (albeit way more open minded) or maybe Susan Powter's male counterpart, or the lder brother that liked to prove he was the smart and down to Earth one as he beat the shit out of little kid Dennis Miller.
He always does well in Chicago. One of the discs of "Think Tank" was recorded at the House of Blues here. He's just so intense (there's no other word). When Jello Biafra gave a talk at Loyola a couple years back, they had to pull him off the stage after over three hours. Roillins is the same way, unrelenting, except he puts the same intensity towards whatever he's saying so the bureaucratic bungling of Hurricane Katrina is weighted the same as masturbating on the Trans Siberian express, or Dave Barry-ish tales about taking care of a friend's toddler for 20 minutes or comically mistranslated signs in Japan. He brought the house down early calling Barbara Bush the "6 nippled, hairy chested mother of our president". There was no real way to top that, but he kept going, and nobody wanted him to leave any more than he did.
I saw a bunch of cats from the reading that night at the empty bottle, where the aptly titled honky tonk whiskey rockers Hony played with the more sludgey Nebula. Older girls with sleeve jobs, all beautiful. Everyone was a small catalyst away from throwing shit, but it was still the empty bottle so they mostly just stood still. There was still some serious hootin/holerin for theserious beards in Honky, which outshined Nebula a great deal. One question: is it a new fashion in the fake ID crowd to dress to the nines below the belt but dress like a lumberjack's wife above? Iunno, good times.
Cost: Free
What I missed: Environmental Encroachment pirate parade in Wicker Park
Reason I went: Geographic proximity to yogaclass
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Gutterpop. Bubbles up my Nose
Bands: The Violent Femmes, the Tossers
Date: 9/10/05
Venue: Wicker Park street fair
Things I missed to see the show: tras de nada, disrobe, no slogan, intifada at the South Side punk house, a buncha under 21 bands fighting for a RiotFest slot at a Ukranian American Hall, Gabby LaLa and Particle at someplace legitimate, and a crew of girls Mudwrestling in Wicker Park.
Cost: Free
Why I went: Poverty, sentiment
I used to live in a flophouse. I talk about it ad nauseum. Ten or more of us at any given time, stuffed into a three bedroom stuffed into a sixflat in Andersonville. Through it all there were only two cds that everyone would always agree with. One was the copy of the Violent Femmes' Greatest Hits that I bought used in eight grade. The other was a Violent Femmes sampler Ken burned for his girlfriend and kept for himself. If we put either album on at just the right time, it would be with us all week. We'd be blind drunk stumbling through alleys with "American Music" on our lips.
They're an underrated band, stuck on the street fair circuit. Back in 98 or 99, you couldn't walk down a street in the summer without coming across the band Cracker. That is where the Violent Femmes are now. They're an 80s nostalgia act, and they don't sound enough like Gang of Four to cash in on it. I've seen them four times now; thrice at festivals and once at some bloated Q101 holiday bill with Weezer, Sheryl Crow, Gravity Kills and Korn. It's too bad, because they're real fun to watch. Gordan Gano still works Billy Corgan's voice better than the Pumpkin ever could, and he can sell some of the dumbest lyrics you've ever heard if he needs to. They're a real rocknroll band. Fun shit for the sake of fun shit with touches of country and gospel and saxophone jazz freakouts. They even play 'Blister in the Sun' third or fourth in their set so Yuppies can get home early.
I've heard that their shows are either mind blowing or unlistenable, with no inbetween. To this point I'd only seen them play the former. I guess they broke new ground today with a completely mediocre set. They were a three piece today but I've seen them with four and five and seven before. I've seen them stoned to shit on pot and opium, banshee drunk and dead sober. All those times, they've been able to knock me on my ass, even in a sea of graduated frat boys and dollar-an-ounce beer.
Maybe the band's showing their age. Residue from the Stones show last week still in the air or something. They just didn't sound right. Their drummer could still wail, so could Gano and so could the bassist, just not at the same time. They seemed more like a really confident cover band. With a real good crowd response. They reminded me of the Night Watchmen, that group of dirty old fuckers that rocked the Lakeview Lounge til it closed recently. Unfortunately, what works at 3 AM in a bar in Edgewater can't keep me up at a street fest on Division. My girlfriend, was brought to tears when the band played 'You Are My Sunshine' nut it had nothing to do with how they played it (bad). She was tugging at my sleeve and rolling her eyes soon after. We left during the opening strains of 'Add It Up' and didn't look back.
One time in high school, I went to the Fireside Bowl. Many times actually but this time I was there to see one of my teachers' bands, the Phantom Three. I don't know if I fucked up or they did but I was treated to two bands I'd never heard before: The Tossers and Mary Tyler Morphine. Immediately they became two of my favorite bands to see live and I would as often as I could. At that point I had never heard of the Pogues. Shane McGowan had gone all country on my Dad's mix cds and I'd never seen a punk band pull out a tin whistle or an electric violin.I was enthralled. It was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
I was excited when I found out they'd be playing in walking distance. I left late and Sarah left late and somehow we got there just as they were starting their set. They were playing some old shit. Dancin Shoes. Buckets of Beer. I watched new groups of highschoolers push through the crowd, leaping like maniacs to the front for some Celt moshing, but I just wasn't into it. Maybe it was the crowd. Maybe the sun, or the heat. They launched into 'The Crutch' and nothing; no fistpumping, no 'Oi!', just watching. There was something wrong, it was a band I used to love, playing fierce versions of songs I liked and I couldn't give a shit. So we left, for cheese fries and art in the former Buddy gallery, shrugging and vowing to come back for the Violent Femmes.
I hate fuckin streetfairs.
Date: 9/10/05
Venue: Wicker Park street fair
Things I missed to see the show: tras de nada, disrobe, no slogan, intifada at the South Side punk house, a buncha under 21 bands fighting for a RiotFest slot at a Ukranian American Hall, Gabby LaLa and Particle at someplace legitimate, and a crew of girls Mudwrestling in Wicker Park.
Cost: Free
Why I went: Poverty, sentiment
I used to live in a flophouse. I talk about it ad nauseum. Ten or more of us at any given time, stuffed into a three bedroom stuffed into a sixflat in Andersonville. Through it all there were only two cds that everyone would always agree with. One was the copy of the Violent Femmes' Greatest Hits that I bought used in eight grade. The other was a Violent Femmes sampler Ken burned for his girlfriend and kept for himself. If we put either album on at just the right time, it would be with us all week. We'd be blind drunk stumbling through alleys with "American Music" on our lips.
They're an underrated band, stuck on the street fair circuit. Back in 98 or 99, you couldn't walk down a street in the summer without coming across the band Cracker. That is where the Violent Femmes are now. They're an 80s nostalgia act, and they don't sound enough like Gang of Four to cash in on it. I've seen them four times now; thrice at festivals and once at some bloated Q101 holiday bill with Weezer, Sheryl Crow, Gravity Kills and Korn. It's too bad, because they're real fun to watch. Gordan Gano still works Billy Corgan's voice better than the Pumpkin ever could, and he can sell some of the dumbest lyrics you've ever heard if he needs to. They're a real rocknroll band. Fun shit for the sake of fun shit with touches of country and gospel and saxophone jazz freakouts. They even play 'Blister in the Sun' third or fourth in their set so Yuppies can get home early.
I've heard that their shows are either mind blowing or unlistenable, with no inbetween. To this point I'd only seen them play the former. I guess they broke new ground today with a completely mediocre set. They were a three piece today but I've seen them with four and five and seven before. I've seen them stoned to shit on pot and opium, banshee drunk and dead sober. All those times, they've been able to knock me on my ass, even in a sea of graduated frat boys and dollar-an-ounce beer.
Maybe the band's showing their age. Residue from the Stones show last week still in the air or something. They just didn't sound right. Their drummer could still wail, so could Gano and so could the bassist, just not at the same time. They seemed more like a really confident cover band. With a real good crowd response. They reminded me of the Night Watchmen, that group of dirty old fuckers that rocked the Lakeview Lounge til it closed recently. Unfortunately, what works at 3 AM in a bar in Edgewater can't keep me up at a street fest on Division. My girlfriend, was brought to tears when the band played 'You Are My Sunshine' nut it had nothing to do with how they played it (bad). She was tugging at my sleeve and rolling her eyes soon after. We left during the opening strains of 'Add It Up' and didn't look back.
One time in high school, I went to the Fireside Bowl. Many times actually but this time I was there to see one of my teachers' bands, the Phantom Three. I don't know if I fucked up or they did but I was treated to two bands I'd never heard before: The Tossers and Mary Tyler Morphine. Immediately they became two of my favorite bands to see live and I would as often as I could. At that point I had never heard of the Pogues. Shane McGowan had gone all country on my Dad's mix cds and I'd never seen a punk band pull out a tin whistle or an electric violin.I was enthralled. It was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
I was excited when I found out they'd be playing in walking distance. I left late and Sarah left late and somehow we got there just as they were starting their set. They were playing some old shit. Dancin Shoes. Buckets of Beer. I watched new groups of highschoolers push through the crowd, leaping like maniacs to the front for some Celt moshing, but I just wasn't into it. Maybe it was the crowd. Maybe the sun, or the heat. They launched into 'The Crutch' and nothing; no fistpumping, no 'Oi!', just watching. There was something wrong, it was a band I used to love, playing fierce versions of songs I liked and I couldn't give a shit. So we left, for cheese fries and art in the former Buddy gallery, shrugging and vowing to come back for the Violent Femmes.
I hate fuckin streetfairs.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
WLUW September 6, 2005
stag party - rachel (my dear)
why? - sanddollars
russian futurists - paul simon
big black - passing complexion
roots manuva - awfully deep
quintron - festive
dwight trible & the life force trio - the tenth jewel
ry cooder and manuel galban - caballo viejo
dance disaster movement - hello
don byron & existential dred - blinky
noisettes - don't give up
clem snide - better
andrew bird's bowl of fire - 50 pieces
nouvelle vague - in a manner of speaking (tuxedo moon cover)
ukrainians - koroleva ne polermo (smiths cover - the queen is dead)
minibosses - nija gaiden (nintendo cover)
penny wineblood - jc's nuts
the groodies - head rape
evelyn - so so fresh
too much joy - take a lot of drugs
daedelus - a sneaking suspicion
sam phillips - i wanted to be alone
balkan beat box - 9/4 the ladies
hillbilly hellcats - double time (Black Jacket Racket)
Friends of Dean Martinez - So well remembered
RL Burnside - shake em on down
the negro problem (bobby fuller four cover)
mr. scruff - limbic funk
die sterne - widerschein
the residents - two lips
nutley brass - teenage lobotomy (ramones cover)
nick cave & the bad seeds - deanna
dave crimmen - baby shake it up
the hellhounds - wartime blues (blind lemon jefferson cover)
omar a rodriguez lopez - deus ex machina
servotron - i sing! the body cybernetic
boom bip - first walk
nomo - movin in circles
blonde redhead - 10
autechre - fermium
gaetano fabri vs kocari orkestra - siki siki baba
cosmic corridors - dark path
crappy Cracker song
temple - black light
descendents - myage
mc paul barman - joy
matthew shipp - pulsar
dion and the belmonts - runaround sue
lullaby for the working class - hypnotist
ian dury - sex & drugs & rocknroll
zykos - mrs
amadou & mariam - senegal fast food
kanda - they'll need cocaine
sylvie lewis - rockwell's blues
deformo - rich kid
patti smith - tramplin
domenico + 2 - algria, vai la
nouvelle vague - guns of brixton (clash cover)
bad religion - american jesus
ammon contact - temple jam
why? - sanddollars
russian futurists - paul simon
big black - passing complexion
roots manuva - awfully deep
quintron - festive
dwight trible & the life force trio - the tenth jewel
ry cooder and manuel galban - caballo viejo
dance disaster movement - hello
don byron & existential dred - blinky
noisettes - don't give up
clem snide - better
andrew bird's bowl of fire - 50 pieces
nouvelle vague - in a manner of speaking (tuxedo moon cover)
ukrainians - koroleva ne polermo (smiths cover - the queen is dead)
minibosses - nija gaiden (nintendo cover)
penny wineblood - jc's nuts
the groodies - head rape
evelyn - so so fresh
too much joy - take a lot of drugs
daedelus - a sneaking suspicion
sam phillips - i wanted to be alone
balkan beat box - 9/4 the ladies
hillbilly hellcats - double time (Black Jacket Racket)
Friends of Dean Martinez - So well remembered
RL Burnside - shake em on down
the negro problem (bobby fuller four cover)
mr. scruff - limbic funk
die sterne - widerschein
the residents - two lips
nutley brass - teenage lobotomy (ramones cover)
nick cave & the bad seeds - deanna
dave crimmen - baby shake it up
the hellhounds - wartime blues (blind lemon jefferson cover)
omar a rodriguez lopez - deus ex machina
servotron - i sing! the body cybernetic
boom bip - first walk
nomo - movin in circles
blonde redhead - 10
autechre - fermium
gaetano fabri vs kocari orkestra - siki siki baba
cosmic corridors - dark path
crappy Cracker song
temple - black light
descendents - myage
mc paul barman - joy
matthew shipp - pulsar
dion and the belmonts - runaround sue
lullaby for the working class - hypnotist
ian dury - sex & drugs & rocknroll
zykos - mrs
amadou & mariam - senegal fast food
kanda - they'll need cocaine
sylvie lewis - rockwell's blues
deformo - rich kid
patti smith - tramplin
domenico + 2 - algria, vai la
nouvelle vague - guns of brixton (clash cover)
bad religion - american jesus
ammon contact - temple jam
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
best set in recent memory WLUW
[WARMING UP]
tom jones w portishead - motherless child
mr. quark - requiem for mr. quark
defacto - coaxial
[ALL AROUND THE WORLD HEAVY FUNK SET]
cidhino & doca - cidade de deus (from Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats) [BRAZIL]
konono no. 1 - libula mibunda [CONGO/ANGOLA]
red hot chili peppers - hollywood [HOLLYWOOD]
amon tobin - rosie [ENGLAND]
[A TRIBUTE TO RANDY "BISCUIT" TURNER, R.I.P., ALL BIG BOYS SET]
big boys - apolitical
big boys -hollywood swingers (Kool & the Gang cover)
big boys prison
i am kloot - coincidence
flamin groovies - blues from phyllis
deerhoof - our angel's lulu
[HOT FEMALE VOCALS SET]
patsy cline - three cigarettes in an ashtray
ladytron - evil
astrud gilberto - tristeza
[TECHNO SET]
mr. scruff - chicken in a box [BREAKBEAT]
pendulum - fasten your seatbeltd [DRUMNBASS]
eels - jelly dancers (from Dimension Mix: the Music of Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson)
the gris gris - necessary seperation
my life with the thrill kill kult - martini built for two
[TIGHT HORN SECTION SET]
youngblood brass band - brooklyn
drums and tuba - igor rosse
tom waits - step right up
[MORE FUNKINESS]
dwight trible & the life force trio - waves of infinite harmony
medeski martin & wood - i wanna ride you
dele sosimi - turbulent times (from ASAP: Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project)
[THE PLAY IT FUCKING LOUD SET]
nick cave & the bad seeds - get ready for love
sepultera - policia
riistetyt - elintilla
[THE ALL AMERICAN WEIRDNESS SET]
ween - freedom of 76
frank zappa - magdalena
13th floor elevators - you're gonna miss me
[BEST SET OF THE NIGHT]
public image limited - rise
prefuse 73/the books - pagina siete
john prine w iris dement - lets invite them over
[CHICAGO PUNK SET]
mushuganas - breaking tradition (from Achtung! Chicago Drei)
effigies - body bag
choke jackers - zombies make perfect lovers (from Hyde Five)
rasputina - stumpside
eric burdon animals - paint it black
m.i.a/diplo - china girl
gabby lala - elf
[ROCKNROLL SET]
ram jam - black betty
bloody hollies - dirty water
mission of burma - that's when i reach for my revolver
(I got pissed at myself instantly for playing "...revolver". It's a great fucking song but just like the Dead Boy's "Sonic Reducer" and Fugazi's "Waiting Room", after meeting up with people at Delilah's for two weeks, I just can't stand it anymore. The bands have other fucking songs, people)
hoppy kamiyama - fantasm b (from Japanese Independent Music)
manu chao - desperacidos
john zorn leviathan
tub ring habitat
asylum street spankers -lullaby of the leaves
colonel claypool's bucket of bernie brains - elephant giant
tom jones w portishead - motherless child
mr. quark - requiem for mr. quark
defacto - coaxial
[ALL AROUND THE WORLD HEAVY FUNK SET]
cidhino & doca - cidade de deus (from Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats) [BRAZIL]
konono no. 1 - libula mibunda [CONGO/ANGOLA]
red hot chili peppers - hollywood [HOLLYWOOD]
amon tobin - rosie [ENGLAND]
[A TRIBUTE TO RANDY "BISCUIT" TURNER, R.I.P., ALL BIG BOYS SET]
big boys - apolitical
big boys -hollywood swingers (Kool & the Gang cover)
big boys prison
i am kloot - coincidence
flamin groovies - blues from phyllis
deerhoof - our angel's lulu
[HOT FEMALE VOCALS SET]
patsy cline - three cigarettes in an ashtray
ladytron - evil
astrud gilberto - tristeza
[TECHNO SET]
mr. scruff - chicken in a box [BREAKBEAT]
pendulum - fasten your seatbeltd [DRUMNBASS]
eels - jelly dancers (from Dimension Mix: the Music of Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson)
the gris gris - necessary seperation
my life with the thrill kill kult - martini built for two
[TIGHT HORN SECTION SET]
youngblood brass band - brooklyn
drums and tuba - igor rosse
tom waits - step right up
[MORE FUNKINESS]
dwight trible & the life force trio - waves of infinite harmony
medeski martin & wood - i wanna ride you
dele sosimi - turbulent times (from ASAP: Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project)
[THE PLAY IT FUCKING LOUD SET]
nick cave & the bad seeds - get ready for love
sepultera - policia
riistetyt - elintilla
[THE ALL AMERICAN WEIRDNESS SET]
ween - freedom of 76
frank zappa - magdalena
13th floor elevators - you're gonna miss me
[BEST SET OF THE NIGHT]
public image limited - rise
prefuse 73/the books - pagina siete
john prine w iris dement - lets invite them over
[CHICAGO PUNK SET]
mushuganas - breaking tradition (from Achtung! Chicago Drei)
effigies - body bag
choke jackers - zombies make perfect lovers (from Hyde Five)
rasputina - stumpside
eric burdon animals - paint it black
m.i.a/diplo - china girl
gabby lala - elf
[ROCKNROLL SET]
ram jam - black betty
bloody hollies - dirty water
mission of burma - that's when i reach for my revolver
(I got pissed at myself instantly for playing "...revolver". It's a great fucking song but just like the Dead Boy's "Sonic Reducer" and Fugazi's "Waiting Room", after meeting up with people at Delilah's for two weeks, I just can't stand it anymore. The bands have other fucking songs, people)
hoppy kamiyama - fantasm b (from Japanese Independent Music)
manu chao - desperacidos
john zorn leviathan
tub ring habitat
asylum street spankers -lullaby of the leaves
colonel claypool's bucket of bernie brains - elephant giant
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Animals Know When You're Out of Film
-For Andre Noseworthy-
Monday night at 1
I was returning to WLUW
there was this lone man, an older guy sweating bullets as he ran around
Loyola's racetrack.
One of those brown rabbits
who've just this year
forayed to Roger's Park
had become startled and run onto the course.
Unsure of where to veer
it just made sure
to stay ahead
and let itself be chased
by this crazed older man
I picked up an infant
waiting to get bitten,
and put it back down
by 2 I was unusually tired
and well aware that the entire school
in its first week of classes
had picked up the undeniable smell of urine
It's a Jesuit school full of Muslims
I don't completely get it
Northeastern
with the exception of WZRD
smells like a hospital
and put me in a foul mood
I used to arrive at WZRD just in time to see the sun setting over a Slavic graveyard.
WLUW has a lot more rules than WZRD, even after the big shakeups.
perhaps that's the difference between freeform and commercially-viable, uncommercial product.
The place lacks history. It's pristine, with walls completely undefaced. Their turntables are hidden like some bastard behind a locked door.
Their no alcohol and drug policies seem more than winks and nudges and Don't get caught. By the time I was done at the Wizard I was practically straightedge anyway, at least within its hallowed halls.
Two years ago we were kings. We owned monday nights and the city had no counteroffer to distract us. It was James with the tits, Skateboard Dan, and then myself. Me and Dan and random skate kids and coeds til classes started. Brett would come in and play us ragtime covers of punk songs. Mountain Dew and Popov and corn moonshine and random games of truth or dare and the school security showing up just as someone was getting dressed again. Half a dozen fake bands, a few handfulls of mushrooms. There was a time when anyone could just show up and everyone did.
One night, nearly everyone who was a part of my life decided to visit me in groups of two or three. Twenty people, including my roommate's drugdealer Coco, whom he wanted to impress. It was pretty beautiful, even though the station manager showed up and had me kick out the lot.
It was a smaller group then: Miriam, Budros, Vicky, Brett, Dan, Livewire, Sosa, Casey, Tourettes Liz, Tania, Cowboy, Duo, whoever I was dating. We went through the couch one night. It was the comfiest couch in the world even if it did smell like anus, and half the city's avant noise community had probably fucked on it at one time or another, if not at the Wizard, then afterhours at the Nervous Center, where it had lived before. Inside the cushions we found a dagger laced with powder. The dagger, we found out, was placed there by Carol. She's placed a Wiccan protection spell on the blade for the sanctity of a place we freely acknowledged housed ghosts that had as much options for places to stay as we did.
She was outraged by the cocaine though..
As I walked home Tuesday morning, the sun was just rising out of the lake. The water looked like a white newborn's head, all soft pink with ripples and tremors of purple. No one was out but the combers and residents of the beach, who shifted and turned to try and hide from morning. They had set up forts, in groups of twos and fours all along the park. Soon there would be joggers and dew, and everywhere you look August in Chicago's fat spiders. By 7, the streets were packed with girls who looked like pornstars walking dogs that looked like wildebeests.Not wildebeests as they exist in nature, but more wildebeests the way they appeared in your head when you first heard the word. I locked myself in a basement in my old neighborhood and closed my eyes, vowing to wake up earlier from now on.
---
lab and pack rat-i do this more for me than for you
here's a set list
the Eric Burdon and War set:
Eric Burdon and War - "Paint it Black"
the crazy saxophone set:
Les Baton Rouge - "Chloe Yurtz"
Essential Logic- "Music is a Better Noise"
Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist Horns - "Theme de Yo-Yo"
softer shit set:
Nick Drake - "Three Hours"
The Baptist Generals - "Creeper"
Wire - "Practice Makes Perfect"
the teensy, tinsy set:
Colin James and his LITTLE Big Band - "Marry Anne"
Stiff LITTLE Fingers - "The Only One"
LITTLE Richard - "Bama Lama, Lama Loo"
ANNOUNCEMENT: Get it? Teensy? Little? I'll keep pulling that cornball crap if you don't call in and make requests.
the female vocalists enticing the wrong element set:
Portishead - "Strangers" (by request)
Gabby La La - "Pirates"
the loud rock bands that we may see again but not in the same form ever set:
Dead Kennedy's - "California Uber Alles" (playing soon if you can stomach the band sans Jello)
Guitar Wolf - "Highway Baby" (RIP Hideki Sekuguchi)
the Wayouts - "Better Days" (old Chicago pop punk, broken up I think)
dj shit set:
DJ Shadow - "Stem/Long Stem" (request)
4th Pyramid - "Aquatic"
Felix da Housecat - "Everyone is Someone in LA"
the I don't know set. One of the best
Bob Marley - "Judge Not"
Opium Jukebox - "Paranoid"
Sun Ra and his Arkestra - "Pleasure"
female vocalists:
Sons and Daughters - "Broken Bones"
Siouxie and the Banshees - "Happy House"
Azita - "Wasn't in the Bargain" (faded out after a minute because the song sucked so much ass)
hip HOP and dance:
Felt - "Marvin Gaye"
DJ Signify w Buck 65 - "Winters Going"
Gold Chains and Sue Cie - "No Tomorrow"
By this point it was 4:30 and I dropped the idea of sets and everything gets more interesting
Skamaphrodites - "Claw Hammer"
Tom Waits - "Shake it"
Dizee Rascal - "Learn"
Nobukazu Takemura - "Conical Flask"
Kinski - "Hot Stenographer"
Nancy Sinatra - "2 Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad"
The Damned - "Neat Neat Neat"
The Residents - "Easter Woman"
Mutantes - "Hey Boy"
Hayden Thompson "Rockabilly Girl"
Ursula 1000 - "The Shake"
Max Cloud - "The Informer"
I am Kloot - "An Ordinary Child"
Balkan Blues - the Romanian track
Elvis Costello and the Attractors - "Green Shirt"
Ravi Harris and the Prophets - "Path of the Blazing Sarong"
Quasar Wut-Wut - "Beaver Fever"
Firewater - "Some Velvet Morning"
Monolake - "Pipeline"
Lord of the Yum Yum - "Habanera"
OOIOO - "Sister 001"
Twang Bang - "I feel Weird"
Folksongs for the Afterlife - "Death by Melody"
Mayumi Chiwaki and Pilar Stupa - "Slice of Life"
Blondie - "X-Offender"
Zolar X - "The Horizon Suite: Overture or Air/Tomorrow is Sunrise/Inside the Outside/Sound Barrier"
Currently listening:
Lillian
By Alias
Monday night at 1
I was returning to WLUW
there was this lone man, an older guy sweating bullets as he ran around
Loyola's racetrack.
One of those brown rabbits
who've just this year
forayed to Roger's Park
had become startled and run onto the course.
Unsure of where to veer
it just made sure
to stay ahead
and let itself be chased
by this crazed older man
I picked up an infant
waiting to get bitten,
and put it back down
by 2 I was unusually tired
and well aware that the entire school
in its first week of classes
had picked up the undeniable smell of urine
It's a Jesuit school full of Muslims
I don't completely get it
Northeastern
with the exception of WZRD
smells like a hospital
and put me in a foul mood
I used to arrive at WZRD just in time to see the sun setting over a Slavic graveyard.
WLUW has a lot more rules than WZRD, even after the big shakeups.
perhaps that's the difference between freeform and commercially-viable, uncommercial product.
The place lacks history. It's pristine, with walls completely undefaced. Their turntables are hidden like some bastard behind a locked door.
Their no alcohol and drug policies seem more than winks and nudges and Don't get caught. By the time I was done at the Wizard I was practically straightedge anyway, at least within its hallowed halls.
Two years ago we were kings. We owned monday nights and the city had no counteroffer to distract us. It was James with the tits, Skateboard Dan, and then myself. Me and Dan and random skate kids and coeds til classes started. Brett would come in and play us ragtime covers of punk songs. Mountain Dew and Popov and corn moonshine and random games of truth or dare and the school security showing up just as someone was getting dressed again. Half a dozen fake bands, a few handfulls of mushrooms. There was a time when anyone could just show up and everyone did.
One night, nearly everyone who was a part of my life decided to visit me in groups of two or three. Twenty people, including my roommate's drugdealer Coco, whom he wanted to impress. It was pretty beautiful, even though the station manager showed up and had me kick out the lot.
It was a smaller group then: Miriam, Budros, Vicky, Brett, Dan, Livewire, Sosa, Casey, Tourettes Liz, Tania, Cowboy, Duo, whoever I was dating. We went through the couch one night. It was the comfiest couch in the world even if it did smell like anus, and half the city's avant noise community had probably fucked on it at one time or another, if not at the Wizard, then afterhours at the Nervous Center, where it had lived before. Inside the cushions we found a dagger laced with powder. The dagger, we found out, was placed there by Carol. She's placed a Wiccan protection spell on the blade for the sanctity of a place we freely acknowledged housed ghosts that had as much options for places to stay as we did.
She was outraged by the cocaine though..
As I walked home Tuesday morning, the sun was just rising out of the lake. The water looked like a white newborn's head, all soft pink with ripples and tremors of purple. No one was out but the combers and residents of the beach, who shifted and turned to try and hide from morning. They had set up forts, in groups of twos and fours all along the park. Soon there would be joggers and dew, and everywhere you look August in Chicago's fat spiders. By 7, the streets were packed with girls who looked like pornstars walking dogs that looked like wildebeests.Not wildebeests as they exist in nature, but more wildebeests the way they appeared in your head when you first heard the word. I locked myself in a basement in my old neighborhood and closed my eyes, vowing to wake up earlier from now on.
---
lab and pack rat-i do this more for me than for you
here's a set list
the Eric Burdon and War set:
Eric Burdon and War - "Paint it Black"
the crazy saxophone set:
Les Baton Rouge - "Chloe Yurtz"
Essential Logic- "Music is a Better Noise"
Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist Horns - "Theme de Yo-Yo"
softer shit set:
Nick Drake - "Three Hours"
The Baptist Generals - "Creeper"
Wire - "Practice Makes Perfect"
the teensy, tinsy set:
Colin James and his LITTLE Big Band - "Marry Anne"
Stiff LITTLE Fingers - "The Only One"
LITTLE Richard - "Bama Lama, Lama Loo"
ANNOUNCEMENT: Get it? Teensy? Little? I'll keep pulling that cornball crap if you don't call in and make requests.
the female vocalists enticing the wrong element set:
Portishead - "Strangers" (by request)
Gabby La La - "Pirates"
the loud rock bands that we may see again but not in the same form ever set:
Dead Kennedy's - "California Uber Alles" (playing soon if you can stomach the band sans Jello)
Guitar Wolf - "Highway Baby" (RIP Hideki Sekuguchi)
the Wayouts - "Better Days" (old Chicago pop punk, broken up I think)
dj shit set:
DJ Shadow - "Stem/Long Stem" (request)
4th Pyramid - "Aquatic"
Felix da Housecat - "Everyone is Someone in LA"
the I don't know set. One of the best
Bob Marley - "Judge Not"
Opium Jukebox - "Paranoid"
Sun Ra and his Arkestra - "Pleasure"
female vocalists:
Sons and Daughters - "Broken Bones"
Siouxie and the Banshees - "Happy House"
Azita - "Wasn't in the Bargain" (faded out after a minute because the song sucked so much ass)
hip HOP and dance:
Felt - "Marvin Gaye"
DJ Signify w Buck 65 - "Winters Going"
Gold Chains and Sue Cie - "No Tomorrow"
By this point it was 4:30 and I dropped the idea of sets and everything gets more interesting
Skamaphrodites - "Claw Hammer"
Tom Waits - "Shake it"
Dizee Rascal - "Learn"
Nobukazu Takemura - "Conical Flask"
Kinski - "Hot Stenographer"
Nancy Sinatra - "2 Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad"
The Damned - "Neat Neat Neat"
The Residents - "Easter Woman"
Mutantes - "Hey Boy"
Hayden Thompson "Rockabilly Girl"
Ursula 1000 - "The Shake"
Max Cloud - "The Informer"
I am Kloot - "An Ordinary Child"
Balkan Blues - the Romanian track
Elvis Costello and the Attractors - "Green Shirt"
Ravi Harris and the Prophets - "Path of the Blazing Sarong"
Quasar Wut-Wut - "Beaver Fever"
Firewater - "Some Velvet Morning"
Monolake - "Pipeline"
Lord of the Yum Yum - "Habanera"
OOIOO - "Sister 001"
Twang Bang - "I feel Weird"
Folksongs for the Afterlife - "Death by Melody"
Mayumi Chiwaki and Pilar Stupa - "Slice of Life"
Blondie - "X-Offender"
Zolar X - "The Horizon Suite: Overture or Air/Tomorrow is Sunrise/Inside the Outside/Sound Barrier"
Currently listening:
Lillian
By Alias
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
1st show [WLUW]
Saul Williams - "Black Stacey"
the Adicts - "My baby got run over by a steamroller"
Radiant Darling - "Familiar" (perhaps my favorite song this summer)
Tom Waits - "Chocolate Jesus"
Kid606 - "King of Harm" (kid606's new album is a huge disappointment. it is just very boring.)
Los Crudos - "Asesino"
Eyedea & Abilities - "Glass"
Roky Erickson - "Night of the Vampire"
it is about this point that my set strarted to get more interesting as I stopped dipping soi much into familiar tracks from my personal collection
Bauhaus - "God is in the alcove"
Sparks - "This town ain't big enough for the both of us"
the Pharohs - "Black Enuff"
Joy Division - "Disorder" (by request)
Prefuse 73 reads the Books - "Pagina Dos"
Madness - "Israelites" (apparently the second wave ska group Madness is still kicking around England. Their new album is not a reunion. It is, however, a shamefully cheeseball collection of covers of great reggae songs by the likes of Desmond Dekker and Max Romeo)
Curtis Mayfield - "Get Down"
Klaus Nomi - "Lightning Strikes"
Clorox Girls - "Walks the Streets"
Social Distortion - "Mommy's Little Monster"
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graftitti - "Envelopes another Day"
Petra Haden and Bill Frisell - "Satellite"
Frank Zappa - Bobby Brown/ My Guitar Wants to kill Your Momma (by request)
Jello Biafra with Mojo Nixon - "Are you Drinkin with me, Jesus?"
Buzzcocks - "What do I get?"
Sage Francis - "Crumble"
Quintron - "the Beach"
Gabby La La - "Be Careful What you Wish for"
Melt Banana - "Shield for your Eyes, a Beast in the Well of your Hand" (by request after I found out the station had no OpIvy)
Clouddead - "Twenty"
Nob Dylan and his Nobsoletes - "Highway 61 Revisited" (Rev. Norb!)
Plugz - "Hombre Secreto"
The Philadelphia All Stars - "Let's Clean up the Ghetto"
the Walkie Talkies - "Son of Sam"
Dosh - "Naoise"
The Ex - "Mother"
Hole - "Doll Parts" (freeing an earworm)
Subhumans - "Glad to be Alive"
Peanut Butter Wolf - "Umbrellas"
Brian Wilson - "Heroes and Villains"
the Dolls - "And that Reminds Me" (from "60s Girl Groups" comp)
Kevin Ayers, Brian Eno, Nico and John Cale - "Heartbreak Hotel"
Ween - "the Stallion, pt. 3"
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - "St. James Infirmary"
The Smiths - "Handsome Devil"
Afrika Bambaataa - "Metal" (with Gary Numan and MC Chatterbox)
Les Georges Leningrad - "Sponsorships"
(short twangy set)
Reverend Horton Heat - "Wiggle Stick"
R Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders - "Sing Song Girl"
Hasil Adkins - Wild Man
Coaxial - "Forewarning"
Jan Paderewski - "Overture"
Handsome Boy Modeling School - "The World's Gone Mad" (with Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Barrington Levy)
Chin Up, Chin Up - "We should Have Never Lived"
Kraftwerk - "Radioactivity"
Manu Chao - "Clandestino"
the Adicts - "My baby got run over by a steamroller"
Radiant Darling - "Familiar" (perhaps my favorite song this summer)
Tom Waits - "Chocolate Jesus"
Kid606 - "King of Harm" (kid606's new album is a huge disappointment. it is just very boring.)
Los Crudos - "Asesino"
Eyedea & Abilities - "Glass"
Roky Erickson - "Night of the Vampire"
it is about this point that my set strarted to get more interesting as I stopped dipping soi much into familiar tracks from my personal collection
Bauhaus - "God is in the alcove"
Sparks - "This town ain't big enough for the both of us"
the Pharohs - "Black Enuff"
Joy Division - "Disorder" (by request)
Prefuse 73 reads the Books - "Pagina Dos"
Madness - "Israelites" (apparently the second wave ska group Madness is still kicking around England. Their new album is not a reunion. It is, however, a shamefully cheeseball collection of covers of great reggae songs by the likes of Desmond Dekker and Max Romeo)
Curtis Mayfield - "Get Down"
Klaus Nomi - "Lightning Strikes"
Clorox Girls - "Walks the Streets"
Social Distortion - "Mommy's Little Monster"
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graftitti - "Envelopes another Day"
Petra Haden and Bill Frisell - "Satellite"
Frank Zappa - Bobby Brown/ My Guitar Wants to kill Your Momma (by request)
Jello Biafra with Mojo Nixon - "Are you Drinkin with me, Jesus?"
Buzzcocks - "What do I get?"
Sage Francis - "Crumble"
Quintron - "the Beach"
Gabby La La - "Be Careful What you Wish for"
Melt Banana - "Shield for your Eyes, a Beast in the Well of your Hand" (by request after I found out the station had no OpIvy)
Clouddead - "Twenty"
Nob Dylan and his Nobsoletes - "Highway 61 Revisited" (Rev. Norb!)
Plugz - "Hombre Secreto"
The Philadelphia All Stars - "Let's Clean up the Ghetto"
the Walkie Talkies - "Son of Sam"
Dosh - "Naoise"
The Ex - "Mother"
Hole - "Doll Parts" (freeing an earworm)
Subhumans - "Glad to be Alive"
Peanut Butter Wolf - "Umbrellas"
Brian Wilson - "Heroes and Villains"
the Dolls - "And that Reminds Me" (from "60s Girl Groups" comp)
Kevin Ayers, Brian Eno, Nico and John Cale - "Heartbreak Hotel"
Ween - "the Stallion, pt. 3"
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - "St. James Infirmary"
The Smiths - "Handsome Devil"
Afrika Bambaataa - "Metal" (with Gary Numan and MC Chatterbox)
Les Georges Leningrad - "Sponsorships"
(short twangy set)
Reverend Horton Heat - "Wiggle Stick"
R Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders - "Sing Song Girl"
Hasil Adkins - Wild Man
Coaxial - "Forewarning"
Jan Paderewski - "Overture"
Handsome Boy Modeling School - "The World's Gone Mad" (with Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Barrington Levy)
Chin Up, Chin Up - "We should Have Never Lived"
Kraftwerk - "Radioactivity"
Manu Chao - "Clandestino"
Friday, July 29, 2005
testing gig [wluw]
Oingo Boingo - Nasty Habits (Demo)
Petra Haden - I can see for miles
Ministry- the missing
the Deviants - Child of the Sky
MC Jack E Chocolate - Pavaroty (from the Rio Baile Funk comp)
Money Mark - Break Open My Shells (the only worthwhile track on a lackluster album from 2004)
Masaki Batoh - You Doo Right
the Ventures Walk Don't Run/Perifidia/Lullaby of the Leaves
(this would've been really cool if I realized there was a 2 minute Spanish intro before the medley. I accidentally ejected this disc before the Lullaby of the Leaves crescendo which sucks because that's my favorite song of theirs. Also check out the Asylum Street Spankers version with an awesome singing saw solo)
Aesop Rock - Number Nine
Essential Logic- Quality Crayon Wax
then I started my slow, destructo set:
Tom Waits - November (more singing saw!)
The Ex - Let's Panic Togethor
Enuma Elish - Imminent Doom
then I countered the destructo set with the super happy set:
Ian Dury and the Blockheads - wake up and make love to me
Puffy AmiYumi - Boogie Woogie No. 5
Dee Lite - What is Love?
Petra Haden - I can see for miles
Ministry- the missing
the Deviants - Child of the Sky
MC Jack E Chocolate - Pavaroty (from the Rio Baile Funk comp)
Money Mark - Break Open My Shells (the only worthwhile track on a lackluster album from 2004)
Masaki Batoh - You Doo Right
the Ventures Walk Don't Run/Perifidia/Lullaby of the Leaves
(this would've been really cool if I realized there was a 2 minute Spanish intro before the medley. I accidentally ejected this disc before the Lullaby of the Leaves crescendo which sucks because that's my favorite song of theirs. Also check out the Asylum Street Spankers version with an awesome singing saw solo)
Aesop Rock - Number Nine
Essential Logic- Quality Crayon Wax
then I started my slow, destructo set:
Tom Waits - November (more singing saw!)
The Ex - Let's Panic Togethor
Enuma Elish - Imminent Doom
then I countered the destructo set with the super happy set:
Ian Dury and the Blockheads - wake up and make love to me
Puffy AmiYumi - Boogie Woogie No. 5
Dee Lite - What is Love?
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Gentlemen Callers present "The Vicious Cycle" [Theatre Building Chicago]
The Gentlemen Callers is my sketch comedy troupe. We perform every now and then. For our last show, we wanted to include different scenes from Chicago. We opened our shows with comedians Hannibal and Dave Odd, and used music from all local bands in between each scene. The music was all picked by myself and Miss Ruby Aftermath.
small change - damn!
PKDores - un pasa atras
hannibelectro - chilly willy
stag party - rachel my dear
lord of the yum yum - habanera
schizowave - love
forgotten four - wreckless angel
environmental encroachment - taderra
j davis trio - breath of a tiny dragon
condenada - puertes fal
curlee brazell - another...
black bear combo - albionea
brenmar someday and elissa p - demo (track 2)
loraxx - three witches on brooms
stag party - sun explodes
mud show circus - that old time music
hannibelectro - neutrons
curlee brazell - where am i now
shellac - mouthpiece
small change - rock on
environmental encroachment - bembe noche
felix da housecat - some kinda special
small change - damn!
PKDores - un pasa atras
hannibelectro - chilly willy
stag party - rachel my dear
lord of the yum yum - habanera
schizowave - love
forgotten four - wreckless angel
environmental encroachment - taderra
j davis trio - breath of a tiny dragon
condenada - puertes fal
curlee brazell - another...
black bear combo - albionea
brenmar someday and elissa p - demo (track 2)
loraxx - three witches on brooms
stag party - sun explodes
mud show circus - that old time music
hannibelectro - neutrons
curlee brazell - where am i now
shellac - mouthpiece
small change - rock on
environmental encroachment - bembe noche
felix da housecat - some kinda special
Sunday, May 29, 2005
it's pronounced like 'rogues' and that's important
Bands: the Walkie Talkies, There Must Be Others
Date: 5/27/05
Venue: Wicker Park Basement
Cost: Free
when the drunken pregnant girl with drug and worry and mascara lined eyes
hands the mutilated babydoll
to the dwarf
by means of a switchblade
you know you've found your way into a david lynch film or made it to a really good chicago party
the birds are cheaping to challenge the moogs
urine foams when it contacts bonfire
the graham crackers go before the marshmallows
there is a such thing as perpetual motion
cats make noises like lazerbeams and rape victims
at 5:00 AM
perhaps the moon is sick of you
with the girl i can't say the word to
depressed and bedriffed
i can see the stars from old angles
-this does not constitute a claim that she's holding me back
just a change in perspective
it's good to see that when i mellow
and simmer
for stretched months
some of the same
half-decade stalwarts
some longer still
are left
cyndi, host, ibarra, party steve, sam, stevo, mike the midget
the old one last walk crew, kokomo crew, the nervous center
the weird fuckers from whitney and lane and lakeview and lp
newish arrivals here like bryan, briton, and kelleh
omnipresence
i drank tequila out of a bag, caballo
and had champagne spit in my face
dancing on green clouds that tasted like unsweetened cotton candy
playing with knives
some people say that these nights blend togethor
but i know better
that these are the only way i'll hear myself laughing
this certain way and
i must keep moving
even the cabbies know
"it's a quiet night" they say
they're lying, but i tip them anyway
this is how i will start my diary
a third or fourth lifetime attempt:
5/28 5:30 AM
the sun is coming up over the trees and traintracks. not here, but somewhere. something tall protects my little cul-de-sac but i've never noticed its erection. I am up and so are the cats. Despite all attempts to ruin myself with tequila...lucidity. The cats question my place at this hour. The little one claws at my feet and groin. When he is neutered soon, he'll wonder if I knew he was just trying to kill the drawstring in my pajamas. No matter.
I have as many days left in my school career as a girl named Emily has in gestation. Another one. Knocked up. Another girl I'll probably never fuck, kiss, look in the eyes, and after devoting so many hours thinking about it. She has skin like paper, blue eyes and pale tits bigger than anything you've ever seen on a person outside Japanese caricature. Just like every other girl I loved too much to talk to in high school. Just like every friend that's dropping babies. Today I took a final and held up traffic in an office building. I missed appointments, procrastinated and got everywhere late. It was nice to eventually wind up somewhere I was able to do something other than build contempt.
]There Must Be Others have since disbanded and played one show since]
Date: 5/27/05
Venue: Wicker Park Basement
Cost: Free
when the drunken pregnant girl with drug and worry and mascara lined eyes
hands the mutilated babydoll
to the dwarf
by means of a switchblade
you know you've found your way into a david lynch film or made it to a really good chicago party
the birds are cheaping to challenge the moogs
urine foams when it contacts bonfire
the graham crackers go before the marshmallows
there is a such thing as perpetual motion
cats make noises like lazerbeams and rape victims
at 5:00 AM
perhaps the moon is sick of you
with the girl i can't say the word to
depressed and bedriffed
i can see the stars from old angles
-this does not constitute a claim that she's holding me back
just a change in perspective
it's good to see that when i mellow
and simmer
for stretched months
some of the same
half-decade stalwarts
some longer still
are left
cyndi, host, ibarra, party steve, sam, stevo, mike the midget
the old one last walk crew, kokomo crew, the nervous center
the weird fuckers from whitney and lane and lakeview and lp
newish arrivals here like bryan, briton, and kelleh
omnipresence
i drank tequila out of a bag, caballo
and had champagne spit in my face
dancing on green clouds that tasted like unsweetened cotton candy
playing with knives
some people say that these nights blend togethor
but i know better
that these are the only way i'll hear myself laughing
this certain way and
i must keep moving
even the cabbies know
"it's a quiet night" they say
they're lying, but i tip them anyway
this is how i will start my diary
a third or fourth lifetime attempt:
5/28 5:30 AM
the sun is coming up over the trees and traintracks. not here, but somewhere. something tall protects my little cul-de-sac but i've never noticed its erection. I am up and so are the cats. Despite all attempts to ruin myself with tequila...lucidity. The cats question my place at this hour. The little one claws at my feet and groin. When he is neutered soon, he'll wonder if I knew he was just trying to kill the drawstring in my pajamas. No matter.
I have as many days left in my school career as a girl named Emily has in gestation. Another one. Knocked up. Another girl I'll probably never fuck, kiss, look in the eyes, and after devoting so many hours thinking about it. She has skin like paper, blue eyes and pale tits bigger than anything you've ever seen on a person outside Japanese caricature. Just like every other girl I loved too much to talk to in high school. Just like every friend that's dropping babies. Today I took a final and held up traffic in an office building. I missed appointments, procrastinated and got everywhere late. It was nice to eventually wind up somewhere I was able to do something other than build contempt.
]There Must Be Others have since disbanded and played one show since]
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Version 05 [wpbr]
This was a Radio Dysentery set Ruby and I did that may or may not have actually aired on the problematic WPBR
Mario Lanza - This is my Beloved
Anton Lavey
Grandmaster Flash - The Message
Peggy Lee - Sugar
Happy Kamiyama
Offwhyte - Bow to the Scepter (request from our friend Exploding Bunny)
Barbarellas - Teenage Werewolf
Fourskins - Evil Evil Evil
Burt Bacharach & Friends - I Say a Little Prayer for You
Dead Boyz Can't Fly - I Wanna Be a Queer
The Deviants
Sludge - Screaming Lord Sludge
The Deviants (little switching problem there)
Plasmatics - Living Dead
Hasil Adkins - Devonna Rock (r.i.p.)
Roky Erickson
Pigpen - Kind of Dead
Bonzo Dog Band
Monks - Drugs in my Pocket
Residents - Constantinople
Melt Banana - Too Rough to Sleep (Find a Grain of Greed)
The Eternals
Majestics - Riding By
The People Under the Stairs
Laibach
Saul Williams - Black Stacy
Jean Michel Jarre - Ethnicolor II
Tom Waits
At this point, we lost the pen and left soon after
Mario Lanza - This is my Beloved
Anton Lavey
Grandmaster Flash - The Message
Peggy Lee - Sugar
Happy Kamiyama
Offwhyte - Bow to the Scepter (request from our friend Exploding Bunny)
Barbarellas - Teenage Werewolf
Fourskins - Evil Evil Evil
Burt Bacharach & Friends - I Say a Little Prayer for You
Dead Boyz Can't Fly - I Wanna Be a Queer
The Deviants
Sludge - Screaming Lord Sludge
The Deviants (little switching problem there)
Plasmatics - Living Dead
Hasil Adkins - Devonna Rock (r.i.p.)
Roky Erickson
Pigpen - Kind of Dead
Bonzo Dog Band
Monks - Drugs in my Pocket
Residents - Constantinople
Melt Banana - Too Rough to Sleep (Find a Grain of Greed)
The Eternals
Majestics - Riding By
The People Under the Stairs
Laibach
Saul Williams - Black Stacy
Jean Michel Jarre - Ethnicolor II
Tom Waits
At this point, we lost the pen and left soon after
Friday, December 10, 2004
Monday Nite @ the Ole Noise Show
Band: the Coughs
Venue: the empty bottle
Cost: free
Date: 12/9/04
free noise in the hipster mecca brings everyone togethor
the annoying celebs lauded by their friends in the newsprint rags
i've pored over from bus stop to bus stop
broke bread with the gentlemen dumpster divers
who aided in the development of a young lab rat
learning how to sow his oats at Columbia College a 20th of a century ago
of course there was no bread
on the business end of Bite
so everyone had to agree on pabsts and honeybrowns
when an old hipster staple
worried he'd blown his load at 21
started lamenting he was 'lost'
i suggested we burn the place down and marvel
at the pretty blues reds and yellows
the kind of fire gods make when they dance
scorching the soil for rebirth
(of course i don't have a fireplace
this holiday season)
and
(of course nobody dances at the empty bottle)
the place was crawling
i was surrounded by,
contributing to
one
massive
collective
bad haircut
and i mentioned it many times
because i didn't have anything else to say
(and)
thought it
clever
all in all
the band was neither as good nor as bad as i
was/had
warned/hoped
but
erred on the side of good
the people who like to jump were juming,
the people who always stand still stood just so
sarah bought me beer and held my hand
it will be 2005 soon
Venue: the empty bottle
Cost: free
Date: 12/9/04
free noise in the hipster mecca brings everyone togethor
the annoying celebs lauded by their friends in the newsprint rags
i've pored over from bus stop to bus stop
broke bread with the gentlemen dumpster divers
who aided in the development of a young lab rat
learning how to sow his oats at Columbia College a 20th of a century ago
of course there was no bread
on the business end of Bite
so everyone had to agree on pabsts and honeybrowns
when an old hipster staple
worried he'd blown his load at 21
started lamenting he was 'lost'
i suggested we burn the place down and marvel
at the pretty blues reds and yellows
the kind of fire gods make when they dance
scorching the soil for rebirth
(of course i don't have a fireplace
this holiday season)
and
(of course nobody dances at the empty bottle)
the place was crawling
i was surrounded by,
contributing to
one
massive
collective
bad haircut
and i mentioned it many times
because i didn't have anything else to say
(and)
thought it
clever
all in all
the band was neither as good nor as bad as i
was/had
warned/hoped
but
erred on the side of good
the people who like to jump were juming,
the people who always stand still stood just so
sarah bought me beer and held my hand
it will be 2005 soon
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