scene but not herd

I just got the album, Future Perfect, by Autolux the other day. I love this album right now. I'm really glad I heard a song on the radio because otherwise I would still be unaware of them. I don't keep up with music quite like I once did so I end up missing out on stuff sometimes. This band is from L.A. and I'm wondering how long they've been around and how many live shows I've missed because I was completely unaware of them and their sound. As to their sound I'm going to simplify things immensely and call it "shoegazer." The guitars sound really great on the album; it's that fuzzed out sound I love so much. The vocals are hushed and smooth. They are opening for Blonde Redhead in November at the Henry Fonda Theater and I'm going to have to try and make it to this show. Everything I was hoping to get from the M83 show I went to a few weeks ago I instead found in Autolux so I'm really pleased with this little surprise.

I'm pretty broke right now so my leisure time activities are suddenly going to be quite limited. My November shows are shaping up to be:

Lost Sounds at the Scene in Glendale on the 6th.

I was originally going to the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Long Beach, but I think I'm going to skip it. The upcoming versions in the UK look pretty interesting in terms of the band line-ups. I wish I could go to those instead.

Wolf Eyes and Comets on Fire at the Echo on the 11th. I think I'm looking forward to this the most. I'm pretty unfamiliar with these bands, but what I've heard seems interesting. I can always use a night of noise and guitar mayhem.

Warlocks, Dead Meadow, Frausdots probably at the Troubadour on the 13th although they are also playing the 14th at the Echo.

Wilco at the Wiltern on the 19th.

Blues Explosion at the Henry Fonda on the 23rd.


I'm sure other stuff will pop up for me to do or see. It seems like more interesting movies are being released lately as well.

Just out of curiosity I'm wondering if anyone reads this other than my two friends. If you do please leave your name and where you're from in the comments area or just e-mail me. I'd be more than happy to hear from people who could turn me on to some music that I may have let slip by. Actually all this blog stuff, as noted in my sidebar, has helped me discover a lot of music already, but I could always use more.

I drove down near San Diego with my friends Kim and Andy to see Brian Wilson perform SMILE at the Pala Indian Casino. Why did we go to this show especially when he's playing two nights at the amazing looking, Frank Gehry designed Disney Concert Hall next week. I guess because it was a bit cheaper and it was on a Friday so we could sleep in today. I was expecting the show to be in a small theater, but it was actually in one of those big meeting rooms that hotels have. It was just a big room with a bunch of chairs set up, so it really felt like we were at a business conference rather than at a concert. One good thing was that drinks were cheap; two pints and a cocktail for $9.75. That was a nice change of pace since nowadays at bigger shows one beer runs about $6 or more. Anyway... it's all about the music in the end.

The band came out and did a little acoustic set like the Beach Boys' Party album. I enjoyed the song "Please Let Me Wonder" the most from this set. Brian looked pretty out of it at this point. He was just lifeless and staring at a screen to read the lyrics to the songs. I really don't know his state of mind nowadays. I'm sure he has his good days and sometimes he has some bad ones, so it is quite remarkable that he is out on the road performing truly classic music.

After this acoustic set it was time for some electricity. The next part was a mix of songs from his history and the songs that stood out for me were, "Sloop John B," "Sail On Sailor," and "God Only Knows." I told myself I wouldn't cry, but I just couldn't help having a tear or two run down my face during "God Only Knows." It is such a great song. The lyrics are good, but the music is just overwhelming. During this part of the show Brian seemed to liven up a bit and it really started to seem like he was having a good time. His voice sounded much better than I expected it to.

Next it was time for SMILE. I discussed this album in an earlier post so I'm not going to go in depth here. Ultimately I enjoyed the PET SOUNDS concert much more. First of all that show was at the Hollywood Bowl, which is a beautiful place to see a concert, and secondly, PET SOUNDS simply resonates within me much more. The lyrics really speak to me and the music leaves me in awe. SMILE was performed exceptionally last night, but it just doesn't have the same impact on me. SMILE is truly a "teenage symphony to God." The thing that stood out for me was the music involved in "Wonderful" and the "Child Is Father To The Man" part. Don't get me wrong, I was really glad to hear it live, but it doesn't move me in the same way as PET SOUNDS and even some other Beach Boys songs. I still have that impression of what could have been. To think of this music coming out in 1967 is somewhat mind boggling. What would people have made of it? It still surpasses much of the music being made today. Would the history of rock and roll have been written differently?

The night ended with some oldies like "Barbara Ann" and the last song was Brian's "Love and Mercy." The band left the stage to a well deserved standing ovation. All in all I'm glad I went and if I had the money I would go again to the downtown L.A. shows. They had some nice merchandise for sale, but on my budget I couldn't buy everything I wanted. There were some nice shirts and a program, but I ended up getting a cool circular poster with a young Brian in the center surrounded by the words "Smile," "Listen," etc. It was a nice combo of the present and the past.

John Peel has apparently died at the age of 65 from a heart attack. I was pretty shocked by this news when I read about it a little earlier this morning. I guess he was a huge indirect influence on me. While in high school I used to read the British weeklies like NME, Sounds, and Melody Maker like a Bible. At the end of the year I think the NME would print Peel's Festive Fifty which were his top songs of the year. Oh how I yearned to be able to hear his show back then. I always wanted to hear the four song sessions he would record with all the bands I loved. It is great that quite a few of those sessions are now available on vinyl and cd. Like I said I was never able to hear his show even when it was available on the internet because usually I would be at work at that time. It's funny because just two weeks ago I thought of him because my friend was supposed to give me a cd-r of the Hunches playing live on his show. Here is someone who definitely contributed positively to the music world. It's time to throw on "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones. Cheers Mr. Peel!

I really like being surprised. Well, maybe I should rethink that because sometimes there are bad surprises, like working late last night and not being able to go see Autolux and Sons and Daughters opening for Clinic. However (stated a la Steven A. Smith), pleasant surprises are always wonderful. That was the case Thursday night as I must have been dozing recently and did not realize that THE OFFICE special was going to be shown on BBC America that night. Three hours of THE OFFICE sounded like heaven to me. I really love this show, although I could see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. It is basically a mock-documentary about the employees of an office in England. The humor is very subtle and quite dry most of the time, but it can really get you grabbing your sides laughing at times. It is a perverse kind of laughter at times as well because many of the laughs come at the expense of characters put into uncomfortable situations. This is one of the shows where I find myself laughing as well as cringing. The special was about two hours long and it was about the documentary crew catching up with the characters three years later. There is a scene at the end which just floored me. In the context of the general tone of the show the scene just comes off as truly poignant. It is the whole unrequited love thing becoming love, but it is done really well and it really moved me. I guess I am a pussy. The third hour was about the making of the show and it is also entertaining and informative. If you have BBC America and you haven't checked out the show then you should and both seasons of the show are available on dvd and the special is coming out soon I think so there is no excuse to not see it. I've read that there is an American version starting this tv season so I wonder how that will turn out.

Options for tonight:

Go see ROSEMARY"S BABY projected outdoors at a cemetary in Hollywood. This sounds really cool, but my laziness may overtake me today.

I was listening to a Sonic Boom mp3 from the 20 Jazz Funk Greats site and I really started thinking about being at a bar where all they were playing was stuff that sounded like that. A bar that isn't overcrowded with good, cheap drinks and some great music playing. I don't really know of any, but I'll probably go out drinking tonight anyway.

Monday night I watched a movie called VANISHING POINT and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Honestly, I think it's something I'm going to have to watch again to really see how I feel. To put it bluntly it is a road movie, or maybe better stated it is an anti-road movie. To a certain degree, like I HEART HUCKABEES, it is dealing with existentialism. Too much to deal with here now, but it must mean something to the band Primal Scream because they named an album after the movie and a song after the lead character, Kowalski.

The reason I even bring the movie up is because yesterday my job sent me out to Las Vegas at four in the afternoon. There's a lot of driving involved in the movie and yesterday that is pretty much all I did. All my driving was done in the dark, though, and the only "sights" I saw were the pitch blackness outside which would occasionally be broken up by bursts of civilization on the side of the road. My radio doesn't work very well so most of the time I was left with simply my thoughts to entertain myself. It's funny what you start to think about in situations like that. Maybe it's just me, but I start thinking about my place in the world. The grand existential questions pop into my head. I find myself thinking about girls quite a bit as well. Quite a juxtaposition going on in my head. So you can imagine eight hours of that. "What is my significance in this world, " followed immediately by, "That one girl is so beautiful and cool.." Existential questions really came to mind in the area of Wrightwood and Devore. It was raining really hard to the point where you could barely see, the wind was blowing all this rain all over the place, and it was foggy as well. There were a couple of times where I thought, "Am I going to get in an accident and die out here?" As you can note I made it home safely. Las Vegas was simply a blur. It was quite surreal. I ate and gambled a little and then I left. It is strange to be surrounded by all those glittering lights and then suddenly you are in the pitch black of the highway.

I got home at about three in the morning and right before I did an Autolux song came on the radio. I'm really digging that song. I wonder how the rest of their album sounds? I think I'm going to have to see them live on Friday.

Should I go see the Mistreaters and Baseball Furies tonight at Spaceland? I just listened to some mp3's at the Mistreaters website and they sound like they might be good live. I'm getting old and if I go out I want to be satisfied with my decision. Am I just going to hear some generic garage punk and regret stepping out of the house? I guess I'll make my mind up later. I used to go see every band that came through town, but nowadays I don't have the patience or money to sit through crap. I love garage punk, but too often it is a case of "you've seen one band you've seen them all." I just want to see a little variation on a theme and I don't know if that would be the case this evening.

I sound kind of cranky so I'll add to this post to make it a little more positive. To the right you'll see a bunch of links and they are there because I think they are pretty worthwhile. The newest link is for Agony Shorthand and I highly recommend it to you music fans. I'm pretty late in discovering this site, but better late than never. It turns out that the editor of this site is Jay Hinman who used to do a really great fanzine called Superdope. Back in 1994 I drove up to San Francisco with my friends Larry Hardy and Jerry to see the Blues Explosion play and they were friends with Jay. He let us stay at his place and drove us around the city and I am very grateful for that. We got to eat some really good fish and chips at some pub near American Music Hall and I had an opportunity to go to Amoeba Records in Berkeley. At his place we were also able to see some jaw-dropping video of William Shatner doing "Rocketman." I need to get a copy of that! Ah... the days of travelling long distances just to see a band. I haven't done that in awhile. San Francisco is a great city; I should check to see if any bands I like are playing up there on some future weekend and do a roadtrip.

Thursday night I went to see the Dirtbombs at the Knitting Factory. Their line-up seems to change each time I see them lately. Last time they came through town the girl from Ko and the Knockouts was playing bass and this time she was present, but they had a new guy playing the other bass. This may sound odd to some, but there is one guitar, two bass guitars, and two drum kits. Needless to say that is quite a sound coming from the stage. Mick Collins is just great. If you want to hear some great garage rock buy some records from some of the other bands he has been in like the Gories and Blacktop. The band was in pretty fine form and they probably played the longest set I've ever seen them do. I think they did about three encores. They play quite a few covers on their albums, but in these encores they played quite a few songs that I did not expect to hear like "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath, "Baby's On Fire" by Brian Eno, "Use Me" by Bill Withers, and "Dirt" by the Stooges. I went home very pleased by the show.

One of the opening bands was the Immortal Lee County Killers and they were a pleasant surprise. They are not doing anything new, basically playing bluesed-out punk rock, but they did it well. I give them credit for playing a cover of Pussy Galore's "Revolution Summer." Many bands associated with Jon Spencer don't seem to get the respect they deserve so it's nice to see someone giving credit where credit is due. For whatever reason some people and critics fall all over themselves in praising Jack White and they bad mouth the Blues Explosion as some joke band. If you think that Jack White is any more true to the spirit of the "blues" than Jon Spencer or anyone else then you are an idiot. Wake up and by some records by the Gun Club, Poison 13, Jack O' Fire, Gibson Bros., and the Bassholes.

Today I saw Jon Brion play for free at Amoeba Records. Suze is a HUGE fan and used to go see him play every weekend. I don't quite understand that type of extreme devotion, but I can see why she loves the music. He's an impressive multi-instrumentalist and he sure can write a melody. I have to say that I've really enjoyed the scores he has done for films, especially the most recent from I HEART HUCKABEES. He played some selections from that today and I really enjoyed it. I'm going to have to buy this soundtrack sometime soon.

I don't really have any gigs lined up this week. Money's kind of tight right now so I'm probably better off not going out.

Things I'm tempted to go to:

Mistreaters and Baseball Furies at Spaceland on Tuesday. Garage Punk bands that I haven't really heard much by so this may fall by the wayside.

Autolux is opening for Clinic on Friday at the Henry Fonda Theater and I'm starting to think I might go to this. I've been hearing some songs on the radio by Autolux lately and I've really liked them. I'm also curious to see the other opening band Sons and Daughters. I guess I'll have to see if this has sold out yet.

Sunday I'm going to Disneyland. I haven't been there in quite some time so now seems as good a time as any: Disneyland and California Adventures( which I have yet to see) for a single reduced ticket price and I think the park has some special Halloween themed sites going on as well. So far only my friends Dave and Sandy have shown any interest in joining me, but I'm sure we'll have a good time.

I received an e-mail yesterday that made me want to rush out of the house. It stated that Kelly Hogan would be doing vocals for pedal-steel player Jon Rauhouse, who was the opening act for Old 97's at the Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana. So indeed I rushed out the door and arrived a little after 8:00 and Jon Rauhouse was already playing. What can I say, but I love the sound of a pedal-steel guitar. It has such a distinctive sound, lovely and haunting. For those familiar with the work of Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant, Mr. Rauhouse is basically working with that sound and it is really a great sound. Western Swing and cartoon music left me smiling. My going to this show was made worthwhile simply by one song. It was an awesome spaghetti western sounding song with a wordless vocal by Kelly Hogan. Her voice sounded so great it was like an angel was singing in the upper atmosphere and the sound was seeping into the venue. Kelly Hogan seems to be often overshadowed by her good friend, Neko Case, but I find her work just as interesting. You should check out her album called Because It Feel Good.

I've never been much of a follower of Old 97's. I have to admit that my only familiarity with their music is from hearing it played over Suze's car stereo. After Jon Rauhouse and Kelly Hogan I wasn't really expecting much, but I have to give Old 97's credit because they put on a good show. I was actually surprised at how many songs sounded familiar. I really like one of their songs that mentions something about "I'd be lying if I said I didn't have designs on you." Rhett Miller also came out solo at one point and did another song I liked which was about being lonely forever. All in all it was a good night and I'm glad that I didn't stay at home.

Wednesday I'm going to see Caetano Veloso at UCLA and hopefully it will be as awesome as the first time I saw him play live.

Thursday is the Dirtbombs and Ponys at the Knitting Factory. This show will no doubt be great.

Something pretty important to me happened a couple of weeks ago and I haven't even discussed it here. That event was the release of Smile by Brian Wilson. This album was probably the most famous never released album ever and now it is here in 2004. To some of my friends it must be odd to hear me say that it has all been somewhat bittersweet. I know it is a bad position to take, but all I can think about is "what could have been." I was in Amoeba Records yesterday and they were playing it over the sound system. One thing I can say wholeheartedly is that the music is amazing. I don't feel let down by the sound of the album at all. The flow of the music is impressive and Brian Wilson just has a knack for writing great melodies and transisions. I don't know about you, but I often find myself following a song and in my head I'm thinking "why did you go there when you could have gone over here." That is not the case here. The melodies go in very satisfying directions and many times they go in unexpected, yet rewarding, directions. I guess I have a bit of a problem with the vocals. All things considered they sound pretty good; the backing band is actually quite adept at handling their vocal chores. Let's face it, Brian's voice isn't what it once was. If you listen to songs from Pet Sounds his vocals have the abilty to make you melt. Once again, all things considered, he does a capable job, but can you imagine the Beach Boys from 1967 doing these vocals? It makes me want to weep. After listening to the new Smile I listened to my bootlegs of the old sessions and that is all I could think of. I sound worse than I actually feel. I'm happy to have a great facsimile of Smile, but I do hope they eventually release a legitimate version of all the old recording sessions. I am also looking forward to seeing Brian and band perform Smile live at the end of the month and I'm sure that while I'm there it will all hit me and I'll have tears running down my face.

One more thing, if you have Showtime, check the listings because they are showing a good documentary about the making of (then and now) and legend of Smile.

Yesterday I went with Suze to see I HEART HUCKABEES. I wasn't all that excited about seeing it, but I really ended up loving it. She really wanted to see it and had a lukewarm reaction to it. Why did I love it... This film is actually dealing with some pretty heavy issues like our existence on this planet and how we live our lives. You can try to make sense of all the debates that come up about this, but you don't have to. I enjoyed contemplating this throughout the movie, but I did not focus all my attention to it. You could say that much of this material is really the plot of the film, but I guess I didn't spend too much time thinking about the plot. I didn't really try to make sense of the film and what I'm writing is probably not making any sense to anyone who reads it. :-) Instead I directed my focus to other aspects of the film. One of these aspects is genre. This movie is really a screwball comedy and it is also a work of surrealism. Buster Keaton comes to mind as directed by Luis Bunuel. It is Peter Sellers in a Blake Edwards film. The movie is nuts and I love it because it is nuts. It's a cartoon train that is going off the tracks, but you laugh when it does. There is a great "love scene" that perfectly depicts l'amour fou (mad love) so often brought up by the Surrealists. I swear the director must have thought of a scene from Luis Bunuel's L'AGE D'OR when he filmed that scene. The cast is great and I have to single out Mark Wahlberg for the intensity he brings to his role. Actually all the actors have this certain heightened, goofy intensity that I really liked. It accentuates the absurdity of the mundane which I think is also an aspect of the film. I can see how the film wouldn't be to everyone's tastes, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The director of this film, David O. Russell, made another really great screwball comedy a few years ago called FLIRTING WITH DISASTER and I would highly recommend that you check it out.

One of the topics brought up by I HEART HUCKABEES is "what makes life worth living." Well, for me at least yesterday, it was spending time with a great friend, listening to good music, seeing a good movie, eating a good meal at Houston's, having a beer, and finding out that the Dodgers won their game and are still (barely) alive in the playoff race. They need to win today to keep me from crying. ;-)

When I was a kid I loved horror movies. I still like them, but back then I devoured any information about them that I could get my hands on. One magazine that I bought religiously was Fangoria. I think I bought every issue except one from 1979 until 1992 or 1993. At some point in the early eighties they started printing gatefold posters on the inside of the covers. One of the posters was for a movie called MY BLOODY VALENTINE. Years later that name would have relevance in my life once again in the form of a band.

The first thing I ever bought by the band was the Sunny Sundae Smile single in 1987. It's a great single; sugary, fuzzed-out pop music. Oddly enough, having liked the single quite a bit, I didn't bother buying any subsequent releases.

In 1988 I met one of my best friends, Tita. She was dating a friend of mine and he told me that she liked the same kind of music as me. Boy, did she like the same music as I did. At the time it was amazing to find someone who shared my taste in music. Needless to say we became fast friends. She made me a great mix tape with stuff like the Wedding Present, BMX Bandits, McCarthy, the Flatmates, and Biff Bang Pow on it. One of the songs on it was "I Don't Need You" from My Bloody Valentine's Ecstasy album. I loved this song and it made me regret not buying their records after that first single. Around this same time the band was getting a lot of press in the English music papers over the two EP's they had put out, Feed Me With Your Kiss and You Made Me Realize, and I finally decided I needed to listen to them again. I bought those EP's and the Isn't Anything album and it took me awhile to warm up to this new sound. I was used to that jangly, fuzzed-out pop sound that they had and suddenly here was something different. This new sound had some remnants from the past, but it was noisier, aggresive, experimental, and sensual. Eventually I really warmed up to it. The song "Slow" from that time period has to be one of the sexiest songs ever.

In 1989 I found out that the band would be playing Bogart's in Long Beach and Club Lingerie in Hollywood. My friends Tita, Nancy, and Jessica got a head start on me by travelling up to the Bay area and seeing a few shows. They also had an opportunity to meet the band and schedule a fanzine interview at their Long Beach show. I met the girls on the afternoon of June 16th in front of Bogart's and the band soon pulled up in their van. I was then introduced to the band and I think Kevin's sister and brother were there as well as a tour manager. They were all very nice to us. We got to see them sound check and the band signed the aforementioned Fangoria poster which is the picture you see posted above. We all then went to a nearby coffee place and we interviewed them for my friends' fanzine called Over the Wall. My friends weren't 21 yet so they had to miss the show, but we invited the band to Disneyland the next day. Thankfully I was 21 and I was able to see a great show. They played stuff from the EP's and Isn't Anything and they surprised me by encoring with a song from the Sunny Sundae Smile single and Lovlee Sweet Darlene from The New Record By My Bloody Valentine single.

The next day everyone went to Disneyland except Kevin. He spent the day at the Guitar Center store on Sunset Blvd. They were staying at a motel roughly across the street from there. The rest of us spent most of the day at Disneyland and had a great time. We all went home then to recuperate a little before we headed to Hollywood to see them play at Club Lingerie. The band put us on the guest list and Colm personally escorted the girls in so they wouldn't be carded. Once again it was a great show. Afterwards I was able to help them load up their van and we all went back to their motel and hung out in their room. They were so nice to us. I wish I could remember what we talked about, but my memory fails me. I think we were there until five in the morning. As we drove home with the sun coming up we were all so excited that we were able to hang out with one of our favorite bands.

The reason I'm even writing any of this is because I found out that someone is writing a book about the making of Loveless. The author posted a message at a My Bloody Valentine site asking people to send him messages of how Loveless provided an epiphany to them. I thought of e-mailing him the following story, but I'm not really sure that it is relevant to his book.

It seemed like an eternity between Isn't Anything and the Glider EP that followed, but it was well worth the wait. "Soon" was just an amazing song. It was the perfect mix of dance beats, and swooning guitars and vocals. Eventually Loveless came out and I was lucky to get a promo cassette months ahead of the release date. My friend Tita was studying in England at the time and I sent her a copy of the cassette a few weeks before it was released there. She sent me a letter in which she wrote the following dated November 19, 1991.


"Okay, the weekend after I got your tape, I went to Edinburgh again (where I saw Chaperhouse again, this time with the Belltower). When I showed my friend Andrew the tape, he nearly had a heart attack. It was so cute! So he listened to the first track and we took off for the the Edinburgh Uni student union where an indie disco was taking place. He stormed into the DJ booth and showed the DJ, Jem, the cassette, who then proceeded to go into similar hysterics as Andrew! So they cued up the first track and Andrew comes out over the microphone: 'This is a track off the new My Bloody Valentine LP which hasn't even been released yet, so this is sort of a world exclusive.' The kids went wild! Dancing and loving it. Afterwards everyone kept coming up to Andrew- 'How did you get that???' It was so great! Only in Britain could this happen."


It really doesn't describe an epiphany per se, but it does show the very real excitement we had in first hearing it. I saw the band three more times and was even able to hang out with them one more time at a much nicer hotel, the Hyatt on Sunset. As I stated earlier it seemed like an eternity between the release of Isn't Anything and Loveless, but it was nothing compared to the realization that another album would not come after Loveless. I don't really know what the future holds for My Bloody Valentine, but it was a great time while it lasted.

Saturday afternoon Suze and Larry accompanied me to our friend, Rory's, wedding where we met up with some other friends, Sarah, Dat, Andy, and Kim. Most of us know each other from working and frequenting a record store that no longer exists called Tempo. It was a nice ceremony and the first I've ever been to that was purely civil. It was a nice change of pace for me in that there was absolutley no mention of religion throughtout the ceremony. People may come and go in my life, but I'm very grateful that I have a solid core of friends who I'm sure I will continue to see until the day I die. Some of them are in these pictures that I posted. I've probably never said it to them, but they mean the world to me and it was a pleasure to hang out with them at this event.

After the wedding Suze, Kim, Andy, and myself went to a nearby restaurant to have some drinks and a snack. Before I go on I have to make clear here that I am a huge Dodger fan. I hate to admit that I sometimes let the results of a game affect my psyche. Well, as we walk into the restaurant the Dodgers are losing to the San Francisco Giants 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and one out. Needless to say my nerves are on edge. The next thing I know the Dodgers have tied the score and they need only one run to clinch the West and go on to the playoffs. The bases are still loaded and Steve Finley comes up to the plate. On the second pitch he hits a grand slam and all hell breaks loose. Dodgers win the pennant! Dodgers win the pennant! It was such an amazing moment and just a really great exclamation point to an entertaining day.

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