I.D. FLUX

The Return of Spinal Tap

titles from Death Proof

Makes a nothing day in Austin seem epic.

mbv

You were either there or you weren't.

I missed it. I regret missing it. Guess I got to get on with my life.

Italy Saves Rock

memories can't wait

I took a few days off work to enjoy some crisp autumn weather

and bright colored leaves,

 

but I ended up with some gloomy gray skies. Once in a while, the sun would illuminate the day with that special, glorious shine that only happens when it's Fall. In the mornings, I'd drink coffee and read. Most afternoons, I played records. I had time to think and even figured out one of the reasons I love this time of year.

 

I seemed to have thought one day I'd recreate the

 

Lake Minitaka scene in Purple Rain. You know, when Prince takes Apollonia out to woods and tricks her to jump in the lake?  Well, apparently I've been always hoping to

a) ride a motorcycle,
b) get some exotic woman wearing a sexy leather outfit, and
c) ride her to a colorful forest.

This must of been the carrot dangling in front of me. Go to school, show up to work, pay the bills, and do the right thing. Then one day, some Apollonia would be holding me tight. She would be grinning.  I would be grinning. Upon further pondering, I realized I've had that experience years before (without the motorcycle) and that wonderful afternoon became a very faded memory. This whole realization happened when I was driving in the country and "Take Me With You" played on the radio. Behold!
The power of pop music!

The Zombies - Time of the Season

 

cheap thrills from the dollar bin

  Went to the record store with a 10 dollar bill.  More later....

Tom Waits Show at 1:30 a.m.

It was like seeing some mythological  icon, like Abraham Lincoln or a werewolf. I knew people who caught the shows in Memphis and Nashville. They told me stories of impossible set lists made up of my favorite songs. Even Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello are taken back by Tom's prose. His tours are so rare that I resigned myself to the fact that I'd never ever see him. When the whole tour sold out in 20 minutes while I was at work, I was lower than the Monitor and the Merrimac. I first saw him as a kid singing "The Piano Has Been Drinking (not me)" on TV. He was a chain smoking beatnik hanging  out out in bars and diners. Years later, Frank's Wild Years and Raindogs was the soundtrack of my late night gig at Larry's Bar & Grill ( on the antique jukebox that actually played a whole side of a LP for 50 cents). The best we could hope for is that he'd make an appearance on Letterman.

Out of the blue, I get wind that after the Akron show there was a secret suprise show in Cleveland. The whole tour wasn't sold out after all. Half believing it, I dialed T master on my lunch break and got lucky. Two days later I was riding up to the partial ghost town which is Cleveland. There was waiting involved. Since we arrived early and snatched up a great parking space, we were stuck in downtown and night was falling. Shot billiards with a midget until the rain stopped. Talked baseball with a lieutenant over a Singapore sling. Then we got in the will call ticket line and got gouged by a big breasted femme fatale selling a bottle of water for four friggin' dollars. Once inside the House of Blues, I realized what an intimate place it was. I was going to be way too close to the man. We were in for more waiting, accept this time we had to watch commercials for The House of Blues merch. This was on a loop and played over every 5 minutes endlessly. The worst part was seeing a clip of Eric Clapton over and over. He was wearing a golf shirt and shorts. Actually his whole band was too and it looked like they were going to play tennis afterwards.  After the fiftieth time, we started making fun of what song he was playing. Maybe "I missed the putt" or "Waitress got my order wrong". It was getting late.  It dawned on me that some in the crowd didn't know the songs and shouldn't of been there.    

  At 1:30 in the morning the curtains parted, Tom strolled out and launched into Goin' Out West. The crowd went wild.  It's really hard to write about this show. I was so happy.  I ignored the annoying members of the audience, calling out and not shutting up enough.  The startling thing was that someone would yell out and since the venue was so small, Tom could hear and understand what was said. One drunk kept babbling and Tom said, " We should make an appointment to talk about this later".  His only monologue was on bowling shoes and the strange concept of renting shoes. He said it was like renting underwear and that the germs were so strong that they laugh at Lysol. Some say that Cleveland's set list was the best of the tour. He shocked many by pulling out oldies like Blue Valentine, On The Nickel, and Heart attack & Vine.  November was ominous and gave me shivers. Singapore, Cemetery Polka, and I Wish I Was in New Orleans were personal highlights. Tom's son Casey was on drums and the band got into some pretty strange grooves. The climax was singing It Rains On Me along with Tom himself. The only thing that bugged me was that a roadie brought out a guitar that implied Tom might finish off with a quiet one like Cold Cold Ground or Time or something. It looked like Tom was spent from the Akron show at 8pm and probably cut a song or two off. 

On the way to the car I realized how many songs he didn't play. I loved the fact that Cleveland was sound asleep and while Big Black Mariah was wailing out. His songs were more magical at three in the morning.

Here's the set list.
Some are even linked up to video on You Tube. No extra charge.
Goin' Out West
219 (My Baby's Leaving on the)
Way Down in the Hole
November
Blue Valentine
Big Black Mariah

On the Nickel
Cemetery Polka
I Wish I was in New Orleans
Johnsburg, Illinois
Metropolitan Glide
Heartattack and Vine / Spoonful

Make it Rain
Circus
Singapore
It Rains on Me
Don't Go Into that Barn
Ramblin' Man
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Buzz Fledderjohn  

making due with pirated video & memories

  As I wait for Melt Banana to return and make my life meaningful for a brief moment, the next best thing to being there in the summer of 2006 is to search You Tube. That band is like confronting a mythical being like a unicorn or a werewolf.  Insanely fast punk, avante guarde style blending, as well as abstract beat lyrics. I've also have been downloading avi files of gigs as well as buying bootleg videotapes on Ebay. No one plays like this. Here's three versions of Shield for your eyes, A Beast in the Well , which is their only song with a groove. I can hear

influences from The Chemical Bros. to Zeppelin and ska.  They used this as an opener a tour ago.

Take 2 ,  Take 3

also enjoy Chain-Shot To Have Some Fun ( which might  spontaneously form a frenzied mosh pit and thunder storms),  Lost Parts stinging me so cold ,  and their short song medley.

UPDATE:  U.S Tour in the spring!

bedroom demos lead to hip shows/fascism

So we all found out the government has been putting every one of our calls into the biggest database in human history. This unpopular administration insisted they were secretly mining the data, but they would never eves drop on our calls (even though they admit all they have to do is press a button and they can).  Combine that with permission to sneak into your house and search while your at work, plus that being imprisoned without ever being charged and you have some pretty high grade nightmare fuel. I'm glad I'm not having kids, so I don't have to tell them all this happened on our watch. I couldn't take my son's haunted stare as he walks out the front door to manufacture hamburgers. The land of the sheep and the home of the wage slaves?  Kinda makes you want to want to take to the streets, chanting as we march. Don't we just want to have the government to behave just like School House Rock's "I'm Just a Bill" told us? I don't remember anything about "signing statements"?  Wanna all get together tomorrow and do our civic duty?  Wanna sing Let's Impeach the President and show the world how mad we are about having our constitution ripped to pieces? Yeah, you're right. Tomorrow's bad for me too.

     Lately I have noticed I have been listening to music in the same manner as when I was in high school. Namely to escape from reality.  Pure escapism by spinning 33rpm sides, letting me forget the messed up world for a few moments. It's also nice to live in an age when one can read online about a metal band that just put out a record based on the Tolkien's Middle Earth that actually has lyrics in Orc language and have the whole cd downloaded before you've finished the article. It is wizard-like magic when you ponder it a while.  The Go! Team has been a big inspiration and a source of joy recently.  A guy is make demos in his bedroom and has a visionary sound in mind combining double dutch hip hop, Sonic Youthy guitar blasts, 70's action movie scores, and Peanuts piano. After he finished the demo, he recruited the band and made a solid record. Pretty soon the bands gigs were sold out, even in countries with no airplay and never had the cd to sell. What started with good ideas and a 4 track turned into screaming fans at huge festivals ( like Lollapalooza in Chicago).  If I haven't sold you on them yet, check out the video they shot at KCRW. It'll make you feel better.    

         I was also impressed with Enon went they came to town.

As a trio, they simplified their sound to a few captivating elements. Sometimes it would be a neat beat, a bass groove, an offbeat synth sound, and catchy voice patter. The tunes would of sounded fine on the radio, but these fresh sounds seemed very inventive and modern. John Schmersal was apart of Ohio's best chance at fame in the 90's, the all mighty Brainiac.  Since Brainiac's demise, I recall two things. One is that John had been working a job in The World Trade Center on 911 and it took about a week to hear that he was OK.  The other thing I remember was Enon playing the disgusting punk landmark, Bernies Bagels and his parents drove up to see the show. Bernies had bad sound and the most disgusting bathrooms on the OSU campus. Besides John having his parents see him play in a dumpy dive, at 10pm the manager said Enon had to quit now, so they could start hip hop night. John was mad and vowed never to play the place again.

          It was also yet another vivid realization that rock was dead or dying. MTV and magazines would do a story on the "return of rock", but success was ultimately measured by selling a billion records, but they never matched the rappers. It makes matters worse when you live in a city with lame commercial radio that wouldn't play good and solid stuff anyway. It all became clear when I picked up a used Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock of $1.  Rock started with a big bang and everything was cool until it got to the page that MTV showed up. After that it was Madonna, Michael Jackson, and stupidity ruled. All the good stuff I witness is "underground", because it doesn't make the big money.

   Enon is now band. They are happening right now. Their slant on rock is mesmerizing. Fisty guitar or deep grooves shift back and forth, pumping it out in ecletic ways. On the band's web site, they schedule a chunk of time for "experimenting". Bass player Toko Yasuda has become an equal partner now and sings more than half the songs. She is quite the rock star, gyrating in her sparkly mini skirt. John kept bringing up his Columbus issues: basically it's a city of burn outs that other cities joke about. Maybe he still isn't over that bad Bernie's gig or something. Toko gave a slight disapproving why-are-you-doing this look and later made up for it by being super friendly at the merch table. Bands like this inspire me to take chances when home recording. Trying new things can reward and punish, but at least your attempting not to be boring.
We certainly don't need any more boredom, do we?

writer's block theater

Yes, I'm using You Tube as a crutch, but you have to admit this is super cool.  It's downright magical.
I wanna share something I just saw with the world and with a click, you see it too.  What a medium, this video/mp3/diary blog is!  I mean legally it's a big mess, but this modern world is moving a mile a minute. The Ronnettes look so self assured and spontaneous in the clip, especially for way back then. That sound in the background is not seagulls fighting, it's teenage girls screaming. If you look close, you can spy a disapproving mother. And don't get me started on the go go dancers.  Is it sexist to wish that would make a comeback?  It so comforting, how can it be a bad thing?  I bet Suicide Girls could go go dance and make it empowering.

    I remember when Paul McCartney dared to go on the Howard Stern show and did a fantastic interview. As it ended, Howard asked if Paul ever did a black chick and before he could say that's nobody's business, Robin Quivers said, "Of course he did. He toured with the Ronnettes."  Paul got very flustered and laughed nervously. 

If I had a time machine, I go to London in 1968.  I'd go to the UFO Club when the Ronnettes were in town.