Tag: music

What is Bulgarian for “Oingo Boingo”?

Arrived early. Ate at the HOB restaurant, decent food. Fell in love with Lara, the waitress. How was I to know she was with the Russians too?

First band: Five white guys in their twenties, dressed up like a hard rock band from 1974: full beards, shaggy hair, one jewfro, lots of denim. I thought I’d never utter the phrase “Grand Funk Railroad imitation”, but there you have it. The lead singer tried very, very, very, very, very, very, very hard to be wacky. He said they were from Venus. They are called Valient Thorr. THEY BLOW. Grade: D

Second band: Five white guys in their twenties, dressed up like white guys in their twenties who are in a roots music band. They played Americana Punk Rock. Basically it’s the Real MacKenzies/Flogging Molly formula applied to bluegrass and roots rock. Since the Real Flogging Molly Mackenzie crowd is an imitation of the Pogues, who are an imitation of the Mekons, oh forget it. Anyway they were pretty good but not at all innovative or interesting. Would see as an opening band again. They are called the Scotch Greens. Grade: B-

Third band: Five white guys in their twenties, dressed up like the Stooges. Big local following. Lead singer is rail thin, covered in tattoos, takes his shirt off during the third song. Unremarkable Stooges/Sex Pistols sound. Lots of yelling about sex. Girls from the audience pulled up to sing onstage, causing near wardrobe malfunction. Members of Valient Thorr come on stage and sing with them, do the I’m Not Worthy bow, play air guitar. Guitarist has gigantic expensive Gibson guitar. Lead singer removes pants during last song. Constantly ordering various people in the audience to perform sexual acts immediately. They are the 2005 tweaker version of Social Distortion, which was the 1985 surfer heroin burnout version of the Sex Pistols, who were the London prefab fraud impresario version of the Stooges. They BLOW. Grade: D They are called Throw Rag.

Gogol Bordello were great. Five white guys in their twenties, dressed up as Dude Ranch Gypsies. They’re from New York. The Flogging MacKenzies idea is used on Eastern European Roma music to great effect. Plus, they have washboard girls! Who also play big parade drums and shoot slingshots! And they have a mean accordion player. It’s a double pantload of fun. The lead singer is just annoying enough to be a good lead singer. Their schtick might well be very annoying to people actually from Molvania, or to gypsies. I don’t know. It’s like 3 Mustaphas 3 that way: ha, ha, Eastern Europe funny! Yeah, also blood-drenched. Anyway it’s got a great beat, you can dance to it. Grade: B+

Some are insane, and they’re in charge

Gang of Four tonight. A loser is me and I didn’t read the tickets that said “Doors open 7 pm” (on a Friday night? WTF!?). Therefore I lazed about avoiding opening bands and didn’t pick L. up until nearly 10. We got there at 10:20 and the ticket woman told me they’d started at 9:45 to play an hour set. Very sad me. Fortunately they played a bit longer than that and I got to hear “To Hell with Poverty” and “At Home He’s a Tourist” which made me pogo like it was 1981.

The closing version of “Damaged Goods” would have been way better without the no-talent assclowns from the opening bands onstage being fratboys and Girl Rocker Stereotypes. Out on the disco floor they make their money, etc.

But I had a really good time yelling the lyrics back at the band. So did the rest of the crowd. It’s great to realize that the reason the vocals sound different is that most of the audience is singing along to just about every song. There were drunk idiots in front of us but they didn’t puke on me or yell in my ear. We went up to the bar afterwards to wait and see if Gina could come say hi but she was busy training a new waitress.

At this point, while L. was looking at merch, I was accosted by a woman I slightly recognized; I’d seen her in 2002 at the Savage Republic reunion show taking photos. Tall and very 80s scenester, dyed hair, rock t-shirt, etc. Not more than five years younger than me. She was the World’s Drunkest Person and simultaneously asked me for a light, asked me if I knew Dave (which Dave was not specified), and complained about the after-party the night before. The poor thing was so far gone that it was difficult for me to understand what she meant except that she was unhappy with her week and wanted to smoke, and to talk to me about things.

She got a light from someone else and disappeared for a bit, only to return again with her date, who was an aging scenester also, of the leather jacket + bad hair + alcohol + horn rimmed glasses variety. She began hitting on me with the manic intensity of the near-psychotic drunk. She hugged me about 10 times and kissed me twice on the cheek, explaining that she was a music dork and loved music dorks and knew I was one too, and that her boyfriend was a college radio music director/program director and that she loved him because music dork. Meanwhile he began clumsily/slimily hitting on L. I am indeed a music dork who was a college radio music director and program director, but I wasn’t gonna share that with her at this point.

After about 15 minutes of this, with L. showing signs of distress and/or incipient homicide, we fled. According to my new friend, she would have been “the best girlfriend I ever had”. I think we both have minor PTSD from the incident. It was only humorous after we were on the road at 50 mph headed away from the scene.

So I dropped L. off and cooled down at Ruba for a while, where Clayton and another guy talked about guns and I listened, and the muzak played Aerosmith, and the teenaged girls and boys smoked ostentatiously.

It was nice to go to a show with a neat person and just enjoy an evening. Should do that more, eh.

TO HELL WITH POVERTY, WE’LL GET DRUNK ON CHEAP WINE

MP3 tech note: lame 3.9.7b1

The most recent version of LAME (a new one after a very long time) is a huge improvement at least for me. I was previously using 3.90.3 which the mavens at hydrogenaudio said was the best version. They started recommending this new beta and wow! I’m getting 8.5x instead of 2.8x ripping speeds with “–preset fast standard”. Sounds great, too. Highly recommended. Source is at this sourceforge link, and binaries for those who do not compile are at Rarewares.

HOW TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE (January ’06)!

I just got this press release from Mobilization. Savage Republic and Blixa Bargeld are gonna tour the West Coast! I AM SO EXCITED. VERY EXCITED, HERE.

Portlanders take note: Savage Republic is playing Portland on November 10 as well. The text on mobilization.com refers to a “Northwest Tour” but I don’t know where else they’re playing. Fans of loud clanking noises, Middle East/African themed instrumentals, and Joy Division-y gloomgrind music should attend. Correction, must attend. Edited press release below.

Media Contact: destroy5 ‘at’ mobilization. dot Com
(650) 619-3695

Website: Mobilization.com

***LEGENDARY PROTO-INDUSTRIAL PIONEERS JOIN FORCES TO INVESTIGATE “HOW TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE” ON CHINESE NEW YEAR 2006***

MOBILIZATION.COM confirmed today that “seminal” Los Angeles tribal post-punk pioneers SAVAGE REPUBLIC will join BLIXA BARGELD (of EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN / NICK CAVE and the BAD SEEDS) in the upcoming “HOW TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE

– PART 5” festival.
$15 Advance, $18 Door (If not sold out)
**For 2 day events, there are a limited number of $23 festival passes**

The festival dates are:

THUR Jan 27
– Los Angeles – The Echo Lounge
FRI Jan 28
– (TBA)
SAT Jan 29
– San Francisco – Studioz
WED Feb 2 – (TBA)
THUR Feb 3 – Portland, Oregon @ The Old Church (2Gyrls Productions)
FRI Feb 4 – Seattle, WA (Venue TBA)
SAT Feb 5 – (TBA)
SUN Feb 6 – Calgary, AB
Press and ticket information is available at MOBILIZATION.com.
Tickets are on sale now at http://www.BrownPaperTicket.com

A limited number of advance discount tickets and festival passes are available now.
(Note that at press time some dates were already selling quickly and are expected to sell out.)

[…]

BLIXA BARGELD is performing a rare solo vocal concert entitled “Rede/Speech”. Be aware that this is NOT a “speech”. Rather, Blixa uses an invented form of vocal alchemy through direct audience interactions and pre-defined topics. Similar to his part in Einsturzende Neubauten, Blixa serves as a sonic architect, directing and molding form and beauty from randomness and chaos. Blixa has his vocals processed live by long time Neubauten sound engineer Boris Wilsdorf. Although hard to categorize, this technique allows for a “real time” interplay of vocal ideas with patterns and rhythms produced by the audio effects themselves (similar at least in concept with Diamanda Galas). The performance is really a duet between performer and engineer. . Together audience and shaman pick words and phrases to create an aural blend of pseudo scientific ephemera and magic, mesmerizing the audience and building to a classic Blixa crescendo. This performance promises to remind us why Blixa was selected to give the voice and screams to the mummy in the 1999 “The Mummy”. This is the US debut of this mesmerizing performance that has appeared throughout Europe for over a decade.

NOTE: The U.S. performances will be mainly in English. A limited edition DVD of the “Rede/Speech” performance will be available at the tour.

Video samples from past performances are online at

Blixa Bargeld | Official

SAVAGE REPUBLIC is performing their first and only show since their one off 2002 reunion. A new CD EP is expected prior to the show, a new unreleased live DVD.

Other acts unconfirmed but planned at this time include:

LAX.: The CENTIMETERS

SFO: COMETS ON FIRE, SCOTT ARFORD

PDX: 2 day festival confirmed. Second night confirmed with WALDTEUFEL (Markus Wolff of Crash Worship), SORIA and SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY.

[…]

Information & tickets: http://www.MOBILIZATION.com