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March 31, 2005
Slint Reunited
Amongst a few other things keeping me from posting here of late, last weekend I took a trip to Chicago so that I could hang with my Illinois pals for a few days. On Friday night we all went to The Metro to catch one of the last of the Slint reunion shows. I'm not usually that big on the idea of broken-up bands getting back together for reunion tours, but since Slint never really got to tour in the wake of Spiderland, the whole reunion thing seemed less like a cash-in and more like a way-overdue tour in support of one of my absolute favorite albums of the early 90s.
And indeed, Slint played all six songs off of Spiderland, as well as a few songs off of Tweez and the first non-"Rhoda" song from the posthumous EP. The songs and the sounds were all technically dead-on, with those instantly recognizable guitar tones/noises and that unmistakably great Britt Walford drum sound. Throughout the set there were a few strange breaks and gaps in between some of the songs that had me wondering how such a dynamically gifted band could allow the energy to dissipate during those multi-minute lulls used for guitar-tuning and instrument-switching. But that's really a very minor complaint and I guess it makes sense if Slint's top priority was exactly practiced perfection. Which was pretty much what we got. The show ended the only way a Slint show should ever end, with the Spiderland closer "Good Morning Captain". Other shows on the tour have apparently had "Captain" near the start of the set, but somehow I can't really imagine Brian McMahan returning to a fragile whisper after shouting "I MISS YOU!!!" over and over.
I couldn't get any decent pics from where I stood down below, but above is an overhead photo that I snapped during my brief balcony visit. Left to right, that's Brian McMahan at the microphone, his brother Michael filling in on guitar (during a few songs where vocals & guitar would've been too much for Brian to pull off), Louisville musician Todd Cook filling in on bass, Britt Walford on the drums, and Dave Pajo on guitar. Cy Rawls told us that Pajo was wearing a Voivod shirt...I couldn't see it myself but Cy would definitely know!
Hard to believe that it's been almost 10 years since I took a 15-hour car trip to Chicago in order to spend a weekend at the Lounge Ax watching Gastr del Sol and the recently modified incarnation of Tortoise that had just added Dave Pajo as a replacement for Bundy Brown. Note to self: Please get some of those Tuba Frenzy # 2 interviews posted online at some point before the Tortoise reunion tour of 2015 gets booked...
But back to the present...big ups to Eric B. for scoring our Slint tickets when they went on sale last December and for Tivo-ing the UNC-Villanova game that was going on at the exact same time as the show. The most unpleasant part of this otherwise enjoyable evening may have been unintentionally learning that the Heels were down 21-9 early in the game. We went home after the show and nervously watched the entire game from start to finish without knowing the then-decided outcome. Whew...good thing McCants switched those sneakers and had a second half that was sufficiently "smoother than moves by Villanova"!
If you didn't manage to catch one of the recent Slint reunion shows but are interested in hearing a live recording, just download this entire March 3rd show that took place in Reims, France. And here's a live MP3 of "Rhoda" for you podcast subscribers or single mp3 folks:
Slint (live in France, 03.03.2005) - "Rhoda" [5.70 MB]
Posted by Tim at 01:18 AM | Comments (6)
March 19, 2005
It's Spring Again
Three timely hip-hop hits for these past few days:
Kurtis Blow - "Basketball"
Biz Markie - "Spring Again"
House of Pain - "Shamrocks and Shenanigans"
The Federal has supposedly installed a new and improved soundsystem with much better bass, so I'll be testing it out tonight with these songs and more. Boom sha lock lock boom!
Posted by Tim at 12:59 PM | Comments (3)
March 16, 2005
Alley Oop's Treehouse
On a few memorable occasions during that irrationally exuberant period that was the late 1990s, some adventurous friends and I made like monkeys and climbed our way into The Treehouse. Back then, Alley Oop's Treehouse may very well have been Chapel Hill's most popular dance-oriented nightclub - a must-go spot for the fake-ID-carrying college kids who were looking for something newer and hipper than J.R. Reid's Players. Me, I just loved the place because they totally kicked out the jamz. And because it was always a pretty hilarious experience to venture into that jungle of a dancefloor and see all sorts of unknown creatures engaging in strange animal-like behaviors.
For years I have kept my mandatory Treehouse membership card as a souvenir of those good times. Tomorrow night, I get to take my Treehouse appreciation to a whole new level, as I have the honor of DJing there as part of a combination rock show/dance party. Yes, strange as it may seem, The Treehouse has actually started having rock shows on Thursday nights. Three weeks ago I was there and caught a great double-bill featuring Pegasus and Kerbloki. It was pretty funny to look around The Treehouse and see a roomful of people that one would typically expect to run into at Orange County Social Club.
Tomorrow night's show is a rockin' St. Patrick's Day extravaganza and it's going to feature at least 2 if not 3 of the following bands:
Living Dead (featuring Jake from Hell)
Kung Flude
Valient Thorr
I'll be DJing a little bit in between bands. And then the full-on dance party should kick into gear somewhere 'round midnight. Come rock out and celebrate St. Patrick's Day amidst the green foresty climes of a local dance institution!
Posted by Tim at 10:24 PM | Comments (2)
March 14, 2005
Parts & Labor
Went to check out Parts & Labor at Nightlight last night. Moments after the band finished up their set, Randy Bullock came up to me and said, "We are living in a post-Lightning Bolt world." Which was a really good way of succinctly summing up not just the super-kinetic Parts & Labor but also the entire evening, given that the two opening bands (In The Year of The Pig, Dave Cantwell and Scotty Irving's duo The Whole World Laughing) were both rockin' drums-and-bass duos that definitely had their own fair share of pounding, prog moves, distortion, etc.
After the show, I belatedly picked up Parts & Labor's 2003 CD Groundswell and have really enjoyed listening to it at work today. Most of the newer stuff that Parts & Labor played last night was accompanied by some anthemic and indecipherable yelling, but Groundswell is all instrumental. Here's a self-titled "theme song" track that has many of the same fuzzed-out, punked-up, and damaged-electronics vibes as my favorite Lightning Bolt jams:
Parts & Labor - "Parts & Labor" (5.31 MB)
Posted by Tim at 08:01 PM | Comments (7)
March 13, 2005
Hide Ya Face
Ibiblio's ibiblog has just started podcasting. For the inaugural show, Bret Dougherty did a short interview with me about the security clampdown that prevented me from wearing my UNC Mexican wrestling mask at last Sunday's UNC/Dook game. I'd been thinking about the incident in the framework of a post-9/11 surveillance society but Bret aptly ties it back into the whole concept of crowd spirit and the considerable efforts that have been put into juicing up those once-lackluster Smith Center crowds. I had to confess to actually having been a part of the very quiet Smith Center crowd on December 15, 1991 - the day that Florida State's Sam Cassell made his infamous "wine and cheese" remarks following FSU's surprisingly victorious ACC debut. The Smith Center crowd rowdiness has definitely changed a lot since then, masks or no masks. Check out the interview via ibiblio's podcast feed or via the MP3 link in the ibiblog post.
While I'm on the hide-ya-face "masked man" tip, here's a pretty great mystery-diffusing interview that Hua Hsu recently did with MF Doom. I really like the way that The Wire is providing unedited interview transcripts online as a supplement/alternative to the full critic-speak articles that appear in print. For artists that I already like and know something about, I am finding that the raw interviews are actually much more enjoyable and informative! The Wire's web site has also been offering up some MP3s for the artists featured in the magazine. So if you didn't pick up Mm..Food last fall, check out "Deep Fried Frenz" (6.8 MB) for a very Doom-ish spin on the Whodini classic "Friends".
Posted by Tim at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2005
These Are The Breaks
Thanks to everyone who downloaded my year-old "The Beats Go On" track that was posted here last week. For those who are interested, here are the answers (in sequential order) to "Name That Beat":
1. "Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band
An instrumental Top 10 hit in 1971, "Scorpio" has a really hot drum break that served as the source of that funky fill in Young MC's "Bust A Move". Incidentally, the song's guitar hook (not used on my track) was sampled for LL Cool J's "Jingling Baby".
2. "Amen, Brother" by The Winstons
I can't hear the "Amen" chorus without thinking of Lefty Driesell-era Maryland basketball and that end-of-game singing that they used to do at Cole Field House. The "Amen" break, on the other hand, is pretty much the most (over)used drum-n-bass/jungle break of all time. I love the way that NWA slowed it way down for "Straight Outta Compton".
3. "Shack Up" by Banbarra
In my humble opinion this breakbeat might be the hottest of the six listed here, though the others are probably a little more famous. An awesome break that was put to very good use on Divine Styler's "Ain't Sayin' Nothin" and Dr. Octagon's strangely guitar-heavy "I'm Destructive". These days the song "Shack Up" seems to be more frequently associated with A Certain Ratio, who did a nice cover of it on their 1981 Do The Du EP.
4. "Apache" by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band
Like "Scorpio", "Apache" was one of the original breaks that Kool Herc played at block parties back in the early-to-mid 70s. A classic percussion jam and a really important record in the early history of hip-hop. Kudos to MOD for naming that beat.
5. "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" by Bob James
Long after recording a "difficult listening" album for ESP and shortly before composing the theme to Taxi, Bob James released a series of numerically titled CTI albums that would later be sampled on a ridiculous number of hip-hop records. "Mardi Gras" is from Two and it's the bell-heavy break that absolutely made Run-DMC's "Peter Piper". Score a beat-recognition point for Jesse P.
6. "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" by James Brown
"Funky Drummer" is definitely the more classic break, but it was way too slow to match up with the Sonny & Cher song, so I used a similarly inclined "James Brown grunts over Clyde Stubblefield drums" section from this speedier JB jam. With its driving groove and awesome Bobby Byrd organ lines, this song was quite the early b-boy anthem.
So there they are. Not really my "Top 6 Breaks of All Time" or anything, but 6 classic beats that fit well with the general theme and also with the tempo of the Sonny & Cher tune. Thanks for playin'...
Posted by Tim at 05:32 PM | Comments (3)
March 08, 2005
My Posse Uptown Wear The Mask
The UNC Mexican wrestling mask seemed to either amuse and/or confuse most people that saw it in action on Sunday, but it was definitely not a big hit with the yellow-jacketed security guy who was working right near the last row of the Smith Center riser seats. As we first came down the steps towards the risers, the security guy saw the mask and told us that we couldn't have anything that covered our faces. This sounded like a pretty silly and arbitrary rule given that numerous people had light blue wigs and completely painted faces, so I maneuvered myself as far from him as possible and then put the mask on shortly before the game started. Within a mere few minutes, however, I was supposedly spotted by someone working a security camera way up in the tip-top crow's nest of the Smith Center...and that person supposedly radio-ed down to the security guard, who once again told me that I was not allowed to cover my face. He explained that they always needed to be able to identify me. It seemed to me that I would be extremely easy to spot (and apprehend) in the unlikely event that I broke some laws or violated some protocols or decided to throw a full drink on JJ Redick. I mean, c'mon - I'd be that one guy wearing the mask!
But perhaps there was more to this rule than monitoring or punishing rowdy fan behavior. TV camera shots and in-person sightings definitively showed that new UNC professor John Edwards, Governor Mike Easley, 2-time U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles, and author John Grisham were all in attendance at the UNC/Duke game. Even more interesting to me was the (in)famous figure that I have not been able to confirm via any official account. The security guy apparently told someone in our posse something about "the assistant Secretary of Defense" being in the building. Who knows if that's true, but if it is, and if he was actually referring to Paul "I lick my comb" Wolfowitz, well then maybe that explains the whole anti-mask rule. With a neocon Deputy Secretary of Defense and a once & future Presidential candidate in the crowd, Big Brother might have been putting in some serious work with its facial-recognition software!
In any case, I was allowed to wear the mask on top of my head as if it were just a big hat, with my face exposed and the Mexican wrestler eyes looking skyward toward the top of the Dean Dome. This may have actually saved me a huge amount of discomfort, as it was already extremely sweaty and smelly in the back of the risers. If I'd had to pogo up and down with a tight felt mask on I might have suffocated or passed out or something.
Despite not being able to wear it as it was intended, I still consider the UNC Mexican wrestling mask to be my new "Go Heels!" memento, ready to be used for 9 more games. After Sunday's victory was sealed and I found myself jumping up and down somewhere near halfcourt, I went ahead and put the Mexican wrestler mask back on my head, since chaos had clearly broken out and no security guard was around to stop me.
Thankfully, Linda's does not have any ridiculous anti-mask rules. UNC Mexican wrestling masks are completely welcome there, especially during post-victory celebrations....
Posted by Tim at 01:15 AM | Comments (6)
March 07, 2005
Number One
No words from me, this picture pretty much says it all...
Posted by Tim at 01:45 AM | Comments (2)
March 05, 2005
Project Runway: Go Heels!
I never imagined that my life would start imitating the plot of a reality TV show, but during the last week I've spent countless hours feeling like a character on Project Runway. It all started when my graduating friends hit the jackpot and scored these:
Now I've been a big Tar Heel basketball fan for about a quarter century, but I've never actually attended a UNC/Dook game. Much less sat in the courtside riser seats! Once I realized that my friends and I were going to be in the constantly-on-TV section of rabidly cheering fans, I started thinking of how I might decorate myself (aside from my usual "Jackie Manuel Has A Posse" t-shirt, clearly a must for Senior Day).
I briefly considered painting my dome light blue, but after seeing how nasty those Cameron Crazies looked last month with paint-colored sweat running down their arrogant faces, I decided to avoid paint entirely. My friend Chris half-jokingly suggested that I wear a Mexican wrestling mask, which struck me as a pretty brilliant idea. I started looking online for a Carolina blue-ish mask, but offerings were slim and the colors and sizes weren't exactly right. So I started discussing the idea with avid Tar Heel basketball and Mexican wrestling mask fan Chip Hoppin of Merch Headgear & Design. Chip had actually been wanting to make a Mexican wrestling mask for years, but the right opportunity just hadn't presented itself - until now.
Chip sketched out a basic idea for the mask, and the next step was to buy some Carolina blue and white fabrics that had a little bit of weight and stiffness to them, as simple cotton would be far too flimsy for a mask. I got to pay my first-ever visit to Jo-Ann Fabrics, where I scored a couple of yards of light blue felt with embedded glitter and a half yard of white vinyl/pleather that wound up being perfect for the eye/nose/mouth holes and the racing stripes. A thin cotton shower curtain from Target would serve as the soft inside liner protecting my face from the scratchy felt. Little metal eyelets and a Carolina blue shoelace would allow the back to be laced up.
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On Monday night, we measured my head, cut out pieces of fabric, tested the pieces of fabric against my head, adjusted our design, attempted to figure out how to use this old sewing machine that Chip had been given by his Mom, and even cut out some vinyl/pleather versions of the "NC" logo. A couple nights later we paid a visit to the amazingly talented and very helpful Slade family, who not only got Chip's sewing machine working but also offered hours of good company and invaluable sewing assistance/advice. Since we already had the initial design specs down, we went ahead and cut parts for three different masks. When we finally called it a night at around 1:30 am, we had the first mask totally finished and the second one about 95% complete. The whole mask-making process took way longer than I thought it might, but I don't regret a minute of it.
Yes, these scary-looking guys really do hate Dook this much!
The limited edition UNC Mexican wrestling mask will be officially unveiled on national television tomorrow afternoon at 4pm. Of course the real show is the game itself, and once that gets going I doubt that I will be thinking too much about the uncomfortable felt contraption on my head. I'll just be peering through those teardrop eyeholes as Jawad Williams goes on his last-ever Dean Dome scoring spree and Jackie Manuel completely shuts down JJ "not a factor" Redick. And hopefully Melvin Scott will even knock down a bunch of 3's like he did a couple weeks ago at NC State.
¡Muerte a Dook!
Posted by Tim at 08:07 PM | Comments (10)
March 03, 2005
Uncle Woody Sullender
The last time I saw Chicago musician and former WXYC dj Woody Sullender back in Chapel Hill, his politically charged post-hardcore band Service Anxiety was rockin' the basement of the old Mallette Street house, with each of the band members wearing matching work-shirts. That was in April of 2002.
Almost three years later, Sullender is returning to his old stomping grounds once again, this time with a banjo on his knee. Uncle Woody Sullender (his current stage moniker) plays at Nightlight tonight along with Spacelab and Cantwell Gomez & Jordan. Chris Toenes wrote a great preview for this week's Independent, and if you want an audio preview, you can download a few excerpts of Uncle Woody's banjo improvisations here.
I like the moments of frenetic picking and strange contact-mic drones but I'm especially partial to the pastoral finger-picking beauty of "Papa, Help Me Across" (2.13 MB), a song that got played on WXYC a lot last fall when Sullender's Nothing is Certain But Death CD was first released. (Which reminds me...although this really doesn't mean anything at all, I would like to point out the odd similarity between the title of Sullender's CD and the "nothing in life is promised except death" line that another Chicago musician used at the start of his incredible Grammy acceptance speech a few weeks ago.)
Back to podcasting for a bit - by intentionally linking to one of Uncle Woody's mp3s in this post, I have just podcasted someone else's content to anyone who happens to be subscribed to my main podcast feed. I'm not really sure how ethical or proper that is, but I like the idea of aggregating already publicly available mp3s for automatic download - pushing them instead of waiting for a pull. In this particular case, I know Woody wouldn't mind since (a) I'm promoting his show and his album, and (b) my very small podcast isn't going to put any serious dent on his bandwidth usage. But I probably shouldn't make a habit of this, especially if I'm adding to someone's bandwidth usage while removing their context. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please let me know.
Posted by Tim at 01:27 PM | Comments (3)
March 01, 2005
The Beats Go On
After rambling on about copyright law and sampling last week, I realized that it had been almost exactly one year since I had put together a short audio track based around a copyright/sampling theme. In late 2003, the record label Illegal Art (a different entity from the online exhibit/website illegal-art.org) announced that they were accepting submissions for a compilation CD called Sonny Bono is Dead. The project was intended to be a protest against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act that had prevented all sorts of 1920s-copyrighted works from falling into the public domain as they were supposed to after being copyright-protected for 75 years. As such, Illegal Art was looking for submissions that sampled either "works that would have fallen into the Public Domain by the year 2004 had the Sonny Bono Act failed" or the actual artistic output of Sonny Bono and/or "other artists who embraced the notion of copyright lasting forever".
Nothing on the would've-been-Public-Domain list really grabbed my imagination so I decided to go for the Sonny Bono angle. I took Sonny & Cher's big 1967 hit "The Beat Goes On" and looped the chorus ad nauseum while accompanying it with a succession of several of my all-time favorite hip-hop breaks/drum samples (beats that I may or may not have ever heard had certain copyright owners been a lot more aggressive or protective way back when!).
Philo at Illegal Art seemed to like my track when I first submitted it. But several months later he told me that things with the comp were up in the air and that they weren't sure about releasing it. I haven't heard anything about the compilation in the last few months, so I'm assuming that it probably won't be coming out soon, if ever. So here's an MP3 of my submitted track for anyone who wants to hear it:
If any music geeks or hip-hop heads out there feel like playing a fun little game of "name that beat", just use the comment section to name whatever characteristics you feel like naming: artist, song, most popular uses of the break as a sample, etc. Or if not, I'll just come back in a week and list these six ultimate beats that really do go on...
On a related note, the U.S. Copyright Office is currently asking the public to comment about "orphan works" - copyrighted works where the owner cannot be found. In contrast to the Sonny Bono-enabled extensions of copyright, this actually seems like a great chance for copyright to be made more sensible and less cumbersome for potential users of copyrighted works. The comment period goes until March 25th. Check out eldred.cc for all sorts of additional information about this.
Update: Here's an easy comment-submission form provided by the EFF, PublicKnowledge, and freeculture.org.
Posted by Tim at 01:48 AM | Comments (4)