Thank you and hello again, everybody.  This week our pop-spotlight song of the week comes from a young Los Angeles, California trio calling themselves WAVVES.  Essentially a project of San Deigo native, Nathan Williams, the first two releases from the lo-fi punk outfit were recorded behind the home of Williams‘ parents, launching the young man into the forefront of America‘s burgeoning Garage Rock resurrection.  For the current incarnation, Williams has recruited the late-Jay Reatard‘s former rhythm section, Stephen Pope (bass) and Billy Hayes (drums).  Together they have released the high-energy 12-track gem, King of the Beach, that all the kids are bopping their heads and tapping their toes along to.  Today our spotlight shines on one particular song from this release and it’s corresponding video, which focuses on extra-terrestrials and skateboarding.  Ladies and gentleman, please enjoy “Post Acid“.

Alright… without all of the Casey Kasem bullshit, I do want to add a bit more information before you actually watch the video.  First off, it was recorded in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles and was filmed by DIY filmmaker, Patrick O’Dell, also known for his short-doc series Epicly Later’d.  Aside from a cameo by aging MTV VJ, John Norris, the alien featured in the video is played by professional skateboarder Kevin “Spanky” Long.  Actually, that’s probably enough for now.

More information after the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of the concept, Williams has said:

“I’m glad I finally got to fulfill my dream of ripping off the premise of the movie Encino Man… except we replaced the caveman with a skateboarding alien!“

As for working with Wavves on the project, O’Dell made the following comments

“I love it when a band comes up with something totally bizarre and ambitious rather than shrugging and saying ‘I don’t know, what do you wanna do?’ as they mope around looking cool,“

and…

“I feel like we’ve almost made one of those fan videos where an anonymous person out there cuts up a movie they like and fits it together with a song they like and uploads it to YouTube. This is one of those videos, but the band just happens to star in the movie.“

The still above comes from O’Dell‘s site Epiclylaterd.com.
To view more production images CLICK HERE.

To download the mp3 for “Post Acid” for free, visit Green Label Sound HERE.

WAVVES is currently on tour.  In fact, I’m still pissed about missing their Seattle show on Wednesday, but my head felt like someone threw a brick at it.  They’ve got quite a few more dates ahead of them so, you still probably have a good chance of catching them.  Note: they’ve just added a bunch more dates as the opening act for Phoenix

TOUR DATES

08/27 Victoria, BC Sugar
08/30 Davis, CA Sol Collective
08/31 Visalia, CA Howie and Sons Pizza Parlor
09/04 Los Angeles, CA FYF Fest
09/10 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone *
09/11 St. Louis, MO Billiken *
09/12 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall *
09/14 Bloomington, IN Rhinos *
09/15 Columbus, OH Skully’s *
09/16 Buffalo, NY Mohawk Place *
09/17 Northampton, MA Pearl Street Nightclub *
09/18 Waltham, MA Brandeis University
09/20 Providence, RI Met Café *
09/21 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg *
09/24 Kingston, NY 323 Wall Street
09/25 Baltimore, MD Ottobar *
09/27 Washington, DC Rock and Roll Hotel *
09/28 Greensboro, NC Guilford College *
09/29 Charlotte, NC Milestone *
09/30 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn *
10/01 Nashville, TN Exit/In – Next Big Nashville *
10/02 Oxford, MS Proud Larry’s *
10/18 Boston, MA Agganis Arena !
10/20 New York, NY Madison Square Garden $
10/21 Montreal, QC CEPSUM !
10/22 Toronto, ON Ricoh Coliseum !
10/23 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theatre !
10/25 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues !
10/26 Orlando, FL House of Blues !
10/27 Miami, FL The Fillmore !
11/06 Austin, TX Fun Fun Fun Fest

$ = w/ Phoenix, Dirty Projectors
! = w/ Phoenix
* = w/ Christmas Island

MiiKE SNOW

To avoid any confusion right off the bat, I think it’s important to clarify that Miike Snow isn’t the name of a man.  It’s actually the name of a Swedish electro-pop trio.  I first became aware of the group, thanks to friend of the site, Sean “Har Mar Superstar” Tillmann, whose personal tweets and Facebook postings expressed an appreciation of their recent self-titled debut.  Much like Har Mar, the trio has managed to gain a solid level of popularity in the UK.  Although Miike Snow are arguably still more recognizable overseas, I believe that, if they aren’t on your radar yet, they will be soon enough.  In fact, Miike Snow isn’t unfamiliar with the concept of “Radar“, because 2/3 of the group actually helped to produce a hit song of the same name for Britney Spears.

I use to be a barista at a place where I was lucky enough to work with someone who had similar musical tastes as myself.  Sometimes, our co-workers didn’t feel as lucky about that situation as we did.  A lot of Silver Jews, Dungen, Pavement, Ween, Tortoise, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, free jazz, etc, was played during our shifts, but one day Josh brought in the Britney Spears Blackout album and everyone was so pissed off that they lost their minds over it.  Both of us, on the other hand, got really into playing it more and more.  It’s extremely popular to trash pop-stars like Brit Brit, especially at that time, but there was something really intriguing about that album.  Once you get past the ideas of commercialism, shallow marketing tactics, and Total Request Live tweens buying scrunchies at a Claire’s in a Westfield shopping mall, it contained some brilliant layering and production work throughout.  Above all, “Radar” had a super catchy hook and was the one track that I couldn’t shake.  It turns out that, along with “Piece of Me” and two other tracks from Blackout, “Radar” was produced and co-written by the Swedish duo of Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (aka: Bloodshy and Avant).  In 2007, Karlsson and Winnberg teamed up with American frontman/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Wyatt to form Miike Snow and did so without any real expectations.  Bloodshy and Avant had already achieved a high level of success from their production work with vagi-centric pop acts like Spears, Kylie Monogue, Madonna, J-Lo etc.  In fact, these guys even produced and co-wrote the song “Toxic” which was credited by multiple publications as being one of the greatest songs of the Two-Thousands.  So, although their names as artists may not be as recognizable as the acts whose careers they helped to boost, most people are still very familiar with their work.  With Miike Snow, the production duo is now stepping out into the forefront to endure any risks and rewards which may come along with it.

Miike Snow was performing back over at the Bigfoot Stage and, based on the promotional and live images that I’ve seen of the group, I figured that they would provide a good photo opportunity, if nothing else.  For a band that was created without any real intention of touring, their visuals are crazy impressive.  Their spirit/logo animal of choice is a jackalope, for chrissakes, and it’s featured on the cover of their album in the form of an engraving on an ice-block.  Their myspace page even currently has a huge photograph of the mythical rabbit/deer hybrid rocking a gold medallion and with antlers in the shape of a biohazard logo.  It also appears in the backdrop of their club shows, but playing outside away from the mainstage affected things like backdrops and eerie lighting through puffs of smoke.  The other aesthetic focus for them seems to be matching outfits and either printed respirator masks or freakishly blank masks in the vein of Buckethead.  My hopes were that they would at least be sporting some of those.

When they took the stage, Miike Snow was in their touring form as a 6-piece.  There were no crazy masks, but they were wearing matching black satin jackets.  To the left was an additional member playing the keys.  In the back was a drummer who resembled David Caruso with a mustache.  Next to him was a keyboardist wearing a black hat that, when combined with his all black outfit, made him look like he was an Amish or Orthodox Jewish man.  All 3 of them were wearing sunglasses.  The 2 keyboardists had beards and, with the mustached drummer between them, they were like an electro version of ZZ TOP.  To the right were two keyboard X-Stands side by side with Karlsson and Winnberg behind them.  Winnberg‘s held a Prophet 08 synthesizer while Karlsson‘s supported a drum machine and various other equipment.  Wyatt stood center stage and, although he’s American, I couldn’t help but think that he looked like a Euro-version of David Berman (Silver Jews).

For a band whose live shows should generally thrive much better inside of a spooky ice cave, their set went incredibly well on the sunny outdoor stage setup.  At points, the hatted member picked up a bass and Wyatt even strummed a Gibson SG for a while.  Keeping their C&C Music Factory producer vibe in tact, Bloodshy and Avant remained joined at the hip from their section of the stage, alternating intense focus with energetic outbursts.  They pitch shifted notes and tweaked nobs, while Karlsson would use the drumstick in his right hand to knock the shit out of his electronic pads.  Beyond Andrew Wyatt‘s vocals, the subtle intricacies in their production are the real strength fueling Miike Snow‘s appeal.  The sextet managed to pull off singles like, “Animal“, “Burial“, “Black and Blue“, and “Silvia” with near perfection.  If you like their studio work as a trio and are worried if such a production-heavy sound has the ability to translate effectively into a live forum, it definitely does.  The backing band does an incredibly efficient job and the drummer didn’t seem to have any issues adjusting to the varying drum styles showcased throughout their work.

For those who are unfamiliar with their particular brand of dance jams, the Guardian‘s description of Miike Snow‘s sound as a cross between A-Ha and Animal Collective isn’t far off.    The song “Animal” contains synth-pop, reggae elements that cause them to sound a lot like The Police.  Wyatt‘s vocal delivery even resembles early Sting, but I like the Police and this song is undeniably catchy as fuck.  “Silvia” is a slower track with a fairly dramatic build-up.  It isn’t bad, but there’s something in it that reminds me of “Sunday Bloody Sunday“, especially in the introductory verse.  “Black and Blue” is a really dancy Jamiroquai-meets-Prince soul mix.  Everything has a familiar sound, but that’s what pop music thrives on.  Like I said, Miike Snow makes music that is hooky as all get-out and, if you are into electro-pop, this is as good as any of it.  It’s fun music without being overly cheesy and they did get the crowd amped up, but they’re not Bob Dylan and it’s probably not gonna change your life in any deeply profound way.  Miike Snow makes simple, straight-forward, good time dance music.  They do not construct complicated mind-bending prog-rock, or Sun Ra-esque space noise, but they aren’t trying to either.  If you just want to go to a show and hop around in a positive mood, they’ll supply the soundtrack.

WHY?

During Miike Snow, we met back up with the group we were traveling with.  However, before the set was over, I decided to go off on my own to finally locate the media area.  It turned out to be a little section over by the YETI stage and right next to all of the little food stands.  I flashed my wristband to a security guard and walked through an entrance in a wooden fence.  The section had a few picnic tables and a little table with some Sun Chips and Nature Valley granola bars on it.  There was also a portable building, a cylindrical chest full of ice with bottled water in it, and a singular Honey Bucket sans the giant line.  The portable was provided as a spot for media to set up their laptops, utilize the wi-fi, and go through their photographs, but I didn’t bring my computer for 3 reasons: I didn’t want to lug it around, I wanted to enjoy the festival, and I didn’t trust that my shit wouldn’t get jacked in the campground.  Some guy was interviewing a couple of the members from OK GO at one of the tables.  I sat down at a different one, drank some water, and chomped on a granola bar.  Then I heard a sound that I recognized coming from the YETI stage and left the media section to check it out.

Performing on the stage was the group WHY? and the song was “These Hands“; something that I must have heard while researching the band prior to the festival.  I went up in the photo pit area and sat down.  Ryan Neighbors from PORTUGAL. THE MAN was sitting down there, among a handful of other people.  Frontman Jonathan “Yoni” Wolf was wearing a white and grey striped long-sleeve polo with a white collar and a large white hat.  In the past, the vocalist has resembled his Jewish heritage much more closely but, with his current mustache and tan skin, his outfit made him look a lot more like a Hispanic Gilligan.  Wolf‘s older brother Josiah sat behind a drumkit and vibraphone set up, with Doug McDiarmid on keys and Andrew Broder and Mark Erickson of FOG handling the guitar and bass duties.

WHY? was originally just the rap alias of Yoni, until he chose to make “solo” albums, at which point WHY? slowly morphed into some level of indie-rock/hip-hop hybrid.  Prior to that, he worked heavily with other Anticon hip-hop artists in groups such as cLOUDEAD.  I snapped off a few pretty good photographs but, eventually, I couldn’t really take the full set.  The band sounded capable enough and I actually liked them at first.  However, after about 3 or 4 songs, their sound became grating and irritatingly monotonous.  These guys have garnered critical praise elsewhere, but I just couldn’t do it.  Wolf‘s vocal delivery has the same nasally quality as endless other “conscious” rappers and it’s a quality that I find to be of sub-quality.  I spent six years in Olympia, Wa with corny-ass rap crews that sounded like these guys and, regardless of the fact that WHY? may be better than them, it still reminds of trust fund gangsters trying to “drop knowledge”.  The type of kids who know who Atmosphere and Sage Francis are, but have never heard of KMD or listened to “Planet Rock” and “Raising Hell“.  This type of shit doesn’t inspire me to want to plant trees and read poetry; it makes me want to burn trees and listen to the most gangstered out shit that I can get my hands on.  If your vocal delivery mirrors that of John and John from They Might Be Giants, you better be singing quirky pop songs over an accordion.  I’m not sure when that became the go to vocal tone of underground prophets and neo-beatnicks, but it just sounds like whining to me.

Kim was hungry, so she came over to meet me and I gave her a granola bar as we waited in line to get financially raped by the concessions stand.  While we stood there, Wolf announced that they would be playing the theme song from the Dustin Hoffman classic, Marathon Man.  That was actually a nice detour for them to take in the set.  We spent $8 a piece on some mini Dominos pizzas that were about the size of a tiny sandwich plate.  We walked back over to the Bigfoot stage, scalding our mouths as we tried to shovel some food into our stomachs and keep ourselves going.

THE HOLD STEADY

Two of the best things about Sasquatch is their booking and scheduling abilities.  Bonnaroo has a rapeload of stages and an incredible amount of acts, but hardly any of them ever interest me.  Sasquatch, on the other hand, provides a higher concentration of quality music and does so by taking the focus off of quantity.  The other thing that always pissed me off about a lot of large festivals was the way that they always double-book shit that I want to see.  It’s not really a personal taste issue either, because the double-booking that they do is generally so obvious that it just seems fucked up and intentional.  In 2004 I went to Bonnaroo and they booked Primus at the same time that Ween was playing on a separate stage.  Both of those acts have a similar fanbase, but it gets worse… In 2005, Bonnaroo had 3 amazing jazz acts that I really hoped to be able to catch.   The Benevento/Russo Duo feat. Mike Gordon (Phish), The Bela Fleck Trio (includ. Jean Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke), and Herbie Hancock doing all of his old Headhunters-era work, were all booked around the same time on different stages.  It’s not listed that way on wikipedia, but I remember having to deal with that dilemma and it was fucked up.  If nothing else, there were at least 2 of them booked simultaneosly, so why would all of the jazz acts all go on at the same time?  Poor planning?  Just a dick move?  It doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that, although there can always be inevitable overlaps here and there, the people in charge of that area of the Sasquatch Festival are a lot more conscientious about their scheduling and have done a remarkable of job avoiding such conflicts.

Before heading to the main stage for the nights final two headliners, we had the option of choosing between The Hold Steady and The National.  You could say that this was one situation where I was equally as interested in checking each of them out, but a more accurate way of saying it would be that I was also equally as disinterested.  We chose The Hold Steady.

I was standing in the photo pit and when they entered the stage they did it like a hurricane.  To say that The Hold Steady puts on a high energy performance is an understatement.  Lead singer, Craig Finn was ridiculously animated and he hopped around with spastic movements that would rival those of an epileptic meth addict with Parkinsons being administered with shock therapy.  It was really infectious at first and I was actually pretty excited myself.  I was feeling really lucky as I caught Finn in one choice pose after another.  One moment he clenched both of his hands tightly to the sides of his head.  Next, he gripped the mic with his left hand, while he extended his right arm out to the audience like he was saluting the Third Reich.  Then he spread his arms to the side, as if to embrace the entire crowd.  The whole time he was singing with a tremendous smile across his face.

The next song started and was equally as high energy.  In fact, it was pretty similar to the first.  Finn pointed his arm out to the crowd again and then spread them wide as if to hug them.  He grabbed his head like he couldn’t believe what was happening.  “Wait!“, I thought.  “This motherfucker only has 3 poses and he rotates them incredibly fast“.  If you search out anyone else’s photographs from The Hold Steady Sasquatch set, you’ll notice very little difference between them.  Occasionally, Finn would actually strum the guitar that was hanging around his neck.  This generally occurred during the upbeat chorus that tends to exist after each of their typical and formulaic, casually delivered straight-ahead verses.  Sometimes, when the singer’s arms were extended with his palms out, I could see him repeat the words, “What?!  What? What?” through his giant smirk.  The sides of his mouth were wet with spittle, like an infant trying to handle Gerbers.  I found myself wondering if this guy had ingested too much Adderall or if he hadn’t taken enough.  The next song… same thing.  I’ve never gotten burned out on anything quicker.  I couldn’t take it and I needed to get the fuck out immediately.

I didn’t have much familiarity with their catalog, but I don’t remember their sound being quite so poppy.  I have since listened to some of their work and I do believe that Craig Finn has a pretty good voice and I recognize his talents as a lyricist.  They even have a Seventies Springsteen and Elvis Costello influence that I’ve since noticed and can also appreciate.  Still, while I was there, it felt like little more than a high-speed pop-punk show fueled on mis-prescribed Ritalin, smoothie boosts, and a disdain for curfews and homework.  I was not a fan.

Vampire Weekend

Even though I wasn’t into The Hold Steady‘s set, I knew that I had still taken some good photographs.  I sifted through my camera images to check out my shots but, as I tried to show them to Kim, photos that I had taken from before began to disappear and come through as “unreadable“.  This was not good, so I freaked out and pulled the SD card immediately.  In preparation for the festival, I wanted to pick up an additional SD card, so that I knew I would be able to handle any number of images that I could possibly come away with that weekend.  This provided me an opportunity to work another classic hustle.  I had won some DVD‘s in an internet contest and one of them was the first season of The Sarah Silverman Program.  I returned it at a store for credit and put the value towards a Kodak SD card.  Now this brand new purchase, that was supposed to take the place of a sketchy budget version, was glitching out and fucking up my whole game.  All but one WHY? shot (pictured above) was still readable and a ton of The Hold Steady shots were now missing along with some Miike Snow photos.  Even though it wasn’t their fault, it made me hate their set even more and we left early to head over to the main stage.

We caught the very end of the The National and waited for Vampire Weekend, who was scheduled next.  Here was my opportunity to see what all the hype that’s been surrounding these clowns was all about.  Everybody likes these guys, right?  Isn’t that the deal, that they are supposed to be some young indie stars that everyone from kids to critics can really get behind?  All that I knew was that, I’d been walking around this festival all day, excited about discovering a lot of knew music but, for the most part, it was becoming a bust.  I had been in this human zoo for hours and Saturday wasn’t really the day for me lineup-wise.  Mostly, I had just been using the first day to feel things out and the poor pacing was starting to wear on me hard.

Vampire Weekend hit the stage looking like a bunch of preppy kids that I would never have any desire to kick it with… ever.  I could picture them driving themselves to the show, blasting Jack Johnson from a teal colored Ford Probe.  They say that their name has nothing to do with the Vampire film craze that’s big right now and I believe them, but I doubt that the fans in attendance that night got the memo.  A fair share of their music definitely pulses through the iPods of tween girls while they wait in line for the new Twilight tickets.

The first song they played was called “White Sky“, but I didn’t know that then.  For all I knew, they were about to do a cover from Paul Simon‘s Graceland album.  I couldn’t help but wonder if any of the little hipster kids hopping around in the audience had any idea how much that song sounded like something taken directly from the early String Cheese Incident catalog.  Next they played their song “Holiday” and it was actually happier than the last one.  Yep, I fucking hated these guys, but not as much as their crowd.  Never has there been a band more deserving of beach balls flying around during their set.  Frat boys in white sunglasses and neon hoodies hopped and stumbled around everywhere.  Girls wore flip flops and flung their arms carelessly into the air and everyone smiled from ear to ear.  I thought about grenades.

Next was a song called, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa“, which kept their little island party jam vibe going.  These guys are actually a solid live band, as far as being able to play their instruments, but I couldn’t give a fuck about them overall.  Is this what people want these days?  Happy happy happy!  These guys write little sing-along tracks with little substance and, in my opinion, are the equivalent of listening to a Raffi album.  Guitarist, Rostam Batmanglij was obnoxiously dressed like a cross between one of Griff Tannen‘s sidekicks in Back to the Future 2 and Meshach Taylor‘s character of Hollywood from the movie Mannequin.  Lead singer, Ezra Koenig had a sly Corey Haim smirk across his face the entire time as if to say, “I’m gonna try to fuck your girlfriend.“  In his little button up shirt and Karate Kid-era Ralph Macchio haircut, I’m assuming that he’s supposed to represent the dreamy boy from English class who started his own band.  These chachis even have a bassist with the last name Baio.  There are worse songwriters and definitely worse musicians, but the overall scene is a difficult one for me to stomach.

I don’t mind “Island” music but… actually, I do mind Island music like this and I think that Jimmy Buffett sounds like shit too.  If I want to listen to something like this, I’ll just listen to something like Graceland or “Naive Melody” by the Talking Heads.  If I want to hear something “ethnic”, I will put on something awesome like Fela, Orchestra Baobab, Toumani Diabate, Os Mutantes, any number of Studio One albums, etc.  I’m not really interested in hearing a bunch of derivative shit from a group of Handsome Boy Modeling School rejects from Columbia University.  Their whole set sounded like “Kokomo” on repeat to me.  I will admit that I have slightly more respect for Sublime, but these guys do hold some similarities in the way that they make cultural music for the lazy and xenophobic.  Hey kids!  Turn off the 40 oz to Freedom, throw this Vampire Weekend shit out the window, and go pick up a Big Youth record or something.  Turn on some Sizzla.  All this happy shit just makes me want to listen to the Melvins.  Seriously, what the fuck is going on with these goddam kids?!

My Morning Jacket

The mainstage headliner for opening night was My Morning Jacket.  This was the band that Patrick was primarily enthusiastic about seeing.  He absolutely loves this fucking band and this show would mark his 5th MMJ show overall.  It was my first.  Jesse didn’t seem to care either way, but I think that we were both on the same page with being open to seeing how it turned out.  I wasn’t super familiar with their catalog, but I do have a couple of their albums and have heard their name mentioned repeatedly over the last decade.  Somewhere and somehow over that time period,  they’ve grown to the point of being considered as a formidable act, capable of headlining during a major festival.

The introduction for the Louisville band was dramatic.  A quick burst of sound came through with smoke and a flash of light.  Then total darkness.  Then another flash of light and sound, followed by more darkness.  There was a sonic electric buzz from the guitar and pulsating keyboards.  This was what could only be described and their THE WHO moment.  As far as I was concerned, that intro was already sounding more promising than the entire Vampire Weekend set.  When the actual song finally kicked in, it was “One Big Holiday” from the 2003 album, It Still Moves.

Front and center stage was some sort of stuffed, plastic-headed donkey figure with a mic propped up to its inanimate grill for show.  Frontman, Jim James was like a dirty outlaw, with his long duster-looking trench-coat and unkempt beard.  There was a Gibson Flying V strapped to him and, to further complicate his overall look, he had some crazy Legion of Doom/ motorcross/skeleton/ moon-boots situation going on with his foot wear.  The closest assumption that I could make is that they were some skeletal version of Gene Simmons‘ infamous dragon boots.  I still have no idea about the meaning behind the band name, but I did notice that guitarist, Carl Broemel and bassist, Tom Blankenship were wearing their evening jackets that night.  Blankenship went for the full look by adding a tie and jeans, while Broemel opted for the blazer with the open collar dress shirt.  The “sexy rocker” look, if you will.  Like Broemel, drummer, Patrick Hallahan was also wearing a black button up, as if they were waiters at an upscale restaurant downtown.  Everything felt just a little too Super Bowl halftime for me.  You may be reading this and thinking, “So what?!  Who cares how they were dressed?  Why does that even matter?“  My only answer to that is that I honestly don’t know why it should matter, but they definitely seem to put in a conscious effort to achieve the “seasoned rock band” look.

Song number 2 was “Gideon“.  This one is a dreamy track, which also contains a bit of a Michael Kang from String Cheese-style riff throughout it.  It’s the kind of fanciful riff that could soundtrack a public market at a renaissance fair.  I guess some things about Sasquatch‘s musical selection really haven’t changed too much since the first year.  To follow it up, MMJ played their song “Off The Record“, which incorporates a super upbeat dub rhythm and a blatant jack move of the Hawaii 5.0 theme song.  In essence, it’s basically just another pop song.  Both of these songs can be found on My Morning Jacket‘s highly successful album Z (2006).  Z marked a rather large shift for the band, as they had replaced both their original guitarist and long-time keyboardist, just prior to it’s release.  I had heard Z a few times in passing and remembered it sounding pretty good but, like most of their work, I only had a basic outline of an idea about what I thought MMJ sounded like and that idea was constantly being jostled and mutated.  These guys are both a lot more southern rock and more poppy than I had ever realized.  These are two that, in their generic form, I am not really too big on.

Between each song, the lights would go out again for dramatic effect.  In fact, there was a lot going on for “dramatic effect” and I personally felt like it took away more from the performance than it added anything to it.  The poor staff camera work that projected them onto the big screen didn’t help out the cause either.  The camera operator must have felt that there was something artistic about shooting everything at a 40 degree angle and there were a lot of off-center transitions into zoom shot’s of eye-brows, cheeks, and unfocused nonsense.  Jesse and I had found some time to talk about music earlier in the day and he had mentioned something to me about being turned off by seeing video footage of Jim James wearing a cape in concert.  I was surprised to hear that, but had to agree that it sounded fucking ridiculous.  I believe that it was during the next song that the cape made its appearance at this show.  The lights came back on just in time to expose someone fastening a cape around the lead singer’s shoulders and my speculations were right; it was definitely unnecessary and over the top.  The song, on the other hand, was a more understated track called “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 1“, from their most recent effort, Evil Urges.  It has a Flaming Lips inspired sound with a lot of subtle effects and layering.  In fact, I could aptly describe a lot of their work as a more Southern rock version of the Lips.  The song ended and the lights went off.  When they came back on,  James‘ cape had turned back into his gunslinger jacket.  The only difference was that, now it was accompanied with a scarf.  The first real concert that I ever saw was the Motorhead, Metallica, and Guns ‘N’ Roses tour, and I remember Axl Rose changing his outfits at least 8 different times that night.  This was also around the time frame where Metallica was really laying the groundwork to sound like terrible, misguided shit for the future.  Motorhead, of course, was still awesome.  The point is, when you get to the point where you have to start wearing a different outfit and pausing between each song, you’re well on your way to being played out.  That is, if you aren’t there already.  This was rockstar shit and it was beginning to turn me away from these guys fast.  Plus, the long day was already beginning to wear on me and my lower back hurt like a bastard.

The scarf was worn for the straight-up Southern rock “Amazed“, also from Evil Urges.  It’s a pretty simple track, but I never found it too interesting and it’s especially, not very innovative.  I believe that next was “Magheeta” from It Still Moves and then the yacht rock/Christopher Cross sounding “Tonight I Want to Celebrate“.  I think that I made it to the song “Golden“, before I couldn’t stand there anymore.  Jesse and Briana had already slipped out, while Patrick stood there, lost in the show with a giant smile across his face.  He loved the show and I was genuinely happy to know that they were playing all of the tracks that he wanted to hear, but the day had taken it’s toll and my back felt like someone had been throwing die-cast metal Tonka trucks at it all day.  The cement floor just wasn’t working with my feet and My Morning Jacket had not won me over in any way that would make the discomfort worth it.

The ironic thing about us leaving when we did is that this acoustic “Golden” was probably the best thing that they had played yet.  It’s just a simple country/folk song, which is not only the genre that I feel that MMJ thrives best in, but also a direction that I feel that they should have continued to embrace.  I feel that it’s important to note that Patrick told me that, out of the 5 times that he had seen them, this was the best show he had witnessed the group perform yet and the show went on forever.  So, if you are really into them and their current sound, you probably would have really enjoyed this.  I, on the other hand, am worried that they are believing their own hype a little too much.  People use to really like old U2 and their Irish working man sound.  Then, one day, they decided to become “rock stars”, their music got even shittier, and they arranged the excessively elaborate PopMart tour.  I fucking hate U2.  People say that it was all a joke and that Bono was trying to make a statement about stardom, but I don’t entirely believe that.  I think that the lines blurred and that they actually became part of their own joke.  Those jack-offs eventually even got stuck in their Lemon-shaped pod, exactly like Spinal Tap.  The irony is that, while U2 always claimed that their intentions were to parody over-the-top productions of acts like the fictional Spinal Tap, in the end it was still a reminder that Spinal Tap was originally created to mock bands like what U2 actually became.  GNR went from whiskey drinking biker bar rats and got to the point where Axl Rose was firing everyone from the band and sporting corn rows and velour.  Jim James sometimes refers to himself as “Yim Yames“?  Maybe this is his alter-ego, like Mephisto.  Why doesn’t he just change his name to J. Diddy?  Or better yet, Morrissey… or even Oprah?  Don’t believe your own hype buddy, it’s not too late to turn it all around, or maybe it is… I don’t know.

The fucked up part is that, while other critics seem to believe that this band is getting better, I actually believe that they are getting worse.  Their attempts to emulate Prince on Evil Urges made me cringe.  The only album that I own besides that one is their debut, The Tennessee Fire and I actually think that it’s is a really solid effort.  Coincidentally, they didn’t play one single track from that album.  In fact, they avoided anything from their first two albums like the fucking plague, except for a bonus track from At Dawn (2001).  However, they played almost all of Z, and went through a ton of material from Evil Urges and It Still Moves.  It always makes me wonder about a band when key players who were vital in their growth end up leaving.  My friend KB has a theory that MMJ is a “safe” band for all of the people who are afraid to listen to Phish and the Dead.  I wasn’t sure if I understood it at first, when he told me that.  Are these guys supposed to be a jam band?  I’ve since noticed them listed that way, but they don’t really jam out and they definitely don’t seem very experimental or improvisational to me live.  They felt more like a business and less like a band.  Everyone had their role, their own little spot/job, and their own little area.  Smoke billowed and there was a solo, right on cue.  That type of shit.  Jim James scurried across the stage like Axl used to do and he even unnecessarily spun around in a circle at one point.  Jerry was an old fat dude, Bob Weir wore daisy dukes, and Phish are a bunch of nerds, but the music comes first and they’ve always played with and through each other’s parts impeccably and with everything that they had.  The idea of those 2 bands is to hand the music over to the audience like a gift and play off of the energy and appreciation that was given back.  It’s new-age hippie shit, but there’s something legitimate about it.  Processed stadium rock stars are more inclined to elevate and separate themselves from their audience, as if they are beyond them.  This MMJ scene felt incredibly processed and it was disappointing to me because, in listening to The Tennessee Fire and even at points in their current material, I feel like this band could be more.  Unfortunately, it feels like their focus has become more about presentation than truth and songwriting.

I should have known better, but I recently saw some footage of James performing with John Prine and I let it cloud my judgement, because of my huge respect for the musical legend.  Then again, Noel Fielding hangs out with Courtney Love so… I guess that associations aren’t always a sufficient gauge for much.  Hell, Herbie Hancock even had John Mayer performing as part of his band, when I saw him last time.  By respecting and restraining themselves during collaborations with their more influential predecessors, the musical talents of some artists can actually be re-directed and honed in more productive / impressive directions.  I think that more “rock stars” these days could actually use an Obi-Wan.

We originally walked towards the lawn seats, but just kept moving on our way out of the venue.  We went by the Rumpus Room and I realized that the Z-Trip set was already over.  Fuck.  Then we walked over by the Bigfoot Stage where a DeadMau5 late night set was going to be kicking off.  I was too beaten down and, although I really wish that I could have, I just didn’t have it in me to stay.  Based on the video footage of what I missed, it’s clear that it must have been one of the most amazing parts of the entire festival, let alone that day.  As we walked, wasted out kids who couldn’t handle their psychedelics lurched around and bumped into us like zombies.  We stumbled back to our campsite battered and I met up with some friends who were camping only a few rows away from us.  I downed a couple of beers and a muscle relaxer from Mexico they had given me for my back.  Day one was over and it was time to get some sleep.  There were 2 more days left in this fiasco, but tomorrow was Pavement… so we were just getting started.

[To view all of our images from Day 1 of Sasquatch,
check out our flickr set HERE.]

We love Frank Zappa… a lot. This also means that we take it seriously when someone decides to cover his music. We are sure that his son Dweezil loves him too… a lot, but that doesn’t mean that he’s capable of covering his father’s work and doing it justice. When I heard about the Zappa Play Zappa project that Dweezil has embarked on, in which he tours with a group of hand picked musicians to cover his father’s music live, I was incredibly skeptical.  However, after speaking to some of the biggest, most hard-assed, and critical Zappa fans that I know, every response that I’ve heard has been incredibly positive.   It sound like this kid has taken this project as seriously as anyone could have ever hoped and that the resulting effort is beyond what could have ever been expected.  When Zappa Plays Zappa makes it’s way to Seattle on Monday June 14th with a performance at the Moore Theater, it will be our first opportunity to catch this critically acclaimed tour for ourselves and see if it lives up to the hype. T he good news for you is that, we’ve teamed up with the Seattle Theatre Group yet again, to offer that same opportunity to some of our readers, for free!

Our friends at STG Presents have offered us 20 pairs of tickets to give away!   Yep, that’s 40 total, and were’ not fucking around.  This is no joke my friends.  In fact, it looks like we will probably have even more than that, when it’s all said and done, so pay attention to the rules and act quick if you’re interested.   If you do this right the first time we shouldn’t have any problems.

HOW TO ENTER

We’re doing this shit real simple like.

First off, go to our official FACEBOOK PAGE and become a fan by clicking the “LIKE” button.

Next, head to the “discussion” section/entry page, which was specifically created for this giveaway.
[that can be found HERE]

Then, just tell us you want a pair of tickets and tell us the name that you want us to put them under.

All entries/requests must be received by midnight on Wed. June 9th

Fine Print:

We know that we have 20 pair to giveaway so, most likely, the first 20 people that enter shouldn’t have any problems being the ones to get them.  However, since I’m not sure how many more we will have to give away beyond that, you’re encouraged to try, even after thos first 20 entries are in.  To give yourself an edge, you might want to give us a reason that you want to go and/or why you love Zappa so fucking much.

Don’t be a greedy bastard!

This means a couple of things… we are trying to be generous here, so don’t start asking for more than 1 pair of tickets, or we’ll cut your ass off with zero.  Also, please do not ask for tickets if you are not going to be able to attend and don’t enter other people.  There are a lot of folks that will really want to see this so, if you don’t really give a shit, please don’t take that opportunity away from someone who does.

That’s all.  NOW HURRY!

The Black Lips have been scheduled as contenders in Converse‘s BAND OF BALLERS basketball tournament being held on May 1st in their hometown of Atlanta, Ga.  This is the second time that the event has been held, with the squad of rapper Jim Jones taking the championship crown the last time around.  This year, The Black Lips have not only issued a challenge towards the other celebrities and musicians on the courts, but have directed one towards their pockets.  This post is pretty straight up, so I’m just going to post the majority of the press release directly:

BAND TO DONATE THEIR EARNINGS FROM THE EVENT TO CHARITY, CHALLENGE OTHER PARTICIPANTS TO DO THE SAME

“The band will be receiving $5,000.00 for their participation in the event, the whole of which they will be donating to the Auditory Verbal Centre Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of deaf children, some of whom have been outfitted with cochlear implants in order to play music. More info on the charity can be found here: http://www.avchears.org/

The Black Lips are challenging the other players to do the same with their participation fees.

…Fans who want to see the tournament should stay tuned to The Black Lips’ Facebook page for ticket giveaways, or be one of the first 30 people to head down to Criminal Records (1154 Euclid Avenue Northeast) and sign up for the guest list.

Tickets giveaways will also be occurring through V103 Radio and various Atlanta music blogs.“

Here is the groups official video challenge:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other artists which will be taking part in the event include Of Montreal, Jay Electronica, and former Kriss Kross producer/founder, Jermaine Dupri (yep, we haven’t forgotten about that yet).

CLICK HERE to see more about last years event.

Fred Cole is like some sort of musical version of High Lander or a vampire.  Since 1964, at a mere 16 years of age, Cole has been an enduring force in the music industry.  By organically adjusting, adapting, and adding to his signature sound, he has been able to move inconspicuously amongst mortals throughout the many passing decades.  Few others can lay claim to having performed shows with the likes of the Doors and Janis Joplin in the Sixties, as well as with Punk legends like Ramones in the Seventies, and bands like Black Lips of today.  Fred Cole has been there and transitioned admirably through all of it.

Fred met and married his wife Toody before he was out of his teens and they have been together ever since.  Through the births of their children, playing in various bands together, running a music/general store, and even living in the unforgiving elements of the Yukon, the Coles are like the Zan and Jana of sonic onslaughts.  From the garage rock/psychedelia of The Lollipop Shoppe, to the punk of The Rats, to the country-influenced The Range Rats, and the mashed up rough punk of Dead Moon, Fred has remained a vital voice in the music industry and Toody‘s has increasingly grown stronger and stronger.  After almost 20 years and being the subject of a documentary, Dead Moon disbanded in 2006, when the couple parted ways with drummer, Andrew Loomis.  Now, with the addition of drummer, Kelly Halliburton (Severed Head of State, Defiance), the Cole‘s are about to head out on tour with their most recent musical project, Pierced Arrows.

I caught Pierced Arrows during their last appearance in Seattle and they were an impressive live act; incorporating new tracks with classics from projects of the past.  Their sophomore album, Descending Shadows will be released by VICE Records on February 2nd.  The following video of the trio performing their new song, “Let It Rain” in the yard of their Oregon home.

…. and here’s the video for their song “Paranoia”, also on Descending Shadows.

Make Sure to catch them when they come through your town.

Tour Dates:

^ = w/Lullabye Arkestra

2/07/10            PORTLAND, OR                       SLABTOWN
2/23/10            FARGO, ND                             THE AQUARIUM
2/24/10            MINNEAPOLIS, MN                   7TH STREET ENTRY
2/25/10            CHICAGO, IL                           SUBTERRANEAN
2/26/10            DETROIT, MI                           THE CAFÉ
2/27/10            CLEVELAND, OH                       BEACHLAND TAVERN
2/28/10            PITTSBURGH, PA                      31st STREET PUB
3/02/10            ALBANY, NY                            VALENTINE’S
3/03/10            TORONTO, ON                         EL MOCAMBO
3/04/10            MONTREAL, QC                        GREEN ROOM
3/05/10            NEW YORK, NY                        MERCURY LOUNGE^
3/06/10            HOBOKEN, NJ                          MAXWELL’S^
3/07/10            NEW HAVEN, CT                       CAFÉ NINE^
3/09/10            PHILADELPHIA, PA                     KUNG FU NECKTIE^
3/10/10            WASHINGTON, DC                     DC9^
3/11/10            BALTIMORE, MD                        GOLDEN WEST CAFÉ^
3/12/10            CHAPEL HILL, NC                       THE CAVE
3/13/10            ATLANTA, GA                             LENNY’S BAR
3/15/10            HOUSTON, TX                            RUDYARD’S
3/16/10            DENTON, TX                              RUBBER GLOVES^
3/23/10            TEMPE, AZ                                 SAIL INN^
3/24/10            SAN DIEGO, CA                          BAR PINK^
3/25/10            COSTA MESA, CA                        THE DETROIT BAR^
3/27/10            LOS ANGELES, CA                       REDWOOD BAR^
3/28/10            LOS ANGELES, CA                       ECHOPLEX^
3/30/10            SAN FRANCISCO, CA                    BOTTOM OF THE HILL^
3/31/10            PORTLAND, OR                           DANTE’S^
4/01/10            SEATTLE, WA                             THE FUNHOUSE^

Based on a recommendation from my friend Benny “P” (The Punks), I made sure to get to Neumos early enough to catch the opening act, WOODS.  When we got there, the members of DUNGEN were out front talking casually to some fans.  Sean Prince noticed a friend of his and, after they spoke for a moment, we discovered that there was a third band, which was playing before WOODS, and that this friend, Justin Shwartz, was in it.

BRAWLEY BANKS

Brawley Banks was six members deep; covering bass, drums, keys, and 3 guitars.  They sauntered out onto the stage, somewhat lackadaisically.  At first site, they didn’t exactly scream confidence, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that they came across as “nervous” either.  If there was any unsureness on their part, I would attribute it to performing in an opening slot on an unfamiliar stage.  A few things seemed off with the sound.  The levels were a bit uneven and Shwartz‘s vocals were far too quiet.  The venue’s sound engineer slowly made the necessary adjustments but, even with a less than perfect take-off, it was immediately clear that the band would provide a set worth listening too.  The keys, mixed with the chunky riffs and use of guitar slide, provided Brawley Banks with a dirty Southern Rock sound.  Although I think that it is more than unfair to equate them to a band like The Black Crowes, it is hard to find a widely accessible analogy to describe the sometimes raunchiness of the guitar work, swirled with the soaring notes of a baptist church organ.  Once the mics picked up, the sextet actually displayed some nice Grateful Dead style harmonies.  Another aspect that was impossible to ignore was the thundering strikes and cymbal crashes from their drummer.  Even the rest of the group seemed to look back towards him as a regular reference.  It wasn’t too surprising to later discover that the man behind the kit was none other than William Goldsmith, from Sunny Day Real Estate and early Foo Fighters fame.

It seems as if they haven’t been performing as a group for too long, which may have been forcing them to make more of a conscious effort to play with each other.  Whether that was true or not, they still sounded surprisingly good and were clearly each experienced musicians separately.  The “surprising” part was that I have fallen prey to the expection of opening bands being disappointing.  One of the main reasons that it would be unlikely for me to write for a local publication, like SOUND Magazine, is because they’re in the business of sucking every local acts dick and dousing their derivative and overly processed tripe in sugary coating.  I understand that the priority is to hype local acts and say encouraging things about them, but the only reason that I write anything ever is because I just didn’t believe anything that I was reading.  I always want to be able to embrace the openers and shower them with praise but, most of the time, they’re not even worth mentioning.  Brawley Banks is a good band and, although the crowd was not huge, everyone that was in attendance was forced to pay attention and acknowledge their performance.  Their sound offered up some familiar elements, but they didn’t come across as being contrived or overly forced.  Eventually, I realized that any lack of “stage presence” or awkwardness that I may have sensed was stemming from Brawley Banks just not giving a fuck about image and placing their focus on the music, the way that they should be.  I also realized why I was having trouble getting into so many other small-time local bands.  It was because they were focusing on their fancy images and stage presence, instead of creating listenable music as THEY should be.  Their set was extremely short, but it was long enough for the group to make an impression and set the tone for the evening.  All too often, the most effective thing about an opener is that they set the crowd up to be blood thirsty mongrels, waiting for the headliners.  This show was different and, since it began on an up note, I was comfortable enjoying the acts as they came and without any anxiety.  It was one of the first times, in a long time, that I didn’t feel the need to kill time getting drunk in a bar waiting for the main act.

WOODS

The crowd size was decent on the floor, but I had noticed that the upper portion of the venue had been closed off for the night.  They clearly didn’t expect an overwhelming turnout and it was fine with me that they were right in their assumption.  I used the gaps in the crowd as an opportunity to maneuver my way up close to the stage before the WOODS set.  Guitarist and lead vocalist, Jeremy Earl, set up on the left,  while Jarvis Taveniere and Kevin Morby handled the rhythm section respectably.  Band member, G. Lucas Crane sat on his calves dead center with his left side to the audience.  He had a suit case with him and a giant pedal board at his knees in front of him.  When he opened the case, it exposed a pile of loose cassette tapes with various day-glo scrawlings across them.  The top-center of the board contained a Big Muff distortion pedal.  On either side were numerous other effects, including a Holy Grail reverb and a couple of Boss pedals.  The lower half of the board was arranged with two big ass, old school tape recorders plugged into a mixer that they were sandwiching.

At first the name “WOODS” didn’t sound like much to me.  I thought that it was  just another random and unrelated word pulled from thin air and chosen to represent an indie band, so as to evoke as little emotion as possible, but I was wrong.  WOODS is actually the most aptly named group that I have come across in quite some time.  Their sound provides the soothing and comfortable feeling of a drinking tea at sunset on the cool porch of a humble, moss covered woodland shack, while, simultaneously, mixing in the spooky uncertainty of howling winds and rabid wolves, strategically circling the same shack at dusk.  The music is both comforting and ominous.  WOODS‘ latest release, Songs of Shame, is a great album and was represented strongly at the performance.  Seeing them live was like breaking through a wood-rotted fence to experience Songs of Shame in 3D, from the seat of a poorly oiled carnival roller coaster.

WOODS combines a solid balance of pop and folk structures with a lo-fi approach and the unrestrained, anti-structure of noise rock.  Jeremy Earl’s solos find him brutally strangling his guitar neck and landing on discordant frets, as if wringing the life from a rusty android goose.  The guitar work circles the tracks like a buzzard over dessert carrion.  Somehow, there is logic in their mix of chaos and imprecision and it works for them.  The potential for the warbling melodies to lose their footing, is remedied by the constant support provided by the static ridden, lo-fi effects.  G. Lucas Crane operated his pedal effects and knobs entirely by hand.  His janky looking mixer was missing it’s knobs and the tape-recorders had the cassette covers removed.  As incense smoke wafting into his face, he leaned over his set up.  He was constantly replacing the tapes and, like with any other DJ set up, he was working the faders to mix the pre-recorded sounds.  Headphones wrapped around Crane‘s head horizontally, so that one of the ear pieces covered his mouth and worked as a microphone.  He often appeared to be working frantically, but  it was difficult to hear if he was doing anything at all.  In monitoring his movements, while listeneing closely, his vocal and abstract sound contributions pronounced themselves from the background.  Jarvis Taveniere and Kevin Morby shared duties with the drums and bass.  Mid-set, Morby grabbed the bass from Taveniere and moved out of the way for Jarvis to settle in at the kit with a guitar.  He played the axe while seated and even laid it across the floor tom, beating and manipulating the strings with his sticks.

Everything about the indie quartet seems fragile enough to topple over at any time.  There is so much contradiction and duality in the music that it is often one aspect of the group threatening to weigh down on the other lighter elements and snap them like a twig.  Jason Earl‘s voice is probably an acquired taste for most, but I really enjoy it.  His delivery is tinged heavily with the sound of Neil Young, but as if it was placed through a high-pitched Brother Danielson voice modulator.  The instrumentation often mirrors Earl‘s cracking voice, as it is both fluid and harmonious, but also diced up with choppy moments.  Imagine the morse code-like flight pattern of a remote control plane that’s running out of batteries, with all of it’s drastic, brief, and sudden dips, drops, and peaks.  With all of their disinterest in orthodox musical approaches, WOODS is still more than a troupe of untalented and gimmicky noise rockers.  In fact, the songs are actually catchy and their sonic madness, traveling echo effects, and experimental chaos all play roles in supporting song structure, not simply in replacing it.  The lo-fi lack of interest in over production works to provide an earnestness, instead of coming across as pretentious as is too often the case.  They differentiate themselves from the electro-noise environment of their hometown, Brooklyn, by transitioning from instrumental psych into songs with delicate folk lyrics floating across static clouds, like a paper boat drifting down a sewer drain.  I recommend checking them out and I enjoyed their set, even more than I may have realized at the time.  Ever since the performance, I’ve had the song “Rain On” burrowed into my fucking skull like a mole cricket.  It’s definitely something that  grows on you.

DUNGEN

In continuance of the “groupings of trees” theme, the name DUNGEN translates from Swedish as “The Grove“.  Front man, Gustav Ejstes is credited with writing all of the music and performing most of the instrumental parts on the album but, by all accounts, DUNGEN is still a 4 piece.  The other members are featured on the studio releases and consistently operate as Ejstes‘ touring band.  A piano bench and keys were brought out and placed center stage.  When the band took the stage, they had a fifth member seated behind a set of congas next to the drum kit.

During set up, I snapped a photo of the set list that was taped to the stage for reference.  Since all of the lyrics and most of the titles are in Swedish, I have a problem remembering the songs by name.  Gustav entered with a huge smile of gratitude, but kept his back to the audience, as he shook a tambourine throughout the opening instrumental track.  It was simply labeled as “Intro” on the setlist and, although it wasn’t the same “Intro” from the Tio Bitar album, it was a great high energy opener that helped to showcase the musicians‘ technical abilities, right off the bat.  After the intro, Gustav picked up an acoustic guitar and prefaced the next tune by stating that it was “Dedicated to Fleet Foxes“.  He further explained that they had had an opportunity to spend some time with them, while in town.  In fact, the percussionist, which would later be referred to as “Josh“, was actually none other than, local troubadour and Fleet Foxes drummer, J. Tillman.  They performed the Summery and melodic psych-folk track “Festival” and followed it up with the track “Bandhagen“.  Ejstes sat for the piano heavy instrumental; his face blocked by his wavy shoulder-length hair.  The song sounded amazing and I was surprised at how flawless everything had been performed up to this point.  Whether or not people feel the constant necessity to remind each other that Ejstes is the “core” of the group, nobody in DUNGEN should be overlooked or ignored.  Their individual versatility and complexity, as well as their overall cohesion and synchronicity as a group, is nothing short of mind-blowing.  The most exciting part was that the show was only getting started.

For the song “Ingenting Aer Sig Likt” (“Nothing is the Same”), Gustav invited the remaining four members of Fleet Foxes to come up and join them.  For the most part, Robin Pecknold just hid himself behind the bass amp, but the rest of the band members grabbed percussive instruments.  It was a jazzy number that really displayed Ejstes‘ piano skills.  He twinkled away and tore up the keys like Fred Rogers on his famous children’s show intro.  The guests left the stage and the next offering “Det Tar Tid” (“It Takes Time“) was introduced as “A Love Song“.  It’s a sultry song tinged with psychedelia and ethereal piano ripples, which would fit right at home in a romantic boat sequence at the end of a ‘70s Bond film.  For “Du Ska Inte Tro Att Det Ordnar Sig” (“You Shouldn’t Expect it to Work Out“), Gustav rose from his seat and grabbed his tambourine again.  Bassist, Mattias Gustavsson, laid down a 70s blues rock rift, which provided a solid foundation for Ejstes vocals and Reine Fiske‘s soaring guitar work.  Drummer, Johan Holmegard, provided a heavy back beat, accented with little explosive, Jiffy-Pop drum rolls.

Before the next track, I heard Sean Prince scream out a request of “ABBA!” from the other side of the stage.  About this time, I was also asked to stop shooting photographs by the management.  “Bortglömd” (“Forgotten”/”Neglected“) contains a heavy driving rhythm and crunchy, choppy guitar distortion.  It’s easy to hear the Sabbath influence in DUNGEN‘s music, but the sound of this track might be more appropriately likened to stomping on bald, squealing break pads, while traveling through a black whole on your way to smash through a brick wall.  Gustav stomped around and shook like Robert Plant and Reine Fiske held his screaming pick ups towards his speaker cabinet.  His ability to harness every note and control every aspect of, otherwise, unwieldy feedback was amazing.  He had a delicate touch that was hard to ignore and could tweak a high-pitch note through the roof like a Blue Angel, make it stop on a dime, drop it like a busted elevator in an inferno, and reel it back again.  It was as if Fiske could set off a landmine, freeze the shrapnel in mid-air, form the pieces into a bullet, and then shoot it through your face.  His control was ridiculous.  They slowed things down for “Sätt att se” (“Ways to See“), a beautiful and jazzy piano odyssey filled with wispy psych guitar.  Something about the tune reminded me of Dots and Loops-era Stereolab.  The next song was “Mina Damer Och Fasaner” (“My Ladies and Pheasants”) and featured Gustav on flute.  The bassline thumped along like the soundtrack to a mythical army of Orcs marching through a barren wasteland.  Buzzing Eastern guitar painted a landscape of blood red clouds overhead.  It was a dark tune, but whimsical as all get out.  I wouldn’t have been surprised if a fairy or some magic potion spilled from the end of Ejstes‘ flute during his little wind flurries.  Those in attendance were fortunate enough to be treated to an extended jam that doubled the length of the song.  Mattias Gustavsson ran up and down neck of his bass and Johan Holmegard spooled out drum beats like a trash can full of hummingbirds.  If the show was an acid trip, this portion could definitely be considered the peak.  It was like the moment when Robin Williams finally sees the fluorescent putty that everyone’s munching on and has a food fight in the movie Hook.  The jam was part 1970s Dead and part Miles Davis.  Although they ventured into spaced out areas with reckless abandon, every single note and movement seemed logical and transitioned smoothly.  Holmegard simultaneously threw down complicated drum lines while taking tempo cues from Gustav to end the song in percussive lunacy.  The top of my skull had been blown off like a toy rocket and WOODS‘ G. Lucas Crane lovingly screamed, “You Mutha Fuckaz!“  at DUNGEN from the audience.

The drum intro to “Panda” was quickly and easily recognized by the excited crowd.  It was the first DUNGEN song that I had ever heard and it had sucked me into their music immediately.  Holmegard‘s drumming continued to mystify me and he effortlessly maintained the driving beat which, in reality, was way more complicated than I had ever realized.  Gustav had, what appeared to be, an electric Gretsch leaning against an amp throughout the night.  The neglected guitar featured a reference to his hip hop roots in the form of a Stones Throw decal.  He picked it up and stated his desire to dedicate the next song to their US tour manager, Chris Newmyer.  He followed that up by saying,  “It’s nice to play music in another language.  People have their own.” and then asked Newmyer to remind him of the English phrase that he substitutes when singing along to the title track from their Ta Det Lungt album.  Apparently it was “Play With Balls” and, every time that they reached the chorus, Gustav Ejstes actually screamed the words “PLAY WITH BALLS!” in it’s place.  Mattias, who was singing along from the bass, clearly didn’t know that Ejstes was going to do that, so he laughed and stumbled through his vocals.  As the song progressed and he realized that he was going to be forced to stand in representation of scrotal manhandling until the song was over, he looked more and more uncomfortable.  The members from WOODS roared with laughter and, when the music finally ceased, Newmyer stepped up to the piano and left two $20 bills on it, as if it was payment for the antic.  Gustav crinkled the bills under his nose like he was savoring them and Mattias just said, “I should have some of that money too.“  They played one more jazzy piano tune, “Målerås finest“, before announcing that their “last song of the tour” would be “Fredag” and inviting the members of WOODS and Fleet Foxes to come back on stage and join them.  They crowded onto the stage and Gustav thanked everyone for coming out to the final show of their “Fuck Yeah Tour 2009“.  J. Tillman had left the stage during “Panda“, but Ejstes only just realized it and began screaming, “Where’s Josh?!  Where the fuck is Josh?!“  Once everyone was ready, they finished off the night with a percussion-filled extravaganza, and left the stage.  Mattias Gustavsson pointed a camera at the audience and prompted, “Get together.  I want to get you all in this.“  He later returned to quiet the screams for an encore by apologizing and explaining that Esjstes could not continue due to a current health issue.  “Seriously… seriously…seriously.  Gustav is fucked up inside.”

It’s a rarity for me, but I found the entire show to be captivating and packed with substance.  The combination of the WOODS and DUNGEN sets made me feel like I was at an incredible and amazing house party, minus the irritation of pretentious activists and the standard, drunken hipster in the obscure amusement park sweatshirt gratuitously macking on uncomfortable college girls.  The majority of DUNGEN‘s set was comprised of songs from their most recent album, 4 .  Although it hadn’t resonated with me as much as the previous efforts, the show was so great that I’ve gone back a rediscovered much of it’s material with fresh ears.  Their jazz sensibilities were more pronounced than I had expected and were admirably fused with the Prog, Psych, Folk, and Rock elements.  I ran into my friend Josh, towards the end of the show and we both expressed our awe and satisfaction of the show quality to each other.  He mentioned that, after seeing DUNGEN perform two years ago, he half-assumed that they would have reached some sort of Zeppelin status by now.  Not that they don’t deserve it or don’t have the live chops, but I just don’t see that happening.  In general, I feel that people have a problem moving beyond the language barrier to give them the chance that they truly deserve.  After I left, Josh also mentioned that he spoke with Reine Fiske, who told him that he had a straight job that he needed to get back to when they returned to Sweden.  Apparently, the sheer appreciation that DUNGEN expresses towards their audiences is derived, at least partially, from the fact that they have somewhat normal lives back home.  They come to the United States and get to become rockstars for 5 weeks, or so, and then it’s over.  One thing is definite; all of the excitement, power, and gratitude that they feel is projected in spades for those brief moments that they get to perform for those who appreciate it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTDGgimhMgo

This video has only received 12 hits on Youtube so far.  It finally and officially confirms the West Coast dates that everyone has been waiting on for PHISH‘s latest reunion tour.  Obviously, this announcement isn’t delivered in a manner that was quite as exciting as the last one which featured sky writing jets or the Hampton painting, but some of the news definitely is news worthy.

Being in the North West, I was pleased to hear about 2 dates at the Gorge, but I am really surprised by only one scheduled Shoreline appearance and no other California dates.  The big announcement is the 4 show run at Red Rocks in Colorodo, since the group was banned from the venue after the riots which ensued in 1996.  No Vegas dates though…… but, I can’t truly say I’m all that confused as to why.  Many have speculated that the mayhem that has gone done at the Nevada shows in more recent years, attributed to the break up of the group in the first place.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIOPpiXhldg

Phish Summer Tour Dates:

06/04/09 Thu Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Wantagh, NY
06/05/09 Fri Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Wantagh, NY
06/06/09 Sat Comcast Center (Great Woods) Mansfield, MA
06/07/09 Sun Susquehanna Bank Center Camden, NJ
06/09/09 Tue Asheville Civic Center Asheville, NC
06/10/09 Wed Thompson-Boling Arena Knoxville, TN
06/12/09 Fri Bonnaroo Music Festival Manchester, TN
06/14/09 Sun Bonnaroo Music Festival Manchester, TN
06/16/09 Tue Fabulous Fox Theatre St. Louis, MO
06/18/09 Thu Post Gazette Pavilion Burgettstown, PA
06/19/09 Fri Verizon Wireless Music Center Deer Creek Noblesville, IN
06/20/09 Sat Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, WI
06/21/09 Sun Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, WI
07/30/09 Thu Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
07/31/09 Fri Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
08/01/09 Sat Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
08/02/09 Sun Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
08/05/09 Wed Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View Mountain View, CA
08/07/09 Fri The Gorge George, WA
08/08/09 Sat The Gorge George, WA
08/11/09 Tue Toyota Park Bridgeview, IL
08/13/09 Thu Darien Lake Performing Arts Center Darien Center, NY
08/14/09 Fri Meadows Music Theater Hartford, CT
08/15/09 Sat Merriweather Post Pavilion Columbia, MD
08/16/09 Sun Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Springs, NY

Heath Ledger killed the Joker (ha-ha). Everyone is concerned with originality and ownership. But c’mon folks, “Why so serious?”. If the ending results of an idea are more crisp and refreshed under new and loving inspiration, then I welcome them. Is this the case for The Gene Ween Band?  What?

“The Gene Ween Band is a side project of Aaron Freeman of Ween” says their official MySpace.

Aaron “Gene Ween” Freeman, Dave Dreiwitz, Scott Metzger, and Joe Russo is the official band roster.   A dream team of some of indie/jam rock’s finest are the meat in this gumbo, branded with the Boognish seal of “WEEN”.  Does this overshadow the “Gene” & “Band” aspects?  Many will expect the universe.  Many will naysay.

Like an unstoppable outbreak of Tinea cruris flares, this line-up is being shrugged off by many Weenies as “another cover band” and celebrated everywhere else music matters.  Their brief tour in December around local Northeast spots produced a few brown bootlegs, providing insight to their sound.  I wanted more!  Using the web to find out the scoop, and  thanks to the cyber-savvy section of WEEN’s fan base, I was able to gather this much about reactions to the new project:

“Gene Ween Band featuring Dean Ween. Dave Dreiwitz, Scott Metzger, & Joe Russo. Is Dean Ween playing too?”

This is a typical example of one of the many obnoxious statements found in the Weenforum, the home to as many disgusting images and awesomely ridiculous tour support as the 1980 film Roadie.  Weenforum is a chaotic cesspool of rabid, mainly Eastcoast, Ween fans.  They speak of the “brothers” in a loving fatherly manner and on a first name basis like most lot kids.   There are posters  from all over the world.  I haven’t posted on there myself in over 6 years because… I dunno, Westcoast kids come across as beastly and blunt(ed).  I come from a 1980s generation of Westcoast-wannbe-Deadheads who were too young to ever actually see Jerry.  For you kids who actually grew up on a lot: sorry Charlie.  We had to settle for Warren Haynes & “The Dead”, and you know what?  He sounds great. Better than most of the many poor quality, garbled Dead bootleg tapes on Jerry’s best nights.  Purists who refuse to listen to anything after Pigpen died are missing out, is all I’m saying.  I do not claim to be the world’s dirtiest Gov’t Mule fan either but, from my experience, when the artist who fronts the band is a “side player”, expect good things.

Many people think Phish plays the better version of “Roses are Free” (haha).  I think WEEN plays “Enter Sandman” better than Metallica, and it’s all relative to the listener and how the band performs the song.  The musicians  who are performing own the music at that moment while they are playing it, so just listen!

Aaron Freeman has mixed and mashed musicians to come to the current WEEN team we have today. I know it doesn’t just happen and he’s no executor, but bands form and reform through life’s bullshit, tragedy, chance, and from willing musicians who actually mesh. Listeners think WEEN is currently dead, or on hiatus. I don’t think in such absolutes (AND I saw them last July), for bands are just bands and can be reformed or redirected, and there is obviously no “WEEN” without both “brothers” in attendance.  Meanwhile, Freeman‘s performances are as intense as ever.

Can we get a motherfucking moment of silence for this small chronic break?

Dave Dreiwitz, of Instant Death and WEEN fame, is on bass?  ‘Nuff said.  He’s really the 3^rd WEEN brother at this point.  Dave also performs with Metzger (guitar) and Russo (drums) in the rock quartet Bustle in Your Hedgerow.  The group, which covers Zeppelin tunes and includes Russo‘s long time partner, Marco Benevento (The Duo), played shows all January, AFTER being featured at Jamcruise 7.  They’re vets.  Metzger and Russo have another band called American Babies with a heavy focus on Country and Folk Rock.  All of these musicians are, practically, playing together nonstop, in one form or another. They can’t stop.  They won’t stop.  They don’t even know how to stop.  In between The Gene Ween Band show dates, guitar hero Scott Metzger is set to play with The Rosy Nolan Band, and Serena Jean (with Joe Russo on drums?).

The Gene Ween Band has been much anticipated and delayed, but it appears that a bonafide tour is on our hands, starting with the rescheduled show at the Williamsburg Music Hall in BK on February 7th, and ending at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA on April 16^th.  With 14 scheduled shows ahead, including brief breaks in between (I’m sure they will be playing in one band or another during these “breaks”) can these boss players show up to the standards their “Beavis and Butthead” fans have created for them?

February 7th, Williamburg, Brooklyn

Possibly the “whitest” part of Brooklyn, there is even a “Whitest Kids U’ Know” mural.  I park my car by the Clockwork-Orangesque-European-Style 10-Speed-Bicycle gang and walk by a dozen pseudo Urban Outfitters & American Apparel stores toward the Williamsburg Music Hall. It’s a shitty little venue, although it’s perfect for the neighborhood & the band. Brown.  Obama Mural? Check.  Hairy, gargantuan college kids in North Face jackets? Check.  Gene Ween and his family parked out front in a SUV?  Check.  Nitrous Mafia parked directly behind them? OK, This is the place.  After haggling with the hairy ginger behind the box-office window 3 times to let me in with my prearranged spot on the guestlist, he became really irritating and would not succumb to my Jedi mind tricks.  I finally bought a ticket after I saw some lady have the same exact problem.

I walked the gauntlet of beards and stretched lobes and, after having come out the other side well sanded, I needed a drink from the bar, which is the saving grace of that awful sweatbox.  The opening act, Stumblebum Brass Band, had started and were pretty good.  Enough already though, the plan was The Gene Ween Band to start at 9 PM, but the window at the box office said “GEEN WEEN BAND 10 PM” in green hi-liter. At 10:15 the band emerges to a glorious uproar from the audience.  The enormous frat boys from Old School were mega-hyphy off all the Red Bull Vodkas they’d been spilling on the stage.  They were frothing at the mouth at this point and frightening the 15% of the crowd that was female with exposed chest hair and glazed wolfish stares.  These guys were everywhere, dominating the front of the crowd and being tall myself and up at the front of the floor made me guilty by association.  I had one toothless tattooed skeez ask me to “slide over 12 inches” so she could see.  I didn’t take that golden set up to humiliate her with verbal perverted rhetorical situations where I indeed took her advice, and instead opted for a more passive “I was here first”.

The crowd was drunk, loud, and ready.  As the players took their instruments, Aaron approached the microphone and said with a smile “I hope we don’t suck.”

They opened up with “The Stallion Part 4” and it was like a warm hug hello.
“I Fell In Love Today” followed and really set the Gener vibe.
“Baby Don’t Be Afraid“, “It Freaks Me Out” and “Kansas City Star” were all a 1-2-3 blur.

After the chanting and taunting of the Ween-head with glow stick glasses, they continued with
“Mr. Sandman”
“Blue Balloon” – Gene Ween busted out the keyboard for a bonus trip.

At this point the “Frank the Tank” grabbed Dave’s sweat rag, which he had been denied earlier and ran away.  There was my in with my partner in crime Rosy J, who was sandwiched in front of the stage.  Luckily bowls, bongs, and blunts kept the crowd happy.  No stampede here.

“It’s Not Cool” – punk rock!
“Kite Flying Man” – Gene decided to smoke a cigarette, sweet.  That’s our license to smoke inside.
“Ooh Vah Lah” – Metzger shined on the solo.
“Thanks And Praises” -  the trumpet player from Stumblebum came out and played with the band, blowing the shit out of that horn.  The freaks around me were sweating LSD onto me so the rest was a maddening blur, but I had fun.
“Gener’s Gone” – is a kind of depressing tune but, it is a perfect set closer and has a sweet guitar solo.

Encore:

At this point, the encore barely seemed like one,  but they rocked it out to:

“DC”
“Let’s Get Divorced” – an awesome ode to his ex.  Dave played a big ass Tuba and Gene stuffed a $5 bill into the horn. Sweet!
“Mountains And Buffalo”
and
“Chancy Boys”
before finishing the night in style with “Greg The Bunny“.

Nooooooo!  It ended abruptly. Everyone in the crowd was chanting without realizing the last set was the encore.
Throughout the night, Gene spent a lot of time re-tuning his guitar in, what I’m assuming, was an attempt to not “suck”. I don’t care if the sound is better.  The side players didn’t out step their instruments and everyone sang backup.  All in all, The Gene Ween Band is very “garage”.  The best part of the night was the music, while the worst part was the spew of hairy, smelly, macho frat boys that tried to monopolize the front row. Luckily Rosy J and I, along with a couple others in our mafia crew, held it down and pushed them farther and farther into the crowds.

The Gene Ween Band might think it’s a side project but, in reality, it is its own entity.  Performing what we love and rocking it all in between. You can tell they are friends who work together well.

I had been requesting Instant Death songs as usual but, when that became infectious, I stopped so as to let other jackasses make jackasses of themselves.  I ran into the toothless skeez and her boyfriend at the coat check line; they were in front this time.  We made it outside and I proceeded to thizz-dance on top of cars, while apes parallel-parking Mercedez Benz’s smashed Toyota bumpers. Wu-Tang Forever (Disc 1) and White-Castle cheeseburger sliders were on the program for the way home. I had an awesome time and will definitely see GWB on their other Northeast shows; anything within 5 hours is the rule.

-A. Misallati

The interview below was conducted by one of our newest writers, Dr. Radical, back in November during Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX.  We had hopes of posting it earlier, however, Dr. Radical was struck by a vehicle which held the transcription time back a bit.  He is fully recovered and we are pleased to provide his first work for the site to you now.  We feel that he did a tremendous job.  He didn’t come away with any current photos of the group so I contacted The DM vocalist Rodney Anonymous to see if he had any available.  He didn’t seem to know where they were located and responded by saying the following in an email:

“Can’t you just use a picture of the Jonas Brothers…or porn?“

Hence, the header photo.  All other images featured are courtesy of  photographer Nina Sabatino (aka: Dean Clean’s sister).  More of her work can be viewed through her Flickr account by clicking here.

Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoy it.

-Dead C

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The Dead Milkmen

Fun Fun Fun Fest

Austin, Tx

Nov. 8th, 2008

I was a little surprised when Fun Fun Fun Fest started up 3 years ago.  Obviously, Austin already has two major music festivals.  “What could another festival really do for the city?“  Last year was my first Fx3 outing and it filled a void that ACL and even SXSW couldn’t quite fill.  Musically speaking, I’m a little nostalgic and fairly snooty, but I hate being around crowded situations where I feel like I’m the only one who appreciates what I’m watching. At the first ACL that I went to, I had to sit through the Dashboard Confessional just to insure my placement for the Pixies.  Another trapped attendee held up a “Stop Playing” sign and every 15-year-old girl in the area (which was a lot) stopped crying along with the stupid songs to throw empty water bottles at the picketer.  Why would anyone put those two bands back to back?  It’s an asshole mistake.  If you really appreciate “Dash-BORED” you probably won’t truly appreciate seeing the Pixies.

Fx3 is the king of reunions; I had never thought I’d get to the opportunity to see The Angry Samoans, Poison Idea, and Murder City Devils all at the same festival.  I wasn’t sure how they were going to top themselves this year but besides, Killdozer, The Adolescents, and Kool Keith, they booked The Dead Milkmen! Those crazy jokesters from Philadelphia who sang about “taking retards to the zoo”, beating their wife, and “smoking banana peels“.  The DM hadn’t played since 2004, before that they hadn’t played in 10 years.  With a mostly original line up, (except for Dave Blood (1956-2004) replaced by Dandrew Stevens), Rodney Anonymous, Joe Jack Talcum and Dean Clean sat down to talk with me.

Dr Radical: Thanks a lot for coming to Fun Fun Fun, I’ve been wanting to see you guys since I was 16, it’s kind of a dream come true.

Joe Jack Talcum: He’s 17 now.

Rodney Anonymous: That’s what I was gonna say. Who did I want to see when I was 16?  Probably the Sex Pistols, no it was The Clash, who I got to see. So it worked out for me.

DR: Well done. So I heard you guys got to play two sold out shows in Philly as “Les Infants du Prague”, were they bummed that you guys showed up and it wasn’t…

Dean Clean: Yeah, yeah, no I think it was pretty well known around (Philadelphia), the word got out…

RA: We tried to keep it a secret, especially the first one, second one not so secret, but we wanted to… the second one was an all ages show and we wanted…

JJT: Second one we actually played as The Dead milkmen

RA: Yeah, I liked the first one, second one I thought was a lot more fun.

DR: Really? Younger energy?

RA: Bigger stage… the first one had balcony seats

JJT: Less equipment problems

RA: What was that?

JJT: Less equipment problems,

RA: I missed it, what?

JJT: Less equipment problems

RA: There were less equipment problems in the second one.

But as I pointed out in the first (interview), it’s The Dead Milkmen. It’s not like you went to see YES and couldn’t hear Rick Wakeman’s keyboards. I’m only going to make references to music so old that nobody who hears this is going to understand it.

DC: But yeah, they were good, and we just kinda wanted to do a little warm up, just to get used to playing live shows.

RA: Then we’d come out here and be like “Uhhh, how do I plug this in?”

DR: Are you familiar with “Cowcon”

RA: Yeah, the Cowcon

DC: Did they organize something here?

DR: Apparently, it was supposed to be here yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  How do you feel about people being either crazy about you, or they don’t understand you as much…

RA: They don’t “not understand us“, they just hate us.  I fall in the second camp; I’m in the band and I don’t understand us. I’m serious; I tend to like, you know, Nick Cave and stuff like that, but uhm… Oh I like a lot of our songs, I can actually understand not liking us.  Most bands I really like and somebody’s says something, like “I don’t really like them” and I get all defensive.  I also get that way with books, too.  I got that way with “A Secret History” the other day.  I’m like that, I either really like something or I hate it.  But this band, I kind of understand why people…I’m not sure if I would get or like the band if I wasn’t in the band.  So… That’s odd.

JJT: It’s like the people that really, really like us, they expect other people to really, really like us.  And then they find out that that’s not the case, and then they’re disappointed, and they come to us and say, “Well you know…“

RA: Well some people don’t like us but then they really tend to like music that I don’t like, I don’t like those people. But, there are a lot of people that don’t like us and then they like some music I like.

Dandrew Stevens: I always tried to get friends in to them, and if they weren’t then…

RA: Oh, that’s very kind of you…

JJT: And people will meet their wives, or their husbands, their boyfriends or girlfriends because “Oh, they were wearing a Dead Milkmen’s shirt”

“You like them too? I never knew anybody would like them, we must be made for each other”

DR: I know that’s how I made a lot of friends in high school, was you know, if they liked the Descendents and The Dead Milkmen I’d probably like them.

I heard you used to tour in a converted ambulance?

RA: Yes. Called the “jambulance”

DR: Was that the first investment as a band?

RA: It was our first van…

JJT: It was the first big investment

RA: We would run red lights in it with the windows down screaming “Hospital, emergency!”  And then I found this whistle thing somewhere, and that if you’d put it out the window it sounded like a…

DC: WOOOOOOOO!!…

RA: So we’d just drive around with that out the window, we used to, we had …

JJT: And then we got a call from, or our manager got a call from the ambulance service saying “you have to take off the phone number and the…”

[Dean pulls out a plastic siren whistle and blows it.]

RA: Oh! Look at that! Exactly! Dean has one! We used to put that out the window…

JJT: …“one of your ambulance service vans is being rude to people…”

RA: Yeah, after we failed to pick up the third or fourth coronary.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

RA: They’d say “Oh my God, we need an ambulance! Get this man to a hospital!”  We’d lean out the window, “He’s a Christian Scientist, get him to a reading room, he’ll be fine”

DR: What made you move on?

RA: To… out of that ambulance?  It got old!  We put like 200 thousand miles on it.

DC: The timing chain went…

JJT: We had a lot of miles on it.

RA: I loved that…

DC: Then we sold it to another band

Ha ha ha

RA: Yeah, yeah, we sold it to another band… and they were not happy, I remember that, yeah.

DR: I’m from Seattle originally, and I heard how Tad sold his station wagon was by signing it.

RA: Wow, how about that?

DC: A souvenir?

DR: Yeah. Did you think about that?

RA: No, other people would sign the van for us, there was graffiti all over it…

DC: “I controls ze weather!”

RA: “I controls ze weather!” Oh my God!  OH!

DC: I think we left that up in there.

RA: The weird thing about that little kid, we had some picture of this little kid that looked kinda like Hitler, so we put a Hitler mustache on him and “I controls ze weather” because there’s this book called “Morning of the Magicians” that Nazi’s, at one point, believed that they could work out a way to control the weather, which oddly didn’t work for them… but the weird thing is, if you see the film Eurotrip there’s some little kid that looks just like that.

Yes, we had lots of good stuff all over that van, that van probably smelled so bad…

DR: You guys were a real hard working band, you released a lot of albums on tape before you were signed, you did your own touring. After Big Lizard in My Backyard did you miss the “do it yourself” mentality?

RA: No, I’ve played in enough people’s basements…

JJT: We still did a lot of the stuff ourselves.  We recorded our own songs…

RA: We had our own equipment, but I tell ya, I don’t miss, I do not miss playing in somebody’s basement, showing up and finding out we can’t have the show because the kid got a “C”!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

“Oh MAN! My mom is so mad!”

Dandrew: “You can crash at my parent’s house, you have to be out by 8 am”

RA: No, crashing at other people’s places, that I don’t miss.

ha ha ha

We can let that one go.

JJT: Just to keep costs down we’d stay at people’s houses half the time, gradually we’d go into hotels only…

RA: Yeah, when your staying at people’s houses you think you’d like a nice clean hotel, and then when you’re at the hotel you think “I bet there’s fun over people’s houses tonight”

You know, you’re sitting there watching HBO…

JJT: Once we did the all hotel tours, we had our choice.  You know, people’d invite us to parties, and then we’d go out…

DC: No. Because they always booked the hotel too far away from the party. “Oh, you guys are way out of town tonight…”

JJT: Oh, maybe I’m just remembering it differently. I don’t know.

RA: “We’ve got a party, it’s 25 miles that way…”

DR: You guys have played with a lot of people; you played with Debbie Gibson…

RA: Yeah, I’d forgot about that.

JJT: That was a radio station gig. Radio station gigs can be pretty weird. We did another radio station gig with Duran Duran.

DR: And also 2 Live Crew…

JJT: 2 Live Crew was a…

RA: That was a show for…

JJT: New Music Journal.

RA: Yeah, New Music Journal, up in New York.  We played with Guns n Roses when they were “5 Guns West“; they opened up for us when we were out in L.A. um…

Dandrew: Salt n Pepa, right?

RA: Salt n Pepa, yeah, that’s a show I got beaten to a pulp.

DR: Really?

RA: Yeah. I’m a big Salt n Pepa fan, I really love them. So they wanted us to play at this show, and after we played I jumped out into the crowd, and a lot of people didn’t like us, and they punched me, and I held up my shirt later on and I was all bruises.

JJT: People were chanting and getting violent wanting to see Salt n Pepper…

RA: Yeah, normally the more people hate us the longer we play…

DR: Was that during the “Push it” days?

JJT: Yes.

RA: At least I got my picture taken with Salt n Pepa, so that worked out. I was happy about that.

DC: The thing is, one of the cool things about playing today is that we’re actually playing with some bands that we actually played some shows early on with. Killdozer, DOA, Cromags… Did we do a show with Bad Brains?

RA: No, him (JJT) and I went to see Bad Brains when we were in our teens.

DC: At least those three bands we did some early touring and played some shows with those guys, so it’ll be fun to see them again…

RA: How old were we when we went to see Bad Brains?

JJT: 20 maybe?

RA: Were we 20? Wow. That’s pretty weird. That’s like a quarter of a century ago…

DR: Yeah, this is a great festival they do a lot of…

RA: Dengue Fever I found out is on the bill, and they’re fricking incredible. I want to see Experimental Dental School, all these bands I want to see and have never gotten to see, so this is gonna be a good day.

DR: You’re going to get time to go around?

RA: I’m gonna make time, I damn certain better get time to go around. I wanna see these bands.

DR: I always liked that you had a good balance between being funny and kinda sincere in a weird way, you know? You never came across as a joke band to me.  “Punk Rock Girl, is a really funny song, but its really sweet. Did you feel like you had to maintain a balance between “We’re not being too funny”, or “We’re not being funny enough?”

RA: We wanted to have fun with out being taken too seriously, but what you don’t want to do is… you know we’d always have these bands that would open up for us and they’d be like, the local, jokey, funny bands, and the guys would be like “we have a song about taking a crap in the mailbox!” well good for you guys.

[Slight interruption and bad audio]

DR: Do you guys like having more normal jobs?

DC: I kinda like sleeping in one place most of the time, its nice to come out to shows like this once in a while.

RA: If I’d known the business world was going to be this good, I’d have joined years and years ago.

JJT: I don’t really like it. But I don’t want to let my boss know that.

Dandrew: I don’t have a job.

DR: Oh, well done.

The interview was over, I thanked them for seeing me and we all shook hands and I think I told them, “good luck“.

I’ve seen a lot of reunion shows.  Sometimes it’s everything you had hoped for and other times it is severely disappointing. The other big name at this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest was Bad Brains.  I know I’m not the only excited 30 year old that got on Youtube and looked up old Bad Brains footage in preparation of seeing HR scream and throw himself around the stage before getting mega irie. Instead of that, I got a very stationary, crooning, soft-spoken fellow with a shawl wrapped around his head. If it wasn’t so un-engaging, it may have been one of the most punk rock shows I’d ever seen.  But who wants to pay to be bored?

The Dead Milkmen didn’t treat the show like it was just a paycheck; they wanted to make it an event that mattered. They did 3 encores, and even played a Bauhaus cover.

There was a special kind of unity at this show, I felt a little like I was at Church. I was surrounded by Dead Milkmen fans. A congregation of people who had played “Bitchin’ Camaro” for their friends and found Rodney Anonymous’ impression of Jim Morrison having aids funny. I wasn’t going to become best friends with anyone there, but I could probably stand in the bathroom line and make all right small talk.

-Dr. Radical

Ya Ho Wha 13
Dec. 15, 2008
Nectar Lounge
Seattle, Wa

A man somewhat resembling an elf plays his guitar with an eagle feather, singing freestyle verse about the altar of life.  The drummer, named Octavius Aquarian, sucks into the microphone between rapid drum fills. Sunflower, adjusts his bass strap after leading a measly Monday night Nectar crowd through a breathing exercise.  How and why such a flashback inducing session of music went down on an uber-cold Seattle night is the stuff of legend, the moss that grows on myth.  Come with me, back 40 years to “The Source“; to Los Angeles.

Jim Baker had started an organic vegetarian restaurant on the Hollywood strip, catering to movie stars, John Lennon, and anybody who needed decent food.  While the patrons ate, Baker would speak and share his cosmic, love-based, digestible message.  Why, did the patrons listen?  Because Baker was an ex-marine, martial arts master, who was a gentleman. Robes appeared and before you know it..  Shazam! A commune blossomed in California.

In that effervescent era of America’s past, I guess people took chances; soon Baker was known as Father Yod (pronounced like “yoad”) and amassed hundreds of followers.  He had 13 wives and watched a musical group sprout out of his followers.  It is worth noting that Baker is sometimes also credited with first putting sprouts on sandwiches.

The band, Ya Ho Wah 13, played totally improvisational music in the garage of their Hollywood mansion.  At times their sound is like Hendrix or Bill Frisell but, at other times, it is much more brooding and ethereal. Father Yod began to sing, beating gongs and really going at it, while often discussing the breath with his audience.  Some of the pics of Baker from this era are choice, with the spiritual leader looking like a wholesome pimp and straddling his Rolls-Royce. Ya ho Wha 13 recorded 65 albums, most of which have since disappeared.  Many believe “Penetration” (1974) to be their masterpiece.  Their most recent album is called “Sonic Portation” (2008) and marks their reunion .

Forces of nature can do powerful things.  Observations of deep space provide phenomena almost as weird and wonderful as the human potential.  The Source Family is no exception and soon had grown too big for its California shell.  They moved to Hawaii.

After observing the nudibranchs that slide along the reef and greeting questioning locals, Father Yod decided to go hang-gliding. He had never done it before, but believed he could, visualizing himself soaring on Oahu’s thermals. What happened next is unclear but, from what I can gather, he floated for some time before crash-landing on a Hawaiian state park beach. Yod would eventually die 7 hours later.  It is rumored that the autopsy revealed no precise cause of death.  He appears to be without any drastic injury in the photographs, stunningly displayed on NPRs website.  Maybe he broke his back, maybe he flew into the sun, maybe he did both. Regardless, The Source and their family band soon disintegrated. This all occurred  in 1975 and they didn’t play music together again for 30 years.

Jump ahead to Monday morning; the sky crystal clear after our recent snowfall here in the Northwest.  Ya Ho Wah 13 is playing their first true “gig” here in Seattle, although they are still located in California.  This remarkable reunion tour loosely coinciding with a book, “The Source, The Untold Story” of which they are the focus.  They drive 14 hours, installing and removing chains for their automobile, crawling over mountain passes, finally arriving at their destination, The Nectar Lounge.  Im there at Nectar, other hippies from the commune are there, kids with black eyes are there, its real chilly.  Soon the band teaches us about them, leads us through some “star” breathing exercises, and then were off.

It took awhile to warm up, but immediately I recognized that Octavius is a force to be reckoned with.  His eagerness and rhythm kept the drum set shaking like Stewart Copeland.  Deep bass bombs merged with Djin and his guitars open chords.  When your “average Joe” might initially envision this type of music, they probably wouldn’t predict the scary, haunting effect of the peddle work. They probably wouldn’t anticipate the sounds resembling that approaching helicopters, either . But like all attacking forces, they must eventually retreat, and become helicopters of love.

I was impressed with how quickly the band let great ideas pass, remembering the premium of improvisation. The show was pretty good, I was beginning to loosen up during the last song, which was tribal, loose, and fucking awesome.  The band was obviously tired and but they still delivered. It can be stressful driving on I-5 all day so,I was glad that they even performed at all.  I felt like I was witnessing something with historic undertones.  These guys are still honest in their delivery, regardless of their complete lack of playing for the last 30 years.  At times, the Nectar crowd didn’t quite know how to handle it .  Some made comments that the band should be playing in a temple and not a rock bar.  Personally, I recommend checking out their tour as they creep down the West Coast over the course of this week.
Tour Dates:
Dec 17^th Humboldt Brews – Arcata CA
Dec 18^th Slims   – San Francisco CA
Dec 19^th Spaceland – Los Angeles CA

Final note on communes:  Whether as a result of Manson or the menagerie of other patriarchal nuts, they indeed get a bad rap. If I can find one that can assure me that in 30 years I can do a reunion tour and shred minds like my self’s in 2038, sign me up.

-ONSEN