The Clovers - Lovey Dovey Chris Kenner - I like It Like That The Spiders - I didn't want to do it Chantels - Maybe Track 1 from Dangerous Doo Wop 3 Wilbert Harrison - Kansas City
Ravens - Count Every star The Flamingos - I Only Have Eyes For YOu Cadillacs - GLoria
Little Anthony & Imperials - Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Pop Silouettes - Get A Job Boss-Tones - Mope-Itty Mope Hollywood flames - Buzz-buzz-buzz Norman Fox & Rob Roys/Sid Bass & His Orchestra - Pizza Pie Edsels - Rama Lama Ding Ding
Ouiwey (the Son Of Bootsy Collins) - Girl I Goerge Clinton - Do Fries Go With That Shake (Know What I'm Sayin' Remix) featuring Vanessa Williams and Shistee Bar-Kays - RAID
LAB RAT:
Betty Davis - DEdicated To The Press Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - Feeling Free Abraham and the Casanovas - Hook and Boogit (part one) Laura Leee - Mama's Got a Good Thing
Bull & the Matadors - Funky Judge Bobby Byrd - I Know You Got Soul Co-Real Artists - What Was Her Name?
Geraldo Pino - Heavy Heavy Heavy Al Escobar - Tighten Up Papa Mali & the Instagators - Fire Water
Egyptians - Party Stomp! Rare Grooves - Soulful Street The Stovall Sisters - Hang On In there
Lord Rhaburn - Disco Connection The Staple Sisters - Soul to Soul
[The Band with The Staple Sisters doing "The Weight"]
Date: 8/31/07 Band I saw: Expendable Youth Bands I missed: Tzeboble, Secret Trial Five, The Kominas, Vote Hezbollah, Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate, Al-Thawra, La Armada, Sangre De Abajo How could such a thing happen?: Motherfucker wanna eat, motherfucker gotta work Location: La Casa Maldita Cost: $5 suggested Drinks: BYO Things I missed to be there: Miss Pussycat Puppet Show at Reversible Eye; Fake Rich Party at Das Butt with Koku-Ban, H1N1, Local Hero, and Grifty; Varietease Burlesque Show at Kitty Moon Reason for going, as briefly as I did: As far as I know, nothing like this has ever happened in Chicago
The Taqwacores is a book by Michael Muhammad Knight, detailing the lives of the residents of a flophouse that doubles as a DIY mosque for punk rock Muslims in Buffalo, New York. The narrator is of the story is the new kid, Yusuf Ali, an American Pakastani who doesn't know where he fits in, but finds love, solace, and adventure in punk rock, and a hero and personal savior in Jehangir Tabari. Kind of ironically, Jehangir is a martyr straight out of the Jesus mold, a man too perfect to live. In punk rock pop culture he is Heroin Bob, or that girl from Suburbia In literature, he is Randle P. McMurphy, pushing the psyche ward inmates to free themselves.
Jehangir lived and died by taqwacore. The word is a portmanteau of the words hardcore and taqwa an Islamic term for a kind of simultaneous love and fear of Allah*. The book ends with Jehangir gathering all the taqwacore bands in America, all the ones he could find, for one show, a punk rock spectacle that ends in his death. On the pretensious tip, it is an end of innocense for the various people in the book, an end of the utopian views of taqwa, punk rock, and Islam.
Before the book was published, originally as a zine in 2002, there was no such thing as taqwacore, but since then it has become a real movement, not just for arab and Muslim punks, but for disaffected white kids who're looking to further piss off their folks and disassociate themselves from a fairly racist USA that's currently at odds with much of the Muslim world. It's cynical, but it's true. In the book, Taqwacore was as much an umbrella as punk rock, there were skinhead taqwa, straightedge taqwa, and ska taqwa (skaqwa?). Middle East Punk night wasn't that much different. Tzebeoble is a one-man riot folk band whose music sounds more like Tom Frampton, Kinky Friedman, and The Moldy Peaches than This Bike is a Pipe Bomb or Yusef Islam. From the one song on their myspace page, San Antonio's Vote Hezbollah (who take their name from a band in the The Taqwacores), I could say that they sound like the gritty/glitzy postglam of D Generation, in a way that almost borders on new wave the way the Brits did it, and a little bit like old Social Distortion, but that might just be the one song (which has pretty shitty lyrics). The Kominas are a punk group that seem to take their influences from all avenues of punk, with a little bit of regae and hip hop thrown in. Their song "9000 miles" could've been done by the Transplants, but it probably would have been done by someone a lot better. The Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate and Chicago's Al-Thawra are the most interesting to me though, because they both do more experimental music, from a punk background and aesthetic.
Al-Thawra's sound a lot like early industrial, from a time when groups like Laibach, Muslimgauze, Nurse with Wound, and Throbbing Gristle were all sharing bills. It's very low, and very crunchy. Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate come from a slightly dancier place, and sound a lot like the electrometallic dub that seems to come out of kinda weird bands who've had hits do when they want to try new things, but want to go further than their fans would allow. Think of the Deftones side-project Team Sleep, or the At the Drive-In/Mars Volta side project Defacto. Unfortunately, even though they were on the bill, they had to drop out of the show before yesterday.
Yesterday marked the first time that a lot of these bands got together to play a Taqwa show in Chicago. The scale wasn't as big as it was in the end of the book, but it didn't end up with any scene fatalities, so I'm pretty sure everybody was happy. Unfortunately, even moreso than TSS dropping out, was that I had to.
I only got to see one of the bands, before I left for work, and that was Expendable Youth. If you drew a straight line on a graph from Rancid to Aus Rotten, Expendable Youth would be a dot in the middle in a Witch Hunt t-shirt. They're political, but kinda indiscriminately political, like, "It doesn't matter that you're all a bunch of anarchists and punks at a political punk show in a basement, we're gonna still say things like 'this one is about political prisoners, because Mumia isn't the only one.'"
When I hear that kinda preachy bullshit, it puts me in that cynical place where I place them in a world where music only exists on a straight line between Rancid and Aus Rotten. Otherwise, they were good, melodic hardcore, you know like they exist in a world where Aus-Rotten is a goal to strive for, and Rancid is the poppiest, sell-outiest anti-punk band you can think of. I've seen them before and I'm sure I will again, but I was kinda disappointed that they're all I got outta my time at Casa Maldita last night.
I did my set inbetween jobs today and I was fucking exhausted. The only worthwhile track was "Mouvement 1" by Lex Talionis.
There was also an old episode of the Church of the Subgenius' "Hour of Slack", an old Maximum Rock'n'Roll tape with Los Crudos doing "Asesinos", a new M.I.A. track, and a "megamix" by Diplo.
James Chance - Sax Machine Betty Davis - Anti Love Song Dawn Silva/Brides of Funkenstein - Whole Lotta Game Die Warzau - Gone Chemical
Marvin Tate - Town of 500 William Bell - Everybody loves a winner Timi Yuro - Hurt the Notations - A New Day Rufus Thomas - The Dog Broadneck - Psychedelic Excursion Hank Ballard - Finger Poppin' Time
Mitchell Mitchell - Gene King - Never Walk Out On You Eddie FLoyd - Good Love, Bad Love Gil Scott Heron - ??? Delfonics - Tell Me This Is a Dream Curtis Mayfield - Give Me Your Love (Love Song)
LAB RAT:
The Coasters - Down in Mexico Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - If This Ain't Love (Don't Know What Is) The Mighty Hannibal - Get in the Groove
Ann Peebles - I Can't Stand the Rain Gospel Chandeliers - Honesty is the Best Policy Isaac Hayes - Do Your Thing
Nina Simone - Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter Nilo Espinosa y Orquestra - Baby Boogaloo Los Van Van - Y No Le Conviene Lon Rogers & the Soul Blenders - My Girl is a Soul Girl
Harlem Underground Band feat. Willis Jackson - Ain't No Sunshine Stevie Wonder - Superstition Quincy Jones feat. Bill Cosby - Hikky Burr
Date: 8/24/07 Location: Unnamed Warehouse DJs: Vyle, Mr. Bobby, Trancid, Livewire and more Cost: Cocks 10, Cunts 5 Things I missed to be there: Mahjongg and Chew on This at Subterranean; Carnivale at the Cat Mafia HQ Reason for going: Coz raves beat all (and I couldn't find the Cat Mafia HQ)
Sarah and I snuck in like champions, only to sneak out just as quickly.
"Wow, this is like a Hispanic high school dance."
I think she hit the nail with that remark. The crowd was mostly teenagers, and by half past midnight, the cops already knew the party was happening, the doorpeople were freaking out, and very few people were dancing. Guys with guys. Girls with girls.
When we got there, Mr. Bobby was spinning some new wave. I don't remember what the song was, but it sounded like shit. Not a bad song, but the amps were all stacked on one side of the room turned up so that the sound could travel across the warehouse, and there was no real part of the room where it sounded good. Couple that with the facts that it was hot as snatch and that we already knew we were getting laid and there was no reason to stay.
The one bright spot is seeing how many young cats from the young Hispanic community are into punk/goth shit and rave/dance shit at the same time. I think I'm going to really enjoy the scene that these kids create over the next few years.
Metal Urbain - Hysterie Connective Can - Spoon Young MC - Know How CSS - Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (XXXChange remix)
Firewater - Is that All there Is? Asmus Tietchens - Tango Fellatino TTC - Travaillier Orgasmic The 45 King - The 900 Number Bonde Do Role - Gasolina Tiny Tim - Livin in the Sunlight, Lovin in the Moonlight Juiceboxxx - Thunderjam 4
Nina Hagen - TV Snooze Muslimgauze - Hunting Out Grossenhosen - Happi Voodoo Remix
Einsturzende Neubauten - Silence Is Sexy Big Black - Texas Revolting Cocks - Stainless Steel Providers
The Pharcyde - Ya Mama Why? - 500 Fingernails Of Montreal - Tulip Baroo The Omens - Searchin for Love
Front 242 - Never Stop Dandi Wind - Apotemnophilia
Cabaret Voltaire - Your Agent Man/Gut Level Konstructivists - The Crimson Path Tuxedomoon - Tritone (Musica Diabla) Leonard Cohen - Master's Song
Fugazi - Waiting Room Publish Post Bad Brains - Sacred Love Lard - The Power of Lard
[Bonde Do Role is coming to town and I'm going to have to miss them]
Date: 8/23/07 Location: Push Bands: Rubbed Raw, Juiceboxxx, Horse Spirit Penetrates DJs: OCDJ, Rand Sevilla Video: Jimmy Joe Roche Cost: Advertised as $5, but $8 requested at the door Drinks: $1 Old Style or BYO Things I missed to be there: Cophandz and Menowah at Liar's Club; Lord of the Yum Yum at Darkroom; 20Khz at Quennect Four Reason for going: Half of the city was flooded and powerless. Where else would I want to be but a dance party?
A good reference point to start with would be Wonder Showzen. It's not a great starting point, of course, because it's not so big that it doesn't need reference points of its own. In fact, if you don't live in a dorm, or at least a place with a bong readily available, you probably don't know what Wonder Showzen is. Wonder Showzen is a fake kid's show that airs sporadically on Mtv2. Think of the gross-out cartoons that air on Comedy Central, or some of the post-Aqua Teen Hunger Force shows on Adult Swim. Wonder Showzen is like that, but grosser, smarter, more offensive, far more surreal, and oddly, fairly anti-corporate in a way that doesn't feel like lip service. Wonder Showzen is a cartoon-and-puppet show that aims to fuck with its audience, like Andy Kaufman animating some old Zap Comix, but angry.
It takes a lot to get under people's skin these days, at least the people who're watching Mtv2 at 1 in the morning. Show me grotesque cartoon characters eating shit out of their own ass or puppets performing sex change operations or using real children to tell pedophile jokes, and I'm fine. After a certain point, the racial stuff gets to me, and for some reason, a cartoon about homeless Vietnam Vets really got under my skin but I guess those are some of my hang ups.
It's not just the content of the show that makes it hard to watch, but sometimes it's that they literally make the show difficult to sit through. One episode played forward for fifteen minutes and then backwards for another fifteen. Cartoons and sketches are often separated by a quick blast, a barrage of jarring sounds and images, a woman screaming, Satan, napalm victims, the sound of a chainsaw, time-lapsed photography of molding fruit. These little vignettes, if you expanded them to five, ten, fifteen minutes long, that's what the films of Baltimore's Jimmy Joe Roche are like.
The first film had it all: a nude, masked chick with a knife performing a castration in the woods, a raw meat helmut, "Magic: The Gathering" cards shaped into a Swastika, mysterious cowboys, and more.
The video at the top of this page, was also done by him. If you haven't clicked on it yet, it's an ad for the tour that this show was a part of. If you haven't been paying attention, youtube concert adverts are the new animated .gifs, just like Daisy Dukes and lofts with electrical tape body outlines are to 2007, what 1930s swimwear and basements full of stencil graffiti were to 2006. All of the above was present at the show last night, which was pretty spectacular for a new-ish space, in a hard to get to part of town, on a night where the sky was out for destruction. The people who were there though, were there for business.
On any other night, Horse Spirit Penetrates might have been met with indifference. They were a good band, but they sounded like a two-piece Fantomas on a night when the rest of the bands were doing hiphop and the DJs were doing juke. Still, there was bumping, grinding, and a general spazzing out for them on the dance floor.
Rubbed Raw were next, a horny duo of DJ Dog Dick and Big Daddy Nugg, who played their own slooooooooooooooooooooooooooowed down blends of g-funk, b-club, and crunk. A lot of growling, a lot of sweating. If Big Daddy Nugg didn't get laid yesterday, it wasn't because he didn't put himself out there.
I can't even imagine Juiceboxxx getting laid, but that's part of his charm. He's underage. He's cute. He's from Wisconsin. He's rapping.
Juiceboxxx has an awesome presence, if he plays it right, he could be an arena rapper, like a one-man Naughty By Nature. The only thing is, he needs to go the Dan Deacon route and the hell away from legitimate venues to get there. If he keeps playing parties and spaces, where he can command the crowd and do whatever he needs to. Last night he was tearing around the room in a swivel chair, jumping up and down in a trash can full of empty beer bottles and climbing on motherfuckers backs to rap. When the long mic chord started shorting out and he had to switch to a short one, he was able to get the whole crowd to choke up around him. The second he gets on a stage and separates himself from the audience, he becomes MC Chris, a novelty act, at least until he starts writing hits.
Of course that's just my theory, based on what I've seen and what my friends have told me, and it's about to be put to the test. For the next month, Juiceboxxx is going on tour with Brazil's Bonde Do Role, whose debut full length, "With Lazers" is the sleeper party hit of the year. Anyone going to those shows is going to expect to party, and when they hit the Empty Bottle on the 29th of September, I'll be there, and I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Date: 8/17/07 Location: The Fox Hole Bands: Environmental Encroachment, breakdancers, DJs Cost: FREE! Beer: While it lasts Things I missed to be there: Sky Blazer, Young Adam, and Di Di Mao at the Co-Prosperity Sphere Reason for going: Iunno.
I still haven't seen Ferdinand Fox play. Come 2005, they were starting to make a name around town. Unfortunately, that was right about the same time that Franz Ferdinand started coming up with their single "Take Me Out", and I was confused. I don't know if the band thought about changing their name, they had their own following and there was no telling whether or not we'd ever hear from the band from Scotland
Mucca Pazza - Chick Habit (Serge Gainsbourg) Charlie Palomares y su Yuboney - Vives Boogaloo Charlotte Gainsbourg - Night-Time Intermission
Bebel Gilberto - Bring Back the Love (Ondular Mix) Nublu Orchestra - Sciubba Diving OMar Souleyman - Arabic Dabke Los 5-U-4 - Baila Van Y Baila Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Rapid Fire Toll Booth
TV On The Radio - Wash The Day Milford Reynolds - Lowe's Market El-P - Flyentology Chromeo - Tenderoni Sarolta Zalatnay - Fekete Arnyek (with Locomotive GT) Mark Ronson w/ Amy Winehouse - valerie
Gore Gore Girls - Where Evil Grows
The Coup - Laugh, Love, F*ck James Brown - People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul
Houston Outlaws - Soul Power Trevor Dandy - Is There Any Love? Gil-Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Marvin Tate - If You See Jesus Marvin Gaye - Right On
Artistics - Leave It Up to You ! Daisy Chain - Got to Get You In My Arms DJ Shadow - This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
The Coasters - Great Big Idol With a Golden Head Shangri-Las - I'm Blue
Date: 8/20/07 Location(s): 1. Empty Bottle; 2. Subterranean; 3. The Note Bands: 1. Jai Alai Savant; 2. Chances Dances with DJs Nina Ramone, JackAttack, Dick Simmons and sCNa; 3. Girl in a Coma Cost(s): 1. FREE! 2. FREE! 3. ????? Things I missed to be there(s): Myopics Experimental Music Mondays with Bill Salas, Brian Labycz, and Frank Rosaly Reason(s) for going: 1. Wanted to see if I should believe the hype; 2. and 3. wasn't ready to not be at a show while I was in the hood
1. Jai-Alai Savant is what Tool would sound like if Tool were a reggae band fronted by a well-dressed black dude who actually liked playing in front of an audience.
I wasn't sure whether or not to leave but I wanted some Fresh air, and didn't realize the show was sold out and a line had formed of people waiting for space to open up.
2. Chances Dances is where I would be every last Monday of the month if I was brave enough to go dancing by myself.
While I was there they played CSS' "Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" and Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground". Drinks are too pricey but it serves me right for not being sneakier. $2 dollar Schlitz cans for the wicked and desperate.
3. Girl in a Coma is what The Smiths would sound like if they were a Latina three piece from San Antonio that occasionally played surf rock in Spanish
Negativland - Track 11 Bugz in the Dark - Silence is Treason Rasputina - The Olde Headboard M.I.A. - Bird Flu Portion Control - Monsters Bulk Cabaret Voltaire - Gut Level
Diplo - Must Be a Devil Tackhead - Is There a Way Out? My ife With the Thrill Kill Kult - Radio Silicon The Residents - Anvil Forest Solex - Solex's Snag
Laibach - Sympathy for the Devil The Rolling Stones - Turd on the Run Fugazi - Break
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Kannibal Komix - Love Janko Nilovic - Chorus for Leslie
DBA - Business As Usual
Mc Pe de Pano e o Bonde do Bogdov - Retorno de Jedi Tres Tenores - Os Carrascos Kabo Kaki - Taty Quebra Barraco
Kasper Hauser's This American Life - Going Postal Beastie Boys - Intergalactic (The Strawberry Bath and Jelly Soles Instrumental Version) Defacto - Descarga De Facto
[Diplo]
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Party Like a Rockstar, Shoulder Lean/Walk It Out, This is Why I'm Hot, Lip Gloss
Lip Gloss/Girlfriend
Akon - you can put the blame on me R Kelly Sex Dinosaur, Ooh ooh
Arvo was holed up at a Slayer/Marilyn Manson show in the burbs and he couldn't make it back in time so it was all Labbers this week. Sam Cooke - Twistin the Night Away Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - Feeling Free #!!! Mark Ronson feat. Lily Allen - Oh My God
The Counts - Why Not Start All Over Again The Pharohs - Awakening The Isley Brothers - Fight the Power
Mandrill - Fencewalk/Hagalo Dudley Perkins & Georgia Anne Muldrow - Newniss Sly & the Family Stone - M'Lady
Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - The Joker (on a trip thru the jungle) Michael Jackson - Ben Mauricio Smith - Doug's Room
James Brown - Even my Introductions are Funkier than Your Ass/I'll Go Crazy War - Slippin Pt. 2 The Delfonics - Ready Or Not Here I Come
Marvin Gaye - Hitchiker Billy Stewart - Summertime Eddie Ray - Wait a Minute
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - Genuine Mary Wells - The One Who Really Loves You Brand New - Party Time
Bootsy Collins - Play With Bootsy Justice - D.A.N.C.E. R. Kelly feat. T-Pain - I'm a Flirt
RZA feat. MF Doom - Biochemical Equation Bonde Do Role - Rap Do CB James Blood Ulmer - TV Blues Iggy & the Stooges - Search and Destroy Paul Nero - This is Soul Deise Tigrona - Injecao Gaiola Das Popozudas - Vai Danada Two Live Crew - Shake a Little Somethin Diplo - There Must Be A Devil Les Breastfeeders - I Can't Live Without You
The Mae Shi - Learn to Dance Brother "D" with Collective Effort - How We Gonna Make A Black Nation Rise Kid Sister - Let Me Bang Polyphonic - Prostitute Karaoke Skarekrau Radio - Future Insectoid
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - You Are What You Love Horace Andy - Every Tongue Shall Tell The Chamber Brothers - All Strung Out Over You As Mercanarias - Panico
Mika Miko - Zombie Artichoke - Seventeen Water Babies - Taj Mahal
Elyse - Ironworks/Spirit of the Letter Joanna Newsome - Sprout and the Bean The Latest - ????
White Mice - Microjackass Chris Brown - Alternating Currents
Date: 8/3/07 Location: Hotti Biscotti Bands: The Hatemoms, Eavil, William Sides Atari Party, Megan on her guitar Cost: Roving donation bucket Things I missed to be there: Gay Beast, Social Junk, NIMBY, and Stressape at Blog Cabin; Social Junk and Unknown/Unseen at Enemy Reason for going: I had a feeling that the Blog Cabin bands would be better, but I would be around more friends and loved ones at Biscotti If I wasn't working the next day: I would have skipped this and just bounced back and forth between the show all of these bands were playing at The Viceroy, the MEAH/Michael Michael Motorcycle show at the Flower Shop, and the OCDJ show at Les Beaux on Saturday
Now that I've thought of it, I don't think I will ever not think of it. Sir Vixx should program himself into that old videogame Lemmings. Imagine it, a hundred Sir Vixxes, dreadlocks flying as he holds out his hands like a traffic cop, digs holes with his hands like a dog, floats down through tunnels in parachutes, and generally does cute things. He is a very eager breakcore motherfucker, and it's cute, and funny, and cute.
Meanwhile, The Hatemoms have the world's greatest gimmick. They built a theremin where the wire loops into a box. Inside the box is a cute little rat named Mr. Steven. Wherever the rat sits in the box, no matter what she (yes, Mr. Steven is a girl) does, she affects the theremin, which one of the other band members switches on at the appropriate moment.
The human contingent of the band is two dudes who switch off on drums and keyboards. Together their music sounds like a cross between the Descendants and Quintron. Live, they sound more like the Descendants, and other bass heavy poppish punk bands. Recorded they sound more like Mr. Quintron. With Mr. Steven, however, they sound like a cross between The Descendants and Quintron THAT FEATURES MY FAVORITE TWO THINGS IN THE WORLD!!!
Lab rat was held back by the CTA after leaving the Empty Bottle and got really sleepy and grumpy, so Arvo Fuckhead took the reigns for tonight's show
Altyrone Deno Brown - Sweet Pea Eddie Ray - Wait A Minute The MAjestic Arrows - We Love Together Mitchell Mitchell - Gene King - Never Walk Out on You Johnny Davis/The Arrows - Boogedy Boogedy
Sonny Boy Williamson - I Been Dealin With the Devil Howlin' Wolf - Evil Blind Willie McTell - Dark Night Blues Rocky Fuller - Funeral Hearse at My Door Snooks Eaglin - Mama Don't You Tear My Clothes Hound Dog Taylor - Sitting Here ALone Muddy Waters - My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble Buddy Guy - Keep It To Myself Sunnyland Slim - Fly Right, Little Girl JohnLee Hooker - Motor City Is Burning
Elmore James - Dust My Broom Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - That's Alright Little Walter - Blue Midnight (alternate take) Abner Jay - I'm So Depressed
Fela Kuti - Coffin For the Head of State
Dawn Silva/Brides of Funkenstein - I'd Rather Be With You Ohio Players - Skin Tight George Clinton - Atomic Dog
Isley Brothers - Work To Do Sly & The Family Stone - Loose Booty (live)
Al Green - Love And Happiness Carla Thomas/Otis Redding - Tramp
[Jenny Lewis on Pancake Mountain in a glittery short skirt]
[Jenny Lewis duets with a puppet on Puppet Music Hall]
my pet rat Bukowski and I review the movie Foxfire:
Eric: When Jenny Lewis came out with Rabbit Fur Coat, I couldn't escape her at the indie radio station where I worked. There she was, on the cover, with the Watson Twins, all of them beautiful. I demanded to see her tits. In Foxfire, she's the only one that keeps her top on. Apparently, because she's suppsed to be the "fat" one. If she continues to be a public figure/indie darling I'm going to get totally creepy about her. Meg White creepy. I saw this one when I was fourteen, and all the best films were about teenage lesbians or white gangbangers. Angelina Jolie as James Dean, heroin, homemade tattoos, and a soundtrack by Babes in Toyland and Kristine Hersch make me feel 1995 wonderful.
Bukowski: I liked how the movie added a riot grrl aesthetic to the slobs vs. snobs motif, but didn't think that Joyce Carol Oates' novel about women finding strength through one another in the repressive era of 1950s small-town America needed to be updated to uber-hip mid-90's Seattle. I also think that Jenny Lewis is better suited as Rilo Kiley's guitarist than as a solo songwriter.
[this Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins video doesn't have any puppets but it does have a guest appearance by Sarah Silverman. It's like two years of indie rock sex fantasies rolled into one awesome package:]
Date: 8/6/07 Location: Empty Bottle Bands: Permanent Midnight, Skarekrau Radio Cost: FREE! Drinks: $1.25 PBR Things I missed to be there: Nightfoxxx, Protman and the Start at the Note; helping an old friend nurse legal system wounds at Delilah's Reason for going: The price + the way some of my friends swoon whenever they talk about Skarekrau Radio
"This song's about an Alfred Hitchcock Movie. It doesn't matter which one."
I was talking about bands with this guy on a bus one time and he described Permanent Midnight as "a Bloodyminded cover band featuring everyone who's ever played with Bloodyminded."
I can't think of an apt-er description. The band featured members of Panicsville, The Coughs, Carpet of Sexy and a couple dozen other bands crowded around a table full of electronics. Every now and then, one of the people standing at the table would switch places with the person holding the microphone, announce something like "This song is called 'Hotdog stuck in a teenage girl's vagina... actually it isn't stuck but it's in there pretty good'" and then slam into the audience for somewhere between six and ninety seconds of tuneless, electronic hardcore.
Skarekrau Radio was a little harder to peg. There wasn't really anything special about them, as far as the noiise/experimental/whatever scene they roll in. Ten plus people. Homemade costumes. a naked guy. They were pretty much doing the bizzarro world jam band thing that midwesterners like Cave, Fuck 911, and Warhammer 48k and big time money makers like Acid Mothers Temple and Animal Collective do a lot of. The result is kind of like psychedelic tribal dance music. You can get a similar sound out of acts like Konono No. 1 and Waterbabies, but the difference is that they have a much more electronic sound.
[Here's a video of Skarekrau Radio doing their thing; all pictures above are of Skarekrau Radio, even when I'm talking about Permanent Midnight]
The Coup - My favorite Mutiny My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Kooler than Jesus James Brown - Take Me Higher and Groove Me
Mika Miko - Capricorinations Spires that in the Sunset Rise - Crooked Spine Indian Jewelry - Come Closer Abridged
Bunny Brains - Posterboy Gravesite Drummers of the Societe Absolument- Juba Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (remix)
Liars - Grown Men Terry - Let Me See You Smile The Coughs - Penal Colony 19th & Morgan - Surrender
Social Junk - Voting Riders
The Hate Moms - Mother's Day
Ornamentals - No Pain M.I.A. - XR2 Turbo Anty NY Screamin Cyn Cyn & the Pons - slumber party 20th century steel band- heaven los abandoned - a la mode Delta 5 - mind your own business esg dj signify - winters gone radioinactive - refrigerator matt & kim - frank vyle - tomos with the 3 spokes insect deli - no more snacks
Taken on their own, the individual elements that make up the Blue Man Group- trashcan percussion, gross-out performance art, body movement and interpretive dance, mime, clowning, and prop comedy- are some of the most hated elements of busking. For years, evil aldermen like Burt Nataras have defended their yuppie constituents by attempting to shut down unlicensed street performance doing just this kind of thing. Somehow, while the guys on the street are struggling to get by asking for pocket change, the Blue Man Group is able to sell out the Briar Street Theater nightly at sixty bucks a ticket.
It's easy to get cynical about something like that, because the Blue Man Group isn't some local-grown industrial dada outfit, it's a franchise that sees the city as a market, with enough tourists to support them through waxes and wanes of local support, just like Six Flags Great America and the Hard Rock Cafe. There are little bits of commentary in the show, that are more dangerous or cutting than you'd expect, but more shallow than they seem, critiques on the pretensions of high art consumers (with Sturm und Drang references!), how computer culture separates people from one another, and on the lack of depth in pop and rock music and the music industry (which is a little the-pot-calling-the-kettle-black as you get to see a Grammy-nominated performance art troupe launch into crowd pleasing covers of Ozzy Osboune's "Crazy Train" and Devo's "Whip It" on a PVC pipe organ).
So the punches are more like love taps, and you just might notice, but if you do, it'll probably be in retrospect, because, fuck the bullshit, the Blue Men put on a good show. The music is listenable, even in recordings where you can't see how it's being made, there are some more than service-able electronic jams, and even though the stage show is time-tested and years' old, it still feels fresh. There are of simple, beautiful moments, too, that are more surprising than anything else in the show. Once you've gotten used to the three Blue Men vomiting through holes in their shirts, turning off the lights as they use scrolling lcd screens as drumsticks, or playing oil drums full of blacklight-sensitive paint, you're not expecting them to cover a windowpane with shaving cream and use it as a projection screen for a film about animation as it derived from shadow puppets.
The show ends the way it always ends. Bad techno. Strobes. Rolls of toilet paper overflowing and becoming a tidal wave as people pass them up towards the stage. Baby's first rave. In the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe talks about how Ken Kesey figured out how to use strobe lights, rhythms, and bright colors to simulate the best parts of an acid trip, and that pretty much happens here. Awed love feelings, slowed time, and a bit of a freak out.
Worth is a relative term. Because I don't have anything, sixty dollars seems exorbitant, and I can really appreciate the kids on the street, giving art away for free. Hopefully, if and when I ever have money I still will, but I'd wager to say, tht if I was a grown man, who wanted to hear some music, or feel a bit high, or just get some chucks out of a theater show, I wouldn't hesitate to drop sixty bucks on the Blue Men.
