blagger's fact

the Blagger's Guide destroyed me yesterday when he did the Blagger's Guide to New Romantics, ie Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet.


He said that Japan used the New Romantic genre to go from being a third rate Roxy Music cover band to being "a sort of gay Talking Heads" which then he cued up "Visions of China" & it really did sound like a sort of gay Talking Heads.



Hahahahahhahahahahaaa! Greatest show ever.

bearsuit nearby

hmm, Bearsuit will be in philly oct 14 & cleveland the 16th. They made that funny, kick-ass song "foxyboxer" that still sounds great in the car. Dunno if it would be worth driving for 2 hours in each direction to see/hear/witness, but maybe. No.


never underestimate the power of punch from a foxyboxer.
what?
oh yeah.
what?
oh yeah. etc

they're kind of like the Ting Tings but with two chicks & a dude & another dude.

---

watched the movie 'smart people' last night. it wasn't bad but i thought it would be better for some reason. it was funny that pretty much all the action in the entire thing takes place over the closing credits. very clever.

oh yeah & clearly i approve & was practically yelling at the tv when the main dude had a william carlos williams book under his arm & was starting to recite 'the red wheelbarrow' to sarah jessica parker.

this week has been all about reconnecting with my heroes, reaffirming my ongoing lust for cathy dennis & the mindblowing poetry of william carlos williams.

i'll say it again, learning about wcw & imagist poetry in high school definitely changed my life. the fact that there was a lesson that included poetry that was literally a note on a guy's refrigerator to his wife, apologizing for eating all the fruit. it was a punk rock moment, it was a moment for me that said ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS IS A FUNNY MOTHERFUCKER & IT DOESN'T TAKE A GENIUS TO RECOGNIZE. Anything could be art, art could be anything.

So much depends
upon a red wheelbarrow
glazed with rain water
beside the white chickens

it rocked me in 1988, it rocks me now.

---

speaking of 1988, i'm up to the middle of season 2 of 'it's garry shandling's show'. it's half funny half stupid half retarded.

and also in the car listening to the history of uk dance music, they just came up to the part in 1988 when acid house came together. the early acid house shit is still cool when it's just a super dark bass synth line and a kick drum.

the dragons - "here come the roses"

i think i'm seriously in love with cathy dennis. i might've had a dream about her. i need to get a grip, she's one of the richest women in the uk for fakc's sake.
---

TV
Had to force myself to watch the 'peter serafinowicz show' after the first episode was so godawfully dull. I'm so glad I did, every other episode of that show is literally incredible. It's so fucking funny. Serafinowicz was the mastermind behind 'look around you' (the greatest show you've never seen), also he was the voice of darth maul and uhhhh if you saw 'shaun of the dead' he played the dickhead housemate. Anyway.... his sketch show was on BBC last year & I didn't care for it at the time, but when I finally watched the other episodes over the weekend it had me gasping with laughter. The Star Wars sketches are amazing (like the love interest for darth vader). And his Beatles impressions are so amazingly bad-ass, he does this whole thing like 'let it be' except it's about taking a dump. awesome.

and the BBN news-reader... that one killed me instantly... hah.

nevermind.

---

MOVIES
over the weekend i watched 'the wackness', which is about a guy in nyc graduating from high school in july 1994 & the girl he dates blah blah blah. ben kingsley is in it. it's a good movie, i don't know why or how you'd ever see it but check the shit out.

the bit when the main dude is staring at his dream girl on the beach & they played jane's addiction 'up the beach' had me THIS CLOSE to welling up.

well done, hollywood. gold star.




---

MUSIc
Yes. There's this band called The Dragons that includes former members of Levitation, whom I might've mentioned before. Their brand of meaty alternative rock, driven by the still KICK-ASS drumming by Dave Francolini, is currently all I can listen to when I'm at home.

Well, them and Cathy Dennis. I fuckin' love me some Cathy.

---

jesu - sun day: TUNE!!!!!

finished listening to 'the blagger's guide' in the car, easily the best show about music maybe ever. i said no one else would like it but me & then the last 4 eps were 'the blagger's guide to the classics', all about classical music. which i know jack fuck about! so it was cool AND i think a couple of you might actually enjoy it. the funniest bit to me was the audience members yelling 'tune' at one of the composers. that's a funny thing that happens in real life at clubs & elsewhere in england when a good song comes on. people yell TUNE! that has always cracked me up, so to hear it in a sketch about classical composers... well... well done, david quantick.

started listening to an almost identical program, 'paul morley's guide to musical genres', which was a six part series covering recent musical developments such as 'twee', uhhh 'glitch', and 'emo'. paul morley is usually one of my favorite people, since he was a music journo in the 80s, uhhhh was responsible for a lot of the non-musical aspects of frankie goes to hollywood, he was the non-musician in Art Of Noise, i usually agree with everything he says. but his series, after listening to 'blagger's guide' is just......annoying. it's not funny and worst of all it doesn't even explain why something like 'emo' exists now, let alone defining what it actually is. so i've just been getting increasingly annoyed... but... then... he saved the best for last, the final episode of the series is called 'perfect pop' & it's kicking my ass. he uncovers a lot of opinions & tries to get to the heart of what perfect pop is & without getting too specific, kind of rekindled my interest (however briefly) in the possibilities of music-making. where this will lead (nowhere, probably) remains to be seen. or heard. or not. probably not.

----

watched 'emotional arithmetic' last night, a moody doomer of a film, kind of almost on a 'schindler's list' kind of tip. but not. the music was pretty fucking awesome and the scenery - eastern canada in autumn - was gorgeous. it kind of continued the mental/internal/creative wellspring i was pondering from the 'perfect pop' show earlier & just thinking about how music, coupled with images, can have still have so much impact. the movie was quite depressing in many ways, i'm not sure if i'd recommend it or watch it again. but it was also beautiful and mature in its way.

---

quick postscript to the paul morley thing, after writing the above, i heard the conclusion of the perfect pop episode (accidentally typo'ed 'perfect poop' there, shoulda left it), which included an absolutely astonishing interview with CATHY DENNIS!!!!!!!!!!!!! who cowrote kylie's big 2001 comeback hit, which paul morley hinted might be his favorite pop song ever. I've never heard Cathy Dennis talk about music before. Her voice, her giggle, her tone, the things she talks about, she's incredible. I'm in re-lust with Cathy Dennis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! w00t.

BLLLLLLLLLLLLLAGGER'S FFFFFFFFACT!

i've been totally enjoying 'the blagger's guide', the bbc radio comedy-documentary-whatever series by david quantick. it's all about different genres and artists and it cracks my shit up every time. quantick is an awesome comedy writer plus he's also a music journo, in fact he was the one whose review of a certain indie band in the 1980s caused a band to changes its name to Pop Will Eat Itself. there are awesome sketches about captain beefheart, nick drake, syd barrett, and totally informational bits about reggae, the band Love, etc. & apart from a few glaringly obvious incorrect things (like saying KISS is from Detroit), I agree with everything he says! quantick's descriptions of the music & the musicians, his critical 'voice' reminds me of my own. He's even shouty & screamy in the same way I would've been when I was writing music reviews all the time. NICE!

you broke my heart at the funplex, yes you did

i love some of the songs on the new b-52's album, i can't help it.

'juliet of the spirits' is just amazing.

a couple of the songs are too campy and/or stupid but overall, holy shit what an album. great sounds, great songs, totally modern. great songs!!!!!!!!!!

toe jam + citizen kane

I just read about David Byrne's track with The Brighton Port Authority - with him, Norman Cook and Dizzee Rascal. The song "toe jam" is on the Myspace, I declare it to be the funky-fcuk jam o the day! You should read about David Byrne's lyric writing method before checking out the track. Be warned, it IS on a loop. I listened to it like 6x in a row earlier. I'm like 'damn, david byrne is dropping a lot of f-bombs today, isn't he'. But it was all the same song. Dizzee Rascal is an odd choice for a third member of their group but whatever.

Is that Iggy Pop singing on the second BPA track? Nice. This is what pop music should sound like. "He's Frank". I like one other Iggy Pop song, it's called "Candy" and what's-her-name from the B-52's co-sings it.

Third BPA track is not so hot. But no matter.

There's a super rad video for "toe jam", you have to check this shit out.

nice to see Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim making an appearance toward the end, with the biggest knob yet.


---

I've been meaning to watch Citizen Kane for a while now. My first attempt ended in failure when the file took a shart in the DVD player. So a replacement file was quickly procured. I saved the file to a 2gb jump drive & crossed my fingers when I plugged it into the DVD player. Success! I'd like to see Citizen Kane with subtitles because a lot of the dialog is garbled. Or like 3 people will be talking at the same time.
---


Stereo MC's's music has aged very well & their dude still programs some of the funkiest shiooo ever. They make nice choons and their beats are lithe. Find "Gringo" & agree.

jane child - here not there

listened to jane child's second album again last night. it's hotttt & it's exactly the album i would've made in 1993, in some parallel universe where all my ideas actually worked. hell, even her piano ballad in 5, i mean who hasn't fantasized about writing a sad song in odd time. okay, just me then. the album is a strange one, the first song rocks, the second song is a commerical-sounding pop song. the third song rocks, the fourth song is an even more commerical pop song with a better chorus & awesome bass line. it's that kind of thing. i would've wanted my work to straddle the line between art & commerce exactly that way.

jane child's publishing company was called Radical Dichotomy, which even sounds like my 'label' at the time, 'Bizarre Depiction'. Right?

making flippy floppy

I watched 'lars and the real girl' yesterday. In the party scene it featured two songs that have been stuck in my head ever since, 'genius of love' by Tom Tom Club (which was the Talking Heads rhythm section plus Adrian Belew - this song was also used by Mariah Carey a few years ago, yuck) and.... Talking Heads - "This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)". I've been on a pretty big Talking Heads kick lately anyway & this song especially just creeps up on me. The whole thing is so propulsive, you can't help but bust a move when it's playing & I'm still not sure why. It's not especially funky or anything on its own.

& its use in the movie was very cool. I mean, I'D certainly want to go to a party where people are dancing to a Talking Heads record from 1983!

I couldn't have enjoyed the Talking Heads in the 80s, they were too ubiquitous! & seemed to be played out & all the discussion of David Byrne was mostly pointless to my KISS, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P. addled pre-teen brain. But now of course my mind has caught up with my genitalia in terms of music taste. So Talking Heads songs are occasionally a revelation now.

---

meanwhile, 'lars and the real girl' itself wasn't bad. I do resent it when an entire movie is summed up in its title. It was annoying to know beforehand that Lars would be getting a Real Girl, etc. Y'know, it kinda kills the mystery!

Same thing with 'tristan and isolde', which for its first half is two different stories taking place on separate sides of the Irish Sea. Gosh, I wonder, will they hook up, do you think? Tristan in England, Isolde in Ireland... I didn't bother watching the second half, because...who cares!

Dear Whoever Makes Movies, Don't give away the whole movie in the title, pleasethanksokaybye.

'lars' wasn't really funny, exactly. It was about a guy who went a little mental. It was quite dark & european looking.

---

New B-52's album sounds very old school. I approve. Live drums, synths, GUITARS. Wow, guitars. People still use those?!?!

Wow, looks like they're on the Astralwerks label now, that's insane. Astralwerks had Chemical Brothers, Future Sound of London, um, a bunch of cool ambient compilations in the early 90s. Good job, the B-52's. "Juliet of the Spirits" is definitely not "Love Shack". Are all the songs about movies?

---

Also, I finally finished reading Salman Rushdie's "shalimar the clown". What an ending! I'm still not sure what happened. Sweet book. I already started his "the ground beneath her feet".

Jesu "Silver" + interview at Amoeba Records

Jesu "Silver" + interview

love for l0ve dance & y@t-kh@

Love Dance is my new gorgeously wimpy pop rock favorite. This is the weakest, milkiest, wussiest shit I've heard in a long time & it's great. I was going to say IT ROCKS! but it really doesn't rock, which is why it rocks. Good luck finding any info about them though.

Love Dance site
Love Dance "Losing Faith" MP3



I'm also perhaps late in finally checking out Yat-Kha, the 'punk rock' Tuvan throat singers. They are certainly unique, how could they not be. Their songs are strange & beguiling. They're not really punk rock, almost more like Nick Cave or something.

Yat-Kha Myspace
Yat Kha live in Berlin Youtube

And this was before I knew they also played classic rock covers like Motorhead's "Orgasmatron" and "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles" by Captain Beefheart.

I LIKE GRIME

What is this sound some earthlings call grime and/or dub-step? Is the bass always this ear-ticklingly good? It sounds like slow, British hiphop but with few concessions to overt melodies. Kind of a brooding vibe but good to nod the head to. I think I like it. It definitely sounds best at loud volumes, so probably best on headphones for me.



----------------
Now playing: Skream - Bahl Fwd
via FoxyTunes

FEEL IT COMING

I just hooked up the record player for the first time in forever. I'm playing the first the first record off the shelf I could grab. Great.

Deep Purple "Perfect Strangers" / "Knocking at you Back Door" 7". I bought it the first time we went to England, I was 13 at the time & the Deep Purple 'perfect strangers' album was everywhere. I tended to believe the hype. This actually isn't bad, this little Deep Purple record. The only two songs of theirs that I'm conversant with. I watched an old BBC 'rock history' thing about Deep Purple a couple of weeks ago. I think I'd like some of their early early stuff, like the late 60s when everyone sounded like an echo of the Beatles. Like the first Bee Gees album, I LOVE that mofo.

The lyrics to "Knocking at your Back Door" were embarassing to me at 13 & still cringeworthy. Looking at the cover of this record, these fat, balding, ANCIENT sweating british guys whose names mean nothing to me. It never seemed clever. But the riffs are okay & the grooves still get the job done all right.

Now I'm tempted to pull a Darrin & listen to every single record I have. Hey, it might just happen, especially since I only have..... um... well, less than 100 records anyway. Hell, I could crack that out in a weekend. Not really. Although...

IN PRAISE OF THE OCEAN BLUE'S "CERULEAN"

It's not unheard of for me to find an album I like in the car and play it endlessly for days, weeks, up to a month. This era's album is Cerulean by The Ocean Blue.

I should hate The Ocean Blue. I can't adequately explain why I don't. Cerulean rocks the house, it's so clean and the playing is so great. All the songs are catchy & inventive and the lyrics aren't the usual 'oh baby' crap.

Not that I approve necessarily of lyrics like "a pocket full of poseys, she's my marigold". In fact I might still have to deliver the only beatdown of my life if I ever meet the singer of The Ocean Blue.

It goes like this. I think it was 1990, Dave B. conned me into going to the Newport to see John Wesley Harding, The Ocean Blue and The Mighty Lemon Drops. Usually I (like many people, I bet) did whatever Dave suggested. Without really knowing why, I guess he just was good at pushing me around in a good way.

I wasn't a fan of any of the bands before the gig, though I believe one of my early penfiends had sent me a dub of some Mighty Lemon Drops material which I liked okay but wasn't crazy about.

Let's see, the gig. John Wesley Harding was great at capturing the moment but nothing more than that. It was just him with an acoustic guitar, very ironically, very knowingly, very Britishly "here I am with my acoustic guitar". He had a witty song about Live Aid that was actually kind of shocking to me because I'd never considered Live Aid to be anything but... y'know, a force for good. And here was Wes kind of funnily poking holes in it. Nice one!

Then came The Ocean Blue, who was likely touring on their first album. The one with "Drifting, Falling" which is still one of their greatest moments. What blew me away about them was how there were no distorted guitars, no Marshall stacks (this might've been one of the few non metal shows I went to at that point) & yet they were strangely powerful. Wimpily powerful? The singer, with his awful awful stringy blond bowl cut hairdo. That's all I remember about their show, his stupid hair.

The Mighty Lemon Drops, no lie, went totally over my head. I get into 'em now because I understand what they're about. But at the gig there was no chance! It was more information than I could process. I remember them playing very enthusiastically and being bombarded by g0th girls in the balcony with .... wait for it..... lemon drop candy.

Spring 1991 and The Ocean Blue releases Cerulean. It blew me away then and it still blows me away. The production, the album cover, the songs, it's all so great. Horribly cheesy in more than one spot, embarassingly pretentious, but ya know... that's a small price to pay for spine tingley goodness. And that's also a small price to pay for being able to enjoy something so much that isn't King Diamond.



----------------
Now playing: Nine Horses - Money For All (Version)
via FoxyTunes

a lover loves

first impressions of new musicks:

Editors - An End Has a Start - lovely continuation of the first album, though a trifle Coldplay in spots.
Ulrich Schnauss - remixes EP - I've only heard the Robin Guthrie mix so far, but so far so f'ing good.
Shout Out Louds - new - nice, nice, fun
Scott Walker - discography - um, wow? I doubt I'll listen to anything other than the 1967 album more than once.
Motocade - EP - mostly very very good, plus the F word
Hey Hey My My - new - only heard one song but cool so far & funny band name
Officer Kicks - new - not bad indie rock
Southerly - I've heard one good & one annoying song so far.

14 YEARS LATER, SEEFEEL IS STILL GORGEOUS

Pitchfork just reminded me of how frickin' hotttttttttttt & still unique the group Seefeel is/was/always will be. Thankie-hankie to thee, Pitchfork, for pointing me to these.

Seefeel Myspace

Seefeel site

Seefeel - Industrious live

SEMI ANNUAL YOUTUBE FUN

Well, fun for ME at any rate.


BLUE NILE - Tinseltown in the Rain


David Sylvian (w/Tweaker) - Linoleum


THE ICICLE WORKS - As the Dragonfly Flies


PREFAB SPROUT - Faron Young

DEVO HIT PARADER FEBRUARY 1982

celtic frost hit parader october 1985

transfigure

ARCHIVE
Take My Head
I'm kinda on the fence with most of this female-fronted pop rock groove whatever album. It's quiet in spots, I like that. It rocks out in other spots, which is fine. It just feels kinda gimmicky or something. Like "Woman," "I'm a woman/you're a man."... I don't know. But I do like like like the uppy groove "Love in Summer," which is a uni-chord jam that crescendos with synths & everything else.

BUCKETHEAD
Pepper's Ghost
Hey, it's Buckethead's fortieth new album today. Obviously it rules.

BASIA BULAT
Oh My Darling
I only grabbed this 'cause her name reminded me of the band Beirut. But, this ain't that, exactly. She does share some soundground with them bwahs but this her own deal. Although, um, I guess they both do do kind of old-timey other-worldly folk-tunery, using old-timey etc instrumentation like strings and acoustic everything. And liberal use of handclaps, just like, wow... Beirut. So maybe I was right after all.
Basia Bulat Myspace



DE-PHAZZ
Days of Twang
This is one of those groups/artists that, once discovered, makes you/me slap your/my head & cry "where have you been all my/your life?" It's possibly banal groove electronica. Formerly known as 'dance music'. Whenever I start to think that there will never be another new album of this type of music that I like as much as the class of 1997-98 (early Fatboy Slim, Propellerheads, Daft Punk), along comes De-phazz to straighten me out. So, thanks for that. I can still get down when I need to. "Rock 'n' Roll Dude" almost sounds like Theeee Art of Noise & their old "Peter Gunn" thing. Nice. Nice, it's all nice.


HEAVINESS
Heaviness
Using My Bloody Valentine "Loveless" worship as a starting point, this-here album is fwacking gwargeous. I mean, look at the blueprint, y'can't go wrong there. "Not Yet" is the dancey moody swoony swoopy opener. Unapologetically MBV-mad. The dude's voice even sounds like Kevin Shields. "Saddest Colour": yep, more of the same. "Your Velvet Wrapping," "How You Avoid the Sugartraps," down through "Touchlast." Sexy, right down to the lo-fi flute samples!
Heaviness Myspace


JESU
Conqueror
Seriously, I might never stop listening to this wonderful wonderful beautiful gorgeous album. Sigh. Conqueror, will you gay-marry me? "Stanlow" is so awesome.



NINE HORSES
Money for All
Y'know, I've been listening to this for so long, I forget that it's still 'new'. Obviously anything that's Touched By The Hand of David Sylvian is bound to be fucking excellent. This release has a few new tracks and a few in-house remixes by Nine Horser Burnt Friedman. And I think that's Stina Nordenstam singing on "Birds Sing for their Lives." If it's not her, it's someone doing an uncanny impression of her. Which does seem to be today's theme, after all. Fun fact: the Nine Horses song "The Banality of Evil" is apparently featured in the newest Jim Carrey movie, 23. Playing over the end credits. How's that for some weird-ass shit. Um, getting back to this EP or whatever it is, it's just fucking fucking great. The first mix of "Get the Hell Out" sounds like old old Skinny Puppy or even first-album Nine Inch Nails laying down an old Wax Trax type-o-groove. And Sylvian has never sounded more accessible. I'd be okay with this one quietly going platinum. Em, yeah right. In another universe.

fan-made video for "Atom and Cell" from the first Nine Horses album, Snow Borne Sorrow



SIMPLY RED
Stay
Dude, I've loved Simply Red since their first album. And in the mid/late 1980s, when I should've been listening to, I don't know, the Smiths or Morrissey or Joy Division, I was exploring (& later colonizing) my Smooth Jazz Side. Sort of. I've actually heard the new Simply Red single "So Not Over You" on the local smooth jazz radio station a few times, which is a strange thing for me to say. But, hey. We live in the present. The new track almost almost sounds like Mick Hucknall goes full circle. After the last couple of albums of up-to-the-minute pop music tricks & traps & techniques like mash-up (that one song used a whole ole Hall & Oates track), the new one is mostly just a full band. It's almost like a return to the disco, funk, soul band side of things. I always like his songwriting too. What can I say, I'm a fan.

Simply Red- Oh! What a Girl!


SKINNY PUPPY
Mythmaker
More ass-shakin', head-scratchin' than life-changin'. But you'll have that & as usual, it's probably more my fault than theirs. It's cool. It rocks, certainly, more than most of the rest of their trax. I just wish they'd been this accessible back in the day. The catchiness is wasted on me now.

PORTISHEAD FEB 2007

THAAAAAAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!


Portishead - Wandering Star (February 2007)

and you get yours

SWITCHES
Switches
Nice bouncy indie guitar rock with XTC overtones. Dime a dozen these days but still nice.

AMY WINEHOUSE
Back to Black
This must be the US release. Look, I was the last person who ever expected to become an Amy Winehouse after her pissy, annoying appearance on 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks'. So this is like a double treat. The whole album is genre bending, something for everyone but in a good way, Portishead style soul pop. Type of thing. Which I may have already said. And, again, I may regret saying this, but, yeah, this album is the shit.

THE RAKES
Ten New Messages
At first glance, more not-bad indie guitar rock with XTC overtones. Um, XTC plus Interpol. Of course I've had that feeling before and it just added up to the Killers.

CUT CITY
Exit Decades
More Interpol-ish mopey guitar indie rock. Which is usually my favorite kind. The singer is copping serious amounts of Interpol up in here. Good thing? Bad thing? Indifferent thing?

JESU
Conqueror
Dear Jesu's latest album, 'Conqueror', Have I told you lately I love you?

THE CLOSE
Sun, Burn
I lose interest now.

Beat Dis

Music videos are now superfluous. VH1 Classic reminds me that it wasn't always this way. And that in certain cases, the music video is still intrinsically linked to many many songs of bygone days.

Yep, I'm old.







RJD2
The Third Hand
Homeboy goes Beastie Boys & I'm guessing he's playing all the instruments & singing all the parts. Y'know, it's like someone said to him: dude, why don't you sample your OWN SHIT this time? I'm guessing it's him on drums because most folks wouldn't opt for a floor-tom-and-double-kick pattern on the opening track of a non heavy metal album. If the songwriting is good enough, this album might even have more legs than RJ's usual beat-fuckery. Or whatever his usual deal is. I only heard his other shit last week for the first time. & hell yes I'm jealous of him, it should've been me to break out of Columbus with my humorous beats & antics. And I can play the drums.




X-CLAN
Return from Mecca
Man, it just ain't the same without the dude saying "sissy". I think he died in the past couple of years or something. Someone else says "sissy" and it's close but it's just not the same. "Voodoo" features RBX & this is the first time I've heard him in a long time. This album is nice & modern. So many of the dudes from the early 1990s can't hang in the present sense. But X-Clan does.


CONSEQUENCES
Consequences
"Parasite" opens with what I'm calling The Coldplay Maneuver. I'm not hip on Coldplay enough to say what song that rhythm originated in, but it's been a meme in modern music for like the past five years. Kinda like you had yer Madchester drum beat in the early 1990s. The singer sounds like Thurston Moore if he grew up listening to Mandy Moore.

BABY SWEETCORN
New Low
Um, aggressively wimpy pop rock with clean guitars. Even though it rubs me the wrong way on first listen, I'll probably end up liking it. Due to, yeah, the clean piano & general wimpiness. Unless they get really popular, in which case, I've never heard 'em before.

DO THE UNDO
Do the Undo
More aggressively wimpy pop that's so smarmy up front that I'll probably have to play it several times with the lights off just to get through it. Or, like, wearing sunglasses or something. It might be cool as crap, I don't know. How's that for a pointless review.






+++++




Now watch one of my favorite & most obscure bands of the early 1990s, since it's all about the early 1990s today, Levitation.


Levitation - Against Nature (live)

Levitation - Bedlam (live)


And Ultramarine - Happy Land (featuring Robert Wyatt) just for fun. Even though it's one of my least favorite Ultramarine tracks.

We Can Never See the Sunrise

DIAL A PEOM POETS

JESU
Conqueror
Well, as I've already gushed here, this newest Jesu album thing is perhaps the greatest Justin Broadrick product since... well, ever. Since Godflesh's "Slateman," certainly, in 1991. That song magically transformed music by pivoting between ethereal beauty and crushing doom riffs. It was pretty, heavy, mean, nasty, gorgeous, confusing. Sigh. It's still a classic, and genuinely unique. Flash forward 16 years and countless side projects of varying quality. Broadrick is in the big leagues with Conqueror. The title track sounds like My Bloody Valentine and Ride simultaneously playing a Black Sabbath song. Or something. And Red House Painters. It's THEEEE album of 2006 for me. Anchored but floating. See, this thing is so good that I lose all powers of description. It's Justin Broadrick back on the cutting edge, combining styles and sounds that have never come together in such a moving manner. Clean guitars mingle with samples & loops & textures & fuck it's blissed. "Weightless & Horizontal" is correct!!!! Oh yeah & there's no screaming. Whooot.


THE VINYL SKYWAY
From Telegraph Hill
Hm, Beach Boy-y, Beatley, Kink-y jangly indierock meh. Not offensive but impossible to get psyched about.


6PM
Far From Perfect
Indie electronica. Guitars replaced & replicated & remanded by synths & software processing. Kind of like Kings of Convenience crossed with Linkin Park. Scary & probably not necessary. But also oddly intriguing.

fun: David Gilmour feat David Bowie - Arnold Layne (live)

Cool, now do "Candy & a Currant Bun."

Holy Dread!

BIT O MUSE-SACK I MIGHTA MISSED OTHERWISE:


mm, tickety boo

DO THE UNDO
Do the Undo
Hmm, not bad indie guitar rock. Lots of shorter songs (ca. 3 minutes) as opposed to 10 grand epics. Y'know. Interpol meets T. Rex or something.

Do the Undo MySpace


ROBYN HITCHCOCK
Ole' Tarantula
Look, another fucking Robyn Hitchcock album, his 634th this week. I mean, I love me some Robyn Hitchcock & all, but fuck dude. I can't keep up. Look, mate, you had me with "Birds in Perspex" back in, what was it, 1849? Good tune, good time. It's all fairly interchangable since then, to me at least. This new album is the first one I've been interested in for a long time, due to Robyn cowriting with Andy Partridge in 2006. One result is included....the predictably wonderful (wonderfully predictable) "'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)." The rest of the album is... well, if you've heard one album by old Hitchypoo, you've heard them all.

lick :Robyn Hitchcock - 'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)

PSAPP
The Only Thing I Ever Wanted
I don't know when this album came out but it's still nuuuuuuu to me. So, I say... licky-licky tech fuckery with hawt female vocals. With choons. Songs, I mean. Not just beats. "Hi" is as good a starting point as any. It's like Tom Waits reborn on synths & sung by a hottie. Mm, slam dunk. "King of You" is no slouch & neither is the rest of this sexay alboom.

Psapp - The Words

THE FOUNTAIN
Original Soundtrack
KRONOS QUARTET and MOGWAI
Em, the music was written by Clint Mansell (ex Pop Will Eat Itself) and is performed by Kronos Quartet & Mogwai, who play, uhhhhhh....Sigur Ros stylee. ie, simultaneously. It's quite dark, with a few longer pieces chucked in for good measure. It's nice. And I'll probably never see the film either.

Jesu

Greatest song ever of the moment:

Jesu - Mother Earth

the way to there

AU REVOIR SIMONE
The Bird of Music

Strong, peppy, Stereolablike mechapop with lite female vocals - actually lite female everything.. Plus they named themselves after a scene in 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure'. Nice nice nice. I like "The Lucky One" and "A Violent Yet Flammable World."

Au Revoir Simone - Hurricanes

Au Revoir Simone - Through the Backyards

2006

Shock latecoming hit album of the year:
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Also dig/dug
The Isles
The Changes
Beirut

teardrops on fire

Now THIS is a music blog.

Spinning Belinda

You were right to doubt my now-decade-long obsession with Prefab Sprout. Look here for yourself. Prefab Sprout fucking rules.

Prefab Sprout - The Golden Calf

Songs I Never Get Tired Of, Part Two

Icicle Works - Cauldron of Love

fukuoka

747s
Zampano
Rockin melodic rock action but the singer, yeesh, goes for a strangely late 70s Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds kind of 'my baby did this, my baby did that' tack. Which. "Missed that Sun" is uptempo and multifaceted. So, an improvement. But the singing is still kind of sideburnsy. Like, the stuff that was on Top of the Pops in 1976/77 just as punk was kicking off.

AA SOUND SYSTEM
Laissez-Faire
"I Don't Get You at All" is like Tom Petty meets Fleetwood Mac. "Laissez-Faire" goes for a synthy post-Madonna glitchy folktronic angle. Not bad.

COLOURFAST
Walk
Trendy early 1980s guitar band action, you know the sort. Sons of sons of sons of Interpol. Which is fine by me, really.

EDENBRIDGE
The Grand Design
Queen meets Mercyful Fate and Ace of Base. And John Tesh. Roxette meets Dream Theater.

ELECTRIC SIX
Switzerland
The singer has been studying at the Tom Waits school of vocal gymnastics. The music is cheesy and fun rock. Almost like Turbonegro or Lordi, especially "There's Something Very Wrong With Us So Let's Go Out Tonight." "Germans in Mexico" is funny too. And "I Wish this Song Was Louder" is great.

MILLBURN
Well Well Well
Not unlike Colourfast without the gloom. I'm not sure if the sly/sardonic vocal style of Millburn will win out in the end. At the moment it's a tie. Yes, there is a competition. "Showroom" adds a bit of a DEVO vibe. "the book that you read is upside down." Okay, add some vintage Morrissey lyrics to that as well.

ROMAN NUMERALS
Roman Numerals
Wow, cool. Cure, Clash, Chameleons, the Jam. "The Rule of V" is simultaneously bleak and accessible. That's not an easy combination to pull off. Well done, them.

SOUNDPOOL
On High
Ooh, now yer talkin': retro Lush/Jesus & Mary Chain/My Bloody Valentine early 1990s shoegazey throwback. My second favorite kind. "On High" is full-on MBV homage. Not particularly distinguished in the originality stakes but as I keep saying here, originality is overrated and outmoded anyway. Plus nearly impossible. Soundpool is super hot. Even the little 30 second bits between the songs are super dreamy and gwargeous. I'll definitely be revisiting this honey of an album.

M. WARD
Post-War
Hm, going from a band (Soundpool) that sounds like a 4AD Records tribute act to M. Ward, who actually is on 4AD now. Quite a difference. I know Ward is their (and many other peoples') latest and greatst but this shit just bores me. Him and the Mountain Goats both, I'm just not feeling it. "Poison Cup" is mildly epic in scope, starting with voice & acoustic guitar and building into a small orchestral deal. His voice doesn't really do much within the song. Maybe that's the way he does it. "To Go Home" is uptempo rock band action. The ascending piano bit, yes, is very nice. Okay, this track is more to my liking. His voice has a kind of Tom Waits roughness that I think I'm starting to appreciate. "Right in the Head" is a shuffly acoustic thing. The lyrics.. "I hope he's right in the head." "I lived with many ghosts when I was younger." Hm. So, there's a bit of depth here after all. I still don't like Mountain Goats.

THE RAPTURE
Pieces of the People We Love
Aw yeah. A funky version of early Human League, OMD, Gary Numan. Which means analog synths going 'psssheeww' whenever possible, live drums, live guitars. "Don Gon Do It" is the anthem of the hour. Hereabouts. Althought "First Gear" is cool too.

THE VICTORIAN ENGLISH GENTLEMENS CLUB
The Victorian English Gentlemens Club
"The Tales of Hermit Mark," um, moody indie rock action with a goofy high pitched guy. And surprise turn of female vocalities on the chorus. Which really blows the whole thing wide open. The songs have a kind of nervous, infectious energy. Making them equally doomy and danceable. Nice.

THE CHANGES
Today is Tonight
Um. Split Enz meets Men At Work. If I was feeling less generous I'd add Coldplay to the mix. But seriously. There's a bit of Devo in there. That guy's fucking voice sounds just like Neil Finn. Sweet. "When I Wake" is cool. "Water of the Gods" too. "Modern Love" is not a David Bowie cover. But it could be.

THE PROBLEM
The Problem
The inveitable american take on modern uptempo indie rock. Um.

THE SOUNDS
Dying to Say this to You
Fun female vocals, blip synths, live bass, guitar & drums. Strokes meet Cyndi Lauper. Cool.

one piece short of legoland

Oh No Ono "Yes" is a fun, full-on 1980s throwback. The songs are so fucking catchy and I'm ready to invent a few dances after one listen. And the lyrics are appropriately awesome. Like in the... wow, almost Gary Numan meets ELO meets Supertramp "Ba Ba Baba Ba Ba Well Anyway."

DEPECHE MODE live at Rock am Ring 2006
A very disappointing performance, I felt. Dave Gahan must be back on the smack because he's just annoying onstage, slipping into an apparent impression of the cockney nutjob character from The Mighty Boosh every so often. Um, crossed with Ozzy circa the early 1980s. My man needs to go into rehab, get with a vocal coach and get with someone about developing a stage presence. I tried to look away but it didn't work, I could still hear him. He was way off pitch for most of the show. Martin Gore fared only slightly better, but he would pretty much have to in comparison. The stage itself was neato enough but the fake UFO wraparound things on the keyboard risers pretty much hid away any other elements of human musical activity. And I'm actually a proponent of electronic music. I personally have no problem with bands that use live sequences onstage. The drummer was, um, wow. Really good but I don't think ideally suited for that type of music. Or, what I assume the type of music is. Electronic? And what does Andrew Fletcher do exactly? The song selection was boring. And the new arrangements of some of the old stuff were, um, god, like nu-metal. Distorted power chord guitar.... even if it is Martin Gore playing it, it still ruins the effect. Ah yes, except for "I Feel You," which of course has been covered by many euro death metal bands. Their one chance to rock the fuck out and what did they do? They did nothing. The chorus was the same volume & intensity as the verse, bleh. And the filming, I have a beef and a half with the gimmicky, clever filming. I just want to see the band and the stage. Two things I never want to see are super slow motion closeups of sections of the lighting rig and more than a couple of audience shots. This fucker was almost 50/50 audience and band in spots. So, fuck that. This video is good for what it is. Unfortunately, just like Motley Crue's set at Rock am Ring last summer, it just highlights the many flaws.

Songs I Never Get Tired Of, Part One

Aztec Camera - Oblivious

Well Thought Out Twinkles

ICE-T
Rhino Hi-Five
Um. Five Ice-T classics, no really, classics, together at last on one modern EP. Serving what purpose I have no idea. Surely an Ice-T greatest hits compilation would be longer than five tracks. "Rhyme Pays" sounds more LL Cool J than I remember. It still sounds raw. "Soul on Ice" is a great little narrative thing...."I'm Your Pusher," obviously. "Shut Up, Be Happy" is a strange pick since it's just a mashup of Black Sabbath and Jello Biafra. "O.G. Original Gangster" in 1991 should've been the beginning of a string of great rap albums. Unfortunately it was pretty much the end. Body Count happened the following year and of course he hasn't done anything musically worth a shit since.

IRON MAIDEN
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
Do I dare? I skipped the last Maiden album but I really enjoyed Brave New World. "Different World" is a nice headbanging take on the idea of, um, having an open mind about other peoples' points of view. I'd love to see an audience singing about how much they respect other cultures, for example. "These Colours Don't Run" is apparently about american military types with flags tattooed on their asses. "It's the same in every country". God, I love this album already. "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" is about Bruce Dickinson growing up with the threat of nuclear war looming. Musically it has nice dynamics. And on and on. It's a political Iron Maiden record. Fortunately for me I happen to agree with their stances. Metal titans and politics don't usually go together. But I like this so far.

IRVING
Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers
Lengthy titles are usually a predictor of bad things musically. Not always. "The Gentle Preservation of Chidlrens' Minds" is modern alternative rockery. "She's Not Shy" too. Two guitars, keyboards, bass, drums. Three note singer dude. It reminds me of Interpol but without the ghoulish bombast. For better or worse.

KOOP
Koop Islands
"Koop Island Blues" reminds me of Lovage. ie electronic swing with h0tt female vox. "Come to Me" is more of the same, cheesy swingy music with syrupy singing. Not bad for what it is, whatever that means.

SILVERSUN PICKUPS
Carnavas
"Well Thought Out Twinkles" is cool & melodic modern rock with kind of a 70s throwback guitar melody. Engagingly uptempo but not necessarily happy alt rock guitar trax. It must be good if I can't think of anything else.

TOKYO POLICE CLUB
A Lesson in Crime EP
What I love about "Cheer it On" is that it just sounds like the stupidest fucking thing in the world until the chorus hits. By which time, forget about it. It rules. They remind me of the Strokes and everyone else, sure. But still. Who cares. Originality is overrated & outmoded.

THE VEILS
Nux Vomica
Moody, screamy rock. Wiv acoustick guitars an that. Extra large. The lyrics have Morrisseyish aspirations, I reckon. "Advice for Young Mothers To Be." What else could it be.

NICKY WIRE
I Killed the Zeitgeist
Um, moody screamy rock wiv electrick guitars an' that. Rubbish on purpose, only is it. On purpose, I mean. Obviously it's rubbish. Just listen to his singing voice.

and everything's all right

TALK TALK
Life's What You Make It

You, Me, No We Won't Back Down

Useless first impressions of the new Paul Stanley album Live to Win.

Most of the songs sound like new Bon Jovi.

Guitar drones on most songs.

Every lead sounds like Bruce Kulick.

In previous decades, this just would've been a new KISS album. I still don't see why it's his solo deal. Whatever.

I don't hate it. Maybe I haven't listened closely enough. Ha.

Noise and anger in controlled doses.

No, seriously, why isn't this just a KISS album.

It'll be out around Halloween, apparently.

& yes, I know he looks like Cher.

you stutter when you sleep

Holy shit, this SoulWhirlingSomewhere album is the greatest thing I've ever heard. It's exactly - no, really, exactly - what I've wanted to do musically for my whole life. It has beats, dark moods, jazzy chords, slow tempi, great vocals & melodies. I'm in love..

It's called Please Sennd Help, it was released on Projekt in 2001. Certainly evocative of late-period Idaho. Gorgeous, sensitive, evocative. Headphones & moping suggested. You provide the wind & rain.

Sigh.



SoulWhirlingSomewhere - The Wedding
SoulWhirlingSomewhere - Aileron
SoulWhirlingSomewhere - I Give Up. Goodbye.

hold you like a dog

Why were all CDs from the 1980s mastered so quietly? Pump up the gottdamn volume already. Howard Jones & Dale Bozzio albums most recently sent me diving for the volume control.

Whereas the latest two Cure reissues sound AWESOME. If you add all the b-sides from Join the Dots, you get the, like, total package. I love all that shit so much, it's like religion to me. In 1987 I stopped liking KISS & started liking XTC, the Cure & the Damned. It gives me a soul-boner to revisit the oldies on occasion. The live version of "Fight" lets you hear the fine detail of Boris's drumming. What a great song, why don't they play shit like this now.

There was also a 2-CD retrospective of the Damned's two prolific years on the Stiff Records label. Which, the first two albums are my personal least favorites. A lot of people only like the first two. Ha.

New Lamb of God, sure. It's pretty smoothed out from what I remember of their early stuff. Some of it sounds like black metal.

Downloading now: Tom Waits's set at House of Blues in Cleveland, the same night we saw him in Akron. Everyone is still freaking out about the House of Blues set he played, apparently it was the best of the tour & maybe his best ever. I wouldn't know. To this day I still couldn't name a Tom Waits song if my life depended on it. I like him & his music quite a lot, I just don't know anything about it. Until now, anyway. My Tom Waits phase starts now. And since 300+ people have already downloaded the show from dimeadozen, my download speeds are impressively hovering around 500 kB/s. I'm pretty sure that the Cleveland taper was the guy who sat in the row behind us in Akron. Although it's possible someone else made the 8-hour drive from New Jersey, I suppose.

Uploading now: R@TT! I got this 1997 DVD in a trade last year. I loved the first three Ratt albums, so it's fun to check this shit out, from long after the glory days. The site I'm uploading to is mostly, um, Van Halen, Dokken, hard rocky type 80s metal. Which is cool is measured doses. Also what I like about this Ratt show is you can see Warren DeMartini playing all the guitar parts by himself. His playing is awesome, the chords & fills & riffs he came up with are almost like Voivod. & it's no wonder I could never figure out shit like "You're in Love". I'd have a hard time with it even now. Warren's solos are so melodic. I don't take it for granted now.

gettin' there

We went to Akron last night to see Tom Waits. The show sold out in something like 10 minutes, amid several TicketMaster fuckups. (It was probably TicketMaster's fault, let's assume they just fucked up again) When Michael ordered the tickets, the first pair he pulled were flagged for international will call only & it wouldn't let him type a US address. So he had to release the tix & pull two more, which of course were much farther back. But at least they were, like, in there at all. Fortunately we weren't in the majority of people who had to pick up their tix at the will call.

No opening act. The place was packed, obviously. Jim Jarmusch was there, maybe he was trying to slip in through the side door, undetected, but it didn't work. Everyone spotted him. He's easy to notice!



The show started late since most of the audients were still picking up their tickets at the 8pm showtime. Eventually the band took the stage around 8:30.

Everything about the show was powerful and simple. Kind of deceptively simple. The dramatic white curtain at the back of the stage, the simple but awesome lighting. The songs! The playing! The musicians! It was great. I could literally find no fault.

Waits is a super cool motherfucker. A super macho gruff-voiced cartoon character. And funny too. He said he was surprised to hear that the show sold out in ten minutes. He wondered why it took so long. And he mentioned going to the Goodyear museum since every time something good happened to him, he saw a Goodyear blimp. First time he held up a gas station, he looked up & saw a blimp. I guess you had to be there.

The guy in the row behind us was talking about dimeadozen.org. See, I'm not the only one who fucking loves that site. The tapers have been out in force for most of this tour so I'll be shocked & disappointed if my wispy greying afro doesn't wind up blocking someone's shot.

That's the funny thing about Dimeadozen... I think that people are actually starting to expect that every concert they've ever attended will now magically appear there.

who are making their return, shortly

I downloaded an album by Sabbat after Dani Filth dedicated a song to them on whatever DVD of theirs I just watched. "Hosanna in Excelsis"...it's clear that young Dani has been studying the vocal techniques on display. He sounds just like the Sabbat guy. Go figure.

Sabbat - Do Dark Horses Dream of Nightmares



Slayer - Disciple (live on Henry Rollins Show)

One Hell of a Lot of Us

ADRIAN BELEW: nicest guy in rock
Watching him entertain and engage a small but intense audience on the Pittsburgh 1999 DVD was a pleasure. The man is a master of handling not only the quiet, meek fans during the numerous (and surprisingly fun) question-and-answer sessions, but the obnoxious, loud, presumably drunk dude who yells a lot. He makes them all feel welcome. Musically, Adrian is truly amazing, especially during his party piece "Three of a Perfect Pair." Great show!



gorgeous reminders of the Michael Brook/Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan collaboration

I CAN SEE YOU

After watching this program with increasing excitement last night:

BBC - ROCK FAMILY TREES: Birmingham Beat

only* guitar driven pop music from the late 1960s sounds right to my ears. Fortunately there's a ton of albums uploaded in the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1960s group today. Such as "Around" by the previously unheard band Grapefruit.

Roy Wood is my new hero. Clearly, he pioneered everything good in rock music - makeup, stupid rock and roll songs, animal costumes.

Even Jeff Lynne came off sounding much better than I remember. ELO? Seriously? EL fucking O? The Move is fucking excellent. Wizzard was more of a laugh, but still very good.

Wizzard - See My Baby Jive



Paul and Gene have acknowledged stealing "Fire Brigade" for the early KISS track "Firehouse". They attempted to repay their hero Roy Wood by having Wizzard open for them on tour. which didn't go so well. Also Andy Partridge openly admitted to ganking "Blackberry Way" wholesale for the Dukes of Stratosphear track "Collideascope."



This version: holy fucking crap, it's guitar, bass and drums! Only! Imagine making that much of a song with just guitar, bass and drums!!! I said imagine, whore!

I was hoping the documentary would cover Brummie land during the 1970s as well. I mean, I could never figure out why Bev Bevan was in fucking Black Sabbath in the early 80s. Well, hell, he's from Birmingham. Plus he was a pop star in the Move wasn't he.

*well, and Alan Parsons Project, Ratt and Apparat. Mountain "Climbing."

I WANT EVERRYTHING

they say cancer is nothing to sneeze at. But your secondhand smoke tickles my sinuses. I can't help it.



If you like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, listen to Neko Case.

& uh-oh, I don't hate the Christina Aguilera song "ain't no other man". Maybe this is just a remix or something... Hopefully.

And can anyone tell me the difference between Revolting Cocks and Ministry? I'm sure there must be one. The new RevCo is also, like, a partial Lard reunion since Jello Biafra vocalizes on the one about viagra. Timely.

Lita Ford on the Surreal Life. Best rumor in years.

Usenet has been on fire this week. First I find two Bohren and Club der Gore albums I've been lusting after for aeons, then, then, then, finally, unbelievably, Keith Tippett's Centipede!!!! I've wanted to hear this stuff since reading about it in the King Crimson bio five years ago. Septober Energy from 1971.

BANANARAMA
DRAMA
Um, this just sounds like Kylie and every other tech pop princess blah. In a bad way. I guess I prefer music that sounds like it sounds like something teenage girls would like. But this is just something teenage girls would like. Popular ones. "Venus" remixed for the fifty billionth time. "Look on the Floor" sounds like Madonna, big time. Crossed with Olivia Newton John. No, wait, that makes it seem cool.

BIOTRON SHELF
33 MINUTES NORTH
The great thing about Usenet is anyone can upload anything. If they upload it to enough groups, maybe someone will bite. You never know. Biotron Shelf may have perpetrated just such product placement. So, it's pleasant enough sort of minimalist electronic stuff. Blips & gurgles off in the distance. Reverbed to shite and back. Not offensive. "She Gave Me Dark Thoughts" is a nice title.

DE LA SOUL
THE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION
I liked "Three Feet High and Rising". No, I loved it. It was such a pleasant response to NWA, Ice-T, etc. But they never lived up to it, in my estimation. They don't suck but they're not as good as they were in 1988. I guess you could say the same about most of us. Is 'Butta Verses' a Busta Rhymes dis? Ooh, dishy. I'll try this thing again later but right now it's not knocking my nuts.

DIGITAL SAMSARA
DIGITAL SAMSARA
Multi culti ambient electronic noodling.

READ 'EM AND WEEP

Thursday was the half-anticipated/half-dreaded Zappa Plays Zappa show in Detroit. Michael Bill bought tix for us months ago... I have to be in a very specific mood to listen to Zappa & another very specific mood to want to sit in a hot black car for 4 hours. Etc. You get the idea, just me being a baby as usual.

We left at 2pm in my car. He brought his 40 gig ipod since he was in charge of entertainment for the drive. We got to the venue... in Auburn Hills, actually... around 6:30pm or so. We killed a few minutes with light dinner across the street. & eventually wandered in to the smallish amphitheater. I wasn't planning on buying a shirt, but when I found myself with cash in hand & saw a dark green one with ZOMBY WOOF in big yellow letters, I had to go for it. Eek. So now I'm Zappa Shirt Guy. I guess.

The place was packed with douchebags of all generations. Parents & kids. Lots of kids. Too many fucking kids. The show started with a long video of Frank & The Boys from I don't know what year. Then Dweezil etc wandered onto the stage & it was off to the races.


The show was surprisingly entertaining. I only knew a few songs but it was still enjoyable. Terry Bozzio was the first special guest they brought out. He was the highlight for me. "Punky's Whips" is hilarious. And he's such a good drummer. And very, um, fun to watch. His drumming... wow. The dude is a monster. He only played a few songs, which was a strange thing to do. Maybe Dweezil didn't want the superstar guests to pull focus from Frank's Music? Because, seriously, when Steve Vai came out, the whole place went ballistic. We listened to "Flex-able" on the way there, so I was kind of in the Vai zone already anyway. He was energetic & entertaining too but I dug Bozzio more. Um. The whole band was very very good obviously. I liked "Florentine Pogen". "Let's Make the Water Turn Black". Even though it was a big ghosty love-in for the long-dead Frank Zappa, this concert didn't feel like necrophilia until the bit where the band simulated jamming with him via the video screen. That was stupid & it was the only thing that reminded me of Natalie Cole singing a duet with her long dead daddy.


I'll take Dweezil's hairstyle too, please. I'm already halfway there.

The drive home took substantially longer because I made MCB drive. I drove maybe like 2 miles onto the freeway & it was instantly obvious that I just couldn't do it. So I took an exit & we made a pit-stop at White Castle. And spent the next hour trying to get back onto the fucking freeway! I got home at 4:30am. EUGH.



Our seats were waaaay over on Vai's side, so we're not in this amazing clip of Terry Bozzio....

BLOOD BRUISE

This shoulda been my year for concerts, but it somehow isn't. I dunno why. I already missed Thomas Dolby in Cleveland. Celtic Frost will be in Cleveland & Cincinnati, as will Gary Numan. And Venom will be in Cleveland. Hm.

Archival recording playlist
Thomas Dolby - Boston 1988, FM broadcast. Whoooooo-weeeeee! nus.
Zappa Plays Zappa - first three shows. Trying to get my ears in shape for the Detroit show next week.
Sunday All Over The World (billed as Fripp And Fripp) - spring 1989. Lots of stuff I've never heard before. Twenty songs in 70 minutes. Very nice. I miss this band. I miss futuristic progressive pop.

I'm already repeating myself here in my little micro music summaries.