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Wednesday,
June 08, 2005 at 14:49:40 (EDT) |
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Hot Hot Heat
Lots of
stuff going on this hot, hot day. Thanks to Citizen
Keith for showing me how to set up an RSS feed workaround
for this site. If you are the type for such things, you can
get my feed here.
Whether or not this inspires me to get a real blog script
going for this place remains to be seen.
 The
White
Stripes have this new album called "Get Behind me
Satan," named after a Bible passage from, among other
scriptures, Matthew
16:23. As usual, the critics
are fawning/puzzling over Jack White, and reserving their
bile for Meg White. Look people, she's no John Bonham, we
know that. Why does she always get singled out for scorn?
It's shooting fish in a barrel, no challenge. But what nobody
is mentioning is how Motico
prominently uses the phrase "Satan, get thee behind me"
in its song, "Stop." We came up with that song late
last year, long before anybody heard of this new White Stripes
outing. The line is taken from an episode of The Little
Rascals in which Stymie
(my favorite LR of all time) says of a dangerous predicament,
"Satan, get Thee behind me ... and don't push!"
But the sucky thing is, we're gonna have to mention it every
time we play it so people don't think we're posers. This is
also problematic as it may not be good for us to bring a more
popular band's name up during our performances, since the
audience may in fact like them better than us.  This
may cause them to want to go home and listen to the White
Stripes instead of sticking around for our gigs.
I cut almost all my hair off, both because it's so hot, and
because, well, my scalp has been shall we say increasingly
unresponsive. My dad is a cue ball, so it shouldn't be that
surprising, though I have made it almost 10 years past the
age he was at when his last follicle gave up the ghost. Now
my head looks ridiculously round, and all my clothes look
funny on me. I need some suspenders! On the upside, I do look
a little more like Stymie now.
 Finally,
to the weather gods: How can you do this to my little cat?!
Addendum: It also sucks that Stymie became
a junkie later in life but he did turn it around near the
end to become a cast member on early episodes of Sanford
& Son. Find out what
happened to all the Little Rascals after they grew up.
Quite a few became Big
Scoundrels.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Wednesday,
June 08, 2005 at 12:21:51 (EDT) |
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Treat us just like children
Dude, what the fuck is up with sound guys? Okay, that's a generalization,
we meet a lot of really great sound guys at different clubs
in the city. But then again, nearly every "cool" sound
guy has been a young fella, fresh on the scene and everything
to prove. Those guys are nice. Oh, and the guy who did sound
for us at Pianos, Zack had worked with him in the past. That
guy was good. But a lot of the other ones out there....
Case in point: last night we go to Trash
to see No
Things, the better half of the original Liars
who added a guitarist/singer. Anyway, the sound guy had been
getting on our nerves already by playing music in between
the bands at a volume that made it difficult to hear the sound
of your own screaming-at-the-top-of-your-lungs. Obviously
I don't mind loud rock music, but when it's not the real band,
why would anybody want the music to be that loud? Anyway,
that's just a pet peeve of mine. No Things start to set up,
they're checking their equipment and whatnot, and the sound
guy tells the bassist to turn his rig down. He demures, "This
is how loud it has to be." He wasn't fucking with the
guy, he just knew how loud his bass needed to be for everybody
in the band to hear it. But I think the sound guy took this
the wrong way. Then the band actually goes out into the other
(quieter) part of the bar with the sound guy to talk things
over. When they come back, all seems well and they start into
what should have been a really good set.
But then things go awry. Who knows exactly what happened,
but I guess as retaliation for not having control over the
bass volume, the sound guy pumps the vocals up wayyyyy too
loud, so any time there isn't singing, the mics feedback mercilessly.
There is obviously something else going on sound-wise, although
I can't tell much since my ears have already been blown out
by the interval music. They make it through 1 and a half songs
before the guitarist gets so fed up with what is conspiring
he knocks the mic stand down. The band tries to continue the
song as an instrumental but the feedback just gets worse.
He snatches up the mic and starts yelling at the sound guy,
something like "Look, we tried to talk this all out,
but you had to fuck with us ..." He heads for the sound
booth, still shouting into the mic. He's mad, but he also
sounds really hurt, like it was a surprise that a sound guy
would turn out to be an asshole.
A moment later, the sound guy gets on the PA and says, "That's
it, you're done!" and the show is effectively over. Shouts
of "fuck the sound guy!" have no effect and the
band starts packing up. The sound guy is immediately on stage,
putting away the mics and cables, as though the guys in the
band might steal something. I should point out this band isn't
comprised of snotty punk teenagers or anything, they're all
pushing 30 if not more.
You never know when it's going to happen, but when a band
clashes with the sound guy it's not exactly surprising. There's
often this weird animosity between them, which seems kinda
weird since we're all in this music thing together. A lot
of people think of sound guys as rock critics; failed musicians
who have no other entry into the 'scene.' So they get to be
know-it-alls because they're so insecure of losing their position
of authority. They think bands owe them a living, and unfortunately
in a town like this, they can get away with it. No Things
will probably never play Trash again, but the dickweed sound
guy will probably be there tonight. There will always be more
bands to take their place, and he knows that. Maybe that's
why bands like Lightning Bolt and USAISAMONSTER have incorporated
a full PA into their mobile band rigs; they can play anywhere
and nobody can mess with their sound, unless they pull the
plug entirely.
Not all sound guys are assholes, the guy who did my band's
show at Trash was great, and there have been many others (the
guy from Ace of Clubs, Dave from Lit). And I still like Trash,
but Tuesdays will always be suspect from now on.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Tuesday, June
07, 2005 at 12:51:58 (EDT) |
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Born to live on sound
Strange is the world in which we live, that it can produce a
coincidental band-naming moment the likes of "Poobah."
I've written about this before,
so this may be unnecessary to my staunch readers, but back in
my undergrad days at Ohio University, a local band came up with
the moniker "Poobah." I kind of knew the guys in the
band, and that name sure didn't make any sense to me. They were
a pretty serious, Fugzi-inspired rock outfit, and that name
seemed a little too goofy for them. But whatever, trying to
tell a band they should change their name is a harder conversation
than explaining to your roommate that you've been using his
barber scissors to trim your nose hair (oops). Poobah went on
for a while ... until it was discovered that there was another
Poobah in existence. Huh, what are the odds?! Not to be confused
with the rapper Grand
Puba (an only slightly more fitting use of the word), the
other Poobah had been around since the early 70's, and in a
more unfortunate coincidence, lived a half-hour away in Marietta,
Ohio. Why, oh why would there be two bands named Poobah, and
what bizarre cosmic joke is it that they both came from roughly
the same area? The longer-lived Poobah was a long-endured prog-rock
band who, though they hadn't done much in recent years, were
still officially in existence. So punk-rock Poobah changed its
name to Alkaloid (which had been the name of their debut album),
and the other Poobah was never heard from again. Until now!
 Poobah
(the Marietta variety) is back with anew album so noteworthy
that Chuck Eddy profiles them in Voice
column. I have issues with this guy, as he seems to love the
too-many-chefs blather of Gang
Gang Dance to excess. Also his summation that Poobah's
first record "may or may not be a holy grail for today's
young stoner-folk and freak-rock generation, but it should
be" is a bit dubious. But one thing about this is nice:
I finally get to hear the band. At some point in 1993, there
was a feeling that the elder Poobah would get in gear and
come to Athens for a big show, to seal the public's mind on
the whole name issue. But they never showed (at least I never
heard about it). So now we get to hear them in their full
glory. And whoooeeee, it's a laff riot! I had to check the
link for accuracy when I listened to the sample of "Jump
Thru the Golden Ring," as I thought it might be a
song by The
Darkness, or more correctly, something by Pink
Steel. Actually, Pink Steel might do well to take a few
tips from this sword'n'sorcery-fuelled bar-glam. Then again,
Pink Steel is a gay heavy-metal parody act, perhaps what is
needed now is a prog-rock parody act. They could dress up
in long wigs and ugly satin outfits, and write songs with
even more movements and pretentious nonsense than Yes. And
they shall be called ... "No."
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, June
06, 2005 at 13:28:59 (EDT) |
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Comedy Tonight
Kevin2 entertains the crowd while Buzz
miraculously fixes his broken snare drumAce of Clubs is actually a pretty cool spot for bands to
play. Our show was tons of fun despite Buzz and Zack being
deathly ill. The show shoulda been cheaper (it was $7) but
maybe they'll realize how knocking a couple of bucks off the
price increases the club's profile. All the bands were really
good as well, I hope we get to play with them in the future.
Summer hit NYC with a fury, it's way too hot too fast to
adjust. I need more fans! We had a surprise birthday party
for Zack on Saturday. We weren't sure he didn't know about
it, but we managed to fool him well enough. Coincidentally,
that was the first really warm night, making it easy to lounge
around his back yard all night, until he shooed us out the
door. Now it's time to really start hitting the outdoor bar
scene! But my main concern now is that most bar backyards
close kind of early. Are there any places that stay open all
night? I suppose the Delancey's roof deck/plant store stays
open til 4, but spending that much time there would surely
bankrupt a thirsty reveler. I'll have to track down some other
likely spots, although I suspect that will mean fringe locations
like Lillie's in Red Hook. Or I could just drink alone in
my yard; we never close.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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