Just a kewl instrumental shoegaze / post-rock voyage, with one of the sickest basslines ever (starting right after the 4-minute mark). The bass also has that nice round, "fat," undistorted sound that I prefer. Other examples of bands with this bass sound include Bark Psychosis, Hovercraft, Unwound, Bleach, and Poem Rocket, which coincidentally happen to be some of my all-time favorites; as in: bands to whom I'd donate a kidney with no questions asked if they ever needed one.
I bought this CD, I Fall To Pieces, used in the $2 or $4 clearance rack at the Mushroom in the early '00s, partly due to it being on Bedazzled. The packaging is very artsy, with translucent, vellum-esque paper and a definite Factory / 4AD aesthetic, which is not surprising, since Bedazzled always wanted to be the U.S. 4AD or Factory.
While doing some research for this post, not expecting to find much, I found out about a 5-song demo tape UlVi released in 1992, which someone is currently selling on eBay. Cool find. But I was more amazed to find out about the long, strange tale of their drummer, Danny Ingram. Read all about it here. Summary: He met the Clash at a '79 concert in Ontario and was urged by Joe Strummer to form his own band; was in some D.C. harDCore bands in the '80s, most notably Youth Brigade; co-founded gothy post-punkers Strange Boutique (and Bedazzled Records); briefly joined Swervedriver on drums after their drummer fled at the Canadian Border on their '91 tour; appears in their "Never Lose That Feeling" video (as I've mentioned before, it's my #2 favorite song ever, and my #1 favorite shoegaze song ever); co-founded Ultracherry Violet; played in some other bands.
I'm printing everything he says about UltraVio here for posterity, just in case that A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed blog ever goes kaput without warning, like so many music blogs do: "I started playing in Ultracherry Violet with my friends Dan Marx and Dugan Broadhurst shortly after the demise of Emma Peel. I loved this band. It was very much an extension of the sort of shoegaze thing that I'd been doing in Swervedriver and it was very much in my musical wheelhouse. I really thought that we had some great, original songs. But I quickly became really frustrated that the band was gaining no traction. It was either late '93 or early '94 and we were playing a show at The Black Cat. I think there were maybe 30 or so people in attendance. My frustration reached critical mass and I pulled a Keith Moon on stage. Throwing my drums at Nick P., the sound man, and threatening bodily harm to anyone who came near me. I'd had it with drumming. I made up my mind that night that I was done with it. And to make sure I would have no second thoughts, I did my best to demolish my poor, beautiful Gretsch drum kit. I was convinced that was it. I was in a new relationship, my life was starting to turn around in different ways, and I wanted to make a break with the past. That lasted about a year. I didn't touch my drums from that night until about 11 months later. Steve Willet called -– he had taken over Bedazzled records (the label that Monica and I started to release Strange Boutique music). He decided he wanted to release a CD of Ultracherry Violet. I'd mellowed out quite a bit in the intervening time, thanks to my new partner and future wife, Sally. Dan, Dugan, and I talked it over and decided to do it. We lugged our gear up to a dilapidated warehouse in a run-down part of Baltimore to record our CD. It had been so long since I'd played that my hands quickly blistered and started bleeding. I polished off nearly 3/4ths a bottle of Jack Daniels to try and steady my nerves and dull the pain of holding the sticks. We recorded all the songs in one day, but by the time we got to the last two -- "Mexico Song" in particular -- I could barely grip the sticks. My blisters kept bleeding and they kept slipping out of my hands. Still, we did all the songs in one take. There are 3 or 4 songs on that CD of which I'm really, really proud. The production is all over the place, but you can really tell that Dugan wrote some great songs... and Dan was really imaginative on the bass."
Indeed, the bass grooves and radioactive guitar tones on this album could be called seminal in the history of U.S. shoegaze... if anyone had actually bought the CD, that is. I believe Bedazzled Records went out of business a few years after the album came out, and the Violets never made any music videos to my knowledge. Note that Ingram doesn't even mention the demo tape in the interview. The one song I've heard from it, "Wayve", is pretty gothy and primordial.
UnFun Fact: According to UlCherVio's guitarist, tracks 3 and 6 are the same song ("Losing My Friends") because of an error by someone or an error at the CD pressing plant. So apparently, the only place to hear "Remember" is here, where said guitarist left his comment.
Pic taken from the website mentioned above; photographer, venue & date unknown
I always feel the need to explain my post titles for instrumental tracks. This one is a line from Faith No More's classic "Falling To Pieces", which I thought of when rolling around the album title I Fall To Pieces inside my head for a few million nanoseconds. (That video is very important to me, since it's one of a handful of songs/vids that got me into rock / "alternative" rock music in '91/'92, when I was strictly a rap head.)
Thurs.: Saw The Hunger Games in Houma, despite having only read about a third of the book. Felt the campy overtones of most of the adult male characters detracted from the film's impact. Played for a while at a basketball court I found, in 90º heat, in my Reggie Miller jersey which I recently dug out, yet dudes still called me "Larry Bird." I think one called me "Reggie Bird," which I found quite creative. The Pacers blew out the favored Heat that night.
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).
(Dome Records, 1980 / The Grey Area / Mute / Elektra Records, 1991 / The Grey Area / Mute, 1992)
I'm not much of a Wire fan at all, but this minimalistic side project of theirs was pretty intriguing, based on the few songs I've heard by it. For a song that's barely even there, it makes a pretty big impression. Too bad Wire couldn't capture this chilly, cinematic vibe in more of their own stuff.
I got this song 2 years ago on an interesting Mute Records compilation from 1991 called Tyranny Of The Beat. The CD booklet aptly describes this song as "elegant blocks of sweet noise free-floating through space." I have to wonder if this album was a big influence on A.R. Kane, Hugo Largo, Bark Psychosis, and other quiet, abstract groups that came along later in the decade.
Side A of Dome's 1980 self-titled debut LP. Note: The stripey block design is a grayscale version of the album cover itself.
Angela Conway also recorded under the alias A.C. Marias, and released an album under that name on Mute in 1989 titled One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing). She is now "a successful music video director."
In 1991, Mute released a VHS home video concurrently with the Tyranny Of The Beat CD. It featured this Dome video, which could be described as the most hilariously botched soundcheck in recorded history, or as brilliant deconstructionist pop art:
Yikes... Hopefully Conway didn't "direct" that one...
Sunday, May 6: Made a last-minute decision to go to Jazz Fest, with Em & Damion. Had my dad watch the video for "Best Of You" right before he dropped us off. Delivered some cigars from him to Jeff in his patrol car outside the front gate of the fest right before going in. Saw the Foo Fighters' whole 2-hour set, which started off great, then sucked for a while, then ruled at the end with "Best Of You" & "Everlong." Moshing like crazy to the latter in the mud at End Fest '97 was one of the top highlights of my concertgoing life, so this time couldn't really hold a candle to that, but it was still good. I spent about an hour staring at this girl in the crowd who looked exactly like this sex blogger named Pocket, trying to determine if it was her. Speaking of candles, the Foos presented their guitarist with a birthday cake near the end, which marks the second time I've seen that happen in the last two weeks. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings then stole the show in the Blues Tent. Also saw a bit of Maze, the Preservation Hall 50th anniv. celebration (with vox on a song called "Freight Train" by Ani Difranco), and the Neville Brothers (with a guest appearance by Trombone Shorty).
Went to the Mushroom that night on a hunch that Sam might be there, and she was. I had only seen her once in the prev. 6 months, and was worried that she no longer worked there. I brought some satsumas that I swiped from my parents' kitchen. She immediately strode up grilled me on why I was not at the free Roky Erickson / Thurston Moore show the previous night at One Eyed Jacks, and excitedly told me all about it. She got one of Thurston's lyrics sheets from the stage. I saw The Orb's first album (the abridged 1-CD version, unfortunately) in the used CD racks and recommended it, so she put it on, and all of its weird samples sounded amazing on their incredible surround-sound stereo system, with speakers in all the various nooks and crannies of the store. Got Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade (double LP), a stunning Joy Division poster, and Pet Shop Boys' "It's A Sin" (7"). I rec'd Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime to her, so hopefully she dug it. I think she and I must've been brother and sister in a past life.
They also had an amazing "Love Will Tear Us Apart" poster, which I was going to buy until I found the "Atmosphere' one.
Yesterday, May 8: My neighbor helped me take out this ugly 8x10 foot concrete slab in the backyard with just a 10-lb. sledgehammer, with a trick he taught me a trick in which you slightly raise part of the slab with a pry bar and then jam a rock under the slab. This forms an air layer underneath the slab, so it makes spiderweb cracks very readily when struck. So in a few minutes I singlehandedly turned that bitch into rubble with a few dozen hits, after procrastinating over it for a multitude of years. Sure wish I had video of that. A few hours prior to that yesterday, I took this snapshot in my car door's window before heading to a dollar store:
Today: He, my neighbor, gave(!) me a ~300-400 gallon pond liner that he had laying around. He had been using it as a satellite pond next to one of his other ones for about a year before removing it for some reason. I think May 2012 has probably been the best month of my life so far in terms of people doing considerate things for me and having illuminating conversations with me. I should mention this neighbor is often referred to as "the bird man" due to his extensive collection of birds in aviaries in his backyard. He's as big of a plant nut as I am, if not bigger, so we always talk about plants and landscaping philosophies, e.g. tree trimming, shade creation, propagation. Some of his big Live Oaks, which he planted 30 years ago, can be seen in the pic above. I'm not sure if I could ever move back to New Orleans after being spoiled by living out in the country since Katrina. But if I did, I would need a big fucking yard. The ones out here are about 5-20 times bigger than ones of houses of equivalent value in NOLA, which can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on one's enthusiasm for yard work and tree upkeep.
Jermaine Paul just won season 2 of a show called The Voice, which I don't watch. I had seen him singing backup vocals (& occasional lead vox during the numerous time when she was offstage changing outfits) at an Alicia Keys concert on St. Patrick's Day '04. You could practically hear the panties dropping around the New Orleans Arena every time the dude took the mic. (The crowd was probably 80%+ female.) My only qualm is that I'm not sure why a seasoned pro was allowed to be on an amateur singing competition. Check him out stealing the show in AK's song "Diary".
Millions Against Monsanto: The food fight of our lives - "Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry's contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We're fighting back."
Love him or hate him, Bryce is here - "And let’s face it, his name is Bryce. BRYCE. That could only be more irritating if his parents had gone with EdHardyNickelbackCrocs." ... "Harper is self-aware enough to know he’s antagonizing you. He’s baseball’s version of the guy who sits at a stoplight blasting 'Sexy & I Know It' at unholy decibel levels, staring directly at you through the window of your involuntarily rattling Subaru."
Planets with similar climates: A.R. Kane - "The Madonna Is With Child" (1988), The Comsat Angels - "Restless" (1981), Mazzy Star - "Mary Of Silence" (1993), Low - "Shame" (1995), Slowdive - "Albatross" (1991), Sonic Youth - "Satan Is Boring" (~1984), Plexi - "Ordinary Things" (1996), Insides - "Yes" (1993), Chairlift - "Cool As A Fire" (2011), Bark Psychosis - "All Different Things" (1989).
(Thrill Jockey Records [U.S.] / City Slang Records [Germany], 1998)
Note: I wrote most of this last September, but couldn't post it because that was California Month, so here it is. One of the reasons I'm doing it now is that I recently stumbled upon & bought a 1976 movie called FutureWorld at a thrift store. Another reason is that I realized the bassline starting at the 4:30 mark was probably inspired by / stolen from the opening guitar chug in This Heat's "Horizontal Hold." (See previous post.)
After a few unassuming retro post-rock / deconstructed-metal LPs with sarcastic synth splatters, Trans Am reprogrammed their algorithms to finally allow for vocals and true song structure. Their recipe came to terrific fruition on their 1999 album Futureworld, whose title was, I assumed, a reference to CAN's album Future Days. But like I said above, I'm now pretty certain it referred to that movie. This one goes out to Joey Buttons & Kathi. I bought lots of cool CDs from their booth at the Record Raid in March, and it turned out they were also at the '99 Trans Am concert I will be talking about below. [Update: Oops; only Joey was at it.] This album came out in early '99, so I dated the song 1998, the year it was recorded. This is the most effort I've ever put into a post, so I hope somebody gets something out of it...
The song's greatness is pretty self-explanatory, so there's not much to say here, other than to point out that it's a song about the isolation that people will feel as we become more bogged down by gadgetry that supposedly allows us to stay more interconnected. Sound like 1999? 2012? Well, imagine how it'll be in 2050, 3000, or 5000. (5000? Yeah right... I'll give you a million dollars if humans even make it past 2200.) Sebastian "Seb" Thomson is simply one of the best drummers in history. You can tell he's heavily influenced by Jaki from CAN, yielding that style that is uniquely choppy & funky, yet sleek & robotic. He probably wears a shirt less frequently than Dave Navarro or Matthew McConaughey. When the song slows down at about the 4:20 mark and shifts into a sinister, "prowling" mode, it's just the coolest thing ever. I think Nathan sings "the falling snow" during the second half, but the vocoder is much more heavily used in that half, so your guess is as good as mine. The music video was edited down by 2.5 minutes, omitting most of the ending, and sucked in many other innovative ways too:
Fun Fact: Yes, that's Ed Helms, later of The Daily Show, The Office, and The Hangover, in a cameo appearance on banjo.
As far as other tracks on this album are concerned, "Television Eyes" (whose title is a reference to the Stooges' "TV Eye") and "Cocaine Computer" (please, folks, no jokes about Whitney Houston's Facebook account) are unquestionably the best. In fact, I struggled for a long time deciding whether to post "Futureworld" or "Television Eyes," and had to look to my orb for guidance.
The early '99 Thrill Jockey mailorder catalog has this very succinct sales pitch for the album: "Can you say vocoder? Sure you can – VO CODE R. Lawful evil beats, nature documentaries, car chases and rock and roll anthems."
Jonathan Bunce of Eye Weekly gave the album a 5-star rating, and said"The world's most forward-looking rock band has created the definitive millennial document. Forget the false hopes and fears surrounding the three big zeros -- this is the sound of technocracy collapsing into banality. 'Sitting alone in my future home / Fax machine, telephone / Phonograph, gramophone,' sings Nathan Means on Futureworld's drone-rockin' title track, with a gentle melancholy that would sound alienated even if it wasn't processed by a vocoder. Yes, the fourth Trans Am disc is the first to feature vocal stylings and embrace pop melodies -- which enhances, rather than dilutes, their conceptual electro-rock assault. On first glance, the trio seems to have turned into Kraftwerk, with Teutonic titles such as 'Am Rhein' and the motorik melodics of 'Runners Standing Still' -- one imagines them waiting out Y2K in a Berlin bunker with only Six Finger Satellite for company. But there's accessibility, depth, humor and chaos colliding here, from the more-bounce-to-the-ounce bleepery of 'Cocaine Computer' to the aggressive fuzz-bass destruction of 'City in Flames' to the lighter-in-the-air finale of 'Sad and Young.' Just as last year's The Surveillance had the final word on urban paranoia, Futureworld says more about the sci-fi dystopia we live in than any Hollywood blockbuster ever could."
My Trans Am timeline:
First read about them in Nov. 1996 in a Thrill Jockey mailorder catalog
Got their debut album Trans Am on vinyl in March '98
Missed them live a month or so later at the Mermaid Lounge in New Orleans due to having to cram for a test that night; swore I'd catch them the next time out
Read a glowing review of Futureworld in Mar. '99 in Spin*
Finally got to see them in May '99 (with lame openers Pan Sonic and The Fucking Champs) at the Mermaid
Got Futureworld on vinyl in 2005
*I also bought Moonshake's Dirty & Divine that day at that store
Note: Local instrumental prog / post-metal band Weedeater (not the stoner metal Weedeater from North Carolina) were for some reason replaced on the bill by The Fucking Champs.
I never got to see "our" Weedeater; check out this clip (probably from '94 or '95, based on the Dead Eye Dick video teaser at the end) of them. Trans Am's first album sounded a lot like this.
At the concert, they played a couple of vocoder-ed songs, hence they played "Futureworld" and "Television Eyes," the two best songs on the album. And I remember someone in the audience shouting out "Illegal Ass!," which I later learned was a song from one of their obscure EPs. Here are pics from that show, taken by me and Andrew Mister on my Kodak disposable camera; sorry for the small file sizes:
A Loyola student was filming Trans Am and projecting the images in real-time onto a screen behind them while they played. This must have been a digital camcorder, because the images were being altered in various ways to make the band look like computer-animated drawings and/or robots. Unfortunately this did not show up in the pics because the flash drowned it out. As you can imagine, I would give anything for a video of this gig! Nate was sporting an all-gold basketball uniform for some reason... Coincidentally, the Washington Bullets/Wizards briefly changed their main jersey color to gold several years later. For good measure, here's a pic of Finnish minimalist techno "band" Pan Sonic (f.k.a. Panasonic) playing their "music" while standing behind lots of expensive equipment:
I never saw Trans Am again, even though they came through here a few more times. They toured arenas(!) opening for Tool in late 2007, and I actually almost went to see one of those dates, but I had not paid any attention to either band for about five years, so I skipped it. Futureworld was reissued on LP with remastered sound and free digital download (containing two rare tracks) in late 2011.
Monday, Apr. 30: Saw Dayna Kurtz at the Hi-Ho Lounge; got there late and only saw the last 30 or so minutes. There were only about 20 people there. Like most folk singers with an affinity for New Orleans (Ani Difranco comes to mind), she has allowed NOLA's music to influence her recent music for the worse.
Tuesday, May 1: My dad had knee arthroscopy, so we helped him with icing it, etc. Dropped off a few trees at Parkway and had an impromptu conversation with Haley (sp.) for around 2 hours. She works for that organization and I just volunteer there; she recently put in all the native trees around the "Big Lake" in City Park by the art museum. I showed her a separate farming plot a block away that she had never been to, which kind of blew her mind. She signed me up to do a long-term project with her that will involve us designing and planting a fruit orchard for some new school in New Orleans East. It's kind of a thrill when an attractive, much younger lady follows one around and writes down one's botanical musings on her notepad for a few hours, but I didn't let it go to my head. Okay, I did, but who wouldn't? It was one of those "I've got the brawn, you've got the brains" kind of things.
Afterwards, went to Home Depot a few blocks away and saw a very rude older white lady verbally accosting a black male H.D. employee (and a white male one, who soon walked away and left the other guy to fend for himself) for a long time about something he had no control over. Specifically, light bulbs. Sample gripe: "You people who work at Home Depot are almost as bad as the ones who work at Lowe's nowadays." Reported her b.s. to a store manager, and mentioned that if it were my store, I'd kick her out. Shot hoops at the Annunciation St. court, and then, for the first time ever, at the NOPD station's court on Magazine. The latter was a bit difficult because the rims are a little too high (some courts do this to discourage dunking, which damages rims) and were double-thickness (which makes the ball bounce wildly on even a slightly-errant shot). Got dad some chocolate with bacon in it at La Dulce Vita. Had New Girl Night with Em, mom, dad, Vanessa.
Wed., May 2: Despite a sudden rainstorm, I stopped off at a small nursery on the Westbank that I almost never go to. Ended up talking to the employee for about an hour about tons of stuff after she asked me "Want a free tomato plant?" in the greenhouse. Let's see, we talked about cacti, tomatoes, mushrooms, music (she used to have punk bands play at her apartment), tattoos, asparagus ferns, atheism, Russian sage, etc. I showed her that the white petals of the Pineapple Guava tree look, feel, and taste like marshmallows, which she was pretty impressed by. Definitely my dream girl, and I think she spoiled me for all other females in the future... (And of course, the rain magically stopped right after I walked in.) And to top it all off, the last song I heard on the radio (WTUL) right before turning my car off and going in was a song that I later found out was "Endless Summer" by this Aussie band called The Jezabels. Kind of a mash-up of Kate Bush, U2, and Sunny Day Real Estate. My point is that it's a really dramatic song that seems tailor-made to lead into something great, kind of like the boombox scene in Say Anything. So overall, it was like a scene out of a movie: I hear that song in my car while it's raining; something impels me to go into a plant store; the rain stops to make way for the "endless summer"; I meet The One and we hit it off. And knowing my luck, I probably never see her again... But for me, a great convo is better than sex, and probably less grueling than a marriage. She's a big fan of mushrooms and '70s psych music, so I made a mental note to give her a CD-R of Amanita by Bardo Pond.
Later that day, I planted my Mayhaw tree in Vacherie during another bout of rain as the sun went down. Watched a bunch of videos by EatTheWeeds, which are always fascinating, until the wee hours.
Over the past few days, I've planted a Viburnum dentatum (Arrowwood) and Lyonia lucida (Fetterbush), as well as those free tomato plants. Deciding if I want to accept some free tickets to Jazz Fest today from my sister; the only good act is the Foo Fighters, but they're playing for 2 full hours, and I recently became obsessed with their song "Best Of You." Saw them in '97, and that gap of years would usually preclude me from seeing the same band nowadays; but they've had a ton of good singles since then. Dave Grohl's semi-ironic "metal warrior" posturing really sticks in my craw, though, and it's gonna be 95º heat index today with possible rain. Decisions, decisions...
In honor of heat, humidity, my dad's knees, and film cameras, here's me, Em & dad on a pier on the Mississippi coast in mid-1990. The fam was tagging along with him en route to one of his many triathlons that he did ca. 1990-92. He's 38 in that pic. I was wearing my LSU Basketball Camp t-shirt which I had just gotten weeks earlier. Shaquille O'Neal signed the back of it at the camp right after a breathtaking LSU intrasquad scrimmage. That's the only athlete autograph I've ever requested or received; unfortunately I never took a pic of it before throwing the shirt away a few years ago.
Yes, we threw them back
Planets with similar climates: Simple Minds - "70 Cities As Love Brings The Fall" (1981), Add N To X - "Metal Fingers In My Body" (1999), Satisfact - "First Incision" (1996) & "Triple Deck" (1998), The Horrors - "New Ice Age" (2009), Mocket - "Un-Man" (1998), The Sound - "World As It Is" (1984), probably some stuff by Tubeway Army.
(Piano Records, 1979 [recorded between 1976-78]; issued / reissued by ~7 other labels)
Well, it took me 170-something posts to finally dip into the '70s. I remember reading an early-'90s interview with Piotr Fijalkowski, singer of the great band Adorable, in which he said that music from before 1980 (he then specified pre-Echo & The Bunnymen) was worthless to him, and for the most part I have to agree. Most of the songs I've posted on this site simply couldn't have existed pre-1980, yet your typical casual music fan will always aver that the '60s were by far the best decade for music, dude. I first heard this song on a mix tape made for me by, I kid you not, a girl whom I had lent a Plexi promo poster. I only knew this girl, Suzy Grimes, online, and for some reason just had to show her this amazing poster. By 1999 I resorted to threatening legal action if she didn't send it back, so she did, and included a mix tape. If you don't know what the title of this song means, you've never owned a VCR. I didn't know what to title this post, since the song is an instrumental, so I chose a strange n' unsettling lyric that popped into my head and seems to fit "Horizontal Hold"'s feel. It's from The Church's breezy jangle-pop classic "Already Yesterday."
Joy in repetition... All Music Guide gives the LP 4.5 stars and says "Their angular juxtapositions of abrasive guitar, driving rhythms, and noise loops on the opening cut, 'Horizontal Hold,' preempt much later activity in the electronica and drum'n'bass scenes." Okay, I think we can all agree with that. The reviewer then goes off into some pretty ludicrous hyperbole, such as "There are very few records that can be considered truly important, landmark works of art that produce blueprints for an entire genre. In the case of this album, it's clear that this seminal work was integral in shaping the genres of post-punk, avant rock, and post-rock and like all great influential albums it seemed it had to wait two decades before its contents could truly be fathomed. In short, This Heat is essential." Oh.
Trouser Press gives a much more level-headed summary: "This Heat covers two years of the band's history, with both live and studio cuts. They use guitar, clarinet, drums and keyboards, permuted with loops, phasing and overdubs, breaking down patterns into only faintly connected musical moments that include artificial skips and looped end-grooves. Though insolent and withdrawn, the music is adventurous and, in its own peculiar way, engrossing."
The most recent review on rateyourmusic.com at the time I began writing this post consists simply of this sentence: "This album is more revolutionary and significant to the aesthetic evolution of music than the complete works of Stravinsky and Stockhausen combined." Ohhh. Well that explains everything. All in favor of lifetime internet bans for trollers please contact me.
On Thursday I finally started reading The Hunger Games, and I believe it's gonna be too bleak / barbaric for me to finish. The writing is very succinct and Raymond Carver-esque, so I'm writing this paragraph in RC's style. I planted my huckleberry tree and the saddest thing happened right when I was crouching down finishing up: A dragonfly that had no abdomen at all landed on a branch a few inches in front of my eyes. I guess it had been bitten off moments before by a bird or anole. So it could still fly around, but had no ability to digest food, hence it only had a few minutes or hours to live. But it sure seemed calm and content on that little branch. Man, the world sucks. Also planted a Juniperus chinensis 'Blue Vase.' I unfortunately missed one of the best live bands of this era, White Hills, at Siberia in New Orleans. (I saw them at that same club a year ago almost to the day.) I skipped this show because a fairly lame band called Sleepy Sun was headlining, and another lame one, Dirty Ghosts, was on the bill.
Worst new trend: People vying for the title of longest video on YouTube, e.g. this one.
Current crush: Rebecca Blumhagen of the show The Girl's Guide To Depravity.
Since I have amassed a backlog of great or interesting links, I'll just use this post as a clearinghouse for them:
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).
I bought this CD a few years ago on a whim at a thrift store on Highway 61 (we call it Airline Highway in Louisiana) for $2. The cover shot of her face was starkly bold, apparently an homage to Joni Mitchell's Blue, and the title, Otherwise Luscious Life, was an obvious nod to the jazz standard "Lush Life." It turned out to be a live album, with just Dayna accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, though the songs are full-sounding enough that the first few times I listened to it I didn't even realize there was no drummer, bassist, etc. It was recorded live at Wintertide coffeehouse in Vineyard Haven, MA, on 7/18/97. So: A solo performer on acoustic guitar, live at a coffeehouse... That doesn't exactly sound very promising as Blowtorch Baby material, but it so is. This is heavy music. This is heavier than anything that those pathetic pansies in Slayer, Wolf Eyes, or Converge could ever come up with. She won the National Academy Of Songwriters’ award for Female Songwriter Of The Year in 1996, 1997, and 1998, while you were sitting around wasting your time listening to Guided By Voices, Stereolab, and Neutral Milk Hotel, respectively.
How great of a line is "Somewhere hearts are pounding"? So vague, yet every interpretation of it is probably interesting. DK has a very husky voice, probably quite influenced by Nina Simone; this is one of the few songs that she sings in her high, essentially falsetto, register. The last name is presumably German, but she looks somewhat Native American. I like this pic by an unknown photographer:
I recently got a 2004 promo EP of hers called The Beautiful Yesterday Sessions, but I dislike it. She is playing here for Jazz Fest (the most inaccurately-named festival in the country) in a few weeks, and also has scheduled two little club gigs, so I might go see her. She even named her 2006 album NOLA (hilariously spelled Nola on most websites) in honor of New Orleans, LouisianA. I have a feeling she no longer plays any early, melancholic stuff, though.
I nabbed this from the Tumblr of super-negra a few months ago:
And then I just found this new, even more detailed one she had drawn for someone else:
I'm missing Chairlift tonight, but will hopefully see them sometime, if only for their songs "Wrong Opinion" and "Cool As A Fire." One reason I'm not making the hour-long drive to NOLA is that I don't like opening act Nite Jewel. I do have tickets to this at Tipitina's on Friday, though:
Planets with similar climates: Tracy Chapman - "For You" (1988), Maxwell - "Know These Things: Shouldn't You" (1998), Ani Difranco - "Sorry I Am" (1995), American Music Club - "Last Harbor" (1988), Suzanne Vega - "Small Blue Thing" (1985), Joni Mitchell - "Blue" (1971), Alicia Keys - "Butterflyz" (2001).
Currently eating or drinking: Cabot Seriously Sharp (white) Cheddar; Sunbelle blueberries; Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse oatmeal bread; Samuel Smith Imperial Stout; Rogue Chocolate Stout.
(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:
I don't really know anything about this band, especially what this song title meant. That really irritates me. While looking for their music on eBay, I ascertained that their name was taken from an old Soviet photography magazine called... Sovetskoe Foto. The members of the band, at least on this album, were Georg S. Huber (bass), Walter Sterr (guitars), Stefan Busch (vocals), and Marc Turiaux (drums). They hailed from Rosenheim, Germany, but recorded this album, The Humidity, in NYC with esteemed noise rock producer Martin Bisi. I bought this CD on a whim for a dollar at the Tulane Record Raid in March of last year, drawn in by the cover art and song titles. To read my overly long review of it, go here and look under the username shockofDAYLIGHT. The song itself starts off funky and sleazy, and would be pretty memorable if it just continued on that way for its duration. But it undergoes a sudden Helmet-style breakdown and then a speedy tribal part. Just amazing, breathtaking musical talent, especially the rhythm section (translation: drummer + bassist). Though the rest of the album doesn't live up to this song, the jarring, Bare Minimum-esque "Necromancer" and the ultra-funky, The Pop Group-esque "Stay Tonight" are noteworthy.
"Seeing you breathing is my inspiration" is a blithely romantic line upon first listen, and later becomes evident as a great pun when you realize what the medical definition of "inspiration," as part of the system known as respiration, means. Also buried under the instrumental fireworks is the line "Struck my eyes with a thousand lights." Jim Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus) sings guest vox on the feral "Forget".
Fun Fact: Sovetskoe Foto's publicity company was named Art Rock Mgmt.
CDs in my car on March 8th; top one is Secret Life Of Machines by Doldrums.
Friday: Ate at Clancy's with parents, Em & Damion. Met one of D's brothers, who played hoops at (I think) Swarthmore. I had the best bread pudding of my life for dessert.
Saturday: Went to Mandeville & took my customary stroll through the Northlake Nature Center, which is sort of a Zenlike ritual that I always do when I'm up there. The flora really is quite different from that of the south shore of the lake. A big black snake with yellow spots slithered right in front of me, and I, a former aspiring herpetologist, was sadly unable to identify it. I semi-accidentally took a root pup of one of my all-time favorite tree species, Vaccinium arboreum (Sparkleberry or Tree Huckleberry). It has some roots so hopefully it will live. The pup I took in Dec. 2010 died.
Then went to a great plant nursery called Inwood Gardens in Covington. They had dozens of unlabeled cacti & succulents, so I volunteered to write their Latin names on the sides of their pots. So I did this off the top of my head (no books) for about half an hour. Finally one of my useless talents came in handy... The lady working in that greenhouse seemed pretty bemused. Bought an Agave guiengola, which I never thought I'd see in person, much less be able to buy. Just look at this motherfucker reclining in a group of them, living the high life while you sit here on your computer.
Tuesday: Went to Baton Rouge to see School Of Seven Bells and EXITMUSIC at the Spanish Moon. On the way, I stopped at the Blockbuster Video that's going OOB and scored a bunch more obscure foreign (mostly) flicks for $2 each. Then I hit up FYE and got lots of kewl cheapo used CDs (The Heart Throbs, Hooverphonic, The Railway Children, Secret Machines, Sunny Day Real Estate, King Missile, Heather Duby + Elemental, Teenage Fanclub). Passed on a Zapp CD due to its lame song titles. I made it to the essentially empty club just in time, and saw SVIIB's Ben Curtis shooting pool upstairs. As befitting their Radiohead-based name, EXITMUSIC were not too exciting, kinda dirgey, like Beach House meets Swans or something. I think I just heard half of the blogosphere pop a boner after hearing that description. They opened with "Sea," and closed with a great new song, "Sparks Of Light," from their upcoming LP Passage. Their guitarist played it using a cello bow, Jimmy Page-style. They were so loud that all kinds of things were rattling throughout the club, and I hence didn't even try to take a video clip of them. SVIIB came on like a well-oiled machine and delivered a great performance to a crowd of only 40-50 people. I saw them open for Interpol last April in front of almost 1000 people, so I was crestfallen that they had to headline for so few people. The club had only put up a few crude flyers, so I mainly blame the club's management. This time SVIIB had four members, whereas last year it was two, or maybe three. Anyway, their new LP Ghostory is the one that I predicted would make them Big, but it seems the public is not paying attention, even though Katy Perry(!) is apparently a fan, according to every recent YouTube commenter. (E.g. "katy perry sent me here XD") Their setlist: Intro (sampled chanting of "I am here... I am here..."), Iamundernodisguise, Scavenger, Windstorm, Bye Bye Bye, Love Play, White Elephant Coat, Lafaye, The Night, I L U, White Wind, Low Times, My Cabal. No encore. No "Babelonia," which was their first song at the NOLA show last year. Bought a cool white t-shirt afterwards with the "Kiss Them For Me" 7" cover art on it.
The two logo things were flickering lights of varying colors via MIDI; my flash unfortunately negated it.
Not shown: 1.) The entertaining way that the singer shakes her head from side to side after every line. 2.) The guitarist's SVIIB chest tattoo.
Planets with similar climates: The Pop Group - "Sense Of Purpose" (~1980), Shudder To Think - "Goat" (1992) & "Gang Of $" (1994), Gang Of Four - "Damaged Goods" (1979), Live Skull - "Machete" (1987), Polvo - "Highwire Moves" (1995), Fugazi - "Sieve-Fisted Find" (1990), Tanner - "Hey Jigsaw" (1995).
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