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.
No comments:
Post a Comment