Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Friday, June 8, 2007

OCDJ at the depot


i know this is a couple days late/borderline obsolete but i've been busy. i went to DC to meet with Todd who owns carpark/paw tracks records and now i will intern there, sometime. then i went to fredericksburg and hung out with the likes of ross marshall and matt bradshaw. now im back, with two stiches in my back from a mole biopsy. tomorrow tereu tereu and this lone meth play a show in NC, holler.

so the show was kind of ridiculous. i went with howie and brett who both danced/boogied as hard/crazy as i did. the depot is usually a gay bar but on some special occasions it lends its innards to the indie kids (usually at wildfirewildfire) and a show of insane dance proportions is organized. that is what happened this fateful night.

there was one opening band that played a mini moog, keytar, and drums. they all wore matching outfits that made them look like alien porno stars from the 70s. they velcroed lights onto their chests that are of the ASSEENONTV persuasion. they were fun but the fact that their name doesn't strike me sort of says it all.

OCDJ, a wham city member, is sort of like girltalk mixed with dan deacon. so you know crazy songs mashed up with new cartoon/videogameesque beats over top. as you see in the picture mrOC likes to wear a walrus mask while he busts a move at his laptop. he busted a move so hard at the beginning of the show that the speakers blew up in 5 minutes, luckily the soundsystem was fixed and we were afforded another 30 minutes of balls to the wall meta-anarchy.

tonight, Ed Schrader has his fourth talk show and wzt hearts is playing as well, it's at the metro gallery on 1700 charles street, i will see you there.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

William/Adam vs. Warhol/Satie/Cage



well mr. william krieger iv just left. he was here for 9 days and we did a plethora of things that could be filed under musical/artistic/literary things. ya know the general educational debauchery. i could go on and on about every show we saw, every museum we went to, every famous writer we fell asleep listening to (boycott dave eggers), but instead i will just tell you about our 18 hour and 40 minute multimedia tour de force experience.

at the tate modern this past weekend they had a series of events which were quite off the hook (including a performance by Throbbing Gristle). the overnight activity that we attended focused on warhol's film "sleep" and erik satie's piece "vexations". originally the first performance of erik satie's "vexations" was arranged by john cage in 1963.

satie's piece is rather short, only a couple of minutes and repeated it has the structure A,A2,A,A2. however, there is a quite interesting performance note that informs the performer that they should repeat the form 840 times. cage followed this instruction to the T, however, he was gracious enough to employ 10 pianists instead of one sad soul. warhol happened to be at the legendary first performance. it inspired him to create his film "sleep"

sleep is a 5 hour and 21 minute film of warhol's lover, the poet john giorno, drumroll: sleeping. the film is a bunch of short 3-4 minute clips pasted together/looped to create what seems like a continous night sleep for someone who never wakes up.

ok, so if the creation of these two things don't seem ridiculous enough just imagine the fun you'd have witnessing them both at the same time (warhol's film is looped three times in order match the never ending length of satie's piece). basically will and i were very excited at the possibility of having something like this fully infultrate our beings. to put it mildly we went crazy.

we stayed for the whole thing. we were part of a small elite group who completed the task (we felt that watching was as involved as playing). because of our steadfastness we got interviewed by the tate archives and had our picture taken by (not only every fucking person in the world, after the doors opened the next morning) but also the londonist.

the only terrible thing is that even though the event went from 8pm to 3pm the next day they allowed visitors to start coming in the next morning at 10am. so, we got to be bothered by little kids screaming and the chill of the doors constantly being opened and closed. let's just say that it was quite the meditative buzz kill.

ok, well this is my last london post. i have to finish studying for my postmodernism exam tomorrow. then ill be home the day afterwards. give me a call.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

EVERYONE ELECTRO at Fabric


ok, so my last london club experience (see 4:30am bonus post about my terrible time at turnmills) didn't sit so well with me; however, because of the stellar lineup at fabric this past friday i decided to give it a go. i mean how could i leave london without going to fabric, i would have been a right no ball pussy loser if i hadn't experienced the floor shaking, E dropping, coke bumping sensation that is fabric (don't worry i didn't take any drugs. fuck drugs)

i was persuaded to go because LCD Soundsystem aka mr. dancefunkpunk himself james murphy was DJing, crystal castles were playing a live set, Busy P was DJing, and Justice was performing behind his huge illuminated cross surrounded by enough sequencers and wave generators to create the biggest synth ever. well my friend kayla and i sauntered into the place at about 11:30pm. we left at 4:45am.

i saw LCD play two summers ago and i can easily say it was one of the best shows i've ever seen. i even tried to rip off my shirt and give it to mr. murphy. mandy miggletron gabriel can tell you that he gracefully told me he had a shirt and didn't need mine. let's just say that the DJ set is completely different but just as amazing. in an email to ryan little i compared murphball to ray charles.

ray charles (who i love) played a type of music that was rather poppy; however, he knew his shit and he rocked out to people like art tatum. murphy is the same way. his music has a shit load of hooks and all the other things that make it easier listening than say straight up, no frills, old skool, disco/electro music which is the type of music that he spins. i had never heard a single song that he played that night but they were all awesome and even though my true dance music knowledge is slim i could still tell that it was quality shit, real dank bud so to speak.

the crystal castles i have been real excited about for a little while. basically a mix between dan deacon and the blow. they're one of those small canadian bands that somehow got huge in europe and now can open up for anyone they want but can barely get shows in their own country and the US. their set was really short (im not even sure how many cds they have) but i did just order their amazing t-shirt which has a graphic of madonna with a broken eye.

i hadn't listened to Busy P at all before friday night. however, after hearing that he was part of the whole parisian ed banger records thing (same record label as Justice) i felt like their was promise. promise was an understatement. even though he was just DJing it was amazing. he had the crowd in the palm of his hand. his mixes were so catchy without betraying the dogma of dance. i barely knew what was going on during his set and all i can say is check him out, i don't know the names of any of his stuff so just google it beeoytch.

Justice was a disapointment. i just had to get that off my chest. i mean his songs, D.A.N.C.E., We Are Your Friends, and Let There Be Light are amazing, and seeing those songs was enough to make me go; however, the rest of his stuff fell flat, especially after how Busy P was killing it only moments before. Justice's other songs just sounded like poorer versions of his singles. not only that but he hyped himself pretty well, which is never attractive. he would stop songs in the middle, to "build anticipation" and then throw them back into gear thinking that he was cool. letting the beat drop is never cool, ever. that is a good way to end.

Adam in Italy and Grizzease

holler hommies, ok so i just got back the land of noodles and pitas. i'll keep the preface brief because this is another feature length film of a video. let's just say that i checked another childhood dream off the list, right next to being a ninja turtle: eating pizza everyday for a week. enjoy.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Cadbury Fronts


hello kids. i'm going to see Psapp tonight so i will post about that later. however, i started a new project with my friend joseph called cadbury fronts. i thought it was worth showing people/talking about. basically i hadn't talked to joseph in quite in a while, some years in fact. other than a chance meeting at goodwill a couple years ago i hadn't seen him since franklin high, that is a damn fuck long time back. well the powers of facebook somehow got us talking.

we realized that we had to make some music together. well we both have recording equiptment, and some unfulfilled creative desires so we set to work. i'd lay down the boogaloo and send it to joseph where he would add the sasafrazz. the songs we play are a bit different than i'm used to but i think it's a product of me being in the city. i need my music to contrast the surroundings, hence: fucked up crazy loud rock/electronic music feels to easy in the city, hence: no fun. hence: i started writing quieter bluesish/countryish/jazzish/folkish pop that would sound good with some thoughtful electronics over top.

i handle the guitar and voices while joseph is in charge of the bass and other toys. perhaps that will change but we're going to keep sending stuff back and forth to each other and the final cuts shall be hearable at www.myspace.com/cadburyfronts. on that myspace page there are also some songs up for one mr. mark hill (i needed a space to put up new methamphetamine song ideas). this shameless plug shall cease now, enjoy.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

The Blow (my future wife) at Luminaire

last night i went to see the blow. it was one of the best shows i have seen in a long while, hands down. she performed at the luminaire and i went with my paternal grandparents who are visiting at the moment. they had as much fun as i did; my grandparents are cooler than yours.

The show, which remained fairly mellow throughout, started out with a one man singer songwriter called "the carl" (i think). i coveted his guitar very much. i gave up my gearheadedness when i was about 13 but he was playing an old vintage pastel pink colored one pickupped fender mustang and it sounded great. it sounded like if georgia was in the midwest or something. basically he played nice little tunes but his voice sounded like joanna newsome, and although i love her to pieces, it didn't fit with his style.


next up was death sentence: panda. holy fuck, they were awesome too. they were a trio out of frisco that consisted of a small little asian strumpet who played flute and screamed, a guy who played a clarinet that ran through the craziest processor ever, and a drummer who was manic (although i wished his set sounded better as opposed to paper towels being hit by flacid cocks). i wanted to buy their cd but the man in front of me bought the last one. after he heard my sighs he offered to send me the whole album via email. this man, named conrad, should be crowned as king. i received the album this morning not even 24 hours after the show. the world is good.


then came miss k-records queen herself, the blow. she is also a performance artist and although you can't so much tell from her records, she is crafty, sassy, sexy, and hott. basically after playing a few songs she started to do very long monologues which invited the audience into her tragic sexual/romantic personal life. whether these stories were true, like a man ending up in her bedroom to tell her why he yelled out his car window at "babes", it didn't matter because we all sat there with sweaty palms and short breathes just just praying that she'd look in our direction.

the venue was one of the best venues i have ever been to as well. you could see the stage perfectly from every direction (you could also stand to the side of the stage and watch from there, and the only back that the stage had was a sheet. there were even signs that read: "quiet, if you talk we will tell you to shut up, you didn't pay money to talk to your friends while a band is playing." ballsy but it worked) well whatever the case the show was great and she even played old favorites like "what tom said about girls" and this amazing cover of a jason anderson song called "jet ski accident" as well as all the new favorites: "pile of gold", "parentheses", "true affection". well it was the first ever show i walked out of feeling horny. i think the only other time that happened was in 12th grade when i walked out of the movie "American Wedding", boy i was a mess.