Goddamn. Has it been that long since we had new Ultimate Fakebook tunes? Download this, post-haste. I’ve had to wait through a morning of work and lunch with Thing 2 to get this, and it can’t download fast enough.
Sitting here in my basement, trying to wonder how I was wandering around last night in a hoodie, and am now shivering. I’m thinking the rain might have something to do with it now, and the beer might have had something to do with it last night. Either way, it’s nice to have an excuse to sit in the basement and write about last night’s shows while the pictures upload to the server.
The show, unsurprisingly, got started late. Everything I’d seen said a start time of 8pm, and the Receiving End probably got going around 8:45 or so. They only played five songs, though. New band - if it wasn’t their first show, it was pretty close, or so I heard. The Receiving End sound a lot like those early 80s Chicago punk acts like the Effigies or Naked Raygun, but with a female singer. The band has a two-guitar set-up, which I’ve always appreciated, because it allows something beyond barre chords and the possibility of actually playing off one another, as opposed to just pounding out riff after riff. There’s a pretty good low end to the band, as well. I like a band that gets a little groove going, rather than just playing a basic rhythm. Their lead singer started out a little nervous, but seemed to warm up and start moving around by the end of their set. Their demo’s pretty good, too - it includes the Buzzcocks’ “I Don’t Mind” they closed their set with, which is also a touchstone under which you could pin the band. (More Receiving End photos here)
Street Legal is one of those bands I’ve seen members of in tribute shows, and in other band, but never seen play a proper show. Their bassist immediately got my attention because he wore the same Grabass Charlestons t-shirt I own. I know it’s kind of sad to give a band some credit before you’ve even heard a note just because of a shirt, but it works. Street Legal’s guitarist, tho’, is the real reason to see ‘em. She goes back and forth between these post-punk chunky riffs and Bill Zoom style wailing. The band is pretty talented, but it got a little same-ol’, same-ol’ after a bit. (More Street Legal photos here)
Now, Weird Wounds were another band I’d seen members of in other local bands like Hairy Belafonte and Coat Party, but never seen as this particular configuration. Grant always goes pretty berserk in Hairy Belafonte, and it’s really no different here. Their bass player is one of those kids I see at every goddamn punk show, and still don’t know his fucking name. He bounces around on stage like he’s had way too much caffeine, tho’, and it’s fun as hell to watch. Grant yells and screams a lot, and the rest of the band pretty much just garage punks it up behind him. Fun times. It’s pretty much the perfect haflway point between Hairy Belafonte’s anarchic punk fest, and Coat Party’s more angular dance stuff. (More Weird Wounds pictures here)
Then, then, then… we got Masshysteri. On record, they’d always seemed to be pretty techincal, but live, they kind of rocked it out. Robert was moving around way more than I would have gathered, and for whatever reason, I’d not pictured them as looking and dressing pretty much no differently than the rest of the acts they were playing with. You get this idea that bands coming from overseas must be a pretty big deal to have crossed an ocean and half a country to get to the club a fifteen minute walk from your Kansas home, when in fact Masshysteri played to maybe a hundred kids on a Wednesday night. Their songs were pretty much all in Swedish, stage banter in English, and everyone bopped and rocked along to everything despite the language barrier. Bonus: they played a Vicious song, and it was “Alienated.” Amazing. (More Masshysteri photos here)
Afterward, the wife (who’d showed up at the Jackpot about midway through Masshysteri’s set) and I wandered across the street and caught the Spook Light’s return to the stage after a nearly six-month hiatus. The debuted new keyboard and bass player Zeppelina Mystery, who I’d really like to see play with them at another venue. This is no crack against Ms. Mystery at all, nor does it have anything to do with Seth running sound or anyone at the Replay. The Replay sound system is pretty basic, and when you’ve got two loud-ass guitars going on, heavy drumbeats, and Scary Manilow wailing away, the keys are going to get lost in the mix. It was on their last song (a new one that’s about the strongest one they’ve written thus far) that the keys came through, and during the feedback that drenched the stage as their set ended, I was convinced that this was where the band needs to go. Some bands go on hiatus, and come back sounding just the same, but the Spook Lights have added and tweaked to the point where I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing them again, to see what else they’ve got in store. (More Spook Lights pictures here)
the Receiving End - “People Disappear” (from Welcome Home)
When I was browsing Showlist Austin prior to my trip down to Texas for SXSW, I was seriously disappointed to find out that Sweden’s Masshysteri was playing three times the weekend after I left. I’d loved the Vicious, 3/4 of which are Masshysteri.
Both acts play a pretty garage-y kind of punk that manages to avoids the snottiness and lo-fi aesthetic that plagues most releases from that genre. Masshysteri, especially, has a very clean, direct sound that manages to cut through and just buzzsaw through your skull. Their Monoton Tid single on Feral Ward was a favorite of mine, and I’m kicking myself for not having picked up their full-length yet.
However, my love of the band and corresponding disappointment at not being able to see them in Austin was completely saved by Kelly at Love Garden telling me that he’d booked them for an April 1 gig at the Jackpot here in Lawrence. And, wouldn’t you know it, that’s tonight. And today is payday. And, as if a super-cool show with a great band from far across the Atlantic playing a fifteen-minute walk from my house wasn’t good enough, local purveyors of creepy rock ‘n’ roll the Spook Lights return from their six-month hiatus tonight. They’ll be debuting new tunes, a new keyboard player, and possibly new stuff on which to spend your hard-earned dollars at the Replay right around midnight.
What makes this night absolutely perfect is that you don’t even have to choose between these shows. The Masshysteri show is early, and will be over by midnight, at which point you walk right across the fucking street, pay your measly $2 cover at the Replay, and see Scary Manilow, Curvacia Vavoom, Jet Boy, et al, rock your socks off. You’ll get cold, unfeeling Swedish punk, followed by scary, possibly naked Midwest garage punk. You have no excuse not to double dip. I’ll have photos and a full report tomorrow.
Masshysteri - “Hatkärlek” (from Var Del Av Stan)
Perhaps best known for Self Control, their full-length on BYO Records, Kosher hailed from Warrensburg, Missouri. In the early years of this decade, they were stalwarts in the Kansas City punk scene that swirled around the all-ages El Torreon. Along with bands like Tanka Ray, Annie On My Mind, the Revolvers, and Sister Mary Rotten Crotch, Kosher was one of those bands that gigged regularly around the KC area, blasting the roof off of venues everywhere they went, be it all ages clubs like El Torreon or beer soaked dens of inquity like Davey’s Uptown.
Back in late 1999, I was host of the local music program, and I had Kosher play live on the air. It was a Sunday night, raining like crazy, and these kids drove all the way from Warrensburg to play twenty minutes of poorly produced music to a very small listening audience. Honestly - the radio station has a wattage of 2600, and doesn’t have a radius much over 50 miles. Still, they played their hearts out, and brought my girlfriend at the time and I copies of this 7″, their Death to Drama EP and stickers. I still have that recording, and I still kick myself for not doing a better job.
Bored In America was released in late 1999 / early 2000 on the Skull-Duggery label out of Massachusetts. It was limited to something like 300 copies, and if you didn’t get one, you’re pretty much fucked for finding a copy now. I refound this in the stacks of the college radio station where I work, with my handwriting scrawled all over it. The band had a full-length recorded before this EP, and it was simply entitled The Record, in what can only be described as a touching rip off tribute to Fear. The band on that album is astonishingly young, with liner notes requesting no one call the contact numbers listed inside too late because the band members still live with their parents.
This is probably Kosher at their most raw. It’s before they polished their sound into the focused attack it’d be on Self Control, but past the kiddie punk of The Record. This and Death to Drama feature a lot of the songs that would eventually make up Self Control, but in a far more lo-fi form. If you’re curious as to how the band sounded live, you can track down the Streetpunk ‘99 compilation on DSS Records. It features the band playing live the song “Punk Rock Pretty Boy,” which is only available on that comp.
Kosher - Bored In America 7″ EP
There’s “real” content coming in a little bit, but I am so proud of this stuff, I feel the need to share it here. The Kansas State Picking & Fiddling Championships were held here in Lawrence this past Sunday. In South Park, hundreds gathered to watch people play, and my family was among them.
We weren’t there to see just anyone, though. My son Tony was competing in the mandolin category. He placed third. Hell, yeah! And first and second were adults. Third best mandolin player in the state lives in my house, folks.
Pictures viewable here, taken by my sister Lauren.
Video, too… taken by me.
Back in December, the University of Kansas‘ student-run radio station KJHK 90.7FM released a compilation entitled Farm Fresh Sounds. The comp was a continuation of a tradition from KJHK’s early days, that being comps that featured the best in what Lawrence and the surrounding area had to offer in music.
The comp was “only available at the release show.” Well, officially. The copies not given away at the show got put up in downtown record stores and sent off to college radio stations across the country. Aaaaaaaaannnnnnndddddddd… you can now download that fucker for free.
Download Farm Fresh Sounds right here.
More stuff from the Spook Lights: “Curvacia’s Theme” and “Turkey Trot.” Look for a record from these garage-surf delinquents later this year.
If you can learn to read sheet music then taking music lessons and practicing will be easier.
Based out of Kansas City, Missouri, the Last of the V8s are a rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse featuring former members of underground rock legends Cretin 66 and the Ramalamas. Recently resurrected after a three-year hiatus, the V8s are currently working on their album for Dead City Records (which can be expected out sometime late summer or early fall). The whole band (and drummer Kriss Ward’s girlfriend and band photographer Tracy Brewer) was cool enough to sit down with me in late April before their show at Lawrence, Kansas’ Replay Lounge. read more »
The Embarrassment play their reunion show at Liberty Hall on August 20. But it should make for an amazing weekend of reunited Kansas bands. The band out of Wichita, Kansas, was sort of the MidWest’s coolest underground band. I never saw them live, ’cause they were around way before my time.
However, if you’re cool, then you’re probably hip to their Heyday double cd on Bar None that collects almost everything they ever recorded. That’s out of print, but you may also be able to track down the Blister Pop collection on My Pal God, which is still in print.
Better than Dinosaur Jr. or Built to Spill, in my opinion. Catchy, punky, and rocking all at once. Never pretentious, always entertaining, and I will get to see them live right after I get my student loan check. Drinks are on me.
Little Hits will let you download “I’m a Don Juan” off the 1981 The Embarassment Ep for free.
There’s also four mp3s to download at their MySpace page.
For the first time in about a year, I worked the door for a show at the local bbq establishment, rather than some Greek society function. I’d had a long day at work, and meeting up with friends from out of town. Such a long day that I came home afterwards and crashed four nearly four and a half hours before I had to go work the show. It was, as per usual, a local show, made up of bands who aren’t likely to play any of the more “name” clubs, aside from the occasional bone thrown to them. This may have something to do with the quality of their performances or the style of music the bands play. It may also be due to the fact that the guest list for last night’s show was a two-column affair that consumed an entire piece of college-rule notebook paper.
While working, I had to listen to some shitty indie rock, a band made up of most of the former members of Nowhere Fast (The Gunning System), and Sacco & Vanzetti, who are this awful drum and guitar duo. Yet, despite all their awfulness and fondness for Pink Floyd-style guitar excurisions, they’re still a band who managed to play a fucking note-perfect version of the Kingmen’s “Louie, Louie”. Bizarre.
There were quite a few young rock skanks / sluts there, as well. I’d thought that slip dresses fell out of style sometime around 1998, but evidently blonde girls with low self-esteem are still into them. One young lass dressed as such was leaned against the wall next to her boyfriend, and as she bent over to rummage through her purse, he lifted up the back of her dress and fondled her ass. Classy.
Sacco & Vanzetti ended up playing until ten ’til two, making the guy running the show a total inconsiderate dick for letting them go on that long. There was still a sound-system to tear down, tables to move, floors to sweep, chairs to be put on tables… and that’s to say nothing of getting folks out the fucking door by two. They sent me home as soon as things were normal, which was good, ’cause the wife seemed a bit worried.
So, to all you kids wanting to put on shows, here’s a few rules you might want to follow:
1) Set a definite end time for the show. I don’t care if the bands are awesome or your friends or whatever. The venue can’t really get cracking on the clean-up until you’re out of there.
2) Limit your guestlist numbers. The bands will make more money, and if the folks can’t afford three bucks, they can’t afford to drink or (more importantly) tip, and that’s going to make the venue not want them in their establishment.
3) Most importantly… be consistent. Make EVERYONE get ID’d. Band members, the folks taking the money, your sound man - EVERYONE. It makes the door guy’s job easier, it makes shit easier on security, and it makes the bartenders less likely to ask the door guy and security to watch people drinking underage.
the Kingsmen - “Louie, Louie“
Well, looks like changing the channel last night was a mistake. The wife and I were watching NCIS in between interruptions from the children, and after that was the season permiere of the Amazing Race. Being as how I hate reality television, I opted not to watch it and switch over to Comedy Central instead.
Guess I should have stayed on CBS. One of the “racers” is a guy I know. One Mr. David Spiker. That name may sound a bit familiar to MidWest music fans, and especially MidWest ska fans, as Dave is the lead singer and guitarists for Ruskabank.
This is weird. I’ve seen local people from teevee after they were on… um, that doesn’t make any sense. Let me explain- I’ve never known or seen anybody from teevee before they were on the tube. Frankie from Real World season 14 is from KC, but I never knew who she was until the show aired. After that season, I saw her at the Brick something like three or four times in as many months.
Dave, however, I know. I’ve chatted with him dozens of times. I’ve reviewed both Ruskabank discs. Fuck, back in ‘99, I slept on the man’s floor after a particularly raucous night in Manhattan. But the man is witty as hell and I hope to God he does well. I’m just pissed I missed the first episode. Thank the lord for Mininova, eh?
from I Don’t Think You Hear me, Though
Ruskabank - “Give It Up”
Ruskabank - “Lover’s Sea“
from This Took Some Time
Ruskabank - “I Been Around“