Genaro are an excellent band from Carluke, Scotland, which is kind of halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Their music is kind of a cool mix of shoegazy My Bloody Valentine-like ambiance and Joy Divisiony songwriting. I’d originally interviewed them for a New Music Monthly piece I just completed on Scottish bands, but thought this might fit better here. Their debut, cleverly titled Genaro (Benbecula), came out in the U.K. today. You can check ‘em out on MySpace here. Drummer Dominic Dixon was kind enough to answer some questions the other night just before bed.

Why do you feel Glasgow and its surrounding areas have produced so many notable band?
Music has always been a big part of Scottish culture, and there’s also a lot of venues/promoters putting on bands around Glasgow, so I guess with it being so easy to get gigs, people are more inclined to get together and start making music.

What Scottish musical groups have influenced Genaro most?
We all have pretty diverse record collections but it’s probably safe to say that we’ve all been influenced in some way by Cocteau Twins, Jesus And Mary Chain, Boards Of Canada, Mogwai, and even ’60s psychedelic artists like the Incredible String Band and Donovan.

Why do you feel each band seems to have its own sound?
I think if you put any group of musicians together their sound will be different from the next group, due to each person bringing in their own influences and styles of playing, although strangely enough, it seems to me that the bands who achieve the most commercial success these days sound very similar.

How did Genaro’s members meet each other before forming?
We all went to the same high school, although I’m a few years older and didn’t actually meet them until a year or two after I left school. Craig and Derek were already playing in a band together when Daryl introduced me to them, a few months later their band split up and the four of us started Genaro.

How has being located in Carluke affected your band? Do you travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh much?
There isn’t really much to do in Carluke so I guess living here has given us a lot of time to get together and write songs. We rehearse in Glasgow and Carluke doesn’t have a record shop, so we tend to go there quite a lot, Edinburgh not so often, although we’ve played a few gigs there, and our label Benbecula is Edinburgh based.

Have you gotten much support from any other Scottish musicians?
We definitely have, bands are generally quite supportive of each other here, there’s also a scheme for unemployed musicians, which Craig and I have both been on. They offer advice for people looking to get into the industry from other musicians and people already in the industry. Last week for instance, I went to a lecture about music business by Francis MacDonald, who used to be in Teenage Fanclub. It’s pretty cool to have that kind of support available from people who know what they’re talking about.

Sonic Youth performed their 1988 touchstone Daydream Nation in its entirety on Saturday at Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool, as part of All Tomorrow’s Parties’ Don’t Look Back concert series. Nearly 20 years since its release, the album still sounded fresh and the band seemed OK with tackling non-hits like “Total Trash,” “Rain King” and the awesome “Hey Joni,” which, according to their website’s “Song Performance Statistics,” they’ve seldom played over the years. The album itself remains the band’s finest hour—difficult considering it followed their brilliant Sister album—and since it was their final independent release before signing to Geffen, this concert stands testament to one of indie rock’s peaks.

After an urgent set by the reunited Slits (Ari Up told the audience repeatedly how nervous she was), which closed with a great rendition of “Typical Girls,” Sonic Youth assumed their positions. With all due respect to Jim O’Rourke and ex-Pavement bassist Mark Ibold, who have been playing with the band recently, it was exciting to see them as a four-piece again. Kim Gordon wore a black-and-white striped dress, Steve Shelley a brown T-shirt and Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore wore oversized white fitted shirts. Behind them a tapestry with a big, pink candle was displayed, which changed colors with the lights throughout the set. Strangely, two sentries stood on the walls of the pool overlooking the audience in a harrowing way. Nothing came of it, but it added a strange sense of menace to the show until the band suitably distracted me.

At the end of opener “Teenage Riot,” Moore and Ranaldo charged each other, hitting their guitars at the end of the song, making a clanging static sound. They were officially warmed up, and they stayed in their zone throughout. Other than Moore shouting “double-track” between “Total Trash” and “Hey Joni,” the band didn’t say one word to the audience during the “album” portion of the set. Although there were a few minutes of extended noise after some of the songs, they were faithful to the album’s sound and sequence. One surreal highlight was watching Moore and Ranaldo make amp noise while they played back Mike Watt’s strange phone messages for “Providence” and how it captivated the audience. The set closed with Gordon’s impassioned “Kissability” and their “Trilogy,” for which Moore either needed a lyric sheet or a new copy of the setlist and a light, which a stagehand brought out, ending with Gordon’s “Eliminator, Jr.” It was a perfect performance of a perfect album. Moore said, “Thanks a lot,” and existed the stage.

After a short break, the band returned for an encore and spoke more to the audience. Before they played any songs, Ranaldo quipped, “We’ll come back to the 21st Century now.” Moore thanked the audience again for showing up and said that it was a big deal to him to hear the album in such a large space, because when he was demoing it at his apartment on 8th Street in Manhattan, it was in a “room the size of my amplifier.” For their encores (they took two), they played selections from their most recent album, 2006’s Rather Ripped, which included “Incinerate,” “Reena,” “Do You Believe In Rapture?” and “What A Waste” for the first and “Jams Run Free” and “Pink Steam” for the second. Between “Reena” and “Do You Believe In Rapture?” Moore played the radio through his amplifier, including J.Lo’s “Waiting For Tonight,” while the band improvised noise, leading up to it. Before their second encore, Moore said, “Dude, we’d play all night if only the city would pass the ‘Anarchy Ordinance.’” The group cheered, and even though these songs weren’t catalog (though it would be nice to have heard “Schizophrenia” or any of the bonus cuts from their recent Daydream Nation reissue, like their cover of Mudhoney’s “Touch Me I’m Sick”), it closed the night well.

This show concluded Don’t Look Back’s New York performances, which also featured Slint’s Spiderland and Girls Against Boys’ Venus Luxure No.1 Baby (which I would have attended had I not seen it at the Touch And Go festival last year). I’m certainly jealous of Los Angeles’s Don’t Look Back shows, which included Redd Kross’s Born Innocent, Mudhoney’s Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles and Melvins’ Houdini, but with the shows I got, I can’t complain. Let’s hope next year will bring some more good ones.

On Tuesday night, Slint performed what would otherwise be a pipedream: they played their landmark album, Spiderland, sequentially in its entirety at New York’s Webster Hall. The album—a diverse collection of dynamic guitar rock with occasional spoken-word interludes—has inspired countless bands (and therefore fans) far beyond its SoundScan numbers, from metal bands to math rock bands, and the audience, which contained an even mix of genders and ages, that night reflected it.

The current lineup—composed of original members Brian McMahan (vocals, guitar), David Pajo (guitar) and Britt Walford (drums), along with newbies guitarist Michael McMahan and bassist Matt Jencik (of Don Caballero 2 fame!)—assumed their positions with little fanfare and the stage was mostly kept dark throughout the set, save some strategically placed lights.

After a few warm-up notes of “Johnny B. Goode,” courtesy Pajo, they opened with the deft chording and harmonic plucking of “Breadcrumb Trail,” the band nailed every note from that point on. Sticking to their dark demeanor, during the quiet guitar duo “Don, Aman,” Brian, who was barefoot and dressed in a red shirt and beige shorts, walked offstage until it was his turn to sing. Almost contrary to their mystique, however, each member had a highly visible setlist, quizzical since they played the album in order, their self-titled EP (“Glenn” and “Rhoda”) as an encore, and a previously unreleased/unrecorded—and kind of funky—song called “King’s Approach.” Throughout the set, musicians swapped places for songs, with Walford taking over vocals for “Don, Aman,” seemingly leaving only Pajo, who wore a Dio T-shirt, to his own instrument throughout.

Accordingly, it was one of the most reverent, quiet audiences I’ve seen at any show—a glass breaking at the upstairs bar between “Don, Aman” and “Washer” was so alarming that audience members looked back in shock. It was also the floodgate opening for a select few shout-outs, including one fan shouting, “That was awesome!” This prompted Brian to rejoin, “I knew there was still some vintage Rush fans out there.” Everyone laughed. After they finished the final notes of their most famous song, “Good Morning, Captain,” the crowd erupted in applause. It was a glorious moment, something which seemed to leave Slint unphased as they stood onstage prepping for their encore. The last few songs only featured the original members and Jencik, and it was a fitting sendoff. Let’s hope, as rumors have indicated, they’ll record some new material that we can hear before 2112.

The August are a breezy, unsigned country-rock band from Chicago. With confident, twangy vocalist/guitarist Jacky Dustin crooning about finding Mr. Right, faded romance and tackling loneliness, the music on their debut, Thistle, Sparrow, And The Tall, Tall Grass, takes on an airy, ambivalent tone that belies these otherwise tried-and-true subjects. Supported by guitarist/vocalist Wojtek Krupka, bassist Petey Kapp and drummer Tim Good—and their soaring steel guitar and occasionally bouncy rhythms—Dustin doesn’t sound quite so alone. Accordingly, their smart, catchy confessionals will surely appeal to fans of the Band as much as Jack Johnson and Neko Case. You can hear the band at www.myspace.com/theaugustmusic. The group kindly answered some questions via email below.

What should people take from your music?
Jacky Dustin, vocals: I think the greatest thing people can take from our music is its honesty. All of our songs are written from everyday-life experiences, which makes them easy to relate to. When people listen to our album, I hope they can say, “Yeah, I feel that.” I also hope they enjoy all the colors and layers there are on each song, but at the same time, the beauty of each song’s simplicity. We’re not exactly trying to break any boundaries with our music, just giving people our own twist of good songs that are easy to listen to, easy to relate to, and easy to hum along to.
Tim Good, drums: The people can take whatever they want to, but if they’re going to take our music, they should leave us 10 dollars.

Your music has a country-ish vibe to it. How does living in an urban center like Chicago influence your music?
Good: Being from around Chicago and being exposed to its music scene does not directly affect our sound… I’m not sure where we picked up this twang. But Chicago may influence us as far as work ethic, keeping us on the straight and narrow, fueling a healthy competition with the sea of bands Chicago produces.

You’ve said your lyrics to “Gatsby” were about feeling bitter about a friend leaving. How does this tie in with the Fitzgerald book?
Wojtek Krupka, guitar, vocals: Well, in this case, the name “Gatsby” is used as an adjective. Not being content with what you have and always wanting more, that sort of thing. I guess being “Gatsby” is just that—someone who is hard to figure out and someone who creates their life by surrounding themselves with what they want. If they don’t have what they want, they go out and get it. The problem is, like Gatsby (the character), usually no matter what they surround themselves with, [people] will always want something more, something new. They’re never really happy or content. At the time my friend and I were in a band and we just released a CD and then, out of the blue, he said that he’s moving away. His reasoning wasn’t too clear at all. He just needed a change of pace. So he and his girlfriend at the time moved away and left the band in limbo. I didn’t set out to upset him by writing the song, it was just a connection that was on my mind and I put it into a song. The band really rebounded well.

What advantages about being an unsigned band have you noticed?
Good: We don’t answer to nobody, except maybe our parents and Pete’s (our bassist’s) wife too.
Dustin: Ha, not much. I guess the best thing about it is the freedom. We are totally in charge of everything we do, what songs we sing and how we arrange and produce them… No doubt though, we are eventually looking to get a deal with a label, to help out financially, so we don’t have to be doing all the booking and marketing on our own… When we’re ready and it’s time, it will happen. Until then… this is a whole lot of fun.

How successful has the Snocap player been for you on MySpace?
Krupka: Actually, not very successful at all. I am not sure what the holdup is with people jumping on the Snocap bandwagon, but we have had great success through iTunes and our online store and that just seems to be the main avenue that our fans travel when buying digitally. It’s quite interesting.

Anything else you’d like to add?
Kapp: If you like the Eagles or the Jayhawks or anything that has that folk rock, melodic—do I dare say countyish?—thing going, then you should check out our stuff. Maybe you could buy it through Snocap and be our first official Snocap sale? Try it out.

Artist site: www.theaugust.com

Knowing that my mom is the biggest fan of the ’60s group Love that I know, I thought I’d send her their new box set to review. Here’s her review:

The Blue Thumb Recordings, the latest CD by Love or the group that I wish had gotten more airplay in the ’60s.

Recently, Hip-O ambitiously reissued Love’s The Blue Thumb Recordings in a three-CD set. Love, headed by Arthur Lee, was a mid-to-late-’60s revolutionary, versatile group that headlined over the Grateful Dead, Big Brother And The Holding Company and Moby Grape. They influenced Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, who wrote and performed on the psychedelic Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and, more recently, Calexico and the New Pornographers. This multi-disc set spotlights the variety of styles, moods and topics Love was so good at capturing.

Out Here, the first and longest CD, starts out with “I’ll Pray for You,” a tongue-in-cheek message to the ’60s-’70s Christian revival movement. The stellar “Signed D.C.,” a bluesy song about drugs and the dealer is every bit as good as Steppenwolf’s same-themed “The Pusher.” However, at the beginning one might be tempted to sing along the lyrics to “The House Of The Rising Sun,” because they seem to share the same pacing and chord progressions at that point. “Discharged” is a funky, catchy song with fanfare and drum roll à la Country Joe’s “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” about the unfortunately relevant theme of war. “Love Is More Than Words Or Better Late Than Never” has typical familiar Love song structure with a nice guitar solo.

This CD isn’t as outstanding as Forever Changes but is very typical of the times with an obligatory long drum improvisation on “Doggone” and organ solo on “Instra-Mental.” The compulsory rhyming of the era is good and occasionally present. Lee’s cryptic titles and lyrics similar to Dylan’s and Led Zeppelin’s are gone. Technically, this CD is the best produced of the three.

This year Alice Cooper played Love’s cover of Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” during his “Cooper’s Cover” segment, which I liked quite a bit, and False Start, the second CD starts out with a rare collaboration with Jimi Hendrix on “The Everlasting First.” Unfortunately, the beginning of the song has, perhaps the squealing of a reel-to-reel tape recorder being fast forwarded and ends with the abrupt click off or the recorder or the lifting off of a turntable needle.

The songs on this CD have better guitar work than earlier recordings. The music is mainstream for the original release time but still excellent. Highlights include the fun “Keep On Shining”, the bluesy, mellow “Anytime,” the playful “Slick Dick,” and the funky “Feel Daddy, Feel Good.”

England 1970s, the third CD, features several live performances. The sound varies from section to section on the disc because of more than one recording session and venue. Lee sounds a little sloshed in one part where he introduces “My Little Red Book” as “My Little Red Crook,” and some notes in “Orange Skies” are off pitch and the sound in the pronunciation of some lyrics is strident.

Perhaps a better rendition of Love in concert is the January 15th, 2003 The Forever Changes Concert on DVD, recorded in London, although that was specifically produced for mass distribution.

On the June 26th release date the only store in my town, Colorado Springs, that stocked the Blue Thumb Recordings was the locally owned Independent Records And Video. Projected retail prices in chain stores visited ranged from $27 to $50.

This over two-and-a-half hour, three-CD set is certainly an essential one for the serious Love collector and anyone else that appreciates the group’s music. >>>MARILYN GROW

On February 14, Diamanda Galás performed a heart-wrenching set of piano ballads which she dubbed her “Valentine’s Day Massacre” at New York’s Knitting Factory. After a nice dinner, my girlfriend, Lisa, and I came for the late, sold out show. The venue was decked out in blue Christmas lights and foldout, wooden candlestick holders were hanging from the ceiling. The audience, composed of some couples but mostly single folk, stood before the stage reverently waiting for their dark chanteuse to seat herself at the Steinway & Sons grand piano, adorned with a white snake and a skull. A lone, fall twig was placed in the back of the stage. After her entrance seemed delayed, antsy members of the audience started demanding “Die-A-Man-Duh!”

When she appeared, Galás was dressed in a black top with her arms out and long scarves descending from her wrist guards and pants. When she opened her mouth, a low, almost manly voice bellowed out and she would work within her full spectrum as the night progressed. Sometimes she sounded raspy, sometimes her delivery was incredibly sweet, and that’s what makes Diamanda so captivating after so many years: her contrast. That’s also what made this concert work so perfectly. Although the repertoire came from her current “Guilty Guilty Guilty” concert program (consisting of “homicidal love songs and death songs,” according to her website), the contrast of songs about guilt, hubris and jealousy seemed a perfect fit for the day of love. And while she might have intended the contrast to show the silliness of this Hallmark holiday, her mere presence added a magic to the day that wouldn’t exist otherwise (she also performed a Valentine’s Massacre last year).

While she played songs such as “Autumn Leaves,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “O Death” and Edith Piaf’s “Heaven Have Mercy,” the true highlight came when she sang Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell’s blues classic, “Thrill Is Gone,” during her encore. Her brittle delivery added a new angle to the song that no one else (including B.B. King) has displayed previously. Like much of the rest of her set it sounded as beautiful as it did terrifying. And there’s no better way to end your Valentine’s night out than sharing the chills running up your spine with your loved one.

While her previous run of shows, Defixiones: Orders From The Dead, found her in long black robes, ritualistically moving from one side of the stage to the other with religious precision, it was exciting to see a more stripped down affair (snakes and skulls notwithstanding). Through the years, her voice has retained the power and intensity it always has, and it’s still releasing the terror, theatricality and inner vision that was promised on her earliest recordings. It’s too bad every show cannot be Valentine’s Day, for calling this show “Guilty Guilty Guilty” might be too lenient of a condemnation for her listeners. Best show of the year so far.

So, as you well know there’s a big music festival that happens in Austin, Texas every March. I attended this year and decided to summarize my trip with a list of bests and worsts. (And thank God I didn’t review the Best Wurst while I was down there… that place looked terrible.)

Best “File Under” I Thought Of While Watching Burning Star Core’s Violin Feedback Session:
File Under: Merzbore

Strangest Doppelgänger Spotting:
There was this kid in the airport on the way to Austin who looks just like that CMJ’s favorite Sha Sha singer. Long, shaggy hair, big cheeks and (gasp!) a green Ben Kweller T-shirt! This has to be him, right? Nope. At least that’s what he told my roommate. “I get that a lot. Sorry.” So why are you wearing a Kweller T-shirt, genius? (more…)

Most Frightening Bouncer-Audience Fight:
Oxbow at Spiro’s Amphitheater Friday night at 1am. Anyone who’s seen San Francisco art-meddlers Oxbow perform in the 20+ years they’ve been a band knows one thing is true: frontman Eugene Robinson hates pants. I guess the bouncers at Spiro’s, who strangely all wore neon light necklaces, have never seen Oxbow before. As usual, Robinson started the show fully dressed, with his ears covered in gaffer’s tape. But when he got down to his undershirt and his underwear, I noticed the bouncer behind the stage wasn’t just looking uncomfortable, he was downright angry.

After their fifth or sixth song, Robinson said, “The constabulary has informed me I need to put my pants back on. This is our last song.” Guess what? He didn’t put his pants back on. About three minutes into the song, a guy walks to the back wall and cuts the band’s power. In a fit, Robinson threw the mic to the floor as hard ash could. Drummer Greg Davis kept playing and the bouncers started swarming him. Guitarist Niko Wenner and bassist Dan Adams picked up drumsticks and played along in solidarity. Some of the guys from Pelican ascended the stage to intervene with the bouncers and one made the mistake of spitting at a bouncer. That’s when the riot began.

The bouncers start fighting with anyone they could, and they tackled the member of Pelican, three of them swarming on him. I tried to pull one of the bigger guys off him and was successful but then he started charging me and I got out of his way. Everything seemed to calm down for a minute and I tried talking to Hydra Head co-owner Mark Thompson, who then pointed towards the stage. The bouncers were stampeding in a horizontal line towards anyone in their way and out into the alley. Again they swarmed the member of Pelican, who apologized for spitting, and that’s when I saw the cops starting to arrive. As with most riots, that was my cue to leave.

The next day I called South By Southwest’s office to no avail and have subsequently written them a letter about the hostile, fascistic, homophobic (were it a woman stripping, it would have been different) and shortsighted actions on behalf of the club’s security staff. After meeting up with some of the guys from the night before, I was relieved to hear no one was seriously injured, luckily. Oxbow performed again Saturday night and Robinson made a joke that he hoped there wouldn’t be two nights/two fights. Guess Spiro’s just isn’t ready for subversive intellectual types.

Update: Thanks to those fuckers at Spiro’s, my camera’s got something rattling in it now. They’re lucky it works.

Fight Songs: An Interview With Oxbow Vocalist Eugne Robinson
What do you remember about the “Oxbow Incident”?
I see the bouncers moving closer to us and having been a bouncer once I figure it’s to a) tell us we have one more song to play and they’re anticipating us not being that into this or b) there’s a curfew. Imagine my surprise when it had to do with the fact that I was pantsless. Not underwear-less. Just without pants. The police had purportedly told them to tell me to put my pants on. I thanked him for telling me but indicated that I would, of course, not be putting my pants on until I finished. Just like fucking. They cut the power. Greg and I, per our standard operating procedure, keep playing. They attack Greg. I stop them. The crowd flips out. Spit is thrown and then subsequently punches. Show’s over in the middle of our last song. People outside the club screaming, “Spiro’s sucks! Spiro’s sucks!” I walk out of the club, still without pants, and have someone take a picture of me with a local cop. The local cop was more than happy to oblige.

Has this ever happened before at your shows?
Of course… A similar thing had happened before when we played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers… The problem there was because some people came out onstage and got married during our set. And they took the time out of our set. I went insane and then we had a roadie and he was insane and so we beat all the bouncers and only stopped when police came onstage with their guns drawn. I tried to apologize to the Chili Peppers but they were not so prone to being that understanding. My point is this though: do not attempt to stop the fuck. Unless your building is on fire.

What did you say to the Spiro’s people after all was said and done?
Well the biggest bouncer came over and apologized. He said he was a performer as well and he hated to do it but the cops had told him to. I told him I was unlikely to listen to anybody but a cop but I complained about how he had treated our friends in Pelican even if the guys had spit on him. But then I said that when I was a bouncer if someone had ever spit on me I’d have broken his jaw in two places and then have rubbed mucus in his eyes. So in the scheme of things I was accepting his apology. The club owner, despite having given me free booze earlier, was a cock with his mewling about calling the police back to arrest someone for hurting/threatening his bouncers.

Why do you think they were so adamant about you putting your pants back on?
At a certain point it really isn’t about the pants at all, right? At a certain point it’s “just because I told you so.”

Was anyone seriously hurt?
My sense of decorum took a beating. Outside of that? And the bumps and bruises suffered by the valiant men of Pelican, no.

Best Band-Audience Fight:
Qui, the impressive, LA squonk-rock two-piece that just added David Yow to their lineup. Not only were they five hours late, but Yow incensed the audience off the bat with liberal usage of the N-word in a mocking Texan accent. After a few noisy, post-punk tunes (and a very drunk Yow stumbling everywhere), he looks into the audience at a woman in the front row and says, “You flipped me off, cunt!” Well, that’s actually when the birds started flying. Not only did she throw beer on him, but when he stepped off the stage to get in her face (he never hit her), she and her friends started accosting him. When he got back onstage he had blood coming down the side of his forehead. (See the interview below.) When I went to the bathroom after the show, a guy wearing a band badge for the Frantic who called himself Mitch (there’s no Mitch in the Frantic, liar) said to me, “This is the worst band I’ve ever heard and I hope they die from gonorrhea.” Well I’ve now heard the Frantic, sir, and the Frantic are no Qui. Sorry duder.

The Art Of Self-Defense: An Exclusive Account Of What Happened With Jessica B., From Southern Illinois (“Not Chicago!”) Who Fought David Yow
I came here with some people and wanted to hear music. This girl I took a piss with was up front and she had “Give me a beer” on her palm. She was like the smallest girl there. The band had this tub of beers onstage next to them. And dude was like “That fucking cunt flipped me off!” And I was like “Fuck you,” and I wasted my beer by throwing it at him. He came into the audience and I started punching him and scratching him and he pushed her. Fuck him. Quit.

A Quote From Jessica B.’s Friend From Austin Whose Name I Didn’t Get
So who was that band?
Qui. Do you know the Jesus Lizard?
Yeah, they’re good.
That was their singer.
Damn it. I used to like them. Now I have to hate them.

“I’ll give 40 bucks to the first person who gets up here and strips naked,” said Pigeon John at an early February show at New York’s Knitting Factory. The crowd laughed and before too long, someone actually climbed onstage and started disrobing. As he stopped at his underwear, John says, “You gotta get completely naked.” And not only did he get the honor of standing onstage with one of the best (and openly nerdiest) MCs around right now from “Lost Angels” (as the artist’s MySpace page says), but he got his cash and a drink ticket. Dressed in a green sweater that covered a brown button-down and a black tie, John had somewhat of a battle warming up the crowd. They’d come to see Slick Rick play later (much later as it turned out… unfortunately, the ruler didn’t rule as much as his records ), and even though all of that East Coast/West Coast bullshit seems mostly over with, the crowd didn’t seem to relate with John’s slick, clever verses and emotive stage presence. Everything changed after the audience member got naked.

Although when John said he’d been nervous backstage when he came out, he sure didn’t show it. He confidently performed songs like “Money Back Guarantee” and “Freaks! Freaks!” off his latest, Pigeon John And The Summertime Pool Party, and “Nothing Without You” from Sings The Blues. Pigeon John has a sort of wholesome yet too-smart-for-his-own-good quality that hip-hop hasn’t seen in a while. When he had finished, it was clear it was a great show for people who like hip-hop, naked men and small green portraits of Andrew Jackson.

For my first concert of the year, I went to see Viking metallers Enslaved at B.B. King’s. Since I don’t leave home without my phone, as you garnered from yesterday’s post, I tried to capture the essence of the show through my blurry black filter.

First up, we were greeted by this welcome mat:

(more…)

Last Friday night, my trusty cameraphone and I attended Mission Of Burma’s headlining show at Irving Plaza to take some wonderfully blurry pics of musicians that you can’t really make out.

First up was Parts & Labor, which features one of my pals, drummer Christopher R. Weingarten. They seemed a little nervous, but the crowd, which was surprisingly young, seemed to like it… especially the couple dry-humping near the front of the stage and the other couple ferociously making out in a frenzied mosh. P&L ended with “A Great Divide” (by far the best Hüsker Dü homage of ’06) and they quickly hurried off behind Irving’s projector screen. I’ve always liked their rock-oriented songs better than their noise freakouts. And look (if you can see it), BJ cut his hair!

Next up was Oneida who played songs “written and performed by Oneida.” They needed to make this very clear for the Deadheads in the audience. Good fun aside, they somehow managed to make their Brooklyn minimalist party funk translate to Irving Plaza’s big, strangely shaped room and the audience seemed pretty into it (although when last I saw ’em in Brooklyn, there were cheerleader routines happening in the back of the club). Their album, Happy New Year, remains the best post-post-rock album of ’06. The only thing missing was Double Rainbow, the newest edition to the band.

Mission Of Burma closed the show with a stellar set. I was surprised by all of the punk rock kids that showed up. They seemed to outweigh the old, glory days dudes that showed up to their first reunion show four years ago at Irving Plaza. I saw the members of Yo La Tengo upstairs in the VIP and a few other indie-rock celebs that I’ll keep to myself. Surprisingly, Roger Miller played without his hunting earmuffs. They played everything I wanted to hear except “Max Ernst,” but beggars can’t be choosers. Bob Weston did an excellent job with the tape loops, too, making fun of their between-song banter. Halfway through the first set, drummer Pete Prescott pleaded with the audience to bring him a cymbal. And sure enough, in the next song break, there’s Weingarten trotting on stage with one. As they started the next song, all the punks in the pit (ridiculous that there was a “pit,” I know) started treating Weingarten like a rock star. It was kind of funny. After the show he was signing autographs. When all was said and done, this was probably the best time I’ve seen Mission Of Burma. Clint Conley tore into “Academy Fight Song” with zeal and even “The Setup,” from 2004’s ONoffON, sounded like a classic. I just hope my cameraphone depicts this all with fuzzy grace.

The other day, my boss finally gave me the iPod iTalk extension to play around with (after some cajoling and small bribes—dude seriously loves peanut brittle!). Basically it’s a stereo microphone that records CD-quality sounds directly to the iPod’s “Voice Memos” (you should have a newer 30-gig iPod or higher, video iPods work too). I used it to record some parts of songs that I’d been working on at home and they sounded pretty clear. It’s not “studio quality” but it’s perfect for spot recording. All you have to do is press the iTalk button and it starts recording. One caveat, however, is that it records wave sounds (.wav files) that take up a lot of space. You can put them directly on your computer afterwards. Just be mindful of your capacity. (Also, double-check that it will work with your iPod.)

Considering artists like Daniel Johnston have been tape recording themselves for years (and the fact that I spent the better part of last night re-spooling a cassette tape that I’d conducted an interview on), it’s only natural that indie musicians will eventually start recording straight to iPod. Speaking of interviews, the iTalk also has an input slot that I can plug my phone jack into for recording interviews (or other nefarious phone conversations), although I think it’s meant for better, studio mics. I’m guessing Foley artists will dig it too as they can just take that out to outdoor record sounds… although better technology probably exists. In any case, my iPod hasn’t sounded like this before.

www.griffintechnology.com/products/italk

Their Grammies are better! Let’s take the metal category, for instance. In the US, our nominees are:

• Lamb Of God – Sacrament (Epic)
• Mastodon – Blood Mountain (Reprise-Relapse)
• Ministry – Rio Grande Blood (13th Planet-Megaforce)
• Slayer – Christ Illusion (American)
• Stone Sour – Come What(ever) May (Roadrunner)

But get this – the metal candidates for the Spellemannprisen in Norway this year are:

• Benea Reach – Monument Bineothan (Tabu)
• Enslaved – Ruun (Tabu)
• Gorgoroth – Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam (Regain)
• Keep Of Kalessin – Armada (Tabu)

Wait, is that correct? Gorgoroth?! Aren’t all of the members of that band in jail? Meanwhile, we have Stone Sour as an option here. And Enslaved—This is the only metal band that possibly more successfully progressive than Mastodon right now while maintaining their credibility. (BTW, Mastodon gets my vote for the US Grammies and Enslaved gets my pick for Spellemannprisen… not that I’m credentialed to vote…) Also, I want to add that Enslaved are coming to North America for the first time in 11 years this month. Tour dates are below. Anyway, check out the Norwegian Grammies here: www.spellemann.no/nomine.html.

Enslaved Tour Dates:
01/09 – Jaxx – Virginia
01/10 – BB Kings – New York
01/11 – Medley – Montreal – Canada
01/12 – Campus De Charlesbourg – Quebec City
01/13 – Opera House – Toronto
01/14 – Peabodys – Cleveland
01/15 – The Pearl Room – Mokena
01/16 – Station 4 – St Paul
01/19 – Boardwalk – Orangevale
01/20 – TBA – San Francisco
01/21 – Key Club – Hollywood
01/22 – Galaxy Theatre – Santa Ana
01/23 – Clubhouse – Tempe
01/25 – BlueBird Theater – Denver
01/26 – Launch Pad – Albuquerque
01/27 – House of Rock’n'Roll – El Paso
01/28 – Sanctuary – San Antonio
01/29 – Ridglea Theater – Ft. Worth
01/30 – Warehouse Live – Houston
02/01 – State Theatre – St. Petersburg
02/02 – Jesters Pub – Fayetteville
02/03 – The Chance – Poughkeepsie
02/04 – Webster Theatre – Hartford
02/05 – Mark’s Place – Bedford

We can all agree that the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe and Sherman’s Cindy Sherman are all visual art icons, but more importantly, we can now officially add Eddie Maiden to the list. Derek Riggs, the man behind the ghoul, which he originally dubbed “Electric Matthew,” has self-published Run For Cover: The Art Of Derek Riggs, a monograph of his work with text by metal journalist Martin Popoff. My favorite parts are his early works like the Heavy Metal magazine cover where an evil-looking man in a hovercraft is pursuing over another man who is in water (soo science fiction), and a blown up copy of the “Sanctuary” 7-inch sleeve where Eddie stabbed then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. One thing I hadn’t realized about Riggs’s early art is that most of it is two-color, like yellow and black. He says that that’s because Maiden couldn’t afford four colors at the time. Now, even as other artists are rendering Eddie to grace Maiden’s album covers, Riggs’s original drawings have become synonymous with heavy metal. No other artist “branded” the genre in the same way (look at all the knock-offs like S.O.D.’s Sgt. D and Dio’s Murray). The only question left is, if Andy Warhol legitimized ‘pop art,’ is Riggs’s the godfather of ‘rot art’?

To pick up a copy, click: www.derekriggs.com.

San Francisco avant-rock quartet Oxbow is finishing their new album, The Narcotic Story, right now with a June 2007 release date on Hydra Head. Teaming with Grammy-winning engineer Joe Chiccarelli (Bon Jovi, Counting Crows, Tori Amos), the album will surely contain many surprises. Known for frontman Eugene Robinson’s penchant for disrobing onstage as much as the band’s bombastic caterwauls of post-grunge dissonance, this album (five years since their last album, An Evil Heat) will loose the dam of confused ill will that’s likely been brewing inside the band. In a letter to Hydra Head manager Mark Thompson, reprinted in Oxbow’s newsletter, Robinson wrote, “You guys have no idea what you got yourself into.” We checked in with Robinson and guitarist Niko Wenner to find out exactly what they did get themselves into.

This album was announced in ’04. Why did you wait so long to record it?
Robinson: Well, functionally speaking, we’re burdened with this idea that whatever we make is going to long outlive us, so needs be that we make it worthy of something that will stand as a record of your/our time on this earth… While the question of “time” might be significant for the Red Hot Chili Peppers or some band that people give a fuck about, it’s not nearly so important for us, as is not putting out a record that means absolutely nothing to us. And figuring out what means absolutely something to you takes some time I think.
Wenner: The music for this record was fit within the film soundtrack genre, and more precisely the band performing a film soundtrack genre, and more exactly Oxbow making a film soundtrack. This means string quartet, this means woodwind quintet, this means nine-foot concert grand piano, this means synchronized tape and digital recording, roaring and weeping guitars, deep and sliding bass, pounding and ringing percussion, vocals that whisper and bite and croon and rage. Doing it right, as right as four men with obsessive compulsive musical disorder making an Oxbow-film soundtrack can possibly make it. This takes time.

What is “The Narcotic Story”?
Wenner: It is indeed a story, and accordingly the music follows a linear development also… People make films now where before they made opera, and let’s not be coy this is a perfectly joyously tragic pompous operatic expression by a beautifully loud noisy guitar bass drums and vocal band, with orchestra.

How could you possibly make listeners feel more uneasy?
Robinson: Many hundreds of ways: Pictures of their mothers urinating. Taking showers with their fathers. Helping their girlfriends around the house. All of which we’re not really likely to do as this is not our primary motivation for why we do what we do. But maybe you’re really asking, “Why does your music make listeners uneasy?” Well, I’ll tell you something… A few years ago I started boycotting all music, all movies. The sensation that I was hearing an oft-told joke told too often weighted on me like a fucking mill stone. It felt like a friend of mine once claimed, like I could see the future. I couldn’t profit off of this skill. But I could suffer because of it. These horrible canned realities. So for two years I ignored everything. The reasons why I went back are too involved to go into here but when I did go back I promised myself to do so with no foreknowledge. Or as little as was allowable. I’d read no reviews. I’d see/listen to no previews. I’d take personal recommendations without the explanations as to why… And suddenly as a result of doing that, I discovered that the whole process of discovery unfolded for me in a super-compelling tableaux of surprise, shock and almost first-hand experience. And it was unsettling. And it was uneasy. I didn’t know whether the characters would zig. Or zag. I knew nothing, and as a result of knowing nothing, I felt I was as close to the original spark as possible, given the fact that I was just consuming and not creating. This is why I think we ultimately make people uneasy: our aggressive commitment to making sure that when we say anything can happen, it usually does. I mean I can tell you I am going to slap your face. And then I can really slap your face. Really slapping your face only has resonance for you if you believe me to be in a position to do so—we live in the same town, the same house, and are sitting at the same table for example. Telling you I’m going to slap your face only resonates for you if you believe that we are absolutely committed to being in a position to do so. And we are.

Anything you can tell us about The Narcotic Story?
Robinson: It’s quiet and creepy and desperate and successfully broken. Like me when I wrote it.
Wenner: If I live through the making of this, I can die with a smile on my face.

www.theoxbow.com

>>>Kory Grow

On Saturday, Jay-Z made it clear just how badly he’s ready to get back into the game. To promote Kingdom Come, his first album after a three-year sabbatical from hip-hop, the Brooklynite embarked on a 17-hour US tour, hitting seven major cities. I was lucky enough to score a golden-ahem blue-ticket for Hova’s stop at Pier 54, right on the Hudson River in Manhattan, and it surpassed my expectations. Joined by New York’s mixtape king, DJ Green Lantern, and his eternal supporter, Memphis Bleek, the man known as Sean Carter, dressed in big sunglasses and a spiffy safety-pin printed hoodie, surprisingly focused on the hits over new material, saying early on, “Now we’re in New York Fuckin’ City, so this gotta be the livest show yet.” Later he kidded his audience about downloading the leaked version of the album off the internet, saying he was cool with it but that he still needed them to buy the album. These are not typical words to come from the mouth of a major record label’s CEO and President.

Although there weren’t many fans allowed into the exclusive gig, only enough to go back to his mixing desk, since the show was outside there were hundreds more lining West End Avenue looking on, and Jay-Z made sure to make sure they were having a good time too. Just after finishing “Izzo (H.O.V.A),” he started to kid the audience about how the time had come for him to get back on the plane, but as the audience chanted for more, Green Lantern lurched into “Big Pimpin’.” Jay-Z sang the first couple of lines and told the DJ to hold up, and from that point, the audience rapped more than half the song with Hova just standing there grinning. This was the town that inspired the song in the first place, and it still hit his fans in the same way. Although he tried to look tough, it was clear he was a little touched by the hometown love, even if he was pulling the same gimmick at every stop of the day. It’s probably the best hip-hop show I’ve been to lately and it was just an honor to see the man in such a small venue. And because he played all of about 30 minutes, it was nice to see the crowd really meaning it when they were shouting for “Encore,” his last song of the set. After that, it was off to Chicago for Hova.

Jay-Z’s Setlist:

Public Service Announcement (Interlude)
U Don’t Know
30 Something
Jigga My N***a
Hola’ Hovito
Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
Big Pimpin’
I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)
Show Me What You Got
Encore

In early October, Today Is The Day’s sludgemaster general, Steve Austin, founded SuperNova Records as the home for both his band and a number of other up-and-coming extreme noise terrorists. His label’s first release is a remastered version of 1994’s AmRep-issued TITD live onslaught, Willpower. Second release? A Willpower DVD. He’s also releasing albums by his side project, Taipan, as well as his own discoveries, Roanoke, Diesel Theory and the Orange Man Theory. To change his state of mind, he also returned to his state of origin, Tennessee. Here, in an email interview, Steve Austin discusses why today is indeed the day.

Why did you want to move back to Tennessee?
NASCAR, Daisy Duke, Johnny Cash, Elvis, and my mama… Just kiddin’. I grew up in Tennessee and moved to Massachusetts in 1997. I just enjoy the South better than the cold North. The South has always been my home. Massachusetts is way too liberal and insane for me. I wanna be free and now I am. (more…)

Tomorrow, on Halloween no less, one of Japan’s most renowned psychedelic dronesters, Boris, will release their collaboration with US low-end titans SunnO)) called Altar (Southern Lord). When I interviewed the latter’s guitarist Greg Anderson for a feature on the collaboration in CMJ New Music Monthly, Boris were touring abroad and unreachable for an interview. When they got back to Japan, drummer/vocalist Atsuo took some time to answer my questions about the collaboration. Because he speaks very little English (a theme that supplemented the improvisational nature of the album), his manager translated the interview for us in an email. Although there are grammatical and syntactical errors throughout, I’ve decided to leave the text the way it came to me, to keep it true to the sentiment, which was another theme throughout Altar. Enjoy!

How did the idea come about that you would collaborate with SunnO))?

That was live in London in 2003. They were a relationship from equal to or more than 10 years before but as for attending their show, it was the first time. Talks about whether or not we don’t attempt to make together with Stephen [O’Malley, SunnO))’s other guitarist] from me at the time of the tour about something. Then, talk about the image on the volcano, which Stephen calls “Etna” with the email and so on to me and by the quite early step, a title, Altar, was decided.

What kinds of musical ideas did you trade between the bands?

We talked about the wonderful music. We were attending each activity. Those informations and images of each other for more than 10 years influenced our work. We didn’t bring special musical ideas from Boris side. Because we think that the music is born in the selfishness of it, the composing methodology isn’t too important to us. Only by Greg’s being preparing about two riffs. Later, being naturally, the music was born. Specifically, if saying that it prepared, prepare gear to be usually using. Because of course, we take pedals huge each time from Japan and the pedal case of Wata is as heavy as 20 kg. In addition to it, she is using two large echoes. Though she can’t carry it by herself, hahaha. There was best environment for us, SunnO)) and of the engineer, Randall supported us about the amplifier and to make a sound. (more…)