Yeah!

Look out Takoma!

Punk Rock Memory Lane

Watching the Joe Strummer documentary the other night got me to thinking about the Clash and the mid-70's punk scene in England and how it is possible for Art to be both Political and Fun.

American Hardcore documents the American scene a few years later, during the "second wave" of punk, when bands like Black Flag and Bad Brains roamed the country, spawning scenes wherever they played.

Potluck Redux

my set
AUTOSALVAGE "PARAHIGHWAY"
DONOVAN "BARABAJANGLE"
WILLIAM PENN FYVE "SWAMI"
KAK "ELECTRIC SAILOR"
MOBY GRAPE "MURDER IN MY HEART FOR THE JUDGE"
ZZ TOP "OLD MAN"
BEATLES "NORWEGIAN WOOD"
CRAMPS "I CAN'T FIND MY MIND"
MONGO SANTAMARIA "FEELIN ALRIGHT"
THE JIMMY CASTOR BUNCH "YOU BETTER BE GOOD"
ROLLING STONES "2000 MAN"
BYRDS "BAD NIGHT AT THE WHISKEY"
BEVIS FROND "TERMINATION STATION GREY"
KINKS "I NEED YOU"
PINK FLOYD "VEGETABLE MAN"
CHOCOLATE WATCHBAND "EXPO 2000"
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA "THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS"
TAMRONS "WILD MAN"

hackmuth's set
stereogab's set

The Rebirth of Potluck
Originally uploaded by stereogab

Majick Mango Chutney

debuted our majick rainbow station at last night's Electric Possible. thank you to all who attended. enjoyed John Berndt and Tyler Wilcox intense Baltimore free-jazz sax scrawls, Aleasthete's tiny toy music, Field Shaman's ambient guitar and cello zone, Safe's bank of blinking lights and humming mics. thinking back I realized I was the only performer who stood up to play (this was not a conscious decision)...last night was also the debut of our "limited edition" (read: the stencil crapped out after 30 prints) 3 CD-R set, still smelly from paint and ink fumes (good for huffing before listening to the disc)....this will eventually make its way onto cyberpace somewhere.... Jason of Aleasthete compared our sound to the sensation when you first try mango chutney; you can't decide whether you like it or hate it.

Come Feel the Majick

We're debuting Majick Rainbow Station this Sunday at Electric Possible

$5--all money goes to the artists!
8:00 pm, Sunday, Nov 4, 2007
Phillips Hall, 801 22nd St, NW
Rm B 120 (in the basement)
(22nd and H Streets/GW Metro)

Happy Halloween!

(Photo by dronepop)

R.I.P. Stylus magazine.

Scene's from this year's Dupont Circle drag race.

My goodbye post to the library profession.

Clusterfuck Nation (via The Dust Congress)
"One of the stupidest assumptions made by the educated salient of adults these days is that we are guaranteed a smooth transition between the cancerous hypertrophy of our current economic environment and the harsher conditions that we are barreling toward. The university profs and the tech sector worker bees are still absolutely confident that some hypothetical 'they' will 'come up with'” magical rescue remedies for running the Happy Motoring system without gasoline. My main message to lecture audiences these days is '…quit putting all your mental energy into propping up car dependency and turn your attention to other tasks such as walkable communities and reviving passenger rail….' Inevitably, someone will then get up and propose that the transition to all-electric cars is nearly upon us, and we should stop worrying. As I said, these are the educated denizens of the colleges. Imagine what the nascar morons believe – that the ghost of Davey Crockett will leave a jug of liquefied 'dark matter' under everyone’s Christmas tree this year or next, guaranteed to keep the engines ringing until Elvis ushers in the Rapture."

It's Finally Getting Cold

Two
Originally uploaded by BarrettJ

A good NY Times article about Andy Warhol's films
MV+EE are on tour. Go see them if you can.

The Experience Hendrix Show Sucked

I'm an optimist. And I'm also a completist. So when the Experience Hendrix show was advertised awhile back, I bought tickets. The lineup looked promising: Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, these guys backed up Jimi in his heyday- Rainbow Bridge, Isle of Man- they were there, man! And Buddy Guy playing guitar. This was the man whose guitar playing Jimi copied! Like I say, I'm an optimist. Then Robby Krieger, guitarist for the Doors. What was he doing there? Well, good chance to see someone who stood in Jim Morrison's vomit. He was there, man! And Mick Taylor, who backed up Mick and Keef back in the day: Exile on Main Street, Sticky Fingers- he was there, man!

.....I spent last weekend cleaning out my stuff from my parent's attic. Old school papers, drawings, toys- all this stuff that I'd left behind, thinking, at the time, that it was valuable. And at the time, that A+ on my first grade math homework was important. But that was a long time ago. As I hauled boxes of stuff out to the trash I realized that you can't hold onto past, because the past keeps growing until it makes all those thoughts and artifacts meaningless....

...and that's what's happened to those guys. To be fair, they were fighting an uphill battle. They were playing D.A.R. Constitution Hall, a space whose musical mojo has been bad since they banned Marian Anderson . And the sound was a mess. The drums were drowned in the mix. Vocal mics didn't work. The stage monitors weren't mixed right. Between songs musicians were yelling at the sound man to turn up the drums, fix the mix in the monitors. It was clear they couldn't hear each other...

But these guys are pros, right? Hey, Mick Taylor kept it going at Altamont fer chrissakes. First of the legends to appear was Robby Krieger, still totin' the Gibson SG. Problem was, he still can't play in tune. There were other guitar players, guys who played like the guys you hear at Guitar Center. Then there was poor old Mitch Mitchell. He can't really do those rolls anymore. He really needed those drum mics turned up to help him along. Robert Randolph never made it to the stage. They announced him but then a stagehand came up and said something to Billy Cox (whose look said "uh-oh!") while he and Mick Taylor and Mitch Mitchell limped along through a 12-bar blues something (yeah but Hendrix played that song, right?).

...by this time the crowd was barely clapping. Hecklers shouted at the sound man. I got up and made my way out of the place. Out in the lobby, guys in baseball caps were standing around drinking beer and looking at each other under the bright chandeliers. I headed for the door. A block away, a homeless man sat on a steam grate. I gave him my ticket. Maybe that guy went in and had a blast.

music to my ears

playin' lately:

Yellow Swans (on tour with Mouthus!)

Ashtray Navigations

Vibracathedral Orchestra

Rasta!

Today as I was entering my office building one of the security guards smiled at me and said "You look like a rasta! You're a rasta, right?" This is at an institution with one of the tightest sphincters in DC...and I was in a suit and tie...I''m baffled...is this good or bad?

Horror

In chronological order, a list of horror movies I've seen in the past few years:

The Exorcist
Shivers
The Brood
Damien
The Fly (Cronenberg)
City of the Living Dead (Folci)
Possession
The Sentinel
Wicker Man
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Rosemary's Baby
Cabin Fever
Deadly Spawn
Martin
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Edge of Sanity
The Beyond (Folci)
Blue Sunshine
House by the Cemetery
Natural Born Killers
Death Dream
Blood of the Virgins
The Thing (remake)
Shallow Grave
Curse of the Demon
Henry; Portrait of a Serial Killer

When 197 People Were Arrested for Protesting the War

music by M-R-S

Several Saucerfuls of Syd

Here is my report on the Piper at the Gates of Dawn box set.

First, a little background....back in the day, boys and girls, it took some searching to find this record. I found an Italian pressing (stereo) in a record store in Greenwich Village and for the next 20 years (count 'em!) that's the version I played until every nook and cranny of the record was imprinted on my brain....so when I put the mono mix in the stereo yesterday, it was one of those times when you're in a familiar place that's changed slightly...something is different, but is it you? is it the drugs? or both? the nicest part of the mono mix is how close everything sounds. everything is up front, immediate.

The reprints of Syd's notebook pages (why did he use a typewriter?) give a glimpse of someone playing mad riffs of images and words, already slipping off the reels, never to return. Poor Syd! while WE are still around let's blast our stereos in full psychedelic glory!

Sympathy for the Devil

"Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 examines the dynamic relationship between rock music and contemporary visual art, a relationship that crosses continents, generations, and cultures. Since the late 1950s this unlikely hybrid of rhythm-and-blues and country music has had an undeniable impact on society while drastically changing with the times. Artists from the 1960s to the present have maintained a strong connection to rock, beginning with Andy Warhol’s involvement with The Velvet Underground (who released their Warhol-produced landmark album The Velvet Underground and Nico in 1967 -- the same year the MCA opened its doors). More recently, artists such as Slater Bradley, Raymond Pettibon, and Mike Kelley have created album covers and music videos for rock bands, while many noted rock musicians such as John Lennon, Bryan Ferry, and Peter Townsend have emerged from art schools. " at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art

Death Valley 69

Straight outta Starbucks!

Hip gnosis

"Sun: I've always wondered why hipgnosis was spelled hipgnosis [and is pronounced hypnosis].

Thorgerson: ...It was actually scrolled on our door by some passing narcotic person in the middle of the night. It was scratched on the door of our apartment, and it appealed to us. It's a nice word, but it was spelled on the door like that." interview with Hipgnosis designer Storm Thorgerson, creator of many famous Pink Floyd album covers.

From this weekend's Nutstock 5:

Make Music, Not War

I donated this autoharp to Operation Happy Note, a program run by a music store in Minnesota that sends musical instruments to soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. I figure this instrument is easy to play and I hope it will bring some soldier happiness and perhaps a few moments of peace.

Kill Yer Idols

Hats off to Paul Addis, whose prank at Burning Man resulted in him being arrested for arson. Does anyone see the irony in this?

Back in the bad old nineties my downtown LA scenester friends would make the pilgrimage to Burning Man, returning with stories of psychedelic binges and artistic freakouts. I always passed on attending because I prefer my desert empty.

"....she sounds less like Public Enemy than the Spice Girls" Brent Burton reviews the latest M.I.A. record.

Dog Daze Update

Welcome back sun!

New book about The Source, the commune run by Father Yod.

Trailer for a new movie about the Brotherhood of Eternal Love (via Magpie)

The Foreign Press plays Mt. Pleasant tomorrow...Spectrum on Sunday!

Just Married

newlyweds
Originally uploaded by stereogab

August 9th we tied the knot at the courthouse in Rockville. A happy day indeed.