Here It Comes
The Hacienda
Manchester, UK
8/15/85
First off I have to get this out of the way. I cannot believe this was recorded nearly 30 years ago. Though their debut album which rocketed them into fame didn’t come out for another 4 years after this was recorded, the track sounds really polished and close to it’s final form.
Photo Taken From The Always Great Bradley’s Almanac
Acid House Kings
Cake Shop
New York City, NY
7/8/06
Acid House Kings released a new single earlier this month and have a brand spanking new LP set to drop later this month. One of TSOI’s writers (Avalanche) caught Acid House Kings on their last US tour nearly 5 years ago. Here’s a recording of one of their two NYC dates back in 2006.
Download: Acid House Kings – New York City – 7/8/06 – 164 MB
Sample: Yes! You Love Me (Live)
In the past couple of months there has been an outbreak of schools selling, or attempting to sell, their college radio broadcast license. In the wake of budget cuts and other effects from a downturned economy, the universities which oversee these stations have realized they are sitting on potentially millions of dollars. The University of San Francisco recently sold their KUSF broadcast license and Vanderbilt University’s WRVU is currently on the chopping block. It’s a continuing trend which absolutely must stop.
I will tell you upfront that a few of the writers for TSOI are Vanderbilt University and WRVU alumni, but I am not one of them. When visiting Nashville in the mid-90′s I remember tuning into WRVU and hearing tracks from the recently released Rocket From The Crypt album Scream, Dracula, Scream! before catching their sold out show later that evening. I can guarantee that no other Nashville station would have been playing RFTC that day and that’s what I love about college radio. Having a yearly operating budget that is often less than the cost of running a single ad on a commercial station gives you the freedom to feature a much more diverse range of artists than their commercial counterparts.
As a writer for a music site, I’m constantly bombarded with new music sent to my inbox so I no longer listen to the radio that often. But I am in the minority. Nearly 90% of the population still listens to radio on a daily basis. When I do find myself surfing the dial, I always end up at the local college station (KSPC 88.7) opposed to the other local indie “The Smiths on the hour, every hour” stations.
I can definitively say that this website would not exist without college radio. Not only did college radio mold my musical tastes and world view, it was also my first experience in volunteer coordination, event planning, budget writing, fundraising and dealing with an advisory board. I’ve found the skills I gained from working and volunteering for a college radio station much more useful than the ones I received from my completed Psychology degree. Adopting the less popular/more expensive “online-only” broadcast format would greatly diminish the quality of the volunteer experience and do an extreme disservice to the student bodies of these universities.
To find out more about the Save WRVU campaign, check out http://savewrvuradio.wordpress.com. Also, be sure to “Like” the Save WRVU page on Facebook.
Magic Bullets
Origami Vinyl
Los Angeles, CA
2/19/11
On a last minute whim we decided to check out San Francisco’s Magic Bullets‘ instore performance at Origami Vinyl a couple of weekends ago. I wasn’t that familiar with the band and had only heard a few tracks streamed from MySpace, but since it was a free show we had nothing to lose.
I flat out loved their sound! A nice mixture of C86 80′s alt rock bands grabbing liberally from Close Lobsters and The Mighty Lemon Drops. This live recording includes a few tracks that I recognized, plus a few that will be making it to vinyl in the not too distant future.
Download: Magic Bullets – Los Angeles – 2/19/11 – 182 MB
Sample: Laying Around (Live)
Rammstein sold out Madison Square Garden. In 15 minutes. I still find it hard to believe that this actually happened. I suppose it is a testament to the law of “supply and demand” being that it was Rammstein’s 1st U.S. show in 10 years. But still, this is Rammstein we’re talking about, a band that most everyone I knows thinks is a complete joke and/or a bunch of Nazi sympathizers. Well, it happened, and I probably wouldn’t have believed it except for the fact that I was there and saw an arena full of Americans going batshit for Rammstein.
The reasons for the band skipping over the US for so many years is pretty simple. Rammstein’s infamous stage show consists of large quantities of fire, explosions, props, and flaming props that explode. This requires that their shows take place in arenas, stadiums, and similarly sized venues. In Europe, Asia, and South America, this is not a problem, as the band has been selling out arenas in those places for quite some time. Bringing their stage show to America to play for a half empty arena would be a risky proposition, financially. Bringing their stage show to a large theater or club in America would be even riskier, possibly resulting in hundreds of deaths (search Google for “Great White, The Station, fire”).
Most Americans still think of Rammstein as the band responsible for “Du Hast“, the band’s lone hit on these shores in the late 90s. After that time period, America stopped paying attention and a funny thing happened; they got much better. The follow up albums “Mutter” and “Reise Reise” demonstrated much deeper and complex songwriting, as well as illustrating vocalist Til Lindemann’s fluency in languages other than the bands’ native German.
The set was heavy on the bands latest album, “Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da”, but they threw in some older gems. While I would’ve liked to have heard more songs that haven’t yet been played in the US, I’ll take what I can get from these guys. I was also thoroughly amused by the white foam shooting mechanical penis that made an appearance during “Pussy“. The band seemed to have been satisfied with their foray into the American market, as they just announced a US tour set to start in May.
Madison Square Garden Dec 11, 2010
Rammlied
B**********
Weidmann’s Heil
Keine Lust
Weisses Fleisch
Feuer Frei
Weiner Blut
Fruhling in Paris
Ich Tu Dir Weh
Du Riechst So Gut
Benzin
Links 2-3-4
Du Hast
Pussy
Encore 1
Sonne
Haifisch
Ich Will
Encore 2
Engel
Download: Rammstein: Feuer Frei (Live)
Download: Rammstein: Haifisch (Live)
There’s been a ton of hype surrounding Oh Land this past month and I have to admit that I’ve gotten caught up in it. Earlier this month we headed over to The Echo in Los Angeles to check out an early evening show they performed the day after their LA debut at The Troubadour. Though I can’t say they are my favorite live act, the duo put on a lively show for the small, very appreciative crowd.
A technical note about this recording. I’ve been holding out on getting a new digital recorder to replace out my trusty old mini-disc/Shure SM57. Finally this past X-mas I received a Blue Mikey for the iPhone. Despite the annoyance of it’s incompatibility with the new iPhone 4, it’s a damn slick device. Simply plug the tiny mic into your iPhone 3 or 3G, fire up the free BlueFire app and you’re ready to go. But there is one caveat to this recording. I’ve lamented time and time again on this blog about the horrible sound at The Echo. In the case of this Oh Land show, the sound was so ear-splittingly loud I can still vividly recall the pain in my ears while listening to this track. Despite a few pops picked up due to the poor sound at the venue, I was really happy with the quality of this recording on my new rig’s virgin recording.
Download: Oh Land: Sun Of A Gun (Live)
This was one of the more interesting shows I’ve been to. It was billed as a “benefit for the UXO” featuring Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, taking place on the “Rocks Off Concert Series” on a cruise around the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. Not to get too into it, but the UXO is an organization founded by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who oppose the respective wars. They chose “Fleet Week” in NYC to stage their concert to try to make an impact on currently enlisted members of the military. The format of the cruise was a mix of speakers and bands, headlined, of course, by Jello.
Jello is one of the most accessible “rock stars” you will come across. A certifiable living legend to many, he could have very easily spent the entirety of the cruise hiding in the bowels of the ship until it was time to perform. Instead, he chose to hang out amongst the crowd during the performances, taking pictures, signing autographs, and talking with everyone who asked. I was immediately very, very regretful that I didn’t bring my “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” LP for him to sign as I had originally planned. It was a trip to be standing on the deck of ship as we circled the Statue of Liberty, only to look to my right and see Jello Biafra standing there 5 feet away.
The show itself was a throwback to the hardcore shows I used to attend at various VFWs and community centers back in the day. People beating the crap out of each other in the moshpit, fights breaking out, crowd surfing, people pressed towards the front screaming the lyrics into the mic. For a bunch of “left-wing, anti-war, commie pinkos”, this crowd sure was violent. Due to the violence of the crowd as well as a large amount of airborne water bottles, I had to do a lot of ducking and weaving during the set, resulting in poor song quality, but Jello’s rants are clearly audible, and those are worth the price of admission alone.
Included here is the Dead Kennedys classics “Bleed for Me” (nice rant on this track, including a pretty sharp rebuke of the Obama administration), “Holiday in Cambodia” and Guantanamo School of Medicine track “New Feudalism“.
Rocks Off Cruise – May 28, 2010
The Terror of Tinytown
Bleed for Me
New Feudalism
Let’s Lynch the Landlord
Victory Stinks
California Uber Alles
Electronic Plantation
Police Truck
Three Strikes
Holiday in Cambodia
I Won’t Give Up
Download: Jello Biafra: Bleed for Me (Live)
Download: Jello Biafra: New Feudalism (Live)
Download: Jello Biafra: Holiday In Cambodia (Live)
It seems to me that most bands with terrible names tend to live up to them. Yuck, however, is the exception to the rule. They played on Saturday, opening for Smith Westerns — and blew the headliners out of the water. I’ll do a Monday Set of Smith Westerns in a week or two, but let’s just say that this night’s performances were eerily reminiscent of the show at Spanish Moon this time last year in which Sarah Jaffe destroyed Midlake. Maybe it’s a February thing.
Not that Yuck sounds anything like Sarah Jaffe. This London quartet (teenage singer Ilana Blumberg stayed home; internet rumors claim she had high school exams to take care of) reminded me of nothing so much as slightly slowed-down Superchunk – the same poppy riffs, the same fuzzy guitars, just a little lower energy. Great stuff. And, incidentally, the two guitarists were the guys in Cajun Dance Party, a fact which went somehow unmentioned here on the edge of Acadiana.
Yuck has their debut album out this week.
Download: Yuck: Operation (Live)
In honor of the release of PJ Harvey’s latest genre-defying release, Let England Shake, I felt like it would be fun to post an obscure track that’s one of my all-time favorites: “Sweeter than Anything,” off the single A Perfect Day Elise. Please, Island Records, don’t be litigious jerks about this; I’m on your side.
Actually, there were two versions of this CD single, with two B-sides each, released to promote 1998′s Is This Desire. Harvey has done this before: the Send His Love to Me single from 1995′s To Bring You My Love was also released in two versions. Oh…I’m sorry, did you not realize that Harvey has obsessive fans?
Back to the new album. I happened to catch her on TV while on a business trip to London last March. She played the title song, accompanying herself on the autoharp. A whole album of this may test even my patience, I have to admit, but since Harvey has never disappointed yet, it’s far too soon to be unhappy.
Let England Shake drops on 14 February in the UK and on 15 February in the US.
Download: PJ Harvey: Sweeter Than Anything
Joy Division‘s eponymous debut album, Unknown Pleasures, came out in 1980 and therefore Peter Hook, bass player and I am beginning to assume primary song writer, decided to throw a 30 year anniversary tour to commemorate the album. This small Unknown Pleasures revisited tour featured a backing band whose members very likely weren’t born at the time of the album’s release with Hook taking the vocal duties long vacated by Ian Curtis. You heard me right, Peter Hook, Joy Division bassist, taking on the vocal duties. Needless to say, no other former member of Joy Division was involved. I suspect they thought exactly what you are likely thinking right now; “this sounds like a very bad idea”.
Even at the risk of missing Killing Joke playing the same night at a different venue, I decided last minute to see this potential cringe-fest. Here is my takeaway from the show:
I bet Peter, now well into his 50s, hatched this ideas just about the time that he thought it would be a good idea to buy a motorcycle, if you know what I mean. It seems that back in the late 70s when Joy Division was formed, a teenage Peter Hook was simply hoping to join a rawkus testosterone fueled punk rock band. The early Joy Division singles met that description but with the talents of producer Martin Hannett and vocalist Ian Cutis along with the other band members, Joy Division quickly evolved into an icy post-punk band whose success and brilliance swept up Peter Hook and thereby trumped his idea of joining a little punk band. Before he knew it, after the suicide of Ian Curtis, Peter and the remaining members were trying to move on and quickly found immediate and massive success in defining keyboard-based dance new wave with New Order – again his rock ‘jones’ would have to wait. My guess is, and this is pure unsubstantiated and utterly unresearched speculation, that 30 years on, after all of the dust of decades of involvement in successful and wildly transformative bands, he realized in his mid-life crisis that all he really wanted to do was grow a faux hawk, pump his fist in the air, and rock out with one foot on the monitor. And that is pretty much what he did for this show. In sum, I suspect what this particular tour was about reliving why he might have joined a band in the first place.
As far as I am aware, this is the first time I have heard Peter Hook take on vocals in any band, yet his voice is shredded as if he spent 30 years being a chain-smoking Johnny Rotten, not the bass player for two subdued New Wave bands. Did Peter Hook shred his voice over the past 30 years screaming in the shower the Joy Division and New Order songs as pub screamers as he always hoped and envisioned they would be?
Peter Hook made no effort (thankfully) of acting or sounding like Ian Curtis and reinterpreted the songs as loud guitar rock along with his thumping base lines taking lead and with synthesizers taking a conspicuous backseat. I can’t say to what an extent this undertaking was a success or not, but it made for an interesting night out.
Here is Peter Hook, doing as part of the encore Joy Division’s final released single “Atmosphere”.
Your thoughts? Inspired or Insipid?
Download: Peter Hook: Atmosphere (Live)
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