Note: I wrote this post on the same day I made my last post, the Paradise Vendors song, July 31st. The only reason I didn't post this one was the Palestine-vs.-Israel conflict, as well as the rash of beheadings by ISIS. It just felt inappropriate to post such a fun and flippant song at that time. Then the Mike Brown fiasco happened, etc., and everyone on social media turned into an idiot, and I ended up spending the summer and fall adjusting my entire sociopolitical worldview to these eye-opening realities. (Key terms I learned: Cultural Marxism and Identity Politics.) However, it's now New Year's Eve and this song is the ultimate party jam and this is America, so here you go.
Electrical Spectacle was a New Orleans band consisting of Mike Mayfield and Anton Gussoni. They made party-friendly electronic dancescapes that answer the question: What would Kraftwerk have sounded like if they had originated in New Orleans rather than in Germany? Since Kraftwerk literally contains the word "twerk," you know they were a deranged party band in an alternate universe, and New Orleans is an alternate universe, so do the math. This song sure does sound like it was inspired by Kraftwerk's "Ruckzuck". That was the theme song for the science show Newton's Apple, which I watched religiously in the '80s. (Check out this mind-blowing comment about "Ruckzuck" on YouTube by user dabidosan: "Can't believe I'm going to put this out here, but.....This used to be the theme song to the children's show Newton's Apple. Well....when I was little, every time the show would come on......I would take my badminton rackets and flap them on my back while hopping on one leg to this song....it was my 'Mosquito Dance.'")
Mood Modulation EP (CD-R, 2001)
Electrical Spectacle (CD-R, 2002)
I heard this track a lot on WTUL in the early '00s. I actually have it both on the Mood Modulation EP (CD-R, 2001) and the band's self-titled album (CD-R, 2002). The mp3 I'm posting here is from the 2001 EP, just because it's surely much harder to find. Both versions sound almost identical, though the first one was made entirely by Mayfield when it was a solo project, and the second version was made by Mayfield, Gussoni and drummer Louis Romanos when it had become a true band. My copy of Mood Modulation has cool little pinholes punched into the cover near each corner around the atom design. "Transcontinental" (even the title has an "international man of mystery" feel to it) is remarkably solid from an instrumental standpoint, down to the snappy drumming and the killer synth attack. The fact that one person put this whole song together on his own is simply breathtaking. Some vocals might've helped it to reach a wider audience, but may have also tarnished its aesthetic. It should've been used in one of those Austin Powers movies, as Fantastic Plastic Machine's "Bachelor Pad" was.
L-R: Gussoni, Romanos, Mayfield; photo from 1/22/02 issue of Gambit
Local indie label Backporch Revolution says this (er, they did back in July... it has now been deleted) about the Mood Modulation EP: "From spaced-out krautrock to space age bossanova, the 2001 debut 4-track EP from Electrical Spectacle is arguably the most-played local release on WTUL in the last five years. It's never been readily available, though, so we're finally re-releasing it on the web."
Local newsweekly Gambit has a great article by Michael Patrick Welch (a.k.a. The White Bitch) which talks about how bands like Electrical Spectacle fit into the early '00s NOLA scene.
I never saw Electrical Spectacle, but I have seen Mayfield live, as a member of ambient droners Liteworks in 2009, and in '80s-style minimal wavers ((PRESSURES)) in 2014. I don't think I ever saw any band featuring Gussoni, but I seem to remember talking to him about music right outside of the Loyola library in early 2001. The full-band version of Electrical Spectacle featured amazing Jaki Liebezeit-esque drummer Romanos of chill local jazz/electronic duo Permagrin. I saw the 'Grin three times, all in 2004, including once at Jazz Fest.
Planets with similar climates: Kraftwerk - "Ruckzuck" (1970), Fantastic Plastic Machine - "Bachelor Pad" (1997), Quintron - "Bug Attack" (1998), Telefon Tel Aviv - "My Week Beats Your Year" (2003), Aphex Twin - "Girl/Boy Song" (1996), Harald Grosskopf - "So Weit, So Gut" (1980).
Das Racist - "Rainbow In The Dark" [original version]
(self-released, 2010)
After two "mixtapes" which set the underground rap (sorry... "hip hop") world abuzz, Das Racist's debut album, Relax, was unleashed on a label called Greedhead Music, run by DR's own Heems, née Himanshu Kumar Suri. Their unforgettable and extremely quotable song "hahahaha jk?" (built on a sample of the theme song of the soap opera Days Of Our Lives) was an instant classic that made me sit up and take notice, but the effortless charisma and cool of "Rainbow In The Dark" is what made me a true Das Racist convert. Highlights: That slightly off-the-beat synth part and all the obscure, geek-friendly lyrical references. The 2011 version on Relax is slightly spruced-up compared to the mixtape version, but is almost indistinguishable. (The original 2010 version is about 10 seconds longer: 4:02 vs. 3:52.) Das Racist is a group that is always one step ahead of the spider; their secret weapon is the ability to subtly parody other rappers' attempts at lampooning lame genres of hip hop. (Think De La Soul's "Ego Trippin'" video.) SPIN's review of Relax says "The synth-pop jam 'Booty In The Air' is essentially Das Racist spoofing Lupe Fiasco spoofing mainstream rap." It goes on to say "Reprised early internet cut 'Rainbow In The Dark' is a welcome oasis of expertly half-assed calm amid the newfound clamor." (The last line of this song is especially funny because my sister and I's Cuban friend Alex once exclaimed "I can't... They'd put me to work!" when he was asked if he wanted to visit a plantation.) Here is the origin of the group's name, if you're the last person on earth who was still wondering. In order to not embarrass yourself further, the first word is pronounced DASS, not DOSS. I will remind you that this is a professional site, so please, no Dio jokes re: the song title.
I mentioned this concert last year, so go here to read a nano recap and see the extremely great, Wikipedia-worthy, 7-dudes-in-one-shot pic that I took near the triumphant finale. Note: I just found out the "DJ dude" (who also did some rapping at the beginning of DR's set) is Lakutis.
Despite the band's laid-back flow on record, they were super-energetic live, almost to the point where I'd use the word "frantic" to describe their onstage antics. They do rap about Four Loko, and I remember jokingly pointing that out to my sister as a possible explanation for their manic energy. Amazingly, no vids from the show have been put on YouTube yet, despite it being a pretty packed show. The bizarre film clips that were playing behind them were definitely unexpected, and I can't even begin to describe them, so I won't. I'm still shocked that they didn't play "hahahaha jk?," but at least I have a reason to try to see them again. Some girl was hitting on Lakutis after the show outside, and invited him to go the Saint with her. My sister and I went over there just on the off chance that he or any Das Racist members would show up, but none of them ever did. Opening act Danny Brown has gone on to become a pretty big star, at least in indie circles, though he has apparently stopped wearing tiger outfits onstage. Kool A.D. of D.R. recently released two solo albums. Sorry... two solo "mixtapes." I guess the only difference is that a mixtape is given away free, oui? Heems is my favorite Das-er, basically functioning as the Q-Tip of the group with his nonchalant delivery.
Fun Fact: DR's mixtape Shut Up, Dude was named after a lyric in this song.
Fri. Sep. 28: Bought a gorgeous, essentially brand-new La-Z-Boy recliner at Salvation Army for only $140. Looked at carpet samples beforehand with my mom, but decided to just get my carpet professionally cleaned instead of getting new carpet after realizing that $2.50 a square foot sounds cheap until you extrapolate it out to the size of a living room.
Sat. Sep. 29: Went to the Mushroom and finally got to talk to Sam again for the first time since Jazz Fest. I found out she's in a band (Trampoline Team). She asked if I'm going to see Dinosaur Jr., but alas I ain't; tried to talk her and Mike into seeing Godspeed You Black Emperor. She offered to burn me this Dino Jr. remix album, but I said I'd have to hear some samples first. Was somewhat amazed to find out she had gone to the Boris concert in Baton Rouge in '07, and also had seen one of MONO's many shows there. And she casually mentioned Magma(!) when describing some local band's sound... We both made fun of Ben from Bipolaroid. I dug out some used CDs (Unwound's Fake Train & Challenge For A Civilized Society; Yo La Tengo's Painful; Suzanne Vega's self-titled) from under the "blue roof" tarp for her to check out. Picked up Cat Power's Moon Pix on vinyl and showed them the inner sleeve, boasting "This is what my front porch looks like":
Sam replied that her dad in New Jersey has lots of cacti and desert plants too, which really impressed me. In addition to the Moon Pix LP, I scored the 2-DVD Criterion Collection edition of Paris, Texas for only $4, and a movie called Forty Shades Of Blue. (Again, no jokes please.) Mike said his jokey metal / grindcore band Foot was playing 3 hours away in Mississippi that night, and I took a 1-song freebie CD-R of theirs. Sam said I'm her favorite customer, which, since she's pretty much my favorite person in the world, pretty much made my year. Though as a Phillies fan, I was not too fond of the fact that she was wearing a Yankees shirt. (Aren't Jerseyites supposed to be Mets fans? I know the members of Yo La Tengo are diehard Mets fans, and their name even came from a phrase that a Mets outfielder was known for shouting.) It was raining, so I ducked into some little place called Favori Deli on Maple St. Got a very good grilled chicken for myself and a Philly cheese steak for my mom, who was born & raised in Philly. It's right next door to the former digs of The Camera Shop, which I used to frequent when taking Fine Art Photography at Loyola in '97. I caught the very end of the Fall Garden Fest at City Park, but most of the vendors had already left due to the rain, so I just bought a little lily called Zephyranthes atamasca, which looks like a chive or wild onion plant. I unfortunately skipped Glish's Come Down EP release party at Circle Bar, just because I don't really like going there and the acoustics are awful, though Sam had informed me that it finally has air conditioning now. My sister surprisingly bought a Godspeed ticket without me having to even convince her. I thought she'd want to go to M83, but apparently not, so I might got to that alone, despite how gleefully Hipster Runoff has mocked M83's recent efforts.
Sun. Sep. 30: Took my dad to the airport parking garage to jump the dead battery in his truck. Went to Barnes & Noble in the rain for a few hours, getting a few things for my sister's birthday. Hit up the second (final) day of FGF and scored three more native species: Osmanthus americanus (Devilwood or Wild Olive), Amsonia hubrichtii (Narrow Leaf Blue Star), and Hypericum densiflorum or H. frondosum (St. John's Wort). Somewhat renowned local acoustic guitarist John Rankin gave a chillaxable performance under the glass dome of the fern / cycad / orchid house at the Botanical Garden, accompanied by a sax player and a guy on upright bass. I used to walk by his open door at Loyola in '01 and hear him giving one-on-one guitar lessons. I guess he still teaches there, but I don't feel like checking. I used to have his '84 LP Something I Ate. Anyway, it's not often you get to see a jazz concert attended by about 5 people inside a greenhouse at a botanical garden in the rain. If this sounds appealing to you, move to New Orleans, because I really doubt you'll find that anywhere else other than maybe Amsterdam or San Francisco. (Which reminds me... Note to self: Move back to New Orleans.) Drew Brees torched the Packers in Green Bay for 400 yards by the end of the 3rd quarter, but the Saints still found a way to lose, falling to 0-4.
Mon. Oct. 1: The first day of the Times-Picayune's mega-controversial shift to only putting out a newspaper 3 days a week after 175 YEARS as a daily paper. Why they couldn't have just trimmed it down to 4 or 5 days a week is beyond me. This happened because the paper sold out to a cheapskate conglomerate based in the NE U.S. called Advance Publications, which already was notorious for killing off Ann Arbor's newspaper after buying it. And word has it that they're giving Syracuse's paper the axe next. N.O. is now the largest city in America without a daily newspaper. Baton Rouge's The Advocate is making an aggressive foray into the N.O. market to try to fill this void. As a tree fanatic, I can't say I'm too distraught, considering that lots (millions? tens of millions?) of trees will be saved by the shift to digital. I still refuse to read novels on any format other than actual paper, though. Extremely psyched to see Merchandise & Glish at The Big Top on Friday, and for the first Obama-Romney debate tonight. Working on a metal / punk mix CD to bring to the dudes at the Mushroom, since that's what they mainly listen to. But I'm miffed that the mix I painstakingly made for Sam never made it to her. And thus ends a post that began with me talking about "mixtapes."
Speaking of Alex, here he is, valiantly holding the purse of his extremely wasted wife Tace at the Orpheus parade in February. This girl is a doctor and can outdrink the entire U.S. Senate without even blinking, so it was quite a shock to see her practically unable to walk or form a coherent sentence:
(Camera phone pic by my sister.) I'm in the green hoodie, just a few days before the Trayvon Martin hoodiegate incident broke. FWIW, I wore a baby blue hoodie to see Boris the previous November, just to stand out among the black-clad metal masses.
Planets with similar climates: Special Ed - "I Got It Made" & "I'm The Magnificent" (1989), MC Paul Barman - "Make No Mistake" (2002), Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Eminem - "My Name Is" (1998), Flight Of The Conchords - "I Told You I Was Freaky" (2009).
Since that guy in the Beastie Boys died, I decided the only thing to do is to post the most Beastie Boys-esque song I can think of. Unfortunately for the Beasties, these 140 seconds eclipse pretty much anything they ever did... Awkward. I really hope their moms are not reading this...
Note: It should go without saying that the tagline on this site's header ("Providing roughly the same amount of hits as Sadaharu Oh since 2011") is an appropriation of a line in the Beastie Boys' "Hey Ladies."
I got this album, Emerge, on LP in Dec. 1998, after reading about the band in Alternative Press and/or Magnet (both of which I subscribed to) in the previous year. They were essentially always described as some variation of "Pavement meets the Beastie Boys," or "Archers Of Loaf meets the Beastie Boys," etc. The hilarious cover art, a soft-focus shot of a group of flowers, is a classic. It'd be ideal for an album by Starland Vocal Band or some hirsute new age flautist from a Balkan nation. As for the curious band name, it's simply the name of their high school football team; for what it's worth, mine was the Country Day Cajuns and our mascot was a crawfish. I was a starter at wide receiver and cornerback, and wanted to play WR in the NFL. AllMusic Guide gives this LP an accurate 3-star review and accurately says "Emerge seeks out the common ground between the Beastie Boys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, slicing and dicing meaty hip-hop beats, crazed garage-rock riffs and vintage keyboard squawking; what could have amounted to little more than primordial pomo sludge is actually quite impressive when it catches fire (see "Go for a Ride," "Add It Up" and "Get Off Your Feet"), although the band's willful lack of focus is a weakness as often as it's a strength."
The drumming is incredible... Like, it should be in the hall of fame of drumming. Listen to how the drummer leads the way in speeding up and slowing down the tempo within each bar. Polvo would be proud at the sheer math-rockness of it. The distorted organ (Hammond B3, I'm guessing) sound is just too cool. The song has an overall badass quality that is infectious. I planned to recommend this song to Apple for use in an iPod commercial about 10 years ago, but for some reason I never did. The "Do the math / Multiply, divide, subtract" line would be perfect to play next to a graphic showing how many songs could fit into a certain size (GB) iPod.
"Add It Up" is a huge leap forward from their early self-released novelty single "Yos To Go," which begat what was apparently their only music video:
Pic taken by my sister, at my behest, in December on the edge of the French Qtr. while we were going to various Prospect.2 art exhibits around town:
She also took this one of me with some sort of robot vending machine outside the Contemporary Arts Center:
Pretty uneventful week... Went in for Mother's Day barbecue with the fam, and drove around with my dad frantically looking for flowers at 7PM on a Sunday night. Luckily Rouse's saved the day. Planted a Juniperus chinensis 'Blue Point' (Blue Point juniper), a Chamaerops humilis (Mediterranean Fan Palm) (normal green version), and a Leucophyllum frutescens 'Compactum' (Compact Texas Sage). Had to buy a new $300 tire due to a tiny nail in the sidewall. Found out holes in this location cannot be patched, so the whole tire has to be replaced. Was sort of creeped out by how enthusiastically the mechanic told me "If someone gets mad at you, all they have to do is stick nails in your sidewalls!" Vaguely considering seeing a band called As Cities Burn on Friday.
Appreciation of BOOTED NEWS WOMEN Blog - I just found this, the worst site in the history of America, narrowly edging out Facebook. It brews up anywhere from 1 to 30 boot-tastic posts per day. Reading the user comments is by far the best part.
Planets with similar climates: Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Six Finger Satellite - "Parlour Games" (1995), James Chance & The Contortions - "Contort Yourself" (1979), Bleach - "Shotgun" (1991), The Delta 72 - "...Ever Since You Told Me" (1997).
This is from !!! (pronounced "Chk-Chk-Chk")'s genius debut album. I downloaded it from eMusic in 2003, then bought the actual CD some years later. The LP came out on black, clear, and blue vinyl. It took me 9 years to realize that this lyric name-checks Phil Collins. They definitely were strongly influenced by those early '80s NYC funk-punk-dance bands (Liquid Liquid, Contortions, Konk, ESG, Theoretical Girls, etc.). Based on their song titles, it's easy to write this band off, but their jaw-droppingly great musicianship is no joke; the drum and bass interplay on it might be in the top 5 I've ever heard. In a few decades, this album will be sampled by every wannabe DJ (sorry... "turntablist"). This song's slow, hypnotic guitar part contrasts with the fast drumming to mess with the listener's perception of time / speed. I think the song goes on a little too long, though. AllMusic Guide noted that "!!! trash the axiom that says bands influenced by angular post-punk must be populated by dour misanthropes who sport wallet photos of Ian Curtis."
Fun Fact: The last things thanked in the album's liner notes are "Jet Li, sneakers, basketball, Eddie Murphy c. 1982-1987, sausages, our parents..."
Unfun Facts: Original drummer Mikel Gius was killed by a car while riding his bike in 2005. His replacement, Jerry Fuchs, died in an elevator shaft in 2009.
Keith Haring-ified band pic from CD booklet
You can check out sound samples from !!!'s sister band Out Hud over here.
I finally got to see !!! on Friday, at legendary Tipitina's, inside of which I had not set foot since 2004. In fact, I had forgotten all about the basketball goal above the mixing board. !!! were rocking the hell out of it for almost an hour without me recognizing any of their songs, at which point Nic said they were gonna do two more. They then played the pretty good song "Heart Of Hearts." Nic said "This is the first time we've played in New Orleans... to more than 20 people." I was thinking that I'd go the entire show without hearing anything from their first album... Then I heard the bassline and drum part of this last song unfolding, I knew the moment had arrived: They were playing none other than my all-time favorite !!! song, "Intensify." Dude, I was so pumped. It was a nearly 10-minute rendition, replete with dual drummers at one point, and a birthday cake being handed to the guitarist onstage near the end. Probably one of my top 5 most memorable concert moments ever.
The hotly-tipped abstract Seattle rap duo Shabazz Palaces opened, and were the main reason I went. They seemed kind of underwhelming at first, since it was just two dudes, one of whom was at a laptop computer, and the other of whom was on a primitive drum set. But when I realized that I should view them more as a trip-hop / downtempo group than as a rap "crew," I started to really dig them. Think Mezzanine-era Massive Attack with some Last Poets and Antipop Consortium mixed in. (Local rapper Vocka Redu did an unannounced opening set lasting about 20 minutes; we only saw his last song.) I got a red Shabazz shirt and my sister got a white !!! tank top. The logo on it is totally genius in its simplicity: Black Flag's logo with three dots put underneath three of its bars. (Em and I had seen Digable Planets, one of Shabazz's parent bands, at Voodoo in '05.) I wore my boombox necklace and got lots of respect for it.
The fun was a bit tempered because Damion's dad had suffered a small stroke that day or the day before, but we are told that he is recovering very well.
Saturday the 21st, Record Store Day: Went to Skully'z in the rain; got the Civil Wars' RSD live CD EP for my mom for Mother's Day, and a Suzanne Vega best-of CD for myself. Got a blueberry scone and a smoothie at Community Coffee on Royal. Then went to Euclid Records and immediately saw... Dayna Kurtz! (See previous post.) Amazing... I didn't say anything to her, though, because I figured she might be pretty peeved if some random guy walked up to her and was like "Hey, I just gave away a song of yours for free on the internet." It turned out there was a big in-store performance about to occur, so I figured she was probably going to be playing. Alas, she did not. The bands I did see were Charlie Halloran Experience, Blind Texas Marlin, and Boom Chick. Boom Chick could be the next White Stripes, and are quite clearly modeled after them. I ended up staying for several hours, and got some great stuff, incl.: New Order - "Shellshock" (12"), A Tribe Called Quest - "Bonita Applebum" (12"), The Mission - Children (LP), Nicholas Payton - Sonic Trance (CD) (an overt but aurally pleasing ripoff of Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis), Eurythmics - "Here Comes The Rain Again" (picture-disc 7"). Went up the street to Harold's Nursery for a while and got a purple basil plant for no reason. It was about 20 degrees colder than usual due to a freak cold front. I skipped the "headlining" band, local punk cretins Die Rotzz.
Yesterday: Went to Clegg's Nursery in Baton Rouge for the first time and got a great native tree that no other stores carry called Styrax americanus (American Snowbell), and a hard-to-find reddish-spined little cactus called Echinocereus rigidissimus var. rubrispinus.
Today: Played basketball at Ezekiel Jackson park in Garyville (G-ville) for the first time. Planted my Styrax americanus. Watched what was probably Steve Nash's final game as a Sun; ticked & amazed that the coach only played him for a few seconds in the 4th quarter.
Sorry for talking about so much off-topic stuff recently, but March & April tend to be packed with events around here, and is actually known as "festival season" colloquially in the area. Summertime is pretty uneventful for me, so you can always look forward to less extraneous details once the weather starts really heating up. I really don't have much of a life, so please don't ever be fooled into thinking otherwise. I have kind of a nose for finding cool concerts / events, but the other 95% of my life is just as nondescript as anyone else's.
The New Orleans Bounce - "Campaign to change the name of the Hornets to the New Orleans Bounce."
Not sure I agree with this, but it's a pretty ingenious name, considering what a basketball does, and the name of the most famous strain of NOLA rap music. I think they need to pilfer the name Voodoo from our struggling arena football team.
Planets with similar climates: Liquid Liquid - "Scraper" (1983), CAN - "Mushroom" (1971) & "Vitamin C" (1972), The Pop Group - "She Is Beyond Good And Evil" (1979), James Chance & The Contortions - "Contort Yourself" [original version] (1979), Gang Of Four - "It Is Not Enough" (1982), ESG - "UFO" (1981), Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Catholic School Girls Rule" (1985), The Prime Movers - "Wind" (1984), Tussle - "Ghost Barber" (2004).
(Giant Claw Records [Australia], 1998 / K Records, 1999)
The once-beehived Michelle Mae proves why she's one of the illest bassists of the century here. To hear another example of her bass ways, listen to "Type-U Blood," "Don't Step On The Children," and "The Bells." Despite her ice-queen persona, or perhaps because of it, she was the undisputed indie rock sex symbol of the mid to late '90s, and is now a yoga instructor. I unfortunately missed a Make-Up gig in New Orleans on Aug. 15, 1997, for reasons which I'd rather not divulge here. I never liked their name until I realized it has several different meanings: to tell a lie; stuff worn on the face; one's fortitude/character. I can't think of a better song that features handclaps.
I got both of Nation Of Ulysses' albums in the early '00s, but never really connected with them. NOU and The Make-Up were pretty hit-and-miss, but each had some gems. This song was released as a single on an Australian micro-indie called Giant Claw in '98, and then on the band's singles / rarities compilation called, fittingly, I Want Some the next year. I finally bought that CD this past December; Ian said in an interview in horrible local music zine Antigravity that it's going to be reissued this year.
Megan Fox being bothered by a young Daniel Johnston at an airport
Ian & Michelle's more recent band was called the Scene Creamers. Here's a bumper sticker on a car parked in front of me at the Annunciation Street basketball court last week:
Fri. 13th: Dropped off some plants (Quercus virginiana & Agave desmettiana) at Parkway Partners right before going to French Quarter Fest. Was given a beautiful Lyonia lucida and Echeveria 'Ruby' as thanks. That made my day. I gave away 7 plants/trees this week, so I guess I earned those 2 in return. Found out the hard way that the FQF now bans bikes, but the nice security lady offered to watch over my bike, so I bought her a Bananas Foster and a fish taco wrap as thanks. Missed local mad scientist weirdos Consortium Of Genius (C.O.G.) due to getting there late. Saw Sasha Masakowski (w/ guest Khris Royal on sax on a few songs), brass-rock band Magnetic Ear (covered Nena's "99 Red Balloons" and Nirvana's "In Bloom"), Mynameisjohnmichael (3 songs), Pine Leaf Boys (2 songs), & probably some others. Was stuned to find the Comsat Angels' album Land on vinyl at Peaches Records for only $5. I only got here about once a year because they're really overpriced, but I may have to start going more often. Bought a little silkscreened(?) print by an artist named Jack Wittenbrink at Jackson Square. Bought School Of Seven Bells' 2nd CD at Skully'z; Scott was shocked when I told him I saw them, since he didn't even know they were coming through on tour. Went into a little market in the Marigny that just had a sign saying "Market" outside and got some great food. I coincidentally parked my car literally at the site of the famous Plessy v. Ferguson incident on Press Street.
It was funny when the announcer repeatedly called Sasha Masakowski (Maz-uh-KOW-skee) "Sasha Maskatowski" (Mass-kut-OW-skee), generating much stifled laughter from her and her band.
Sat. 14th: Spring Garden Show at City Park. Geared up for this one for a long time and was not disappointed. Bought a threatened (that's one step below endangered) species called Litsea aestivalis (Pond-spice). Also got one each of: Viburnum dentatum, Eryngium yuccifolium, Hydrangea quercifolia, Leptospermum scoparium, Vaccinium darrowii (for my neighbor Don), and Pityopsis graminifolia. I regret not buying a $6 praying mantis egg case which will supposedly hatch out over 200 babies to eat bugs in one's neighborhood. Talked to legendary local plant expert & author Dr. Charles Allen for a few minutes.
Today, Mon. 16th: Saw a guy who was clearly driving on drugs go right through two red lights. His rear lights were intentionally blacked out (totally illegal) in order to look cool, and the whole truck was painted primer gray, a common thing done to a recently-stolen vehicle. The truck was slightly lowered and had gigantic rims, of course. The dude was white. He was talking on a cell phone and weaving through traffic without signaling. I tailed him for a while and found out where he parked so I could call in to the cops. I thought it was an apartment complex until I looked and saw a sign saying that it was a drug treatment clinic. So this little punk was surely on parole and going in for a mandatory drug test; hopefully they busted him and took away his driver's license. Luckily he didn't kill anyone. Just had to vent about this, sorry. Also have to complain about the quality of the Eastbound And Down series finale last night.
The last few days have been pretty great for the Hornets. They were bought by Tom Benson; they've won four games in a row; David Stern awarded NOLA the 2014 All-Star Game. The only semi-bad news is that Benson said today that he's gonna change the team's name.
Enjoy this truly mind-blowing series of tweets sent by Jose Canseco the other day, which will be ruminated upon by scholars for decades to come:
This is on the tremendous and varied compilation State Of The Union. It originally came out as an LP on Zoar Records in 1982, obviously without this song. I have the 1992 CD version on Arrest Records and the dramatically expanded double-CD 1996 version on Atavistic Records, both of which do feature this song. (I ripped this mp3 from the 1996 edition.) The gimmick is that every song on all versions of SOTU is about 1 minute long, making each artist really strive to get to the point quickly, often with fascinating results. See the full tracklisting of each edition by clicking the links under the "Notes" section here. Some of the more well-known contributors: John Lurie (of the Lounge Lizards and an ill-advised acting career), Arto Lindsay (DNA, etc.), the late actor Spalding Gray, turntable virtuoso Chrtistian Marclay, Adele Bertei, Tuli Kupferberg (of The Fugs), noise rock producer Martin Bisi, Fred Frith, Borbetomagus w/ Voice Crack, drummer Ikue Mori (DNA, Death Ambient, etc.), God Is My Co-Pilot, Marc Ribot, John Zorn w/ Yamatsuka Eye, Nicholas Collins, Syd Straw, Mofungo, Henry Kaiser, John Duncan, Ui, PainKiller, Penny Arcade, Chris Haskett (Rollins Band guitarist), Maggie "Hey Baby" Estep, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Kaye, DJ Spooky, Andrea Parkins, Sim Cain (Rollins Band drummer), Zeena Parkins, Lukas Ligeti (son of György), Kurt Ralske (a.k.a. Ultra Vivid Scene), M. Doughty (of Soul Coughing), and a Mars Williams / Ken Vandermark sax duo. However, most of the artists are complete unknowns, with baffling and/or awesome names like Krackhouse, Grafted Media Devil, A Thousand Tiny Fingers, Circuit Redux, Pharmacy Lounge, Sonorexia, Babytooth, Jody Dunaway (she plays balloons... really), and Dim Sum Clip Job. That was honestly not an attempt at keyword spamming.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, this song doesn't feature Mifflin herself on vocals, but maybe the intro yodel is her, or maybe the closing voice? The song has an abstract feminist undertone that can be ascertained by the line of condescending questions asked by the sampled male voices; the female voice at the end ties it all together. It's amazing that this was done 20 years ago, considering how many bands would be considered edgy and fresh if they were to put it out in 2012. The layered mechanical drumbeat is almost industrial in some parts.
The bio on Mifflin's website says: "Margot Mifflin is an author, journalist, and professor who writes about women, art, and contemporary culture. The author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo, she has written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Believer, ARTnews, and Salon.com. Her book The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman was published in April, 2009. An associate professor in the English Department of Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY), Mifflin also directs the Arts and Culture program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where she teaches arts journalism. Mifflin has appeared as a lecturer and keynote speaker at dozens of colleges, universities and museums, including Barnard College, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design and Los Angeles MOCA. She appeared in MSNBC’s documentary “Women and Tattoo” (2001) and CNN’s “Women of the Ink” (1998). She was raised in a Quaker family in Swarthmore, Pa. and now lives with her family in Nyack, New York."
Here is a film piece called Atlante by Grazia Toderi that was being shown at the CAC (Contemporary Arts Center) as part of Prospect.2. I think this is the entire thing, and I've read that it was shot in Portugal. It was projected simultaneously onto two screens on walls that were slightly angled in towards each other:
On Saturday I stopped by at the monthly (last Saturday of each month) Arts Market on S. Carrolton for the first time. Most of the art was pretty tourist-y. Some freak wind gusts came through and blew some vendors' shit over, which actually amused me. Then I went to National Art & Hobby to get an easel my parents had gotten me for my birthday. (I've never owned one.) I picked up a free flipbook-sized publication there, by some publisher called America Sutra. It's simply titled Love Song on the cover, with no author name or publishing credits, and is full of intentional typos. The back cover just says americasutra.com, and going to that site told me that their books are apparently by someone named Amit Desai. I think this must be some sort of teaser for their upcoming book series. Or maybe it's some elaborate hoax? Very cryptic. You know I love palm trees, hence you know I had to post this sample:
That line reminds me of House Of Sand And Fog, in which the main guy cuts down all the trees on his new property that block his view of the ocean. After leaving the art store, I drove down Magazine St. a mile or so and then pulled over to check out a garage sale. After picking out three CDs sans cases (Sade - Love Deluxe, Chet Baker - Let's Get Lost - The Best Of Chet Baker Sings, and Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly), I found a dollar bill on the ground, and then went to pay for the goods. "Just give me a dollar," she (I overheard that she's a photographer named Alex Bono) said. Yeah, I felt a little guilty. But factoring in the hundreds of CDs, tapes, records, books, etc. that I've given away to thrift stores over the years, I don't mind getting my karma returned once every so often. The Sade CD was quite a coup, since I'd been wanting it for a long time. Fun Fact: I could've also bought Public Enemy's Apocalypse '91 CD there, but just looking at the names of the terrible songs printed on the CD elicited a flood of memories and emotions, bringing me back to the day I bought it (namely, the week it came out in October '91). I had to put it down and walk away. Let some other shmuck waste 33⅓ cents on it. Then I went to a Goodwill on the way home and came across what I always think of as a "suicide donation" or "death donation." By that I mean lots of obscure albums by someone who must've been savvy enough to know he/she could get some good money for them at any used CD store. Hence the presence of them in a thrift store means the person probably died, and his/her parents or spouse just gave the music away. I got CDs by Christian Marclay, Black Box Recorder, Lync, Themselves, Furry Things, Morcheeba, Slowride (a pre-True Widow band), Lamb, Blackalicious, M83, Myshkin, and Breaks Co-Op. There was even one by annoying drone merchants Pelt which I passed on. I also passed on a recent one by Trail Of Dead, whom I used to worship back when they didn't suck. Anyway, R.I.P. dude or dudette, and R.I.P. Don Cornelius.
Planets with similar climates: Negativland - "Methods Of Torture" (1987), Emily XYZ - "Put A Little Distance" (2000), The Art Of Noise - "Beat Box" (1983), Was (Not Was) - "Dad, I'm In Jail" (~1987), Kallabris - "Untitled (#2)" (1987), Public Enemy - "War At 33⅓" (1990).
I was first adrenalized by this song in 1991 upon seeing its video on the Jukebox channel, which was later renamed The Box. I bought the album, Ain't No Doubt About It, on cassette on November 1st, 1991 as sort of an afterthought on the same night that I bought Ice Cube's new album Death Certificate, also on cassette; it had hit stores three days earlier. I was with my fellow gangsta rap expert Warren, recuperating on a Friday night after a football game; he was a sophomore running back and I was a freshman wide receiver / special teamer. (Fun Fact: We were such huge Cube fans that we both bought Death Certificate on cassette that night. We also both got Public Enemy's new album when it came out a month earlier.) We both agreed that the Ice Cube album was a dud*, and I ended up vastly preferring Ain't No Doubt About It.
This song displays everything that was exciting about rap / hip hop in those days, which were later over-romanticized by young archivists as the "Golden Era" of the genre. For example, DJ's had to actually do lots of dramatic scratching back then, not just boring-ass "beat matching," and the boasting was not derogatory. I'll never forgive sulking, charisma-free goons like Nas, Jay-Z and Eminem for killing off this exciting style of hip hop, which is probably oversimplifying things, but I watched the decline happen on a week by week basis and I know why it happened. By spring of '92, I had bought Nirvana's Nevermind and Metallica's first five albums, and moved away from hip hop. But have always kept tabs on it and I'll always have fond memories of how it made me feel invincible. This era of music really does hold up well. About a month ago, I was at a gas station and two black guys in their teens or 20s were playing some annoying Li'l Wayne-esque song really loudly while filling up. So I popped in The Low End Theory and blasted its opening track, "Excursions". They actually turned their music off to listen to mine, which is the ultimate compliment that could be paid in any song showdown. It is likely that those dudes have never even heard of A Tribe Called Quest, just as a rocker kid today who likes Alterna-Band X has likely never heard of Sonic Youth.
*I just almost fell out of my chair laughing upon finding out MTV ranked it the #8 greatest hip hop album ever.
M.C. Madness had a slightly congested, Q-Tip-esque vocal style which still sounds unique today, as do the powerful, kinetic beats and screechy guitar samples. The "Short pause..." line is presumably sampled from a Batman movie or TV episode. The line "Pass the brass knuckles, let me break his jaw" is sampled from LL Cool J's "Murdergram." (I was obsessed with that LL album at the time, and it was actually the first CD I ever bought.) I presume the recurring "Ha!" is a james Brown sample. "Don't ring my bell once I turn off my porch light" is one of the most specific orders I've ever heard. Most of the album's songs are much slower and more bass-oriented than this one, fitting in with the whole Miami Bass scene of that time; "Do You Like Bass?" was, and still is, a hit among subwoofer enthusiasts. "Dynamic Duo" has excellent potential as a bromance anthem in today's meme era. I can picture some god-awful Judd Apatow flick with a slow motion scene featuring two rotund schlubs strolling down a beach, winking at comely ladies.
Extremely dynamic artwork of the cassingle
"Dynamic Duo" promo 12" on green vinyl; also came out on red vinyl with different remixes, and on regular black vinyl.
The group's logo on the red 12"; note that it's in place of the Batman logo in the sky on the cassingle cover, and on the cassette itself.
It never occurred to me that Cheetah Records and/or RM Records were legitimate indie labels. I guess I had assumed they had some major label connections like lots of other hip hop boutique labels of the time, but my recent research has proved me wrong on that, hence I can post it here. Also, it turns out that I bought this album right after it came out, possibly the same week, but I'm not totally sure.
Planets with similar climates - The D.O.C. - "Whirlwind Pyramid" (1989), Ice-T - "Power" (1988), Public Enemy - "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" (1990), LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out" (1990).
Currently eating or drinking: Rouses eggplant parmesan; Noosa yoghurt (blueberry); Samichlaus malt liquor (strange sweet beer whose motto is "World's most extraordinary beverage"); Udi's granola (Hawaiian); Pirate's Alley New Orleans rum cake; a bottle of Cointreau (thanks mom).
I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #58:
Del The Funky Homosapien - "No Need For Alarm"
(Elektra Records, 1993)
Here's another major-label rap classic, which I have made non-downloadable (streamable only).
I bought this CD in October '94 as part of my first order from Columbia House or BMG music club; you know, that mythical first order where you select 10 or 12 CDs for 99 cents. I also got Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, Nirvana's In Utero, Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, and probably some other noteworthy stuff. And Green Day's Dookie. No comment on that one... Today I was trying to think about why I bought this CD, and I realized that it was because I was enthralled by the Del + Dinosaur Jr. collabo song "Missing Link" on the Judgment Night soundtrack, which I had bought a year earlier right after it came out. And I had read that he was related to Ice Cube. Anyway, "No Need For Alarm" is the title track from Del's second album, and puts most rap from the last two decades to shame. It has too much bragging for my tastes, but oh well. AllMusic Guide accurately said"Without a strong sense of direction, No Need for Alarm is frustratingly uneven, rich and transcendent one moment and aimless and repetitive the next. Still, it's a challenging, unique, and uncompromising follow-up, one well worth picking up for anyone interested in either the evolution of West Coast hip-hop or just the evolution of one of its most talented, eccentric, and gifted artists."
Del also co-founded the underground supergroup Heiroglyphics, and even drew their cool logo. (You can see it on the little boombox he is holding on the cover of No Need For Alarm.) I bought their album 3rd Eye Vision in about 2000 or 2001, and it's pretty good, but I haven't given it a second listen for some reason. I also just remembered that Del has done some rapping for Gorillaz, but I've only heard like, two Gorillaz songs.
Today I assembled my new 6-by-8 foot greenhouse for the first time, and then checked out mini camcorders at Sears. Currently watching the Saints shred the Giants to the tune of about 350 first-half yards; we pretty much never lose on Monday nights in the Brees-Payton era.
Planets with similar climates: Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Aceyalone - "The Greatest Show On Earth" (1995), Above The Law - "Freedom Of Speech" (1990), Justin Warfield - "Teenage Caligula" (1993).
∑ (EastWest, 1994 vs. Creation / Sire, 1992; made by Go Home Productions, 2003) ∑
Yes, it's the most libidinous R&B guilty pleasure of its era (aside from maybe "Froggy Style" by Nuttin' Nyce), Adina Howards's "Freak Like Me", in a duel against a dubby, bass-heavy, Byrds-esque shoegaze classic, Ride's "Leave Them All Behind"... It briefly created a new genre, Rhythm N' Shoes, but since no one in England knew how to dress to it, it fizzled out within a few hours.
I'd have to say this is my favorite "mashup" song ever, though I'm not exactly an expert on the whole scene. I downloaded this somewhere during the mashup craze of mid 2003 to early 2004. Once I had collected 5 or 6 mashups of OutKast's "Hey Ya!," I realized that the trend was quickly playing itself out, especially when people unimaginatively began mashing "Hey Ya!" with Usher's "Yeah!" and/or with Howard Dean's infamous "Yeah!" speech. But I have to admit I wish it was still going on, because every once in a while you found a great one and had to pass it on to all your e-friends. This one is by Go Home Productions, which was apparently one of the leading provocateurs of the mashup genre. (The pic above is the original image created by GHP to go with the file.) It was released in April 2003, according to his website. After hearing this song, I actually felt one of those "Aha" moments, knowing that this mashup would probably never be topped, and that I could thus turn my attentions to other matters. So it was kind of like a pièce de résistance moment, where I realized the highest mountain had been scaled and the only way to go from there was downhill. I'll always wonder if Adina or members of Ride ever heard this song. I like how Ride's backing vocals come in subtly near the end. Well done, GHP. We hardly knew ye... We can't forgive ye for spawning charlatans like Girl Talk, though.
On the Go Home Productions site, Mark Vidler (a.k.a. GHP) says about this song: "Shoegazers. Don't get me started, I was there. I was part of it. Always knew this track would work. One of those where you don't have to re-pitch the vocal and there's enough meat in the backing track to make it punch. Created as a new track to play out at Bastard that month and was going to be part of the Remix Superchunk but some last minute tracks relegated it. April 2003." My only gripe is that he missed the obvious correlation between the word "Behind" in the Ride song and the asset that Ms. Howard was so fond of showing off. After she sings "Got a little freakiness inside," I would've plugged in Ride singing "Leave them all behind," or at least substituted "behind" for "inside" in her sentence. Anyway, since this song doesn't appear to be available anywhere online, I will go ahead and call it a Blowtorch Baby exclusive.
Fun Game Time: Guess which song is naughtier based solely on its CD single's cover art!
a.)
or
b.) ?
As you can imagine, this was definitely the easiest "clever post title" I've ever had to come up with.
Planets with similar climates: N/A, but The Afghan Whigs' cover of Toni Braxton's "You're Makin' Me High" (1997) is close enough.
Currently feeling: A bit old, considering that Shaquille O'Neal retired today after 19 years in the NBA, and I got his autograph at LSU basketball camp in 1990, when he still had two years left to play at LSU. I still have the issue of Sports Illustrated with him on the cover when he was at LSU. People forget how skinny and athletic he used to be, before he piled on huge amounts of weight and became an uncoordinated refrigerator on the court, hurling up free throws as though they were anvils and bricking any shot outside of 5 feet.
Tijuana-based Brujeria had a shadowy membership, and I don't want to sit here and ruin it by listing which members of famous U.S. bands were (said to be) in this band, since it's more fun to believe the supposed backstory... And what if the backstory is actually true? Koolarrow Records was run by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould, hint hint. Brujería (with the little accent over the "i") apparently means witchcraft in Spanish, but this band's name lacks the accent for some reason. This is a bafflingly out-there reinterpretation of their 1997 song "Marijuana," which was a spoof of Los del Rio's "Macarena." Yup. But normally they were a death metal band. This song is from a compilation of Mexican rock/metal bands called Spanglish 101. The movie Spanglish is one of the worst in cinematic history. I haven't smoked weed since April '98, for what it's worth... I think it was the night I saw the band Low, but it might've been the following weekend. I'm not against smoking up, or those who do it, but it just doesn't do much for me.
Note: The next song in my iTunes after this one is "Run To You" by Bryan Adams. Hate if you want. After that is "Summer" by Buffalo Tom, two by Burnversion, two by The Byrds, three by Cabaret Voltaire, "Worlds Apart" by Cactus World News, "Quattro (World Drifts In)" by Calexico, "Acceptable In The '80s" by Calvin Harris," "Luchini (This Is It)" by Camp Lo, about 20 by CAN, "Subplot" by Capital Eye, 6 by The Cardigans... Before this song, working backwards, is two by Bruce McCulloch (of Kids In The Hall), "Nr. 7" by Brötzmann / Van Hove / Bennink, the album When In Vanitas... (incl. "Neither Yield Nor Reap") by Brise-Glace, 10 by Bright Channel, "Monster In A Wheelchair" by Brian Huskey, "By This River" by Brian Eno & Cluster, then a bunch of solo Eno. I'm referring to my previous computer, a 2002 iMac, which has 4331 songs; my current computer, an '09 MacBook, has only 1355 so far. I use the old one pretty much just as a storage depot for music and other stuff. I use the same beach-themed screensaver on both of them. It's so hypnotic that I sometimes just sit there for a while and let my eyes glaze over, and it's especially trippy to have it running on two adjacent computers. I should take a video of that.
On a more serious note, please read the article about Dick and Rick Hoyt called The Wheels Of Life in the current (4/18/11) issue of Sports Illustrated. I don't think I've ever been this blown away and humbled by a fellow human's devotion to his child. Just read the first page and I dare you to not read the rest. It's better if you read it in the actual magazine, so you can see all the photos of the father and son in races over the years. Here is a video piece about them, and here is a shorter one set to a great song by Sigur Ros.
If you don't know how long an Ironman triathlon is, go look it up.
I know all these links make this post look cluttered and unprofessional, but I couldn't imagine culling any of them, sorry. Can someone tell me how to make them open in a new window?
Planets with similar climates: Soundgarden - "Fopp" (Ohio Players cover) (1988), Mr. Bungle - "My Ass Is On Fire" (1991), Milk Cult feat. Mike Patton - "Psychoanalytwist" (1994), Whale - "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" (1993), Negativland - "Car Bomb" (1987), Sonic Youth - "Master-Dik" (1987), Chrome - "Electric Chair" (1980).
Currently eating: Häagen-Dasz* Bananas Foster (limited edition) ice cream; Best Choice sweet peas (twice as big as any other peas I've been able to find); Campbell's Cream Of Celery soup; Winn-Dixie (Southern style, a.k.a. sweet, and with wheat flour as its first ingredient) cornbread; International Collection blood orange-flavored olive oil; Bolthouse Farms Amazing Mango smoothie. Yeah, I have a fast metabolism. *"Häagen-Dasz" is a completely made-up phrase which has no basis in any actual language; it was just invented by marketers to sound highbrow/pretentious. For example, having an s followed by a z is not allowable in any known language.
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