November 14 marked the last day the Black Lips recorded in the studio with Mark Ronson. According to Ian St. Pe’s twitter: “We now have roughly 30 songs to choose from for our next record. This new one is gonna be the Shit!”
I always love hearing that kind of stuff. They should include ’em all on a double LP. Whatcha think about that, Vice?
Bands: Needy Visions, Lucky Dragons, No Age
Venue: Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA)
Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Act One – Needy Visions – Now, I really liked Needy Visions. The lead singer and guitarist was very Boston. He and his crew were very passionate. I always like that. “Fuck the System” showcased the best of these guys. A jovial keyboard riff contrasted the passionate vocals. Props to the bass player who really brought the funk. Props to the drummer and the other guitarist as well as they also contributed to the sound and overall “funk” of the band. They aren’t really your typical garage rock or punk band by any stretch of the imagination. They are more rooted in fun beats and tight rhythms. It’s cool.
Chris: Glen summed up most of my points, but he perhaps loved them more than I did. They were entertaining though and I recommend y’all check em’ out. They are playing at the Whitehaus this Friday (November 19).
Act Two – Lucky Dragons – I’ve seen a few groups that possess a very similar style to Lucky Dragons. For those who aren’t familiar with Lucky Dragons, it was one guy — Luke Fischbeck — with a laptop and a few other toys. He played some ambient music that was at least partially based on crowd interaction. He handed about ten CDs to people at the front of the stage. There was a projector and a box on the stage. At first, I didn’t quite get the concept of the CDs, but I quickly realized that when somebody flashes the CD on top of the box and in front of the projector, a unique sound is produced on the PA. This was fun for about three minutes. In the background of the stage there was a pretty constant slow motion projection video of what looked like mansions. At some point, Luke handed some of us pieces of paper with lyrics. He repeated about half of what was on the sheet. About ten minutes later his set was over. I always feel bad for people that do experimental sets like this. Since the music is pretty constant, a lot of people were bandying about for the duration of the set. They treated this art form as background music. I can’t really blame the talkers since this experience is rather obscure and awkward for first-timers and those otherwise unfamiliar with such art.
Chris:: Yeah, this aint my bag, but like Glen said at least we were not simply spectators and instead had a chance to participate in the process.
Act Three – No Age – Wow, where to begin?! No Age, simply stated, has been amongst my favorite bands — live and on record — for the past couple of years. Their all-ages show at the Middle East Downstairs in July 2008 marked my first real concert experience. It’s funny because I only stumbled upon No Age by accident. I was looking on the Middle East website to see if The Walkmen were playing. They weren’t — yet — but I noticed something else: pretty much every show listed was 18+, except this one band No Age was playing an all-ages show. “Wow, this is awesome” I thought. So I checked them out on YouTube and really liked what I heard. The rest is history. Flash forward nearly two and a half years later. I’ve seen them four times and each of their shows has topped their previous performance. Incredible. Three full-length albums and one EP deep, No Age had a lot more material to showcase than they did on that hot July 2008 night. They started this night off with “Life Prowler” off of their latest LP Everything In Between. Following that they rushed into a familiar classic “Teen Creeps” from 2008’s Nouns. From the opening notes of this, the crowd erupted into a frenzy. A frenzy that’s never been known to really let up. Smiles were plastered on everyone’s faces. Some people decided to crash into others. Others held onto the stage — or strangers next to them — for dear life. The 21+ crowd in the bar section looked on, with some snapping photographs. Whatever the case, it’s all about the music with No Age. The punk rock spirit and excitement that comes from the drum kit of Dean Spunt and guitar of Randy Randall is unparalleled. After “Teen Creeps,” we got a little taste of everything from the ambient-turned-explosively catchy noise classic “Every Artist Needs a Tragedy” from Weirdo Rippers to the sample heavy power number “You’re a Target” off of their Losing Feeling EP to “Chem Trails” and “Fever Dreaming” — the best of the best off Everything In Between. Meshed additionally in the set were other excellent tracks off Nouns and Everything. One especially great moment was when the sweat from Dean’s drum kit flew into the air as he started pounding his floor tom and snare drum in the opening seconds of “Glitter”. After the end of their near hour long set, the crowd took a breather (realizing just how much we were sweating) before welcoming the band back on stage. Chris might have been expecting another “Don’t Talk To Me” G.G. Allin cover, but instead they performed Black Flag’s “Six Pack” to a T with the singer of Needy Visions joining them up on stage. They closed the set with Nouns closer “Brain Burner”. What more could we ask for?! Some high fives from Dean and Randy? No need to ask. These fine gentlemen do that kind of thing automatically. This show was about as fun as shows come. It was the kind of show that I’ll always be able to reminisce. Being able to talk to Dean after the show was a pleasure. He took the time to sit on stage and interact with concert-goers after it was all over. This is exemplary. It shows he isn’t some music celebrity, but rather a really nice guy playing really nice music. Hope to see you back again soon, No Age!
Chris: Easily one of the best bands I have seen live, perhaps the Black Lips are the only other band I would say has topped them for me. Dean and Randy are masters of high energy without coming off as typical Rock Stars that try way too hard to get a crowd going. With these dudes, the music simply speaks for itself. They played more than half of my favorites as well as some other killer tunes, plenty of cuts from the new LP. I always dig their references to old school Hardcore and this time around I loved their rendition of Black Flag’s “Six Pack.” Dean went so far as to include the classic closing lines, “What do they know about partying or ANYTHING ELSE?!” Another classic moment was the long, but amazing build up in “Every Artist,” we waited in anticipation for that awesome moment when Randy swinged his guitar around and kicked right into the heavy part of the number and of course the crowd went crazy. Speaking of which, this was one of my favorite mosh pits, as always with No Age. Can’t wait to see them again! Modern day DIY Punk at its finest.
No Age Set-List [No Order]
– “Life Prowler”
– “Teen Creeps”
– “Every Artist Needs A Tragedy”
– “Sleeper Hold”
– “Cappo”
– “Eraser”
– “Miner”
– “You’re A Target”
– “Chem Trails”
– “Shred And Transcend”
– “Valley Hump Crash”
– “Glitter”
– “Depletion”
– “Fever Dreaming”
———– Encore ———-
– “Six Pack” [ Black Flag Cover]
– “Brain Burner”
VIDEO OF “LIFE PROWLER” LIVE @ MIDDLE EAST: http://vimeo.com/16974100
If you aren’t excited yet, well you should star getting excited, because Rock Icon, Robert Plant will be coming to Boston at the House of Blues on January 25. He will be performing with the Band of Joy to promote his new album, the aptly titled ‘Band of Joy’. Of course Plant is most famous for his work as lead singer for the legendary Led Zeppelin, but musically he has moved as far away from that as possible as seen in his previous album ‘Raising Sand’ with bluegrass-country singer Alison Krauss. So if you are looking to relive the glory days of Zeppelin, this concert is probably not for you (although I hear he does do a couple of Zeppelin songs), but if you want to hear a once in a lifetime artist perform a careers worth of great material, then look no further.
This is a brief segment of “Chris On…” this time around. Here are my thoughts on Family Guy.
Ok, so I love the first three seasons (especially season two), but after that the show started to jump the shark. Not totally bad and in fact seasons four and five had its fair share of good episodes, but they were nowhere near the quality of seasons one through three. After that, the show went down hill and I have not been a fan since. I feel like they have pandered to a younger and perhaps dumber audience (though I am not insinuating that young people or little kids are stupid). There was always an element of silliness to FG, but it was mixed smoothly with witty, well-written, and often culture referenced jokes. True, not all of that was suspended following season three, but we saw less of it and more of the childish and sometimes plain unfunny bits. Not to sound like an elitist scumfuck, but it appears that FG was in its hey day when a much smaller audience (including me) adored the show and the writers did not have as much of a market or demographic to satisfy. In other words, the show became more of a Family Guy trying to hard to be Family Guy kind of deal. With legions of fans nowadays (most of whom became viewers in the later seasons) I seriously doubt they will ever return to their old form. Lastly, one of the most irritating reasons I disdain the later seasons is attributed to the God Awful sound of their voices. It boggles my mind how few people pick up on this or can at least put up with it. Just watch these two videos and you will notice the difference.
Season 3
and
Season 6
On Friday February 4, 2011, California rockers/bf/gf Wavves and Best Coast will be playing a show together at the Paradise Rock Club. There are about 26 other dates and you can check them out here: http://www.spin.com/articles/wavves-and-best-coast-plan-winter-tour. This will be Wavves third outing in the Boston area since June. They headlined Great Scott in June (a good show indeed that Chris & I saw) and then just a couple of weeks ago opened for Phoenix at the Agganis Arena (a very good one according to Matt). Best Coast headlined the Middle East Downstairs with UK punk band Male Bonding in late September.
According to Bethany Cosentino, front-woman in Best Coast: “We’re both in summery California bands and I think by doing the tour in winter, we’re bringing summer to places where it’s fucking freezing.”
The Growlers played two songs (one from Are You In Or Out? and the other from their new EP Hot Tropics) for the Wilcox Sessions and …..
You can watch the videos here: http://wilcoxsessions.com/ !!!
Description From Wilcox Sessions Site: Who said rock n’ roll is all rainbows and unicorns? No one probably… definitely not the Growlers. These guys came into our living room ready to turn it out – or at least cover it in Mylar space blankets. Doing a number on the Bulleit bourbon and applying their Mylar space makeup, these guys were ready to kick ass and take names. The session was akin to a back-alley knife fight, and armed with our Deyermond boot camp training, we took it all in stride loving every minute of it. Bring it on boys – we’re ready for more
Harpers Ferry, which was the KLYAM go-to spot to see Jay Reatard, closed on Halloween. It will be re-opening sometime in January as Brighton Music Hall (the nomenclature is a reference to the street in Allston Rock City that it is located on). The capacity will stay the same (340 people), but there will be some internal overhauls such as a new sound system, painting, and bathroom renovations. Dum Dum Girls have already been booked to play there on March 2. The venue will serve as a “development” stage for lesser known bands to play on before moving up to the newly renovated Paradise Rock Club — a much larger and renowned venue located just down the street. That said, it is no coincidence that the owners of the Paradise are the executive partners for the Brighton Music Hall. Moreover, the Paradise, Orpheum Theatre, and the House of Blues are all operated by Boston Opera House Ventures LLC. The effect that the opening of Brighton Music Hall will have on local “competitors” remains to be seen. Great Scott, a favorite little venue of ours as well, is an independent club that is a little smaller than Brighton Music Hall, but has put on plenty of now quite popular bands such as Editors and MGMT. Great Scott does have some ties to the booking agent of the ‘Dise and House of Blues, so they aren’t too worried. The Middle East might see some increasing business from Leeds Entertainment, a hip-hop booking group which puts on some shows there, but that had a very close relationship with Harpers Ferry. Other than that, though, the new Brighton Music Hall might sucker some bands that would potentially play Middle East away from there and into the Boston Opera House progression. I’m not really sure how this side of the music business operates, but it only seems to make sense that a local conglomerate of sorts like Boston Opera House LLC would have some more purchasing power (or bringing in power) than independent clubs like the Middle East and TT The Bears, etc. It certainly is a little weird to think about this when, after all, we are talking about a predominately independent music scene.
Link to BMH website: http://www.brightonmusichall.com/
In honor of The Beatles finally going on Itunes I figured I would try to see if anyone comes close to matching them, this time I have two good covers, but first up the original:
Next up is a Breeders cover:
Finally a very weird U2 cover:
My heart is defiantly with the original on this one, although I dig The Breeders cover, personally I think U2 missed the point of the song completely, but tell us what you think!
Hopes I hope this is within my top 5 greatest shows ever. No Age plays all my favorites, which are way too many to name, but mostly from Nouns (2008) and they close with “Everybody’s Down,” as they previously did at the Middle East.
Expectations: No Age are as great as ever, if not superior. They play most of my favorites, but not all. The show ranks high for me, but not top 5, perhaps top 10 and almost cerain top 15.
Full Title: Mister Lonely
Director: Harmony Korine
Year: 2007
Comments:”I just wanted to make a sequel to Caddy Shack”(1980). That was the explanation Harmony “Harmful” Korine offered David Letterman and his audience for why he wrote the screenplay for the controversial film Kids (1995). Anyone who has seen Kids knows that clearly Korine was pulling a fast one on the Late Show viewers. Kids follows twenty-four hours in the lives of a few teenagers in New York City as they have unprotected sex, consume copious amounts of alcohol and drugs, and commit various acts of anti-social behavior. Suffice to say both films share the common trait of having people in them, and that is about it. His next film Gummo (1997) was even more notorious. Gummo was an altogether new kind of film with images and sounds coming from everywhere. The movie has no real linear plot, but rather serves as a collection of highly impressionable and memorable scenes/vignettes. What we see and hear is almost always unsettling and more often than not downright vile. Following Gummo, Korine made one more full length feature film, Julien Donkey Boy (1999) before falling into a nasty drug habit and overall feeling of disenchantment. Eight years later, Korine bounces back with his biggest film yet, Mister Lonely (2007). With this work he pulls back a little bit and makes somewhat of a more conventional film. This time there is a narrative, in the traditional sense of the word, and more professional actors participate. Do not worry though, Korine still maintains his peculiar aesthetic as the story follows the life of a Michael Jackson look-alike (Diego Luna) living in Paris. One day the celebrity impersonator meets a fellow impersonator in the form of Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton), who invites him to live with her and other celebrity impersonators at a commune in the hills, where everything seems to be perfect.
I would wager that for Harmony Korine, making Mister Lonely is akin to a bizarre, obscure band finally making that album that is more commercially viable and not as strange, but still retains its weirdness. The album may hook in some new fans, it may push away long time devotees, but overall not much changes because the band is still too bizarre for most mainstream fans. Well, this sums up what ML does for Korine. Unlike his previous works, ML does not rely on the shock factor, but instead takes a more sensitive path, conveying an extreme care for its characters. Overall, the film displays themes related to isolation, self-hatred, withdrawal from reality, search for one’s dreams and one’s purpose in life, America’s obsession with fame and Hollywood, and ultimately the desire to be someone else. These issues are affectionately communicated to the audience, in stark contrast from the brutal, sometimes offensive nature of his previous films. There is far less ambiguity here and as a big fan of Korine, I cannot say this is a positive attribute. What I precisely loved about films like Gummo was the chaotic, seemingly message-less tone of the movie. In other words, one creates their own message, whatever is presented is there, but everyone is free to interpret their own meaning. This true of ML, but the film has far too much of a linear story for this to have the same effect. It feels as if Korine is attempting to make a more mainstream film and this is somewhat obvious because of the larger budget and so forth.
The look of the film is a significant departure from his previous works. The cinematography is mostly conventional and does not stand out as anything different, which is not necessarily a bad thing and perhaps will appeal to viewers that detest Korine’s usual style. His camerawork is as top notch as ever and certainly one of the strengths of the film. There are dazzling shots of nuns flying in the air and riding bicycles through the clouds. These shots offer strong imagery, but not nearly as evocative or as memorable as in the past.
Overall, this is a really good film with fascinating characters, excellent shot selection, and incredible use of music. The film has more strengths than weaknesses, but it is surely not without its share of flaws. It lacks cohesion and not in the good old Harmful sense for you fans out there. We have a (comparatively) normal structured film with a clear narrative, so when some randomness is tossed in, it does not quite fit, at least for my taste. In his previous movies, the scenes were filled to the brim with randomness to the point that it would be pointless for me to bring up cohesion as a flaw. Lastly, I will say I mostly found myself invested in the story and the characters, but at times I felt like it dragged on or appeared aimless, so for most viewers there is a good chance this will be far too vapid. With that being said, I recommend this to fans and non fans alike and I dare everyone to challenge themselves with a film they may otherwise overlook.
Grade: B
The background information in this review was taken from one of my past posts “Harmful For All Ages.”
