More Cowbell - Wolfmother at Pointfest

By the time 8:30 had rolled around and I had been subjected to a bunch of bands I didn’t enjoy plus having to watch the winner of the Guitar Hero contest play in front of the entire crowd, I was ready for something real. Andrew let the crowd know that they had been sitting in their bus for about fourteen hours and were ready to release their primal urges on the crowd during their last U.S. show this tour. Wolfmother played a blistering hour-long set which included crowd pleasers like Dimension, Joker and the Thief, Woman, and Colossal. They also mixed in some two new songs that had the crowd on their feet. Chris and Andrew were all over the place jumping off the bass drum and amplifiers. The sun had set and yet the clothes in the crowd kept coming off. While nothing could match getting a personal concert as we did back in November, it was a great set. While The Killers’ set was like a sensual kiss, Wolfmother was the strip down and get to business band. --J

Mother's Day Eve

I couldn’t pass up the one day festival called Pointfest here in STL. The festivities began at 10:30 am Saturday but I didn’t arrive until around 5. I thought about going early to support the local bands performing and to hear some different music, but the chores of a responsible adult won out. Also, K is out of town so I was going it alone. As I was pulling into the parking lot of the amphitheatre, I saw a kid being held up by a security guard as the kid mega puked all over the place. Walking to the front gate I saw a guy goofing around with his buddy who was in a wheelchair, pushing him quickly, cutting quick turns to the left and right until both tires fell off of the wheels of the chair. To help his buddy get the tires back on, the guy in the chair got out of it and stood up. I began to wonder, is the show out here? I came to see Wolfmother mainly and The Killers secondly and I will talk about those in separate posts. What else did I see? Well, lots of half-naked people who shouldn’t be half-naked, lots of beer, and some bands I did not enjoy. I saw one of the guys from I think Bullet for My Valentine eagerly signing breasts and stomachs and some other poor sap from a band reluctantly sign some big sweaty guy’s back. Also, the guy sitting in front of me was wearing what I believe to be the ugliest shirt I have ever seen. Maybe it was partly my mood this week or just being alone at the festivities, but I desperately wanted to be entertained and Papa Roach just wouldn’t do. I also saw a local band called Lye that won a battle of the bands to be the opener on the main stage of the festival. All I can say is if they won, the other bands must have totally sucked. It was that brooding metal with no hooks, just dramatic stage attire. The lead singer had on a priests cassock and the bass player was wearing what I call Hot Topic pants. The lead singer kept the bottom half of his body stationary as he moved the top half of his body almost into a back bend. But even the onstage antics didn’t keep me interested. Having no one to talk to and a real chatterbox sitting behind me, I had to listen to her take on the world including the conspiracy that some call Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus also played the main stage and all I can say is that they are so unnecessary. That has got to be one of the worst band names ever. Can you tell I’m not a big fan of the outdoor festival? –J

The One We've Been Waiting For

As I was driving home from work today trying to lift my spirits, I was thinking of some of the shows I'm looking forward to seeing this summer like The Killers/Wolfmother this weekend, Kings of Leon next week, and The Police in July. At that moment a booming radio voice announced that the "reunion we've all been waiting for" was going to soon be touring in my city....Poco. Really? --J

Southern Culture on the Skids in St. Louis

As you can read from the earlier post, I have been so over the news and down on the current state of affairs in this country. I needed something to take my mind off of these seemingly unfixable problems. I needed beer, Bermuda shorts, big hair, and bowling shirts. I needed Southern Culture on the Skids. My friend M went with me to the show. They were playing in the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill which is a small basement venue in The Loop in University City and it was a packed house. After a few drinks I got over being nervous that she wouldn't like them.

From the first note of "Too Much Pork for Just One Fork", we wouldn’t think about anything but having fun until the end of the night. SCOTS blazed through a non-stop set full of favorites like "Firefly", "Liquored Up and Laquered Down", "Corn Liquor", and "Doublewide", a song about “upward mobility”. The crowd loved them and hometown fixture, Beatle Bob was right there on the side of the stage adding his own special groovy moves to the set. A particularly loaded female fan kept yelling at Rick to play the fried chicken song. He responded with, “Hold on darling, suck on that beer a little longer. We’ll get to that.” SCOTS also did some great covers including "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden".

SCOTS wrapped up the set with "Daddy Was a Preacher but Mama was a Go Go Girl" and then "Eight Piece Box" where a bevy of female fans jumped on the stage to either throw or attempt to seductively eat fried chicken. Beatle Bob however, had grabbed what looked like a breast out of the chicken box that was being passed around and hunkered down eating it like it was dinner theatre.

If you like a party crowd and surfer/rockabilly/country/roots rock music, it’s a must event. It made me remember all of the campy crazy things about this country that I love. --J

A Moment of Reflection

Not to get all heavy and political but the news about the war this week has been totally depressing. It’s scary that we go on with our lives each day, even this silly little blog, and we are not all more outraged about the state of affairs. --J

Straight outta highschool he didn't know what to do
Wanted to go to college but no money was nothin' new
Wanted to get away go see the world and do somethin' new
He got approached in the mall by the army recruit
Told him "If you wanna go to school we got money too,
Sign up at eighteen you be you when you twenty-two"
He joined the army airborne got his uniform went to bootcamp got some discipline Iraq is where they shipped him
He's in the mission where bullets flyin' and missin him
Wishin' he was a kid again with his family in Michigan
In the midst of fightin' militiamen, one round took down six of them
He ain't really a killa though, takin' a lotta risks
This is what a poor person do for a scholarship
He turned around and got a face full of hollow-tips
But don't be mad, he died for the flag

--Rhymefest, Bullet

The Best Damn Thing?

The new and improved Avril Lavigne’s record came out this week. Why do I care? Because there was an eleven year old waiting for me to come home on Tuesday to take her to the store so she could spend her allowance on a copy. A. has been playing “Girlfriend” on her iPod for about a month now. I like “Girlfriend” because it makes me think of being a pre-teen myself loving Toni Basil’s “Mickey”, same concept. Because of A’s love of Avril we have every CD and also saw her perform an acoustic set at a mall here in St. Louis a few years ago which proved that she can play guitar and sing well without the help of studio magic.

When Avril first came on the scene with songs like “Complicated” and “Sk8tr Boi” I thought it was a refreshing change from the Christina’s and Britney’s of the world. She wasn’t shaking her ass in the camera. The second album was darker but A. loved it anyway. In fact there was a road trip where I think I probably heard that CD fifteen times. My hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter when it was A’s turn to pick the music, knowing I would have to hear that CD again.

So the new album is coming out and personally I am wondering what the now married Avril will release. In the first video released, “Girlfriend” we see an image change. The video is slick, Avril is glammed up, and there is even choreography. I was shocked. With Britney off imploding before our very eyes and Christina doing her best Andrews Sisters impression did either Avril or her management see a void in the music scene?

Then she performed on Saturday Night Live last week. She sounded okay but did not look at all like the girl in the video. She looked more like the girl who would be rolling her eyes at the girl in the video. She must be going through career schizophrenia. Who can blame her at her age?

I’ve been subjected to the new album more than once by A. The up tempo songs are fun and if I were eleven years old, I would be obsessed. The ballads are so so.

One final note, my child of the digital age could have downloaded the album as soon as she woke up last Tuesday but she said to me weeks before in anticipation of the purchase that she wanted to buy it at the store. So while we hear never-ending reports of declining CD sales, some of us still want something tangible to hold as we listen to our new music. --J

Are you kidding me?

I’ve been going through a phase of insomnia that is a bit different than phases of the past. Instead of not being able to fall asleep, I can’t keep my eyes open at about 9:30 so I go to bed, only to wake up worrying about something between 12:30 and 2:30 and don’t go back to sleep until about 5:00. Most of the time I log on and work since it is the source of my worry, but sometimes I watch a movie or whatever is on the TiVo box. The other night I recorded Conan O’Brien’s show because Of Montreal was going to be the musical guest and their name has been dropped in music mags lately. So it’s about 3:00 in the morning and all is quiet and I’m watching this performance and all I can think is, “What the fuck is this?” I wish it was on YouTube but it’s not. First of all the song was forgettable, but there was also a lot of performance art happening with costume changes and set displays. The lead singer plays the guitar for part of the song and then a man crouched down walks up to him and grabs the guitar and pulls it down as the lead singer steps out of the guitar strap now pooled around at his feet. When it is time to play the guitar again, the man comes back, the lead singer steps into the guitar strap and the man lifts the guitar up to the singer’s waist so he can grab it and play. I don’t even know how to describe the makeup and the costumes. It had elements of glam and maybe FAO Schwartz? If I didn’t have it recorded, in my state of sleeplessness I would have probably wondered later if my mind was playing tricks on me. Even Conan seemed a little confused as to what to say when he came over to the band to shake their hand. Weird. --J

Kings of Leon - Because of the Times

After listening to Mika, I was ready for some testosterone fueled rock music when Kings of Leon's latest was released at the beginning of April. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to listen to it so at first glance; I’m giving it an unexpected rating. Early press touted this release as a big departure for them so I did not know what to expect but I don’t hear a huge difference in sound. That’s fine with me though. I’ve been gravitating to the up tempo numbers like Charmer and McFearless, but I can picture listening to more dreamy songs like The Runner and Trunk on a late night drive along a lonely highway. I need to plan a road trip soon. --J

Life in Cartoon Motion - Unfortunate

If one had lapsed into a coma in 1990, missing the announcement of Freddie Mercury’s passing, and awakened in 2007, one might hear a Mika song on the radio and think that maybe Freddie had launched a solo career or Brian May had left Queen. The voice is spooky at times it is so dead on. Like K, I loved his single Grace Kelly, what a fun song.

I was on a business trip last week, feeling a lot of pressure at work and facing another birthday away from home. So on Tuesday I picked up the Mika CD to distract me. This CD is all over the place from songs sounding like they came out of a Gilbert and Sullivan production to human rights issues. The most obvious Queen rip-off or tribute is a song called Big Girl (You Are Beautiful). I was thinking Fat Bottomed Girls the whole time I listened to it from the a capella beginning. This song also reminded me of one of the most quotable people I have ever met in my life. We used to work together and R, an openly gay man and I were out at the mall one night after work shortly after I had met him. A very handsome man passed us arm in arm with a very large woman. He stated as if it were fact across the board, “If you ever see a good looking man like that with a heavy woman… gay”. I tried to argue the point with him but he would have none of it. Listening to this Mika song I didn’t believe for a minute that he was into big girls.

Besides Grace Kelly, there are a few upbeat songs like Ring Ring but not enough to recommend purchasing this CD. It just made me listen to Queen the whole plane ride home. --J

Jesus, Close Your Legs

I'm sorry. I can't help but ask. Is it just me, or does Carrie Underwood often look like she's about to drop a baby onstage? Why doesn't someone tell her that if she's going to wear mini dresses or shorts in heels she might want to consider standing with her legs a bit closer together? -K

Little Piece of Heaven

I bought one of those new iPod shuffles yesterday and I have to say I am in love with its compact size. Only now my Mini looks like a mainframe computer.

"I don't really feel like beaming the music through your radio anymore, K. Why would you want to restart me, K?"

-K

Congratulations R.E.M.

I heard that R.E.M. was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was happy to hear this and it got me listening to Document and Green on my latest road trip. But for some reason, the following quote from Peter Buck has stuck with me more than this monumental occasion for the group. He was recently on the radio show Sound Opinions and the two hosts were kissing his ass giving him I guess what they think is their ultimate compliment, telling him that he too could be a most excellent rock critic. He responded with the following:
"The reason I could not become a rock critic is because you quite often have to listen to music you don't like and to me, that is just torture. It's one of the reasons I don't go to dinner parties because someone else has control of the stereo. It's like first of all they're cookin for me and then I gotta deal with that, and then on top of everything else, they always play something I just have to, you know, only a really dumb person would play this record. I just can't say that. It's a physical sensation to me, really bad music just I mean, it makes me really pissed off in a way that just almost nothing else other than traffic and root canal does". Hahahaha! --J

So Close to Celebrity?

I enjoyed a fabulous spring week in the South last week. It’s my favorite season there and it makes me miss it terribly. As my friend C and I were leaving for lunch on Friday, the receptionist sitting at the front desk pulled C aside and said, “Hey, have you heard of the band Selluva?” C gave the receptionist a politely confused look. Since I had read the paper the day before I figured that the receptionist meant Saliva who was playing at Sammy T's, a club across the street Friday night. She went on to say that their "turr bus was raght outsod". So I took this pic. Why couldn't it have been a good band camped outside our office all afternoon? --J

Houston Bound

My friend M is moving to Houston next week. I knew this was coming for some time, but I guess in the back of my mind, I was hoping it wouldn’t. To avoid missing him, I’ve been giving him shit about his latest musical passing fancies. About three weeks ago we went to lunch together and on the way back he said “Lady Sovereign”. I don’t think I let him say much more before I went into a tirade about how much I can’t stand her. I have a real problem with the Brit hip hop stars. I challenged him to find a picture of her without that side ponytail. He has yet to produce such a picture! Two weeks ago we were at brunch and he mentioned Lily Allen. He laughed when I rolled my eyes. I don’t hate her but I think she has zero stage presence and she’s not half as clever as her P.R. machine says she is. But then he went for the jugular with me. He went to Houston last week and saw Beyonce in concert. I can’t abide by this. I texted him the day after the concert and asked how the show was and he started in with “Brace yourself”, and blah-bity blah she was awesome. I had a one-word text response: “Bullshit”. If he feels the need to pull away through music, that is his choice.

Today for my birthday, M sent me the attached birthday greeting which made me laugh out loud.

M, I’ll leave you with this parting comment: the STL hip hop scene kicks Houston’s ass. I know after some self-reflection, you will understand how important that is. –J

I Guess Dreams Really Can Come True...

...at least for one of my male friends. When I IM'ed my friend C that Joan Jett and Carmen Electra were a couple, his immediate response was one word: AWESOME.

For whatever reason, the conversation that followed made me think of that Baudelaire poem Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil). There's a great translation online by Cat Nilan. Anyway, I'm taking poetic license by slightly distorting the context of this verse, but it just seems to sum up the mental imagery that my friend C and I'm sure other straight men out there have when it comes to the union of two hot chicks:

Lesbos, land of hot and languid nights
Which make hollow-eyed girls, in love with their own bodies,
Caress the ripe fruits of their nubility
Before their mirrors -- sterile delight! --;
Lesbos, land of hot and languid nights,

I must say, the news was completely unexpected. However, as J put it, to go from Dave Navarro to a woman seems like a natural progression. -K