Wednesday, August 31, 2005

spazzy bands that don't try hard enough

OK, so I did what Leon said to stop the spam. Hopefully it will work.

DB has a new blog. I'm sure it will be great. Here's what he has to say about it.

I am starting my own blog, and I was wondering if you could give me a mention on your blog. It is called The Barnesyard and the address is barnesyard.blogspot.com. It is basically an informal setting where I can "rap" with the teens about the issues that really matter to them. That, and movies. Really just movies. I wouldn't worry about me stepping on your toes, since I am, at heart, a lazy, lazy man.

I went with DB to watch the Brothers Grimm last night, so perhaps he will review that soon. I left after about a half hour so I'd like to hear what he thought of the rest of this movie. I don't know what the budget of the movie was but it looks like it was about $1.56. The lighting was terrible and the two stars looked like shit. Even the hopes of seeing Belluci's rack was not enough to keep me in my seat (and D.P. said it doesn't make and appearance anyway). The humor was painfully flat. Gilliam's lost it.

Charles sent me another press release:

This Friday, September 2nd, at the Distillery, at 10pm, for 5-6 dollars
TALK ABOUT CHARLES presents
The Gyans
The Readymades
The Playboy Millionaires
This could be the best show of the year. I read about it on the Internet.
Charles

I don't know about the other bands, but the Readymades are good.

The show last night was not so stellar for me. Magik Markers had technical problems so they took forever to set up and derailed the momentum of the show. It was just spazzing out and I wasn't even sure if that's how they normally sound or if it was because they hadn't fixed the technical problems. The singer had a kinda autistic vibe. Imagine a wholesome looking girl with braids and a wide baby-blue plastic headband and girlscouty shorts sort of humping the ground and coughing into the mic for so long that her face turns beet red and it seems like she may be hurting herself. And then playing the drum with her foot while she holds the mic in her mouth. And imagine that going on for 15 minutes while the other people in the band spazz out in lesser ways. Then The Band Who Shall Not Be Named took the stage. They tried to create some excitement by gathering the balloons that were strewn throughout the FF and putting them up front. It seemed like kind of a pathetic ploy. He gave shout-outs to Cali and Sac, too. It was like a FM102 summerjam all the sudden and you know how weak those are. I expected them to be all intense and crazy but it was pretty jammy and noodly. They would sometimes build to something but then it would just fade away for me because they didn't really seem to be trying.

11 comments:

leon said...

Thanks for saving me from having to review the show last night. That sums it up pretty well.

I left early and felt perplexed the rest of the night and following morning...constantly asking myself "am I so out of touch with the music people in this town seem to be into these days that I'm missing something, or does it just suck ass?"

beckler said...

I just like songs. I am open minded but I want to be amused and I like something I can identify as a song. And I like to feel like they aren't just making it up as they go along. I wouldn't trip on it too much, though. I mostly just went because I like that venue and sometimes they have good bands playing and it's nice to go out on a summer night, and I'd say that that's what most other people were there for, too. It's not like all the kids you didn't know there are super into this sound that you can't understand. A few of them are, but not that many people were even left by the time Great American Pony Ride played.

Anonymous said...

It seems like hardly anyone likes this artsy stuff yet about 80% of the shows are these bands.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I know this is unrelated BUT

I'd just like to congradulate myself for single handedly selling 200 copies of the Trekkies 2 soundtrack. If NKITNG does a cover of "Expendable Guy" I bet we can push the soundtrack to part 3 past the 250 mark.

The Captain

Anonymous said...

...speaking of artsy bands that no one understands... What is up with NKITNG? They show a flagrant abuse of all that is music!

Disgruntled Fan

beckler said...

I think plenty of people do like the "artsy stuff". I think some of these bands are good and some are bad. They are really coming from a couple of different genres, but they kind of blend so it's hard to keep it straight. I like the folky shows more than the noisy shows. I think this scene (or scenes) is active right now and so there are just more bands that have their shit together enough to release stuff and tour so it makes sense that so many bands like this come through. Ultimately alot of the bands might not leave any lasting legacy, but as with any scene, some stuff will eventually rise to the top and be remembered and a lot of it will just fade away. I mean, I hate Glass Candy, too, and they really have little to do with the artsy scene, but they seem to play here just because they tour in this area frequently.

I will say that I have no idea what all those kids who come to shows like this listen to at home. I'd be curious. Maybe I could take a poll.

beckler said...

wow. that was a poorly written and repetitive comment. just to let you know that i know.

Anonymous said...

The Gynas are an all female punk rawk outfit. I have heard they are good from someone with pretty good taste.

The name is pronounced like it starts with a vag.

g bomb

Anonymous said...

We were asked about being on the show but couldnt since it was a short-notice-friday. but i couldnt remember the band name and thought it was Mangyna who was playing.

-aofydozt ninja

Anonymous said...

Some peolpe hear melodies and riffs in noise that others don't. Most of it sounds like poo to me, maybe thats because noise music goes back and forth forever((><)). anyhoo, I think the kids that dig this are just listening for/too something different than we are.That being said; autistic floor humping was not nearly enough entertainment for those of us who heard only boring ass shit being played by bored looking people. The third band , whose name I will not write in respect for our gracious host, had some "high"lights. They had some decent psychadelic grooves and the song with 5 guitars was a personal favorite of mine and frankly made me jealous. Five guitars!!! This was what weed was made for. They had more of a hippy noise thing wich is always, at least, more soothing than the grating "confrontational" type of noise.

Anonymous said...

As a fan of some of the current experimental stuff (for lack of a better term - "noise" doesn't quite fit to me) I'll say that I'm often disappointed in the live shows even when it's a group I like. I think the bands try something new almost every night & it's luck of the draw if you catch them when they're on. But I do listen to some of this stuff at home & I think the biggest difference for me is, when I just listen to it, it's a nice soundtrack to whatever it is I'm doing. It's the watching of it that I think bothers people more than the fact that they feel they don't "get" the sounds. If you notice, a lot of the complaints are with the perceived pretentiousness of the live performances. I think, when I go to these shows, that I go with different expectations than if I were going to see Knock Knock or something. First, I know there's a strong chance that it'll be mediocre and second, I don't go expecting to hear songs. Not that I would mind if there WERE songs - Wooden Wand surprised everyone by playing a straight folk set & I thought it was amazing - but I don't expect them. I mainly go to listen & to watch other people's musical ideas. It's true that this particular scene has a lot of momentum & the bands relentlessly tour. The shows are a little too heavy on this style right now but it's not like there are other, better bands that want to play but can't get a show cuz the noise bands are hogging the venues. So basically, if I'm not busy, I'd rather go see these shows than not because occasionally you catch something that totally rules. And I guess I feel that any style of music that people almost enjoy hating is worth checking out! If only for the fact that people actually have an opinion on it. Beats garage music anyway.

miller