Production Work I did

Hey its been forever since I updated this site. Been super busy doing shit like this. For more videos check out the rest of the drunk nerds stuff at drunk nerds videos

More updates at some point. I suppose.

Mudhoney Short Review

Photo credit: My shitty camera phone.

This past Friday at the Independent, Mudhoney came to town and flat out killed it. Wooden Shjips were also on the bill. I wasn't planning on a review but Mudhoney rocked me hard enough to feel compelled to brag about their sheer balls-awesomeness. However, due to transportation (and other personal deliberations) I missed most of their set along with the opener (can't recall name and too lazy to troll for my ticket stub). The Shjips continue to lock into that molten- spacey psychedelic groove with laser-like precision. I love seeing this band play and was kinda pissed I wasn't able see their full set. My state of mind was perfectly in tuned with the thick repetitive slabs of bass and eerie keys emanating from the stage.
Afterward, Mudhoney took the stage around 11, Most of their set focused on material off the new record, The Lucky Ones, one of the best records released this year, do yourself a favor and grab it here if you don't already own it. They played all hits e.g. "Touch Me I'm Sick", "Let It Slide", "In ‘n’ Out of Grace", Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More, etc. The band drenched me in a washing machine of pure noise. My favorite part of the evening had to be when the band broke into "Hate the Police" and the whole place when crazy. Everyone in the front was jumping up and down and singing at the top of their lungs, including myself. Finally ending the evening with an awesome cover of the Flag's "Fix Me". Man oh man, what a great night. Mudhoney laid it down hard.

Setlist
01. The Money Will Roll Right In
02. I'm Now
03. The Lucky Ones
04. Next Time
05. You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face)
06. Suck You Dry
07. Inside Job
08. Blinding Sun
09. Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More
10. Good Enough
11. No One Has
12. Touch Me I'm Sick
13. F.D.K. (Fearless Doctor Killers)
14. This Gift
15. Hard On For War
16. When Tomorrow Hits
17. In 'N' Out Of Grace
18. Hate The Police
Encore
19. The Open Mind
20. Street Waves
21. Tales Of Terror
22. Fix Me

Night Marcher @ Bottom of the Hill 9.4.08

The three pronged guitar attack of rockNroll.
Gar
Speedo, himself.
Here are some photos I shot at the Marchers show last Thursday at Bottom of the Hill. This was seriously one of the best shows I've ever attended. I was planning on a full scale review but I couldn't break away from the spell the Night Marchers cast on every single person that night. SF may have thought they were equipped to handle the sheer fury of the Swami Sound System's high fusion of rockNroll, but they weren't. They threw down even harder, faster and louder than last April. Shit was killtacular. I almost decided to forsake the evening's festivities in order to fine tune a paper that was due the next morning. I am so glad I paused my responsibilities and went. I will never question the sheer force that Reis and company are capable of delivering on any given basis. My Standouts of the evening were "Closed For Inventory" and "Jump In the Fire". The thumb nail clap never got going during "You Got Nerve" this time. Regardless of a few dedicated trying to kick start the finger percussion band wagon. The one-two closing punch of "Scene Report" and "Fisting the Fan Base" summed up the evening perfectly, a rhythmic freight train equal parts Kitsos and Kourkonis pounding away as Speedo and Gar traded riff after heavy riff. As soon as they made a quick descent to stage right. The sea of fans grew angry at the abrupt conclusion of the evening and began shouting for more. The shouts rang louder and louder until the band came out and delivered a final encore knife into the crowd to satisfy their rockNroll blood lust. My only regrets were not bringing enough cash to score the new tour 7'' they're sporting on this new tour or the new Froberg designed t-shirt, it's got a sweet bubble graphic. Aside from those minor hiccups the night was truly memorable and I can't wait to see them again.

Words of Wisdom

"Sometimes it's like what we're doing is like this funky, weird little dream thing. And that's the kind of stuff, if you let it get to you, it'll really get you down. That's where "Unsatisfied" came from. You just don't know what you're doing, or why you're doing it. You're not really working a job for your life, you're just sort of going around entertaining people; entertaining strangers. I feel like I'm doing something that's something fun and sometimes powerful, but never really real. Not thinking about that stuff is the key." Paul Westerberg

Over Due Duke Spirit Review

Photo credit Me.

Nothing ever really came out of this going up some place else so I figured better late then never. It’s been nearly four months since I witnessed The Duke Spirit rip it up on an uneven SXSW warm up bill back in March at the Rickshaw Stop. They completely owned it that night, as evident by the Spirit cleaning out the entire audience of the Rickshaw at the conclusion of their set leaving the headliners to play to a scattered tribe of arguably friends and girlfriends. My expectations were pretty high for the July 23rd show at Bottom of the Hill. After a mindlessly uneventful Bart and bus ride I arrive at the venue around nine under the falsified guise that my deliberate tardiness would yield no visual or audio investment in the opener. This plan crashed down upon me as I found myself stuck in the trajectory of a lackluster opener. I circumvent my way through the ten or so people who punctually arrived to the show (of which I am now an official member) and take solitude at the bar satiating my throat with several pints of PBR and slipping into a coma of disinterest.
The opener, Scene Of Action, locally of the East Bay, didn’t register on my rock radar in any way, whatsoever. The motion of my drinking arm captivated my attention more than the audio dreck permeating from the stage. The only thing I remember about them was their drummer bore an uncanny resemblance to the singer from those god-awfully insipid Freecreditreport.com commercials but with an under nourished mustache.
The next band, Aarrows, also of the bay area, was more palatable than the opener but that’s not saying a whole lot. Although, most of their songs sounded like one long drawn out rhythmically angular jam, it was still a major upgrade from the previous band. Around this time frame the bar traffic began to slow to a gridlocked pace. I grabbed a few more pints before firmly planting my roots in front of the left side of the stage for the remainder of the evening.
At eleven o’clock The Duke Spirit wrestled the stage away from mediocrity and showed everyone at Bottom of the Hill what a proper show should sound like. Their stage setup was far more suffocating than at the Rickshaw. The band formed a crescent moon of sorts with Drummer Olly Betts and Keyboardist Travis Shettel anchoring the back line. Guitarist Daniel Higgins and his gear completely eclipsed Shettel and keyboard. Vocalist Liela Moss stood front and center while Bassist Toby Butler and Guitarist Luke Ford flanked the other side of the stage.
The band opened their set by charging through strong versions of “Love Token” and “Lasso” before Liela announced to the enthusiastic crowd that she was experiencing throat difficulties leading up to the show and at one point the band considered canceling the gig if her symptoms worsened, luckily for us they soldiered through it. The band followed up this startling announcement with an especially haunting rendition of “Dog Roses”, in which Liela’s sultry vocals swooned on a cloud of propulsive clatter emanating from the rest of the band before tearing the song wide open with a searing harmonica solo that hit me with the force of a lightning bolt. Seriously, though, “Dog Roses” live packs so much more punch than its studio counterpart. It was a standout at the Rickshaw and definitely a highlight of the evening.
“My Sunken Treasure” ensued before a dynamic performance of “The Step and Walk”. Another highlight of the evening, the song lurched seductively upon the talents of Butler’s fuzzed out bass and Bett’s tight drumming, which built up more steam and power as the song progressed. Ford and Higgins’ distorted guitars blaring wildly as Shettel’s eerie key flourishes slithered along the undercurrent of Moss’s fierce tambourine motions and sintilating “Oooh’s.” The song reaching maximum hip shaking velocity each time Liela belted out the chorus “With out joy joy joy and the rain I might feel the same”. That song is so fucking cool.
“Neptune’s Call”, the first of a two song encore medley, saw the band flexing all its sonic muscle. As soon Liela crooned the lines, “Neptune is my king again, his song in the sea” the rest of the band exploded into a blitzkrieg of pounding rhythms, driving guitars and banshee vocals sending me into a spasmodic vortex of sweat, beer residue and a mess of hair.
The rest of their set drew heavily from Neptune along with a handful of songs off Cuts Across the Land, including a blistering performance of “Love is Unfamiliar Name”. I really couldn’t tell that Liela was having throat problems because the band played exceeding well, although, stage banter was kept to a minimum taking time out periodically to thank the receptive crowd and the band. The Duke Spirit put on a very solid performance and it was certainly a thrill to see them again in such a short time frame.

Duke Spirit Setlist:
1. Send A Little Love Token
2. Lasso
3. Dog Roses
4. My Sunken Treasure
5. The Step and the Walk
6. Sovereign
7. Hello to the Floor
8. This Ship was Build to Last
9. You Really Wake the Love in Me
10. Red Water
11. Love is an Unfamiliar Name
Encore
12. Neptune’s Call
13. Cuts Across the Land

MLS, Primal Scream and Saturday Musings

Photo courtesy of Squirrel Records (UK Album Version)

It's another beautiful overcast morning here in San Francisco. I finally got my copy of The Manhattan Love Suicides compilation Burnt Out Landscapes yesterday and wanted to brag about how great it is. No big surprise that this is one of my favorite bands at the moment. I wrote more about them here . It came out last month via Squirrel Records in the UK and is scheduled for a domestic release in August via Magic Maker Records. The compilation contains 27 tracks of fuzzy noise pop bliss. Burnt Out Landscapes collects all the tracks from their three limited 7'' singles on Magic Maker Records, Lost Music Records and Squirrel Records, the three tracks from the out of print Cloudberry 3'' cd single. A WOXY radio session from last year's SXSW, four new tracks and a few miscellaneous songs bookend the rest of the disc. I've been listening to it nonstop for the past day and a half. It has done a proficient job at drawing my attention away from the Dime boards as I wait frantically for any scraps of The Fluid reunion shows in Seattle last weekend.
Here's two of my favorite songs from the compilation. Buy it here

Never Far From You

Heart and Panic

As mentioned below, SP20 went on and I was taking whatever morsels of information I could from The Seattle Times, who blogged during both days. For the most part I enjoyed the coverage. However, I was gravely disappointed that the journalists covering the event didn't mention any of the Fluid's (Saturday) set nor Green River's (Sunday). A paragraph briefly mentioned Mudhoney's set (Saturday). One journalist couldn't stop gushing about their professed love for Wolf Parade and their excitement over WP closing out the festivities, and this apparent love dwarfed more important coverage of the festival. Luckily, I scored Green River's set and it takes as many causalities as their show on the 10th, they're flat out killing it.

Onto some other good news a new Primal Scream album is on the way. The bad news is there is no set US release date, like most other Primal Scream albums, the US is neglected off the bat. I am hoping they'll be touring the US, although it's probably highly unlikely. Beautiful Future's gonna drop on July 21st. Here's the video for Can't Go Back. The video definitely reminds me of Vanishing Point/Xtrmntr era Primal Scream. Definitely a move away from the left turn on the more bluesy, Rolling Stones-sounding Riot City Blues, which according to most was a steamer. I am probably one of the five people that actually enjoyed it. I thought there were a couple of solid cuts hiding amongst the filler.

The Duke Spirit are playing Wednesday at Bottom Of the Hill I will be checking that out. A full review will follow that may be appearing else on the web. Stay Tuned for that one.
This is me leaving.

SP20

Green River. Photo courtesy of Kris Sproul.

Oh summer laziness, it's crawling on its last legs. A Banal part time job has bred not only a lack of money but also a lack of creativity. Sitting here watching "Amazing Journey," The story of the Who on VH1 Classic [side note: the doc is edited for tv and I am finding illogical closure with all these lame commericals] while I wait for the housing complex dryer to not heat my clothes correctly. I, wasting space assumed I would attempt some sort of update or rather just complain about how I wasn't lucky enough to go to SP20 in Seattle this weekend. For the uncooth, SP20 is the 20th anniversary celebration of Sup Pop Records, a long list of cool bands playing: Mudhoney, Green River, The FLuid, Pissed Jeans, etc. A history lesson of Subpop can be found here Subpop Wiki . I think I may have found the seemingly best alternatives presented to me at the present junction: Trolling Dime for torrents and constantly refreshing this blog The Seattle Times for band recaps. The torrents have already yielded a killtacular bootleg of Green River from the surprise warm show on the 10th at the Sunset Tavern along with the Fluid. I am crossing my fingers hard that both of the Fluid's sets will go up at some point. The taper of the Green River show hinted at it. This is me somewhat gushing about the Fluid here Old Post . They're playing later tonight at the festival. Now I am spent.