Bill Latham In Memoriam

Bumping Uglies- More War Less Taxes

Bumping Uglies- Instrumental

Bumping Uglies- I Will Stand Here My Lord

Bumping Uglies- The Poops

Bumping Uglies- Glow In The Dark

Bumping Uglies- ???

The Depaysement from Japan

Sleepytime Trio- Jesus Extract

Here’s what I saw this year:

Black Tusk, Holy Grail, The Shrine, Whirr, Primitive Weapons, Saviours, Cro-Mags, Fear, Ichi Ni San Shi, Come and Take It, Manikin, Jack Toft, Bumping Uglies, The Depaysement, Sleepytime Trio, Trip Crystals, Doctor Bones, Lick Lick, Woodgrain, Motopenny, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Seahaven, Regents, Tim Barry, Colisem, Anti-Flag*, Darkest Hour, Braid, Hot Water Music, Diamond Rugs, the Tough Shits, the Shivas, the Coathangers, Lust Cats of the Gutter, Terrible Twos, The Well, Mean Jeans, some fucking hippy band that was literally nameless**, The Burning Itch, Nightmare Boyzzz, Tough Shits, Grape Street, The Dead Space, Burnt Ones, Teenage News, Women in Prison, Fleshlights

*this happened because I was dead set on seeing Braid & Hot Water Music. I had a front row spot to hold too, which made it even worse.

**this happened because the Back Pockets were unable to perform and it took me a minute to figure out which person was running the show to ask what was going on.

Here’s where I went:
Scoot Inn, Beerland, Ghost Room, Cherrywood Coffeehouse, Club 1808, The Grackle, Red Seven, Auditorium Shores, Liberty Bar, Spiderhouse, and the House of Commons

Well, it’s been awhile since I bought an album that wasn’t a download- such an interesting contrast from the vinyl I used to spend hours searching out- but, Dirtnap didn’t offer downloadable albums & the cd was only $8- and worth every penny to put back in my collection again.

The Pulses- S/T- 2002 Dirtnap Records

[BROKEN IMAGE]

The late, great Dave Sink turned me onto this record the summer after I moved back to Council Bluffs from Iowa City for the last time. I had it on LP, back then. And a cassette for the tape deck in my Blazer. Played the hell out of it. Everyone of these songs is pure energy. Sometimes it’s quite sloppy. Sometimes it’s quite loud. It rocks. Favorite tracks include “Obviousness”, “Pacemaker”, “Move On” & “You’re Still Young”. I remember listening to the A-Side a lot on vinyl. Listening to the whole album uninterrupted all the way through is nice.

Order this record

While walking to the ATM this rainy morning, I came across this strange scene. The streets were empty of people.

Well, Joe Walsh puts on a solid show, that’s for sure. Sometimes, it feels like artists really up the cheese factor in their stage show after they’ve reached a certain amount of success, but his stage demeanor, while highly engaging, seems nothing but natural. He’s just an old goofy dude who likes to play the guitar and say funny things, joke about how burned out he is, and play every single song that you wanted and expected him to play for you. And he most definitely did. There were maybe 2 or 3 songs total I didn’t recognize and only one tune at all that kind of ventured into new Eagles material territory- and that was mostly so he could give his back up singers time to show off their vocal skills. And it was a cover song to boot- Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released”.

He played all the tunes I wanted him too (and I didn’t expect any less, really): Life of Allusion, Over and Over, Rocky, Mountain Way, Turn to Stone, Funk #49, Pretty Maids All In A Row, Life’s Been Good to Me, and In the City. As a bonus he threw in Life in the Fast Lane- it definitely sounded
different without Don Henley singing it, but the back up band covered for him on some of the more Henley oriented singing parts.

Joe Walsh was great. Can’t say the same for opener act Kenny Wayne Shepherd and the Kenny Wayne Shepherd band (doesn’t that seem a little excessive to have your name listed twice like that?) Interesting enough, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and the Kenny Wayne Shepherd band features a lead vocalist who is not, as the name might have suggested twice, Kenny Wayne Shepherd. In fact, I can’t tell you what his name was because when Kenny Wayne Shepherd introduced his band, his Louisiana accent made deciphering the names a little bit difficult. His lead vocalist needs to go. That guy was the worst part about the act. He was a rank amateur showman, did every single stereotypical bad front man move (putting his arm aroun d the other musicians and rocking out with them, banging a tambourine, 2 chording an acoustic guitar for a ballad, making those “lighting fingers” gestures over the guitar neck during KWS’s smokin’ solos, and taking to the stage in a black leather jacket, sunglasses, and acid washed jeans. If I’d been in a club and that band was playing, I’d avoid watching their set. They did covers of Voodoo Child and Yer Blues that were well executed, but the disparity in quality between the 40 year old cover songs they performed and their original material was very apparent.

They also performed this song “I’m A King Bee”, that my friends and I were the only people laughing at in our section. Here are the lyrics:

Well, I’m a king bee baby
Buzzin’ ’round your hive.
Well I can make you honey, baby.
Just let me come inside.
I’m a king bee baby
Don’t you want to be my queen
‘Cuz I can make you honey, baby.
Like the world ain’t never seen

Well, I’m a king bee baby
I’ll buzz you all night long
Yes I will
Well I can buzz you better baby,
When your other man is gone
Well, I’m a king bee baby
Buzzin’ ’round your hive.
Well I can make you honey baby,
Just let me come inside

Keef and I took a number of issues with this song, which, I’ll leave you to make your own guesses on. But, we also questioned that part in the second verse where he says “I can buzz you better baby, when your other man is gone”. Wouldn’t they buzz better if they worked as a team?

Wheeeeeeee. Anywhoo, Joe Walsh more than made up for that. Great show.

In an interview by film critic Roger Ebert, Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory denied that they were playing themselves in their 1981 film My Dinner With Andre. They stated that if they remade the film they would swap the two characters to prove their point. That’s all well and good, but we’re asking ourselves a different question: what if the characters of Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory were played by house cats? Let’s find out.

thanks to:

thinktwiceradio.com for the Andrew Gregory sample w/ music, moviesoundscentral.com for Wallace Shawn samples,Dan Butler & Melanie Westerberg for the actors, Acoustica Mixcraft & Windows Movie Maker for Mixing and Editing, and most importantly Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory for Inspiration

Let’s take a trip back to Novemeber 1999. I was a Senior in High School not taking a full schedule of classes, working a part time job at the Council Bluffs Target, and spending as much time as humanly possible going to shows at the Cog Factory in Omaha, NE. Hell, my part time work schedule got built around the shows I wanted to go to.

November 1999 holds the distinction of introducing me to Apocalypse Hoboken. I didn’t know anything about them really, beyond that they had advertisements in Flipside and Punk Planet. And that the vocalist Todd Pot wrote seriously twisted columns for Spank fan zine (under the title “penisdragwhoreolympics”). But, like most of the shows I went to at the Cog, it was only $5 and something to do.

I don’t really remember much about the actual show, other than Todd Pot’s extended rants about pills & blow and going on tour with AFI (who he kept calling “Affy”). He seemed pretty off kilter. I ate it up and picked up a copy of “House of the Rising Son of A Bitch”. Which I proceeded to play and play and play. The songs- the subjects- just everything about this record was so wrong and so awesome at the same time.

Download courtesy of http://borxoff.blogspot.com

Purchase Available at Interpunk

Jump ahead to 2011 and It’s still one of my favorite albums. I knew this record was twisted when I got it, but as I’ve gotten older it just sinks in more and more how twisted it really is. Songs like “Pulling Worms Apart”, “Hazelnut”, and “Tickeled Pink” so poetically string together their subject matter that you almost miss their references to childhood traumatic abuse, abusive relationships, STD’s, drugs, and an entire list of urbandictionary.com-worthy sexual acts. Granted, not all of the songs are all about shock value, but there is literally nothing nice being put out there on this record. And for some reason I’ve never stopped listening to it. Still, all the aside, there’s nothing sad in the veins of Bright Eyes or those days of the early 2000’s self absorbed emo rock on this record. Just the facts, ma’am. Twisted? Yes. Wrong? Yes. Rocking? Yes- veritably, yes!