No Melvins for You, Loser

Like the title says, I’m not even going to bother giving all of you melvins, because the Melvins show last night was so fucking good, it's sort of a like a melvin to your soul that you missed it. Two drummers for the whole set, tons of classic material… I’d like to say more, but I’m in a hurry to address your pressing need to know what’s happening tonight. It will suffice to say that your sorry ass missed an amazing show, definitely a highlight in a year of great shows. Sucker.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

My number one pick for tonight would have to be the Evangelicals’ wild and crazy psychedelic pop. These Oklahomans are touring in support their wonderful debut, So Gone. Fans of The Flaming Lips might want to check out the new Oklahoman psych-pop band on the block. I know I do. I tried a couple of times during SXSW this year, but was thwarted. I did see singer/guitarist Josh Jones play a little solo set, and it was good enough to warrant wanting to see him play with a full band. Step on up.

If that doesn’t sound like where you want to be tonight, you can see Dan The Automator (Deltron 3030, Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, etc.) performing with a live band, Chali 2na (Jurassic 5) and Casual (Hieroglyphics). We all know Chali’s the #1 MC in J5. Now’s your chance to see him do his thing solo. The show’s $20, but if you’re not on the Mezzanine mailing list and you want to go for $10, I can send you a link that’ll cut the price in half.

Lots of good stuff this weekend, too. Om, Mammatus and Grey Daturas playing together, for god’s sake! Primus! Rjd2! Jana Hunter!

Melvins All Around!!!

Tuesday, November 27, 2006

For the hip hoppers, check out The Coup and Mr. Lif at the Independent. That is, if you’re willing to shell out $22 to see two great hip hop acts that rarely command so high a cover.

Personally, I’d push towards a jaunt over the Bay Bridge to 21 Grand for something a little more experimental and a little more reasonably priced ($6). Henry Barnes has done the harsh noise thing during his time with Man is the Bastard and Bastard Noise (with noise-god John Wiese, no less). While I love his work with those projects, there’s something for everyone in his guise as Amps for Christ. Using mostly homemade stringed instruments and electronics, Amps for Christ’s output falls all over the place. From straight-ahead folk to experimental electronic weirdness to all places in between, the music’s good enough to warrant repeated playings on my show. And if that’s not enough for you, he also has done 3 or 4 versions of “Scotland the Brave.” That’s enough for me.


Wednesday, November 28, 2006

If you don’t know who the Melvins are by now, you’d better have a really good excuse. They’ve been around for twenty years. That’s long enough to be cited as a major influence by such notables and personal favorites as Nirvana and Boris (who take their name from a Melvins’ song). If weird, sludgy rock is your thing, this is where you should be on Wednesday. And it weird, sludgy rock isn’t your thing, you’ve got bigger problems than figuring out where to be tomorrow night, bud.


That’s all for now. Tomorrow (hopefully), I’ll tell you about Thursday, which brings us the Evangelicals, another Amps for Christ show (this time in the city) and a hip hop throwdown with Dan the Automator and Chali 2na. Don’t even get me started on the weekend… Although you probably won't be getting out too much with all the post-melvin pain you'll be enduring if you miss the Melvins.

Playlist 11.14.06

tuesday, november 14. 2006
3:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m.

inca ore – cape meares
jaga jazzist – another day
sterolab – interlock
the blow – pile of gold

subtle – middleclass kill
rjd2 – the proxy
guilty simpson – clap your hands
danger mouse – justify my thug

tussle – elephants
moussa doumbia – keleya
khan jamal creative arts ensemble – untitled (track 2 from ‘drumdance to the mother land’)

joe colley – obstacles
grails – back to the monastery
leviathan – crushing the prolapse oviducts of virtue
ludicra – veils

tim hecker – palimpset
richard youngs – life on a beam
william basinski – untitled (track 3 from disc 1 of ‘variations: a movement in chrome primitive’)
beach house – master of none

jack rose – lenee
bert jansch – high days
nick drake – which will
peter walker – jaleo para angela

white magic – hold your hand in the dark
antony & the johnsons – hope there’s someone
xiu xiu vs. grouper – in dreams

valley of ashes – cavehill hunters magickian & a clock of spoons
helena espvall – nimis & arx

blops - tarde

Playlist 11.07.06

tuesday, november 7. 2006
3:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m.

k.k. null – a-side from ‘zentropy’
gong – master builder
ooioo – uma
animal collective – baby day
king crimson – elephant talk

j.d. king & the coachmen – from across the sun
spacemen 3 – honey
califone – burned by the christians
james blackshaw – spiraling skeleton memorial
expo 70 – who left the door to the sun open

ion dissonance – she strychnine
ludicra – in fever
born/dead – endless war
propagandhi – apparently i’m a p.c. fascist (because i care about both human and non-human animals) / nailing descartes to the wall/(liquid) meat is still murder

alasehir – bone fire
dmbq – ohh! baby
black eyed snakes – bo didley

xiu xiu – jennifer lopez (the sweet science version)
grouper – second skin/zombie wind
dead c. – maggot

brian eno/john cale – grandfather’s house
dosh – um, circles & squares
cinematic orchestra – all that you give (dr. rockit mix)

m.e.d. – all i know
dizzee rascal – fix up look sharp
doctor feat. riko – come on

wolf eyes – rotten tropics
parts & labor – a great divide
die princess die – roar of 84

peter walker – celebration
jack rose – yaman blues

adam snider – swamp angel

Diamonds are Forever Brats

Thursday, November 9, 2006
Anathallo, Page France, Tiny Lights & An Angle
Bottom of the Hill
$8 advance/$10 door

Disclosure: Three of my friends make up Tiny Lights, one of the bands on the bill. And I’ve never even heard the three of them play together. I have seen them each play on their own. Given the fact that they are all multi-instrumentalists and they were performing more experimental pieces when I saw them previously, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Upon inquiry into the nature of their sound at the end of a night where I was doing some drinking, the name Burt Bacharach was thrown out there, but I was warned that that might just be one man’s opinion. Multi-instrumental multi-disciplinary musicians doing Bacharach-esque music? Sounds like you should check it out.

After listening to some of the song’s on Anathallo’s “myspace page”, I’ve come to the conclusion that they play very pretty folkish indie with fairly complex arrangements and lots of instruments (the word “chamber” comes to mind). I certainly feel like I’m going to stick around, given that I read a couple of stellar reviews of their live show. Check out their “proper site” for more info, tunes, etc. Oh, and there’s Page France ( myspace / homepage ) doing more indie/folk/pop. If you want to learn about An Angle, you can check it out yourself because I’ve got other stuff to talk about.


Thursday, November 9, 2006
Islands, Subtitle & Blueprint
Great American Music Hall
$15

I’m not going to lie. When I saw Islands play at Slim’s before, I was somewhat disappointed. It may have been that the sound was (as it so often is at Slim’s) off. They do have a decent number of instruments in use throughout the show, not that that’s any sort of excuse for shitty sound. It may have also been the fact that the little bit I caught of the opener, Cadence Weapon, was great. Or the fact that, as usual, Why? put on a great set as the band in the second slot. Hmmm… Oh, yeah, maybe it’s the fact that Nick Diamonds is, well, just kind of an asshole.

Give a bunch of kids a bunch of bottles of water (whether or not you’re being nice) and you run the chance of having a kid give some of that water back to you, not in the bottle. Well, Mr. Diamonds was thoroughly upset when this happened. Obviously, his pedals are expensive and you don’t want them to get wet. Instead of opting to ask the crowd not to behave as such, he started whining and saying that they weren’t going to play anymore.

I, for one, loved the Unicorns record. Then they broke up and Diamonds and J'aime Tambeur went on to form Islands. And I thoroughly enjoyed the Islands’ take on indie-pop. Now, Tambeur’s gone. Guess he couldn’t take Diamonds anymore either. Why am I blogging about this show after my live experience? Because I’ve heard they can be great live. The sound will be better at the Great American. Oh, and did I mention that Diamonds smashed his acoustic guitar at the end of the show? When was the last time you saw that? It had been a while for me. And that was after he was whining about his pedal getting ruined. Was he being ironic? The world may never know, but the world will know that he is a brat. Brats can be entertaining though. Plus, LA's Subtitle will drop his monotonous, crazy flow after Blueprint does his thing. So there’s also two quality MCs (who will inevitably perform with Islands on at least one track) to figure into the equation.


Thursday, November 9, 2006
Kid Koala & Fog
Mezzanine
$12

Last on the list for Thursday: Some “hip hop” for those who aren’t into the folkier or brattier sides of indie. “Hip hop” because I can’t tell you what to expect from this lineup. Kid Koala has ridiculous turntablism skills. Unfortunately, he doesn’t always use them for good. One time I saw him and he was doing lame-ass mash-ups and a variety of other types of “audience-pandering.” Little did he realize that, even though he was playing to a club, everyone was there to see him scratch, damn it. Oh well. Here’s to hoping he scratches the hell out of those records for those in attendance. The man makes the turntable sound so damn funky and jazzy, they’ll lose it if he does it right. I certainly did. Twice. Also on the bill is Fog, who does experimental folk-hop. When I’ve seen this guy in the past, he goes all over the place in one set, so know Idea where it’ll go. But I see possible collaboration in the evening…

Monday Is Dubday

More on the rest of the week soon (already started on it), but thought I should get this out here:

Monday, November 6, 2006
Lee “Scratch” Perry
The Independent
$25

I’m not even going to try and get into a biography
of this reggae and dub legend who has been putting out excellent and important records since the 1960s. It suffices to say that if you can go see him tonight, you should.

Playlist 11.03.06

lenode subbing for jet
friday, november 3, 2006
6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

a silver mt. zion – 13 angels standing guard round the side of your bed
isis – weight (fennesz remix)
machinefabriek – bye bye bradford
battiato – plankton

masaki batoh – sham no umi
ecstatic sunshine – perrier
tortoise – blue station

blonde redhead – falling man
beach house – apple orchard
grouper – way their crept
xiu xiu – the fox & the rabbit
black helicopter – casio

genghis tron – asleep on the forest floor
monopoause – why are we the way
monotract – there are hard days
curse of the birthmark – alibis
yellow swans – police eternity

manitoba – crayon
madvillain – great day (four tet remix)
serge gainsbourg w/ michael colombier - psychastenie (miles drum edit)
khan jamal creative arts ensemble –untitled (track 2)

djibril diabate – enkonen sawa
jack rose – rappahanock river rag (for william moore)
califone – the eye you lost in the crusades
animal collective – grass

shogun kunitoki – daniel
jesu – dead eyes
(something i forgot to write down)

junior boys – in the morning
kode9 & the space ape – quantum
milanese – caramel cognac
darc mind – rhyme zone

cerberus shoal – the ghosts are greedy

Subbing Tomorrow

i'm on the air from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (PST) tomorrow, friday, november 3, 2006 subbing for jet.

doing it for my non-insomniac, non-meth-using, non-taxi-driving, early-to-bead-early-to-rise folks. oh, and for the kids. always doing it for the kids.

wake up to ambient, grindcore, hip hop, folk, free jazz, dubstep, post-rock or whatever i feel like listening to at 6:00 in the morning. maybe even some good ol' rock and roll.

90.3 kusf, san francisco
itunes -> radio -> public -> kusf
also on live 365 player (www.live365.com)

love,

lenode