Answer: The music I love makes me feel like Alex in A Clockwork Orange when he has an orgasm from listening to the great Ludwig Van. The music I disdain makes me feel like Alex later in the film when he is conditioned to feel nothing but utter torment when he hears Beethoven’s Ninth, to the point of “doing himself in.” I don’t feel suicidal, but the likes of Jason Mraz with his “I’m Yours” is nothing short of pure torment!
Here’s a bit of the old ultra violence… viddy well brothers and sisters!
If you haven’t seen the film or read the book you have no idea what the fuck I am saying lol.
“Pulp Fiction is one of the greatest movies of all time and you know what, I have yet to seen another film top it”- Me
Going with the flow of Glen’s earlier post on Roy Orbison I decided to switch gears with a film. To the above statement, anyone agree, disagree, why? Better films? Thoughts on Tarantino and his style? etc. In my Cultural Studies class today we discussed high and low art/culture and it’s relation to Post-Modernism. In other words, is anything “real” anymore? Are Tarantino’s and others’ works merely unoriginal pieces filled with references, simply a giant reference. What do y’all think?
Hopes: I HOPE Girls play every song off their fantastic, debut, LP, Album and I love them all and have one of the best concert experiences ever. Perhaps, Glen, Paul, and I meet some of the band members.
Expectations: I EXPECT them to play most of those songs, but also play some B Sides or possibly new/unreleased material that I am unfamiliar with. It will be a good concert, but not top 10, which is hard to beat.
Bands: Black Lips, Box Elders, Movers and Shakers Venue: Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA) Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Pre-Show: Once a year or so the Black Lips come to town. For me, Chris, and all big fans of the best band in the world, a Black Lips show is always highly anticipated. 2 months away! 1 month away! 2 days away! The day! The excitement builds intensely and progressively as the day nears. This time around was special though; Box Elders, openers for Jay Reatard at Harpers Ferry in October and favorites among Chris and I, were opening for the Lips! So we arrived at our favorite venue, the Middle East Downstairs, way before doors opened to secure a cozy spot in front of what would be Jared Swilley’s stage monitor. Doors at 8. Show at 9:30. We’re used to that. I always thought that was kind of lame, but not on this night. Chris spotted what he thought were the Box Elders hanging around the merchandise table at back. He was right. First, we killed a good deal of time chatting with Clayton, the long blonde hair guitar player and singer. Clayton explained to us, amongst many things, the meaning of a couple of songs like “Ronald Dean” and “2012.” Chris pointed out his particular admiration for “Atlantis” calling it his favorite and Clayton agreed with him on that account. He also said that his mother was NOT the drummer for Box Elders in the early stages. All she did was sing. The internet is wrong! After a short little break from discourse, we spoke to another member of the Box Elders, drummer Dave Goldberg. Our conversation with Dave was another great one and included a short discussion about Our Band Could Be Your Life and the late great Jay Reatard.
Movers and Shakers: Pretty boring. Some pretty good songs, but still pretty boring.
Box Elders: They are one of our favorites because they play brief and incredibly catchy ditties. They don’t fuck around. If the drum beats aren’t good enough for you, then you are a sad sad person. Dave has incredible command of his set and his left side organ, which doesn’t sound as apparent as it does on record, but is definitely pretty damn obvious and fun. As I’ve said before, just watching Dave do his aerobics and drumstick biting is a joy. Listening to the songs themselves, I felt, at the moment, as if Box Elders were the main act. The crowd certainly got more into Box Elders than pretty much all other openers I’ve ever seen. Whether they actually knew the songs is a different story, but whatever! They played all my favorites, which is pretty much every song on Alice & Friends. The most memorable song for me was “Hole in My Head” for no particular reason. “Atlantis” and “Jackie Wood” were just as entertaining as well. I’m just eagerly anticipating the next Box Elders show! Hopefully it will come sometime this year.
Black Lips: Chris and I were having some discourse after the show about watching the Black Lips from a non-moshing/standing view. I looked yesterday and somebody put up a video of a recent Lips Canadian show and had in the description that the boys are getting sloppy. Accusations of their alleged musical sloppiness have been tossed around for years, be it from Raconteurs fans or sidelined cinematographers. Screw all that garbage. You haven’t seen a Black Lips show until you’ve been in the center of crowd craziness. Great tunes and fun times. As customary, the guys opened with “Sea of Blasphemy” which instantly started up the chaos amongst fans. After that they played two tracks off their most recent release 200 Million Thousand, “Drugs” and “Short Fuse.” That was it for 200 Million Thousand cuts and nobody really seemed to give a shit, considering they toured behind that last year and played more numbers from that release at that time. They made up for not playing “Take My Heart” or “Starting Over” by performing B-Side “Make It” along with “Raw Meat” (which will be off their forthcoming release). As far as their 2004 We Did Not Know The Forest Spirit Made The Flowers Grow LP is concerned, they played “Stranger,” which I did not expect. Of course, they ended their set off with usual classic “Juvenile.” More on that in a few sentences. Magic time, another staple in Black Lips live performances, began with the playing of “Hippie Hippie Hoorah” and never really ended to be honest. It was all magic at that point. The band loves re-hashing Let It Bloom/Los Valienteles Del Mundo Nuevo classics and this night was no different with “Not a Problem” (my favorite Lips song!), “Take Me Home (Back to Boone)”, “Fairy Stories,” “Dirty Hands,” and “Buried Alive” all played. As far as Good Bad Not Evil is concerned, we got to enjoy a few really great pieces like “O Katrina,” “I Saw a Ghost (Lean),” “Lock and Key,” “Cold Hands,” and the Lips most recognizable track in catalog: “Bad Kids.” By the time the first chords of “Juvenile” were struck, I was sad! The Black Lips were potentially playing their last song until next time. I had memories of last year when Ian handed beers to us, Jared crowd surfed, and the worst: security getting all uppity and dismantling all equipment on stage at the end of “Juvenile,” before the band could even come back. Normally one to just hang back and watch others climb on stage or do whatever, I decided mid-song to pull myself on stage and jump off. I was expecting this song to be the band’s last (if last year was any indication) so why not? Well, security got really pissed and got me down from people’s hands. He walked me over to the exit, but instead I made a little turn to the merch table where who else but Dave from Box Elders was sitting! Dave kindly explained to security that I was with his band and that it won’t happen again. After sitting the rest of the song out, I made my way to the front as the Lips were coming out of the back room to play the Encore. And what an encore! We got surprised with “Ghetto Cross,” a We Did Not track which one can only expect to be a live rarity, as well as a brand new ditty. That was it. Side note: this was definitely one of the most exhausting and rough concert experiences I’ve had. The crowd was as tightly packed as can be and there was a tremendous amount of contact amongst all of us. That’s fine, though. We’re troopers.
Post-Show: Fun stuff didn’t end there. Chris got to chat with Cole and Joe after the encore and I got to hang with Dave behind the merch table. He said that that night was the best of the tour, performance wise and merch sales wise. He also hooked me up with a customized Black Lips t-shirt, personally painted and presented to me by Lips very own guitarist and vocalist, Cole Alexander. Cole’s the man. Dave’s the man. I’m very grateful of their showing of kindness to a random fan.
Grade: A+ – I’m not going to lie. I don’t remember much of Black Lips set and only fragments of Box Elders set. Nevertheless, I knew I had fun. I had a lot of fun…pre, during, post. Best concert experience? Definitely. There weren’t as many song memories as in past shows, but based on everything else it’s the best I’ve had.
Chris– Yep, Glen pretty much covers my sentiments. It was absolutely the greatest concert experience! To me, concerts are measured musically, viscerally, visually, and as an overall experience. I’d say the viscreal is the key ingredient in the memorable concert dish. That’s the difference between most seated concerts and “crazy” shows like the Black Lips. It’s like an altered state of consciousness, for me at least, for others this is literally the case! Seemingly, time is suspended and everything is possible. You feel more alive than ever. An amazing feeling. If you have experienced viscreally, what I am speaking of, and if you attended last Thursday’s show and was amongst the fun, wild, bedlam, then you know what I’m saying. I’m making no exaggeration, when I say, you do not know what will happen next. That’s exactly the appeal, and yeah sometimes it’s a challenge, sometimes you get thrown back and forth and lose your spot, or sometimes you can rest your head on a smokin’ femme :) I can’t imagine it any other way. And what better a band then the Black Lips to experience this visceral abandoment with?! In short, the Black Lips are synonimous with Rock and Roll today. They are our Beatles.
P.S. Box Elders rocked as well and if I had only seen them it would still probably be amongst my top ten favorite shows.
Artist(s): Spoon, Deerhunter, Strange Boys Venue: House of Blues, Boston, MA Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Note: Glen and I basically came to see the Strange Boys and Deerhunter, the opening acts and some of our current favorites, not to discredit Spoon in any way, but this was most likley different from other concertgoers.
Act I: Strange Boys– These garage rockers, for lack of a better face, excuse me, word, were one of the tightest bands I have ever seen live. Considering, their garage label, one would think they were sloppy and what have you like the Black Lips (not an insult!). But, in fact, quite the opposite, the band actually resembled their recordings pretty damn well. I suppose this is kind of a weakness, because live performances are naturally better when they are different from their recorded counterparts. But, then again, the boys were rather entertaining. They played several classic dittties, such as “Woe Is You and Me,” (my favorite SB tune!) “Should Have Shot Paul,” “Be Brave,” “A Walk On the Beach,” and others. ‘Woe’ was nearly perfect; the vocals were astonishingly accurate (if you know what I mean) and the guitars roared in unisen as we all know and love it. ‘Walk’ showcased SB soft side; seriously no fucking up the vocals or anything! and the crew exceptionally erupted into the heavy part of the song. Unfortunately, it seems like most kiddies and oldies in attendence were unaware of SB existence and during the soft part of the latter number, you could hear some creeps chi chi chi chatting away. Boring fucks! Looking back, the group did a great job, that I did not fully appreciate immediately due to their somewhat short set, under 30 minutes (at least through a fan’s point of view) and the fact that they did not play as many of my favorites as I expected them to. Overall, it was great and they are now amongst the kickass artists I have seen live.
Glen: Exactly what Chris said. Also, I can’t wait to see them headline someday (or open again).
Act II: Deerhunter– LOUD! and when I mean loud, I mean reverberate through your mind, body and soul and shake real low inside the lowest drums of your ears. Seriously, loudest band I’ve ever seen! and this time, unlike Dinosaur Jr, I was standing right next to the speakers lol. It was an incredible audio assault, real gorgeous, sonically and visually. The lights were fantastic and nicely complemented the bizarre music/performance, which, by the way, was easily the most technically sophisticated performance I have seen live, with Sonic Youth as the only contender. Singer/guitarist, Bradford Cox, the “nicest guy in Rock and Roll,” as Glen calls him, demonstrated some serious skill in the field of showmanship. This included, direct eye contact, hiding behing his guitar, then pretending to gobble it up, whilst posing for the cameras, and don’t forget that he loves Boston! as he proclaimed numerous times. Musically, Cox and crew played some Cryptograms tracks, but mostly Microcastle songs including “Never Stops,” “Nothing Ever Happened,” and the title track. Unfortunately, they didn’t play many of my favorites and they played nothing from their last release, the EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange. The Atlanta rockers finished their exqusite set with the classic, dance track, “Operation.” Deerhunter was definitely my favorite from the night, no surprise. I can’t wait to experience their Supreme Genius again.
Glen:Loudest for sure. Bradford was the man. All members of the band were. Drummer Moses Archuleta really pounded hard and with fine precision. My favorite two songs were “Nothing Ever Happened” and “Operation.” “Nothing Ever Happened” was awesome because it was loud and featured an extended jam. “Operation” was just pure dance-rock or dance-punk. It’s way better live than on record.
Act III: Spoon– Not being a fan of Spoon (actually never listening to them prior to the show), I don’t have much to say here. I enjoyed their performance very much and I thought they were quite entertaining and displayed the right chops as a great Rock act. I could tell the crowd was really engaged with their performance and the musicians were equally interactive with their audience. Usually, with most bands I see live that I don’t know well, I lose interest, but with Spoon, I appreciated what I was seeing/hearing and greatly admired their performance.
Glen: I agree with Chris. I was really only vaguely familiar with Spoon prior to this show. I feel like it’s a must for me to research their earlier discography because there were definitely some songs that connected with me during this show. Even the new stuff off Transference, which was a decent at best studio album, sounded much much better live. Songs that stuck out to me (ones that I knew from before and/or caught my attention) were “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” “Got Nuffin’,” “Don’t Make Me A Target,” “Written in Reverse,” “Don’t You Evah,” “Who Makes Your Money?,” “I Turn My Camera On,” and opener “Before Destruction.”
Grade: A, definitely this will go down in my top ten favorite concerts! A night of three highly diverse, exciting, independent artists, what more can you ask for?
the Black Lips! but we saw them two days earlier suckas!!!
Glen:I haven’t figured it out yet, but this is definitely a top show. In the A/A- range.
Full Title: District 9 Director: Neill Blomkamp Year: 2009 Grade: B Comments: To begin, why am I reviewing this now? Well, originally I planned on seeing this film in theaters, but I was unable to make it. Now, for my Cultural Studies course, we are discussing it and its various themes. Thus, I recently viewed the picture and as always whenever we read, hear, or see a new piece of art (or some piece of work that does not deserve such a flattering label) we review it. Ok, so not being a huge Sci-fi/Action fan, I am biased in my somewhat lack of enthusisasm, considering how much praise this film has received. I liked it very much and thought it was a decent flick with more meaning and substance to it than most films in its genre. Such heady themes as racism, immigration, and xenophobia, etc. are carefully layered in this sea of madness. The film itself is conceptually unique: the first half (the far superior half) resembling a documentary, reality TV show, Office esque set up. The second half, on the other hand, is your blow shit up and fire endless rounds of ammo action movie. The latter makes the film drag on increasingly and totally loses my interest in the story. At the very end, my interest is salvaged for its remaining minutes. I’d say, this piece is solid and worth a watch, but definitely overrated, at least for my taste.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 