Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna see an hour-long Pink Floyd TV show from 1970?

Behold KQED's An Hour With Pink Floyd in its entahrty. I remember seeing this when it was new and thinking, "WTF?!?!?"

The new "Razorcake" is here! The new "Razorcake" is here!

Arab-influenced U.S. band the Red Dons and Lawn Guyland punxxx the Rations on the cover, plus Wyn Davis, owner of the studio where many crucial SST releases were recorded (he walks in on Spot and Husker Du crashed out in the studio during the marathon Zen Arcade sessions: "Spot lifted his head and said through the talkback, 'Okay, guys, let's go.' Husker Du just started playing and began recording immediately. It was like Spot had turned their switches on.") and a pragmatic guide to starting a DIY label. Plus more rekkid reviews than anyone this side of The Big Takeover, including an enthusiastic one of 1919 Hemphill volunteer Al Rios' band Genius Party's Uncomplicated Songs About Complicated Issues. Yeah! Pick one up at 1919 or hit 'em up at www.razorcake.org.

Fred "Sonic" Smith from "MC5: A True Testimonial"

Pinkish Back - "Everything Went Dark" @ Rubber Gloves, 9.3.2010

Your handy guide to the next four Stoogeaphilia shows

2.19 @ Sunshine Bar (Arlington) with Magnus, Convoy and the Cattlemen
3.12 @ Doublewide (Dallas) with Bipolar Express, Darstar
4.9 @ Lola's with The Dangits, Elvis Took Acid
5.14 @ Landers Machine Shop with a bunch of other bands -- our slot TBA

There's a possibility we might be playing St. Paddy's Day at Poag Mahone's. And sometime, probably in June or later, at 1919 Hemphill. More when we know more.

Nervebreakers to Foat Wuth come

That's right, kids: The seminal Dallas proto-punks (who opened for the Sex Pistols, Clash, and Ramones back in the day) will cross the county line to play a show with their old compadres the Fort Worth Cats at the Aardvark on 3.26. Too bad that's the night I'm committed to donning the Asian Media Crew jump suit to photo/video/get in the way onstage of the mighty Me-Thinks, who'll be at Lola's that very same night (with Pinkish Black and the Dangits). But it's a nice set of alternatives, for them what likes alternatives.

Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna see a _great_ movie about the MC5?

After years of litigation, the documentary MC5: A True Testimonial has been cleared for release, once music licenses are secured. While the deaths of Rob Tyner and Fred Smith mean that there can be no victory lap for these boys like the one the Stooges have enjoyed for the last eight years (and they were only a band for seven, back in the day), general availability of this film -- maybe the best of its kind that I've seen (um, on bootleg DVD) -- would do a lot to restore the luster to the Five's legacy, in this fan's opinion. The filmmakers have a Facebook group and are trying to gauge interest via this poll. You know what to do.

The Who - "Baby Don't Do It"

Their best song when I saw them at Forest Hills in '71. This version (from San Francisco, I think) was the B-side of "Join Together." Note the auditory similarity of Pete's lead to Leslie West's.

Mick Farren talks about his new book "Speed Speed Speedfreak"

Tommy Hall from the 13th Floor Elevators called amphetamines "Hitler drugs," and in this Vice magazine interview, Mick Farren calls his new book, a history of speed, "a psycho-chemical history of the 20th century."

Alice Cooper on "In Concert," 1972

From Hofstra University in Hempstead, Lawn Guyland.

MC5 - "Tonight"

Live on German TV in '72. Back In the U.S.A. was the worst album ever recorded by a rock band I like until It's Hard, but this song always seemed to work well live, especially with the John Lee Hooker boogie appended.

Liberia/Liberio

A country in Africa founded by former American slaves:

One hell of a nice guy:

Hochimen pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

My sweetie posted some of her pics of the Hochimen from last night's show at the Grotto on her photo blog. Click on 'em to make 'em big and leave her a comment, why doncha?

Hentai Improvising Orchestra's "The Hannah Montana Remix Album"

Stream it free or download it for a buck from Bandcamp. Recorded at the house on iPhone and remixed by Matt Hickey. As T. Horn sez, "No Hannah Montana song was harmed on this album."

Walter J. Archey III's "BOX"

Here's a short film Tahiti wrote and directed for Steven Spielberg's show The Lot. Co-starring J.D. Jimmerson IV.

The Mike Haskins Experience

New garagey goodness from the ex-Nervebreaker is here.

An evening and a morning with J.D. Jimmerson IV

"A young black guy dropped some CDs off for you," my coworker told me when I showed up for work the other day. "He sure had been smoking an awful lot of ganja."

"Ah," I said. "Hello, J.D. Jimmerson IV, aka Mr. Aggravated Foe, from Goodwin Avenue, Lake Como."

J.D. used to work at the record store I came to Fort Worth to open. (It closed for good in 2004 after 25 years under four different corporate owners.) I wrote a story about him for the Fort Worth Weekly back in 2003, but I hadn't heard from him in a few years. Turns out he'd called a mutual friend to find out where I was working, and paid a visit to my job a couple of hours before I rolled in. I'm sorry I missed him.

These days, J.D. works at the Grandy's on Camp Bowie West, near the Weatherford traffic circle. We drove by there the other day and I said, "Hi, J.D." Now my sweetie thinks I conjured him. He's been selling his own hip-hop CDs and copies of his locally notorious low-budget horror movie Da Killa from behind the counter there for years. ("Here's your chicken fried steak. You like hip-hop? How about horror movies?") He's a charismatic young man who exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit, the kind of salesman who could sell snow to an Eskimo. He just released the long-awaited sequel -- you can see characters in the movie wearing its promo T-shirts; talk about your product placement -- Da Killa 2, a veritable Como-centric War and Peace that sprawls over two DVDs, and he also stars in Rimz, a feature-length film written and directed by Da Killa cinematographer Walter J. Archey III, aka Tahiti of Awkquarius/PPT fame.

The best first: Rimz is a tale of a down-home Everyman (played by J.D.) who travels to the city (needless to say, Fort Worth) to make his fortune working in a rim shop, where he labors in indentured servitude to pay off his customized chrome status symbols. His life gets more complicated when his wheels are stolen, and turn up on the vehicle of a middle class college kid (played by Kasper G, who also acted in Da Killa and its sequel) who stole money from his mother (who needed it to pay his brother's private school tuition) to make the buy.

The situations are true-to-life in the manner of Car Wash, Friday, or Do the Right Thing (including a running commentary by a DJ character who's an homage to the Samuel L. Jackson character in Spike Lee's classic), and the characters are well drawn; it's a measure of Archey's success as a filmmaker that both his protagonist and antagonist are sympathetic, and they make us care about the struggles they're going through. In the end, Rimz's message is an indictment of the materialistic lifestyle advocated in a lot of African-American targeted entertainment. As J.D. tells his adversary in the closing scene, "It's not the rims that make the man, it's the man that makes the rims."

(Because J.D. believes in giving you value for your money, the balance of the DVD is filled with some of his music videos, including one for "Knuckleheads.")



Da Killa 2 is another kettle of fish: part B-movie, part home movie, part music video. Here the narrative arc is a little harder to discern; its episodic structure flows more like a series of Youtube viral videos with recurring characters and situations than an actual feature. People eat, drink, smoke, hang out in front of convenience stores, transform into zombies, smoke, shoot guns, are menaced by horror movie villains, smoke, and so on. You get the idea.



Mr. Aggravated Foe is a natural physical comedian; he's Anansi the trickster, tricked out in modern-day hip-hop duds. Besides weed-dealing protagonist Jack Daniels Daniels, he plays a coke-snorting grandmother, a TV newscaster, the Hamburglar, and a guy in a chicken suit. With a skilled director like Archey to rein him in, his performance (as in Rimz) can be quite affecting. Left to his own devices, as he is here, his manic energy can get a little diffuse. J.D. shot and edited Da Killa 2 and he could have used a second set of eyes. Not all of the scenes are even funny, let alone contributing to the storyline, and the outside shots are plagued by wind noise on the soundtrack. Audio levels vary dramatically from scene to scene, and the background music often overwhelms the dialogue.

Still, you can't take your eyes off Da Killa 2. In a way, it's a time capsule from Fort Worth in 2010 (the big snowstorm even makes an appearance, even though the action is supposed to take place on Halloween night). Imagine if Warhol was black, not pasty-white, and earthy, not effete. Sly Stone said it, and J.D. Jimmerson proves it: Everybody is a star -- if they're willing to hustle.

ADDENDUM: To purchase J.D.'s CDs and DVDs, call 817-305-6926. Cash only.

Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna see a trailer for "DFW Punk?"

Go here.

Call for artists

The Italian kid sends:

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD
In anticipation of our inaugural Visionary Awards, to be awarded to three outstanding Fort Worth artists in various disciplines, Rahr & Sons Brewing Company is crafting a special beer for us, the Visionary Brew. But there’s a little problem. We don’t have a label. To remedy the situation, we’re calling on all 817 artists to submit original pieces of previously unpublished artwork suitable for public consumption (no porn, no violence) to appear on every bottle of Visionary Brew. Artists, keep in mind that Rahr’s logo and the Visionary Awards’ logo (an Egyptian eye with “FW” attached) will also appear on the label and will be added by Rahr during the final stages of production –– you do not need to incorporate the logos into your design. You may enter as many original previously unpublished pieces as desired. There’s no entry fee, and submissions may be made by e-mailing a PDF of your original previously unpublished artwork to Weekly Associate Editor Anthony Mariani at anthony.mariani@fwweekly.com or delivering by hand to the Weekly offices at 3311 Hamilton Ave., 76107. (All original materials will be cared for and eventually safely returned.) Any two-dimensional medium is acceptable, and, artists, understand that your entry will be reduced to the size of a beer-bottle label. Don’t paint a mural on the side of our office building and expect us to be amused. Deadline for submissions is midnight, Friday, March 4, 2011. Five finalists will be chosen by a committee of local curators, gallery owners, professional artists, and critics. A popular vote at the Visionary Awards announcement party during the week of Spring Gallery Night will determine the winner, who also will be invited to participate in the brewing process. A Readers’ Choice winner also will be selected, via online voting. The Visionary Brew and winning label will be unveiled at a party during the week of Fall Gallery Night. Details to come. Questions? Contact Mariani at anthony.mariani@fwweekly.com or 817-321-9717.

Disclaimer: Your entry into the contest constitutes a grant from you to Fort Worth Weekly for a perpetual non-exclusive license authorizing your design to be displayed by Fort Worth Weekly and Rahr & Sons Brewing Company, to be used on www.fwweekly.com and www.rahrbrewing.com, and to be used in advertisements and other promotional material by Fort Worth Weekly and Rahr & Sons Brewing Company. All entries must be free of claims and rights of third parties. Fort Worth Weekly and Rahr & Sons Brewing Company reserve the right to make minor modifications to art, text, and context. Entrants retain all other rights to future artwork use except as specified. The winning entrant may sell his or her work but must inform the buyer that Fort Worth Weekly and Rahr & Sons Brewing Company retain the rights enumerated above. Current Weekly contributors are excluded from participation.

http://www.fwweekly.com/index.php?option=com_wordpress&p=8374&Itemid=482

My statistically insignificant ballot from the Village Voice critics poll

...is here. To see just how insignificant, go here.

Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune

New documentary about the late political folkie opens at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff on 1.28.

Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna hear the new Gang of Four album?

From NPR, of course. Wha?!?!? Streamable in its entahrty until 1.25.

Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna watch a documentary about Evelyn Glennie?

The deaf Scottish percussionist is one of the most interesting and inspiring thinkers about music I'm personally aware of, and an electrifying performer. Check her out here. Thanks to Teague for the link.

Stoogeaphilia, Magnus, and Cowboy and the Cattlemen @ Sunshine Bar, 2.19.2011

Oh wow. Ben made us look all psychedelic.

1.17.2011, FTW

When I worked at RadioShack, I knew a man who told me once that he couldn't understand why they had a holiday for someone (MLK) who "was responsible for so many of the problems in his society." When I asked him what he meant, he said, "He gave those people...hope." I thought to myself, "You should blame Lincoln instead. Or Jefferson."

The linkage between my two bands

Ron Asheton in Please Kill Me:

We invented some instruments that we used at that first show. We had a blender with a little bit of water in it and put a mike right down in it, and just turned it on. We played that for like fifteen minutes before we went onstage. It was a great sound, especially going through the PA, all cranked up. Then we had a washboard with contact mikes. So Iggy would put on golf shoes and get no the washboard and he would just kind of shuffle around. We had contact mikes on the fifty-gallon oil drums that Scotty played, and he used two hammers as drumsticks. I even borrowed my ma's vacuum cleaner because it sounded like a jet engine. I always loved jet airplanes. VVVVVRRRRR!

Faces - "Around the Plynth"/"Gasoline Alley"

Instructive to remember that once there was a time when Rod Stewart and Ron Wood were actually purveyors of good, human-scale rock 'n' roll. Woody's no Johnny Winter, but he provided an easy-to-imitate slide model when one was needed. Sure, Kenny Jones is kinda hamfisted, but especially after Mac joins in, they have a groove that's very nice and gemutlich.

Cecil Taylor speaks

From 1964, here's a transcript of a panel discussion Cecil took part in during a "jazz weekend" at Bennington College. Thanks to Allen Lowe for the link.

Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna see the whole Hendrix Rainbow Bridge concert?

R.I.P. Jerry Nolan (1946-1992)

1.13.2011, FTW

When I hit 40, I realized that I'd never read Moby Dick or Huck Finn -- a condition unacceptable to someone as obsessed with America and American-ness as I am -- and immediately set about doing something about it. Right now, I'm reading Allen Lowe's American Pop -- From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1956 and realizing that I've never listened to Jelly Roll Morton, Doc Boggs, Blind Lemon Jefferson, or Louis Armstrong (to name just four). Another project for 2011 and beyond...

Stymie

Playing at 1919 Hemphill this coming Saturday. Here they are playing their first-ever show, way back in 2007. Jayzus, that's an eternity in band years.

Mind if we dance wit' showdates?

Bassist extraordinaire Aden Bubeck informs me that Bertha Coolidge, the outfit that introduced many Fort Worthians now in their 30s to jazz, will be re-enacting the beloved old Black Dog Tavern jazz jam at the Scat Lounge (111 W. 4th St. downtown) on Sunday, 1.16, then holding their CD release show there on Thursday, 1.20, rounding out a trifecta of local shows with two sets (the first one backing Brad Thompson) at the Aardvark on Friday, 1.21.

Also, the original Hochimen (that'd be Reggie Rueffer, Ed McMahon, and Pete Young) will be opening for Missile Men, a new project of Tony Diaz (Goodwin), Neil Schnell (Velvet Love Box, The Elf Men), Ryan Thomas Becker (RTB2, Eaton Lake Tonics), and Lucas White (Rivercrest Yacht Club, James Hinkle) at the Grotto on Saturday, 1.22. So there!

1.12.2011, FTW

Watching my son-in-law at the hospital
The night his daughter was born,
I remembered what it felt like when I realized
Just how much a man could love a child.

Seeing him with my daughter, I was reminded
Of a Vonnegut story called "Adam"
from Welcome to the Monkey House.

A couple of nights later, I read it to my sweetie
And we both cried.
We're odd people like that.

A coupla good new ones from Prefecture Records

My favorite listen of this young year so far is FLIGHTPATTERNS, a recording of an encounter between Open Graves, a duo consisting of percussionist/instrument maker Paul Kikuchi and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Olsen, and "sound gatherer" Stuart Dempster, recorded live in a cistern outside Seattle and released on lovely vinyl and beautifully-packaged CD by Kikuchi's label Prefecture Records.

The cistern is the same one in which Open Graves recorded their previous release, Hollow Lake, which impressed me when I heard it last year. Kikuchi comes from a jazz background (dig him with Empty Cage Quartet) and also leads Portable Sanctuary, an ensemble that employs his sculptural percussion instruments. Jesse Olsen is half of the "experimental folk" duo Ramon & Jessica. Dempster's a noted classical trombonist, academic, and familiar of Pauline Oliveiros.

Put 'em all together, and you get a music that's leisurely and spacious, like watching time lapse clouds roll by. Comparisons being odious, I'll still say that this music puts me in mind of two of my favorite Japanese psychedelic outfits, Taj Mahal Travellers and Ghost, both of which have in common with Open Graves a penchant for recording in "sacred spaces" like caves and temples. It's a cliche to say, when listening to classic jazz and R&B recordings from the '50s, that you can hear the room where the music was recorded. That's definitely true in this case; the cistern lends the sounds generated by the musicians a stately, hypnotic beauty. The four tracks total 38 minutes and change, but feel as though they're over in a heartbeat.





Also new on Prefecture: Prism, a limited edition CD-R of solo works by Kikuchi's frequent collaborator, percussionist Alex Vittum. The pieces were recorded in real time, sans overdubs, using a "signal processing software environment" Vittum created for use with his drum kit. You're more likely to be aware of the mechanics of sound production when listening to Prism than you would be while immersing yourself in FLIGHTPATTERNS' sonic bath, but it's still a rewarding spin.

Michigan Mayhem, Vol. 1

Thinking about Terry Trabandt recently, I was reminded of one of the greatest garage comps I've ever heard, which included "nuggets" like these:

My scrawl on the I-94 Bar

A review I penned of Dancing Time '78-'79, the final installment in Savage Beat's exhaustive series of retrospective Hitmen releases, is online now.

Stoogeaphilia/The Black Dotz/E.T.A. pics on meezlady.blogspot.com

My sweetie posted some of her pics from the other night's extravaganza at Lola's on her photo blog. Click on 'em to make 'em big and leave her a comment, why doncha?

Boris

Oh wow. Cleaning up some links today, I discovered that Boris has three new releases scheduled for this spring, including a reish of Heavy Rocks on Southern Lord, whose website indicates there's a live DVD coming, too. I should do this more often.

Even negative attention is still attention

The li'l Stoogeband received some backhanded hype from D Magazine, of all places. (You gotta scroll down.)

Slade

Guilty pleasure? Maybe. Loudest band I ever saw, opening for J. Geils Band and Frampton's Camel, at the Academy of Music at 3rd Ave. and 14th St. in Manhattan, 1973. Noo Yawk crowd fuckin' _hated_ 'em.







ADDENDUM: Perhaps the NYC crowd's response had something to do with the mirrored scratch plate on Noddy's Telecaster, which, when struck by the stage lights, was the visual equivalent of having a fork stuck in your eyes.

R.I.P. Terry Trabandt

Terry Trabandt, bassplayer-singer for '60s Detroit band the Rationals, died in Florida on December 28th. A native of Ann Arbor, Trabandt joined the Rationals (originally formed by Scott Morgan and Steve Correll) as a guitarist while still in junior high school, and switched to bass when Correll returned from military school the following year. Under the tutelage of manager Hugh "Jeep" Holland, the four Pioneer High School students recorded a cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" that made the lower rungs of the national charts and supposedly inspired Aretha Franklin to record the song. At the end of 1966, radio station WKNR named them the most popular band in Detroit.

After the Rationals disbanded in 1970, Trabandt briefly played with Morgan in Guardian Angel, then relocated to Los Angeles, Europe, and New York before settling in Fort Myers, Florida. He co-wrote "Turn To Stone" with Joe Walsh, and took part in a Rationals reunion in the early '90s, but did not participate in shows Morgan performed in Michigan under the Rationals rubric in 2009. While not widely known outside of Michigan, he made his mark.

Dom Mariani @ SXSW

Never say never again: After swearing I'd never do SXSW again, I learned that sterling Aussie power pop maestro and Italian kid lookalike Dom Mariani is playing there again this year. (Evidently he did last year, too, but I wasn't Facebook buddies with him then.) If I can find out the no-fooling dates/venues, my sweetie (who'll be on Spring Break then) 'n' I might be heading down there to see him -- particularly if he's playing any unaffiliated shows/day parties (which are always better than the "real" shows). Dom graciously allowed my sweetie to use his Stems signature song "At First Sight" in her professional presentation. Seems like too much of a perfect storm to pass up.



ADDENDUM: Dom sends these dates --

Hole in the Wall (The Swollen Circus) Tues, March 14,
US Arts Authority (International Psych-Out) Thurs 16
Habana Calle 6 (Get Hip Showcase) & Maggie Mae's (The Aussie BBQ) Sat 19

Have to wait to see the "official" sked to see which ones are unafilliated (although my FB pal Wig sez we can probably pay to get into the Get Hip thing). Plus there may be other shows added.

1.6.2011, FTW

Me 'n' Terry rappin' about HIO's The Hannah Montana Remixes, Disc 2, which Hickey just dropped on us yesterday. We used three recording devices, so as Terry sez, we have three different albums to enjoy. We played for 40 minutes, ran out of steam, then picked up again and played for another 20 minutes.

Me: Hickey's instruments recorded better on his phone. I like all the slide he was playing on that [cigarbox guitar].

Terry: Yeah, I did too.

Me: Also dig the way he follows me percussively when I'm playing all that 3/4 shit against the drone. [Terry deployed a "Buddha machine" for part of the sesh.] We seem to do better at letting ideas develop when there isn't an audience. Last [show at Landers Machine Shop was] an exception.

Terry: Hopefully, this next Landers show [May 14th, for Arts Goggle] will be good too.

Me: Yeah, I really like Hickey's percussion. Now it's percussion samples/kalimba/random CBG notes. It sounds like aborigines jamming with a pinball machine.

Terry: So I may continue with the electronic noodling on top or behind you two guys' acoustic stuff.

Me: Yes, that worked well -- nice juxtaposition. Hickey playing his plastic didgeridoo over kalimba played with mallets.

Terry: Yeah, my favorite parts of the other recordings was when ya'll we're doing the mallet/didge thing and my little radio part. Well, the ending was nice with the toys.

Me: The radio stuff was great, and the toys. The [toy] turtle recorded better on Hickey's phone. I liked the dueling toy guitars, too. Hickey and I play toy guitars like we play real guitars.

YOUNG@HEART

Oh yeah! Thanks to Liles for the link. Out on 04.09.2011.

Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna hear a Captain Beefheart tribute from a Stooge/Minuteman?

Check it on the Watt from Pedro Show.

The Mooney Suzuki @ Rudyards, Houston, Y2K

Damn, I'd forgotten about these guys. Mr. Epiphone, meet Mr. Mosrite.

Pssst! Hey, kid! Wanna see a 13th Floor Elevators documentary?

Pssst! Wanna hear anthropological field recordings of HIO?

Quick, before Terry takes 'em down from soundcloud.com to edit/remix. I play fingerstyle guitar, harmonica, kalimba, percussion, eBow guitar, wood flute, ukelele, and toy instruments. Hickey plays slide cigarbox guitar, percussion, ukelele, and toy instruments. Terry plays Buddha machine, radio, iPhone apps, and toy instruments. You can also hear me 'n' my sweetie discussing what we need from the grocery store, and lots of giggling.

R.I.P. Frankie "45" Campagna

Oh, kid. Twenty-four years was just not enough.