It was all good just two weeks ago...

Dayum. I hope you've enjoyed your two week vacation from this lonely blog. I've seen shows, been to places as far away as Washington, DC and Springfield, Ohio, and...other excitement. Actually, the real excitement is tomorrow night:

Neil Hamburger, "America's Funnyman," will be thrilling an audience of many, hopefully including Chops, Davekwon, and myself, at Bernie's Distillery here in Columbus. I can't think of a better place to see this show. Damn, it's gonna be awesome. And there's always the possibility of seeing Dick Dale on Thurs night. We'll see. Now...NEWS!!!

Return to the Ravari
Two weeks from tonight, Tuesday May 31st, I will be rocking the Ravari again with Wicked Lung & Wookalar. More funk, jazz, hip-hop, rock, and whatevz to be played. Be there, or DIE!

This Honky's Got Journalistic Integrity
Jeah. I'm now a "staff member" at The Vertical Slum, a fine Columbus-based music e-zine with record reviews and stuff. So check out the brand new TVS #9, This Monkey's Gone To Heaven, where the staff feature is little writeups on musicians who died before their time. My choice? Big L, of course. I also review the new Edan and By Divine Right (Ha! Got you good, you fucker!) albums, so check it out. I also have a snappy profile right here. Wow.

Showz
As mentioned two weeks ago, on the night of the 4th I wanted to see Electric Six and VHS or Beta at Skully's. I only managed to see VHS or Beta, and they rocked the faces of all, including Davekwon's (first time) and my own (umpteenth). Good ol Cinco de Cuatro. On Cinco de Mayo, I made it to Little Bros to see the end of the System Link MC Battle (Meta4ce didn't really win, him and Faus just decided to cypher at the end of their rounds and say fuck a battle). I also saw a set by Envelope & Amos Famous (though they rocked Fresh Prince beats, the crowd seemed disinterested) and an intimate set from Declaime/Dudley Perkins (w/J. Rawls on the decks) where he rapped and sang standing on the floor in front of 10-15 of us. Short, but cool.

Last Monday night Renkes and I got to see Garbage while I was covering the show for another music-type site here in town (Soon, allllll will be reveeeeeaaaaallllleed). Openers The Dead 60s were lame. Garbage did what they do, some sort of sultry despair, pretty well. More to come. I guess I didn't attend another show until Chops and I saw the grand Black Box event at Ruby Tuesdays on Saturday night. Many local bands rocked for a good cause.

0. Missed Times New Viking.
1. Arrived during Terribly Empty Pockets, they were good.
2. Heroes of History slayed everyone. Seriously though, as a hardcore Heroes fan (Kyle basically told me I was one, so there!), it was a good set and I liked the new material. Can't wait for the album!
3. The Blue Revision continued to slay.
4. Mors Ontologica crooned and careened aboot, unleashing their horn(y) rock upon us.
5. Necropolis' set was the best I'd ever seen from them. I was unimpressed the last time, but this time I was rocked into submission.
6. El Jesus de Magico rocked another quirky set. Maybe not as good as the Bring It! set, but still good.

Rants
1. Fuck Ticketmaster. I just got tickets for my cousin and I to see Modest Mouse and Camper van Beethoven at Promowest in June. The tickets were $25 a piece, which was bad enough. But the service charges, when I even avoided another charge for having printable tickets??? $17.50. Daaamn, that's some shit. Say it with me kids: MO-NO-PO-LY.

2. Fuck "Insider" Bars. I went to a certain bar near 5th and High Sunday night to see a band that includes a friend of mine. I had confirmed the show an hour earlier. Well, I got there, and there was no music on and nothing being set up. Also, the 6 or so staff and regulars drinking at the bar and watching TV gradually turn around to stare at me. Stupid. It turns out that the band decided not to show (probably due to the fact that there were no other bands slated to play with them), the bartender told me nicely. But everyone else there acted like I was a big intrusion on their (likely) paid night of "working" or hanging out, just because I showed up to a show that had been cancelled minutes before and that I should obviously be aware of. Stupid.

Now I feel better. I'll try to update more often. Pinky swear.