Tracks Of Do Or Die

Lately, when my boss is out of the office and we're able to sneak a CD or two into the player that isn't Barry Manilow or or some variation of a Twilight movie soundtrack, Arturo and I will toss in Ki-Oku , the 1996 collaboration by Japanese turntablist DJ Krush and jazz trumpeter Toshinori Konda and we guarantee a sell out. At first we had only one in stock, and we were playing it because Arturo was thinking about buying it himself, and four people came into the store immediately and asked what it was and wanted to take it off our hands. I special ordered two of them this week, and sold them both within the same hour. Almost simultaneously, because while one guy was being taken over to the DJ Krush section to buy one unopened copy, a woman was over at the CD player inspecting the CD case, actually disappointed that it wasn't a new Chris Botti CD.

There seems to be an older generation getting into ambient these days -- perhaps being exposed to watered-down world music from the Putayamo label while sipping lattes in Starbucks. But all of this just goes to show that sometimes we can sell an album if we get the right feel for our crowd, that doesn't have to be Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift, because those overexposed artists are already spending millions selling themselves. And it's not even that Ki-Oku is all that spectacular an album, either. It's a little too smooth-jazzy for my tastes, especially considering Kondo is known for working with the likes of John Zorn. Not bad I guess, but nothing I'd rush out and get myself personally.

But the thing is, we can sell this kind of thing, and if management could realize this they might just take a risk every once in awhile. If we could be trusted out of sight. Or out of listening range, more like.

When it comes to ambient music, meanwhile, sometimes I prefer the grandfather of it all, French Dadaist Erik Satie.

You're Giving The Bernie Kopell Family A Bad Name!

First 20 tracks on my iTunes this evening feeling like a real live wire.

1. "The Other Woman" - Loretta Lynn

2. "So Tough" - The Slits

3. "In Need Of A Miracle" - New Radicals

4. "Tiger Rag" - Art Tatum

5. "Screamin' Arthur Jafa" - Burnt Sugar

6. "When The Rain Begins To Fall" - Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora

7. "Creep (live @ Coachella 2008)" - Prince

8. "Primitive" - Killing Joke

9. "I Want Candy" - 8 Eyed Spy

10. "Ain't Got No Home" - Clarence "Frogman" Henry

11. "Somewhere Down The Crazy River" - Robbie Robertson

12. "Red Rubber Ball" - The Cyrkle

13. "Easy" - Faith No More

14. "Ten Seconds To Forever" - Hawkwind

15. "Acrobat's Daughter" - Carl Stalling

16. "ISI" - Neu!

17. "Sofa Rockers" - Sofa Rockers

18. "Five Feet Nine And A Half Inches Tall" - Nick Kent

19. "Realisation" - The Art Of Noise

20. "Dry Your Tears" - Mad At The World

Schedule

Mon 1: 9-3
Wed 3: 9-3
Thur 4: 8am-11am
Fri 5: 5-cl
Sat 6: 4-10
Mon 8: 9-3
Wed 10: 9-3
Thur 11: 9-11am
Fri 12: 5-cl
Sat 13: 3-10

Game Is My Middle Name

The Friday Five:

1) What's your favorite magazine?
Most of my favorites don't exist anymore, like Spy, which for awhile I bought religiously. But probably my most influential magazine was a briefly run zine in the early to mid 90's called Subliminal Tattoos, which was more of a glossy DIY zine that was actually sold in places in Barnes & Noble. Music, movies, comix, politics. Without it, I would have never learned of the likes of Keiji Haino and Django Reinhardt or started reading Strangers In Paradise.

2) What book are you currently reading?
Re-reading The Sun Also Rises, which I haven't picked up in ages. It was given to me by a very close old friend who told me that it was her favorite book of all time, and it makes me think of her more than imagining what Paris in the 1920's must have been like.

3) What's the worst book you ever read?
I would say that Klaus Kinski's legendarily controversial autobiography was probably one of the worst, although in a way its badness also makes it extraordinary. So if you can get through thin tome of somebody practically shouting on each page, "I DID A MOVIE! IT WAS A PIECE OF SHIT! THERE WAS AN ACTRESS IN IT. I FUCKED HER!" over and over then I have a little summer reading for you to do on the beach this year.

4) What makes a book perfect for you?
It holds my attention.

5) If you could buy any book right now, which one would it be?
Probably one that has not been written yet.

If I Were A Professional Wrestler This Would Totally Be My Character...

Repugnant Shit!

More noise outta KAOS Radio in Austin -- old friend Randy runs the Slander Bob Show on Sundays from 1am-3am CST, with all the racket, samples, nuttiness and KAOS you'd ever want to get your asses ready for church on time. It's beautiful, people. And so are YOU.

Observe And Report

Another online radio show you must check out: My babealicious bud Elizabeth does her righteous Morning Mimosa with Lizzie Boredom, with previous tributes to the late Les Paul and a recent program on the phenomenal Django Reinhardt, and featuring gorgeous mixes of The Mills Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and even a most current show on classic punk as well. She's the bee's knees, the cat's ass.... she's LIZZIE! Get up and dance, suckahs.

What My Friends Do When They're Bored

"Every so often, a phrase comes up, and everyone goes "That would be a great band name..."

Or, well, maybe you're just bored.

Here's the (very loose) rules. Modify them as you need to do whatever it is you want. It's incredibly fun:

Note - you don't need Photoshop. Even Paint will get the job done."

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 - Post it with this text in the "caption"

An archive of previous creations. I have sweet dreams about these kinds of things...

Barney Fife?

Tonight's Audio Junk is already up for download! Audio Junk is another Stoopid Kar Production live every Tuesday on randomradioonline.net and roundtableradio.net @ 8:45 pm EST. The World's Worst Mixing DJ -DJ JOE INC plays a variety of music-no format- just samples variety and more tonight. The Modern Mixtape. Replays on http://kaosradioaustin.org/ every Sat 3 am - 5 am-Texas Time Audio Junk til Def -

Partial playlist

1. “Swamp”- Mel Brown

2. “These are my Twisted Words”- Radiohead

3. “he knows, he knows”- Spock & McCoy from City on the Edge of Forever OST

4. “WTF Collective”- Jon Lajoie

5. “Shootouts”- Nas

6. “towel heads,etc.”- from Three Kings

7. “Jackin’ for Beats”- Ice Cube

8. Anaconda Malt ad from Black Dynamite

9. “Three Thousand”- These Puritans

10. “Something Global”- Fight Like Apes

11. Barry Goldwater comedy

12. “Sacramento is Dead” –Trash Talk

13. “Wat About Di Working Class”-Linton Kwesi Johnson

14. “Somebody to Shove”-Soul Asylum

15. “Willie Beamon rap” from ANY GIVEN SUNDAY

16. trailer for The Butterfly Effect

17. “Deal The Cards”-Whitemare

18. “Let it Whip”-Derrick Harriot

19. “Love Cry”-Four Tet

20. “Forever in my Life”-Prince

The Culprit

First 20 tracks on my iTunes this morning deciding that the best late birthday present I could give myself would be... HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICINE!

1. "Credit In The Straight World" - Young Marble Giants

2. "Crambodia (Plastic Little Pink Skull Remix)" - Pink Skull, Ghostface Killah, Spankrock, Amanda Blank, Plastic Little

3. "Until We Burn In The Sun (The Kids Just Want A Love Song)" - Bedouin Soundclash

4. "Arabesque Cookie" - Duke Ellington

5. "Someone's Gonna Die" - Blitz

6. "No More Hot Dogs" - Hasil Adkins

7. "Immersion" - Bria Valentine

8. "Manakin Moon" - Waxing Poetics

9. "The Amazing Bigfoot Diet" - Mojo Nixon

10. "Evans Ekyeke" - Killer Bees

11. "Thirteen" - Big Star

12. "Brazil" - Kate Bush

13. "One Day" - Fishbone

14. "RV" - Faith No More

15. "Since I Don't Have You" - The Skyliners

16. "Tanqueray" - Johnnie Johnson

17. "Love Removal Machine" - The Cult

18. "This Ain't The Summer Of Love" - Blue Oyster Cult

19. "The Spirit Of Radio" - Rush

20. "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain" - DJ Shadow

Where's Rock Band Rutles?

Rather cute commercial parody by animator Harry Partridge (yes, the son of Andy Partridge, lead singer/songwriter of XTC). Harry's website o' creativity can be accessed HERE.

How lame am I that I actually want RockBand Klaatu.

Always Crashing In The Same Car

My day off, yet I still feel compelled to go into work because I learned last night that the data entry work that was supposed to be done on the days that I have off were not being done, and then sent right back home because they are going to have me break up the work in increments on Sunday and Monday. Frustrated, head blazing with one of those all-day throbbers, I headed back home. Jesus, I always hoped that by age 41 my life would be better organized.

It's my birthday, so I bought myself a present. David Bowie's 1977 release Low, to replace my old vinyl copy. But mostly for Side B with all the great Brian Eno collaborations. It's certainly a Low kinda afternoon.

Probably going to my parents' house tonight for dinner, and maybe head out to Mermaids with some of the girls from work, depending on how my headache clears. Maybe I'll meditate a little until then. Okay, maybe a lot.

Schedule

Sun 21: 2-cl
Mon 22: 9-2
Wed 24: 9-11am
Thur 25: 12-7
Fri 26: 5-cl

Ahhhhhhh, Beep Beep!

The Friday Five:

1. What if your favorite piece of clothing and how does it make you feel?
Maybe not one pair in particular, but I love good quality, extra soft socks. My feet are sensitive, and I wear socks all the time, unless bathing or swimming. A good pair of fresh clean soft socks will make me go crosseyed with pleasure every time. I would love a pair of cashmere socks someday.

2. What was the most expensive article of clothing you ever bought?
Probably the suede fringed jacket I bought back in high school which I still have in my closet, but going through my "fat faze" at the moment I am unable to fit in it again. Sad to think that's the last real quality article of clothing I've bought in nth many years.

3. What is a current fashion trend you think look horrible?
I don't exactly keep up with trends, so I don't know what things are often called, specifically. But I hate those dresses I always see celebrity bimbos wear that looks kind of like a cross between Grecian mini thingys and maternity wear. Not so much that it's ugly but that everybody seemed to be wearing it to the point of cloning themselves over and over, with straight-ironed hair to match. It looked like folks were going out in their nightgowns while wobbling around like newborn foals in stiletto heels.

4. What decade do you think had the best clothes?
I love the 1920's. Women started experimenting with more tailored men's clothing. A lot of great gender-bending going on. And I'm a sucker for a man in a one-piece seersucker bathing suit and a straw boater hat.

5. If you friends/family could throw away a single piece of your clothing, which do you think it would be and why?

MY OLD SOCKS.

Bring Back The Word "Looptid"

It was inevitable that 2010 would start stirrin' up memories of twenty years ago this month, since I like to think of February 1990 as the start of The Very Beginning... when the life I would come to know now would open its doors for me, in a sense where I would finally start to meet and get to know people in my hometown who shared the same musical interests that I had, and how many of those people are still my friends today. Although I had been going to dance clubs as early as 19 years old due to Joe DJing at oldies bars around Hampton Roads, the week that I turned 21 in February of 1990 was the week where I could enter legally, even drink if I wanted to (though I never did, never being a drinker). But it was this hotel night club called Adam's that used to host an "alternative night" on Monday nights and I was eager to get in once I was old enough. And keep in mind that this was before Nirvana's Nevermind, before Nine Inch Nails was played on pop radio, where The Smiths were only heard on the soundtracks of John Hughes films. It was still fairly underground back then, and the people at Adam's that night where the people committed to that sound. And I was surrounded by kindred spirits. And it was the beginning of Everything That Came After.

But first, the weeks before my birthday were filled with Digital Underground.

A month or so before I turned 21 I was working as a dishwasher at the Court House Cafe in my home town, and the little boom-box in the loud, steamy kitchen area was always kept at the R&B station, where I was bombarded with the ear-bleeding late-80's sludge of Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison" and MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This". But when the "The Humpty Dance" came on over the scratchy airwaves the kitchen staff would shout "HEY MELISSA, GIT IN HERE YER FAVORITE SONG IS ON!" and I would tear through the dining hall and burst through the swinging kitchen doors, doing my little "humpty dance" at the sink while my arms were stinging from the great steaming tubs of bleach. The song reminded me of Parliament-Funkadelic in its old school style funk groove and cartoonish sense of humor -- the character of Humpty Hump was such an obvious throwback to Parliament's Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk (I used to have this very same poster hanging on my bedroom wall back then) -- and once I bought the Digital Underground album I played that thing as religiously as I used played The Motor Booty Affair back in college. Turning 21 was a marvelous transition at the time. Because as much as I wanted to go to Adam's and listen to punk, I was still that 18-year-old college girl, a slave to the funk.



Anyway, 20 years ago this week, this song was da BOMB. Here's Humpty Hump singing his theme song, the one that got me groovin' in the back kitchen at the Court House Cafe. And yes, that is Tupac Shakur on stage in the background. Digital Underground was his group before he went solo.

Move Over Wu-Tang Clan!

Jon La Joie is a funny bitch.

www.jonlajoie.com

Loyalty As Religion

Very cool and visually arresting music video for the song "Dog In The Burning Building" by Miles Kurosky, whose new album The Desert Of Shadow Effects will be released March 9th (Shout! Factory).

Worst. Theme Song. Ever.

Sometimes prayers do get answered.

A Greydon Clark double-feature DVD set is being released on April 27th featuring one film that I have never seen before, Hi-Riders, and best of all my favorite Clark masterpiece The Bad Bunch which up til now I've only had on VHS (for further information about my association with Greydon Clark check out my previous blog post here).

Should I have a party? To celebrate? Invite friends? Or the ones I still have after showing them The Bad Bunch the first time around? Who's left out there?

Christmas Came Early This Year

Download last night's Audio Junk today! Audio Junk is another Stoopid Kar Production live every Monday on randomradioonline.net and roundtableradio.net @ 8:45 pm EST. The World's Worst Mixing DJ -DJ JOE INC plays a variety of music-no format- just samples variety and more tonight. The Modern Mixtape. Replays on http://kaosradioaustin.org/ every Sat 3 am - 5 am-Texas Time.

Audio Junk: post VD throwdown partial playlist

1. “Tune From The Missing Channel”-Dream Warriors

2. “My Boot will find you in…”- Spartacus: Blood and Sand

3. “In The Meantime”-Helmet”

4. “Love Me Sexy”-Jackie Moon

5. “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”-Gil Scot-Heron

6. “When The Revolution Comes”-The Last Poets

7. “The National Anthem”- Guante and the Big Cats featuring Haley Bonar

8. “No You Girls”- Franz Ferdinand

9. “Baby I Wish I Was Your Baby”-Dudes-A-Plenty

10. trailer for Falling Down

11. “Dead Cities”-Exploited

12. AND MORE !

Blame Canada

You know, after the opening Olympic ceremonies I was certain my store would be flooded with old folks looking for Canadian country/torch singer k. d. lang's version of fellow Canuck poet Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" -- but strangely, no. Instead we're getting bombarded with requests for the Canadian Tenors. Did they play the opening ceremonies? I Tivo'd it and fast forwarded through about 90% of the spectacle, though stopped it at "Hallelujah" because I worship at the altar of k. d. lang. And of course, Leonard Cohen. So I did a google search on the Canadian Tenors and I see several hits on the group doing a cover of.... yep, "Hallelujah". It always comes back to "Hallelujah", doesn't it? And I still remember when "Suzanne" was Cohen's most covered song.

"Hallelujah" does tend to send people swamping the store anytime they first hear it. Bob Dylan, Bono, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright... and just recently Justin Timberlake performed it with protegee Matt Morris at the Hope For Haiti telethon that had customers pulling their hair to obtain (sorry folks, iTunes and Amazon only for now). But oddly, nobody's really all that interested in Leonard Cohen's original version. Maybe it's his trademark baritone/bass that turns them off. Maybe people feel that a song with such religious context should be sung with the lilting voice if an angel or something, instead of Leonard's world-weary smoky coffeehouse drawl. All I know is that I wished it gave Cohen more exposure for his talents. Still not likely.

Loser Leave Pungo

First 20 tracks on my iTunes this morning looking at the old drawings that I did as a little girl inside the blank flyleaf of my 1978 edition of Kipling's Just So Stories (check out my "Ethiopian" hunting the Leopard in the top right hand corner!).

1. "Always Something There To Remind Me" - Naked Eyes

2. "The Bride" - The Marble Index

3. "Breakaway" - Tracey Ullman

4. "June 16th" - The Minutemen

5. "I Go To Pieces" - The Cold

6. "The Letter" -The Nirvana Sitar & String Group

7. "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" - Paul Simon

8. "Treat Her Like A Lady" - Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose

9. "Move On Up" - Curtis Mayfield

10. "Boys" - The Shirelles

11. "Fuck You" - Dean & The Weenies

12. "36 Inches" - Nick Lowe

13. "Lambrettavespacoota" - The Pop Rivets

14. "Permenent Green" - Moby

15. "Pac Man Fever" - Buckner & Garcia

16. "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" - Utopia

17. "You Say You Lie" - The Ravonettes

18. "It's Too Late" - The Jim Carroll Band

19. "Dyke March 2001" - Le Tigre

20. "Spoonful" - Howlin' Wolf

Schedule

Sun 14: 3-cl
Mon 15: 9-2
Wed 17: 9-11am
Thur 18: 5-cl
Fri 19: 5-c
Sun 21: 2-cl
Mon 22: 9-2
Wed 24: 9-11am
Thur 25: 12-7
Fri 26: 5-cl

She's Wreckless

I've had this scary premonition that something, uh, might happen to me in the near future. Like a heart attack, perhaps.

I know that sounds alarmist, but I do have high blood pressure -- or at least I'm pretty sure I do, and so does my doctor but I haven't gone back to see her about getting on blood pressure medicine. And nearly once a day I get this quick, unnerving flutter in my chest that feels as if my tickers about to putter out, and I take a deep, slow breath, and it passes. And tonight at work it just felt a little.... painful. Not terribly so, but enough to be noticeable. I was extremely out of breath all night, and not even from running around like I usually do. Just standing there talking, I had to take several deep breaths in between nearly every sentence. Then again it could be the cough.

I suppose if something does happen I have nobody to blame but myself. Trying to lose weight isn't the same as losing, and I am surrounded my obstacles from all sides. I wish I could go somewhere for several months. Just get away from Joe and my family and friends and co-workers and everybody that puts temptation in my path. And of course they don't mean to. They're just living their lives. It's my life I have to fix. I just don't know if I have the strength I once had a few years ago. Or rather, I know I do, but I just can't access that strength like I once was able. I have to figure things out. Because my body can't warn me any more than it already has.

Our Town

Watching a thing on the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Islamic revolution on the news brought back memories of the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 through 1981. And not just how much it affected the country at the time, but my own home town even more so. One of the hostages, Cmdr. Donald A. Sharer, was from my little town, and his daughter Jennifer was on my cheerleading squad. She never talked about it, though. In fact I didn't even know her father was a hostage until my mother told me about it, about a week or two into the junior league football season that we were cheering for at the time. It was the 1980-81 fall season, and I was probably about eleven years old.

I seem to remember something that my mother told me at the time, that Sharer was considered one of the heroes of the hostage group for one instance when the rebels told the hostages to lie down on the ground because they were going to shoot them, and Sharer told them that if they were going to shoot him, they would shoot him standing up. Which prompted all the other hostages to get up off the floor and stand next to him. The rebels changed their minds about killing them after that. Am I wrong in remembering this? Keep in mind how young I was at the time. I'm still surprised I was able to remember at all.

But every tree in my town had a yellow ribbon around its trunk. Yellow ribbons on the buildings, on people's houses, on cars. I had never seen so much yellow. It was as if somebody rolled our town in yellow tissue paper. When the hostages were finally released, I seem to remember that Sharer was the only one who flew back home straight to the Norfolk airport, where I remember seeing Jennifer rush into his arms as it aired on the news, a mass of long blonde hair against his navy uniform. My town exploded in celebration.

I still see my little town the way it looked back then, draped in yellow, even time I go back to visit my parents. And I still remember the poster at my football game that January that said 'WELCOME HOME COMMANDER SHARER AND JENNIFER'S FATHER" as if it were yesterday. It's funny, what little blurbs on the news can prompt big remembrances of things past.

Alexander McQueen, 1969-2010

One of my all-time favorite artists in the textile medium. He rose to fame so fast, especially with such high-profile pop singers like Lady Gaga putting his designs on the pop culture map. He was so young. Years of potential left in the man. What a shame.

And although I've posted the video before, here again in tribute is Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video, featuring Alexander McQueen's famous lobster claw and HR Giger-inspired alien 10-inch heels as pictured above.

RIP Mr. McQueen.

Feels Like An Eddie Cantor Kind Of Morning!

Schedule

Fri 12: 5-cl
Sat 13: 12-6
Sun 14: 3-cl
Mon 15: 9-2
Wed 17: 9-11am
Thur 18: 5-cl
Fri 19: 5-cl

Let My Love Open The Door

Ready for the new Audio Junk? Audio Junk is another Stoopid Kar Production live every Tuesday on randomradioonline.net and roundtableradio.net @ 8:45 pm EST. The World's Worst Mixing DJ -DJ JOE INC plays a variety of music-no format- just samples variety and more tonight. The Modern Mixtape. Replays on http://kaosradioaustin.org/ every Sat 3 am - 5 am-Texas Time Audio Junk 2/8/10.

Partial playlist 1. “Distractions (Intro)” – Roy Hargrove 2. “Food Fight in the Parking Lot”- Dave Grohl/Ashton + 3. “it’s not mink-it’s dead people”- from the Big Combo 4. trailer for Malcolm X 5. “Delicado”- Russ Garcia and his Orchestra 6. “gun show in VA” from Punisher:War Zone 7. theme from LOST 8. “Cross My Heart”-Billy Stewart 9. chase scene from Corrupt a/k./a Cop Killer 10. “Hate is the Difference” – Richard Conte from the Big Combo 11. “Give me the Chance” – Donnie and Joe Emerson 12. trailer for Showgirls 13. “Black Boys on Mopeds”-Sinead O’Connor 14. “Meat, Meat, Meat” – Consolidated 15. “S.U.S.” – The Rutles 16. “Sac”-Ruins 17. “The Flag”-Rick James 18. “Release Yourself”-Roy Ayers 19. “Many Rivers To Cross”-Jimmy Cliff

No Hiding Place

Leave it to Kindertrauma to kick more ass! I had been looking for the name of the short sci-fi film that they used to show on HBO all the time back in the 1980's about a boy from Earth who moved to a planet of neverending rain fall, and it turns out to be a Ray Bradbury short story called All Summer In A Day. The link provides youtube clips of the short film itself. Damn, my teenage years have really been coming back to haunt me in the last few months. Or at least, more so than usual.

I'm feeling sick this morning. I've been on a crazy-lady refined sugar eating binge in the last 48 hours that's been impossible to conquer. Now I've been up since four in the morning wanting more sugar like a crackhead. And I don't keep sugar in the house, and I am fighting the urge to walk over to the 7-Eleven on the corner, or wait until 6am when the grocery store across the street opens. God help me, I have never known a hunger pain that didn't result in me wanting to heave over the nearest toilet. Joe told me once that hunger pains aren't supposed to feel that way. But I have always gotten nauseous during even the slightest twinge of hunger in my belly, though usually I drink a lot of water to stave it off for a spell. The Metformin I take really helps with hunger, but sometimes like it's been this week it's as if nothing works, no matter what I try or do. All this Robitussin on an empty stomach doesn't exactly do me any favors either.

Maybe there's still some leftover vegetarian pizza from last night's "Superbowl party" at work this morning.

Is He Saying "Food Fight In The Parking Lot"?

I laughed so hard watching this skit on Saturday Night Live last night, partially because I could really relate to loving early 1980's hardcore punk and then realizing that makes me as old as the people on stage performing it. Like the bald old grey-haired man in the Mick Fleetwood ponytail and tie-dyed shirt still holding up the "peace" fingers and grooving to the Grateful Dead, my musical generation has become that very thing. Not to mention the fact that both drummer Dave Grohl and Fred Armisen were in 80's punk bands themselves (Fred was the drummer in Trenchmouth, who I think might have stayed over my house once while on tour, but I can't remember).



I was also curious if the way this skit ended was also a tribute to the time when Fear played on Saturday Night Live back in 1981 and the band was abruptly cut off because the producers were panicking that a riot was breaking out in the audience, having never seen people moshing before (John Belushi was a big fan of Fear and pulled some strings to get them booked). Hulu sort of cuts the ending to the above clip off a little at the end, but it fades out similarly, while Armisen is still talking, kind of like Lee Ving and the now-infamous Fear incident.


via videosift.com

For those whippersnappers who don't remember the Fear incident, here's the whole thing as it aired, and the sudden cut to commercial.

By the way, the kid who grabs the microphone and yells "NEW YORK SUCKS!" was Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat and then later Embrace and Fugazi.

A backstage report on the Fear incident on SNL.

Vampire Weekend

First 20 tracks on my iTunes while already wishing for springtime.

1. "Burnin' For You" - Blue Oyster Cult

2. "My Little Man And I" - Gruppo SPortivo

3. "Eria Tarka" - The Mars Volta

4. "(Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Gonna Go" - Curtis Mayfield

5. "Theme From Route 66" - Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra

6. "Semolina" - The Residents

7. "Doin' It" - L.L. Cool J.

8. "Who Is It?" - Talking Heads

9. "The Ringing Hand" - Destroy All Nels Cline

10. "There Is The Bomb" - Don Cherry

11. "My Beautiful Bride" - The Handsome Family

12. "Roll On (featuring Jenny Lewis)" - Dntel

13. "Dress You Up" - Madonna

14. "Funkin' For Jamaica" - Tom Browne

15. "Bridge Of Sighs" - Robin Trower

16. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" - Radiohead

17. "Lover's Prayer" - Myrtle K. Hilo

18. "Elvis Is Dead" - Living Colour

19. "Hidden Shame" - Elvis Costello

20. "French Film Blurred" - Wire

That's Entertainment

A guy I work with suggested I get John Layman and Rob Guillory's Chew since the first several issues have just been released in trade paperback, and so far I'm being quite entertained. Quite entertained indeed. And maybe a little less hungry than usual.

Chew's protagonist is police detective Tony Chu, a poor guy plagued with being a cibopath, which means that he picks up psychic readings from everything he eats. The only exception being beets, which he eats almost exclusively in order to experience the peace of mind that comes from food that doesn't make him nauseous from experiencing too much of its back history. In a not too distant future where a purported bird flu scare made all poultry banned by the United States government, the FDA is now the most important and powerful law-enforcement branch in the country, and they want to hire Tony Chu to put his cibopathic talents to forensic good use.

A pretty good combination of belly laughs (Guillory's art hilarious and continuously fluid) and the occasional squick-factor (the above panel from the comic depicts a scene at the FDA offices where Tony is being talked into eating a rancid human finger found in a fast food hamburger to help determine the name and address of the finger's former owner). Becoming a potential cannibal for the FDA is naturally a horrifying prospect for any sane man. But Tony Chu is also portrayed as a very dedicated and thorough cop, and in a scene where Tony starts devouring the freshly dead corpse of a serial killer to get all of the names of the children that he had murdered, the man doesn't hesitate for an instant. Gratefully (or depending on your own personal threshold for gratuitous gore) we are spared the visual details. But not every scene does spare us, and I think that's an appropriate, even balance.

I just started reading this two days ago, but I am already having a blast. Definitely thinking of following this one regularly.

Here Comes The Rains Again

My death cough is coming back. Not quite full blast as of yet, but it's been building since last weekend and and I've been gulping down outrageous amounts of Robitussin DM to open up my lungs enough to get me through the day. Is it illegal to whine and blubber online about how much I'm willing to prostitute myself for a bottle of Tussionex right now? Like, if I advertise myself on Craigslist for outcalls and instead of "100 roses" can "roses" be Tussionex instead? And instead of sleeping with the guy can I just, um, hang out in his hotel room and watch the final season of Battlestar Galactica with him? Because I still haven't seen it yet. Although I'll probably end up passing out halfway through it because I just downed half a bottle of Tussionex.

Okay, despite how that sounds, I'm not a Tussionex addict. I only get one prescription a year, maybe two if I'm lucky, or maybe every other year depending on if my cough makes its dreaded appearance. My doctor gets mad at me for asking her for more when I run out, and I guess I should be thankful and grateful for having such an ethical physician at my employ. They say Tussionex is highly habit forming, although I can't imagine why because the stuff does nothing but make you want to sleep, and I don't know what all the fun there is in that. I rather hate taking it, to be honest. I am, however, highly addicted to not coughing, and if they can find some other substance that can work just as well that poses no danger I am more than completely on board with switching over. Or better yet, find out what the hell is wrong with me for a change. I've had this condition ever year since I went to visit my Aunt Ruby in Dallas, Texas back in 1982 and no pulmonary, allergy, or ears nose and throat specialist can tell me what causes me to break down into crippling, back-breaking coughs once a year every year since I was thirteen years old, and have it go on for months at a time until it has run its course. See doctors? Maybe my greed for Tussionex has less to do with me being a junkie and me just willing to go the distance to find some semblance of relief, since none of you yobbos will!

Okay, no more coffee for me today.

The Jack Tales

Brand new official website for one of my favorite actors,

Jack Stehlin!

Currently playing Police Captain Roy Till on the Showtime series Weeds, but will be appearing in the new film The Chicago 8 currently in post-production.

Keeping getting your face out there, Jack! It's just too purdy to be kept inside. ;)

Schedule

Sat 6: 4-10:30
Sun 7: 5-cl
Mon 8: 9-11am
Wed 10: 9-11am
Fri 12: 5-cl
Sat 13: 12-6

Fun And Games

Before they built the Ted Constant Convocation Center, there was this rickety old Tudor style establishment in its place. And it was where I lived almost every week about 15-20 years ago. Its final years. If you can stand the stench of stale beer and cigarette smoked walls, come inside and pull up an unbroken chair if you can find one.

Bill guards the door with his trusty pool cue 'o justice by his side. Years later it will be his roofing company that he owns out in Moyock that fixes the siding on my townhouse when the storm blew them off two years ago.

The typically darkly-lit back room with the video games, pool tables, and booths. Now that I think about it the whole damn place was darkly lit. Everything felt so low to the ground. Maybe it's just the camera angle. Chris sits in the booth while owner George's belly invades the lens.

One of the many times local band The Candysnatchers drew out the crowds. My palie Big Kev is second from left. I recognize the glasses and beard anywhere. Band member Willy picks his nose and looks on.

A stimulating evening of conversation, cigarettes and chess under the warming glow of a Supersuckers poster. Was this the grunge era or what? David rears his mighty claw for the camera.

There was usually a line at this Street Fighter game at all times, usually folks playing doubles for hours with extras quarters lined up along the bottom screen. I remember one angry guy flying across the room from the left hand side of the photo and karate kicking another guy playing Street Fighter, sending him flying as well. It looked exactly like the game.

I think that's the late Matt Odietus, guitarist for the Candysnatchers, playing Street Fighter on the left in the blue shirt and long curls hair, as I live and breathe. I was always much more of an Arch Rivals fan myself. My friend Randy (second from right) is chatting with another who is no longer with us, Chris Korbet.

A couple of girls from Richmond who came down with the band King Sour, holding down the bar in front of the stage area.

The Candysnatchers take the stage again. Practically the house band at this point, since most local venues had banned them for their notorious antics. Also often banned from people's homes and house parties for the same reason.

And last but not least, beloved soundman Bob, always sitting quietly at his board (bored?).

Thanks to Chris for use of the pics!

Spoiler Alert

Get your Audio Junk groove thing on NOW! Audio Junk is another Stoopid Kar Production live every Tuesday on randomradioonline.net and roundtableradio.net @ 8:45 pm EST. The World's Worst Mixing DJ -DJ JOE INC plays a variety of music-no format- just samples variety and more tonight. The Modern Mixtape. Replays on http://kaosradioaustin.org/ every Sat 3 am - 5 am-Texas Time Clips from Corrupt/Frost/Nixon/Jacob's Ladder/Up and more- songs by Beatles and Stones and Buzzov-en and more

Thanks For Listening

I always get a big kick out of reading these at the end of every year. Ah hate, you just keep reeling me back in!

Speaking of hate, can the Grammys possibly out-suck themselves next year? I know I say that every year, as if I'm expecting something different than the last year. And I know my sentiment is hardly revolutionary, like someone taking a hard and radical stance against rape or, or drowning puppies or something. But obviously the formula works if they are just going to keep circling the suck-drain until the cycle comes full circle into something "new". And new as in what was hot twenty years ago. Which I suppose I protested that time as well. Have I become as cliche as the Grammys themselves?

The funny thing is that I keep expecting something revitalizing just around the corner. Or revolutionary in terms of mainstream music consumers who are currently blown away by the edgy likes of Lady Gaga. Not that I am so hard-lined that I am strictly opposed to Lady Gaga, per se. As a friend of mine described, her music wouldn't be all that interesting if we weren't watching her performing it at the same time in her David Cronenberg-goes-to-Vegas body horror fashions and demonstrations. It's what a generation raised on an MTV that no longer exists does to get noticed in the music industry these days. Of course, then you have Susan Boyle, who seems to be an almost negation of that. Initially laughed at before she first opened her mouth, she suddenly sold an outstanding number of albums without having to strut in pair of Alexander McQueen's 10-inch heels. Then again maybe Stephen Colbert was on to something when he questioned why Boyle wasn't at the Grammys with all the other glammies this year.

That's why I think something's coming up to switch things around a bit in the near future. Bands like Poison and Motley Crue were riding high in the late 80's and early 90's until the grunge scene surfaced, although rappity-rock groups like Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were already drawing kids' attentions away from the hair-metal direction. Punk is stale now. Gangster rap is so ten years ago. It has to be something else. Yet somehow, no matter how new it might seem to the masses, it's still just a rearrangement of the same four chords. Sometimes I really and truly wish that rock 'n roll would just hurry up and die already.

Man, I'm cynical. See what being cooped up in a snow storm does to the genteel southern mind? Where's my fucking mint julep. *reaches for Robitussin*