Monday, November 15, 2004

Hey hatas, how bout a hiatus???

What's up with y'all? I must be doing nothing of interest, or at least writing nothing of interest, for the silence around these e-parts. Or maybe you're just in mourning for the passing of Po-vember. I would attribute it to ODB, but that just happened, so that's not it (RIP and Happy Birthday). Well, the 905 is about to bend over and take it from SBC Yahoo DSL, so it looks like I'll be without internet for close to two weeks! By the time I'm back on, I'll probably have something interesting to say, along with a new template, but without apartment internet, I seriously doubt I'll post anything. So I'll keep the rock to a minimum. I think Andy and I will hit the First Annual Vertical Slum Electric Holiday on Saturday at Little Brothers, as the lineup features Don Caballero, This Moment in Black History, 84 Nash, and other rocking bands. Read more about it here, then decide to join us. On the 26th, the hallowed day after Thanksgiving, Andy and I will venture to the hallowed Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland to see THE DIRTBOMBS with Peelander Z & The Kill City Kills, which should be frickin' awesome. Other than that, the next two weeks should hold little rock, which is sad but necessary.

On Friday night, Andy and I attempted to see Cali Comm 2004 featuring Del at Little Bros. We didn't buy tickets, as we thought there was no way a $20 hip-hop show would sell out. PWNED! It sold out pretty early that night. We ran into Columbus rapster Blueprint (along with Fess), who was also unable to get in. That's when I knew I deserved to be on the outside looking in. So we crossed the street to Skullys to see the "RIP PROGRESSIVE THOUGHT 1960-2004" show, featuring some questionable acts and our friends The Unpossibles. The first act, Marvin the Robot, has always intrigued me due to his interesting stage name. I heard a song of his on the old OSU Underground comp that I didn't like, but I was still intrigued. Well, the thrill is gone. It was half an hour of mediocre beats with Marvin playing the guitar and wailing. Oooffffff. Next was House of Cards, a full band that sucked slightly less than Marvin. They were a rock band with beats, but their music was a bit too light and lame. Halfway through their set, we started eyeing the door. Sure, we were there to support Keith, Don, and the guys, but we still had half a set of HoC crap and a full set from the feared Digital Empire!!! The prospect of a painful set from Edward Campushands proved too much, and we took off. Sorry guys. We went over to Andy's favorite watering hole, Cafe Bourbon Street, and caught the headliner, Tim Lee and his band. It was some decently rocking roots-rock, and was fine background music, in the words of Lord Nappius. So all was good, as we rocked the night best we could.

On Wednesday night, I met up with Ashley and Katie to see the Tony Monaco Trio for the second time in five days, this time at the Ravari Room. They definitely tore it to pieces, as it seems they like to cut loose at the Ravari. I also managed to pick up a copy of the new Fiery Blues CD from Tony (as well as congratulate him on a job well done the Saturday before), which is pretty sweet. I'm starting to recover from my recent organ deficiency, and if you wanna help, come with me to the Ravari some Wednesday.
Well, that's about all he wrote. It might be December before I write again...so shake a turkey leg or something.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Word to the Third

What up peoples??? There's lots of music out today, or coming out soon. Amy, I was basically aware of the fact that the second installment from the Handsome Boy Modelling School came out today, but thanks for the reminder. It's pretty good, eh? I might have to pick that one up soon. Of course, I've neglected the first one for a few years, so maybe I should rock that a few times first.

I just placed a pre-order at HipHopSite for MM Food and Die, Rugged Man, Die, the debut release from Ra the Rugged Man!!!!! Man, it took him even longer to come out than the Large Professor. Damn the man! I also need to pick up that Stones Throw 101 DVD, looks craaaaaazy.

In future plans...not too much. The rock and the pockets are toned down for Po-vember. But, some sort of crew WILL be rolling to the Del Tha Funkee Homosapien/Haiku D'Etat/Zion I/Bukue One/Opio show at Little Brothers Friday night. Should be dope. And there's always possibilities on Saturday night.
Soooo...about that rock
Saturday night, after my kamikaze mission to pick up Mirror Music by Wordsworth at Magnolia Thunderpussy, I went to see Dr. Lonnie Smith w/ the Tony Monaco Trio at the King Arts Complex downtown. It was quite an organ-splosion. Monaco started out with the trio (Robert Kraut on guitar, Louis Tsamous on drums), then Smith came out and played with them, then both organists together, and back and forth. Though Smith didn't play "Move Your Hand," he did rock some good tunes, including a fine version of "Caravan." Good sheeite.
Though the focal point of Friday night was the not-so-rocking Mannhaus Party, I did manage to see two bands. Dan Melchior's Broke Revue did rock Used Kids rather hard, and I was pleased. I didn't know that they were playing Cafe Bourbon Street that night until the day of, daamn. In mid-party shenanigans and attempts to meet up with folks, Renkes and I did catch Cinema Eye at their release party at Skullys. Their new wave-punk-noise can rock, but not that often.
Well, that's enough for now. Now that I've toned down the rockgasms, I should be able to write more about other things, but don't hold your breath. Also, because two potentially large commenters on this blog are currently unable to do so, I may just have to sell my soul to Blogspot and get a new template. Hold Your Heads!

Thursday, November 04, 2004

SOUND SELECTAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Yes indeedy do. Despite the oncoming gloom, Tuesday night at the Ravari Room was a good time. Mad props to Dave, Andy, Chops, Renkes, Libeth from work and her friends, Val, the 3rd Trailer Park Ninja (forget his name), and everyone else for coming out. The race for the coveted Smell the Vinyl Support Team MVP was about as tight as the presidential race, with Dave (stayed for the whole thing), Renkes (roadie duties), and Chops (turning back to the apartment halfway there to get the 45s I forgot) all in the hunt. Fuck it, I'll give it to all 3 of 'em. Thanks guys. Wicked Lung and Wookalar were serving up some tasty treats, so I had to pitch in. I had some funk, some hip-hop, some organ jazz, and some political jams. Here is a pretty accurate setlist:

Set 1
Talkin' Loud And Saying Nothin'-James Brown
Country Road-Toots & the Maytals
Summer Breeze-Charles Kynard
Double Dutch(?)-Keystones f/Malcolm Catto
Eric B. Is President-Eric B. & Rakim
Black Helicopters-Non Phixion
Gotta Pay-Wordsworth
Hypertension-Calender
This Land is Your Land-Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Natural Disasters-Enon
Crazy Train-Ozzy Ozbourne
Pardon My Freedom-!!!

Set 2
Water (First Movement)-The Roots
Plug Me In-Lost Boyz
Here's A Smirk-Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf
1976 (remix)-RJD2
Only So Much Oil in the Ground-Tower of Power
Detroit Twice-El Michels Affair
Late Freight-Hank Marr
Uninvisible-Medeski Martin & Wood

Set 3
Elected-Alice Cooper
Have a Drink On Me-AC/DC
Light Up or Leave Me Alone-Traffic

Settin' em Up for the Wu
Juicy Fruit-Mtume

The night ended with Wookalar playing some Dabrye, me putting on the Juicy Fruit, and Wicked Lung closing it out with an orchestral version of the Star-Spangled Banner. It was beautiful. I'm sorry that alot of you couldn't make it, but it was a busy night, I understand. More rock is forthcoming!

Since this is Po-vember, I did not attend the De La Soul show last night, so no reviews for that. Tomorrow after work, Andy and I should be seeing Dan Melchior & the Broke Revue at Used Kids for free, which should be rather sweet. Come on over! Later on, it is the aforementioned Mannhaus Party! The theme is Big Dumb Rave, I guess, except for the music that I shall play. Saturday night I still wanna see the man below, any of you jazzers wanna come with?

Rock!

Monday, November 01, 2004

The best non-rocking night ever!

Ahhhhhh. The sweet relaxation of Rocktober recovery, which will last........about a day.

TUESDAY TUESDAY TUESDAY!!!!! (ELECTION DAY)
Reminder: Come to the Ravari Room on Election night to receive your required rocking. You know you want to...and you won't like Wicked Lung & the Wookalar when they're angry? That's all I got. You know the haps. Word 'em up!

NERDY ROCKTOBER RECOUNT CON NUMEROS!

Well, in recent sporting news, the Rocktober Rockets defeated the Loverboyville Soul Bleeders 21-10 in the first ever football game to last the entire month of October. Or in other words, out of the 31 days in October, I went to some sort of show on 21 of those days. Of course, I had to hit shows the last 8 days in a row to make those kind of numbers, but it was worth it?
Anyway, my current tally of bands/sets seen on shows dated in October (Andy knows what I'm talking about) is 52. This may or may not be correct, because this is a difficult thing to count. I will come up with some sort of Top 5 list or something soon, I'm just not feeling it tonight.

Thursday night, Andy and I did indeed catch his co-worker's husband's band, Alpha Zentradi, at the Scarlet & Grey Cafe. Boo. They sounded like they had just hatched from the "Incubus-ator." They were opening for Oval Opus, and so while the place wasn't too populated when we showed up, when we left half an hour later, the Scarlet & Grey was perilously close to...CRITICIAL CHOTCH MASS!!! So of course we fled the scene and wandered campus, observing quality Halloween costumes and pissing off a couple drunk girls who wanted to talk about "Wiscompton." Ha.

Friday night, I went completely insane. The benefit of this, however, was seeing Charlie Hunter with Bobby Previte & DJ Logic at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. Due to various cancellations and mishaps, I ended up going by myself. I just couldn't stay away, try as I might. I got there at 9:30, and the guys had already started! But I don't think I missed much. I left at midnight, and with a set break, I saw two hours of spacey jams! How much can one ask for? This short run of shows for this particular trio was in support of Hunter and Previte's album as Groundtruther, Latitude, with guest Greg Osby on saxophone, on Thirsty Ear Records. Logic fit right in to this sweet mess of technological jazz. Though I've listened to a fair amount of Hunter, it was a whole 'nother thing to see him live. For those of you who don't know, he plays an eight-string guitar. This sometimes gives him a very organ-esque sound, and enables him to play a guitar and a bass part at the SAME TIME! Pretty sweet. Previte is a veteran drummer who now uses alot of electronics. He had effects where when he hit a drum, it would produce a sampled sound, not the sound of the drum. It was crazy. I sat directly in front of him for most of the second set, which was cooool. And of course Logic provided jazzy atmospherics and some nice beats. The guys didn't play much that I really recognized, just lots of spaced-out grooves and beats. Since I survived the trip, it was definitely worth it. I made it to the first Mannhaus Halloween party of the year around 2:30 and still managed to rock a set!

Saturday night, I went to the Camper Van Beethoven/Damnwells show at the Newport, which was cool. The Damnwells are a rootsy rock band from Brooklyn (not a very Brooklyn-esque sound), and they rocked rather well once I got into it. It was fulfilling to see Camper on their big reunion tour supporting their new album, New Roman Times. They played the new album, the hits, and some older album cuts, so it was a good mix for a newbie like me. I met an old hippie named Chick there, who was funny. He was keeping an eye on his wife, who, like himself, is a "Lowery Lover," and was pre-disposed to jumping on stage with David Lowery (the lead singer who went on to form Cracker). He also told me about how he's in the Train fan club or whatever and that he highly recommends the new live album, which he has an exclusive advance copy of. Wow. It appeared to make his night when he was able to light Lowery's cigarette for him, and he told me to "be like him when I'm older." I'll give it a shot. After the show, I made it to Davekwon's 7th Annual Halloween Movie Marathon, which was mostly just entertaining for Balderdash, but still a good time.

Sunday night, to make sure that a ridiculous Rocktober was put in the books properly, I walked down to Bernies for the Blueprint Chamber Music release party, featuring Print, Fess, & DJ Rare Groove as Greenhouse Effect and some opening raps from CJ the Cynic and Ill Poetic from Cincy. Mr. Dibbs did not show, unfortunately, but a good time was still had by all. CJ's new stuff sounds damn dope, and whenever his Weightless album drops, it will be worth buying. To capture the Halloween spirit, Print and Fess were dressed up as the Blues Brothers, and we all sang along to various Blues Brothers songs throughout the set. Since Chamber Music is instrumental, he really didn't do any songs from the album, and they basically just rocked older vocal material, which was obviously fine. There was also a "Soul Train" dance line, and the requisite moshing to "Hold the Floor." Good timez. Of course, I got back around 3, which kinda blew, but whatever.

So there you have it. Rocktober. I don't have a whole lot of future shows to hype, but De La Soul is at the Alrosa on Wednesday night, I will be rocking another Mannhaus Halloween Party on Friday, and Dr. Lonnie Smith will school folks on the organ Saturday night at the King Center. That's enough. Tomorrow, bitches!