New York and other assorted rants

Hello Kids,

It's been a long time but to quote Luther from the warriors, "I've been busy!"

Just got back from NYC with the Chickens, CMJ was a cruel mistress due only to extremely ill-timed torrential precipitation and a transportation paradox that lead me to ponder why and how I'd lived out there as long as I had, or at all.  All curmudgeonly slander aside however, I really do love that town and the proverbial nuclear war I wage on my body every time I visit.

Enough rambling let's talk music.  I didn't really see much, honest.  If you're wondering what I was doing with my time, see above statement.  I saw Fool's Gold, Best Coast, Surfer Blood and the always super rad Crystal Antlers.

Anyway, the whole thing was yet another exercise in "great record - shitty performance/how are you famous."  Best Coast was extremely lackluster, Surfer Blood had the songs but the vibe didn't transfer from the record.  Crystal Antlers I've seen a few times now and they ruled, they always rule.  Thankfully, Fool's Gold kicked ass!  Check them out right away, this minute even. They're like LA post punk Israeli Afro-Beat.  Really great songs and they are totally blowing up, and they're from a small town on the west coast called Los Angeles, known for its weather, music and basketball team, but not it's baseball teams (whoa!).

Anyway, I've got more...later.

Kid Congo

So I totally nerded out on Kid Congo last night.  Check out Kid and The Pink Monkey Birds, they totally rule.  The dudes tear through old billy-fried garage riffage with serious attitude (a la Cramps etc...), clad in only the cheapest thrift store suits.  Kid would chant some whacky lyrics with a completely cheeky agenda, then they threw in some 50's sci-fi noises.  A great tribute as always to the late/great Jeffrey Lee Pierce of The Gun Club and Lux Interior of The Cramps (They played Sex Beat and Goo Goo Muck respectively amongst others).  They've got some great tunes, namely "LSDC" and "I Found A Peanut," about how you shouldn't eat peanuts you found on the ground or you'll die.

The dudes all made fun of me, and I deserve it...But I don't care! Last night was a great time, I got to meet a legend (Gun Club, Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Knoxville Girls...), discovered a great venue/bar (albeit tardily, everybody's already been to Alex's bar a billion times but me), and my fucking god they are the only bar I've been to outside of the east coast that has Magic Hat #9 on tap, which for those of you who don't know is that last bastion of my youth!

Magic Hat Brewery

As my roommate once said "It has the faintest hint of Apricot..."

 

Surfer Blood

So I play in a little band called Slang Chickens, and we're going out to CMJ in a few weeks. We're playing the SESAC showcase with none other than the super sick Crystal Antlers, and naturally inclined by curiosity I checked out who else is on the bill.  I was pleasantly surprised to find our buddies The Depreciation Guild and the supremely rad Surfer Blood.

I'd never heard Surfer Blood, and if you're aware of how I'm always bitching about fads, these guys are a pretty great cure.  They're not "gazers," they're not "stoners," and while maintaining elements of the Beach Boys (uniquely so), they are not necessarily "beachers."  They're not lo-fi or electro or garage or psych, so what the fuck are they?

They're awesome.  Really crunchy guitars intertwined with great power pop hooks.  They don't really sound much like anybody except, well, Surfer Blood.  Yes, the delivery and perhaps reverb-y treatment of the vocals is reminiscent of the Beach Boys, but they don't really sound like the Beach Boys.  If I had to make a comparison, it's like Bruce Springsteen and Tommy Tutone meets The Thermals...or something.  Watch these dudes blow up pretty quick, they don't have a label and they're playing a million showcases at CMJ.  Then they're doing quick little tours with Art Brut and Japandroids.  Get into it, you will thank me later. 

Torch and Toast Vol. 1

I'd like to introduce a new series called "Toast and Torch."  A large part of my life at this point has been spent loafing about drinking beers with other idiot philosophers I like to call my friends griping at the lack of recognition of someone or other, while other "artists" bathe in undeserved worship fueled by drooling idolatry.  Now is the chance to take my battle to the interwebs where I can laud my under dog homies, and crush those fettered products of the crunching hype machine, see them driven before me and hear the lamentations of their women (Conan...seriously underrated movie btw).

Today's topic: NYC Proto-Punk Scene - The Testors vs. Patti Smith

TOAST - The Testors fucking rule!!!!  They were rocking the speed punk thing years before anybody, like...1976 (Yeah I'm looking at you Misfits).  And yes, you could say the Damned, Dead Boys or the Ramones might have been their closest counterparts, but I feel like nobody thrashed quite as hard as the Testors.  Plus...they got banned from Canada, that's pretty punk dude.  The Pistols never were barred from playing an entire continent...It's no wonder one of my favorite lables ever, Swami, reissued their largely forgotten catalog (btw listen to any John Reis project, and you'll hear the Testors), and it's probably the reason anybody in my generation knows them.  All "they did this first" statements aside though, they wrote some pretty great punk/garage songs and paved the way for hooky melodic punks like Husker Du and the Misfits.

TORCH - Patti Smith - good, not great...entirely overrated.  She sings like Tom Verlaine undergoing a rectal exam.  Fine...punk singers aren't supposed to be "good" per se.  But at least, unique?  And without recalling sounds akin to severe pressure on one's anus.  Punk rock's poet laureate?  I think not.  Everybody raves about her lyrics, I don't see it.  Leonard Cohen, Dylan, those dudes were poet laureates...also small guy Nick Cave circa 1979 with the Birthday Party, punk rock poetry at it's finest.  Horses is a good record, meaning it has 3 or so good songs on it...which does not equate to "one of the greatest albums of all time" status as one would be led to believe.  I would go so far as to say Karen O does Patti Smith better than Patti Smith does. I'm not saying the world would be a better place without her, I'm saying enough with the vacant worship already kids...

Couple Things...

Last night I was at the Longhair Illuminati thing at the Knitting Factory, I saw little bits of some pretty mediocre bands, but two bands really blew me away--Tweak Bird and The Living Suns.

Tweak Bird, is pretty sick, like the Melvins fronted by two unison screeching Geddy Lees.  As a duo, these guys definitely pay the tone bills, and man were they tight.  Some may write them off as Big Business biters, but really when it comes to metal these days, you could throw an anvil and land on a band that sounds EXACTLY like the Melvins, so no worries dudes.

Living Suns rule, they're super psychedelic without drifting totally into the "stoner" vibe, they're actually pretty punk.  Maybe hippie punks?  I don't know, just check em' out, they're badass.

Brel

I've been busy lately, also the internets seem to be devoid of information that pleases me. So to fill that conspicuous gap, here's my all time favorite Jacques Brel video.  Here's a flow chart as to what Jacques is to music...

Jacques Brel > Scott Walker > Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Eno, Nick Cave etc. > Music as we know it

That's an oversimplification, but not too far from the truth.

I also went to see Blind Boy Paxton on Monday night.  Very cool, extremely authentic old timey music, I expected nothing less.   A great unique unexpected twist was the "DJ" set in between sets.  They literally pulled out two crazy old turntables and started spinning old timey 7"'s, crossfading and everything (with microphones of course).  Oh yeah and he's not actually blind, but I ain't mad atcha'!

Happy 75th Leonard! and Deracine

First off, Happy Birthday to Leonard Cohen, 75 years old today and still more of a badass than just about anybody I can think of.  Dude collapsed on stage but he's still continuing to tour, because he's just a stud like that!

I went to see Deracine  (dare-a-sheen-ay) and my buddies Mikki and the Mauses at the Bixel House Friday night and it ruled pretty thoroughly.  Haven't been to a good ol' fashioned punk show in a while and it was refreshing.  Being splayed against the walls of a 10 x 10 living room, thrust into the back fat of inebriated young men and women, ripped in twine by the duality of wanting to both annihilate and hug someone at the same time, and all the while your ears are bleeding and there's malt liquor and sweat in your mouth that you're certain doesn't belong to you.  Good times.

Deracine ripped my face off, they're a Japanese trio built upon the most astounding controlled chaos.  The bassist and drummer held it down amidst the ferocious stops and starts while the third member precisely smashed on what looked like something you might have seen in the war room of an old Bond movie, it was two keyboards and a mish mash of effects and samplers on a table that triggered perfectly distorted samples and actually took the place of a guitar quite nicely.  Top that off with about a 10 minute set time, and you can be damn sure I walked out of there a fan.

Also going to see Blind Boy Paxton tonight @ Redwood Bar and Grill.  I'm stoked.

In Honor of Rosh Hashanah

Yes, today is the dawn of the year 5770.  My family celebrates in true style by gorging themselves on succulent savory treats and letting the wine flow like beer.  We may chant a prayer or two that nobody understands, but hey that's tradition and if you've ever seen Fiddler on the Roof, you know it's enough to make an entire village break out in song.

Thus I bring to you some of my favorite videos from the holy semitic quartet, none other than Neil Diamond, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and of course Leonard Cohen (If only Nick Cave were Jewish).

Avalanche in 88'

Lou rockin out with the coolest dudes of ALL TIME, no debates

Neil playing some dark-ass Solitary Man in 71'

My favorite Dylan song, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Swedish Meatballs - Miss Li and Lykke Li

I was watching some TV this morning before I hit work, and the new iPod Nano 5g commercial came on--I was instantly mesmerized by the background song, life-changingly so. My attention was snagged with something that neither Feist, Jet (poop), Coldplay (guano), U2, Chairlift, CSS, or even Sir Paul could deliver. So I did a lil' research as I am want to do. I uncovered one Miss Li, and boy am I glad I did.



I am aware of the irksome nature of the entire iPod campaign so take that for given while watching, but I'll be goddamned if it hasn't helped Apple sell a couple of those things. Anyway, the song is Bourgeois Shangri-La, and it's like a swing-singer fronting the Sugarcubes, or something like that.

There really must be something in the water over there--with the (somewhat) recent influx of Swedish imports like Peter, Bjorn and John, Jens Lekman, Robyn, Jose Gonzalez etc. at the forefront of everyone's consciousness. However, today it's all about the girls, two Swedish girls to be exact, perhaps relatives? Miss Li and Lykke Li.

If ever a crush was harbored by a boy for an unobtainable girl, Lykke Li is mine. This video's been around for a while, it's the live band version of Breaking It Up.



The song is phenomenal, production inspiring, her dance moves are spastic, and she is hawt as usual. I would douse myself in cod liver oil and steam roll in the nude through a Moroccan tannery just to fondle a ballet slipper she used once when she was 5 (really? creepy...).

The Mint Chicks

I love these dudes! So bummed that they don't get the respect and attention they deserve. The other day, I was talking to some of my friends about the scene in Portland and was confused as to why the only band making any headway is Glass Candy. The stars aligned last night and I had a dream which featured my favorite Mint Chicks song "Post No Bills." When I drove to work this morning, it came on my iPod shuffle...coincidence or divine intervention? I vote the latter! They're originally from New Zealand, hailing from the beyond legendary Flying Nun scene which gave us bands like The Clean and Tall Dwarfs. Anyway, as of the last few years they've relocated to Portland. I saw them for the first time maybe in 2004 at the one of the danker undercarriages of New York's music scene, the Delancey. The lead singer was hanging from a tube in the ceiling singing upside down while the band ripped through what could only be described as At The Drive In machine gun power pop. I was so into it, I ordered their record online the very next day



Either way, they're up to some really great things these days, their last record Screens is pretty epic. Veeeerrry power pop, but with a bizarre kiwi infusion all their own. You can stream those lovely sounds here.

Nick Cave shaved his mustache and tickled the ivories with one of my all time favorites, the Warren Ellis fronted The Dirty Three.  


Also lest we forget, Sheriffs tomorrow at 3 Clubs. Come on down!