I had a photography teacher in high school that would play a video of  The Eagles‘ “Hell Freezes Over” tour, almost every day in class.  Occasionally, it would be a Billy Joel concert video instead, but it was still pretty terrible.  Fortunately, I was in “advanced photography” and was able to avoid some of it.  This basically means that I would step past the rest of the class and puff chronic herbs out of Country Time Lemonade cans in the dark room.  One day I came to class and was surprised to see that the TV playing  We’re All Devo, a VHS featuring music videos and original SNL cast member turned voice-over actress, Laraine Newman.  It wasn’t too difficult to locate the kid who brought in the DEVO video, because he was the only one that was even paying attention to the screen.  Besides that kid, the only other person that I knew who was really vocal about their appreciation for the group, was my friend Crackbaby G.  It was the mid -90s, and nobody at my suburban high school really gave a shit about the, then defunct, band.  Thanks to Crackbaby, in 2006, I was finally able to achieve my dream of seeing DEVO live for the first time.  This month, I was finally able to combine my love of photography with an opportunity to witness the bands on- stage theatrics all over again.

Much like The Pixies, DEVO has set out on a limited city tour, scheduled to coincide with a deluxe album re-release.  The Ultra DEVO-LUX Ltd. Edition packaging will feature their debut album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo, and the commercially successful Freedom of Choice.  The double re-issue will also contain unreleased material, 2 DVDs, a poster, and a yellow 7 inch vinyl.  The tour itself  involves a 2 night stop in each of 6 different major cities.  The first of the nights features the group performing Are We Not Men? in its entirety, while the second night involves them giving the same treatment to Freedom of Choice.  I knew that DEVO was scheduled to perform a pair of dates in Seattle, but I had also accepted that I was probably not going to be able to see either of them.  I tried to jump on it and request passes the day that the press release was sent out, but it was a difficult ticket to get and the comp. tickets were all accounted for by radio stations.  As someone who used to listen to Are We Not Men? religiously, I was disappointed.  When the day of the show approached and I hadn’t heard any good news, I all but put the concerts out of my mind entirely.  The first night came and went but, on the second/Freedom of Choice night, I received a last minute email informing me that I could be approved for a photo pass.  The problem was that there were no more reviewer passes left.  I’ve had issues trying to enter the venue without a ticket in the past, but I was assured that shouldn’t be an issue.  This also meant that, if I wanted to stay in the venue after the 3-song limit outlined in the photo-policy, I was going to have to do so on the sly. (more…)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Troubador, Will Oldham (aka: Bonnie “Prince” Billy) has performed and released albums under various different pseudonyms including, Palace and Palace Music. His music is beautiful and honest; so honest that, at times, some may even consider it vulgur. His fans vary as much as his monikers, which may be explained through his range of collaborations. Oldham has released musical projects with Tortoise and David Berman (Silver Jews) and has even featured vocals from film director Harmony Korine on his albums.

THE PRIZE
I am giving away 2 free tickets to the following performance
Thursday, March 26
The Moore Theatre
Seattle

TO ENTER:
The contest will focus around the title of Bonnie Prince Billy’s latest release “BEWARE” and entrants will need to submit their best idea for a warning label or clever piece of life advice.

The contest will close on midnight Sun. March 22nd.
All entries will need to be posted on contest page.
Entries will be judged on creativity.

To Enter CLICK HERE

Popularity: 4% [?]

Moore Theatre Feb. 28th 2009
It was my girlfriend’s birthday.  We got to the Moore Theatre about 45 minutes before doors to meet up with the contest winner and hand over his limited edition silkscreen.  I got a call from him on the phone asking if there was any way for him to pick me out in the crowd that was out in front of the venue.  I let him know that I was the only guy out front with dreadlocks, wearing 2 cardigans and a holding a camera bag.  When he finally introduced himself and shook my hand, it was just after watching me argue with the will-call about the location of my tickets.

The winner received his passes from the will-call without issue, and he even tried to get the window attendants to hand mine over to me.  The workers were condescending as fuck to me, but my main concern was making sure that the winners got their passes and that was clear.  I told him and the friend he brought with him not to worry about it, “I’ll get in.”  Now the only problem was that the evening planned for my lady on her birthday was blowing up in my face.  The crazy part was that I was given my photo pass but there were no tickets in the envelope with it.  I convinced a door guy to help me out and he said he’d grab someone in charge if they walked by.  I see the guy who tried to put the kaibosh on my photography during the Buckethead New Years show but, fortunately, he keeps moving.  Eventually, a manager came out front who was extremely helpful.  He hopped on his phone right away and offered us two options due to the theatre filling up rapidly: We could wait for someone to come down and see if they could get us a spot on the floor or, we could head up to the second balcony because, “Nobody’s up there“.  We just wanted to head in, so we came through the front and then headed through a latched side door and up a staircase. (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

Much of Brian “Buckethead” Carroll’s popularity has risen through his temporary stint as the guitarist for AXL Rose’s makeshift post millennium disaster that he is still stubbornly referring to as Guns N Roses.   However, if you were a fan of Buckethead’s work prior to this, his inclusion in the group may have actually come as a surprise.  Being introduced to his music through previous releases such as  Bucketheadland (feat. Bootsie Collins and released on Avant-Jazz Sax legend, John Zorn’s label),  Monsters and Robots (featuring Les Claypool), and DJ Q-Bert’s animated turntable masterpiece, Wave Twisters, I myself was shocked by his involvement in GNR.  That is until I realized that, if Bon Jovi called me up and asked me to join him in a country-rap project, I would do it just based on the sheer novelty of the whole experience.  My friend Lars gave me a report on the GNR show that he saw featuring Buckethead on guitar by saying, “I still can’t tell if this is the best show I’ve ever seen or the worst“.  Based on what Lars had seen, he theorized that the tour wouldn’t last much longer due to Axl’s inability to restrain Buckethead or Carroll’s long-time collaborator, drummer Brian “Brain” Mantia, to his satisfaction.  Of course, his prediction was right yet, Buckethead seems to still be primarily associated with the corn-rowed has-been. I may be wrong in my assumptions but, I doubt that there are really too many consistent fans of Buckethead’s music.  His discography spans over 100 different albums in varying genres, including classic metal, electronic, funk, ambient, dub, jazz, and more.  This means that, even if you have heard multiple projects that the musician has been featured on, you still may not have a complete grasp of what he is capable of or that you have had much more than a glimpse of the overall scope of Carroll as an artist. (more…)

Popularity: 11% [?]

Back at the Evergreen State College, hip-hop with a message was huge in the 1990’s.  Blackstar, the group that Mos Def formed with Talib Kweli, was blasted out the dorms heading into the new millennium.  Mos Def (aka Dante Smith) has released a few albums since his popularity of the late 90s, but he has also been busy with making his share of films in Hollywood.

Take a trip to Netflix or imdb and you’ll find out that Mos Def is a fairly prolific actor who studied film at NYU back in the early 90’s.  He also appeared in “The Hard Way” with Michael J Fox (1991) and starred on the short lived “Cosby Mysteries” (1994) but, what really caught my eye was the “Hip Hopera“, “Carmen“, which was produced by MTV in 2001.  I remember watching MTV pump the musical like it was the sequel to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller“.  The latest Destiny’s Child video, “Survivor“, was even set to premiere after the television “masterpiece“.  Well, the music sucked and, although Mos Def did a good job, he couldn’t save this poorly conceived idea to make the modern day version of “Carmen“.  It was like a generic time capsule of the early 21^st century rap music videos as a long form musical.  What I did enjoy was the MC’s work on “The Dave Chapelle Show“.  It felt magical and his performances were awesome.

2004 was a good year for Mos Def musically.  He released the critically acclaimed album, The New Danger, which featured the band Black Jack Johnson. Even though it was not a straight hip hop record, it brought Bad Brains and Living Colour together and that, alone, is pretty sweet.  In this coming year the rapper is scheduled to come out with a new CD, but it is more likely that a new Mos Def movie or television program will hit the streets before that project is released.  Smith’s ex-wife, Alana Wyatt, recently wrote a tell-all book about him, which makes some scandalous accusations about the artist, who prides himself on being “conscious“.  I have not read it, but I’m sure it was made to exploit the character and career of the performer by someone that could never have created masterpieces like 1999’s “Black on Both Sides” and 2007’s “Be Kind Rewind“.  With his latest release being the film “Cadillac Records” and, without a new record out in stores to promote, it seems as if Mos Def will simply go on tour for the hell of it.  This time through, I was able to catch Mos live at The Moore Theatre to see what his current stage show was all about. (more…)

Popularity: 3% [?]