hey this is where i am in life right now::;
Read More......Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Trying not to sound like a ponce // The Coathangers
So I went to see the Coathangers and Guitar Wolf. Lately Ive been asking myself "hey wheres the passion?" Ive kinda had this feeling that I know it was in there somewhere, but I didnt really know what the deal was it seemed like it had been a while since Ive seen it. Well, I'll tell you, after hanging out with Youthbitch, I kinda realized that it was OK to get all excited about certain things, like when youve been listening to a band for a year and you think they are awesome and then they are spending the night on your floor! sick!! it feels nice to feel good in a way where its like the new day actually brought something that expresses the vastness of life rather than the same old same old.
So yeah, I didnt even know there was a Coathangers show today until this morning I saw it online they posted something that they were playing with Guitar Wolf who Chris had mentioned the night before he was thinking about hitting up but he didnt say anything the Coathangers playing. I got really psyched. Also, after seeing the Growlers I had a really good recording session, but today I think was pretty much crap (I donno ill have to go back and check) and so I wanted to go out and see a really good band in case that magically helped me record better the next day from being closer to the pumped up energy. But yeah, seeing The Coathangers imagine like this new version of me is psyched to take the trip and see an awesome band and that part of me wants to turn every time i see an awesome band into people crashing on my couch, but then sub in really hot girls for the band, and that kinda changes how it goes. I definitely wanted to hold on til the end of the night and find my way back to my buddy's house where they are crashing, but something in me felt like it was a bit dicey. Or dicey is not the words, but it didnt seem like a probable thing that would probably happen where my life was different than the same old same old in that particular way on that night. It seemed like it was plausible but might be a little bit of a stretch. Which leads me to the question Im still not able to answer, which was if the only thing that kept it from being a reality was my own skiddishness. I knew the baseline was I would see a kickass show and try and talk to them or something. Chris ended up not making it to the show, so I was there by myself, so my loitering skills were left a pretty thin margin of error. There were some cool dudes there and they were so nice to me like bringing me into conversation and stuff, but eventually the topic turned to shows and booking and shit and I fear I started to sound like a ponce. Its really hard to sound cool around girls sometimes, especially ones that get lots of attention. During their set some dude brought them beers or like reached out his hand or something and then like involentarily kissed it in a weird dog slobbery kind of way. The whole thing was like slow motion trainwreck style. So then you are trying to go talk to a girl after seeing some other dude do this shit which you know happens to them every night and it just seems like a minefield, you know, like love is a battlefield, because the enemy is within all of us in that way as far as brain short circuiting, and it seems like to get anywhere I would have to pitch like the equivelant for me of 9 shutout innings (improbible). I think there is this weird thing left over from childhood, awkwardness about being like the 4th person walk up to a group of kids and say like "hey can I play?" But yeah while talking with these cool dudes, if I hadnt started talking like a ponce, which is to say talking about boring shit like what my bands are doing and how great everything is, they would have probably kept just talking to me forever and that is a major cool guy attribute, and had i been able to do that I probably would have gotten a chance to talk to the girl in the band i wanted to talk to in a natural conversational way, not in a dog slobbery way, but too bad i fucked up / pussed out and left. But it was still a kickass show, and I found out they are dropping a record in March so Ill bet theres a good chance they are back to promote it. And furthermore talking with those dudes now we might end up playing a show with them who knows, so it would be cool to play with some cool guys, id definitely love to set that show up so it wasnt all for naught i guess.
One song they played during their set I saw online afterwards called Trailorpark Boneyard. I was watching it on the internet after the show and I heard the lyrics and they made me really made me sad. Great song, i like wanderlusty type stuff, and like driving thru the desert rock, and the low chord comes at a really good time. I think the second verse is really sad. And Im trying to figure out, is the 3rd verse, like she comes back thru a town and then some guy she was with last time wants to get with her but then her reality has become like rejecting all these dudes from different places, so now shes trapped in this cycle where theres always these dudes with like hurt feelings because theyre not gonna get laid again and people are always getting mad at her when she hasnt done anything thats her fault? Maybe that would be a good question to ask her, if I get a chance.
Oh Sike, i get it, its really about she went back to try and get with this one particular dude, but the relationship didnt work out, and its about the dichotomy of how she cant be with someone while living nomadically, but that you go back and it doesnt necessarily work out. So its kinda frustrated in that way I guess, but I think its cool that she's still searching for the true love, thats a very idealistic thing to do. Solid!
EDIT: actually after listening again, i have no fuckin clue what its about but im pretty sure my theories make no sense. And if i get a chance to talk to her im gonna ask her how tall she is and if she played basketball.
DOUBLE EDIT, 3/30/14: Ok i think i finally get this song, its about liking a dude in a band, and then at the end "where you go ill go, what you see ill see" refers to her going out there and being in a band to get that perspective the dude she likes has, so she is close to him in that way, but its kinda frustrating because really she wanted to be with the dude, and its not quite the same. Its kinda like when the drummer from Cherry Glazarr put out an open invite to get in the hot tub, but i was stoned and just didnt say anything or take her up on it, and then she got back from the hot tub, looking refreshed but kinda bummed because the moment had already passed and i was like "oh yeah, hot tub" and then i just went into the hot tub then, but obv it was too late to hot tub with her which would have been sweet. But the hot tub was still bad ass, i was just cashed on the night at that point, although next year, ill wait until more ppl leave before hitting the weed, so i can still interact socially gracefully in case something like that happens again.
THE COATHANGERS:
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Woodshed // The Growlers w/Burgerama Tour of Stars
Im in the shed yall. I got my 8 track set up in the house for a while while one of my roommates is out of town and all 3 bands are gigging and practicing. My 2 weeks are done over at JJs although I can still pick up shifts there. After my last shift (wednesday 2 pm) i went home and then Friday night I came out of my house to go to a band practice only to realize I still had one of the carr toppers on my truck. ha. Ive been demoing new Spiked Punch and a lot of things are coming out of the process which is cool. I am working on my drumming mechanics on a drum pad currently, which is really something that came out of RXR practice. Different stuff is coming out of different practices, I feel like I have the luxury of concentrating on different techniques than how I previously thought about music. Playing bass in Party Plants and having no responsibilities in that band has been super awesome. I love playing Graham's songs and I love being in a rhythm section with Charlie. I usually think about keeping the song going in that band, which is I think a key to making music sound good. With drumming if I drum a 4 bar loop I am really concentrating on the last bar, and not having it slow down or speed up. Being able to do that 4 times is ok, or 20 times is better, but eventually you have to be able to do it for a whole song, every song. Ive been practicing slow quarter notes because I want to get that more precise and in my head after watching the drummer from Chris Catalina pull that off to great effect this summer. The tempos on the demos so far are a little all over the place....maybe just for a mesaure or two, but its definitely making progress. That's the other thing I'm secretly hoping comes off all the drum practice....that for instance no matter what instrument i track first, that it is in tempo the whole way thru without me needing to have a metronome playing along. I think its just about getting that internal clock built up. I think drum pad stuff is going to prove to be more of a morning/(sober) thing. NEXT SHOW ---- REVERSE X RAYS PLAYS AT JOEYS HOUSE WITH SLUGBUG + POLIO CLUB -- KICK OFF HALLOWEEN RIGHT, Fri Oct 25th. Then Party Plants and Spiked Punch are playing with Polio Club, David Israel, and Ruby Frey @ Beerland Wednesday November 13th.
I saw the Growlers at The Parish which was a mind-numbingly awesome show. They are on my list of top bands in america right now. I am getting really into this idea of hybrid-style as far as being a style for your band. Kinda like how people are "its the first blend of hip-hop and opera....hits a hip hopera!" I am all about the idea of trying to combine things, but I think they have a really interesting synthesis. I liked watching all of them, but maybe its cause I play bass a lot lately, i felt at most home watching the bassist (when not watching the front man, who was great). Cant wait to see those guys again. The Burger opening lineup, sad to say I didnt catch all of it, we waited for a break in the rain before heading over. I am excited about the Halloween show at Hotel Vegas, Im gonna get there super early I guess. I think that is their "A" lineup (that will play Haloween) and they were promoting their "B" (or "fakey style") lineup having them open for the Growlers. Those guys are incredible promoters, i think the way they have stuff organized shows they really care, or maybe they are geniuses. I donno. I think it stems back to the emotion of your formative period where you just really really love music, so bad that it hurts, and that is the origin of all musical expression that people make later in life. Its not the worst thing to be bound to.
Check out the Spiked Punch facebook page if you dare, we are trying to upgrade it some.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
summer recap: circular thinking and cyclical logic
I had a near breakdown today. My boss let me out of delivering sandwiches on my bicycle a couple hours early, and I chilled at my parents house, actually went grocery shopping (been outta food for days, spent a lot on eating out without really enjoying it), got some goddamn glue traps for this fucking huge rat that is in our house and watched the UT football team actually win a game, which really made me feel better, as stupid as that is. Take that K State! I also strategically placed a shit load of Baking Soda Packets around the house and it has started absorbing the rat smell nicely.
Yeah, so there was some shit going on making me feel bad. Also making me feel bad was that Zorch opened the Flaming Lips Gallery in Oklahoma City and I didn't get to go or be in the band. Waah. It really does feel beneath me in a way that I know is cyclical thinking along the lines of "I'm the best musician in the world, nobody appreciates me! Why does this guy get it when I don't get it when Im the best guy in the world?!?" What do you call that, letting the narcissist angle run wild? Fact is Zorch knows what they are doing and they have been doing it hardcore for 4 years. They were promoting their shit the whole time and they opened a warehouse space, so they can actually offer something of value to other people. And they do it with love......not only would it be worth it to concoct this entire scheme on face value just from a musicians standpoint if that meant that you got to do the shit you wanted to do with your music, but also running a venue is kinda sweet and leads to some sweet times, so I could see how an artist could draw from that experience as well.
it is annoying to me to wake up one day, after being really hardheaded in a way about keeping myself separate from those thought trains about promoting music in the name of artistic purity / absolutely essential punky dropout philosophy to wake up one day and realize that I explicitly hadn't promoted my shit and now I wish I had like 1000 facebook likes because that's like a basic hustley thing you have to do in order to ... promote? get gigs? create a certain kind of impression as a whole to those who I might be interested in having them promote my music? the difference between hitting the big time and no one giving a shit about you? I still don't really fucking know, but the cool thing that makes it actually tie together is that I have stumbled into a period of my life where doing this promoter shit is a prerequisite for individual band members to take shit seriously, and that's the difference in the project gaining any momentum or not, so it actually is weirdly the thing that makes it whole. Its kinda which came first, the chicken or the egg, kinda circular in that way, but if people are taking us seriously (are they? or is this illusory?) we might as well take ourselves seriously. Hey, its all in your head!
Cause its like thinking "if those guys really knew what they were doing and it took them 4 years, then what the fuck am I supposed to do, ill be xx yrs old in 4 years" like I don't got that kinda time man. Why is life so cruel to me, that I just wanted to be making music for music's sake* (*be socially awkward thru my mid 20s at least)? Did I guess wrong, sorry kid that's not how its done? And yet, what I learned in all that time is what in my mind separates me from the pack much more than good genes or something. --and isn't it kinda taken at face value that its dangerous for musicians to get too fat in terms of still being able to write good music? (I don't know, maybe that's BS invented by the people-who-don't-want-to-pay-musicians guild.) But what journey am I trying to create? Honestly, the real answer is I'd like for someone to send us on tour for a year, because I want to do like a total emersion thing so I can die happy and be happy getting tied down to raising a family later in life etc cause Ill have already ascended to some peak, and I'll be able to have the musical and otherwise general knowledge that you gain from that experience for the rest of my life. If that's not how it shakes out, I still am currently bound to just doing whatever I can, which seems to be like a monk's life as a musician, not a bad consolation, and which has me at this moment playing in 3 bands, planning to record and tour with sxsw, and that's not so bad, but its a hard time for me as I realize that by the next time I tour, it will have been 2 years since the last one. I missed a year. Fortunately the last tour was really fucking good. And actually I think the next tour I do will finally be with my own band in a way where we are actually blowing people away, thats the hope at least for Spiked Punch. A couple gigs to warm up, "you cant cook with cold grease," -floyd mayweather, and boom. Maybe Im crazy, but I really believe in that band, that we have what it takes.
again that's circular logic tho if you think about it. Its just an expression of the ego...believe vs. doubt I'll take believe every time, but ok what would a booking agent say? Someone who is impartially paid to move the units. They would say "Oh what you just said groups you in the same category as everyone who plays music, so you have told me nothing except that you are amateurs." The finer points of that sort of negotiation is probably better left to Berklee grads, but its a K-Hole that is very easy to fall into when describing your music. That's what my prejudice against art degrees is...that they train you on the business side of things....that its about who is able to describe what they are doing the best, not about who is actually doing the best stuff.
The good thing about this summer is we set achievable goals (which we did), and also that the goals upped the ante so far. I gigged like 7 times in September, and am playing in 3 bands so there is never any pressure on any of the projects, things can kind of go in their own natural waves, and the holes get filled in by the other projects so I am always able to be working on something in a band setting. Im better at bass, guitar, and drums than I was at the beginning of the summer. Spiked Punch got back together, and Reverse X Rays played our first shows in over a year. There have been no "bad gigs." I am really proud of how Spiked Punch is going. At the beginning of the summer we weren't even a band, and now I feel like we have kinda gotten out there a bit. Promoting the band has become a part of the project. We played 3 house shows with reverse x rays, joey went on IBN UBO tour, and then we played 4 shows with touring bands in the first half of September, one of which was a cool roadtrip to San Antonio. Our facebook likes are past 200! woo!! (/sarcasm) . I feel like I can check off that I spent some time on the scene for the summer, I did that cool Bill Baird boat show as a guitarist, the cool recording sesh postgame, and learned another new set for Party Plants which might be a magic in a bottle new lineup. I like that band cause I don't have to do any of the work* in a way (*lug an amp). Shane went on a Gender Infiniti tour and just now got back, so RXR starts up with practicing tomorrow night. We really have made great strides. I have gotten a lot more back in shape as a musician after working that job for the state to save money so I could work less and do more music. In that way I guess I am still in the game. But that's cyclical logic....certain shit I had to do and then I was gonna do some other shit later? Its actually working, but there is sort of a question of resources. Anyways for an Austin band it all leads up to SXSW, and there is no point in trying to book a tour for the winter, we might as well wait until Spring, and see if we cant hook anything up. I think we have some surprises planned for the next couple months as far as what we do, and everyone in the band is looking forward to it.
Anyways, it feels good to get it all out, lets hope theres a dead rat in a glue trap waiting for me by my refrigerator in the morning.
~~peace~~
Read More......Saturday, September 14, 2013
House of Preblon
Found some youtube videos of a House venue in Portland called House of Preblon.....includes New Sunrise around the era of when they hit up Escapes, for a memory of what these guys sounded like
NUDE SUNRISE @ House of Prevon:
YOUTHBITCH: (Cool California Live)
"don't stand in the front if youre not gonna dance" "its my house!"
bass player singing, rockstar moves:
cool guitar line, this seems to be the main way the band is usually organized:
Read More......Friday, September 13, 2013
Crazy Week -- Names Divine // Advaeta // Freak Heat Waves // Viet Cong // Youthbitch // Party Plants // Spiked Punch
First half of September has been kinda crazy with Music stuff. Last Wednesday we played Cheer Up Charlies with Names Divine from Chicago. It was gonna be our first Spiked Punch show in a run of 4, so we were doing a good number of band practices leading up to it. It was one of those deals where we knew going in that in addition to playing all the shows there wouldn't be time to squeeze in a practice in the middle of the shows, so we had to get as prepared as possible up front. Then Monday we went to San Antonio and played The Flop House with Advaeta from Brooklyn and Marc "Mockingbird" Smith who is a super active dude and a dude I felt a reggae connection with. It was a super great show. There is something refreshing about playing out of Austin, San Antonio is actually a pretty reasonable place to drive to and go for that feeling. We got to leave all our gear at the venue (Marc's house) and pass out there, so everyone could get wasted in peace. The ppl we were playing for were strangers, and everyone got in a real good mood. We didn't play note perfect, but Marc recorded the set, theres some gemmy tips in there about how to play what we are playing better. After these 4 shows, I am practicing bass a lot more. Until this point just playing the changes and singing have been my focus (aka not fucking up), but after seeing Youthbitch play I feel like I need to start doing more on the bass to make it sound beautiful. That is a band I wish I could see live 15 times and internalize a little more of what they are doing. Hanging out back at my house, Rob the guitarist with the, its like a Hofner Goldtop I think, I don't think it was a Gibson, but anyways he was doing some cool shit off the main pentatonic scale. It was almost like talking about chess openings, like it was about going partway up it and being on beat x, and how heres his arsenal of possible riffs for that time and also how they lead into later riffs. add up about 50 of those things and you have someone who can really play the shit out of a pentatonic scale. Right, so Names Divine at Cheer Up Charlies was on Wednesday....Thurs and Fri there were some band practices, also for the band Party Plants which debuted Tuesday and includes yours truly and Joey from SP. Saturday there was a show at my house. 7 bands played, Jewish Summer Camp (a new project from Joe of Night Court), Jeff Cooper + Coby doing country with chorus pedal on it, Cosmic Dust which was like John Coltrane + Rasheed Ali doing Innerstellar Space, but with an electric cello and some VU guitar, Spiked Punch, Freak Heat Waves, Viet Cong, and then my buddies from work did a double drum thing again. They are doing a good job working on their project and are now incorporating a frankenbass made with bike parts so that it can be controlled by a modified hihat stand. Freak Heat Waves and Viet Cong are both from Canada, 2 of the dudes from Viet Cong were in the band Women. They were all nice. I like having rockers over to the house for free beers and people listening to good music, especially when they are the ones playing.
Then Monday we played San Antonio. The show got moved last minute from VHS 1138 to The Flop House, which was a house across the street from this art gallery we have played a couple times at. Mockingbird Smith (<--his house) flew to the rescue, and opened first with some minimal stuff that had some chant in it. Then we played and then Advaeta played. it was really nice to party somewhere where we could leave our shit and not worry about it and just get drunk. Hopefully we will do more S.A. trips for that reason. It was just real fun.
So then we played Beerland again, it was the Party Plants debut show. I had missed the last practice and we played a song I had never practiced before, but that was fine. it was fun to just play bass and have basically no responsibilities. Just slappin the bass, man. Theres enough going on in that band that I can just play simple shit too and there are certain parts where it makes sense for me to jazz it up a bit. im already in 2 bands where I have responsibilities, so its nice to be in a 3rd band where the only thing I have to do is show up to practice.
So that was the last one, 4 shows, lots of partying, passing out, etc. I think Spiked Punch might go in a more internal mode for a second, do some recording or something, so its nice there are Party Plants shows for a while.
Oh yeah, and then 2 nights ago I went to see Youthbitch at Hotel Vegas. It was a well attended show but I was one of a handful of folks who watched Youthbitch's set, most ppl were hanging outside (the ppl did watch the other touring bands set). They were probably the most influential single band on Spiked Punch's post-reggae era sound so it was pretty exciting to hang out with them in the flesh. Youthbitch! there they were! It was their first time to Texas on tour with the band, the main guitarist is from Illinois tho. I had to go to work at 11 the next day, but we hung out a little after the show. They were super cool. anyways, that was the first half of September in my life, time flies. it was nice to take a few days off work / get some shifts covered to be able to do this.
looking forward to Party Plants show #2 coming up at Joey's House tomorrow.
Read More......
Friday, August 9, 2013
Miles Davis // BB King
I wrote a bunch of shit and then deleted it, but fuck it heres some amazing videos Miles Davis BB King: heres a real bb king video too. I wonder if he was referring to the experimental jazz coming out of sweeden in the 60s: miles interviews:
Read More......Thursday, August 8, 2013
quincy jones
me and my roommate were talking, and I told him about me and my buddy talking about 70s jazz-fusion, and we started talking about quincy jones. he was saying quincy did a lot of songs that you didn't even realize you knew but you knew them and they were from movie soundtracks in the 70s and 80s and that it was all super creative shit so I remembered when I got to my computer to surf some up. this video is fuckin incredible:
Read More......Monday, August 5, 2013
here in the dojo
cruisin' full albums on youtube...starting with Can live videos. Watched some of The Soft Machine live at Motreaux with some 70s sweep shredder. it seemed like the keyboard player was like wtf, he was gonna take the first solo before you went and did your sweep solo thing for the next 10 minutes. fer the luv of gawd. anyways, that was after soft machine split, which I never heard that history, from making music with vocals....I only knew they had music with vocals. I thought there were like 4 volumes and they all had vocals, but I guess I was mistaken --- according to this, only the first 2 albums have vocals, and one song on the 3rd album, and then after that they parted with the pop influence of Robert Wyatt which was boring to the other members who wanted to do more jazz-fusion type shit, and then the rest of the musicians got more jazz-fusion musicians to fill out the band. And Robert Wyatt went on to do his own thing, and this was one of his projects.
Read More......Friday, August 2, 2013
Summer Fun // Got A Computer
I got a computer! that means I am a promoter again! or something to that effect. the joys of blogging return to my life. All shit is going good, thanks for asking. I just watched the Daft Punk Movie Interstella 5555. It was awesome. I got a preview of the new John Wesley Coleman album -- "sounds like the Boss on shrooms." No lie there. I like the one with the super tremolo. Pretty heady stuff!
My bands have been playing shows! We have played 3 shows, all house shows, and also Ive had a couple house shows this summer that my band didn't play. Its fun. I was working a lot of hours to save up money, and now I did that so I work 25 hrs a week and have time to see my friends and stuff. and look at art on the internet. and go to peoples shows. and go tubin etc etc. it feels kinda weird not planning for a tour per se. We were planning a Spiked Punch tour for October, but I think that is gonna get pushed back, which is kinda cool cause its like free months not being broke. A lot of circular musician logic thought went into the outcome, but it was cool cause we were like "Were gonna go on tour in October!" and *ppoof* all the sudden the band is back together and better than ever and we are having a great time. We've done 3 house shows, all 3 shows with both Spiked Punch and Reverse X Rays playing. Shane and Joey varyingly go out of town coming up, but Spiked Punch has shows Im really excited about coming up in early September...3 in Austin, 1 in San Antonio.
Speaking of time to do shit, I had an epic weekend 2 weekends ago, playing 4 sets in 3 different bands in 2 days, including the Pau Wau boat party which was sick. The last of the 4 shows was at beerland, a show we picked up with this dude Sam Vinitari from Chicago. Shit I cant remember how his last name was but his songs were cool and we chilled out afterwards. It was fun already going on so much energy off the weekend to play that beerland show, it felt like piece-of-cake. I think the beerland show we do is the last of this next set of 4 coming up, all the shows are like Sept 3rd thru 10th.
We are doing one with Names Divine from Chicago, venue/bill tba. Looking forward to hearing their sound this time, the stuff on their bandcamp is from a couple years ago, Ill bet there is some secret new shit that's awesome.
We are doing two shows (Beerland-Austin / VHS 1137 - San Antonio) with the band Advaeta from NYC. They are hard rocking chicks. I hate saying what music sounds like ... Vice said they sound like Sleep, but while I hear it in the guitar tone its at a different speed for sure from what I think of when I think of Sleep. they just sound so good I feel like its probably original, but I wish I knew a better comparison band. I think you can just say Sleep to say "check it out its good".
Also there will be a house show for Freak Heat Waves returning from Victoria, BC, Canada, this time with Viet Cong from Calgary in tow who are 2 dudes from the band Women and their project which I have been assured is sick (I think it might be a 4 piece). I wonder if one of the dudes is the guy from Amarillo. I wanna ask him if that's going cowtown to cowtown.
Spiked Punch can play 7 new songs and we are mixing in a couple old ones into the set currently, Nobodys Foolin Nobody and Certain Shane of Purple. there are 5 more new ones that we are working on but we are practicing at the speed of life as Stevie Wonder would say. Some of it gets kinda technical but I think we are gonna pull it off, I am excited to be at the point where its time to do a recording and to be working with a full length amount of material.
some appetite-whetting song titles for the next record are:
In That Old Midnight Hour
Too Much Too Quick
Nightripper
Dr Bronners
Nul, Nil, & Void
Sinbad
Buddy Cop Movie
Her Spirit Flies Without a Face
Pissed Off From Work (In a Good Way)
Smokin' on a Spliff of Exotic Time
The Number One Guy You Call
Red Light, Green Light
Monday, May 20, 2013
the music tapes at scottish rite threatre 5-19--13
Saw a great and really special show. The music tapes played. It was set up/promoted. by transmission, I saw rosa there and I'll give her props for this one. The music tapes, for the uninitiated is julian the singing saw player from neutral milk hotels long running project. The musicians looked like they were mostly in their 30s and there were some great arrangements...ttubular bells, double banjos sounding more like violins, a 7 foot tall metronome, these guys held the floor for a solid two and a half hours running a circus and i think also hypnotysing the crowd. I was hypnotized for one, although i was on the verge of starvation having biked 7 hrs delivering sand witches and with my body catching up to me. Still, the whole crowd was entranced. I recognized Andy Gonzales, e6 regular, front man of marshmallow coast and ex member of of Montreal while they were still good as a side musician. He played like 5 Instruments and was sick on bass. The other dudes all seemed cool too. Anyways, before the show there was a cartoon film, and before that about an hr of parlor games, a few different ways to play chase with strangers...perfectly normal...the guy with the floppy hair said so,ladies and gentlemen. Julian's cadence was great, i think he was making people progressively more relaxed from the very get go. There was also slowly counting down backwards five to one involved and repetative stories, and other elements found in hypnosis. The good thing is that all hypnosis is self hypnosis and it can make people open up inside. He talked about "playing evening" which is a kid just doing something unanalytically trying to figure something out, and how all but a few adults lose this skill, and he did a cool magic trick. There was this cool thing with eggs, but I can't tell about it or else it would ruin it. It was funny...he said what all kids in the world want more than anything is to be grown up and how all grownups want to be kids, but really i thought he was gonna say grownups want to become musicians. It would have been just as true, if not more so, but the way he did it was very profound. Oh yeah there was a pump organ and some awesome descending passages and musical highlights where the heavens opened. Anyways, they are a travelling circus, wish could see them at the secret squirrel in three days or whatever. I felt like an idiot cause i waited to hit the merch table and they sold out of the vinly during the austin show so i got a t shirt instead but i want to listen. I guess its on the merge website if i really get it....between cover and the shirt it will make it a 50 dollar show if i do that, gut honestly worth it.i
Read More......Sunday, September 9, 2012
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti review / Mohawk 9/8/12 (first show of tour)
hey these guys are a cool band.
Last time i saw them at fun fun fun fest 2 years ago at Waterloo Park. it sort of felt like they were getting close to peaking at that show, and I wonder if they have already. That show was right after Before Today, and i watched it from the side of the stage next to a beautiful dancer who was travelling with them. Flash forward to now: some of the new material is really strong, but i would consider it impressive if the next set is better than the current new set. They played for probably an hour and a half, and I thought the selections were interesting--a fair amount of the older songs they played were some of the more esoteric selections. It was their first show of tour, and there was a new drummer, who should get more comfortable a few shows in. The bassist was able to provide small jolts of energy here or there, but if they weren't naturally syncing in the pocket it seemed like the attitude was "hey im not the one messing up" which works if you're Prince, but hey I think it will be a moot point soon so why get into it. I do think the drummer played well and doesn't really deserve to be ragged on. I know theyve been doing it this way forever, but I think having Ariel not play an instrument at all is a little strange, while the 2 other guys are both playing keys and guitar. Like musically in the live setting he has no ability to lead, because he is just doing vocals (but it was the same arrangement they had during the FFFfest show which was awesome, so its not to say one way or another, really.)
Musically, the MVP of the band right now is Kenny Gilmore, who was playing stage left. He kept a wide douchebag smile on almost the whole show, almost punchdrunk. Especially at moments where maybe the beat was getting missed or something this really helped maintain the vibe, and it was a sweet pro move. I think he is probably one of those dudes where something burns deep inside of him, like he is a crazy person, and he would sooner walk on coals than face the prospect of being embarrassed on-stage because you thought your band was awesome but then it turned out you suck because I donno you got a big head about what you were doing? Dang, talk about a worst nightmare, now you gotta do a whole tour. Basically if you were a sailor in a hurricane, he would be your fellow sailor keeping your ass alive cause this is what you are and what you are doing and were not gonna die on my watch damnit, and hes bailing out water looking like a madman. It was some real lead from the front musicianship. Especially early on he had a few mondo guitar riffs one right after another and to me the vibe was "hey guys remember me im Kenny, this is what I do, im a crazy motherfucker," while some of the other musicianship was maybe a little more jittery to start. It kinda helped the show settle in. It was funny later in the show, the soundman (Their soundman, not the mohawk guy) was like rocking out enjoying the show forgetting he was at work, and Kenny tried to get his vocals turned up (turned on actually) and the soundman was missing his signals and just rocking out, and you could see Kenny get like red and he looked really pissed off in his eyes to me, but he just zoned into that super douchebag smile and i think it got him thru the moment. fuckin funny tho. I had snuck into the green room before the show just to be a fly on the wall and I heard the soundguy say ...he was talking about the list and he said something like "oh they are all very important people, like tour managers and bass players," which i thought was just well played musician humor and quite funny. Im always a fan of hubris in a comedic setting. I had some nice smack for him later, which I kept inside cause I just was gonna try and have a nice show without causing any altercations (a novel concept i know), but I did want to tell him "hey nice medallion, are you from Baltimore?" harhar. i think he would have taken it the wrong way ;p.
The other keyboard and guitar player, I thought he was quite good. His role in the band is sort of as a glue guy. He is responsible for executing the meat of the most douchy overblown sounding riffs, or just play the chords with the autowah on it. Always good to have a guy on the team who will do the dirty work. Still, there was one song later in the set where I saw him doing some straight rocking out and it seemed like "finally, that guy gets a break." I dont know, I imagine he would prefer to be doing some more different kinds of things. He had some cool parts where he was playing 2 keyboards at once, I dont see why he cant play cool lines like Steven Drozd for example. There was at least 1 song where I doubt it was his idea to be playing auto-wah keyboard chords underneath whatever is going on, just because he had already done that on x number of songs and it seemed like maybe this was one where it just didn't work as well, and it sounded a little stale. Hopefully after they gel a little they will let him let loose a little, and he can find little spots to mix it up. There was also one song I think they need to drop from the set because it has the same rhythm on the hook as one of the older songs (which they had already played earlier in the set, i dont know which one exactly, sorry), and the basic idea of the new song is really just the trademark rhythmic pushes, so when its the same exact way its kinda noticeable. Dang, sorry you guys cant just do that anymore, consider yourself a victim of your own success.
As far as certain songs that stood out, I was pretty wasted but I'll give it a shot. There was an older one that sounds like L'Estate but isnt, I thought that was really good. The bass playing, same as the drums, wasnt really in the pocket at this show, first show of tour and all, but I think some of his best bass lines are the kinda moderately slinky walking bass type stuff. There was one song with a cool bass line, really cool changes, but some of the getting around the neck seemed a little, not necessarily forced but it seemed like the primary trick to get that texture, rather than following a melody or something, and getting that effect naturally just cause thats how the melody of the bass line is. Maybe I just need to listen to it more. Some of the older material sounded really good "Bright Lit Blue Skies" and "Flying Circles" came off pretty well, and seemed like especially later in tour they will open up pretty easily. "Hardcore Pops are Fun" I dont think was really the selection I would make off of House Arrest at all. Oh yeah the opener where he goes "My Name is Ariel and I'm a Nympho" it was right out of the gate, but I feel like they should save this one to be a peak of the set, it was maybe their strongest new song I felt, and it seems like the one to go nuts on. Im just a rock and roller from Beverly Hills. That song is sick. It gives Ariel a chance to get more involved. Honestly, I think he should, I dont know how he doesnt get bored doing a tour and not playing an instrument, he should just get a keyboard set up so he could play it whenever he wanted, and then they could have some 5-piece vibes as well as 4-piece vibes (musically speaking.) Just throw another pitch in the arsenal. Whenever I was watching him I felt like he was doing a good job of being a frontman, just looking weird and trying to zone out on it, but looking back on it I am surprised to think of how little I actually spent during the show looking at him---I was mainly watching the instrumentalists. He did have some cool whipcrack sound tongue clicks on a weird beat on one song that reminded me what i liked about his early stuff, but as far as musical moments actually finding their way into the set it seemed few and far in between. But settling in goes for singers too, once the band is settled in maybe it will be easier for him to go nuts in a way when hes singing, and that will pull some more balance back to him.
I think if you divided the show in half where the first half of the show was up until Ariel announced "5 more minutes," the first half was stronger. I never got bored during the second half of the show, partly just cause I think the music is really interesting in general, but it was lacking in standout moments after that point, and I think it would be cool to fire a couple more Aces from the back catalogue.
Anyways it was a good show from an interesting band. Definitely a first show of tour, I hope one of our many festivals can get them back to Austin on shortish order and I can get a chance to see them still on this basic set but once everything kinda settles in. It kind of makes me uneasy to think of Austin as a place where you would start a big tour for promotional reasons for "an indie band", but I think in 2012 that is how it is now. I do think that this band would benefit from not taking anything for granted as far as maintaining a sense of urgency and still needing to hold pushing it forward musically as the reason d'etre and also just jumping in the water as far as having the lifeblood be musical contributions from all 5 guys, because all those guys can play at such a high level I think it would ultimately be limiting if anyone's parts are really being dictated. Gotta get that full band unity-trust-hippie-shit going on. As far as they have come, at this point with all the ladies lining up and fuckin mexican food and fruit platters, probably complacency would be their worst enemy, but here's to shaking/brushing that off, and it was great for me just on a raw level to be so excited about a show for once and they pretty much delivered so word to that.
Monday, July 9, 2012
EMHU record is done // RXR @ HoC
There is a new EMHU record and the tracking for it is done. its called "No Man is an Island" and its 13 tracks about 45 minutes long, I believe. Should be mixing it down Friday, so stoked! also check it out, RXR played a sweet show at House of Commons in May. Thx to Sean Padilla for taking video, here is the bands playing the show: RXR: Each Other (Montreal): Milezo & The Noize:
Read More......Electric thoughts on Escapes day 4
Day 4 was Monday, aka Rockers Convention day. From the iterative processes department, there has always been a day of Escapes where at one point you look around and everyone is a rocker. I read somewhere that SXSW is a conference for "musicians and people who look like musicians." I thought that was pretty apt. Well, rockers convention day doesn't even feel like its just for musicians, it feels like its for rock musicians, and cut out all the people who "look like musicians" they have more important places to be. There was a lot of low level schmoozing during the day. I really enjoyed it, there is so much going on that it is almost asinine to try and make any business type connections off a conversation so you are really relegated into just enjoying the company of these cool people from different states. I talked to a couple that was down from Tennessee for a while, but I cant remember the name of the band, I think it was just his project. "If you are ever in Tennessee..." we did all that, but really we were just talking about how it would be cool to go to Tennessee. All my exs live in Texas, and all that. Jokey jokey jokes. At one point i became cognizant that there was schmooze in the air, but I think also if people want to do that its nice to give them a room to do it, and I think that's a good grassroots way to meet someone. Hopefully someone gets at of it somewhere that helps them plug a hole in their tour and stick an extra $40 in the tank.
This day had kind of a funny rolling start. Mercer insisted to Gene that the show started at 1, or needed to be unlocked at 1 PM, and on the schedule the first part of the show read like this
"2 PM - 4 PM **jam** <---this is a special event, including special sub-events"
the reality is no one was on the same page and I think the club was still locked at around 4 when we gotg out there.
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