Sufjan Stevens at the Kennedy Center

photo by carol pratt

Livejournal bloggers unite! You have nothing to lose but your freezing asses.

I live within spitting distance of the Kennedy Center so for my morning walk, I went down around 9AM to see if Sufjan fanatics had really camped out all night in freezing temperatures for a free ticket to hear Sufjan play here (with an orchestra) on February 5th. I point out that normally his tickets are about $15.00 or so and can be bought off the Internet. And even though he's to be accompanied by an orchestra, he's only playing for an hour (and it will be broadcast live in pretty decent sound quality). Just sayin'...

I don't have pictures (damn me) but the entire left side of the Kennedy Center was full of people - I'd say thousands, hoping to get their tix. Several tents were being taken down as I walked by. By the time I arrived, of course, getting a ticket to a 2400 hundred seat theater when there were thousands in front was out of the question - but I decided to get into the action and stood/sat for an hour in line for free tickets to the National Symphony Orchestra (normally $40-70) - they'll be playing Pictures at An Exhibition the same day that St. Sufjan arrives to spread his bliss upon the Potomac.

Check out both the triumphant and the whining bloggers:

"Fuck you, Kennedy Center! I spent three hours (6:30 - 9:30) waiting in the freezing cold for tickets to the Sufjan Stevens concert in February.

They ran out of tickets about 150 people in front of me. I was sad." - daily scribblings

"but for real, it was awesome. we met a lot of people, like our neighbors, these kids from jmu we dubbed "the scrabble tent" because they brought scrabble with them. some of the jammin' java folks were there too, aka "acapulco blanket" since that's all alfonso brought with him. i was representing "babar tent," named so because of the babar blanket that laid on top of our makeshift abode.

it was freezing for the majority of the night, but spooning for warmth kind of helps, plus i brought s'mores supplies and a chafing dish with which to roast the marshmallows. all in all, it was pretty fun, and definitely worth it." - ian with a j

"As we turned the corner I could only laugh...probably 1500 people in line and if you do the math (2 tickets each) we were shit out of luck. Oh well, I guess the memories of his last two shows will have to suffice for now. Hopefully we will see him again at 930 in the near future.

Now I give the over under on the tickets being sold on craigslist for somewhere around $100 per ticket...any wagers?" - off 7th, chronicles of shaw

"Apparently, you had to camp out from Friday to have a chance at getting a ticket to see Sufjan Stevens next week for free at the Kennedy Center. Waiting in the cold for two hours on a Saturday morning was not hardcore enough. Oh well. At least we got killer brunch at Open City.

Oh and never get involved in a land war in Asia. It's one of the classic blunders. " - edinuk

"VICTORY!
I am frozen, and exhausted, but I hold in my hand two tickets to Sufjan Stevens at the Kennedy Center, February 5. It was a long, long journey.


Then, a random and spontaneous IM from a SuperFriend, and after explaining the situation to him, we were off to D.C. in a flash! We got there at 5 AM, and were still around about 450-500 deep in line. And it was cold. It was freezing. My feet became numb countless numbers of times, and my legs are STILL blue. I had a blanket, though, so we huddled and we waited and we waited and we huddled.

In one of the most surprising acts of charity that's ever happened to me, just at dawn, a stranger came up to me, said I looked cold, and gave me a cup of coffee.

Sunlight made the air a little warmer, and all in all, we survived waiting in line as more and more people flocked in, and we made it inside, and we GOT OUR TICKETS.

I cannot wait for November 5." (uh, it's Febuary 5th, dood) - nouex

Taylor Kate has pictures of the mobscene... alas, she didn't get tickets.

More pictures at Kings of the Road

Lovely Miss Jess summarizes the scene in one sentence and passes on the big news for those that didn't camp out yet still want to commune with others near His Sufjanness:

Hipsters win. I lose.

My only consolation came in the form of a little blue slip. The KC staff passed them out to us poor bastards in the late half of the line. It said that they'll do a live broadcast in the Grand Foyer, and if you bring a chair, you can still catch the show.

Although on second thought, Sufjan fans really aren't hipsters anymore, are they?

And since everybody played nice, here's a Sufjan piece from the Indie Baby compilation, See You On The Moon (fri) and also appeared in Volume 3 of his Christmas box set.

"The Friendly Beasts"

Hey guys, welcome to my neighborhood. I would have offered you my bathroom for a shower and respite but I was, like, sleeping in warmth.

UPDATE: What does it cost to camp out in the cold over night with a buddy? $600 for four tickets.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: More fanaticism and pictures in Can This Pilgrim Make Progress?:

People around us who had made the sacrifice to come out here in the frigid cold starting to realize that the sacrifice was about to bear some amazing fruit, like some very amazing tickets... In fact, this guy who finally received his tickets, was jumping up and down and screaming, "This is so worth it - Sufjan you are so worth it!!!"

And at The Luck of 13th Street, Kennedy Center personnel confirm that Sufjan is perhaps bigger than The Messiah:

Three hours later, unlucky and unthinking people are still lining up, looking either incredibly awed or incredibly depressed at the sheer number of other people ahead of them. Over a thousand, we guess. The security guards say this kind of turnout only happens two or three times a year, and the only time it was even close to this amount of people was for the Messiah Sing-a-long.

Emergency: All Ages Shows in Jeopardy in DC

Received this last night - please write to my Council member Jim Graham (jim@grahamwone. com) and Mayor Fenty (fill in email form here) even if you don't live in DC or the surrounding areas - this affects more than DC as it may lead to having to close several clubs so visiting bands will have less venues to play here. Thanks to Pete Duvall for the wake-up call...



To: dc-baltimore-shows@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pete Duvall"
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:43:16 -0800 (PST)
Subject: DC/Baltimore Punk Shows and Events: URGENT MESSAGE - this will affect all ages shows in a BIG way

Hey all-

Emergency email this week. Due to the death of a 17 year old this past weekend in a club in DC, Rep. Jim Graham is proposing emergency legislation to ban minors from clubs that serve
alcohol.

there will be a hearing about the proposed law THIS THURSDAY at 2:00 p.m.

This could affect many readers of this list. Nobody under the age of 21 could go to most of the shows listed. Think no black cat, 9:30 club, Rock & Roll Hotel, Warehouse Nextdoor, etc.

People should contact Jim Graham (jim@grahamwone. com) and Adrian Fenty (you have to use e-mail form at dc.gov) and if it all possible attend the hearing on Thursday.

This would have a terrible impact on our music scene. PLEASE write Jim Graham, and Adrian Fenty. Make it known that while you sympathize with the victim and her family, that banning minors is not the answer. Tell them how important it is for you and your friends to be able to see some of your favorite bands, and how this legislation would have a terrible affect on the local music scene. This could have a real negative impact on the club owners as well, taking away scores of paying attendees, just because they are not 21.

Thanks for listening, and thanks to Katie at Dischord for bringing this to my attention.

write now. write often. don't let this happen to your music scene.

pete

"Young Folks" - Peter Bjorn and John (video) (downloaded from like everybody)

From the Vinyl Mine: Brave New World

Initiation (Homemade Record, BN-84, Distributed by Fartblossom Enterprizes, 1985)

There's no references to this band at all on the 'net but I do know they came to do a distribution deal with Bob Durkee's Fartblossom Enterprizes label in the mid-80s and despite his stint with Pillsbury Hardcore, Durkee had one of the good ears for bands in Southern California at the time - his own label having released Subculture, Ugly Americans and Dain Bramage. So maybe if Durkee isn't too pissed off still about my treatment of his Pillsbury Hardcore 7", he might pipe in and tell us some more about the band.

Far as I know, this mini-LP is all the band came out with - it's hard to search for anything with the words "Brave New World" and not run into millions of sites discussing the Huxley novel. Like Huxley's novel there's a strain of social criticism running throughout the record. The music is a hybrid garage punk-psyche (keyboards) and with occasional moshing hardcore guitars/drumming constructs. The song topics veer more towards hardcore and post-hardcore topics - anti-society ("Sitcom"), pro-self improvement ("Initiation") and probably other things I'm not getting because there's no lyric sheet and vocals are often indistinguishable from the din and racket of the effects pedals and guitar buzz. There some similarities here to Rites of Spring's LP that was released in the same time period - in songs like "I Care!" and especially "3 Days After Liberation" you can almost hear singer James Roebuck pulling his hair out and rending his shirt to shreds. One of the more obvious comparisons -- thanks to Roebuck's voice mostly - is to Public Image, Ltd - the album opener almost sounds like Lydon doing guest vocals. Elsewhere such as in "The Worker", Roebuck sounds more like Jello Biafra so maybe he's choosing vocal styles to fit the song - the worker being about his most political song here. I'm also reminded of Reptile House - listen to "Like Van Gogh" and I can't help but be reminded of weird viciousness "Keel-haul Love"...

Best tracks here are the title track and "3 Days After Liberation" but I'll put up all the tracks

My complaints about this aren't that many - it's a shame this band didn't get more attention or get a chance to "spread their wings" beyond this record. Mainly I will make the typical complaint of music from this period/genre - it could use better recording/engineering. Also, keyboards are sometimes ladled on a bit too thick such as in "Sitcom" where the organ dominates a song (is it just me or are these chords the same ones Dylan used in "One More Cup of Coffee"?).

Anyone know more about this band? What happened to them - was there more music recorded?

Liner notes:
Produced by Brave New World
Lyrics - James Roebuck
(p) and (c) 1985 Brave New Music
All Rights Reserved
Recorded & Mixed at Joint Session May 1985
Eng. by Max
with help from
THE GOD OF IMPERFECTION

Band Lineup:

• Vocals - Guitar - Ratiug(?) -- James Roebuck
• Guitar - Bass - Kirk Burnett
• Bass - keyboard - Tom Howard
• Drums - Wayne Brown

Side 1:

• "Initiation"
• "3 Days After Liberation"
• "The Worker"
• "Like Van Gogh"

Side 2:

• "Sitcom"
• "I Care!"

All music recorded directly from vinyl with pops and clicks mostly intact (I do a little editing and cleaning up). You may need to adjust sound levels up on these tracks.

New Site Feature and a Get Well Wish

Hey all - just a note before I pop out for the rest of the week - hope you like the new feature at the top of the 1st column, um, over there (points to the left). It's a cool and quick way to share any fantastic blog-gunk I come across without having to do a whole big blogger post and distract you from the otherwise goodness or badness... I should be back on Saturday or Sunday or maybe even Friday if I'm not too jetlagged - with yet another obscurity from the '80s and mebbe if I see or hear anything worthwhile out on the West Coast this week, I'll make a nod yer way.

Meanwhile, send out some good vibes/prayers/drugs to Jane Hamsher, longtime reader and Vampire Slayer who's dealing with the Big C this week. Here's a link to her site but it's totally overwhelmed by people trying to say hi and wish her the best.

From The Vinyl Mine: The Meatmen

Rock 'n' Roll Juggernaut (Caroline, 1986)

This 'ere LP was the fourth second of the Meatster's post-We're The Meatmen and You Suck albums continuing the theme of metal parody begun with War of the Superbikes. Musically mostly spoofing 80's hair bands and also delving insulting and mostly unfunny comedy bits is pretty much the meta on this meat -- the general result is the musical equivalent of Tesco Vee underwear skids. Sorry.

Easy targets are lined up - decadent rock and roller's (title track), homophobic rednecks ("True Grit"), stereotypical gay men ("Dichstrudel") and neo-hippy punks ("Nature Boy") -- and said targets are mowed down without remorse. The playing is thin and uninspired for the most part - the recording kinda flat.

A few songs aspire to transcend the bad-natured mocking to participate in the High Mass that is Classic Rock and Roll - some reach a bit too high ("The Sweetest Kittens" is the sweetest failure here) and others, despite having a helluva hook just don't make much sense ("Centurions of Rome").

One song here, though -- "Turbo Rock" is worth preserving and laminating in your bodily fluids of choice... don't know why it exactly works - maybe it's the fact that Tesco Vee is actually writing from some sort of real or imagined personal experience or maybe his Motor City roots genetically made him unable to fuck this one up since its about cars and racing and drugs and delinquentism. Except for "French People Suck" which is a lookback to their greatest album (We're The Meatmen and You Suck), the song sports the best use of Tesco's Satanic croak and it's one of the few tracks that isnt' full of embarrassingly suck-ass lyrics. This of all the songs are more worthy of the guy who co-founded Touch and Go Records, invented sippy cups (per his myspace) published Touch and Go fanzine and pretty much spread the word on some of the early hardcore punk godhead bands - Necros, Minor Threat - before most of the rest of us shitheads caught on. Some of the lyrics here are tongue in bile and more than a little cliche ("This is the 80's / high time for turbo rock") but this song ranks up there with the best of Thin Lizzy / Motorhead / Nugent racing rawk n' drugs and gurls thing. It would fit like a tight leather racing glove on Alice Coopers gnarled decrepit hand.

Sample lyrics grab:

Hung with the jacked-up gang
Novas and Shelby 'stangs
And rockin' 442
Yeah with her flames o' blue
We're talkin' monster time
For macho auto-crime

Download-listen-discuss: "Turbo Rock"

Any good Tesco stories to share? Great live shows but pretty retiring off-stage from what I saw.

Band:

• James Cooper - Leading Guitar
• Tesco Vee - Voices
• Graham McCulloch - Basso Profundo
• Lyle Preslar - Main Guitar
• Eric Zelsdorft - Battery

MeatLinks:

Album out of print - and it's surprisingly selling for some large bucks

The Official Tesco Vee myspace page (run by his son) is one of the best tribute pages - includes some incredible live youtubage of Tesco and his huge stage dildo - they really were more of a live act in the mid-80's - something to be seen over hearing on a record. Apparently Tesco's son agrees with my assessment as he's chosen "Turbo Rock" as one of the four streaming songs.

The Meatmen Wiki page

Southern Rock's meatpage has a discography - I forgot Tesco also came up with phrase "God's Bullies"

From The Vinyl Mine: The Ordinaires

Self-titled (Dossier Records, 1985)

The Ordinaires were a 9-piece chamber rock-jazz (world-funk-punk-prog,etc) unit (reeds, strings, guitars, drums) that emerged from the No Wave scene in the mid-80's. Their bio says "the band was both an outgrowth of and a reaction against the shapeless dissonance of their peers." Peers being Mofungo, The Scene is Now and so on.

There's alot of love and sweat put into this album - this isn't some one-off improv or 3-chord punk thing - although most of the pieces were written or co-written by saxophonist/accordianist Kurt Hoffman, no single band voice really dominates. Most of the pieces eschew melody in favor of point and counter-point in ways similar to classical music with some improv soloing. Unfortunately, some of the pieces sound a bit stiff - as if over-rehearsed and no one really is loosening up. One exception is "Nature" - a sort of highlands jig in which the strings provide the main theme and the saxes duke it out for supremacy while the drum plays a odd-metered cadence. It's one of the few songs where the band gets into a complete groove and relaxes.

I also like the rework of an Asian folk song "Ramayana." Drummer Jim Thomas's arrangement sets a misty and dreamy mood and a recognizable melody emerges. The guitar soloes are a little bit flat, maybe overcooked - sort of like when classical guys try to do rock phrasing and aren't really feeling it.

An interesting group that had a sound unlike any other, - it's unclear where they were going to go with it and I'm guessing that live gigs were probably hard to arrange. At any rate, they called it quits in 1991 after releasing a second album. Their second (One - describing perhaps their ability to play well together) came out in the late 80's and included a cover of Led Zep's "Kashmir" -- it's probably what they're best known for. Members of the band played on a cut from They Might Be Giants Lincoln LP ("Kiss Me, Son of God"). And saxophonist Hoffman joined TMBG for awhile and went on to play with Jon Spencer and Frank Black.

Songs:

• "Nature"(Hoffman)
• "Ramayana" (Trad., arr. Thomas)
  

Band Line-up:

Links:

• NYT's Robert Palmer reviewed the band way back in 1982 saying "the Ordinaires are tight (but not slick), prodigiously inventive, and utterly captivating. A section of three violins plays answering riffs and counterpoint against a section of three saxophones, while the guitarists and composers Angela Babin and Joe Dizney scratch out a series of avant-funk riffs with a Nigerian Afro-beat flavor." (I wrote what I did above before reading this)
• The Ordinaires biography at Bar/None
• Trouser Press entry

Get Behind Me, Lindsay or Garry, WTF?

I'm no gossip blogger but this photo is fascinating nonetheless... AV Onion (from whom I swiped it) decon it. The readers comments may even be funnier.

And in other compiled linkage...

I really like what I have heard so far from the Sic Alps CD I have on order - here's the video for Semi-Streets. Between these guys, New Times Viking and Love of Diagrams, 2007 is looking up for THE ROCK.

Bedroom guitar strummers will find this site indispensible...or should I say indie-spensible... ha ha. Ehhhh... I hate myself.

Another example of how an MP3 blog led me to buy a CD based only on their recommendation and the MP3 track. Also, see Blue Bus's post on the many variations of the Stagger Lee folk song.

I am now in the process of reconsidering late-90's Fall... here's evidence supporting an upgrade...

Big Rock Candy Mountain is trying to compile the 100 Best Drinking Songs.

and last but not least...

Best Mash-ups of 2006

Ivor Hanson - drummer for Faith, SOA and Embrace has a book out and will be in DC on Thursday. Life on the Ledge: Reflections of a New York City Window Cleaner.

A Special Vinyl Mine Welcome Home Jack Bauer MP3 Mix

image and inspiration swiped from The Daily Gut

"One For The People" - Killdozer
"The Spy" - Gray Matter
"Experience The Pain" - Rifle Sport
"Pain Is Easy" - The Honeymoon Killers
"I'm Gonna Kill You" - The Mysterious Matt Miller

A special live blog second hour update:

"Jack Bauer kills using his mouth (4 points)"

"Fish Still Bite" - Smersh

Inspiration also via Blogs for Bauer Home of the Bauer Kill Counter

The following event happened between 6:00AM and 7:00AM Special Update:

Alas, the Ricky Gervais cameo didn't make it into the final cut:

In the scene, a group of White House brass meet to discuss an impending terrorist threat. Gervais, dressed like a presidential advisor, keeps whispering under his breath to give the mission to Jack Bauer - and then acts incredulous when someone else says it aloud and takes credit for the idea.

h.t. a soundtrack for everyone

From the Vinyl Mine: 7 Seconds

Walk Together, Rock Together EP (Positive Force Records, 1984)

In my mind, 7 Seconds were the kings of the high school punk anthem in the '80s even if very few high school kids ever heard of them. I remember being at a big party several years ago in which a prominent politician (Democrat if you must know) was present. When it came time to offer toasts and make speeches, he had the audience cheering and yelling and yet when I later thought about what he said, it was pretty much, well, nothing - he just made everyone feel good about themselves.

If you look too closely at songs like the scene unity rocker "Walk Together, Rock Together" you start finding yourself taking it apart too much and not just enjoy the fine hooky chorus and neck flexing verse. I won't bore you with a deconstruction but if you ask yourself the song's central question, you can find about a hundred reasons to say no. But it's so damn hooky that I woke up at 2AM today with the chorus playing in an inifite loop earworm - I had to sing "Can't Touch This" to myself (that's my number one "earworm" song previously) to get it out.

If there's anything I didn't like about this record, though, it's the drummer who did stupid shit like cowbell fills - totally destroys their otherwise rousing cover of "99 Luftballoons" (also their biggest download on iTunes and what they're most known for) . He also occasionally slows down and speeds up - I'm sure he's gotten much better since and as a drummer, perhaps I'm overly critical.

"In Your Face" was their little tribute, I guess, to the guy who produced this record - one Ian "that's pronounced Mak-Ky'" MacKaye - picks up the Minor Threat gauntlet quite well.

Some of the other songs go a little bit overboard with the Positive Youth Politics - "Remains to Be Seen" - their band origin song, sounds like a party manual:

"And through the years our anger went /
toward more progressive goals /.../
Our main goal is to better ways /
And help communication/
With our positive commitment"

Ooookay. ... however when Kevin concentrates on the hooks and anthems -- and keeps the lyrics simple and raw - such as "In Your Face" -- you can't really argue with him.

Songs:

• "Walk Together, Rock Together"
• "In Your Face"

These songs are available on a CD that compiled these tracks with several compilation songs - including some other classic anthems - "We're Gonna Fight" and "Regress No Way" - this can also be found on the major download services.

Band photo below is sort of a fashion-don't statement and since I was never very fashionable, I'm not trying to mock them but... between Kevin Second's famous "handmade white T-shirt as sweater vest" fashion statement and surfer dude-tool drummer, well I'll just shut my effing mouth now before one of their fans tells me to. And I'm not gonna say anything about the half-haircut guy Dan Pozniak (who only played with them from '83-'85)- he looks too much like Travis Bickle. You can look at latest pictures of Kev, Steve and Troy here.


Links:

• 7 Seconds Website -They had a release on Side One Dummy Records in 2005.
• 7 Seconds on Wikipedia
• 7 Seconds Fan Site
• Dan Pozniak's single page website plays "We're Gonna Fight" and calls him a "Guitar Hero"

New Rips: Jens Lekman and Blood Music

I have to hand it to Insound and their customer loyalty program - I have dropped some bucks there in the past few years and they keep sending me cool freebie stuff like two tickets to see Magnolia Electric Co and these limited edition 7"ers.

I liked Jens You So Silent CD (Secretly Canadian) which was a compilation of some of his EPs and singles and so was real happy to see this version of "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill" arrive in the mail. The big diff here is that Jens gives a lengthy introduction to the song which is about the unexpected joy of coming home. It makes me want to go back home. I had a "Hammer Hill" in my past - a graveyard that overlooked the town where we used to go to quaff a brew or smoke and so long as we didn't make a mess, no one ever complained or knew. I'm not sure if the memories are as exhuberent as this song suggests.

"Introduction - A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill" - Jens Lekman

The flipside is a from band I hadn't yet heard - the Swedish Blood Music's "The Hair" which has been available on the net here - my rip below includes the introduction that sort of explains the song. It's another happy-poppy Swede song about a woman who wants to give the singer her hair... I guess. Hey, it's got a vocoder for all you 80's music lovers out there.

"Introduction - The Hair" - Blood Music

Lileks and Links

I've kinda stopped reading him lately but this quote from James Lileks deserves Bartlett action (or maybe Jack Handey "deep thoughts" action):

"It's hard to say goodbye, unless of course someone just punched you and is walking away."

Here's a collection of links from the past few days:
- David Byrne's Freak Folk playlist
- Mapsadasical on the new Animal Collective EP
- Two Amplitude posts after a month or two of silence
- Driftwood Singers present some Pacific Island music
- A Junior Boys video that you Internet-IPod types will enjoy (via Antville)
- Bardo Pond Peel Session
- Crud Crud does Pakistani Folk
- Entire first year of Thrasher Magazine is now online

Friday Night TV Funhouse Mash-up: "Trust Me He Had To Be Fly"

"Trust Me He Had To Be Fly" - Mrs James Brown, Yo La Tengo and Feast (drunken mash-up by me)

More Fun With Spam

Since my posting on using Spam message headers for band names was such a big hit, I also have found another exploit in Spam.

Looking for a cool pseudonym, so you too can be like John Cougar or Bob Dylan? Spam may hold the key to that as well:

• Reflected H. Ordnance
• OSHA L. Airedale
• Jacques Lester
• Bao Candelaria
• Unsympathetic B. Chiffon
• Dialectic R. Housemaids
• Robber C. Uneconomical
• Bobbing V. Trickery
• Hari Karen
• President General
• Sarah Slaughter
• Horn L. Phil
• Beatrix Brock
• Burgerking V. McDonalds
• Mr. Minor
• Bryn Tweesdales
• Love Joes

Here's an example on how to use both tricks! Hey kids, need a new band name and artist name for your black sex metal electronic band? How about Whorehaus Mutilatio starring Sarah Slaughter on guitar, Mr. Minor on bass/keyboards and Hari Karen on drums with special guest vocals by Bao Candelaria (moaning and groaning)?

It was only a matter of time...

... although I don't have the time to check it out fully this AM, this blog purports to have the entire VU 1966 "acetate" album (the one that sold for $25k on e-Bay recently) for download here.

Update: the link is legit - the cuts are a bit scratchy.

Suicide: 1st Album

I hadn't thought of this until today but 2007 will mark the 30th anniversary for this album. I was listening just yesterday to an oddball song by a band that made it to alot of Best of Lists (The Knife's stomach-turning - but in a good way - "Na Na Na") and it struck me that if Suicide hadn't invented the cold, horror movie electronic landscapes in this album that it might have taken us about 30 years to figure it out.

I'm gonna forswear posting or talking too much about the obvious ones here - I mean they're all great tracks which if you haven't already heard then shame on ya-- everyone listens to "Rocket U.S.A." and "Ghost Rider" over and over again, right? The thing that strikes me from listening to those more well-known songs and some of the others here is how influenced they were by 50's rock and roll and 60's garage rock. It's said that Vega used Elvis Presley as a model for his singing and I can believe it, kinda like a half-dead Elvis but then again he was kinda half-dead for most of the '70's.

I think one of the things that made the band's later records a bit lame was the "updating" of the influences (hip hop, new wave) rather than this more, uh, removed feel that they got by "futurizing" the past - that sort of retro-sci-fi feel, neh?

Then there's "Frankie Teardrop" -- that's in a class all of its own although it's what I think about most when I listen to a lot of bands these days -- and back in the '80s when bands like Big Stick were doing their more lo-fi thing. It's a song that I often find I can't listen to all the way through - but not because it's bad but it's so terrifying and real.

That said, I'm going to recommend today we consider the girl songs... start with uhm "Girl." The cha-cha beat and lounge lizard organ riff complement Vega's slinky yet sleepy seduction. He's like Iggy in another more laid-back dimension. That said, was I the only one surprised to learn Vega wasn't gay?

"Cheree" has the same feel, using those infamous "Wild Thing/La Bamba" chord riffs that fueled many, many garage band marathon jams. Rev's atmospherics, though, are what make this special to me - I can see why Steve Albini said that this was the only album he listened to that made his mother question whether he was on drugs. It was either this song or "Frankie"...

Suicide selections (all songs deleted after a few days so keep up with me here):

• "Girl"
• "Cheree"

a scan of the back cover photo (credited to Michael Robinson)

These songs were ripped from the Dutch East India / Red Star mid-80's reissue of this classic album. Since then, Mute Records has been the keeper of the flame for Suicide. Their Suicide web page bio is as good as any and you can probably still find some new copies of the 2002 reish (and remaster) of the Blast First 1998 reissue - both of which came with a second CD of live performances from 1978.

In 2005, an "oral biography" of Suicide - called Suicide: No Compromise was released. I have yet to read it but it looks pretty cool. The previous link comes from the Suicide fan web site which includes a pretty extensive discography.

Some related listening:

• "Crosses, 16 Blazin' Skulls" - Alan Vega from the latest Wire Magazine Tapper CD suggests that maybe he's kinda getting it back. Still I miss the "soul" of Martin Rev in here - Liz Lamere, his partner, does some of the keyboards. It's from a Spring 2007 release Station which is described as: " It is a diamond hard, gritty, electronic album with Vega’s signature neartime sci-fi , twisted vision of life & love in the 21st century & beyond."
• "Na Na Na" - The Knife (in m4a format) in which a scared housewife wishes chemical castration upon a rapist uses the same minimal cold electronic soundscapes that Suicide might have coupled with a affecting voice (like Vega) and a warmer throbbing electronic sound that mirrors the essential bleakness the hopeless - yet very human - prayer.
  

And In Other Blogs:

• 20 Jazz Funk Greats has a 1981 live version of "Ghost Rider"
• If you want to sample something from the follow-up studio album, Prettiest Pony still has "Dominic Christ" up on their blog.

The "Holidays" Are Officially Over...

...when the Toy of the Year is ritualistically burnt and the results are posted on the web. Someone stick a Roomba on the top of a building now.

Don Cherry - Ed Blackwell: El Corazón

IF you've been paying attention many of the few jazz albums I own revolve around drummers, so (if you are familiar with jazz) you might think that Ed Blackwell (Ornette Coleman's go-to drummer) was the hook that got this baby in my collection. And you'd be wrong. My previous jazz flirtation was during the '70s with the jazz-rock types, Brubeck and Buddy Rich but my foray into free jazz begins (and ends - in a circular fashion) with Don Cherry.

I think I first saw his name as the guy playing on a bill with The Slits and he popped up in other places that I was wont to frequent in the '80s such as Lou Reed and Talking Heads albums. Tessa Pollit said Don "had something of the eternal about him: it was like he would never grow old. He told us so much." Lotsa people I considered 'in the know' would throw out casual references to him in the mid-80's so I kept my eyes open for albums with his name on. For the longest time, this album seemed to be calling to me from the Wayside Music cut-out bin ($3.00 if I remember) and I finally broke down and purchased it. In a way, Cherry was a sort of "gateway drug" for alot of free jazz leading me to Ornette and Miles and things that I had previously dismissed as boring old guy stuff.

Whatta relief that when this arrived that it wasn't some self-indulgent piece of crap -- I'm not gonna say so much of free jazz is "self-indulgent" crap but some of the derivative atonal stuff I still don't get unless I'm extremely fucked up.

No, Don Cherry was always more of a tonal guy in the free jazz realm - that meant that while improvisation was central to his thing, he wasn't afraid to sound pretty and melodic. You could see this influence come out in his stepdaughter Neneh Cherry (who also played with the Slits) and would later (briefly) make her own idiosyncratic name in the pop world. I am guessing her career was interupted since Tessa Pollit says she took care of Don in France in his final years.

In case you don't know, Don was on the Ornette Coleman breakthrough record (Shape of Jazz to Come) and played with such royalty as Coltrane, Miles, Sonny Rollins and so forth. Cherry, though, wasn't exactly considered jazz royalty - he was too eccentric and idiosyncratic to be tied down to a throne -- think of him more like a new world explorer constantly looking for things to do that were different, new and innovative.

Simply put, his experimentation put alot of others to shame. While he could have just coasted on his rep, trotting out the oldy moldies to appreciative club crowds, Cherry explored World Music (I recommend looking at his trio Codona), played with the punks and NYC avante-garde crowd and was known for championing odd instruments -- the pocket cornet, an African lute and the melodica were among the tools he carried around. He also played a sweet piano (as we shall see).

Ed Blackwell was known more as a "band's drummer" -- as he was able to provide a less rigid base for which others could improv and more importantly for certain egocentric frontmen he didn't try to hog the limelight. Peoples said his drumming "breathed" - that is, it didn't follow robotic rhythms or rigid rulesets. As for his style, Ornette said that Blackwell was "pure Africa coming through the New Orleans street beat."

Cherry and Blackwell were, of course, old friends from the Ornette days and this isn't the only album they collaborated on. Mu is perhaps the more famous of their collaborations and dates all the way back to 1969 when a two-person jazz record such as this was pretty damn radical. This album came out 13 years later and the principal difference is the higher level of experimentation in this album and the obvious advance in recording technology. This album came out in 1982 from a label in Germany and has such a wonderful tone to it. Acknowledgement must go to engineer Martin Wieland and producer and label owner Manfred Eicher for putting that together as they did. The sound is perfectly attuned to Cherry's trumpet and Blackwell's Sonor/Paiste drumkit. My only regret is that I don't have a better turntable as some of the inner tracks have some bleed which can be notable when Cherry is soloing in the last track ("Voice of the Silence").

Trying to digitize this became a challenge as it's often unclear when one track starts and another ends -- often the tracks are bridged by Blackwell's drumming - in a few cases you get the sense that Cherry just stops playing and Blackwell segues into a totally different improv. You can almost imagine Cherry sitting there with his tiny trumpet nodding and listening.

Purists beware, there is some overdubbing going on -- Cherry's piano playing often overlaps with his trumpeting. But for the most part, it sounds like Cherry and Blackwell are pretty atuned to each other and recording this live.

Lots of variety in the tracks. Although the basic motif is mid to high register trumpet with jazz drums, there's tracks sprinkled in throughout with piano, Cherry's melodica and log drums. The melodica was previously made famous by Stevie Wonder on his pop track "Isn't She Lovely" and I wonder if calling one the tracks "Mutron" isn't a shout-out to Wonder who endorsed the famous mutron pedal although from I can tell Cherry doesn't use the Mutron at all in this recording (pls correct me jazz-hounds if I'm wrong).

Blackwell takes quite a few solos including an extended log drum solo ("Near In") but his "Street Dancing" (see below) is my favorite as it illustrates his New Orleans march drumming style. Notice that he's playing it with a totally unmuffled bass drum and he manages to make the bass drum sound like a separate voice from the rest of the kit. What's amazing throughout is listening Blackwell's stream of conciousness drumming and picking out the single measure riffs. If you could isolate these one or two measures - just think of what you could grow on top of the basic beat -- assuming you could reproduce it. A sidebar to this paragraph: it may be my imagination but at one point I even hear him doing the theme song to Bonanza.

Cherry may have had better days - some of the early tracks his pitch occasasionally cracks (for that matter Blackwell hits the drum rims every so often to) but by the end of the album the somewhat brittle sound of the pocket trumpet really starts to feel warm and inviting. In the title track, "El Corazon", he brings home a stunning melody that's all the more compelling by its brevity and abrupt ending that segues into Blackwell's "Rhythm for Runner". Has anyone ever covered this song? Other highlights are the album opener - "Mutron" - which sets the tone for the trumpet-drum interplay and Cherry's piano-based cover of the Thelonius Monk/Denzil Best favorite "Bemsha Swing" -- a wonderfully simple yet complex song that Cherry played often during his time on earth. "Arabian Nightingale" has a sort of late night sexy feel to it. Ah hell, it's hard to find anyone track here that I don't like.

One of Cherry's trademarks was his Doussin' Gouni - aka the Hunter's Guitar -- I think it's best described as an African lute as it looks like a bigger version of that midieval instrument. He plays this in the Side 1 closer - "Makondi" - which has a world music feel to it and allows Blackwell to explore the cowbell (he actually lists cowbell along with drums and wood drum as his instruments in this album). Here, Cherry plays the Gouni almost like a drum although the instrument can be quite lyrical. I've included a track from the recently released Long Hidden: The Olmec Series, a criminally overlooked CD from this year which features the dousson gouni. It's played by William Parker who traces his interest in the instrument to meeting Don Cherry -- yet another legacy of the man.

Both Cherry and Blackwell are dead but some brief biographies of the two can read on their wiki pages and this Drummerworld tribute to Blackwell (lots of great photos). Cherry is a whole category at Destination: Out. Perfect Sound Forever published this tribute a year after Cherry's 1995 death.

Blackwell (left)l offers a hand to Cherry (right)

Photo from back of album by Ralph Quinke (all rights reserved of course)

(Tracks posted for short periods to spur discussion and thought about the artists)

Tracks from Cherry/Blackwell - El Corazon (recorded from vinyl):

• "Makondi" - Don Cherry - Ed Blackwell - written by Don Cherry
• "El Corazon" - Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell - written by Cherry
• "Street Dancing" - Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell - written by Ed Blackwell

El Corazon was reissued in CD by ECM and appears to be out of print. However, the ECM website based in UK is still selling copies.

"Long Hidden, Part 3" - William Parker - from Long Hidden: The Olmec Series CD (2006). Aquarius Records is carrying this CD.

Update: By coincidence Forced Exposure listed MU (part 1) this week as a vinyl reissue. Here's the blurb:

Artist:	CHERRY, DON
Title:	"Mu" First Part
Label:	BYG RECORDS (WORLD'S LEADING TERRORIST STATE)
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	BYG 001LP

These are grey-area exact repros of the original BYG Actuel LP series from the early 70s, seem to be of a better general quality than the previous Get Back reissues -- and more readily available. "Originally recorded on August 22nd, 1969 at Studio Saravah in Paris, this album became the first one of the whole BYG/Actuel series. Don Cherry's electrifying duets with Ed Blackwell are memorable. 6 tracks. Gatefold sleeve, 180 gram HQ vinyl."

Be afraid...

From Wired.com's 2006 Foot in Mouth Awards which could very much be the scariest quote of the decade:

"I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's a software experience."
-- Ballmer, riffing on the virtues of the Zune.

Ballmer wants me to squirt him with my vacation after his kids squirt me?! WTF? And people wonder* why the Zune is the biggest electronics disaster of the year. An embarassing 2% market share (November) despite all the bribing they tried with music blogs and fake blogs...

*actually people don't wonder...

And in case you need to recover from the images Ballmer evokes, Pelt has announced their Christmas shows - you gotta be in the heart of Virginia, though, to catch them:

Upcoming Shows

( view all )

Dec 27 2006 10:00P	Ipanema	richmond, Virginia
Dec 28 2006 8:00P	Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar	charlottesville, Virginia

This ain't no bartending blog, but...

Here's a very little known winter-Christmas drink recipe via my grandfather, who died this year, which he brought from Old Europe:

RAUREIF

• 1/4 freshly squeezed lemon juice (you can mix it up with some Real Lemon if you tire of squeezing lemons)
  
• 1/4 Cointreau
• 10%-1/8 White Rum
• 1/8 - 10% Grenadine
  
• 1/4 Gin

(the above is updated from an earlier posting)

Handstir ingredients until blended in large pitcher.

Mix with a small amount of crushed ice to dilute and refridgerate until ready to serve.

Strain the crushed ice out when serving.

Best to serve in small cocktail glasses rimmed with granulated sugar (you can wet the edges of the cocktail glasses with the remaining lemon slices the twist in a bed of sugar crystals).

In fact this last step is really what, besides its bite, gives Raureif its name as the crystals represent the strange ice growths, I suppose (see below for explanation).

This drink can be served early in the day prior to dinner. Warning, it packs a punch as you might guess.

Learning Annex: The Germans have a word for everything even rarely and often bizarrely formed resublimated water vapour... via Wikipedia:

Raureif is a firm precipitation, which forms directly from the water vapour contained in air by Resublimation. For this a very high relative air humidity of over 90% and an air temperature of under -8 are necessary °C. The developing warmth is transferred thereby by convection to surrounding air, in addition, therefore wind increases the formation of Raureif, may not be to strong, in order not to destroy the sensitive structures. Particularly needle-shaped ice crystals in form of sechsstrahliger dendrites against the wind direction, which can to achieve a substantial size and bizarre forms and to grow usually only slowly, develop. Raureif "grows"against the wind, since luff-laterally arriving air possesses a higher humidity than in the Lee. The phenomenon of the emergence of Raureif arises comparatively rarely and with hoar frost or Raufrost is often confounded, for which it represents a kind of provisional stage. A special form of the Raureifs are ice flowers.

...the picture swiped from Wikipedia as well.

So it is actually Christmas

I can let go of my Christmas season hate and disgust and be happy to celebrate the holiday for what it is. Three hours last night at midnight mass choking down incense was a bit too much but anything for my brother (who was singing). So, let the sapple and non-ironic treacle flow freely! It's Christmas morn - go gets me a friggin' turkenduck, bwah!

"Lo, How a Rose Is Blooming" - Kathleen Battle

(and yes, R.I.P. the Other King, James Brown, Living in America 2006)

HOLD THE CHRISTMAS PRESSES

Timedoor has unearthed what has to be the most significant Western Christian civilization Holiday cultural artifact.... ever.

... and a happy fucking new year, turds

Some mea culpas from the last posting - there were several essential blogs I left off and I have yet to throw into my blogroll. One is Nick Sylvester's RiffMarket which has been just plain Jesusbreath in the past few weeks doing his Year In Riffs - with all his lil' buddies contributing hilarious write-ups about the year that was. The above is a frame from Farley Katz's comic strip about Kanye and Drudge living togther. Go here to read the whole thang. Other highlights are Sylvester's year-end riffage -- which I'm guessing he didn't construct in 35 minutes -- but I'm waiting for the next great novel to come outta this boy's hands (despite that Warlocks review, you, you asstripe!). And don't miss Danny Chun slaying Zach Braff:

But it's not these LA hipster icons I'm here to find either. The man I seek is off by himself in a corner, clearly intoxicated -- not with alcohol, but with music. So with a reverent wave, I approach Zach Braff. He holds up a finger to silence me as he listens to his iPod. After 20 seconds of what can only be described as intense grooving, he removes the headphones.

"Sorry -- I was just listening to this great new artist called Cat Power. I discovered her out of nowhere when she did a 40-minute set on KCRW followed by 2 Amoeba in-stores. But pretty soon she won't be just my little secret anymore." He is referring to Cat Power's inclusion on his soundtrack to Staring At Nothing, his latest movie, which stars Braff, Scarlett Johannson, Jessica Biel, Keira Knightley, Jessica Alba, Anne Hathaway, and Dustin Hoffman.

"It's about how strange this thing we call life can be," explains Braff. "Like in one scene my character meets a guy who walks around covered in bees. And there's a guy who only talks in Pig Latin. And a guy whose guts are all on the outside of his body. And a guy who lives in a trash can like Oscar the Grouch. And -- spoiler alert -- the ending is that my character meets a guy who walks around with chopsticks up his nose. That's when he learns that sometimes love is just a four-letter bed where your heart sleeps."

Yeah, easy target but one deserving of a couple more pokes than he has given us. I used to kinda like Scrubs in that sorta hate-Zach-but-like-the-supporting-cast kinda way but, man, it's become like a "Very Special Episode of Scrubs" almost every night now.

Another blog that I've given homage to in the past just deserves to be in everyone's RSS feed and that's Siltblog. Major props by the way I guess to Times New Viking for getting a leg up with Matador signage. I hope they totally destroy rock and roll and the label in the process. Fuck h'yah.

Some more random rubber-necking on the Information Super-HI-YAH!-way:

- Defuck Australia and the one-legged sphlyitic kangaroo their bewigged judiciary and asshole lawyers rode in on.
- And while I'm getting all he-man blogging in my underwear, defuck Myspace. What a fucking crawl you go through just to log-in and post a comment on some band's worthless blog. I swear it took me thirty minutes to do that. What's funny is that at work the company that provides their filesystem and "storage solution" has been marketing me and I totally shut them down. PROPS! And then there's this.
- And now for some other PROPERS. Black Flag unreleased cassette with the Rollins/Ginn/Dukowski/Dez/Biscuits line-up. Slobber, slobber.
- Mountain Goats: Thanks for the new song.
- Aberdeen City countrifies Low's Christmas song. Now can Low do a cover from the band called Christmas - that would be boss.
- The lost and probably censored Ren and Stimpy cartoon
- Josh Feit re-deconstructs the Kim Gordon - Chuck D "Kool Thing" banter - turns out Chuck was the Kool Thing, not Kim. Huh... and here all along I never really gave a shit.
- Aw man, this will make like an awesome mix CD -- WFMU's Make Your Own Alternative Jesus Christ Superstar (although as a Catholic, I have to point out to Station Manager Ken that this would probably be something you post at Easter, not Christmas...). But whatever, as I never knew Cuz did a cover of "What's The Buzz"
- Now for some eddication, the author of The Physics of The Buffyverse writes a nifty science posting on Mayan acoustic archeology on Three Quarks.
- Another melancholy Christmas mix at I Guess I'm Floating

And finally, remember, sometimes love is just a four letter bed where your heart sleeps...

The Top 14 Best (Audio) Blogs of The Here and Now

When I go out and look at what are supposed to be the "top" Mp3 blogs, I usually get green - not with envy but with nausa, so I need a good tonic to show there really are some other people out there that care, have new ideas, not all about maximizing advertisement income, aren't cynically trying to break into the Biz, boost their fragile egos or get on the promo "gravy" train.

To me, these are the real competition... enjoy finding some new friends. (Please note to all those on my blogroll, I rilly rove you guys but one of my criteria in this exercise was to go outside the 'roll for some new links)...



Destination: Out (rss) -- a two most knowledgable cats that you oughta know -- especially if you're tired of that same old indie and want to dip your toe into that fire and brimstone and sweetness and light that is free jazz.

Bumrocks (rss) -- this is an old-timer that I had forgotten about and this year rediscovered. No blithering aspiring ad copy or lame sophmore creative writing class puke - just a song per day to check out. If you like the band or cut, you're on your own to find out more as he doesn't provide links to bands or albums - but isn't that what makes the internet so much fun?

Indieish (rss) - Normally, my strict criteria would eliminate anybody who has "indie" in their blog title but we'll make an exception for this guy. His deal is that he only posts music from bands that have signed up to the Creative Commons licsense thereby keeping himself legal, not having to go ask permissions AND also putting himself out the mainstream/lamestream of most "indie" blogs. And yet, there's an awesome amount of good tunage in the commons. He's up to Day 344 so you could spend for like ever going through this one cuz the links rarely expire.

Jacob Sudol (rss) - Ever wonder what a blog might be like if a modern classical composer did one? Well, it ain't too bad 'specially if you're willing to open up your ears to some new and interesting sounds. Who knew that a contrabassoon could sound like bowed gongs, huh? Huh?

jefitoblog (rss) - A kind of ongoing mockery of the cheesy side of 70's and 80's that has some sort of relationship with this blog. If you read one, you get inside jokes on the other. Not that I have the time to do that but nostalgia is one bitch that is seductive and you hate yourself (in a good way) for clicking on the Bishmas record or the old Hall and Oates Jingle Bell Rock video. I guess during the rest of the year it's a more conventional albeit snarky music blog.

KinoSport (rss) - The upshot of this one is that the person who writes it travels alot and photographs alot. Beautiful photographs. Unlike most music blogs which read like high school try-out essays for internships at record labels, the entries actually read like a personal diary type blog - either interesting observations or random discourse on cigarettes and junk like that. The music is generally electronic house or clash (or is it techno? whatever) , so eh on that, but worth a listen or two just to confirm that I'm not missing anything by ignoring techno.

My Heart Is Made of Gravy (rss) - Like the Kinosport travel-photo-music hybrid above, Gravy Heart here takes his often funny doodles and finds a song that exactly fits the mood or subject. Unfortunately, he hasn't posted for a month -- so maybe this attaboy will give him some motivation to come back.

Old Blue Bus - If you like where Jack Rose is coming from or some of the Appalachia aspects of Ms. Newsom, you might be interested in checking Old Blue Bus out since they're into the "real thing". It's old timey and bluegrass and quite active. Believe it or not, 2006 was a good year for Old Time music according to the Bus. Not sure what the rss is but Google Reader had no problem swallowing it.

White Noise Revisited - Shoeglazer pop rock electro melodic -- oh kay pretty damn eclectic UKie blog that has introduced me to a couple acts I might have normally ignored. I couldn't figure out the RSS but Google Reader had no problem.

Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep (rss) - Another UK blog that is the best of the "indie" blogs - and trust me there are many, many out there. It's got a real fanzine feel, loyalty to the bands it loves and not afraid to go out on a limb with a CD that might not be on the "Cool List". It's a bit sparse on the MP3 front as they don't own any dedicated download space but that's okay.

Home of the Groove - Downhome New Orleans music blog. Learn your history here and catch some great funk blues jazz from the Big Easy. Rss is working - just don't ask me what it is.

A Beef Sandwich w/ Sweet and Hot Peppers (rss)- This is more of an honorable mention because every Saturday the proprietor of this blog digs up an old Sammy Davis, Jr. video on YouTube and that's just too damn cool not to give 'em props for.

Disquiet.com (rss)- Alas, there aren't enough noise and experimental music blogs out there. But there' s Disquiet. Usually a few weeks ahead of The Wire.

The Trust Fund (rss) - Some Pitchfork / Dusted / Stylus reviewers you love to hate have their own blog so you can go and hate on them there, too. The thing is, they can actually write and it's so refreshing to see professionally strung together sentences in a music blog. I'm not saying this is a prerequisite for a good blog, just that the English language can be enjoyable when it's wielded by practiced hands, if that makes any sense. Also refreshing that they aren't out chasing the latest whatever buzz or whatever. Cute and telling name, though.


This posting made possible by Hype Machine's massive blog list...