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.

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!

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!

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!

"You know, my son, after Rocktober comes Po-vember"

That's a proverb for the ages, right dere. Cuz you can rock alot, like me, but eventually you run out of phat loots. Thank the Lord that the last business day of the month is the 29th, so that tomorrow shalt be payday!!! Not a second too soon. Well, Rocktober is winding up, but not without a bang! Tonight Andy and I are attempting to see his co-worker's husband's band play at the Scarlet & Grey Cafe, so we'll see how that goes. Tomorrow night, the effort is being made to catch the Charlie Hunter Trio (w/DJ LOGIC!!!!!) at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, wish me luck! Saturday, it seems that Camper Van Beethoven is playing two or three places, with the actual show being at the Newport, so it is a good day to be 51-7, or something. After that I will definitely be attending Dave's 7th Annual Halloween Movie Marathon, which will undoubtedly rock. And if I don't make it, I'll likely be murderized. Sunday night, Halloween itself, I will bring Rocktober to a successful close by showing up at the release party for Blueprint's "Chamber Music" album at Bernies, with other local acts rappin it up as well. Should be sweet, just like sleeping less than 5 hours on a Sunday night! OK, RECAP TIME!!!!!

Last night, Andy and I upped the Rocktober ante by driving to the Southgate House in Newport, KY (across the river from Cincy) to see Antibalas. By agreeing to make this voyage, Andy earned 1000000000000000000000000000000000 RockPoints, so please don't try and earn any for the next few aeons. So we got there at 10:05 (missing the opener by a few minutes), and we had to wait until just before 11 for Antibalas to hit the stage. Oh well, the Southgate is cool. Anyway, we got to see the sweat-churnin' Afrobeat juggernaut for about an hour before having to turn back for home. They were as political as ever (I caught a "NOVEMBER 2" T-shirt they threw from the stage), and just as funky. I'm sure we missed alot of amazing stuff, but an hour of Antibalas is enough to last for months. We got home a bit after 2, after narrowly surviving a lack-of-gas scare on the outskirts of town (BOO!). Thanks Andy, you da man.
Tuesday night, Val and I caught another type of juggernaut...The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players at Little Brothers! We caught most of the second opener (both of the openers were friends of the Trachtenburgs), a tall man named Andrew something who played a funny keyboard-vocal cover of "Ice Ice Baby" and some other interesting numbers. The Trachtenburgs rocked as hard as ever. Pa Trachtenburg was funny, in his weird way, and their dog wandered around alot. They played the hits like "Mountain Trip to Japan 1959" and "Eggs," and Pa even played part of a song from a solo album of his a while back. Sure, they don't play very long sets, but these sets are played with love.
Monday night was dodgy for the rock. I tried to wander down to Oldfields on High for the weekly Men of Leisure show, as I've been meaning to for a long time, but I guess this week they changed to a open mic thing that drew NO ONE and when I got there, it was already over and there were about 5 people there. BOOOO!!! But on my way back, sure enough there was the Tony McClung Trio live at the Ravari Room! Rocktober was saved! I also ended up hanging out with Ben Oliver and Nate Smith, as well as Columbus music hero Derek Dicenzo, which was rather dope. I still need to catch Ben's band Tiger Tiger or other band, one of which plays every Friday night at the Shi-Sha Lounge. The trio was good, with Tony on drums, Josh Hill on guitar, and Jeff Ciampa (also of the Hoo Doo Soul Band) on bass. They played a nice jazzy cover of "Take Me Home, Country Roads," sweeet. And Derek told the story of Glen Burke, the gay black baseball player for the Dodgers in the '70s who invented the high five. Yes, it was a rocking of the highest order.
Sunday night was McLusky at Little Brothers. Locals El Jesus de Magico opened, and I wasn't that big of a fan, which happens sometimes with me and el Jesus. A few songs rocked, but most were a bit too weird while also not rocking enough. This is Rocktober, folks, you gotta bring yo A-game!!! McLusky, on the other hand, was rather entertaining. They are a trio from somewhere in England, and the somewhat surly lead singer was also pretty funny, with many quips about his fellow British bands. And the bassist told a joke:
Q: "What's the difference between a SUV and a hedgehog?"
A: "Hedgehogs have pricks on the INside."
Bah-dum-dum-ching! And yes, they managed to rock too! With songs like "We Take More Drugs Than a Touring Funk Band," how could you not rock? Check out my McLusky t-shirt sometime, it rocks hard.
The weekend was a bloody party up in Wooster, but there was no rock to be had. Somehow I didn't break out in hives.
Thursday night, cuz I had to rock, I went to Chuck's Junk's "Funknot" or whatever it was called at Ruby Tuesdays. The Lab Rats turned shit out, as always, despite technical problems and a lackluster crowd. Their release party is Friday night with Wicked Lung & the Wookalar and others at Skullys, which is a solid backup plan. In between and during sets, DJ BHB was rockin some hip-hop jams and an open mic in the basement, which was empty but the music was cool. Chuck's Junk was also good. They're pretty funky, though the singer might be a bit sappy for me. I need to see them again.
Wow, another blogathon. Pray for me to survive Rocktober, and I'll catch y'alls on the flipside.