Yes, this is the "video version" of Wild Nothing's shoulda-been-a-megahit, featuring ultramegafamous actress Michelle Williams(!). M.W. recites from Iris Murdoch's 1975 novel A Word Child in the middle of the song, which is just a spacey instrumental passage in the album version. This Michelle-fortified version is not available anywhere, and believe me, I looked high and low for it, so this is certainly a Blowtorch Baby exclusive. The place I ripped it from rhymes with MooCube.
Counting days
The opening synth wash sure reminds me of the melody in Slowdive's best-known song, "Alison". I first heard this song in my car while parked in a thrift store parking lot in Terrytown in summer of 2012. Its amazing bassline and breezy overall feel prompted me to immediately text my sister to tell her to check it out. I wasn't yet obsessed with WN, but it happened fairly quickly. It ended up being a no-brainer to name Nocturne my favorite album of the year, and I think most followers of this blog would agree with me on that.
Last October, I finally got to see Wild Nothing live, opening for Local Natives at Tipitina's, and thankfully they played "Paradise." Yes, the bassline is just as huge & badass live as it is on record. Still amazed / saddened that they weren't headlining. And next month the headliners are opening for Kings Of Leon at the N.O. Arena(!).
Mon. Mar. 10: Went to the Circle Bar to see Weekend + Nothing + AAN (pronounced "On"). AAN's singer has a beautiful voice, not unlike Wayne Coyne's, and the band cranked out multifaceted, Yo La Tengo-esque indie rock. The guitarist with the white Jazzmaster was almost a dead ringer for Damon Albarn, so I expect a strong female fanbase with this band. Ashley had to leave to get to sleep. I wanted her to see Nothing, who sound like a recreation of Slowdive / MBV on record. Much to my surprise, they sounded more like Slayer live, so I was actually kind of glad she missed them. They played five songs from the new album, and one from their 6-song EP. Weekend were as streamlined and muscular as I had anticipated they'd be. After the disappointment of no "Spiral" from Wye Oak the previous night, I had to deal with Weekend not playing the song I wanted to see, "Mirror." Their singer seemed a bit drunk and angry, swinging his bass into the crowd at one point. He got rather forcefully pushed back by them. And each band only played for about 30 mins. But overall it was a good night, and the highlight was Weekend's "Just Drive," which I got a full video of. Nothing's bassist (also in Whirr and Death Of Lovers) was really engaging and we recommended shoegaze bands to each other. Drove down Bourbon St. blasting "It's Alright" on Weekend's album Jinx, as I had just bought the CD at the gig.
Fun Fact: I sat next to local jazz drumming icon Johnny Vidacovich during Nothing. Not sure why he was at this show... Also met a guy who flew to L.A. just to see a recent reunion of the band Failure, so we talked about our love of Failure for quite a bit.
Tue. Mar. 11: Went back to the Spanish Moon to catch Weekend and Nothing again. Right before this show, I stopped at F.Y.E. and got the latest CDs by Chairlift, CHVRCHES, and Danny Brown. Seeing these bands on a stage in a much larger venue with a better sound system made quite a difference. (Not dissing the Circle Bar at all, by the way.) The crowd was only about two dozen souls. No flyers for this show were spotted around the area. You do the math... Nothing played the same basic set again; one of their singers told me the previous night that they do the same 35-minute set each night on this tour. And yes, just like the previous night, they sounded more like Slayer than Slowdive. Traded more shoegaze recommendations with Nothing's bassist and merch guy. Weekend's set, on the other hand, was quite different from the previous night. They started with "Just Drive" (said the drummer, though I thought it was "July"), ended with "Coma Summer," and did a killer "Mirror" in between. (The singer introduced that song by saying it was about his mom... then, after a short pause, said it was about his dad.) Overall, they did more krautrock-y, jam-friendly songs than the previous night. Afterwards I shot some pool upstairs by myself, then talked with Weekend's awesome drummer. Some of the bands we touched on included CAN, Moonshake, Heat Dust, Belong, and Glish. I didn't buy a drink at any of these three shows... Sorry, bartenders! Had to spend a lot on gas and merch, and booze is very low on my priorities list.
Some of the excellent music heard on the club's PA on this night included lots of weird hip hop, The Cure's "One Hundred Years" (seguing into Nothing's first song), some Prefab Sprout, Flipper's "Ha Ha Ha," and the Chameleons' "Don't Fall." I got a particular kick out of the Chameleons song, because I had just posted "Swamp Thing" on my Tumblr a few hours earlier, and I leaned over the second-floor balcony (this venue used to be a fire station) during the aforementioned game of pool while singing the phrase "donnnn't fall." Kinda rad.
Sat. Mar. 15: Bought some plants at the annual Parkway plant sale @ DIllard University. At Bed Bath & Beyond that night, I walked right by the first person I ever got a New Year's kiss from and she didn't recognize me. In the twinkle of an eye everything had been changed indeed...
Planets with similar climates: Catherine Wheel - "Flower To Hide" (1992), Slowdive - "40 Days" & "Alison" (1993), The Smiths - "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" (1985).
I wrote this post last September & October, but for some reason never got around to posting it. So since I'm doing Massachusetts bands, here it is. Sorry for the 2-month delay since the last post.
By the way, my mp3 hosing service, DivShare, has a new policy: "All your files will stay online as long as they are viewed at least once every 30 days. (Upgrade to keep your files online forever.)" So it looks like most of the songs on this site will be deleted gradually, since I doubt anyone downloads or streams them very often.
Swirlies are the only band that I know of that has a song called "Chris R." (my name), but this song is much better. If there is ever a noise pop box set on Rhino -- Yes, I love saying "If there is ever a [genre] box set on Rhino..." -- this song ought to make the cut. And its title could even be used as the name of this box set, since operating a motor vehicle while listening to such angular riffage could be dangerous. Apparently the band named itself after the prank of putting someone's head in a toilet and flushing it. I only recently learned that a melvin is a particularly severe type of wedgie, so I guess highbrow rock outfit the Melvins were named after that. The name of this blog is a lyric in a song that's named after a wrist-abrasion technique. Smashing Pumpkins are named after a prank in which you smash someone's pumpkins. Bands... They're so funny!
The first time I ever heard of Swirlies was in a review of Modest Mouse's Interstate 8 EP in Alternative Press in fall '96. I immediately bought that M.M. EP just because I assumed that any band that sounded like a band with the name "Swirlies" must have a really swirly, unique, shoegazey sound. Yes, I bought a CD in large part because I liked the name of a band to which they were being compared in a review. (Gotta love those pre-internet fumblings... People these days have no idea how easy they have it. One can now literally become an expert on some obscure old band in 20 minutes by just reading up on the right websites.) That rationale turned out to be not quite accurate, but I'll still vouch for the quality of that Modest Mouse disc.
Jumping a year forward... In fall of '97 I decided to finally get into the Swirlies, after having heard about them in AOL's indie rock chatroom quite a bit that year...
October: I bought their Brokedick Car EP for about a dollar at a booth at the French Market in New Orleans and was fairly impressed. (This purchase was overshadowed by the fact that I also bought You Am I's stunning Coprolalia EP from the same seller on the same day.)
November: I saw Syrup USA, a band helmed by former Swirlies singer Seana Carmody, at the Mermaid Lounge. The crowd was about 10 people and it was freezing outside, but the Syrup still rocked out in a cutesy sort of way. Syrup USA had a very keyboard-based sound, not the fuzzy noise-pop of Swirlies. I even bought a t-shirt and both of their 7"s.
December: I bought this CD, Blonder Tongue Audio Baton (named after a guitar pedal) for my sister for Christmas. I kind of soon "borrowed" it back and I don't think she ever really dug it. The noisy guitar textures made me sit up and say "Dayumn," even though I was a huge Sonic Youth, MBV & Dino Jr. fan and I had thought that genre was tapped out. Swirlies obviously proved me wrong. Anyway, Swirlies' heyday was a little before my time, so I never got to see them. After Seana left the band, she was replaced by a soundalike named Christina Files, and uh, well, I don't like to sit here and give band bios unless I have some cool factoids to add, so you can go read an exorbitant amount about them on any number of fine websites. If Swirlies hadn't been so in thrall to the early '90s slacker ethos popularized by Pavement, Archer Of Loaf, etc., they could've really been great. They probably have the worst cover art of any band ever, aside from Pavement, and some irritatingly pointless song titles too. In fact, my favorite Swirlies song overall is "Jeremy Parker", but I name-specific song titles annoy me so much that I couldn't allow myself to post that song.
This one goes out to the local band Glish, who apparently arrived at a similar sound as that of Swirlies without all members even knowing about them, or at least without trying to emulate them. This could be compared to the biological concept called convergent evolution, a prime example of which is the similar appearances of the green tree python (Morelia viridis) from the Indo-Pacific and the emerald tree boa (Corallus caninus) from South America, which each evolved separately to sit in trees and be green while waiting for prey to pass below.
So, last month my sister got married and the band was Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns. The first-dance song was the Cure's "Just Like Heaven." Yes, it was weird seeing a female-fronted 1920's-style jazz band covering a Cure song.
In other musical news: The weekend before that, I went to Jazz Fest and caught Fleetwood Mac, Frank Ocean, and some Terence Blanchard and Stanley Clarke / George Duke. Saw Pure X (chilled-out desert pop) + ArchAnimals (angsty emocore) at the Circle Bar. This month I saw a typically kickass performance by A Place To Bury Strangers, opening for Japandroids at the Spanish Moon. Also saw an incredibly fun and strange performance-art-y headlining set by Prince Rama at Circle Bar. (The opening band, Spaceface, ended with a cover of David Bowie's glam classic "Moonage Daydream.") Also saw a few songs at the AllWays Lounge by a promising band called Jane Jane. They have recently relocated to New Orleans and shortened their name from Jane Jane Pollock.
In May and June I missed lots of concerts: Broken Water + Glish at someone's house called the Stripped Mall; Twin Shadow + Elliphant at Maison; Glish (opening for Coliseum) at Circle Bar; Faun Fables (headlined over Jane Jane but played first for some reason); Des Ark at the Big Top and at the Spanish Moon; the Record Raid on Piety Street.
Planets with similar climates: Mystery Machine - "Shaky Ground" (1992), Sonic Youth - "Silver Rocket" (1988), My Bloody Valentine - "Feed Me With Your Kiss" & "(When You Wake) You're Still In A Dream" (1988), Glish - "Future Things" & "Swings" (2012), Polvo - "Bend Or Break" (1992) & "High-Wire Moves" (1995), Pond - "Sideroad" (1995), Sebadoh - "Rebound" (1994). Currently obsessed with: Sacred Grinds coffee house. It's the size of a closet, but has some of the best food and smoothies in town, and two of the best baristas ever. R.I.P. Maple Street Books Mid-City and Maple Street Books on St. Claude Ave. Both closed on June 28th. Not to be rude, but wouldn't it have helped if they had changed their names to fit into their respective neighborhoods?
This is from the band's debut and only release, the CD EP Meet The Universal Chrome. In my opinion, and I've said this since buying it in 2002, it's the finest disc ever released by a New Orleans rock band, and nothing else comes even remotely close. I say this because it avoids all the clichés of "New Orleans music" in favor of the musical palette used by '80s / '90s Brit bands and their U.S. counterparts. There's nary a trace of funk, zydeco, blues, etc. on this disc, which sounds like a dumb or naïve thing to even point out, but you'd be surprised at how heavy the peer pressure is in NOLA for rock bands to include at least some native signifiers. After two crushingly dense opening seconds, "Helium" cruises along at sort of a moderate, dream-pop-y pace, sounding like nothing too special for its first two minutes. But at the 1:55 mark, the weather suddenly changes and it becomes a white-knuckle ride into paranoia ("Suspect the one who knows everything") and fight-or-flight aggression. With wah pedals alfutter in dramatic fashion, singer Zac Wilson announces very bluntly: "I'm in full control, so if you're fucking with me... Don't." It's simply one of the most amazing vocal performances ever laid to tape, in my opinion. I often like to say that certain songs "singlehandedly make the wah pedal cool again," and this is clearly one of them.
The CD and the inside of the booklet; took me 10 years to notice the naked lady. The CD is actually totally grayish silver, in fitting in with the "chrome" theme, but the lighting gave it a pinkish cast that I couldn't fix:
The band was originally known as Flux, and my introduction to them was hearing a live interview on corporate alt-rock station 106.7 The End on a cold, dreary night in latte December 1996 while driving around uptown New Orleans. I made a mental note to check them out, and I wish I had a recording of that interview. I'm sure the band does somewhere. A year or so later, they had to change their name due to a dispute by the group Flux, which was led by James Plotkin, who would later front the hilariously lame metal act Khanate. I still don't know what the band's name means, but I've seen it used as the finish color for certain auto parts. I had originally thought it was an homage to Catherine Wheel's classic heavy shoegaze album Chrome. The album cover is an image of a car engine's drive belt, so the band's name is probably indeed a car reference. Anyway, they opened for national touring bands like At The Drive-In, the Jesus Lizard, the Starlight Mints, etc., as well as big local bands like Burnversion, Rigid, and Weedater. And of course they opened the killer Hum / Swervedriver show I went to in '98. It has a hidden track, "The Last Resolve," which slays just about any song, hidden or non-hidden, in the history of music, and yes, I will be posting it someday.
I was overjoyed to find this flyer a few years ago at TUC's MySpace page, since I had never seen it back in the day:
Anyone who went to that concert (see ticket here) knows how the Chromies tore shit up and just about stole the show. I mean, jeez, they sure ate their fucking Wheaties that morning, as I like to say. They knew this would be one of the biggest moments of their lives, and they played like their lives depended on it. The singer was a manic ball of energy with his eyes almost bugging out of his head, like Frank Black on speed. And Melissa played her strong, Pixies-style basslines clad in her trademark red and white candy-striped leggings. I even bumped into my Loyola ichthyology teacher, Frank Jordan, there. (There was later an indie rock band named Frank Jordan, but I don't know if there was any connection.) Dr. Jordan saw Sonic Youth in Florida in the mid-'80s, so you know he knew what was up. I even lent him my Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love VHS around this time and never got it back. About a year later, he admitted to me that he had never gotten around to watching it.
Back on topic... The Universal Chrome were one of the best-loved local bands of the late '90s, but I only saw them that one time. Still kicking myself. They moved to NYC in 1999 to make it big or somewhat big, and in a less douchey world they would have. The most tantalizing fact: They recorded an unreleased full-length album, titled Closer To Shine, around the time of this EP. Their Facebook page said they planned on releasing it digitally in August 2010, but I guess that never happened. God damn. I can only take so much suspense. Luckily Meet has been released on iTunes. In the '00s, drummer Keith Hajjar was a member of Rock City Morgue, along with former White Zombie bassist Sean Yseult and singer Rik Slave of Rik Slave & The Phantoms. RCM had some success and garnered international interest; they even toured Europe in 2005. Their sound was on the glammy, proto-punky '70s NYC side (NY Dolls, Dead Boys, etc.), very different from The Universal Chrome. In other words, RCM was dedicated to recreating a bygone era, while TUC tried to forge something new, edgy, and dangerous. So it's no surprise that I never saw RCM live or paid much attention to them. Like anyone who was a teenage male in the '90s, I had a crush on Sean, and I have to say that White Zombie was one of the most fun and entertaining live bands I ever saw. (Opening for Pantera at Lakefront Arena in '96.)
Tue. Oct. 16: Went to GW Fins, it was loud as hell, got some non-seafood, tried to block out the noise, great bread, great waiter, it got noisier, I got peeved. Seemed overpriced, and the portions were on the small side.
Thur. Oct. 18: Went to Pelican Club for my sister's birthday. Finally met her fiancée's mom, Mary, who immediately praised my palm paintings that she had seen. Aunt Ann flew in from Savannah and Vanessa came too, along with mom and dad. Afterwards we went to the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone briefly; was my first time doing so. Definitely swank city. Missed the second Obama-Romney debate due to all this, but Obama dispatched the creepy dude easily, based on highlights I saw and according to the general consensus of political pundits.
Fri. Oct. 19: Ann, mom and I went to the NOMA Sculpture Garden, had lunch in NOMA's café, then went to the Botanical Garden. These things are all literally yards apart from each other, making for one of the most interesting couple of blocks on the planet in which to feed your brain and pass some time.
Sat. Oct. 20: Went to Kathleen & Jay's Halloween party for the first time. This is a big-ass deal, and they even have cops close off the block to traffic. They were screening The Avengers on the side of the house via a video projector outside. I went as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in a shirt I had found at a thrift store the previous day. Good clean fun, as Cat Power would say. Stuck a bony hand decal / sticker thing on Ashley's face. On WTUL's concert listings I heard that my favorite local jazz band (since Christian Scott no longer lives here), Tarik Hassan Group, was playing at AllWays Lounge, so I headed over there. It was Hassan's birthday. They were great, as always, and I was amazed to see the jazz singer I had met recently (Meghan Stewart) come into the club wearing a rather provocative red outfit. I was hoping she'd sing with them, but it turned out she was there as a bellydancer(!). So yeah, she danced / twirled / jiggled in rather stunning fashion to a few songs and really got the crowd going.
Sun. Oct. 21: I finally joined last.fm. My username is a Magic Dirt song that I should've already posted on here by now. Some other possible usernames that made the final round: HighwireDays (song by the P-Furs), FiresInMotion (lyric from Simple Minds' "Speed Your Love To Me), InvisibleKnife (lyric from Sand Rubies' "Drugged"), TheNewSunrise (song by The Joy Circuit), ExitBodyExitmind (lyric from New Fast Automatic Daffodils' "Music").
You may remember a few posts ago I pointed out the fallacy of the attempts by the Tea Party / Birther faction of Republicans to convince their peers that Obama would snatch up everyone's guns upon taking office. And how paranoia has driven gun & ammo sales to record highs in the U.S. Well, I had assumed everyone had come to their senses on this topic, but just the other day, I saw this ad in Baton Rouge's The Advocate newspaper:
Translation: "If the black guy gets elected again, you'll need something a little more powerful than that paltry shotgun or revolver that you have." It's kind of chilling how the phrase "We lost a game, we didn't do enough" is right above this ad in the football recap. And to answer the question asked in this ad, my answer is: Yes, as a matter of fact I am worried what you fucking rednecks will "bring" over the next 4 years. (A bill is about to hit the Louisiana legislature that proposes automatically granting a concealed weapon permit to anyone who buys a gun. Think about that for a second.) Gun sales are already up around 70% between 2008 and 2012.
Mon. Oct. 22: Obama simply eviscerated Romney in their third debate. He did so even though the debate focused on foreign policy, which means the challenger can simply lay into the incumbent on any little thing the incumbent has done overseas in the last 4 years. In other words, the red carpet is laid out to the challenger, and the incumbent has to be on his heels the whole time. I've honestly never seen anything like it, and I think it will be studied by future generations. I mean.. wow. This was just an all-out humiliation for Romney, in which he walked right into trap after trap that he set for himself, such as the topic of the outsourcing of jobs to China (a practice which Republicans all but patented) and the size of the U.S. military. For an average person, I would worry that he or she would have major psychological issues for the remainder of his or her life after having such a thing done to him or herself on live television, but for someone as smirky and used-car-salesman-esque as Romney, I think he'll be able to shake it off on the strength of his utter inability to have any spine or sense of self.
Sorry for all this personal diary type stuff, but it's been an eventful month, and the next few will definitely not be. Concert-wise, this may go down as one of my best ever, along with March '98 and March '04.
R.I.P. David S. Ware. Even if you're not an Aquarius like I am, spark up his serenely hypnotic "Aquarian Sound", one of my favorite jazz tracks ever.
Planets with similar climates: Catherine Wheel - "Waydown" (1995), Pixies - "Gouge Away" (1988), Quicksand - "Dine Alone" (1992), ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - "Prince With A Thousand Enemies" (1997), Unwound - "Stuck In The Middle Of Nowhere Again" (1992), Bailter Space - "Control" (1994).
(DeSoto Records / Pacifico Records, 1998; Modern City Records [France], 2001)
This song really has it all: A ridiculously long, atmospheric intro, cool guitar textures galore, rocket-propelled drumming, a tsunami of psychedelic axe-mangling, and of course a monster climax to end all climaxes. And only four lines of of lyrics in ten minutes. And three guitarists. Do the math. You can see by the genre tags I used that this band was not exactly easy to pigeonhole. I've always wondered where that word came from.
Due to the stealthy escalation of tempo, there is an 85-90% chance that you'll get a speeding ticket if you listen to this on ye olde American highway, so it's better to listen to it at bingo nite or any other time you need a quick pick-me-up without caffeine. In order to stave off insomnia, I avoid caffeine after noon. Juno covered DJ Shadow's "High Noon" on a split EP with DeSoto labelmates The Dismemberment Plan.
I first heard about Juno in a Jade Tree Records mailorder catalog in early '98, and almost ordered a 7" by them. I read reviews of this album, This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes, around the time it came out in '99. But I didn't buy it until spring '03, when the Wherehouse Music (formerly Blockbuster Music) on Tchoupitoulas St. had a going-out-of-business sale and I snagged dozens of used CDs. (That's the only time I've ever seen this CD for sale in the used bins in the 13+ years since it was released, since almost no one who buys it is dumb enough to sell it. If you ever see it used, do not hesitate to open your wallet.) Articles about the band always mention singer Arlie Carstens' former career as a pro snowboarder, and the grisly accident he sustained which forced him to focus solely on music. His loss, our gain. The review of the album in CMJ by Kelso Jacks said "Juno crafts its music slowly. However, the brilliance of this album more than compensates for Juno's less-than-prolific nature. The band relies on the powerful interplay of three guitars to churn up an expansive whirlpool of textures. Juno's blasting, six-string complexities mimic everything from airplanes to waterfalls to banjo plucks. Unfettered by convention, these Northwesterners follow their sonic muse without paying mind to the clock, allowing sweeping, 10-minute epics such as 'Leave A Clean Camp And A Dead Fire' to unfold with the kind of passionate aggression that makes potentially self-indulgent duration a moot point. The brutal rhythm section adds to and controls the thunder using carefully measured accents and punctuations. This raucous din is topped off by guitarist Arlie Carstens' intelligent, surreal utterances, which are processed through a fuzzbox to complete Juno's wall of intensity. Truly worth the wait." That's basically a clinic on how to write a compact and informative review, by the way, though he should've mentioned more than just one specific song. (I omitted one discography-related sentence near the beginning.) It concludes: "Marketing Data: A summer tour is possible, though Carstens is currently recovering from spinal cord injuries, the result of his severely being injured in a snowboarding accident, earlier this year."
Great live clip at an unspecified venue in an unspecified year:
Also check out the sublimely haunting murder ballad "A Listening Ear", featuring co-lead vocals from Seattle chanteuse Jen Wood. It has some of the coolest slide guitar I've ever heard. A band called The Sea, Like Lead named itself after the album's closing song, "The Sea Looked Like Lead."
This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes was not originally released on vinyl, but in 2001 a European tour edition on double LP was pressed on a French label called Modern City Records. Juno's live shows are the stuff of legend. They never played in New Orleans, sadly, and believe me, I sat around staring out my window for several years, pining for them to come by and Junoify my city. I guess Europe was a lot more inviting to them. The only other three-guitarist band that I actually listen to on a regular basis is Band Of Susans.
2001 gatefold double LP with two different colored records; pic courtesy of discogs.com
Juno's stature in the indie rock community is such that a documentary film was made about their recent comeback, but I don't know if it ever came out, and its website appears to be in mothballs.
Fri. Oct. 5: Despite having some sort of sinus infection or cold, saw Merchandise and Glish at the Big Top. It was kickass, and each band played the songs I wanted to hear, though it was evident that Merchandise's (very charismatic) singer was wasted off his ass. More on this show in an upcoming post! Oh yeah, I donated a book called For The Vegetarian In You to the NOLADIY / An Idea Like No Other guys so they could add it to the Iron Rail library. And I requested that they order me a copy of the new Possession EP by this Portland band called Arctic Flowers. Wandered around Frenchmen St. afterwards, mainly to catch the end of a photography exhibit called Velado by Melissa Stryker at Scott Edwards Photography Studio & Gallery. The photos had naked ppl and were printed on huge aluminum sheets, but in my opinion were not as racy or scandalous as the artist probably thought they would be. Here's the front and back of the postcard that made me decide to trek to the exhibit:
No, that's not Stryker in the pic. I saw a few songs by a crazy funk / party band called Yojimbo that was playing at Maison. Their singer / trombonist is a super-energetic, bespectacled redhead, and I was stunned to see she was wearing this bootleg Sonic Youth Sister t-shirt that is commonly sold by shady sellers online. I got mine on eBay about a decade ago; I think I gave it away to my internet girlfriend Michelle, whom I am no longer internet dating.
I took some video clips of Yojimbo, if only as proof that the singer had this shirt on. I didn't go inside due to it being packed and me being sick, but the open door and huge glass windows made it easy to see & hear inside. This girl, Carly Meyers, will be a superstar. In between jumping up and down as if on a pogo stick, playing her trombone pointed up at the ceiling, and laughingly wiping sweat from her face with a towel, she guided the crowd in holding up a blanket and urged them to "Get in the love tunnel!" I found a great Merchandise show poster (a big one, different from the small one shown above) on Frenchmen, so my night was complete.
Sat. Oct. 6: Went to the Bridge House thrift store and bought some sweet books and NIN's The Downward Spiral on CD ($1), then played hoops at that Annunciation Street court. One of the dudes was LSU's point guard in the late '80s / early '90s. He was a stocky redhead who could fill it up from outside. I mentioned that I went to LSU basketball camp in 1990. Watched some of the #4 LSU vs. #10 Florida football game with my sister, then we tried to go to the Botanical Garden. She was impressed by the raw power of "I Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart" by A Place To Bury Strangers on the drive over there. NOBG was due to a wedding, so we walked around City Park and did some obnoxious stuff. Came back and watched LSU lose in pathetic fashion. I had lost track of my The Downward Spiral CD long ago, and was blown away by how fresh and visceral it still sounds. I still have the promo postcard that Interscope sent me when the album came out, and my friend Warren and I listened to it all the time in the mid-'90s. I had kind of swept the album under the rug of my mind as I got into better music over the years, but songs like "Reptile" and "Mr. Self-Destruct" are just inimitable and stand up to any sort of highbrow scrutiny.
Sun. Oct. 7: This was a pretty interesting day. A cold front blasted through, bringing the temp. down by about 20º from the previous day's high. I helped to stake some Chinese pistachio trees on Metairie Rd. with some Parkway Partners people. I was wearing my red Drew Brees practice jersey since he was gonna try to break Johnny Unitas' streak of 47 straight games with a TD pass that night, and the NFL wisely made sure it was against the team that let Drew go, the Chargers, a team that is so inept that it actually got the name Chargers from the fact that it was founded by a credit card ("charge card") magnate. Then Em and mom and I went to the zoo; Em said "Oh my God" so many times that mom and I had to tell her to limit it to one time per exhibit, but she couldn't even do that. Then we ate at this pizzeria called Slice next to Whole Foods, then went to Whole Foods, then went home to watch the first half of the Saints game. Drew got the record early with a pass that literally hit Devery Henderson on the numbers and in stride. That means "The ball flew through the air and hit the receiver on the chest, and the receiver did not have to alter his running motion." Found out that the Godspeed show already started, since the dumb promo postcard and poster had the wrong start times on them. So Em and I drove over to Tip's, knowing that we had missed the opening act, G String Orchestra. Luckily Godspeed were in peak form, beginning with a long (10-minute?) ambient drone, the one at the beginning of "The Dead Flag Blues" but unfortunately omitting the ominous dude talking about cars on fire, a thousand lonely suicides, etc. Minimalistic film clips (sometimes just words) were projected behind them throughout the show; they also did this when I saw then in March '03 at TwiRoPa. I was disappointed at a few downsized elements: The band was down to only one female member, and no longer had any cello; the venue was smaller than last time; the merch table was way smaller, with only the (brand) new album for sale (and only on vinyl), plus some t-shirts. These are minor complaints, because it was a really challenging and uncompromising concert, the kind most "post-rock" bands wouldn't even dare attempt. Even by GYBE's standards, the buildups were extra-long and the climaxes were done with a great flair for layering. Mom texted me to say the Saints had won; I texted back "Fuck yeah." Near the middle of the show a dude passed out and hit the ground with a huge thud right behind us, and had to be escorted out. (This was nowhere near as cool as when a guy slashed his wrists outside a Humpers / Neckbones show that I caught in '97 at Monaco Bob's. That show continued after only a brief pause, by the way.) The finale was just incredible, with two of the greatest pieces of music I've ever seen, set to a backdrop of a factory on fire. I'm pretty sure the last thing they played was "World Police And Friendly Fires." There was no encore, despite lots of cheering. Efrim didn't say a word to the crowd, despite the fact that he was practically a stand-up comedian at the A Silver Mt. Zion show in Feb. at One Eyed Jacks. To celebrate the fact that her computer had not been stolen, despite being parked with one window totally down, we went to this bar called Ms. Mae's up the street. It was as lame as my sister told me it would be, though I played two Interpol songs and Catherine Wheel's "Black Metallic" on the internet jukebox. Some guy in a just-bought Godspeed (or G String Orchestra) shirt juked some Pelican and Russian Circles. Uhh... No comment, Beavis. A charismatic 59.9 year old art teacher at Tulane sit right down at our table and hit on Emily right in front of me, and kept claiming he had met us before. So we had to eventually make a daring exit, which prompted him to desperately ask us "Are you guys on Facebook?" "No, sorry." We were, as the saying goes, so done with that.
I stupidly trusted the door time on the postcard rather than the door time on the ticket, hence why we missed the opening band
Sorry for all the pics in this post.
Planets with similar climates: Plexi - "Peel / He" (1995), Catherine Wheel - "Ferment" (1992), Kitchens Of Distinction - "Blue Pedal" (1992), The Sound - "New Dark Age" (1981), "Missiles" (1979) & "Whirlpool" (1985), The Church - "Chaos" (1992), Unwound - "For Your Entertainment" (1996), Pantera - "Hollow" (1992).
Asylum Party formed in 1985 in Courbevoie, France, and lasted only about 5 years, which is about the maximum that any good post-punk band should last. They were part of what is allegedly called the "Touching Pop" movement in France ca. '89-91. I didn't find out about them until a few years ago, and by golly if I didn't have to wonder why they are not superstars of the post-punk scene. In this song, and in many others, they knew how to use an athletic bassline to guide a song melodically, giving it a visceral feel in the midst of the prevailing gloom. I'm always a sucker for songs that begin with the instruments entering one at a time. I guess I never realized that practically every country in Europe had its own post-punk scene in the '80s. I had thought the bands over there emitted mostly nuance-deficient stuff like neanderthalic industrial metal or cheesy synthtronic pop.
This song definitely goes on a bit too long, but that Krautrockin' beat makes it a joy to listen to all the way through. As for the lyric "I can only hear the sound of my own shade," that's how it is written at SongMeanings, but it sounds to me as though they got that last word wrong. Maybe it's "chase"? I've been meaning (ha... ha...) to join that site for many years now.
Back cover of LP
Tue. Sep. 18: Did some yard work. Took this pic in my car window with a tarp inside that reflected lots of weird gleams of light. Another thing you can see reflected on me is bags of recycling that I was bringing in to New Orleans, since recycling is no longer done where I live.
The slight paunch is probably due to my recent beer enthusiasm, which I've decided to curtail. The curve of the window makes my arm look a bit bigger than normal, not that I'm complaining... Watched some of the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance with Em and mom. Gave Em a big black portfolio thing to keep concert posters in, and an extra copy of J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories. Stopped at the Mushroom while on my way over to Tipitina's to see Beach House, hoping to see Sam, but failed yet again. Recommended Curve's Cuckoo to Michael ("They're like Bleach with a drum machine""), who immediately put it on. Bought Godspeed You Black Emperor's Slow Riot For New Zerø Kanada EP on used CD. I had first heard a song from it in summer of '99 on WTUL, so it was nice to finally own it on CD. (The CD's packaging makes no mention of the band's name.) Michael was surprised when I told him GYBE were coming to Tip's and that MONO were coming to the Spanish Moon in B.R., and said he wanted to see Beach House, but couldn't. The Beach House show was sold-out, with a huge line to get in, even though we had tickets. I spontaneously confessed to the doorman that I had used a fake i.d. to get into my first-ever show at Tip's, which was Helmet, a few days before my 18th birthday in '95. Opening act Dustin Wong studiously tormented his geetar as though he he felt he was reinventing the medium, but it came off as pretty tedious. After a ridiculous 30-min. wait, the House kicked things off with their best song, "Wild," so I was pretty happy. Also did "Norway," "Gila," "Silver Soul," "10 Mile Stereo," "Myth," "Lazuli," and many more crepuscular hits.
A full setlist will probably be added here at some point. They were much better than when I saw them in '08 at the Spanish Moon. This is mainly because they simply have better songs now, and a better drummer (their drummer last time was the singer of their opening act Papercuts), and a sweet light show. Afterwards, Em & I hung around in the suspiciously cool air of a cold front for the Beachies to stumble out to their tour bus, but they never did. We smoked a few cigs, since I allow myself one or two per month, then went to a bar down the street, and after a little while my sister realized that it used to be Shiloh, one of her old hangouts. She told me about how she had said a few words to Carlos D. of Interpol after their show at TwiRoPa in Feb. '05, when he DJ'd a heavily-advertised afterparty at Shiloh. I think some other members of the band were there too; not sure why I didn't go.
Wed. 19: Cleaned my parents' gutters & rooftop. Hit up McKeown's Books and scored some good stuff: Donald Rawley - Slow Dance On The Fault Line (Stories); Ron Rash - Chemistry (Stories); Ekkehard Jost - Free Jazz. Bought a ticket for Godspeed You Black Emperor at Tip's next month, after grudgingly deciding that they are "the kind of band that I'd go see on a reunion tour."
Thu. 20: Went into a nearly empty little coffee shop called Sound Café, next to the Bywater NOCCA, and was impressed to find out they have a built-in bookstore called Beth's Books. The girl working there was really sweet and thoughtful, and mentioned she was a jazz singer. She told me her name and said I should come see her sing at her next few gigs (Tommy's Wine Bar and The Spotted Cat). The shy African-American guy sitting in the café turned out to be her trumpeter; they do only jazz standards. Here's the video for a song she did with someone else: "Emergency Baby". So yeah, the old cliché about the person serving you your coffee being a musician sometimes turns out to be true, and you sometimes wonder why the person isn't a big star yet. This particular lady could win American Idol with half her vocal cords tied behind her back. I began debating in my mind if she was better than Sasha Masakowski, but decided their voices are too different to make for a fair comparison, even though they both sing the jazz.
I bought a very strong and flavorful iced coffee, which is what I usually buy after panicking upon realizing I don't know all the cool terminology that is needed to order complex coffee drinks. As for books, I scored:
Yes, I don't have much of an attention span for novels, so I tend to go with collections of short stories / poems. I got the one called Body Betrayer gratis, sitting on the freebie rack outside. It's a collection of very edgy, sexually blunt poems that Anais Nin or Erica Jong would be proud of. Not sure why they were giving it away. My interest was piqued in the James Purdy book because The Dream Palace was a local music club; since about 2003 it's been under new ownership as The Blue Nile. Saw a building that was possibly destroyed by Hurricane Isaac:
Good question
Then I went to Harold's Nursery and bought a little tillandsia (air plant), then to Euclid Records, where I got three good 7"s (Psychedelic Furs - "The Ghost In You"; Windy & Carl / Hopewell split; Bush Tetras - "Things That Go Boom In The Night"). Listened to an A.R. Kane 12" and an early Sad Lovers & Giants LP but didn't like them enough to buy them. Recommended a Dif Juz EP to one of the dudes there who likes to play New Age-y, 4AD-ish stuff over the store's stereo. Sorry for all the specificity, but music and books are not things that can just be mentioned vaguely.
Fri. 21: At night I talked to Drea on AOL for a few hours, during which we apologized for a little spat we had a few weeks ago. Have known her online for 7 years, and didn't want to lose her friendship, so I was relieved. I think her site is one of the few female-run Tumblrs in existence that are Ryan Gosling-free.
Sat. 22: Okay, this really strange thing happened this morning... I had put out my nasty old sofa for the trash guys to take away. I'm playing basketball shirtless, and a girl and a boy, about age 7-10 or so, drive past on a golf cart, as kids (and adults) are often wont to do out in the country. This sofa, well loveseat actually, probably dates back to when the house was built & furnished 35 years ago, and is hideous, saggy, brown with fucking tan and navy zig-zag stripes. Seriously, you couldn't even dream up a lamer and more pathetic couch as a joke. The girl asks "Can I have your sofa?" It's a valid question, but I don't turn around to talk to her, because I don't want to be seen by neighbors talking shirtless and sweaty to some kids, and because it might take a while to explain why this sofa sucks and why their parents wouldn't even allow this thing anywhere near their house, much less inside it. Don is painting some iron porch furniture black across the street and the smell of paint fumes is wafting over. I kinda turn my head a few degrees in the kids' direction to show I had heard and processed the question, but I walk further away. "Hey! Can we take your sofa?" I still don't turn around, so they ride off. The garbage guy crams the monstrosity into the back of the garbage truck several minutes later, rejecting my offer for help but taking the sports drinks I had laid out as thanks. On the kids' next pass (they passed by about 10 times), I see the girl picking up and examining a shoe or something, which had apparently dropped out of the garbage truck. ("Wow, and I thought I was an obsessive scavenger," I think to myself...) I go inside now, having just thrown my sweaty clothes into the washing machine, wearing only boxers, about to go hop in the shower, and I hear the doorbell ring. "Oh great, it's some candidate for a November election seat," I think, and I hope he/she hadn't peered in and seen me. Instead I see the girl running from my door back to the street, whereupon the kids motor away nonchalantly. Okay, a simple doorbell-ringing prank... So I take a shower and come down, and the doorbell rings again, and I see the girl running back to the golf cart again, but this time she (AND the boy) both have some sort of wedding veil on. This is turning into something right out of Gummo now... (That's what I always say to myself whenever I see some bizarre incident going on out in the sticks: "This is like something out of Gummo.") Believe me, you never see any kind of cross-dressing out here. Maybe they were annoyed at me for ignoring them, or just wanted to ask why I was getting rid of something that is functional. I guess this story is not very interesting without visuals, but it's of course a felony to film someone without permission, so you'll just have to take my word that it was a head-scratching situation. A little while later, I saw them pull into a special golf cart garage door at a house a block away. I started chuckling uncontrollably at the concept of a mini garage door sized specifically for a golf cart, especially since it was situated right next to the "big boy" garage door for a car, just like a doggy door next to a people door. I think I'll put out something at the curb next week for the kids to scavenge up, so that they won't exact some violent revenge on me years from now for rudely depriving them of a sofa. So I'm at that awkward moment when I feel pressured to put some stuff out at my curb to appease some Mad Max-esque kids, but I have to make sure it's not too cool, otherwise they'll expect more.
Later on XM radio I heard the Sonic Youth song that Drea had used as her AOL name years ago, and smiled.
Sun. 23: The Saints dropped to a stunning 0-3 with a home loss to the Chiefs, blowing a 24-8 lead. At home. Panic grips the state, since everyone here hoped they would go to the Super Bowl in NOLA this season. The main problem is that the defensive scheme used by new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is giving up the most yards in the NFL. And Darren "Sproles Royce" Sproles, who set the NFL's single-season yards record last year (yes, he amassed more total yards last year than any player in history had ever amassed in one year, and even got his own exhibit at the Hall Of Fame in Canton to commemorate it), has been MIA.
Repotted a cactus and planted a Butia palm I had plucked up as a tiny seedling 4 years ago at the north border of Esplanade Mall in Kenner.
Music video of the year so far: Strip Steve feat. Puro Instinct - "Astral Projection"
Latest obsession: The band 2:54, particularly their song "You're Early"
Planets with similar climates: Bleach - "Seeing" (1991), The Chameleons - "Second Skin" (1983), For Against - "Autocrat" (1985), Bailter Space - "Now I Will Live" (1987), Kitchens Of Distinction - "Hypnagogic" (1990), U2 - "The Unforgettable Fire" (1984).
Since a teenage user on a music rating site that I use recently made a rant against Faith No More's supposed "rap-metal" stylings, repeatedly expressed misogynist beliefs, and said that I partake in "feminist bullshit," I figured I'd post a song with a female singer rapping over a shoegaze background, if only to see if his head would explode at encountering all these things he hates rolled into one pie. I mean, one can insult me all one wants, but when Faith No More is brought into it, a line has been crossed and things shift to a different level. This person apparently has no idea that FNM's original lead singer was black, and hence the Rock Police would thereby have granted him leeway to do some rap-style singing. (Chuck recently put out a solo album cheekily titled Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food.) His favorite bands are Neutral Milk Hotel and Bright Eyes... No, really. So one song immediately popped into my mind, since I already posted the other one ("Burn", also by Bleach). The feral intensity of the guitars in this song will never cease to impress me. The tremoloed guitar at the beginning adds a bit of surfy twang, but that is quickly massacred by a tsunami of drums and what I call "Godzilla roar" guitars. I always looked at this as sort of a novelty track until about 5 years ago, when I realized how addictive and well-contructed it was.
This song apparently caused a minor stir in the U.K. indie scene when it was released as a single (on CD, 7", and 12") in 1991. It was then wisely included on Bleach's sole album, Killing Time, in '92. That's one of my top ten fav. LPs ever, but I'm sure I've mentioned that before. If you don't know which version of "Shotgun" you're listening to, the single (indie) version is 3:51 long and the album (major-label) version is 3:42. The versions sound identical, except that the album version has four drum taps at the beginning. And on the single version, Salli ends the second stanza with "Spin me around," whereas on the album version she uses "Fucking around."
Salli's sharp-edged vocals in this song can be discussed forever, both pro and con. Being someone who listened exclusively to rap / hip hop in that particular year (1991), I can say that she knew exactly what she was doing, and did it with zero hesitation or "Ha ha, check this out" sarcasm. (If you want the latter, check out Sonic Youth's "Master-Dik.") Her vocal starting at 1:55 is very badass, playing off the beat in a nimble way that noted clumsy rapper Kanye West should take notes from. What I mean by that is that she slows down for a line, then speeds up and uses the bass drum hits to provide emphasis/punch underneath certain words near the end of phrases. You can even hear her waiting a split second to say the second syllable of the word "homespun" right on the kick drum (bass drum). It takes skilled breath control to be able to do this stuff; for someone who was known for her somewhat reedy / fey voice, she stepped up and really delivered the goods here. I've spent years trying to figure out what she says at this 1:55 section; I know it contains "You do and say what you think I'm not supposed to" and "I don't say what I'm allowed to."
The single's cover art features a silver-painted foot with a blue string tied around it. The string could either be for an i.d. tag in a morgue, or a way for a person to commit suicide by tugging on it whilst its other end is on the trigger of a gun. Parasol Records was clearancing this 7" for 50 cents for several years, and I always swore I'd get around to ordering a bunch, but recently was miffed to discover they no longer have it. The b-side is the extremely poppy and passionate "Bone," which should have also been released as a single. I would recommend buying the CD or 12" version instead of the 7", since in addition to "Bone," those formats add the stunning 10-minute "First & Last." An absolutely essential and groundbreaking EP, which I give 5 stars without any reservations.
A few days ago I discovered that Bleach made a video for "Decadence" in 1990. This made my week. The last third or so of the video has lots of psychedelically-tinted sea creatures:
This means that they had at least three videos, the others being the exuberant "Dipping" (1991) and the stylishly vertiginous "Surround" (1992). Does anyone know if there was a video for "Shotgun"? I also just found an ferociously spirited and bloodthirsty Peel session from July '91, which is neither for those who are faint of heart nor for those with flimsy computer speakers. Fun Fact: This was the same approximate month that I bought Above The Law's Livin' Like Hustlers, an album that brilliantly combined rap with jazz & rock instrumentation. I wouldn't even find out about Bleach until about a decade later. Also in '91, Public Enemy and Anthrax were touring together after having done that (awful) "Bring The Noise" collabo with each other.
Here is a pic from the May 4, 1991 issue of Melody Maker, with Curve on the cover. As far as I know, this image (photographer credit: Patrick Gilbert) has never been posted online before:
In 1993, a live version of "Shotgun" appeared on Bleach's Trip & Slide & Live promo CD EP, which I've been trying to get my hands on for years. That EP's artwork also starred the dead silver foot, this time on a bed of red grapes. In 2006, the song was included on an impressive and much-needed compilation called Like A Daydream: A Shoegazing Guide:
Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13 & 15 are among the best songs ever recorded, and most of the others are quite nice
It's been a record-setting week of heat across the U.S., with Denver over 100º for 5 straight days and the area near Colorado Springs ablaze. It's said to be Colorado's worst disaster ever. Tropical Storm Debby thankfully went to Florida instead of here last week. No rain here for about 2 weeks now, with temps in mid to upper 90s.
Sat. 6/23: Went to two Louisiana Nursery locations in Baton Rouge, both for the first time. Was very impressed with their plants.
Wed. 6/27: Got a picturesque & hardy species of prickly pear cactus called Opuntia santa-rita at Home Depot to replace a flimsier Opuntia that I already have.
Thur. 6/28: Saw the Flaming Lips set the Guinness world record at HOB. Grimes dropped off the bill with no notification or explanation. She was replaced by the somewhat (intentionally or unintentionally?) hilarious MNDR, sort of a combination of Madonna, Har Mar Superstar, and Grimes. She was decked out in slutty black and white mid-'80s Madge garb, letting her love handles jiggle provocatively, and ordered a guy and girl from the crowd to come up on stage to dance during one song. MNDR played only about 15 minutes. Then Wayne Coyne was paraded up Decatur Street to the front of the HOB, with local boys the Stooges Brass Band leading the way. The Lips kicked off with their two biggest hits, "Do You Realize??" and "She Don't Use Jelly." I was kind of jaded towards their stage prop tricks, having not seen the Lips since 1994, but I have to admit it was pretty transcendent. I raised my can of Guinness Draught at the moment the Guinness record breakage was announced. They played for about 70 minutes, despite averaging only 15 minutes at the previous seven stops. Thanks for the free tix, Butch! And thank you Ashley for making it through your terrible day (moving problems + flat tire) and coming out with us. It was too hot and humid to walk around the Quarter, so afterwards we got some grub at Lucy's (Lucy's Retired Surfer Bar & Restaurant) afterwards, and my sister taught me what a well drink is. I had my eyes glued to the NBA Draft. In addition to the somewhat overrated Anthony Davis, we got human highlight reel Austin Rivers, as I'd been hoping. I've also heard a rumor that Chris Paul wants to come back to the Hornets...
Fri. 6/29: My sister has been mad @ Grimes for canceling, so I texted her a self-deprecating Grimes tweet ("I'm not trying 2 be cute, I have a fucking speech impediment.") Went to dad's surprise 60th birthday party at Pelican Club. Tom, Ann, Kathleen, Shane, Ali, Roxanne, Preston, Sprague & wife, Jay & wife, and Jack & wife all came. It was also Vanessa's bday so she was included too. Emily cleverly wrote "You're sixty and you know it!" on dad's card, and dad actually crooned a bit of said LMFAO song. Do not ask me how he knew about it...
Sat. 6/30: Went to Dat Dog's new location for the first time. We had to sit outside in delightful 95º heat. I got the Guinness (beer) Dog again, but found it overbearingly greasy, so I probably would not get it again. Got aunt Ann a little Stevia plant at Freret Street Nursery directly across the street. We did not make it to the NOMA sculpture garden as I had hoped. Shane ripped lots of my CDs (e.g. Ween [R.I.P.], The Church, Acetone, Gil Scott-Heron, Faith No More, Miles Davis) to his Mac on my recommendation, after quickly selecting Herbie Hancock's Headhunters on his own. Roxanne decided that she and Shane should get a Uromastyx after she held mine and fed her by hand. Went to get snowballs at Sal's with dad, Preston & Roxanne. Used Sears gift card (received as collateral during garage door repair last summer) towards a little Sony HDR-CX190 Handycam, mainly to record bands in concert. Overall, one of the most eventful & strange 48-hour spans I've had in many years.
Here is a painting I finished on Super Bowl Sunday 2012, whose silver and blue reminds me of the Shotgun cover art. Yes, the palms are supposed to be leaning towards an implied ocean on their right, since the sand is always shifting / sinking a bit on the ocean side as compared to the dry land side. And I guess it goes without saying that these are supposed to be coconut palms. It's the first palm painting I've done on a circular or oval canvas (bought at Hobby Lobby, I think), and I will definitely be using them again:
That's the painting's info card; I try to remember to make one for every artwork I do, just in case I become famous in a few decades. I posed it on the pot of my 'Blue Elf' aloe for no reason. Some interesting tidbits are often buried in these cards, such as the fact that those are not black stripes. The dates also remind me that that silver-coated oval canvas sat on my coffee table for almost a year while I thought about what to do with it. Note that I only sign the backs of my paintings, never ever ever the fronts, since I grew up admiring album cover art, which essentially never have anyone's name scrawled on them.
Deciding whether I will go see a mediocre band with potential tonight called Widowspeak at Circle Bar, if only because I haven't been there in almost two years. I don't know if they have A/C post-renovation; they never did before. Widowspeak sound just like Mazzy Star's first two albums, down to the most minute detail, for better or for worse. The problem is that they remind me of a more lightweight version of the band EXITMUSIC, and don't yet have Mazzy Star's knack for penning at least a couple memorable tunes per album.
10-year-long video game creates 'hellish nightmare' world - "He doesn't play every day but returns to what he called a 'hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation' when he has some free time. Now in the year 3991, his world is down to three super-nations, each competing for dwindling resources, and a planet left scarred by multiple nuclear wars. His Celts are locked in a 1,700-year war with the Vikings and the Americans. All other nations have been destroyed or absorbed. Because of the continual fighting, he was forced to abandon his democracy and adopt a communist state, because his Senate kept overruling him when he wanted to declare war. Also, his cities are filled with starving people (90% of his world's population died from nuclear annihilation or famine from global warming) because, he says, he has to keep building war machines to sustain his combat efforts."
Planets with similar climates: A.C. Temple - "Chinese Burn" (1988), Lush - "Blackout" (1994), Poem Rocket - "Small White Animal" (1995), Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Swervedriver - "Son Of Mustang Ford" (1990), Faith No More - "From Out Of Nowhere" (1989), Feverdream - "Vortex" (1995), You Am I - "Embarrassed" (1993).
I downloaded this EP, Unloverlike, last year after seeing it on an mp3 blog that I used to follow, despite my vehemently hatred of Kill [Female Name] band names. The EP itself, released only on 12" vinyl, is long out of print. It took me forever to decide whether to post this song or the passionate "False Dawn". Singer Jane Weaver obviously has one of the most astoundingly awesome and versatile voices on the planet. The best showcase for her voice on this EP is the delicate and almost hallucinogenic dream-pop ballad "Cinnamon Brow," in which she does some stunningly nuanced vocal gymnastics that only someone with operatic training should be able to pull off. And the EP's title is a lyric in that song. So just check out the whole EP, which is truly one of the lost classics of the '90s. If it had been released on Creation, 4AD, or Too Pure, it would have the large cult following that it deserves. The most simplistic overall way I could describe the EP's sound would be Lush and/or Bleach (U.K.) meets Sonic Youth and/or Poem Rocket, with a PJ Harvey lyrical style.
Info about the band is hard to come by; they were from Liverpool and released three EPs. It's hard enough to know anything about these kinds of bands while they're still active, and almost impossible two decades later. You can see a copyrighted promo photos of Kill Laura here, plus a live pic here. On the live pic page, the photographer refers to Jane as "One of the tallest, most talented and nicest musicians I have ever met."
Promo pic by Tony Smith, "Taken in the Winnington Rec Snooker Room"
When I first heard this song, I immediately thought of PJ Harvey's classic "Rid Of Me", due to the abrupt soft-to-loud dynamic shift. I think the word "unheeled" in this song means both untamed (as in, teaching a dog to heel), and its homonym, unhealed (as in, the singer's wounds). And it could also mean poor, as in the opposite of "well-heeled." So she could be saying that at that bad point in her life, she was reckless, injured, and poor, which led her to getting into some situation that she regrets. "If you could be somewhere, where would it be?" is a chilling thought, in terms of it being something that an abused person probably spends a lot of time thinking about. But the way she sings it is so gorgeous that it should be aired continually in Travelocity or Orbitz commercials around the globe, bringing vast royalties to the members of KL. Just snip out that sentence and play it atop some slo-mo clips of parents walking behind their kids on a beach and you have instant advertising gold. Or better yet, picture William Shatner fucking hang-gliding off of the edge of an erupting volcano to this song and watch the money roll right in.
Speaking of wounds, here's the cover art:
I buss'id my lip open playing basketball while wearing one of my Paul Pierce jerseys, on June 6th at the Annunciation Street court. Also broke my glasses, jammed my thumb, and slit my palm up, but that's streetball, America's best pure invention aside from jazz. Unfortunately, the Celtics lost to the cHeat in game 6 that night, and they lost in game 7 a few nights later, probably ending the Big Three's tenure in Boston, though Rajon Rondo has now eclipsed all three of them, so they can get to rebuilding. This pic of my buss'id lip that I took the next day didn't show the injury too well, since the light reflection covered up the yellow pus, and since only my neck was in focus:
Wearing my terrific Macha shirt; will finally get around to posting a song by them soon
So, if I could be somewhere, where would it be? A few off the top of my head:
The Faroe Islands in the summer
Anywhere in New Zealand
Nong Nooch Botanical Garden in Thailand (1100 different species of palms)
The famed palm groves of Elche, Spain
The famed coffee-growing mountains in Jamaica
Anywhere in Belize
Dakar, Senegal
Cozumel, Mexico (again)
The Canary Islands
Kew Gardens in London
Jane Weaver on ITV's This Is Music show in 2002; from her MySpace
Planets with similar climates: PJ Harvey - "Rid Of Me" (1992), Juned - "Leeches" & "Pretty New Song" (1994), Bleach - "Hit On Me" (1992), Band Of Susans - "Mood Swing" (1993)
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