On the 19th, I was fortunate enough to catch a rare solo acoustic performances by Aaron “Gene Ween” Freeman.  Over the last week or so, I’ve simply been going through the photographs that I took and digesting the whole experience.  The Seattle show was the last of only 4 that Gener was doing for his June, mini-tour down the West Coast.  Freeman is, of course, one of two founding members of the group WEEN; the other being Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo.  I’m not going to waste too much of my time by going into their extensive background all over again.  If you’re not hip to WEEN yet, then your ass needs to get hip.  We here at MonsterFresh love the WEEN, as evidenced by the multiple posts that we’ve all ready written about them, and we’re always eager to cover any new project that the guys are working on.

Melchiondo is well known for his side-work with the group Moistboyz and, bassist, Dave Dreiwitz is involved with multiple other projects.  Freeman, on the other hand, has often seemed less eager to venture out beyond his work with the band.  Toward the end of last year, however, Gener began to do just that, by playing various shows with his recently formed Gene Ween Band {You may have read the review by our writer A.Misalatti, who we sent to cover the new 4-piece‘s performance in Brooklyn back in February}.  Since the group didn’t come out West for any of the dates, and since I haven’t been to a WEEN show since their last Seattle show in 2007, I was pretty psyched when the West Coast dates were announced. (more…)

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For the most part, I hate blogs.  I hate it when people ask me how my “BLOG” is doing because, in my delusional mind, I’m writing for a magazine.  However, the internet today is all about immediacy.  In a print publication, people don’t mind reading a 4 page interview.  On the internet  you’re “supposed to” post interviews comprised of the same 5 questions that everyone has already asked in every other publication.  I know because commenters consistently inform me about what we are “supposed” to be doing.  We don’t throw up 20+ posts a day, because we have no interest in quantity over quality.  You should be able to learn something new and, if I’m going to research 40 different sources that I find interesting, they’re all getting crammed into one article.  Sorry, I don’t give a fuck.  It’s rare that we put up short posts unless we really think the subject matter is important.  Michael Jackson‘s death is something that we feel strongly about.

I’m pretty honest with myself about the likelihood of MonsterFresh.com ever generating any money;  It’s probably never going to happen.  Sure, we get press releases and scoops for new high profile projects and shit everyday, but they’re easy to get and most of them don’t interest me so we don’t post them.  If you want to generate traffic and make some loot, the formula is easy.  For a music focused blog, you can simply post a Youtube video from a band performing on a late night program the night before.  You can also make posts very simply by posting generic shit like, “Radiohead planning to do album with Justin Timberlake” etc.  Just add a photo and you’re done; instant journalist!  For art, you can just swipe an artist’s images from their page and post them without providing any links, credit, or information.  It will get picked up by a site like DIGG.com or Stumbleupon and people will eat that shit up like crazy.  People like to look at pictures…. it’s easier for everyone that way.  Let the mounds of shit bury everything worth reading.  Keep it superficial.  Put anything and everything up that people are remotely interested in, from Beyonce to Travis Barker, and use no discretion whatsoever.  Have no credibility either (you can’t have both).  The greatest news is that, in this day and age, you can even become a celebrity by talking about other celebrities enough. (more…)

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It’s been a suspenseful news day as far as MJ is concerned.  In fact, it’s been a bit of a Thriller.  This afternoon Jackson went into cardiac arrest and was rushed to a hospital by fire dept. paramedics.  At 2:12pm today, the LA times updated their report as follows: (more…)

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CONTEST HAS ENDED!

From the press release:

“Headed by Dan Finnerty, the Dan Band is known for their appearance in the film “Old School” and their hilarious covers of originally female-performed pop songs. The band has received national acclaim, and is very popular in Hollywood. Their shows have attracted the likes of Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg, John Travolta, and Ellen Degeneres. This summer the band will be seen in the film, “The Hangover” and will be the house band at this year’s GUYS CHOICE AWARDS on SPIKE TV.”

To win 2 tickets to their Seattle performance at the Showbox this Friday June 26th. Please do the following:

Become a fan of MonsterFresh.com on Facebook
HERE

Go to the Dan Band Photo

Leave your solution for your best hangover remedy in the comment section below.

Winners will be chosen and contacted through their facebook page on Wednesday.

Thanks and good luck

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{Photo by Michael Flack}

We just received an email about Brooklyn‘s experimental electronica trio These Are Powers from their publicist.  The message was sent to encourage us to view their new video “Easy Answers” [posted below], which is explained on their Dead Oceans recording artist page as follows:

“The video for THESE ARE POWERS’ song “Easy Answers” was jointly inspired by the annual Ghost Festival held every August in China and the Chinese folkloric tradition of burning joss paper after the death of a relative or loved one. Joss paper has long been burned ceremoniously as an offering to the dead, representing all of the worldly goods that spirits may desire in the afterlife, including intricately detailed miniature paper replicas of mansions, BMW convertibles, laptop computers, karaoke VCRs, and large denomination “hell bank notes” or “ghost money.”

Once burned, these items are believed to join the deceased loved ones in heaven, and for lost spirits who still roam the land of the living, small paper boats and lanterns are bought and released, which signifies giving direction to these restless ancestors.”

The one thing that doesn’t seem to be addressed anywhere are the crazy, unique fashions heavily featured throughout the video.  This was odd to me because, if anything, that’s what really tends to stand out the most.  Fortunately, the gear that the group is sporting throughout is more than just exclusive one-off pieces created for the shoot and envisioned by the director (Jacqueline Caste) and/or the wardrobe department.  I actually know the creators of the garments and, after the video, will be providing the information to obtain similar pieces for yourself. (more…)

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So, I finally created a Flickr account for Monster Fresh.  I have a backlog of concert photography and extra shots that never even make it on to the site.  Since I’m new to the Flickr game, I decided to knock around the site to see exactly what it had to offer and what else I could find in the photo sets of other users.  I typed “Daniel Johnston” into a search and was surprised to find a photo pop up that was titled, “Extremely Rare Daniel Johnston Converse“.  I knew about the, somewhat tentative, plans for the collaboration, but I never knew if I would actually see the final product come to fruition. (more…)

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