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2007:01:31:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: HELIGOATS (#217, JAN 19 2007). About a year after seeing the amazing Heligoats/Jason Anderson show, we saw Heligoats again, but this time it was Chris Otepka by himself. He's been in the studio working on a new record for several months, and this is presumably one of the songs that will be on it. Like most of what he played in his set, Chris gave a description before playing this one -- shorter than most of them -- that expanded on what the song was all about. Some of them, like the one about the middle-aged couple that pretend to sleep, were really more like extended complementary stories than song introductions.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:29:16:38. Monday. MONDAY CAT BLOGGING. Ghost cats!
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:29:08:00. NO!: THE BOX SOCIAL (#216, JAN 6 2007).
I noted a couple weeks ago that I'd gone to a show at the Loft and gotten almost all useless footage because of the camera's less-than-capable built-in mic. In fact, this clip was the only salvageable thing out of an hour or so of footage that featured four different bands. And even this -- just Box Social singer Nick Junkunc and his guitar -- is almost too much in places. The needle tips into the red a bit when the lyrics peek, which makes me really thankful for those little bootlegger mics I found.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:26:08:00. Friday. NO!: THE BOX SOCIAL (#215, JAN 18 2007).
Probably my favorite song of the Box Social's new material is this song, "Pay Attention." The opening back-and-forth presents a lot of opportunities as a video transition (which betrays how I'm thinking of these things lately) but I also find the change in tone from the verses to the chorus to be really catchy.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:24:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: THE BOX SOCIAL (#214, JAN 18 2007).
Over the course of the last few months I've been producing a documentary for the Box Social about their album-recording process. During my time in the studio with them, this song and "Easy Does It" (which I posted an early version of last spring) are the ones that I heard the most, and consequently they're the ones that tended to get stuck in my head. Above and beyond my chronic exposure to it, though, I think this is a solid pop song that has some potential. It's got a Local H-ish vibe to it, but thicker, and it makes for a good set opener.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:22:08:00. Monday. NO!: THE BOX SOCIAL (#213, JAN 18 2007).
The Box Social are getting their upcoming LP ready to go and also heading back to school, so they're off the road for a while and playing a few home shows like this one at the King Club. This song is the first single from the record and got a pretty good crowd response. I've warmed up to it a lot since I first heard it -- I generally don't like music about music, but I really like the way the bright verses transition to a much darker metal sound in the chorus.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:19:08:00. Friday. NO!: JAIL (#212, JAN 11 2007). Every once in a while, Jail turns out a song that's entirely in the vein of the pop gems of the mid-60's, and this new song is one of those. The jangly verses and call-and-answer chorus would, I think, make for a nice centerpiece on their next record.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:18:00:13. Thursday. NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME. I've got the Saturday Night [Live] first season DVDs from the library, and I'm kind of surprised at what a revelation they are. I never would have expected them to have pushed the meta-comedy so hard from the very beginning -- practically the entire second half of the season features, rather than a straight-up Chevy Chase pratfall, Chase complaining about the pratfall bit. Scenes are broken; the fourth wall is shattered. And the humor is unbelievably efficient -- even if the build-up is extensive, the punchline is never dragged out or harped on. Chase's Gerald Ford -- recently in a bit of spotlight again following Ford's death -- is also the kind of thing that's totally out of sync with the current show, or with political satire in general today. Instead of some guy in a full costume trying to impersonate George Bush's speech and mannerisms, imagine if what you saw was some guy who looked nothing like George Bush, talked nothing like George Bush and was constantly finding ways to be choking on a pretzel. Over and over, a joke about comedy that builds on itself until its the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. Wow. Current SNL writers, please feel free to shove "Deep House Dish" up your asses.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:17:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: JAIL (#211, JAN 11 2007). When we went to Michigan for four days after Xmas, the weather was crap the whole time. We only saw a little bit of actual rain, but we had total cloud cover the entire time we were outside of Madison. As soon as we got home it cleared up, only to turn dim again when we left town to go to this show. It was that kind of awful wetness were you can't even see the lane lines anymore and everybody keeps slamming on their brakes for no good reason. This was trumped two days later when I drove back to Milwaukee out of a snowstorm. All of which has nothing to do with this new song, one of three new ones they played during their set.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:16:12:07. Tuesday. JACK AND TEDDY. After two years on the national stage, Obama is running for President. I can't help but feel he's right on the issues but wrong on the politics. From his speech today:
But challenging as they are, it's not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It's the smallness of our politics. America's faced big problems before. But today, our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common sense way. Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can't tackle the big problems that demand solutions.
And that's what we have to change first. We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans. Obama sees himself as Jack Kennedy, I think, but 2008 is not a Kennedy moment. Jack Kennedy was able to happen, in part, because we'd found a way beyond the rancor of McCarthyism. It was the beginning of a new era, and time for younger men to take charge. It was a fairy tale, really, but there it was. But right now we are anything but beyond rancor. Indeed, the "smallness of our politics" is liable to get worse over the next two years, as the Republicans bristle against their new place in the minority and over a dozen candidates seek the Presidency. When we need right now is not a Jack Kennedy, but a Mikhail Gorbachev -- someone who can lead a transition with purpose and then disappear. Obama underestimates the GOP machine, I think, probably because he never saw it firsthand in the Illinois statehouse and during his two years in Senate its been imploding. That's not going to last, and even if it did, its last throes would be violent ones. A truth and reconciliation moment is needed, but it can't happen until the old guard's defeat is total. Still, I can't help but hope he wins. He is probably the most unlikely major candidate ever, and his victory would put some meat on the bones of "anyone can grow up to be President" for the first time in the country's history. But that's not why I'd like to see him win. If 2008 isn't his moment, he does still have one in the future, and that moment's probably never going to come. If he runs a competitive campaign (that is to say, well into the primary season at least) but doesn't win, he becomes Teddy Kennedy instead of Jack, close but not close enough and leading the liberal caucus in the Senate for decades. I can't see him getting another chance after his honeymoon is well and truly over and he's already lost once, and even if 2008 is not the time, I'd rather see an imperfect Obama moment than none at all. While Al Gore bides his time, I'm waiting for Obama to convince me.
2007:01:15:08:00. Monday. NO!: JAIL (#210, JAN 11 2007).
This week (and, indeed, next week) I'd planned to be running clips from a local band showcase at the Loft a week ago. Turns out, though, that my new camera's one weakness is the built-in mic. Almost everything I recorded was just a wall of garbled, distorted noise. Luckily, it does have a connection for an external mic, and I went right out and bought a hand-built audience mic set from AudioReality.com. My first chance to test them out was this Jail show, in what I expect will be some of the worst conditions I'll record in -- a small room with not that many people to absorb soundwaves, and standing right by a wall to boot. Despite all that, the sound came out decent enough considering I didn't have time to test the bass filter settings.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:12:08:00. Friday. NO!: CAKE (#209, JAN 1 2007).
The biggest difference I noticed between this show and our previous Cake show a couple years back was the lack of songs like this -- severely extended versions in which John McCrea spends three or four minutes giving audience participation the hard sell. There were a few this time, but at the last show it seemed like they did nothing but. It was probably for the best this time, as he seemed to have trouble getting some of the crowd going and it was a less intimate venue.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:11:15:31. Thursday. HOW AN IMPEACHMENT REALLY FEELS. Those who remember the proceedings that would have led to the impeachment of Richard Nixon may recall that the hearings weren't limited to the crimes committed relating to Watergate -- they also probed Nixon's escalation of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. For a variety of reasons, these actions weren't included in the articles of impeachment that were eventually drawn up. Nonetheless, this is the historical context in which George Bush's subtle promise to attack both Iran and Syria should be considered. There is, I think, no chance that the Democratic Congress would approve any action against Iran or Syria barring some exogenous event (e.g., one of those countries opening attacking U.S. troops in Iraq). There is also, I think, no chance that the Bush Administration cares. If they decide it's time to shock and awe Tehran, then it's going to happen. In that eventuality, there is only one recourse: impeachment. More specifically, double impeachment, since President Cheney would hardly be inclined to change course just because half the House and two-thirds of the Senate said he ought to -- after all, he's already got 88% of the American public against him on escalation. The rub of removing both Bush and Cheney is this: Next in line for the Presidency is Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and a woman. This sets up the Republican noise machine for the only thing it's really good for: counter-whining. The opportunity to spin such a move as a coup -- notwithstanding the fact that it would take the help of at least 16 Republican Senators -- would give them a chance to take the focus off Iraq and put it on the perception gang that the Washington media love to play. So here's the solution. Impeach them both simultaneously, with the proviso that Pelosi promises not to run for a full term in 2008. This is not because there's anything necessarily wrong with her as President (though I suspect she would rather be a long-term Speaker than become President), but because it takes the long-term coup question off the table. The double-impeachment move then becomes about the steadying and securing of the ship of state for the next 18 months or so. Pelosi could pledge to appoint Chuck Hagel as Vice-President or something, but the details of such a compromise aren't especially important in the big picture. That's the kind of bipartisan moxie that every can approve of.
2007:01:11:08:00. NO!: CAKE (#208, JAN 1 2007).
I suppose this is as good a place as any to talk about the show in general. Here's the thing: When you knowingly overpay for a new year's "event" show, you really oughtn't have any lingering ripped-off feelings afterwards. Somehow, whatever Milwaukee radio station put this show together managed to cause just that, however. Most of what was advertised for the show simply wasn't there. The first opening act, the Scarring Party, actually played a "pre-party" before the main show. The complimentary hors d'oeurves apparently didn't last until showtime. We'd read about tarot card readers somewhere, which didn't happen. The midnight champagne toast was apparently just for the band, who used the stroke of 2007 as an opportunity for an unannounced ten-minute break in their set. And, of course, cocktails were almost $8 at the bar. I guess what I'm saying is, if your MOR radio station wants to put on a show like this and not come through, fine, but please don't have your stupid morning zoo crew DJ's spend fully a half an hour on stage doing their schtick. I'd have gladly chipped in an extra $5 to not sit through that idiocy, which is the biggest reason I don't listen to the radio as it is. That said, please enjoy this cover of Bread's "The Guitar Man."
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:10:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: CAKE (#207, JAN 1 2007).
It's sort of ironic that this is the song with which I debut my flashy new graphics for 2007. It's also sort of ironic that it's from a show we paid almost $200 total to see. Easily the best song from Cake's first album, it's a bouncy screed against scene kids, music industry stooges and the product that we call "rebellion." Most of the people there didn't get it, I think, in particular the people behind us who kept screaming out random lyrics without a hint of self-awareness -- these same people had spent the intermission loudly complaining about some guy they thought was a "fuckin' homo," so maybe I'm just choosing not to give them the benefit of the doubt. The point is, it's as good a reality check as there is for the Gen XYZ narcissists who think their $30 Hot Topic t-shirts make them unique, and that anyone thinks they're scary. Whatever happened to rock and roll, anyway? I don't mean the music, which remains at least as vibrant as it's been for the past ten years or so, and I don't even really mean the attitude, but the viewpoint. Why do I see band members' parents at every fucking local show I go to these days? Why do I see 98-pound boys with four-inch spacers singing songs that land somewhere between John Mayer and James Blunt? How did contemporary American youth come to absorb marketing imagery to such a degree? Can I assume this is somehow the fault of the Baby Boomers? I hope so, because I do. "Excess ain't rebellion," the song says, "Your chaos won't convert them." And all they want to say is that they want to be heard. (Oh yeah, halfway through the song, some woman somehow got on stage and started shaking her junk, and it just happened to be right in frame. Serendipity, I'd wager.)
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:09:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: CAKE (#206, DEC 31 2006).
I love going to see a band that I haven't listened to in a while, and then early in the show they play a really great song. Just some amazing album cut that isn't one of their hits, or a song that necessarily comes immediately to mind when you think of them, but a killer song that makes you want to cheer just hearing the first few notes. Seriously, this is a fucking awesome song, one of their best.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:08:08:00. Monday. NO!: CAKE (#205, DEC 31 2006).
After our second set of "extreme juggling," which maybe I'll get around to YouTubing one of these days, Cake came out to the roaring admiration of the crowd. They opened with, of all things, this album cut from their fourth record. A surprising choice, I thought, but one which provided plenty of moments for both the trumpet and the vibraslap to shine.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:07:08:00. Sunday. NO!: SCREAMIN' CYN-CYN & THE PONS (#204, JAN 7 2006).
Bonus! I'd meant to post this last month sometime, but forgot about it until I was finalizing the DVD's, which uses this clip under its credits sequence. I recorded this clip one year ago today, at the Dials' High Noon show, for which Screamin' Cyn-Cyn & the Pons were the last opening act. The Pons are a local noise/speed metal/drag punk act that everybody really ought to see once in their life. Their short bursts of energy -- this one coming in at about a minute long -- are hilariously engaging, and their set is really a kind of cracked-out lounge act unto itself. See them.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:05:08:00. Friday. NO!: MARITIME (#203, DEC 31 2006).
With a sell-out crowd of about 2700 in the seats, this was Maritime's biggest ever hometown show. They played up to the occasion, at least to my eyes and ears. Unlike many club bands, who don't know how to use all the space of a theater stage, they spread out, moved around and used the whole room. Unfortunately, there were still lots of ushers wandering around with latecomers in the aisle, so I had to duck the camera out of sight here and there, not wanting it to be removed half an hour into the show. Turned out that they didn't really care, I think, but you never can tell with bigger venues.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2007:01:02:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: MARITIME (#202, DEC 31 2006).
Well, with a new year here, it's upgrade time. I got for Xmas a Canon Elura 100 DV camcorder, and its first time out was the big new year's eve show with Cake and Maritime at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. This first Maritime clip is the very first thing I recorded with the camera -- you may notice that it's in widescreen, that there are zooms in and out, that the video is really clean-looking, etc. It's a terrific little camera, especially for its size -- it's not much bigger than the Sony Cybershot I'd been using, and fits right in the palm of my hand. I'll be using it to record most stuff I post from now on, except for shows where I have to sneak a camera in very sneakily. This song was the first one that made me take notice of Maritime, when I heard it on their debut EP back in 2003. It's a great, simple pop song that encapsulates the earliest incarnation of their sound really well. Not everybody in the audience thought so, though, since as you'll see tons of people were coming and going or just standing in the aisle for no particular reason during the set.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra |
