Sunday, April 25, 2004

DJX Update

To whom it may concern, I just got back from successfully acquiring 5 tickets for Tuesday's Def Jux Tour show at Little Bros. These tix are for: Me, Andy, Renkes, and David and his friend. So if someone else was planning on going (don't know who that would be), you're on your own. Also, reading this little notice does not mean you read my latest blog entry, there's plenty of work to be done below, I know I spent a LONG time on it.

Where y'all at???

Note: As I know at least two of you cared, and maybe more, the answer to last week's trivia question was the song "Out-of-Towners" by Boston rapper Lucky Dice. I might start putting questions like that up here more often, we'll see. Hopefully it won't be quite as hard the next time.

Haven't you noticed that I post more often when my loyal readers start bitching at me to update? I've had plenty of stuff to talk about this week, but then I get easily distracted and never get around to posting it. Maybe with my new job, there will be a flurry of posting activity, as I will have my own computer with an internet connection and everything. So, without further ado, since it's been a good 160+ hours since I posted, here's one massive update on the past week (there's some good stuff at the bottom, READ IT ALL, I guess):

Today: Andy and I just got back from putting up flyers around campus for next Wednesday's (the day after MAY 4TH!!!) Apples in Stereo/High Water Marks/Apollo Sunshine show (that is the billing order, not the order of those bands in my heart) at Little Brothers. It's gonna be sweet. Boston, Kentucky, and Ohio rockin' in synergy, or something. Be there, or continue to be square.

Yesterday (Saturday): It had been awhile since I was at the Oak for the Saturday night scene, so it was good to be there last night. It was especially fun rockin out the jukebox, with its massive amount of selections. When it got to be late and no one was playing anything, I got the brilliant idea to play 6 songs off the live Allman Brothers album they have in there. Awesome. The first track I picked was "Mountain Jam," which lasted approximately 3 hours, it was great. Lucas got the great idea to put in another dollar and pick the first two songs (there were 9 tracks, and I had picked #4-9). Eventually those were ending, and I decided I had to complete the cycle and pick #3, "Melissa" (initially avoided because Kehn doesn't like it) and wrap up the jukebox nonsense with "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." But maybe there's a limit on consecutive songs from the same CD, because that dastardly jukebox decided to play the Lightfoot first, causing me to believe I had been robbed of my pick, and then played Melissa last, giving me some relief. Ahhh, Saturday nights at the Oak, you gotta be there.
In other Saturday news, I got a serious workout moving my one functional turntable (light) and a total of 6 tubs (5 mine) of vinyl (heavy) from the Mannhaus to the apartment in preparation for a certain record-spinning engagement I have coming up (MAY 4TH!!!). And then I spent hours listening to vinyl. Earlier I worked my last Saturday at the bank, a joyous milestone indeed.

Friday: Assorted Ravari Room nonsense with Chops and Renkes, including $5 Happy Hour Hounddogs pizza, mmm.

Thursday: Chops and I went to Ruby Tuesdays to see the Heroes of History, a band including two ex-co-workers of Chops' at Kohl's, ROCK OUT!!! They played a well-paced, hard-rockin' set, including a song about someone's mom (but not Stacey's!) and then proceeded to bring out the band merch deal of the century, a t-shirt and a CD for $5!!! Now, they may have cut a few corners in order to keep the prices low. Or they definitely did, haha. They buy used plain t-shirts at Goodwill and then screen-print them themselves with two awesome designs. Since each original shirt is different, every Heroes of History shirt is unique. My shirt is a yellow XL Gap shirt that (I discovered later) used to have a pocket. Rock'n Merch at its finest. They're playing Ruby Tuesdays again May 6th with Go Evol Shiki and the Husher (I think), highly recommended.

Wednesday: Though it was definitely a risky move, Chops and I went down to the Wexner Center to see Savath & Savalas and Juana Molina. DJ Nobody opened the show spinning some of his tracks (I think) in an offbeat, spacey mix that was pretty good. I liked Juana's set, but since we were all sitting on the floor for most of her set, her soft Spanish "folktronics" almost put us to sleep. And Savath & Savalas was decent, but it didn't really do it for me. They had an 8 piece (I think) band (I still haven't heard the record, so I don't know if it has that much live instrumentation, feel free to fill me in on that) and they hit a few grooves, but it was mostly more abstract, free rock with Spanish vocals (Prefuse 73 was on keyboards). Definitely different, not completely absorbing. And most of the show I managed to stand behind a big black guy with dreads about as tall as I was, so seeing was difficult at points. I felt like the guy in that Sesame Street scene sitting behind the woman with the coconut hat in the movie theater.

Tuesday: I think you know the answer to this one, "Smell(ing) the Vinyl" with Wicked Lung and the Wookalar at the Ravari Room.

Monday: Though the Heroes of History gave 'em some competition, I think this was the winner for show of the week:

It was quite the adventure. The mission was to pick up Chops in Wooster, where he had been practicing with a campus band, and then proceed to the Grog Shop in Cleveland to see Robert Walter's 20th Congress. Getting Chops went off without a hitch, but then the bridge that gets us up to 71 was out, so we had to figure out the detour and swear at each other in the rain with piss-poor windshield wiper-blades. Good fun indeed. And we got turned around a few times in Cleveland, a place almost as confusing to drive in as Cincinnati, but we got there in plenty of time. The guy at the door of the Grog Shop was pretty cool: when I mentioned we had come from Columbus, he asked us how it was and told stories of running out of money here and proceeding to win $300 playing chess at Insomnia in order to make it back. Good times. The new Grog Shop is pretty nice. It's big, but in an unconventional way, with the space having alot of width and nooks and crannies, not a whole lot of length. Alot classier looking than the old one. Anyway, Robert Walter (keyboards of many varieties, including the kind with a mouth input) and the Congress (Cochemea Gastelum on sax and flute and Jason Smart of the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey filling in on drums) kicked out about two hours of tasty electric funk. Lots of good originals and covers. A few songs into the set, a pretty big black guy, who looked strangely familiar, came out during one of the songs and set-up some turntables. A few songs later Walter called him onto the stage, and it turned out to be...DJ Logic!!! I think he was in town for another show the night before, so I guess we lucked out. The four of them covered Bob James' "Nautilus," which has to be in the Top 10 for all-time sampled tracks, and they killed it!!! Logic scratched on about half of the set, and it was great. They came back for an encore without him, announced they would play two Jimmy Smith songs, ended up playing one Smith tune and a Meters tune, awesome. Other than a weird audience including lots of kids who didn't look 18 (one kid danced obnoxiously the whole night, and other guys kept coming up to him and saying hey, and he'd give them full-body hugs like he hadn't seen them in years, dumb kids), it was one funky night. Of course, I picked up the new CD pictured above, an old one, and a t-shirt, and it was a good deal. Sure, we got back at 4 AM, but I had worked out the work schedule for that, so it was fine.

OK, wow, thanks if you're still reading at this point, I really shouldn't have let this go this long. I'll see a bunch of y'all for the Def Jux show Tuesday night, which should be awesome. A bunch of other shows are coming up, I'll keep y'all posted. And...I'm out.

Sunday, April 18, 2004

"LIVE IN A CITY NEAR YOU, THEY CALL US OUT-OF-TOWNERS"

Howdy folks, how's it hangin'? I'm getting ready to start my last two weeks at Huntington after a rip-roaring weekend o' fun. I was in Bloomington, IN, for a big party of my old frat buddies. Good times were had by all, and it was definitely cool to see all those folks. Seeing the cool South Bend jamband Jassy Grazz at Uncle Fester's in Bloomington last night was really sweet, now that is a damn good band. I thought it couldn't be done, but they covered both "Caribbean Queen" and "Groove is in the Heart"!!! John and I were hitting each other in the shoulder it was so good. Yes, it was one craaaaazy weekend.
The Thursday night viewing of "Wrong Turn" with Andy and Ashley was pretty good, though those were some freaky-lookin' inbreds. Also, Ravari Room is definitely the favorite hangout spot of the moment, as I was there three nights in a row last week, and I hear good things are coming up (MAY 4TH!!! MAY 4TH!!! MAY 4TH!!!) It was a pretty good week.
OK, I gotta gets some shuteye. I think tomorrow night I'm meeting up with Chops in Wooster (probably the only sure way to get him home, haha) and going up to Cleveland to see Robert Walter's 20th Congress, which should be a damn good time. I'm also contemplating the Savath & Savalas show at the Wexner Center on Wednesday, let me know if you wanna go, it should be cool. Talk to y'alls later.

Bonus Question: If you can name the hip-hop artist who made the song that includes the title of this blog entry in its hook, you win a special prize. Look it up on the internet or something, I don't care. Good luck.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

OK, fine, bad news first. John left today. Boooooey hooooey hooooey. It's lame that he's gone. Sure, I'll see him this weekend, at the great gathering of old Xi Chis in Bloomington, IN, but then it will be few and far between. I know this sounds lame, but I miss the little guy already (here Ashley, here's some sensitive soul talk for you, enjoy). Oh well, I'll get over it. Also, the apartment is empty now and the only working internet connection is Jamie's laptop which I'm currently using. So don't be surprised if this blog-talk is continually slow-going for a while. Also, fellow blogging friends, sorry if I don't comment on your blog, but time might be limited. So boo on all that.
But, my friends, there is some good news, verily it is so. I GOT A NEW JOB!!! And not the one most of y'all have heard about! I was all set to take that other Huntington job when I was talking about it to my uncle on Easter. When I told him about the money they were offering, he was not very impressed and then started talking about his opening for an office manager at his business and his ability to pay me a bunch more. So I ended up meeting with him last night, where he went over the responsiblities and benefits and whatnot, and offered me 33% more than Huntington did! Sure, it's not millions, but it will do the trick. So I work for the bank through the end of the month, then off to Nextech Materials. It will be challenging, but a good challenge, and definitely better than being a teller, blarggg.

GO OUT AND BUY IT!!!
Yessiree Bob, the new album by Columbus' own Illogic is out in stores on Weightless Records. Friday night I went and bought it at his in-store appearance at Magnolia Thunderpussy. Saturday night, Dave, Andy and I (and Jessica and John for awhile) went to Illogic's release party at the High Five. Illogic's stage show for the new album was pretty shaky, he forgot his words a few times and had some technical difficulties, but he kept going and it wasn't too bad. One Man Army of Michigan's Binary Star was on before him, he was dope, yo! Definitely check those guys out at http://subterraneousrecords.com/. Columbus' Envelope, sorta affiliated with the notorious Thought Collective, opened, and he put on a good show, look out for his debut EP coming soon. And DJs POS2 and Tanner (D from the old Sound on Sound, RIP) played some fine tracks. Definitely a quality lineup. And it was cool to hang out with Dave for the first time in months. Now we're lucky if we ever see him again. Also, I missed the 5th year anniversary of Sunday night Hip-Hop at Bernies on Sunday, mainly because I slept four hours Saturday night and just couldn't keep going Sunday night, oh well. I hear that JUICE ripped it, even without musical accompaniment. Not surprising.
OK, I think y'all are just about up to speed again, let me know if you have any questions, haha. I think I may go to the Ravari Room soon, sorry I missed the movie night tonight, I was still hanging out at Grandmas'. 'Night!

Friday, April 09, 2004

BLOG GO CRAZY! RIP OWN HEAD OFF!!!

Wow, I haven't posted since Saturday, so I thought I'd take advantage of this late start to my workday to say hi. Lately it seems I post something, then wait until people start yelling at me and calling me a bitch for not posting, then post again. Fun, ain't it?
MAY 4TH! MAY 4TH! MAY 4TH! Yes indeed, folks, May 4th seems to be the date for Funky D to spin some madness at the Ravari Room, the cool new spot next to Hounddogs that I hit every Tuesday night. So look out for some party jams to be played by yours truly (and Wicked Lung and the Wookalar, we can't really forget the hosts, can we?!?!?) and a good time to be had by all. Don't worry, there will be plenty not-so-subtle reminders here, and from me in person, so you won't forget. MAY 4TH!!!
Last night I went with John and a bunch of his Cop-Ez co-workers to Brothers to give John a sort of going-away party. It was a good time. Sure, the music sucked, but watching John get really drunk and be his zany, goofy, really drunk self was great as always. Especially awesome was John going over a railing with a head-over-heels flip thing and ONLY knocking over a few empty beer bottles and pissing off a girl or two. Impressive. Also impressive was the amount of girls there, damn. It's too bad I hate places like that, hahaha.
Wednesday night, Andy and I made it to Little Brothers to see the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, always an awesome treat. Jeffrey Lewis opened, and it was a fine set of anti-folk, including his showing of two "videos," which were basically big slow-motion flip books which he displayed while singing without accompaniment. The second one was his documentary on the history of K Records, which was humorous and informative. And of course the Trachtenburgs put on a fine (slide) show. I was disappointed that they changed some of the lyrics and the melody to "Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959," but I guess it was time to freshen it up. Pa Trachtenburg was funny in his plentiful on-stage rambling, especially on the strings he bought at the String Shoppe (which he wanted to call Strictly Strings). Rachel, the little drummer daughter, had a few rhythm problems, but all in all rocked pretty hard, and also was quite the merchandise pitch-girl.
OK, gotta go to work, will be going to Magnolia Thunderpussy sometime between 7 and 9 tonight for the Illogic in-store, you should come, because ol' Pussy Napier decided to make "dinner plans" at the LAST minute. Boo.

Saturday, April 03, 2004

Moviola hotness!

OK, now that I'm back up to speed, what's goin on? Soon I shall be hangin out with my friend Armond, a former fellow student of mine at the Woo and now going to OSU. I'm listening to Erykah Badu's "Worldwide Underground" right now thanks to him, good lookin out!!! It's not too bad, actually. We'll probably watch today's purchase of the Krush Groove DVD, or maybe Hip-Hop Honeys, hahaha.

Last night, Chops and I (John met up with us as soon as the entertainment ended) went to the Moviola CD release party for "East of Eager" at Used Kids. It was cool. There was general hangin out and shopping beforehand, then the boys played for about an hour. There was free Adriaticos pizza, and it was BYOB. It was just funny to see people smoking and drinking fancy beer in Used Kids, haha. I did pick up a copy of "East of Eager" last night, haven't listened to it yet, but based on what they played last night, it should be good. I also picked up a Baby Face Willette Blue Note LP for $20. Expensive, yes, but I think I would have had internal conflicts for weeks if I hadn't bought it, so oh well. It better be good. Next Friday night, another of one of these types of events for Illogic at Magnolia Thunderpussy, it'll be dope. Have a good night.

BACKBLOGGED

So, the loyal readers and friends of this blog have called to my attention that I glossed over some fine events of the days before that beautiful rock fest on Wednesday night. So here goes:

Sunday: After sleeping the day away in recovering from the Mannhaus festivities, I was ready to go to a beach party with John at the apartment of one his hot OSU classmates. It was pretty fun, and if local hip-hop celebrity Daymon (aka So What?, aka John Allcock) chose to be there before Bernies, then how could it be bad? Hahahaha. There weren't nearly enough women in bikinis, or women period, but it was still fun. This drunk guy Josh was basically able to fool around with two women at the same time, so more power to that guy. We also got to taste cinnamon dust stuff off this girl Tiffany's chest, quality. The main bummer of the night, other than having to walk down and back to the party (40 minutes each way), was this strange girl coming into the party and leaving abruptly with the unopened bottle of rum John brought to the party! Craaaazy. Those zany college bitches, gotta love 'em.

Monday: Nothing exciting that I remember, if I'm overlooking something...too bad, I'm not writing about something not that memorable a week after it happened.

Tuesday: Another cool Tuesday night at the Ravari Room, only this time we were actually able to posse up to the max. In total, I think we had eight folks there (Me, Chops, Jamie (for a while), Andy, Ashley, Lee, Franz, and Lucas), so that was damn cool. Wicked Lung and Wookalar were spinnin some nice tunes as usual, and their guests (not sure who) played some mellow pop oldies and 80s R&B, haha. It's definitely a cool weekly spot.

I think I covered the high points, I probably missed something, but like O.C. said, Time's Up!

Thursday, April 01, 2004

OK, OK, OK, HERE'S AN UPDATE!!!!!

I mean, hello there fallows, here's a nice update. Sorry it's been a few days, I've been busy rockin.
Now, the story of how Chops and I tried to put up a rock band (or two) for the night. Last night, we went to Little Brothers to see the Modey Lemon, the Apes, and Gris Gris, all fine rock bands of one sort or another deserving of your attention. When we arrived, Gris Gris, a psychedelic band from San Fran, were in the middle of their set of weird, yet intriguing tunes. They ended the set with a long-ass jam that involved folks from the other bands coming on stage to play/set up and a crazy guy with a turban coming out to play the gong. It was great! My theory is that the turbaned fellow may indeed be the "Birdman" himself, as this was "The Carnivorous Rampage Tour 2004" of Birdman Records bands. So though the boys from SF played a fine set, they did not prepare us for the all-out RAWKKK of the Apes!!! They came out in mostly crazy 70s garb. With his sweatband and cut-off workout clothes, the drummer looked like a cross between Ben Stiller's and Luke Wilson's characters in Royal Tenenbaums. And they have a hot chick named Amanda (pictured above) that plays the organ! She had an ape-like face mask when she came out, but lost it after a few songs. Anyway, they play some sort of grungy, groovy, raucous, hard rock that had me moving the whole set. The crowd, which was decent, did contain alot of coolbots, and weren't really moving along with me, oh well. Anyway, check out the Apes' site, they rock the hardest. And though Modey Lemon rocked pretty damn hard too, the Apes definitely had the better set, just because it was more engaging. Modey Lemon just came out and went to business, and it was mostly instrumental thumping away, drowning out the vocals. Good, but no Apes. And now the aforementioned story. During both the Gris Gris and Apes sets, the folks on stage mentioned that they didn't have alot of friends in town and needed places to stay. After the Gris Gris set, being the nice guy that I am, I mentioned to their merch guy that we could probably house them, but he wasn't sure what the deal was. Now when the Apes mentioned that, we were instantly ALOT more interested, since 1)they rocked harder, 2)there were less of them, and of course 3)they included a hot chick! So they thought they would probably end up staying here, I think Amanda actually said they would at one point. But when we were leaving and I was about to give her directions and everything, she said they had found some other folks to stay with that didn't have to get up as early as we did! Sonofabitch, that would have been cool, but these rockin' types, they're too considerate. I mean it, all the people we talked to last night were super-nice. Anyway, after buying a bit of their merch, I stopped to get a Birdman comp from the Gris Gris guy, who was still interested in those guys spending the night here. So I gave them directions and the phone number and we left and prepared for their possible arrival. But alas, we got a phone call that they had found somewhere else that also was getting up later than our busy household. These considerate rockers, robbing us of good times! Hahaha, oh well, maybe someday we'll host a rock band.
Wow, I had alot to say about that, so I'm gonna stop there. This weekend should be a bit more subdued, I'm pretty tired, but don't hold me to that.