Once upon a time in ye olde pre-digital days, music fans would have to trek to their local record store on a certain day, usually a Tuesday, to acquire new music. It was the only way. And in the great new documentary Good Copy Bad Copy, the sample-happy artist Girl Talk reminisces about those long gone days when some of his fondest memories were formed. In the film he recalls when as a kid he was accompanied to the record store with his parents to buy the then new Nirvana CD Nevermind and how, sadly, that this nostalgic relationship no longer exists for most young blossoming music fans today.

Directed by European Andreas Johnsen, the engaging Good Copy Bad Copy, which so far has only been seen on the Danish Broadcasting Corporation television station, is a well worth watching documentary about music, copyright, and culture, and where it is headed. The one-hour documentary also features interviews with Danger Mouse, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Lawrence Lessig, and others. Below is a clip from the film. Fittingly, this film, which is supportive of copyright free file sharing, is available for free download. You can access the torrent of the XviD version at The Pirate Bay on the site goodcopybadcopy.net. However, since the film producers have still only recouped a quarter of their production costs, they do request a donation -- but only if you liked the film. And I think you will. 


For even further info, check out rosforh.com. On their homepage you can also check out clips from another good music-related documentary, Curtain Raising: Musicians in East Africa.

Thorn EMI Video TVB1733

Almost one year ago, I took my first steps into the world of Metal.  Having grown terribly bored with the state of Rock and Roll, I turned to my fellow record store employees to guide me.  (Seriously, is there any better place to work if you are a music junkie?  Didn't think so.)

So I asked Ben first.  "If one wanted to listen to some metal, where would be a good place to start?"  We decided that stoner/doom/drone metal was a good start (wonder why?).

So I began with, among others, Electric Wizard, Sunn 0))), Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine, Earth, Burning Witch and Khanate.  (Ahh yes. You picked up on the Greg Anderson/Stephen O'Malley thread.) 

And suddenly, I felt at home.  It was like I found something I had always needed but never knew I needed, you know what I mean?  I usually like my rock heavy, fast and loud, (AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath etc.) but the droning, thick, mangled guitar riffs, and the hheeeaaavvvvvvyyyyyy, slooooow drums kicked my ass!

And can I just say that Earthless is one of my favorite bands... like EVER.


I was ravenous...  I dove into Black Metal next with Stevil's help.  This is where I really went crazy.  Darkthrone, Burzum, Craft, Carpathian Forest, Old Wainds, Leviathan, oh, but to name a few.  The pain and torture in the vocals rips right through your heart, but in the best way possible. 
 

I drove from San Francisco to LA on Wednesday to see Sir Paul McCartney rock Amoeba Hollywood.

I was not disappointed!

The show was AMAZING.

It was also a total whirlwind. I still can't quite believe that it happened at all. I was in the same room as Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr? Too much, too much! This picture captures pretty much how it all felt:


Flash Back: When I was 8 years old I stayed home sick from school one day.
VCRs had recently been invented. My mom rented me Help.  From that day on, I learned to spin records. I would play records from when I got home from school till dinner time and beyond, dancing around the coffee table for hours on a daily basis to With the Beatles, Help and Abbey Road. For years. Everything I know about music and creation and art I learned from The Beatles. I voraciously read every Beatles book I could get my hands on throughout my teenage years. I became a lifer.

Fast forward 20 years to Amoeba Hollywood.

After watching Paris Hilton exit the CNN studios across the street from Amoeba, paparazzi going wild (gawd, I was in LA!), I went out to the Mezzanine to watch Paul play his sound check.

He came out onstage to the 40 or so gawkers and smoothly/nonchalantly began to play "Drive My Car." Surreal.

No doubt you're already aware that Paul McCartney played a surprise free show at Amoeba Music Hollywood on Wednesday, June 27th.

Check out on this website how Paul McCartney Rocked Amoeba Hollywood in a great review by Marcus Kagler that also includes pics from outside the store as fans lined up to see Sir Paul. And also check out AMOEBLOGGER Miss Ess' (All The News That's Fit to Sing) review (with great pics) nearby here on the AMOEBLOG.

The ex-Beatle's instore got tons of media coverage, including from the Los Angeles Times and Access Hollywood. In fact, some media outlets reported that McCartney's Amoeba appearance upstaged Paris Hilton's appearance at the CNN building, where she was Larry King's exclusive guest, literally right across the street on Hollywood's Sunset Blvd. In addition to all of the TV coverage there have also already been several first-hand video postings on YouTube -- as of Saturday a search under "McCartney Amoeba" netted 21 video links, many of which are not the best audio-video quality, but regardless capture the vibe and excitement of the day-- makes you wish you were there if you were not one of the lucky ones to make it. There are other Paul McCartney Amoeba Hollywood clips found on YouTube, including one with Ringo Starr (yes, he was in the house but didn't perform) in the parking lot and one of Paul on the Amoeba instore stage saying "thank you....Amoeba --  a great shop or wot?" Note that the must-watch video below of Paul @ Amoeba is good professional quality, as it is courtesy of McCartney's YouTube Channel.

Keala C Ramos used to work at the San Francisco Amoeba Music, until he moved out East in the last couple of years. He lives in Queens and likes living in New York City but notices certain cultural differences from San Francisco -- like how coffee is served and the difference between the MTA and the MUNI. Keala continues to make music in New York under his own name and also his band name, the Nervous Breakdowns.

The Breakdowns, who were named by Esquire magazine in 2004 as "the rock band to go and see if you are ever in San Francisco" made a rep for themselves also by getting into constant conflicts with the SFPD -- usually while playing out on the street in places like the Castro.

The Nervous Breakdowns' discography includes The Begining of the End EP (featuring the song  "Undependent," which also appeared on Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. V) and the full-length Panic. As a solo artist Keala appeared on Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. IV with the song “E Kaha'oe.” The Nervous Breakdowns' lineup in SF was Keala Ramos (lead guitar), Matt Kajiwara (rhythm, vocals), Donelle Malnik (bass), and Charlyn Villegas (drums). Check out their MySpace where, among other things, you can hear the songs "Garage Sale" and "Nervous Theme."

*This is the second interview with a former Amoebite who has moved coasts to become a New Yorker.  The last one was with Nick Lesley.

AMOEBLOG: What exactly went down with the SFPD and the Nervous Breakdowns?

In my continuing series of lists, here is my next list. I was thinking again about how much I love the reissues. Those great 2 CD remastered deluxe versions. I get very excited when my favorite albums get the deluxe treatment. There has been a lot of deluxing over the last couple years of some of my favorites from the 70's and 80's.

But not much from that very important time in music which was the early 90's. I might be a bit biased about this period since this is also the period in which I graduated high school and started college. A period when my obsession with music and bands really developed. There have already been some great Slowdive and Pulp reissues, so those will not be on the list. The first two Ride albums "Going Blank Again" and "Nowhere" have also been reissued. But all these reissues are just imports, so I'm still hopeful they will be cheaper domestic versions out soon. There is a possibility that Morrissey will be going back to Warner! He is currently without a label again. Which is great news, since that is where his catalogue as well as the Smith's resides. It can't be too long until we see some great Rhino style Smiths and Morrissey reissues!

I originally was going to go through my CDs and just grab the ones that stood out from the 90s. When I was done, I looked at all the albums and realized all the bands were from England and all the albums were put out in the early 90's. I also realized these were the dirtiest and most used CD's in my collection. They have been through a lot and have been played many times and traveled all up and down the coast of California. It started out as 10 but quickly changed to 12. I could have easily went on and made a list of 25 but I had to stop somewhere. So here it is....My list of the top 12 british albums of the early 90's that I would like to see reissued...


Lush "Spooky" (1992) 4AD/Reprise

Remember the movie Friday when Smokey (Chris Tucker) says, "It's Friday, you ain't got no job and you ain't got sh*t to do" ? Well, summer is here and if you don't got sh*t to do, walk into Amoeba on a Friday night. The store is buzzing with activity.

I thought about this when I was working Friday night. I usually don't work on Friday nights but I switched a shift in order to get the previous night off. At first I started plotting with a customer how to ditch work at go Grand Performances in downtown L.A. to check out Ojos De Brujo, who were playing for free. There were so many people in the store at that time; we figured no one would notice if I stepped out for an hour or two. But soon there was so much going on in the store I had forgotten about ditching work.

There was a grip of people not only shopping, but to check out an in-store performance by Carina Round, followed by a DJ set by Amoeba’s very own DJ Jun.

Carina Round wasn't really my cup of tea. She's good, that I can tell. With the in-stores, it's never about whether the acts are talented or not. If they are playing here, they are. It just comes down to people's individual taste. Talk to another Amoebite about the same performance and you'll get a whole different reaction. That's the beauty of Amoeba. If we all  had the same tastes we'd be boring.

After Carina's set, Jun started his set with Barry de Vorzon’s Theme from The Warriors. His set was cinematic, playing soundtrack cuts mixed with electro-house instrumentals. Jun ended his set with the Vincent Price spoken piece from Michael Jackson’s Thriller (one of the bonus tracks on the re-mastered version of the classic album) and blended it into Italian prog-rockers Goblin’s spooky theme song from Suspiria. I liked that very much.

 And the media item today most likely to both help generate interest in a drug previously not too popular and also most likely speed up changes in its legal status is the front page article in Wednesday June 27th's San Francisco Chronicle about the Mexican "sacred weed," Salvia Divinorum, with a bold heading about the LEGAL, INTENSE, HALLUCINOGEN that reportedly "when chewed or smoked causes intense hallucinations comparable to LSD or "magic mushrooms" and "is available all over the Bay Area, mostly in smoke shops and herbal stores."

It's also sold over the Internet. For $15 to $50 a hit users get high that sends them into a dreamlike state for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two. The article appears online under the heading "The Legal Hallucinogen" at sfgate. My guess is that it will all sound most appealing to those looking for a new high (except for the $50 a hit part !!!!) especially due to the fact that it is still legal, just like LSD was up until 40 years ago -- the end of the Summer of Love.

The Chronicle article goes on to mention how many videos of folks gettin' twisted on this short but intense high drug are being posted on YouTube. This fact will no doubt send the curious (like myself) to search on YouTube where my quick SEARCH this morning under "Salvia divinorum" netted a total of 173 video postings including "Her Salvia Divinorum Trip 20 X First Time" --  a homemade video of a girl getting wasted and being filmed by her male friend.

Vestron Video VA5108

Raedon Home Video RD023

Out today is the newest album from Sinead O'Connor. She has been busy the last decade or so putting out albums in every possible genre. After her first two amazing albums "The Lion & the Cobra" and "I do Not Want What I Haven't Got," she released an album of standards, "Am I Not Your Girl." The next album "Universal Mother" would be the last of the signature style she had created with the first two. After this was an amazing gospel style album "The Gospel Oak EP" which she had an amazing tour behind. After the mediocre "Faith & Courage" came an album of traditional Irish Songs "Sean-Nos Nau." Her next studio album was a reggae album "Throw Down your Arms." Not being anything close to a fan of reggae, I actually really liked this album. So now we have her newest album "Theology." The album consists of two discs. An acoustic "Dublin Sessions" disc, and a full band disc "London Sessions." The album does not really fall into any category. But it is for sure a Sinead O'Connor album.

There is nobody really like Sinead. Her amazing voice and style have always been one to make people love or hate her.
I have always been on the love side since I first heard "Mandika." I put it on the first make your own cassette compilation that I bought at the mall in the late 80s.  She has never hidden her political views and has often got into trouble because of it . I would love to see a documentary of her much like the one of the Dixie Chicks. Most artists seem to keep their beliefs to themselves in order to sell more records. Sinead is the second biggest selling artist in Ireland. Next to Enya of course.

If you turn on your favorite radio station or webcast Tuesday, June 26th, and you are surprised to hear nothing but dead-air, pure silence, be forewarned that it will not be technical difficulties you're experiencing. Rather, it will most likely be that your favorite webcast or radio station is participating in the national planned "day of silence" in protest of the new webcasting rates that look likely to go into effect within three weeks and, if so, will have serious consequences on streaming music online. As you already know, the future of Internet radio is in immediate danger because royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). So in protest, traditional and online radio stations are going silent. In addition to the 'silent-treatment' protest, some stations around the country, including WFMU in Jersey City, will make their protest by not going silent, but rather by boycotting all RIAA/Sound Exchange music and only playing indie artists outside the RIAA governed titles.

For more information about this important day of protest that will affect how we listen to new music in the future, visit here or SaveTheNet. To find out more about participating in the actual day of silence contact dayofsilence@savenetradio.org. There are also many benefit events planned to help raise awareness, including one in San Francisco (home of numerous webcasters, including the wonderful, electronic music "extremely independent" SomaFM) at the Bottom of the Hill this Sunday (July 1st: 6PM-10PM) that is being organized by Reapandsow, SomaFM, SonicLiving, myopenbar.com, and BAGeL Radio. Meantime, you reading this should seriously consider calling your Congressional Representatives right now to voice your opinion on this important issue.

Nelson Entertainment 2002

Prism Entertainment R9545E

So I spent this past Thursday, June 21st -- the longest day of the year -- in Hollywood. And it was just one of those perfect days. You know, one of those days you have when everything goes just perfectly? Being the first day of summer, I guess, the weather could not have been more desirable: sunny and warm but never too hot, and certainly not a trace of that smog that is so often unfairly associated with LA. But besides the weather, every single person I encountered that day in Hollywood was genuinely warm and friendly and a pleasure to be around. Even the tragic bums along Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards all seemed to have vanished for the day. Not one person asked me for money all day.  The opposite happened in fact: not once but twice, glancing down at the pavement I found money -- a quarter on Vine and a crisp new dollar bill blowing on Sunset. Damn! There really is gold on the streets here, I thought. What a perfect day. As I happily walked I couldn't help but remember in my head all of the songs about Hollywood and LA (there is even a Wikipedia page dedicated to them) that include Bob Seger's Hollywood Nights, Murs' LA, Jurassic 5's LAUSD, Kool & the Gang's Hollywood Swinging, Defari's Los Angelinos, and X's Los Angeles. And as I walked down Vine heading towards Sunset, humming Randy Newman's I Love LA, I kept a close eye on the pavement in case I might find even more money, when I noticed that Rin Tin Tin had his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Wow! Even dogs are stars here.

Shortly afterwards at 6400 Sunset Boulevard at Amoeba Music Hollywood (the main reason for my trip down from the Bay for the day) I ran into Amoebite Kara who was walking her cute and affectionate little dog. The last time I was down in LA -- several months previous -- she had just gotten the miniature pooch who she had rescued by adopting him from an unfortunate homeless woman who could no longer take care of her pet. At Amoeba Music I spent the day hanging out and meeting many Amoebites for the first time, like Irene (who works in the office and was sporting a cool Virgin Prunes t-shirt), and some that I knew from before like KP, Tim Ranow, and Ilene. It was about my sixth trip to Amoeba Hollywood since it opened and I tell you the cavernous store never fails to amaze me. It is truly a music fiend's dream! And despite the good amount of time I spent digging in the crates of the endless rows and rows and sections and sections of music, I still only barely scratched the surface of the store's seemingly never ending inventory.

It's exactly like Cee-Lo performing, but with perhaps a mouth full of hot dogs!

Media Home Entertainment M012752

I don't know if any of you have seen my new favorite show yet,  but you need to check it out if you haven't. The Flight of the Conchords just premiered on HBO this last Sunday at 10:30 pm. These guys have been around for a couple years performing as Flight of the Conchords. HBO recently picked them up for a new 12 part series. The show is basically about them trying to get a record deal and success in New York as a folk pop duo. Jemain Clement and Bret McKenzie are semi famous in their native New Zealand. They have a couple albums out already and have performed at South by Southwest and Bonnaroo. They are basically making fun of singers such as John Mayer and James Blunt. But do it brilliantly. They even just signed a deal with Sub Pop and will be putting out a single in a couple months.

The show reminds me of the brilliance of another one of my recent favorites, The Sarah Silverman Show. It is a situational musical comedy. They two boys are roommates in a small flat in New York city. The other characters are a horrible manager and an obsessed nerdy fan neighbor girl. It has a bit of the uncomfortable humor of shows like the Office. It's just brilliant. I have only watched the first episode but I am already obsessed. The first episode is about Jemaine's search for a girlfriend and the shooting of their first video. Each episode has a couple musical numbers. But don't be scared. It really works.

You might recognize Jemaine from the Outback Steakhouse commercials. But he is really much more than just another Paul Hogan. He is also starring in a new movie called "Eagle vs Shark" which is out in August. Check out the preview on the website for the movie. It is destined to get compared to Napolean Dynamite. But I have been really needing another Napolean Dynamite in my life for a while.

Media Home Entertainment M134

The new compilation WAR II (the turd hunt continues...) is the sequel to the 2003 anti-war compilation WAR: If It Feels Good Do It. It is just being released and will be available exclusively at Amoeba Music's three locations (Hollywood, Berkeley, and San Francisco) and online through Hip Hop Slam's online shop. It features Public Enemy, Steinski, Braintax, Backyard Bangers, DJ ALF, OkiZoo, the DJs of Mass Destruction, and others. 

Like the first WAR compilation, this hip-hop collection is also produced by the DJs of Mass Destruction, featuring this blogger along with DJ Pone, Shing02, DJ ALF, DnZ, & Dawgisht -- all of whom will be performing live on KFJC on Saturday afternoon, June 23rd on DJ Trinity's show on 89.7FM (noon - 3PM) with an estimated performance time of 1PM - 2:15PM (West Coast time). 

KFJC in Los Altos Hills is a legendary Bay Area college radio station that for years has been broadcasting over the Bay Area (its signal is pretty good) with quality radio -- including lots of live studio performances. This will be the second time the DJs of Mass Destruction perform on DJ Trinity's show. In fact, we turned part of the last KFJC performance (2003 release party for WAR: If it feels good do it) into a music video featuring Bush/War footage mixed with the KFJC performance. The video originally appeared on the enhanced CD  section of the 2CD Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. V set. This video, which was produced by Hip Hop Slam's Nausea Girl, can be viewed below. The video at top of this page, produced by ALF, was made for the new WAR II: the turd hunt continues. The audio track for the video is the opening track on the 14-track new WAR II CD.

I figure I'll just quote what is already written by a man who quite bright, handsome and talented!


"My good friend and long time collaborator, Uni & Her Ukelele has had her Myspace page deleted. This 30 year old singer songwriter has been told she is not old enough to have a Myspace Account.

This is the email she received from the esteemed site:

Hello,

Please note that you do not meet the required age limit as per
MySpace.com's Terms of Service, or you have misrepresented your
age on the MySpace.com system.
We deleted your account because you have violated the Terms of Service.

Do not create another account on MySpace.com until you reach the
required age, or use the correct age on your profile if you are old enough to
have an account.

If you meet our required age limit, please sign up with your correct
age.
Thank you,
MySpace

Yeah, way to go fellas! Usually you don't discuss a lady's age, but rest assured that Miss Uni is over 21!! That's right: driver license, drinking, voting and can die in the military of our United States!


I should also add that the orginal article, quoted above, doesn't have a link attached to the word esteemed, I'm just linky that way! Or bitchy, whatever.

Lightning Video 9970

Icky Thump, it's a fantastic record.  If you read my blog, you are already sick of hearing about the White Stripes, so I'll make my comments brief. 


The songs: I heard 'em, absorbed 'em and immediately felt like I'd already been hearin' and lovin' 'em my whole life.  If that isn't a sign of a great record, I don't know whatall is. 

Jack White knows what's real and he knows about integrity and that's a large part of why the band remains untouchable.


From the Onion, 2003:

O:  Do you see more people getting turned on to the blues in the future?

Jack White: I hope so. I think it's the pinnacle of songwriting. It's never been topped, and I don't think it ever will be. It sort of accidentally broke songwriting down to its three basic components: storytelling, melody, and rhythm. And that's the way I see it. It's so truthful, it can't be glamorized. If people really love music, they're going to start being drawn toward honesty, and if they're drawn to that, it's a direct line right back to Charley Patton and Son House. I'm very skeptical of musicians who say they love music and don't love the blues. It's like someone saying they don't like The Beatles: It makes you think they're in it for the wrong ideas.

I aint sure if this has anything to do with Amoeblog, but when a girl feels that special love for a man, sometimes she don't think straight. 'Specially when she gay and all that.

Grabbing up Billy on the quick, and taking you on the wayback machine: there was a place called Leopold where all folks came together for the MUSIC, and no one played any gang bullshit in them walls. Why not? Not totally sure. Could it happen today? Prolly not. Ten years change a world, ten years can erase a street.

The fun and the cameos from old school Leopold Records employees:

Point is, man they had a lot to say about life. Really pure. So, I wish I could embed Kiss Me and I'll Kiss You Back, cause that also had some wonderful staff in it, but whatcha gonna do. Anyway, a shout out to Daria who brought in Hammer when it was tapes in his trunk for comission, and even more so on the long term Yeh Yeah: bringing in the Digital Underground and help blowing them up as well.

Good times, friends. Good times. For those new to the Bay, the scene, whatever you want to call it? Coolest thing was, when Amoeba Berkeley opened up a few blocks from Leopold? It was all love, baby. No sense of competition or us vs. them. How rare is that?? Now, chunklets of us work at Amoeba (woot, wooooooot!) and maybe even own a piece. (Not me, baby!) Kisses to the joynts that do it all for the right reason, including a little shout out to a store in Austin Texas!

Vestron Video VA4202

Murder is one those words that I hear every day and have for years and years and years, to the point, I fully admit, that I have become totally desensitized to its real meaning. Yep, to me, the more I hear the word murder, and especially the more I read it in yet another newspaper report, the more and more detached I seem to become from it. It has lost its initial intended meaning to me. In fact, right now as I type this and just think of the word MURDER in my head, I cannot help but hear the refrain from that classic 1993 dancehall reggae hit by Chaka Demus & Pliers, "Murder She Wrote," echoing happily in my skull: "murder she wrote, nah nahnah, murrrrder she wrote." So, to me, murder or that six letter word spelled backwards -- redrum (popularized by The Shining) -- is just another empty, meaningless word, or, even worse, alternately, it is a sexy catch-phrase, repeated in songs I hum, the theme of entertaining movies I watch, video games I play, books I read, and juicy headlines in morning newspapers I read as I sip my comforting coffee. So ultimately murder to me (and maybe to you too?) is just another hollow disposable word -- nothing more, nothing less. Unless, unless, that is, of course, that the word murder is directly connected to me personally or to someone close to me.

So as I sat on the BART the other morning reading a small article in the Bay Area section of the San Francisco Chronicle under the heading "Two Murders In Oakland Over The Weekend," about a couple of unrelated fatal street shootings (one of them "gang related"), to be totally honest, it barely registered in my consciousness, just the same ol, same ol to this jaded soul. Until, that is, the location of one of the murders jumped off the page at me ("Fairview Ave. in the 100 block, north of Lake Merrit"). Damn! I realized that this was directly outside the apartment building where I stay. Later that day from talking to folks in the immediate East Bay neighborhood I found out all the killing's tragic details: that the murder happened on Friday night at 9:25PM. That it took place directly opposite the church (ironically) when a car screeched to a halt in the middle of the street with two guys audibly arguing inside. Both got out, still arguing loudly, and one shot the other nine times before hopping back into the driver's seat to speed away leaving the body of a 29 year old man bleeding to death on that chilly Oakland night.

MGM / UA Home Video M801517

I watched the fantastic documentary Paris Is Burning this weekend. The film came out in 1991 and focuses on the dazzling Balls that Drag Queens created and participated in during the mid to late 80s in the Harlem Ballrooms of New York City. 


The Balls are elaborate and flashy competitions, like a fashion and drag sporting event, complete with gaudy trophies. Each person has the opportunity to compete in many different categories. The competition is fierce! Competitors walk/work the runway and are judged loudly and with much enthusiasm on their styles as well as their "Realness"-- how flawlessly they pull off drag.

Complicating and deepening the Ball scene is the division of the Queens into Houses. The Houses are named for different Queens who have been especially successful at the Balls -- they are called, appropriately,  "Legends." The way it is explained in the film is that the Houses are pretty much like Ball gangs, each headed up by a Mother who is the most revered, respected member of the House and who provides emotional and aesthetic support to each member. Each House is really like a family. Members know where they can go to get support and advice, whether it's on life or makeup.

There's the House of Ninja, the House of LaBeija, the House of Dupree, the House of Xtravaganza, the House of St. Laurent...so many fabulous Houses! I love that there was a category at the Balls for "Mother of the Year." Perfect. Each House Mother has her moment to parade across and around the floor, but only one wins the coveted trophy.

Here's something you don't see every day: Newsweek columnist Steven Levy pairs up the unlikely combination of hipster mash-up laptop god Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk and Democrat Congressman Mike Doyle, who counts Pittsburgh, Gillis' home, among the areas he represents, to discuss the Copyfight and what sort of compromise, if any, can be made between the current generation of media-saturated sample-heavy artists and the clampdown attitude held by corporate copyright holders. Doyle seems like one of the good ones, especially when he puts his money where his mouth is - back at the House Telecom Subcommittee. Read the article right here.

out now-
up bustle and out head to monterey, mx
and
mix it up with the control machete crew. reggae+cumbia style electronica.

highly recomended!

available in the electronica section.

      out june 26th

hip-hop en español via spain.
a spaniard's lisp
never sounded so cool






out july 26th

electronic cumbia, rock and mambo via mexico.

¡que chido!





out now: greatest hits +three
bonus tracks from cuba's best hip-hop group. A must have if you miss the boat on their previous releases

I remember the first time I heard about Luis Rodriguez, it was 1993 and I was reading Lowrider Magazine. In between the pages of vintage bombs, girls and ads for rims, was a feature on Luis and his book, Always Running. In the article he spoke about his past as a gang member and how writing had changed his life. He also mentioned that his teenage son, who was starting to get into trouble himself, was the reason for writing the book. It made me want to read Always Running so I went around to a few bookstores in my neighborhood but no one carried it. Soon I lost the drive to find the elusive book and forgot all about it. I guess it wasn’t my time to read it.

Fast forward to 1995. I wanted to get the hell out of Los Angeles. I felt isolated. I had no sense of community or belonging so I got a job selling t-shirts for the band, Nik Turner’s Space Ritual. Nik was a founding member of Hawkwind, the influential space-rock group. The band had several other ex-Hawkwind members but due to legal reasons they could not use the name Hawkwind. There were fifteen of us touring in an old school bus with no air conditioning. It was the middle of summer during a horrendous heat wave. At every stop the thick heat and humidity followed. After a while I didn’t know what it felt like to be dry. I never sweated so much in my life. Most of the shows on the tour were complete caves. The shows were booked in thousand capacity venues with only thirty people in attendance. The former members of Hawkwind, who once played in front of festival size audiences, never once complained about the ill-attended shows or the extreme heat. Every night the over fifty-year old space rockers gave it there all. It was inspiring to say the least, to see these older men bring it every night.

Today is the big exciting day of the new White Stripes album "Icky Thump." I am going to let my fellow blogger Miss Ess review that one. I like what I have heard so far. But that girl is like their number one fan. Not in a creepy Kathy Bates Misery kind of way. But almost. I will spend some time today talking about two smaller albums coming out. First up is the new album by Maps called "We Can Create."

Maps is basically James Chapman. He is from Northampton, England. He has been releasing singles for a while now, slowly gathering his fans. This is one of those albums that I was immediately drawn to and liked right away. But I also knew that it would become one of those albums that my love would continue to grow for. Now listening to it for the 4th or 5th time I am quickly falling in love. It is kind of amazing that he used no computer or fancy programs to make this album. I can already hear people complaining that the album is too electronic and computer generated sounding. But like I said, no computers. He did it mostly himself with tape loops.

The album feels very warm and fuzzy. He is obviously influenced by some of the shoe gaze of the 90's like My Bloody Valentine and Lush. But also by the early electronic groups of the same period. And on some of the songs I even hear a bit of Beach Boys. Which is weird for me to even notice, since I happen to hate the Beach Boys. But I do hear it. However, it does not ruin the album for me. You can also hear a bit of Sigur Ros or Album Leaf or maybe some Postal Service. The album is consistently good. There is not just a couple good songs. It consistently works. James is bound to find his fans in the U.S. just as he has abroad. He has sort of a nice soothing pop voice. Kind of like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service. It mixes nice with the electronics. It is less cold and distant than you would expect with this sort of electronic instrumentation. He will quickly make his way into your heart. I think.

Los Angeles based documentary film-maker Doug Pray (Hype!, Scratch, Infamy)'s latest release is Big Rig, a documentary about the subculture of contemporary truck-drivers. The film premiered at Austin's SXSW fest in March. Pray's latest production, Surfwise, is a documentary about the dynamics of a unique surfing family. The filmmaker says that the distinct common thread between each of his documentaries is that each tells the story of misunderstood individuals. "They're all subcultures... groups (that) have been misperceived. I see their characters as underdogs," he said. His first film was the 1996 documentary Hype!, which was literally about the hype behind the North West's underground "grunge scene" and how exactly that music was transformed, neatly packaged, and sold to the gullible masses. His next and even better known film (which won numerous awards) was Scratch, about the the rise and history of the hip-hop DJ/turntablist. It was followed by Infamy, a documentary about six graffiti artists plus one anti-graffiti activist.


Before he began shooting the director mistakenly thought that Infamy would turn out to be an upbeat celebration of bright, beautiful graffiti art. Instead, it turned out be an engrossing, dark portrayal of obsessed artists who commit felonies, constantly risking jail time just to create their art. "Graffiti artists are manic depressive," confesses graffiti artist Saber in one engaging scene. Infamy is unlike other graffiti films. "Most graf films are made in such earnest from a graffiti art fan's perspective that they often overlook the human element," said Pray, who deliberately limited the number of subjects profiled in his film. "I didn't want to have 30 artists in there and just get to know a little about (each of) them. I wanted to really focus on just six artists. I wanted to make a movie where you really got to know the person, their family, their peers, their crew...One of the differences with graffiti and others is that it is really demented...It is an obsession and it is both very stimulating and it leads to trouble...it is unlike any other art because it is a felony."  

I am a bit obsessed with making lists of things. As a small child I remember making lists of everything. It might have something to do with my need to organize my life. I just like to remember things and to organize them into nice little lists. So this will be the first of my lists that I offer to you. There was recently a list of movies going around on myspace. It was a random list of mostly blockbuster movies that you were to check off the ones you had seen. This got me thinking about what would go on my list of movies. So I decided to go through that list inside my brain and write down my favorite movies of the 80's. A very formative period for me and many others. It was a decade of many great movies. Movies that simply can't be made now. Most of them are great simply because of the memories attached to them. Many of them seen in theaters and then many more times on TV. Many of them rented from one of my favorite video stores. Most of them watched late at night with my friends. Some of them watched again in the theater at midnight screenings. Many of them watched with directors commentaries on DVD years later. Many of my favorites were made in the late 70's and 1979 specifically. Alot of the great horror movies like The Omen and The Exorcist came out in the 70s. David Cronenberg and John Waters made some of their best films in the 70s. 1979 was not only a great year for music but for film as well. 1978 was the year of Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, and Piranha. In 1979 came Aliens, The Warriors, Over the Edge, Amityville Horror, and The Brood. But it was really all about the 80's. I don't know where I would be without these movies. It was really hard to put them in order. But they are roughly organized starting with my favorite.

top 100 movies of the 80s

For my sister, Jill, and all of her echoing 8 track tapes; I love you.

-Brickly

Miss Kelly
3 years employment
International Rock Goddess/Cashier

Q:  What music was playing your house when you were a kid?

Miss Kelly:  Like Ratt and Prince.  I had a brother and sister that were 12 and 13 years older than me and my brother was practicing drums all the time.  He was in a band, a metal band.

Oh yeah, lots and lots of Madonna too. My sister once performed Madonna's "Lucky Star" at the food court in the mall and she won the contest and got lots of money.  She had this black lace bustier that she looked killer in and she used to make all the ladies salivate at the lady bars because she was in a lesbian band called Upside Down and Inside Out.

Wow.  Where is she now?

She lives in Virginia with her girlfriend and all of their baby animals.  She plays ukelele now.  We all kind of picked up the ukelele at the same time in the last few months.  We have this fantasy that when we meet up at the family reunion this summer we are all gonna play ukelele together.  It's kind of Uni's fault.

Wow that's rad. So how did you start listening to japanese pop and international rock?

I used to be really into punk rock and I was in this punk rock cafe that was literally under ground and one day on the jukebox this Pizzicato Five song was on and no one knew who it was and it made me so happy.  Ever since I was a child, since I heard "La Bamba", I wanted to sing it even though I didn't care what it meant, so foreign languages have always kinda turned me on.  So after I heard Pizzicato Five I couldn't find that song again until I heard it like 5 years later on the radio at my brother's house and that's when I found out who it was. I went to the indie record store in Richmond, Va -- Plan 9-- and they had it and I got really into it.  It's kind of like this insane musical; I love the showmanship of their sound.

New World Video 8629

Sir, there is a stage with your name on it in San Francisco, humble as it may be. Thank you sir. You redeemed television ... for a moment. I even like the damn Aerosmith at the end, and that song only makes me think of strippers and a death in Alameda. God bless you, sir.

-Brickly

Thanks, Tina. I tell you, I don't know how them folks in them chairs sat so still! My entire childhood, this song made me flail about so hard, I often had to hold onto a bedpost. Honest, this song make-a-me crazy!

Also? I would like to thank Tina Turner and Ann-Margret, because when I was in kindergarten, I saw Tommy at the drive-in movies, and y'all 2 women made me gay. Thank you so much. I love being a gay.

What we have here is forty seconds of insane hot heaven:

Whew. Knock me down with a feather! Hell, just knock me down! Please!

If you don't understand how a movie like Tommy can make a pre-pubescent girl into a big old dyke, I can only offer this to your eyes - two bits from Tommy. The first one, my second favorite, highlights The Mother in a penthouse apartment not at all unlike the one I live in now, in fact I am wearing that gown as we speak. One of 9 identical gowns:

I was a baby in Boston and it was raining beans! It should be pointed out to you now that only today did I see any sexual reference as to the pillow, and I am not sure if that's too racy for this blog. Shoot. I can be rather obtuse it seems. (We can skip the part where there's any rational discussion about the bad acting, right? Cool!)

Now, Tina. Oh dear. Dearest Tina ... I think my crib was an Iron Maiden:

I was never supposed to be normal. For that I would like to thank my parents for being so incredibly dumb as to take little tiny children to see movies like this. Yay! You made me gay and weird! Thanks Mom and Dad! You rule!

So what happens to Amoebites (people who work at Amoeba) after they stop working at Amoeba Music and move on with their lives? And does their time spent at the music store impact or influence them in any way later on? These questions and a lot more are answered in this interview (the first in a series) with a former Amoebite, who is now a Brooklynite, named Nick Lesley. Nick worked at all three Amoebas (Hollywood, Berkeley, San Francisco) before moving out to NYC two-and-a-half years ago. In California Nick played in the bands Vholtz, The Oma Yang, and Felicia & Coctopus, with whom he appeared on Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. V on the track "Whiskey Dick." Currently Nick is a student at Brooklyn College, updates several websites, and plays in several bands, including Necking, whose lineup includes Dong-Ping Wong and Josh Graver. He books shows at the cool Brooklyn living space called Dead Herring House he shares with other artists (they had a giant show there just last Saturday night). For income Nick now works at a funky, fun lil spot in New York City's Lower East Side called the Cake Shop, which is part record-store, part cafe, and part music club. It was there that I caught up with the former Amoebite recently and asked him about  the differences between East and West coasts, about his studies, his music, and his life -- before and after Amoeba.

I am a big fan of the 80's horror movie. I spent many hours in the video store making sure I had seen every bad 80's horror movie. However it seems that I missed one. Troll 2 is the name of this amazing movie. I had already seen the original Troll movie starring Sonny Bono and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Which is bad in its own special way. But nothing really comes close to how bad this movie is. To start with, it has nothing to do with Troll 1. There is not even a Troll in the movie. It is about goblins who live in the town of NILBOG.
My friends Josh and Andrew were kind enough to share this movie with me last night. The movie was released a couple of years ago on DVD as a combo pack with Troll 1 and Troll 2. This movie is listed on countless lists as the worst movie of all time and has developed a crazy cult following. They show this movie around the world at midnight screenings. This little horrible movie has somehow become one of the best worst movies ever.
                                                                                                                                                                   
I seriously can not stop thinking about how amazingly horrible this movies was. It is basically about a regular family. A clueless
dad and a slightly crazy mom with their 2 kids. One, an exercise crazed daughter who refuses to let her boyfriend have any friends. The other an awkward son whose only friend seems to be his dead grandpa Seth. For their vacation they switch houses with a weird family in a very small town. The town is basically all goblins but they are able to disguise themselves as humans. Or they are simply both human and goblin. They seem to be led by a Jim Jones type cult leader as well as a witchy sorceress type old lady who is played by a 12 year old girl. The towns people/golbins are all vegetarians and make the guests of the town eat weird green food which turns them into trees which then allows them to remain vegetarians and eat the humans. Somehow, someone thought this would make some sort of sense

While Hillary Rodham Clinton's popularity among Hispanic voters currently leads the Democratic pack by a long shot, the "Amigos de Obama" are slowly gaining ground and gradually growing in numbers thanks to such showings of grassroots support for Barack Obama as the recently recorded "Obama Reggaeton," which can be heard here with lyrics printed below (scroll down). it's a catchy song that calls upon Mexican and other Hispanic voters to support Obama with a call to "Listen to gente, es tiempo para algo diferente.. What we need is un nuevo presidente*… Como Se Dice…Como Se llama? OBAMA! OBAMA!" As clearly outlined in the map (below) posted on the website supporting Obama, 13 million eligible Hispanic voters live in ten states (including California, Florida, and New York) with all but one hosting primaries on or before February 5th. Note that Texas' primary isn't until March. Roughly two thirds of the nation's Hispanic residents live in nine of the states that will hold Democratic primaries or caucuses on or before early February, 2008.

Obama is way behind Hillary in popularity with Hispanic voting Democrats, as recently reported by the New York Times, which cited polls (including the paper's own and ones carried out by CBS News) from the past few months which show that about 60 percent of registered Hispanic voters who identify themselves as Democrats have a favorable view of Hillary while a quarter do not. Meanwhile Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, according to the Times, "remains a blank slate to many Hispanic voters, polls show, with 40% having no opinion of him. But his aspirational biography could prove a draw as more Hispanic voters get to know him." No doubt "Obama Reggaeton" can only help in this effort.

Prism Entertainment 2458

I haven't thought about Radiohead at all in about a year, really, not since I got to go see them kill it at the Greek Theater last year in Berkeley about this time.  To be honest, I don't think about them much at all anymore, but they are one of those bands that has meant a lot to me over the years.  With news today that Radiohead's new album is nearing completion, I thought it might be the right time to build a little anticipation and revisit some of their finer songs and videos.

People always want to whine that Radiohead are overblown, that they are not nearly as great as everyone always says.  I defy those people to listen to these songs and watch these videos and tell me this band is not fantastic.  Well, I do understand that not everyone wants to listen to some white overeducated English dudes complaining about alienation and having issues with technology.  I do get that.  Maybe it just doesn't float your boat.  But please, people, don't try to tell me this isn't a great and powerful band.  To each his own.  I also recognize that by thinking and talking about how Radiohead is great, I am sounding like a regular old Record Store Nerd.  But why hide who I am?  Oh well.

Oh, and I do agree that their last couple albums have not been fully up to speed....but when you have put out albums like OK Computer and The Bends, what are you gonna do??

This is "Karma Police" from OK Computer.



Effing awesome video, right?  Usually I tend to think most videos take more away from the music than they contribute to it, but this is one of those rare exceptions where I watch it and think, "Whoa" (not to quote icky Keanu Reeves).

Friday found me at Villa Sombrero in Highland Park doing what else, drinking Margaritas. The Margaritas there are as big as the ones they make at El Conquistador, but not as potent. Jo and I are eating chips and salsa, sipping our drinks. The Dodger game is on the TV and most of the patrons are only glancing at it from time to time as they talk among friends and family. This is as neighborhood as they come. The restaurant is near the corner where York meets Figueroa in what looks like used to be a house. On the T.V., Luis Gonzalez is up with Jeff Kent on second base. When Luis was with the Diamondbacks and Kent with the Giants I hated these guys, but now with the Dodgers I like them. Yes, I’m a Dodger fan and I’m petty like that.

Gonzalez hits the ball to deep center field. Vin Scully gives his familiar, “...back to the track, to the wall…” Just as the ball is going over the fence, a young waitress in a white Mexican dress and matching orthopedic shoes changes the channel. It’s K-Cal, your official station for high-speed car chases. Why anyone is that interested in high speed chases is beyond me, but soon everyone is transfixed on the TV screen. It is a car racing down residential streets followed by police and the K-Cal copter filming up above. At the bottom of the screen it shows the name of the city where the chase is happening. It reads:


Everyone at the restaurant gives out a howl as their home town is on T.V. Someone shouts out, “Orale Highland Park!” with pride and everyone laughs.  At that moment I see some I recognize come through the front door.

This is the third and final part in this particular graffiti-outside-Amoeba Music, San Francisco photo gallery. In the future there will be another series of pictures (some new, some not included here, and some of the same pieces from different angles) from outside Amoeba Music, San Francisco.

That next upcoming series will also include some of the graffiti in the immediate surrounding area on Haight Street -- such as that parking lot on the corner and the building directly across from Amoeba on the other side of Haight Street.

But for now, here are more shots of graf in that alley on that one side of the Amoeba building off Haight Street. As with the other two parts in this series -- posted a few days ago -- please feel free to add any stories (good or bad) or opinions (pro or con) on graffiti, or the URLS linking to cool graffiti websites, etc., in the COMMENTS box (scroll way down) below. Thanks!

I don't know why people have to contact me via myspace when they could show me some mad props in the comments field on amoeba.com/blog!!!  But ... whatever. I love you!

Here it is, you lazy internet tweedles: Mouth and MacNeil!!!!!


Of course, when Uni and I perform this song, there will be much much less sexual tension, though no one can eradicate the sensual power of this song! If you are in Scotland, Paris or arounds about England, check Uni's myspace page for tour dates in your area! Don't miss out on this magical extravaganza!!

Ding!

-- Brickly

Gary Floyd deserves major credit, not just for being such a talented artist but for being an openly gay front person of a punk band in Texas in the late seventies/early eighties. And this he boldly did as the powerhouse vocalist for legendary hardcore punk band The Dicks, the self-described "commie faggot" blues-derived, hardcore punk band who released their brilliant, rage-fueled first single, "Dicks Hate the Police," in 1980 on (fellow Austin punks) MDC's R Radical record label. This song, which many later learned via Mudhoney's cover version or (Gary's next band) Sister Double Happiness performing it, is a timeless punk classic (see lyrics below) and is currently available on The Dicks 1980-1986 on Alternative Tentacles. After the Dicks' demise, the tireless Gary Floyd, who has lived in San Francisco for the past 25 years, went on to form Sister Double Happiness, Black Kali Ma, the Gary Floyd Band, Hard Ride and currently, the raw blues/country Gary Floyd and the Buddha Brothers. Last week the Buddha Brothers performed at the Make Out Room in San Francisco on a bill with Penelope Houston, who sings on one their songs ("Take it Like A Man") and who joined them onstage. This week and next week Gary will be in the studio with the Buddha Brothers recording new tracks. Last week on my radio show on WFMU I had the opportunity to catch up with Gary, who in addition to music also paints, to talk about Austin, being queer, and how the formation of the Dicks was based on a lot drinking and telling lies.

GARY FLOYD: I started putting up posters around town (Austin) saying that The Dicks are playing and I would make up club names. So it was just a poster band. It was a lie. So I put up these things saying The Dicks are playing. And people would say "Oh you're in The Dicks?" And I would say 'Yeah' and they would lie to me and say 'Oh I've seen The Dicks' and I would look at them and think (laughs) 'You're a bigger liar than I am!' And then I met Buxf (Parrot) and Glen (Taylor) one night and they wanted to be in a band. And then we got Pat (Deason) and we started The Dicks. It was all started with a lot of drinking and a lot of lying.

Queens of the Stone Age is just one of those bands that I can't stop liking. I always think that some day I will get sick of them and move on. But then I listen to them again and I just start liking them again. I have liked Mr. Josh Homme for a while now I guess. But not near as long as those into the early days of Kyuss. I didn't really listen to him until the first self titled Queens of the Stone Age album in 1998. The first place I probably heard them was at the Hole in the Wall or The Eagle. I think I quickly realized that this was a band I needed in my life. And then I got a bit obsessed with Rated R in 2000. I was a bit too busy with my shoe gaze and brit pop in the 90s to pay much attention to Josh Homme's 90's band Kyuss. His stuff didn't really sound like anything I was into which I guess is why I was intrigued. I think I probably needed something a bit harder in my music life. I needed some good stoner rock. I have since gone back and discovered all the great Kyuss and Desert Sessions albums.

The Queens of the Stone Age really got popular when "Rated R" came out. A couple years later they put out "Songs For the Deaf" in 2002. We did a huge instore with them at the Hollywood Amoeba. This is when I still worked there and I remember having fun with the sperm artwork for the album. I helped Kara decorate for some of the instores back then and it was hard to resist the sperm artwork on the posters. This was the album that gave us "No One Knows." Nick Oliveri left the band after this album. I am sure his departure will eventually be dramatized in the biopic about the Queens. Lullabies to Paralyze came out a couple years later in 2005.  The Queens of the Stone Age now release their fifth studio album.

Warner Home Video 37080

Ever eat  M&Ms or Skittles and notice how they leave their coloring on your lips? Kinda like lipstick. Well, female inmates at prisons such as the Charlotte County Jail, where it's against the rules to bring in or to wear makeup, remembered this little fact and have been effectively putting it to use -- improvising with candy or food items (allowed inside prison walls) like Skittles, instant coffee, and Crystal Light to make make-up (including lipstick and eye-shadow) to look purdee. Inmates in-the-know call it "fake-up" and even at the jacked up, over-inflated prison prices for a bag of Skittles, it's still a hell of a lot cheaper than a visit to the M-A-C counter at your local MACYS! 

In addition to Skittles, which mixed with hair grease makes great, long lasting lip-stick or eye-shadow, inmates also use ink pens or instant coffee to improvise as eye-liner and Crystal Light as blush. Glitter, carefully shaken off cards from inmates' families, with a little grease to hold it on makes for some festive eye-liner. "Vaseline for my lips and a little bit of coffee and Crystal Light mixed, so it's neutral," one unidentified inmate told a Florida newspaper who reported the story a couple of days ago.

This uncommon use of a common item, under-the-general-radar but common knowledge among the female prison population, has been recently uncovered by the media in light of Paris Hilton's current jail stint. Over the weekend Nicole Oliverio at the Charlotte News Herald reported the story. CNN also picked it up and ran this piece that you've gotta check out. Just click here to the link and it will pop up in a full screen video player on your computer screen.

AMOEBLOG READER FEEDBACK REQUESTED:     
If you personally know of any innovative and clever MacGyver-type transformations/uses of everyday products that you would like to share, please add them to the COMMENTS box below. Meantime, check out these Skittles facts and the classic 80's Skittles TV commercial.

SKITTLES FACTS:
S = The letter emblazoned on each individual colored Skittle
UK = Country of origin of Skittles                                                         
Czech Republic = Country manufactured by division of Mars
1974  = Year first introduced to the USA                                    
1981 = Year production in US began
Data-Sorting Teaching Tool = Use of Skittles by the University of North Carolina.
Illicit Drug Smuggling = another non-intended use of bags of Skittles
Taste the rainbow of fruit flavors = Theme of the 1980's US TV advertising campaign. Hit PLAY below to view.

I love this:



Of course, there's a million reasons. But I will only bore you with a few because I am aware that I am not fascinating: a lot of the time, I don't give a flippin damn what someone has to say with the lyrics they agonized writing - like Shelley in a smelly, dive bar. Sometimes? I don't care!!!!!! Raaaaaaarrrrgh!!! Also, it's like the man said, "... essentially I'm an animal, so just what do I do with all the aggression?"





or Explosions in the Sky.


Also, I think in a couple of years my hair will resemble the dude on vocals. At which point I will find someone very gullible and say that that was me in the video, and we had everyone else stand in holes like they did when filming the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings. I will not live this lie, but I will ride it for an hour or so. Then, laughter. (mine)

Of course, I also love this:

 


Ha! Ha! Baby goat!! Ha Ha!! Is anyone else very sad that they do not have a pet like this goat? Please raise your hands. Also, is anyone else very sad that they cannot order merchandise, (cough ShopperTshirt Addict cough) from Mono? Or that I seem to have lost my copy of  The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place ... ?

Gorgon Video MP 3054

It is always a little weird when a "new" album comes out  from someone who has died years ago. But I guess not really that weird when you look at the rest of the music industry. Most of the jazz and classical artists have been long dead yet continue to put out new albums. The industry is sometimes built on the collections and live albums of recently departed artists. Albums from Johnny Cash and Ray Charles sold by the millions after their deaths. Maybe its just weird since Jeff Buckley died so young. I can only begin to imagine the albums he could have continued to put out if he was still alive. After the death of Elliott Smith I had to get rid of all his records. I just didn't really want to deal with the fact he was gone. Listening to his records had been depressing enough when he was alive. I couldn't imagine how much worse it would be knowing he had taken his life.

However, my experience with Jeff Buckley is a bit different. I have to admit I had not really discovered him until after his passing and the release of "Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk." This is the album he was working on before his death. It has now been 10 years since his death. So I have been loving Mr. Jeff Buckley for about 10 years now. The first time I heard him I swore it was some new PJ Harvey songs that I had not heard yet. His voice is really amazing. The songs are all heartbreaking and beautiful. "Sketches" remains one of my favorite albums. There have been a few live and collected albums out in the last 10 years. So  we now get another one." So Real" is a collection of album tracks and live tracks from over the years. I will also admit that I am not usually a fan of  the live album. I would just rather see the live performance in person and listen to the studio album at home. Since I will not get the chance to see him live, this is as good as it will get. The album offers a fairly good introduction to Mr. Buckley.  Included on this compilation is an excellent live version of "So Real." It also includes an unreleased cover of the Smiths song "I Know it's Over." The album is mostly just a selection of songs from "Grace," "Sketches" and "Live at Sin-E" with a couple extras put on. Its mostly just an excuse for me to get obsessed with Jeff Buckley again. I have been listening to this album over and over again. I have also got out all of his other albums and have been revisiting them.

After yesterday's AMOEBLOG (the first part of this three part showcase of the graffiiti art outside Amoeba Music on Haight St.) two good comments were posted -- both positive/pro graffiti art. Melissa in SF wrote that she is also in favor of graffiti as art but how she'd "wish they'd clean up them big heads in the back...it's all messed up with cheap tags and dirt, and that has been my fave piece forever!" -- this in reference to one of the heads captured in the pic to the left here and also below in four pics. I agree with Melissa. And to me these particular images are just so striking that I literally could stand (or sit) in front of them for hours on end gazing upon their blinding beauty. And truth-be-told, I have spent a lot of time doing just that -- sitting down for long periods and slowly taking in the street art in front of me. It's no different than going to a gallery/museum and allowing ample time to fully absorb an art exhibit. Which reminds me of one time a few years ago downtown San Francisco on opening night for the MoMa for some hot, hot show. I wish I could remember exactly what the new about-to-be-unveiled exhibit was. It was one of those really well-publicized and hyped exhibits that everyone was talking about at the time...kinda like the buzz surrounding the ongoing Vivienne Westwood show in SF. But anyway, the point was that it was opening night and there was a huge mob of people (many there to be seen or to simply chug down the complimentary wine and cheese) all queuing up outside. In fact, the line was so long it snaked all the way down Third Street towards Mission and around the corner down this little alley/side street. But on that side street on that chilly San Francisco evening, as everyone was chatting and looking ahead wishing for the line to move faster, right to their left (behind a wire fence) were all these stunningly beautiful fresh graffiti pieces. But the people in line, anxious to get inside, all seemed to ignore the street art that (in my opinion at the time) was way better than the exhibit inside. The point being that street art, like the graffiti that adorns the outside walls of Amoeba SF and across the street from the store too and all around the immediate Haight Street 'hood, is in reality a wonderful public art gallery there to be enjoyed, and better still, it never has a cover charge.

I grew up in the seventies and early eighties in Gardena, Ca. A town in the South Bay sandwiched between the hoods of South L.A. on the north and east and the suburbs of Torrance on the west and south. The Mexican gang in my neighborhood growing up was GX13 (Gardena Trece.) Most people in the city either feared or loathed GX13. They would graffiti the town overnight with names straight out of a Luis Rodriguez novel. There was Killer, Joker, Puppet, Tiny, names taken out of a Cholo 101 handbook. The local paper would write about Gardena’s gang epidemic and everyone in our small town would get scared. The truth was a lot of these guys in GX13 were young guys who just liked to party and were about as dangerous as puppies. But there were a few snappers in the bunch that were very dangerous and would turn on you in a second. When you hung out with those guys, you always had to keep your guard up.

At the age of twelve, I started to hang out with some of the little brothers of some of the older gangsters. Then the gangsters started to hang out with us at the park. They always seemed to be having a good time and they were proud of who they were. They spoke neither full Spanish nor English, just a concoction of the two languages mixed together adding slang that they picked up from relatives and other vatos. They had Mexican iconic tattoos and drove primered lowriders, ready for the next step into their car’s evolution into lowriderism. As tempting as it was to join that life, my friends and I were intercepted by a man named Louis Marchese. Lou, as we called him, was one of the original members of GX13 when it was a car club in the fifties. It was full of vato locos that smoked marijuana openly in a time before the hippies made it social. He got out of that life when he had a son, who was my age and also playing baseball on our team. Lou spent several years coaching us in little league and playing ball with us everyday during the summer in order to deter us from getting into trouble. After long hours of catching and batting practice, the last thing I wanted to do was run around town with the gangsters. I was too beat.

I have loved graffiti for as long as I can remember. I guess from when I first saw it way back in the day emblazoned on the sides of New York City subway cars. That was 1978 and I was real young and had arrived in New York City -- fresh off the plane from Ireland -- my first time in America. Arriving in New York City in the late seventies was scary and being faced with the vision of graffiti (something I had never seen before) was at first a shock, but soon it provided a sense of comfort. And within a short time I grew to love this subway and street art that seemed to be everywhere in those days. This was back in hip-hop's early days -- before the so-called "four elements" had been drummed into impressionable minds by "hip-hop academics" -- I.E: people who came to the music/culture after the fact and from outside, but who nonetheless wrote the books (literally) on this culture that they learned of secondhand.

So every time I sit down to watch the Larry Sanders Show I am distracted by many things.  The show's First Season is really a time capsule of the early 1990s. Janeane Garofalo seems so young in her plaid grunge-y dresses and leggings.  Jeremy Piven is so obviously balding (now on Entourage he has a mysteriously full head of hair).  Larry has a plethora of skinny Southwestern-y belts.  There's scrunchies and body suits and so much more-- a veritable parade of nearly forgotten 90s fashions!  But what is most distracting from the program for me is the fact that Garry Shandling so closely resembles a giant raisin.

Despite the distractions, the show is actually funny.  I'm guessing most people have seen it before, but growing up in a non premium cable household, I didn't even know it existed until recently.  It's interesting to watch now, seeing as I have immersed myself in HBO shows on DVD feverishly for the last 3 years or so.  Apparently this show was one of the first.  Now it reminds me of Curb Your Enthusiasm, one of my favorites. 

Larry Sanders has his own late night TV talk show, and we the viewers are invited to watch the goings-on both in front of and behind the scenes.  Now this as a concept for a tv show almost can't be beat.  It's up there with a bar where "everybody knows your name" and a giant cruise ship that "soon will be making another run".  The workplace is always just ripe for good television (they really should make a show about Amoeba, no joke), and with major opportunities for celeb guest appearances and self referential comedy, this show has a pretty much perfect set up and all the smarts to pull it off.  It's not as energetic and giddily addicting as HBO's shows now, but it's got its own slow-burn charm.  This show, now that I am watching it, has obviously been highly influential on everyone else, including that other comedic Larry,  Mr. Larry David himself.  It's quite innovative too.  There's never any background music to set the scenes.  There's no laugh track or live audience either.  It's just the dialogue.  That gives the laughs all the power, and it's an interesting break from the still- tired norm.....and this was shot in 1992!

The cast is also a big part of the likability of the show.  Rip Torn as Larry's boss Arty is amazing and hilarious and dry.  My boyfriend thinks Hank (Jeffery Tambor) is the funniest. (He wants me to add that.) He thinks everything is funny though.  I find Larry's wife unrealistic.  Does anyone else?  Their relationship seems shallow and odd, no chemistry.....maybe they could have worked on that as much as the relationships between coworkers.  My favorites are the writers, Phil and Jerry, played by Jeremy Piven and Wallace Langham.  They are always troublemakers.  Having so many celebs play themselves is a good time too.  Some people are better at it than others!

Video Unlimited Motion Pictures

Media Home Entertainment M847

Like a lot of people, I grew up watching the game shows. I really did love them. More than soap operas. Even more than the Joan Rivers show and Oprah. There was just something about them that got me so excited. The thrill of winning and living through the contestants was really exciting. These were all real people winning real money. The Price is Right was one of my favorites. Along with Password, The Match Game, 10,000 Pyramid and Family Feud. What really made these shows so great was the host. I absolutely looked forward to when these shows were on TV. It made being home sick a lot better knowing that the game shows would be on. Every chance I got I would be watching them. Bob Barker was the Price is Right. It is the longest running game show and he is longest running game show host. It is actually only the longest running game show in english. The fabulous spanish language variety game show, Sabado Gigante, has actually been on a bit longer.  The Price is Right actually premiered way back in 1956. But it was not until 1972 that Bob Barker was brought in and the show became what we all know as the Price is Right. Next Friday, June 15th is Bob Barker's last day on the Price is Right. The Era of the great game show had pretty much ended years ago. Although Jeopardy and The Wheel of Fortune continue on, the old classic game show no longer really exists. Bob Barker and The Price is Right is really the last to go.

Shows like Password and The Match Game were great because they had the celebrity guest stars. So it was the regular person competing against the other regular person. The celebrities were just helping them out. The shows were hilarious because of the celebrities. The everyday people were not really the focus of the shows. However, The Price Is Right were all about the everyday person. You could find every kind of person on that show. It was not just good looking 20 something professionals like the other shows. You had everyone from jock college guys to sassy old grandmothers. This is what made the show so great. Everybody had to buy things and compare prices. So really, anybody could play the show. The show was so exciting because of the way it was set up. You had a huge audience who were all excited. Because anybody from the audience could be competing that day. Nothing was predetermined. And those contestants were so excited! They seemed to be just as excited to meet Bob Barker as they were excited to possibly win a new kitchen set. Or a new Car!!! Always the most exciting prize.

In addition to the increasingly popular and highly recommended fun, monthly Oakland Art Walk (first Fridays at the numerous gallery spaces, including Rock Paper Scissors and Mama Buzz Cafe, within the happening few blocks of Telegraph and 23rd), this weekend's 4th Annual Temescal Street Fair, further down Telegraph Ave. towards Berkeley between 48th and 51st Streets, and featuring tons of talented up-and-coming local artists, is further proof of Oakland's exciting ongoing grassroots arts explosion. Sponsored by the Temescal Merchants Association and the Temescal Telegraph Community, the Temescal Street Fair, which will take place on Saturday, June 9th from noon until 6:00PM, will feature a lot of genuine local artists. Unlike many fairs, which feature out-of-town vendors peddling stuff purchased for resale, the Temescal organizers insist that all artists create all their own work and, equally important, they live in Oakland.

Mixed-media artist Sarah Chase is such a participant.  And under the moniker Lucky Space Monkey (the name of her cute clothing line -- t-shirts, hoodies & handbags -- that features funny monkey imagery), she will be one of the artists displaying/selling her wearable art on Saturday -- specifically t-shirts that have screen printed images and embroidery. These images will include hot rod cars, flames, skulls, dragons, sharks and waves. Sewing since she was 8 years old, Sarah is also a painter, and the images on her clothing line are inspired by her paintings. The designs draw upon imagery of the circus, pirates and urban myths and the Loch Ness monster (including her pic above left titled "Lore of Levithan").

Lightning Video 9590

   
Exactly thirty years ago, June 1977, pioneering San Francisco punk band The Avengers, fronted by a very talented and very young songwriter & vocalist named Penelope Houston, emerged onto the then very fledgling US punk scene to play their first show. Over the next two years, this band, which featured Greg Ingraham (guitar), Jimmy Wilsey (bass), and Danny Furious (drums), would go on to blaze a trail of raw, adrenaline-fueled, politically charged punk rock legend, tirelessly playing a hundred-plus shows that included countless gigs at their hometown punk mecca, The Mabuhay Gardens, booked by the late, great SF punk visionary Dirk Dirkson, and sharing bills with the Dead Kennedys, X, the Go-Gos, and even the Sex Pistols for their final show at Winterland in January 1978. 

The Avengers are one of those bands of legend that   most people didn't catch the first time around but learned of them after they had broken up - thanks mainly to their releases most of which surfaced after the band's demise.  In fact during their whirlwind two year existence the Avengers only released one three-song 7" record on Dangerhouse Records.  Their second record (the four-song 12" EP on White Noise) didn't drop until after they had disbanded and the record that most people know them by (the self-titled pink album) wasn't released until much later in 1983.  But none of this mattered to the legions of fans who later discovered and fell in love with such timeless Avengers songs as "I Believe In Me" "Fuck You" "White Nigger" "Corpus Christi" and "The American In Me" whose lyrics are reprinted below  along with a video clip of the Avengers performing the song circa '78 (scroll all the way down to end of this article). 

The sound of my neighborhood in Cypress Park reminds me of Manu Chao. A mixture of cultures clashing about on the streets; Police sirens, the bell ringing from a paletero’s ice cream cart, children playing in the streets, Sonidero blasting out of a big truck, teenage punk bands practicing in garages and loud TV’s trying to drown it all out. It all mixes together creating it’s own symphony, much like Manu Chao music. Manu Chao’s music is rooted in what bands like The Clash started; Reggae influenced punk rock mixed with various influences picked up while traveling the world. While The Clash discovered America, Manu Chao found kinship in Latin America. In his music you can hear the Nueva Trova influences from South America.  You can hear all the nights hanging out drinking and playing every record from the Fania, Trojan and Disco Fuentes catalog. You can hear the influence of touring with such great bands like Tijuana No!, Maldita Vecindad and Negu Gorriak while he was in the band, Mano Negra.

In all that you can still hear is voice come through all the influences.
 
On Saturday, Manu Chao played The Sport Arena, located in the heart of South L.A. on MLK and Figueroa. The Sports Arena is rarely used now that the Staple Center is around a few miles away in the newly gentrified part of downtown Los Angeles. The only other show I seen at The Sports Arena was Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls) The Wu Tang Clan and Ice Cube opened the show and absolutely rocked the spot. When it was time for Biggie to go on, a massive fight started and LAPD came in riot gear and the show ended early. A year later Biggie was dead and I never got my chance to see him perform.

Media Home Entertainment M864

         

Call me cynical, but when I first heard about the almost two thousand strong mob of white folks* gathered in Kansas City a couple of days ago (all at their own expense) to play "Smoke On The Water" on their guitars for five minutes and then leave, the first thing that popped into my mind was that recurring line from some of my favorite Jim Jarmusch films. You know, the one uttered in both Dead Man and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai that goes "stupid fuckin' white people."

Okay, so I admit, I am cynical and you might even accuse me of being self-hating, since I, too, am white. No matter. I still think what I think. And I think that if this same level of commitment and focus were directed at, say, getting Bush out of office right now, that the country might be in a better position to gather en masse to collectively strum 'dah, dah, dah.....dah, dah, dahdah....dah, dah, dah...dah dahdah!'

In case you didn't already hear this story: on Sunday exactly 1683 guitarists all converged at the Community America Ballpark in Kansas City to collectively beat a Guinness Book of World Records record set in Vancouver in 1994 when 1323 similarly minded guitar pickers gathered to be the largest gathering of individuals to simultaneously play on guitar the familiar riff of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" (from their 1972 album Machine Head).  

And on Sunday, June 3rd, as part of a stunt organized by local radio station KYYS, the gathering of 1683 guitarists* (acoustic and electric), who traveled to Kansas City from all over the globe and who ranged in age from toddlers to senior citizens, did successfully accomplish what they set out to, collectively play that famous classic-rock riff for five minutes, and consequently made a new Guinness World Record. 

After a very slow new release week, we are back to normal with a kind of big week. Some of my old favorites like Shellac, Neurosis, and Marilyn Manson all have new releases. I am anxious to hear all these albums. The Long Blondes finally!!! comes out domestic. And the up and coming brazillian scenesters Bonde Do Role have their debut album out. Out today is also the new album by one of my favorite instrumental doomy metal Chicago bands, Pelican.

This is the third full length by Pelican. Following their excellent albums "Australasia" and "The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw." My friend Jesse first got me into this band. I remember the first day she told me about them. She came running into the office, so happy to tell me about her new favorite band. I liked much of the same music she liked, so I knew that I would love them as well. Like the band Isis, they are not really what you normally think of as metal. They do use many elements of metal but combine them with some of the post rock kind of stuff that has come out of Chicago. Imagine some of the better doomy metal bands but without the lyrics. Sometimes the lyrics actually ruin some of those bands for me. Sometimes you just don't really need the lyrics. The music is sometimes more therapeutic without the lyrics to weigh it down. It allows you to sort of develop your own internal monologue while listening to it. I think I was drawn to Pelican for many of the same reasons I was drawn to the Explosions in the Sky. It is just some really beautiful music. Pelican is a harder version of the Explosions. But they do a lot of the same things with their instrumentation and song development. I guess all these bands are sort of like doom versions of a jam band. But its better than it sounds.

Although artists today aren't selling nearly as many records and CDs as they were several years back, it is can still be a positive time for them, provided that they can maintain an open mind and realize how to fully utilize and fine-tune the digital age's technologies to their advantage. Case in point is the SoCal emcee EV (aka Evidence of legendary LA hip-hop trio Dilated Peoples' fame), who recently released his debut solo album The Weatherman LP on Oakland's ABB Records (the same label that launched Dilated's career before they signed with Capitol Records). He has witnessed firsthand hip-hop going from being less mainstream, or as he called it, "like the black version of punk rock," to become the pop music form that it is today.


EV, however, still holds tight to rap's punk-like DIY ethic of old and considers new online digital entities like YouTube and MySpace as perfect tools to do-it-yourself and build a fan base from the ground up. "Right now there are only a few outlets that are selling music on a major level. A lot of these stores are closing down. And only two or three rappers went platinum last year. Things are different. It's changing," said EV by phone recently. "It's a changing tide and you've got to figure out how to stay in your ship without sinking in it -- to weather the storm, so to speak, within these next couple of years, because there will be a new outlet, but right now people are scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. So with MySpace and YouTube and a lot of the other dope dot coms and what have you, there's a lot of ways to be heard. Especially doing shows live and networking and gigging and getting out in front of the people and letting them decide how you are live." 

Joe Baiza is a truly unique guitarist. His guitar playing is a mixture of angular punk rock, free jazz and the funkiness of one who grew up on thousands of R&B albums. His first group, Saccharine Trust, was ahead of their time during their first incarnation. Between the years of 1981 through 1986, Saccharine Trust went from minimalist punk to free jazz and spoken word, confusing most pedestrian punk rockers that wanted to hear hardcore.  After Saccharine Trust demise, Joe Baiza started The Universal Congress Of, a band that further explored his jazz influences. Again, Joe found himself between a rock and a hard place, being too punk for the jazz purists and too jazzy for the alternative rock set. Fortunately for Joe, Universal Congress Of  found success in a Europe enthralled in the Acid Jazz movement in the late 80's/ early 90’s.

Joe continued to play in Europe for most of the early nineties until some idiotic German racists shattered his hand during a stay in Germany. He returned to Los Angeles to recover while his band mates all remained in Germany. Joe decided to stay in L.A. starting a few new groups, The Mecolodiacs and Joe Baiza’s Congress Of, as well as reforming Saccharine Trust  in 1999, who he still plays with to this day.

On Friday, I went to check out Joe’s latest musical endeavor at Taix Restaurant in Echo Park, The Cardovas. They played an all-Meters cover set, albeit with Baiza’s flavor. Normally, I don’t like the idea of seeing cover bands but, hey, it’s The Meters!  and it's Baiza doing it! As I sat there waiting for The Cardovas to play, I couldn’t help but to look around. Taix looked like a punk rock rest home. I saw many people that I barely recognized from the punk scene back in the day because they look so much older. Some, like Nicky (formerly of the band Pop Defect) looked timeless. Nick drumming in 3 bands, a sign that playing music will keep one looking young.

The Cardovas came on. It was Joe on Guitar, former Universal Congress Of bass player Ralph Gorodetsky on bass, former Claw Hammer/Devo Bob Lee on drums & vocals and local indie jazz icon Dan Clucas on the cornet. They also had an organ player as well who I did not recognize. They did all The Meters classics, Sissy Strut, Look-Ka Py Py, I Need More Time, 9 to 5 and of course, Cardova.

Continue reading

Lightning Video 9075

Spurred by the looming end of the exhibit, I grabbed my friends Brad and Josh and a few Bob's doughnuts (lemon jelly filled!) and ran to the Vivienne Westwood Exhibit at the De Young Museum.

Based on what I saw, one thing I learned was that Vivienne's clothing is still cutting edge: overwhelmingly so. The exhibit is a complete retrospective of her career, from her punk beginnings in the early 70s to now.  [An aside:  Anyone else wonder what her son with Malcolm McLaren is up to these days?  When you have parents like that, seems like the sky's the limit.]  It's also funny that the clothes Vivienne and Malcolm created together that were so shocking and offensive back in the 70s are now ripped off and mass marketed to every kid who wants some prepackaged rock'nroll edge at Hot Topics across America.  Weird.  Don't people realize what they are purchasing? The fact that every suburban kid these days hits the mall for their "edgy" faux punk gear makes it more difficult to remember that the clothes really were like nothing else when they were originally created, and that a lot of actual, intelligent thought went into the creations.


Like my partners in crime for the day, I wished that the exhibit had more photographs of actual people (yes, even models count!) wearing the fashions instead of just faceless mannequins so we could picture them better, but nonetheless the clothing was for the most part gorgeous and incredibly detailed.  Vivienne moved on from punk rock clothing gracefully to play with the old and the new, the high and the low, with many styles including world fusion-y and pirate-y styles in the 80s:

Every time I go to the Greek Theatre, I find myself thinking about "The Clash of the Titans."  I expect Harry Hamlin or Medusa to walk out and greet me at any moment. It really is a little majestic  and makes me think of old greek mythology. I just heard that they are actually remaking "The Clash of the Titans" into a new movie. I can only imagine that it will be horrible. But I would be really into a live stage production of the movie at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I really do love this place. I always go up to the top and sit on the lawn. Normally this would be like the worst place to see a show. But it is not too far away where it is hard to see. Its the perfect view from up there. It was a bit cold last night but as long as its not raining its never really that cold with all those people squeezed in there.

So I had heard really great things about the first Arcade Fire tour for their album "Funeral." Since I had missed the first tour I was really worried that this would not be the same. But my friend Joshua has assured me that they are just as good now. He was at this show as well but choose to experience the show down close.  The lawn is not for everyone. The band consists of ten members on stage playing various instruments. The husband and wife team of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne hold it all together as the ringleaders. Electrelane opened up for the Arcade Fire. It was fun to see them on such a big stage. They are really a great little band and I'm glad everyone was into them. The stage set up was kind of awesome. They had 5 little circular monitors that looked like little portals. Each monitor was playing some different video. At times it was prerecorded footage to go along with some of the songs. But usually it was live footage of the various band members. It gave you a slightly different perspective than you could see from just being in the audience.

Media Home Entertainment M808

During the much-hyped, highly lucrative and recently launched Police reunion tour, Sting reportedly jumped about onstage like a "petulant pansy" during this past Wednesday's Police concert at the GM Arena in Vancouver, Canada which, again reportedly, was "unbelievably lame" -- all this reported not by some extremely harsh music critic, but by the reunited trio's very own drummer Stewart Copeland, who also ripped apart his own performance as making a "complete hash" and something equally dismissive about guitarist Andy Summers' performance.

The self-critical artist wrote all of this on his personal website in a posting he uploaded Thursday. He continued to write in this highly-critical review of the previous night's show that "the groove is eluding us. We crash through 'MESSAGE' and then go straight into 'SYNCHRONICITY.' But there is just something wrong. We just can’t get on the good foot. We shamble through the song and hit the big ending. Last night Sting did a big leap for the cut-off hit, and he makes the same move tonight, but he gets the footwork just a little bit wrong and doesn’t quite achieve lift-off. The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock." The Police's members were notorious for getting into backstage fights back in the their heyday. Copeland continued: "It usually takes about four or five shows in a tour before you get to the disaster gig. But we’re The Police, so we are a little ahead of schedule. It’s only the second show."       

Note that none of the other reviews of the same show that have appeared in the media so far are nearly as critical as Copeland's. The band's third show was scheduled for tonight (Saturday, June 2nd) in Edmonton, Canada. For a review of that show check back in with Copeland's website sometime Sunday June 3rd or soon-after for (hopefully) another review.

All I ever really want to listen to is Fleetwood Mac, and I am NOT talking about the Peter Green years.  I'm talking the full-on 70s, shawl wearing, twirling, super chemistry, exposed chest hair with gold chains, cokehead Buckingham/Nicks era. There is no comparison.


Sitting here all day, I have had the self titled Fleetwood Mac CD on repeat. I have heard these songs since my birth. I bet my mom listened to this record while she was pregnant with me. These songs are ingrained in me. There is not a bad track on this record, but my favorites on  this and all their records are always the Stevie Nicks tunes. Some of the earliest memories of my life are these songs, trying to sing along, trying to understand the words, thinking how weird it is that "children grow older" as sung in "Landslide" and how I was gonna grow up soon (this was when I was about 5 maybe?). Yikes!

"Crystal" is one of the best songs Miss Stevie ever wrote, in my opinion. First of all, the name of the song, "Crystal," is just so damn classic for a song by Stevie. You know it's her right away. Then there are the beautiful lyrics about a multidimensional, all encompassing and almost scarily polarizing love. I love how the song starts so quietly and goes on forever, fading and fading.

I've made a horrible mistake.

...Okay, maybe I'm being too dramatic in describing it that way. It wasn't a horrible mistake, just a mistake. I apologize for being so over-the-top in my choice of words; it's horrible of me.

I promised y'all a conclusion to my boyfriend-in-the-hospital saga and had even completed writing most of it, but left it on my computer at home, which I no longer have access to. Therefore, you will still see Part 3, just not this weekend.

But why not this weekend? Because I'll being regaling you with a new series of reports from the desert!

Yes, I carload of attitude is making its way today to the glamorous town of 29 Palms, California, where we'll be staying at some isolated cabin, drinking tequila and mojitos, taking new photos for our MySpace profiles, hiding fake snakes and terrifying each other, and basically being ridiculous.

In the desert, no one can hear you make an ass of yourself.

Accompanying me is my post-op* boyfriend, Corey, my dearly beloved friend, Carrie, and another sweetheart-o'-my-heart, Logan, who has the distinction of being one of the floor managers at Amoeba Music Hollywood. We'll see what dirt I can get on her before we return to work. Career advancement through blackmail, anyone?

This is all promoted under the assumption that I'll find Internet access out there, of course. If not, I'll write but post later in the week.

Bootie SF, the popular, long-running San Francisco all-mashup dance party finds continued success both at home and on the road in cities including New York, Paris, and LA, where the party (appropriately retitled "Bootie LA") returns tonight (Sat, June 2nd) to Safari Sam's at 5214 W. Sunset. Working the wheels of steel tonight in Hollywood will be resident DJs Adrian & the Mysterious D, and Paul V (Indie 103.1) plus a special guest, the mashup pioneers The Evolution Control Committee. "Bootie," which takes its name from "bootleg," started out half a decade ago in San Francisco -- a time when the mash-up craze was in full tilt with mostly UK produced bootlegs or mashups, such as the wildly popular 2Many DJs' Nirvana vs Destiny's Child hybrid "Smells Like Booty" being passed around in MP3 form on the internet. Since then the genre has continued to grow, albeit below the radar due to many factors, including its illegal status.
 
Recently I caught up with Adrian & the Mysterious D -- the two ever-busy founding members of the mobile club, who two weeks ago were in the Big Apple with "Bootie NYC" at downtown club Element. Last weekend they were back home with a big Memorial Day party in San Francisco. Next weekend (June 9th) they'll throw another Bootie SF with the two founders spinning alongside Live 105 DJ Party Ben and guests DJ Matt Hite and Canada's Lock3down plus a performance from their "mash up band" Smash Up Derby featuring Miss Trixxie Carr. At a Bootie SF party about a month ago they had some pioneering guest DJs who world-premiered their groundbreaking WiiJing techniques (they hacked a Nintendo Wii and turned it into a unique new DJ controller). I asked Adrian and the Mysterious D about their club and the history of mashups, their Top FIve Mashups, and the genre's place as they see it in pop music culture.

Vestron VA4124

In case you haven't already clicked on the link on Amoeba's homepage to the fourth annual World Music Weekend Festival happening over the next couple of days in Berkeley, here's the dealio. It's a really cool unique weekend (June 2 & 3) global music festival that runs from noon til 9PM both days and features a rich wide range of artists playing music from all corners of the earth. And best of all, it's FREE! In all there will be 28 acts performing such diverse genres as Cajun and Zydeco, North African, Middle Eastern, 1930's Tex Mex, and Balkan. The performances will happen on street corners, in cafes, and in People's Park, where Amoeba Music will present a concert with performances from the Congolese dance music ensemble Samba Ngo, plus Yasir Chadly, Bouchaib Abdelhabi, and Stephen Kent, who melds Moroccan traditions with didjeridu, and the always wonderful Brass Menazeri, whose specialty is brass music from both Serbia and the Greek/Macedonia region, all delivered via their unique instrumentation: trumpets, clarinets, trombone, and tuba.

For an exact lineup of artists performing and for full details click here, or simply, when you get to the event, pick up a printed free festival schedule at the information booth on Telegraph & Haste near Amoeba.

Lightning Video LA9946

Has everyone already seen this ? Make sure you make it past the 2 min mark... that's when everything really kicks in !

2008 can't come soon enough !

VCI #6237