Maybe I would have stayed in science class if it had had an appropriate soundtrack. It was pretty satisfying once I got the microscope properly focused…. the only problem was that from the 8th grade until my sophomore year in college all I got was a pinkish blur. Maybe it wasn’t so much that I decided to leave the sciences but that the administrative powers that be wouldn’t let me continue. Whatever, now I have this kick ass blog so who’s laughing now. *sound of laughter turning into pitiful weeping*
That’s enough of that, here’s “Family of Others” set in the majestic world of the Petri dish. Directed by Sara Magenheimer and Eben Portnoy of Flying; who, incidentally, are touring with Deerhoof now.
Speak of the Devil… I was just talking about Conrad Keely’s (of Trail of Dead fame) album artwork for The Sword and what do I get in my mail? A notice for a one night only Keely art show. His Works in Blue Ballpoint will be shown next to Melissa Auf Der Mar’s photography on Thursday October 23rd from 6-9 at 34th East 1st Street @ Second Ave.
33third has been throwing some great live expos recently and I know they were working on expanding into a gallery space last time I stopped by there. I’m assuming that Mid City Arts is the fruit of their labor here and I’m glad that this show is going to still be running when I’m back in L.A. again for a minute over Thanksgiving. (Opens Saturday Nov. 1st @ 7 and the show runs until Dec. 1st.) The exhibit will is curated by Eye One and will feature art from Besk, Bonks, Cab, Goshe, Kopye, Kozem, Mandoe, Neo, 7Dee, and more. It’s probably worth checking out for the Cab stuff alone. The book that’s coming out alongside the exhibit features a bunch of L.A. legends like Ayer and Atlas but I don’t know if they’re going to be in the show. It’s kind of hard to imagine that their names wouldn’t be listed as a major selling point. You can check out the preview pdf of the book here and you can find out more about lost projects at their site.
Mid City Arts is located at 5113 Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90019
I first heard about The Sword because Conrad Keely from …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead championed them and did their album covers. So generally whenever I hear about these guys I pretty much just think of them as those dudes that have Keely album covers but they’ve been so active recently that it’s probably going to be impossible for me to do that again and I’ll probably have to apologize for being so dismissive. Now though they’ll probably end up being inextricably tied to my birthday as they start a huge media push on the 21st (aka tomorrow) including a massive tour including supporting dates for Metallica and video premier for “How Heavy This Axe” on MTV2 and discussed on the Headbangers Ball 20th anniversary show.
This post does all the work for me. Fuck “The Monster Mash,” shit is going to absolutely insane. I would sell my left leg and hop in to be able to go to this show. The notice promises a bunch of new music too, maybe this’ll be a full preview of transit transit.(!!!!)
Address info:
little radio
1216 long beach ave.
downtown, la 90021
The kind of groovy guitar having Rock N Rolly Adams Fix It which is also the single I think. (You can download it now on itunes and have instant access to it if you preorder the album anyways)
Cobwebs, which I can’t really place in terms of Adams’ catalogue.
And Evergreen which is one of those awesome Adams ballads with the brushed drums. I wouldn’t want a whole album of them but his voice always sounds different on those and it’s kind of fantastic.
click here for Cardinology’s tracklisting and tour dates
I managed to find the time this last weekend to go check out The Walkmen and The Little Ones on tour this weekend at the House of Blues Pontiac Garage; which, unlike every HOB I’ve ever been to, manages to create some sort of feeling resembling that of an actual music venue even if their idea of a rundown old blues club happens to be a club that is actually a super clean, brand new club with dim lighting. At least it was intimate.
At first I thought The Little Ones would be the hardest band to review ever. The beginning of their set was completely unremarkable. I can’t recall any time that I have been more indifferent. They weren’t by any means bad but did that make them good? I was stumped. I think there were a couple of reasons for this. First, song selection. They started off with some of their slower songs, their much publicized “rule of feet” wasn’t exactly being implemented by my mind and this problem was addressed in the second half of their set when they charged up the tempo and cranked up the volume. (Seemed louder to me than the Fuck Buttons show i saw) Once they brought out their livelier songs their performance got way more interesting to watch as well. As of right now I’m not sure that they have the charisma/performance experience to really compel people to watch a few guys stand around, which is pretty much what goes on during slow songs. The second factor that hurt them a little was just general context. To me The Little Ones make some good road trip music. Windows down, sunny day, driving with a friend through a flat stretch of sandy or tree-y nowhere, road trip music. Its all about music adding to some experience not so much being the focal point of experience.
A few lines back i introduced the groundbreaking idea that slow songs result in a group of guys with instruments standing around. The walkmen have many such songs but here’s where a certain type of charisma comes in. I didn’t care so much. Hamilton Leithauser’s voice is suited for the kind of meandering and moody progress the songs make and he managed to bring a physicality to the slow songs whether in the tired way he leaned on the mic stand or the way his body reached upward during the vocal stretches by standing on his tip toes. If you want to see an classic illustration of performance stop thinking about Leithauser’s throat and take a look at his neck. Voice aside, his neck looked nuts. You could just look at footage of this show and tell that he’s throwing his whole into that performance, it looks like his trachea’s gonna make a break for it at any moment. The band just made everything really believable. There’s something about The Walkmen that makes me think of a modern guy sitting in a bar in New York and at the same time think about vintage America. There’s something very rundown yet classy about these guys.
Side notes. The backing trumpet players added quite a bit of atmosphere to some of the tracks. Like I will always say, a little brass produces gold almost every time.
I was taking pictures from the side of the stage and Leithauser seemed to be doing his best not to look towards me.
Matt Barrick was playing his snare with a maraca which I always think is cool.
The Republic Tigers have a feature in the current issue of Ragged. It’s a downloadable mini magazine similar to the Filter mini’s that you might have seen around. The site maintains a blog as well to keep people posted between issues. I know that I haven’t been posting that often recently but that doesn’t stop the internet from being one crazy place that holds the possibility of a lagless society. If you’re prone to headaches and dizziness from reading too damn much on these screens or suffering from a wicked bout of carpel tunnel though I’ve still got your back.
Not afraid of paper cuts? I’ve got your physical copy of a Ragged right here.
And to reward you for waiting the couple of days for that sucker to come in the mail you’ll also receive a copy of the Republic Tiger’s album Keep Color and a Rupublic Tiger’s tee.
To enter all you have to do is e-mail me (whatscene@gmail.com) with your shipping info and t-shirt size and I’ll plug your name into our office rand-o-matron and voila we’ll have a winner. Make sure your entry says Republic Tigers in the subject heading.
Stereocache – read victoriously.
Entries must be submitted by Sunday, October 26th.
I remember reading back in the days of vh1’s pop up video (link for the youngins) that R.E.M. would only consent to limited band recording time for footage and limited the amount of actual band footage directors were allowed to edit into the final cut. I wonder if The Panics came in and said “We’ll do your damn video, but…… we don’t want to stand.” Maybe the director came in with a treatment and sold it with, “and you get to lie down the whole time.” Maybe it was none of these things. Maybe I just sit in my ivory laptop tower and imagine that everyone wants to be able to work from a day bed the way I do. Either way I think the video looks pretty cool, kind of like some of the in camera effects that they show in Be Kind Rewind. The Panics’ Cruel Guards came out today on Dew Process (home of fellow Aussies The Grates.) I find this label name hilarious. I hope it’s Mountain Dew’s attempt at media domination.
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