The Severed Cortex

Been playing golf for 33 years and this is about as close as I've ever come to getting a hole in one.  I've witnessed three aces in my life but never hit one.

I three putted of course.

Link: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/stltoday/obituary.aspx?n=mary-l-moore&pid=136558485

You can't take a shower in a parakeet cage.
You can't go swimming in a baseball pool.
You can't drive around with a tiger in your car.
You can't go fishing in a watermelon patch.
But you can be happy if you've a mind to it.

This was not the path chosen by my grandmother who passed away last Friday.  Granted, she had a very rough childhood, losing her mother and father before age five and being separated from her older brother after that.  But despite those early obstacles she managed to do a lot of things most people do not get to do.  She graduated from high school at a time when most people, much less women, didn't.  She bought a home during World War II.  She married my grandfather, one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet and a saint for loving her.  With him she got to travel the world.  She also worked in the corporate world for thirty years, another anomaly for a woman; starting a career in the 1950's.

But despite all these things, she chose to shun happiness and dwell on the negative.  I can't remember if it was the house we rented in University City or the house we bought in Edwardsville, but her first words upon entering were, "I wouldn't pay the kind of money it would take to heat this place".  She complained about the 'gooks' who moved in across the street from her and she swore up and down the neighbors were spying on her and harassing her with phone calls at all hours of the night.  When the Bosnian refugees started moving in and really bringing the neighborhood back to life, she complained about the traffic that came with them.  These are just my stories.  My sister and cousins have stories just like these.  My mother and my aunt have worse horror stories including the one where my grandmother sat in the car outside the church while my aunt and uncle were being married.   I'm sure they haven't told me all the really bad ones either given their prediliction not to tell anyone anything that might be the least bit uncomfortable for them.

Most people are sad when a grandparent dies.  I can't deny that I'm sad but I'm not sad she's gone.  I'm sad that she chose to live her life the way she did.   She could have chosen joy and happiness.

All you gotta do is put your mind to it.  Knuckle down, buckle down, do it, do it, do it.

A dozen people showed up for her funeral, eleven of which were family that lived in the greater St. Louis area.  All were there out of respect for either my father or my uncle.   Or both.  While I was there for that, I was also there out of respect for my grandfather.  For some reason he seemed to love her.  He was a better man than me.

Link: http://www.myspace.com/thearchcupcake

Truth be told, I bought this for the name and the cover art. Anyone who calls himself the Arch Cupcake has to be a little off center.  We all know I am off center.  The Arch Cupcake's MySpace page credits Sonny Rollins and Fugazi as influences and while that would seem like opposite ends of the spectrum, the combination hits me right in my wheelhouse.  How someone comes up with idea of calling themselves the Arch Cupcake is a good idea is beyond me.  It's just not a moniker that really inspires fear, unless of course you have a lot of enemies and a serious lack of will power over cupcakes.  Aside from lethal desserts, it's not really a moniker that makes one take an artist seriously.  Fortunately this can be classified as electronica, a genre with so many nonsense names that the Arch Cupcake seems normal by comparison.  I suppose there are a number of ways that you can interpret the name, but my vote is that it means the anti-pussy. As in wussy, not the other two meanings.

Hard to think of an electronica artist as being a bad ass though isn't it?   I mean meeting Moby in a dark alley hardly seems meancing.   As my friend Dave Miller once said at a Crystal Method show, "I like it even though I know it's two nerds with some laptops."  But even nerds produce a couple of bad asses and I suppose The Arch Cupcake could qualify for the role.  For one, he can actually play instruments, and not just a keyboard either.  Just like Beck circa 1994, the Arch Cupcake has two turntables and a microphone and he displays some pretty mad old school cut and scratch style. Check this out.

Pretty bad ass, huh? Especially the turntable skills. Or is it skillz? He also does a passable beat box too.

There are few better music experiences for me than to strap on a set of headphones and start writing a bunch of code.  This is where electronica reigns king for me.  Jazz is cool to listen to but sometimes it can lull you to sleep.  Electronica is built with dance in mind so by nature it is upbeat.  Hip-hop has the nice beats that keep your brain pumping but the lyrics get in the way of concentrating on writing the code.  Electronica seldom has that vocal impediment.   The Arch Cupcake has all of this at once.  There's obviously some jazz training somewhere in TAC's past so jazz is covered.  You only find turntables in one genre so hip-hop is covered too.  Mash it all together and you have some damn fine coding music.

Look, I know it's electronica music and typically it isn't worth buying.  I've kind of stopped buying a lot of it since you can go onto any number of internet radio stations and listen to it for free.  And let's call it as we see it.   It all sounds the same, right?  I can't really argue with you.  But every once in awhile you just get in the right mood though and you're looking for something specific.  I'm here to tell you that this is the specific thing you are looking for.  The easy thing to do is buy the whole thing and listen to it from front to back, but for those on a budget I suggest buying the four song set starting with No Dice, a straight drum and bass track. Follow that with Future Kitsch which throws pretty much every style against the wall, with most of it sticking.  Next up should be El Gato Attacks which might be a slight step backwards but the lounge jazz beat draws you in and then quickly hands you off to some of the sweetest turntable action.  But the best song is Tree Top Road Block, which has an absolutely sick dub beat.  I also recommend Sunday Gravy Boat. Here's the video to El Gato Attacks (98 Oldsmobile Mix).  I can picture myself back home cruising slowly in Charles 'Sweet Pea' Jones '71 model listening to this, one arm hanging out the window and the other hand on a cold 40.

Link: http://www.nekocase.com/

How very Lillith Fair of me.

I think I've already established my fondness, bordering on obsession, with Neko Case and I can also relate to the typical Lillith Fair stereotype.  I like women too.  It's just my gender that keeps holding me back from being one of them.  Until last week, I'd never seen Neko Case live; not with her previous band Her Boyfriends, not with my favorite indie supergroup The New Pornographers, and not as a solo artist.  She'd been to Saint Louis as each incarnation in the past but I never took the initiative to see her perform.  When the show at The Pageant was announced earlier this year, I decided not to miss the bus again.  I even asked my wife if she would be interested.  Surprisingly, she was.  I say surprisingly because this was the first concert that she and I attended together since Blues Traveler and Spearhead.  (December 5, 2001 - Thanks Google)  Our musical paths seldom cross except for the occasional soul singer.

When you work at an indie bookstore or hipster coffee house, the chance of finding someone who shares your musical interests probably aren't that uncommon.  If you work as an IT geek in corporate America, which I do, you'd think the chances of finding someone who knows as much or more about music as you do would much more rare.   I've found the supporting data to show inconclusive results.  I was fortunate to work at a place where there were several people whose musical interests were similar to mine.  One of those people even knows more than I do.   For instance, when I found Tuneglue and showed it to Jason, he was able to name three times as many obscure bands as I could.  He also turned me on to the Michael Azerrad book.   We also like to talk a little fantasy baseball and football now and again.  Through the magic of e-mail, the following email exchange occurred (I paraphrase):

D: You going to the Neko Case show?
J: Gotta talk to the wife about it.
(couple days later)
J: Got the tickets. We will be there.

We worked out an arrangement to meet Jason and his wife Emily at Pi, Obama's favorite pizza.   No we did not choose Pi for its love towards liberals.  We chose it because it is directly across the street from The Pageant.  Here's a helpful tip for you.  Get there early because the place fills up quickly.  I'm sure part of that was due to the NPR/Neko Case crowd naturally gravitating towards foo-foo pizza, but I'm also guessing that on nights when Motorhead is headlining, the locals still provide a brisk business.  We arrived at 6:15.   Jason and Emily already had a table and within a couple minutes we had cold beverages and our orders placed.    At 6:55 our waitress stopped by to tell us that she had no idea where our order was.  It wasn't like they admitted to dropping it on the floor or that they made the pizza wrong.  They really couldn't figure out what happened to it.  The speculation was that it went to a different table and the other table scarfed it up willingly, but even then they were speculating.  Who knows?   Perhaps the pizza was just taxed heavilyfor the common good of everyone and then redistributed to everyone through government channels.  In all honestly, I just thought it was taking a little long.  It was crowded and every table was filled.  That's what happens when restaurants get busy and as a former kitchen worker I can tell you it is stressful.   Besides, we were having a lively conversation about how the guy from Gin Blossoms killed himself (turns out he didn't) and Ohio Valley conference schools (Murray State & Austin Peay).   At any rate, the staff at Pi fessed up that something was wrong and we were informed that they were hurriedly remaking our pies.  We made only a very mild stink about wanting to be at the show early for the opening act and to grab a seat in the middle.   The pizzas arrived only a few minutes later, the manager stopped by our table, and just like that we had our beers and one of the pies comped for our trouble.  The pizza was excellent, plus it made me want to pass health care reform and brainwash public school children with socialist claptrap.  Seriously though, the amount of trouble that the staff at Pi went to, far outweighed any damage inflicted upon us.  The worst I could ascertain was that we had to sit on one of the sides instead of one of the tables in the middle.   I still highly recommend Pi, but get there early.

Right before the opening act comes on I get the following text from a number that is not in my phone contacts.  Are you at the Pageant for Neko Case? Yes, I replied.  Who is this?

The opening act was a singer/songwriter named Sarah Harmer.  Jason was already familiar with her work but I wasn't.  She came out all by her lonesome, strapped on a Fender Telecaster, and proceeded to sing accompanied only by her guitar.  Mad, mad props to anyone who can do that.  To stand in front of a crowd exposed like that takes a ton of guts.   I prefer to hide behind a wall of Marshall stacks.  I realize singer/songwriters do this sort of thing all the time, but I'm still in awe of anyone who can do it.  Sarah's music, as you can probably guess is very Lillith Fair friendly.   That's not to say I didn't like it.  I did.  However, folkie/indie chicks aren't my strongest genre to play to.  That would be Nancy's realm.  Sarah played and sang extremely well and I thought she connected with the crowd.  She painted vignettes of the songs ahead of singing them and she bantered with the crowd in between.  She also switched to an acoustic guitar in the middle.  And then she switched back again.  It was a very nice set of about 40 minutes.  I don't think she 'warmed' up the crowd, but apparently that might be disputed by the lesbian couple making out in front of Jason and Emily.  I wasn't even paying attention enough to notice.   The bottom line is that those who decided to be uncool and actually show up for the opening act were rewarded by Sarah Harmer.  She reminded me an awful lot of Patty Griffin circa Living With Ghosts era, a record that I still like.  I listened to it again just a couple weeks ago.  But, as good as Sarah Harmer was, I was ready for Neko Case.

The requisite amount of time was allotted between acts and Neko and her band took the stage around 9:10.  Instead of just breaking into the first number, she informed the crowd that the band was trying to think of the worst song lyrics ever prior to taking the stage.  This would be a auspicious start for the evening as Neko and backup singer Kelly Hogan were as informal with the crowd throughout the show as any band I'd ever seen.  There were various cerebral topics discussed including, but not limited to:

• How much action the lead singer from Slayer got?  (I assume that to be measured in volume, not quality.)
• Why the lyrics You took the words right out of my mouth, it must have been when you were kissing me reminded Neko of Alpha Bits cereal sitting in yellowing milk.
• How truly metal Neko really is by admitting she still listens to Iron Maiden in her truck.
• Mooseknuckle vs. Cameltoe

Fifteen minutes into Neko's set I get a text response from my earlier question.  It was my friend Jeff's wife Holly and she was upstairs.

In between the discussion with the crowd Neko actually sang songs. Gorgeous songs. She also played a yellow Gibson SG and a Fender Jaguar (amongst others).  Actually, she made too many guitar changes.  Guitar playing is not why I came to see her.  The voice is why I came to see her and the voice did not disappoint me.  Each time she sang a note I expected her voice to crack, but it never did.  It had that same whiskey smooth chanteuse sound you hear in the recordings and it just kept getting stronger as the show progressed.  Sarah Harmer sang great, but without amplification no one would have been able to hear her.  The same cannot be said for Neko Case.   As well as Neko sang, when Kelly Hogan sang along it was just doubly good.  I may have looked forward to hearing Neko's voice before the show started, but once it did I really looked forward to the times where the two of them sang together.  It seemed to add so much more to it.   The band was good, but they didn't seem to be mixed spectacularly well.  Jon Rauhouse, an excellent steel guitar player, seemed to be somewhat muted.   He has collaborated with Neko Case for a long time and I expected him to be singled out more.  He also played a hollow body Gibson of some sort and a very nice sunburst Les Paul.  Paul Rigby on the other hand seemed to be mixed a couple numbers too high.  He played a Fender Telecaster primarily but he did break out a 12 string Rickenbacker too.  While you certainly don't see that every day, the volume it was mixed in at was way too high.  Neko didn't seem to mind if Kelly stole part of the show.  She also made no mention of too much cowbell from Paul either.  She was definitely not the prima donna that you occasionally read about.  In fact, she was quite the opposite.  She even used a few too many F-words for me.  My delicate sensibilities were offended.  All in all Neko put on a very fine show and it was very much worth the $22 bucks.  Yes, it wasn't the typical rock and roll show I'm used to going to but it was a very nice evening.

Holly met us downstairs after the show.

I was in the market for a new desk at home and I wanted something unique.  I knew I wanted something with a large work area and I wanted it to sit higher than what a normal desk would.   I had a vision of exactly what I wanted but I couldn't find it anywhere.  Luckily I ran across this.   Being a former architecture student in college, this architects desk was right up my alley.  Add in the map drawers, or in this case blueprint drawers, and I had the uniqueness I was searching for.   Unfortunately the price was way too much.  Then, about ten days ago the owner emailed me that she would offer it to me at just slightly more than half of the list price.   It was still an expensive piece but it will serve me as a fine desk for most likely the rest of my life.

The desk is made by the C.F. Pease Blueprint company, of which there is very little information.  They were headquartered in Chicago and made blueprint and drafting equipment in the late 19th and early 20th century.   I imagine the desk to be from the mid 1930's, possibly the 1920's, although the antique dealer was thinking the 1940's.   Either way it is easily close to 75 years old.   It came out of the basement of an old Milwaukee architect's home and was in very bad shape at the time according to the antique dealer.  They cleaned it up, but not to the point where it was completely refinished.  Which is good.  The antique look is what gives it the great character.  It even still has push pin holes from where blueprints were pinned to the board.  Speaking of which, the board can be raised to pretty much any angle or height up to 42" high in the front and 51" in the back.  Or anywhere in between.  The best part is that the mechanism for raising and lowering is as simple as can be: two knobs on each side of the frame clamp the extender legs of the top piece so that any position can be achieved.  I imagine with a nice piece of Borco and a good straight edge I could be drafting again.

The desk actually comes in pieces, which can be arranged a couple different ways.  In the photos from the store web site, the drawers were situated on the right side.  I really wanted the left side but was OK with them being on the right.  It was a bonus to find out when I picked the desk up in Madison, WI that they could be moved to the left.

The top, which is 6 foot by 3 foot, with extender legs shown.

The frame.

The top set of drawers.

The bottom set of map drawers with three map drawers removed.

All configured.

I expect much good writing and computer programming to occur here.

Link: http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/year/1941

68 years old today.

Link: http://japandroids.com/

The music industry machine is great at generating hype. One person in an influential position likes a band and suddenly the buzz spreads like wildfire.  More often than not the buzz is for naught.  Japandroids kind of falls into the naught category.  It used to be, in order to form a band, it required at least four people. You could get away with three if one of them was pretty adept at singing while playing.  More often you had to have a fifth member in order to cover up some of the other bands shortcomings.  Don't believe me?  Ask yourself this.  Is Lynyrd Skynyrd defined by Allan Collins and Gary Rossington's dual guitar interplay, or do you automatically think of Larry Junstrom on bass.  Japandroids, on the other hand, forgoes all that extra band member crap and just goes about it being a two piece.  Guitar and drums.

So maybe the hype is all due to the nature of the band being a two piece?   Perhaps that is part of it.  It's certainly a rarity to see.  I only know two off the top of my head.   Jazz guitar whiz Charlie Hunter & percussionist Leon Parker are one.   Loud as hell rock and rollers Local H are the other.   Which category does Japandroids fall into?  Let's just say they do not play jazz.  Instead, they create a wall of loud sound by distinctive, solid drumming and guitar chords tuned in drop D.  With the amps turned up to 11 of course.  Let's face it.  Kurt Cobain did that same guitar thing years ago, and now we all know Dave Grohl on drums was really the brains of the band.  But rather than Dave Grohl leading around a sloppy, heroin induced guitar player, Japandroids members play together with extreme tightness.  The wall of sound they create is at one time distinctive, yet at the same time not overly original.

The distinctive sound and the fact they are a two piece is probably most of the hype machine.  Although I haven't seen them personally, I'm guessing the last bit of it can be attributed to the live show.  A lot of times high energy bands like Japandroids don't translate well to the tactile medium of a CD.  I guess these days that also means the non tactile world of digital media.  All I know is that whatever the medium, that lost translation is the case here with Post-Nothing.  Yes a couple songs like Young Heart Sparks Fire and Heart Sweats translate extremely well.  The rest of the release inundates you with that wall of sound and doesn't let up throughout the eight songs and 35 minutes.  There are moments when you wish it would release you.  If you dig the sound, then buy the album.  If you don't dig the sound catch them live at the Billikin Club in St. Louis on November 20th and see if it changes your mind.

Until then, here's a KEXP in studio where the band absolutely blisters the Steve Albini led Big Black cover Racer X along with their own song Young Heart Sparks Fire.

Link: http://www.brakesbrakesbrakes.com/

According to the band brakesbrakesbrakes, not only are they responsible for the election of Barack Obama, they are also to be praised for saving us all from a Sarah Palin caused nuclear winter.  Because of their heroics they were then able to release their new album titled Touchdown. That's an absurd name for a record by a band hailing from the UK; you know, what with Touchdown being a totally American word and all.  Then again, anyone who claims to have engineered the U.S. election for President simply by calling Dick Cheney a dick in one of their songs, clearly has an obvious grasp for the absurd. Or perhaps a grasp of the smart aleck.  Or more likely a grasp of the I don't give a fuck.

That's probably due to the fact that brakesbrakesbrakes have a firm grasp on understanding that pop bands are a very short-lived flavor of the who knows how long thing.  Today's touchdown quickly gets turned into a 100-yard return against you on the ensuing kickoff.  So, in that respect take your shot while you have it and hope for the best.  There's a certain amount of respect I can give to a band that recognizes they have fifteen seconds to do their thing.  Get on the bull and ride it for as long as you can and hopefully there's a prize at the end.   It appears that on Touchdown, brakesbrakesbrakes accepts their fate and decides to play what they want.

What they want is to try to play both sides of the powerpunk and powerpop genres.  They also want to throw in as many hooks as they possibly can.  This works well for the powerpop songs contained within.  In fact, it works really well for the powerpop songs.  Good thing, since they make up the majority of the CD.  Ancient Mysteries, Do You Feel The Same, and Oh!Forever are very righteous tunes.  I even have a special fondness for Crush On You.  Hey, John Lee Hooker made a career out of one chord songs. brakesbrakesbrakes should be allowed to make one song out of only two chords.  For the more powerpunk songs this formula only kind of works.  Hey Hey Hey is probably the most solid out of them, but Don't Take Me To Space (Man) is a decent one also.  And hey, if those two genres don't work why not try a couple of country-like tunes.  Uhhh.  Wrong.  Leaving England is just sappy and awful and sounds more like a really lame Eagles tune. Yes, I know all Eagles tunes are lame so just picture that level of lameness and add some more lameness to it. I think that gets you to somewhere around the Dan Fogelberg realm. I probably should have just said Dan Fogelberg. Eternal Return at least makes an attempt at sounding country and fails, albeit with far less wussiness. Yes Touchdown has a couple of clunkers.   And yes, despite their outward absurdist appearance that they are just smart alecks along for the ride, there are numerous attempts at commercial success thrown in for good measure.   Too numerous.  Those two things separate a decent album from a great album and for Touchdown that separation falls on just the decent side.  Pick out the ones you like, buy them, and move on.

Link: http://www.myspace.com/deluxerestaurant

How many times have I seen the Supersuckers in the last couple of years?  Too many to count.  Heck, I've seen them twice in the past four months alone, but that's a bit of an oddity.  They played Bloomington at the tail end of their last tour and apparently four months later St. Louis winds up somewhere at the beginning of their new tour.  This time they were playing at The Deluxe in Maplewood, not the usual Pops in Sauget.
For those of you that haven't been to The Deluxe, I highly recommend it.  If you are an out of towner, I know that Maplewood isn't one of the usual destinations.  Unless, of course you are a spice junkie and know about Penzeys.  While The Deluxe bills themselves as a fine food and spirits establishment, the food is not fine in the traditional dining sense.  You probably could have gathered that if the Supersuckers are playing a venue there won't be a lot of foie gras on the menu.  What The Deluxe does offer is damn fine bar food.   There isn't anything earth shatteringly different on the menu that you couldn't get in any other bar & grill in America, but for some reason it has a little bit of extra tastiness.  All I can say is that there's just something about the vibe at The Deluxe.
Normally we'd never show up for opening bands, but because the food is so good it just  made sense for us to eat there.  And, of course, get our drink on.  Reviewing the damage on the credit card receipts today (2 days later)  I can say unequivocably that we got our drink on.  In most cases that would help pass the time for the opening bands.  In the case of these bands, alcohol came in second place.

The Haddonfields

We were sitting at the bar when two young guys came into the bar wheeling amps and guitars.  They sidled up to the bar, ordered Stag tall boys, and lit up smokes.  The following conversation occurs:

Nancy: Are you guys the opening band?
2Dudes: Yeah.
Nancy: What kind of music do you play?
2Dudes: Uhh ... sorta punk.

I just remember thinking to myself, any band with a fat guy has to be pretty good.   It's one of those rules that help you identify good bands from bad ones. Must play old equipment, no two members can dress the same, and counts a fat guy as one of its members. I mean they don't call BTO Bachman Turner Overweight for nothing, right?   Sure enough, this fundamental rule turned out to be true again.   They took the stage and immediately cranked into some of the most straight ahead punk rock that I've heard in awhile.  Nothing fancy at all, just loud and sweaty and in your face.   Two songs into it Nancy turns to me and says, "I like these guys".  So did I.  After their set I got to talk to their guitar player mainly to find out what kind of guitar he was playing.  (it's a Dipinto Mach IV).  I told him I liked their set and that he reminded me a little of D Boon the way he looked on stage.  I was disappointed to find out he had no idea who that was, but be that as it may the band rocked.  They were passing out their new 7" at the show. (Record of punk, not what you were thinking you dirty perverts.)  Nancy got a copy and later managed to get all of them to sign the jacket.
Here's a YouTube taste of The Haddonfields and despite the fact that the description says they live in Columbia, TN, The Haddonfields are a St. Louis band.

The Last Vegas

First things first.  The Last Vegas has to be one of the worst band names I've ever heard.  You don't have to have a great band name like Tastes Like Chicken or The Well Hungarians for me to like you, but when you call yourself The Last Vegas you've already started to go down a road you don't want to.  Nothing screams corporate and admitting you are trying too hard than to give yourself a really bad play on words.  Plus, when you associate yourself to a place like Vegas the expectations are very, very high.   Make a play on something less daunting like Sheboygan or something; I mean it has the phrase 'She-boy' built right in. And they are right next to each other for christ sake.  Geez.  I gotta stop giving you guys all the great ideas.
I was probably relieving myself of Guiness or Makers Mark when Nancy asked a couple of the members of The Last Vegas what kind of music they play.  Their response was, "kind of like AC/DC".  Nancy countered them with, "Have you ever heard of Airbourne".   It turns out they've actually toured with Airbourne.  The following conversation occurred when I returned from the bathroom:

Nancy: These guys played with Airbourne and they sound like AC/DC.
Me: Oh yeah?
TLV Dudes: Yeah, plus our frontman is kind of crazy.
Me: Sweet.

When they finally took the stage it turns out they are more of a cross between AC/DC and Guns 'n Roses.  They rock the whole mid 80's hair band vibe and their front man is just a little bit crazy.  He's not as crazy as say the front man for The Chesterfields, but he is a good personality for fronting a band.  By the end of the set you could really say that The Last Vegas are a very solid rock and roll band, despite their awful name.
Yes, that really is Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx in the video below.  He's one of the producers of their new CD.

Supersuckers

While Eddie was manning the merch table, Nancy wrote something on a piece of paper and took it to him.  He looked at it with a strange look on his face as if to say, wtf.  Nancy wouldn't tell me what it said, but a few minutes later we decided to ask Eddie for a picture.  When we asked him, Nancy told him that I was Drew, which I assume had something to do with the piece of paper she gave him.   He seemed to care less, which is typical for most people who meet me, much less the guy who is the face of the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the world.   Lisa, a friend of mine from the old SMS college days who showed up in the middle of The Last Vegas set tried to take the pic with my iPhone.  Unfortunately my camera wouldn't work and all we got was a solid black exposure.   As much as it would have been cool to have photographic proof of my 15 seconds of rubbing elbows with Eddie Spaghetti, I felt bad asking him to pose for us.  He must get tons of requests for that kind of crap, but ever the nice guy he said no problem. Eddie is one of the few really cool musicians who really gets out and meets the fans.  Great guy.
Shortly before the Supersuckers took the stage (without a bunch of fiddle-farting around like The Last Vegas did), Nancy told me that Rontrose Heathman wasn't touring with the band this go around.   She didn't know why but if you read the front page of the Supersuckers web site all they say is that Ron has quit the band.  Sad.  Ron is a great guitar player, but when we saw him in Bloomington earlier this year I will admit that he looked really, really rough.  It seemed pretty clear that he was either fighting a demon, burned out on rock and roll, or possibly both.  Replacing Ron was Marty Chandler, who incidentally, replaced Ron the last time he left the band.  Marty is a good guitar player, but he's no Rontrose Heathman.
Instead of the more rocking show that you get with Rontrose manning lead axe, the Supersuckers dialed it back a notch and played more of the country side of their country tinged catalog.  There was no crowd pleaser like Rock Your Ass but we did get Seventeen Poles instead.  So, we had that going for us.  They did the normal country set (sans Creepy Jackalope Eye) with the obligatory cha-cha-cha, and overall they played for more than an hour with what consisted largely of the big show with some changes.  As you can guess with any band with a song proclaiming that they are in league with Satan, they rocked the house.  When I left I was significantly lighter in the wallet, reeking of cigarette smoke, and I couldn't hear shit.  Isn't that exactly what a rock and roll show is supposed to be?   I think so.  Best $15 show I've ever seen, hands down.
Here's Rock Your Ass with Rontrose on lead.  I hope that I didn't see the last show with him back in June.

Link: http://www.myspace.com/miikesnow

No that's not a typo.  Apparently it is pronounced 'Mike' and the name comes from nothing more than a mutual acquaintance of the band.  Who names their kid Miike with 2 i's?  Turns out, no one.  They completely made it up.  Crazy Swedes.  Outside of the U.S., the best pop music happens in Sweden, although some will argue legitimately that the absolute best pop music being made anywhere is Sweden.   Personally I still feel Portland and Seattle still reign because I can name twenty Northwest U.S. artists in less than 30 seconds.  It would take me at least a minute to get that many from Sweden.   I wouldn't count Abba either.   I mean, I count Abba as a Swedish band because they are, but not in the pop circles of today.  Instead I'd go for Peter, Bjorn & John,  Jose Gonzalez (via Brazil), Jens Lekman, and Datarock as the reigning heirs of Swedish pop.   I might throw in Tallest Man on Earth just because he has a cool moniker.

So who the heck is Miike Snow?  The band that is, not the mutual acquaintance.  Several months ago I wrote about one of my new favorite bands Fires of Rome.  Unbeknownst to me at the time I purchased the Miike Snow debut,  one of the members of Miike Snow, Andrew Wyatt, is also in Fires of Rome.  Technically I didn't know Andrew Wyatt was in Fires of Rome or if I did it was buried in the browner parts of my brain and I just didn't jossle the right brain waves around to shake it loose.  Doesn't matter.  Miike Snow couldn't be more different than Fires of Rome, the latter (if you read the review) being more eclectic straight ahead rock.

The other two members of Miike Snow are the production team of Bloodshy & Avant.  Who?  Yeah, I had to ask that too.  Turns out that if I paid attention to Britney Spears, other than those pics of her scary beef curtains, I'd know who Bloodshy & Avant are.  They are the producers of Britney's hit Toxic, which even I have to admit is one of the more listenable candy pop songs she's put out.  Egad, Drew!  Did you just admit to liking a Britney Spears song?  Have you lost your effing mind?   Yes I'm aware that more than ten people have heard of Britney.  Heck there's probably ten of you that skipped everything I've written in this review and just moved right on down to the video of her below.  Some of you probably have your pants unbuttoned.  Freaks.  Yeah, I'm not proud of touting a production team for a musical corporate puppet.  I'm not real comfortable with it either, but I try to reconcile it by understanding that finding a big bag of money at your doorstep allows you to do whatever you want to later on in life.  I'd be a hypocrite if I said I wouldn't sell out just so I could coast the tail end of my life.  I'd still be a hypocrite, just not for that.

The three members test out Drew's big bag of money theory with their eponymous release and they manage to make a professional sounding album without all that corporate gloss that I love to hate.  The sound is mostly electronica, somewhere between lounge and house, but it hits the sweet spot of occasionally leaning to the techno but not at the expense of freaking out the normal people.  For the most part this works.  It's certainly a very accessible work, appealing to a wide variety of people.   Most of the good stuff appears in the first two-thirds of the release.  After A Horse Is Not A Home, a sizeable hit for the band, the album slinks off quietly.  Up until that point it reaches the lofty status of 'art' in my book.  At various points it reminds me a lot of Stars, Bell X1, and even a little bit like Fires of Rome.   If you like the first seven songs, or at least most of them, go ahead and get the whole disc.

And then watch Britney.