Tuesday, March 31, 2009

this year on my b'day

since hembree has a gig, i'm going to the chat room to drink absinthe with the magical ash adams and jesse the painter.

new stoogepics on our myspace thingy

justin jones' pics of the li'l stoogeband's 2.28.2009 ridglea theater stand (including the first ones of guest saxophonist bob fisher blowin' like steve mackay on "1970," "funhouse," and "l.a. blues") are online here. thanks, jj!

storage solutions

my sweetie bought a couple of shelves so we could organize the fucking chaos of books and cd's that was rapidly overtaking every flat surface in our house. now we actually have a coffee table again, plus it makes me glad (in a geekish kind of way) to see all of my favorite authors lined up in a neat row, rather than precariously stacked in a hodgepodge of confusion. hooray!

kid daniel has a youtube channel

the ex-fort worth cat has a youtube channel. it's pretty odd.

Monday, March 30, 2009

jose serrato

...is a cool-ass photog from the north side who captures little bits of life from his 'hood as well as bands he sees (including the li'l stoogeband). his website is here.

captain beefheart's 10 commandments of guitar playing

from wfmu.

lorenzo st. dubois

...is the name of dick shawn's eric burdon-inspahrd character in mel brooks' the producers. thanks to t.tex edwards for reminding me of thisun.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

our buggy moral code and what happened to the economy

my sweetie posted this vid of behavioral economist dan ariely explaining why people think it's okay to cheat and steal (sometimes).

gallery night @ studio 5

a good night at jesse the painter's. was as knocked out by greg bahr's photography of objects he made by hand as i was by his collage work i saw for the first time last fall. pussyhouse propaganda ("art criminals" calvin abucejo and ray liberio) had a handful of new pieces, including from the darkest depths of mordor, which depicted evel knievel in full flight over the map from lord of the rings in their typical pop-culture mash-up stylee. james lassen's representational drip paintings, done in latex house paint, had the same kind of lines as his miniatures -- an impressive feat.

the gallery owner was represented by a single portrait, but he's been busy preparing for his upcoming solo show, en un manera silenciosa (set to run from may 23rd to july 16th at galeria de la rosa), where he'll lift the curtain on a half dozen new works. the detail from cortez the killer (a new piece, not the one that was my favorite at his 2003 show at gallery 414) on his promotional postcard provides a tantalizing glimpse -- not many artists can get away with invoking the spirits of both miles davis and caravaggio, but jesse earns it.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

hochimen pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie posted some of her pics from thursday night's hochimen show at lola's 6th on her photo blog. (click on 'em to make 'em big.)

stoogeshows upcoming

haven't booked a whole lot so far this year due to the high level of activity with the mighty me-thinks, the great tyrant, and hembree's several other bands, but the li'l stoogeband will be back in action in may -- hell, we may even rehearse before then -- with bob fisher on tenor sax for a coltrane-style blow-out on "1970," "funhouse," and "l.a. blues" (a highlight of our ridglea theater set). the dates are may 9th (a saturday) at lola's 6th with bastardos de sancho and one fingered fist (the phrase that pays is "ray's birthday"), and may 22nd (a friday) at the moon with transistor tramps and a band to be named later. yeah!

barn owl

michael chamy pulled my coat to these guys from san francisco. (apparently there's another band of the same name from massachusetts, working in a somewhat similar bag. go fig.) their alb from our mouths a perpetual light sounds like something i'm going to have to hear.



Friday, March 27, 2009

hochimen @ lola's 6th, 3.26.2009

reggie rueffer of the hochimen has more songs i love than any songwriter i know (with the possible exception of carey wolff), replete with captivating melodies, smart lyrics, and interesting structures (he's an ex-smu orchestra geek who digs mahler, after all, besides having fiddled for ray price, johnny bush, and charlie pride). his intermittently-active rock band's debut disc totenlieder ("which, as we all know, means 'songs about death' in german") is one of my all-time faves, and the sophomore ceedee tierra del gato is no slouch, either. and he's gotten to the point where he's claiming _all_ of his past, including a few spot toons in the mix. (he's even threatening to dip back into the mildred songbag, but we'll see.) also dig the way his brother chad (ex-speedtrucker) and ed mcmahon (ex-ten hands) seem to intuitively fill different spaces, gtr-wise -- chad's real clean and melodic, while unt jazz guy ed employs distortion, dissonance, and feedback to good effect. and the new drummer (whose name i missed, duh) sounded even better than pete young -- more crisp and hard-hitting -- even though this was only his second gig. they played all my faves (except "my lame ass"), including a couple that i don't recall hearing them essay live before ("in an old house," "death in captivity") and there were still a fair number of folks -- equally divided between spot/hcm fans and fans of the rueffers' country stuff from pearl's -- in the house by the time they quit. if you weren't there, you missed it.

legendary stardust cowboy on "laugh-in"

yeah, i know, the reception is shitty, but whadda you want -- it's broadcasting from 1968!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

arts goggle tomorrow night!



(click on the flyer to make it grande)

mayday @ lola's

...it's the great tyrant, garuda, and suiciety. yeah!

t. tex edwards gots a blog

...and it's here.

robert c. "snuffy" gray

my drummer from college's dad, who fought in korea and did covert ops in southeast asia, passed away this past week. in korea, he served in the 7th cavalry -- custer's regiment -- and later in his life, he helped organize a ceremony of reconciliation with the lakota sioux for the wounded knee massacre. the bbc made a documentary about it. he had a big life. rest in peace, sir.

ADDENDUM: apparently ghosts of the 7th cavalry has been shown on pbs tv, and the filmmaker is trying to get it shown at festivals here in the states. you should see it if you get the chance -- probably the best, truest depiction i've ever seen of warriors, their pride, loyalty, and private torment. stephen's dad, whom i only knew as the proprietor of an upstate new york sporting goods store, reminds me of every good first sergeant i ever knew. i'm glad the filmmaker was able to capture the journey he took in the last year of his life.

another f*cking format? puh-leeze!

the barman sheds some light (and vents some spleen) on neil young's new 10-disc box set as a vehicle for shilling blu-ray.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

nervebreakers @ tootsie's flyer


hey, finn -- tex edwards posted this on his myspace thingy. now i finally have the address for tootsie's. (i've been speculating on the location for years, a clue to my level of inebriation at the time.) the other names on the flyer take me back, too. the blasting caps were freddie cisneros' band. and my drummer from college (who talked me into moving to texas after he saw the nervebreakers open for the sex pistols) used to jam with violinist mark menikos while he was attending what was then still called ntsu.

r.i.p. uriel jones

...drummer on my fave temptations sides. from a heart attack at 74. damn. gotta watch standing in the shadows of motown again when i get un-busy. that's him on the left in the clip below, still working in 2008. go easy, man.

flamin' groovies reish

speaking of the groovies, rev-ola just reished flamingo and teenage head on a single cd with a coupla bonus tracks to pad it out. if you don't gots, you needs to -- they're as essential as funhouse, the mc5's high time, and the velvets' loaded.

hochimen @ lola's 6th THIS THURSDAY

wtf?!?!? reggie rueffer sends:

Come see the Hochimen at Lola’s on Sixth street in Fort Worth Thursday March 26th at 11pm.

We will be a three-piece unless Ed shows up late from an engagement he couldn’t get out of. We will play a few Spot tunes to round out the set. It will be fun.

my scrawl in the fw weekly

some blather about sxsw i dashed off in about 35 minutes after work yesterday appeareth in this week's music feature, along with testimony from caroline collier and steve steward. (as you already know if you read this blog the other day, it was "shake some action," not "slow death." again, i suck.) i also appear as a character in the italian kid's story.

just imagine...


the magical ash adams sends:

“This photo was taken by photographer Jack Bradley and depicts the exact moment this boy, Harold Whittles, hears for the very first time ever. The doctor treating him has just placed an earpiece in his left ear. Date unknown. “

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

hubris

today i got an e-mail from the italian kid, soliciting sxsw blather for this week's music feature. "after work," i replied. when i got home this evening, i sat down at the 'puter and pounded out 1000 words -- about the length of a reg'lar music piece in the fwweekly -- in about 35 minutes. then i went out to dinner in the form of an interview for the cover story i'm working on now. it was only after i arrived home, some time after the paper had gone to bed, that i realized i got a song title wrong in my screed. i suck.

Monday, March 23, 2009

bob fante cd review @ iloveftw.com

a review i penned of bob fante's rancho folly V (solo project by eaton lake tonics/one hundred second dash mastermind tony ferraro) is online now at iloveftw.com.

last night

took my sweetie to szechuan for her first taste of peking duck. back to work today, and for the next two weeks, i'll have my head down working on a cover story for the fw weekly.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

src in shindig annual no. 1

now that i'm back from sxsw, i need to put mr. credit card away for awhile, because i was hemorrhaging money while hanging around 6th street and red river, availing myself of all those $5 beers and pizza slices. spent more time in rekkid stores this past weekend than i have in the past several years -- besides antone's, the place i was staying was within walking distance of both waterloo and cheapo's (of which i'd been previously unaware).

was able to limit myself to only buying merch from bands i saw, but this morning while killing time waiting for the italian kid to return from his in-laws' up north of the city, mimi and i took a stroll over to waterloo. my friend derek lewis wasn't working, but i wound up shelling out 20 bucks for a book that contains a 10,000-word piece i wrote on '60s detroit psychsters src (from interviews conducted over a period of several months) while i was unable to go to work downtown after the tornado in 2000.

it's my contribution to the mike stax school of aspergerish obsessive-compulsion as scholarship, and i think it holds up in spite of three grafs being truncated in the book and the photo reproduction being less than stellar in spots. i was just thinking a few weeks ago that i didn't have a copy of the piece, since i'd given away all the copies the publisher sent me. now i've got one. the rest of the book is full of stuff that'll be of interest to anyone who's into (mainly british) '60s mod-psych obscurities. i'm especially glad to have the very last interview with carl wayne of the move, since i've kinda been on a move kick lately. (it's also available from forced exposure.)

remembering james clay

johnny case sends:

Saturday April 4, 8:00pm
Arts Fifth Avenue
1628 5th Ave, Fort Worth 76110 (corner of 5th and Allen)
$15 Adult, $12 Students, Seniors

Presented by Johnny Case and Duane Durrett

Roger Boykin - Master of Ceremonies

Featured performers include:

Roger Boykin - multi-instrumentalist
Clint Strong – guitarist
Duane Durrett – drums
Drew Phelps – bass
Sandra Kaye – vocalist
Willie T. Albert – trumpet
Johnny Case – piano
Raymond and Clyde Edward George – guitar and organ
For reservations (recommended) call 817-923-9500

Musicians and friends will share their memories during a spoken segment of the program. Clay’s recordings will be heard at intermission and before the concert. Memorabilia will be on display.

further austin notes

hadn't been in america's live music capital (R) in five years and was quite astonished at the growth there. perhaps it was attributable to sxsw (or as the locals say, "the plague of bad black dye jobs"), but interregional freeway seemed a lot more like the long island expressway than i remember it being. and mopac is a toll road now. and north lamar, which used to be _desolate_, is now teeming with shopping centers and other suburban detritus. and the downtown skyline is dominated by that godawful monstrosity that i swear was in the lord of the rings. everytime i looked at it, i couldn't help imagining christopher lee up there.

yells at eels @ the granada in dallas this friday

austin, tx 3.21.2009

left the fort around 1pm friday and got stuck in traffic above hillsboro due to a bad traffic accident -- had to wait for careflight to land and do their thing. hope the person made it. got into town around the time the nervebreakers were starting, and ant'ny wanted to go by the convention center and pick up our credentials. went to mimi's and met her friend scott, who said he'd had dinner at our house a couple of years ago. he lives in denton and was in town to play a house show. nice fella and didn't even object when i kept calling him eric. (duh.)

made it to spiro's (which mimi's roommate ben -- my granddaughter piper's most favoritest one -- describes as a sleazy bar where frat daddies can pick up underaged girls) for the wfmu/aquarius records showcase. watched wildildlife from seattle, who played good but generic stoner-rock, and slough feg from san fran played a nice heavy set. best band that night were the ovens, four bay area teens who played nice hard, aggressive punk songs, all under a minute. (see first clip below.) one of their gtrists broke a string, a harbinger of things to come. worst of the night were the major stars from cambridge, mass., who looked like your teachers from high school who thought they were really cool but weren't and proved jay hardesty's dictum: "lynyrd skynyrd: three gtrs. the who, pink floyd: one gtr. i rest my case." (see second clip below.) saw michael chamy from zanzibar snails and talked about getting together for dinner and fw weekly interviewage next week.





the gunslingers had kind of a rough night -- by the time their 1am set rolled around, most of the house had cleared out, and the sound mix was fer shit. greg had problems getting feedback from his borrowed marshall, there was a grounding problem with the vocal mic, and i remembered after the fact that the major stars' drummer had had the soundman take everything out of the drum monitor, which the soundman failed to correct for before the 'slingers hit, so antoine couldn't hear anything, throwing them even further off their game. greg wound up calling the set down early and he and mattheu looked pretty disheartened afterwards; antoine doesn't seem the type to let anything like that get him down. i bought a vinyl copy of no more invention and encouraged them to shake it off and have a good show in oklahoma the following night. (i find it interesting that greg keeps all his pedals in the original boxes. kinda meticulous for such an abandoned player.)

ate a coupla slices of street pizza, walked back to mimi's and tried sleeping on the porch, interrupted by sound (from a show after 3am?!?!? or somebody's stereo?) and some douchebag on his cellphone acting like a dick with some girl he was trying to hustle. finally got too cold and i slunk inside to crash on the floor.

next morning walked to whole foods with scott to get breakfast burritos, then headed down to casino's bar around noon. ran into ant'ny's friend jed and tahiti and pikahsso from AwkQuarius. walked into the bar and heard the damned playing "neat neat neat;" kind of like hearing "30 seconds over tokyo" at the chat room on wednesday night. brian forella, carl pack, and lee allen stopped by our table, too, and it felt like being home. borrowed ant'ny's cellphone to call mimi and tom finn, who agreed to meet us there. ant'ny sprung for casino burgers and my second goal for the weekend was met. and yes, it was everything i'd hoped for.

rode up to antone's records with finn. ran into dan lightner and justin robertson, who magically made beers appear. drank a toast to fraf with finn and justin, who also explained his often-eccentric attire: "if you're wearing a snap-button shirt and a big cowboy hat and you're an asshole, people figure, 'well, what else would you expect?'" also saw my friend jim yanaway, who wasn't reachable by phone but showed up and let me know about a couple of interesting projects he's been involved in. one's a documentary film about the comanche nation and the trials 'n' tribs of four comanches who want to build a sweat lodge (and continue the comanche tradition of taking hostages). yanaway said that the norwegian government wants to bring 20 of the comanches over on an oil tanker and have asked him to go along to coordinate logistics. jim is also involved in a norwegian film about american culture and the various threads (jfk, mlk, civil rights movement) that culminated in barack obama's election that may wind up touring a la john holbrook's death penalty photos. he said michael ochs of the archives is involved.

the band before the nervebreakers was the magic christians, with cyril jordan from the flamin' groovies on gtr and clem burke from blondie on drums. (maybe that's why i kept hearing "teenage head" playing wherever i went.) cyril, the iconic rockstar dude from the cover of the teenage head alb, has matured into an elfin-looking little guy, but he still has that perspex dan armstrong and his new band does a nice line in stones/pretty things-style garage rawk with beatlesque harmonies. clem was definitely the hardest workin' man on the set, with chops and showmanship on a keith moon/dino danelli level. the "encore" of "teenage head" followed by "shake some action" was the icing on the cake. a nice surprise. (see clip below.)



mike haskins from the nervebreakers sez the new alb is mastered and being shopped around (fred krc's steady boy and greg kostelich's get hip are options). bought a 6-song sampler e.p. and a t-shirt from him. (the shirt was an xl -- which mike didn't think he had -- instead of a large, so in the fullness of time, it will be donated to mr. finn.) the 'breakers sounded great, although barry blew a fuse on his borrowed fender and his volume was too low after he switched to a music man that someone fortuitously had in their car to finish the set, but that's just part of the fun of playing live. thing i always loved about the nb's (who were a band as early as '73) way back when was that, contrary to the conventional wisdom o' the day, the could really play -- in fact, mike was prolly the best gtrist to come out of the whole texas punk development -- and they were funny as hell. 'twas great to hear those songs again, and i misted up when mike and barry introduced each other as "my brother" and "my best friend on earth." finn got the whole performance (as well as the previous day's) on video with his new camera and should have some clips posted on youtube in the fullness of time. might have to make it to dada for their show there if i can work out the time. (here's a coupla vids bob childress posted of their show at owl tree roasting on friday.)





spent the rest of the evening riding around with finn, stopping off for some nice spicy thai food to cleanse the system after all that beer, then back to mimi's before midnight to sleep. all in all, i had probably the best sxsw experience i've had since the time i saw RON. back when i used to do this more often, it was an escape from the isolation of my hermit-like existence in the weedgrown wilds of benbrook. it's nicer to feel more connected, and the best part of this trip was getting to catch up with some folks i hadn't seen in awhile. i didn't even feel bad that i'd missed the new york dolls, dinosaur jr., and flower travellin' band. thanks to ant'ny, mimi, ben, and finn for making it such a gas.

ADDENDUM FROM BACK IN THE FORT: barry from the nervebreakers hurt his hand banging on his gtr. he showed me the bone spur he got from whacking his wrist against it back in the day. it seemed totally appropriate to the occasion. mike also said the nb's are set to release a compilation of their old stuff. hooray!

Friday, March 20, 2009

the great tyrant

...is bouncing back from some recent show cancellations "due to things that couldn't be helped." they gots a run of shows coming up in april in may, including stands at club dada (4.10), rubber gloves (4.11), the sons of hermann hall (5.2), and lola's (5.16).

when @ sxsw, gotta represent

...so i'm taking my cadillac fraf, wreck room, and yells at eels t-shirts.

sonny sharrock

yes.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

poor market research

...is exemplified by the guy that approached me outside the nassau veterans' memorial coliseum on valentine's day 1974 and offered to sell me some heroin while i was on my way in to the yes concert inside. "i hear the yethhh be a _baaad_ gwoup to thee doin' heroahhhnnn..."

mike watt cometh to the granada in dallas on 4.20.2009

pretty much what i said.

chad rueffer cd review @ iloveftw.com

a review i penned of chad rueffer's new cd be where you are now is online now at iloveftw.com.

gunslingers pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie posted some of her gunslingers pics from last night's chat room show on her photo blog. (click on 'em to make 'em big.)

the gunslingers @ the chat room, 3.18.2009

the gunslingers to' it up at the li'l chat room last night. the great tyrant were unable to make the gig, so the three-piece from "san pedro, france" -- actually, gtrist-singer gregory raimo is from grenoble in the alps, which 'splains his interesting choice of headgear, while the riddim boyzzz are from paris -- took the opening slot. (spindrift and restaurant played later, which kinda surprised me but worked out for our purposes.)

even tho the tyrant wasn't playing, jon teague was there because antoine the drummer still needed to use his kit. soundman eric ortiz told me that the gunslingers had rolled in without amps, too, so we ran back to la casa to pick up my hughes & kettner and bag of cords. turns out they were able to borrow gear from spindrift, but greg was almost apologetic about not using my shit ("maybe eet ees bettaihr zat way, because i make much ze feedback") and very generously bestowed me with a copy of his gr & full-blown expansion solo set (on white vinyl, yo) for the trouble. nice cats.

the gunslingers' set was every bit as tempestuous as their no more invention cd, although they weren't as loud as i expected 'em to be (that's not a knock). they opened with their best song, "light slinger festival," with the rhythm section pounding away relentlessly (my sweetie noted later that bassist mattheu canaguier looks like a gallic matt hembree) while greg soloed away with abandon. he uses a lap steel bar to do his sonny sharrock chaos-slide, and had an interesting way of getting feedback, laying his guitar neck right on top of the amp -- something i'm going to have to try. who knows what he's singing? teague's friend kate from austin, who's lived in france, said that she couldn't understand a word of it either, but i figure you don't need to be able to decipher lyrics to know that he's got the correct spirit.

my sweetie shot a bunch of pics, some of which, in the fullness of time, will appear on her photo blog.

thurston moore int

...from AnOther Man Magazine. the mag looks to be a virtual GQ or something. go fig.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

'zineage

new ugly things gots an int w/trevor burton of the move (the fella applying the highly expressive english to his gtr in the clip below), the spades (roky erickson's pre-elevators band), the dave clark five (hey, st. lester liked 'em), the history of fanzines, and much more. no doubt the obsessive/asperger-ish level of scholarship is as staggering as always. hooray!

sorting out the logistics...

...of this weekend's trip. we'll be staying a li'l fu'ther from all the action than i'd originally thought -- about as far from red river as it was from mi casa to the wreck room, but that shouldn't be an impediment. just need to work out how i'm gonna make it to the nervebreakers show friday. looking fwd to seeing my friends jim yanaway (who lives in austin) and tom finn (who's driving down thursday with his bike in tow to see roky erickson). should be good times.

today

...is our fourth wedding anniversary. maybe that's why i'm kind of ambivalent about being out of town the next three days. hard to believe all that's happened since then, and it's especially sad what's happened to my mom in the years since she was down here for the wedding. but all in all, our life's good, and i'd do it all over again. i'm happy and thankful.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

tonight

had dinner with my middle dtr, her husband and niece (my oldest grandkid). my sweetie roasted a chicken, made a bunch of mashed potatoes (her first attempt -- we have enough for potato pancakes tom'w night) and kale (next time need to make more -- limiting factor is the size of the steamer), followed by strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream my granddtr helped make. my son-in-law brought back my charlie parker cd's and pulled my coat to a coupla hilarious youtube vids.



greg bahr gots shows

greg bahr gots shows (click on images to make 'em big):


"the difference between a vase of flowers and watching a garden bloom"

why live music is best, from crawdaddy.

erin go bleeeaaaggghhh

welcome to my second least favorite holiday of the year. (the first: new year's.) i mean, i like to drink as much as the next guy, but having an entahr holiday based on ppl getting shithammered (and don't tell me it's about eating corned beef and cabbage, either) is ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray.

let it die

from arthur, here's douglas rushkoff on the economy.

it's on!

the metrognome collective is taking the old firehouse gallery space at 4147 meadowbrook on april 1st. ben rogers says they need to raise $3000 by that time (so they can have their first three months' rent in hand before the doors open), and plans several fundraising events over the next two weeks. when the bona fide metrognome website relaunches (any day now), it will have a paypal widget folks can use to donate; for the time being, you can contact ben via their myspace thingy.

Monday, March 16, 2009

random neil young thought

herb levy says that he doesn't read any other blogs that have neil young posts, although he does read thisun. i suppose that's a compliment, or maybe herb's just really bored. i haven't bought a new neil alb since, um, sleeps with angels, but i think i've finally arrived at the point in life where i understand what he meant when he wrote, "tell me why / is it hard to make arrangements with yourself / when you're old enough to repaint, but young enough to sell" (my favorite line from any pop song except for "three o'clock / road block / and i've got to throw away / my little herb stalk" -- just for the way it sounds; no other reason).

dopamine II

liles flows spiel over another aussie surf/skate doco.

this week

...i'm trying to connect with folks i need to interview for a story i'm writing for the fwweekly. tuesday night, my middle dtr is bringing her niece (my oldest granddtr) over for dinner. wednesday, we're going to the chat room to hear restaurant, spindrift, the great tyrant, and the gunslingers, who i'm hoping to catch later in the week at the wfmu/aquarius records showcase at sxsw. while i'm in austin, i'll stay with my "fourth dtr" mimi flynn (who's a great photog and web designer), hear the nervebreakers -- the band that brought me to texas (sort of) -- _twice_, and eat a burger at casino's. will be glad to get back to my sweetie sunday night.

death (a band! a band!)

my big sis sent me this link to a nyt piece on the '70s black proto-punk band death.

be prepared

now i know why hembree always has an entahr band's worth of shit in his gig bag. (click on the image to make it large.)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

fire queen



where's the fucking gtr solo?!?!? (and omg...there's a may blitz myspace thingy!)

new varsity axe

never have i ever played a G chord that was as meaningful to me as thisun (photo by kat):

we're getting a rainbarrel!

beware the ides of march

jay silverheels

from the wfmu blog, here's the compelling story of the canadian actor who played tonto in the lone ranger series. when i was in high school, the one club i belonged to usedta show movies at school a coupla evenings a year, then throw a pizza party for ourselves with the take; donald harrison and i wanted to book roller derby and a personal appearance by jay silverheels, but we were outvoted.

blues in rhapsody

just bought the digital-only reish of josh alan friedman's estimable '97 alb blacks 'n' jews via itunes. i'd previously attempted to cop it via rhapsody and wound up paying $8.99 for two out of 17 songs. inquiries to rhapsody tech support resulted in my being informed that the rest of the songs weren't available for download (in which case, why was the "buy entire album" option offered?) and given a credit for future purchases to my rhapsody account. (yeah, right, as if.) i sent a complainogram to josh, who being the mensch he is, insisted on refunding my money himself. glad to have the alb, anyway (it might just be his best).

Saturday, March 14, 2009

japanese cat weight lifting

this morning i woke up with this song in my head



kenny rogers was one weird so-and-so when he was young. his brother leland ran interational artists, the label that released texan psych by the 13th floor elevators and red crayola/red krayola. plus, kenny always reminded me of the guy who played mr. greaser in greaser's palace.

Friday, March 13, 2009

jeff liles does denton

...on the observer blog; i'm even quoted briefly, as if i know anything about denton.

william bryan massey III @ the fairmount, april 26th

it's a book release party for dancing on a bed of goatheads: poems 06/08. the festivities start at 8pm. massey, "cowtown's hardcore texas poet," whose online presence antiheroart.com seems to have gone the way of all flesh, is the real deal. you owe it to yourself to check him out if you're uninitiated.



free screening of patti smith film...in l.a.

if anyone who reads this blog resides in l.a. (which would surprise me a great deal), dig this blast from amoeba music:

Amoeba will be holding FREE screenings of music-related films every Monday in the Month of March. Along with the free screening, there will be FREE Izze Soda and FREE popcorn at the Snack Bar!

The next screening takes place THIS MONDAY, March 16th at 8 pm, in the courtyard of Space15Twenty, just up the street from Amoeba at 1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles, CA.

Our next film will be ‘PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE’ - The essential biographical documentary on this punk rock icon. Eleven years in the making, by photographer and filmmaker Steven Sebring, it's a unique and intimate portrait of the renowned singer, songwriter, poet, and activist.


the patti movie is essential viewing (review to be posted on i94bar.com whenever the barman gets around to it) and free soda/popcorn would definitely seal the deal if i was closer than half a continent away.

austin art show @ fred's, march 28th

my good friend, raconteur, connoisseur, and expat fort worthian jim yanaway sends:

I am helping a Cowtown friend of mine, Bulldog McElroy, put together a showing by Austin poster artists at Fred's Saturday March 28. So far, we have commitments from Jim Franklin, Guy Juke, Micael Priest, Danny Garrett, and Bill Narum. All those guys had a role in developing the great art that came out of the Armadillo World Headquarters, Antone's, Soap Creek, etc. and helped establish an identity for Austin art. They are also a bunch of good low-down partyin' yahoos !! Yee haw.

Anyway, most, if not all, of them will be trekking north to Fort Worth for the event, and I would like for you to come out, too, and just say "Howdy". That's all I want you to say. Just "Howdy". I expect to be there, too.

You can look at the art, too.

There will be prints available to purchase, too, if you so desire, and the prints are very desirable.

funny

i was at zoo music having jeff west adjust the neck on the new varsity axe to get rid of a buzz on the 7th fret of the E string, and clean the volume pots so they wouldn't be quite so noisy.

a fella who was shopping there walked up and asked me, "are you the stash dauber?" because apparently i'd given my self away by playing with my mustache.

he said he'd been to see alejandro escovedo at the mcdavid studio downtown, and before alejandro played "i wanna be your dog" (which he recorded with buick mckane back in the '90s), he said something about having heard that there's a big stooges following in the fort. ha!

supercussion

hembree sends. these guys are from the allen (tx) high school band, apparently the largest marching band in the country (including college bands).

Thursday, March 12, 2009

chad rueffer

...the occasional hochiman and full-time rueffer brother gots a new country cd, be where you are now, which in the fullness of time i'll review for iloveftw.com.

'breakers back

2001: a space odyssey

i remember seeing this at a drive-in in hawaii with my cousins in 1969 and thinking, "whatthefuck?!?!?"

simple pleasures for simple minds

we used our income tax refund to get our plumbing fixed, so now we have mad water pressure in the shower and kitchen sink, and the washing machine no longer leaks. and i just ordered my cheerios t-shirt online (finally saved up five proof-of-purchase number thingies.) hooray!

ADDENDUM: if you need a plumber, call jason wheatley at 817-715-0435 or 817-966-1766. he's good, conscientious, licensed, environmentally aware, and reasonably priced. he just doesn't have a website yet.

iDi*amin @ strategies of beauty, 2006

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

monk monk monk - third annual thelonious monk festival

dave williams sends:

Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009
Time: 8:00pm - 10:30pm
Location: Arts Fifth Avenue
Street: 1628 5th Avenue
City/Town: Fort Worth, TX
Phone: 817-923-9500
Email: artsfifthavenue@aol.com

Sam Walker Jazz Sextet plays the music of Thelonious Monk:

David Williams - Tenor Sax
Rick Stitzel - Trumpet
Joey Carter - piano
Pete Wehner - drums
Kyp Green - bass
Sam Walker - Guitar

http://www.artsfifthavenue.com/


but will they play this?



ADDENDUM: dave williams sez _yes_, they will be playing "ruby," and "gallop's gallop," and "brake's sake." 'tis pity i've gotta close at the market that night. the fifth avenue jazz collective will be back in action on march 28th and april 18th.

stockhausen's helicopter string quartet

greywater guerillas

tired of all the music boo-shee? here's an online community devoted to building sustainable water culture and infrastructure.

chewbacca

stumptone @ nx35 plus

sadly, we're not gonna make it to denton for any of the action at the pre-sxsw "music conferette," but before their rubber gloves stand on saturday night, stumptone is playing a house show with a bunch of other bands. (click on poster to make big.) how cool is that?

fredfest lineup is posted

...here (scroll down to may 2-3).

gallery night @ studio 5

(click on flyer to make it big.)

Monday, March 09, 2009

peter green's fleetwood mac

follow this link to a recording of peter green's last stand with fleetwood mac at the roundhouse in london, 1970. (it's on the second page of the crawdaddy article.) you'll thank me later.

new stoogeaphilia slideshow and vids

finally got the accursed myspace slideshow widget to work so i could update the li'l slideshow on the stoogeband's myspace thingy to the richard hurley era, and found some youtube vids molly shot of us in all our inebriated abandon, attempting to blow the roof off the fairmount (10.12.2008 -- i didn't use the "final solution" one with the chick fight) and the moon (11.1.2008 -- the infamous halloween show w/ray in full skeleton suit and matt as bespectacled roman emperor). now i finally know what ray was doing when i didn't know whatthehell was going on.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 9

in the interest of full disclosure, i suppose i should mention that my, um, personal aesthetic is one that values spontaneity over polish, and that i'm a fan of linearity, pulse, and volume, although not to the exclusion of other things.

listening

...to ras michael and the sons of negus, courtesy of cervantez.



patti smith

just reviewed the dream of life dvd for the i-94 bar. here's a clip from '76, before i got it.

last night

...we went to sardines for din-din for the first time in awhile. didn't get to talk to johnny case, but ran into marcus lawyer and jenn cooper, who were in town for her b-day. the j'int seemed to be doing good biz in spite of the sluggish economy; an encouraging sign.

new nervebreakers album?!?!?

so one would gather from this missive from the 'breakers:

RADIO NAPALM will broadcast the World Radio Premiere of the newest Nervebreakers tune, "Face Up to Reality" (from the upcoming Nervebreakers album of the same name) on March 11.

"RADIO NAPALM": A weekly 2 hour musical journey through rock 'n' roll, punk rock, glam, r&b, garage, blues, and whatever else tickles our fancy. Hosted by noted punk rock musician and writer TIM NAPALM, Wednesdays, 10 PM eastern, 9 PM Central, 8 PM Mountain, and 7 PM Pacific over www.woodyradio.com. Here you will find playlists, downloadable podcasts of each episode, and other goodies and gewgaws related to "RADIO NAPALM!"

www.woodyradio.com
Hit that page, scroll down, and choose your player (or listen via iTunes). And don't forget the liveliest chatroom on the internet, either. Be there!

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 8

friendship networks play an important part in determining "relevancy," or as teague sez, "you gotta know freaks!" the proliferation of music blogs means that there are more trusted tastemakers out there than there were back in prehistory, when a handful of music rags called the tune and the changes. i have no idea what the millennial brats are looking at; myself, i dig julian cope's head heritage (altho lately his spiel can be so convoluted as to be almost impenetrable at times) and the record reviews on s.f. retailer aquarius records' site. it's pretty much your call, though; one man's "relevancy" is another's "genre music." i've gotta agree with hickey about one thing, though: "artistic honesty" will never go out of style.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

paul slavens @ lola's stockyards in april

same as it ever was

sleep awakens

stoner-rock legends sleep (whose members went on to form high on fire and om) will reunite for two shows at the all tomorrow's parties fest in the u.k., may 9-10.

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 7

kids today have it easy -- or do they? unlike like their grandparents, who had to wait for the great depression to end before experiencing world war II, the millennial generation gets their depression and war _at the same time_. (as patti smith said in the doco we just watched, during a performance of the 'oo's '65 anthem, "my generation had dreams...and we created george w. bush." fuck us.) they have the entahr history of recorded music accessible at the click of a mouse. but how to make sense of all that information?

in between posts today...

...i had time to pull some weeds, play with the kitties, and take a ride to hpb, where biz appeared to be booming (the recession or teague's pic in the star-t? _you_ decide!) and they've got multiple copies of marquee moon, spurts: the richard hell story, and the big bang: the best of the mc5 if you don't own those 'uns. rhino's loss is your gain.

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 6

back to my point...in our over-busy, always-connected, event- and artifact-crammed existence, we (the unrepentant music-obsessives) make a fetish of connoisseurship. this can take the form of a nasty one-upmanship, or a friendly shared enthusiasm, the only requirement for which is a mutual appreciation for the sounds in question.

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 5

back to "the challenge of punk," i think what i meant was a commitment to music as something more than craft (and packaging), the idea that raw immediacy was more satisfying and maybe even more valid than a slickly professional presentation, even if it was a little out of tune. but i digress.

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 4

the thing about it is this: more is not always better. (but what is "enough?") in a way it's a metaphor for the way we live now. we're choking on abundance, consuming everything and appreciating nothing.

when i eat a meal and someone asks me how it was, i'll frequently joke, "it was really good...or i was really hungry." when you're really hungry, a peanut butter sandwich can be as good as steak. (or something else that's really good for you non-meat-eaters. you get the point.)

intermezzo: instructables

but wait, you say. who cares about music that much anyway? people need instructions for livin'.

ok. here ya go: a website that tells you how to make anything out of anything else.

there. are you happy now?

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 3

back then when you stumbled on music it was so overwhelming that you couldn't imagine what you did before you had it burned into your synapses and in digging around trying to replicate that first-fuck epiphany you'd discover other stuff that, while not as earth-shaking in its impact on your psyche, was still damn good. it seemed like there was no end to the goodness. so when did that change? and why?

maybe around the time when record reviews went from being long-form musings on the zeitgeist to mere consumer guidance, and the listener's attitude went from being one of awestruck wonder to one of jaded apathy: "so what are you going to do to amaze me _this_ time?!?!?"

wtf is "relevancy," anyway? 2

walking to frank's to return his guitar this morning, it felt like being young again: walking down the street in my neighborhood with an acoustic guitar in a case in one hand, a neil young album in the other. all that was missing was little kids throwing rocks and yelling, "you're the _ugliest_ thing i've ever seen!" it reminded me that once there was a time when it felt as though i was the only person on earth who liked the music i liked. and how that made it seem like i was in on a big secret that no one else knew, which made it a little less lonely to feel as odd and alienated as i did.

Friday, March 06, 2009

wtf is "relevancy," anyway?

big mike scoffs at "the challenge of punk" in my neil young myspace blog post, while hickey sees the connexxxion between "artistic honesty and relevancy."

i've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of "relevancy" in music and i think it means standing for something more than just another entertainment option for young, hip listeners. when the rolling stones started, f'rinstance, they really represented a threat to the established order, more so than the beatles, i think, because among other things, the early stones were able to convince a significant number of young hetero males from bangor to bakersfield that androgyny was cool, paving the way for the gay rights movement as surely as jimmy reed kicked open the door for martin luther king (patoski, 2000). in the fullness of time, they've become something more like a tourist attraction than a band: "my grandmother went to see the rolling stones and all i got was this t-shirt." in fairness to sir mick and co., it's gotten harder to play "shock the grownups" when dad might have put on eyeshadow to go to the bowie concert in '72, but there's more to it than just playing epater les parents.

neil wrote and sang honestly about the dilemma of his time on both a social (the drug murder and pervasive sense of burnout on every level in "tired eyes") as well as a personal level (danny whitten's death in "tonight's the night" and "needle and the damage done"). that rang a lot truer at the time than, say, pete townshend bitching about how hard it was being a rockstar on the who by numbers and who are you (which begged the question, "who gives a shit?") which proves, i suppose, that introspection in songwriting goes a lot further when it can produce insights that are more than pure solipsism. i'll follow this thread more later, but right now it's almost time for me to go and sell vitamins. yeah!

cinema paradiso

watched cinema paradiso last night. what a sweet film, and what a great morricone soundtrack.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

welcome back, insomnia!

and thanks to hickey, i _still_ have that goddamn starship song (which i hate as much as da kobe hates that creepy, misogynistic new chris cornell vid) in my head. "knee deep in the hoopla" indeed.

stumptone

...gots new demos up on their myspace thingy, and a gig at rubber gloves in denton next saturday as part of nx35. hooray!

i must be getting old

first, wayne coyne calls the arcade fire "a bunch of pricks."

then, the arcade fire replies, "i know you are, but what am i?"

and all i wanna know is, whothefuck is the arcade fire? is that like the theater fire, but smaller?

neil young vs. youtube

(n) curmudgeon (a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas)

having railed at his label for pulling all their vids from youtube last week, today neil pubbed an angry screed on his website against youtube for paying warner bros. artists less than those from other labels that negotiated better deals, later.

need a brain rinse

woke up this morning with that horrible goddamn song by starship in my head. you know the one i mean. heaven help me.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

burgers

we've been trying to save money but not going out to eat 'n' drink quite so much (and discovering lotsa good recipes at allrecipes.com), but as spring approaches, the mind turns to thoughts of burgers. part of my intention in going to sxsw is to have one of these from casino el camino.



and as the nice weather returns, we'll certainly be walking to fonky fred's to enjoy one of these, preferably on a night when darrin kobetich is playing in the fort. (and the hedges.)



and on a non-burger related tangent, we still need to check out thai tina's over on henderson.

hey, ash...here's another one!

my scrawl in the fw weekly

a review i penned of two recent cd's by vijay iyer and fieldwork is in this week's fwweekly.

twelvish

the first snippet from the top secret work in progress is online now.

r.i.p. touch and go

here we see the dawning of the indie '80s and '90s as nostalgia.

oh well/hooray!

apparently our new firefox versh doesn't support google chat. conversely, the vinyl copy of zen arcade i ordered just showed up in the magic mailbox. no better soundtrack for doing the laundry than bob 'n' grant's angst.

ADDENDUM: duh. the new firefox versh gives you the option of selecting the new, chattable gmail versh or the earlier, chat-free one. clever firefox.

this is a worse idea than kiss unmasked

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

today...

...we had inventory at work. i was there until 10pm last night and had to be back at 4am this morning. unfortunately, my alarm clock didn't go off, so i was awakened by my sweetie telling me "it's four o'clock." i made it door-to-door in seven minutes on foot (it usually takes me 10). luckily, there wasn't any traffic because i wasn't dressed until i was halfway there. took half a bottle of wine to make me sleep last night and innumerable cups of coffee to keep me ambulatory today, then another half a bottle of wine so i could sleep when i got home. it's almost like being young again.

sonic youth album preview

go here if you wanna read about matador records' "buy early get now" deal-plus-bonuses on the new sonic youth alb and hear a 2:33 preview of the rec that kinda reminds me of the old joke about "i took the evelyn wood speed reading course and read war and peace in 40 minutes. it's about russia."

noise show in dallas thursday

zanzibar snails sends:

The Watchers are a new live electronics/looping/mus. concrete project featuring Zanzibar's Michael Chamy & Mike Maxwell (SUBkommander/s.d.s.) as well as Mark Church (Flat Tire, Good Recs.)

The Watchers are playing this Thursday (3/5) at the Lounge

Special guest Jon Teague (Great Tyrant/Yeti) will be joining on synths filling in for Mike Maxwell

Thursday, March 5
The Lounge in Dallas
2810 Elm St
Dallas, TX
$7 for 21+, $10 for under. All Ages.

The Watchers with percussive experimental ensembles Thank You (Thrill Jockey) and Mi Ami (Quarterstick).

Both ensembles feature jagged tribal palpitations alongside twisted atmospheric detours & occasional consonant meanderings to contrast the whirwind spirals of rhythmic inversion

Mi Ami features core members of the short-lived but beloved Black Eyes (Dischord/D.C.)

Check this interview w/Mi Ami

Monday, March 02, 2009

synchronicity or something damn near like it

so i've been wearing this silly fish hat at work the last few days -- long story, only relevant here only because while i was eating my lunch tonight, an older lady (i know "older" is relative; i'm 51 and a half) came up and said, "you should twitter that! it'd probably wind up in the national media!" to which i replied, "well, ma'am, you're obviously a lot more net-savvy than i am."

so i came home and found a pic of our favorite drummer at his straight, buying used books from ppl, in the star-t.

how fucking weird is that?

wtf?



perhaps there is justice after all

the oklahoma state legislature just made the flaming lips' "do you realize?" the state song. i'm not making this up.



better that than this...

the move again

hickey: i see your creation and raise you the move. dig: four lead singers that could harmonize live better 'n the beach boys, lotsa energy, and roy wood looked like malcolm mcdowell before he grew the 'stache. they came from birmingham like bonzo and sabbath, learned their craft aping motown and u.s. west coast sounds before wood got rilly rilly into aping the beatles and '50s rockaroll.





stooges @ cincinnati again

sure, i've posted this vid before, but i wanted to see it BIG, plus it's late at night and i donwanna wake up my sweetie by going into the bedroom to get the funhouse cd so i can hear "1970." we played that song and "funhouse" with a sax (and "l.a. blues!") for the first time on sat'day and i think all the stoogeaphiles were muy impressed with bob fisher's wailing tenor. bob's a year younger than RON and has the correct spirit. hoping he'll join us again at lola's 6th street on may 9th, when we're playing with the bastardos de sancho and one fingered fist.

yacht rock

...is apparently a term someone coined for all the music of the late '70s/early '80s that made me want to commit ritual suicide: christopher cross, michael mcdonald-era doobie bros., hall & oates, loggins & messina, steely dan, toto. i got a big dose of it in the van with nathan brown and dave karnes back in '04. now apparently those two are making a band to play said music with bill pohl and matt hembree. talk about yr approach-avoidant conflicts.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

pikahsso on fox news -- sxsw 2006

(since my sweetie upgraded our firefox versh, vids are acting different here on the blog, so i'm just experimenting a little here.)

speaking of sxsw, here's pikahsso from AwkQuarius on fox news at sxsw 2006, with a special guest appearance by our favorite bassplayer around 2:00 into the clip.

other arts update

herb levy says that there's a possibility he'll be bringing ikue mori and zeena parkins to the fort this year. here they are performing with fred frith in 2007.



he's also got plans to bring pauline oliveros here to perform.

juvenile delinquency ain't what is usedta be

from this...



...to this.

stoogeaphilia in 2009

from stoogeaphilia central:

Last night we played our first show in a couple of months at the Ridglea Theater. Thanks to our pals in Addnerim for having us on the bill! Veteran muso Bob Fisher -- who last played the Ridglea with 99 Names of God, and played with Matt and Ken in Yanari/PFF(F)T! at the Firehouse Gallery last week -- joined us on tenor sax for "1970," "Funhouse," and the closing "L.A. Blues" meltdown. We hope Bob will join us for more shows in the future.

We're going to take some more time off now to refresh our set with more toonage from the pre-/early punk era, and plan to bring it back to the stage at Lola's 6th Street on Saturday, May 9th, with our friends the Bastardos de Sancho and One Fingered Fist. See you there!

Love,

THE STOOGEAPHILES

one twisted dick

when i was a teenager and we used to get baked and watch his speeches with the sound off while listening to pink floyd albs, i never imagined that nixon was as twisted as the clip linked in this wfmu blog entry reveals him to be. when i was in air force tech school, our instructor told us that when he was on embassy duty around the time nixon resigned, an order came down to disregard any emergency command precedence messages -- communications from the commander-in-chief initiating nuclear war. the early '70s were scarier than we realized.

kris swenson

the arlington multimedia artist and sanger got some ink in the star-t.