Today, I just wanted to share the best ever NSFW anti-trump rant by Angelo from Fishbone at their House of Independents(HOI) show last night. This newish club is now my favorite place to see “bigger” bands live in Asbury Park. I still dig the intimacy of places like APYC and the questionable sonic sound but when you have a 8-9 piece band with horns you seriously don’t want the experience to get lost in cacophony of noise and the sweet stench of cheap beers. Which reminds me I also dig that HOI serves local micro-brews up front and center from Dark City Brewing Company and Asbury Park Brewery and from I understand APB will be available in cans! I think in life fishbone shows have always been fun and life affirming, having seen them over a dozen times since 1987 or so. Only one oldschoolCity Gardens chump got ousted early on in their set by the bouncers until Angelo told them to chill and let people dance and have fun. There may have been a 10 year old kid body surfing and one of the other dad’s made a frowny tisk tisk emoji beard face.
I only got to shoot these two videos for the Review Stalker YouTubes on my iPhone, which the channel almost bizarrely has 500 subscribers for some reason which I think maybe it’s the DJ Red Alert video with over 100,000 listens! crazy contributing to that math.
Anyway, I really wanted to enjoy and dance my freakin’ ass/feet off a little bit- and that I did. I also managed to live stream a couple songs on my personal facebooks and instagram because I’m loco. I’m sure I’ll pay for the bandwidth usage later.
Fishbone is still one of the best bands in not only America but the whole wide World in my humblest of opinions. So go see them in this lifetime soon. Before the show Angelo being the gentleman and showman he is spent time with fans signing autographs and hanging out. Seriously their fuck racism tees are awesome and you can give people a little of your mind with their classic t-shirt online here.
This next one is so Bootsy Collins with Norwoods getting crazy ass bass sounds you couldn’t help but funk it up and shake your booty thing. Man I wish the sound was better but listen to that bass! I can do so much better magic with my NJ based video production company VLHfilms.com for live bands on a budget but alas I was really at House of Independents to get my groove on.
So the other night I had the honor of playing a solo show as The Slow Wire with a few bands I really dug Secret Photos, Bodega Satellite as well this other local swamp rock band called Traveling in Stereo. In all a awesome night. Originally the Eastern Anchors we’re supposed to play but either way I’m sure we’ll hook up soon enough as the album is the EA complete. There will always be more shows. What’s actually exciting to me is this new 10th Street live venue is actually book some exciting shit. The rumour that night also is that my pal Andy Diamond may be booking some music The Crossroads in Garwood in the near future (not confirmed yet) but we shall see. I’ve never had two rock clubs so close to since I move out of New Brunswick a decade ago.
Super energetic punk trio with some chops and riffage. Hope you dig them. If a band can sound good live on video it’s not a sound mans trick. No mixing in the world can help. Dig them.
Here’s another song by Secret Photos called jack and the pollock MP3 from their record Luv2Giv
I like the way they switch electronic embryo or power trio. Cool shit.
Some of this sounds like: Slow Motion MP3 by Ultravox Eels MP3 by Built to Spill from The Electronic Anthology Project You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face) MP3 by Mudhoney from Super Fuzz Big Muff Think About Carbs MP3 by Hot Snakes from Audit In Progress Champs MP3 by Wire from Pink Flag (1977)
Saturday Sunday live review: Last minute phone call last night led me to the Mercury Lounge on 5.30.09 with my bud Jim to catch a early show by The Rural Alberta Advantage who recently signed to Saddle-creek, I Was A King from Norway and Elevator Fight (Philly).
Ok so we totally missed Elevator Fight, who apparently have some star power in the band with the offspring of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. Zoe freaking Kravitz who my daughter is named after on vocals. Can’t believe it honestly. Has it been that long? But we had a decision to make at the bar as to what to drink as they played their last song. I’m sure they will get other Saturday nights and I’ll try not to miss it; just somebody send me an invite and we’ll be cool. They play this sort of cliche roots rock from the couple tunes I heard on their myspace.com page. I think her band needs to do some more digging in Daddy’s record collection and find their own voice but I get the sense they are going for a straight up pop direction so there may be no hope. Her voice is good so hopefully they put that to good use as you would expect she got her mamma’s looks. This is all pretty funny to me because I’m now recalling as we were waiting for the next band that I noticed this smashing gal that reminded me of a grown up Cosby kid and it all makes sense.
In the grand scheme of things culturally America has influenced the world musically and I Was a King is proof positive of that. The first hurdle I always wonder about is how do bands write melodic pop songs in Nordic and then sing them in English? Ok, I know the rest of world needs to learn more than one language so that is probably a barrier on our part. I Was A King borrow nicely from art of the short song by gbv and blast out equally potent and abbreviated J Mascis like solos. This band’s performance was a surprise and in this configuration was truly driven by their rhythm section as the two guitarist pretty much played the same shoegazer parts. They were most powerful when they broke away from that but damn I don’t think I’ve seen more capos used in a single show– that’s got to be a pain in the butt to remember so kudos just for that. The real glue was in the singing above the mask of the guitar wash. Guy/Gal vocals really is part of their magic that could be compared to Belly and Swervedriver jamming the black angels without the heroin parts. heh? The lead singer Frode Strømstad has got his song writing machine down Anne Lisa can sure hold her own vocally. I was impressed.
Live I don’t think they sounded anything like Apples In Stereo or Neutral Milk Hotel like their bios says to file them under; in particular because of the lack of additional instrumentation in the live configuration joining them on stage but allas this is a good band and worth catching. I tried to chat with the other guitarist about her guitar playing and pedals but she was chatting up some haggard looking new yawker dude. Check out their most recent self titled album on emusic which was recorded in Brooklyn U.S.A btw.
Now The Rural Alberta Advantage (gotta love that nationalistic Canadian pride) sounded more like NMH in the singing delivery department with the support of their diverse but bare bones instrumentation. With barely any gear on stage you could fit this trio in a Fiat! The powerful vocal melodies indeed carried them from song to song. If you had to file and tag them under quirky and diverse would be appropriate like tapes n tapes is to spazzy drumming and their keyboard parts. Was cool to see the main singer guy Nils Edenloff playing a Seagull acoustic guitar. The string that was holding it looked uncomfortable but he seemed truly happy to hold it up and carrying the band out of obscurity coming from a self-released record and now being picked up by Saddle-Creek quite a story actually with a little push from emusic for RAA is all it took which is one of them stories in the big scary city. So expect lots of interesting things from them if they survive their first big tour. At the end of their set they pulled a move straight out of the small band playbook and sang in the middle of the crowd alla Violent Femmes/Arcade Fire. If you never got a chance to see neutral milk hotel and you have 10 bux burning a hole in your pocket this summer go check RAA or I Was A King when they are in your town. The experience will be worth it. A good time was had and thanks for filling my night this past Saturday. No thanks for $7 Sierra Nevada’s Mercury Lounge. Please send this writer beer money.
SHOW REVIEW: Thurs May 14th 2009. I know when I venture to a show like this I’ll see at least a few rock-n-roll addicts and sure enough Tom from the Stuntcocks was leading the pack, the guys from The Sex Zombies, Jeff Wood the record scavenger, a few other court tavern folks, and Jared from WRSU were all there to see Eddie Spaghetti and The Supersuckers do their thang. Opening the show were two loud local rock bands. First up was cutlass who sported three guitars which was cool and then followed by The Loose Roosters who were also good with a lemonheads/mudhoney/eddie vedder thing going on. Nothing compared to The Supersuckers who have survived some shit, paid their dues and will gladly take your money because they are a high-quality molten lava real rock-n-roll band. Last night’s performance at the only slightly cheesy Wonder Bar was no exception, sure it was a truck stop for them as they were heading over the pond to play with X and John Doe but who are we to complain. Well take a legendary band of this caliber anytime. I missed them last time and promised myself hell or high water I would go. The fuckers were loud, tight and brought everything you’d expect from living legends. You know you’re having a good time when during the country portion of the show the drunk girl who was with one the opening bands gets flagged literally twice in a row by two different bouncers who were watching her make a fool of herself all night long.
They have the merch thing down as I totally got sucked into the vortex of buying a beer koozi to go with my collection of summertime bar-b-q accoutrements. No medium long sleeve pirate skull T-though which was a bummer but I’ll survive. Maybe next time fellas or just send me one. The most recent release Get It Together! on Mid-Fi Records comes with a DVD of a 90 minute performance in Anaheim, California so pick it up. I prefer the early classics from La Mano Carnuda and in this show they mixed em’ all in there perfectly like the master drink masters of sin. They also cranked out a Ramones cover to boot so all was good ladies and germs. A few show pics and video. If you’re my facebook friend there are a ton more there. Adios.
Beer Koozi autographed by the man himself. Thanks Eddie.
I’m not sure if you have been following the super annoying thread at Magnet where they have been stalking Charles Bissell as part of a Wrens Watch every week, some bits are pretty sarcastically cool guy funny, others a little uncomfortable to say the least. Not sure if anybody has really noticed yet but Wrens last release The Meadowlands was almost like what feels like a decade ago. Yikes! The exhausted boys have life’s and families to feed I guess outside of music. Regardless it is rumored that this spring they may release a record. Don’t hedge your bets yet. In the mean time they are offering up a single “Pulled Fences” recorded as part of the Live At the WorldSpace Sessions At Abbey Road. If you are cheap- ass like me you will grab it from Bridging the Atlantic and call it day. If you want to support their offspring search for it on iTunes. The tune starts off with soft Smiths like piano part with Bissell and co noodling on in the background by the band. It’s builds gracefully, stops and there it is. A new song by the wrens. Written and song by Kevin. Here is the band making magic at Abbey Road, on a whim and improvised. It’s awesome. It could all go drastically downhill from here or be a sign of good things to come.
This years Music fest in Cranford NJ put on by the County Freeholders and sponsored by a myriad of corporate sponsors including the love hope and strength cancer foundation was a very ambitious undertaking. Complete with two nights and three stages. Day 2 suffered from lots of excess rain from the hurricanes. I could not got go to day 1 because I was working and totally tired on Friday night but did manage to catch the first half of Day 2 before the torrents of water. We made sure to get there right after nap time first to catch Dan Zanes & Friends along with every other cool parent in the area. Former Del Fuegos guitarist has morphed into this folk rock niche without being too corny that with his real target audience being me. He played a bunch of tracks from his new album Neuvo York with lots spanish versed songs. All good btw. If you have kids and they remotely like music this performer is for you. Their set time worked out perfectly at 11 AM and then the clouds started to hint of what was to come even though Zanes tried to make it go away with some voodoo. Next up on the 3rd stage was New Brunswick’s Roadside Graves who performed after some BMX’ers. Yes, dudes doing these flips on their bikes over a large ramp. Quite impressive I must admit but sadly the crowd of kids dispersed before RG’s set. Not sure if it was their crowd and it was kind of wierd having a rock stage tucked away by bathrooms. The bands best moment was at the end when they sounded more like the Stones and less like this washed out version of Jack Johnson if there could be such a thing. I’ve seen them play better at the court tavern but alas not easy to command a festival crowd.
The highlight was Mike Peters from the Alarm playing with the NJ symphony Orchestra. Every classic Alarm song was smooth and reached a couple moving points when Mike referenced his own fight with cancer and 20 years of marriage to his wife. His voiced sounded as good as it ever has and it was great to see him perform in front of tons of dedicated old school fans in the spirit of 76′. Can’t wait till next year and hope there is no rain to spoil the show.
Well I made it back from Asbury Park last night with all of my flippers in tack and survived the maniacal laughter. I saw and connected with some old faces like Pete from the Bouncing Souls, Dave Dreiwitz from Ween and lots of kids running around with their guitars waiting for their big moments. First up on the stage was Project Object‘s heavy metal & Zappa inspired rock super star Andre’cholmondeley side band Delicious. Sounds more like old school melvins so much praise from me. Next up were HUNCHBACK who are about to kick of a big loop of a tour to promote their new release Pray for Scars on DON GIOVANI. These kids are noisy like Flipper and less classic rock but as close to early BUTTHOLE’s ripoff band as it gets. Minus the acid but + the blood with a keyboard that would not keep it together. Ah, visions of some lame black cape always twitter in front of my eyes and some f’d up dude dragging a leg around. They sure could take some more pointers from their masters and throw a melody or two into a song every once in awhile, which is the one main thing that keeps their music down live. If you like You Black emperor and carnival keywords ala man or astroman vibrato (when they are working). The burn will only sting for a little bit Tyler but you will get picture Finally, what we all paid good money to see was revealed. Two drummers, pitch shifting vocals, and for about 1/2 of the set Paul Green’s School of Rock All Stars who supported GIBBY and PAUL LEARY live and on stage together after 17 years for a whole tour! Crazy. Gibby made good fun of all the knuckle heads trying to make their little videos for youtube and watch the show through a little monitor. He re-iterated a good point that live music is something you should experience and participate in. Hence the buttholes in all their glory, hippiedome, with a imported dancing jezebel. The best part of the set-up was the noise outro. Where all the kids got on stage and just went to town. Gibby’s smile was ear to ear with an audio assault pleasure factor at 11. In order to keep the purity of the orchestration Gib escorted an adult of the stage who was trying to part-take in the…SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN
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