Gogol Bordello at The Pageant
Link: http://www.gogolbordello.com/
I've seen a few things in my life. I've seen a woman get run over by a car. I've seen a man get shot in the back coming out of a nightclub. I know for a fact what I saw those two times. Those memories are burned into my brain. A month removed from seeing Gogol Bordello, I'm still not sure what the hell I saw. I do know this. It was way cooler than both of those other burning memories.
I've been waiting to see Gogol Bordello since their Super Taranta! release dropped back in the summer of 2007. I watched their tour schedule religiously and despite the fact it seemed like they travelled like every day of the year, they never, ever came close to St. Louis. Vegas one time and Chicago for Lollapalooza 2008 have been the closest and neither worked out for me. I damn near gave up on ever seeing them. And then one day I got an email from Pollstar. They were playing The Pageant! Fifteen seconds after the email I get a text from Nancy.
N: Guess who is playing in Saint Louis?
M: We are so there.
That was months in advance of the show, but finally the big day arrived. We didn't even bother with the opening band. Instead we arrived in just enough time to get in, get a drink, and grab some space near the back. Stage left. All week I wondered how many people would actually show up. When I told people who I was going to see they all gave me the universal blank stare. Obviously I didn't tell the right people because the place was packed. From where we were standing I couldn't see if there was room in the balcony, but downstairs was SRO and then some. Strange crowd too. There were punk rockers, music hipsters, and even some old folk. I think I even saw some retards too. Maybe they weren't completely retarded, but they looked pretty close to Special Olympics unsavory.
The house lights lowered and Eugene Hutz came out holding a bottle of wine, dancing about on stage, and taking liberal shots from the bottle. The crowd cheered loudly with each swig. He put the bottle down next to the drum kit and started playing the guitar, dancing, and singing what sounded to me like a gypsy folk tune. Hey, I'm not Eastern European so it may have been something else. Whatever it was, it showcased the roots of Gogol Bordello's music and as the song got more intense, members of the band started showing up on stage. First Thomas Gobena on a 6 string bass wearing a Bad Brains t-shirt, then Sergey Ryabtsev in a beret playing violin, followed by Yuri Lemeshev on accordian. If I had never heard of Gogol Bordello and you told me I was going to see gypsy music with an accordian and violin player, I would have laughed at you. I shouldn't. These guys can flat out play and they all play with unparalleled intensity. As the show wore on it seemed as if they all fed off each other. Clearly, it was no laughing matter.
Well, sorta. When the dancers come out wearing majorette uniforms and playing marching bass drums and cymbals, you have to laugh a little bit. But if you concentrated on watching them, no matter how entertaining they might be, you were bound to miss something entertaining being done by Eugene, or Sergey, or Yuri, or any of the other member of the band. There was, quite simply, too much shit to watch. The whole time my eyes watched something for a few seconds, shifted to something else as I wondered to myself what I was missing on the other side of the stage. So I would decide to look over there, knowing full well the whole time I was missing something really cool I just took my eye off of. It was like watching a cross between Cirque du Soliel, a Broadway musical, and the Russian hat dance all mixed into one thick gravy. With extra spicy coolness and it screamed party!
For almost two hours I watched one of the most intense musical performances I've ever seen. When it was over I was actually sort of relieved. Too much more of that and I think my brain would have exploded, partly due to sensory overload. Partly due to still not knowing what the hell it was I saw. All I know at this point is that I want to see it again.
October 25th @ The Blue Note in Columbia, MO
Who knows when they will be here again.
Where To Get The Font
Fonts aren't supposed to be free, yet somehow it appears that way. If you're interested in seeing the site in the font intended, download and install.
Sonic Youth On The Riverfront
I was going to write about both shows I saw recently, Sonic Youth and Gogol Bordello, in the same post. Gogol Bordello deserves its own post and I'll be working on that. Meanwhile, I give you Sonic Youth.
I never got to see Sonic Youth. By the time I got around to listening to them they were already on a major label which under normal circumstances would violate my 'more than ten people like the band so I can't' rule. Sonic Youth does not apply to that rule and it's not like I would have ruled them out solely on that. You'd think I would have listened to Sonic Youth since SST bands were a major influence on me, but I was drawn to them because of their CD cover art work by Raymond Pettibon. I guess that really is via SST when you get right down to it.
I like Sonic Youth a lot, but they are definitely an acquired taste. Sonic Youth rose up with the punk rock movement without really being punk rock. I speak of the term punk rock in the way most people are told what punk rock music is supposed to be. In the truest sense of what punk rock really meant at the time, they were the very definition of it. They came from the art world and approached music from a completely different angle. Number one, they didn't actually know how to play instruments. Instead they jammed drumsticks and various other assorted things behind the strings in order to make them sound in tune. Or at least in dissonance. This explains why no one can figure out how to play any Sonic Youth songs and you never see a Sonic Youth cover band. They didn't follow the rules and it was that dissonance that became their calling card. They also realized that persona was as important as the music and these two things together have spawned noise pop bands from Art Brut to Radiohead.
And they also did Kool Thing with Chuck D from Public Enemy. That's at least how I pitched it to Robert as we drove along the Berm Highway toward the Saint Louis Riverfront. This conversation occurred:
D: You ever hear of a rapper named Chuck D?
R: No.
D: You ever hear of the band Public Enemy?
R: No.
D: I know you know who Flavor Flav is, right?
R: Yeah, I know him.
D: Well he was in Public Enemy with Chuck D and Terminator X long before all that crazy TV stuff he's doing now.
R: Really?
D: Yes. And just so you know, Flavor Flav is the court jester. Chuck D is the King.
I also told him all the stuff about not knowing how to play instruments and making dischordant sounds, which he found hard to believe I think. I also told him that the idea of putting a hardcore rap group together with an art band like Sonic Youth was just unheard of at the time. The moral, I told him, was that in music and art, you can make up your own rules which includes the rule to have no rules. That seemed to be a pretty good idea to him.
We parked in the arch parking garage which surprisingly was mostly empty. Ten minutes later we are standing just inside the arch grounds waiting for my friend Nancy. We didn't have to wait long. She apparently pulled in the garage just after us. Despite the light garage use, the steps were pretty crowded. Like about 2000 people crowded. Many of whom were clearly not devotees of Sonic Youth. The night was nice and cool and a lot of people came out just to be in the fresh air and watch some fireworks. They didn't care if they had to listen to a band they had probably never heard of.
Robert and I went down the steps to the riverfront, grabbed some food and beers (he prefers Bud Light) and we headed back up to the top of the steps to listen to the show. I joke about the beers with Robert. He insists he does not drink beer or smoke cigarettes. Sonic Youth came on stage and played a rocking set for well over an hour. They played an encore for about 15 minutes, then came back out again probably because it wasn't quite dark enough for the fireworks to start. They played a wall of noise and fuzz and sound that pretty much sounded the same the whole time. Thurston Moore plays some pretty cool stuff on those old beat up guitars. There were probably 30 guitars sitting just off stage but he only played two or three. Kim Gordon is just too cool and between her and Thurston the persona of Sonic Youth oozes. Kim doesn't play bass all the time and the majority of that duty has now been passed off to Mark Ibold of Pavement fame. Lee Renaldo has his moments of noise ecstasy but it is Steve Shelley that is the real musician. He made me forget I hate drummers for the entire show. Then I promptly went back to hating drummers. Seriously though, Shelley is amazing. It's no accident that Sonic Youth really took off when he joined them. All in all a solid show from a band I've always wanted to see but I'm sure nowhere near the same Sonic Youth from the late 80's.
The fireworks were fantastic. Probably the best I've seen and they lasted quite awhile. It wasn't worth what we went through in the parking garage though. We got stuck for an hour trying to get out. Finally someone from the park service directed traffic out and we were on our way home.
They didn't play Kool Thing at the show but here is a live version for you.
Drew Brushes Up On CSS
Behold the new blog style. It even has my picture on it! No that is not a product of photoshop. That's really me standing on the Pacific Coast Highway with Bixby Bridge in the background. It wasn't my first choice for pictures though. My first choice for pictures was something much much cooler. The problem is I suck at photoshop. So, until I get better at photoshop, this design will have to do. Expect some glitches along the way with my retarded styling prowess. I tested using Firefox 3.5.2 and it should be the same in IE 7 or 8. If you are on some other browser I apologize if the design sucks for you. My advice is get a new a standard browser you anti-social freak. I also recommend getting the Andalus font. It looks much better using that font.
There are some better features for the new blog. I encourage you to sign up for subscriptions or at least sign up for the RSS feeds. Or check me out on Facebook. I'll have the blog posts fed via RSS to it.
I got a whole lot of music to write about including two recent shows I attended. In the meantime, enjoy this delightful bit of juvenile delinquency.
Who says farts aren't funny?
Blog Software Successfully Upgraded
Link: http://www.drewmoo.com
Hats off to my hosting provider Netfronts for their outstanding response time to all my tech issues. They moved me to Linux servers, gave me SSH access, and upgraded mySQL DB's from 4.0 to 5.1, all with lightning speed.
Upgrading my blog software turned out to be much more involved than I thought. This is what happens when you run software that is three major versions behind. I moved from version 0.9.2 to the latest release version 3.3.0 rc1. If I tried to do this without some tech knowledge I would have been hosed. Luckily I have some tech skills and luckily I've seen the upgrade software movie before. I knew the best way would be to set up a development blog and mySQL database on my laptop and test the upgrade that way. Now I actually will be able to test on a development box before pushing changes to production, which will be new for me.
Over the next several weeks I'll be looking to apply a new skin and css styling, as well as just catching up on all the stuff that's been going on. And, of course, I'll be testing out all the cool things the blog will have to offer like: embedded YouTube and Google video, Twitter interaction, hooks into Amazon.com to earn reseller credit, mp3 support, much better spam protection, and tons of other cool things.
The Severed Cortex Switching Platforms
My blog software needs to be updated. Like about 5 years ago. I think I'm now 3 full versions behind. Why have I been so lazy? Because I've been on a Windows platform and there isn't convenient access to the web server for installations. On the Linux platform there is.
The newer versions of the blog software will allow me to customize the site a hell of a lot better, plus there are plug-ins like media players and such that will allow me to offer some better content. Yes, the writing will still suck but you can listen to music and watch videos.
Not that anyone cares but me but the website may be down for intermittent periods over the next week. Have a heart. I'm also switching to Sanka.
Don't Forget to Vote
Two Shots of Loud To Rock Your Ass
I Blame You by Obits
Sub Pop has been cranking out records for twenty plus years now. The guys who introduced the world to grunge have continued to build on that success. While record labels, especially of the indie variety, tend to gravitate to a sound, Sub Pop has ventured far from that territory by just signing good bands. Easy to do when you are sitting on a gold mine of talent. Twenty years later, the Northwest music scene still thrives largely in part to record labels like Sub Pop and K Records and others. I can't say I love every band signed by Sub Pop, but whatever artist it happens to be, you know you will be getting a quality product.
Obits are no exception, unless you count that they are actually a Brooklyn band recording with the well known label. Owing their sound to the thousands of garage rockers that came before them, Obits accentuate the guitar heavily and accurately pound the bass plenty. More impressive though is lead singer Rick Froberg who screams a like a cross between Mick Jagger and Joe Strummer. This band is extremely tight but without Froberg this is honestly just another band. As it turns out, Froberg is also an extremely good pen and ink artist and clearly did the cover art work. What that cover art is I'm not sure. Might be a cobra. Could be a piece of sushi too. Then again it might even be a hunk of cartilage taken from someone's knee. Judge for yourself here. Whatever it is, keep it coming. I like it a lot. And I like this release a lot. The cover states this is XTRA Compressed for Maximum Listener Fatigue, which I guess may happen with all the air guitar, air drums, head bobbing, and singing you'll wind up doing. It's definitely a ride. There's not a bad song in the bunch. Go over to the Obits web site, download the two free tunes and judge for yourself. Mad props for giving you Two Headed Coin and Pine On. I think they are the two standout tracks, but after you give this a couple spins you'll realize every other track on here is just as solid. Plain and simple. Obits will keep you rocking until you are dead.
Serf City USA by Have Nots
Hands down. No questions asked. This is the best ska punk release to come out in ten years. No disrespect to Rancid or NOFX, two ska punk bands I really like, Have Nots first release breathes new life into a genre that's been largely ignored for at least eight of those ten years. For the most part I've ignored it as well. I picked up a couple NOFX things over the years and my friend Nancy gave me some Specials from back in the day, but other than that I skipped past the whole thing shortly after Mighty Mighty Bosstones had commercial success. Skipping out or not, it was real tough to skip past anything with cover art work of two tattooed hands (Have/Nots) holding a pair of revolvers. Everything with tattooed hands symbolizes bad ass, even the Blues Brothers. Other cool things with tattooed hands:
- Eddie from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Love/Hate)
- The guy who ran the 222 Artisan Bakery in Edwardsville (Bona/Fide)
It's also tough to skip past the first song on the CD, There's Gonna Be a Riot, an anthem that kick starts this raucous affair with Harley motorcycle intensity for the next 30 minutes of 12 song rocking. Yes, 12 songs and only 30 minutes but trust me they pack a lot of value. Some of my all time favorite songs only run 2 and a half minutes. Like George Costanza, leave on a high note and make them want more. This release is chock full of songs that do just that.
I'm not going to string you along like this is something brand spanking new. There is absolutely no new ground broken here at all. Not in the least. What does separate this from any other run of the mill ska punk release playing rhythm guitar chords on the 'and' is the intensity. And, of course plenty of sweet, sweet guitar hooks. In iTunes I rated every song 5 stars which I will tell you is very rare for me to do. Much less for a genre as dead as ska punk. Let There's Gonna Be a Riot suck you in and then skank on over to An Army of One or the title track or one of my favorites after several listens Used to Be. Maybe between us we can jump start ska punk and make twenty somethings realize that No Doubt sold the genre out. No doubt.
ARTCO Pumps Oil Into The Sewer
Maybe not on purpose however. I'm actually a little shocked that a company like Artco would have this happen several times. There are a lot of towing outfits I wouldn't be surprised about if they did this but Artco is not on that list. I'm hoping that my good friend John will come to his company's defense.
One time in St. Paul, while taking on fuel at a Koch dock, a couple hundred gallons of diesel spilled into the river. I don't remember what the issue was that caused the spill but we weren't being negligent. Maybe a hose ruptured or something. We reported it to the Coast Guard immediately. While they were en route we coated the surface of the water with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Hey, nothing cuts grease like Dawn. By the time the water cops arrived, there wasn't an oily sheen on the water at all. We told them what happened and they really had no way to verify or refute the story. They wound up having to just document an incident report and that was all.
Middle Cyclone by Neko Case
Link: http://www.nekocase.com/
I am fixated with Neko Case. If there were a way for me to carry her baby to full term I would do it. She'd just have to agree to make sweet, sweet love to me and sing while doing it. I'd probably goof it up by crying the whole time. Was that too much information?
There is just something about Neko Case's voice that makes me feel ... well ... probably the same way that 15 year old girls felt about Elvis. Cool late 50's Elvis, not the fat bloated 70's Elvis doing karate in rhinestone jumpsuits. Neko's voice is instantly recognizable and so incredible that she can instantly stop you in your tracks. I felt the same way about Natalie Merchant's voice from 1986 until the late 1990's. Both can do whatever they like to me as long as they sing while doing it. Hmmm ... how about me, Neko Case, Natalie Merchant, a hot tub, and a Super 8 camera.
Middle Cyclone, the follow up to the very successful Fox Confessor Brings the Flood treads pretty much along the same path as its predecessor. Why ruin a good formula right? Usually these sorts of two trick ponies never work. If they do, everyone says the second one never reaches the promise of the one that blazed the trail. It's a tough call for me to say that Middle Cyclone is not up to the task though. The material might be slightly weaker but that's really splitting hairs. There are just as many good songs on both, and neither one has a bad song in the bunch. On the positive side, Middle Cyclone gives you two more tracks, three if you count the 30 minute bird chirping track, which I do not. It's not like the extra songs are junk (30 minute bird chirping aside). I assure you they are not. When the rubber meets the road of the 1970 Cougar (how apropos is that?) displayed on the album cover, this is another solid artistic production by one of the finest voices in any genre of music.
If you are unfamiliar with Neko Case then you need to become spellbound by her voice this instant. Try People Got a Lotta Nerve or my personal favorite The Next Time You Say "Forever". It's one of those songs that makes the hair on your arm stand up. Magpie to the Morning and I'm An Animal are also outstanding as is the epic Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth. I'm going to bet that if you listen to one song you'll want to buy the whole release.
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