Category: Music

This is required reading. There will be a test:

A Brief Catechism of Rock Shows, Part I
by Leslie Harpold

And, now, repeat after me:

I believe in Iggy, Jimi, Chryssie, and Joe Strummer, the Parents Almighty, Creator of heaven on earth; I believe in Malcolm McClaren and Sid Vicious, His only Son. I believe in punk, lo-fi and gangsta, indie, post-punk, indie-pop, rock, singer-songwriter, and insurgent country, conceived by Uncle Tupelo, born of Jeff Tweedy who suffers, as does Lou Barlow. I believe in Squirrelbait and Johnny Cash. I believe in the Motor City. I will respectfully love and fear Tad. I believe in Superchunk and PJ Harvey. I believe in new bands and will never pretend to know music I have never heard, so my mind may stay open and I will sitteth at the right hand of Mission of Burma so I may one day ascend to heaven, where I will be greeted by Sonic Youth, Eazy-E, and Mike Watt. I will not listen to rock critics, but trust my own ears. I believe in DIY, zines, Yo La Tengo, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of Cobain, and rock everlasting. Amen.

Open letter to the guy at the Sigur Rós concert last night who was “whooting” at every quiet moment:

Why? Why do you feel the need to do that? Isn’t this music nice and mellow and surreal? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for you to quietly listen like everybody else? Isn’t your girlfriend asking you to stop? Pleading with you that you are embarrassing her? Do you hear that “shooshing” noise? That’s directed at you. Everybody in this sold out concert hall is asking you to stop.

Let me explain something to you. The quiet parts in the songs are there for dramatic effect. They are as much a part of the song as the parts where there is a rocking drum beat. They are supposed to make the louder parts that much more cool. Remember that one song, where in the middle, the band quieted down to nothing and paused for a long time before jumping back into the song? That was cool, to be in this group of over a thousand people and be able to hear a pin drop. Well, it would have been cool if you hadn’t screamed out, “whoot!” during that part.

Please don’t come to the next Sigur Rós concert I attend. But, if you can’t stay away as you are probably a big fan of Sigur Rós and your moronic whooting is your way of showing it, save your whoots until the end of the songs when everyone is cheering and clapping. That’s the appropriate time for that, you fucking moron.

I’m very excited right now because the wife just bought us tickets to the upcoming Camper Van Beethoven show in Atlanta on April 19th.

This makes me very happy because I’m one of the biggest CVB freaks I know. I first got into them in college and there was no turning back. Their music was so unique, funny, confusing, invigorating, rocking, literate, ironic and maybe just a little bit proggy. As I read somewhere recently, it’s like rock music for math majors. But not “math rock”. God how I hate that style of music. Well, except for Slint, but I digress. However you want to describe Camper’s music, it doesn’t really make any difference, I just loved this band.

Want an example of my devotion? Well, way back in 1994 when I got my first internet account and had to pick an e-mail address, I chose campervb@aol.com, that’s how geeky I was for this band.

The fact that they are touring again is a great thing. As they weaved their way around the US last year, I was jealous of everyone who was getting to see them (so much so, I almost flew to New York for a show). Well, now they are playing 2 shows a few blocks from my house. It’s gonna be a CVB weekend!

And then, I’m flying to Europe the following Tuesday to be a rock star myself for a little while (I’ll explain later). All in all it’s gonna be a good time.

Vive le rock!

I don’t know why, but I watched (most of) the Grammys last night. Now, I think the Grammys have about as much to do with music as Limp Bizkit, but I did find a few things that made me happy in last night’s broadcast.

• The Flaming Lips won a grammy. Yeah! The wife brought up a good point about the Lips last night as we were watching a TiVo’d performance of them performing on David Letterman: “whatever Wayne does just makes me smile.” True. That guy is just infectious with his positive vibe. Or, as he put it in Five Stop Mother Superior Rain: “And all my smiles are gettin’ in the hate generation’s way”.
• Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Elvis Costello and Little Steven performing the Clash’s London Calling. I know, it sounds terrible, but they did a pretty good job.
• Eminem’s performance. This actually got some props from the wife as well.

The rest of the Grammys sucked as usual.

Austin’s The Gourds have come up with an interesting cover of Snoop Dogg’s Gin and Juice. You can read more about this historic “collaboration” and watch a video of Snoop groovin’ to the song here.

Do you think that when Perry Farrell had the brainstorm that he should start a travelling music festival that celebrated art and culture and diversity and name it Lollapalooza, that eventually it would be turned into this: Hyattpalooza?

Yeah, me neither.

Hyattpalooza. Jeez.

Thanks to a post on Metafilter, I’ve been spending way too much time perusing this web site: Show and Tell Music. As the site says, it’s “sort of an orphanage for thrift store music and album cover art.” It’s plenty of fun to look around. There’s just way too much good stuff over there.

Anyway, I came across a band on that site and one of it’s members looked strangely familiar to me. I decided to research it a little further. After hours and hours of research I have come to the following conclusion: Michael Ivins from the Flaming Lips is secretly moonlighting in a band called Vince Vance. I know this is big news. If Wayne found out, he would surely be super pissed. I don’t want to get Michael in trouble, but I feel that this news is too important to keep to myself. I weighed all the pros and cons in my head, but ultimately I decided that the world deserves to know.

So, here you go, world: The Michael Ivins Mystery.

I hope Michael doesn’t hate me.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention yesterday that the perfect music to listen to while you are cropping and color correcting photos of your friends’ new baby girl has to be track 1 from Sigur Ros’ new album (). It strikes the perfect mood. I recommend it. That is, if you find yourself cropping and color correcting photos of your friends’ new baby girl.

And for a well-written review of Sigur Ros’ recent concert in Atlanta, go here.

Man these British musicians are crazy. First, Posh Spice asks an English football team to change their 68 year old nickname. Well, now Bill Wyman has asked an Atlanta music writer to stop using his legal name (Bill Wyman) or at least start using a disclaimer to differentiate himself from the former Rolling Stones bassist.

Who do these people think they are? I think Bill Wyman (the journalist) has a pretty good idea. He researched that Bill Wyman (the bassist) changed his name from William George Perks to Bill Wyman in 1964–three years after Bill Wyman (the journalist) was born. He’s going to ask Bill to stop using his name. Or, at least, start using a disclaimer. His idea? “Not That” Bill Wyman.

So, I’m halfway through my Month-O-Music^© and am looking forward to a quieter November. Let me explain.

For some reason, the month of October presented to me many opportunities for musical endeavors and I decided to say yes to all of them. So, in addition to my regular duties as drummer for the Atlanta rock band, Luigi, I also participated in the following:

1) Magnapop. The Atlanta-based band that was big back in the 90’s asked me if I would play drums for 2 reunion shows in October, one in Atlanta and one in Athens. I said yes and proceeded to learn 15 songs from their repertoire with Shannon, the bass player and Linda, the singer. The guitarist, Ruthie, lives in Seattle and flew in the week of the shows for some last minute practice. So, after listening to a CD non-stop for weeks and practicing with an imagined guitarist, Ruthie finally flew in last Wednesday and we proceeded to tighten everything up for the shows. We then played a show on Saturday, October 19th at the Echo Lounge in Atlanta, and then a show at the 40 Watt club in Athens on Monday, the 21st. It was a fun, whirlwindy kinda thing and the rock was prominent. All in all, a good time.

2) Pixies. October is also the month where I do Album #2 in the Fletcher Classic Album series: The Pixies’ Doolittle Album (this was the first one). This time around, we have my sister playing the Bass and singing the Kim Deal parts, Brandon is playing guitar a la Joey Santiago and once again a member is flying in from Seattle to round out the sound: Jeff Barnes will be doing the Black Francis schtick. Jeff has a Pixies cover band out in Seattle and is an old friend. So, we’ve been practicing with an imagined rythm guitar and lead vocals for about a month now. Jeff flies in on Wednesday morning, we practice that evening, and then play three shows. Atlanta, Columbia, SC and Athens. All in a row and all very Halloween and festive like. It should be a good time.

My fellow bandmates and most importantly, my wife, have all been very understanding and accomodating of my Month-O-Music^© schedule and it’s been a hell of a lot of fun. But, like I said, I’m looking forward to a slightly less haggard November.