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.

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.

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

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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

WEEN’s latest offering is the sixth live recording that the duo has released since 1999. “AT THE CAT’S CRADLE, 1992” is a juicy nugget of Ween goodness which, features an audio disc of a 21 song live show, recorded at The Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC, as well as a 21 track bonus DVD.  It’s just Dean, Gene, and  a Yamaha Digital Audio Tape Deck and is charged with all the energy, chaos, and, apparently opium, that you would expect from classic Ween. I think it was a great idea for them to release this, and the DVD was a lot of fun to watch.

The band has come a long way over the years and has become a bigger part of Pop Culture than most people realize. They have been on countless Motion Picture soundtracks and have had cameos on numerous movies and T.V. shows. Their music has been featured in Honda commercials, and they even did a song for Sponge Bob Square Pants.  It is impossible to fit them in to one category although, I’ve seen people attempt to do it. They are commonly lumped into the “Alternative Music” category with the likes of The Cure or, perhaps… The Red Hot Chilli Peppers?  I don’t think that they quite fit in there. They’re not Indie, Grunge, Gothic Rock, new wave or Punk.  I once heard them classified as “Geek Rock”, with They Might be Giants, Ben Folds Five and Weezer.  Nope, they don’t belong there, either.  In a way, they incorporate something from all of these genres so, it’s common for someone to like a Ween song but, still, not really “like” Ween.  I know grown men who can’t listen to the song “Spinal Meningitis” ’cause it’s too creepy but then, you have little kids running around listening to “Ocean Man”.  It seems like the only way I’ve ever heard their music accurately explained is by comparing it with drugs.  I guess you could describe their sound as Pure Rock and a whole lotta Soul, injected with opiates, shaken in a bag of weed, mixed with LSD, with intricate melodies and raw emotion floating in a sea of amazing guitar and noise, laced with PCP and doused with a gallon of whiskey.  I remember once when I was 14 and I played “Push the Little Daisies” for my big brother’s  friend.  He was a lot older than me and knew quite a bit about music. “So… What kind of music IS this?” he wondered.  I told him I thought that maybe it was, Punk?  “No, no. I know a lot about Punk. This is definitely not punk.”  He said.  I just smiled, shrugged, and said “It’s Ween!”  What it comes down to is that there are two kinds of people: People who “get” Ween, and People who don’t.  If you are in the category of people who do, you’re gonna love this shit.

If you ARE a hard core fan, you may think that you have heard and seen it all before.  I know that is what I came in to this thinking but, trust me; you will totally dig “At the Cat’s Cradle“.  The set list mostly consists of songs from their first three studio releases, God WEEN Satan: The Oneness (1990), The Pod (1991), and Pure Guava (1992).  They do, however, perform one song, “Buckingham Green”, that the rest of us wouldn’t get to hear until it was released on their album, The Mollusk, in 1997.   At the end of “Buckingham Green”, they start to play a little bit of Pink Floyd’s “Breathe”.  In fact, they play lots of little riffs from different classic rock songs throughout this recording.  They also talk about Boognish (the demon that they made a pact with back in Jr. High), and about how they smoked too much opium before the show.  A lot of what Ween’s music is all about stems from the chemistry between the two of them and, In a way, this release is pretty intimate.  You get to see them fuck up a lot, and you get to see them just screwing around. The last live album/DVD, “Live in Chicago” (2004), was pretty much what you’d see if you went to a Ween show today and, if you were to compare the two of them, you could really see the changes that have taken place in the band’s live performance over the years. This new album is so awesome because it’s something that you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to be a part of unless you were actually there.   Inside the case you’ll find Dean Ween’s personal thoughts on the matter.

“From our first “real” concert in 1987 until the release of Chocolate and Cheese in 1994 we played concerts as a duo–Aaron on vocals and acoustic guitar and me on electric guitar with the bass and drums played from a cassette deck. Later on we purchased a DAT machine for the backing tracks and this speeded up our show a little. A typical Ween set was no more than an hour long, and we’d play about 24 songs in that amount of time. There was no jamming at all whatsoever. Things are a lot different now. Every night we had to face the crowd pretty much naked, there was nowhere to hide, no room for an off night. We did a lot of talking to the crowd and one another between songs, we pretty much had to. We faced a lot of hostile audiences when we were the opening act on a show. There was a lot to hate about us but we won over a lot of people in the process because of our sheer nerve. A lot of our closest friends feel that Ween live pretty much ended when we switched to a traditional band format with a bass player and drummer; I dunno about that but by the release of Pure Guava our show was no longer interesting to us. We were doing a lot more touring and playing the same songs with no room for improvising had gotten boring for us. Once we started releasing records and touring more as a duo we got a lot better at it, we stopped caring about what the audience thought of us and just focused on having fun onstage. This was when we maximized our brownness. I don’t remember too much about this concert other than the fact that we played the Cat’s Cradle a lot of times and in a few different locations. Public Enemy had played the club a few nights before and blown up the P.A. and our sound man Kirk Miller was pissed. I thought it was great because Public Enemy are one of my favorite bands of all time and I was just happy to be playing on the same stage. Our touring party consisted of Me, Aaron, and Kirk Miller, our soundman and driver. Once we signed to Elektra we added a tour manager, Paul Monahan, who would stay with us for many years. Anyway, this is pretty typical of what we sounded like on a good night those first few tours.”

The CD kicks off the show with “Big Jilm”.  I still have no idea what that song is about but, I once heard a rumor that Big Jilm was their drug dealer.  Who knows?  What matters is that the song is still great.  I also heard somewhere that Nine Inch Nails’ album “Pretty Hate Machine” is all about one girl and that seems to be the case with early Ween, too.  Not entirely, but you get little insights about stuff like the fact that “Nan” and “You Fucked Up” are both about “That bitch”.   I love “Nan” because … Come On! Who hasn’t always wanted to shout “He’s a fucker…And you’re a fucker too!” at their ex and the person they screwed around on you with?  It’s insane! It sounds so juvenile, and it is but, it’s also pure.  Right before “Nan“, Gener forgets the words on “Don’t get 2 close (2 My Fantasy)”, then the equipment shits out on them, and the tape is skipping…. It’s a disaster!  At the end you get to hear them talk about how badly that song went.  It’s so great!  Even with all the stuff that goes wrong, it still sounds amazing and it seems so personal.  Then there is a song like the ballad “Birthday Boy”.  Oh Man, this song could make anyone cry.  It’s sad and beautiful, and you can understand all the words.  It has the kind of lyrics you don’t just make up. You know when you hear it, that this really happened.  They go from this totally emotional song, into “Fat Lenny” where they scream about how Fat Lenny’s gonna lick the shellac off of the window sill.  It’s Brilliant.  They end the set with “Reggaejunkiejew”.  I always thought this song was about exactly what it is.  We learn that it is indeed about a dreddy , Jewish , heroin addicted , white dude who stole Gener’s girlfriend.  The incident still seems to be fresh in their heads.  They seem to be genuinely pissed off about this dude and how ridiculous he is.  Dean keeps repeating:  “Addicted to heroin“… “Addicted to heroin“…”Addicted to heroin“.

The simplicity of this recording (If you could ever call WEEN “simple”), and the unadulterated chaos of early Ween, is enough to give real fans that crazy feeling of excitement in the back of their spines.  The same one that made them realize that they loved Ween in the first place.  Their music is powerful enough to permeate your whole being and, although it isn’t on this album, before you know it, you’ll  find yourself listening to a twenty minute long song about a turd.  I guess that is one thing that makes this set so great; you get to feel like you are in on the joke too.  It’s amazing that they have the ability to write these songs that can strike a chord inside of anyone, painting these really vivid images inside your head, and making you feel as if you know exactly how they feel, while, at the same time, they can write songs that seem like nothing other than big inside jokes, without any conventional meaning.  With that being said, I still feel as if all of their songs are relevant.  Even if you don’t know what a “mega-weedge” or a “Marble Tulip Juicy Tree” is, it all comes together, making sense inside you, anyway.  In fact, I remember the first time I was aware that the then unborn being living inside of me could actually hear. I had turned on my car and “Pumpin’ for the Man” came blasting through the speakers.  It felt like all of my daughter’s limbs flailed out at once! It was amazing.

The bonus DVD is the cherry on top of this choco brownie sundae and consists of parts cut from three different performances.  Two of them are from concerts (Vera, Groningen, Netherlands 10/31/91 and Staches, Columbus, OH, 3/6/92) while the other is from an appearance on a radio show (WTSR radio, Trenton, NJ, 1/10/92). It’s funny to see how young they were in 1991!  I like the footage from the radio performance because you get to witness that spark that makes them what they are.  They are just fucking around in the studio, and you can tell that they totally feed off and get high off of each other (and a variety of drugs I am sure).  At one point, Gene randomly goes off on a magical tangent about being a Jew.  In watching their shows, you can see that some people in the audience had no idea what they had gotten themselves in to.  If you think about what was popular in ’92, it’s no wonder.  Def Leopard was on it’s way out with “Let’s Get Rocked”, everyone at your Jr. High was slow dancing to Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road”, and Right Said Fred was singing “ I’m Too Sexy”.  In the midst of all of the crap that was floating around, you have Gene and Dean singing “The Going gets Tough From the Get Go” while wearing goggles and a chef’s hat.  It’s Genius.

Even If you are not a big Ween fan, there is still a chance that you could really like this release.  Of course, those chances would be greatly increased if  you are on acid when you see /watch this, or if you have been up on methamphetamines for three days,  while continually drinking hard liquor, and you just ran over a bird.  I have often said that if I could somehow obtain WEEN in a liquid form and shoot it intraveniously, I totally would.  I’d say “Live at the Cat’s Cradle” comes pretty close and I’d hope that all of my fellow fans will agree when I say that “this disc is like a big shot of Boognish right in your ass!” I loved it.

-Minty

For more information, listen to audio, and check out video clips from this release please check out the At the Cat’s Cradle, 1992 mini site

We recommend purchasing the CD/DVD through seeofsound.com to receive a limited edition silk screen of the cover art SIGNED BY WEEN!

Ween has also recently just released a limited edition coloring book created by artist Thea Wolfe which can be purchased @ Chocodogmerch.com
Click thumbnails below to view the cover art and a sample page.

I got a phone call last week from our writer O.G. asking me if I wanted to kick it and watch some movies.  I needed to take a break from some work I’ve been doing on another site, where I had been constructing a guide to producing the “sexiest” Hotornot.com photos, so I encouraged him to come over.  He had rented two films, one of which was the story of The Germs and punk rock icon Darby Crash entitled, “What We Do is Secret“.  I had been wanting to see the film so I was really excited to finally get the opportunity to cross it off my list.

The film that I watched that day was both captivating and thought provoking.  The story revolved around a group of rebellious young adults that were working to redefine and challenge social boundaries for the benefit of, not only their own, but of future generations as well.  During the unstable political and social climate of the 70’s, their efforts produced a backlash and they were viewed as social terrorists who were corrupting the minds of the youth.  They pushed forward, despite any dangers that they were creating for themselves.  To tell the story, the filmmakers constructed the film in a truly unorthodox format by interspersing revealing, interview-style segments between the riveting  dramatic sequences.  The story continues to build with chaos, violence, and conflict until it ultimately concludes with inevitable death.  Unfortunately, the movie that I am referring to is not “What We Do is Secret” but rather the 1971 pseudo-documentary “Punishment Park“.  Not only is “Punishment Park” the other dvd that was rented that day, but it is also the film that we watched after realizing, only 15 minutes deep, that the “story of The Germs” was next to unwatchable.

Germs frontman, Darby Crash, is portrayed by actor Shane West.  You may remember West from his March 2002 feature in Tiger Beat Magazine, in which the dreamy star was promoting “A Walk to Remember“, his romantic teen drama with Mandy Moore.   The film begins with black and white footage of the actor speaking into the camera and explaining his (Crash’s) plans for infamy and stardom in coherent detail.  Not only does he lack Darby’s poor complexion, overbite with chipped incisors, and the speech impediment accentuated by his busted up grill, but West’s demeanor and cadence are alarmingly off.  By repeatedly watching random Youtube clips from the film and it’s trailer, I have noticed a few subtle attempts by the actor to try and work a bit of a lisp in to the role but, it comes through even less consistently than Madonna’s British accent.  Basically, it feels like you’re watching exactly what you are watching;  a precocious rich kid who is bragging with an over inflated sense of importance and accomplishment.  West looks right into the camera with his coy Corey Haim smirk and maintains the same Blue Steel facial pose-down that I’ve seen him try and work for the paparazzi on the red carpet and while promoting this trash at festivals.

Believe it or not, from what I’ve witnessed, the trailer above is actually much more interesting and engaging than the film itself.  Granted, my review is only based on the first portion of the film that I was willing to sit through, as well as the 4 or 5 extra scenes that I have viewed through Youtube, but I have serious doubt that the movie, it’s production, and quality of the performances  magically increased in the scenes that i did not see.  You may have noticed how terrible the wigs were that were used in the film, based on the structureless white rats nest from the header photo.  The clothes were far too crisp and new and the acting rivaled a bad Aaron Spelling program.  “What We Do is Secret” translated like a group of jocks and popular chicks collaborating with the drama department to perform a last minute skit/final project that would determine their highschool graduation.

Germs bass player, Lorna Doom, was as ecstatic as anyone about the  overall result of the film.  I wish that her approval was all that it took for this film to be great but, unfortunately, it isn’t.  Nothing against Doom, she seems like one of the nicest people that you could ever meet, but I’m not familiar with any other memorable projects that she’s been involved with in the last 30 years since The Germs disbanded.  The recognition alone must feel vindicating but, even she has admitted to inconsistencies and embellishments by the filmmakers in her interviews.  I heard her mention somewhere that she “wish (she) looked that good back then.”,  in reference to the casting of Bijou Phillips (Hostel II, Havoc) to play her in the motion picture.   I’m sure any woman would feel great about being portrayed in a movie by a much shapelier and popular professional model, especially at this stage of their life.  She has to be stoked about receiving adulation and respect that she hasn’t felt for years and, for that, I’m glad that a film was made.  My only wish is that it was made better.

The other two surviving original band members, Pat smear and Don Bolles, have also been strong supporters of the project since they were originally approached about it back in 1993.  All of the members have played roles in the production of the film over the years and I feel that, although this could easily be viewed as a ringing endorsement, it actually may have worked to cloud their credibility and has created a conflict of interest.  You might as well ask the director how he feels about his own film, if you’re going to inquire about the opinion of other people that have worked on the project.  It took close to 15 years to finally make this project come to fruition and, for all those involved, it may have felt like a victory.  To me, someone who simply popped it into the DVD player and was looking forward to something that was entertaining, it was a complete failure.  Pat Smear has a distinct personality but Rick Gonzalez (Old School) plays him as a confused kid who is constantly in awe and full of innocence and wonder.  It’s the same character that he played in “Roll Bounce” and every other film that I’ve seen him in.  I’ve stood next to Pat Smear before while the lanky guitarist was smoking and wearing a set of matching red Hanes sweats that were two sizes too small.  He  is a fairly specific personality and comes across really effeminate but, Gonzalez is very one-dimensional and doesn’t even try to shake his Paul Rodriguez-style Mexican accent.  It’s hard for me to believe that any of the actors could watch the movie and think, “Woah!  I really thought that was me up there for a minute!“  It feels like much of the satisfactory rating for them could be attributed to pure nostalgia and, in Smear’s case, probably a small dose of apathy.

The most shocking thing about the whole situation with “What We Do is Secret” is that it spawned a Germs “reunion” with Smear, Doom, and Bolles touring with actor Shane West as their front man.  Both Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) and “Fat Mike” Burkett (NOFX) were openly and strongly opposed to the whole notion of the project.  The Germs group felt as if it was a good idea apparently, and performed numerous club shows as well as the 2006 and 2008 Warped Tours.  West rolls around on the floor, pretends that he is Darby Crash and tries to act as much like the dead punk rock legend as he possibly can.  It has got to really piss people off when he sings something like “Circle One” where he has to scream the lyrics, “I am Darby Crash“, but I’m starting to wonder how serious the rest of the band really is about it.  When questioned about the decision to perform with Shane, in one intervew, Pat Smear said, “We kind of did it for just a laugh… for fun“.  Don Bolles later interjects, “We couldn’t have replaced Darby with anything but perhaps, an actor….. he does an incredible job.  That guy’s a pretty good actor I think“.  What I think is that the band may just view it as a performance with an actor playing Darby Crash and, with the amount of people that it agitates with it’s absurdity, it may actually be the most “punk rock” option that they have right now to just piss on themselves.  Bolles is again quoted in a NY Times article with saying, “Darby would totally appreciate a teen idol actor from ‘ER’ playing him“.  If it’s true that they see it as a joke, it’s one that Shane West doesn’t appear to be in on.  Word is that, for a while, he had even changed his name on his myspace account to “Shane Wreck“.  He tries to look like Darby and his live performances are as contrived as his role in the movie, but it’s starting to sound like that’s what he was offered the role as frontman to be just that; contrived.

What I may have found the most insulting isn’t the horrible performances, Halloween dressup/playing rockstar vibe, or even the Hollywoodization of the storyline; it’s the pride that those involved have, the undeserved praise that has been bestowed upon them, ignorant statements that they have made, and the lies that they tell themselves and actually believe.  It’s bad enough that some have referred to West’s performing as a “channeling” of Crash but, it’s even worse when the actors constantly pat themselves on the back like West has done repeatedly.  This following quote is from MTV.com, “I was pretty much in character 100 percent of the time,” he continued. “Every day, when I drove to work, the Germs were always on the CD player over and over again. I woke up listening to [David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars], which was one of Darby Crash’s favorite albums. I breathed and slept it for two years.“  My questions for this guy about his constant claims of becoming the character with every fabric of his being and living the same life are simple….”How?“  He listened to their CD and some Bowie?  I’ve done that too but, not while driving to work in my expensive ass hoopty that I bought with my huge salary as an actor.  What exactly did he do?  Shane West’s mom was a lawyer while Darby’s was an abusive drunken single mother.  His older brother died, his parents didn’t have a lovely marriage and stay together like West’s, and he didn’t start acting when he was fifteen.  Did West become a suicidal self loathing homosexual with a drug problem?  Did he put on a fur jockstrap and dive onto broken glass?  Please, someone tell me that he at least hates himself!  I dug deep into this hypocritical, guy-linered, douchebags myspace blog to pull out this gem for those of you who are still reading this.  He starts the blog by saying, “A good friend of mine the other day summed up the “hipster” scene in one perfectly untouchable and indisputable sentence……..“  He later writes “The statement was simple……..”a bunch of spoiled kids with silver spoons in their mouths trying to express angst through bad fashion“. Simply awesome.”

Bijou Phillips, who also stars as Sid Vicious’ love interest Nancy Spungen in the upcoming “Chelsea on the Rocks” is the classic priveleged Hollywood rich kid.  She was a champion equestrienne as a child and her godfather was Andy Warhol.  Her dad is  “Papa John” Phillips from The Mamas and the Papas, which areone of the most over-rated and shitty, corporate fake-hippie bands of the 1960’s.  They were the type of fools that tried to capitalize off of poorer and more talented San Francisco musicians like The Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix by getting them to play The Monterey Pop Festival but would stay in high class hotels with the rest of the corporate goons, while the other bands would stay in squalor and get paid shit.  She comes from a lineage of mother fuckers that like to front.  Her sister’s are Chynna Phillips (Wilson Phillips) and actress Mackenzie Phillips (One Day At A Time).  The most punk rock thing Bijou probably ever did was when she became a model so that she didn’t have to go to boarding school.  She subsequently became the youngest person to ever appear on the cover of Vogue at age 13.  Over all, I kind of like her and she actually has a really great, sultry jazz voice, so she does have some talent.  She definitely isn’t the worst actor in this film but, the fact that she is tight friends with the Hiltons and is some rich priveleged party girl, doesn’t sit well with me because, these actors have no idea what or who the fuck they are pretending to be.  At least Mackenzie Phillips has a hardcore substance abuse problems, no doubt, due to the fact that  she has two sisters that are considered substantially more attractive than she is.

This film is the epitome of what has all but destroyed the independent film festivals.  There is an idea behind this film that people like and they will hold on to that idea whether the film is shit or not.  In fact, they’ll hold on to that idea whether the idea is real or not.  Everyone is going to try and use the same excuses that I heard when I trashed another Bijou Philips film, “Choke“, earlier this year.  “The filmmaker is amazing simply because he made the film when no one else did and it was difficult to pull off.“  I don’t care about that shit, this movie was bad.  “They had a really limited budget and had to stop part way through the film.  They couldn’t restart shooting until they could acquire more funds.“  That excuse is bullshit too, because you are still doing the project a disservice by making it even though you know that you can’t pull it off.  It’s actually disrespectful to the subjects if anything and, in the case of “What We Do is Secret“, they were working on a punk rock film so, how much money would it have cost to make shit look grimy instead of so pristine?  This labor of love excuse is bullshit because the main cast was composed of working actors that could afford to make films like these in an attempt to pull some kind of industry street cred.  They didn’t starve to get this film into a film festival because of their big dream.  I’m sure the director tried hard but fuck these kids and fuck the idea of reviewing films based on excuses.  Shane West was actually in a terrible pop-punk band called, “Jonny Was” that he is taking a hiatus(?) from just so that he can pretend to be a dead rockstar that people actually cared about.

I was born the year that “G.I.” was released, so I’m not trying to play shit off like I’m super fucking old school or that I was at the Starwood reunion show, but I have a feeling that Shane West didn’t even go as far as to give himself a “Germs burn” for his “deep” and “heavily sacrificing” role.  Plus, there are many other subjects that Hollywood can get together to take a collective shit on.  I don’t really buy 100% into any scene and am well aware that there was a lot of intentional shock value involved with the “real” Germs, often to hide their questionable musicianship, and that sort of spectacle doesn’t often come without some level of pre-thought  formulation.  Sure Darby was an intelligent guy but that doesn’t mean the he wasn’t also  a fucking wingnut.  You can be both.   When the guy fell down though, he really fell down.  He wasn’t running around pretending that he was loaded on drugs, because he didn’t have to.  His lyrics and what he represented revolved around a timeless and universal feeling of being disenfranchised and pissed off about it to the point where you’re ready to empower yourself.  It’s a classic case of oppression and revolution.  Some of us did not go to the prom and some of us liked to shoplift.  Some of us didn’t have a “Super Sweet 16” with a $75,000 car that happened to have the wrong rims.  My review isn’t simply based on the fact that they did a disservice to a subject that many hold dear but, rather about why it failed.  The actors weren’t believable and they didn’t “channel” shit but the reason is because, they didn’t have anything to channel and they just simply didn’t understand what they were dealing with.  If you’re gonna play Darby Crash, you have to at least get the “crazy eye” down.  From the real life interviews and footage of Crash that I’ve seen, he seemed shy towards the camera and looked away from it a lot.  Although he was open about his intentions and his life, it was much more authentic and didn’t come across as someone gloating.  I’m not planning to raise him over my head as a savior, the film already does that and in a very streamlined and flat way.  “He has a 5-year plan.  He starts a band to become a rockstar.  He kills himself.“  Sure, that kind of happened but have you ever seriously attempted suicide?  If you have, then you know that it’s complicated shit.  You don’t just decide that you are going to off yourself because you decided to 5 years earlier.  If anything, you’re giving yourself 5 years to get your shit together.  A lot of horrible shit lined up at the same time which resulted in him deciding that the future wasn’t worth it.

His intentional overdose came the day before, and was overshadowed by, the death of John Lennon so, I get it.  It’s a story that deserves to be told but, anything worth telling is worth telling right.  I know that I said the same thing about “Choke” but, this time, this was honestly the worst film that I’ve seen since “Last Days“. Isn’t it enought that Pat’s been in two of the most ground breaking musical acts ever and that they resulted in the death of his heroin shooting good friends/ frontmen?  Was it really necessary to make a terrible film about each of them on top of it?  This isn’t the only avenue for you to find out about this story.  A new documentary is being released called “Lexicon Devil” that, hopefully will be worth seeing or, you could read the biography of the same name.  More people need to be watching documentaries and reading anyway.  I think I’ve written more than enough for a review based on only the first 15 minutes of a film but, for anyone that still believes that this movie deserves some sort of unjust praise, simply based on the fact that it took around 15 years to make and the various obstacles conquered,  I have two words for you: Chinese Democracy.

-Dead C

For those of you who want to watch some actual Germs footage, I was able to go on youtube and locate the section of the 1981 punk documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization” that focuses on the band. (below)

And check out this interview with Flipside from 1977 (click here)

If Squarepusher fans abandoned Tom Jenkinson for any reason other than for churning out his same recipe of jazz-fusion, drill-n-bass, and musique concrète, it would be for finally providing evidence that he may, after all, be human.  For over 10 years now, Tom Jenkinson, aka Squarepusher, has wowed audiences and home-listeners alike with his blend of virtuoso bass solos, chaotic amen-break reconstructions, and all-out fuck-all noise assaults.  Whatever genre Jenkinson has chosen in the past to tackle, be it jazz-fusion, acid-house, musique concrète, hip-hop, or breakcore, often on the same album, he has done so with such precision that his critics can only cite repeating himself as a point of contention.  And justly so- 2006’s Hello Everything played almost like an anthology of styles he has mastered since 1996’s Feed Me Weird Things, again with near-flawless results.  But while Jenkinson definitely delivers something new and different from his past endeavors with Just A Souvenir (2008, Warp Records), he reveals to the world that he is not a robot programmed to sequence psychotic drum explosions and stroke perfectly crafted jazz bass solos after all.   Nope, Squarepusher lives, breathes, and occasionally makes a mediocre album.

Just to be clear,

Just A Souvenir is Squarepusher’s prog-rock album.  Sure, he describes his inspiration as being a hallucination that he had about a fictional band playing an “ultra-gig” with time-warping guitars and coat hangers and whatnot but, when the cards are on the table, it’s a rock album.  (I would have actually been more excited to review this album had it simply been presented as a prog-rock album.  This lame “daydream” shit that Square’s trying to push on his website didn’t exactly keep me perched at my mailbox waiting for the CD to arrive.)    “Star Time 2” false-starts things off with a synthy lead part over Jenkinson’s usual bass acrobatics (the very same acrobatics that led The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea to dub him as “the best bass player on earth”).  The song still retains some of Squarepusher’s past electronic experience, but with much more of a “live band” feel, a theme that continues throughout the album. “The Coathanger” is actually the proper start to the album.   Beginning with some very cheesy vocoded lyrics (“Behold the coat – Hanger!”), it doesn’t take long for Jenkinson to Jaco all over himself.  Much like other parts of the album, there are subtle electronic manipulations, but these noodlings take much of a back seat compared to Jenkinson’s past square-pushing work-outs.

From there, we move onto the first (and weakest) of three guitar solo/concrète interludes, “Open Society,” where picked acoustic guitar lines are warped and tape-edited in an attempt to conform to Jenkinson’s (most-likely) drug-induced vision.   “A Real Woman” sees Squarepusher at his poppiest, but in between the wacky vocoded lyrics (seriously, WTF?) and rock n’ roll drum fills, there are some really cool math-y transitions.  The intertwining bass and guitar lines are even reminiscent of The Grateful Dead’s “Slipknot” or Phish’s best (read: early) epic jam tunes.  And the math-rock don’t stop there; ‘Pusher continues to get punky (“Delta-V”), funky (“Potential Govaner”), jammy (“Planet Gear”), and classic rock-y (“Tensor In Green”).  With its Ruth Underwood-style vibe solos, endless transitions, and overall grandiose presentation, “The Glass Road” screams “Frank Zappa!” before reducing itself into a distant drone.  But the real gems on Like A Souvenir are hidden in the back- after the last of the three previously mentioned guitar/concrète solos, “Fluxgate” (easily the best of the three, and also sounding extremely Zappa-esque after “The Glass Road”), Jenkinson offers up a loose free-jazzy guitar/bass exchange (“Duotone Moonbeam”) that recalls Bill Frisell’s early work- relaxed, unbound, but still a little edgy and tense.

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“Edgy” and “tense” are, in fact, great adjectives to describe much of Jenkinson’s back catalog.  But just when you find some blanket terms to describe the whole of an artist’s work, that same artist comes along and proves you wrong.  With “Quadrature,” we find Jenkinson more beautiful and restrained than ever before.  With tasteful guitar-bass duets bouncing over a playful yet relaxing jazz structure, “Quadrature” is truly the highlight of the album.   “Yes Sequitur” closes things out with a classical-style guitar solo free of any digital or tape-based manipulations whatsoever; a true rarity for a Squarepusher track.

Like A Souvenir’s weaknesses lie, not in its concept nor in its structure, but rather, it’s in the execution where the album fails.   One can only assume that Jenkinson plays every instrument on the album (as he has in the past), so it sounds like what it is: tight math-rock structures that should probably be played live by a band, but are instead recorded separately track-by-track.   Sure, it’s impressive that one person did it all, but it’s Squarepusher- we’re used to near perfection.  If Jenkinson could get a group of crack prog-rock musicians (L.A.’s Bad Dudes, perhaps?) to execute his songs for him to then manipulate, this album might be far better that it is.   It’s not sloppy; it’s just not as energetic as the sound of a group of people playing together can be.  Yet, we were okay with Squarepusher’s ability to coordinate his various personalities into mixed-genre musical spasms before but, at this point, he’s wearing too many hats, and we all know ‘Pusher’s not really the collaboratin’ type.

So the album isn’t a show-stopper, or even up to SP’s usual unusually high standards but, at least, we can sleep better at night knowing that there’s not some evil bass-playing robot out there attempting to enslave civilizations and destroy any audio it happens to come across in the process.

-Memes