Come in 2007! We've been waiting for you...

Though Pete Yorn and RHCP are sure to rock me in 2007, what I'm looking forward to the most is MCR's tour in support of The Black Parade!! I'm also hoping to catch Cradle of Filth and possibly the Rasmus, if they ever come to St. Louis! Here are some selected tracks from the shows I saw in 2006. -K

For Us - Pete Yorn

The Days Go By Oh So Slow - Nightmare of You

Where Eagles Have Been - Wolfmother

Exo-Politics - Muse

Bom Bom Bom - Living Things

I Gave You - Bonny Prince Billy

Shine A Light - Ghostfinger

I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! At The Disco

Dark Blue - Jack's Mannequin

Your Sweet 666 - HIM

Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's

Girl's Not Grey - AFI

Radio - Alkaline Trio


In 2007 I am looking forward to a new Kings of Leon record, seeing Gnarls Barkley live in January, more references to the Sound of Music in popular songs and television commercials, and The Black Parade tour. Here are some selected tracks from the shows I saw in 2006. –J

Aminal Eye – Ghostfinger (I love this song!)

The Man – Pete Yorn

Starlight – Muse

Marigold – Foo Fighters (originally a Nirvana B-side)

Louise – Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders

Shutterbug – Veruca Salt

Mama’s Room – Under the Influence of Giants

Molly’s Chambers – Kings of Leon

Build God, Then We’ll Talk – Panic! At the Disco

Hate (I Really Don’t Like You) – Plain White T’s

Turn Into – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Mercy Me – Alkaline Trio

Silhouette – Driveblind

Dimension - Wolfmother

V-Dubs Rock

It arrived today in the mail, something that could change my destiny, my Volkswagen One Act Custom guitar. Get ready world.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I have wanted a Volkswagen Beetle since I can remember. My best friend C’s sister had a Beetle back in the early 80’s and even though I think her sister hated it, I loved it. I have a perfectly fine small car that we had to buy in a pinch back in 2003 when we relocated to St. Louis. H. bought it without me seeing it and every time I take a road trip, he has to hear a ten minute speech about how much I hate that car because it has no cruise control. It’s kind of a love/hate relationship because while I hate that car because it has no cruise control, it has been the mode of transportation to many a memorable show in 2005/2006. Hell, maybe no cruise control was the thing that kept me awake when driving all night back from Chicago or Champaign.

Anyway, back in October I was feeling very down and desperately needing a change. I told H. I wanted to buy a Beetle. Little did I know that Volkswagen had started their V-Dub Rocks campaign and I would get a guitar with my purchase. K was out of town when I made the deal. I had made plans with the salesman to pick the car up the following Saturday. I called K, a fellow Beetle owner, to tell her and I said something like, “Well, fate has played its hand. I bought a Beetle this weekend and I get a guitar that plugs into the car with it. I guess I won’t be buying a set of drums when I finish my master’s in December. I’m gonna learn how to play guitar”. I’ll never forget her response, “But you’re a drummer”. I just laughed because immediately in my mind my response back was “No, I’m a woman heading towards middle age with occasional anger issues. A drummer I am not”. Anyway, I love that K doesn’t lose faith in my dreams even though I bathe in a healthy dose of self-loathing each day.

So the guitar arrived today. H. immediately had to go out to the garage to plug into the Beetle and try it. H. always keeps a radio on in the garage and as he was plugging in, a Led Zeppelin song blasted from the radio’s speakers. I said to him, “Let me turn this off so as not to get you and Jimmy Page confused”. He smirked. So, according to VW, I am now an owner of a guitar and an amplifier that doubles as a car. I am going to try and learn how to play a bit. My brother M tried to teach me some chords when I was a teenager and after realizing playing guitar hurts your fingers, I quickly dismissed the exercise. That was before childbirth. Now I can do anything. --J

James Brown - Rest in Peace

Our Brush with a Shirt that had a Brush with Greatness

Speaking of The Police, I was taking a break from the mundane and sent K the following pic of Stewart Copeland and Taylor Hawkins backstage at a Foo Fighters show. K took a look at it and thought, “Where have I seen that shirt???” Well, here’s a pic of Taylor, his drumstick, and I at the Double Door months before his hanging with Stewart. --J

One Train Later - Andy Summers

Having some time off for the holidays and no travel planned gave me the perfect opportunity to read One Train Later and then obsess over early Police records. Even if you aren’t a fan of The Police (I don’t want to know if you aren’t), this book tells the tale of a seasoned musician with way more experience than I had realized. Unexpectedly, I couldn’t put it down. Some interesting points were:

Andy was more interested in contributing something new to the music scene than becoming a British blues guitarists like Eric Clapton who copied the legends of the American South. Eric and Andy traveled in the same musical circles and at one time, after Eric’s ’59 Les Paul is stolen, he hounds Andy to buy his since he has the only other ’59 Les Paul in London and he is getting ready to record with Cream for the first time. He sells it to him and the rest is history.

Hearing his description of meeting and seeing Jimi Hendrix play in his early days was fascinating.

Reading about Sting being totally hoodwinked by a Canadian keyboardist who was trying to wedge his way in as the fourth member into the now successful band was amusing.

This fall I read a book written by the drummer of Semisonic who, in the grand scheme of things, had minor success. I wondered what the inside story would be like if the band had monumental success. Well, here’s the book. While you get the impression that the band did not make a conscious decision to go out on top as they did, instead it was motivated by Sting’s call to the lute, they did just that. Could you turn on the radio in 1983 and not hear a single from Synchronicity? What’s totally refreshing in the end is that Andy is not bitter about the way it ended. As I read the book, I found myself scrutinizing the cover, looking for the name of a ghost writer. There is none that I could find, but this book is shockingly well-written. If you aren’t a reader, but want to know more, check out the Andy Summers interview on Sound Opinions. He distills the essence of the book on the air and also once again, proves what a gentleman he is by not taking the bait and dissing on one particularly famous former bandmate. –J

All-American Rejects Behind the Pageant

Hahaha, K did such a lovely job of summarizing that I don’t know what to add about the All-American Rejects experience. It was funny and disappointing. A., being an eleven year old girl on the first night of winter break was just enjoying being out in the city among all of the excited teenage girls. She also knew that most of her friends' moms would not have agreed to such a venture. So from that perspective, it was all good.

Nick was the nicest of the group, coming out first when the crowd was the largest, and hanging out taking tons of pics. Here’s one of him signing A’s pic so she can give it to her friend. After two hours A. said to me, “Only one more to go mom, just Tyson that diva”. Truer words have never been spoken.

I thought it was really shitty for Tyson not to come out since you could tell for many of the young gals possibly attending their first concert, he was the draw. They showed up in Butter shirts, Tyson’s clothing line. All I could think of as I watched him scarf down Imo’s pizza and ignoring the seventeen fans still waiting after two hours for his appearance, I thought to myself, that’s the STL revenge right there. When my friends T and J came to visit St. Louis and tried Imo’s St. Louis style pizza covered in processed provel cheese, about four hours later they said they felt like someone had poured cement into their stomach. Take that, Tyson!

The most amusing moment of that night occurred when we were driving home discussing something completely different, sitting at a stoplight while A. fell asleep in the backseat. K just happened to look up at the overpass above the stoplight we were sitting at and saw the All-American Rejects tour buses go past. She stopped whatever she was saying mid-sentence so a string of expletives about All-American Rejects could be released.

Move Along All-American Rejects, move the fuck along. –J

Tyson's Secret? He's an Ass Hole!

I didn't think I'd have anything to write about before 2007. Holy shit was I wrong.

J's daughter thought it would be a great Christmas gift for her All American Rejects-loving friend if she got the guys to sign their autographs on a sheet of photo paper displaying the band's logo. The show was sold-out, so we all went down to Loop, got some tea from Starbucks, and stood out behind the Pageant along with the other fans waiting for the show to end and the guys to come out. One by one the guys appeared and signed autographs. The last one to come out was the lead singer, Tyson Ritter. While the others were gracious and chatted up a storm with the fans, Tyson, after making everyone wait until past midnight, appeared wearing a ridiculous beret-like hat and did the unthinkable: dismissed each and every fan out there by completely ignoring them. It's not like he went straight to his bus and that was it. No, he actually hung around the area and continued to ignore the fact that his fans were trying to get his attention.

Fucking hell, I think when you have 17 teenagers waiting to meet you after your show for two to three hours the least you could do is acknowledge them. The wrong thing to do is to be in full view of them as you walk from the back door of the venue to the bus, get off your bus to get on another, be seen drinking champagne to celebrate the last show of the leg on said bus, then quickly get on your own bus and take off. I think this all went on for about 15-20 minutes, which was enough time for J and me to go from indifference to complete disgust. We weren't the only ones. The fans around us were appalled. One security guard was extremely apologetic and frustrated with how long Tyson had delayed things in the first place. When the bus backed up towards where we were standing, one of the guards said something like "they are leaving, you all have been shafted."

I have been to some post-show wait-arounds where the teenage girls are scary. Last night they were completely well-behaved and even the security guards weren't yelling at us. It was a pretty laid back evening. What was the problem?

Doesn't Tyson Ritter realize that there are enough bastard lead singers in this world to hate already without him working to give us another? Tyson should start developing his personality a bit if he wants to enjoy the ride for a few more years. His material isn't unique or original enough to not be forgettable, though Dirty Little Secret was part of the 2005 Judakris soundtrack. Move Along was a pretty good song, but it wasn't great. Also, J and I saw the band live in Chicago last year and they're not particularly passionate or engaging onstage.

Despite everything, J and I did have some fun this morning thinking of insults referencing their songs. One of mine was "yeah here's a not so dirty little secret: you suck!" J's got some good ones that she'll probably share. God, we're hilarious.

Have a great Christmas, y'all! I'm off to Alabama tomorrow until 2007. Peace out. -K

2006 Concert Survey

It’s December and Judakris has decided to put together our own survey of the live shows we’ve enjoyed, hated, and obsessed about in 2006. Most of the shows and acts were seen here in St. Louis where occasionally the local time is 1840. Every act and show we mention in this survey has been reviewed somewhere on this blog.

Individual Acts:
Best Opening Song
J: Wolfmother - Dimension
K: Muse - Knights of Cydonia

Most Anticipated
J: Foo Fighters – Since this was a completely new setting, and the tickets were purchased so far in advance, I would definitely say this was the most anticipated for me.
K: HIM. It was my first time.

Best Storyteller
J: Dave Grohl easily! Who doesn’t want to hear a story about the first time he met Kurt Cobain?
K: I could only wish to be as engaging as Pete Yorn the morning after an all-night bender. The most I can usually pull off is to somehow find a way to say “shut the fuck up” politely.

Best Showman
J: Richie Kirkpatrick of Ghostfinger – I was very impressed at the energy and liveliness of the show when there were about 20 people in the whole bar. It was awesome.
K: Yeah, Richie. Gotta love that guy.

Show That Gave Us Best Story to Tell
J: This one is kind of tough but I’m going with Wolfmother. When is the last time I’ve been invited to a private performance? Never. Also the guys were so great that it made it extra special. I also loved being there with K and D.
K: J and I get a lot of mileage out of the Wolfmother night, but to me it’s the Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders show in Chicago. My head was practically in Taylor’s bass drum all night, the slutty white jeans girl was pretty engaging and the fact that Taylor used my skin as a canvas after the show gave me some pretty bloggerific material this year.

Most Disappointing Act
J: Hands down – Living Things
K: Living Things

Best Production
J: Muse
K: AFI

Best Sound
J: Muse – Their album sounds like it’s got a lot of studio wizardry so I didn’t expect them to sound so good live but they were amazing.
Foo Fighters – The acoustics at the Auditorium Theater were impressive and really enhanced the experience.
K: Nightmare of You.

Funniest Act
J: Under the Influence of Giants – They were so over the top with the clothing and the onstage antics, it was worth the price of admission. By the way, this is a compliment!
K: I don't know if this is a legit answer, but the Bonnie Prince Billy in-store at Vintage Vinyl had me rolling internally for most of it.

Best Connection with the Audience
J: Foo Fighters – The banter with the crowd makes even the largest venue feel intimate.
K: AFI. The fans loved Davey and he loved them for lovin' him.

Most Creative Production
J: As overwhelming as it was, Panic! at the Disco
K: Ditto

Most Impressive Production
J: For a band with only one album, Panic! at the Disco
K: I’m not trying to be a copycat; I have to agree with J once again.

Biggest Ass-Hole Lead Singer
J: Lillian Berlin of Living Things – You won’t be playing bigger venues than the Creepy Crawl if that’s how you treat people who pay to see you perform. It’s all about karma fellas!
K: I agree with J. Never have I been so disappointed after a performance.

Sexiest Lead Singer
J: I’m gonna go with Pete Yorn here. If you can be sexy at 2:00 in the afternoon under fluorescent lights in a record store when you’ve just rolled out of bed, you’ve got something there.
K: I’m sure it’s obvious what my answer will be. Sick, chain-smoking, and hiding every inch of his flesh, by mid-concert Ville Valo’s 6’1 lanky frame and smoky baritone made me want to jump off the balcony and die for him this year at The Pageant. Luckily, I had J there to keep me in check.

Best Scream
J: Dave Grohl always wins this category for me. I wish I could make his scream the alert sound in my Outlook email at work. I might smile at work every once in awhile if that was the case.
K: Veruca Salt’s Louise. I’m sure she was tutored by Dave. Actually, I remember J and I commenting that she sounded JUST like Dave. We might all know why that is.

Worst Opening Act
J: Dead Meadow – I just wanted them to go away!
K: Oh god, yes, Dead Meadow. I wanted to kill someone by the time they were done.

Honorable Mention
J: Veruca Salt – I have to give Louise props for holding her own in a 2006 concert lineup of men. She was super cool.
K: Alkaline Trio’s opening act, Against Me! For making Judakris stand up and take notice during their set.

Shows:Best People Watching
J: HIM – Since I was just there for the ride, I focused more on the crowd than usual. Also, it was completely diverse from frat boys to goth kids.
K: Muse- Geeks, freaks, gays, fratboys, and a handful of disgruntled library automation coworkers all having a grand time together.

Best Post-Show Feeling
J: Kings of Leon – I wanted to jump in my car and follow them forever.
K: HIM, The Pageant. Again, it was my first time. I found out recently that the reason the band stood us up after the show was for legitimate reasons so I'm over it. Let's face it, I was over all that an hour after the show and practically emigrated to Finland over the following months. Not since seeing U2 for the first time years ago did I feel a post-show love (metal) hangover quite like that one.

Most Disappointing Night
J: I am going to go with HIM because I was hoping to be won over by the music and wasn’t and then to be stood up for the meet and greet was pretty shitty. I hated that for K.
K: Alkaline Trio because I realized I wasn’t as much of a fan as I thought I was that night.

Most Anticipated Song Not Performed
J: Time to Waste at the Alkaline Trio show and also Ain’t it the Life at the Foo Fighters show, especially since that was on the setlist for other venues.
K: In Joy and Sorrow- HIM

Thanks to all the bands in 2006 that made us feel alive. Judakris has already begun planning dates for the 2007 concert schedule. Don't hold back, bands. You know we won’t. XOXO J and K

Panic! at the Disco - A Mom's Perspective

I’m afraid if I write a straight review of the Panic! at the Disco concert I attended last weekend, the night before seeing Wolfmother, Panic! will suffer terribly by comparison. Instead I thought I would write this from the perspective of a mom taking her eleven year old daughter to a show she had been dreaming about for months. From that perspective, it was unbelievable.

A. has been listening to Panic’s album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out nonstop since the end of July. Every morning when I walk into her room to wake her for school, a Panic song is quietly coming from her CD player that’s set on infinite loop. Every day when I drive her to her bus stop and I let her take control of the music until her bus arrives, it’s always the same three or four Panic songs. A couple of months ago after going to the mall with K and looking over all the Panic merchandise at Hot Topic one Saturday afternoon, she woke up the next day begging me to take her to the mall. She had decided which shirt she wanted to buy. She loves them.

The day of the show A. was all aflutter. Her cousin D was going with us as was K. When were we going to leave? Did I know how to get to the arena? A. is also as anxious of a kid as I was, worrying about things neither of us have any business worrying about. We got into the arena and headed for the merch table so A. could spend her report card money on some fingerless Panic gloves and a poster. Gone is her Harry Potter poster now off of her wall, hello Brendan Urie! When part of the arena was blocked off, forcing us to walk out of our way to find our seats, A. worried that our tickets were not valid.

A. could have cared less for the opening bands Plain White T’s and Jack’s Mannequin. I agreed with her on the latter. As for Plain White T’s, a number of their songs sounded exactly the same, so the high points were the variety in their set which came in the form of Hey There Delilah and Hate. When Panic hit the stage, A. began to scream and was basically fixated on the stage until the bitter end. The show had a circus/Moulin Rouge feel to it. The band members wore costumes that were a mixture of circus ringmaster and Oliver Twist and there were also contortionists/performers dotting the stage during every song. I found it all very distracting from the music, but A. ate it up. She is still talking about how awesome the show was. They played most of their album as well as covers of Killer Queen and Eleanor Rigby, which were both perfect, and the set even included a drumline performance. These boys are classic overachievers. It all left me a little cold, but happy that A. had had the best night of her eleven year old life.

After the show, with memories of meeting Brendan Urie back in July fresh in her mind, A. wanted to go back by the buses and re-live that experience. We headed back there and there were probably two hundred kids waiting. It was cold and when I looked back at D and K who were hanging back, all I could think about was, how can I talk her out of wanting to wait? Here’s when A. becomes more of an eleven year old with a bedtime than a hardcore fan. I say to her, A. there are too many kids out here. I doubt they will sign anything with this crowd honey, let’s go. She responds and says I don’t want to go; I don’t want to go to bed, knowing it’s past her bedtime. I explain to her that she doesn’t have to go straight to bed. Her face brightens up and she’s outta there. Brendan who? Everyone is happy! --J

St. Louis or Hell – Is there a difference?

Since Wednesday, I have been sick with the flu, respiratory distress, fever, aches, etc. Since Wednesday, between chills and the sweats I have been laying in bed in the fetal position with my eyes closed listening to the television as I waited for death to arrive. Thursday, as H reported to me that our first winter storm was really happening, all I could think of was who cares?! I’m dying! Yes, I can be a bit dramatic when I’m ill. I think it comes from the fact that I’m not sick like this very often, and also, when I was sick as a kid, even if I was coughing up a lung, my brother M would tell my mom and anyone who would listen that I was faking it. I feel the need to state my case.

Then at about 2:00am on Friday the power went out and was not restored until Monday night. What the fuck?! Again?! Friday I laid in bed under a down comforter until H got home from work and could coax me out of bed to go check into a hotel. As I laid there with my eyes closed in the silence Friday, many things ran through my mind. Was it sheer coincidence that Panic! at the Disco was in town during both St. Louis power outages? Did they have some preternatural force surrounding them giving them unbelievable talent and success at a young age and bringing death and destruction to all that stood in their path? What else could explain 18/19 year olds instantaneously getting a record contract and selling out venues left and right? Hmm, my nephew D was also in town close to both power outages. Has he been practicing the dark arts and failed to mention it on our drive to Springfield, IL on Tuesday? Will I get over the sticker shock of the Red Hot Chili Peppers/Gnarls Barkley $71 concert ticket I recently purchased? Also, what happened to The Soup Dragons??? There were other strange thoughts that I won’t admit to here. The Soup Dragons curiosity comes from the ubiquitous Chase Freedom commercial that samples the Jagger/Richards song I’m Free that they remade back in the early 90’s. If you haven’t seen the commercial yet, trust me, you will. Before the power went out, I think I heard it in the double digits.

Now it’s Wednesday and I’m in a different part of the country for work and on the mend. I could care less about the Soup Dragons so I’m making progress. Onward and upward. --J

Is That A Red Thong I See?

J and I attended the Panic! At The Disco show last weekend at the Family Arena in St. Charles. Plain White T’s and Jack’s Mannequin opened.

The Plain White T’s were great, but the lead singer had these low rider, women’s cut jeans that gradually began to creep down his ass. J and I both looked at each other at one point and swore we saw ass cheek. So, I ask the question, was the lead singer wearing a red thong? Because, seeing red underwear in this situation is one thing, but from where we were sitting it looked like we saw flesh in a most unexpected place. We will never know. I love their song Delilah and the crowd lit up with blue cell phone lights during its performance.

Jack’s Mannequin was a crowd favorite. I haven’t listened to any of their music and from what J told me, the lead singer recently survived cancer. They rocked the house.

While we waited for Panic! At The Disco to take the stage, the NIN video for The Perfect Drug played on the jumbotron. God, how great was that video.

What can I say about Panic! At The Disco. I did not expect to be entertained like that. I’m not a fan of their music and honestly the songs were overshadowed by the dancers that performed for the show’s duration. J put it best when she described one dance performance as “walking 69”. J then looked at me and suggested that I ask a guy who I've been avoiding if he can do this. If he can, then I should agree or at least consider to hang out with him more.

As far as the band’s performance, I can’t help but describe it as something close to perfection. For being so young, they demonstrated an expertise in regards to showmanship and orchestration. The lead singer cuts quite a handsome figure on stage, but as I watched him break into dance, flirt with the guitarist, and prance around I couldn’t help but wonder when he’ll be coming out of the closet. I don’t care really, but putting my observation from that night together with the night that J and I hung out behind the Pageant and saw him not look one female fan in the eye UNTIL J’s tall and handsome nephew D complimented him on the performance, at which time Brendan was all about the eye contact, I can’t help but wonder. Regardless, he’s a gifted performer and I hope he’s having the time of his life doing what he’s doing.

The most unexpected part of the show was the band’s cover of Killer Queen. When the song began J glanced over at me with a nervous look. I’m a little territorial when it comes to Queen, but when it was all said and done it was a perfect cover. I truly loved it. Again, I’m not a fan of Panic!’s music, so it was also wonderful to hear a song I actually liked that night.

I know I was a grumpy bitch during the show, J, but I have to give it an Unexpected. It was, in truth, a very good show. As Jack Black would say “well played, Panic! At The Disco.” -K

Synkkien Laulujen Maa

I'm very excited about Ville Valo’s latest side project. Like he did back in the late 90s with The Agents, along with other various artists he has recorded a couple of Finnish classics. This is not rock; it is old Finnish melancholy goodness. The cd is called Synkkien Laulujen Maa (The Land of Dark Songs) and it was released on November 22, 2006 and is currently the number one downloaded album in the Finnish iTunes music store. I know I should be reviewing this cd rather than just reporting about it, but it’s difficult to find this one here in the States right now. Hopefully, ebay will come through for me once again because I kind of dig hearing the man sing in his native tongue.

Ville’s songs are Kun minä kotaini läksin (When I Left My Home) and Täällä Pohjantähden alla (Here Under The North Star). You can hear samples here and here. -K

And Now For Something Completely Different

This post is one for the records. K is about to give HIM a tepid review.

While us HIM fans wait for the new album to materialize next year, Ville Valo has agreed to release a compilation cd called Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 that includes rare tracks, acoustic versions, and remixes of the poppier HIM hits prior to Dark Light. Uneasy Listening Vol. 2 will include the heavier tracks and will soon follow, I hear.

What works about this release? The acoustic versions of The Funeral of Hearts and Please Don’t Let It Go, both featuring a solo Ville on his acoustic, are rough diamonds set amongst a handful of rhinestones.

Tonight, with the winter storm of the year throwing copious amounts of ice over the entire St. Louis area, I decided to sit down and listen to each tune to try and figure out why the rest of the cd doesn’t really work for me. I boiled it down to four issues.

Issue 1: In Joy and Sorrow (String Version)
My friends know what this song means to me. I want it played at my wedding and my funeral and any time I get in the car. After playing the Deep Shadows and Highlights version and the UL V1 versions of In Joy and Sorrow back to back I figured what is missing: the rhythm section. Basically, the ULV1 version is the original with bass and drums omitted. You can’t remove the backbone and expect the same kind of impact.
Issue 2: Ville’s falsetto
It’s hard to imagine that when Ville formed HIM his original intention was to be the bassist rather than the lead singer. He’s a natural crooner and knows how to use his voice. When he doesn’t go nuts with it, his falsetto is hot. It just is. On UL V1, I just don’t know what he’s doing at the end of It's All Tears (Unplugged Radio Live) and Lose You Tonight (Thulsa Doom Extended Dub).
Issue 3: The Path (P.S. Version)
OK, this version meanders sleepily like a David Lynch movie. It’s got a slow, hazy, and lovely quality but in a very creepy way. Then, about 3 ½ minutes into it, it plugs in, strongly and suddenly. No matter how many times I listen to it I’m not prepared for it and it is jarring. Ville’s voice is fantastic, though. That’s the only thing that works for me on this version.
Issue 4: The rest of the story
The other tracks, i.e., The Sacrament, are incredibly similar but not great versions of the originals. They seem more like mixed versions that were later tweaked and perfected for the albums. Is that the point of this? I’m not really sure. All I know is that they don’t stand up to the songs I’ve come to love.

Why didn’t the beautiful acoustic version of The Sacrament make the cut?

This is one for the collector’s bin, but it’s just not the sonic perfection I’ve come to expect. For this compilation I give it the unofficial rating of Unmoving. You know I love you...-K

These acoustic performances can be found on youtube and are some of my favorites:
For You 1997! As my friend R would say, young Ville’s hair is long and luscious.
The Funeral of Hearts The German woman introducing Ville is in full goth regalia. It's quite something.
The Sacrament "Danke!" he says. This performance is a little whiny, but it works. Who am I kidding I love every second of it.
Endless Dark and Join Me. This was filmed at a secret gig for a several lucky fans. It’s one of my favorites to watch because he is so gracious and sweet with them.

Wolfmother at Mississippi Nights - K's Take

When I found out that J and I won passes to the pre-show on-air performance and could invite a guest, I had one person in mind, my friend C. C first brought this band to my attention when their EP Dimensions became available to us in the States earlier this year. I will never forget C calling me and saying “Dude, you will die when you hear them. They are so fucking amazing. You will love them.” He was right. When I called him in KC, MO and left a v/m asking him if he could swing spending a Sunday night in St. Louis he called back and responded “hell yes.”

When C arrived I served up a batch of my Shepherd’s Pie and popped open a couple of beers. We caught up, ate, and jammed on our acoustic guitars until J and her nephew D came over to signal it was time to head down to LaClede’s Landing.

When we got to the venue we checked in with the radio station rep who was suffering a hangover due to a night out with Buckcherry. We stood around for about ten minutes before Wolfmother lead singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale walked passed us smiling. D shook his hand and introduced himself. Earlier, J and I had had a discussion in the car as to whether or not the guys would be tall or short. Based on my inability to find petite sizes anywhere in Brisbane, Sydney, or Melbourne I assumed that they, like most Australians, would be tall. I was right. Andrew is a tall and lanky guy with a cherubic face framed by an amazing and otherworldly white man’s fro. My jewish friends might label it a jewfro. Whatever the source of the hair, it’s commanding and it’s large and it’s lovely. And he’s lovely. When he came outside he glanced over at us and gave us a smiling and gentle “hello”. J and I just did not expect this.

We got into the venue and I realized I had forgotten my driver’s license. I never do that. Ever. I had to answer very quickly the following questions: 1. How old are you? 2. When’s your birthday, and finally 3. What year did you graduate high school? Once I answered those questions he stamped my hand and sent me on my way where I joined my party and explained how I almost fucked myself.

J and I stood in line with the others in front of the stage while the boys got themselves situated and ready for the q&a session. It was not as nerve-wracking as I expected to ask a question live on the air. In fact, I kind of got a kick watching The Point's Rizzuto do his thing. During the on-air portion they played three songs: White Unicorn, Woman, and The Joker and The Thief. As J said, they were extremely gracious and polite; traits, Andrew jokingly remarked, that along with xenophobia is shared by all Australians. When we realized that they were plugged in for this set, we prepared to be catapulted to the back of the venue from the electric thunder coming off the stage.

Judakris. Exactly where they want to be...


Andrew doing his thing...


Chris Ross doing his thing...


The boys...


We were extremely pleased to find that once we went off-air the band was up to signing, chatting, and taking some pictures. Drummer Myles Heskett, wanting to shake things up a bit, decided to draw on his likeness rather than scribble a boring old autograph. On mine he drew an eye patch, on another a Dali moustache. This last one, I’m proud to say, was my recommendation to him. We’ll always have that moment, me and Myles. I wish I had a close-up of him to share! Very easy on the eyes, that one.

Andrew Stockdale and Judakris. You can't tell, but we are enjoying every minute of this moment!


After the band left to grab some food, we all hung out inside to wait for the doors to open. We watched opener Dead Meadow do their sound check for a while and waited for the bar to open.

It was 8:00 PM before Dead Meadow began playing. Silversun Pickups did not show up, which may have encouraged Dead Meadow to take advantage of the extra time. By the time they were done with their set they had been playing for about an hour, perhaps more. I couldn’t tell, really. If I hadn’t been responsible for getting my party home that night, I would have considered heading out. It was a momentary lapse of reason to have considered it.

C told me that his friend in Florida had seen Wolfmother three times. When asked to describe the experience, he summed it up by declaring "they rip your face off.” Had I not stayed, I would have only imagined what he meant by it. Intimate performances are wonderful, but sometimes seeing a band feed off an energetic crowd makes the performance even better and therefore the audience experience is better. This is exactly what happened as the laid back and mild mannered boys we shared moments with earlier transformed into rockstars with machine-like precision in front of their sold-out crowd. Seeing keyboardist/bassist Chris Ross orchestrate his jumps at the precise moments Myles and Andrew struck down on their respective instruments was thrilling. The fact that he can make toggling between his keyboard and bass look so easy is a feat in and of itself. Andrew’s virtuosity sans overly theatrical gestures makes you think you’re watching a classic in the making (think Jimmy Page or Brian May- and I don’t throw that kind of comparison down freely). Onstage and on record they fuse the mystical sounds of Led Zeppelin with the heavy power chords of Black Sabbath and do so with perfection.

Wolfmother performing to a sold-out crowd at Mississippi Nights...


When the night ended, the pit dwellers walked by us on their way out the door. They all looked wrecked, totally fucking sated, and faceless. My rating is Unbelievable. -K

Wolfmother at Mississippi Nights - J's Take

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid". -Frank Zappa

I am sure Frank was discussing the creation of music, but it’s the same for those of us crave it live. I so get the "bills must be paid" part of this quote. That's how I was feeling this morning when I had to get up and get myself to work, but the weariness of a late night out was all worth it last night.

I bought tickets to the Wolfmother show months ago. After having to sit through the Panic! at the Disco show with daughter A. Saturday night, Wolfmother was the perfect remedy. K and I also had the great fortune of winning a radio contest which meant attending a press conference where we got to ask the band a question and attending a pre-show set by the band.

Four of us were picked for the contest and we got to each invite one friend. K brought her friend C and I brought my nephew D. The band came out, played Joker & the Thief, White Unicorn, and Woman just for the eight of us and the radio staff. It was an amazing experience. We were thinking that the set before the show might be an acoustic thing, so when they plugged in, we were so excited. The band was so friendly which made this experience all the better. Thanks to them for being so gracious.

Mississippi Nights is a great place to see a show. It's basically a bar so it's intimate with pretty good sound. We were lucky enough to stay in the venue after the press conference so we got our pick of seats for the crowd came in. D went straight to the front and we spotted a good location further back. D ran into some interesting folks at the front of the stage. The middle-aged man next to him was offering football tickets if D would bring down some “dirty” girls from Chicago. There was also a woman flashing the band right next to him. Whatever.

The opening band, Dead Meadow, oh my. It went on and on and on and on with no distinguishing characteristics. It was painful. I think that's my idea of what hell would be like. You're at a highly-anticipated show and all you see is a lingering opening band.

Wolfmother came out and made it all better. Shame on any band with more than three members that can't be that powerful. You say you need a Keyboard Player AND Bassist? No, you better be able to play both goddamnit, during one song! It was incredible and the crowd loved them. Everyone around us was singing along with every song. I usually want to stay far from the serious crowd at the front of the stage. I’m a mom so someone is depending on me at home. I can’t get a concussion at a concert. However, when the opening chords of Dimension began, I was tempted to bolt from my safe perch by the bar to get right up front. I fought the urge and that’s probably why I’m at work without a neck brace today.

The high points for me were Love Train, Dimension, and the encore which included Communication Breakdown. --J

Wolfmother = Unbelievable

Wolfmother played Mississippi Nights tonight in STL. It was easily the best show I've attended this year. More tomorrow after the work day is through. --J

Uneasy Listening

"I fucking hate arrogance. No, correct that... I fucking hate people. Vast mindless herds of people, usually around Christmas time or rush hour. And TV stereotyping. Urrrgh! Normality, waiting for anything (patience is not one of my virtues), litter, concrete urbanisation, lack of vision, religious strangleholds, bigotry, sponge cake... hate them all." Dani Filth, lead singer, Cradle of Filth

Ahhhh, what better way to spend the day giving thanks for your loved ones and all the sweet potato soufflé you can eat then writing a post about your favorite Black Metal band, Cradle of Filth, and their latest album Thornography.

I’ve been in Huntsville for nearly two weeks. Whenever I work out of the Hsv office I am operating under a general umbrella of anxiety. It’s impossible to work quietly here. The Hsv people will welcome you loudly and with open arms and you will never be alone at lunch. They won’t have it. It’s something that is beautiful and exhausting at the same time and to prove it I’ve been in bed by 9 every night. Last week, all of the attention and the amount of work I had caused me to not exhale for about five days. Every day when I left the office I would get in my car and immediately queue up a Cradle of Filth single on my iPod called "The Byronic Man". Gradually, I would just let all of Thornography (2006) play itself out while I drove. To seek solace in thrashy metal is unlike me. For example, usually I need to sing along-- ok by sing I don't mean like that delusional kid on the American Idol auditions that wore an MCR hoody and screamed a scream that sounded like a shrieking intake of breath. There's a little of that on this album and I'm not going to attempt to sing along. Another example is that usually when I need a little musical therapy I go straight for early HIM tunes, the sonic equivalent to wrapping myself up in my featherbed. This time I was seeking a musical remedy ten times more extreme than usual, and therefore considered it to be a short period of musical psychosis. Anxiety is now almost completely gone, yet I’m still listening to the album. Does this mean I’m a fan of Black Metal now?

Black Metal, to me, has always been a genre that consisted of bands that took themselves too seriously, produced melody-free cacophony, and burned churches. Yeesh. Thornography seemed like it would be a very typical Black Metal piece, but after listening to it in its entirety I realized that CoF may have shades of Black Metal in their music and on stage, but they seem to be a more commercial and harmless variety of the genre. Ambient, slightly thrashing, theatrical and full of Tim Burtonesque dark humor, I have to say I’ve moved past any kind of musical psychosis into a steady affection for the album.

Random thoughts:
The Byronic Man was the gateway song for me as it’s a duet between Ville Valo and CoF.

What I can’t figure out is why the band has a fast band member turnover rate. The lead singer is the only member who was part of the original lineup. I wonder if there’s something Napoleonic going on there.

Dani Filth and the band join the Viva La Bam crew for an entire episode during the last season.

Dani Filth used to have a regular column in Metal Hammer called “Dani’s Inferno.”

Although I could do without the tiny bit of narration on this album, I do have some favorites:
Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan - Black Metal with shades of Emo due to the incredibly long song title. What's with that?
The Byronic Man - Kickass duet with Ville Valo.
Lovesick for Mina – After being away from my cat Mina for nearly two weeks, I think I will serenade her with this song next time I see her. We’ll see how far I get with the screaming before she claws me. The meandering guitars make me think of Iron Maiden.
Libertina Grimm - Very groovy!
Cemetery and Sundown - Love the guitars and the guitars on this one.
Temptation - Yes, this is a cover of the Heaven 17 hit. Very unexpected, I must say.

I may really like Thornography, but I won’t be walking around in corpse paint any time soon. -K

Unnecessary on Thanksgiving Eve

After some Thanksgiving meal prep, I mostly fast-forwarded through Madonna's Confessions Tour Live special that aired on NBC last night. It was like watching Madonna's revisionist history of disco. We can all rent Saturday Night Fever when nostalgia strikes, so there's really no need for this. It was preachy at times but mostly just irrelevant. And watching her play guitar, it is just painful. Won't someone in her entourage clue her in on that?

To counteract the acidity of this post, a very happy Thanksgiving to all. I feel very blessed in so many ways. --J

Mick and Me

I am never alone in my house. Tonight is an exception, and much to my delight, I found myself spending the evening with Mick Jagger. A few years ago, my brother S. had mentioned a Mick Jagger documentary that chronicled Mick’s recording of Goddess in the Doorway, his last solo effort. About a week later, my friend M. mentioned the same documentary. How had I missed this? Years later, I find Being Mick: You Would if You Could, available on Netflix and it came in the mail today. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially with no interruptions.

H. got me Goddess in the Doorway for Christmas when it was released. I believe I gave it at least two listens but not much more. As far as solo work, I think Keith wins that contest, not that there is one. However, after watching this, I may go back and give it another listen.

Now it could all be for the cameras, but Mick comes off as witty and quite a family man. My favorite scene takes place when Mick flies to Cologne, Germany so that Bono can record some vocals for a track. Bono, Mick, and the album’s producer are sitting there eating lunch and the producer asks Mick if he ever started that magazine that he talked about years ago. Mick says no, that it was going to be called The Trouser. He says that guitarists have a ton of magazines, as do drummers, etc. so this magazine was going to be for the lead singer since style is so important for a lead singer. It’s nice to see he has a sense of humor about himself. He was also very gracious even to autograph seekers who were obviously just getting the autograph to sell it.

If you are a fan of Mick, this is a must watch. --J

News on The Darkness and Cradle of Filth

Just reporting news. Cradle of Filth (who I can't seem to stop listening to this month) drummer Adrian Erlandsson has been replaced by Martin Skaroup. Adrian wished to concentrate on his side projects. Also, The Darkness singer Justin Hawkins has left to pursue a solo career. Bass player Richie Edwards (who replaced Frankie Poullain in May last year) is expected to take over as frontman. -K

So-Called Artist

In the latest Blender with MCR on the cover (issue 54, Dec 2006), the article with Jared Leto entitled "Life on Mars", a surprisingly interesting read, revived a topic that I thought was dead to me: Leto and his hatred of blogs.

In the article, the writer references the fact that Leto doesn't have a stellar reputation and that not only do some girls hate him and his band, but that bloggers do, too. His lothario ways the cause for women to curse his name, there is no mention as to why bloggers dislike the man and his band. This is something I read about several weeks ago and I almost blogged about it, but as with all things 30 Seconds to Mars- oriented I soon lost interest.

In an interview on The Feed (G4's blog) Leto stated that "blogging should die a sudden death" and then goes on to say "It used to be, to be a writer you had to have experience and talent, and learn a craft. Now anybody with an opinion, which is anyone and everyone, feels that it’s worthy. Technology is allowing people to have access to things where before it required very great skill. So there will be some interesting developments from that, and also some things that are pretty worthless. Pretty soon anybody with a cell phone is going to be able to be a news reporter." When I first read this, it struck me as a hypocritical and slightly elitist statement from a guy who, still most well-known for leaning well (fans of the show like me will get this reference) on My So-Called Life, is wanting to be a rock star. He says otherwise in the article, btw, but yeah, ok. Whatever.

Jared's interview on The Feed Was followed by a blog blitz of critical responses. Even VH1's Best Week Ever got involved, featuring the pathetic Scott Stereogum/Jared Leto confrontation at the mtvU Woodies award show. It's all old news now, but Jared managed to get quite a few people to notice him for a while during their tour before they realized that 30 Seconds to Mars is just, well, unnecessary.

When the G4 blog interview was first published, the band was about to play a date in St. Louis. J and I considered going, but were too tempted to wait afterwards and yell to the band as they got on their bus "YOU SUCK!". -K

Hellooo Huntsville

I’m working out of the Huntsville, AL office this week. The office is located downtown across from a venue called Sammy T’s where tonight Hinder will perform to a sold out crowd. As I walked to a Greek restaurant on the square around 11:00 AM I saw a bus, presumably theirs, pull up. I didn't buy a ticket because they're a bit too "red state" for my taste (think Nickelback or Creed). Not surprised they sold out here. The picture, which shows the bus in front of Sammy T's, was taken with my phone and could NOT be smaller! -K

The Great Saltair

On a work trip out to Utah, I noticed that at the Avalon Theater Ben Lee, John Ralston, and Rooney were playing on a Friday night, so I decided to get a ticket. All I knew about these acts ahead of time were:
1. Ben Lee used to date Claire Danes.
2. Rooney’s album seemed to be everywhere a few years ago but I knew nothing about their music.
3. Robert Carmine, Rooney’s lead singer, is Jason Schwartzman’s brother/Talia Shire’s son/Sophia Coppola’s cousin, etc. etc.
I said to a friend that I was thinking about getting a ticket to this show and the conversation went something like this, “Yeah, that lead singer of Rooney is hot, but I don’t know anything about their music”.

By the time I purchased my ticket, Under The Influence of Giants had been added to the bill. About a month ago, K had asked me if I had heard their single Mama’s Room. She liked it. It sounded retro, kind of like the Bee Gees.

So I buy my ticket for the show and the following warning comes up, which I have never seen so explicitly stated during a ticket purchase.


General Information:

THIS SHOW IS GENERAL ADMISSION/NO SEATS/STANDING ROOM ONLY. NO REFUNDS/NO EXCHANGES UNLESS THE HEADLINING BAND CANCELS.

NON PERMITTED ITEMS:
Illegal and Prescription Drugs
Pro/Digital Cameras
Audio Recording Devices
Laser Pointers
Weapons Of Any Sort
Chains
Spikes
Fireworks
Glass
Bottles
Cans
Backpacks
Large Bags Or Containers

Well, I normally don’t wear chains and spikes but all of the sudden, I was wanting to. But the no illegal drugs is what had K and I laughing. Isn’t the fact that their illegal make it unnecessary to put on the list?

Two days before the show, I check the website and the show has been moved to a different venue. The show is now planned at a place called The Great Saltair on the shore of the Great Salt Lake in Magna, Utah. Thursday night I am sitting in my hotel room, watching the ABC Thursday night lineup and surfing the net when in between commercials, the local news says something like “Man holds police at bay with a high-powered rifle as others enjoy concert at the Great Saltair”. What? There was a concert Thursday night, with Rise Against and Thursday playing. I’m thinking, should I go tomorrow night, but what’s the chance of the same guy holding me hostage the next night? Lightning usually doesn’t strike twice now does it? Well, when I watched the broadcast later, it wasn’t as bad for the concertgoers as the news made it seem originally. The broadcaster said that a man had called the police and stated that he had a gun and he was in a trolley out by the Great Salt Lake. There is a trolley right next to where the concert was taking place but it turns out, he was at another abandoned train car further away.

Okay, so I finally get to The Great Saltair. I leave my coat in the car even though it is pretty cold outside because I don’t want to deal with it. The building looks semi-grand from the outside, and when you get inside there is this ornate staircase that leads up to the Saltlick, the “private club” where you can drink. I decide not to go up there since I am not drinking this particular night. I stay down on the main floor which has no heat and is pretty run down and looks like it’s under construction.

I was wondering if the crowd would be more wholesome than other concert crowds and it does seem that way. No one is smoking and while there are about 250 people in the place, it looks like only about 20-25 are upstairs drinking. I’ve never been to a show alone and I find that I can’t help listening to the conversations around me. There are two college-age guys standing behind me and the conversation goes from being scared of life after college to one of them saying that they want to be married by the time they go to law school because he imagines law school would be hard being single. What? Guys don’t WANT to get married. Yes, this is a different kind of crowd. One of the two guys is totally psyched to see Under the Influence of Giants because they have seen them before. Okay, now I’m not psyched to see UTIOG because they are and five minutes ago they were slamming Queen.

John Ralston comes on stage and as he and the band strike the opening chords, a sound so loud (feedback?) blasts so loudly from the speakers that everyone is putting their fingers in their ears. He tries again and the sound is deafening. He drops his guitar and walks off stage and that’s all we see of him all night. As the technical folks come onstage working on the issue, I wince every time someone gets close to a microphone afraid of the noise.

The stage is set for Under The Influence of Giants. They come on stage and make up for the wait. Unexpectedly, I love their set. They have tons of energy and the music is fun and a real mixture of things. I was all set for more of a disco sound because of what I knew of them (Mama’s Room). There’s definitely the Nile Rogers disco guitar mixed in and some Bee Gees harmonies but other stuff as well. The bassist was the most fun of the whole show. Let me describe his outfit. He had on 70’s white pants with slit side pockets and tennis shoes, fingerless black winter gloves, a navy and orange Adidas warm-up jacket zipped all the way up, a white athletic headband, and mirrored sunglasses. He has shaggy hair and a full beard and he looked like Brian Wilson in his scruffy stage. He was full of energy, headbanging like he was a member of Motorhead. For most of the show the bottom half of his body was doing jumping jacks. The crowd loved him. The whole band made a real connection with the audience.

As for Rooney, all of the girls moved front and center when they came on stage. The guys that had been front and center for UTIOG were now gone or somewhere else in the venue. They sounded good but I guess they’re just not my thing. The lead singer kept saying “Silence is not welcome here” and trying to get the applause meter kicked up and the audience responded. I stuck around for the end of their set and then left before Ben Lee took the stage. --J

I Could Tell She Wasn’t 2 Bright, But When She Kissed Me, She Knew How 2 Get Her Kicks

The title of this post really has no bearing on this content except that it’s a lyric from Raspberry Beret, written by a Minneapolis musician, and this post is about a book written by a Minneapolis musician. I heard Rasberry Beret on the way to work this morning and that lyric just made me laugh for some reason.

Another business trip, another book read. I just finished reading So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer’s Life by Jacob Slichter. Slichter was the drummer for the Minneapolis band Semisonic best known for the 90’s hit, Closing Time. The book was a little dry at times, but very enlightening. He reveals what it is like shopping a record around to various record labels and the fuzzy math used to determine an artist’s cut of the profits. It sounds like you’re making a deal with the devil. It also has a lot of great behind the scenes stuff about recording an album, shooting videos, and touring. There was no dramatic ending and the bandmates are still friends. Also, they didn’t have a meteoric rise or a bidding war for their album so the story is probably more like what the majority of artists signing a recording contract experience.

It is obvious from the book, as we all already guessed, that the record companies are sometimes so far out of touch with what the fans want. There is this hilarious bit in the book about Dan Wilson’s ramblings on stage in between songs when Semisonic would perform. The record company exec would be pissed because the ramblings would sometimes go on and on, yet the fans loved this.

If you’re interested in the music business, this book is good. You may find yourself skimming through the boring parts. I got the feeling that the author might have held back a bit not to hurt anyone’s feelings.
--J

Kickin’ Him When He’s Down

I was reading the news and I see that Kevin Federline practically got booed off the stage during his first live performance and now Britney has filed for divorce. The meal ticket is outta here. This weekend KFed made an appearance on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown, which my daughter, A. records each week. It was such a cringe-worthy interview. I felt bad for the VJ.

VJ: Explain the double meaning of his album title, Playing with Fire.
(This isn’t a direct quote from KFed but it’s damn close thanks to TiVo):
KFed: Well you know my situation is crazy with the media and people talking so this is my way to really talk back. It’s universal because it could go from their side [media] or my side. We were going over a bunch of titles and someone popped that out and that was it.

VJ: Why are you so dressed up on the cover of the his album:
KFed: I was doing a photo shoot and the pictures came out so well the computer put the fire in the cup and the cigarette on the side. (The computer? Wow.)

VJ: Who influenced your music?
KFed: I’m just a fan of good music and grew up with hip hop.

VJ: I hear you are a Phil Collins fan:
KFed: Yeah, that’s what I mean good music.

VJ: What’s your favorite Phil Collins song?
KFed: Oh man, I don’t know the title but the one where he’s a the end of the night (singing) I can feel it…
VJ: In the Air Tonight
KFed: There you go.

VJ: You’re a fan of Coldplay?
KFed: Yeah man the last album they just did was incredible. Ah you know I like the light show.
I watch a lot of people’s live shows and take a piece of everything and build my own.

What a poser. --J

The Zoso Experience- Judakris

To see Zoso was the first time we had been to Pop’s on a weekend night. The place was packed for an all ages show and all ages, from about four to about sixty-four, were represented. Side note: Let me just say that occasionally K and I, who have both lived in the South, get comments from colleagues about the backwardness of Southerners. Is there anything more redneck than having a child so young in age that you can carry them at a smoky bar on a Saturday night to see a Led Zeppelin cover band? I didn’t see that in the South. You can find redneck anywhere.

I really don’t know what to say about this experience. Pop’s has a lot of tribute bands on their calendar ranging from Zoso to Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Pantera, and Dave Matthews. I ran into a friend the other morning and we were discussing the plethora of tribute bands coming to Pop’s and she said the most puzzling to her was the Sublime tribute band. Yeah, do we really need that? Zoso sounded great and kind of looked like the original band. I found myself looking away to just listen to the music because if I stared at the band members I started to pick apart the physical differences between and the members of Led Zeppelin. Where was Robert Plant's signature voluptuous curls, and tight tight pants, and...well let's just say we all know Robert dresses to the left.

I guess I just don’t understand the tribute band. I remembered this morning that actually my first concert-going experience was to see Beatlemania, but I was in the fourth grade and knew nothing of the Beatles so it was all new to me. Are you going to see a tribute band because you were too young or you missed seeing your favorite band in their heyday? Are you going because you just want to hear that music live? To me, it comes up short. I would rather listen to the recorded music. However, by the crowd response, which was enormous, I am in the minority.

In Chuck Klosterman’s book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs he tells a hilarious tale of traveling with a Guns ‘N Roses cover band. The story is called “Appetite for Replication”. They get nervous pondering their fate every time Axl Rose starts threatening releasing the long-awaited album, Chinese Democracy. He’s threatening once again. --J

The other night J and I sat down and watched the oddly unmoving concert movie The Song Remains the Same. It was not the first Led Zeppelin moment we had had in the last few weeks. It seems that the band was coming up in conversations, on Rollingstone covers, and in books (Chuck Klosterman IV, specifically) I had been reading recently. I don’t know what the gods were trying to tell me, but perhaps it was to prepare me for the news that J had acquired free tickets to see renowned Led Zeppelin tribute band Zoso at Pops. Of course we would go.

Tribute bands have always been a slight curiosity for me. I’ve seen my share of cover bands, but tributes are something completely different. Tribute bands base their whole career on sonically and visually imitating a band. I always thought that major fans of the original band would be somehow repelled by this notion, but I learned that, at least in Zoso’s case, this isn’t true. In fact, J and I were two spectators in a venue of hundreds ranging from children to classic fans in their ripened years.

Zoso, who eerily portrayed the originals with great accuracy, launched into their 2-hour set with Rock and Roll, a great opener. They sang all the hits, including Immigrant Song, Whole Lotta Love, Over The Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, and the crowd favorite Stairway to Heaven. We stayed much longer than we expected. For me, I was surprised at how much fun I was having watching a tribute band for my first time. For that I give this show an Unexpected!

On a side note, I read on their website bio page that when the band formed in LA in the mid 90s, each member “was selected to portray both the image and playing styles of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones.” What does that mean they were selected? Who selected them? The wizard on the cliff? -K

The Black Parade - J's Take

I’ve given The Black Parade more than a few listens and while I like the album, there aren’t any songs that really jump out at me like some of the songs on Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. What I guess I would say about the new album is that if you are already a fan, you’ll like it, but I don’t imagine there will be a rush of converts. The one song I would remove from the album is Cancer. I agree with whoever in the band felt it was too literal. I am also kind of puzzled by the “album of the year” comments from some critics. Why is this album being taken so seriously when Three Cheers was not? On the way to a show this weekend, K and I were listening for Queen’s A Night at the Opera, a noted influence of The Black Parade. Listening to that album from start to finish, I really would say that My Chemical Romance is the closest modern day band carrying the torch for Queen. That’s a good thing. –J

Deal With It

There are some people who have a glass of wine and as soon as they start to feel warm they place their hand on top of their glass and decline further consumption. Then there are those of us who get to the warm feeling and are just getting started (hell yeah). Similarly, there are people who are like this with their bands. For some of us, the relationship with a band does not stop at the cd’s point of sale. Far from it. We start from there and move into an online expedition of photos (usually of one band member in particular), bios, articles, reviews, gossip forums, bootlegged acoustic versions, google alerts, youtube videos and interviews, etc., etc., etc… It can get intense and frankly seem a little weird to those that are not like this. It can get particularly intense if as a woman you’re like this and in a relationship with a real live person (as opposed to the relationship you’re in with your favorite band member in your head).
I know from personal experience that it can be a challenge to convince your boyfriend or husband that there is no real threat to him, except if the said rock idol finds you one day in the crowd and begs you to be with him. Most of us know that the likelihood of that happening is less than humanly imaginable. Believe me. I failed trying to make Gerard Way fall in love with me via Jedi mind trick when I met him. However, if you have ever made the poor decision to jokingly say this to your man then he may consider this guy a threat on some fucked up level. I had this friend, oh fuck it, I dated a guy once who was so upset that I had a picture of Jack White in my cubicle back in 2002 that he questioned my commitment to our relationship. An argument ensued at dinner that evening and I found myself unable to explain that he was not a disappointment to me, that I wasn’t in love with Jack White like I was with him, etc. It was asinine, but I realized that night that some guys really aren’t comfortable with their women being into a band or a band member to this degree. I had a similar conversation with another boyfriend about my fascination with Gerard Way. You just never know how a guy will react when you tell them what you’re into or they find out. But you know, not all are like that. Some prefer to approach this with humor. My friend, M, whose husband writes for a music publication down in Alabama, once asked him if he was at all threatened by her hobby of researching some of her favorite actors. His reply was, “honey, no, I’m not bothered by it. I worry how all your other guys feel when you add a new man to the collection of photos. It’s their feelings you need to consider.”
Below is a survival guide to dating or being married to a girl like me. Before you read it, you need to accept that this is a positive thing for us and we’re having a blast. Accept that you can’t change us, but you can change how you react towards us. You may benefit from this in your favorite way.

Don’t even think about injecting the word “stalker” when describing her obsession.
Do expect that she will reveal she knew you were hiding in her bushes for hours once during a messy breakup.

Don’t comment on the amount of time she spends chatting online with other fans or researching her band.
Do continue to spend all of your free time playing WOW and chatting it up with Joe from Jersey.

Don’t be surprised to find her HUGE collection of photos in her photobucket or fotki account and/or My Pictures folder.
Do realize that she is well aware of the amount of time you spend staring at your favorite pictures in your own personal stash.

Don’t call the lead singer a choad if he’s her favorite.
Do just keep your mouth shut, please.

Don’t snicker when you’re in Borders together and she scours the magazines looking for articles on her chosen idol of worship.
Do happen to pick up a magazine with her idol on the cover and surprise her with it upon your return home. More than likely she has this issue already, but it's always good to have two copies.

Don’t complain when she’s listening to her music and cleaning house.
Do put her music on one night when she’s not expecting it and then put your arms around her. You’re not expected to like it.

Don’t turn off her music in the car when she’s driving and insist that you listen to something good.
Do keep your hands off the cd player and stop complaining. If you don’t, she will catalog this and will start to question whether or not you respect her AT ALL.

Don’t make fun of the band’s video when she’s playing it or if it happens to come on tv.
Do let her critique the video if she wants to. She has a right to do this, but this is not an invitation for you to let loose.

Don’t call her obsession adolescent.
Do know that she is ready to recount the number of times you sulked and pouted when she wasn’t in the mood.

Don’t make comments about how many times she goes to see her band live.
Do send her an email alerting her when you find out her band is coming to town. More than likely she knew about this date 6 months ago and has her Ticketmaster alert setup, but the gesture will be extremely appreciated.

Don’t insist on going with her to the show because you are worried she will get backstage and run off with the band.
Do realize that this concern is unrealistic. Offer instead to drop her off and pick her up when she calls. She will probably want to get loaded while she’s having the time of her life and afterwards wait behind the venue to get an autograph.

Now, ladies, here's something to think about, too. Your guy being supportive does not mean you need to keep him abreast of your hobby. You know how you may accept/support him and his Suicide Girls membership or his porn collection, but he knows better than to talk about it with you too much? Same thing. Save your conversation for your girlfriends who are like you or fellow fans who give a damn.

Also, don't be crazy. Remember when Winona Ryder's character in Girl, Interrupted realizes that in order to get out of the psychiatric hospital she has to "act" normal? Always keep this in mind. Don't start balling in front of your loved one because your band didn't win best rock video on an award show no matter how much it hurts (and trust me I know it does). On the flipside, don't let your obsession turn you into the delusional fan that ends up approaching a singer with a pair of scissors causing him to rarely be seen sober in public. Don't blow this for us, Gene!

Everybody just deal! -K

Funk!

While K has been asking me what I think of My Chemical Romance’s new album, I have been preoccupied driving to and from work with a gem I recently picked up. Compilation CDs may be a bit passé in the time of iTunes playlists but I don’t care. It’s a Rhino records compilation CD called Millenium Funk Party. My daughter A. just doesn’t get the name and then I read the back of the CD case to her, which made her giggle. It says…

Dig---Why drop your bread on album after album to accentuate your party and clog up your 500-disc changer when all you gotta do is slip this bad boy in, slap “repeat”, and set the joint on fire? Easier than Minute Rice, funkier than gym class. Get down tonight.

There are a lot of good tunes on it, but my favorite is Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up (Pt. 1). If the percussion in that song doesn’t make you want to dance, there may be something physically wrong with you.

P.S. I've gotten more phone calls and emails from out-of-towners who have read the recent report that St. Louis is the most dangerous city, instead of the World Series win. I talked to one person in my office who feels as though that report was media sabotage, released to purposely steal the thunder of the victory. I don't know about crime but conspiracy theory is alive and well in St. Louis. --J

The Way Out Club

Last Friday night my friend V and I went to the Way Out Club in St. Louis. I don’t know if it was the fact that it was the weekend before Halloween, that the weather was ominously creepy, or that we had had too much Vampire wine at Van Goghz before heading there, but it was a fascinating night out.

An exposed tit propositioning you outside the men’s restroom is pretty unexpected, isn’t it? At least, I imagine it was unexpected for my friend V who returned from a trip to the men’s room and told me this story.

What I have found in my 30s, is that you might look at something completely meaningless and your thoughts will immediately lead you down a path to something that lies in your subconscious. Since it was the Friday night before Halloween, the patronage at the club was decked out in Halloween regalia. Fantastic costumes gave us plenty to admire while enjoying our own conversation at our little table. In the dim lights we saw a beauty queen walk in. She was tall and pretty. As she approached us we realized she was Carrie, complete with pig blood. After commenting on her crown and how much it reminded him of the Statue of Liberty, V said to me in all seriousness “This country is bleeding, man. It’s bleeding.”

Anyway, The Gentleman Callers were really enjoyable for the first few songs, but then they started to bleed together a little bit. What killed me was the faux German accent the lead singer sported in between songs. At one point he addressed his keyboardist, Seth, who was decked out in 18th century garb, and said “we play ze maschines, but do ze maschines play us?”

I just want to say thank you to the guy who barricaded the door to the guy’s bathroom for me to make sure no one came in while I was using it. I don’t remember why I chose to use the guy’s bathroom, but it seemed like a necessary idea at the time. -K

Death's Soundtrack

I heard about this poll on Chicago Public Radio's Sound Opinions and like them, couldn't believe the results...


I shouldn't be surprised by some of these selections. In fact, if this poll was done in America, some of the Brit artists like Robbie Williams would be replaced by some extremely literal country songs. My mother-in-law died this year and my sister-in-law picked out the music for the funeral service which included a country song where the singer was pleading with the listener to not be sad because they were in a better place. My husband H. was sitting at the front of the funeral home with immediate family and even in that most somber moment, turned to me and gave me a look like, "What the hell is this?"

H. always says that I tend to answer a question with a question but when I was thinking about what I might choose for my funeral, the only thing that ran through my head was, how do I die? Depending on that, the musical selection would be quite different.

What's the moral to this story? James Blunt still sucks and people with bad musical taste die. --J

MCR's The Black Parade

I’m just going to put this quote out there. No need to discuss it: “…something that we had always wanted but were always missing…it helped us complete the sound we wanted to create.” Wait. Gerard, what are you talking about? Oh, the addition of keyboards on the new album, The Black Parade (Reprise). Excellent!

(J, I’m sorry that I won’t let your emphatic distaste of keyboards in hard rock ever die)

My Chemical Romance released their third album last week. I approached the release of this album very seriously. I purposely tried to stay away from reading any early reviews. This third album is something I have anticipated more than anything this year and it was important to me to not be clouded by other journalists’ opinions. If I listened to anyone it was the band itself who gave us fans a mock press conference in late August/ early September. That was all the information I needed.

As October 24th approached, I would occasionally worry myself about a couple of things. Firstly, I was worried that there would be too much of that Cabaret thing happening. I’m German. I love it. But bands like The Dresden Dolls and Panic! make me want to drown myself in guitar noodling and legends of groupies. My second concern was that this album would be too heavily conceptual for my taste. Not conceptual as in Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads where the collection of songs have a similar theme, but conceptual in that the artist is trying to tell you a story. When artists do this, there’s always a possibility that there could be a handful of good songs and then a handful of shitty songs that were meant to carry the story along. Who wants that?

MCR is no stranger to a concept album. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge was loosely conceptual and considered the continuation of the last song on the band’s first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. It had a story, but it could be summed up in one word: Revenge. That’s all that you had to remember when you listened to it. The Black Parade was not to be ‘loosely’ based on a story. Quite the opposite.

What I’m happy to report is that this cd is an excellent rock album, first and foremost. There is certainly a macabre cabaret thing going on and it is conceptual, but you know what, I fucking love it. So, my anxieties aside, let me tell you about my new favorite album, The Black Parade.

The motivation behind this album was the question “what if, when death comes for you, it somehow taps into your subconscious and transforms itself into your strongest, most cherished memory?” On this album you have the main protagonist, The Patient, who dies from cancer. His strongest memory is of a parade his father took him to when he was a child. So, death comes to The Patient in the form of a parade. He follows the parade to his ultimate fate, whatever afterlife there is. Along the way he meets a few characters, i.e., the twins Fear and Regret. It’s simple, relatable (in the ‘everything comes down to dying with me’ kind of way) beautiful, and so very MCR.

Like I said, this is a rock album, so let’s talk about the guitars. There are two guitarists in the band, Ray Toro and Frank Iero. Ray comes from the classic rock guitar side of the house while Frank comes from the punk power chord side of the house. The two mixed together create wonderfully energetic and fast-moving melodies. These two guys have been with the band since the beginning and I think without either one of them MCR would be incomplete. Besides Gerard’s performance, which is in itself something to behold live, it’s the marriage of these two guitar styles that make their music so kickass, in my opinion.

Another kickass element is the message of empowerment in each of their songs. I will tell you that no matter what age you are, you can’t help but be moved by the insistence that you will shine your brightest when you face your greatest fears and disappointments. This is what I loved on Three Cheers, and it’s abundant on the new album.

Let’s talk about the tracklisting. I’ll just discuss the ones that I love the most. Wait. That just happens to be all of them.

1. The End. This is a powerful opening to the album. The Patient welcomes you.

2. Dead! I love the flat line in the beginning. As I was reading the lyrics to this song I came across the lyric “During this operation Found a complication in your heart So long”. This has to be a reference to the operation during which Gerard’s grandma passed away due to complications. This event inspired the song Helena on Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, but we already know that.

3. This is How I Disappear. Towards the end of the Revenge tour Gerard developed a fascination with Houdini and the séances his wife would hold after he died. Some of the last pics that were published overseas towards the end of the tour were of the band hanging upside down in straight jackets. Gerard tells you in the liner notes that The Escape Artist is one of the characters the Patient meets on his journey.

4. The Sharpest Lives. There is a Bon Jovi element to this one which I’m really into!

5. Welcome to the Black Parade. I agree with J that the opening of this song could be cut short a little bit. However, once the song starts moving it’s awesome.

6. I Don’t Love You. I repeated this song four times when I first heard it. I love Ray’s guitar solo in this one.

7. House of Wolves. I think of Detroit twice. Can you guess why? I LOVE the power chords. Mikey’s bass playing comes through in this song. I’m looking forward to seeing the crowd go apeshit when this song is performed live.

8. Cancer is a song that Ray Toro felt was going to be too honest or literal for people to take (from the liner notes in the limited edition of the cd). This is a beautiful 2-minute ballad. If you have been touched by this disease, as J and I both have been, you will not hear this song easily, but do it. This is fucked up, but I listened to this song while I was putting on my face in preparation to go out. I cried so hard I had to wash my face and start over.

9. Mama. Gerard definitely has a fascination for the Macabre Cabaret of the German persuasion. Gerard sings in different voices in this song. LIZAAAAAAAAAAAAA with a Z makes an appearance on this song. Brilliant.

10. Sleep. Wonderfully ambient in some parts and hard in others. Very nice.

11. Teenagers. This is a very different sound for them. I live for Gerard yelling “AWDAGETHA NOW!!” towards the end. Hilarious.

12. Disenchanted. It took me just a few seconds to realize what I was hearing. When they performed a “new” song called Shut Up and Play during their show at the Pageant in September 2005, I remember thinking “Air Supply”. I liked it, but it was quite a departure. Shortly after that performance, a fellow fan in the UK sent me a shared file of that song performed live overseas. Shut Up and Play was in my larger than life MCR playlist for a long time until one fateful day my laptop crashed and I hadn’t backed up in time (won’t do that again). Anyway, now I have it again but in its finished form and with its new title, Disenchanted. AND it doesn’t sound so Air Supply anymore.

13. Famous Last Words. There’s just a hint of noodling in this song! Great song to end the album with. This song is considered the sister song of Sleep.

There is a track 14, but it’s hidden. Let the cd player play on in its silence for about 1m 30s and you’ll hear an interesting cabaret song that showcases Gerard and his dark humor. Quite the little gem.

For the fans that can afford it, get the special limited edition for the photography and sketches, the commentary, and the written diary.

It’s no secret how much I love this band. The Judakris picture on this website is a sketch of us at the Oasis show in 2005 during which I met Gerard for the first time. K is the one on the right of picture, distracted by the lovely man in black sitting down to her left during most of the show. It was a completely serendipitous and lovely experience that I wrote about in an earlier post entitled “In the Beginning, There Was Oasis…” In that post I also write about the drive back to St. Louis, during which a line of tour buses carrying MCR and a bunch of other bands to our hometown Warped show stayed alongside us much of the way. The memory of that night is one that I will never forget. If, according to this album, death taps into your subconscious and transforms itself into one of your strongest and/or cherished memories then when I’ve reached my end of days, I’ll wait for the line of tour buses to guide me down the highway to see an MCR show for one last time. Well done, boys. I give this one an Unbelievable. XOXO -K

"I'm Going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee"...

Work trip – Heading to one of the frequent cities I visit. How can this get fun? I’m traveling with two folks from work and we decide to take a detour and stop in Memphis on our way to the final destination. While I have driven past Graceland a few times, I have never stopped. We decide to stop there before heading on to Beale Street for a quick lunch and then on we go.

Everyone I know who has ever gone to Graceland has said two things to me. First, the 70’s décor is atrocious. Second, Graceland is much smaller than you expect it to be. In the age of MTV’s Cribs, yes, it is smaller than expected, but back in the day, I am sure it was awesome. I wasn’t so shocked by the décor because it just brought me back to my childhood when my mom used to ask me to rake the long shag carpeting in the living room.

Graceland is a business. It is well-organized and every person is given a headset to listen to a guided tour, which contains sound bites from the man himself. I’m such a nerd tourist that I love this. When I go to a tourist destination, I want someone telling me all about it so I can appreciate it more. There are also various monitors throughout the tour running film of Elvis performances and interviews and I believe for me this was the highlight. Watching his press conference when he returned from military service in Germany, watching Ed Sullivan show clips, and the 1968 comeback special, were highlights of the tour. I loved the newspaper clips in the museum reporting on young men thrown out of high school in the Midwest because of their Elvis haircut. It is all relative, but what was controversial then, sure does make you ponder what is controversial now.

There were a lot of people there on a Tuesday afternoon. I found myself censoring anything critical I might say to my travel partners about anything in the museum or of Elvis for fear that I might offend one of the other visitors. I got the feeling that for some, this experience was like church. I said to the women that I was traveling with that if I would have been a young girl when Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show, I would have been hooked, no doubt.

You may have to be a true fan to pay $22 to tour Graceland, but I felt like it was worth it. Here are a few pics of the infamous jumpsuits and gold records. Maybe because I was prepared for it, I appreciated the over the top décor. Last year I was reading an interview with Krist Novoselic, the bassist for Nirvana. He was being asked to describe his standard of living post-Nirvana and he said that he had a nice house but nothing like the mansions on Cribs. He asked the question, “Why are all the houses on Cribs beige?” Like it or not, Elvis had personal style. I doubt if he were alive today, his house would be beige. --J

Who Wants Cake?

This post will have something to do with music, I promise. I just can’t write about Marie Antoinette and not comment on the movie itself. J and I saw it last night. Once again, as we did when we made the poor decision to see Proof of Life in 2001, we expected that our muffled laughing fits would cause those around us to start throwing things. We couldn’t help it. We just needed to giggle since the movie had the lethargic pace of Lost in Translation. When the end did finally come, I was left wanting to see a car blow up. Or, in this case, a head roll. Nothing like that happens.

The soundtrack is beautiful. Just stunning. Don't expect A Knight's Tale. This movie is actually filled with an interesting combination of period music alongside excellent placements of 80s hits such as Plainsong by The Cure and Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Adam Ant and The Strokes are in there, too. No Falco. I guess that would have been too “obvious”.

Things to note:
J, with her signature quick eye, noticed the Converse All Star Chuck Taylors that show up for a split second.
The kid that was cast to play the 2-year old Dauphin looked like he wanted to break your face. Seriously, he was not happy in any of his scenes.
Marianne Faithfull cast as Kaiserin Maria Theresia.
Rip Torn cast as Louis XV. I could not stop thinking of his hilarious DUI arrest video.
The beautiful and talented Australian actress Rose Byrne cast as the Duchess de Polignac.
Since J and I are both scholars of the Rococo period and have written historical papers on Robespierre, our post-movie commentary on historical facts of the period made us stop and realize what geeks we are.
There was an emphasis on confection as the movie peaks. In my life, I have never hungered for an éclair like I did while watching this movie.
There is one clever, albeit chilling use of symbolic foreshadowing as Marie Antoinette silences the mob about to break into Versailles by bowing her head over her balcony railing.

My final thoughts: I was unmoved. I totally appreciate what Sophia Coppola was trying to achieve in this movie and knew this was not meant to be a documentary-style film. Regardless, I don’t think J and I will ever feel the need to see this movie again. -K

"I got a fever, and the only prescription..."

If I flip on the tv or the radio and it’s financial news, I immediately turn it off. Recently though some financial news got my attention and goddamnit, it is already lowering my quality of life. Google bought YouTube. What does this mean to you and me? Well, nothing if you regularly go to the site to watch videos of someone’s crazy cat. But if you are like me, and rely on this site to watch clips of your favorite musical acts, life is changing. You want to see [insert band name here] perform on [insert television show name here]? Just go to YouTube. But because of copyright infringement, content will change on YouTube and it’s already happening. For example, I was going to send K this video of Kings of Leon on a Japanese television show where they smoked and drank through the entire interview looking completely disinterested in the idea of doing press. It was pretty amusing. Gone! It is as if it never happened! Then just today, as I was formulating the idea for this post, I was going to find the link to one of the all-time best SNL skits and recommend you watch it now because it probably will not be there soon and… it’s already GONE! No longer can you, at a moment’s notice, watch the parody of VH1’s Behind the Music where Blue Oyster Cult was recording the song Don’t Fear the Reaper and Christopher Walken demanded “more cowbell”. Now you have to go buy the Best of Christopher Walken or Will Ferrell on SNL DVD to see it. An era that lasted only a mere eight months is now over. R.I.P. the true YouTube. --J

Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock 'N Roll

I am pleased to invite Joel Orff’s Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock ‘n’ Roll into my library of comics. This piece of work is a sweet collection of stories that Judakris and you, reader, can understand. Do you still remember what song was playing during your first slow dance or when you had a serendipitous encounter with one of your favorite rock stars? Orff has collected these kinds of stories from various people and translated them into loosely-drawn vignettes. He keeps an archive of these comics on his website and invites you to email your story. -K