Blouse >> You're a strike of lightning

Blouse - "Into Black"

(Captured Tracks, 2011)

Note: I started writing this in June but never got around to posting it.  I noticed the outdated R.I.P.'s at the bottom and decided to keep them in.

As you have probably already gathered, most good band names are taken by now.  I mentioned in the last post that Portland is a hotbed of talent, and Blouse is another great example.  I think Johnny Marr or Robert Smith would be proud of this song's loping, serpentine guitar riff.  There's something sexy and funky and very New Orleans about that jazzy, off-beat stutter in it.  And the singer is the one who plays that guitar part, as you can see in the video clip embedded below.  This song is almost impossible for me to get out of my head.  If I heard the line "And you're a strike of lightning, making up a sky for the gods to kiss with" correctly, then I'd have to say that's one of the coolest lyrics I've heard in the past few years.  (You can actually hear the lyrics better in the live clip.)  There's some line about a stained glass window near the middle, and the intensity ramps up subtly in the song's final minute.

"Fade to black" is of course a cinematography term, and this song has a very cinematic feel.  A convenient way to describe Blouse would be "The XX meets Joy Division," and it wouldn't be far off from the truth.  The sound quality of this song is awfully murky and "dark" (bass-y), in production lingo, but I guess it suits the music well.  One expects this kind of jangle-pop stuff to be trebly and shimmery, so it sort of surprises the ears to hear something so sludgy.  The synth near the end of the song does brighten it up and adds some extra edge.  This song was released as a 7" single in early 2011, with striking cover art that was a clear homage to Joy Division's Closer.  It then appeared on their self-titled debut album near the end of the year.  Their song "They Always Fly Away" is their other clear standout, with a truly badass bassline, showing that this band is much more than a one-trick pony.  AllMusic Guide said "There's a tingling chill running through Blouse's self-titled debut album that suggests both erotic reverie and nervous foreboding.  Blouse seems to be a work in progress, but this provocative first effort shows the band is heading for fascinating territory."
I'd have to say Captured Tracks, also home of dreamy retro janglers Wild Nothing, is my favorite up-and-coming record label right now.

Amazingly, I just went and checked out the song on YouTube and noticed lots of people saying that the MTV teen ho dramedy Awkward. (yes, the show's name has a period at the end) "brought me here."  So I guess MTV scooped Blowtorch Baby for the first time, but only due to my procrastination.

Wed. Oct. 31: I went in to N.O. to see the Jezabels at Circle Bar.  I had a weird feeling that it would be cancelled, but I didn't call ahead of time for some reason.  Sure enough, I walk into the near-empty club in my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt and green wristbands only to find out they had cancelled, due to their singer's alleged throat problems.

So this pic sums up my two dismal trips to the Circle Bar in late October... Two headlining bands, one of which played for 10 minutes and the other of which didn't show up.  When I took this pic next to the club's jukebox on the 24th, a few minutes before Exitmusic went on, things seemed so promising:

(Look at the size of the crowd in that Jezabels poster, and then think about the fact that the Circle Bar holds about 50 people.)

Thu., Nov. 1: Took a pic of some random CDs in my car:

I originally bought the N.W.A EP on cassingle in 1991 (at age 14... sorry, PMRC!), the PJ Harvey album on cassette in '95, and the MBV album on cassette in '96.  Sensing a trend?  Lesson to record industry: If people buy or obtain a musical item cheaply or for free, e.g. on cassette or as free mp3s, they will end up later buying it on CD if they like it enough.  So if you record labels sign good bands and put out good albums, people will continue to buy them in multiple formats over the years.  Anyway... I bought the Nudeswirl CD in '96 in Richmond, VA, and the Pale Saints and Six By Seven CDs in '02.  The Twin Peaks soundtrack was bought by one of my parents when it came out; I later borrowed it & decided to keep it.  I added a clear red tray to the Lush CD's case in order to match the cover art.  Those of you who don't own early Mercury Rev on CD are missing out, since the spines say STEREO PATHIC, STEREO PHOBIC, STEREO FUCKED, etc.

I was so bummed by the Circle Bar shows that I didn't go to see the Psychedelic Furs on Nov. 2 with my sister and Damion.  She said it was a great show, and they even played one of my favorites, "All Of This And Nothing."  (But no "Highwire Days" or "Dumb Waiters.")  And she said Richard Butler was dancing around as crazily as !!!'s singer, which is pretty impressive for a guy of his age.

So the promising month ended with a whimper, but I still saw over a dozen bands, the best of which were Godspeed You Black Emperor, Merchandise, MONO, and Meta The Man.  And locals Glish, the Tarik Hassan Group, Miss Mec, and I, Octopus.  The two songs that Exitmusic played before quitting were good.  In fact, the bands that I skipped last month would constitute a best-ever month of concertgoing for a normal Pitchfork-focused indie-vidual: Dinosaur Jr., M83, P-Furs, Silversun Pickups, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Kendrick Lamar, Dum Dum Girls, Cold Cave, Diamond Rings, Trust, etc.

I'm not bragging whatsoever, just trying to start a dialogue about how one decides which shows to attend and which shows to skip.  I've been wanting to do this for a long time now, so this seems like a good time to do it.  For me, going to a show a very complex form of calculus that factors in obvious things such as "Does the band kick ass?" with more nebulous ones like "Is their career on the downswing or is it still on the upswing?," "Have I missed them in concert before?," and "Could this be their last-ever tour?"  (If the band members hate each other, any show could be their last.)  Ticket cost, opening act(s), venue, etc. also factor in.  How many original members, or members from the band's "golden era," are still in the band?  It of course helps to find out whether or not the band is playing your favorite songs on this particular tour, or if they've decided to move on to "the new stuff," or if they're doing one of those stupid "Play an entire album all the way through" things.  However, this only applies to "song"-based bands & solo artists.  There's of course a whole other category of experimental music in which the avant-gardeness of the music is the only thing that matters, and you're surely not going to recognize anything in terms of a lyric or a melody.  You're going just to hear them try to play something you've never heard before and may never want to hear again.  Sometimes a band that hardly ever tours is hitting the road; in this case, it's more important to see them then to see some band that tours constantly.  If it's a hip hop or electronic / DJ act, how much of their music do they actually perform live and how much of it is pre-recorded samples?  Are you under the weather, and if so, just how devoted of a fan are you?  One of the toughest things for me to decide on is seeing a local band, since you can probably see them any old time, but what if they break up and you never got to see them, or only saw them once?  (E.g., the fact that I only saw my favorite-ever local band, The Universal Chrome, once.  And I never saw Falling Janus, Dead Hand System, Burnversion, Evil Nurse Sheila!, etc.)  When in doubt about seeing ANY concert, even if it's "just" a local band, it's always best to just go, because otherwise, you might be wondering for the rest of your life if you missed a great show.  If the show was mediocre, at least you saw it, and you know that you don't have to wonder for the next 50 years if it was great or not.  And you supported the band and supported the music club.  The turnout may influence the band's decision to come back to your town again, and may influence the club's decision to book the band again.  And you might meet an interesting person, or see a flyer at the club informing you about an upcoming concert that you didn't know about.

As examples, here are some recent & upcoming concert dilemmas spanning early October to early November:
1.) The P-Furs only had two original members, the Butler brothers.  But they are the main driving forces of the band, and the lineup also has fiery saxophonist Mars Williams, who joined ca. 1983.  (Did not go, and regret it.)
2.) In a few days a fairly lame synth-pop band called Future Islands is playing at the Spanish Moon.  I have no desire to see them, but the opening act is an uncompromisingly brutal female noise-rock band called Talk Normal.  Do I go just to see the opening act?  What if the opening act cancels or is replaced?  (Will probably go.)
3.) Voodoo Fest every October: Lots of bands, but most are lame or washed-up, and tickets are like $90 per day.  (Solution: Went to the free local band festival Houmapalooza.)
4.) MONO at the Spanish Moon.  Yes, they're great live, but I had already seen them there 3 times.  Do I go yet again?  (Went & was glad I did.)
5.) Mercurial band Merchandise playing at a club with barely any air conditioning, right as I was getting over a cold and hence was pretty feverish.  (Went, because they could be legitimate stars soon, and I had missed them in April at an even smaller club called United Bakery.)

If you have anything to add about concert dilemmas you have valiantly faced and overcome, let Blowtorch Baby know.  I'm currently wrestling over whether to see DJ Shadow next month at Republic...  The dude's first album kinda changed my life in 1997, but do I owe him the favor of buying a ticket to one of his shows 15 years later?  He played at House Of Blues as the opening act for rapper Jeru The Damaja in '97, and I bet tons of underground music heads went to that show just to see Shadow do his magic.  Then again, what if he still "has it" in 2012?  The interesting thing about a DJ is that his music never "ages," since he's spinning samples, and those samples will still sound literally identical to how they sounded x amount of years ago, and you're not gonna see some aging guy on guitar.

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, a genius.
R.I.P. Tim Mooney of American Music Club, Sun Kil Moon, and other San Fran bands.

Brilliant retort I observed on June 23, in the AOL chatroom The Crash Pad:

Murrican:  i've got a nickname among a certain group of females.

SpudMakenzie:  heart attack while havin sex with a hooker/?

Why Romney's not talking about Benghazi anymore

Atlantic City faces long recovery before it can start destroying lives again

Planets with similar climates: The Organ - "Brother" (2004), Sonic Youth - "Becuz" (1995), Siouxsie & The Banshees - "Christine" (1980), The Cure - "Lullaby" (1989), Bell Hollow - "Eyes Like Planets" (2007), The Lucy Show - "Ephemeral (This Is No Heaven)" (1985), Tamaryn - "Love Fade" (2010), Lush - "Take" (1992).

Asylum Party >> I can only hear the sound of my own shade

Asylum Party - "Play Alone"

(Lively Art [France], 1989)

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).

Section 25 >> New day, clear day

Section 25 - "New Horizon"

(Factory Records, 1981; LTM Recordings, 1991/2000; Drastic Plastic Records, 2010)

Following a long, stunningly tense, hypnotic ambient intro, one of the most astonishing and sexy basslines ever cruises in from the æther and just dominates dat ass.  Hyperbole?  Decide for yourself.  The bassline and the snappy drumming give a cold, rubbery funkiness to this song, and the bass has that round, fat tone that I love.  The lyrics consist of mundane motivational-type phrases being repeated in a catatonic way atop random squalls of guitar.  Anyone reading the lyric sheet would think this was a corny children's ditty, but the musical presentation makes it menacing and quite heartbreaking.  It actually reminds me a bit of the last line of American Music Club's "Sick Of Food": "Another bright... nothing. Another... day."  Getting out of bed in the morning sure is an underrated component of success in life; as Woody Allen once said, "90% of life is just showing up."  An ambiguous line near the end: "It's a clear blue, a new clear blue" or "It's a clear blue, a nuclear blue."  If only we could goad George W. Bush into belting it out at a karaoke bar, the world would finally know what the actual lyric was.  This song could be said to have invented the musical genre called slowcore a good decade before most U.S.-based critics decided that it arose in America.  This mp3 is taken from my 2000 LTM Recordings CD reissue, which has a ton of bonus tracks and an extensive essay on the band.  You can read the essay here.

It's a great demonstration of the power of repetition, and proof that the sum can be much greater than the parts.  Any overly-wordy songwriting would've defeated the purpose.  Reggae and dub were hugely influential on lots of U.K. post-punk bands, which is of course why they tended to have such killer basslines, since stupid-ass American punk bands were too busy trying to sound like the Ramones.  Keep in mind that this is from Section 25's bleak early years, before they added a female singer and went synth-pop and scored a club hit with the undeniably catchy and Knight Rider-esque "Looking From A Hilltop".  I'm sure this only fanned the flames of those who liked to make "First they pulled a Joy Division, then they pulled a New Order" jokes, but in the end, in a perfect world at least, a band shalt be judged by the sum total of good songs that it recorded, even if they have to reinvent themselves at various times.  I also have their From The Hip album, but like I mentioned earlier, it was from their unabashedly synth-pop-ular era, so be forewarned.

From the Always Now CD booklet

Just because Section 25 is not exactly a very sexy band, here is inevitable future star Corina Calderón, protagonist of that movie All She Can (a.k.a. Benavides Born) that I mentioned in the last post:

Yes, this individual plays a powerlifter in the movie All She Can

I don't like to objectify women, but come on, we've all laid out at the beach, and we've all stretched on the floor by our fireplace, right?  These are everyday activities.  I've known many a great Latina lady in real life, and they are taking over Hollywood, so I don't want Cor-Cal to get lost in the shuffle.  She reminds me a bit of the (part Chilean) blogger / provocateur Natasha Vargas-Cooper.  Snookie is Chilean, but I don't count her as part of the "taking over" group.

Ron Swanson's Pyramid Of Greatness might help you to solve that thing that you need to solve.

Revenge is a dish best served pink

Planets with similar climates: For Against - "Echelons" (1986), Poem Rocket - "Contrail de l'avion" (1994),  Sonic Youth - "Society Is A Hole" (1984), Joy Division - "I Remember Nothing" (1979), Interpol - "Untitled" (2002), Idaho - "Year After Year" (1993), The Comsat Angels - "Gone" (1981), The Sound - "Possession" (1981), Stone Roses - "I Wanna Be Adored" [full 5-minute album version] (1985/89).

Tagging Satellites >> Things that were stolen from me were never meant to be mine

Tagging Satellites - "Sun Damage"

(Mag Wheel Records / Recovery Records, 2000)

I bought this CD on eBay last June for next to nothing, after being impressed by the 90-sec. sound samples on iTunes.  I then listened to it over and over on a nighttime drive to Baton Rouge (to see a band called This Will Destroy You) the same day it arrived in my mailbox.  Singer Zera Marvel uses her "goth voice" on this song, though she generally uses a higher, prettier timbre on the other songs.  So this song is not really representative of their overall sound.  The Sonic Youth-y guitar squalls and cavernous "pendulum-style" bassline are like crack to my ears.  "I don't care if you don't wanna go, you're coming to the sun with me" is a pretty interesting / sexy threat.

This song was written entirely by Z.M.  Influential Seattle music mag The Stranger said "Like that dark-haired poet you had a crush on in high school, there's something mysterious and slightly dangerous about Tagging Satellites. The band's second album, Abstract Confessions, is almost a flashback to the moody, art school-influenced underground of pre-breakthrough Jane's Addiction L.A. – wonderfully detached, on-the-verge-of-a-breakdown female vocals paired with music that finds the middle ground between ethereal and the razor's edge."  Uh, what?  Jane's Addiction?  Huge reviewing fail there, unless he/she meant Psi Com.

Results of a poll done by The Stranger's online blog in April 2009

The Abstract Confessions CD comes with a bonus music video for the bleak, Codeine-esque "Time On My Halo," but unfortunately it's in RealPlayer format, so I can't upload it to YouTube to share it here.  So here's a clip of Marvel and her husband / bandmate / producer Graig Markel snorkeling:

Pic stolen from an eBay seller; this might be the exact CD I ended up buying.

Remember what I said a few posts ago about how most of my favorite bands end up ditching their shoegaze / noise / post-punk beginnings in favor of more low-key, parent-friendly music?  Well, Marvel put out an Americana-y solo album in 2009, completely forgoing any sort of experimentation or dark undertones.  Oh well.  You can hear the natural twang in her voice even in "Sun Damage," and she lived in South Carolina right before moving to Seattle to co-found Tagging Satellites in 1997, so she does have Southern credentials, and hence I'm not saying her current sound is a put-on, but still.

Last Wednesday at Delgado I saw a truly awesome experimental video projection as part of the Prospect.2 art biennial called Below Sea Level by Paweł Wojtasik.  Make sure to watch it in 720p:

I took that video when I went back to see it again on Friday.  Sorry for the constant panning, but that was the only way I could show everything that was going on on the approx. 350º circular screen.  The dude spent three years making it, so you can spend 15 minutes watching this excerpt of it.  It was deeply moving for me to see my nook in the world portrayed in such a hallucinatory, abstract way, and I'm sure this guy has a bright future ahead of him.  The ambient score is by someone named Stephen Vitiello.

On Friday I watched the 2-hour Chuck series finale, even though I'd never watched the show very much.  I laughed out loud at the scene where the bomb is set to go off as soon as the orchestra stops playing, and as soon as the last notes are dying out and you're bracing yourself for impact, this weird guy Jeffster busts onto the stage doing a keytar rendition of aHa's "Take On Me".   I have to say I wish I had watched this show more.  Today I sprayed some weeds and then played basketball for almost 4 hours at Lutcher Playground w/ Bruce, Chris, Meatball, and about 6 other dudes.  Today everyone called me "Larry" not as a Larry Bird reference, but rather because I was wearing a Larry Johnson Hornets jersey.  Then I watched Alcatraz, but I'm sure Fox will pull the plug on it as soon as the ratings dip by even one viewer, as Fox is notorious for doing.  So I suggest watching this show now if you have any desire to.

Well, this post pretty much had it all in terms of high-octane entertainment value.

Planets with similar climates: Bleach - "Can" (1992), Sonic Youth - "Ghost Bitch" (1984), Esben And The Witch - "Marching Song" (2010), Slint - "Good Morning, Captain" (1991), Warpaint - "Beetles" (2008).

Junius >> That's some line between love and hate

Junius - "A Word Could Kill Her"

(Radar Recordings, 2006)

Yes, guitar heroics are back in indie rock, since post-punk kids in tight clothing have been rediscovering Dinosaur Jr., The Wipers, Soundgarden, and other axe-friendly '80s bands.  I prefer my songs to be driven by bass and drums rather than by guitar, but sometimes a band just nails a guitar riff, and this is one of those times.  Junius wear all black, which makes them look like anarchist ninjas, and are Very Serious about their bombastic forging of epic rock.  For this song, their guitarist came up with a hybrid surf-meets-goth riff that is as addictive as it is improbable.

The singer has said that his favorite album is Fantastic Planet by Failure, and does a good job of channeling Robert Smith, though I'd have to say the lyrics in this song aren't much to write home about.  I also recommend the very Joy Division-ish title track from this EP, Blood Is Bright.  I almost saw Junius in Baton Rouge in March '08, with a few other great bands, all of whom I ended up seeing separately over the ensuing few years: Ghastly City Sleep, Constants, Pygmy Lush.  Seriously, that's a jaw-dropping slate of bands, but hindsight is always 20/20, right?  Dangit.  It was a house show in Baton Rouge, and I didn't feel like hanging around at the house of someone whom I didn't know for 5 or so hours.  I'm excited to finally get to see Junius this March at the Circle Bar in NOLA, a venue the size (and temperature, since it lacks A/C) of a fireplace.  I've never posted tour dates for any band on here before, but I'm going to for this tour, and for another fine band in my next post.  I rarely post songs by bands that are currently active, so when I find one that's on tour, it's only logical to tell you folks about it:

02/15/12 New Haven, CT @ Bar
02/16/12 Washington, DC @ DC9 w/ O'Brother, Black Clouds
02/17/12 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall w/ O'Brother, Ribs
02/18/12 Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory w/ O'Brother
02/19/12 Philadelphia, PA @ North Star Bar w/ O'Brother, Val De Val
02/21/12 Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE w/ O'Brother, Sainthood Reps
02/22/12 Columbus, OH @ Basement w/ O'Brother, Sainthood Reps
02/23/12 Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme w/ O'Brother, The Soil And The Sun
02/24/12 Chicago,IL @ Beat Kitchen w/ O'Brother
02/25/12 St Louis, MO @ Firebird w/ O'Brother, Time & Time
02/26/12 Lawrence,KS @ Jackpot Music Hall w/ O'Brother
02/28/12 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre w/ O'Brother, Lucida Tela
02/29/12 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court w/ O'Brother, Loom
03/01/12 Reno, NV @ Jub Jub's Thirst Parlor
03/02/12 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill w/ O'Brother, Happy Body Slow Brain
03/03/12 Los Angeles, CA @ Satellite (formerly Spaceland) w/ O'Brother
03/04/12 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar w/ O'Brother
03/05/12 Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse
03/06/12 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress w/ O'Brother, Sleep Driver
03/07/12 Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Underground w/ O'Brother
03/08/12 Midland, TX @ Pine Box
03/09/12 Austin, TX @ Red 7 w/ O'Brother, Brother Ghost
03/10/12 Dallas, TX @ Bryan St. Tavern w/ O'Brother
03/11/12 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live w/ O'Brother
03/12/12 New Orleans, LA @ Circle Bar w/ Steve Eck And The Midnight Still
03/13/12 to 03/18/12 Austin, TX @ SXSW

These U.S. dates are followed by a lengthy European tour, whose dates you can see here.  The New Orleans date is not even listed on their website, so hopefully noladiy.org got their facts right.  By the way, my next post will be about another band that is on a big tour.

Some reviews of Blood Is Bright:

"They wear their brooding Eighties swirling darkness on their sleeve, yet still manage to conjure something fresh, majestic and uplifting. The vocal drips onto a textured canvas of chiming echoed guitars and a throbbing backbeat reminiscent of Pornography-era Cure, with the bombastic crunch of My Bloody Valentine." - The Noise

"Breathtaking atmospherics and dark sensibilities deserved of being likened to The Cure's Disintegration punctuate this EP. Vocalist Joseph E. Martinez deadpans a brooding style that clashes at the perfect angle with the swirling sounds that rise around his words. Without straying into anything too heavy, Junius manages to maintain an intense presence that is as stylish as Interpol but carries a sincerity and distinction not found in enough young acts. This band seems to have borrowed just enough from previous decades to build and shape something all its own. This Boston-based quartet approach New Wave tendencies with a shield of spacey guitars and artistic vocal stylings to create something that is not soon forgotten. With high energy emanating out of a pensive sound, Junius punctures each track with unshakable singularity until it turns into something addictive and encompassing." - Exclaim! magazine (Canada)

"Genius as far as contemporary New Wave / cinematic Art-Rock goes... [an] epic audio masterpiece." - The Big Takeover

I had never experienced symptomatic sports-related heartbreak until the last minute of the Saints' loss to the Niners on Saturday.  It was almost identical to the ending of the Steelers-Cardinals Super Bowl three years ago.  To get over the shock, we watched a move called Flame And Citron and some SNL and an apparently-legenendary short film called C'était un rendez-vous.  I was also shocked that Lana Del Rey didn't sing her superb new single "Born To Die" on SNL.  The only reason I slogged through the whole episode was to see her do it.  She did "Video Games" and some other mediocre song, and was brutally panned by smug news robot Brian Williams, who called her perhaps the worst performer in the history of the show.  Ouch.

On Monday, the always-classy Spike network did the only thing any reasonable channel would do in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day: It aired a marathon of Steven Seagal films.  I was lucky enough to tune in and catch a hilarious fight scene in his 2003 effort Belly Of The Beast.  I looked it up on YouTube to watch it again, and learned that I missed an even more hilarious beginning part of this very fight:

1.) Is this the worst scene in the history of cinema?  Y/N

2.) Is this the apex of the S. Seagal canon?  Y/N

(Note: By answering question 2, you hereby admit to having viewed the entirety of the S. Seagal canon.)

I watched the pilot episode of a new show called Alcatraz, mainly because our dad used to always take us around Alcatraz whenever we'd go out on the little sailboat (The Green Toad) that our family briefly owned in the '80s.  The show was pretty good, but I was just totally enraptured by the lead actress, Sarah Jones. Just watch an episode and you'll see what I mean.

On Wed., I got a gigantic cheeseburger for only $4 at this little soul food place in Morgan City called Rita Mae's.  Before eating it, I played some hoops at this court a few blocks away situated directly under Hwy. 90.  There was a rail-thin tween biracial girl riding erratically around the court on a bike, lost in her own little world, warbling some song at low volume.  After she almost crashed into me a few times, I asked her what she was singing, and she said it was a song by Adele.  I remember it had "Rain" in the title; I just looked it up and it must've been "Set Fire To The Rain," which iTunes says is her most popular song at the moment.  She then sang "Someone Like You" and "Rolling In The Deep" at my request, like my own little rolling jukebox.  It was kind of like a scene out of Gummo or something, with the sound of cars rumbling up above our heads.  "She's kinda weird, isn't she?," I asked one of her friends, who smiled broadly and nodded her head as the girl pedaled away down the street.  Then I drove over two of the city's epic bridges as the sun set while listening to Poem Rocket.  Perhaps subconsciously inspired by C'était un rendez-vous, I filmed it:

Planets with similar climates: The Chameleons - "Return Of The Roughnecks" (1985), The Cure - "Burn" (1993), The Comsat Angels - "The Eye Dance" (1981), Juno - "All Your Friends Are Comedians" (1998), The Wipers - "Against The Wall" (1987).

Volplane >> It burns through me

Volplane - "Lost In Blue" (a.k.a. "I Want This Dream")

(Flight Approved Records, 1997)

I found out about Volplane when someone in AOL's Indie Rock chatroom told me about them in early 2003 and said I might like them.  I checked them out, loved the few songs I heard (including this one), and then almost immediately interviewed them for my online zine.  I was informed that they had changed their drummer and adopted the new name Bright Channel, so it technically was a Bright Channel interview.  The word volplane is a verb meaning "To glide toward the earth in an airplane with the engine cut off."

This song hypnotized my brain from the first few seconds, and still blows me away with its darkly creeping, trancelike menace.  For only a 3-minute song, it sure is a harrowing journey.  Singer / guitarist Jeff Suthers' androgynous, soothing vocals, crying out like an ant trapped in amber, are the perfect foil for the forlorn, hypothermia-inducing music.  The production values are pretty incredible for a self-recorded song, with a womblike warmth borne out of tons of reverb.  I like how the phrase "I want this dream to be" has no ending, so one is left to decide what exactly he is trying to say.  "Wash Away," "Two Worlds" and "Tear In Two" are my other favorite Volplane tunes, with "Wash Away" being particularly mind-blowing, easily one of the best pure shoegaze songs ever made.  According to their website, "From 1997-1999, Volplane forged ahead and spent the larger part of two years in their home studio recording what should have been two records that were never officially released: Volplane and Merlot.  In 2006, Flight Approved Records released a limited edition CD-R retrospective with some of the band’s favorite tracks from [those two albums]."  The retrospective is simply titled 1997-1999, is quite stunning, and can be bought on iTunes.  "Lost In Blue" (I seem to remember it was titled "I Want This Dream" when I downloaded it in 2003) and "Wash Away" were on Volplane.  The (proposed?) cover art for Volplane is identical to the cover of 1997-1999, but solarized (a reverse negative image), and with no writing at the bottom:

As a an obsessive fan of shoegaze / dream pop guitar styles, I can say without hesitation that Jeff Suthers is a master of this art, coaxing out some of the most spacey, psychedelic and eerie tones ever, all in the relative obscurity of Denver, Colorado.

Excellent photo with San Francisco as a backdrop; presumably taken at Kirby Cove in Marin County, ca. 1984. Compare to the top photo here.

Planets with similar climates: Bethany Curve - "Long Beach" (2001), Colfax Abbey - "Once In A While" (1996), Sonic Youth - "Shadow Of A Doubt" (1986), Juned - "Titanic" (1995), The Comsat Angels - "I Come From The Sun" (1992), Catherine Wheel - "Tongue Twisted" (1993).


Eating or drinking over the last week: Rouses eggplant parmesan; Synergy Mystic Mango kombucha tea; Alo Coco Exposed coconut water; Winn-Dixie cornbread; Rouses garlic rosemary red onion focaccia; Samuel Adams Black Lager; Flavors Of Greece roasted eggplant spread; Clowson Cotswold gloucester cheese w/ onions & chives.  And of course the Guinness Draught vs. Murphy's Stout comparison I mentioned last time.

New Math >> I've been waiting in the cold moonlight

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #63:

New Math - "Invocation"

(415 Records [U.S.] / CBS Records [Europe], 1982)

I don't know much about this band, other than the fact that they changed their name to Jet Black Berries.  (I bought a cassette by JBB ca. 2006, but hated it.)  I bought this New Math EP, They Walk Among You, three years ago just based on the cool band name, cover photo, and album title.  The band members look pretty suave on the back cover.  (This mp3 doesn't want to play properly, so I might take it down at some point.  It's the only mp3 I've ever posted that has done this.  Sorry.)

Just a cool song, not much more to say.  I have to say it's uncanny how identical the present-day band The Horrors sound to this song, down to the singer's dramatic snarl and vocal phrasing.  (Well, prior to their laid-back new album Skying, anyway.)

I played some 21 on this court at the end of Annunciation St. today.  The guy I was playing was pretty good, and we each scored about 40 points total before his lunch break ended and he had to leave.  Later I met the darned sweetest girl ever, working at this plant nursery on the Westbank that I never go to.  She had that short indie-girl haircut that was prevalent in the '90s, and seemed quite caffeinated, but in a good way.  I asked if she was from Georgia, based on her accent, and she said no, she was from Shreveport.  I related to her that I had recently asked my dad if said city (approx. the 100th biggest in the U.S.) had any art museums, aquariums, etc., and he said "Shreveport has nothing of cultural significance."  She seemed to agree with my dad on this.  I bought a crassula and a phlox.

I've been meaning to post these for a long time, so I might as well now... I seem to remember that there's a labyrinthine history behind the popularization of the "Fuck you I'm an anteater" meme, so you can look it up if you want to, but why would you want to do that when life is so short?  The other one is just a spoof of it.

Planets with similar climates: The Horrors - "New Ice Age" (2008), The Sound - "Winning" (1981).

Choir Invisible >> Have you got the weapons?

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #52:

Choir Invisible - "The Distance From..."

(Frontier Records, 1981)

This is a pretty complex & intense song, representing yet another winner from Frontier Records.  It was clearly among the state-of-the-art creations of its era, an era which was very competitive when it came to this kind of music.  So of course this band went completely unnoticed.

I didn't like the rest of this (self-titled) album too much, but maybe you will disagree, so you might want to check the whole album out, but don't expect anything else like this song.  It has never been released on CD.  I'm not sure why they buried this song at the very end of the album.  The basslines in this song are really haunting, and the trebly, quavering guitar parts add some suspense.  Pretty much everything about it is great, to put it plainly.  Someone on the site Discogs.com with a tenuous grasp of English commented "[P]erhaps the one I that is most amusing to me is the fact the band photos on back are so strikingly similar to those on Siouxsie & The Banshees Join Hands released 2 years prior that you know there was quite a bit of thought put into it."  This reminds me of a local Interpol-worshipping called The Public who had a photo in one of their EPs that was identical to almost every Interpol photo; they even had their own Carlos D clone rocking some slick KROQ hair. 

Choir Invisible's family tree includes The Adolescents, The Flesh Eaters, The Three O'Clock, Flyboys, and surely others.  Choir Invisible apparently only put out this s/t LP and a 1984 EP / mini-album called Sea To Shining Sea.

Back to those two pics of Alex Wagner that I included in my last post... Something about them made me feel kinda weird at the time, and today I realized that militant conservative vigilantes like to post photos, and even home / work addresses, of their enemies, in order to make it easier for their quarry to be located by that one mentally unhinged Joe RedState who might want to know.  (This is especially done with doctors who perform abortions.)  So rather than simply print Wagner's Second Amendment soundbyte, someone made sure to stick it over a large, clear photo of her face.  And the other photo has the ominous Ammoland.com watermark on it.  For legal reasons, I will say that I'm not saying they want her to be targeted / harassed / killed, but let's not kid ourselves, these are maniacal gun nuts and they pick and choose parts of the Constitution to follow.  

Fun Fact: I had no plans to even mention guns in this post.  The song lyric I decided to pluck to use as this post's title is mere coincidence... and I just watched a movie called Serendipity.  (Bye-bye man card.)

This has been repeatedly voted one of the worst websites on earth, but it's hilarious and has made her a minor celebrity in the U.K.: Ling's Cars

Ling with her nuclear missile launcher truck

I've shown a few of the collages I've made using only one day's comic strips, but this is by far the best one I've done.  As you can see, it was made using only the comics from the 8/18/09 issue of the Times-Picayune:

Usually I make myself do them on the same day, but I did this one the next day for some reason.  (Read each row from left to right.)  I used the top from one of those gift box that you can throw gifts in if you're too lazy to wrap them, but I stupidly didn't buy any more of these boxes for future use.  I should actually put up a video clip instead, because the stars really do sparkle like crazy if you move your head the slightest bit.  I think that's what messed up my camera's autofocus and led to the bad pic quality.

I was planning to go see Indian Jewelry / Prince Rama / Kindest Lines tonight, but I called the club (Siberia) and found out that IJ cancelled for unknown reasons, and local band The Buoyant Sea were added as another opener.  So I'm gonna stay home and do situps while watching Terra Nova, which is supposedly gonna be cancelled soon.

NUH UHHHHHH!!! Mom And Daughter Video Themselves . . . FREAKIN It . . . To MY NECK MY BACK By KHIA!!! (The UNCENSORED Version)

Planets with similar climates: The Horrors - "New Ice Age" (2008), Autumnfair - "Collide" (~1989), Faith No More - "Kindergarten" (1992), The Church - "Constant In Opal" (1984), Joy Division - "Twenty Four Hours" (1980).