next weekend @ lola's

the incandescent stumptone returneth to lola's next friday, december 5th. then on sunday, december 7th, there'll be a big benefit for cadillac fraf (suggested donation: $5) with the following lineup:

10:00 Rivercrest Yacht Club
9:00 Addnerim
8:00 The Great Tyrant
7:00 Carey Wolff
6:00 Clint Niosi
5:00 Stoogeaphilia
(The Magic of Ash Adams will perform during Stoogeaphilia's setup)
4:00 Eaton Lake Tonics
3:00 Merkin
2:00 Blackland River Devils

Dre will screen performance footage of Fraf during set changes.

last exit - "destination out," 1986

ronald shannon jackson w/vernon reid and melvin gibbs

wadada leo smith golden quartet w/ronald shannon jackson

ADDENDUM: apparently this is from a documentary directed by jacques goldstein, whom i believe shot another one of the last poets with shannon jackson when they toured europe earlier this year.

jose serrato

...has a bunch of his photos posted on flickr. check out the shots from his 'hood he posted on november 21st...cat's got a great eye. a funky town photog to watch!

history lesson from a dog

bastardos de sancho/great tyrant/me-thinks pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

they're here. click on 'em to make 'em big.

a bunch of new dennis gonzalez/yells at eels rekkids

pretty much what i said. if you wanna cop some, email dennis at the address on the link. btw, yells at eels will be at the fairmount with stoogeaphilia on december 12th.

thanksgiving night @ lola's

stripped-down, art-project duo bastardos de sancho (that's lucha-masked hose aaaaaaayy!! on gtr/voxxx and hose b on the wildest percussion rig this side of restaurant) covered all their rockaroll bases, from ac/dc to zz top; while reminiscent of lotsa dirty-blooze duos, this is truly the kind of thing that could only happen in texas, and the me-thinks cover was an inspahrd choice, altho i preferred their jim croce-getting-his-ass-kicked-in-an-alley deconstruction of "don't mess around with jim." the great tyrant played with real vengeance and their new song was killer (jon teague: "it's nice to play with people that can do all this complex stuff, but then turn around and say, 'let's do something real simple in 5/4'"). they are my favorite band o' the moment. the mighty me-thinks played the tightest set we've heard from them in awhile, with sir marlin von bungy's gtr up front in the mix where it belongs and new toonage of their own ("was wulf," dedicated to asian media crew member and soul of the h.c.-riverside crew, ratsamy). lola's impresario brian forella was in the house, waxing ecstatic about his new spot in the stockyards, which i have yet to see. my sweetie shot lots of pics, which in the fullness of time will be viewable on her photo blog. yeah!

willie b.'s thanksgiving prayer redux

who needs arlo guthrie when you've got that beloved seasonal favorite, william s. burroughs' "thanksgiving prayer"?

give thanks

overheard a customer at work the other day saying that she didn't "get" what this holiday is supposedly about. myself, i'm a great believer in maintaining an attitude of gratitude under any circumstances, but if you wake up in this country tom'w and roll out of the rack under your own steam, i'd say you have things to be thankful for. just my opinion.

bertha coolidge redux

bassist extraordinaire aden bubeck sez bertha coolidge will be playing some shows and possibly recording between mid-january and mid-february. drummer rich stitzel will be back in town and aden himself will be unencumbered with any miranda lambert obligations, so the decks are cleared for a repeat of the show the fw weekly rated as last year's best.

'70s rockstars @ home with their parents

from a life magazine pictorial. is it just me, or is elton john's mom showing a lot of leg above that snakeskin boot?

wrestling _is_ rock 'n' roll

in the mid-'70s, when rock started to suck, i quit going to shows and went to monday night wrestling at madison square garden instead. cap'n lou albano, classy freddie blassie, and george "the animal" steel still beat journey, styx, and foreigner anytime.

cuttin' up in the studio w/AwkQuarius

tahiti had been to tejas de brazil and it was KPHLX's berfday (he produced the track and was kind enough to spend half an hour showing me the chord changes).

nels cline and devin sarno

Nels Cline + Devin Sarno - the wulf from ZF-Films on Vimeo.

mark growden's back

clean and sober, back on the boards, and with a new website.

AwkQuarius recording sesh pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie posted some of her pics from last night's AwkQuarius recording session at alpha omega studios on her photo blog. (click on 'em to make 'em big.)

funambulist

ohio poetry-rock guy dan mcguire (unknown instructors, jamnation, phosphene river) gots a new "collaborative compilation" cd out. this one's called funambulist and it features dan's spiel in the studio with a revolving crap game of ohio improv folk. dig it.

r.i.p. guy peellaert

damn. guy peellaert, the belgian illustrator who collaborated with nik cohn on the 1974 book rock dreams, left the planet monday, aged 74.

cosmic slop

once

dre gifted us the dvd of this sweet irish movie. imagine what the gtrist from the commitments (glen hansard played both characters) would be doing 20 yrs on.

i played on a rekkid

went to alpha omega studios at 2515 east lancaster after work last night to play on a track called "let's hit the town" by pikahsso and tahiti (ex-p.p.t.)'s new project AwkQuarius. my sweetie took some pics which in the fullness of time will be posted to her photo blog, and those cats shot some video which will undoubtedly materialize at some point in the future. definitely my most enjoyable studio experience and can't wait to hear the alb, which is skedded for a january 2009 release.

yardbirds comp review @ i94bar.com

a review i penned of the ace aussie yardbirds complation happenings ten years time ago 1964-1968 is online now at i94bar.com.

cadillac records

gotta see this flick. adrien brody is leonard chess. jeffrey wright is muddy waters. columbus short is little walter.

Cadillac Records Exclusive Clip

last poets on kcrw, 2.14.2001

listen here. read about their 2008 tour here.

hendrix @ the newport pop festival, 6.22.1969

thanks to big mike for the coat-pull. here's the story.

dig japanese group sounds

courtesy of wfmu.

last poets and pharaoh sanders

"it's official, but not authorized"

my dutch punk-rock pal tony slug (in texas next weekend for gigs in austin and houston with shit city high) unloads with both barrels on the indie record biz:

What's worse than being a talented and awesome rock guy who sits in a van 10 hrs a day year after year to get ripped off by clubs and promotors all over the Western world? That's right, straight up. Being a talented and awesome rock guy who sits in a van 10 hrs a day year after year all over the world for THREE DECADES, comes home stonebroke, doesn't have daddy's trust fund waiting on him, and gets ripped off by the twisted freaks who run record labels!

Ever heard of a little thing called sharing, Mr. independent label owner? I guess not since an elite 5% of your lame asses own 97% of the wealth.

Now I'm not a lawyer, I'm a musician, and labels know that. How do these teflon-coated turds ever find the time to keep their books and send their bands a symbolic token of appreciation, inbetween all these projects and attending POPCOMM and all those other dicksucking conventions when we're out there doing the field work in the most adverse possible conditions ? These high-profile criminals are too busy marketing Punk rock to a generation of idiots with no clue or taste I suppose.

If you run a record label you should be executed in the ass, erm, gas chamber. That's right, go fuck yourself, honcho. Fuck yourself in the ass with a haram GLAZED HAM. You suck!

Sluggy is about to spend the next ten minutes in a full fledged attempt to make you look like thieving bastards, which most of you are!

Now y'all know Sluggy tells it like it is. So here's JUST A SMALL cut section, cream of the creeps who ripped us off.

GLITTERHOUSE RECORDS - released 4 records, never heard of since. So, just wondering: WHO IS THIS PUBLISHING COMPANY that apparently owns my titles that I never signed with? Adding insult to injury, German fart-throbs DIE ARZTE stole my kick-ass title "Rocknroll Ubermensch" and used it as their own for an album, selling half a million copies of it. Goddamn if that doesn't hurt like a bitch.

R RADICAL RECORDS - MDC's label, yeah I know, we should have known. Saint of the "we do it for the kids, maaan" squatters Dave MDC is a millionaire, did you know that? No shit freaks. He owns 4 houses. Irony at its very best.

GET HIP RECORDS - at least we got an advance from these guys which covered about a 5th of the studio time and related expenses. As soon as they had the masters all communication with us stopped. they did hower licence one track to TIPI records, who in turn put my song on the Interwebs to download at 80 cents a download. Sluggy mourns a thousand bitter tears for any pathetic soul which downloads this festering boil on my asshole of an MP3. I woulda given it to you for free. That's right, (If you just shit your pants, you ought to consult your proctologist. We also didn't even get a copy of this comp thanks to that fat fuck from ELECTRIC FRANKENSTEIN, talk about a band who get way too much airtime.

FREAKSHOW RECORDS - another the uber-skank shitlord enterpreneur from Italy. Same M.O. Took the money and went AWOL, no royalties, no mechanicals. In true "Indie" fashion, this poopstain didn't pay anything, did however went out of his way to license the vinyl release to CARGO GERMANY, who didn't even inform us about it. Much less did we get half of the license fee as stipulated in the "contract".

CARGO GERMANY - It's official, but it's unauthorized...

Yeah, just like your latex Hulk Hogan "king of the ring" dildo.

Same deal (pun intended): No mechanicals, no credits on the sleeve, no royalties, no nothing. We could BUY our own record to have some shit to sell on tour though! YAY! How very generous.

I could mention 10 more from the top of my hydrocephalic head.

Ahhh yes... Sure, you remember the good old days when Grandpa Slug would open up a bag of Werther's Original Candies, release a record, sell it at shows for cost price and not feel guilty about it. That was classic old school shit! But after 40 bootlegs, some of which find better distribution worldwide than legit releases, and countless rip-off scenarios, such as the abovementioned, there will be no more of that. Uh-uh.

It's like my good friend Happy-Tom said, "the time of punk rock gentleman handshake deals is over."

So bon't blame us musicians. And you know, accusing someone of being a "sell out!" is SO 1985. Especially if it's me, who has been fucked without a kiss more often than a boatload of Thai hookers on Chinese New Year. Who played a THOUSAND benefits for any "noble cause" imaginable, from "Save the Welsh miners" to "pay the squathouse electricity bill because we spent all our money on dope". Don't get me talking.

YOU are the ones selling out. Independent labels operate just like major labels except they don't pay the bands. Don't blame me bitch. Blame your independent record peddling colleagues.

Somebody should give po Sluggy a 500 page major label contract, and I'll be glad to sell out. Only this time there WILL be a lawyer present. First, I'm off to Tex-ASS this monday. And making an album with Tony Visconti (Bowie, T Rex etc) in New York in December

Oh Japan calls! Kick ass.

Sluggy will ROCK FOR RAMEN SOUP.

Sayonara.

PS - When I get back to Olympia, - tis part of my transformation to boner fide REDNECK, I will grow a beard, and go Ted Nugent (Yes you can call me "the Ted Nugent of punk") prancing through the woods not in a loincloth, but in my denim Turbojugend jacket. Armed with a high powered ruger boomstick. I pity the wildlife that comes in my sight. Click-clack BOOM! Wish you were a label owner, Mr. Grizzly bear. Then again, a man's gotta eat, and I'm WELL PREPARED to kill what I eat.

FTW & peace through superior firepower.

-Tony

days with my father

my sister-in-law in seattle sent us a link to this website. very sweet and sad. (you've gotta click on the bottom of the pic to navigate the site.)

the doc told my big sis this week that he thinks dad should be moved to hospice. our father is now down to 88 pounds, losing fine motor skills and appetite. the good news is he seems to be in a pretty good mindspace -- told the lady that brought him his hearing aids (which were ordered a seeming eternity ago) to tell my sis that he needed his black suit because he's going to the white house (to meet barack? -- probably not; he and my sis are the _conservative wing_ of my fam). looks like i might be headed back to jersey again before too long.

friday night opera @ tcu

tcu school of music presents tcu opera studio scenes, friday night at 5pm and 7:30pm in the tcu opera studio, 3050 rogers, at the south end of the tcu campus near the berry street boston market. admission is free, but get there half an hour before showtime to ensure you get a ticket.

the rueffer brothers

...chad and reggie, who are both a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n' roll, gots a gig at the all good cafe in dallas (2934 main st.) this friday, november 28th, at 8pm. they'll be playing some of chad's original country ditties, reggie's proggy pop-rock hochimen toons, and selected covers from the likes of squeeze, echo & the bunnymen, the smiths, an' like that. as reggie sez, "it's a work in progress."

stumptone/nervous curtains/jack with one eye pics @ meezladyblogspot.com

my sweetie finally got around to posting some of her pics from last friday's extravaganza at lola's on her photo blog. (click on 'em to make 'em big.)

ronald shannon jackson

...the fort worth-based harmolodic trailblazer and master drummer has been busy this year, backing late '60s versifying revolutionaries and hip-hop precursors the last poets on tour in europe, along with his former bandmate from ornette coleman's prime time, bassist jamaladeen tacuma, and miles davis' nephew robert irving III on keys. shannon's also been performing with jamaladeen in a trio that includes jef lee johnson, the gtrist in some of the fieriest incarnations of his band the decoding society. yeah!

amy clampitt

lately my middle dtr, who's thinking of changing her minor from japanese to women's studies so she can graduate earlier and get a job, is digging amy clampitt, who didn't start pubbing her poetry until she was in her sixties. quite a way with language she had, too.

mo' ubu

from urgh! a music war (1981).

you & me on a jamboree

here's a cool reggae download site -- in spanish!

PFF(F)(F)FFT! post mortem

it wound up being a pretty good show, altho not well attended (i changed the slogan on our myspace thingy to "ars longa, spectatores fugaces," which means "art is forever, audiences come and go" -- stolen from pere ubu).

putative second-bill ghostcar was a non-starter -- something to do with trumpeter karl poetschke's ride breaking down in new mexico and him having to catch the bus back to arizona -- so we played right after the missus finished. stefan the sound dude even mic'ed our amps -- a good precedent for future stoogeshows at the fairmount.

first set felt a lot more assured than we have in some time. clean-shaven guest bassist jeremy hull did a good job of listening and avoiding the area of the frequency spectrum where the freshly-shorn hembree was operating; throughout the set, mr. hull switched back and forth between standup and electric basses, arco and pizzicato, sometimes in the course of a single piece. guest keyb dude matt hickey sat on the floor behind me and wove atmospheric washes around the rest of the cacophony. clay-boy said he was deliberately holding back, which gave the music more ebb 'n' flow than it sometimes has, altho there was that "wall of sound" thang operating at times.

the combination of endorphins from the first set and more alcohol made the second set a little less coherent, especially after a guy from the bar got up and wanted to sing some blues, which we obliged for awhile until things finally ground to a halt. we at least managed to salvage the december date, after which levi said we'd see about further shows in the new year, which is all we can reasonably ask. he, stefan, and ryan the bartender have always treated us well, even when we weren't drawing flies. bless them.

next (maybe last?) time will be december 21st. i'm hoping trombonist marcus brunt (currently attending school in california and coming back to visit on weekends) will make it out to play then, and hickey and jeremy have already been invited back, so the possibility exists that we'll be PFF(F)(F)(F)FFT! in december. for the third time, the opener will be bill pohl, who promises "something different" -- maybe a duo with nathan brown? film, as they say, at 11.

mario cruz quartet @ the scat lounge tuesday night!

tuff tenorman mario cruz brings his new quartet, playing a program of originals and standards, to the scat jazz lounge tomorrow night at 8pm.

PFF(F)(F)FFT! @ the fairmount tonight!

that's right, we're playing with special guests jeremy hull and matt hickey, on a bill with ghostcar and the missus. sit thisun out and you might not get another chance.

pop's safari room @ iloveftw.com

a review i penned of pop's safari room is online now at iloveftw.com.

christmas on mars

"coming christmas 2003"...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

a website devoted to the english breakfast?

yes!

tin huey

the akron band which the pere ubu site says, in the early '70s, was "far out ahead of the rest of us and was the standard by which we all measured ourselves." their bassplayer mark price died of cancer november 6th.



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augustus pablo

listening to a cd-r of mainly rock steady stuff i got from frank cervantez, including some tracks by dub maestro augustus pablo, whose name (it occurred to my sweetie) is a combination of our last two kitties' names. there are no coincidences! makes me wanna go out and buy a melodica.

pere ubu on tv in 1989

...with debbie harry, show host david sanborn, and house bandleader hiram bullock sitting in on the second tune. watch it fast before david thomas makes 'em take it down.