Monthly Archives: August 2012

Payday!!

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On Payday, I like to exchange money for musical goods and services. This is what I bought!

Everything this pay period I heard on Evan “Funk” Davis’s show. The more you know…

Woollen Kits – Shelley / Down Your Street 7″
Australia is blowing up y’all! Woollen Kits, down under label mates with Royal Headache.

Cuffs – Private View 7″

Warm Soda – Reaction 7″
It’s a 7″ payday! Blowing my budget! Yeah!

Today’s Lesson in Keeping An Open Mind:

Red Kross – Researching The Blues (mp3 Album)
Okay, so those familiar with things underground will know the name Red Kross. A band’s band… beloved and championed by much more successful acts. And even by non-band people!

Over their long career that started as tweens opening for Black Flag, nothing I’ve heard of theirs has done anything for me. And now with this, their umpteenth album, I like a few songs! Granted, I still think they’re only hitting a little over half of the time, but that’s great for baseball, right? Maybe the rest will grow on me.

If I end up hating it, I can always give this to Rich. He’d eat this up. With a spoon.

Lock Down This Rock!! – 10 – Where The Music Lives

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I like music. I have a band. I’m gonna tell you all about it. 

 What I look for in rock: guitars, melody, guitars, energy, guitars, and guitars.

Do you know where the music lives in this Brave New World? I know where some of it is. Here are some great sources for discovering all the kool bandz before the kids do! These are the shows I currently listen to.

Want to hear me rant about today’s infinite access? I bet you don’t. Let’s just say, you kids don’t know how good you have it. Back in the day, all you had were sporadically published ‘zines, that one cool dude’s opinion, and evaluations of the cover artwork to guide you in choosing your next music purchase. All of which I kinda miss.

The Evan “Funk” Davis Show
Evan’s show is a mix of obsessive 70’s crate digging, and gems pulled from the new bin at WFMU. Available live, and archived on the inner web, which is how I listen. Evan introduced me to Pujol, Ready Stance, The Shoppers, and many more. A great supporter of up and coming bands.

The Best Show on WFMU
Tom Scharpling’s long form comedy radio program is almost impossible to explain. It’s a strange, alternate world where music trivia informs slow burn parody, live callers get shot down in flames, and a place where Tom can take gripe about subjects both profane and obscure. And he kicks off each show with about half an hour of prime music that needs to be evangelized.

KZME
Portland has has a hole in its local radio scene for many moons. But KZME is the closest station we’ve got to WFMU on this coast. They take playing local bands seriously. I could do with some more rock and less sensitive beard music, but it does reflect the current underground in PDX.

The Cherry Blossom Clinic
Sense a pattern with all these WFMU shows? The station is a lesson in listener supported, free form radio done right. Terre T plays dabbles more in the garage-y side of rock, and often has local acts perform in studio.

Rock the Nation with Dr. Stahl
New show that showcases much of the rock and punk side of Portland, which has been woefully under-represented as of late. Now here is a program that you would NEVER find without the limitless possibilities of the innerweb.  Classic, straight up big hair metal and great local punk/rock releases. It’s kinda irresistible, even for butt rock non-fans. Here’s to hoping it sticks around!

The End!

Lock Down This Rock – 09 – M.O.T.O.

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I like music. I have a band. I’m gonna tell you all about it. 

 What I look for in rock: guitars, melody, guitars, energy, guitars, and guitars.

Jack White has a new album out that critics are predictably swooning about. It’s about as inspired as you’d think from a superstar well along in his career.

He’s certainly not writing lyrics like: “The moon in the sky kicks the ass of the stars. They all fade, they all fade, so it goes.”

Which is my way of saying… why don’t more people know M.O.T.O.? This is the age of the Internet!

Pedigree? Established as contemporaries of Guided by Voices, and Flaming Lips (so, circa 1983 or so) and they’ve been active most of that time. Released a ridiculous number of albums that mere mortals cannot buy. Why? They were released in obscenely small quantities. Some only exist in cassette tape form. The only sane way you can buy M.O.T.O. music is by buying mp3 albums from CD Baby. They’re not even on iTunes! And they are obsessed with anthemic power punk with sing along choruses such as “Flipping you off with every finger on my hand”.

I’ll admit. I’m not a fan who’s been following them for years. I’m not nearly that cool. They played a local gig (which I couldn’t attend), Rich knew a bit of their backstory, and we checked out their tunes on Myspace. Talk about opening a Pandora’s Box. There was even a local cover band devoted to them. Internet, why don’t you know about M.O.T.O.?

For the record, the two albums I procured were Raw Power, and Kill MOTO. And for a rock band to name their album after a very, very, very famous Iggy and the Stooges album? Brass balls.

Oh, and for the record, it’s short for Masters Of The Obvious. Ironic, eh?

Check ’em out!!

Payday!

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Hey, it’s a new feature!

I’m not one for massive indulgence, but when it’s payday, I like to send some of my cash to bands. This is to celebrate me having a job (a traditionally iffy proposition), and motivation to keep it!

Anyway, I’m going to tell you who I’m buying every payday. I may not be able to give a proper review to everything (aka: having a job), but I can at least tell you what I heard during the pay period worthy of my further investigation.

So, what did I buy?

 

Lock Down This Rock – 08 – Wussy/Strawberry

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I like music. I have a band. I’m gonna tell you all about it. 

 What I look for in rock: guitars, melody, guitars, energy, guitars, and guitars.

This is a pretty goddamn fantastic album. And to think I didn’t want to write about Strawberry!

First of all, it came out in 2009. Old news! Secondly, I learned about it from a shameful source. A local paper. One that 99 percent of the time only reviews bands that have friends in them. You know… THAT local type of paper. Luckily we have two local papers. I’m sure one is good and angelic. That’s how the universe works. Yin/Yang. There couldn’t be TWO horrible local rags, could there?

Anyway, Wussy appears to have been formed in the wake of the Ass Ponies, a band that I only know from the prestigious amount of used CDs I used to see in the cut out bins. I listened to some on the innerweb, and it appears to me they were one of the many bands snatched up by Big Music, only to have their talent pissed away in the search for the next Crazy Town.

But this review isn’t about any of that stuff, cuz I don’t know it. Wussy is one of the few bands that have two strong vocalists covering the male and female spectrum of gender. Americana tinged indie rock lovingly sculpted around thin metaphors for dreams and love. Rich thinks they sound like Uncle Tupelo. I would never be that reductive. Never!

And they’re from Ohio. What is it about those Ohio bands that I can’t shake?

Check ’em out!!

Lock Down This Rock – 07 – The Men/Open Your Heart

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I like music. I have a band. I’m gonna tell you all about it. 

 What I look for in rock: guitars, melody, guitars, energy, guitars, and guitars.

Most of this column is born on the bus. That’s where I listen to music very loud. It creates a Fantasy Island of sonic bliss, a bubble where I can ignore the schizophrenic woman sitting next to me, manically picking at her scars. And as I stare out of the window, away from the tragic microcosm of humanity, I ponder.

Today I pondered The Men.

Note to bands!! This is the era of the Internet! People WILL google your name. Pick one that stands out in search results! PSA over.

These guys probably have received a bit more exposure than many of the bands I’ve reviewed so far, but I’m gong to talk about them anyway. Open Your Heart* came out earlier this year, a loud sonic boom in a sea of same-y releases by contemporary bands, with their quiet, twee strummings. I am going to use direct comparisons for this band, because they’re warranted! The title track sounds like Grant Hart wrote it for Flip Your Wig. Ex-Dreams sounds like Goo-era Sonic Youth. None of this is bad. What it does is make me look forward for their next album when they shake off their youthful exuberance, and sit down to find their own voice. That’s make or break time. And if they end up in the ‘make’ category, everyone wins.

Aside from that slight criticism that sounds way more damning than it should, Open Your Heart has stayed on my iPhone since I bought it. I’ve given it a good workout. Solid album, says I.

You should check them out!!

*PSA stands for album titles as well!