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.

wave farm broadcasting system

wave farm broadcasting system
Originally uploaded by BarrettJ

Drove the 730 mile round trip to Campfire Sounds at free103point9's Wave Farm this past weekend. It's an idyllic setting with friendly people and a hippy vibe. Nothin' wrong with that...caught some video footage of Sunburned Hand of the Man, who cranked out a heavy psychedelic jam in the summer afternoon.

Happy Birthday Jerry

Gone but not forgotten...

Astronomical Dominoes

Thoughts While Driving the New Jersey Turnpike

When are cars getting colors again? Every one is silver. And most of them are SUVs. There are lots and lots of silver SUVs out there. Why is everyone driving a silver SUV? It is because everyone else is driving a silver SUV?......At the rest stop there is a rock band in line at the Starbucks. Each one of them is a different rock band dude stereotype. There is the surfer rock dude, the new wave rock dude, and the heavy metal rock dude. Gab asks who they are and I say "Bon Jovi". The woman behind me gets very excited. I don't have the heart to tell her that I was joking......Do people from Scagsville get teased about the name of their town? Girls especially, I would assume. Or has no one thought of that before me? ......Flipping through the radio stations near Fort Lee we come across a hyperactive organ solo. A few notes in I wager it's Deep Purple. After another 30 minutes of drum solos and a 5 minute ending "crescendo" I revise my guess to ELP. Wrong! It's Deep Purple, live. Never second guess on the Jersey Turnpike.

Help Todzilla

from my friend Pat:

If I had a nickel for everytime somebody told me what a good friend toddzilla is, well, I'd have already paid his huge medical bill and I'd probably be rich!!! However, that isn't the case. In fact, toddzilla was involved in a hit and run accident and was left with two broken hips and internal bleeding. His surgery is set for tomorrow morning and is quoted at $6,000, hopefully nothing goes wrong.

The reason for this email is to raise money for toddzilla and his surgery alone. Illus ideas, inc., has created a completely new t-shirt that we will be selling for $40 dollars. It is being offered to men and boys in all sizes and in these colors: black, navy blue and forest green. For women and girls we are offering t-shirts in all sizes and in two styles: low cut neck and a regular cut neck, colors: black, navy blue and forest green. Pull-over sweat-shirts are being sold for $60 and are being offered in all sizes and in these colors: black, navy blue and forest green.

Please understand that todd is my best friend and if my art doesn't sell then he can't get his hips fixed and that just isn't right especially because he did nothing wrong, and whoever it was didn't even stop to check on him...

The Doctor who will be operating on toddzilla has told me that toddzilla will be ready to come home wednesday or thursday, and at that time i have to pay the bill. Please, if not for the cool shirt you will be purchasing, donate $40 dollars to todd's hip surgery fund raiser and you'll recieve a free t-shirt with choice of color and size (paypal: illusclothing at yahoo dot com)

Tortoise

Caught a great Tortoise show at the Black Cat this past Saturday night. I heard echoes of 70's-era Miles and Faust in their jams. Two drummers are always a good thing.

After the show I tried to go backstage to say hello but Black Cat security wouldn't let me and wouldn't send word back to Dan either. I wasn't the only one; not even Ian Svenonius could get back there. I know bitching about the BC staff's bummer attitude is old news but I have to point it out because it does nothing for the scene. If dealing with drunken twentysomethings is making you miserable then maybe it's time to go back to school and get that degree.