scene but not herd

The Blues Explosion just don't move me anymore and this statement saddens me quite a bit. Hell, this is the band that I travelled to San Francisco, Seattle, and even Hoboken just to see and now I probably wouldn't bother going to see them again even if the venue was only a block away. There are probably quite a few people who would disagree, but for about 2 or 3 years the Blues Explosion were one of the best live bands, if not the best, playing around. I cannot describe how good they were, but basically everything people cream themselves about nowadays, need I invoke the White Stripes, Hives, etc. again, that was the Blues Explosion 10 years ago, but these same people were too busy fawning over Nirvana or accusing the Blues Explosion of being a "minstrel show" to realize what was passing them by. I love people talking about the absence of a bass player in bands and instantly bringing up the White Stripes. Well the Blues Explosion never had a bass player and neither did other bands Jon Spencer was in like Pussy Galore and the Gibson Bros. As for the "minstrel show" show critique... just get over it. There is no racism involved here. Jon Spencer loves Black music and because he injects a certain irreverence to what he does it doesn't mean disrespect. Has he ripped off Black musicians? Of course, hell, listen to a Rufus Thomas record and you'll hear most of the Blues Explosion shtick right there. Just don't attack Jon Spencer for doing the same stuff that Beck and Jack White have done, but they don't catch any heat because they are critical darlings. The Blues Explosion exposed and championed many musicians that the critics didn't care about, but people seem to forget this. They had R.L. Burnside opening for them as early as 1995 while critics didn't seem to pay much notice of R.L. until that crappy hip hop remix/collaboration album, Come On In, that came out three years later. Any mention of the role the Blues Explosion had in exposing R.L. Burnside to the world? No, instead I have to continuosly hear about Jack White truly tapping into the spirit of the blues. Well, despite the name, the Blues Explosion never claimed to be anything more than a rock band and for awhile they were truly great and I'm simply tired of them being criticized without any mention of their true accomplishments. Garage rock seems to be the buzz word nowadays. 15 to 20 years ago Pussy Galore was capturing the true essence of garage rock, but they won't get any credit for it. 12 years ago the Blues Explosion was blending blues and rockabilly to indie rock in a crazy -ass mix, but they don't get any credit either. I guess I still have some passion for this band and that is why it saddens me to say that I am basically done with them. They're going to have to turn out some really amazing music for them to catch my attention again. The shtick got tired quite a few years ago for me and I really think they need to reinvent themselves. Seeing them live on Tuesday showed me they are still a good live band, but it just wasn't the same for me anymore. This I really can't explain. Maybe it is just the songs. In the past they had some great ones and now there really aren't any that catch my attention. I'm well aware that lyrically the songs were never exceptional, but the music and vibe were amazing and really made you want to move. Oh well, the crowd seemed to enjoy them and I wish them luck in the future because they gave me some great times in the past.

Took the metro to the Wiltern on Friday to see Wilco. It's pretty convenient because there's a station directly across the street. The only thing I worried about was catching a train home once the show was over, but that didn't turn out to be a problem. One of these days I'm going to have to find out the time schedule for these trains before I get stuck in L.A. late at night looking for a ride home. The metro always makes for an interesting experience. There's always interesting people on board. Sometimes you wonder if something bad is going to occur and sometimes you just want to laugh out loud. The first time I saw Wilco wasn't really a Wilco show per se. It was Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennet playing acoustic at McCabe's guitar shop in Santa Monica. They played a lot of Uncle Tupelo songs, the Wilco songs from AM, and covers. It is still my favorite "Wilco" show that I've seen. They sure have progressed from those times. When Uncle Tupelo broke up all I wanted to know was what was Jeff Tweedy's next band going to be. I found out on a Warner Bros. promo cd that it was going to be called Wilco and each album since then hasn't let me down. I like the last two albums, but I think my favorite material comes from Summerteeth and Being There. There is barely a hint of country rock anymore and I'm perfectly fine with that. Live they've turned into a pretty formidable noise band and I'm always up for that. I guess live that is what struck me the most. They really seemed to enjoy pushing their equipment into squeels of feedback and washes of distortion. That was particularly true when they played the song off the new album that sounds like a Krautrock number. The first few minutes were just sweet, beautiful noise. I've liked their shows in the past, but this one was the first in awhile that I was really glad I went to.

Last night I went to Hollywood to see Blonde Redhead and Autolux. As I was getting my ticket at the will call window I saw Giovanni Ribisi standing there with a little girl. I guess he has decent taste in music. I'm too old to be thinking this, but I'm a little envious that he was in such close proximity to Scarlett Johansson in LOST IN TRANSLATION. Speaking of too old, I really felt old at this show. Everyone seemed to be under 25 at the venue. You would think there would be a few more senior citizens in the crowd like myself. There is something to be said for femininity in rock. I don't mean just the fact of women being in bands, but rather the concept of sensuality in music. Fine purveyers of this were My Bloody Valentine and I think some current practitioners are Autolux and Blonde Redhead. Autolux really remind me of Isn't Anything-era MBV. I love the languid, hushed vocals. Some people may find it wimpy, but I've always found that type of vocal delivery to be sexy. The music can be hushed, but often times it is a buzzing, distorted wash of sound. When they first started playing I kept thinking that they seriously needed to turn up the volume, but then suddenly everything kicked in and I was an embryo in their womb of sound. The bass was making the floor shake and the drums were just rocking. I spent most of my time watching the girl drummer play. She really hits hard and puts out a really good sound. She looked kind of cute from where I was standing as well so that didn't hurt. They are from L.A. so I hope to be seeing them much more often.

I am very ill-equipped to speak about Blonde Redhead. I never bothered to hear them because I always heard they were a Sonic Youth rip off. I'm sure that is a too harsh and facile critique, but it kept me away from their work for a long time. I finally heard them on their most recent album and I liked it enough to want to check them out live. They were good, although they didn't knock my socks off. The most interesting aspect for me was watching the girl in the band. She plays guitar, bass, keyboards, and occasionally sings. I really liked seeing her play and her interaction with the the other guy who played guitar and bass and did most of the vocals. When she played she had a really sexy swaying motion going on. It just went really well with the sound of the music. At one point at the end of a song she did a little dance just for a moment in front of the other guy in the band and it just looked so cool. I guess it just captured the essence of seeing someone really enjoying what they are doing. It's funny what catches your eye at a concert sometimes.

Last night Suze basically shows up at my door and states that I'm going to a concert with her so what can I do but say ok. It didn't really take much arm twisting because I knew I was going to a good show. Once again it was Frausdots, Dead Meadow, and the Warlocks, but this time at the Echo. I won a Frausdots cd by knowing a little bit of trivia the band threw out. My teenage music listening habits came in handy because Frausdots covered a song by Theater of Hate called "Do you Believe In The Westworld" and I knew what label it was released on. I really liked this band and the band that it later spawned called Spear of Destiny. I don't know why I traded in all my vinyl by these two bands; I must have needed some money. I'll have to give the Frausdots cd a listen and see what I think. At least live they don't have a sound which I'm all that interested in hearing anymore. Maybe if I was sixteen again I would be into it, but they were very nice to give me the cd so the least I can do is give it a shot.

I've mentioned before that I like surprises and Dead Meadow is one of those pleasant surprises. Before I saw them Saturday I had no idea what they sounded like and now I would like to see them play every night. They don't have the most original sound going, but it is really sounding good to me. I guess when it comes down to it they are a rock band. They have all the signifiers: Orange amps, wah wah pedals, guitar solos, extended jams, and yet I still like it. I shouldn't really apologize for liking it because what they are doing is continuing a sound begun by a band like the Stooges. I like the heaviness and loudness of it all. They are a rock band, but they don't bother with all the stupid trappings associated with rock bands. They don't dress the part at all and that is refreshing. I challenge anyone to look at them and figure out what they sound like. They kind of have that stoner rock sound, but I'm glad they don't look like heshers. I like that the vocals sound like they should be heard in a shoegazer band. It is a nice change of pace to not hear grunting or screaming or wanna-be Robert Plants. Once again I was entranced by them Sunday night. I just dig the melding of the vocals, the drumming, the bass lines, and the particular tone of their guitars. I just want to get lost in that groove they put out.

After Dead Meadow I had the pleasure of hearing some good dj-ing or rather I just got to hear a bunch of songs I really like. How can you go wrong when you hear Loop, Can, Opal, and the Telescopes practically all in a row. Speaking of Opal, they have a really great album called Happy Nightmare Baby and, although they sound nothing like one another, I can see some similarity with what the Warlocks and Dead Meadow are doing. The Opal album is a melding of sixties psychedelia with a great T Rex-ish guitar sound. After some band member changes Opal morphed into Mazzy Star. This leads me to the name of my blog which I stole from the band Pale Saints. I saw it written somewhere on their second album and I always loved the play on words as well as the sentiment. The Pale Saints also covered songs by Opal and Mazzy Star. You see, everything ties together.

We watched some of the Warlocks and they were good once again, but sleep began to take a profound importance so we called it a night. I wonder how much music I'm missing out on that I would love if only I knew about it. Plenty, I'm sure, but I enjoy the knowledge that I will run across some of it in the years to come. I love all the mp3 blogs because it has been a very useful resource in discovering the unheard music. If anyone reads this feel free to turn me on to new, or old, things, I may be neglecting.

Oh the power of being attractive. Friday night I met up with my friend John at a bar in downtown Long Beach. Not soon after I sit down a couple sits down right next to us at the bar. The woman caught my eye because she must have been wearing one of those bullet bras from the fifties. I hadn't seen that look since Jayne Mansfield was alive and I felt like Sophia Loren in that famous picture in which she is seated next to Jayne and she's staring at her bosom. Anyway, this woman seated at the bar was rather, um....impressive. So John and I are sitting there drinking and talking to the bartenders and I've pretty much forgotten about the couple next to us. The next thing I know our friend, Jared, has gotten off his shift working there and he is now seated between us and the aforementioned woman. I'm thinking Jared must have put down a few while he was working, because he had the air of the jolly drunk as he talked to us and the bartenders. So we keep on talking and we play some game where a bunch of straws are layed out in a pattern and then you have to make something else by moving only two straws, blah, blah, blah. Suddenly Jared discreetly tells us that the woman next to him wants him. Did I forget to mention that Jared is very handsome? He details to us how all her body language has given him this sign. Mind you Jared has done absolutely nothing to get this woman to show interest in him, but as we sat there watching it was blatanly obvious that this woman was interested. She couldn't stop engaging him in any way possible. It got to the point where she totally turned her back on her boyfriend/date. Jared has a girlfriend so he wasn't trying to pick up on her, but it just became a perverse excercise in "let's see what's going to happen here." We found it pretty hilarious, but at the same time it was pretty sad. Her date was bummed out. We could overhear them a few times and comments such as 'Are you trying to test me?" and "Do you love me?" came up. Nothing happened and they left shortly after, but it was quite an impressive display of the power of beauty. You don't do anything and a beautiful woman is all over you? As a relatively unattractive guy I have to move the earth and the moon to get a woman to talk to me. I tell you it's just not fair. 8-)

Laziness almost made me not go to the Troubadour last night. Thankfully Suze called me and said she was driving so off we went to the concert. Frausdots were on first and I thought they were just ok. Think early eighties English synthesizer and guitar combos and you'll get an idea of what they sounded like. Next up were Dead Meadow and I really enjoyed them. Thursday night I saw Comets on Fire and Dead Meadow is sort of working in the same realm as that band. I would say Dead Meadow is using a sound relative to Black Sabbath and progressing from there. They were really loud and they would just lock into these great, heavy grooves. They reminded me of Loop and even "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and "You Made Me Realize"-era My Bloody Valentine. After their last song I actually wanted them to keep playing the rest of the night and that is not a sensation I feel very often. Usually I'm checking the time to see how soon I'll be able to make it home. They were my unexpected highlight of the night. The Warlocks were on right after and I was ready for a let down after Dead Meadow, but they were equally as good. References for me would be bands like Spiritualized and the Telescopes. The Warlocks would also lock into a groove, but they had a more droning sound rather than a metal sound. They were also playing really loud and the three guitars and dual drummers were very noticeable. I love it when you can even feel the music because the bass was hitting me in my sternum. These same bands are playing tonight at the Echo and I'm contemplating going again to do further damage to my hearing.

I have a feeling I'm going to be really tired today. I got home at about 1:30 this morning and I had trouble falling asleep until much later. Maybe that had something to do with what I witnessed last night. I went to see Wolf Eyes and Comets on Fire and finally a show lived up to my expectations. I had read quite a bit about these bands and I was not disappointed when I actually saw them play live. I doubt I'll pick up their records, but I will definitely go check them out live again. Last night was about complete atonality pretty much. The closest thing to songs anyone played was by Coments on Fire. The simplest description for them is psych-rock. The guys vocals reminded me of Mark Arm from Mudhoney and the guitar freak-outs also reminded me of that band a little. At the same time they don't sound like Mudhoney at all, if that makes any sense. I enjoyed the crazy, distorted jamming played at ear-splitting volume. Here's a little blurb I stole from the site, Throwaway Style:

"Comets on Fire are Ethan Miller (guitar, vocals), Noel Harmonson (echoplex), Ben Flashman (bass), Ben Chasny (guitar), and Utrillo Kushner (drums). Since forming in Santa Cruz, California in 1999 this band have been destroying audiences with their fiercely anti commercial acid-freakout rock and roll. Ethan Miller in fact states that: 'audiences should be left exhausted and abused by the intensity of our attack, and if they don’t like us then they should be punished even worse.'"


Wolf Eyes were next and they were basically about soundscapes. A quick reference for me would be a noisier and more free form Whitehouse It is amazing what just sound can do. It was a trio consisting of keyboards, guitar, and saxaphone, and some kind of drum machine and they were just brutal. Both these bands took their music beyond an aural experience and into the realm of pure visceral experience. It really is quite amazing to hear non-stop squeeling coming from a keyboard to the point it is almost painful. Some people may not like this, but I must admit I enjoy it as a contrast to all the other types of music I like. I think I read that Jeff Tweedy of Wilco is a fan of Wolf Eyes and I find some perverse pleasure in that. Wilco is playing next week at the Wiltern and I wish Wolf Eyes were opening for them. I would love to see the crowd reaction to them. It would just be priceless. I briefly talked to my friend Tim who was playing bass for a really good band called All Night Radio. It truly is a shame that they broke up recently because they were, in my opinion, one of L.A. 's finest live bands. He said he's working on some material with the drummer, Jimi Hey, so hopefully something interesting will come out of that.

If I go out tomorrow I'm going to go see a documentary called MOOG about Robert Moog who invented one of the first synthesizers. That's playing in the Fairfax district which gives me time to run over to the Troubadour and see the Warlocks right after the movie.

Thursday is Sunn 0)) and Earth over at the Knitting Factory. Whereas last night was a fast type of noisy, Thursday should be a slow and heavy noisy.

Friday is Wilco.

Saturday is Blonde Redhead and Autolux at the Henry Fonda Theater.

I need to lose weight, probably about thirty pounds to be honest with you and I've been exercising pretty regularly, but I don't know how much good it is doing. I still look pretty big, so I'm afraid I was looking a lot bigger a few months ago. I think I'll try to lose fifteen by the end of the year. I think it will be good to set a little goal and see if I accomplish it. The reason I bring this up is because I went for a walk this evening and I took my trusty I-Pod with me; everything in my life seems to relate back to music. Now that it gets dark earlier it seems that fewer people are outside and I love this. There are a few people in my life whose company I enjoy, but I must say that I like solitude quite a bit. It was nice to be walking this evening and hardly come into contact with anyone. I don't hate crowds, but I do think people are much better taken in small doses. I had the I-Pod cranked loud so I really was in my own secluded little world. I like to throw it on shuffle and be surprised by what comes up. Tonight's significant surprise was "Hide and Go Seek, Parts 1 and 2" by Blacktop. It's basically a Bo Diddley-esque jam that makes me want to shake my ass like a madman. I need to have a party or DJ somewhere just so I can play this song. The band locks into a hypnotic groove which is punctuated by some of the most amazing sounding feedback you will ever hear. It was nice to drown out the world with this great song.

Yesterday I wasn't so fortunate in maintaining my seclusion. I went to see THE INCREDIBLES and it seems that so did the rest of the world. The theater I was in ended up packed to the gills and it kind of bummed me out. I hate sitting next to people I don't know in theaters. Call me crazy, but I like some space between me and other people. There was, or maybe still is, a theater in New York called Anthology Film Archives. It was basically devoted to experimental film and I think the chairs in the theater were almost like cocoons. Once seated you could not see the people next to you. It's been a long time since I read about this so I could be wrong on the details and it is simply wishful thinking on my part. I guess those sitting arrangements wouldn't be so great if you were out on a date, but personally, when I'm at a movie the only thing I'm concerned with is the movie. I'm sounding like Scrooge right now so I'll state now that I got over the fact that the theater was packed. I loved this movie. I like the other Pixar stuff, but this one really struck me. I actually got a little teary eyed at one point just thinking about the imagination involved in making this. It's superheroes and James Bond all rolled into one. The look of the film is amazing. Part of it is a great Modernist suburbia and the other part is every great Bond villian's lair. The way some of the characters looked also reminded me of the MAD MONSTER PARTY which is a great claymation movie from the sixties and it involves all the classic monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein. The story is really enjoyable and it was fun watching the little kid sitting next to me jumping up and down in his seat and laughing because he was so excited. This will definitely be a must buy when it comes out on dvd.