Ceci & I have a great deal of fun doing River City Limits for Richmond Indie Radio on second Saturdays:
Here we are in our 3-D Glasses...COMIN' AT YA!
Listening: The Cosmopolitans, we had member Jamie K. Sims on for the show, they are having a reunion gig in NC on August 1st. Reading: Wyatt Earp Speaks ---yeah in a western history phase, even watching Deadwood again.
A great Splork show last Friday at The Triple for the River City Roller Girls. Here are a couple of pics:
Then the next day, L & I go to D.C. . We visit my aunt, see Prairie Home Companion, and catch a Nationals game at the new stadium -- they won. A great weekend!
An amusing thing we started to do while traveling through the crazy that is NoVa traffic, is have some fun with the portable toilets that line the endless construction by the highways. The vast army of blue and gray plastic privies are known as Don's Johns and YES, they have a website. In fact, they have NBC coverage from the Obama Inauguration on there too. So my original post was to try and come up with funny slogans for advertisement for this sanitation company, but the obvious winner already speaks for itself: something to the effect of when the government needs to go, they call the best, they call Don's Johns. So anyway, here are the other slogans we came up with after see them at road construction site after road construction site, feel free to join in:
- We won't port-o-let you down. - Moving your movement, one port-o-let at a time. - Keeping construction on the go. - It's everywhere they want to go. - Slow construction ahead...doesn't mean their behind. - Because no one like them sitting down on the job.
Watching: Original Twilight Zone episodes from the Volume III collection. Love when Rod Serling zips in on each episode with clever language smoking a cigarette. Very chock full of awesome-ness.
Being a robot collector, as well as a big Ghost in the Shell fan, I could not resist buying this Dennou Chogokin Tachikoma Ver.1.2 from Japan; a great site called Hobby Link Japan. Yes, it is cool. Here is a vid:
I know I know, dorky right? But you have to admit it is pretty kick ass and it looks swell in the display case:
Reading: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. Makes me angry and sad.
You know, it would really be great if the Westhampton or wherever in town would show this:
And speaking of theaters, I am looking forward to going to see Hitchcock's The Birds at the Byrd on April 24th, two showings of the film at a cost of 10 bucks, which includes Wurlitzer fun and some free popcorn. Then I notice that Bow-Tie cinema is also show the Birds for their little movie and mimosa thing. Hmmm...I bet Bow-Tie is trying some sly marketing ploy, taking ideas from our local beautiful theater as well as taking money from the Foundation by offer the same old film at the same time or better yet a week earlier, hardly a coincidence dontcha think? Maybe Bow-Tie is pretty shitty after all... Kind of like Starbucks opening two locations near a local coffee shop to steal the business.... hmmmm.
So last night, I make everyone in the house watch 1996's space invader movie, Independence Day, thinking it would be a good space action movie that the teen would like and maybe L. would enjoy since it has Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and others. I remember going to the theater to see this with a friend of mine when it first came out and thought it was a two hour wad of spittoon catchings. People cheered when the character playing the president said Nuke 'Em. WTF??!! Oh, but then the same ding dongs that cheered that suggestion also cheered when the President FIRED the slimy character that suggested it to begin with. WTF?!?! Anyway, it was a lot of cheesed out patriotic-ish tripe, though the effects were good for the time. I remember at the time that I had enjoyed Tim Burton's Mars Attacks much better, particularly for the hilarious inclusion of Tom Jones in the final shot of the movie (you know when he is with the animals like Dr. Doolittle?).
Burton's movie took the same 1950s martian invader genre nod and went in a more endearing and lasting direction.
Seeing ID last night, it felt long (I can't believe I watched the whole thing!), pompous, showboaty, and the effects are dated. I mean sure, I guess it is an OK action movie, but it has no way near the lasting great movie element it may have banner waved at the time of its release. Not including the whole "twin towers" foreshadowed reference or whatever you want to bring into it. So the question is: why did I want to watch it and why did I want to make my family watch it? I mean, I didn't really like it at the time it came out. I might have even been vehement about it. So what inspired me to see it again? Maybe it totally feels like a Sunday afternoon lounging around the house type of movie...I am sure it wasn't some kind of attempt at capturing my youth or whatever. Maybe big budget Hollywood flicks like that, even though most suck, create some kind of false pattern of recognition where you picked up on the popularity of it through some kind of consumer collective consciousness. Weird, I know, but marketing does strange things to peoples psyche, any psychologist will tell you that. Or maybe it is as simple as just recalling some of the more impressionable scenes of the movie being interesting and you just blocked out the crappy parts. Anyway, I think I might have seen it for the last time last night --at least as a rental.
Since everyone on facebook, here, and various other social networks keeps chatting and posting about the snow here in town, which I love and also am excited to see, I am going to post a picture of our cat in a box to counterbalance all the snow fervor:
Clock Work baby. I saw this crazy ass toy at World of Mirth right before the holidays. Obviously a choking hazard to most anyone and I think on the consumer shit list in some countries, yet selling for 45 bucks on ebay in Argentina.
Everything about it stuns me. The crazy name, the weird graphics, the way it works and the funky psycho sound it makes. Here's a vid of it at work, notice how LONG it performs, and that was just from a few cranks!
I KNOW, right, so weird.... anyway, another greatly humorous thing about this toy made in China, is the warning label that it has:
1) Children is misspelled and 2) that sentence ALMOST makes no sense! You gotta think about it a little, ya know? It's almost like the box is PART of the fun! Anyway, I bought the last two (or only) on the shelf, they were like 6 bucks, thinking that I definitely had to have one at the office and I had to share one with someone. Funny how I haven't found the right person yet to give this to!
I feel like crap today, but am to be the emcee for this great WRIR 97.3 radio party. Four years! Four great bands, Horsehead, RPG, Bio Ritmo and Hot Lava and 2 DJ rooms with some slam poetry thrown in. Yeah!
Hey, listen to Friday's show I posted: Podcast Here
Listening: The Cramps, Lux Interior R.I.P. I remember seeing them at the Flood Zone I guess about 12 years ago (?) My older punk friend got socked in the mouth by a 20 year girl who didn't appreciate him slam dancing at a punk show (!) near her. I was hypnotized by Poison Ivy, swearing she was staring me down the whole time while playing the guitar, Lux was all over the fucking place; on the speaker, writhing on the stage, on the crowd. It was fantastic....
These are photos from the day after, around 11:30am. I live near enough there to call it my neighborhood, and frankly I don't want you dickweeds around trashing my community for the sake of the New Year:
I'm not sure who brought the walking machine to the Street party, but they tore that box open and left it.
This was a huge sheet of glass that we thought fell from a window, we couldn't locate the origin, guessed maybe someone's car window got smashed.
Since there are no cows in the big city for country bumpkin drunk boys to tip over, portable toilets are the next best thing?
This was the remains of a bloody torn shirt on the sidewalk which furthers my thought that there are a lot of drunk dudes at this "celebration" looking for fights.
This is the best shot I could get of the inside of Can-Can, which was very trashy with confetti and stuff that the staff probably said, "This crap can wait till tomorrow." Still, all those suburbanites coming in to the fashionable restaurant would call 12 on your side in a heartbeat if they found a streamer in their soup!
Horse nuggets left by your friendly neighborhood policemen and their trusty steeds that I heard trotted through the crowd minutes after the New Year to clear people out. Guess they forgot the shovel?
Speaking of horse flop, those that couldn't squeeze into Can-Can, had to settle for Asian food on flower boxes. I suppose finishing the rice was too much effort to achieve, kind of like throwing away the plate. I kind of have this image of a group of 22 year old drunk fashionable girls sharing these plates of food, with one totally blowing chunks after eating, while her friend sets the plates down right here to help her friend puke by moving her long $200 haircut out of the flow of barf.
Celebrate the New Year in Carytown, rent an apartment!
I think these photos are reason enough to charge people in the counties taxes for Richmond. You come to the city and trash it! Not saying a lot of the locals do it too but...Or at least if they are going to do this Carytown thing next year, they should charge 20 bucks, so they can afford a quick clean up after wards, and not just the one street, the neighborhoods too. A lot of the surrounding the areas had litter everywhere as a result.
Carytown New Year's is LAME. We went one year and that was enough. The idea of a ball dropping (or raising) needs more of a Square type setting. How about Brown's Island or Shockoe Bottom. Because I suspect that a lot of people that troll the Bottom were probably at this thing. Anyway.
So I collect robots, it was a conscious effort I made a couple of years ago, because I thought it would be kind of unique and well, they are neat. We went to Ikea today, in between radio shows and taking the cat to the vet, where we picked up some new bookshelves for the living room and, magically enough, an awesome display case for some robots!!! Terribly blurry pic, I know, but look:
Here is a pic of me with Joe Shithead Keithley and the rest of the new crew of D.O.A. about ten years ago, I'm the fatty hairy guy in the back!
It was a great few days being able to hang out with D.O.A. while they stayed at my friend Michele's apt on Grace Street. They were between shows (with Zeke, who were constantly trying to score coke out of their motel, I think), the drummer hurt his back and they needed to recoup. I got to drive Joey to Pleasants hardware to buy some glue for his guitar which he broke at the show here. Plus interview them for Throttle Magazine in a restaurant/band review/interview at Stella's (after it moved to Main Street). Good times!
Reading: Awesome book called "The Terror" by Dan Simmons, fictionalized account (with monster) on the lost Franklin Expedition in the 1840s.
Triclops “Out of Africa” (Alternative Tentacles) Different. Proof that punk is art and just well, damn good! Members of Victims Family, Lower 48 and the vocalist from Fleshies have done a discordantly defiant record in the vein of a Yes album, but way harder, creepier and chock full of fists solidly raised in the air. Musically, it’s a math romp, or noise romp or hardcore romp, it dances along the heavier side of music without the schizophrenia. Vocals are a real gem of oddness here, using studio trickery to squeeze out tones like a baby or add echo to madness ranting. Take the song “Freedom Tickler”, my favorite track, starting as a creeper then going to the straight forward noodle with poignant lyrics written in the form of a comic in the liner notes. “Secret 93” is a dark tale of city in darkness, combining elements of acoustic and throwing it up in the air with some intense sonic angles. Triclops “Out of Africa” is the kind of thematic cd that is bigger than any one song, and is worth repeated listening.
Gogol Bordello live at Toad’s Place. Plain & simple just read my review HERE. Best in show in town of the year.
Flight of the Conchords - tv show and Cd (Sub Pop). Take two comedic guys with panache for dry humor and good musicianship who have been doing the club circuit for a few years, created a fan base, then given an HBO series. Funny. It’s when the show came out, where a lot of the visualizations of their songs were put in focus that people started to flock to the Flight. What could be next but to do a CD with all that comedic Aussie – er uh New Zealand goodness and make it not only the best comedic album of the year, but one of the best musical comedy albums ever. There are at least 5 songs that fans will quote lines to you if you let them. My sad fear is that this is it for them. They’ve peaked and will probably still put out hilarious material, but our gobble and spit out attitude will have “all ready been there, done that”. That’s okay, this is their time, and a great one at that. Beck “Modern Guilt” (DGC Records). To me, Beck has never been one to care much about being in the Top 10 of anything with his albums and I personally haven’t gone much beyond the highly regarded Odelay. But when I first heard Modern Guilt, I just had to pick it up. He’s always an obscure, hip poet with colorful songwriting and this album brings that out nicely with balanced grooving tunes co-produced by Danger Mouse. “Orphans” and “Youthless” play like Beatles “Rubber Soul” on funky pills and the lyrics mean SOMETHING, I’m not entirely sure what, but I can identify. Songs like “Gamma Ray” are more obvious in what feels like a take on what modern people are going to do with our pollution and way of living and the environmental concern. Modern Guilt is just a great solid album with some great vibes throughout. The B-52s “Funplex” (Astralwerks). Kate Pierson is 60! 60!!!! No member is under 50 in the band now and they are rocking it out better than some boy bands that reformed for the sake of dry humping the cash cow. *AHEM* New Kids on the Block *AHEM* This CD got me through the Jersey Turnpike on a 10 hour trip to South Hadley, Massachusetts, and that my friends, is saying something! The songs are more than their expected party dance stuff, sure there is plenty of that, but they have grown a sharper tongue on the pop culture lifestyle. Take the mall living jab with the title track “Funplex” –a great rip. And although you never really think of the B-52s as being social commentarians on their records, they have plenty to say here, albeit tongue in cheeky. Here is “Keep this party going.” “Comeback” is hardly a word to use here, but works well, just like the B-52s!
Hot Lava “Lavalogy” (Bar/None). The pop senses tingle with catchiness and the air of lo-fi love just hits you great on this record. Such an album to come out of RVA! Destined for greatness, I say. It reminds me, slightly, of the great moments in The Breeders, but the lava flavor is more satisfying. There is a a subtle 60s pop beach party vibe throughout and the lyrics are wonderful; clever, smart and smart aleck –a great combination that Allison exudes in her distinct vocals. Hot Lava is a band that you will hear on the air and go, “that’s Hot Lava”. This is a distinctive sound that you’re always happy to hear. Local of the year. I heart Hot Lava!
The Ting Tings “We Started Nothing” (Phantom Sound & Vision) The Kills “Midnight Boom” (Red Meat Heart). Okay, so here is my theory, The Ting Tings and The Kills are basically the same kind of band, just for different styles of people and a different vibe. Elvis person or Beatles person. Blonde or Brunette. White meat or Dark meat. Old Trek or new Trek. Same thing here. Me? I like em both. Ting Tings definitely offer the best danceable pop around with songs like “That’s not my name” and “Fruit Machine”, sure winners on the circuit. The disco elements of “Shut up and let me go” are perfect for your pop dance floor flavor. At the same time, The Kills offer more for the wallflowers in the dark corner, bobbing heads together in unison, maybe even swaying together. Songs like “Getting down” is unbeatable as a dirty dark dance song. Playing the Ting Tings is like putting Pop Rocks in your mouth, you will move. The Kills are like adding lo-fi cola to the Pop Rocks – providing the element of danger and rawness. Here is my example : both bands (basically each have 2 members; a guy and a gal) have a “fruit” song. Ting Tings is called “Fruit Machine”. Now take the same vibe from that and Kill it and you have “Sour Cherry”. Enough said. Both are great bands and cds so they basically tie for me, depending on the mood.
Polysics LIVE in DC and best vinyl (Karate House/I ate the Machine dbl lp SIGNED!) (Myspace records). So my pal and fellow BB DJ Anna (Tuesday mornings) head our families up to The Black Cat in Washington D.C. to see the greatest band on the planet Polysics! Here is a crappy video I tried to take with my camera:
Anyway, being the obvious fanboy that I am, I bought the limited edition double album vinyl of Karate House and I ate the Machine, two cds I already own (and the more expensive foreign releases at that), before they even went on stage. Polysics is a band that is huge in Japan, filling the seats and in videos you can see hundred of kids pogo in unison, a sight to behold. Here at the Black Cat in D.C. they play the BACK room full to about 120 people, but 120 dedicated fans that know what the hell they are about and how great they are. Polysics played it out, Hiro, the guitarist/singer started all pressed and nice in his orange uniform jumpsuit but by the end of the show was drenched in sweat. High energy, aggressive without all the jock attitude -- they gave me exactly what I wanted, pure musical HELL YEAH!! Afterwards , I hung around with a few other nerds, gripping my record closely, waiting to see if they would come out and sign it. THEY DID! Every one of them and they were so appreciative of my raining compliments upon them, even though they may not have know much of what I was saying. The music on these records speaks for itself (I play them all the time), amped up new wave, but harder, like Devo times a thousand. Live? Unbeatable! Thank you Polysics, for coming near enough for me to see you live! Come to Richmond!!!
Juana Molina “Un Dia” (Domino recording Co.). “Un Dia” is such an earthly CD, even though the music is layers and layers of vocals, samples and studio “Magic”. It is a fantastic CD and should be in the collection of anyone who likes the explorative side of music. It’s repetitiveness builds and ebbs and flows like the wind against the trees, touching here and there on loops and and lines that work and well. I know, it sounds kind silly, but it will carry you to other places, spiritually or emotionally. Molina is the ultimate in singer-songwriter ambience. Inspiring songs, like the title track, will carry you through the day with a serene pace that is upbeat and energetic. This is just beautiful music, textured and playful without feeling like the cheese of Enya. It is music for the senses. One of the most talented people out there as far as I am concerned, Juana Molina captures the nature of music to make one of the satisfying albums of 2008. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!” (Mute Records Limited). Nick Cave and done the world a great literary service with this album. He has given us something to be talked about in hip coffee shops for decades to come. He has a flair for the beat poets, a 60s guru vibe, some punk panache and a dash of T.S. Eliot all rolled into one hell of a fine CD. Themes of religion (Lazarus raised to live in New York City) he has always dealt with, and here he is at his most delightfully twisted, forming new theology in the modern world. Minimalism type songs sprinkled with off kilter noise and rumbles and solos all while coaxing complex sentiment in the lyrics with hip phraseology and deeper references; it’s nearly musical literature. Despite a mostly cynical vibe, there always seems to be a ray of hope, whether it be the chorus in “Albert goes West” or the carnal pleasure that is expressed in reveling in the life of the city; but hey Lazarus never ASKED to be raised from the dead. “We call upon the author to explain” is a perfect representation of this record. Socially conscious, holding the architects of the way of the world on trial, damning them, then gripping them up and dusting them off. Where “Author” tears it all down, others pick you up again, like “Hold onto yourself”, with some hope in the darkness, even if you have to embrace a sick world a little to do it. Nick Cave is always a blues man at the root, take the final track “More new from Nowhere” for instance, but he also embraces the jive and the weird and noisy and has rolled into some genius of a record here. This is the album of the year.
Okay, Local picks of the Year Hot Lava DJ Williams Trio Gull I-Las Way of the Sun Lee Harris & Country Sunshine Amoeba Men Dead Goats Splork! so many more!
I know I know, shaky camera, it's dark, and I'm screaming and dancing and blocking the slam dancers, but damn they were good and this might be a good example of how much butt this band kicks! Song is "I ate the Machine"
I just can't stand Quicktime format and it's lack of conversion to stuff I can actually edit into a viewable movie. Ah well, perhaps I will work something out. Anyway.... POLYSICS BABY!
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