Saturday, February 24, 2007

DANIEL JOHNSTON IS NOT A GENIUS
















…so, finally got to see the Daniel Johnston documentary…and I have to say I have never seen such a complete (and exhaustingly overly-long) case study of mass hypnosis. I know this is heresy, all the more incongruous coming from a confirmed Shaggs & Henry Darger worshiper…but The Imp-eror Has No Clothes.

This poor guy – obviously F.U.B.A.R. & exploited by his ‘handlers’ & a rock crowd that confuses newgeniusdeathwish with art & psychosis - is nothing more than a hipster version of Anna Nicole Smith leechdom.

This poor guy – with his bent parents, well-meaning but altmusicindustry vampires - all of whom get sucked into DJ’s megalomaniacal maelstrom of self-promotion, artcon & self-destruction.

This poor guy – is not a pretty sight. It is not genius to ineptly bang on an out-of-tune guitar and squeaksing one’s anguish in public. It is psychotic to do this while also having one’s Dead Dog’s Eye on ‘the main chance’. It is not fun to see the crazy guy do The Crazy Guy Spazz Dance. It is amazing that there is so much footage on him (ALL of which seems to have been shoe-horned into this doc), from the crib to the present. It is horrible to see pals of mine at Pier Platters witnessing & enjoying a guy’s meltdown. It reminds me of the ghoulish phenomenon of folks going to see an on-his-last-legs Johnny Thunders gig…not wanting to miss the chance of being there should he finally overdose & check out onstage.

Yes, some of the songs are good. And some of DJ’s art has merit and power, but it is the meritpower of a 12-year-old drawing a nice horsey. I am fortunate to know some REAL musical geniuses (R. Stevie Moore, Patrick Sweany) who do their work on a daily basis, but aren’t nutz enough to get this kind of sicko adulation.

Ick.

Shame on you, human race.

NP: Deerhoof/”Friend Opportunity”. the real deal!

PEEVE DE JOUR: being stoopid.

JOIES DE JOUR: 45 degrees in Akron, a full social calendar, being in love!

N.B.A.T.W.P.:

PARISH HALL
6205 Detroit
Cleveland, OH 44102
(216) 939-9099

presents SILLY PUTTY = an art installation/mini-golf course. There thru March 4th.





















and!

DOUBLE DUTCH WILL TAKE YOU HIGHER

jump rope meets performance art/8pm/Sat Feb. 24th:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdvideo/flash/index.ssf?jumprope_0207video

Spaces Gallery
2220 Superior Via
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 621-2314

cb...where are you?






OHIO

Monday, February 19, 2007

MAKING FIENDS

probably old news to many of you, but yesterday i got turned on to Amy Winfrey's twistedcutecruelfunny Flash annimation series Making Fiends. South Park meets Peanuts meets the Marquis de Sade:



the entire series, plus links to her Big Bunny & and Muffin films/web cartoons are here:

http://www.makingfiends.com/

highly, highly recommended. WARNING: you won't get any work done if you tune in...they are nicotinelikeaddictive! also, apparently Nickelodeon has signed her up for some half-hour episodes. see 'em now before they get GP'ed.

NP: Dusty Springfield videos on youtube. the first in a long line of 'daughters of Sapho' crushes...

PEEVE DE JOUR: backed-up toilet.

JOIE DE JOIR: Natural History Museum tomorrow with new pals from Portland, Me.

N.B.A.T.W.P.:

Boog City's Classic Albums Live presents

A 40th Birthday Celebration for Kurt Cobain

Tues. Feb. 20, 7:00 p.m., $8

Cakeshop
152 Ludlow St.
NYC

With all three Nirvana studio albums

‹Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero‹

performed live by

Trouble Dolls (NB: Matty & Cheri do truly rock!)

Daouets
The Domestics
Dibson T. Hoffweiler
Jeffrey Lewis
Limp Richard
The Marianne Pillsburys
The Olga Gogolas
Renminbi
Schwervon
The Sparrows
Genan Zilkha

Hosted by Boog City editor and publisher David Kirschenbaum

Directions: F/V to Second Ave.; F to Delancey St.; J/M/Z to Essex St.
Venue is between Stanton and Rivington streets.

For further information: 212-842-BOOG(2664), 212-253-0036,
editor@boogcity.com, or http://www.cake-shop.com/

Bios and websites follow show running order

*Bleach*

The Olga Gogolas
1. Blew
2. Floyd the Barber
3. About a Girl

Limp Richard
4. School
5. Love Buzz
6. Paper Cuts

The Olga Gogolas
7. Negative Creep
8. Scoff
9. Swap Meet

Jeffrey Lewis
10. Mr. Moustache
11. Sifting
12. Big Cheese

Marianne Pillsbury and The Song Hoes
13. Downer

*Nevermind*

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. In Bloom

Schwervon
3. Come as You Are
4. Breed
5. Lithium

Trouble Dolls
6. Polly
7. Territorial Pissings
8. Drain You

Genan Zilkha
9. Lounge Act
10. Stay Away
11. On a Plain

Dibson T. Hoffweiler
12. Something In The Way
Endless, Nameless

*In Utero*

The Domestics
1. Serve The Servants
2. Scentless Apprentice
3. Heart-Shaped Box

Renminbi
4. Rape Me
5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
6. Dumb

Daouets
7. Very Ape
8. Milk It
9. Pennyroyal Tea

The Sparrows
10. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
11. tourette's
12. All Apologies

cb...where are you?






NEW JERSEY

Friday, February 16, 2007

FRIDAY VIDS!

- from RC in SF - a robot plays the solo in Giant Steps:



- from Bongo Bob in OH - Patti Smith makes me cringe:



- from WG in NYC - good grooming 'down there' (also look for the 'music video' egg - will post the url separately soon):


http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/

- from RSM in NJ - live at Maxwell's:



- from LS in NYC - "Ferry 'Cross The Curry":





- from Derf in OH - more Indian hinduhippie weirdness:


- and one more from RC - New Tech Troubles:




NP: Roomie was playing "Jimmy Bell Is Still In Town" LP by 15-60-75 this morning. is that a masterpiece or what?

PEEVE DE JOUR: can't believe RBW still has her crap in my garage. i am such a chump. REMINDER - trash pickup in Bath is on Mondays.

JOIE DE JOUR: 8 hours of really good sleep. first in weeks, i think. and reading about all the poor folks stuck on I-78 in Pennsylvania. told you that state was malignant.

cb...where are you?






NEW JERSEY

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

HEARTS IN BONDAGE

...so last Fall i went to a costume shop with my kid, and was amazed at the Goth/slut-wear costumes that were available for both adults and children. the world had become safe for kinkiness - especially the commercial variety - and i thought this was a major enough social change that i ran a Goth-tume feature during the run-up to Halloween.

last week, i went into a CVS, and there was a seasonal Valentine's Day display...and amongst the candy hearts and mylar-balloons-on-a-stick were:



















well now, me thought...ain't they cute? i'm sure they were intended for a "cute couple" to show the world how they were locked together in a relationship. but on the other hand - B & D had become acceptable enough to make it into the mainstream...for only $1.99, too.

um...with the usual legal disclaimers, of course:








and this sober warning:









uh, yeah...doyathink? let's not take things TOO far, B's & G's.

NP: RC in SF sent this fun link: http://www.weird.tv/

PEEVE DE JOUR: major winter storm outside today. where are the sunny, 70 degree temperatures of yester year...you know, in December '06?

JOIE DE JOUR: returned from Gulf Coast, FLA yesterday afternoon, and was thinking while stuck in Pulaski Skyway traffic how this was the first trip down there where i didn't eat any grouper. not as crazedevengelical for this species of fish as so many are...so it was great to hear almost simultaneously on NPR that a DNA check of Tampa Bay area restaurants had revealed that most 'grouper' simply ain't...it's Asian catfish or some other foreign, farm-raised cheapo breed that the 'traunts pass off as legit. so by not imbibing, i opted out of the Great Fish Fraud of '07.

CSI: Phillipi Creek Seafood Shack?

N.B.A.T.W.P. (Never Be At The Wrong Party):

this is R. Stevie Moore's dad:

LEGENDARY BASSIST BOB MOORE TO BE SALUTED IN FEBRUARY AS NEXT NASHVILLE CAT AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME® AND MUSEUM

NASHVILLE, Tenn., January 24, 2007 – The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s quarterly program series Nashville Cats: A Celebration of Music City Session Players returns on Saturday, February 17, with a salute to legendary bassist Bob Moore. The 2:00 p.m. program, which will be held in the Museum’s Ford Theater, is included with Museum admission and is free to Museum members.

In a career spanning sixty years, Nashville native Bob Moore has played bass on over 17,000 recordings, making him one of the most recorded musicians in history. From the 1950s on, Moore contributed to a host of #1 country hits including Bobby Helms’ “Fraulein,” Marty Robbins’ “El Paso,” Roger Miller’s “King of the Road,” Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and Conway Twitty’s “Hello Darlin’.” Moore also played on classic recordings like Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never” and Patsy Cline’s “Crazy.”

As a member of Nashville’s celebrated “A-Team,” his impeccable meter along with his subtle yet commanding style made Moore’s bass lines the foundation for a myriad of artists recording in Nashville for four decades. Moore’s studio credits span

Bob Loyce Moore was born November 30, 1932, in Nashville to humble beginnings. Barely out of diapers, he was drawn to the sounds of his grandmother’s phonograph and broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry. By age 15 Moore had transitioned from shining shoes outside the Ryman Auditorium to playing bass onstage with country comedians and Opry regulars Jamup & Honey. Soon afterward, Moore landed a prestigious job playing bass for Paul Howard's Arkansas Cotton Pickers, which would help open the door for him to back the likes of Eddy Arnold, Jimmy Dickens, Flatt & Scruggs and Andy Griffith, among others.

By age 20 Moore was playing with Red Foley in Springfield, Missouri, and Marty Robbins in Nashville, Tennessee. Tired of commuting between the two cities, Moore returned in 1954 to Nashville where he became primarily a studio musician. As part of the “A-Team” of virtuosos, Moore helped usher in the lushly orchestrated Nashville Sound, which attracted top artists and producers to Music City.

He worked regularly on sessions with Elvis Presley and, in 1959, he was an early investor in Monument Records, where he served as Roy Orbison’s orchestra leader. Moore was also a sideman for Jerry Lee Lewis from 1983-1985.

Although widely known as a successful country session musician, Moore also performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and recorded with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, experimental rock guitarist Harvey Mandel and premier jazz guitarist Hank Garland, to name a few.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is available at http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/ or by calling (615) 416-2001.

cb...where are you?






NEW JERSEY

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

MR. DAVIS & MR. BROWN



from Marian in Sarasota!

PEEVE DE JOUR: not enough time to hang at Danny & Reineke's dinner party.

JOIE DE JOUR: WG! and i'm gonna see my bro tomorrow.

cb...where are you?






FLORIDA

Sunday, February 04, 2007

PARCLEAT



Wonder Gurl has got me back looking in thrift stores for cool stuff. it's a habit i kicked back in the '90's, but am eager to take up again.
















found these at a fun shop in Cuyahoga Falls.

useful.

THE J. C. WATERHAZARD WALKER MODEL










THE MERSEY STROLLER MODEL













PEEVE DE JOUR: 2 degrees F.

JOIE DE JOUR: cozy in Dun Giggen.

cb...where are you?






OHIO

Thursday, February 01, 2007

EEL PIE ISLAND




















- from MA & the BBC Radio 4 website. pal Richard Barnes (author of books on the Mods, The Who & Pete Towshend's art school roomie & 'namer' of The Who) once gave me walking tour of the area...a lovely part of London:


EEL PIE'S PLACE IN ROCK HISTORY

By Jo Meek (!)
Producer, BBC Radio 4's The Eel Pie Island Hotel

Catch a train to Twickenham, west London, down to the edge of the Thames. Walk over the bridge to the tiny island of Eel Pie. Where sheds, boat-houses and picket-fenced gardens now line the water's edge, the grand Eel Pie Island Hotel once stood.










The Eel Pie Island Hotel had a colourful history. Charles Dickens described the hotel as a "place to dance to the music of the locomotive band". In the 1920s it hosted popular tea dances.

But perhaps what has come to define the hotel, at least as far as music fans believe, is the incarnation of the hotel as a jazz club in 1956.

The Eel Pie Island Hotel played host to some of the most influential British performers of traditional jazz including Ken Colyer, Acker Bilk and Chris Barber.










George Melly

"You could see sex rising from it like steam from a kettle - it was very difficult not to get laid on Eel Pie Island."

George Melly, who appeared at the club regularly, describes the run down hotel, with its ornate columns and arches, as being like "something from a Tennessee Williams novel".

"In those days you got to the island by boat, you had to pull yourself across on a rope, it was fairly primitive and you could hear jazz playing in the distance," he recalls.

"The island had a reputation for sex. When you approached it you could see sex rising from it like steam from a kettle. It suited us randy young musicians. It was very difficult not to get laid on Eel Pie Island."

In the 1960's the club's focus changed. With the growing popularity of the British R&B scene, regular players like Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies brought in musicians of the future as their fans.













Mick Jagger played regularly at the Eel Pie Hotel


For Ian "Mac" Mclagan - who was to become the Small Faces' keyboardist - the Eel Pie club became a regular haunt.

He says: "I was at Twickenham Art School and we'd have our end of term dances at the club. I went to see the Stones play there one night and helped them with their equipment and very cockily said to Mick, 'who's your agent?'"

"The next Monday I went up to Regent Street and hung around this office and booked them. My band The Muleskinners opened for them. I can't remember what we paid back then though."

Ronnie Wood would join the Rolling Stones after the club's heyday, but he was there in the big melting pot that Eel Pie became in the days when they were just starting to play.

"It was great, you might bump into Mick Jagger at the bar. It was an art school crowd. I remember once going in and having a wee upstairs in a bucket - it leaked and when I came down I saw it was leaking onto the stage onto my brother's band!"

Members of The Yardbirds and The Who, Rod Stewart, and many a barefooted hippy were tempted over the bridge by the promise of great live music.

What many didn't know was that the club was set up as a personal project by a former army sapper, junk shop manager and social researcher called Arthur Chisnall.

He wanted to see how the generation born at the end of World War II would develop and so created a world where they could come and be themselves, meet influential people, and if they needed it, gain advice about further education and training.








Eel Pie Island flyer

The fact that he was providing a stage to young artists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Long John Baldry and many others, he saw as just a means to attract the right crowd.

Shortly before his death in December, he told BBC Radio 4's The Eel Pie Island Hotel: "I didn't know what impact I was having on the music scene. You've got to remember that my job was to create a world for people and I created that world.

"The people who were originally there were 300 art school people and they remade themselves until - bang! - you had The Who and The Rolling Stones."










Yardbirds were among the acts nurtured at Eel Pie

In 1967, the club was forced to close because the owner could not meet £200,000-worth of repairs, which the police had deemed necessary.

But it was to enjoy a short renaissance in 1969, when the hotel briefly reopened as Colonel Barefoot's Rock Garden, welcoming bands like Black Sabbath and the Edgar Broughton Band, as well as international travellers and idealists trying to create an utopian commune.

Demolished in a mysterious fire in 1971, the hotel's history is still preserved in the stories, poems and songs of the old islanders and the musicians who played there.

NP: Robert Caro on WNYC. his "The Power Broker" book on Robert Moses is probably the definitive urban study. WNYC also did a radio series of his lectures on Moses, LaGuardia & Al Smith that rool.

PEEVE DE JOUR: money.

JOIE DE JOUR: credit.

N.B.A.T.W.P. (Never Be At The Wrong Party):

BENEFIT FOR Q OF ? AND THE MYSTERIANS

- BB writes:

Whether you know him as "Q", "?", "Question Mark," or "Rudy Martinez," the man is equally screwed. A few weeks ago Q's house burned to the ground taking with it his dogs and 40 years of memorabilia, including his gold record for "96 Tears" and an organ that once belonged to "The" Pink Floyd. I don't know about your band and your favorite local venue, but mine are making me do something about it. Though facing fierce competition from Ennio Morricone at Radio City Music Hall, we are nevertheless going to headline a benefit for Q this Saturday night at the fabulous, most beautiful, I mean really swinging Magnetic Field in Brooklyn - the borough of compassion.

Leave the canned goods at home, but bring a double sawbuck for Q and enjoy the sights and sounds of the A-Bones (stop me if you've heard this one, but I think we'll do some stuff we haven't tried in a while. We might even tune up. I intend to make Alessandro Alessandroni jokes between songs. You have been warned), ex-Raunch Hand numero uno Mike Chandler and the Chasers (who are fantastic, btw), Muck and The Mires (Little Steven approved but cool nevertheless), and lotsa others. Raffles of Norton and Crypt, etc. junk, Lenny Kaye in the MC spotlight, a whole bunch of beers on tap, WTF and LOL, people, what more could you beg for? A hundred piece orchestra performing the theme to EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC ? Well, than go to Radio City, which is in Manhattan. You cannot promote supporting Q in his time of need in Brooklyn. Details in the poster image below (2/3/07 - 97 Atlantic Ave. - Doors at 7 if the pic doesn't compute.)







cb...where are you?



















OHIO