little brian, miles hayes reviews @ iloveftw.com

reviews i penned of new cd's by little brian and myles hayes and the moondevils are live now at i love fort worth.

more in the pipe

also reviewing myles hayes & the moondevils' night and day and little brian's thrash funk for i love fort worth, and the hydromatics' the earth is shaking for the i-94 bar.

high on fire, om

teague says the new high on fire rec is the shit. calvin told ray it made him wanna dress up as an orc and smash someone's head, it was so good. here they are rippin' it up at the li'l wreck room on 4.6.2006.



teague was also raving about seeing om twice this week, at wall of sound and in austin. he says it's the kind of sound you hear through the bottoms of your feet.



i woke up this morning and listened to sleep's dopesmoker, which he pulled my coat to while he was working door at the wreck a couple of yrs ago -- same way he did with boris. (sleep's the band that gave birth to high on fire and om.) gonna have to hear their new stuff.

the last wednesday jam at the wreck room

lots of complex emotions to sort out
(as ray sez, "mortality sucks")

a lot of things i didn't like about
the way we ended two and a half years

(teague sez, "for me, music's always been
me and my friends exorcising demons"

but i suppose that it could have other uses
if one were so inclined)

the part i choose to remember
is lucas white on the mic at the end,

cursing the people who will tear that building down
and telling those who were there never to forget

and the mountain of rubble in what used to be
the bank parking lot as we were loading out

high rise

asahito nanjo's high rise have taken post-coltrane/hendrix/stooges/blue cheer noisearama about as far as it can go. bless them.

dancing barefoot

shame on me for thinking patti smith was just an art brawd that couldn't sing. she's got _that thing_, even when her gtr player's out of tune.



here she is, doing the same song on her 60th b-day. hope i can do as well ten years down the road.

nguyen family benefit

speaking of the wreck room, here's a piece from the uta shorthorn about the sunday summer showcase back in june. better late than never.

wreck room books

tammy gomez was kind enough to post this on myspace:

Ken Shimamoto produced, in a labor of love, a wonderful
zine of memories, photographs, essays, and poems
which is titled

WRECK ROOM STORIES: TRUE TALES
FROM THE HOME OF ROCK 'N' ROLL
IN FORT WORTH AS TOLD BY
THE PEOPLE WHO WERE THERE (2nd edition)

and you can now snag the last few copies this week

(the FINAL WEEK OF EXISTENCE for the Wreck Room..!)

at the ME-THINKS and GIDEONS shows. Writer/publisher
Ken Shimamoto will be at these shows, so look for him,
and exchange a 10 dollar bill for a copy of WRECK
ROOM STORIES--which is certain to become both
a collector's item and a valuable reminder of a landmark
spot for rock-n-roll in the 817.

Thanks for your support of alternative/independent
publishing in North Texas.

peace,
Tammy

jesse sierra hernandez

my sweetie 'n' i went to see our friend jesse the painter last night in his studio, where he's working on a commission for us. he's also at work on another piece, with a political theme, based on caravaggio's the taking of christ and an albrecht durer woodcut from 1509. still a work in progress, but i think it's my favorite thing he's done since cortez the killer (2003), which was sadly lost in transit, something that he takes a lot more philosophically than i would.

life-death continuum addendum

my bad: the correct date for life-death continuum at 1919 hemphill (with jucifer headlining, no less) is tuesday, 10.23.2007, not the 27th like i wrote. so there.

in the pipe

i'm spending part of my mini-vaca reading enter naomi, joe carducci's reminiscence of black flag, sst records, and early l.a. punk through the lens of photog naomi peterson. will pen a review for the i-94 bar when finished.

also awaiting copies of the new discage by dee-troit rawk powerhouse powertrane and flamin' groovies founder/rockaroll revivalist extraordinaire roy loney for the same sinister purpose. latter's on montana(!)-based career records, which in the fullness of time will reish one of my fave albs of the '90s, the deniz tek group's la bonne route, which helped rekindle my enthusiasm for stooges-influenced jamarama when i got it back in '96 or so.

conference of the birds @ teatro de la rosa

this just in from the rose marine theater:

Teatro de la Rosa presents Conference of the Birds

September 28 - October 7, 2007
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Sunday Matinees at 2:00 PM

Conference of the Birds- adaptation by Jean-Claude Carriere & Peter Brook
Journey through the Copan Ruins with a group of birds in search of a leader. Told in the style of the Mayan tradition with masks and giant puppets.
Perfect for the entire family!
$12 Adults, $ 7 Students/ Seniors.

Rose Marine Theater
817.624.8333 Box Office
www.rosemarinetheater.com

fifth avenue jazz collective

bulletin from arts fifth avenue:

WORLD PREMIERE
EVENT: 5th Avenue Jazz Collective
DATE: Friday Oct 5th and Saturday Oct. 6th
TIME: 7:30 pm
COST: $10
Includes jazz vittles & Libations by donation
Meet & greet with the musicians following the performances

Six Fort Worth native jazz artists premiere original jazz compositions. The Collective is made up of Dave Williams, Joey Carter, Pat Brown, Leonard Belota, Kip Green and Eddie Dunlap. With a joint experience of over 125 years, these jazzmen are dedicated to their art and constantly work to keep things new and fresh.

The concept of 5th Avenue Jazz Collective is twofold: first, to provide an ongoing collection of musicians dedicated to developing and exploring jazz and providing an outlet for their original compositions; second, to further Arts Fifth Avenue’s 6 year history of presenting jazz in an intimate family friendly venue for listening and exploring jazz.

Leonard Belota, Trumpet: A native of Fort Worth and graduate of Diamond Hill, he began his career in 1965 in Fort Worth and Dallas, working for club magnate Tony Caterin. He toured the States with Monopoly LTD, a show band associated with Stax Records. After returning to Fort Worth for a time, he moved to New York City where he immersed himself in the jazz culture, being fortunate to play with many of his jazz heroes. He returned once more to Fort Worth where formed the Lelota Be-Bop Quintet, and played with Pete Peterson and with the Winston Barney Orchestra. He continues to grow and soak up local jazz color and is the founding force behind the 5th Avenue Jazz Collective.

Eddie Dunlap, Drums: A native of Fort Worth & began playing drums professionally at age of 10. Eddie has over 30 years experience in drum set, hand drums & percussion. He's performed with Stevie Ray Vaughn, Mose Alison, Master Cylinder, French tap dancer, Sarah Petronio, & West African dancer, Titus Fotso. He has hosted workshops through the Van Cliburn Foundation with the Brazilian percussion group, Uakti, & internationally renowned percussionist, Evelyn Glennie. You may also have heard him over the past twenty years working on musicals with local theaters such as Jubilee Theater, Circle Theater & Hip Pocket Theatre. Eddie is also the founder and artistic director of Mondo Drummers.

Dave Williams, Saxophonist & Composer: A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Dave grew up in a family of musicians. By his teens he was performing in a variety groups from woodwind quartets to jazz big bands, from rock to western bands. When he first heard jazz great Wayne Shorter’s classic 1964 recording of “Speak No Evil”, he began an in depth study of jazz and graduated from the world renowned University of North Texas College of Music. For the past 20 years, he has performed professionally in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and toured the United States with jazz artists such as Louie Bellson, Mel Torme, Clark Terry and the Glenn Miller orchestra among others. He has backed pop artist such as The Temptations, Frankie Valli, and The Supremes as well as playing festivals and concert halls.

Pat Brown, Trombonist & Composer: A native of Fort Worth, Pat Brown began playing trombone at age 12. He has performed and recorded with numerous Latino organizations in the Metroplex including Latin Express, C.R. and Special Guest, Joe Lerma, and Lisa Ramirez. He has performed and recorded with such diverse groups as Razzmajazz Dixieland Band, and Tao, an electric fusion venture, which he co-founded with Fort Worth guitarist Keith Wingate. He plays jazz trombone frequently at the Jazz Café and with Johnny Case at Sardine’s Restaurant. He currently is playing, arranging, and composing for a variety of musical organizations. He received a Bachelor of Music in performance from Sam Houston State University where he played lead chair in the jazz ensemble under the direction of Dave Caffey. This group represented the United States during a tour of Romania, which included concerts in Bucharest and Sibiu.

Joey Carter, Piano, Vibes & Percussion: A native of Fort Worth is active in the Fort Worth -Dallas area as a jazz vibraphonist, drumset artist, percussionist, jazz pianist, and organist, having performed as a soloist, with many area jazz groups, Johnny Reno, Brad Thompson and his Undulating Band, the Fort Worth Symphony Big Band, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Texas Wind Symphony. Joey is a member of and composer for the original jazz group Bertha Coolidge whose debut release Live at the Caravan of Dreams 030201 won the Album of the Year in the 2002 Fort Worth Weekly music awards. He is currently teaching percussion at Texas Christian University. Mr. Carter received his Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance at Texas Christian University in May of 2000 and a B.M.E. from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1991.

Kip Green, Bass: A native of Fort Worth is active as both a classical and jazz bassist, Kyp is a member of the Dallas Wind Symphony, East Texas Symphony, Waco Symphony and the Dallas Jazz Orchestra. He had backed artists as diverse as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman in the classical world to popular acts such as Yanni, the Moody Blues, Larry Gatlin, Steve Allen and Phyllis Diller. Over the years he has also been privileged to accompany many jazz greats such as Clark Terry, Doc Severance, Eddie Daniels, Al Grey, Red Holloway, Carl Fontana, the Four Freshmen, Bobby Shew, Shelly Berg, Don Menza, Marv Stamm, James Clay and Lou Marini, among many others.

“Poetry without words, science with a soul, spiritualism without division. Support your local artists, do not wait for others to tell you who they are; enjoy the journey of exploring, be brave, be jazzy.“ -- Leonard Belota

minus the bear

these days, katboy is skyin' on minus the bear, a seattle prog supergroup of sorts whose latest alb, planet of ice, he likens to no knife and the mars volta, "without the things i don't like" (like the mars volta's shrill voxxx, i'm guessing). dig the closing track "lotus." while the nasty narrow-minded jade in me says, "hmmm, an emo yes, minus the gtr solos?," it's impressive stuff, the emotive heft of which doesn't get overwhelmed by the technical accomplishment. they be's at the palladium in dallas on 10.21.2007. fans of urizen, addnerim, and the underground railroad take note.

ibrahim ferrer

lately it seems that all i want to listen to is the buena vista social club presents ibrahim ferrer album, recorded in '96 by the cuban singer, "discovered" in his '70s, who left the planet in 2005 after touring the world and making many beautiful recordings. somehow, nothing seems to soothe my soul quite like this sound.

the last week of the wreck room

kinda suxxx, i'm closing the market friday/saturday, and i get off 30 minutes after the last set begins on sunday, but if i could, i'd be at the li'l wreck room every night this week. dig this lineup:

wednesday: impulse of will jamcats (i'll be playing thisun)

thursday: shaolin death squad, the great tyrant, addnerim

friday: goodwin, osocloso, buttercup

saturday: the me-thinks, leroy the prophet, blood of the sun (i'll be arriving late, but suiting up with the asian media crew in time for the me-thinks' set)

sunday: the gideons, cadillac fraf, top secret (_not_ on the roof; barbecue starts at 2pm; gideons hit at 7pm)

class war ahead?

my sweetie went riding on her bicycle today and took some pics of the demolition in the west 7th street area. she posted a few of them on her photo blog.

buzzworms in the backyard -- call for artists

this from fort worth citizens against neighborhood drilling ordinance:

buzzworm n : a quaint, western euphemism for a rattlesnake 2 : an insistent, noisy vibration 3 : a warning sign 4 : a natural gas drilling rig.

In 2006, Fort Worth, Texas became the first large city in the nation to allow drilling for natural gas in densely populated areas. In the grand tradition of political protest art, and participatory democracy, FWCanDo (Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance), issues a call to artists to submit works that reflect citizen concerns about the negative impact and far-reaching implications on industrial drilling in their communities.

The Buzzworms in the Backyard exhibition will be held at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center throughout December, 2007. Artist, Benito Huerta, will be selecting works to be awarded a total of $1,000 in prizes. For more information: http://www.fwcando.org.

stasis

i have three days in a row off next week, one of which is with pay (hooray for full-time employment). not sure what i'm gonna do with the time yet, besides usual household stuff, but possibilities include:

1) dicking around with my amplifier (i never practice gtr, only pick one up at home when i'm learning material or testing a new piece of equipment, which the hughes & kettner still is, for all practical purposes)

2) reading the 1000+-page novel (the tale of genji) i started reading when i couldn't sleep last night

3) starting to teach myself conversational spanish (i was considering trying to learn japanese, but i figure spanish will be more useful, since i'm planning on living here the rest of my life)

4) writing something long (which i haven't in awhile, altho i have a few ideas germinating; when i was off for three days after the tornado in y2k, i wrote a 10,000-word piece about an obscure '60s band for a brit fanzine)

need to find _something_ to do other than sitting around obsessing over all the changes that seem to be happening in the world i live in lately.

celibate rifles

here's vid of the celibate rifles, an aussie national treasure making ripping detroit/punk noises with smart, funny, socially-conscious lyrics since 1983.

r.i.p. peter helms feresten

photog peter helms feresten left the planet last sunday, aged 62. his images of fort worth, however, are immortal.

call for artists/musos/etc. from metrognome collective

this from the metrognome collective:

Date sent: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:55:36 -0500
From: "James Watkins"

To: organizers@metrognome.org,
volunteers@metrognome.org
Subject: Call for Artists, musicians, wizards,
cultists, weirdos, etc

Metrognome Collectiveis working together with 1919
Hemphill,putting together an Art Carnival and Musical
Sideshow for The Day Of the Dead, Friday November 2nd.
We are looking for freaks, geeks, and others to
entertain, amaze, and bewilder the thronging crowds.

Artists are invited to propose tent installations, or
assist in decorating the outdoor festival site (TBA) in
Fort Worth.

Bands will be performing inside, and wandering
musicians, magicians, entertainers, will be invited to
meander the midway.

If you sew, do make-up, or want to help us erect tents,
we need carnies, the creepier the better.

If you are interested in participating, message or email
me at james.watkins@metrognome.org.

If you know someone who eats lightbulbs, sleeps on a bed
of nails, and/or breathes fire, send them our way.

(we also need fire barrels and a generator for the
night!)

thanks!
James

i hear you been listenin' to the killer

the word "lascivious" was invented for jerry lee lewis. here he is, hard at work in the year of my genesis.

katboy's weekend

bassist extraordinare matt hembree will rawk the moon (2911 west berry) on friday night, 9.21.2007, with goodwin. then the following night, he'll be groovin' and skankin' at bronco's in hurst (900 west airport freeway) with pablo and the hemphill 7. either way, you can't go wrong.

life-death continuum @ doublewide 9.27.2007

i'll be at the last wreck room jam that night, but if you're looking for some dallas action next wednesday, here's an idea from aaron gonzalez of life-death continuum.

Parade of Flesh presents:

Burning Brides
Life-Death Continuum
Best Fwends

Wednesday, September 26th
Double Wide
3510 Commerce
Doors @ 9
$8/$5 with High on Fire Ticket Stub

Be there!

if you're like me and shun "assassination city," they'll be at 1919 hemphill on 10.27.2007.

o.j., can you see?

in may 1994, i was sitting in a sportsbar at nellis air force base near las vegas, watching a basketball game with the sound turned off when the screen was taken over by images of a helicopter following a white bronco. this went on for an inordinately long time and finally i split and headed back to my room, where i turned on the tv sound and realized it was o.j. simpson being pursued by the l.a.p.d. "they're hoping to see this jackass kill himself on tv," i said to myself. "weird."

for the duration of his trial, i reflexively punched buttons in the car to avoid hearing news about his trial. i told the secretary at work, who listened to the shit constantly, that every hour she did that decreased her i.q. by one point.

now homeboy (whom farren refers to as "the ultimate distraction...forget the war, forget the planet, forget the election, forget health care") is back and i'm even gladder than i was before that i no longer have a car radio or a tv.

roadwork review @ i94bar.com

the review i penned of tom wright's roadwork: rock & roll turned inside out is live now on the i-94 bar.

coupla thangs

blues gtrist-singer larry liscomb, sitting in with john shook's jamcats at fonky fred's, has the sound and feel of classic '60s buddy guy. which is pretty damn fine indeed.

also, ron "the velvet hammer" geida is filling the gtr slot in villain vanguard that bryce harp vacated to go to law school. you have been warned.

finally, jonathan irwin (percussion), tamara cauble (violin), darrin kobetich (gtr), and jordan frantz (vox) all guested with the wednesday night jamcats at the li'l wreck room. you have exactly one more chance to catch this "weekly ritual" before the wreck room goes away forever. jam-meister lee allen sez a more structured 'n' volume-regulated version of the jam will be on offer at lola's.

today...

...is my youngest dtr's 19th b-day. best wishes to her 'n' her baby, wherever they're at.

reading is fundamental

i find it hilarious that lately, i've been writing practically nothing but book reviews for the i-94 bar. before i quit my ad agency gig almost a yr ago, i hadn't read anything longer than a cereal box in _ages_. i just didn't have the attention span. even when i was attempting to make a living as a journo, i only read my own copy. for shame! anyway, since last october, i've been reading voraciously: music shite, sci-fi, even ulysses (finally!). of late, maybe thinking about my old man, maybe influenced a tad by teague's interest in japonica beyond the music sphere, i've been a little more curious about things japanese. last week, my sweetie 'n' i watched hiroshi inagaki's 1962 film version of japan's "national story," chushingura, the tale of 47 samurai who plot to avenge their lord's death, even though it means their lives are also forfeit. i'd seen it at a theater in nyc when i was a kid, but it has a lot more resonance now, of course. in the same way as i determined when i was 40 to read moby-dick and huck finn because i never had up to then, i think this yr i'm gonna try and read the tale of genji, by lady murasaki, which is acknowledged as the world's first novel. after that, i think i might tackle seamus heaney's translation of beowulf, a bullet i managed to duck back in high school because back then (early '70s), "relevance" was the academic flavor o' the month (altho if i'd stayed at what was then tarrant county junior college, i'd have gladly gone through it in b.d. trail's brit lit class).

the faces

reviewing tom wright's book roadwork for the i-94 bar, i was reminded of how much i usedta dig the faces albs long player and a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse, back when rod stewart seemed like he might be more than just a bad joke. even usedta play "stay with me" and the riff from "i'm losing you" in my college bands. for boozy bonhomie and good times, they just couldn't be beat.

darrin kobetich tour diary

master gtrist darrin kobetich recently posted a diary of his recent first-ever solo tour, which took him as far as the grand canyon, california, the pacific northwest, and colorado. dig it.

jamcats are jammin'...

...at the wreck room tonight, for nearly the last time. dare i go? dare i stay away? one encouraging sign: the jam-meister says they're gonna continue at lola's (the j'int currently known as 6th street live). we live in hope.

japrocksampler review @ i94bar.com

the review i penned of julian cope's japrocksampler: how the post-war japanese blew their minds on rock 'n' roll is live now at the i-94 bar.

wreck room: "the inebriated conclusion"

front me-think ray liberio writes:

The Me-Thinks 20th show rescheduled for the 29th...read below.

Ray was removed and banned for life from a Southwest Airlines flight for what they deemed too SEXY and showing too much "cleavage". Too hot to fly I guess. Trucker John lost his long running law suit to have the term "Well Hell Yeah" copyrighted. Bandy's busy with his Rodeo Clown certification right now and is doing really well in the classes down at the Stock Yards. Marlin is still dazzling people with his one man Meatloaf tribute - A Touch of Meatloaf and is getting rave reviews from the dinner theater crowds he draws. All in all, we're all pretty busy besides our duties in the Me-Thinks.

We did however, manage to reschedule court dates, classes and tribute shows well enough to play the VERY LAST SATURDAY NIGHT at the WRECK ROOM...EVER! It's going to be Saturday, September 29th. Come on down because it won't be there for much longer. The final day is Sunday the 30th...BBQ with the Gideons. You can say goodbye to the Wreck and you can be part of the INEBRIATED CONCLUSION with us...your hosts...the Me-Thinks on Saturday September 29th.

tanka top 10

in the latest arthur mag, those clever rockrcrits thurston moore and byron coley review the yoko ono catalog in the form of tanka, a 31-syllable japanese poetic form (5-7-5-7-7) that apparently predates haiiku. for shits and giggles, i've taken the liberty of stealing their idea and applying it to my all-time top 10 albs. injoy...

funhouse
trailer park hoodlums
acid-addled delinquents
and spoiled mama's boys
destroying the world with their
frenzy of fuzz and feedback

the who sell out
pop art masterpiece
or a failed experiment
with fake commercials
and songs that evoke childhood
and fictive english summers

a love supreme
a prayer from the heart
a cry from a bereft soul
humbling itself in
most devout supplication
and hoping for transcendence

astral weeks
who's this irishman
with the voice of a poet
and a black man's soul
singing songs about all of
life and death's great mysteries?

pet sounds
boy genius holes up
in his lonely room again
and tunes his ears to
the music of the spheres to
try and make people feel love

in a silent way
in between his last
great quintet and his descent
to electronic
chaos, the dark prince made this
quiet, lyrical statement

the black saint and the sinner lady
this has the rhythm
of a bustling city street
themes ebb and flow like
forces of nature fighting
for one man's titanic soul

civilization phaze III
near the end of life
the present-day composer
uses machines to
make the beautiful music
that he always had in him

odessey and oracle
look, before we quit
let's make another album.
we've got all these songs
so we might as well use them,
even if no one will care.

there's a riot goin' on
when sly stone unleashed
this enervated funk stew,
people scratched their heads.
now it seems to signify
the end of the hipi dream.

monk by the boulevard

this from jazz gtrist extraordinaire sam walker:

Fort Worth's Thelonious Monk Tribute Band will be playing at Jazz by the Boulevard on Saturday, Sept. 22, at 6:00-7:00PM on the Heritage Stage. If you are familiar with Fort Worth this is in front of the Will Rogers complex on West Lancaster. The group consists of:

Joey Carter - piano
Rick Stitzel - trumpet
Dave Williams - tenor sax
Sam Walker - guitar
Ryan Hagler - bass
Pete Wehner - drums

We will be playing music by Thelonious Monk, mostly his more obscure compositions.

Also, another group led by Rick Stitzel will be playing on Sunday, Sept 23, at 4:30PM on the Main Stage. This group will be playing the music of A. C. Jobim and will include Rick's daughter singing in Portuguese. Most of the musicians from the Monk group are also involved in the Jobim group with the exception of the bass position. Lou Carfa will be handling the bass duties in the Jobim group.

yells at eels review @ iloveftw.com

the review i penned of yells at eels' most recent cd geografia is live now on i love fort worth. interested parties can cop the disc via jujuspacejazz@aol.com.

fifth avenue jazz collective

this from gracey tune of arts fifth avenue:

Leonard Belota, Eddie Dunlap, Pat Brown, Kip Green, Dave Williams, Joey Carter and Daymond Callahan will premiere an evening of Original Jazz Compositions written by Pat Brown & Dave Williams on Friday Oct 5 & Sat Oct 6th. Other jazz artists included in the future collective, but not performing at this time, include Joe Rogers and Rick Stitzel. The evening (doors open 7:30pm) will include the concert, an exhibit of each artist's jazz history, and a reception to visit with the artists and hang out. Admission $10.

Their next rehearsal - to which everyone is welcome - will be Sept 30th @2:30pm.

metal machine music

here's a pitchfork int with lou reed wherein the man 'splains that his '75 noise orgy metal machine music (which has actually been _covered_ by the german group zeitkratzer) wasn't a goof or a contract-breaker. feedback is _good_!

scott morgan

here's the first muso i admired that i got to meet in the flesh, scott morgan, playing andre williams for the swedes with the solution.

me-thinks reminder

listen: the mighty me-thinks have come unstuck in time. the pride of haltom city will be playing their last wreck room show on _the last wreck room sat'day night evah_, 9.29.2007, _not_ on the 20th as previously planned. so mark yr calendars accordingly, ok, punky?

gideons update

this just in from terry vernixx valderas:

Man, oh man....what can I say?!?!?! The Gideons spent all week-end in Chuck Rose's studio rehearsing thoroughly...more than we've ever rehearsed in the 10 year history of the band. We jammed for hours, working out the riffs, improvising on phrases, and generally making our sound more whole and refined. We spent quality time polishing off gems that we haven't played in 7 years, busting through some of our more noteworthy covers, and honing our songs that are best known. Lee Allen is holding down the bottom with finery on six-string bass and has added an entirely new dimension to our sound. Think Tar, Jesus Lizard, and Big Black crossed with some Don Cabellero odd time math rock tendancies...and you get we're we are headed with the Gideons sound. I am stunned and excited by the progression we have made in the last week-end.

This may not be a one off just for the closing of The Wreck Room either, as we've begun to actually talk about gigging regularly again. We have all agreed NOT to play on the roof as advertised due to complications with sound, instead pulling off a "special" event set on the main stage for that Sunday. More details forthcoming.

fred's update

jennifer chandler writes:

FRED'S
TEXAS CAFE
Tastes & Tunes of Texas
fredstexascafe.com
915 Currie Street
Fort Worth, TX
(817) 332-0083

Starting Next Tuesday (Tues Sept 25),
Fred's will be re-opening on Tuesdays!!
And the Weekly Washers Tournament
will again be held on Tuesdays.

Fred's will still be open on Sundays!
Sunday Brunch 10:30am - 1pm

Closed Mondays!

she: bike/spoke/love

you can see some of my sweetie's pics of cast members on the website for tammy gomez's new play bike spoke love (along with others by christopher blay and richard rangel). and you can see the play's world premiere at the fort worth community art center (the old modern art museum location at 1300 gendy) at 7:30pm this sat'day, 9.22.2007. it's world car free day, so ride your bike, catch the bus, or walk and save on admission ($3 for all of the above, $10 for automobile users).

some nights

...i get insomnia and surf the 'net for hrs,
long after there's any productive reason to,
knowing all along that what i'm really looking for
ain't out there at all

more kamandi pics

velton hayworth has posted some of his pics from the 9.14.2007 show at 6th street live on i love fort worth, mainly of the narrrator but also with a coupla pages of kamandi. so there.

the big guns @ 6th street live, 9.22.2007

holy wow! the big guns, ex-nervebreaker mike haskins' surf-cum-spaghetti western instrumental outfit, are headlining a four-band bill at 6th street live next sat'day, 9.22.2007. ya mo' be theah -- maybe you, too?

kamandi pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie just posted some of her pics from the kamandi show on her photo blog. besides clay stinnett and brent miller on the "stallion drumkit," you can see aaron gonzalez on bass, mike clark on gtr, and her fellow photog velton hayworth. not visible: tony chapman on vocoder and yr humble chronicler o' events on gtr. (click on the images to make 'em big.) clay had this videotaped, too; can't wait to see the results. i'm still skying on the experience, and it's 24 hrs later.

yells at eels

dig aaron gonzalez on bass with his dad dennis on cornet and brother stefan on drums with yells at eels. last night with kamandi, he played until his fingers were literally raw -- with great spirit and feeling. he also gave me a copy of yells' 2006 cd geografia, which i'm gonna review for iloveftw.com because it please me and i can. i'm really diggin' what i'm hearing so far -- including my favorite recorded performance by bill pohl. (then again, i liked mclaughlin better with miles than mahavishnu, too.)

kamandi

played last night at 6th street live with kamandi on a bill with chicago emo-guys the narrator (whose new cd i once again failed to obtain a copy of). kamandi is ex-ghostcar drummer clay stinnett's new free improv outfit, in which he shares a kick drum with brent miller (ex-spitfire) and they invite other musos to add to the psychedelic maelstrom swirling around their tribal thump. this time around, said co-conspirators included dallasite mike clark (who visited roky erickson in rusk state hospital, way back when) and yr humble chronicler o' events on gtrs, aaron gonzalez (who, with unconscious collective on hiatus, is "only" in _three_ bands: life-death continuum, akkolyte, and yells at eels) on standup bass, and clay's ex-ghostcar compadre tony chapman on vocoder. clay 'n' brent had intended to keep the vibe relatively mellow this time out, to the point of buying lighter sticks for the occasion, but once things got underway and evabody tapped into the energy of the evening, that idea went out the window and it started raining broken drumsticks (at least on the side of the stage i was on). audience response was fairly fervent and from a participant's persepective, it was a catharsis; hope i get to do it again. my sweetie was there taking pics; she'll prolly post some on her photo blog once she gets her camera battery recharged.

listening this week...

...to the fruits of a particularly rewarding half price run, and a further dip into teague's deep well of japrock goodness.

ray charles live in concert: i owned this when i was a snotnose too young to fully appreciate it, but this '64 tape from l.a.'s shrine auditorium stands with james brown live at the apollo and b.b. king live at the regal among the finest recorded examples of black showbiz from r&b's classic era. i especially like the fact that the guy who was running the board turns up brother ray's vocal mic a couple of words into "what'd i say" and they left it on the rekkid. that wouldn't happen today.

patti smith -- horses: what i like best about early noo yawk punk is that it doesn't all sound alike. i wasn't speerchully evolved enough to hear this when they usedta play it on nyc fm radio back in '76 (not enough loud gtrs and she seemed like too much the art-creep), but i'm here to tell ya today that the track "land" is _the goods_. and john cale gets the same pristine studio sound on thisun that he'd previously applied to the stooges, which is why both that and this sound so modern today (compared with the arena-slick production jobs some of patti's subsequent albs, which haven't aged as well).

kinks -- lola vs. powerman and the moneygoround: title hit notwithstanding, this ain't the pinnacle of "classic" ('66-'70) kinkdom; the last three songs on side two kinda blow, in fact. and christgau's right about it being the most self-pitying of kinks albs (subject matter: ray's trials 'n' tribs with the music biz). but it does contain four of ray 'n' dave's finest: "strangers," "get back in the line," "this time tomorrow," and "a long way from home." and the rockers ("top of the pops" and dave's "rats") sound _feelthy_. it's only a matter of time before i find the three-disc mono-'n'-stereo-plus-rarities village green preservation society online for cheap, i swear...

boredoms -- vision creation new sun: thisun sounds like less of a goof than some of their earlier recs; instead, it's an explosion of noisy, messy, percussion-heavy psychedelic chaos that's still less sprawling and more varied and event-filled than, say, yr average acid mothers temple sonic bath. figure this is a good way to vibe up for friday's show with kamandi.

death comes along: the title "psychedelic inferno" (which applies to three of the four tracks on this shadowy 'n' mysterious outfit's '01 outing) is apropos. the 19-minute lead track's orgy of fuzzed-out gtr and echoplex frenzy is evocative of the nightmare soundscape hendrix soundalike randy hansen came up with for coppola's apocalypse now soundtrack. installments 2 and 3 feature blitzkriegs of synth noise and amateur throat-singing.

confusalab @ the wreck tonight

we'll be celebrating james' berfday with him and aimee at the mellow mushroom before retiring early ('cos i had to be at work for a mtg this morning at 7, and i open tom'w), but confusatron and sleeplab be's at el wreck tonight. still 'member when c-tron were "the kids that play in front of the coffee haus at 404 houston," before they started playing thursday nights at the black dog, and when sleeplab were "the guys that jam in jesse's studio" a few personnel changes ago. time sure flies.

r.i.p. josef zawinul

listening to in a silent way and sending out good thoughts for keyboardist-composer josef zawinul, ex-cannonball adderley and miles davis sideman who founded weather report and left the planet yesterday, aged 75. go easy.

all around the town

for those willing to venture out into clubland on a wednesday night, the musical treats on offer include jordan frantz opening for liquid bounce at embargo, carey wolff and scott copeland at 6th street live, and a john shook-led jam at fonky fred's. so what you waiting for?!?!?

wreck room closing week lineup

a few changes: first, the theater fire is headlining on friday, 9.28.2007, replacing sorta (r.i.p. carter). also, the mighty me-thinks will be playing the final sat'day night, 9.29.2007, rather than the 20th (since dixie witch were unable to make it). the gideons are still scheduled to play on the roof on sunday, 9.30.2007. on the wreck's myspace thingy, you can vote for the best show you've seen at the wreck (altho i'd prolly write in for pablo, myself) and the wreck's sexiest bartender (altho i'd prolly write in for graham richardson, myself).

brave combo @ central market this thursday

oh, btw: illustrious denton polka maniacs brave combo be's at central market this thursday from 6-8pm. for free.

the narrator

i would be remiss if i failed to direct you, gentle reader, to the myspace thingy for the narrator, the emo-ish chicago outfit that's playing with clay stinnett's new band kamandi at 6th street live this friday. i also penned some boo-shee about them for i love fort worth that velton will presumably get live before then.

the move

well, now, isn't _this_ interesting: some pretty good live color (oops, sorry -- _colour_) footage of the move from 1969, after "singing skull" ace kefford had freaked his way right out of the band, they'd stopped having hits at home, and they were vacillating between touring the states to capitalize on their mildly underground rep here, or playing the u.k. cabaret circuit. in the event, they wound up undergoing yet more personnel shifts and having a few more brit hits before morphing into the awful electric light orchestra. bad move.

what's been on my mind lately

my youngest dtr and her b-f (and their baby) just got evicted from their place and moved in with his family. i don't hear from her much, but i think about her all the time. i was paying for their cellphone until i got a bill that was twice what i make in a week, after i'd changed the rate plan three times to increase the number of free minutes, and i had it turned off. fun is fun, but there are limits. i think she might have anticipated this; she told me beforehand that i "didn't need to pay for it." i'm hoping her oldest sister will tell her that i didn't pull the plug because i was mad at her. she'll be 19 next week.

the big one and i have been talking more lately after not talking at all for a long, long while. she has a dtr, my oldest grandchild, who lives with her dad; a son who lives with her and her b-f now; and she's pregnant with a third child who's due in the spring. she told me she started playing gtr again recently and taught herself how to sing and play. she says it's her stress reliever. i told her that was the only time i played for seven or eight yrs when she was little: singing to her and her sisters.

the middle one and her b-f just moved into a new place near tcu, which i finally got to see yesterday. she said she's going to stay at tcc an extra semester taking science courses that don't apply to her current degree plan so she can go to this conference in salzburg next yr. she figures she'll major in english and minor in a science before she gets her teaching certificate "so i can teach anything." i told her that in pre-industrial times, everybody used to get the same education whether they were going to be a scientist or a poet, and that having a generalist skillset can make it easier to respond to changes in the economy. her b-f's b-day is this thursday; we're gonna try and have dinner together that night.

she has a better memory for stories than anybody i've ever met. yesterday i watched a movie with her, the plot of which she'd already described to me in detail: the notebook, which is about an elderly man who reads his wife, an alzheimer's sufferer, a story that she wrote about their life in the hope that it will help her to remember. my dtr also let me borrow a book, the plot of which she'd already _half_ described to me in detail (she hadn't finished it yet at that point): the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon, which is about an autistic teenager who sets out to solve the mystery when his neighbor's dog is killed; the author does a good job of adopting his protagonist's p.o.v., which isn't exactly new to litterchur (i remember reading flowers for algernon in high school) but still unusual.

my sweetie and i are planning a trip to new jersey to see my folks while she's on fall break next month. my dad's in a nursing home now, and my mom's getting used to living alone. i don't think either of them has wrapped their mind yet around the idea that he's probably not going to get well enough to come home again, but at least he's basically comfortable in his surroundings and all of his needs are being taken care of, and my big sis says our mom is starting to seem more like herself.

the other night my sweetie 'n' i watched a coupla dvd's my sister-in-law from illinois sent of old family vids. i was happy because i finally got to see their mom, who passed away a coupla yrs ago before i had a chance to meet her. and i got to see some vid of my sweetie before i knew her. that was nice, too.

and we watched the buena vista social club, wim wender's film about the superannuated cuban son musos ry cooder helped rediscover a decade or so ago. their music is so full of life and beauty and sadness and joy, and their faces tell the stories of their lives as much as their music does. something funny: the first song on the album (compay segundo's "chan chan") reminds me of the way sleeplab used to sound when they were still "the guys that jam in jesse's studio." i think they might have been an influence on bindle, too; katboy tells me that he and tony diaz and sir steffin were part of a group of folks who rented a bus to go see the b.v.s.c. when they played in santa fe back then.



six yrs ago today i was having coffee at work (still worked at radioshack downtown back then, on the 13th floor of tower one) when somebody said that a plane had hit the world trade center in nyc. i was thinking a cessna and we went on with our conversation when somebody said it was an airliner. somebody turned on a tv in the quality control lab and we watched the second airliner strike the other tower. i tried for what seemed like hours to reach my friend who lives in lower manhattan; when i finally got through, he said he and his wife had just watched one of the towers collapse from the roof of their bldg and they were going out to donate blood. (i spoke to him the other day; they're moving to london in a few wks.) i remember my coworker saying "this is the one thing i'd hoped wouldn't happen during my lifetime."

one of my old music buds who's a major in the army reserves got called up for afghanistan; thankfully he's home now. two of my middle dtr's friends have served in iraq; one of them is there now. six kids from their high school who went in the army together were all in the same i.e.d. explosion; two lost limbs and the others have closed head injuries. when he graduates from tcu, her b-f is going to be an army nurse. she resisted the idea for awhile until he told her that he wants to make sure more of the kids who are there come back. i don't like it, but i have to respect that.

movies @ the modern

looking for some different stuff to do, was checking out the film series at the modern and saw that this year's magnolia at the modern film festival includes ang lee's lust, caution at 8:15pm on friday, 9.28.2007; the film version of khalid hosseini's the kite runner at 2pm on sunday, 9.30.2007 and julian schnabel's the diving bell and the butterfly, based on the memoir of a french magazine editor who suffered a paralyzing stroke, at 4:30pm on the same day. tixxx are $8.50 and go on sale two hours before the showings.

also, tcu professor and associate dean david e. whitlock is presenting a lecture and film series, entitled american cinema: film noir and the detective film on selected wednesday evenings from 6-8:40pm, including howard hawks' the big sleep on 10.10.2007. admission is free; seating is first-come, first-served.

replacements

but wait, there's still more in the rockread department. jim walsh, a mpls music journo, has written a book about the replacements that looks like it might be boss, altho it's a little odd that he doesn't appear to have talked to any of the actual bandmembers (while he seems to have interviewed nearly everybody else in the city). film, as they say, at 11.

arthur redux

hooray! my fave bathroom reading of the last coupla yrs (before it ceased publication last yr), arthur mag, is back from limbo. hey, justin, are you still a distributor? don't make me have to buy something from forced exposure to get one.

top 10 live shows of all ti-i-ime

ok, this is kinda myspace bulletin bullshitty, but i have insomnia. in chronological order, more or less. for musical and extramusical reasons.

1) the who @ forest hills, 7.31.1971. i didn't really understand what i was seeing, but i'd listened to the who sell out obsessively for the first half of 1970, then live at leeds came out. i wasn't really sure what to make of who's next, but was happy the songs sounded harder onstage. the first time i (and my father, bless him) ever smelled marijuana.

2) clyde @ bellport high school, sometime in 1973. i don't differentiate between big rockstars and ppl i know. this was my hero-best friend-nemesis michael's band, and the night that convinced me that playing music was something i wanted to do. for good or ill.

3) a bunch of hipis playing grateful dead covers on a flatbed truck in a park in albany, new york, spring of 1975. i was walking around on a sunday afternoon, probably high on something, when i stumbled on this. while i'm not a dead fan, there must have been something about the confluence of the music, the day, and my state of mind, because i still remember the gig 32 yrs later.

4) marchel ivery quartet w/red garland and guest appearance by the moffett family of fort worth @ the recovery room, lemmon ave., dallas, summer of 1978. it's surprising how many of the shows on this list date from the period right after i moved to texas. in retrospect, it seems like a science fiction night: seeing the pianist from miles' '50s quintet _and_ the fiery sons of ornette's '60s drummer charles moffett in a club for a coupla bucks.

5) john cale @ mother blues on lemmon ave. in dallas, late 1978/early 1979. this was the first time i ever got to see a muso i admired from records up close in a club (i'd seen muddy waters, john lee hooker, and captain beefheart at my father's place on long island, but that was really more like a concert venue). i was the asshole yelling for "waiting for the man" _all night long_.

6) peter tosh @ the palladium on northwest highway in dallas, 1979. a really transcendent night of music. especially when he finished singing "african" and asked the audience of metroplex rolling stones fans "is reggae music not a great music?" and they responded by going apeshit (in a good way). of course, this was back when folks were a little more receptive to stuff that wasn't already familiar than they are now.

7) the clash @ the palladium in dallas, 1979. i had moved to austin and was about to move again, this time to colorado. i had seen the clash at armadillo world headquarters the night before and driven up to dallas the following night. when i walked in, the first thing i saw was my friend charles and his future wife running out holding their ears, and i said to myself, "this is going to be _really good_." it was: they were the most exciting live band i've ever seen, still.

8) broooce springsteen @ the austin convention center, 1980. my first "date" with my future ex-wife. my driver's license was suspended, so i invited her to go to austin with me to see the show..._on the bus_. she did. for some reason, i thought it'd be a good idea to introduce her to the woman i'd lived with for awhile down there. it wasn't. also on that trip, i found a canadian stooges compilation to replace the copy of funhouse that my best friend from middle school had puked gin all over while it was on my record player. (all of their records were still cut-out back then.) broooce really "proved it all night," too -- played for about three hours; the energy never let up. it's not his fault that i can't stand to listen to any of his records.

9) doug sahm and angela strehli @ a strip joint in abilene ca. 1988. i was in the air force and hadn't really seen any live music in awhile, but when this show came to town, i remembered seeing sir doug at soap creek saloon during my brief stay in austin and convinced my next door neighbor/best buddy to go with me. it was in a strip joint because it was the only place in abilene that had a stage and a p.a. system and wasn't a church.

10) scott morgan's powertrane with deniz tek and ron asheton @ the blind pig in ann arbor, michigan, august 2002. see link in earlier post to my i-94 bar rant on thisun. so good that i didn't even care when i got shitcanned from my job a week later -- the post-gig euphoria was _that_ persistent. and i had just bought a new car, too (so being out of work was really _a problem_).

small faces

as frontmen go, give me steve marriott: just take a stage kid (played the artful dodger in oliver! on london's west end) with freakish pipes, add lotsa substances, and stir. his foil ronnie lane wasn't half bad either. my only question is how could kenny jones be such a kickass drummer in this band and suck so much ass in 'oo? one wonders.

b.o.a., not d.o.a.

david lee who? i give you the 'riginal: jim "dandy" mangrum of black oak arkansas, a band that started their career (as "the knowbody else," under which name they cut an album for stax in 1969) by stealing a p.a. system from their high school. for awhile there in the early '70s, they were regulars on tv rock spume like in concert and don kirshner's rock concert. couldn't find a decent version online of the famous tommy allsup playing-with-his-hands drum solo, after which two of three gtrists smashed their gtrs together, but note the subtle use of washboard on "hot rod" (the last clip below).

powertrane

ran into a local journo of my acquaintance today at the market and he asked about the new rekkid by powertrane, the latter day outfit fronted by scott morgan of rationals / sonic's rendezvous band notoriety, with longtime mitch ryder sideman robert gillespie on gtr. i've had a burned cd-r of beyond the sound seemingly forevah, but it's now been officially released and is available via the band's website (i think there were some paypal issues which hopefully have been resolved). morgan's one of _the guys_ and seeing them twice in 2002 with deniz tek (radio birdman) and ron ashton (stooges, duh) on board remains a peak experience of my musical life.

joe carducci

another one to add to my list: joe carducci, former sst records principal and author of rock and the pop narcotic, "the only book on rock and roll worthy of the name" (his words), has a new tome out. enter naomi: sst, l.a., and all that... focuses on the label he helped build and the early l.a. punk scene in general through the lens of late lamented photog naomi petersen, whose work provides essential documentation of said scene. it's available direct from joe's warehouse and looks like yet another worthwhile read.

tom wright

altho the last couple i penned still aren't up, think i'm gonna pen yet another book review for the i-94 bar, this one on tom wright's roadwork: rock & roll turned inside out. tom's a photog, alabama-born and currently based in austin, who was pete townshend's art school roommate in 1962; when he got deported from the u.k. for ganja, townshend inherited his substantial collection of jazz and r&b rekkids and the rest is, um, whostory. zelig-like, tom next landed in detroit, when he was managing the grande ballroom (hometown stomping ground for the mc5 and stooges) when the who came through on their first u.s. tour in '67. tom wound up working as road manager for his old school chum and went on to work for the faces, joe walsh, the eagles, blah blah blah. i read a snippet from this manuscript a few yrs ago, around the time i visited the lbj library at ut in austin to peruse the tom wright archives there. wright took lotsa classic rockaroll photos, and i'm guessing that his book will be a corker. just waiting on amazon to deliver.

gallery night, ph7

i was "clopening" at the market friday / sat'day, so i missed out on pussyhouse propaganda's friday night show at the rahr brewery, but after an early-evening nap, my sweetie 'n' i made it to their sat'day night shindig at the new gallery 817 location on bluebonnet circle, a happenin' li'l area that could become the fort's equivalent to montrose down in h-town if there were more dudes there sporting the rev. billy gibbons beard.

afterward, my sweetie dropped me off downtown at the flying saucer, so i could swill some four-dollar suds with fellow americans mastermind matt hickey and catch pablo & the hemphill 7 doing what they do best (even tho the yups were loth to take up pablo frontguy joe vano on his invitation to dance). since i was opening the market this morning, i only got to hear one of the new songs they've added to their set of late, but they played with great energy and a totally new dynamic that seems to operate off the chemistry between low-end theorist extraordinaire matt hembree and his bandmates from goodwin (that'd be his riddim section mate damien "sticky d" stewart) and bindle (axe wizard steffin "razor" ratliff and keybman / second lead vocalist justin pate), songs pablo has been playing for five years like "freedom" and "smoke two joints" sound brand new. good to hear, too, that joe vano can still roar like peter tosh. fave moment of the evening: one in which joe and matt were both bouncing in time with the music, altho they were both so into their own personal thangs that they weren't even aware of it. unpremeditated joy wears the white stetson. makes me wish i'd been able to make it to their magnolia park throwdown the previous evening. they're at embargo downtown on september 26th, then soundclash 2007 has been confirmed for november 24th at 6th street live (which might or might not have morphed into lola's by that time).

bob seger

fugeddabout "night moves." the summer i was 15, i usedta call wbab-fm in babylon, lawn guyland (who usedta say they broadcast from "the tower of babylon," guh), every night and request this song, which they refused to play on the grounds that "it wasn't a hit." but it was, charting as high as number 17 in billboard, in 1969. so there.

terry chandler cooking class reminder

fred's outlaw chef terry chandler writes:

Howdy, Terry Chandler here. Just dropping you a line to inform you that my next cooking class at Central Market in Ft. Worth is coming up - this Monday, Sept 10 at 6:30 PM.

The Menu will be as follows:

Butter Sauteed Mahi Mahi Filet with Fire Roasted Pineapple Chipotle Sauce;
Central American Red Beans;
Sesame Sauteed Aisian Long Beans; and
Apple Enchiladas with Cinnamon Cream

The price is $55 per person.

Call the Central Market Cooking School at 817-989-4700.

See you soon,

The Outlaw Chef

Terry Chandler

disclaimer

raymond liberio, front me-think and stoogeaphile and pussyhouse propaganda art criminal, wants it known that it's fair warning, not diver down that he digs back to front, vh alb-wise. "women and children first is a close second for me," quoth ray.

some rockcrit shit

cat at the stoogeshow was asking me why i didn't write anymore, and whether i'd rather play in a band than write. i told him no and yeah, but it's rilly more complicated than that. just a li'l bit.

gotta love the intarweb: through it, one can access what seems like all of the knowledge ever created. or in my case, all of the music and music-related scrawl. so as i sit in mi casa in between forays to the market to take money from the ruling class and (less frequently these days) to prac pads and gigs, i can sit listening to neu! and j.a. caesar and trying to decide whether i think something else or village green is the greatest kinks alb, stumbling on youtube vids by obscuro japanese bands, and perusing old robert christgau consumer guides.

christgau is one of those rockcrits that i always took for granted and whose worldview (styled himself "the dean" of 'meercun rockcrits) i found hard to relate to, as useful and practical as his consumer guides were. the scribes i've felt more -- nik cohn, st. lester, and more recently, joe carducci and julian cope -- operated from the awareness that they were expressing a minority position, and what i really dug about their work was the way their frame of reference was so obviously circumscribed by their personal prejudices (the way carducci, in his epic tome rock and the pop narcotic, devotes so much space to sst bands, f'rinstance). last night, in the throes of insomnia, i was reading a perfect sound forever piece about how full of shit cope's krautrocksampler is because j. cope is _just_ a fan, not a participant, so he doesn't "know" what was important. (tell it to paul williams, klaus.) which just reinforces the idea that there's _always_ a gap between the artist's intent and the audience's response, and _neither_ p.o.v. is "more" valid than the other.

i've been examining my own prejudices a lot lately (e.g., kinks good, van halen bad; at least sir steffin agrees with me on that one) and in the course of surfing bob's old cg columns, it occurs to me how, in the ones from '69 to '71, almost everything seems good and interesting. things start getting lamer in '72 (around the time i started working in rekkid stores) and by the time he picks up again in '74 (his old newsday capsule reviews, which i read compiled in creem, haven't made it online yet), things have gotten pretty bland indeed. (at the time, i was too busy abuusing substances and playing in bands to notice.) things start getting interesting again in '76 with the advent of punk, but with a difference: there's a definite division between corporate rock, the "new wave," disco, and jazz (and later, "world music"); demographic marketing lines have been drawn. i find it interesting that between the early '70s and early '80s (when i kinda lost the thread during the decade i spent guarding freedom's frontier), christgau had transferred the enthusiasm he once held for the new york dolls to ornette coleman and the indestructible beat of soweto.

it's kinda like i told a customer at the market who complained that she kept getting bottles of wine that were too dry when the beer and wine dude at the store kept telling her they were sweet: taste is really subjective, and you have to find a "critic" whose preferences pretty closely coincide with yours. otherwise, like we usedta say in the airforce, "opinions are like assholes: everybody's got one."

fort worth bike survey

bicyclists! the city of fort worth is conducting a survey of bike use in the city to help formulate a comprehensive bicycle transportation plan. you can take it online through november 9th. (you'll need adobe acrobat to download the pdf file; i'll betcha the public-use 'puters at the public library have it if your home box doesn't.) here's yr oppo to make a direct input into public policy.

sub oslo pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie just posted her last set of pics of sub oslo in _that_ light on _that_ stage on her photo blog. check 'em out. (you can click on 'em to make 'em big.)

for carter albrecht

when your neighbor's boyfriend goes apeshit
and tries to kick your door in,
what should you do?

here's a hint: call 911. then sit back
and, if you must, cap him
when he crosses your threshold.

don't shoot into the door and say later
that you were trying to aim over his head.
man was six foot five.

i assume that means that
there were no neighbors upstairs
to accidentally catch a stray through the floor.

fuck that "guns don't kill people" bullshit:
it's what they're designed to do
and they work whether or not you intend them to.

gig update

i should point out that kamandi (clay stinnett's new improv outfit with two drummers and co-conspirators possibly including daniel huffman, tony chapman, lisa umbarger, and yr humble chronicler o' events) hits at 10pm on friday, 9.14.2007 at 6th street; after that, the narrators play.

also, stoogeaphilia has a gig there on friday (!!!), 11.30.2007, with one fingered fist and the fellow americans. we're playing last, that night. we're also gonna try and get a show at the red blood club in dallas somewhere around that time. film, as they say, at 11.

fall gallery night

bulletin from pussyhouse propaganda:

Pussyhouse Propaganda art crime enthusiasts Calvin Abucejo and Ray Liberio cordially invite you to view our art crimes and enjoy Fall Gallery Night with us at the following locations:

Friday Night, September 7th, Arts Goggle Bash - The Rahr Brewery. 701 Galveston, 817-810-9266
Peter and the Lifters will be providing the music and the Rahr Brewery will be tapping their Octoberfest. Drink up and enjoy our art crimes and Octoberfest.

Saturday Night, September 8th, Fall Gallery Night - Studio 817. 3462 Suite A, Bluebonnet Circle.
5pm to 11pm. We'll be showing here as well as Velton Hayworth, Steve Mayeda, MeMe and others.

We really appreciate everyone support in the past and hope to see you all Friday and Saturday Nights this week.

still writing, no shit

just penned reviews of julian cope's japrocksampler book and dan mcguire's phosphene river ceedee for the i-94 bar. the barman sez it'll be after the weekend before they're up; he's taking a long weekend, since everything in sydney is shut down while our president is there.

les rallizes denudes

gotta love a japrock band whose enahr approach is based on vincebus eruptum blue cheer, "i heard her call my name" velvets, and the bassline from little peggy march's "i will follow him."

the modern's film series

yeah, so like i was saying: the sked includes new ang lee lust, caution at 8:15pm on friday, 9.28.2007; the film version of khalid hosseini's the kite runner at 2pm on sunday, 9.30.2007; and a wednesday night film noir lecture-and-movie series curated by a tcu film prof. dig it.

pablo video

here are a few excerpts from pablo and the hemphill 7's last stand at the wreck room. that'd be my favorite skankin' poet, along with half of goodwin, 60% of bindle, and 40% of stoogeaphilia. i think we might need to go catch their show at the flying saucer in sundance square next sat'day, 9.8.2007 (since i'm closing the market while they play in magnolia park on friday).

japrocksampler

just got my copy of julian cope's japrocksampler, and there's supposedly a website to go with it, altho i haven't been able to access it yet.

denial

saw a sign on a retirement community they're building up by ridgmar mall that said residence was restricted to "55 or better." yeah, right: 60 is the new 20. only in the sense that the life expectancy is pre-industrial england was 23.

the monks

this clip keeps getting deleted from youtube, then reappearing. these guys were _so_ ahead of their time.

me-thinks

almost the last show we'll be attending at el wreck will be when the mighty me-thinks open for dixie witch on a thursday, september 20th. was telling ray liberio the other day how i can't really relate to van halen and he allowed that he digs diver down "back to front." since then, it's occurred to me that his hard-drankin', wise-crackin' stage persona is nothing more 'n a skate-punk's reimagining of diamond dave.

she: bike/spoke/love

tammy gomez's new play she: bike/spoke/love (dedicated to the late foat wuth bike enthusiast / performance artist devin adams) premieres at the fort worth community arts center (1300 gendy) at 7:30pm on sat'day, september 22nd. admission is $3 for walker/bikers/public transportation users and $10 for automobile users. we be's walkin'.

sleeplab

oh, btw -- i heard that founder-gtrist jeff arsenault got voted out of sleeplab. doesn't seem right, somehow -- getting shitcanned from yr own band. oh well. tell it to al kooper.

liquid bounce

fonky hip-hop fusioneers liquid bounce now gots a compilation cleverly dubbed the shape of hip-hop to come for sale on-line only. do i (20th century techno-illiterati that i am) dare to try this, in light of my traumatic experience trying to download kurt rongey's with form it threatens silence?

sub oslo, the great tyrant, the wreck room

'twas new year's eve in september this past sat'day night as dub magicians sub oslo reconvened to levitate the wreck room one last time. live sound mixologist john nuckels (who has a busy season coming up with the modern's film series) said that the fellas spent the day rehearsing at competition music and had a nice dinner together before making their way to the west side's beloved rawk dump. drummer quincy holloway, who kicks the traps for dove hunter these days when not selling solar panels, said that they're gonna keep doing it on an irregular and as-we-wanna basis, which is fitting and proper, since bands _don't_ have to break up -- they just don't have to play all the time.

the crowd -- largest one i'd seen at the wreck in several months (during which time i've admittedly been spending less time there than in days gone by) -- was an interesting mix of old heads, most of whom seemed not to have seen each other in awhile, and newbs getting their wreck room ticket punched before the final curtain (popular utterance o' the evening: "who are these guys, anyway? what do they sound like?"). sub oslo's still as hypnotic as ever, their dubwise sound (which featured some krautrock / psych elements that i don't remember from last time around) enhanced by their unique back-projected visuals to create an exploding plastic inevitable-like total environment. maybe it's the absence of voxxx, maybe it's the sensory overload factor, but their crowds have always seemed less interactive to me than, say, ph7's. as my sweetie sez, "it's more of an exhibition than a dialogue." then again, what else would you expect from a buncha ex-denton art guys?



before them, the great tyrant showed how much their sound has evolved over the past few months of frequent gigging and regular rehearsing, growing heavier and harder-edged in the fullness of time. more and more, they sound like a heavy doom outfit like, say, high on fire, minus the gtrs. actually daron beck's vocals perform a lot of the function here that gtrs would in a more conventional unit. around him, the former yeti riddim team of tommy atkins and jon teague navigates tricky time signatures with near-telepathic precision, providing a foundation like tectonic plates shifting.

as for the wreck itself, every time i'm there of late, i can't help thinking, "i'm gonna miss this shit when it's gone."

ph7

joe vano sez pablo & the hemphill 7 are making "a real record." i say it's about time.

johnny thunders 2

his best song, i think...

kamandi

i'm playing at 6th street live on september 14th with clay stinnett's new improv outfit kamandi. so there.

stoogeaphilia

the stoogeshow at 6th street on thursday was a kinda mixed bag. wizard o' sound andre is still working the bugs out of the sound system, plus i'm still getting used to my spiffy new hughes & kettner amplifinger, so the stage sound was kinda hinky for the first few toons (altho i'm told it sounded just fine out front). all the new songs worked well (we debuted "final solution" and "ain't it fun" from rocket from the tombs / pere ubu and alice cooper's "i'm 18," as well as playing television's "marquee moon" for only the second time live; ray dedicated it to hilly krystal), altho i think the extreme set length was kind of a beating for some of the band boyzzz who had come from earlier rehearsals with other bands. the ex-goodwin fan club president drove all the way from dallas for the express purpose of hearing sir steffin play "marquee moon." also in the house were sam 'n' jeanne, who met at our show a yr ago (awww), a contingent from the haltom city / riverside crew, amy who's been to more stoogeshows than anybody, eric harris, etc. overall, for various reasons, it was less of an out-of-body experience for yr humble chronicler o' events than any of its predecessors save our may '06 rose marine theater stand, but at least we didn't have neighborhood ppl calling the police the way we did at that show. and sir marlin von bungy said we sounded "better than ever," which was very kind. we made enough in tips to cover the cost of replacing jon teague's snare head, which gave out after the very first song. and we're gonna do it again in late november, at venues tbd, with even more new material from the pre-punk 'meercun songbag (suggestions welcome but not binding).

ohm redux?

percussionist s. forest ward sez he got a call from nathan brown about doing an ohm reunion show, which seems both timely (what with all the bands coming back together for one last wreck room stand) and unlikely (keyb / synth player doug ferguson having left the planet in 2002). film, as they say, at 11.

moby grape

another san fran band that made use of actual rock dynamics was moby grape, whose first five albs are being reished on cd 'n' vinyl by the smiling folks at sundazed in october and november. possessing _five_ singers (that's evabody, including the drummer) and three gtrists (the goodun, jerry miller, and the drummer, don stevenson, were pac nw expats from the same scene that produced the kingsmen / raiders / wailers / sonics). most notable member was alexander "skip" spence, who'd originally drummed in the j. airplane and subsequently became a notable drug casualty of the scene after cutting the estimable oar album. he penned the grape's best song, "omaha" (first song in first clip below) and showed considerable energy onstage (see first song in second clip -- that'd be "hey grandma," which like all the toons in the clips comes from their first 'n' best alb).