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Fuzz (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, February 13, 2021) [rescheduled date–rescheduled again]

Posted in Coronavirus, Fuzz, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Ty Segall, Underground Arts on February 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: February 13, 2021] Fuzz [rescheduled from June 27, 2020; moved to April 11, 2022]

indexPostponing shows for a second or third time is certainly depressing.  But it’s also a sign of hope.  The belief that there will be live music again.  Even if it’s a year away. This show has been moved to April 11 of next year and I just bought a ticket to make sure the venue knows I’m coming.

Ty Segall is one of the more prolific musicians out there.  He has released 12 official albums in ten years and that doesn’t include the countless self-released material he has put out.  He is also in a bunch of other bands.  Fuzz is one of them.

I can’t believe that there wasn’t a band named Fuzz before Ty Segall and Charles Moothart came up with the band.

Segall makes all kinds of music, but the music of Fuzz is pretty easy to categorize–fuzzy, heavy, fast rock with a debt to early Black Sabbath.  Segall is on drums for this project.

They have only released two albums since 2013, with Fuzz II coming out five years ago.  But it was a big album with a 13 minute jam at the end.

I’ve often thought about seeing Ty Segall–he seems like a bonkers performer–but it never worked out.  He can’t be quite as crazy behind the drums, but this sounds like a great show.

 

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KT Tunstall / New Reveille (SOPAC, South Orange, NJ, February 12, 2021) [rescheduled date POSTPONED again]

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Coronavirus, KT Tunstall, New Reveille, Postponed, Quarantine, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, SOPAC, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on February 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: February 12, 2021] KT Tunstall / New Reveille [rescheduled from March 27, 2020; moved to December 10, 2021]

index

The SOPAC site says that new dates will be announced for this show.  It’s nice to read postponed rather than cancelled.

When it was announced that KT Tunstall was going to play SOPAC, my first thought was probably, huh, she’s still around?

Then over the last few months I’ve been seeing more and more about her.  I also feel like her name keeps cropping up in local venues.

After listening to a live show of hers on WXPN, I realized that she’s really good (and released songs I didn’t realize were hers).  I had no intention of going to this show but with all of her shows rescheduled and the new one being moved to next year, this might be a nice show to go to.

New Reveille is an Americana/bluegrass band from North Carolina.  They’ve got banjo, fiddle and a ton of attitude.  While they are definitely in the country vein, I think the bluegrass and the rockingness (they cover The Killers live) makes them a potentially fun live band.  For the three shows in the area, she has three different opening acts.  This one might be the most fun.

sopac

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Rachel Kushner–“The Hard Crowd: Coming of age on the streets of San Francisco” (New Yorker, January 18, 2021)

Posted in Autobiographies, Bob Dylan, Bullitt, Cro-Mags, Death, Drugs, Free Beer, Gorilla Biscuits, Jimmy Carter, New Yorker, Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, Prison, Punks, Rachel Kushner, San Francisco, CA, Touch Me Hooker, UK Subs on February 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: U.K. SUBS-Another Kind of Blues (1978).

In this essay, Rebecca Kushner mentions a bunch of punk band members that she either knew or hung out with.  I was amazed at how many of them I’d heard of but didn’t really know.  So this seemed like a good opportunity to go punk surfing.

U.K. Subs are a punk band that I’ve heard of but really knew nothing about.  A little research tells me that they have been active all of these years–their latest release was in 2019.  That’s some serious staying power.  According to Wikipedia, there have been about 75 members of the band over the years.

This first album is a pretty fascinating listen.  Most of the seventeen songs are under two minutes long, but they’re not blisteringly fast or anything.  The songs are more or less blues based (as the title indicates) but faster and grittier

This is definitely a punk album.  But they follow a lot of rock song conventions.  Indeed, “I Live in a Car” is a minute and a half long but it’s got verses a chorus and two guitar solos.  “I Couldn’t Be You” even has a harmonica solo.

But songs like “Tomorrow’s Girls” offer good old punk chanting choruses.  And “World War” which is all of a minute and twenty three seconds is actually over 20 seconds of explosion.

“Stranglehold” was a pretty big hit in England and it’s easy to see why.  It’s got an immediate riff, a three chord chorus that’s easy to sing along with and a bouncy bass line.  And it’s all of one minute and fifty-seven seconds.

Checking some of their other releases through the years, UK Subs definitely went through a metal phase in the 80s and 90s, but their 2016 album Zeizo has found the punk spirit again.  I think I like Zeizo better than their first.

[READ: February 2, 2021] “The Hard Crowd”

I’ve read a few things by Rachel Kushner, although I’ve never given any thought to her biography.  I never would have guessed that Kushner was part of a San Francisco pub scene when she was growing up (or that she is essentially my age).

This essay is about that time in her life.  When Jimmy Carter was president and he quoted Bob Dylan in his acceptance speech “He not busy being born is busy dying.”

She says that being born is an existential category of gaining experience and living intensely in the present.  Conversely, dying doesn’t have to be negative–the new stuff is over but you turn reflective you examine and tally–it is behind you but it continues to exists somewhere.

She says she’s been watching film footage found on Youtube shot in 1966 or 1967 from a car moving slowly along Market Street in San Francisco, where she grew up.  She assumes it is B roll from a film, because it is professional grade (she imagines it was for Steve McQueen’s Bullitt, but that’s not based on anything).

She worked at the Baskin Robbins making $2.85 an ahour.   The shop is now gone and she thinks it’s weird to be sentimental about a chain store, but when her mother took her to the IHOP years after she worked there, it all came flooding back–sights, smells.  Despite every one being identical, this one was hers. (more…)

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The Fratellis (TLA, Philadelphia, PA, January 30, 2021) [rescheduled date CANCELLED]

Posted in Cancelled, Coronavirus, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, The Fratellis, Theatre of Living Arts on January 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED CANCELLED: January 30, 2021] The Fratellis [rescheduled from June 20, 2020]

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Unsurprisingly, this show was cancelled as well.  The lastest news is that shows might resume in the fall.  I have a  lot of shows scheduled for the summer, so they better move that forward.

I really liked The Fratellis debut album Costello Music.  There was nothing super original about it, it was just bratty guitar rock from a UK band.  They are actually Scottish, which makes them slightly more interesting, right?

Their songs were fast and rocking and often had something interesting in them–unexpected speed up or lyrical twists.

I had more or less forgotten about them. I just read that they “broke up” for a short while and then reunited and have released two albums since then.  I hadn’t heard any of those two.

I might have considered going to see them and now that the show has been moved to January, maybe I’d be free to check them out.

 

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V.S. Naipaul–“Bohemia” (New Yorker, October 22, 2001)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Franz Kafka, Josef K, Joy Division, London England, New Yorker, Newspapers, Sex, Short Story, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, Universities, V.S. Naipaul on January 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JOSEF K-“Sorry for Laughing” (1985).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

Josef K were a Scottish band named after the main character in Franz Kafka’s The Trial.  I had never heard of them, but they are apparently hugely influential (despite releasing only one record).

Josef K are quite unlike anyone else on the mix tape thus far.  They are far darker (in a Joy Division sort of way).  I mean look what they based their name on.  And there are drums. But they are also very un-rock–playing sharp angular guitars and lead bass lines.

“Sorry for Laughing” opens with a  snapping drum and a rumbling, almost out of control bass line.  The guitars are quieter, playing sharp chords. It’s catchy in a dark sort of way.  The weirdest part comes at the end of the bridge when the bass seems to play a tiny riff that doesn’t quite work–it’s almost an anti-hook and it happens twice.

The middle of the song has a kind of bass solo while the vocals make a chk chk sound. This must have been an incredibly unique song at the time.  And you can definitely hear how a lot of bands were influenced by them.

[READ: January 20, 2021] “Bohemia”

This story, set in the 1950s, is about Willie, a young Indian man traveling to London for the first time.

He is going to London for school–an un-famous school it turns out–modeled after Oxford and Cambridge.

Willie didn’t know much about London–Buckingham Palace and Speaker’s Corner were the extent of it.  He was disappointed by both when he saw them.  He felt the Maharaja’s palace was far superior, and the people in Speakers Corner were mostly irritating.

His father had given him the names of people to get in touch with.  Willie didn’t want to do that–he wanted to succeed on his own.  But he found things very tough going.  So he looked up one of the men–a newspaper reporter.  The man was very proud of his work and very proud of his paper  But Willie knew nothing of the paper or even enough of London to know what the paper wrote about.  It was not an auspicious meeting. (more…)

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Monster Magnet / Silvertomb / Nebula / Heavy Temple (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, January 24, 2021) [rescheduled date CANCELLED]

Posted in Agnostic Front, Cancelled, Fu Manchu, Heavy Temple, Monster Magnet, Nebula, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Silvertomb, Type O Negative, Underground Arts on January 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: JANUARY 24, 2021] Monster Magnet / Silvertomb / Nebula / Heavy Temple [rescheduled from March 22, 2020]

indexOn September 17, Monster Magnet was the first band on my concert schedule to realize that our government couldn’t do anything and there’s no way a concert tour could happen in January.

“Unfortunately, due to ongoing covid concerns and continued restrictions we are canceling our January/February 2021 USA tour. Holding your money and moving the tour for a second time hoping to be open where we move it to does not seem logical or fair at this point. We would prefer you all had the money back in your pockets and we hope to rebook this at a more appropriate time for all. Please get refunds at point of purchase.”

It is clearly going to a full year without live music.  A vaccine can’t get here soon enough.

~~~~~ (more…)

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Dave Eggers–“A Philadelphia Local is Unamused by the Fuss” (New Yorker, November 16, 2020)

Posted in Coronavirus, Dave Eggers, donald tRUMP, Essays, Hayley Williams, History, Joe Biden, Liars, New Yorker, Paramore, Philadelphia, PA, Politicians, Quarantine, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on January 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: HAYLEY WILLIAMS-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #124 (December 9, 2020).

I basically missed Paramore entirely.  I’ve heard a few songs not realizing it was them and really liked them.  I listened to a bit more recently and really like the pop punk energy.

So this Tiny Desk (Home) Concert came as a real surprise. The music is stripped down and really spare.  There’s a real dancey element (funky bass and drums) and the guitars are really quiet.

The second big surprise came when Hayley introduced her band.  Becca Mancari on keys and backing vocals!  And Julien Baker on guitar!

This change in musicians and sound is intentional.

Petals for Armor is a soul-cleansing exhale from years of holding her breath. Originally released in a series of EPs, her solo debut sings through heartache in a tangle of triumph and hard-earned wisdom. It’s a pop album that knows sadness can simmer, but also shout over an ever-shifting sonic palette.

She plays three songs in ten minutes.

During the pandemic and protests, Williams has played these songs from her couch with muted restraint, and self-serenaded with acoustic covers — sad songs really can be sympathetic companions during dark days. But in her home, surrounded by blank canvases, Williams and friends splash a bottled-up energy.

The joy is infectious, as “Pure Love” bursts from first bloom

Aaron Steele counts off on the drums, while Williams gives a Huh! and Joey Howard introduces a funky bass line.  Her voice is powerful and soars throughout.

I’m disconcerted by the high fiving after the song–I hope they’ve been safe.

“Taken” shows off Baker’s jazzy-funk licks.

It opens with an outstanding bass from Joey Howard line that repeats throughout.  The song feels quintessentially dancey and a very different sound from Paramore.  Baker plays quietly wah-wah’d guitar as Mancari sings the backing bah bah bahs.  Williams plays a keyboard on a very tiny stand (I feel for her back).  The best moment comes with the five seconds of silence while Williams looks around and then jumps back into the danciness.

For the final song, Williams leans into the “Dead Horse” kiss-off with gleeful abandon.

The foundation of this song is the funky drum and bass once more. Williams picks up the guitar, but it’s Baker who plays the slightly askew riff that opens the song.  Baker plays lead licks throughout while Williams adds grace notes.  The best of which comes at 10:08 when both Williams and Baker plays a single note in harmony to make it really stand out.

And that kiss off?

When I say goodbye, I hope you cry.

[READ: January 5, 2021] “A Philadelphia Local is Unamused by the Fuss”

Today seemed like an ideal day to post about this election-related essay from Dave Eggers.

Today, a bunch if seditious Senators are going to pretend like our election was unfair.  They are going to make a spectacle of themselves and question the integrity of our very democracy.  They should be removed from office immediately.

This essay shows, in a small aside, how this phony scandal, this manufactured outrage, was created by the trump team long before the election happened.

On November 5th, while the election results were being tabulated, Eggers was in Philadelphia talking with Anna Palagruto.

Palagruto is the quintessential Philadelphian:

Palagruto has an accent so acute–“gonna” was “go-won-a” and an attitude so Philly-specific, that, if the city ever wanted a no B-S tourism spokesperson, no one but her would suffice. Come to Philly, she’d say. Or don’t.  No one cares.

Palagruto is fed up with the protesters on both sides. (more…)

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Dave Eggers–“Delaware Voters Await Joe Biden: ‘We Just Need Him'” (New Yorker, November 9, 2020)

Posted in Coronavirus, Dave Eggers, donald tRUMP, Essays, History, Joe Biden, Liars, Mitch mcconnell, New Yorker, Politicians, Quarantine, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Wilmington, DE on January 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ASHLEY RAY-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #125 (December 11, 2020).

Ashley Ray is a singer from Kansas.

Her voice is raw and harshly accented–purely from Kansas.  But her voice goes beyond country into what sounds like ancient folk music.

In this Tiny Desk (home) concert, Ray is

sitting on a screened-in porch with producer, songwriter and longtime friend Sean McConnell (and a distant chorus of crickets chirping in the early evening light).

I don’t know what her music normally sounds like, although this blurb says the songs 

all from Ashley Ray’s latest album, Pauline feel like a breakout release for this Kansas native, but she’s been putting in the hard work for close to 20 years now, spending much of her time waiting tables while writing songs for better-known artists.

All three songs feature Ray singing.  She plays guitar on the first one.  She is accompanied by McConnell.  He plays guitar as well, but it’s when he adds his harmony vocals that the songs really flesh out.  The second song, “Dirty work” almost feels like an X song (or many a Knitters song) with Exene singing lead and John Doe adding the harmonies (and playing the only guitar).

It’s interesting that Ray’s speaking voice is almost unaccented, when a song like “Pauline” is so clearly Southern.

“Just A House” feels more country than the other two–the melody of the chorus, I’m sure.  But I like the understatedness of it.

I do not like country music (duh), bit I really enjoyed this.  It was devoid of production and twang and felt real.

[READ: January 5, 2021] “Delaware Voters Await Joe Biden: ‘We Just Need Him'”

Today Georgia voters get to decide if Joe Biden will be roadblocked by The Worst Man in America, Mitch McConnell (he may have actually done more damage than trump).  

They get to decide if two trump supporters, who have already proven that their role in government is exclusively to get rich and screw the rest of us, should be thrown to the curb (preferably from a moving car).  

This election shouldn’t be happening.  These two horrible people should in no way be close to winning an election for anything.  And yet here we are. (more…)

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Cirque Dreams: Holidaze (State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, December 29, 2020) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Acrobats, Cirque Dreams, Coronavirus, New Brunswick, NJ, Postponed, Quarantine, State Theatre on December 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: December 29, 2020] Cirque Dreams: Holidaze

indexI love going to see Cirques–all kinds of fun acrobatics and stunts on display.  When my kids were younger, we went to a lot of them.  Then we stopped for a while and I felt it was time to do it again.

This seemed like a perfect show to start up again.  It’s family friendly, it’s holiday themed, it seemed to be safely out of virus risk being taking place in December.  Surely the last few days of the year would allow some public entertainment….

Well, I hope Cirque Dreams comes back, if not for Holidaze, then maybe one of their other shows.

Cirque Dreams Holidaze lights up the 2020 season with the must-see holiday show The New York Daily News proclaims a “delicious confection of charm, sparkle, and talent by the sleighload and so full of energy it could end our dependence on oil.” Created by Cirque Dreams founder and Broadway director Neil Goldberg, Cirque Dreams Holidaze is a new cirque adventure, Broadway musical, and family holiday spectacular wrapped in one! This incomparable phenomenon features over 300 imaginative costumes, 20 world-class astonishing acts, the finest singers, original music, and seasonal favorites celebrating the most wonderful time of year from Thanksgiving to Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year’s. Audiences of all ages will marvel at soaring acrobatics, gravity-defying feats, and extravagant theatrical production numbers the Boston Globe hails as “Entrancing…Las Vegas meets family entertainment.”

holidaz

 

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Ann Lane–By the Way 2: A Selection of Public Art In Ireland (2019)

Posted in Alan Beattie Herriot, Alan Cargo, Alan Hall, Alex Pentek, Amanda Barton, Angela Conner, Art, Artists, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Boxing, Brian Swan, C.S. Lewis, Coronavirus, D.V. Murugan, Death, Debbie Tierney, Desmond Fitzgerald, Don Bryant, Dublin, Ireland, Eleanor Wheeler, Handball, History, Hurling, Ireland, Irish Writer, Jeanne Rynhart, Jerry McKena, Jim Connolly, Joe McNamara, John Coll, John Hogan, John Kelly, Kevin Casey, Kieran Behan, Malcolm Robertson, Mark Garry, Mark Richards, Mark Rodec, Mary Leen, Maurice Harron, Michele Obama, Micky Monagahan, Niall Bruton, Olympics, Orla de Brí, Patrick Campbell, Patrick O'Reilly, Patty Preston, Photo Essays, Poets, Quarantine, Ralf Sander, Róisin de Buitléar, Redmond Herrity, Richie Healy, Ronan Halpin, Rowan Gillespie, Ruairí Carrol, Rugby, Séighean Ó Draoi, Seamus Connolly, Sean Hillen, Seán McCarthy, Soccer, Sports, T. Baskaran, The Irish Times, Therese Tierney, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Vikings, Violence, War, Willie Malone on December 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DON BRYANT: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #116 (November 24, 2020).

I was not familiar with Don Bryant, although I must have heard his music over the years.

Bryant, almost 80, has been in the music business since the early days of rock and roll; he wrote his first hit, the Five Royales’ “I Got to Know,” in 1960. He went on to his biggest success as a songwriter for Hi Records in Memphis …. For a number of years he only recorded gospel music, until 2017 when he began releasing soul records again, backed by members of the Bo-Keys.

Although

Classic soul music feels best in a club, with a lead singer and big band, preferably with horns, playing off the excitement of a sweaty crowd, drawing them in to stories of love, or love lost, or love reclaimed. It’s a hard feeling to find in our pandemic times.

Bryant manages to play some gorgeous old-school soul with just a guitarist (Scott Bomar) and a keyboardist (Archie “Hubbie” Turner).  And his voice, of course.

Wearing an elegant black and grey jacket matching his salt-and-pepper hair, Bryant evokes style and experience – someone who has been in it for the long haul.

This set is three songs from his latest record, You Make Me Feel, all written by him. 

His voice is powerful and resonant, deeply rooted in gospel. The keyboard sound is a classic soul sound and the guitar provides a mixture of rocking riffs and mellow accompaniment.

In “Your Love is to Blame” he even gives some good James Brown yelps.

Between songs he sounds like a preacher:  I’m going to give these songs to you as strong as I can.

“Is It Over” is slower and more mellow.  His voice sounds great, hitting high notes and unlike contemporary singers, his grace notes sound great–strong and not whiny.

“Your Love is Too Late” is a classic soul kiss-off track: “I found somebody new to do the things I wanted you to do.”  It opens with an old fashioned guitar riff and moves on from there with grooving guitars and fleshed out keyboards.

I don’t listen to much soul, but I do rather like it.

[READ: December 26, 2020] By the Way 2

This is Ann Lane’s second book about public art in Ireland.  She compiled the first in 2010.  I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know what is in it.

She says that in the ten or so years since the first book, more art has been added and she had been made aware of all of the art that she had missed.

But the fact that there are over 1,000 images in this book, that this is her second book and that in the introduction she says that she pretty much ignores the big cities (due to size constraints of the book) makes me think that Ireland is absolutely amazing with the amount of public art that the country has.  Ireland is about the same size as Indiana, and I would bet a ton of money that Indiana does not have 2,000 (some absolutely gorgeous) piece of public art to look at.

This book is broken down by county.  Lane includes many pieces of art from each county and provides some context for the piece, whether it is the impetus for the creation, some comment about its construction or even an occasional personal reflection.

It isn’t easy to photograph pubic art.  Some pieces absolutely fail when taken out of context or when trying to encompass an entire piece of art with a tiny photo.  Sometimes you cannot do justice to a piece because it must be seen from different angles to be really appreciated.  But Lane does a great job conveying these pieces.  And if her main goal is to get you to want to come to Ireland see them, then she has succeeded.

I marked off dozens of pictures in here because they were either my favorites or they were interesting in some way.

I followed this format.
COUNTY
Town: Title (Artist) Location.  Comments. (more…)

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