APRIL 12. Redscroll Records Opens. Mark it on Your Calendars.
Redscroll will be to Wallyworld what Metropolis is to the Northwaste Corner -- which is to say, the hub. The center. The everything.
CD CONTEST!
That's right -- it's going down!
The wonderful folks at The Space have recently put out an AMAZING CD compilation featuring 20 (!!!) local bands who have crushed their stage. Among the many bands features are Local Motion favorites Call it Arson, Welcome, Shadowgraphs (ex-Eschellon), and Mile Marker Zero. The great thing about the comp is that it has so many different genres of music, you're bound to discover a band you like (even if you haven't heard of them before).
HERE'S THE DEAL. I have THREE copies of this disc to giveaway. To enter, all you have to do is post a comment on this blog entry (see link below) telling us about the best concert you ever saw at The Space. Haven't seen a show at The Space? That's fine -- tell us who you'd like to see play there and why. (And yes, I'll know if you're promoting your own band, so don't bother.) The best entries get the goods!
A quick note: you don't have to sign up to Blogger to post comments (there's an "Anonymous" option), but if you go that route, please sign with your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you if you're a winner.
Hehe, "if you're a winner."
GOOD LUCK!
Hurtling Back Into Orbit
Long time no see, huh?
I'm really excited -- I'm almost ready to get back into the action here. And you know what the best part is gonna be?
CONTESTS.
Oh yes. I'm gonna give you shit. Free. For no reason whatsoever.
What's taking so long? Well, other than moving to a new apartment, another car breakdown (ahem), and a gigantic cold that wrecked my holidays, Blogger has also upgraded to their new version. Among other improvements, they now offer LABELS! So now you can sort through all the entries I've written by topic -- I've even got tags for different genres of music. (I personally recommend the "Shitty Music" label.) It's taking a while to go back through all my old posts and tag them, but I'm almost done.
You can anticipate all of this -- tags, giveaways/contests, and a completely overhauled links section -- sometime in February. With any luck, I'll even be linked on the Hartford Advocate's main page.
Hang tight -- just a little while longer...
Going on Hiatus
Because of some crazy circumstances and big changes in my life (moving, etc.), Local Commotion is going on hiatus until late December '06/early '07. I'll be back soon to continue writing silly, ridiculous crap. Until then, have some wonderful holidays, make sure you get enough sunlight to keep those crappy New England moods at bay (these lightboxes work wonders), and drop me a line if you hear somethin' good.
Until then,
Dan
CBGB Closes. In Other News, Punk Has Sucked For Years.
Sigh.
If not for Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, I might never have seen the crusty, poster-slathered inside of CBGB. And now it's gone. Check out Yahoo News' article on its final show:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061016/ap_en_mu/music_cbgb_finale
I like that Patti Smith and members of Blondie were there to close it out.
But I gotta tell ya: Hilly Kristal? I'm not a fan.
Don't let the fluff in this piece fool you. Kristal let this happen. To some degree, he even wanted it to happen. CBGB's last gasp as a culturally active institution was sometime back in the '80s, if not earlier. Since then, it's pretty much just been a t-shirt. Kristal never really grasped the cultural significance of his own venue or its meaning in the birth of punk -- he merely wanted to make a buck. So when it began to look like CBGB was going to bite the dust a few years ago, he immediately started talking about moving to New Jersey or Las Vegas. He didn't understand that it wasn't the name CBGB, or the awning, or the logo that made CBs important -- it was the space.
It was the disgusting, awkwardly-shaped, piss-infested, sounds-like-shit space. It's a space only a punk could love. It's a place you can only enjoy if you don't give a fuck about anything, drink hard, and prefer physically intimidating your crowd over performing for them. Kristal, ever clueless, recently said, “For some reason, they want us here. I don’t know why it matters to them, but it does.”
[Read more of that interview here. It's excellent.]
As the interview makes painfully clear, Kristal does not care about the space. It was filled with numerous code violations (a big no-no after the Great White show fire in RI); he didn't pay his rent; he's long viewed the place as an instution to museumify, rather than a living place that can transform music and culture.
CBGB is dead. Long live CBGB.
Musical Instruments Are People, Too. Sorta.
This helpful announcement just in from Lys Guillorn:
Cold weather PSA for my fellow musicians: humidify!
Howdy. Just a reminder to put your instrument humidifiers in your guitar or other wood-based instrument cases as we get into cold weather. If you don't have "real" humidifiers, you can use a film canister with holes poked in the lid and a damp, but not sopping piece of sponge inside. If you need film canisters, I can give you some... (Film? Yes, people still shoot film...) A little prevention will spare you having to have cracks repaired later.
Be very well,
Lys
Album Cover Deathmatch!
From what I hear, this video has taken off pretty quickly, and well it should -- it's hilarious. Watch classic album covers battle to the death!
Mildly unsafe for work.
Local Commotion October Updates
... and no, I'm not going to call it fucking "Rocktober."
Just got back from the Tool concert last night... Wow. Interesting experience. On the upside, I enjoyed watching some brilliant musicians play some wicked tunes. On the downside, the Hartford Civic Center sounds like a subwoofer trapped in a dumpster. Not to mention it's kind of weird seeing thousands of drone-like Tool fans mouthing the lyrics to a band who advocates thinking for yourself.
Anyway, I'm thrilled -- THRILLED -- that my interview made the cover this week. It's only the second time that's happened (not counting the Band Slam/Snow Slam previews I do), and I get all giddy about that shit. It's definitely a high point of my writing career so far.
Enough blabbing. I'm here to tell you about some updates I made this morning! I've got new shit for the fans and new shit for the bands. Something for the holes and something for the poles. You know how it go.
- For the Fall season, I've put some new tunes up on the Local Commotion MySpace, which is basically a jukebox/soundtrack to this blog and the Advocate column. I focused on a "creepy" theme for the autumn! You may have never heard of these groups or genres, but believe me, the sounds and textures are a perfect fit.
- I've separated the categories in my links section on the right-hand side. I also shrank the font to make it a little more readable. Let me know if you don't like it and I'll change it back.
- I've created a new links section for blogs! There are so damn many CT-related music and arts blogs out there -- it's about time I started spreading the love. Like cream cheese. I had jalapeno cream cheese on a cheddar bagel from Lox Stock and Bagel in West Hartford this morning. Mmmm. I'm hungry again just thinking about it.
- I've finally begun linking (and expanding) the link sections for Record Stores and Labels, and I created a new section for Promo Agencies. If you're a musician, or in a related field, please send me links to help fill out these sections -- and pass the word along to other CT people looking for local music resources.
Thanks for reading.
(Image courtesy of Scary Bunnies.)
Holy Shit, Sugarfist!
HUGE and bittersweet news from the Sugarfist camp. Jenn Jacobs has parted ways with the 'Fist! She's been around since the beginning, and to many of us her awesome voice has come to represent the band just as much as the goofy stage antics and the jambalaya clusterfuck songwriting. Meanwhile, they've already found a replacement!
Here's the announcement from the band:
"We would like to take this opportunity to extend a gracious and sad farewell to one of Sugarfist's own- Jenn Jacobs. Beginning in 1999 and one of our founding and core members, Jenn has decided to depart from the band. She has been a part of the Sugarfist family for many many years and we all wish her the very best in her future creative endeavors to come. Her last performance with us can be seen at a free show this Saturday September 9th at The Haddam River Days Festival in Haddam, CT.
We would like to give a new toasty welcome to the always entertaining and extravagant...Krizta Moon!!!! Joining the band now on vocals!!! Krizta will perform our last song of the evening on Saturday night and can be seen with us thereafter at the following locations of mass media cronyism..
FRIDAY October 6th The Beanery Old Dam Road Fairfield, CT ALL AGES
SATURDAY October 21st The Colony Woodstock, NY"
Tupac: Robbing Men of Their Boners and Women of Their Conjugal Bliss, Even From the Grave
Now I've seen it all.
The Associated Press (killing local reporting since 1846) offers up this report about a lawsuit between civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker and two Philly newspapers. At issue? "Her dispute with the estate of slain rapper Tupac Shakur," according to the article.
What did that naughty Tupac do? He rhymed "Tucker" with "motherfucker." Oh SHIT!
But wait -- the shit has only begun to fly. According to the AP article,
"Tucker had sued Shakur, alleging, among other things, that her husband, William Tucker, had suffered loss of 'consortium' because of the emotional distress brought on by Shakur."
Oh yes. Consortium. If you think that sounds like some kind of awful Freudian metaphor for something, award yourself one point. Baby, Dictionary.com gives us this legal definition:
"The legal right of husband and wife to companionship and conjugal intercourse with each other."
So let me get this straight: a so-called activist is suing a newspaper for mischaracterizing a Tupac lyric which was so scathing that it prevented her husband from getting a hard-on?
I've got one word for ya:
By the way, have any of you seen the movie Tupac: Resurrection? (Thanks, Olympia, for sending it my way.) It's interesting in the way Born Into Brothels is interesting, which is to say that if you peel back the cutesy, crowd-pleasing surface, there are some very ugly monsters lurking underneath. The selling point is that it's told in "Tupac's own words," and indeed it's compiled from a number of interviews and monologues. But a careful listener will hear that many times, Tupac's speech is spliced together from several different interviews, often in mid-sentence! His speech, his life -- they're so heavily edited to put a positive spin on a man who was one of the most internally embattled characters of his day. By the end of the film, Pac is basically being cast as a black Jesus figure, a patron of the arts, and a sensitive gentleman who only occasionally ran into trouble with the press and the law. It's no coincidence that the film was made by Tupac's mom, Afeni Shakur. You can just see her pulling the strings the whole time.
Guess she had to get him back for "Dear Mama" some way or another.
Meszenjah Spreads the Irie Vibe to Middletown
DJ Meszenjah puts on one of the sickest live sets I've seen a local kid spin. I was especially impressed with how deep he got during an all-reggae set I saw at Zen Bar. It's so rare that a DJ around here will dig into the reggae stacks, let alone navigate them with a degree of eloquence. Meszenjah has all the beats you could ever want and eloquence to boot. Check him out at Vibrations, a club night at Tommy's in Middletown. He'll be there October 6th and 20th.
Will Haven Signed
Bieler Bros Records, home to UK math-metallers Sikth, have recently signed one of the bands that got me into hardcore: Will Haven.
When I first discovered them in the late '90s, Will Haven's thick-chained guitars and relentless 3/4 time signature were quite possibly the heaviest thing I had ever heard. It was simplistic, reductive, and palpable. I grew up listening to alternative; in 1996 a high school friend turned me on to the Deftones, and from there it was only a short jump to heavier sounds. Snapcase came first -- they had just released Progression Through Unlearning, which I think to this day is their best album ever. But shortly thereafter, I found Will Haven's "Ego's Game" on a comp CD, and was thrilled to hear another band using the same kind of guitar style and rhythm. After investigating both bands' back catalogs, I have to say unequivocally that Will Haven's is the better of the two: it's more consistent, and while that certainly leads to a degree of predictability (Will Haven outside of the 3/4 time signature is almost impossible), it's definitely preferable to Snapcase's many failed experiements.
The official announcement:
"Bieler Bros Records is proud to announce the signing and return of metal-core pioneers WILL HAVEN. Will Haven will release their as of yet untitled Bieler Bros. debut in early 2007. The release will be the bands first since 2001's critically-acclaimed Carpe Diem."
Apathy Tears Collabos a New One
Check out Apathy's post on MySpace where he shreds one of hip hop's most abused institutions: the collaboration track.
The Conspicuous Willingness of Secondary Metal Markets to Commercialize/Market Themselves as Though They Were Primary
... or: You're All Fucking MySpace Sellouts.
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF OVERHYPED DEATHGRIND ARTISTS
Summer 2003: Daughters
Fall/Winter 2003: Between the Buried and Me
Summer 2004: Invocation of Nehek
Summer 2005: Through the Eyes of the Dead
Fall/Winter 2005: Job for a Cowboy
Summer 2006: Suicide Silence
Oh yes, motherfuckers: I see you. I see exactly what you’re doing.
You know what you are?
Coldplay.
Keane.
The Killers.
Editors.
of metal.
The "it" band until the next "it" band comes along.
Fuckin’ shame on you.
Spouse Hates Your Obnoxious Snore? Play Didge!
I saw this and thought it was freakin' fantastic. Didgeridoos are pretty easy to make out of PVC tubing or the like... Though nothing beats a nice one made from natural materials. I was pretty impressed with the stuff sold in the store section of this site. They go out of their way to seem pretty ethical and up-front about stuff.
But that's not the point. THE POINT IS PLAYING DIDGERIDOO STOPS YOU FROM SNORING!
http://www.laoutback.com/images/parts/SnoringPopUp.html
Bleach Transfusion Completed: Initiate Self-Termination Process
After an incredible 4 or so gigs, and with seven epic minutes of recorded audio under their belts, the boys of Bleach Tranfusion have announced their indefinite hiatus. Vocalist/synth player Ben Kohanski is beginning his college education (majoring in Gore, no doubt), leaving the future for the acoustic grind band open but uncertain.
While I wouldn't exactly classify Bleach Transfusion as good, they're certainly one of the more interesting bands* I've encountered, both in terms of setup (cheap drums, crappy synth, capes, gas masks) and artistic vision. (Their aborted album, Purging the Swarm, was to be an epic tale of Space Marines [think Doom, Halo] forced to annihilate a malevolent race of sentient insectoids. Not exactly typical concept album material.)
*(Note to readers: please do not call bands/works/artists "more unique" or "less unique." "Unique" means one-of-a-kind; there are no orders of magnitude. It's either unique or it's not.)
For those of you who never saw them live -- and let's face it, your number is legion -- it sounds like a DVD is in the works. If you enjoy B-movie kitsch, you may want to get a copy.
Relevant MySpace bulletin (from vocalist Brian Sierakowski) below:
Is this truly it for BLEACH TRANSFUSION?
As many of you probablly know, our beloved keyboardist/vocalist, Ben Kohanski, will be departing for college today. He was a great bandmate and friend, and truly the mastermind behind Bleach Transfusion. We've had a good run with our acoustic grindcore project turned synth led grind assault on the senses.
Is Bleach Transfusion dead?
No. We are just on indeffinate hiatus. Myself and my brother, Sam, will be part of two untitled bands, currently forming. Our first is an artsy hardcore project, and the second (which I am personally excited about) is a synthy gore grind project featuring Poop Sludge vocalist Chris Little and ex Revelations of Doom guitarist Tyler, whose name I embarassingly forgot this morning (sorry, man). Also, I myself might be playing keyboard for a local black metal project.
Bleach Transfusion does, however, plan to release a special DVD/EP CD set at Jamfest 07. This DVD will include their full live performances from Jamfest 06 and the 06 Dodgeball Tournament. Also, we will include the "basement sessions," which will show everyone what happened while we recorded our sick awesome tracks. We'll show you the laughs, and more laughs, because really, there was never any drama. The EP will provide you with all of our old tracks from The Lies That Grind, and the Purging The Swarm concept album. We will also include unreleased and alternate tracks. Whether we will actually make an appearance at Jamfest is highly doubtful.
...
It was a fun ride, guys. And hey, we might actually pick this up again, we still have Purging the Swarm to try and finish.
So thanks again, all.
And look forward to our DVD/EP release at Jamfest 07! It will be the best $7 you've ever spent.
CT DnB: Big Up for a Hot Summer
Maybe I blinked or something, but it seems like in the past few months, Drum 'n Bass in CT has quadrupled. All of a sudden there's a ton of ill events!
(WTF is drum 'n bass? Click here to find out.)
You hear that, house music? You don't own this town for much longer! Mu ha ha.
Naw, but seriously. If you want the scoop on what's going down week-by-week, I highly recommend checking out Miz-Eyesis' MySpace page. Aside from being a DJ, she's one of the scene's most ardent supporters right now. If an event is within driving distance, she's spreading the word about it -- if not attending it. And as much as it may seem like an explosion of brand new events, that's hardly ever the case -- it's almost always the result of years of hard work finally paying off.
So hats off to CT D'nB -- I hope this is the first of many years when you get (aka regain) your due respect.
Ramallah's "Kill A Celebrity": Officially REQUIRED LISTENING for Readers of Local (Com)Motion
You may or may not like heavy music. You may or may not like punk. I don't care. You need to hear the messages on this album.
Normally I would be racing to write a CD review of this so it could be published in The Advocate and reach thousands of readers. Unfortunately, I slept on Kill A Celebrity for too long (it came out in late 2005) and The Advocate has a policy of publishing CD reviews that are fresher.
So I'm sitting down at 2:30 in the morning, after 2 and 1/2 glasses of wine and exactly two listens of this CD, to tell you that you need to hear this. Why? Because, quite simply, Ramallah's latest disc is the kind of music that compels you to act. You can't fucking listen to this and sit still.
Within the legendary Boston hardcore scene, there has been one band that has been consistently hailed over all others: Blood for Blood. If one were to liken them to Connecticut's Hatebreed, it wouldn't be too far off the mark. Blood for Blood (who have since broken up) had a dubious reputation for shedding, um, blood (imagine that) at shows, and for generally attracting working-class thugs who needed an outlet for their pent-up frustrations. To quote from the Victory Records website:
"Their ‘white-trash working man’ ethics and ‘no holds barred’ attitude have garnered Blood For Blood a following that is among the most fanatical and dedicated of any fanbase in the music scene today. In a scene currently lacking in old-fashioned angry hardcore, Blood For Blood stands where legends Sheer Terror and Killing Time once reigned."
Yeah. There's violence here. But it goes deeper than that.
Class lines have always clearly divided the hardcore pretenders from the real heirs to the scene. Blood for Blood, you might say, were the kings of lower- and middle-middle class hardcore: they ran into problems with society enough to have a political bent, but they were still sonically punk-as-fuck. (Compare to Hatebreed, who, over the long-term, have shown themselves to be eagerly upwardly mobile -- both in business practice [signing to Universal Records and, for their latest release, Roadrunner Records] and musical composition [their increasing metal influence culminated in a guest spot by Slayer's guitarist Kerry King on 2002's Perseverance]. Hatebreed's lyrical material has always stayed squarely centered on abstract values, whereas Blood for Blood were always eager to grapple with real-life issues.)
So enter Blood for Blood's "White Trash" Rob Lind, the mastermind behind the Ramallah project. Their first disc, But A Whimper, was a wicked taste of things to come (it clocked in at just 13:53). On Kill A Celebrity, White Trash Rob takes the time to unpack and expand his views, providing what one might dub a "working class progressive" stance on international politics and domestic affairs.
At least, that's the scholastic way to put it. Another way to put it: far-left liberals (as opposed to centrist Democrats) and progressives have always struggled with giving their beliefs an artistic voice. The effortlessness with which Ramallah does so suggests that we (I say "we" because I count myself among the ranks) have all been overthinking, overarticulating, and self-censoring too much.
White Trash Rob cuts straight to the fucking chase, and it's magnificent. One can only quote.
"What a beautiful rage/what a noble crusade/what a beautiful hatred ... I wish I was as strong as you." -from "Brother Malcolm"
"I'd love to... put some sarin gas/in the central A/C at the VMAs/and watch those beautiful faces/turn ashen gray... Kill a celebrity, and you will find you can strike down a god." -from "Kill a Celebrity"
Watch in awe as Rob quotes from the Sacred Cow themselves, The Beatles, by covering "A Day in the Life" and translating it into hardcore-ese as though the song's original authors were just, y'know -- people. (As someone who resists the canon [and canonization] of The Beatles as one might resist Titanic, The Da Vinci Code, and the Harry Potter books, I knew from the opening notes that Ramallah was covering a song. But, ignorant as I was of the source, I have to say that I enjoyed knowing that Rob was making an old song relevant in the first half, and explicitly updating it in the second. Such audaciousness could only be punk. Doubly so upon realizing [a Google or two later] that he was fucking with the holiest of rock's holies.)
But the high point of the album, for me, had to be "Heart Full Of Love." Reading is good, but listening is better. Shit, if you want an MP3 of this, e-mail me.
"I want to cut the brakes on every SUV in the world. And I'd love to burn down to ashes every jewelry store in the world. I'd love to drown in crude oil every 'spring break' beach in the world. I'd love to slap awake every sheep that puts their faith in the monsters that run our world. My heart's so full of love... I'd love to rape a Hilton sister or kill an FM show director and piss on the illusions that you hold so dear. I'd love to silence all the liars preaching what they know is poison; piss on their illusions and show you true fear. I want to grind into dust your American Idols, all with a heart full of love... My heart's so full of love that I would save you all if I only could. My heart's so full of love, I'd even die for your sins than watch it all fall... My heart is so full of love... Blood. Terrorist, is your heart also full of love?"
Incredible. Incredible. Finally someone is able to step up to the plate and say: no, no, my dissent, my qualms, all the times I've disagreed with you and freaked out and told you you're full of shit -- they're not because I'm neurotic and not because I'm weak and not because I don't have anything better to do. They're because I am so fucking full of love that cold assholes like you could never even comprehend it. They're because I love this country and this world and its people so much that I can't do anything but point the finger and call "bullshit" on your lies. And you -- you're not even from the same planet.
Ramallah's dreams of MTV-destroying, SUV-disabling violence may be short on real-life solutions -- but they're long on giving pent-up frustrations a voice and a purpose. For once, here's an aggressive disc that does the real thing: by articulating and advocating extreme solutions, it gives those of like mind the impetus to seek realistic changes.
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