Wednesday, August 20, 2003
After a weekend of gorging on music – three(!) trips to Amoeba and two shows – the ringing in my ears still hasn't completely cleared. And halfway through the last week before school kicks in, I feel like I'm walking through a dense fog. Kind of listless, kind of pulling my hair out because I know I have a ton of shit to do, so much that I can't figure out where to start. So I wander.
Monday night Thee Parkside and the Bottom of the Hill both hosted a benefit show for the families of the Exploding Hearts. As anyone reading this probably knows, three members of the Exploding Hearts died when their van crashed, coming home from San Francisco. I never got to see the Exploding Hearts -- I was out of town when they played here -- but their album and singles spent a lot of time on my turntable. They still do.
The completely line-up of bands remained somewhat of a mystery until we walked up to the door of the Parkside and saw the roster. Adam Carlson Band. Deadly Weapons. Clorox Girls. Husbands. The Sermon. Tina and the Total Babes. The FM Knives were originally listed to play, but didn't make the final line-up.
I was looking forward to seeing Tina and the Total Babes more than any other band. Their first Bay Area show. Not only did I want to see them because their album is incredible, but I heard the Total Babes on the album weren't the same buncha Babes playing live. It could be hit or miss.
Aside from Tina and her Babes, the unknown of the bunch – the Adam Carlson Band – piqued my interest more than any other band. Jason Morgan, frontman for Harold Ray Live, told me one day about his new band. A power-pop band. Jason Morgan knows power-pop. His last power-pop band, the Close-Ups were good, but not great. This time around, with a few years singing for Harold Ray under his belt, I imagined his new band would nail the power-pop sound good.
As the Adam Carlson Band set up I worried about two things: they might head down the watery, limp vein of pop, and/or they might, uh, not be all that tight, given that it was their first show ever.
They put both fears quickly to rest. They were tight, they leaned heavily on the POWER side of power-pop. They even did a Billy Squier cover. At the end of the set, I had a new favorite Bay Area band. They made me wish I was still putting out records. On the way home I kept thinking about how great it would be to put out a double-7" with Harold Ray Live and the Adam Carlson Band. If I can't do it, maybe I can talk another label into it.
The rest of the show was okay, but not incredible. The Clorox Girls were good, but would have been better if they played at the smaller, more intimate Parkside. All the hype around the Husbands set my expectations unrealistically high. Lots of walking back and forth between the Parkside and Bottom of the Hill. Got to see a lot of people, which always makes a show more enjoyable. And I met Blank Generation writer Steve Greenback, a great guy.
No one really talked about the fact that the show was a benefit for the families of the Exploding Hearts. It was just another show, which I found a bit unsettling. I wasn't looking forward to an awkward, teary-eyed remembrance, but it just wasn't even mentioned. Too cool for school I guess.
And yes, Tina and the Total Babes were incredible. They only played six or seven songs, but each was as good as you might imagine. Six people played in the backing band, including a back-up singer and three guitars, one of which included Terry from the Exploding Hearts. Seeing him take the stage, I half expected an Exploding Hearts cover. Maybe that would have been too weird for him…and for the audience.
Driving over the Bay Area bridge, traffic slowed to a crawl, bottle-necked into a single lane of traffic, Mimi grilled me on why I don't write more, why I don't try to do another zine. Needling questions that make me squirm. I try to explain that I don't have the time, the energy or the motivation, let alone the money. She persists. I tell her I need a buffer of mental space, that I can't just sit down and start writing. It has to build up, boil over and spill out. But her questioning gets the rusty gears in my head moving, thinking of ideas, for whole zines and individual story ideas. Part of the problem is I have become incredibly self-critical. Reading so many shithole zines, I can't help be think "who cares what I have to say?" Mimi counters that I am a good writer, unlike most people who do zines. "A travel zine!" she says. "You've been around the world, around the States. A travel zine!" Still, I'm unconvinced. Besides, photography is really my passion now.
With that in mind, I have been chewing on doing a new zine, based on a tour I went on with a band in 2000. Since 1997 I have wanted to do a photo project about punk bands on tour. It's a world, a life that is so entirely foreign to most of the population. I'd spend a year or two, basically just going on tour with bands. Head out with one band, spend a few weeks with them, meet up with another band while on the road and take off with them for a few weeks. And so on. I'm more interested in the stuff that happens between the shows. I love taking live band photos, but for this, it would be more about the driving, wandering new towns, meeting new people, breaking down, hooking up. Tensions and smells in the van. It would be about the people who put on and go to shows in places you'd never expect, where sometimes only five people come out to see the band.
Anyway, this zine, if I did it, would be a first step towards that goal. Maybe over winter break this year, if plans to return to India don't work out, I'll find a band to go on tour with to push it further. And if things really fall apart and I can't get myself overseas after graduation in May, I can spend the summer criss-crossing the country with bands.
If you're in a band, and would be willing to let me tag along, photographing your tour, let me know.
***
The other show of the weekend took place at a co-op (like a student-run dorm) on the UC Berkeley campus. The co-op shows can get rowdy, as you might expect when you get a room full of people barely legally able to drink who are pissed outta their heads and, for the most part, don't eat and breath punk, at least not smaller shows like these. Their inebriated enthusiasm can either be contagious or totally fucking annoying. Sometimes it is cool being at a show were people – gasp – move around and haven't been totally blunted into a bunch jaded head-nodders. After getting kicked in the head a few times by people trying to "crowd surf" the group of 20 or 30 people standing around, my own jaded streak rears its head in a nasty way.
The Mirrors opened the show. This new line-up includes Greg from the original Texas incarnation along with Oscar from the Rocknroll Adventure Kids. Greg sits in a chair, Oscar stands around and the drummer does his thing. They admittedly aren't the most exciting band to watch, but musically, they are H-O-T. A killer dense '60 psych sound with a real strong bite of Velvet Underground and a touch garage blues.
Japanese bands take the cake. They always look cool as hell and really commit themselves to their live show. The Jailbirds (great band name! unfortunately, there is also a German band with the same name) fit this stereotype. Sharp dressers, down to the vicious sunglasses, and hyper-heavy rock sound that drove the kids nuts. If you've seen Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf, the Gyogun Rends, Gasoline or any other top-tier Japanese band, you might write off the Jailbirds as more of the same. But the people at the co-op , most of whom have probably never been blasted away by Guitar Wolf, had their world turned upside down by the energy unleashed by the Jailbirds.
Once Greg stopped fucking around with the Zodiac Killers video he was trying to show, they set off into what was the best Zodiac Killers show I've seen. With ever new line up Greg says, "This is the best line-up yet!" This time he's right. The sound sucked, but they blasted through the set, swiping snide jokes at the audience of college kids (myself included) in between the blistering short two-minute songs. It was the most I've seen Greg move at a show since the Rip Offs. If their set was any indication of things to come on their new album, it'll be a doosy.
***
Next update, I will review these records, maybe more:
Neon Maniacs – Nation Rehabilitation 7" (Puke N Vomit)
Mr. California & the State Police – 10 Song Seven Inch Record 45 RPM! 7" (Scarey)
Fitts – I Have to Laugh (When I See You Hurt) 7" (Big Neck)
Fuse! – Breaker! Breaker! 7" (In the Red)
Black Lips – Freakout 7" (Electrical Human Project)
Amdi Petersen Arme – Blod Ser Mere Virkelict Ud Da Film 7" (Havoc)
Mystery Girls – Circles in the Sand/That's What I Said 7" (In the Red)
Monday night Thee Parkside and the Bottom of the Hill both hosted a benefit show for the families of the Exploding Hearts. As anyone reading this probably knows, three members of the Exploding Hearts died when their van crashed, coming home from San Francisco. I never got to see the Exploding Hearts -- I was out of town when they played here -- but their album and singles spent a lot of time on my turntable. They still do.
The completely line-up of bands remained somewhat of a mystery until we walked up to the door of the Parkside and saw the roster. Adam Carlson Band. Deadly Weapons. Clorox Girls. Husbands. The Sermon. Tina and the Total Babes. The FM Knives were originally listed to play, but didn't make the final line-up.
I was looking forward to seeing Tina and the Total Babes more than any other band. Their first Bay Area show. Not only did I want to see them because their album is incredible, but I heard the Total Babes on the album weren't the same buncha Babes playing live. It could be hit or miss.
Aside from Tina and her Babes, the unknown of the bunch – the Adam Carlson Band – piqued my interest more than any other band. Jason Morgan, frontman for Harold Ray Live, told me one day about his new band. A power-pop band. Jason Morgan knows power-pop. His last power-pop band, the Close-Ups were good, but not great. This time around, with a few years singing for Harold Ray under his belt, I imagined his new band would nail the power-pop sound good.
As the Adam Carlson Band set up I worried about two things: they might head down the watery, limp vein of pop, and/or they might, uh, not be all that tight, given that it was their first show ever.
They put both fears quickly to rest. They were tight, they leaned heavily on the POWER side of power-pop. They even did a Billy Squier cover. At the end of the set, I had a new favorite Bay Area band. They made me wish I was still putting out records. On the way home I kept thinking about how great it would be to put out a double-7" with Harold Ray Live and the Adam Carlson Band. If I can't do it, maybe I can talk another label into it.
The rest of the show was okay, but not incredible. The Clorox Girls were good, but would have been better if they played at the smaller, more intimate Parkside. All the hype around the Husbands set my expectations unrealistically high. Lots of walking back and forth between the Parkside and Bottom of the Hill. Got to see a lot of people, which always makes a show more enjoyable. And I met Blank Generation writer Steve Greenback, a great guy.
No one really talked about the fact that the show was a benefit for the families of the Exploding Hearts. It was just another show, which I found a bit unsettling. I wasn't looking forward to an awkward, teary-eyed remembrance, but it just wasn't even mentioned. Too cool for school I guess.
And yes, Tina and the Total Babes were incredible. They only played six or seven songs, but each was as good as you might imagine. Six people played in the backing band, including a back-up singer and three guitars, one of which included Terry from the Exploding Hearts. Seeing him take the stage, I half expected an Exploding Hearts cover. Maybe that would have been too weird for him…and for the audience.
Driving over the Bay Area bridge, traffic slowed to a crawl, bottle-necked into a single lane of traffic, Mimi grilled me on why I don't write more, why I don't try to do another zine. Needling questions that make me squirm. I try to explain that I don't have the time, the energy or the motivation, let alone the money. She persists. I tell her I need a buffer of mental space, that I can't just sit down and start writing. It has to build up, boil over and spill out. But her questioning gets the rusty gears in my head moving, thinking of ideas, for whole zines and individual story ideas. Part of the problem is I have become incredibly self-critical. Reading so many shithole zines, I can't help be think "who cares what I have to say?" Mimi counters that I am a good writer, unlike most people who do zines. "A travel zine!" she says. "You've been around the world, around the States. A travel zine!" Still, I'm unconvinced. Besides, photography is really my passion now.
With that in mind, I have been chewing on doing a new zine, based on a tour I went on with a band in 2000. Since 1997 I have wanted to do a photo project about punk bands on tour. It's a world, a life that is so entirely foreign to most of the population. I'd spend a year or two, basically just going on tour with bands. Head out with one band, spend a few weeks with them, meet up with another band while on the road and take off with them for a few weeks. And so on. I'm more interested in the stuff that happens between the shows. I love taking live band photos, but for this, it would be more about the driving, wandering new towns, meeting new people, breaking down, hooking up. Tensions and smells in the van. It would be about the people who put on and go to shows in places you'd never expect, where sometimes only five people come out to see the band.
Anyway, this zine, if I did it, would be a first step towards that goal. Maybe over winter break this year, if plans to return to India don't work out, I'll find a band to go on tour with to push it further. And if things really fall apart and I can't get myself overseas after graduation in May, I can spend the summer criss-crossing the country with bands.
If you're in a band, and would be willing to let me tag along, photographing your tour, let me know.
The other show of the weekend took place at a co-op (like a student-run dorm) on the UC Berkeley campus. The co-op shows can get rowdy, as you might expect when you get a room full of people barely legally able to drink who are pissed outta their heads and, for the most part, don't eat and breath punk, at least not smaller shows like these. Their inebriated enthusiasm can either be contagious or totally fucking annoying. Sometimes it is cool being at a show were people – gasp – move around and haven't been totally blunted into a bunch jaded head-nodders. After getting kicked in the head a few times by people trying to "crowd surf" the group of 20 or 30 people standing around, my own jaded streak rears its head in a nasty way.
The Mirrors opened the show. This new line-up includes Greg from the original Texas incarnation along with Oscar from the Rocknroll Adventure Kids. Greg sits in a chair, Oscar stands around and the drummer does his thing. They admittedly aren't the most exciting band to watch, but musically, they are H-O-T. A killer dense '60 psych sound with a real strong bite of Velvet Underground and a touch garage blues.
Japanese bands take the cake. They always look cool as hell and really commit themselves to their live show. The Jailbirds (great band name! unfortunately, there is also a German band with the same name) fit this stereotype. Sharp dressers, down to the vicious sunglasses, and hyper-heavy rock sound that drove the kids nuts. If you've seen Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf, the Gyogun Rends, Gasoline or any other top-tier Japanese band, you might write off the Jailbirds as more of the same. But the people at the co-op , most of whom have probably never been blasted away by Guitar Wolf, had their world turned upside down by the energy unleashed by the Jailbirds.
Once Greg stopped fucking around with the Zodiac Killers video he was trying to show, they set off into what was the best Zodiac Killers show I've seen. With ever new line up Greg says, "This is the best line-up yet!" This time he's right. The sound sucked, but they blasted through the set, swiping snide jokes at the audience of college kids (myself included) in between the blistering short two-minute songs. It was the most I've seen Greg move at a show since the Rip Offs. If their set was any indication of things to come on their new album, it'll be a doosy.
Next update, I will review these records, maybe more:
Neon Maniacs – Nation Rehabilitation 7" (Puke N Vomit)
Mr. California & the State Police – 10 Song Seven Inch Record 45 RPM! 7" (Scarey)
Fitts – I Have to Laugh (When I See You Hurt) 7" (Big Neck)
Fuse! – Breaker! Breaker! 7" (In the Red)
Black Lips – Freakout 7" (Electrical Human Project)
Amdi Petersen Arme – Blod Ser Mere Virkelict Ud Da Film 7" (Havoc)
Mystery Girls – Circles in the Sand/That's What I Said 7" (In the Red)
