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October 31, 2005
Haunted House of Rock
If you're planning on venturing anywhere near the Halloween madness that will be engulfing Franklin Street in less than 24 hours, come by the 157 E. Rosemary Street complex for both the annual costume-ball craziness at Hell and the Halloween Pirate Party (arrr!) goin' on one floor up at Wetlands Dancehall. No sea chanties in the dancehall, but attendees will get their five bucks worth and more if they're present for the North Carolina debut of Black Sabbath cover band Hand of Doom. Before and after the Sabbath, I'll be spinning all sorts of freaky tunes, monster jams, and horror-themed hits. It's gonna be wicked!!!
UPDATE: This Wetlands party is starting earlier than I originally thought, doors will probably be open around dusk (7pm-ish?) and Hand of Doom will probably go on shortly after 10pm....
Posted by Tim at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2005
Thee More Shallows
My friends in Thee More Shallows will be haunting the Duke Coffeehouse stage tonight along with fellow Bay Area rockers The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up. Former Tractor Hips drummer Brian "Chavo" Fraser is playing with the Shallows these days, so the show will be a North Carolina homecoming of sorts.
Here's a deep cut from Thee More Shallows' newest album More Deep Cuts (which came out a few months ago on Turn Records):
Thee More Shallows - 2 am (4.45 MB)
Check it out....and come out to this cheap BYOB show tonight if you dig it!
Posted by Tim at 11:31 AM | Comments (2)
October 28, 2005
Trappy Halloween
Forget a bunch of snowman t-shirts, last night I went to a pumpkin-carving party and carved a cross-looking "snow-pumpkin" using the biggest pumpkin that I could find. Party host Ricky D astutely pointed out that "dude's head is gourdlike enough as it is". Daaaammmmmnnnnn!
Yeeaaaaahhhhhhh!
UPDATE: Holy ghosts, my snow-pumpkin actually has a similarly inclined sibling!! For the record, I wasn't biting, I'd been planning to carve my Jeezy pumpkin since last weekend. Props to Daniel Ralston for getting his "Frowning Snowman" some primo publicity, though. I think mine might look a little more sinister, however...which means it can probably push more weight. Yeeeaahhhhhhhh....
Posted by Tim at 06:44 PM | Comments (1)
October 27, 2005
Now You See Me, Now You Don't
For several hours last night the Cradle was mostly "now you don't" and not so much "now you see me"....but Ghostface finally joined Cappadonna, Trife, and the rest of Theodore Unit onstage at around 1:15 or so. What followed was worth the wait - a set that featured at least as many Supreme Clientele joints as the Ghost/Raekwon gig that I caught in August 2001 at San Francisco's Maritime Hall. We were dealin' with Supreme Clientele, alright..."Ghost Deini", "Nutmeg", "Apollo Kids", "Child's Play", "Cherchez La Ghost" (during an amusing, uh, 'audience-participation' period), "Mighty Healthy", and "One" (a 2:15am closer). If only they'd thrown in "We Made It" or "The Grain"....
Ghostface did some of his newer material, too - "Biscuits", "Holla", and "Run" from last year's Pretty Toney Album, the Queen-quoting "Smith Brothers" from that Theodore Unit album, and "Be Easy", the dope new Pete Rock-produced single from the forthcoming album Fish Scale.
Most memorable "in-between-song" moments:
- Ghost's entertaining tirade about hip-hop getting way too commercial
- A fairly long moment of silence for ODB and the recently-passed Rosa Parks
Hot setlist surprises from back in the 90s:
- "Criminology" to start off the set, followed shortly thereafter by "Ice Cream"
- "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" to break that moment of silence for ODB
- "Triumph" (Forever does seem like a mighty long time...ago)
- "Fish" (perhaps the only Ironman song of the night? That is, if you don't count Cappadonna warming up the crowd with his incredible verse from "Winter Warz"...)
Anyway, that's a quick summary for all my people (where the #*$! you at?) who couldn't make it and/or had to leave early. Maybe Ghostface will come back to NC after Fish Scale comes out. Until then, be easy...
Posted by Tim at 11:55 PM | Comments (2)
October 08, 2005
Tonight at Fuse
Tonight at Fuse I'll be spinning some older 80s/90s hip-hop along with Bo Fader and maybe another DJ to be named later. This is part of a fairly new "Second Saturday Old Skool" monthly that Uzi and Ben have set up. There's no cover charge or membership policy or anything, so come on out if you've got a soft spot for all sorts of pre-1997 hip-hop.
Which reminds me....in the Little Brother article in yesterday's News & Observer, 9th Wonder talked about the need for an "adult-contemporary hip-hop radio" station that would play stuff like Slick Rick and Biz Markie, targeted at those of us in the 28-to-36-years-old demographic. I don't really like the idea that I am already part of a "classic oldies" demographic that supposedly doesn't listen to anything new, but the whole idea makes a lot of sense, really. Actually, I bet that there are already a couple of XM or Sirius channels that do just this sort of thing. Like The Rhyme on XM. Anyone spent any time listening to that channel? Does it have some hot mix shows? Maybe it'll be one of the XM channels thrown in with DirecTV next month.
Posted by Tim at 02:10 PM | Comments (2)
October 06, 2005
He Fills His Head With Culture
How does a smart and self-aware music journalist preview the reunion tour of a seminal and much-lauded art-punk band without feeling like he's simply throwing more of the same ol' crit-speak out into the ether? In his Gang of Four preview in the new Independent, Chris Toenes tackles this task by going a little meta and asking around locally. A couple of my personal Gang of Four anecdotes wound up getting printed alongside some excellent rhythm-section talk from the one and only Dave Cantwell.
Unlike Cantwell, I was never very good at drumming in a Hugo Burnham style. Joby's Opinion spent at least one or two practices trying to work out a cover of "Natural's Not In It", since (a) it is an awesome song and (b) we figured we could have a good laugh by playing it immediately after our "Ether"-quoting "Chinese Jet Pilot". On a few occasions we even joked about taking the whole thing to the next level and forming a Gang of Four cover band called "Entertainment!". But I quickly realized that I didn't have the drumming chops necessary to play all of those incredible syncopated beats and rhythms - such a critical part of the Gang of Four sound.
At any rate, Entertainment!
Hey Ya! With Damaged Goods Drums
Incidentally, while mixing these drums in I realized for the first time that "Hey Ya!" has a really weird time signature. I think it's 11/4, maybe? The main phrase is 22 or 11 beats long, depending on how you count it.
Back to Gang of Four....it looks like the Cradle show is finally sold out as of tonight. I've got one extra ticket that I need to get rid of, so holler at me if you don't have a ticket but want one...
Posted by Tim at 01:14 AM | Comments (0)