Mono, Great American Music Hall 4.27.07

Mono play instrumental rock (ahem, "post rock" is what the kids are calling it these days) that starts off with a slow build, gains tension and momentum as it progresses, and then explodes in glorious fuzzed-out guitar fury and ecstasy. I've seen them about 4 times within the last 2 years, and they've played more or less the same set each time. Last night was no different, but it doesn't matter because nothing compares to the raw power and beauty that is Mono live. I don't believe their studio recordings have ever done them justice. Not that they're badly produced, far from it. It's just that the songs gain so much more intensity in a live setting. Their shows are a cathartic experience, to be sure. Drop your therapist, go see these guys instead. Being the relentless road dogs they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they come through again before the year is out, and I will be there, earplugs and all. Bye bye, hearing!

Albany Bowl

Top 20

Songs I've been listening to pretty much at least once every day. Glancing at the list it seems like a lot of it is either loud & heavy or soft & sweet, and not too much inbetween. At this rate I figure in the next few years I'll be content with just listening to the grating sound of a jackhammer on the one hand and the slow & steady beat of my own heart on the other. Nice!


1. Mexican Blue - Jolie Holland
2. Look What You've Done To Me - Jolie Holland
Both off of last year's "Springtime Can Kill You" album. "Mexican Blue" is currently played on repeat till I get absolutely sick of it. Simply gorgeous.


3. There She Goes, My Beautiful World - Nick Cave
4. Breathless - Nick Cave
5. Spell - Nick Cave
All off of 2004's Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus double album. A lot of the songs have slowly grown on me over the last couple years. I think this album has some of Nick's best lyrics to date.


6. Red Staggerwing - Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris
A wonderful collaboration between two singular artists. Took about seven years for the album to come out but so well worth it. It's called "All The Roadrunning". This track is from the live CD/DVD version, "Real Live Roadrunning". The DVD features a full concert, perfect for people like me who missed out seeing them live.


7. Fiery Crash - Andrew Bird
Forget how I came upon his music in the first place, but this is my favorite track off the latest album, "Armchair Apocrypha".


8. Antichrist Television Blues - Arcade Fire
From "Neon Bible". Still prefer their first album, but this new one has more than its fair share of great tracks. I'll be catching these guys June 2nd at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I hear they've taken to playing amonst the audience for this latest tour. Can't wait!


9. I Couldn't Believe It Was True - Carla Bozulich
From the "Red Headed Stranger" album. This was the first I heard from her after the breakup of Geraldine Fibbers. It's a remake of Willie Nelson's famed album of the same name. In fact, he sings and plays guitar on some of the tracks.


10. The Running Kind - Johnny Cash w/ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
From the "Unearthed" box set. Why this one never made the final cut onto one of the American albums I'll never know.


11. Jackass In The Will of God - Eyehategod
From the last full-length album "Confederacy of Ruined Lives". I was in New York in 2005 when I heard that EHG of all bands would be playing at a Unitarian church in Philadelphia. I knew I had to Amtrak it down there ASAP. Glad I did. It would be the last time I'd see them before the vocalist, Mike Williams, got locked up. He's out now but who knows when those guys will get their act together enough to tour again?


12. Hold On (I'm Comin') - Sam & Dave
At one time or another the hit machine that was Stax records could count Isaac Hayes, The Staples Singers, Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, and of course Sam & Dave among it's roster of artists. Incredible.


13. Happy Birthday - The Innocence Mission
From the just released "We Walked in Song" LP. I've only caught them once opening for Emmylou Harris at the Fillmore in 1995, and hearing them play their song "Keeping Awake" with Emmylou sharing vocals with Karen Peris was definitely the highlight of the evening. Of course Emmylou was no slouch, either.


14. Flick The Switch - Voorhees
Off their split with Out Cold. The Voorhees side is 6 songs clocking in at just over 7 minutes. But it only takes the 48 seconds of this track to show how utterly weak the vast majority of so-called "metal" bands are these days.


15. Mind Over Matter - Ice-T
From the "O.G. Original Gangster" album. This, "The End of Silence" by Rollins Band and "Ritual De Lo Habitual" by Jane's Addiction among some others pretty much made up the soundtrack to my Summer in 1991.


16. Tormentor - Kreator
Off the "Live Kreation" album. German thrash at it's finest.


17. Untitled - Pelican
This is the "hidden" track off their last album "The Fire In Our Throats Will Bekon The Thaw". It's simple but beautiful. Pelican create soundtrack music for your dreams, albeit if they were intense, melodramatic epics. New album comes out next month, and from what I've heard it could be their best effort yet.


18. Buckets of Rain - Neko Case
Didn't know this was a Bob Dylan tune. She's got a powerhouse of a voice and I love the way she sings the very last part of the song. It's sent chills down my spine when I've seen her play it live.


19. Verbal Abuse/Leeches - Slayer
From the "Undisputed Attitude" album. I caught this tour at the now long gone Trocadero Transfer in SF. Good idea watching the show from the balcony. I'd look below me and it was like Fight Club to the 100,000,000,000th power. It was probably around this time (1994-95) that I started listening to metal almost exclusively.

20. Terrifyer - Pig Destroyer
This is the whole album. Best grind band out there now. Period.

Night Flight

Last Tuesday night my pilot friend and I flew out from Oakland to Half Moon Bay. We headed South from the airport and West, flying above the San Mateo bridge and over the hills into the coast. The shot above was taken going over San Mateo. Remember the scene in The Abyss where Ed Harris' character tumbles down into the alien world and he sees all the bright lights below him? That's what it looked like for most of the trip. It was pretty cool to go up again, though flying over the hills into Half Moon Bay was a bit choppy... I thought I'd lose it if I weren't so concentrated on taking pictures!

LIGHTNING BOLT!!!

Brian C. in action. Photo © Scott Smallin.

Lightning Bolt is a band that hails from Providence, RI. Brian Chippendale plays drums and Brian Gibson plays bass, though he uses an array of pedal effects to make the bass sound more like a guitar–a guitar that, to quote the title of a Dweezil Zappa record, "...Wants To Eat Your Mama." Between just the two of them, the Brians have been on a short tour since March, laying waste to various West Coast cities, hamlets, and townships along the way. Monday night they played the LoBot Gallery here in Oakland, and yours truly was there to bear witness to the jolt of the BOLT.

As soon as I hit the packed venue, I immediately bee-lined it to the area where the band had set up their equipment. Lightning Bolt insist on playing the floor of any given venue. They will never play on the actual stage–truly, a band to seize proletariat hearts the world over. So I waited through 3 sorry opening acts before the guys came out to set up their instruments. I couldn't believe I was actually going see the band do their thing up close. The first and only other time I'd seen them, I was standing way in the back and hating it. It was still fun and I had a great time, but I knew that somehow I was missing out on something great up front. This time was different. I ended up standing right in front of the mild-mannered Brian G, who kindly asked the lot of us to please not step on his bass pedals during the show. Cool. I can handle that... I think. Well, we'll see how it goes. I lasted about two and a half songs before the swaying mass of humanity behind me reared back and forward, sending my skinny ass reeling towards the blaring amp in front of me. Luckily I was able to deftly step over the pedals AND not make close friends with the aforementioned Brian G and his bass in the process. I spent the rest of the set still very near the front, twisting and turning in a sea of entangled arms and legs and sweaty sweaty bodies. To the tall lanky white dude next to me making like a bobble head and slapping your long nappy dreads against the back of my head: please don't have lice, fleas and/or bed bugs. Please?

How to describe the music? It's rockin' and noisy. And LOUD AS ALL HELL. As Brian C. was wailing away behind the kit I was constantly reminded of that one bumper sticker, "When I Hit The Drum, You Shake The Booty". When these guys play, you move. The music takes over your whole being and you're bopping and shaking, you're jumping and swaying, you're throwing your hands up in the air and damned if you ain't waving 'em like you just don't care. I looked around and smiling face after smiling face stared right back at me. A Lightning Bolt show is a joyous experience to say the very least. I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time.



I found out what I'd missed out on the first time around. I got to see the energy of the music manifest in two very talented individuals: one, a relentless timekeeper constantly in motion, stuck on fast-forward, disguised in a goofy homemade mask with a mike in his mouth, spewing forth indecipherable lyrics to songs about who knows what (you just know they fucking rock, period). The other, a virtuoso on five-stringed bass, standing there dealing out riff after face-melting riff like it was no big deal, aloof and almost oblivious to the frenzied throng before him. And then all around me shiny happy people, an ocean of one, a multitude of love. This is a show I won't soon forget. I'm glad I went.

For more Lightning Bolt pics, go here.

Mr. Horny the Wonder Onion and Inky, The Coolest Cephalopod Lamp There Ever Was

Mr. Horny is a red onion my roommate found on the kitchen counter one day. We liked the way it basically looked like a goofy face, so we decided to keep him. This is what the old bugger looked like upon our initial discovery...







Isn't he cute? That was about a month ago. Here's what the handsome devil looks like now. I'll be sure to plaster his lovely mug here again in 4 weeks. Then we can all enjoy his ongoing transformation together–terrible in its beauty, yet oh so fascinating. Whatever. Stay tuned, peeps.







And this of course is my beloved Inky, hands down the dopest, coolest, most awesome lamp I've ever laid eyes on. I got him last Christmas and he's been sitting on my desk at work ever since, happily keeping me company while I slave away on the computer each day. If you rub his head he brings you good luck. Octopus are very smart creatures. In fact, Inky here can probably do my moronic boss's job a whole lot better he can! Erm, wait... actually, my sister's UNBORN CHILD can do my moronic boss's job better than he can. Pathetic. But I digress. Here's Inky:

Mes Ami

Somewhere,
There sounds a bell
That rings with clarity,
That trembles the wings of angels.

Somewhere,
There floats a chord
That sings with
Infinite, vibrant beauty.

Somewhere,
There live such persons
Whose lives light up the world,
Whose presence touch the souls of men.

And when,
In this fleeting world of time,
Such persons briefly overshadow you,
You live a better person.

I have never heard such bell that rings.
I have never heard such chord that sings.
But I have known such persons that live,
And such persons as these, are my friends.

—Edward F. Croke