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Archive for the ‘King’s X’ Category

Elizabeth Harrower–“Alice” (New Yorker, February 2, 2015)

Posted in Australia, Elizabeth Harrower, King's X, Kings of Spade, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Parenting, Sexism on February 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KINGS OF SPADE-Crave (2013).

I have seen Kings of Spade twice (both times opening for King’s X).  I have never heard of them outside of these shows.  And yet, they seem to have a pretty good following (especially in their native Hawaii).

Their website describes them as “blues rock from Hawaii” and that’s pretty apt.  They certainly groove in the rocking blues.  They are fronted by a fantastic, powerful singer named Kasi Nunes.  She formed the band along with guitarist Jesse Savio.  There’s also drummer Matt Kato, bassist Max Benoit, turntablist DJ A2Z and percussionist Obie 1.

“Crave” opens the disc with some great bluesy grooves and solos all under the power of Nunes’ wail.  “Boys in the Band” is a song they still play and it works great in concert.  The recorded version features a turntablist, which they do not have live.  The song has a cool break where you get to hear Nunes’ voice unaffected as she sings the title.

“Funk” adds some horns, although not a lot of funk, which is fine.  It works more as soul with scratchy wah wah guitars.

“Weight on My Shoulders” is a strange song.  It has the riff and melody of “Crimson and Clover,” a song I don’t really like.  But the lyrics of the chorus focus on the weight of the world being on her shoulders (to the tune of “waitin’ to show her”).  The verses are the big surprise because the song turns into a rap.  Nunes’ flow is pretty good, but it’s more about her lyrics than her delivery.  She raps about growing up and the awkwardness of being a woman at 25.  Nunes is all about women and feminism.

“Keep On” starts with her saying “to the most beautiful, this is from X-Factor (X-Factor was their name before they became Kings of Spade).  This is a groovy song with Nunes’ rapping and the turntablist working away.  There’s more horns as well.  It rocks pretty well, and there are two sections that change the style of the song in an effective way.  I like the end where the song switches tone into a more menacing-sounding thump.

“Move On” rocks along, very catchy and fun with some cool organ underneath the riffage.  Until the middle when it really slows down to a kind of Janis Joplin vein.  The first time i saw them, they played a fantastic version of Piece of My Heart (Nunes hits the marks really well).

I’m not sure if it was well-known that Nunes is a lesbian.  She doesn’t mention it until song 7.  But she’s certainly not hiding the fact because the whole of “Don’t Hate Me” is about her coming out experience.  It’s a powerful tour de force (which is rapped as well) that covers many bases about coming out–parents, classmates, friends, community.  She sings about “growing up a baby dyke” and spending years as “a closet homo” before finally reaching a place where “a hater’s lame opinion can’t cause me any strife.”   I love the metaphor about building

The final song shows off yet another style of the band.  “Secret Lover” is a slow acoustic song with a kind of Spanish feel.  It’s a love song to a secret lover (no one will ever measure up to you) which I can’t decide if it’s awesome or sad (is the secret a good one?).

This is a solid album.  It’s a bit all over the place, trying out different sounds.  They will step things up for their next album (and Kasi will adopt her now-trademark red Mohawk).

[READ: July 26, 2016] “Alice”

This is the life story of a little girl.  It is told by a distant, almost disinterested narrator, and this narrator fits the girls’ life as well.

Living in Australia, Alice had red-gold sausage curls.  She had lovely hair and thick creamy skin and gray-blue eyes.  Her disposition could be summed up as “it is good to be good.”

Her mother was Scottish-born and was irrational, quickly tempered and noisy: “she had no feelings.”

Alice’s mother didn’t regard her at all.  After her mother had two boys, they consumed all of her attention.  Alice became nursemaid and nanny to her brothers. Any problem became Alice’s fault.   And even though people looked at her and admired her, once they realized that this would gain no favor with her mother, they admired her brothers instead. (more…)

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King’s X (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, July 15, 2017)

Posted in King's X, Kings of Spade, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on July 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 15, 2017] Kings X

My friend Sean and I were planning on making it three years in a row seeing King’s X, but he had last minute other plans (which I hope were wonderful).

It was interesting seeing them again (this is 4 times in four years! and three years at Sellersville).  Usually I can’t get good pictures at Sellersville, but either it was brighter, or my new phone is better in the dark.  Either way the photos were much better.

My friend Charles is a huge fan of the band and he warned me the dUg’s voice wasn’t sounding so great.  I thought that last time around, so I was prepared for the worst.  But he sounded okay.  As another friend said, he is 66 years old.  The only real drag about that is that his voice was so amazing that’s it’s a shame he’s lost that instrument’s full range.

But the band itself sounds great and since everyone in the audience is a huge fan, we did a lot of the singing for dUg, anyway.

(more…)

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Kings of Spade (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, July 15, 2017) [KING’S X]

Posted in King's X, Kings of Spade, LGBTQ, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on July 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 15, 2017] Kings of Spade

Back in November, I saw King’s X and Kings of Spade.  I was more than a little surprised to see that King’s X were coming back to Sellersville and to see that Kings of Spade were opening again (turns out, not again, but still).  The band said that King’s X brought them to Europe, which was pretty exciting for them.

In the last 8 months or so, Kings of Spade have gotten even better.  They were really tight and solid back then, but their rocking songs rocked more and they really had a lot of fun on stage.  I guess 8 months of touring will get you to loosen up a bit.  In fact, when I saw them after the gig–they hung around for autographs again, I told the singer they sounded even better and she said she felt a lot more comfortable up there and danced a lot more–very nice folks.

It was cool seeing how well the bassist Tim Corker and drummer Matt Kato feed off each other–there’s some great rumbling sections in the later songs, with some great, complex drumming and fast bass playing. (more…)

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Kings X (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, November 21, 2016)

Posted in King's X, Kings of Spade, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on November 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 21, 2016] Kings X

2016-11-21-21-23-35A little over a year ago, my friend Sean and I saw King’s X at the Sellersville Theater.  I didn’t know they’d be back again so soon.  I was surprised to see that they were touring the East Coast again and making another stop at the Sellersville Theater.  This time I bought the tickets (and we got row H) to see this great three-piece again.

Sellersville Theater is a small place (although not very conducive to photos).  But the sound is amazing and it feels like the guys are right really close (and they are).

The band had recently posted that they were adding some surprise songs to their set, so while the beginning of the show was similar to last year’s show, there were eight new songs, which was pretty awesome. (more…)

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Kings of Spade (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, November 21, 2016) [KING’S X]

Posted in Janis Joplin, King's X, Kings of Spade, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on November 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 21, 2016] Kings of Spade

kosI hadn’t heard of Kings of Spade before this show.   They are a four piece from Hawaii–billing themselves as blues rock, although they play a lot more.  They make for an interesting looking band.  The bassist (Tim Corkerand) guitarist (Jesse Savio) (not Hawaiian natives) have long beards and look like they’re from the North East (which they are).  The drummer Matt Kato and singer are Hawaiian natives.  Singer Kasi Nunes has a bright red mohawk and a voice to match.

I missed the first song, (it’s an hour to the theater, give me a break), but the band played a solid set after that and boy were they good.

The band plays off of each other really well.  The bass and drums are really tight, keeping time changes and shifts totally spot on.  They have a few songs that absolutely rock out and then stop on a dime to switch to a different genre.  “Way She Goes” is a full barrel rocker until the middle when it shifts to an almost reggae beat.

Overall, their set is full of really catchy grooves and foot-stomping (well, as much as you can when you’re seated).

After a few songs, Savio commented about how different it is playing in a club versus a theater.  I knew they had recently played with King’s X at The Stone Pony.  The Sellersville Theater is about as far as you can get from it–and I’ll take the civilized Sellersville over the rowdy Stone Pony (although it is weird to sit during a rocking show).  He said that the biggest difference was the noise level and alcohol consumption.  And that there were tables here.  But he also said that we were so quiet and respectful during the songs–which was cool, don’t worry–but it was so quiet that he could hear the drummer humming along.  And he never knew the drummer hummed before.  As long as we were loud after the songs (and we were) he was cool with it.

2016-11-21-20-47-15While it’s hard to take your eyes off of Nunes and her giant mohawk, guitarist Savio is a great player to watch. He switches effects–from distortion to wah to some other interesting sounds including a talk box without ever losing the essential feel of his playing–bluesy, grungy bar guitars.  And his soloing is in the bluesy tradition of grooving and not showing off.  It led to some really great jams for a band whose songs are relatively short on record.

And Nunes is much more than her mohawk.  Man, does she have a powerful voice.   Sellersville is a fairly quiet theater anyhow, but there were a few times when she held a note and slowly moved the microphone away but I could still hear her even un-miced.

It was clear that they were having fun.  Nunes introduced a song about losing someone and then Savio played the intro to a different song.  He laughed and said, remember that intro for the next song.  This one is about the War of 1812.

2016-11-21-20-47-26Before introducing their song “Ronda Rousey,” she asked if anyone was into ECW.  A few people cheered and when they asked who would win on Dec 31, they were shocked when the person said Amanda (I didn’t know what they were talking about).  Nunes said that they love Ronda and wrote a song about her.  It rocked.

Some of their songs are super catchy, like the all out rocker “Strange Bird.”  And “Boys in My Band” from thier first record is pretty great, too.

When they were about done, they said they had one song left.  And then retracted that and said that the stage guy was holding up two fingers–two songs.  They apologized and said they’d keep us entertained for 8 minutes (which they did).  Savio said that he’d be anxious to hear King’s X as well–in fact that’s who he’d come to see even though his band was playing.

For the final song, Nunes said she wrote this song in the 70s and they launched into a great cover of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.”  It sounded great.  They got the perfect guitar sound for th esolos and Nunes totally handled the tough task of singing like Janis (although she didn’t do the big scream at the end–save your voce!_)

The band doesn’t even have an entry on Setlist (someone needs to get on that!).  So I don’t know the setlist.  But from listening to their two CDs on bandcamp, I recognize these songs from the show.  Their record is good, but man their live show is tremendous.  Check them out if they play near you–and don’t be late!

2016-11-21-23-15-34They were also nice enough to take a photo with me (I’m not from Hawaii so I couldn’t do the hand gesture).
Sweet
Boys in My Band
Take Me
Strange Bird
Ronda Rousey
Way She Goes
Piece of My Heart (Janis Joplin cover)

 

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Sarah Shun-Lein Bynum–“The Burglar” (New Yorker, April 11, 2016)

Posted in Books about writers, Film & TV, Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix, King's X, New Yorker, PJ Harvey, Racism, Sarah Shun-lein Bynum, Seratones, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on June 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

41116 SOUNDTRACK: SERATONES-Tiny Desk Concert #522 (April 15, 2016).

seraThis Seratones show totally rocked!  And it was a nice change of pace from the slower bands who have been on the Tiny Desk lately.

The lead singer and guitarist is A.J. Haynes.  She plays guitar with a pick on her thumb and has a very clean guitar sound.  Her voice is really lovely—powerful and strong and covering multiple styles from Grace Slick to PJ Harvey.  The blurb says

Haynes grew up singing in the Brownsville Baptist Church, learning to sing out to and hit that back wall without a microphone.

And that’s apparent from the ease she has at singing.  The rest of her band is really great too.  Continuing the blurb:

bassist Adam Davis heard a lot of American rock’s greatest guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, as well as the amazing voice of Janis Joplin. The rest of the band is rounded out by the drumming of Jesse Gabriel, who is spare but there with a sharp backbeat, while guitarist Connor Davis rocks with lyrical grit.

Although I had to laugh because Haynes seems to be having so much fun while her bandmates are rather stonefaced.

They play three songs and they are all great.  “Don’t Need It” rocks out like nobody’s business.  Haynes is a charismatic (and adorable) lead singer with a big afro and a great smile.  “Get Gone” has a much more bluesy sound.  I like the way she delivers the line: “Suns coming out like you knew it would.”  After each verse she gives a big high-pitched “ooh oooh.” And then comes back with a growly low voice.  I love that she’s alternately belting out notes and then singing falsetto.

“Chandelier” has a great funky groove.  When the song sorta stops and just the drums kick in she gives a delightful giggle.

I was really delighted with this band whom I’d never heard of before and I definitely want to check out their recently released debut album.

[READ: April 11, 2016] “The Burglar”

I enjoyed the way that this story was structured.  One paragraph at a time with a dot in between them.  This allowed for a strange juxtaposition of time, with some things happening simultaneously and others possibly out of sequence.

There are several characters in the story.  There is a the burglar (known primarily as “he”); there is the wife who is waiting for exterminators to come to the house–she’s out and hopes to get home before they do).  There is the husband, who is off at work.  His job is fascinating, he’s writing his first script for a TV pilot.  The producers of the show want it to be edgy and different.  The character he is working on (the only person named in the story) is Emmet Byron Diggs, who is falsely accused of killing his wife.  Emmet is black, but the producers don’t want him to think about that as he develops the character.

The story rotates through these characters.  We see the scriptwriter and the producers talking about the show: a time travel show in which Emmet is going to start killing people.

The burglar encounters a dog in the house and tries to figure out how to deal with it.

The wife is racing to get home.

And Emmett is also walking down a street checking out the twenty-first century world he’s in.

Okay so the burglar is in the woman’s house.  But she hears him upstairs and assumes he is the exterminator.

And then the burglar hears her and tries to figure out what he’s going to do.  He calls out, “Just the cleaning crew.”  he berates himself for saying such a weird thing and she thinks its weird that the exterminator would call himself the cleaning crew.

And that’s when the phone rings and it’s the exterminators calling to say they’ll be late.

How does this real-life scenario play out at home while her husband is trying to create a similarly fictionalized setting on the page?

The stories even began to overlap somewhat with action in both stories taking place in a kitchen.  By the end of the story it’s not entirely clear what’s even happening, at least to me.  And yet despite or because of this confusion, I really loved the story.  It was intense and strangely funny at the same time.

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King’s X (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, June 28, 2015)

Posted in King's X, Living Colour, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on June 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 28, 2015] King’s X

2015-06-28 20.57.00This was a special concert for many reasons.  The first was that it was a chance to see my college friend Sean for the first time in probably 20 years.  We’d chatted online, but this is the first time we actually got together–thanks King’s X!

The second reason is because it was my first concert at the Sellersville Theater, a venue I’ve heard a lot about on XPN, but never been to.  When I walked into the venue I genuinely thought it was an optical illusion.  It’s an old movie theater, with about 300 seats.  Talk about intimate!  King’s X and dUg Pinnick (with Corey Glover of Living Colour) frequent the place, and I can see why.  The fans are right there and they (we) are all into it.

So hanging out with Sean and with great seats, I was totally in the mood for a great show. And King’s X delivered. (more…)

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Lo-Fi Resistance (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, June 28, 2015) [KING’S X]

Posted in Chris Squire, Gavin Harrison, King Crimson, King's X, Lo-Fi Resistance, Porcupine Tree, Randy McShine, Spock's Beard, Tom Brislin, Yes on June 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 28, 2015] Lo-Fi Resistance

lofiI usually like to give the opening band from a concert a write up.  This is probably the first time in a really long time that I saw an opening band that I’d never heard of (and didn’t take pictures of).

Lo-Fi Resistance is the creation of Randy McShine.  As I said, I’d never heard of them, so I had no expectations.  I’m kind of glad I didn’t because as I am now reading about them, I would have expected something very different.

McShine was considered a guitar prodigy and he has sung with The Pink Floyd Experience.  And McShine has pretty big connections in the prog world.  His debut album featured drums from the drummer from Spock’s Beard and also had vocals from dUg Pinnick! (on “Moral Disgrace,” not played that night).  Their second album, Chalk Lines, features drummer Gavin Harrison (!) who has played with King Crimson and Porcupine Tree, as well as the bassist for Porcupine Tree and once again Dug Pinnick. (more…)

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Maribeth Boels–The PS Brothers (2010)

Posted in Accept, All Songs Considered, Children's Books, Dogs, Edward Greig, King's X, Maribeth Boels, Marriage Trouble, Poo, TT Quick, Violence, YA Books, Yuck! on August 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

psbrosSOUNDTRACK: ACCEPT-“Final Journey” (2014).

blindI normally do kids music for kids books, but this book was so un-kid friendly that I decided to tack on a metal song for it.  This song was previewed on Viking’s Choice at NPR.

I loved Accept back in the 80s, but once lead singer Udo left I haven’t really followed them all that much.  New lead singer, Mark Tornillo formed TT Quick way back in the day and since I saw them not too long ago opening for King’s X, I thought I’d see what he sounded like with Accept now.

He doesn’t quite have the weird Teutonic sound that Udo had (how could he, being from New Jersey and all?), but his guttural voice is quite appropriate to the music.  But there’s something missing here with this music.  It sounds a little too generic, compared to the abrasive yet melodic sound that Accept brought to the scene way back when.  I think maybe if it wasn’t Accept I’d be inclined to like it more, because I have high expectations.

You should never read comments on public posts (you can read the few that I get here, of course, as they are usually pretty thoughtful), but one person commented on this song that the chorus sounds like Europe’s “The Final Countdown” which ruined the song for me, and now I have ruined it for you.  Sorry.  Of course the most noteworthy (get it?) thing is the guitar solo which is an extensive working Edward Greig’s “Morning Mood” (and not just a line or two, but the whole thing, pretty much–it actually sounds awesome).

So, this song isn’t going to bring me back to Accept, although I did like it more with each listen.  Nevertheless, it’s nice to know that they’re still rocking Germany.  I also love that they still have the same logo.

[READ: July 27, 2014] The PS Brothers

The cliché is that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  And that proves to be hugely true here.  Indeed, you can’t judge this book by its size (books of this size tend to be for younger readers), or even by its blurb.  The blurb ends with “but what they aren’t counting on is uncovering a crime that can bust apart a dream faster than a dog can sniff out a bone.”  Bear that in mind as I talk about this story (and yes give a spoiler or two by the end).

So this story (judging by the cover and the title) seems pretty darn funny.  Shawn and Russell really want a dog.  Russell has read every book in the library about dogs and Shawn bought a pooper scooper at a garage sale.  There’s a few logistical problems–they don’t live together, they don’t have any money, Shawn’s house is too small for a dog and Russell’s uncle hates dogs.  So what are they going to do?

Then one day they see that a guy is selling Rottweiler puppies for $200 a piece.  They want a big mean dog with a spiked collar who will protect them from bullies (I should have realized that this story might be darker than I expected, but who could have known?).  Shawn and Russell decide to become the PS Brothers, with the PS standing for Pooper Scooper.  They are going to use Shawn’s scooper to pick up neighborhood poop for 10 or 25 cents a poop.  And soon enough they will have the cash. (more…)

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King’s X (Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ, May 3, 2014)

Posted in King's X, Sayreville, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Starland Ballroom, TT Quick on May 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 3, 2014] King’s X

I first saw King’s X with my friend Al back in 1992 or so.  I don’t recall much about the concert.  But I knew that they were awesome live, even still, some twenty years later.

I’ve enjoyed nearly everything they’ve released (their last album was in 2008), and when I heard that they were playing three concerts in the area, I decided it was time to see them again.  I almost went to the show in Newtown, NJ on May 2, but we went to a Figaro play instead.  So, I was psyched that they were playing reasonably close by in Sayreville, too.

The Newtown show was a seated event.  The Starland Ballroom is not.  It is a small venue with large “wings” where you can see the band from all kinds of angles (including the side of the stage).  I got there a little later than I intended.  The co-headliners were TT Quick, a band I knew in high school (who are also from NJ), but who I’d forgotten about.  When I saw they reunited for this show,  listened to the one album I had by them (Metal of Honor) and was surprised by how well I remembered it.  But a few snags in my trip to Sayreville (like the impossibly long time it too me to get ear plugs at Shop Rite), got me there with only three songs left in TT Quick’s set.

They were LOUD (so glad I bought the ear plugs), and singer * (who is now singing with Accept) was in good form.  Although when they closed with the song “Metal of Honor” there was no way he was hitting those high notes.

TT Quick is pretty different from King’s X, so I’m not entirely sure how much overlap there was in fans.  But when TT Quick left I got up to about 4 people from the stage (could have easily gotten closer, but I’m not a pusher).  The most shocking thing to me was the man who had his 4 year old son there with him (I offered the guy ear plugs, but he said he had them already).  The kid was a trooper (considering King’s X went on at nearly 11PM.  He lasted a few songs on his dad’s shoulders (right in front of me, grrr), but then crashed about midway through the set.  (which gave me a great view).

But enough about that.  What about the band?  They were awesome! (more…)

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