Criminally Beautiful Performance of the Day: Jesse Winchester

Thanks to Sal Nunziato over at Burning Wood for the tip on this incredible performance by Jesse Winchester.  Taped during an episode of Elvis Costello's music/interview show, Spectacle, on The Sundance Channel, the emotional power of the lyrics along with Winchester's understated vocal performance just blew me away.

And in case you ever doubt what music means to the people who make a living from it, catch the tear gently falling down Neko Case's cheek towards the end of the song. 

Criminally Forgotten Band of the Day: The Excessories

Here is another band left gathering dust on my external hard drive until recently.  Via Curty Ray at PowerPop Overdose from more then a year ago, comes the pop-punk sounds of The Excessories.  Unfortunately, their 2001 debut release, Pure Pop For Punk People, along with appearances on a couple of compilation albums seems to be the sole recorded output for the band. 

After disbanding the group in 2002, the Coffee's, lead singer Melanie and guitarist Rich, promptly moved to Las Vegas in pursuit of other interests (click on the link to check out Melanie's intriguing art photography).   They did leave behind a helluva record, though.  Check out Summer and The Earthquake Song and tell me it isn't a shame these guys didn't stick around.

Criminally Forgotten Band of the Day: Four O'Clock Balloon

It's like getting a birthday present and forgetting to open it.  In September '08, the good folks over at Power Pop Criminals, passed along the 1997 self-titled debut of Miami-based Four O'clock Balloon.  It only took me 14 months to finally get around to listening to it. 

This album has to go down as one of the lost treasures of the Power Pop world.  Aside from their lead-off position in Volume 4 of the Yellow Pills compilations, their debut is the sole recorded artifact from this band.  Two additional CD's were released in the late 90's, but I'll be damned if I can find a trace of them on the innertubz.

Here are my two favorite tracks from this album Ripley and The Joker Laughs At You.  Make sure you have your headphones on for the second track.

Criminally Awesome Cover Song of the Day: Cake - I Will Survive

I absolutely LOVE this!

Criminally Awesome Cover Song of the Day: Crooked Fingers - Solitary Man

Since we highlighted that crap Neil Diamond Christmas song the other day, why not give a listen to one of his tunes of the non-crap variety performed by Crooked Fingers.  Let me know what you think!

Who spiked the egg nog and why didn't you spike it harder?

Has anyone tried the figgy pudding yet?

Gee Whiz, It's Christmas!

So, was Santa good to you?

Merry Christmas!!!

Via Oliver Willis.

'Zat You Santa Claus?

Run, Run Rudolph!

An early Christmas present...

Christmas Wrapping...with The Sims!

Great work from CattehCupcake...

Taddy Porter- The band, not the beer!

After nearly three months on a train tour from hell, we arrived in the cultural mecca of Oklahoma City. Actually, Oklahoma City has a pretty lively area called Bricktown, which, fortunately, was within walking distance of both the train station and the hotel.

In an attempt to get away from LA attitudes and "Christmas in August", I found a really great beer bar and started working the taps. I started talking to a guy next to me who was in a band and was playing a set at a place a couple of doors down. He persuaded me to head down there and check out the show.

My friend's band was incredibly awful and I can't even remember their name. A couple of music heads in the audience told me to wait around and check out the headliner, Taddy Porter. I am very glad I did.

Okay, I had been in a kind of live music slump and so my resistance was down. But, seriously, these guys ROCKED. The oldest guy is probably about 20, and the biggest guy probably weighed 120 pounds, but they put on an absolutely incredible, high energy show. The music sounds like a cross between the Allman Brothers and Bad Company channeled through the ears of somebody who had to listen to New Kids on the Block daily on Oklahoma radio but somehow was able to throw that crap away and reinvent 70's hard rock. Here's a sample:


They self-released a CD, Monocle, which is decent but does not, in any way, capture their live energy. The band is based in Oklahoma and does most of their touring in that area, but if they ever get near where you live, you ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE THEM. Downing some Imperial IPA before the show will enhance the effect.

Love and Kisses,

RonNasty

Criminally Awesome Cover Song of the Day: Kristin Hersh - Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey

Ex-Throwing Muses front woman Kristin Hersh digs deep into The Beatles catalog for this one.

The true spirit of Christmas touches us all...

...even heroin addicts!  Via CollegeHumor.

Watch A Heroin Addicts Christmas and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Criminally Awesome Cover Song of the Day: The Mavericks - Here Comes My Baby

Here is the incredible Raul Malo and The Mavericks take on an all-time classic.

Even Santa has to keep up with the times...

...from the sick f#@ks at Black20.

Criminally Awesome Cover Song of the Day:Steve Earle - Time Has Come Today

Steve Earle takes on the Chambers Brothers Classic Time Has Come Today

The Lady Gaga Christmas album you've been waiting for...

...courtesy of the folks at Landline TV.

I have a hot stock tip for ya!

Just in case you were wondering who the big winner has been in the health care reform debate, take a gander at the stock market results for the major health insurance firms over the past month.  Via The Huffington Post.

"Nuff said.  

Criminally Awesome Cover Songs of the Day: Johnny Cash - Hurt & Desperado

I recently received a copy of Johnny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around from SwapaCD, the indispensable music trading website.  I had this album on my Wish List primarily on the strength of Hurt, The Man In Black's incredible cover of the Nine Inch Nails classic.  But the wonders of this album do not begin and end with its most famous track.

American IV is an album of mostly covers, along with several JC-penned tunes, a number of which The Man had recorded previously.  Released in 2002, in the aftermath of years of illness, the lyrical content of the collection seems to have been particularly meaningful to Cash.  Coming a year prior to his death, the somber tone of most of the tracks serves to amplify the incredible emotion poured into the performances.

Anyone who knows even a fraction of Cash's life story will appreciate the context of these songs.  The expressions of devotion for the love of his live, June Carter Cash.  The pain and regret caused by the mistakes he had made along the way.  His pride at a life, for all its flaws, lived his way.  And after fourteen tracks created by a man who knew his days were growing short, the fifteenth song of the cycle speaks not of his life, but to his family, friends and fans.  Cash's version of the World War II classic We'll Meet Again brings the album to a heartfelt, emotional close.    

This ranks as my favorite cover song of all-time...JC's award-winning video for Hurt...
   


...here is The Man's take on The Eagles Desperado...



...and because I can't help myself, We'll Meet Again...

An important Christmas message...

...from Trojan?????  Courtesy of the fine folks at College Humor.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Criminally Awesome Cover Song of the Day: Natalie Merchant - Space Oddity

My Tom Waits post from the other day got me thinking about cover songs in general.  I used to think that if you weren't going to place your own stylistic stamp on the song, why bother?  Let's say, my thinking on the subject has...evolved. 

Over the years, I have picked up a significant number of cover mixes that, while certainly hit-or-miss, contained some real gems.  Some of my favorite the mixes were created by the folks doing God's work at Box Set Go.  Here is a favorite from their 1969 tribute...the ethereal Natalie Merchant with a 1999 performance of Space Oddity. 

Let's turn this into a Covers theme week, shall we?  Back with more tomorrow.

Santa Claus gets the "True Hollywood Story" treatment...

...and it's not pretty.  Not safe for work.  Not safe for home.  Via Atom.

Xtreme Biography: Santa

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Atom Originals | Holiday Hits List: 2009

Criminally Underappreciated Band of the Day: Supergrass

Over a six album career spanning 16 years, Supergrass has never disappointed.  Although their years of British commercial success stretched from the mid- to late-90's, the band has continued to evolve musically, with 2005's Road To Rouen my personal choice as their career best...so far.  

For the perfect primer on the Supergrass sound, you can't go wrong with Supergrass is 10, the bands 2004 greatest hits collection.  From the 2004 Glastonbury Festival, here is a righteous version of  Alright, off the band's debut album.  The crowd's reaction at the beginning of the clip gives me chills.  In addition to an acknowledgment of the general awesomeness of this clip, my reaction may be further notice that, perhaps, I need to get out more.  Ahhhh...just go listen... 



...and one more for good luck, a rockin' version of Caught By The Fuzz, from Later with Jools Holland...

"Tis The Season...

...for horrible Christmas music.  Over at List of the Day, Cary has been running the Christmas Turd of the Day series for a couple of weeks now.  As background, let me just say that the nice folks in the office at work have been listening to one of those "All Christmas songs, all the time" radio stations, since November 16th.  I hope the holidays are over soon, because if I have to listen to Lou Monte singing about Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey one more time, my head is gonna explode. 

As I result of being force-fed the same crappy Christmas songs every day for over a month, I feel eminently qualified to discuss this issue.  Last week I heard a new and especially odious piece of excrement that left me dreaming not for a White Christmas, but a quick painless death.  One of LOTD's readers suggested this very same piece of shite as a Turd of the Day and offered up the perfect description to go along with it:

Have you heard Neil Diamond's new shitter 'Cherry Cherry Christmas' where he name-drops all his hits? Weasel (hubby) calls it Neil Diamond's Christmas Carol Tribute to Neil Diamond

"Nuff said.



  

A (fairly) new Beatles documentary! How did I miss this?

Channel surfing the other day, DK Jr. stumbled upon All Together Now, a 2008 documentary about the making of the Cirque du Soleil/Apple Corps production of Love. Now Junior, proving the apple has not fallen far from the tree, immediately recorded the entire film on DVR for his dear old dad to savor.  He's such a good boy!

Was I surprised to see the Cirque du Soleil production staff huddled around Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison discussing how many John, Paul, George and Ringo songs were included in the show during an early dress rehearsal?  No.  Was I shocked at the clips of the Mirage casino boss reciting the total expense of the project and how many millions of $'s it was costing him every month the specially-rebuilt arena housing the show was bereft of paying customers?  Not exactly.  Was I stunned to see the performers walking through individual show components, complete with props, almost a year before the actual premiere?  Hell yes.  The film documents the hard-work and dedication of the producers, cast and crew that succeeded in pulling off a once-in-a-lifetime project.  I can't recommend it highly enough.   

Anyway, if you haven't listened to Love, the epic, album-length remix of approximately 130 musical elements taken solely from the original Beatles master recordings, I suggest you do so as soon as possible.  And for a quick taste of the documentary, why not check out the trailer.

THE SEVEN PILLARS OF THE BRITISH INVASION: SYD BARRETT'S PINK FLOYD

The Pink Floyd of the mid-1960's was a far different band from the one that made Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. The early Floyd was dominated by their slightly off kilter (and soon to be batshit crazy) lead singer, Syd Barrett. Syd helped Floyd create two incredible bits of psychedelia (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Saucerful of Secrets) and well as enough singles and B-sides to fill up a great odds and sods collection (Relics). Here's a great video of Floyd on Top of The Pops:


Syd, always a bit on the fragile side, started taking liberal amounts of acid, which no doubt helped him develop what some people think was the entire psychedelic movement. It also, no doubt, propelled him into major psychological problems which he sadly never recovered from. After the two Floyd albums, the other band members grew increasingly tiresome of Barrett's behavior and they parted ways. Barrett came out with a couple of solo records then withdrew permanently from music and society in general. Here's another great original video clip from 1966:



Pink Floyd obviously soldiered on, with Roger Waters taking over writing duties and David Gilmour doing the lead vocals, but they produced some truly incomprehensible shit (seriously, have you ever been able to listen to all of Ummagumma or Atom Heart Mother?) before finding their voice as a very different band. What is really amazing is that these clips are now 43 years old and that Barrett was only 20 years old when he made this stuff!



Sadly, Sid passed away in 2006 after a bout with pancreatic cancer.

Shine on, Sid.

Love and kisses,

RonNasty

Criminally Unknown Band of the Day: The Elms

Thanks to Fathermosh from Fix It In The Mix, for pointing me to The Elms.  The video he posted sounded great, so I clicked right on over to Amie Street and picked up the full download of their '09 release The Great American Midrange.  Picture the heartland-infused lyrics of John Mellencamp only with less pretension and better hooks. 

Now this is a pretty clever idea, taking the movie trailer approach to an album preview. Here is a three-minute tour of the entire album. I guarantee it will leave you wanting more...



...and just to show that they can bring it live as well, here is The Shake

For all you Quentin Tarantino fans out there.

The Tarantino mixtape you didn't know you needed. Via Today's BIG Thing

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

The Glenn Beck Show, in four easy steps!

From Cracked  via Huffington Post...

Tom Waits...you either love him or you hate him.

There can be no in-between. I would hazard a guess that Waits wouldn't have it any other way. Steve Simels was talking about this song over at PowerPop the other day, as part of his Compare and Contrast series (in my humble opinion, some of the best posts on the innertubz). Fortunately for all of us, Steve couldn't pull the trigger and post the Rod Stewart half of the comparison, an abomination much more familiar to the listening public. So sit back, relax and enjoy Downtown Train, the way it was meant to be heard.

Criminally Defunct Band of the Day: The Flashing Lights

Picked up The Flashing Lights 2001 release Where The Change Is a year or so ago from a Not Lame clearance sale (I think...not really sure).  Somehow, the disc got buried and never took a spin on the stereo until today.  Wow.  Let me emphasize my point.  WOW!  This is a start-to-finish piece of Power Pop perfection.

Bruce Brodeen, Mr. Not Lame,  tells us that their sound "has elements of Owsley, Sloan, 10cc, early Who and great singing" by ex-Super Friendz frontman Matt Murphy.  That is a rather impressive roster of influences, but Mr. Murphy and Co. pull it off in rather spectacular fashion.

Here are the boys with their high tech video for Highschool.

You gotta be kiddin' me- Creed was in the Grass Roots?

The Office is one of my favorite shows. One of my favorite characters is Creed, a slightly off-kilter, very creepy old guy who you wouldn't be surprised to see the cops drag away in an upcoming episode.

Under the "You gotta be f*ckin' kidding me" department, the real Creed (Bratton) was the former lead guitarist for the 60's group the Grass Roots! Here's a picture of the band, with Creed on the top left:



Creed has just come out with a new song and video, available for download on the NBC website:





To give you some additional perspective, here's a clip of the band doing their hit, "Let's Live For Today":



Who says thre isn't life after Rock and Roll (although in all fairness, he left the band in 1969 and started with the show in 2004).

Love and kisses,

RonNasty

Criminally Unknown Band of the Day: Editors

The Birmingham, UK-based Editors are eight years and three CD's into a promising career specializing in mid-and uptempo Indie Rock featuring the striking, baritone vocals of Tom Smith.  I first stumbled across this band in the wake of their 2007 sophomore release, An End Has A Start.  An eye-opening wall of sound that left me wanting more. 

Ignore the Interpol comparisons that have spread across the web, this band has the chops and the hooks to stake their own claim as a band to reckoned with.  From the 2008 Glastonbury Festival, here is Escape The Nest.  Check it out and let me know what YOU think!

“Mathematics is the only science where one never knows what one is talking about nor whether what is said is true” - Bertrand Russell

My guess is that Roger Ailes and his staff have taken Russell's quote to heart.  Far be it from me to accuse Fox News of dumbing down our national discourse.  Or suggest that they enroll their employees in remedial math courses.  But...

That is some magical calculatin' there Fox.  Not that this is an isolated incident, or anything.  Via Amanda Terkel and the folks doing God's work over at Think Progress. 

Free Music from Justin Kline!!!!

Thanks to Steve from the indispensable Absolute Powerpop for the head's up on a sweet offer from Justin Kline.  You can download a free copy of his 2008 EP, Six Songs!  Free, that is, after you give up the e-mail addresses of your five closest friends,.  If that doesn't sit right with you, or if you don't HAVE five friends, go ahead and pay whatever your heart desires.  Just roll right on over to the Free Music thingy on the right-side of this here blog.  Go ahead.  You'll thank me.  And when you're done, go over and give Absolute Powerpop a little love.     

In case you are commitment-phobic and the thought of sharing e-mail addresses with a total stranger is too frightening a concept, here is a taste of Mr. Kline's music. He sounds like such a nice young man. So go ahead, make his day and accept his generous offer. You'll be glad you did!

WTF!!!!!

Now look...I know there's lotsa crap on the innertubz that make you say wtf...but seriously...WTF!!!!!  Via the incredibly cool August J. Pollack over at Some Guy with a Website.

Criminally Unknown Band of the Day: The So So Glos

So where was I yesterday?  Oh yeah, the Ted Leo show earlier this month was incredible.  There was no doubt that Ted and The Pharmacists were gonna kick some serious ass that night.  That said, a lesser band would have paled in comparison to the jet-fueled opening set by The So So Glos.  Wearing their Clash-inspired, musical influences proudly on their sleeves, the band tore through a 40-minute set that turned the crowd into a sweaty, pogo-ing mass of humanity.

So often, an unknown opening act has to fight to be heard, the crowd counting the minutes until the headliner hits the stage.  It didn't take the boys very long to have this audience in the palm of their hand.  I walked out the door with their self-titled '07 release and 2008's Tourism/Terrorism.  Trust me on this.  Make an investment in a band not destined to be unknown for much longer.   

One of a number of highlights from the show, here is the band's ode to their home base of Brooklyn, My Block...


The So So Glos - "My Block" from Matt Greeley on Vimeo.

From my new favorite website...

...WTF Comcast, which attempts to provide "proof that whoever writes the Comcast OnDemand descriptions is drunk".  For example...

...or perhaps this...

Sites like this must be why Al Gore invented the interwebz.  Via Matt Yglesias.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists with The So So Glos at Philly's First Unitarian Church

Image by forklift via Flickr

I may have stated this before, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself.  Ted Leo is the MAN.  Over an 18 year recording career with a handful of bands, most notably in Chisel and his current incarnation with the Pharmacists, Leo has crafted a songbook full of exceptional indie/punk rock.  Never one to skimp on the politically-charged lyrics, he wears his heart on his sleeve and dares his audience to come along for the ride.

TL's December 2nd show, at Philadelphia' First Unitarian Church, was as mind blowing as I expected it to be and made all the better by an exceptional set from opening act The So So Glos.  Hard to believe that it was the first night of the tour.

Starting with a falsetto spoken/sung verse or two of Danny Boy, the band drove right into a searing version of Heart Problems that told the crowd all we needed to know about what was in store for us.  Following is a (very) rough setlist for the rest of the show:

Me & Mia - kind of early in the set for such a crowd-pleaser

The One Who Got Us Out

Mourning In America

Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone

I'm A Ghost

Where Was My Brain

The Anointed One

The Stick
Ballad of the Sin Eater
A Bottle of Buckie
The High Party
Colleen
Bottle & Cork - ???...not sure of the title, but it's on Leo's March '10 Matador Records debut
Bomb.  Repeat.  Bomb. - so absolutely incendiary hat I  was stunned the band didn't spontaneously combust
The Crane Takes Flight
Little Dawn - EPIC!!!

I know I missed a handful or more of the titles, some of them off the upcoming CD.  One I didn't miss was the last song of the encore.  Railing against the fact that the message hadn't sunk in yet, Treble in Trouble, Leo's AIDS-era masterpiece condemning the short-sightedness of the NIH/CDC/AMA and the world in general in addressing the epidemic, ended the night on a contemplative note.  Never let it be said that Ted Leo was afraid to make you think while you're rocking your ass off.

Openers The So So Glo's deserve much more then a one paragraph note at the end of this episode.  After having listened to their first two releases, I'll have more to say tomorrow.  Trust me.  It'll be worth it!  while you're waiting...here's some vintage Ted Leo.

THE SEVEN PILLARS OF THE BRITISH INVASION: THE MOVE

Although Rock and Roll is an American invention, it was the British that really took hold of the genre, made some of the most innovative, influential music and inspired much of the rest of the world to make their rock in the same vein. Without these seven pillars, rock music would be more like Neil Diamond than The Ramones or The Replacements, and Powerpop wouldn’t even exist:

The Beatles

The Rolling Stones

The Who

The Kinks

Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett version)

The Small Faces

The Move

Everyone knows the first four, and many know that Pink Floyd was a different beast altogether before Syd finally succumbed to a long bout with mental illness fueled in part by the pressures of stardom and a truckload of acid. Most everyone has heard of the Small Faces, or their Rod Stewart incarnation as The Faces, but may not be familiar with how incredible their earlier music was (we’ll save that for another lesson).

Although The Move was a very successful band in the U.K., few people on this side of the pond have ever heard of them. Some may know it as the band that ELO turned into with Jeff Lynne at the helm. Mr. Lynne certainly created some wonderful music with The Move over 2 ½ albums, but it was really the Move of Roy Wood that helped change the rock world.

The Move was formed in late 1965 in Birmingham, England when members of some of the city’s top bands formed a local band “supergroup”. The lineup consisted of Carl Wayne on lead vocals, Bev Bevan on drums, Trevor Burton and Roy Wood on guitar and Ace Kefford on bass. The band mainly played covers of Motown, R&B and West Coast rock songs. Pop promoter Tony Secunda discovered the band, moved them to London, and started turning them into rock bad boys, having them smash up TV’s and cars on stage and doing other crazy stuff like walking through downtown Manchester with a life-size model of an H-bomb. All the while they were honing their stagecraft in a very tight band, but would have forever been lost to music history without the emerging songwriting talents of Roy Wood.

A string of wonderful pop masterpieces started to flow from the fertile mind of Wood, including “Night of Fear”, “I Can Hear the Grass Grow”, “Blackberry Way”, “Fire Brigade”, and “Flowers in the Rain”.

This move towards pop perfection was very different with what some members wanted with the band, and Ace and Trevor left the band in 1968 to pursue harder rock interests. That’s probably just as well, due to the massive quantities of alcohol and acid the pair were consuming at the time.

The band recruited Rick Price as a replacement for Burton and embarked in 1969 on a brief underground tour of the U.S., culminating in a series of gigs at the Whiskey in LA and the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Without an album to promote, there was no record company support and the tour did little to improve their stature in the States, except for the lucky few who actually got to see them. Soon afterwards, they were able to release a full-length record in the States on A&M, a little-known rock masterpiece called Shazam.

I was always drawn to this record as a kid. My (much) older brothers had huge record collections and I used to love going through the stacks and looking at the album art. The cover of Shazam was a comic book-like picture of the four band members in ridiculous super hero outfits. The cover was great, so the music had to be too, right? Luckily, it was. The record was a combination of Wood originals (side 1) and some inspired reworked covers (side 2). The album managed to bridge the gap from Wood’s ultra poppy side (“Fields of People”) to some mega heavy feedback-drenched guitar stomps (“Hello Suzie”). “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited” managed to make the bridge in one song. For whatever reason, the album never caught on and could be found in bargain bins all over America in the 1970’s.

Carl Wayne didn’t like the direction the band was going, which ironically was the harder edge that both Kefford and Burton wanted. Wayne thought the big money was in playing the cabaret lounge circuit, and left the band to do just that. Wood had been talking to Jeff Lynne for years about joining the band, as was finally able to persuade him to join in 1970.

Lynne and Wood had been talking for quite some time about a new concept for rock using classical instruments and arrangements combined with rock. Their concept’s name was Electric Light Orchestra. Lynne and Wood focused most of their efforts on the new project, and looked at releasing another Move record mainly as a way of fulfilling the terms of their record contract. Nevertheless, what followed was a pretty decent album, the somewhat transitional Looking On.

In a surprising twist, the band signed a new deal with EMI/Harvest for both ELO and The Move. The first ELO record, Electric Light Orchestra, actually came out before the final Move album, Message From The Country.

Many, including Wood, view Message as the finest Move record. It certainly had some wonderful songs, such as “Ella James” and “It Wasn’t My Idea To Dance”, but inexplicably failed to include The Move’s last big hit, “Tonight”. There were also other great one off songs, such as “Do Ya” (ELO’s hit), “Chinatown”, “California Man” (Cheap Trick’s hit), and “Down On The Bay”. These songs, along with most of Message, resurfaced in the mid 70’s on Spit Ends.

For awhile, Wood saw room for both music visions, but ironically was dismayed at ELO’s mainstream success with 10538 Overture as a single. This convinced him that he and Lynne were going in different musical directions. The Move was officially no more and Wood left ELO to form a new band, Wizzard. Lynne and Bevan, somewhat stunned at the rapid, unexpected departure of Wood, decided to keep the ELO name and move on. The rest, as they say, is whatever the heck they say.

Most Move releases have been remastered and reissued in the last few years and are readily available. By far the best way to experience The Move in all its dysfunctional glory is The Move Anthology 1966-1972, a brilliant 4 disc collection released last year on Salvo Records. Okay, you have your assignment; go out listen to some Move!

Love and kisses,

RonNasty

My Friday night at Kung Fu Necktie featuring Land Of Talk, a bottle of Old Crow and several Runaways references.

One of the many things I enjoy about my music obsession is checking out up & coming bands in a live setting.  Consequently, I also get to check out a wide variety of music venues.  This past Friday brought me to Kung Fu Necktie for the first time.  Here's how my night went.

7:35PM  I walk in to a small crowd and I was old enough to be a grandfather to each and every one of them.  ***sigh***.

7:36PM  I approach the bar and the people seated on either side of me start sliding their bar-stools away.  ***SIGH***

805AM  Tonight's opening act, The Mean, starts, stops, then restarts their first song.  If they named themselves The Mean as in "the sum of the values of a random variable divided by the number of values", then the name is appropriate.  Generic Indie Rock almost salvaged by a strong rhythm section that doesn't quite make up for the weak guitar leads.  There were some songs there, but not performed well enough.  We're talking about practice boys.

8:35PM  Glancing around, I see that a Bruce Lee movie is looping on KFN's lone television.  Fists of Fury?

8:41PM  A small hand-written sign behind the bar advertises the night's drink special.  A 16oz can of PBR and a shot of Old Crow.  Old Crow?  Homeless alcoholics, a handful of tobacco strands barely clinging to the cigarette filter dangling from their trembling, arthritic fingers, legs twisted in a pool of their own urine would whip out a box cutter and slice you up if you offered them an Old Crow.  Who drinks this crap?  What are our institutions of higher learning teaching the youth of today? 

8:42PM  My Yards Philly Pale is tasting great.  The kind of drink a skid row denizen would be happy to accept.

8:49PM  A Joan Jett-clone takes over behind the bar.  The night gets even more interesting.  If a Lita Ford-clone walks in the door, I might be too embarrassed to stand up.

9:01PM  Someone walks up and orders a tall-boy of Old Speckled Hen.  Sounds like something you catch Avian Flu from.

9:02PM  The stars of the show hit the stage.  Three bars into their first song some dude hits the guy next to him.  The PBR/Old Crow drink special strikes hard, it strikes fast and it strikes indiscriminately.

9:03PM  Now THAT's more like it.  Montreal's Land of Talk comes out and shows the opening act how it's done.  Strong, pliant lead vocals from songwriter and guitarist Elizabeth Powell, backed by a very strong rhythm section.  The bottom in the mix has my toes tingling.  This trio is the real deal.   

9:43PM  WTF.  Lita Ford-clone walks in.  An empty toy gun holster draped stylishly across her hips.  Did she pick that up from an episode of Project Runaway?

9:58PM  Somebody walks up to the bar and pays $52 for four bottles of Stone Brewing Company's Arrogant Bastard Ale.  It seems that KFN has a varied customer base running the gamut from beer snobs to rotgut aficionados.  And grandfathers.  Don't forget the grandfathers.     

10:04PM  The dude next to me orders another drink special, but first snatches the shot glass out of the bartenders hand to suck out the last 1/32 oz of Old Crow that he mistakenly left behind.

10:05PM  After slamming down his next shot, the dude's friends walk up and order four shots of Tullamore Dew.  Dude says "make that five".  I effin LOVE this place.

10:18PM  LOT wraps up an ass kicking set.  The crowd files out as another crowd has formed at the front door waiting to get in for the regular Robotique dance party.  I head for the merch table to buy a CD, but no one is manning the store.  Too bad, because at least a dozen folks stopped by while I waited.  Oh well.  That's why The Good Lord, in his infinite wisdom, created iTunes.

All in all a great night.  Hell, it was even over early enough so that an old guy like me didn't miss his bedtime by too much.  Give a listen to Show Me The Bones, one of the highlights of the show, and let me know what you think!



Here is another LOT video that comes along with some incredible visuals. Enjoy!