Live New Orleans

The Animals and The Bee Gees--Carrollton Station--10/31/09

2012-01-10T12:30:00.002-06:00

I didn't know Alex Smith could play guitar. The bassist, known for his work with Theresa Andersson and World Leader Pretend, showed off some impressive axe work as the one man backing band for The Bee Gees at Carrollton Station Halloween night. Smith arranged the covers and interludes, which were snippets from the Daft Punk oeuvre. The Bee Gees+Daft Punk go together suprisingly well. Smith dressed as one half of Daft Punk, sporting a leather jacket and a motorcycle helmet, complete with visor and weird ear speaker thingies.

The Gibb brothers were Eric Corveau as Andy, Sarah Fontenelle(sporting an impressive amount of chest hair) as Barry, and Michael Patrick Welch as Robin. They were dressed in white, and at one point, Andy showered the stage with cocaine(flour). The three obviously practiced, as they traded verses and sang cool high-pitched harmonies.

The whole performance was pretty spot on and a lot of fun to watch and dance to. I thought I didn't like The Bee Gees, but I apparently do.

Next up was local Park the Van rock band Giant Cloud as The Animals. They sounded exactly like I imagine The Animals did. Their tone was a match, and their execution was almost flawless. Pretty impressive considering the band admitted they didn't really practice for the set. They obviously got by because they loved the material and knew it by heart. It was nice to hear some rock and roll. Not rock--rock n roll. I musta had at least five people come up to me and, so impressed with their performance, ask, "Who are these guys?" Look out for Giant Cloud.

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2011-12-22T16:16:00.001-06:00

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Bones

2011-05-07T14:18:00.002-06:00

I play drums in a band called Bones. Listen:

http://www.myspace.com/bones

2010-11-23T21:01:00.002-06:00

Luckier Pierre Rider

2010-10-15T08:22:00.002-06:00

I did not write this. But, I wanted to share it because it's hilarious.

LUCKIER PIERRE RIDER

We are dreading this imminent fiasco and we are so much better than this gig. maybe you can make it up to us by running around getting totally unnecessary shit.
that way we can hassle you from the moment we show up about presales and towels and parking and maybe you won't notice that we are incapable of writing one good song ever.

in order to ensure a smooth and quality performance by luckier pierre these arrested-pubescent proto-millennials require alot of stuff that you need to get them.
If you don't they'll tell their moms.

provide the following now goddammit.

Breakfast. LP requires that YOU eat a hearty breakfast. Vegetarian and at least two cups of Coffee.

TRANSPORTATION- we require a 7 passenger Cadillac limousine and a sober driver who knows his way out of town. tip him.

DRESSING ROOM- this is LP home while in your building. Their homes are nice (not that you'll ever go there) so get to work.

We want to maximize our environmental impact so we want tons of plastic and styrofoam cups etc.
Make up mirror. Well lit.
Reusable china. No wait China is evil. Well embrace it.
2 large couches for napping.
separate room for dancers. please provide dancers.
no food in dressing room! these dudes are strict vegans who must eat every 45 minutes and then leave the hummus out to stink up the place. last time they hid the shrimp plate above the ceiling tiles and the E.A.R.L. in Atlanta still smells like a seafood market dumpster.
ok, maybe some Popeyes.

WEDNESDAY- please provide 4 pair black gap socks size 10-13 US.

separate room for wardrobe.

VENUE must provide MASTER OF CEREMONIES who must be armed. If a private security firm is used we must tour the D-Day museum together no later than 3pm!

LUCKIER PIERRE IS NOT REQUIRED TO PERFORM BEFORE A SEGREGATED AUDIENCE.

Please advise all employees of the "circle bar" or wherever the fuck, not to meet eyes or speak to the "ARTISTS". We bring our own booze.

We play industrial gospel lesbian bluegrass, we're not "people" people.

AFTER the show (after you're all like "what happened?") get used to your newly arranged DNA by getting us out the door post haste.

If you have any questions save them for your therapist or guru or whoever. I think they'll find them fascinating.

I just want to type "need" and "require" and "must provide" again. "it is imperative" shit like that.

I forgot SOUND CHECK- it'll be us dragging around, arguing and finding the perfect spot for our guitar center electronics and shit. please tell your "sound technician" genius to stand by quietly or get us some water. As soon as he steps off we are going to yell for him so he needs to wait there the entire time like some fucking stage side gargoyle while we reprogram our loop station (if you know what i mean) Then we'll play our entire set 3 times without ever once acknowledging him . WE DO SOUNDCHECK AFTER THE SHOW.

Thanks for nothing. Say "cheers" to me. I dare you.

Ratty Scurvics and His Imaginary Quintet

2010-08-06T13:39:00.002-06:00

RATTY SCURVICS AND HIS IMAGINARY QUINTET, TONIGHT AT ONE EYED JACKS WITH ROUGH 7 AND HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF

"The best and most underrated frontman and songwriter in New Orleans, pianist and singer Ratty Scurvics now comes equipped with an all-star band of veterans featuring The White Bitch (guitar), Microshards (bass) , Jimmy Ford (drums) and Jack Pritchett (trumpet). http://community.avid.com/blogs/theroughcut/archive/2011/12/24/039-twenty-years-of-gear.aspx Truly and artist's artist, Scurvics' stands out in the city as the one artist who consistently blows minds http://verticalgrass.com/articles/220-investing-in-ipo.html and fills dancefloors without ever pandering to the fun-obsessed."--Michael Patrick Welch

This Is Happening: How The Oil Spill is Changing My Relation to Music

2010-07-12T16:15:00.016-06:00

In the 1985 comic masterpiece Better Off Dead, John Cusack's character, Lloyd Dobbler, is driving his parent's station wagon away to anywhere. He's just been dumped by his girlfriend, and he's not in the mood to hear Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" when it comes on the car stereo. He changes the station, after which Paul Simon's "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover" is heard and quickly rejected. The joke kicks in when "She's Gone" by Hall & Oates follows, and it's finished when Dobbler throws the stereo out the car after Linda Rondstadt's "Hurts So Bad" catapults him over the edge.

We've all been there. After a personal or shared tragedy, the songs we hear are sequenced by a higher power very aware of our situation, only to mess with us, it seems. It seems, as we are so sensitive, raw, and vulnerable. We latch onto lyrics when normally we wouldn't notice. And just like watching lovers holding hands, floating down the street, smiling sunshine, those lyrics can just remind you of hurt. We're on our hands and knees, looking for a message, some kind of guidance. Sometimes we know exactly where to look.

When my friend/roommate was going through a bad breakup in college, I didn't see him much. I did hear two songs blasting from his room at all hours, though: Ben Lee's "Ship My Body Home" and Elliott Smith's "Waltz #2". Only those two, again and again. I didn't mind, because, for one, I knew he was using them for catharsis, and two, they were great songs. In a way I felt honored that I got to live through that process with him. Of course, if he had somehow never recovered, I wouldn't be saying that, but he's married with two kids.

When my grandmother died I had TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me" on repeat.

It's a great crazed/singing in your car-kinda song. And then when my grandfather went, the only album I listened to on my way to and from Natchez, Mississippi was Soundgarden's Superunknown. That's a exceptional, dark album that can get really evil and angry. Perfect for a state of confusion.

With the oil spill, that feeling of confusion has been joined by a feeling of hopelessness. I've been incensed but I've kept my regular life together, somehow. As we've gotten deeper and deeper into the spill, as my silent rage has been building and building, songs that I'm very familiar with have taken on new meaning.

Most of the music I pull towards the spill comes from two artists: Radiohead and Rage Against The Machine. Which is no surprise, I guess. They're both political, one more than the other. But when I hear Radiohead's "Just," and the words "you do it to youself/and that's what really hurts," I now become a criminal to many people, not just myself. I used to hear it as a self-pity anthem, but now I think about throwing money at the oil industry since I was sixteen.

Radiohead's "2+2=5" is a great way to point the finger at everyone else. "Are you such a dreamer/to put the world to rights" is a line I used to associate with George W. Bush, but now it points to BP's obstruction of the press and their access to the spill. The song hits it's emotional and lyrical apex with the following lines: "It's the devil's way now/there is no way out/you can scream and you can shout/it is too late now/because you have not been paying attention." We should have seen this coming. All the spills that preceded it, the way the government allowed the oil industry to slide with loose safety regulations in exchange for dollars. This song is a prime conduit for guilt and self-righteous anger. A shouter, for sure.

Can you guess who the bulls are?

The next one hurts the most. Radiohead's "Like Spinning Plates." I've always loved this song, but the lyrics didn't mean anything until now. Every word is relatable. The words "this just feels like spinning plates" are the lyrical centerpiece and express how I feel about the red tape we've had to cut through to get the slightest things done. And how, right now, there's still oil coming out of the sea floor. Do you remember how the president's televised oil spill speech sounded more like a way to further his agenda than affect change? The first lyrics are "While you make pretty speeches/I'm being cut to shreds." The next is "You feed me to the lions." This spill is Obama's and he hasn't owned it. He doesn't understand how bad this will get and how poorly history will look at him for his poor handling of it. If he knew, he would have done what he should have, which is camp out on the coast until the oil flow is stopped. Might seem unreasonable, but I don't think there'd still be oil flowing if he had. Let Biden deal in D.C. while he makes sure everything goes as quickly as possible down here. The final lines are "And this just feels like spinning plates/I'm living in cloud cuckoo land/And this just feels like spinning plates/Our bodies floating down the muddy river." Cuckoo land? I'm already there.

The last Radiohead-related song is Thom Yorke's "Black Swan." It's pretty easy to be defeated while listening to this one. Choice lyrics: "Do yourself a favor and pack your bags/Buy a ticket and get on the train/cause this is fucked up, fucked up." I've thought about it, especially with all the benzene in the air.

The last one is Rage Against The Machine's "Wake Up." I walk around, hang out and talk and hear nothing about the spill. Everything but the spill. I understand denial, because I'm not exactly talking about it at every turn. Why would I? Such a downer, dude. But, we're dying, and we need to own up and speak. Educate each other, and if you're not sure what to do, do what comes natural. Talk. Everything else will follow.

Bands

2010-06-21T14:40:00.001-06:00

Glasgow tell dark tales with a smile, tongue planted firmly in cheek. The Craft Brothers lead this producer of dramatic, progressive and quirky rock songs. They've managed to take their audience with them out of college--a solid feat.

www.myspace.com/glasgow
www.glasgowband.net
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV_26hzZAa0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvTuPlOqgGY

Spickle is the sound of victory, the band I would storm a castle to. They're a sick, righteous instrumental chameleon that incorporates hard rock, sludge, and math mastery. You'll leave slackjawed.

www.myspace.com/spickle
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCBb-NoDMlI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUdaZAGMO_Y

Some of A Living Soundtrack is space transistor waking music, and some of it sounds sounds like insanity in a psychedelic netherworld. A very electro--drumpad, Mac, two synthesizers, an occassional bass--band, even the acoustic drums sound like they're played by a robot.

www.myspace.com/alivingsoundtrack
www.alivingsoundtrack.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ClmjhsY-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTDG5KUKyt0

You heard it here, first: Rotary Downs is the best rock band in the world. Is there really anything that weird about imagining them opening for Wilco or Radiohead somewhere right now? No. Everything they do right: verbosity, dynamics, harmonies, acute attention to detail, Chris Columbo, etc. They can do short, hooky pop songs just as well as they do more epic yet mapped psychedelic excursions.

www.myspace.com/rotarydowns
www.rotarydowns.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYA9I5pIDHk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrgcC5AHVfA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITals_xZl1w

Downtrodden and dark, The Happy Talk Band's blend of rock and country is always a good drinking partner. The head-bopping hooks and melodies provide a nice contrast, while the Irish barroom chants offer great catharsis. Also, you can live inside of Luke Allen's lyrics. They're working on their third album, and judging by "Legalize Suicide" and what I've heard live, it's gonna be great.

www.myspace.com/thehappytalkband
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzghKn5Pjx0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S16QsjrB94
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUCuA3KN5Jo

Big Blue Marble is a vehicle for Dave Fera's exceptional pop/rock songwriting. Lead guitarist Ike Aguilar, who brings equal doses beauty and power, has been the band's mainstay, and his southern rock influence is a perfect foil to Fera's base in '80's indie rock. Ferocious yet delicate, they are a local treasure and should be applauded more than they are.

www.myspace.com/bigbluemarble
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRNn1WefS3c
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZGfXLZg-A

Felix is an irreverent, nihilistic, and crazed rock and roll band. Blind Texas Marlin's repressed anger is bubbling up, and is a pissed off bluesman, as a result. He twitches and yells above the pretty organ melodies and the pan and keg percussion.

www.myspace.com/felixnola

Narcissy is a loose garage rock trio that manages to be spectacular without letting on. The best part could be Jay Holland's acidic, matter-of-fact, slice-of-life commentary. Some songs are slower and surrounded by pot smoke, while others are more punk, almost metal. If you don't already love "The Ostrich Song," you will.

www.myspace.com/narcissy

It's weird when people talk like bands can't do a blues/rock duo now that the White Stripes have done it. Lovehog do it well, incorporating Beefheart and Waitsian elements to weird things out. There's a real sickness in this music, so it makes sense it's loud and invigorating.

www.myspace.com/lovehog
www.lovehog.com

Hairy Lamb provides a danceable soundtrack for socially awkard outsiders that still wanna get laid. The dark, freewheeling, immature, and eccentric group is made even weirder by petite singer Jeanne, who becomes just as evil as the boys. Witness Brooke Lamm's clogging and super awesome bass playing.

Rock City Morgue is a horror-themed rock n' roll band with metal leanings and a firm footing in the Cramps and Misfits-shaped world they grew up in. Though they're bound for guitar solos, the band's strongest material may be pianist Sean Yseult's ballads.

www.myspace.com/rockcitymorgue
www.last.fm/music/Rock+City+Morgue

Now that James Hall has moved away and Erik Corveau is out of a band for a second, I feel fine saying with certainty that Rik Slave is the best rock frontman in the city. His Phantoms are a 20 year-old soul and country-tinged rock group. They're a loose party starter, throwing out great Beatles, Kinks, and Stones covers.

www.myspace.com/rikslaveandthephantoms
www.sleazegrinder.com/SuicideNotesPhantoms.htm

Alex McMurray is good at expressing the cracks in between the human existence. His sardonic wit and heartfelt and gentle character pieces drive his solo work, The Tin Men--his guitar/sousaphone/washboard group(look for "Immigrant Song" and The Dirty Dozen's "Blaackbird Special"), and Royal Fingerbowl--a band that exists outside genres and captures the spirit and soul of the city so well that I wish they'd become a regular thing again.

www.myspace.com/alexmcmurray
www.alexmcmurray.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOR8nmw97ro
vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=7290170
vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=7289997

At a recent One Eyed Jacks show for ten people at 2:30 a.m., Big Rock Candy Mountain showed thanks by going for throats and exhibiting a punk force. They exhausted themselves, holding nothing back. Their MySpace describes their music perfectly by just listing influences: The Dismemberment Plan, The Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age, and Led Zeppelin.

www.myspace.com/bigrockcandymountain
blog.bigrockcandymountain.net/
www.bigrockcandymountain.net

It's easy and fun to get lost in the large sound of indie/folksters Silent Cinema. Micah McKee tells troubadour tales of lost friends, alcoholism, redemption, and hope, supplemented with electric guitars and horns. You'll fill up your lungs with these songs and never get tired of them.

www.myspace.com/silentcinema
www.silent-cinema.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb-_ywzA8hA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=toCdpfOJnpA

New transports from Ruston recently picked up by Park The Van Records, Giant Cloud are a gentle and dreamy quintet with a romantic, Abbey Road feel. They do an awesome version of "Don't Let Me Down" to prove it. So delicate and pretty it'll put you in a daze, drifting away somewhere nice, sunflower breeze and soothing harmonies in an open field. Dig the barrelhouse piano.

www.myspace.com/giantcloudmusic
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqploV35K80

Caddywhompus is a vibrant duo that is as equally liable to cause make-out sessions as they are to make you wanna throw your body against a wall. Sometimes herky, jerky, noisy and dancey and other times lilybed pop, the trippy, processed vocals add to the psych feel. They are loud and get to the root. Screw the audience. Dance your ass off.

www.myspace.com/caddywhompusband
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTMr9M5Zm8E
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LIdczQItlA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjuWiiIKH5Y

MyNameIsJohnMichael is a melodramatic pop/rock band shooting for the stars. They succeed with their big sound and larger energy. Leader John Michael Rouchell tirelessly engages the crowd, winning them to the music.

www.myspace.com/mynameisjohnmichael
mnijm.wordpress.com/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOy7U2NiAo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr0Xyb_3-Rg

I, Octopus is a local instrumental rock trio that goes from noise jams to a sophisticated, piano laced soundtrack for pot smoking in your big chair. They have an awesome sense of melody and ability for diversity. By changing their direction so many times, going quickly from one passage to another, they keep the listener at a welcome, anxious spot, wondering how many ways this could morph into something new.

www.myspace.com/ioctopus
www.youtube.com/watch?v=88J3TVoHjUA

White Colla Crimes is a joke band, a nine piece hip hop group dominated by whites that rap about crack, extortion, sex, and...office politics? Thankfully, they're as good at the funny as they are at music. It's straight out of the Dre/Snoop/B Boys playbook. Live, they bring the ruckus with a horn section and a huge bass and drums sound. "There's a bomb in the club/We gon blow this bitch up"

www.myspace.com/whitecolla
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPHdOwIylpk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaKjv36Jyx8

Sick Like Sinatra is a trio that lip synchs and mimes on their instruments while their pre-recorded, synth heavy dance music plays through the PA. These theatrical vundurkinds use props(mannequins, a life-sized poster of Madonna) and lights and synchronized man-dancing to send one very important message: we're horny and we're ready to have sex with aliens.

www.myspace.com/sicklikesinatra
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oMRM-Qf5IM

The Bruisers are a loose party band whose mix of country and New Orleans R&B is strengthened by Jason Goodman's formidable guitar work. Things are liable to get out of control real quick deep into a set, like a rollercoaster with no chance of slowing. Mary's yelling, then David's yellin', then everyone's yellin'. It's always fun.

www.myspace.com/lesbruisiersbruisersneworleans

Though they've been at it for more than fifteen years, The Geraniums remain the most unheralded, underrated band in the city. This is music that slices into your arm without you knowing--music to drown to. Vocalist Brendan Gallagher is a wonderful poet who creates a shameful yet indignant set for the music. They make sadness beautiful, and their bubbles of anxiety and frustration never, never, never pop.

www.myspace.com/thegeraniums
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqjg4S61z8k
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBot0cTqd0c

A violin and two accordions, oh my! Skip the Zydepunks CD and get up close because this is a band to dance to, if you can stand the smelly mosh. This instrumental group are stalwarts of the Marigny/Bywater area and tour often. A mix of Cajun, hardcore, klezmer, Balkan, Irish, etc.

www.myspace.com/zydepunks
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWdARvMtx-o
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV4M4uwGHUA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvnE8Q8i4aU

Steve Eck and The Midnight Still are stuck in purgatory. There's a celebratory hopelessness in the songs about needles, booze, guns, and busted love--a feeling that the only way to beat the darkness is go a little further into it. Eck's haunting songs hinge on his dramatic, deep drawl and the sheer creepiness that comes with the melange of an accordion, banjo, and acoustic guitar.

www.myspace.com/steveeck

The Junior League is a group influenced by Sloan and The Minus 5, and of course, The Beatles. I think of them when I think of pop rock. They play upbeat songs but also soulful love ballads. Listen to "Beautiful Room is Empty" or "Let Me Win," and go see leader Joe Adragna's Monkees cover band, The Missing Links.

www.myspace.com/juniorleague

Wazozo features bandleader Helen Gillet singing traditional french songs by artists such as Georges Brassens and Edith Piaf, brought to life with cello, guitar, violin, and harp. Walking inside from a Twitter world, you will relax and change moods. Some songs are more danceable and upbeat, while lopers make you swear you're sitting in a French cafe pondering romance.

www.myspace.com/wazozo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDtHMCUweHQ

The Tomatoes are a power pop band that mix handclaps with alienation and angst. Their intense live show has a lot of punk energy, so much so that I'm waiting for a drum rim or guitar strings to draw blood. I like their raw, grunge sounding first album, but I also like their cleaner, synthesizer-laden, more epic new songs. Check out "The Futurist."

www.myspace.com/thetomatoes
www.thetomatoes.net
www.youtube.com/user/thetomatoes#p/u/0/bkxVzM22Of4
www.youtube.com/user/thetomatoes#p/u/3/fpJ0nOULSZU

The Public is a dark, dance rock band that harbors traces of goth and britpop--the kind of group growly bass was made for. The dramatic whispers about daliances and headweight set the mood, but Jack Champagne's efficient, cutting guitar lines drive the sound. They get better each time I see them.

www.myspace.com/thepublic
www.wearethepublic.com

Earplugs are a must for the aggressive and loud instrumental duo called High in One Eye. They constantly change direction, and it seems like snippets of songs are sewn together to form their hardcore/jazz sound. The two are right on top of one another throughout, showing a sick, intuitive connection. Make a mean face.

www.myspace.com/highinoneeye
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqD3wC-UkVY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=etjg7cwl55w

Would you like hard rock from four women that sneer sexy, uninhibited party songs about sex, drugs, and leather? Manwitch, at your service. Blistering guitar solos from Laurie Shefsky add weight to catchy riffs from vocalist/guitarist Sue Ford. They used to do a great cover of Nirvana's "Aneurysm." They've gelled much since then.

www.myspace.com/manwitch

Glorybee is anxious, sweet, and angry pop/rock/hip hop with pretty vocal harmonies from outer space and a free jazz attitude. You want weird? You got weird. Lead singer Nancy Kang will get in your face, right after she offers you a chicken mcnugget on a stick. "Are you Chinese?"

www.myspace.com/glorybeeglorybee
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vtGszOtGNQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEBFhuAzW2A

Dance yourself into a psych synth haze with The Buttons. Some of the music is cold, robotic, and German-sounding, and some is hot, dirty, nasty, funky, and wrong(in the best way). As many electro groups are, the duo are fans of the visuals. One night at The Dragon's Den they passed a box-shaped, old synthesizer with wires running in and out of it off as a real one.

www.myspace.com/thebuttonsnola
vimeo.com/4932683
www.backporchrevolution.com/artist.php?id=15

Known for his ability to manufacture a sweaty dance party, Quintron's crowd-pleasing but bizarro aural candy mixes electro, hip hop, and R&B with the help of his synth organ and custom made drum machine. Miss Pussycat provides back-up vocals and percussion. I'm still waiting for that Quintron/Ballzack collaboration.

www.quintronandmisspussycat.com
www.myspace.com/mrquintron
vimeo.com/2067198
vimeo.com/2070770

Ballzack is a bounce-influenced former stand-up with the funniest rhymes out there, along with a jones for nostalgia and local culture--especially if it has to do with The Westbank. What keeps 'em coming back are his beats and music, which Beck should be proud of. His concerts are straight-up parties, and because he's so self-deprecating and laid back onstage, even his lyrical flubs are golden.

www.myspace.com/ballzacknola
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsVfWHPq3ng
vimeo.com/1700524
www.youtube.com/watch?v=usYZ3Wuu9gY

Naked on the Floor is a smaller version(six or seven instead of fifteen) of The Naked Orchestra, which offers original avant jazz compositions. The quality of the players is astounding--Albert, Garrison, Walsh, Green, Singleton, Gillet, Coogan, etc.--and it allows leader Jonathan Freilich to trust they'll know when to keep to the charts and when to improv. Try not to be dumbfounded and/or inspired.

www.jazzweekly.com/reviews/naked_naked.htm
www.jeffalbert.com/naked/

Well, it's a good start when the best bassist(James Singleton) and best pedal steel player(Dave Easley) in the city are in the same group--3 Now 4. This modern jazz(a nice fallback designation) quartet is alternately dreamy, filled with sadness, post-bob frenzied, and spooky. They weave in and out of styles and genres easily, and they know when not to play, a true value. Trust me--you can't lose.

www.louisianamusicfactory.com/showoneprod.asp?ProductID=123
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHmXqZFgh20
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-xmSiMZmac

A bass/drums rock duo of all nihilistic attitude, Bones is raw hump mixed with ennui and drug use. Michael Miller and Scott Campbell's slithery, degenerate charm complements the fuzz(Flying V) bass and cymbal-heavy songs very well. Their dirty jokes make my inner high schooler happy. If you don't take yourself too seriously, you'll enjoy their irreverent take on sex, death, and religion.

www.myspace.com/bones

The Myrtles play plaintive and tortured country/indie pop that gets a sunny reprieve when guitarist Lee Barbier floats his love of classic rock and when he straps on a mandolin. No matter how defeated the lyrics are, the music is catchy, and the five-piece band produces a large sound that'll make you move a bit. Good songs, man. It all comes back to good songs.

www.myspace.com/themyrtles

The great thing about this jazz/noise/rock band One Man Machine is that their vision is constantly evolving, and that discovery and experimentation and improv are the modus operandi. Leader Bernard Pearce floats the band over rough patches with his commitment and love for the journey and his hope that people want to experience it, too, bruises and all. Expect looping, drone rhythms, and sporadic psychedelic enveloping.

www.myspace.com/onemanmachine
www.dailymotion.com/video/x17x9m_one-man-machine_music

The White Bitch's inventive pre-programmed beats free him up to loop his guitar or play the Moog while he kicks out the jams or offers up his unique blend of falsetto-assisted white boy soul and hip hop. He's a free jazz noise dude at heart, and sidekick Ray Bong is just the guy to make sure things stay unhinged. TWB is one of the best rock guitarists in town.

www.myspace.com/thecreamywhitebitch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpbqEHFMtjw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=88f4GRs1X6s

The Other Planets are jazz dudes that take on all genres, flowing as they wish between them. This seven piece(saxophone, bass, keys, sampler, sequencer, drums, etc.) create orchestral, highly detailed worlds of sound, only to quickly discard one to reach another. Their acidic and irreverent sense of humor is a boon to the music.

www.myspace.com/theotherplanets
www.theotherplanets.com
vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1847683

The Bingo! Show's mix of theatrics and music thrives because everything about it is impeccable: the color schemes, the costumes, the lighting, the music, the performers--Ronnie Numbers, Mr. The Turk, and Veve LaRoux are all very good at what they do. Clint Maedgen's songs are love letters to New Orleans, something sickly sweet for the ear.

www.neworleansbingoshow.com/Site/The_New_Orleans_Bingo!_Show.html
www.myspace.com/thebingoshow
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU649Kwp8mE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbAEtsZ8fhs

Schizophrenic mania never sounded so good. Metronome The City are dark, instrumental jazz/noise rockers that take the listener on a twisting nightmarish journey of which the end can never be seen. The projections behind them move just as fast as the music, freaking your mind out even further.

www.metronomethecity.com
www.myspace.com/metronomethecity
www.vimeo.com/2457864
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwmruDRZ2E

Suplecs is easily one of the best metal groups in the city, and their powerhouse, groove-heavy music will make you feel like you just got caught in a storm and are about to be quartered by the air. Five words: shredding, loud, headbanging, rock horns. I'm pretty sure they play the best cover of "I Want You(She's So Heavy)" in the history of the world. For fans of High on Fire, Melvins, and Blue Cheer.

www.myspace.com/suplecs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwK1vNT3uTI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHqkILcJBIw

Time freezes, the world relaxes for a second, and you get lost. Using banjo, accordion, horns, fiddle, percussion, and bass, Hurray for The Riff Raff play dark tunes that muse and caution on street life. The slower, more delicate ones("Little Things," "Junebug Waltz," and "Fly Away") are favorites. Leader Alydna Lee's voice is beautiful, and her songs are heartbreaking.

www.myspace.com/hurrayfortheriffraff
vimeo.com/7051274
vimeo.com/2771172

If punk had started in New Orleans, Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship? is what it would have sounded like. Bursting with life and stompingly danceable, this music occurs where folk meets brass. Leader Walt McClements' voice has an urgent, swim-or-die theatricality, while the tone of the instrumentals is more carefree and fun.

www.myspace.com/whyarewebuildingsuchabigship
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFi0CvyIerw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRVQHizdB0

Chef Menteur is a local experimental and instrumental rock group from which you’re as likely to hear the hum of an oscillator as you are an acoustic guitar, banjo, xylophone, synthesizer or theremin. Some songs are lighthearted and full of wonder, some are majestically ominous, and some a cross between peace and the apocalypse. They're journeys and escapes. Chef Menteur’s not just playing around with knobs—-they’re coming into their art and doing things no one else has.

www.backporchrevolution.com/artist.php?id=2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc7yW8CRA8k
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MU5OlEHOo

Little Freddie King will wow you with his roadhouse, wheel-gone-off-the-track blues and his high energy dance moves and showmanship. The 68 year-old is known for throwing his leg over his guitar as he skips along the stage. Try standing still.

www.myspace.com/littlefreddieking
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ESBkT6_hZA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFg1hJoLx8

I thought of Death From Above 1979 the first time I heard Microshards because J. Microshard's dance-oriented yet dark and nasty low bass sound was reminiscent. This death disco instrumental group also includes a drum machine, loop pedals, and legendary musician Ratty Scurvics on synthesizer.

www.myspace.com/themicroshards

King Louie's longevity in New Orleans music(and beyond) can be attributed to his songwriting talent. Some bands he's in or has been: Missing Monuments, The Black Rose Band, Royal Pendletons, King Louie One Man Band, Exploding Hearts, King Louie and The Loose Diamonds, Kajun SS, Kondor, Bipolaroid, etc.

www.myspace.com/kinglouieandhisrocknroll
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IpUryxC5Us
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSZ8Da9-3P0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LMNTNaTlZ0

Where else but in New Orleans will you find a rock band altered by brass instruments and folk sleaze? I love veteran sextet Egg Yolk Jubilee for their irreverence, both in their mix of styles and lyrical subject matter(it's not safe for work). One second they're playing a straight Dixieland romp and the next they're blasting a Sabbath cover. What's not to love?

www.myspace.com/eggyolkjubileemusicband
www.eggyolkjubilee.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_9y7qvswIk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8ESqcG09Rg

After B.R. band The Eames Era broke up, Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer moved to New Orleans and formed Generationals, later recruiting former Deadboy and The Elephantmen drummer Tess Brunet. The group released their first album, Con Law, on Park The Van Records and have been touring frequently on their unique pop rock sound. I hear '60's rock, soul and girl group references, along with horns, voice and guitar reverb, keys, etc. Sounds great. Check out "Exterior Street Day."

www.myspace.com/generationals
www.generationals.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRzCXWh8ysM

The Lovey Dovies, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and James Hall

2010-04-02T17:45:00.002-06:00

¿Tiene una llave de la batería?

Local rock band The Lovey Dovies are on tour in South America, specifically Chile and Argentina. http://www.myspace.com/loveydovies. Sun Hotel and High in One Eye are also touring pockets of the U.S.

SIGNINGS

Not sure if this is still news or not but local rock group The Bellys signed to Autumn Tone Records, an extension of Aquarium Drunkard in L.A. http://www.myspace.com/ilovebellys

Also, Lafayette rock group Brass Bed signed to our very own Park The Van Records. http://www.myspace.com/brassbed

THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX

opens this weekend at the CAC. For showtimes and all info:

http://www.hi-yah.org/

DOWNLOAD THE NEW FUTURA BOLD ALBUM FOR FREE

http://soc.li/omVvIYN

JAMES HALL AND THE FUTURA BOLD CD RELEASE PARTY
APRIL 16TH
ONE EYED JACKS
10 P.M.

UPCOMING SHOWS

APRIL 2ND--TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS--ONE EYED JACKS

http://www.myspace.com/tedleo

APRIL 2ND--THE LEE BOYS--THE HOWLIN WOLF

http://www.myspace.com/leeboys

APRIL 9TH--KING REY WITH SILENT CINEMA--THE CIRCLE BAR

http://www.myspace.com/streetfriendsband
http://www.myspace.com/silentcinema

APRIL 10TH--KINDEST LINES WITH PUMPKIN, BROKE BEADS, AND ENNE ENNE--THE CIRCLE BAR

http://www.myspace.com/kindestlines
http://www.myspace.com/pumpkin

APRIL 12TH--HERE WE GO MAGIC WITH BRASS BED--REPUBLIC

http://www.myspace.com/herewegomagic

APRIL 13TH--HARLEM--ONE EYED JACKS

http://www.myspace.com/harlemduh

APRIL 15TH--WHITE COLLA CRIMES WITH THE LOCAL SKANK--THE CIRCLE BAR

http://www.myspace.com/whitecolla
http://www.myspace.com/thelocalskank

APRIL 15TH--HIGH ON FIRE WITH PRIESTESS--ONE EYED JACKS

http://www.myspace.com/highonfire

APRIL 17TH--R SCULLY AND THE ROUGH SEVEN--THE CIRCLE BAR

APRIL 18TH--CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE--THE CIRCLE BAR

http://www.myspace.com/cftpa

APRIL 22ND--AQUASERGE WITH CASPER AND THE COOKIES--THE CIRCLE BAR

http://www.myspace.com/aquoisersje
http://www.myspace.com/casperthecookies

APRIL 25TH--THE FUNKY METERS--HOUSE OF BLUES

APRIL 29TH--WHITE HINTERLAND WITH DOSH PLUS A LIVING SOUNDTRACK

http://www.myspace.com/whitehinterland
http://www.myspace.com/doshanticon
http://www.myspace.com/alivingsoundtrack

MAY 9TH--JACUZZI BOYS WITH THE BELLYS--THE CIRCLE BAR

http://www.myspace.com/jacuzzi boys
http://www.myspace.com/ilovebellys

MAY 10TH--GROWING--THE CIRCLE BAR

http://www.myspace.com/growingsoundnyc

Slint's Spiderland

2010-03-28T15:07:00.004-06:00

Slint's Spiderland commiserates, embodying the frustrated outsider. After bonding over a creepy, unright feeling, an alienation, a secret is whispered in your ear. It is pretty and violent.

rising out of the river, water dripping from the sinewy body. Shoulders low. Hands open. The man moves with determination, as his fixed, dead eyes reveal the lost ability to argue.

This album pierced my heart with a bomb of light and made me want to tear my face off and simply agree. To bow and say yes, I understand. You understand.

"I'm sorry. I miss you."

After listening to "Good Morning, Captain," the rest of the album can be found in the related links.

Jawbox's "Savory"

2010-03-27T16:26:00.003-06:00

Pinning the knife on the donkey. An old man wearing an oxygen mask. Children petting a dead dog that's just been opened as a birthday present. Yep, this is definitely a '90's rock music video. Funny how it's so serious.

This is your big statement, a girl dressed in her Easter best stabbing at cake and dancing with her friends to your less-than-palatable music?

The images, though not shocking anymore, were obviously an attempt to cause unrest by punks who were given the keys to the kingdom. And I can't blame em. I probably would have done the same thing. "That dog is really gonna mess with people, man. Good job."

Can you imagine a band like Jawbox or Shudder to Think being signed to a major label today? Oooh, I laughed for a good two minutes there.

Spoon's "Written in Reverse"

2010-03-26T19:33:00.004-06:00

This song steams with frustration and sharp breathless desperation. The worst or best part is that the voice is very sober and aware of the problem. The most alive, eyes wide, during the most fearful moments, all semblance of self and normality dissolved.

Rotary Downs, James Hall, Foburg, and The Circle Bar

2010-03-09T20:18:00.002-06:00

"YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!"

The new Rotary Downs album, "Cracked Maps and Blue Reports," is a more epic album than their previous three full-lengths. The songs are longer and more open-minded, comprising attractive songwriting choices like sudden twists, blackouts, and reprises.

"Maps" is also a more ethereal addition, thanks in part to co-vocalist Tiffany Lamson's "oohs" and "aahs." The band reaches for beauty through harmonies and psychedelic sound layers that build through songs and send a chill with their overwhelming colors. There's more vocal tracks, overdubs, and sound collages, making it clear the Downers have been mastering the studio. This is a better produced album, a headphones album(you'll need at least 3 or 4 listens to appreciate the nuances). The group is more comfortable with auxiliary instruments(synthesizer, electronic drums, xylophone, woodblock, metal percussion, triangle, shakers, church bells), and thanks to the mixing and the occasional coupling of Lamson's voice, lead vocalist James Marler's lyrics are thankfully more distinguishable than ever.

As far as I can hear, and that might not be very far, guitarist Chris Columbo has put away his pedal steel guitar and instead focused on tight-knit, catchy lines, swashes of noise, and splashes of guitar heroics. Bassist Jason Rhein and drummer Zack Smith pulse together and are responsible for a stop and go/push and pull that, along with nods to Afrobeat, Dance, and Hip Hop, makes the album unpredictable and fun.

Rotary Downs play their CD Release Party at One Eyed Jacks tonight with Givers and DJ Art Damage.

NEW JAMES HALL SINGLE AVAILABLE

JAMES HALL AND THE FUTURA BOLD CD RELEASE PARTY
APRIL 16TH
ONE EYED JACKS
10 P.M.

"Euroskank," the first single off James Hall and The Futura Bold's new album, is now available for listening at

http://www.myspace.com/thefuturabold

LIVENEWORLEANS.COM AT FOBURG

LiveNewOrleans.Com presents 3 nights and 13 bands at The Blue Nile Upstairs as a part of The Foburg Music Festival. Doors at 7 and show at 8 on March 12, 13, and 14. $8 cover for each night. Schedule:

FRIDAY

8--Lovehog
9--King Rey
10--A Living Soundtrack
11--The Happy Talk Band

SATURDAY

8--Steve Eck and The Midnight Still
9--Hurray for The Riff Raff
10--Big Blue Marble
11--Glasgow

SUNDAY

8--Hugo
9--The Bellys
10--Signals
11--The Show is the Rainbow
12--Big Rock Candy Mountain

Noir Collective presents Foburg, a brand new 3-day alternative music festival held in 8 or more venues on and around Frenchmen Street on March 12-14, 2010. Foburg will feature rock, indie rock, and alternative artists from the greater Gulf South and national touring artists on their way to SXSW in Austin, TX, which is the following week.

MARCH AND BEYOND AT THE CIRCLE BAR

March 11--AWESOME COLOR WITH TYVEK PLUS MOTION TURNS IT ON

http://www.myspace.com/awesomecolor
http://www.myspace.com/tyvekmusic
http://www.myspace.com/motionturnsiton

March 13--MOTO WITH MISSING MONUMENTS AND DIE ROTZZ

http://www.myspace.com/moto

March 14th--FAMILY PORTRAIT

http://www.myspace.com/officialfamilyportrait

March 15th--MONOGOLD

http://www.myspace.com/monogoldmusic

March 16th--SCREENS WITH Aa PLUS ONE MACHINE

http://www.myspace.com/screensscreensscreens
http://www.myspace.com/alittlea

March 17th--YULA BEERI WITH RATTY SCURVICS AND DEATH BY ARROW

http://www.myspace.com/yulabeeri

March 19th--WOODEN WAND WITH LUKE ALLEN PLUS STEVE ECK

http://www.myspace.com/woodenwand

March 21st--ROYAL BANGS WITH SILENT CINEMA

http://www.myspace.com/royalbangs
http://www.myspace.com/silent cinema

March 23rd--VIVIAN GIRLS WITH WETDOG PLUS HAPPY BIRTHDAY

http://www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc
http://www.myspace.com/wetdogthebest
http://www.myspace.com/brattleborohousecartoon

March 24th--SEEDY SEEDS WITH PEASANT PLUS PAPER BIRD

http://www.myspace.com/theseedyseeds
http://www.myspace.com/peasant
http://www.myspace.com/paperbirdband

APRIL 15TH--WHITE COLLA CRIMES WITH THE LOCAL SKANK

http://www.myspace.com/whitecolla
http://www.myspace.com/thelocalskank

APRIL 18TH--CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

http://www.myspace.com/cftpa

MAY 9TH--JACUZZI BOYS WITH THE BELLYS

http://www.myspace.com/jacuzzi boys
http://www.myspace.com/ilovebellys

MAY 10TH--GROWING

http://www.myspace.com/growingsoundnyc

LiveNewOrleans.Com Presents "Strange Bedfellows" at One Eyed Jacks on Saturday, January 9th

2010-01-03T19:32:00.002-06:00

LiveNewOrleans.Com Presents Strange Bedfellows: Giant Cloud, Spickle, White Colla Crimes, and Metronome The City

@ One Eyed Jacks on Saturday, January 9th

"Strange Bedfellows" will group local bands that have never performed together.

The aim is to expose artists and audience members to unfamiliar bands. An additional goal is to create relationships between musicians.

$10

9 p.m.

Concert Review: James Hall(acoustic) at The Circle Bar on October 9, 2009

2009-10-20T16:45:00.001-06:00

It might be overkill for me to write about James Hall at this point. Still, after I saw him perform an acoustic set at The Circle Bar on October 9th, I got a feeling that re-affirmed my zeal for his music. I felt that he was "the guy," basically, that it begins and ends with him. That's worth noting, considering Hall has been making music professionally for twenty years. People and things change, but a James Hall performance remains a religious/spiritual experience. I think he's getting better, too. With a tambourine at his feet and his voice the main instrument, Hall was less afraid than ever to show his pain. I've been touched by Hall's songs before, but I haven't been as touched as I was on this night. People love Hall because he extends himself to express something we all feel, but this night, he extended himself further.

With no band behind him to compete against, Hall had much more vocal room to match the tone of each song. He drove home a point by lowering his volume, drawing people closer to his every word. He also put a button on his songs by raising the volume, either in anger, as he did for "Assassination Row," or in hope, as he did during "There Is An Answer."

Hall pulled material that was new and old. Some came from his new band, The Futura Bold("For The Riches," "Room to Room"), while others came from Pleasure Club(a killer version of "Revolution in Red") and his solo material("So Precious").

metairie real estate

Concert Review: Twangorama at The Circle Bar on October 8, 2009

2009-10-14T15:54:00.001-06:00

I could only hang with this group for batches of songs at a time because they left me exhausted, in a very good way. I musta worn my eyes out watching the hands of three of the best guitarists in New Orleans--Jimmy Robinson, Cranston Clements, and Phil DeGruy--move like hummingbird wings across their guitar necks.

The group, which has been together since the late '90's and also features six-string bassist Paul Clement, played enjoyable folk fusion, but I was less concerned with the music than with the extraordinary exercises they were going through to make it. The melodies and guitar harmonies they created were beautiful, but I enjoyed them more for the fact that my eyes couldn't keep up with what my ear was taking in.

This evening was billed as an "acoustic" night, as they certainly weren't as loud without their drummer. Still, the only one playing an acoustic guitar was Robinson. It was a twelve string that managed to shine just as brightly as the sounds of Clements' electric. I enjoyed how the metairie homes for sale of each guitarist had their own sound--Robinson was acoustic, Clements was clean and bright, and DeGruy was darker, dirtier, fuzzier. I noticed a hierarchy, as well. Robinson was the leader, while Clements took the second most solos and DeGruy the third.

They played originals but shone when they took on covers, especially their seemingly endless medley of '60's and '70's rock covers. Each bit lasted for five to ten seconds, and I'm not sure how long it took to connect them properly or learn the order, but I'm pretty sure I'd be sickened if I did know.

The three of them were each monsters in their own right, throwing out chords that I'm not sure I've seen before. Mouth agape, they left me dumb. I really hate to get too hyperbolic, but their technical excellence is an example of what humans can accomplish when we practice, practice, practice.

Concert Review: Monotonix at One Eyed Jacks Sept. 27th, 2009

2009-10-02T20:55:00.001-06:00

Monotonix never touched the stage. The rock trio from Tel Aviv began their set at One Eyed Jacks Sunday night by clearing a way for their drummer, and the crowd surrounded them on the floor and started to go batshit as soon as the music began. Monotonix's music sounds like abandon as much as their show embodies it. It's chainsaw fuzz guitars accompanied by pounding drums and a screaming frontman. The kind of stuff it's easy to headbang along with and mosh to and even, as I saw a few times, crowdsurf to.

Monotonix have become known for a freedom of expression. They encourage it among the audience by displaying it, by becoming a part of the audience, moving their drums and focus from floor to bartop to balcony and back down again. I think that people get so crazy at their shows because they know they've been given the OK to, by the band, and also because they think there's a good possibility something fucked up might happen and woo-hoo! to that.

By stepping outside of the traditional boundaries of performing and putting themselves on the line physically, they've created their own lore and set themselves apart. There's certainly a method to this madness, but I haven't quite figured it all out yet, not that I expect to or even really want to. I like believing in Monotonix, and their brothers-in-arms The Giraffes, as much as the next person. I know the band did request all plastic--no glass-- for the show, though. And they seemed to have figured that wearing next to nothing(small running shorts) facilitates the kind of craziness they're into.

I don't remember one person not being into this show. Sure, some stood back and watched, in awe it seemed, but most got into the circle and became it. I love not knowing what's gonna happen next, and Monotonix is awesome for giving that feeling out.

Concert Review: Clint Maedgen and Helen Gillet at The Patrick F. Taylor Library on Sept. 26, 2009

2009-10-02T20:53:00.001-06:00

Never to be re-created again, local musicians Clint Maedgen and Helen Gillet played a live score to the movie "Deliverance" at The Ogden Museum's Patrick F. Taylor library Saturday night. The score was commissioned by The Ogden, and it fit wonderfully into the movie.

At some points, the musicians confidently covered dialogue in order to increase anxiety and foreboding. The most prominent musical piece seemed to appear when characters were travelling, whether in car to the river or actually canoeing on a dangerous stretch. The milder version included a cold bed of nervous electronic percussion covered by ominous cello. The FUBAR version included that base augmented with errant theremin noises and overall nervous noise that made the movie more fun to watch. And in the case of the rape scene, more difficult. But, in a great way. The music got me deeper into that moment when Jon Voight is waiting for Burt Reynolds to shoot his arrow.

I appreciate that the incorporation of the music was so well thought out and prepared. There was purpose to each piece, as exhibited when music ended on a perfect beat, maybe right before talking began again. And also, it never sounded like the music was being performed live. It just seemed to be connected to the film. There was definite precision going on.

The movie has been accused of being slow, so I was happy when a song sung by Helen Gillet helped to move along the film when Jon Voight was seeking out one of the killers. Gillet's voice was beautiful, and if I remember correctly, the slightly hopeful(at least sounding) song was a nice juxtaposition to maybe the most hopeless part of the movie. What, this guy, who we've already been shown can't fire a bow--he's gonna climb upwards, leaving himself open to attack at all times, towards the killer waiting above? A longshot.

I enjoyed how Maedgen and Gillet slowed down dialogue to create a disorienting effect and how they used director's commentary in places for educational and humorous purposes.

Concert Review: Canderella's Ball at One Eyed Jacks on September 12, 2009

2009-09-16T20:47:00.000-06:00

This was a fun, long night that ended up raising much money for Candace Lamb. It was a great show of support.

War Amps, the new local boogie stoner metal band, started the night off. It was dark, heavy stuff, and the crux lay in the dual guitar attack of Paul Webb and Tom Beeman. I already knew Webb was good. Now I know he's great. It was nice to see him be able to spread his wings a bit.

I like how the band found room for smart, proggy exercises within the sludge. Seemed like Strawberry, the lead singer, spent half his time offstage, pacing around and headbanging along to the music.

Next up was Narcissy, the local garage rock trio. They got their best reception yet. And they rolled hard with that good energy, turning out impassioned, wonderfully dirty versions of their "FU" and "we don't give a fuck" rock ethos.

Happy Talk followed, bringing along cellist Helen Gillet for texture. One song struck me, a new one. It was more ethereal and ambient than their other material. It reached for this emotional place and got it. I love watching good bands push themselves and get better. Kudos.

I think it might have already been around 1 when Happy Talk finished, so the crowd was beginning to thin a bit, and unfortunately, by the time Clint Maedgen went on with his one man looping station, he was met with love but not quite as much as he's used to.

Big Rock Candy Mountain didn't go on until 2:30, but by that point, the people left over didn't care. Every time I've seen BRCM I thought they were missing something, and I thought it had something to do with the songs. But, they just needed a better drummer. Their new one really propels the songs. The band knew how few people were left, but they were thankful for them. They showed it by going for their throats, holding nothing back. Guitarist Andrew Hartsock looked a little perturbed, but he used transferred that energy into the songs, giving them a punk force. On their MySpace the band describes their music perfectly by just listing their influences: The Dismemberment Plan, The Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age, and Led Zeppelin.

Concert Review: Alexis Marceaux and Sam Craft at The Circle Bar on Sept. 7th, 2009

2009-09-16T01:04:00.001-06:00

Alexis Marceaux is a native New Orleanian that recently burst back onto the scene. Her folk/soul had enough unexpected, almost proggy changes to set her apart and keep me on my toes when she recently shared a bill at The Circle Bar with Sam Craft.

Her subject matter was nothing new for a female singer-songwriter--the travails of the heart--but her sweet, tender melodies kept the music from sinking into schlock. It also helped that she was comfortable onstage. I've seen enough mousey performers that are just "happy to be there."

She was most confident with her soaring voice, her greatest weapon. She coated the music as she pleased, laying back, playing it lean and straight or going for it, pushing her voice in an impressive showcase of her improvisatory skill. She had quite the range. When she reached her higher register, she sounded like a bird.

Craft, who had been accompanying Marceaux on violin and synthesizer, took the reigns next. Whether on solo acoustic or synthesizer, he proved that Glasgow songs could hit home without a band. It took me to see Craft to play this set to realize how talented he and his brother Sam are as songwriters. My favorite of the set was "Samurai," a song full of rock opera bombast and smart dynamics. It was a fun up and down ride, really well-crafted.

Songs That Go Together

2009-09-07T23:59:00.004-06:00

There are songs on classic rock radio that must be played together. You can't have one without the other. They are Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions," ZZ Top's "Waitin' for the Bus" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago," and Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid." All these songs follow one another on their original releases, so there's that. But, why have these songs managed to stay joined at the hip?

With one second left in "Bus," the song seems resolved. But, then there's a quick snare flourish. This would be taken as an eccentricity, except that it syncs up with and seems a perfect lead-in to the beat in "Jesus." Also, there's less than a second between the two songs, which makes me believe ZZ Top wanted them played together. This leads me to a point about the Zep and Queen duos, which isn't entirely my own. I'm not the first person to ask the "what's the deal with..." question, and when I found a thread about this topic, I also found this thoughtful comment from thanotopsis:

"There's zero silence between them on the original recording. A radio station either needs to crossfade into a new song, or talk over the fading song as it leaves the air. You can't do that on either Heartbreaker or We Will Rock You without starting to play Living Loving Maid and We Are The Champions."

Away from the radio, like "Bus" and "Jesus," these songs can be played apart, though it feels weird. Hell, ZZ Top recognized this. It's hard to find live clips of the band where the two songs aren't joined. Also, Queen, most notably at Live Aid, played "Rock You" and "Champions" successively(strangely enough, according to wikipedia, "Champions" was the A side and "Rock You" was the B side to the original UK single, but since rock stations in the US were playing "Rock You" and "Champions" back to back, in that order, Queen's US label released the two songs as a double A-side single). Seems like Zeppelin is less concerned with the adjoinment of "Heartbreaker" and "Maid," as "Heartbreaker" was included in the 1990 "Remasters" and 2007 best-of "Mothership," while "Maid" is not on either record(it's well documented that Page doesn't like "Maid," a reason it was never performed live).

We've dealt with the technical aspects. On to any thematical similarities between the songs. "Heartbreaker" and "Maid" both deal with a prostitute, so I see why they seamlessly flow together. I like to think that Jesus is the main character of "Bus" and that "Jesus" is a kind of prologue to "Bus," but that's just me. As far as Queen goes, there is a connection, at least a perceived one, between the two songs, but I won't let myself break them down. I would sound we todd ted, and I fear I would never recover from the downward spiral of music dorkitude that would follow. Gotta leave that one be.

I welcome your comments. What are some other songs that must go together?

http://www.ask.metafilter.com/41048/Why-will-no-one-break-the-champions

Superdrag "Aspartame"

2009-09-04T00:06:00.003-06:00

Concert Review: Caddywhompus and Giant Cloud at The Circle Bar on September 1, 2009

2009-09-02T23:02:00.001-06:00

I knew what I was getting myself into, standing in front of the Marshall amp and the drum kit with the oversized kick drum and ride cymbal. Still, Caddywhompus were loud! And vibrant and motivational. There were times where, propelled by a disjointed rhythm, I wanted to throw myself against a wall or the buncha packed crowd behind me, but they didn't look like they wanted a mosh pit. And, also, just when the dancey, noisy, herky jerky parts would build up and catch my interest, they'd morph into something else--a different mood and direction.

The local psych/noise/pop duo pulled a quick change often. But, because of how tight they were, drummer Sean Hart and guitarist/vocalist Chris Rehm always sold it. Not once did I question their decisions. I was probably too disoriented, lost in an ADD haze. Haze is a good word, what with Rehm's trippy, processed vocals and how the band would repeat one part over and over again in an attempt to create a trance.

The vocals helped and hurt. They added a bit of romance to the volume, but they could also be shrill. I enjoyed the band the most when Rehm stepped away from the mic and bounced back and forth in front of his effects pedals to their sometimes hard-edged, metallic rhythm, dancing exactly how I wanted to be dancing.

I have a feeling every show's gonna be different with these guys. Looking forward to it.

Giant Cloud, also from here, were the perfect chaser. They were more gentle and dreamy, but I'd have to say both bands were coming to and from an Abbey Road direction. Giant Cloud even played an awesome(I mean spot on really awesome) version of "Don't Let Me Down." The Park The Van band's music was so delicate and pretty it put me in a daze, sitting at the bar, drifting away somewhere nice. Talk about romance. This music was all sunflower breeze and soothing harmonies. An open field.

The barrelhouse piano added some nice texture, too.

I was happy to see so many people stick around to see Giant Cloud. They knew what was up. Click on the title link for Giant Cloud's myspace page.

Let's sneak into this genre right here and cause some damage

2009-09-02T19:53:00.004-06:00

Turns out the guy who served me coffee today, Greg Rodrigue, is also a member of local ska/punk stalwarts Fatter Than Albert. "Stalwarts," in the New Orleans sense, means any ska/punk band that has made more than one album and gone on more than one tour. And survived. That seems kinda rare here.

So, Greg from FTA also co-runs a local ska/punk label called Community Records that has eleven national bands from that genre. He had a funny view on ska/punk, which was that 80% of it sucks. I said it was unusual for someone in a band, especially a owner of a record label, to think a majority of the groups from the genre he/she operates in is horrible. To that, he basically said that operating in a sucky genre was advantageous because when you release something of quality, people are that much more likely to notice. The standards have been lowered, and when you produce something better than average, it comes out looking super, super awesome.

He also said the guys in Black Belt used to be in a ska/punk band called the Supaflies. I did not know that.

*Click on the title link for the Community Records website*

A Funky Return?

2009-08-31T22:53:00.002-06:00

I talked to a friend tonight who's a member of The Cripple Creek Theatre Company. He said the company is looking to lease the building that previously housed much-loved jazz venue The Funky Butt. He said the company is interested in using the space for productions and possible concerts. Of course, this is all on the horizon, but even the possibility of it warms my heart. Just to step foot in that building again would be nice, even if the name and purpose of the space was different.

Concert Review: Downtown Brown at The Circle Bar on August 30, 2009

2009-08-31T19:45:00.000-06:00

I was sold on Downtown Brown when during their cover of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something," lead singer/guitarist Neil P. was reciting "Ma Ma Se, Ma Ma Sa, Ma Ma Coo Sa" while fake crying. I'm not sure exactly why it was funny, but I was laughing hard and happy these dudes from Detroit were at The Circle Bar.

The party rock trio were tight and composed of accomplished musicians I could see tackling Rush and Tool covers(drummer had a double bass). They certainly didn't take themselves that seriously, though. While changing mood and tempo(from death metal to reggae), Mr. Bungle style, Neil P. was likely to be singing about mullets, tanning salons, or werewolves. These guys were weird--Frank Zappa style.

Though it's been a while since I've needed a message of noncomformity, it was still fun to hear them rail against frats, Maxim Magazine, girls who go to tanning salons("Orange Bitch"), and the conformity of the noncomformists, The Warped Tour("Sit in the Pit"). That last one was probably the funniest. Neil P. went pre-puberty with his voice and became the character of a teenage boy trying to have a romantic evening with his girlfriend in the pit. A high point was when the band played rank John Mayer-type music while spouting some pretty offensive lyrics. And then how bout the time Neil P. played a dreadful solo, hitting all the wrong notes, just for comedy's sake? Too much good stuff happened.

Neil P. was a constant ball of energy. He made his mark when he got face to face with one audience member and contorted his face to say, "Look at this awesome solo I'm playing! How am I doin' it?! How amazing am I?!" At random points during the set, he got up close and personal with those at the bar he felt weren't paying enough attention.

Downtown Brown started the set by introducing themselves as the country's premier Sublime tribute band. Neil P. said, "This song is called 'Wrong Way.'" And then they went into some death metal.

Click here for an interview I did with a N.O. police officer on September 8, 2005 about Katrina

2009-08-30T14:20:00.002-06:00

Concert Review: Alex McMurray at d.b.a. on August 28, 2009

2009-08-29T17:28:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure if I've ever seen Alex McMurray so animated. At his CD release party for "How To Be a Cannonball" at d.b.a. Friday night, the less-than-bubbly and hard-to-impress McMurray shook off his low-key demeanor during his band's more raucous songs. He seemed pushed to new heights by drummer/vocalist Carlo Nuccio and keyboardist/accordionist Bob Andrews, who provided a solid foundation lined with sharp edges. I could certainly see their spontaneous flourishes sparking a brain fever in McMurray. I know it happened in me. The danger element was elevated because of so much push and pull in the music, and as a result, the music rocked hard. McMurray was possessed by the spirit, disjointedly jumping to and fro while burning off impressive solos. Like he couldn't get it out fast enough, never play fast enough.

The older crowd left over from Ingrid Lucia's happy hour set tried in vain to dance to some of the mid-tempo numbers, which were just as likely to change direction, tempo, and mood. They were stubborn about dancing, as if they wouldn't know how to enjoy the music any other way. This was annoying to me and I'm sure a couple other people the dancers bumped into on their way to drunk heaven.

A highlight of the first set was the album's title track, a delightful tale about apprenticing at the circus. At the end of the song, Nuccio played a snare roll that recalled the same sound you hear before a human cannonball is launched. When Nuccio stopped the roll by hitting his snare hard, he made a rainbow motion over his head with his right hand. Besides the great music, quirky moments like these were a reason why McMurray's band was so fun to watch. Each member looked like he was having a grand ole time, but Nuccio was the main jokester, sending seat-of-his-pants, "yeah, i just did that" smiles to bassist/vocalist Joe Cabral during songs and cracking jokes on the mic between them. A second highlight was "The Woman I Love," which featured all three vocalists. Even though a new song, the crowd took to it well. It built and built into a fraternal euphoria, a chant of stubborness that the audience took on.

Cabral is an excellent player, but he seemed out of place, less than confident, and less than a presence on this night. He was laying back when he should have pounding. Matt Perrine works better in that spot.

Impulss video for DO IT featuring Prince Po

2009-08-29T13:59:00.001-06:00

"Do it!" by Impulss from From PartsUnknown Films on Vimeo.

Kick #1: T. Rex

2009-08-27T15:54:00.003-06:00

Click here for my imeem Frank Black playlist

2009-08-27T15:48:00.001-06:00

"Wait, did you just say there's a drunk at The Julep Room?!"

2009-08-27T14:45:00.003-06:00

My Mom and StepDad just moved to Ocean Springs, MS from Kenner, and while passing through town on my way back from a three day vacation in Gulf Shores, I visited with them and picked up a copy of local newspaper The Gazette. Now, I know David Letterman has already made fun of Ocean Springs for their uneventful and eccentric police blotter, but after seeing it for myself, I felt the need to revisit the topic. The reports are just too funny. I wonder if the people of Ocean Springs know how silly these sound to people who live in cities with crime problems. I guess it's relativity.

--A man reported his conpany cell phone lost.
--A threat was reported on the 3700 block of Cabildo Place
--A knife was found on the 100 block of Hickory Dr.
--A drunk was reported at The Julep Room
--A mental case was reported on the 400 block of Bills Ave.
--There was a report of littering on the 300 block of Trentwood Dr.
--There was a report of joyriding at 3109 Bienville Blvd.
--A paper delivery person reported that a person was lying under the truck in the driveway

Concert Review: I, Octopus at The Circle Bar on August 21, 2009

2009-08-23T17:10:00.001-06:00

With new stickers and t-shirts in hand and the band's first full length, "I'd Rather be a Lightning Rod Than a Seismograph," about to arrive on their doorstep, I Octopus rolled into The Circle Bar Friday night for a 65 minute set.

The last concert review I wrote about the local instrumental rock trio was for a Twiropa show back in 2005, when former Rotary Downser and current A Living Soundtracker Matt Aguiliz was on drums. They've improved a great deal since then and even since the last time I saw them proper, maybe about six months ago. I remember them leaving room for improvisation, which led to noise tirades that sometimes didn't flesh out. That's not to say they weren't a great show back then. They were, showing off the same sense of adventure and melody they possess today. But, now, their songs seem to be more streamlined, more purposeful, more direct. When the noise jams hit, they're within a structure, within a pre-set field of dynamics.

The group's songwriting has improved, and as a result, their nuance has deepened. There might be three or four mood changes in one song. They rock out, take the volume down, rock out, then take the volume down for half as long, unexpectedly kicking ass(who's writing this, my long lost trucker twin?). In other words, their diversions are smart and welcomed.

Instrumental music isn't the easiest thing to sell, but with their songcraft at such a level, I'm excited to see what kind of friends I, Octopus can make on their upcoming first tour.

R.I.P. Coach Rodney Louque

2009-08-21T13:04:00.002-06:00

It's hard to imagine my life without Coach Louque having been in it. He was my track and field and cross country coach at Jesuit from 1991-1996. Those track meets in eighth grade and those cross country meets--all those Saturday mornings at the Lakefront--those meets we travelled to as a team--the way that I learned to push myself as a runner and a person--the fact that most of the friendships that I still maintain came directly from track and cross country. I'm scared of who I'd be without Coach Louque in my life. Without those friends, without cross country...I don't know...I'd be a worse person, that's for sure.

Coach Louque has affected my life to such a degree that I can't fathom it. I love that man, and I thank him.

Visitation will take place Friday, August 21 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
at the Garden of Memories on Airline Highway. Visitation will also
be on Saturday, August 22 beginning at 9 a.m. in the
Chapel of the North American Martyrs on the campus
of Jesuit High School. A Mass will be celebrated at Noon,
followed by burial in the Garden of Memories.

In accordance with the wishes of the family, donations may be made to the general scholarship fund of either Jesuit High School (4133 Banks St.; N.O. LA 70119) or Catholic High School of New Iberia (1301 Delasalle Dr.; New Iberia, LA 70560-6790). Indicate your donation is in memory of Rodney Louque. If you wish to send flowers,
send them to the Garden of Memories; they will move them here for Saturday’s services.

An article taken from www.jesuitnola.com about Coach Louque:

Rodney Louque, a beloved teacher and coach at Jesuit High School for 23 years who exhibited enthusiasm, compassion, dedication, and spirituality in the classroom as well as on the field, died on Wednesday morning following a courageous four-year battle against cancer.

Mr. Louque was 65-years-old and, since arriving at Jesuit in 1986, had taught biology and physical science while juggling coaching responsibilities for Jesuit’s football, track, and cross country teams.

Coach Louque was married for 40 years to Jeanie Stein Louque, who teaches computer science at Jesuit High School. They have three daughters and six grandchildren. One of their grandsons, Tyler Gonzales, is a Blue Jay and member of the Class of 2013.

“The entire Jesuit community extends its heartfelt condolences and prayers to Coach Louque’s family,” said Michael Giambelluca, principal of Jesuit High School, who added that Coach Louque could have elected to retire any time after his cancer was diagnosed in spring 2005.

“But the most important thing to him was continuing to teach and coach,” said Giambelluca. “Coach Louque wanted to live life to the fullest by serving as an example for high school students and athletes everywhere that we all face challenges in life, and we must face those challenges head on and never give up.”

Coach Louque’s battle against the disease involved aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments that frequently left him exhausted and depleted of energy. Yet, even after teaching several classes, he could often be seen wearing a big straw hat and sitting in a chair under the shade of a large oak tree bordering the Will Clark Field behind Jesuit while his team practiced nearby.

“He pushed himself to attend most practices and competitions despite the ill effects from his treatments,” said David Moreau, Jesuit’s athletic director. “We all felt very fortunate whenever he was seen sitting under the oaks calling out instructions and words of encouragement to his team. I know that his students and players also felt extremely grateful for his dedication to teaching and coaching.”

Whether teaching biology or physical science, Coach Louque came to class prepared and knowledgeable about his course material. He always began class with a prayer and enjoyed a great rapport with his students. Although he admitted his organizational skills could be better, Coach Louque wrote that he hoped his students would judge him as a teacher who “really cared and loved them unconditionally.”

Over the years, Coach Louque served as an assistant coach for Jesuit’s football, cross country, and track teams. For a time, he was also head coach of Jesuit’s track team as well as the cross country team. One of the highlights of his head coaching career was when the 2003 Blue Jay cross country team won the state championship. It was the first of four consecutive state titles that the Jesuit cross country team brought home.

Coach Louque received a bachelor of sciences degree in science and physical education in 1969 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL) in Lafayette (now ULL). He immediately started his teaching and coaching career at Hanson Memorial High School in Franklin, LA. During this time, he finished work on his Masters degree in education at USL.

Coach Louque taught and coached at several high schools before signing on at Jesuit High School, including Catholic High School (New Iberia), Vermilion Catholic High School (Abbeville), and St. Charles Catholic High School (LaPlace).

He believed that teachers at Jesuit High School should always be truthful, God-fearing, and embracing of diversity. “Put God above everything else and be truthful to the mission of Jesuit, which will continue to be a diverse community,” he wrote. “To know that my friendship with the teachers who I have taught with through the years was important to them and myself is how I hope my success as a leader will be judged. I would like to be known as a faith community builder.”

Concert Review: The Blue Hit at The Circle Bar on August 19, 2009

2009-08-20T13:29:00.002-06:00

The Blue Hit is exactly the type of indie/folk/pop band Paste Magazine would be all over, and I think I mighta scooped them for once. It felt like I was watching something special last night at The Circle Bar. Something I might tell people offhandedly three years from now, about how I saw them before they got semi-big, while sounding like a self-important ass in the process.

The Blue Hit is an Austin trio consisting of vocalist Grace Rowland, cellist David Moss, and acoustic guitarist John McGee.

Though McGee and Moss were obviously accomplished musicians that I could see playing in trad jazz bands on the side, most of my attention went to how well Rowland acted out the lyrics. She was a little too good. It was a bit uncomfortable, in a great way, as she narrated a song about cheating in a relationship while her face and voice displayed the condescension and lack of remorse in the cheater.

When she took on a character, she really took it on. If there was a martial tone to the song, she marched, and if a song displayed exasperation, she threw her right hand up to her hairline. She gave herself to the audience, leaving no comfort zone she could revert to. She was vibrant, 100% there--a method musician.

One highlight was a song of spooky, pastoral lyrics. The music boasted beautifully constructed soundscapes that were theatrical, and with or without the vocals, would have sounded great on any horror movie soundtrack.

One thing I liked about this band is that mood was diverse. Another great song from the set was a heartbreaker that showcased the coupling of Rowland's soaring voice and the bowed cello. The cello is pretty great for making things sound sad.

Click on the title link for their Myspace page.

Concert Review: Eric Lindell at The Circle Bar on August 17, 2009

2009-08-18T15:03:00.001-06:00

A few songs into the third set, Eric Lindell and his trio pulled out "Hard to Believe." In front of seven hardcore fans who survived a packed house, Lindell had such an arsenal of songs that he could still shower them with a great one.

Though it was wistful, tender, and heartbroken, the song was sexy and full of efficient, spacious groove.

The same groove that the band found throughout the night. It seemed to appear from playing minimally and well-arranged R&B. Though there were some impressive, sudden, twists and turns in the song structures, what each song went back to again and again was a solid pulse that, for example, Lindell could solo around. His solos were always pleasing and tasteful. A succession of yesses.

Though some of the lyrics were obvious and a bit sappy, Lindell's choice of covers or originals was always ace. The music just works, is undeniable in such an intimate venue.

A beautiful commiseration. Warming the heart by breaking it a touch. Among friends.

Concert Review: The Armed Forces at The Circle Bar on August 16, 2009

2009-08-17T19:45:00.002-06:00

The guitarist jumped off the kick drum but didn't hit the ground when the drummer hit his cymbal. Still, A for effort.

This power pop quartet from Nashville is still learning its way around a stage(they look like they're 21 or 22), but their songs leave little to be desired. Catchy melodies--check. Two-part harmonies--check. Attention to dynamics--check.

There's a reason they're called The Armed Forces. They certainly sound like they've listened to that Elvis Costello and The Attractions album over and over again. Add a bit of The Cars, an open ride cymbal, and the bitter wit of Costello and the heart on sleeve lyrics of The Replacements and you'll be pretty close to the presentation of The Armed Forces.

The leader's guitar and vocals got lost in the mix, but that's about the only criticism I have for the band. Just keep kickin' out the subtle nuances. This pop rock songwriting thing isn't easy.

Concert Review: Rotary Downs at Le Bon Temps Roule on August 14, 2009

2009-08-17T19:44:00.001-06:00

Going to see a Rotary Downs concert is like catching up with an old friend. Things may change in my life, but there's Rotary Downs, solid.

I love seeing them at Le Bon Temps for two reasons: 1. it's a powder keg of a rock venue, even though that's not what you normally see in there. It's got a basement party, everybody get drunk and crazy vibe. 2. It's three blocks from my apartment, so I can drink a lot.

I was hoping they'd already be going when I got there at 10:50, but they didn't start 'till around 11:30. When they did, the room was full, and some friends showed up to make the night more fun: Patrick, Colby, Marc, Tamara, Mary, and Kathleen.

I got up in the front row and was asked to scoot aside by some dude. Really? At a rock show? I obliged, though, and laughed with Patrick about it before the band started the set with "Lantern," my favorite song off their last album, "Chained to the Chariot."

They came out with that one almost three years ago, and along with the band, I'm a little anxious for the release of the new album they've been working on with The Living Room, The Music Shed, and Mike Napolitano. Their concerts have become more and more new song-centric, and it'd be nice to have a reference point.

When the band was slipping in a few new songs into their set, I didn't care, but then there was a point when they were playing a bunch more new stuff when I hadn't had a chance to get to know the material. I wasn't digging that. But now, I've come back around, cause I've just seen them enough that I know the new stuff pretty well. My friend Mary hadn't seen them since around their last record release, and she said they sounded different. I can imagine.

I like that the band is evolving, taking a chance with more expansive songs, while still sounding like themselves. I'm slow to make too many assumptions about the new material as a whole, but it does seem like they've moved away from the shorter, poppier songs and embraced a more epic, loping, and psychedelic style.

The band was pretty tight last night, and their cramped quarters seemed to encourage that. Bassist Jason Rhein was right on top of drummer Zack Smith. They were eye to eye the whole night, trading smiles and knowing glances. I love watching a band that looks like they're having fun. It makes it that much easier to get with them and have fun, too.

Rotary Downs played a long first set, took a decent break, and came back with a set that I didn't see the end of. I couldn't hang. They musta gone 'till around 3. The best part of the second set was guitarist Chris Columbo's note-for-note solo during The Cars' "Just What I Needed."

P.S. In between song breaks, Colby turns to me and says, "You know they're one of the best bands in the country, right?" And I guess I kinda thought that in the back of my head, but it always sounded crazy because they're from here. It doesn't sound so crazy now that someone else has said it. It sounds right on.

Concert Review: Hairspray Blues at The Circle Bar on August 12, 2009

2009-08-17T19:43:00.001-06:00

This punk band from Portland, Oregon was all about speed, volume(in the form of constant thrashing cymbals or pounding toms) and angry release.

Of less concern was the tightness of the music. The duo of drums and guitar/vocals was loose, but their attitude kept me engrossed in their performance.

Drummer Leslie Stabile dramatically threw her arms around the kit and made sexy eyes at her guitarist husband Kyle Stabile. In between screams and out-of-breath tirades, he smiled right back.

The band was a lot of fun, an invigorating mix of hotrod garage and Motorhead.

On The Road with Gal Holiday and The Honky Tonk Revue

2009-08-17T19:33:00.001-06:00

After three sets of country in two days, I felt raw. These tales of woe, especially the ballads, were getting to me. I stood on the side of the stage as Gal Holiday and The Honky Tonk Revue played their second set of the Natchitoches Folk Festival on Saturday, July 18th. I was tagging along with the local country cover band for their weekend journey into the hills of Louisiana, and I was starting to fall in love with their songs. When the tempo slowed and the focus went to the voice of Vanessa Niemann(a.k.a. Gal Holiday), she dazzled. Anyone can have a great voice, but that's not the point. Niemann infused hers with real emotion, real hurt, like she was conjuring something universal from wherever they kept the lost souls.

"I select songs based on my passion for them and my life experience and whether they fit my voice," Niemann said during a recent interview. "I'm singing my story through characters. If a song sounds killer with my voice, it's more likely we'll perform it."

The heart-wrenching didn't end with Niemann. During a ballad solo, guitarist Dave James hit me with a beautifully minimal, winsome performance, the kind where every note hurts to hear. A beautiful malady that made my heart heavy, but in a good way. The band was so tight they sounded like a recording, commissioning couples to ballroom dance and fill the floor inside Northwestern State University's Prather Coliseum. The group was like a machine but not quite--almost perfect.

Along with classic country, The Honky Tonk Revue covers rockabilly and western swing. Typical sets include songs from Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, and Merle Haggard, to name a few. Last month in between sets at The Circle Bar Niemann asked if I wanted to travel with the group to Leesville and then up to Natchitoches. All I could think was, "Rock and roll road trip!" I needed to get out the city, and I figured hanging with the band would be fun and that maybe something interesting would happen. I couldn't have imagined it would entail hip hop line dancing in Leesville.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After meeting up with Niemann and bassist Dave Brouillette at drummer James Clark's house at noon on Friday in New Orleans, we took off in Brouillette's white prison van, metal grates still covering the side windows(guitarist Dave James and fiddler Clyde Thompson took seperate cars). There's something very appropiate about travelling down the highway in a prison van with a country band. Country music played on the stereo as I sat in the back and talked with Clark about John Cage, the destruction of ego in songwriting, prepared piano, and drummer JoJo Mayer's popular DVD, Secret Weapons for The Modern Drummer. Clark later read his Anne Rice novel while I took in what little scenery there was: pastures and corn fields.

After a five hour drive, we pulled into Leesville, which is 50 miles west of Alexandria and the home of Fort Polk. When the band played at The Sugar Shack later that night, they were actually just south in New Llano, LA, a sleazy, dilapidated stretch of highway that offered Daiquiri "specialists" and a strip club. I cringe at what the girls in that place must look like.

Before hitting the motel, the full band met up inside Big Dog Country KVVP for an interview with Rik Barnickle. Rik is a large, gregarious fellow, the kind of man who was born to play Santa Claus at Christmas. Since he comped the band's dinner and motel cost and drinks, Rik was a very real reason they came to town. Rik saw Gal Holiday a few years back, and ever since he had been trying to get them into Leesville. He played the group's music the week leading up to the show and was also giving away Gal Holiday t-shirts over the air.

The band walked into The Sugar Shack around 7:30 to setup for their 9-1 a.m. gig. The venue's about the size of The Howlin' Wolf, with Nascar hoods and driver portraits on the walls and tiny stock car lights hanging over the pool tables. About one out of every four men there sported cowboy hats, and almost everyone was fairly unattractive. Not super ugly or a scary, disorienting mixture of backwoods funk a la Ponchatoula's Strawberry Fest. No, these people ran together. They just seemed like they were the bottom of the food chain, like anyone who was attractive in Leesville left long ago for greener pastures.

After the band's first song, Vanessa gave a history and told a story about the upcoming song, an ingenious ice-breaker that she'd use throughout the set to keep connecting with the audience. She has experience with that. As a child, Vanessa wanted to be an actress, and she even went so far as to go to a magnet school for acting. It was only after she realized she could incorporate her acting talents into a singing performance that she started to devote more and more of her creative time to music.

"Onstage I'm performing. I'm playing a character," Niemann said.

Niemann is direct, biting, witty, and businesslike. Gal Holiday, on the other hand, is all earnest, welcoming smile, posture and presentation, a vision of country that's reminiscent of Reese Witherspoon's take on June Carter Cash. Speaking of Carter Cash, the crux of every Gal Holiday performance and the song in which she puts her acting skills to best use is her duet with Dave James on "Jackson," originally performed by Johnny Cash and June. Niemann and James become the bickering couple, James singing low and Niemann hamming it up and striking poses.

"Gal Holiday is a fixed persona because I want them to be more than just cover songs," Niemann said. "I want it to be a show, and I don't want the fact that we're a cover band to overshadow the intense musicianship in this band."

The best example of formal musicianship in The Revue is Brouillette, who studied upright bass at Northwestern and was close to getting his music degree before he felt the need to get the hell out of Natchitoches. When it comes to solos, Brouillette impresses more than anyone else in the band. His speed and his flamming on his gut strings made a hardcore, cowboy hat wearin', tobacco-chewin' dude at The Sugar Shack say, "Now that's what I'm talkin' bout!" It's fun to watch Dave James look at Brouillette in appreciation and a bit of wonder, time after time, like he's never seen it before. Dave James is a pretty awesome player himself, a man who could solo all day, a man who makes me scared of his ability. It's like the music flows through him, like he's made himself such a conduit that he doesn't even have to think about what he's gonna do next--it just happens. The band member that plays with the least fat is Clark. He plays only what the song needs, nothing more. Barely any fills. He performs each song the same way gig after gig, laying out a solid map the rest of the players can follow and subsequently get tighter off of. Next time you see the band, check out his huge, ridiculous pocket. It would take a lot to get him off his beat. Last but not least there's Clyde Thompson on fiddle, a wonderful complementer who's such a silent force that when he plays rhythm on songs that weren't recorded with a fiddle, you don't realize it until later.

During the first set Rik sat down next to me and said, "Watch out for The Vietnamese girl in black. She hustles the G.I.'s and she'll take you for it." This was a sizeable, tough, possibly confused crowd that was more used to contemporary country bands. Dancing was minimal. I felt like they sat back and judged the band, not feeling pushed at all to get into the music. As long as they were with friend and drinking and playing pool, well, the music was secondary. The applause was minimal between songs. They livened up real quick, though, and started line dancing on the wooden, newly buffed floor when the DJ played between sets. I stared in amazement when people started performing a pre-approved line dance to a hip hop tune that was popular a few years back. As if they thought, "Oh, it's that song, and this is the way we dance to that song." Pretty much the most surreal and disorienting moment of the trip.

During the second set the Revue performed one of two originals, "Blue Ridge Baby," a song about Niemann's rural roots in the mountains of Western Maryland, where bluegrass and folk music was everywhere. As a child Niemann got into rockabilly and only later progressed into country. Her parents were into old country and the type of music Gal Holiday performs, but at the time she thought of country as the contemporary stuff she heard on the radio. She went to barn dances and folk festivals--exactly the kind they hold in Natchitoches.

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The drive up to Louisiana's oldest town the next day was beautiful. The sloping hills, the thin tall trees. The first set of the day was a test for the band. This was an older, more family-oriented crowd not known for their acceptance of rockabilly in their country. Vanessa's tattoos probably weren't helping, either. The Revue acquiesced a bit by taking "Cocaine Blues" out of their sets, but ultimately they didn't change their approach. Their first song was an up-tempo barn burner full of solos that left one woman with arms folded and a complete look of horror. But, as the set progressed, many took to the dancefloor, and by the end of the set, a sizeable crowd had gathered behind those seated.

People is Natchitoches are pretty serious about their crafts. There was a guy making violins at the craft fair. Making. Violins. Let that sink in. After I read through his illustrated guide to making a violin, I was thoroughly impressed and amazed at how many different things can go wrong during the process. One woman was selling lye soap and giving out her recipe, while others were making baskets and spooling wool to make shirts. The best was the family dyeing eggs with successive patterns before adding minute detail with a tiny, heated utensil tipped with ink.

Between the Revue's first and second sets, I took a moment for myself and sat under a oak tree on the edge of Chaplin Lake. The greenery rustled with the wind, and after I calmed myself, the speed of the river flow seemed to coincide with Radiohead's "Pyramid Song." I drifted and I felt alright.

14 U.S. Soldiers Killed Over The Weekend

2007-06-04T01:06:00.001-06:00

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Fourteen U.S. soldiers were killed by bombs and small-arms fire in Iraq over the weekend, the U.S. military said Sunday, as factional violence continued to ravage soldiers and civilians alike.

Unedited Alex McMurray intro and interview

2007-06-03T22:34:00.000-06:00

I didn't know New Orleans music before Alex McMurray, just like I didn't know rock before Nirvana. I had heard it, of course, at parades and various private celebrations, but it wasn't until I dug in with him and other ubiquitous musicians on the blooming '90's scene like Jonathan Freilich, Kevin O'Day, and Rob Wagner, that I understood how loose, colorful, funny, and genre-boundless it could be. Whether it was playing with All That at The Dragon's Den, Tin Men and Royal Fingerbowl at The Matador, or by himself at the Circle Bar, McMurray was a large part of my local awakening.

Over the years McMurray has established himself as the most talented songwriter in New Orleans. Like any poet McMurray is adept at describing the cracks in between the human experience, but his empathy for eccentrics and fuckups is really where it's at. Through his heartbreaking character studies he's been able to expose the beauty in people's imperfections and the way they disintegrate. Luckily for us, he peppers his songs with wry humor and is also able to celebrate the bouncier aspects of life, an example being the song "Cabral."

Those of you that enjoy his wicked lead guitar playing as much as his lyrical and compositional talents will love to know McMurray has more outlets than ever for soloing. Since sought-after performers like Freilich and O'Day have lost some of their bands to Katrina, I think I can confidently say that McMurray now plays with more groups than any other local musician--solo, Tin Men(the most genre-defying and unique local band), The Geraniums, 007, Happy Talk, Schatzy, and the Folk Rock Trio.

All this from a guy who isn't even supposed to be here. McMurray moved to New York in October of 2004, but after being encouraged by recently deceased Royal Fingerbowl record producer Keith Keller to return to New Orleans, McMurray and his wife, Kourtney, did just that in February of 2006.

"'Cause we're crazy," said McMurray over the phone recently in his half-serious, half tongue-in-cheek tone. "If you could do the stupidest thing you could think of, that would be it. Keith said 'you gotta be a part of the rebirth, blah, blah, blah,' and then the fucker croaks on us." Something to know now before we get into the mid-May interview I had with McMurray at his Bywater home is that you have to learn how to listen for the sentimentality that trickles through his grizzled veneer. Since returning he and his wife have become cultural leaders, creating Chazfest and the Fifth Season Summer Tuesday Nights, wherein the couple has and intends to continue showing movies on a screen in the beautiful backyard of The Truck Farm.

During the interview we focused on his new album, Guano and Nitrates, officially credited to The Valparaiso Men's Chorus. This is the chorus of local men he put together to sing as his band recorded sea chanties in November of 2004 at The Mermaid Lounge. The genesis for the idea came when McMurray sang sea chanties as Cap'n Sandy at Tokyo Disney in late 2002. Since the CD Release Party for the album at The Saturn Bar was such an out-of-control, drunk, rollicking success, look for more performances from the chorus in months to come.

Thanks to Kourtney for entertaining me with water, books, NPR(Andrei Codrescu!), footage of the CD release party, and a tour of the backyard while I waited for McMurray to join me for our interview.

AG: Kourtney told me you have a really interesting story.

AM: It's not that interesting. It's just that I was at Freedom Fest Sunday at the Circle Bar. I was standing there on the sidewalk. We had just played, with Luke(in The Happy Talk Band). This guy turns around and punches me in the face.

AG: Outta nowhere?

AM: He just wheeled around and clocked me.

AG: You hadn't been talking to him or anything?

AM: No. I've seen the guy around. I don't even know his name.

AG: In cold blood?

AM: He thought that I had spit on him.

AG: Oh.

AM: He said, "Dude, why'd you spit on me?" Well, there's people out there with water pistols. They had a water balloon launcher and water pistols and all sorts of shit like that. The guy, I guess, got squirted and he thought that I spit on him, so he turned around and fuckin' clocked me. Look at my lip. He turned my head all the way around and really fucked up my neck.

AG: What'd you do?

AM: I just stood there. I didn't fall down. I was in such shock that I was like, you know, "What?!" I guess most guys would have hit him back or something. After I thought about it for about thirty seconds I was, "Wait, I should go kick this guy's ass." It was the weirdest...

AG: He didn't apologize or anything.

AM: He did, of course. He apologized profusely, and all this. I still think it was a little bit overreacting, don't you think?

AG: Yeah, to not even ask, "Hey man, why'd you spit on me?"

AM: He just turned around and...

AG: The life and times.

AM: I was afraid you were gonna come over with some photographer or something.

AG: Are you still at the point where you get nervous onstage?

AM: Yeah, only if I'm singing. If I'm not singing, it's no problem. But, if it's songs I wrote, yeah.

AG: Even at the Wednesday night Circle Bar gigs that you do a lot?

AM: Yeah, I do.

AG: Cause sometimes you look detached.

AM: There's a lot of different factors involved. Who's in the audience? I get more nervous when there are people I know there. If it's people I don't know, I'm more relaxed.

AG: That makes sense.

AM: I get uptight when there are people there who are there every week. I'm like, "Oh, man, I have nothing new for these guys." That's a drag.

AG: Maybe they don't want anything new.

AM: But I feel like I owe it to them to at least have one thing that's different. That's the good part about that gig. It should force you to always be working on something new...

AG: Honing.

AM:...but unfortunately, the way I arrange my life, normally the first thing to get jetisoned is my own thing. There are all these other things that I'm doing. What kind of an idiot puts on a musical festival during Jazzfest? You're a working musician and you play, in like, six bands, and then you put on a festival?

AG:(laughing) You're trying to make it easy on yourself, obviously.

AM: What's the matter with me, you know?

AG: I think it's great. It seemed like it really worked out.

AM: Yeah, it worked out, but the night before Chazfest I was at my gig Wednesday night and I was looking at the clock, wondering when I could get outta there. I was operating on two hours sleep. And I had Joe, Doug, and Jonathan there. My mind was somewhere else. This was the Jazzfest gig. This was the gig I've been doing for years, and it should be a big night in my musical career, but it was the last thing on my mind. At that point, there's no point in bitching.

AG: It's already in motion.

AM: It's already happening. Make the best of it, that sorta thing.

AG: I wasn't there the year before, but there must have been more people this time around.

AM: There was a bigger turnout. Not by a whole lot, but there was more. The first year we had rain for four hours. As soon as it started, it started to rain. It didn't make people leave. It just made people not come. People had a great time, though. There was a lot more stress the first year. This year, it seemed like more of a machine. We switched it on, and it just sorta ran itself.

AG: So, next year, it'll be that much easier.

AM: (Laughs)Yeah, you'll see. Next year. Yeah, OK.

AG: Oh, no? Is that it?

AM: It could be. If we're gonna do it again--it's too much work for no money. It would have to be profitable. The amount of work that Kourtney did. The graphic design. Designing the postcards and the t-shirts and the ads and the signs. She works on that for months. It's gotta be done months in advance to get in the publications. The website and all this stuff. You spend a lot of time on the phone. Like me, I get the stage together, the sound together, book the bands, and you know, get the toilets. Stuff like that. We both work on it. It's a pretty tough racket.

AG: Even with the door, were y'all still in the red?

AM: If we lost money, it was insignificant, but if we made money, it was also insignificant. To do it next year...

AG: Maybe some real sponsors.

AM: Real sponsors and legit permits and we gotta make a lot of money. It's too much work. It was a great time and a great party, but I kinda need money(laughs).

AG:(laughs) Well, if people liked it enough, maybe you could raise the admission next year and people'd be willing to show their appreciation by paying it.

AM: Yeah, and maybe less bands. We gotta raise the profile of the thing, and that means corporate sponsors, which makes it kinda ugly. It's kinda tacky. Maybe we could get Abita to provide the beer.

AG: That's not so bad.

AM: That's not so bad, except a lot of people don't like the taste of Abita beer. Maybe Southern Comfort. Somebody was talking to me about some local company--New Orleans Rum. Things like that. We gotta know how to walk the fine line between solvency and tackiness.

AG: Why did it take you so long to release the sea chanty CD?

AM: Well, we recorded it right after I moved to New York. I moved to New York in October of 2004, and then we came back for Thanksgiving, and there had always been this talk of doing a sea chanty record, and Henry Griffin had this film project on me at Disney--interviews with me about this job. Out of the movie came the idea to record--I had had the idea in Japan to record these songs, but with the New Orleans thing, like with Carlo Nuccio playing drums. Get 20 drunken guys. I know exactly the guys I need for this job. They all showed up, and they all were great. So, it was basically a film project that begat a CD project. So, we did the recording at The Mermaid right before it closed, right before Thanksgiving '04. Jeff(Treffinger) did a mix, Clint(Coker) did a mix. There were these mixes, and the guys in the chorus were bitching at me because the chorus wasn't loud enough. I played it for Jonathan(Freilich), and he said(McMurray doing an amazingly spot-on Freilich voice imitation), "Oh, man, what is this? There's not enough chorus." I wanted more chorus, too. Anyway, at this point, The Mermaid was gone, and we had these mixes that weren't really happening, and, of course, August of 2005 rolls around. After that the sea chanty record went on the backburner. I was in New York, Jeff was in Texas, and Clint was somewhere, and we don't have a mix that people are happy with. It was all on analog tape--half inch tape. We had two rolls of tape. It was the last tapes e could get and the last tapes for purchase in Orleans Parish in 2004.

AG: How could it be the last tape?

AM: We got it from this store that was the only place you could get it, and it was closing down. We wanted to get six, but they only had two left, so we had to do only one take of every song. We had to decide then whether this was the take.

AG: Maybe it was better that way because you were more focused.

AM: Yeah. As you could tell by the record--very focused.

AG: I heard the record release party was less focused.

AM: The record was a testament to mayhem. But, it got done. It was great. Anyway, we had to do a transfer from analog to digital. We were gonna mix it on the machine, but the machine was mechanically flawed. It changed speeds, it had noise in it. Over here we transferred it to digital. After that we started doing mixes over here with Jack Neely, who runs the studio, and Ben Mumfrey. Ben did most of it. Then, it's gotta be mastered and artwork.

AG: Yeah, that makes sense. Everybody took a year after Katrina just to get back on track, so it makes sense.

AM: To me--it is a long time--but to get it done any faster, it would have to been done before Katrina, and I would have had to have been living down here because the mixes were coming in the mail, drips and drabs.

AG: How important was alcohol to the recording? I have this image of you plying the chorus with alcohol so you would get more of this drunken, all-for-one feel.

AM: It was definetely part of our focus. You can't have the yo-ho-ho without the bottle of rum. The overall gestalt was that we were gonna do it at The Mermaid, we were gonna be in a bar. It's gonna take the greater part of the evening. We're gonna start around five and then go 'till we're done. The guys would be able to come and go. It would be very loose that way. We'd learn the song and do it until we figured we got a good take, and then we'd move onto the next song. Meanwhile, there's a film crew, and everyone's drinking. The last tune we did was "Rio Grande." It was one of those moments where the chorus had had it. Half of them were outside...

AG: "When is this gonna be done?"

AM: Yeah.

AG: Or were they just too drunk?

AM: They were just too drunk and just worn out. I'll never forget that. There was a buzz, this terrible buzz. One of the microphones that was picking up Jonathan Freilich. He played a guitar solo on it. The mic on his amp had such an audible buzz, but nobody caught it.

AG: Because the voices were so loud?

AM: No, because, I guess because Jeff was wasted in the control room(laughs). There was so much mayhem that it got overlooked. That was like a nightmare, trying to get the buzz off the track.

AG: How did you decide to augment the way you traditionally see a sea chanty performed with more of this New Orleans sound?

AM: It's a natural thing. Me, Chaz, and Matt, The Tin Men, we were performing so much, we were sick of each other. For a sea chanty record--first of all, electronic instruments almost can't do it, even though I played an electric guitar. The tuba is a natural fit, the washboard seems like a natural fit, even though it's probably something you'd never see on a boat. We had pennywhistles, Rick Trolsen on trombone. The sea chanty purists would want nothing to do with this because trombones are way out, but we have bass drum and tuba, so it's kinda like a brass band approach to things. We also had accordion, fiddles, which are very traditional. We just wanted to get all these different flavors together and let it rip. When I was in Japan, I remember walking around, doing my job, which was walking around this restaurant playing "Drunken Sailor." One day I was playing it really fast, 'cause nobody's listening. I'm walking around in costume. They're all Japanese, and they don't understand a thing I'm saying. I'm playing with a swinging feel, the way it is on the record. I was like, "Man, when I get back home, I'm gonna get Carol Nuccio on this, and Matt Perrine, and we're gonna do this." I guess that was the genesis of the idea. The impetus was to do the songs with New Orleans instrumentation.

AG: I think it's much better than just doing the thousandth traditional sea chanty CD. You put your own slant on it.

AM: We're waiting to see how it fits into the sea chanty canon.

AG: There are webpages. I've seen webpages devoted to sea chanties.

AM: I've been to those sites.

AG: When I picture you performing in Japan, for some reason I picture you performing onstage, but no, you performed in a restaurant?

AM: I worked at a Donald's Boat Builders--was the name of the restaurant. No, it was called The Cape Cod Cookoff. The show was in a big, big dining hall with picnic benches, and on the stage was this half animatronic, half live action show. It was two shows alternating. One was Donald's Boat Builder's. It was Donald, Goofy, and Mickey trying to build a boat with all this mayhem going on around them. The shows were about seven minutes long. The other show was the Chipmunks doing something up there. There was a big boat on hydraulics with steam piped in and music--the voices were piped in. The people would get in costumes and just go up there and move around.

AG: Was it good?

AM: I never got to see it. Cause I would do five minutes in the restaurant between the Chipmunks show and The Donald Duck show. It was five minutes exactly. You had to time your set to be done exactly at five minutes. There were these audible cues you could hear. The boat was righting itself, preparing for the next show, and you could hear this hydraulic sound. You knew you had about fifteen seconds, so you wrapped it up. I was walking out the door as the music hit for the next show. You did it six times a day for six months. For the next fifteen minutes, I'd walk around outside in front. I was what they called an "atmosphere musician." When you go to Disneyworld and you see Mickey...

AG: Engaging the people.

AM: Yeah. I'm out there to be atmosphere. I'm in character. I had the sea captain costume. The boots, string tie, vest, pea coat, and hat. After fifteen minutes--I had a stage manager who would follow me around--he'sd say, "It's time to go in," so we'd find this secret passageway that led to the backstage.

AG: Were you familiar with the sea chanties on the record before you left for Japan?

AM: No. I tried like hell to find sea chanty records. This was in 2001 that I first became aware of the job. It was Adam Shipley(from Tipitina's) that put me in touch--he's from Florida, so he knows the guy who books for Disney. He called Adam and said, "I need a guy who can play banjo or guitar and sing sea chanties," and Adam called Glenn Hartman(from The Klezmer All-Stars). He said, "Glenn, who do you think we should get for this?" Glenn said, "Why not Alex," and after Adam stopped laughing, Glenn said, "No, really. Call Alex. I betcha he'd do it. It's just weird enough." So, there was a website called songsofthesea.com. I went to that. It's still up. It's got a different name, now(contemplator.com/sea). They had these MIDI files. If you took a Casio keyboard and played "Blow The Man Down" through it, that's what it would sound like(McMurray imitates it by singing the "Blow" melody like a Wizard of Oz munchkin). You could read the lyrics and hear the tune, so you could pretty much tell how the line goes, though there's no singing. Just the melody. So I went through all these tunes, and I went to amazon.com and found one record--it's called Men's Corral. It was Burl Ives corny. It's lovely in a weird way. I liked the record. It's the only one I could find. It's really not folk music. It's like something for a recital hall.

AG: Was it a little bit too put together?

AM: It sounds like a 20-to-30 man chorus with four parts--basses, baritones, tenors...Very clean, refined, spohisticated arrangements of these tunes. I'm in the dark here. I ask Shipley to ask Disney, "Please, what are the tunes?" They're like, "Oh, don't worry about it."

AG: You wanna do your research. You wanna do a good job.

AM: I'm freakin' out. They didn't give me hardly any time. They hired me, and then I became nonplussed, and they were like, "We don't need you." Three months later, they're like, "DO YOU WANNA DO THE DISNEY JOB?! CAN YOU DO IT?! WE NEED TO KNOW NOW." Ok, but can you give me 24 hours? "OK, BUT 24 HOURS." Less than a month from then, I was on a plane. So, I'm trying to do all this research. They're like, "Don't worry about it. They'll show you what to do in Japan, on the other end." And I'm like, "That sounds fishy to me. That doesn't sound right." I gotta find--there's no sea chanty records on amazon.com. In 2002, none. At least, I couldn't find any. I looked everywhere. Then, I did this MIDI thing. I tried to learn--I did a video audition. There were three that I knew. I got the job, so those three weren't that bad. I did all this crazy preparation, visas and what not, get on the plane, get to Japan. Orientation meeting, and then finally I meet with the director of the show, who's Japanese. There's a translator and the other Cap'n Sandy, John, a 64 year-old guy from Gainesville, Florida, who knows over 350 sea chanties.

AG: There you go.

AM: Yeah, but--I sit down and they say, "Play a sea chanty." John is chomping at the bit to play a sea chanty, and I'm like, "I gotta make something up." I played the three that I knew, but I hardly remembered those. I was playing my own tunes.

AG:(laughs)

AM: I played a song that I wrote.

AG: Did you pass it off as a sea chanty?

AM: Well, Cap'n John, he knew I was full of shit, but he didn't say anything. He was like, "Well, I never heard that one before."

AG: You're like, "Shut up, Cap'n John."

AM: No, I said, "I must have different records than you." So, anyway, it was struggle, but I got a twenty minute show together. I got five minutes for the inside, which needed to be gangbusters, and then I got six more shanties for outside.

AG: Let's talk about the record a bit more. On the song, "All For Me Grog," there's a breakdown in the middle, where things fall apart and you say, "C'mon motherfucker!" Was that planned?

AM: Yeah. Our arrangement included this tuba solo. In the tuba solo, Matt(Perrine) pretends to fuck it up by doing it a half step sharp or flat, I forget. And he catches himself. So, it's a gag.

AG: And you yell at him.

AM: Yeah, me and Chaz scream at him. In the full-on Valparaiso Men's Chorus arrangement, we did that. It was very effective.

AG: Did the chorus know it was coming?

AM: Of course. "Ok, Matt's gonna fuck up the solo. Scream at him."

AG: That's great. Why are you called The Valparaiso Men's Chorus? Is it because of Valparaiso, Chile?

AM: Yeah, Valparaiso was a famous, some would say infamous, Chilean seaport. It was a major port of call for sailing, merchant, whaling ships. What they exported there was bat shit, guano, to get the nitrates out of it to make saltpetre(potassium nitrate).

AG: Now I understand the title.

AM: Yeah, Valparaiso is mentioned in a lot of sea chanties. "We're off to Valparaiso/Around the horn." When you go around the horn, you're inevitably gonna end up in Valparaiso.

AG: I'm gonna completely get off the sea chanty topic. I love what you do with The Geraniums and the color you add to their music. I know Jeff Treffinger(of The Geraniums and The Saturn Bar and Truck Farm) made your solo record, and he's played on your songs, as well, but how did your collaboration with The Geraniums come about?

AM: The Geraniums have had a couple of color guys throughout the years, whether it be on harmonica, fiddle, or trombone. I'm not sure how I got picked to do it, but one day Jeff said, "Hey man, would you come play with The Geraniums?" And I've always been a huge fan. I said, "Of course." I jumped at it. They used to play at the Circle Bar on Sunday nights when I used to bartend there. For a coupla years. They'd play, and there'd be no one there. I could sit in with them because there was no one to serve.

AG: So, you already knew the songs...

AM: No, I had heard them, and some of them I still really don't know. I kinda mess them up. I don't really know the titles to them or anything. It helps that they're all in D. There are a couple that aren't in D. It kinda hurts, in a way. Like, "What am I gonna do with D this time?" I love Jeff and Brendan's songs.

AG: There's still no one that shows up. How do we get more people out there?

AM: They don't do anything to promote themselves. They do nothing. I think it's a gag with them, that they do so little. They get their Tuesday gig, and that's the end of it. They show up, and they play.

AG: They don't really care, or...

AM: I guess...they do care. I've seen them when there's been people. Not a lot of people, but people. They get pumped and excited. Why don't you do something about it? Why don't you get a MySpace page? I don't know. It doesn't help that the tunes are kinda offbeat and dour. But, they are one of the unique things in this town. No one does anything like The Geraniums. It's really good. The songs are rich lyrically.

AG: When are you gonna come out with another solo or Tin Men record?

AM: That's the $64,000 question. I guess I've got enough tunes that I could do a record. It's also a question of money. There was talk for a while to get a label like Yep Roc to finance it. They didn't bite. 'Cause financing a record by yourself--it's doable because I did it, but you amass credit card debt doing that. I'm still paying it off.

AG: So, why would you do it again if you're still paying it off?

AM: Yeah. Money's a big factor. I'd like to get something by the end of the year. If I don't have something by the end of the year, then I've lost the plot.

AG: Seems like Tin Men is more of a every-two-years type of group.

AM: Yeah, but the Tin Men haven't been playing much. Matt's really busy with Bonerama.We've got a couple ideas for records. We might do a record that's all by one composer, or we might do one record that's all composed by us. We always have a record that's originals and unoriginals. We have moxie. We'll put our heads together one of these days and figure it out.

AG: Y'all perform Dirty Dozen's "Blackbird Special" live. That's my favorite song y'all do live, probably because the way y'all do it has such a concentrated anxiety to it.

AM:(laughs) Yeah, for me it is. It's a very difficult song to play. It's one of the most taxing tunes, for me, anyway. And there's not even any singing.

AG: Did you have any specific approach when covering it? Are you more of a traditional person when covering songs, or are you more of a non-traditional person, where you can veer off the beaten path a bit?

AM: The arrangement we do is the All That arrangement, the Davis Rogan version. That's a tune we used to do with that band. Me and Matt were in that band together for a while. I guess when The Tin Men got started we had all the Fingerbowl stuff, 'cause Matt was in that band, and we had songs of mine that weren't Fingerbowl tunes that we knew. We had all this Washboard Chaz stuff, and we had All That. We used to play a few brass band tunes that we knew from All That. It was like, "Ok, it'll be funny, we'll take this brass band tune and do this weird, not so fat instrumentation."

AG: Kinda like doing "Immigrant Song," like y'all do. You get everybody to turn their head and go, "Are they doing what I think they're doing?"

AM: We have performed Motorhead's "Ace of Spades."

AG: Nice.

AM: We're gonna get together and practice that again. We did it once during the Kids Camp at The Big Top. It was great.

AG: That's gonna be a hit. I've talked to you in passing about getting Royal Fingerbowl back together, and you've said people don't care, but the people I've talked to say differently.

AM: Well, you know, those 14 people are still around.

AG:(laughs) That's exactly what you said last time.

AM: Whenever someone asks me about the Fingerbowl, I always talk about those fourteen people. And the fourteen people really loved it.

AG: (laughs) But, that's not enough to make any money, is it?

AM: Whenever I feel like making that seventy bucks, we'll go out there and do it. We could probably get those fourteen people out to Carrollton Station. Or, maybe we could fill up the Circle Bar.

AG: You know, you might find those fourteen people brought one friend each, and then all of a sudden, there's 28.

AM: But, you see, these fourteen people are like those guys in the army jackets.

AG:(laughs) The curmudgeons?

AM: The guy in the army jacket at the end of the gig that wants to ask you about your gear. "What year amp is that? '64? That's what I thought."

AG: And, you're a little creeped out?

AM: Well...

AG: I got it.

AM: We did a party a year or two ago uptown. Becky Lloyd said, "I really want the Fingerbowl." I said, "Ok." It's not impossible.

AG: Are you able to make a living as a musician in New Orleans?

AM: I have. For ten years I didn't have a job. Since we've been back we've been kinda--we did a little work for Jeff on this house here. We painted that place--me and Kourtney. My friend has a rental property on Congress Street. It had Katrina problems--lost a lot of the roof. It needed to be gutted, blah, blah, blah. He's living in New York now. I supervised that for him. I don't know if I can make a living. The last month has been--I've made a living this month.

AG: So, it's month to month?

AM: You talk to guys, you know that summertime's gonna be slow. You gotta line up your ducks so you can make it through the summer, which is the slowest time. It's good to get out of town.

AG: Is that what you're planning on doing?

AM: Jonathan is kinda arranging for a trip up to the Northwest. He's got some contacts up there. He's gonna play some shows with Skerik. I've been invited to go up there with Kourtney. She's got this class she's been teaching, and she would have some time between them, before the next one starts. We might go up there for a couple weeks. I might do something in the northeast. I normally go up there once or twice a year, do some solo shows. There's this party I play every year. My father's up there. We can stay with friends, stay for free. Duking it out down here can be really demoralizing.

AG: I could imagine. You've been playing for so long, and I'm wondering if you've ever gone through lulls where, out of frustration, you've thought about giving up writing and performing and recording?

AM: Sometimes you get frustrated. Never to the point where I've said, "Fuck it, I'm gonna get a straight job." Sometimes you say, "Fuck it," but you don't really mean it. The good times are really great, and the bad times are really bad, but overall, it's a good life. I have no other skills. I dropped typing my freshman year of high school to take music theory. The first job I tried to get outta college, working for Tulane, was installing phone lines. I had to take a typing test. And I was sitting there taking this typing test, pecking and pecking. I was an English and Philosphy major, so I had to write a hundred papers...

AG: But you still didn't know how to type properly. I'm the same way.

AM: Typing a paper was like an hour a page. And that was going as fast as I could. That irony. I'm reminded of that all the time.

AG: Recurring players in your songs are drink and water, patrons of which tend me to be misfits or lonely. I was wondering if you have a soft spot for curmudgeons or the unwanted.

AM: Yeah, I think everybody can relate to that as a romantic notion. Loneliness, sentimentality, ne'er do wells, drinkers, brawlers, people in the bar. Saloon society. Sometimes I make up my mind not to write about these people anymore, but it's sort of inevitably goes back to that sphere.

AG: Because you live in that atmosphere, as well?

AM: I don't know. I work in bars. I used to go to bars a lot, more than I do now. I used to live at the R Bar. I'd get done playing and go to a bar. I could never go straight home.

AG: Wind down?

AM: Yeah.

AG: Just like everybody else.

AM: Yeah, but I don't do that anymore. I used to spend a lot of time at Markey's. I got outta that group, ya know. I haven't written too many songs in the last year, and the ones I have written really have nothing to do with it at all. I wrote a song about Cabral, Otis, this recurring guy, the two Katrina songs. I'm working on a song for Chaz to sing in The Tin Men. I'm trying to write a dance number. It's baffling to me.

AG: Do you think New Orleans is more forgiving of the socially inept?

AM: Absolutely.Yes. This town's got its own social code. People tolerate lateness. They know you can't be expected to do things early in the morning. Half the people you know are in bands or work in bars or restaurants. The bon vivant factor is high. You've heard the expression, "If you can't make it here, don't leave"?

AG:(laughs) That's great.

AM: New York has their saying, and we have ours.

AG: Eccentrics are celebrated here.

AM: Yeah. What's gonna happen to all the guys that hang out at stores, drinking Busch beer all day? I see these guys floatin' around town, waitin' for the bus. You can do it. The people that float around the Circle Bar--the homeless guys. The train station is right there. It's a pretty forgiving town...There's this couple that's been going through my songs, and they're still together, but they're terrible for each other.

AG: You can't figure out why they're still together! They've been through things and stood by each other.

AM: They just get into so much trouble together. There's something primal about their love that I find fascinating.

AG: It doesn't make any sense.

AM: This couple, they should really get out the bars and go take care of their kids. These beautiful losers--Leonard Cohen.

Dylan's "It's Alright Ma(I'm Only Bleeding)" Live from 1965

2007-06-03T22:30:00.000-06:00

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

"I Am The Walrus"

2007-06-03T22:27:00.000-06:00

Muse's "Take a Bow"

2007-06-01T00:53:00.000-06:00

Corrupt
You're corrupt
Bring corruption to all that you touch
Hold
You behold
And beholden for all that you've done
And spin
Cast a spell
Cast a spell on the country you run
And risk
You will risk
You will risk all their lives and their souls

And burn
You will burn
You will burn in hell, yeah you'll burn in hell
You'll burn in hell
Yeah you'll burn in hell
For your sins

And our freedom's consuming itself
What we've become
It's contrary to what we want

Take a bow

Death
You bring death, and destruction to all that you touch
Pay
You must pay
You must pay for your crimes against the earth
Yeah hex
Feed the hex
Feed the hex on the country you love

Now beg
You will beg
You will beg for their lives and their souls

Now burn
You will burn
You will burn in hell, yeah you'll burn in hell
You'll burn in hell
Yeah you'll burn in hell
You'll burn in hell
Yeah you'll burn in hell
For your sins

Eric Dolphy's Musical Orgasm

2007-05-30T01:29:00.000-06:00

This clip makes my head wanna explode. Or maybe I could get slingshot into the sky. The beginning is funny. Dolphy's sitting there, unimpressed, like, "Whatever, dude."

Bowie's "The Heart's Filthy Lesson"

2007-05-28T02:18:00.000-06:00

Bowie's "Hang Onto Yourself"

2007-05-28T01:48:00.001-06:00

Bowie's "Loving The Alien"

2007-05-28T01:36:00.000-06:00

What is that? INXS sucks? No, you suck!

2007-05-28T00:50:00.000-06:00

The point I'm about to make sounded so much better in my head a couple hours ago. I've lost the fat, and I'm down to the tasty morsel, if it is even that. I rediscovered INXS today, and I found out that I like them. I wouldn't have thought this yesterday, but it's true. I converted my head--my mean, snobby head. I showed my head that it's not important anymore whether I was supposed to like INXS or not when I was in high school. It's not important whether I thought they were a crappy dance band with no substance or grit. And, sure, INXS is pretty glossed over, but today I found that they write hella good pop rock songs. And a touching ballad, here and there. And that's all that matters. I have hopefully conquered all those that would "p-shaw!" at me if I told them I like INXS. I move onto the next band that I've programmed myself not to like, hoping to remove even more of the discriminatory black from my heart.

US Air Guitar Championships at The Parish HOB June 23rd

2007-05-28T00:31:00.000-06:00

I encourage all of you to sign up for The US Air Guitar Championships New Orleans Regional at the Parish Room of the House of Blues on June 23rd. I'll be there performing. Now I just have to figure out what I'll do. Maybe some Tom Morello? Zakk Wylde? Win the regional and get a free trip to the US Finals in NYC. Win the US Finals and get $1,000 + a free trip to represent Team USA at the Air Guitar World Championships in Finland. Click on the title link to register.

Stinking Lizaveta, FabChannel.com, and Concert.Tv

2007-05-20T14:01:00.000-06:00

Every once and a while, I come upon a band that has cut up my favorite music, re-arranged it, and offered it back to me in a different package. It's music that existed in my mind before I even knew it was there. Stinking Lizaveta plays such music. They call themselves "doom jazz," a moniker that warms my heart. Yes, what I've been waiting for, someone to bring together doom metal and freakout jazz. The instrumental band is a ten year-old trio of guitar, bass, and drums that are just as likely to sludge out and riff away Van Halen style as they are to deconstruct themselves into dreamy, boundless excursions. Click on the title link to go to fabchannel.com, where you can watch a scarily recent concert of theirs. Also visit concert.tv for more concerts.

Purge

2007-05-18T19:25:00.000-06:00

The Iraq war always lies at the bottom of a daily stack of worries in my mind. But, when I do think about it, usually as a result of cnn.com, my face flushes, my breath shortens, and my skin tingles. Lately, I've been purging this anger and frustration with the help of Rage Against The Machine, Americana rocker James McMurtry, and Oakland metal group Totimoshi. Each artist(s) has spoken out against this administration and the war, either in their lyrics or publicly.

I saw a great bumper sticker today. It said: "Forget Iraq. Rebuild New Orleans." It's exactly how I feel. How much easier is to play G.I. Joe and the hero than to actually do the less glamorous job of dealing with domestic poverty, outsourcing, and the public school system, not to mention New Orleans, which is still struggling? Do I even need to say that? Are you people fucking clueless? Have you come down from Washington and looked at this place lately? FUCK!!!

We can't afford to police the world with so many problems at home. Why let fear get the best of us and be so pre-emptive about the terror concern? It's not about that, is it, though? It's about the oil, and meanwhile, our citizens, our boys, are dying over there, one by one, day by day. And there's no end in sight.

A Cry For Help

2007-05-16T23:39:00.000-06:00

I have only myself to blame. In the hopes of maybe hearing some Rage, Tool, Nirvana, or Pearl Jam, I tune in to 104.1. Instead I hear crap like Godsmack, specifically "Voodoo," which has lyrics like "I'm not the one who's so far away/When I fell the snake bite enter my veins." I've gotten angry at a lot of ridiculously banal nu metal lyrics, but for some reason, these really set me off. What the hell is he talking about? He sounds like a third grader who doesn't have the proper vocabulary to express a feeling of numbness or detachment. Instead, the third grader just says "far away." Not to mention that song is terrible. Lord, keep my testosterone in check and allow me no need to turn to 104.1. Please keep my dial on 91.5, 90.7 or 870 AM. Amen.

LIVENEWORLEANS.COM PRESENTS WORLD LEADER PRETEND, ROTARY DOWNS, AND THE JUNIOR LEAGUE SATURDAY THE 12TH AT ONE EYED JACKS

2007-05-08T19:51:00.000-06:00

The title says it all. World Leader Pretend hasn't played in town in over a year, and Rotary Downs won't play again until September, so get your asses in gear and get out there Saturday.

Just Crazy Enough

2007-04-25T23:41:00.000-06:00

Only in New Orleans would a funk band win for "Best Rock Band" at an awards ceremony. Last night at Gambit Weekly's Big Easy Awards, Bonerama beat out Bingo! and Morning 40 Federation. Aren't rock bands supposed to be dangerous, subversive, exciteable, and rebellious? What do those factors have in common with 40 to 50-year-olds who re-hash the (admittedly awesome)hits of yesteryear("Crosstown Traffic, "The Ocean")?

Domino Sound

2007-04-22T21:29:00.001-06:00

I went into the Domino Sound Record Shack for the first time today. It's a relatively new store on Bayou Road(coming from downtown on Esplanade, take a right at Broad and another right at Bayou Rd. and it's in that first block on your left) that specializes in vinyl, local and national. No CD's, and when I asked the owner if they had a e-mail list, he gave me that snotty, "I hate computers" look. I bought a R.E.M. tape for $2 and a "Best of Ric Records" tape for $3. Ric Records was an old local R&B label that put out Irma Thomas, Eddie Bo, and Al Johnson, among others.

Dave Grohl, Earl Hudson, and Taylor Hawkins

2007-04-18T01:42:00.001-06:00

Matt Cameron drum solo

2007-04-17T22:37:00.000-06:00

Matt Cameron, currently of Pearl Jam and formerly of Soundgarden, is one of my favorite drummers. Click on the title link for the Wikipedia article on him.

Broven's Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans

2007-04-17T17:15:00.000-06:00

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through John Broven's Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans. It's pretty good, considering it was published in '73 and written by a British guy. Broven is not a good writer, in that he has no style or eye for transitioning, but the information he passes along is pure gold for anyone wondering about that period in New Orleans history. He gives you knowledge, but he also helps you mold whatever you already knew into a new form with the context he provides. It's funny how things were so much more singles oriented back then. Click on the title link for a short description of the book.

Will Ferrell's "The Landlord"

2007-04-17T15:26:00.000-06:00

Cats are magicians, too

2007-04-17T15:20:00.000-06:00

Click on the title link for the unthinkable: cats perfecting invisibility.

Why aren't we out-crazying the Japanese?

2007-04-17T15:16:00.000-06:00

I'd take soccer demolition derby over Howie Mandel anyday. Watch and enjoy.

Nick Swardson

2007-04-15T11:16:00.001-06:00

MySpace Night at the Improv

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Blonde Redhead

2007-04-14T15:44:00.000-06:00

I recommend the new Blonde Redhead album, 23. Click on the title link for the All Music review.

Tin Men, Underrated Albums, and Electric Six

2007-04-14T12:33:00.000-06:00

I was on the street Thursday, and a guy passing by stopped me and said he had friends in from out of town. He asked me where he should take them Friday night. I asked him if they had seen Rebirth before, hoping he would say yes. He said no, so I reluctantly told him to take them to Rebirth, knowing that that's the requisite first stop on any visitor's list. But, I really wanted to tell him to go see The Tin Men, because they have more of an eclectic New Orleans sound than most bands out there. What I mean is, "They sound exactly like New Orleans sounds in my head." The amount of genres they mix might be unparalleled locally.

UNDERRATED ALBUMS

Weezer--"Maldroit"
Ben Folds Five--"The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner"
Stephen Malkmus--"Face The Truth"

QUOTE I'M ENJOYING

"Mr. President make a little money, sending people you don't know to Iraq/Mr. President, I don't like you, you don't know how to rock"--Electric Six, "Rock and Roll Evacuation"

Keith Moore R.I.P.

2007-04-11T14:33:00.000-06:00

Keith Moore, son of Deacon John and a local musician, painter, sculptor and trash artist, died yesterday of a gunshot wound. Click on the link below for the Times-Picayune story and on the title link for an old Offbeat story on Moore.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1176268304309540.xml&coll=1

I wanna recognize that Keith was a passionate supporter of local electronic music. He and his passion will be missed. Keith's annual Noizefest will be held at Michael Patrick Welch's house on May 6th. Look for MPW's obit on Keith in next week's Gambit.

Free tickets to Electric Six tonight

2007-04-11T10:09:00.000-06:00

E-mail your full name to jason@liveneworleans.com for free tickets to Electric Six at the House of Blues tonight.

The High Hat Club?

2007-04-10T20:20:00.000-06:00

Has anyone heard of or have any info regarding the old Hi-Hat Club? Is this a mission for Blake Pontchartrain?

The Rusty Nail goes acoustic

2007-04-10T20:07:00.000-06:00

I'm starting to realize why The Mermaid Lounge was kicked out of its space. I don't think that neighborhood wants music anymore. According to an e-mail sent to me and a bunch of other promoters and musicians, The Rusty Nail, a new venue whose building also housed The Mermaid, will be going acoustic as a result of neighborhood noise complaints. The e-mail sent by owners Todd McNulty and David Brown:

"Dear bands and promoters,

The Rusty Nail is facing forced changes regarding our musical performances. As you all may know by now, we have been strictly monitoring our noise levels due to complaints from our neighbors at the Cotton Mill condominium complex. We have changed the entrance from the front doors to the side door which has not remedied the situation. We will be moving the entrance once again to the alley door which will prevent any inside noise from being directed towards the Cotton Mill. Also, and this is the main point for you all, we will become an acoustic music venue. This means no amps or large drum kits. What we are going for is acoustic instruments, (still to be amplified through the PA when necessary) hand drums or very small kits (3 pc. or less) with brushes or dowl rod (muted) sticks only, upright basses preferred since no amps are allowed, more piano players and solo, duo, or trio acts will be sought. I can't tell you how much I regret sending this, especially to the bands that are booked and can not comply to the new format. I know this will take some time, but if you are booked for a gig already, please let me know if you can make these changes and keep your gig. Otherwise, let me know, also, if you can't and I will apologize profusely. Please understand that we face losing everything we have put into this if we do not take drastic measures at this time.

Our best regards to all of you,

Todd McNulty
David Brown
The Rusty Nail"

Click here to listen to the new NIN album

2007-04-09T00:09:00.001-06:00

The Onion News Network suggests a great way to stay fit: Find a friend with Cancer.

2007-04-04T19:17:00.000-06:00

Click here for The Daily Show's n-word report

2007-04-04T19:13:00.000-06:00

Click here for my review of Peeping Tom

2007-04-04T19:05:00.000-06:00

Click here for my review of Hairy Mountain

2007-04-04T19:00:00.000-06:00

The Greatest

2007-04-03T16:33:00.000-06:00

A couple days ago I started to move backwards through Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums ever. Of course, I'm only gonna be able to check out the ones I can hear on Rhapsody. I've already scared my girlfriend twice. The first time was when I said I was listening to the Eurythmics, and the second was when I said I was listening to Cyndi Lauper. Both times she just kinda paused on the other end of the phone, as if to question my masculinity without saying a word. I had to explain my project, and I even ended up defending Cyndi Lauper's music. How could I have ever thought that I'd be defending Cyndi Lauper, to a girl, no less? Click on the title link for the RS list.

So, the other day I was enjoying ZZ Top's Tres Hombres , and by reading up on the band, it seems like the critics didn't really get them. ZZ Top is a bluesy, boozy, bar band that just happens to include one of the best blues guitarists alive and an impenetrable rhythm section. They're not trying to re-invent the wheel. They're just trying to rock out the boogie, and if you think it's catchy, too, well then that's great. Have you heard "La Grange" lately? If you're in a band, you can interweave the bass and drums, but how can you hope to mesh like the guys in ZZ Top? Man, how awesome would it have been to be in ZZ Top and be able to just roll over audiences with your tightness? ZZ Top is gonna be at Jazzfest this year. Rock!

I met the devil today

2007-04-03T15:51:00.000-06:00

As I was putting up posters at Nashville and Magazine today, I was approached by an old woman in a frenzy. The whole encounter was pretty ridiculous from the get-go. She was yelling at me from a distance, which I reacted to by being extra calm. I'm sure it made her look even more crazy, considering I was just standing there, sans emotion, reasonably digesting what she said. This woman had gray, pulled-back hair and seemingly rotten, wooden teeth(she looked like a scourge of Satan). She had a bunch of posters that she had just torn down under her arm, and she was telling me that I was polluting the neighborhood. She was really worked up, which I couldn't understand. Maybe she was nervous because she thought I was gonna give her trouble. I hope that was it, because if she was really that blood boiled about someone putting up posters, then I've lost a little hope for the city. These are the same people that fought against the street musicians in the Quarter and specifically, Jackson Square.

So, this woman said her bit, and I said, "Don't you care about local musicians?," but she wasn't hearing that. She just kept spouting about how it's illegal, to which I said, "It doesn't matter if it's illegal or not." Of course, she countered with, "Right, it doesn't matter if you run a stop sign or a stoplight," but I don't think she got my point. What I failed to say, because I realized she was set in her mind, was that it doesn't matter what's illegal. It matters what is right. Without live music, this town becomes any other town. Who does she think keeps live music afloat here? It's the people that work the publicity, book the shows, put up the posters, write the articles, sweep the venues, etc. She might as well be living in Metairie or Kenner or Covington or LaPlace. I wish she would. We need support here. Not NIMBY'S.

Click here for Louis CK's hilarious take on gay marriage

2007-04-03T15:24:00.001-06:00

Fu Manchu. This video is silly, but it rocks. If you want to see a stoner rock version of "We're Not Gonna Take It," then you should watch it.

2007-04-02T16:34:00.000-06:00

Fu Manchu playing "Hell on Wheels" live

2007-04-02T16:32:00.000-06:00

Fu Manchu tomorrow night at the HOB

2007-04-02T16:00:00.000-06:00

311 is kinda like Fu Manchu. Both bands turn out kick ass live shows no matter how many albums it's been since they released your favorite album or hit their peak. I'm listening to Fu Manchu's new album, "We Must Obey," and it sounds fuckin' amazing. The songs aren't groundbreaking or anything better than their last release, but the actual engineering is awesome. The group continues in the same punkier direction, but with the bigger fuzz-on-steroids production, it sounds as if someone forgot the volume was at 5 for the last album and corrected the situation by turning it up to ten for this one. Fu Manchu plays at the HOB Parish room tomorrow night. Click on the title link for an interview I did with drummer Scott Reeder in December 2004.

The least you can do is a buy a 10 speed.

2007-04-02T15:43:00.000-06:00

I'm tired of seeing grown men riding children's bikes. Either these guys are going for some sort of stunted growth, low-rider gangsta look, or they just watched "Gleaming The Cube" one too many times. Remember pizza delivery dude Tony Hawk and his rag-tag group of bmx buddies? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Either way, cut it out.

I love you, Rock and Roll Confidential.

2007-03-29T19:15:00.000-06:00

Rock and Roll Confidential targets the awesomely retarded band photos that float around cyberspace. Click the title link for hilarity.

Gloriousnoise.com interview with Elliott Smith archivist Larry Crane

2007-03-27T16:00:00.000-06:00

On May 8th, Kill Rock Stars will release New Moon, a compilation of rare and unreleased Elliott Smith songs from his Either/Or and Elliott Smith era. Click on the title link for an interview with Larry Crane, Smith's archivist, about assembling the 24 song comp.

Click here for Gambit writer Alison Fensterstock's take on this year's SXSW

2007-03-27T15:11:00.000-06:00

Peyton Manning's hilarious SNL United Way spoof

2007-03-27T14:58:00.000-06:00

There aren't a lot of things funnier than watching kids get mercilessly attacked by a volleyball or football. Just ask Adam Sandler("Billy Madison") or Peyton Manning. I have a whole new respect for Manning after watching this clip. Click on the title link to get there.

The Buoyant Sea, Guitar Lightnin', My Graveyard Jaw, and White Bitch at The Mother-In-Law Lounge tonight

2007-03-27T14:10:00.000-06:00

My friend Davitt Terrell, a.k.a. The Buoyant Sea, is celebrating his birthday tonight by bringing together his favorite local musicians at the Mother-In-Law Lounge. Expect sets by Guitar Lightnin', White Bitch and Ray Bong, and My Graveyard Jaw, along with music spun by DJ Lingerie. The shindig starts at 9.

Click here for a review of 00Dougs

2007-03-27T14:05:00.000-06:00

Rotary Downs "Sing Like The Sun"

2007-03-26T20:48:00.000-06:00

Rotary Downs for President

2007-03-26T20:36:00.000-06:00

Hennessy, Rhapsody, and Rolling Stone are offering up a free recording session to the band that gets the most votes in their online competition. Click on the title link to vote for hometown rockers Rotary Downs.

Nostalgia

2007-03-26T13:49:00.000-06:00

I'm listening to Elton John's Greatest Hits 1970-2002, and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" takes me right back to a feeling of childhood security and calm. My parents must have played that song a lot when I was growing up. Another artist that I associate with childhood is Hall and Oates. "Private Eyes" and "Kiss On My List" are like time machines. I'm not sure I would have such an affinity for this stuff if I hadn't grown up around it. The good feeling it gives me automatically gets me around any usual criticisms of cheesiness or it sounding dated.

They say this cat Paul Webb is a bad mother...SHUT YOUR MOUTH! I'm just talkin' 'bout Paul Webb. THEN WE CAN DIG IT!

2007-03-25T21:43:00.000-06:00

Paul Webb is my favorite local metal musician. He writes metal that I like. It's intricate, sometimes beauteous instrumental metal. But, it also kicks ass. It's A.D.D. like math metal but also anthemic and grandiose enough in sections to attract an AC/DC fan. Webb doesn't get enough recognition around town, so go check out solo compositions on his MySpace page(click the title link) and then go to the Music Exchange at Louisiana and Magazine and tell him how much you like his music.

Gov't Majik tonight at The Dragon's Den

2007-03-25T14:14:00.000-06:00

This is what DJ Soul Sister said about Gov't Majik in her nola.com blog:

"With a name like Gov't Majik: The Dirty South Afro-Beat Arkestra, this New Orleans band is attempting to cover a heap of musical ground.

'Dirty South' gives it that obligatory New Orleans groove connection. 'Arkestra' conjures images of avant jazz freakster Sun Ra flying through Saturn. And, of course" Afro-Beat refers to the hypnotic sounds that Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti created with a series of 1970s and 80s albums. Influenced by African-American funk, West African highlife music, and Nigerian jazz rhythms, Afro-Beat is energetic, extended, improvisational dance music that makes sense in New Orleans.

A dirty south Afro-Beat orchestra is an ingenious idea.

True to the form of Fela, whose own Afro-Beat band sometimes swelled to 100 musicians and dancers, the number of Gov't Majik players will be massive. Past GM shows have boasted 10+ musicians, including horns, percussion, synthesizer, drums, bass and guitar..."

Please go check out this band tonight. Click on the title link to get to the band's MySpace page.

Ray Davies performing "Oklahoma U.S.A." in March 2006

2007-03-25T13:45:00.000-06:00

Muswell Hillbillies

2007-03-25T13:29:00.000-06:00

For me, at least, there are few things better in life than getting blindsided by a great album I didn't know existed and couldn't have expected to exist. I'm listening to The Kinks 1971 album, Muswell Hillbillies, and I'm loving it. This is my kind of country rock. It's distinguished, subtle, and it doesn't take itself seriously. Muswell Hillbillies is a nice flipside to The Stones' brand of honky tonk, which can be a little too dirty for me, sometimes. "Oklahoma U.S.A." is the first genuinely powerless and sweet barrelhouse song I've heard. Click on the title above to read a review of the album.

The Physical Overdraft Came From Greater Willpower

2007-03-23T13:56:00.000-06:00

The band that I just joined, The Junior League, is nominated for Best Emerging Artist in The Big Easy Awards. So, that's pretty awesome, even though I had nothing to do with it. For those that don't know, Joe Adragna, the lead singer/guitarist, is the mastermind behind that band. He writes all the songs, plays all the instruments in the studio, and makes all the phone calls. Next Saturday March 31st at The Circle Bar it's the WTUL CD Release Party with The Black Rose Band, The Junior League, MC Trachiotomy with Lefty Parker, and Broken Smokes.

NOISE FEST

I encourage everyone to go out to The Big Top Saturday afternoon and night for the annual NOISE Fest. This is the place to check out what's best in local avant, electronic, ambient, and noise. The show starts at 4 with the Uptown Cajun All-Stars and ends at 10 with Electrical Spectacle. Tickets are $8. Bands include Electrical Spectacle, Chef Menteur, Potpie, Helen Gillet, Ray Bong, The Buoyant Sea, Archipelago, and more.

BLAIR

There's gonna be a lot of Carrollton Station incest going down at Blair's EP Release Party Friday night at One Eyed Jacks. Lucy Gossett, Alex Smith, Keith Ferguson, Arthur Mintz, Theresa Andersson, and Andy Wagner will all have their paws on either Blair's music or Jon Michael's set, which precedes Blair's. These guys are silly. I expect the good and the unexpected.

CALEXICO

I'm pretty excited that Calexico is coming back to town so soon after their last One Eyed Jacks date. Their music is so sharp and measured. It can sound so languid and dry that it transports me. On April 27th at the Republic, Blair will open for Calexico.

LIVENEWORLEANS.COM PRESENTS CALEXICO AND BLAIR
Friday, April 27th
Republic
$20

The first five people that can answer this question will get free tickets to the show: What band were the two main members of Calexico in before they formed Calexico?

PEEPING TOM

I'm a little suprised I'm not hearing more chatter about Peeping Tom's show at the House of Blues on April 2nd. Mike Patton is gonna be there. Dan The Automator is gonna be there. Have you guys heard the songs? Here's a link to the whole album: Peeping Tom

BIG BLUE MARBLE

According to Big Blue Marble drummer Stu Schayot, the band had a great couple of shows and a good time all around at SXSW this last weekend. Congrats to Big Blue Marble for landing a headlining spot at French Quarter Fest this year. They play on April 12th from 6:45-8. Other performers of note include Glasgow!, The Zydepunks, The Tin Men, Country Fried, and Gal Holiday. Everyone else playing is exactly who you'd expect to be playing.

Concert Picks for this weekend

2007-03-23T13:55:00.001-06:00

FRIDAY, MARCH 23RD

One Eyed Jacks--Blair EP Release Party with Jon Michael

SATURDAY, MARCH 24TH

Circle Bar--Mod Dance Party

House of Blues--Shannon McNally

Rock N Bowl--Tab Benoit

One Eyed Jacks--The Public

SUNDAY, MARCH 25TH

Circle Bar--Stoner Rock Sunday