i have seen the future of rock and roll ...

xmastime n i stumbled into spike hill late night. band settin up. figured, what the hell. all sudden band setting up was gettin pelted w/ the plethora of pbr cans around room. vibe i haven't witnessed in WAY TOO LONG. they rolled w/ it, hidin behind each other while each tuned.

lineup:

dude that looks like axl ... secret weapon= never seemed to know when a song's startin. beauteeful. added bonus, he can almost on command stand on bass drum and ROCK (almost, cuz he fell twice). number of times during set i actually heard his guitar (not counting between songs) = one. money quote at end of show "we'd like to thank the make a wish foundation" and a strange shout out to steve young after every song. "the rawk"

bass player ... prince william lookalike with a striped b&w collared shirt that only a mom could buy (bonus points for the white collar & wristcuffs). "the dude with the access to the record collection"

sean lennon replicant on other mostly heard gtr. "the dude with the record collection"

dude playing keyboard who referred to hisself after show as a "hired gun" (nice deadwood reference without actually knowing what deadwood is). "the dude in 12 bands that has a great solo album in the works"

drummer. well he drummed his ass off. nuf sed. "the pro" or "the nice guy" aka "the dude who could kick my ass"

sounds like= "SONICTALLICA!" (their description)

set starts. most under-rehearsed thing that sounded like bliss in months. drunken distort sabbath/syouth/malkamus/cheer w/ faux pop hooks was the norm w/ nada hit of the introspect. said can throwers jumped on providin the right off key b/ups to send choruses into overdrive (missing grace was UG to be there and nod approval). my faith in bedford avenue and indie rock in general has been temporarily restored. ironic that me n ms. gihyb lived upstairs from (what was) spike hill in the 90s and had not a clue, oh yeah, they were in diapers.

i'm going to follow this band all year, i know nothing about them save this myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/theyoko13). it's my reality show-- and a way to stand tall with the striking writers. tina, all ya gotta do is PM me.

ps- any info on sed band is greatly appreciated.

my so called ipod (aka, he's a whore)

by my count, i'm now on ipod 7. that's an average of a little over 2 per year. couple days ago, i disconnected my latest (and favorite) while running out door and vaguely saw some sync error nonsense. once outside, i hit shuffle and realize several minutes later that nothing's happening (ed - insert john cage joke here). the damn thing had erased itself. after several "restore settings" attempts, i can read the contents on my computer, but it contains no tunes once unplugged. fuck me over once mr. jobs, your fault ... fuck me 7 times, at least buy me dinner or introduce me to your friends

alright, this blog's gettin a little to whiney. until further notice, we're joinin the writers strike. tina fey is HOT

don't look back

i've gotta say, i'm gettin tired of the reunion tours. in the past few years i've seen a few amazing (x, television, burma, dino jr., ny dolls), some decent (big star, stooges), and a snoozer (springsteen-- i blame the awful giants stadium xperience more than bruce). last wknd i saw a great show. the goddamn sonics. a band i've revered since, well forever, a band that i fuckin quoted lyrics on my first record (where we also stole the chord sequence! -- not the smartest idea i s'pose). also on the bill the lyres and the fleshtones, who were both pretty great also.

but enough. seems they make the bulk of my excursions. sometimes they're hard to turn down. c'mon, some were the formative bands of my growin up. i never had the chance to see alot of em, but fuck it, it ends now.

shee-it ... i caught wind of the big dipper shows in '08

alas, i do have one redeeming star on my card. i didn't buy into the pixies return. love em as i do, they sucked both times i saw em when they were still together.

hanna montana

did i miss a memo or somethin? mrs. gihyb threw on scarface tonight. neither of us had ever seen it. you know, every athlete's favorite flick. on every third t-shirt in brooklyn ... pacino's tan, ricardo accent, and the general amount of italians posin as latinos notwithstanding, this might be the worst movie i've ever seen. i'm halfway through ... dunno if i can make it. just suffered through a wedding montage that makes flashdance watchable. dunno if an alan partridge cameo could make this work. has pacino ever looked shorter? hahaha!!!!

...

startin to get the springsteen/hipster band connection now. was just listening to arcade fire's great cut "keep the car running" and suddenly realized it's "on the darkside" by john cafferty or eddie wilson/wordman depending on yer allegiance (ed- the latter ... wordman [chest] [chest] [point to sky])

wu tang's new take on "while my guitar gently weeps" (first-ever sanctioned Beatles sample) is pretty rote. about as inspired musically as puffy's police song. but must admit ghostface's epic fight in the pathmark and changin the line "i don't know why" to "that bitch is crazy" is pretty funny.

you're a creep

people are giving radiohead shit because their manager admitted their name yr price to download our record was just a promotional tool for the sale of their physical cds. wow, u could knock me over with a coldplay 5". GIHYB is as much of a cynic as tom hohn, but gimme a fuckin break people. are they the red cross?

it's a different era people. r'head is just the next in what's to be a long line of reinventin the horse. while it's always good to read a headline announcing the demise of the major labels, it's not exactly new. goin back to '01, wilco's been streaming their records way ahead of release (in YHF's case, before signing a deal). indie bands have run rampant with the process. sometimes it's the only way a band without backing can bridge that gap to making actual money. if you can separate yourself from the need to press actual cds (which cost $$), and embrace yer pc, you got yrself yr own virtual record company (wow, what a GREAT idea!). there's also the "leaked" tracks. mebbe i'm spoiled, swimming in the gilded waters of the music biz, but i can't remember the last cd i wanted whose tracks i couldn't get my hands on a good few weeks/sometimes months ahead of release date. you need the buzz to build, and who better to start it than muzak-junkies online 24/7? got pals who collect mp3s like gas in mad max. be forewarned, sometimes this approach can backfire. found this nugget from the village voice to be pretty hysterical.

that said, the 160 kbps files, are sub-quality for a band of r'head's stature, and the fact that no announcement of the file size was mentioned was lame, but i'd venture to guess TH-om would send your $0.37 back (not that I paid that amount or anything).

mickey you're so fine pt 2

just got the first drabs fom mick jones new record from his band with tony james, carbon silicon. not that i was lookin for somethin great, but sumthin tuneful would be nice. instead the stuff i've heard off the album is beyond bad ...hope i can do it justice (my words) "i'm gunnah follow the geetar pawt ... hope it's whitten on yah hawt"

i have a great mick story ... mebbbe later. yuck.