I love Christmas, plain and simple. It’s my favorite holiday. No, not for the sharing of joy, and spirit, not for celebrating some dude’s birthday (can’t remember the guy’s name), and certainly not for seeing some fat fuck lodge his holly, jolly ass in my chimney. No, rather, I adore all the little doo das that are packaged with this season. At first glance, y’all that know me, must be screaming to yourselves, “WTF?! WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?!” But, don’t bash your pathetic, worthless skulls through your computer screens, just yet. It’s not like I’m hawking Dr. Pepper *cough Mr. NWA. Mr. Dr. Dre. Gangsta* Anyway, I think if one carefully plucks out the good, the bad, and the ugly, you can still maintain some politico aficionado dignity. So, yeah I’m mostly anti-consumerism and anti-corporate, but I must say I have an affinity for the GOOD Christmas specials, films, songs, decorations, traditions, etc. that make Christmas Christmas, that is the commercialized Chri$tmas, not that guy’s birthday, whoever he was… So, like everything else in life, I have mastered the task of weeding out the bad and especially the ugly and preserving the good ( a must see Christmas list will appear as a future post). To wrap up (no pun intended lol) this little, somewhat aimless, rant, I’d like to mention that a major beef of mine about Christmas is the way it’s pushed on consumers sooo early. I for one, do not begin my Christmas splurge until the day after Thanksgiving, in which Christmas With Johnny Cash rocks into heavy rotation until the Twenty-Fifth of December. Anything before this is wayyyy too early. Satan’s little helpers market Christmas the day after Halloween, if not before then. Thanksgiving is merely a break between the jamming of Christmas down your throat, squirting out red and green blood under the mistletoe.
Well, in a rare instance, this post is mostly reserved for the opening band, Jay Reatard.
Hopes: Jay plays all of my favorites, plays for an hour, and his new crew sounds infinitely better than his last band, whom were entertaining and talented in their own right. And for the Pixies, I hope they put on the best show I’ve ever seen and play all my non-Doolittle, favorites.
Expectations: Jay and gang have better chops than his previous band mates, but aren’t as amazing as I suggest above. Seeing them live will be fun, but not the same experience as the previous show at Harpers Ferry, because we will be seated and what not. He will play a good amount of my favorites. The Pixies’ performance will be top notch and the show will enter my top 5 or at least top 10. They will play at least a few of my non-Doolittle favorites.
Band: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band Label: Buddah Records Release: 1967
1. “Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do” – B+ 2. “Zig Zag Wanderer” – B+ 3. “Call On Me” – B+ 4. “Dropout Boogie” – A- 5. “I’m Glad” – A- 6. “Electricity” – B 7. “Yellow Brick Road” – B+ 8. “Abba Zaba” – B 9. “Plastic Factory” – A
10. “Where There’s A Woman” – B 11. “Grown So Ugly” – B+ 12. “Autumn’s Child” – B+
Comments: This is a very encouraging album for me. It’s an exciting listen (as is most music from the 1960s), although I won’t go as far as to designate it as one of the best “classics” that I’ve heard. I wouldn’t say a lot of modern day garage/punk/psychedelic bands are necessarily derivative of Captain Beefheart, but influenced for sure. The best way I can describe this record is: saner than Bloodshot Bill. I guess my own real gripe is that most of these songs feel too archaic; this may be where the delta blues references are validated. My comments may be a bit skewed: most of the bands that I love play music that has several grand-daddies in a plethora of genres and styles. These guys, on the other-hand, could only draw upon a few primitive fathers such as the blues and early rock. I can’t wait to hear Trout Mask Replica, their magnum opus.
Promo Magazine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning more than a dozen online cigarette sellers that they may be in violation of the new regulations against selling most types of flavored cigarettes to U.S. citizens and have 15 days to prove that they have stopped those sales or risk government action.
A ban on the U.S. sale of cigarettes flavored with anything other than menthol went into effect on Sept. 22 as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
That law, enacted in June, gives the FDA power to regulate the content of tobacco products, along with the marketing and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, and the impact of ads for those products on young people. The new law also lets the FDA limit the amount of nicotine in products and block labels such as “light” and “low tar” that appear to offer “healthier” cigarettes.
So some of us like BBT absolutely hate large scale cigarette smoke in places that clearly say don’t smoke, but we respect smokers’ freedom to light up.
This video is from Monday when the trio played at the Hammerstein Ballroom NY, which is by all accounts comparable to the House of Blues Boston in capacity. The Wang fits about 1,000 more people and is seats only. Y’all know what I realized? Jay’s probably going to play his set just as if he was headlining.
Complete B-Sides 1. “River Euphrates” – Let’s ride the tire down! – Great bass-line and great explosions from Black.
2. “Vamos (Live)” – Spanish – Clingy acoustic guitar; lots of regular guitar effects.
3. “In Heaven” – Screaming – Easy on the vocals, Black! Good God!
*4. “Manta Ray” – The Build-Up! – Rock me, Joey!
*5. “Weird At My School” – Cone of Light Intro! – The bass line is just like in “Bad Kids”! Yee kid.
*6. “Dancing the Manta Ray” – Day-ants the Man-ta Ray! – Funny and awesome how Black slows/lisps his vocals.
*7. “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)” – Way-hey-hey-ave – Extremely chill version? I guess!
*8. “Into The White” – Kim sings!- Excellent bridge. The repetition may be excessive.
*9. “Bailey’s Walk” – It’s cra-hey-hey-zee!” – As some guy said…I see where Cobain got his vocals.
10. “Make Believe” – David Lovering sings! – DL does his best Morrissey, intentionally or not.
11. “I’ve Been Waiting For You” – Such a long time – A little forgettable, but it’s actually pretty good?!
12. “The Thing” – Narrative Great Salt Lake – I dig the direction of this song.
13. “Velvety Instrumental Version” – Good rhythm; would have been interesting with vocals.
14. “Winterlong” – You seemed to be where I belong – Okay, but weak on the vocals.
15. “Santo” – Hey ya boy, how ya doin? – Nice and heavy with quirky vocals.
16. “Theme From Narc” – Videogame theme – Just kind of there…
17. “Build High” – Megaphone chants – I like the continuous command; kind of country-rock
18. “Evil Hearted You” – Spanish – Espanol invasion!!!
19. “A Letter In Memphis” – The riffs are all there!
Come On Pilgrim *3. Isla De Encanta – May-oit May-oit May-oit – Frenetic and crazy!
*6. Nimrod’s Son – You are the son of a mother fucker! – Decent flow.
Yes, yes, they’ve been playing a few other tracks like “Gigantic” and “Where Is My Mind?” but those are instantly memorable.
GREEN = GREAT, LIGHT GREEN = GOOD, YELLOW = AVERAGE
Artist(s): Sonic Youth, The Feelies Location: Wilbur Theatre, Boston, MA Date: Sunday, November 22, 2009 Grade: A+
The Feelies:
I can safely say I was feeling the the Feelies haha. Nothing too special, but decent. I sensed some really catchy material and I could tell the young to the young at heart audience dug it; particularly one fan who was wildly dancing, to the point that it looked like he was having a seizure a la Ian Curtis. This continued during Sonic Youth’s set lol. I’m surprised he took a break in between performances! Anyway, the band seemed pretty chill, making very little contact with their fans. With that being said, the lead singer/guitarist rocked out and hopped and bopped a little. I might listen to them more, I haven’t decided; either way, they were a solid opening act. Clearly, the audience was pleased enough with their performance that they applauded long enough to elicit an encore. An encore for an opening band? I’ve never seen it. So, hats off to them!
Sonic Youth:
It never ceases to amaze me how cool, hip, YOUNG, Sexy( especially Kim in her black and white dress!) and all around mysterious these guys and gal appear to be. When Sonic Youth hits the stage, it’s not “Hello, Boston are you ready to rock?! Now we’ll kiss your ass with all our hits you know and love!” Nah, lame for these Artsy Fartsy hipsters. Instead they produce an enormous, four guitar assault, simply a Pounding, Pulsing Wall of noise,feedback, distortion, and killer tunes! Not to mention a crazu light show to complement the music. They essentially played their latest album, The Eternal in its entirety, minus “Thurnderclap For Bobby Pyn,” one of my favorites, but that’s okay. They played the somewhat new songs in no particular order with a few tracks from their 1980s catalog as well. One of the most memorable moments for me was when Thurston laid down frontwards on the stage and practically scraped his guitar across it, generating some sweet, guitar sounds. Everyone else, except the Nightwatchman, would have fucked up their strings and created some cacophanous racket. As of now, SY holds the candle (no pun intended) for best encore, previously held by King Khan & The Shrines. They kicked right into “The Sprawl,” track 3 from 1988’s Daydream Nation and followed it in sequence with track four, “Cross the Breeze,” an amazing powerhouse. Then they said peace and left the stage. But, that wasn’t good enough for us! We screamed for our No Wave heroes to return and return they did for Encore 2. I don’t think I’ve seen 2 encores by a band, but for some reason I feel like I have, either way it could not compare to the Supreme Genius of this or else I would have stored it better in my psyche. So, they blasted into “What We Know,” a new classic from The Eternal and finished the terrific evening with the 80s bizzaro Americana anthem, “Death Valley ’69.” Definitely my favorite song all night. As the married couple of Thurston and Kim made their way backstage they playfully pushed each other around like teenagers flirting with each other in the hall between classes. That’s pretty cool, considering they have been married for 25 years!
Overall: This is a well-deserved A+. I loved every moment of Sonic Youth’s set and I dug The Feelies too. This concert ranks as # 5 for all time best concerts. In fact, SY were, musically, the best performers I have ever seen, with The Shrines, Radiohead, and Dinosaur Jr as moderately close rivals. The cool thing about these folks is the fact that they can be so damn, high energy and engaing and at the same time, so modest and mellow. It’s very fascinating, to say the least. Simply stated, seeing Sonic Youth is a spectacular attack on multiple senses!Pixies have tough competition, but I think they can do it…
Glen: I wouldn’t argue with Chris on SY’s performance. Stunning. If I had done my homework and listened to more of The Eternal before this show I’m sure this would easily be a top 5 concert. It was nice to sit down and bask in the glory of the sound around me, but an all-time favorite for me is one where I’m standing front-row and doing various “dances” such as the pogo, mosh, or head movement all while basking in the glory of the sound. That said this show made “Death Valley ’69” an instant favorite for me and made damn sure that “‘Cross the Breeze” is freaking amazing. I’d give this show an A.
Here’s the setlist with the name of the album each song appeared on.
1. “No Way”
2. “Sacred Trickster”
3. “Calming the Snake”
4. “Stereo Sanctity”
5. “Walkin’ Blue”
6. “Anti-Orgasm”
7. “Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso)”
8. “Shadow of A Doubt”
9. “Antenna”
10. “Malibu Gas Station”
11. “Poison Arrow”
12. “Tom Violence”
13. “Massage the History”
——-Encore Break——–
14. “The Sprawl”
15. “Cross the Breeze”
—–2nd Encore Break—-
16. “What We Know”
17. “Death Valley 69″
Hey, it’s No Age!
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 