Los Angeles is beautiful right now. The sky is almost completely blanketed with a thin layer of cloud, each cloud undercoated with gray as if it could start raining any moment. It won't, though. Not yet. We have a few weeks, maybe even a month before there's any significant rain, but still, this weather holds a promise that L.A. is moving out of its summer monotony of heat and dust. The wind is moving everything around, warm and round and humid, unlike the Santa Anas and their hot, lip-chapping blast. I'm ready. I want to have a good excuse to sit on the couch and watch a movie as the rain pours off the roof and through the huge oak in my front yard. I'm ready for a day that will welcome a centrepiece like James Yorkston's Year of the Leopard.

Yorkston plays a beautiful acoustic guitar and he writes a beautiful song. He kicked around Scotland and England for years in punk bands and the like, settling down to write the type of gorgeous tomes that Pete Paphides of The Times (London) called, “...songs that sound not so much written as carefully retrieved from your own subconscious, played with an intuition bordering on telepathy. " He's got a great, simultaneously warm and brittle voice that sometimes reminds of fellow Scot, David Gray. His songs are not too far afield from Gray's work, either, often underpinned by burbling electronics and synth washes that, surprisingly, never pull them out of the Brit-Folk context from which they emerge. Yorkston has toured with Beth Orton, David Gray, the Tindersticks, Turin Brakes, Lambchop after having come to many fans' attention through his opening slot on all 27 dates of John Martyn's 2001 tour.

Last year, for a few nights before Halloween, my roommate and I enjoyed a brief, Dracula themed movie marathon. Nested on the saggy couch in our 100 year old Chinatown flat, the two of us watched Dracula after bloody Dracula, eventually lighting on a few nuggets of pure entertainment delight. By the end of our brief waltz through several cinematic portrayals of Transylvania we discovered that we'd yet to hear a satisfactory soundtrack to F.W. Murnau's silent and beautiful Nosferatu (we alternated between two musical interpretations that were ultimately disappointing), that we loved the excellent extras that accompany the recent, two disc reissue of Francis Ford Coppola's heady and deeply symbolic Bram Stoker's Dracula (the mini-doc about the in-camera, naive effects employed in the film making is absolutely amazing), and that we sat awestruck in front of the TV while a brilliant collaboration between Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Canadian cult director Guy Maddin tantalized our eyes with their film Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary (a marriage of said ballet's interpretation of Dracula and Maddin's singular, super-charged visual style). I have seen and loved many dance movies, but this has to be one of my very all time favorites because the dancing is more than just a part of the film, it is the film! Add to this the touch of Maddin's hand and I swoon like Lucy ready to receive her eternal kiss. It's that entrancing.

"This year Halloween fell on the weekend. Me and Geto Boys went trick or treatin,'" famously rapped Bushwick Bill in his verse on the Geto Boys classic 1991 rap hit "Mind Playing Tricks On Me." Whenever Halloween falls on a weekend night, especially a Friday -- providing the whole weekend to recover (and don't forget to change your clocks Saturday night/Sunday morning) -- there tend to be tons of parties jumping off and fun Halloween themed things to do including, of course, lots of costume contests. 

And remember: there is no law against entering and winning as many different Halloween costume contests as you can physically get yourself and your costume to in one Halloween. So I suggest (especially in these hard economic times) that you try and win as many cash prizes as possible and further suggest if you hope to win that prize(s) that you avoid donning Sarah Palin, Joe The Plumber, Joe-Six-Pack, McCain, or Obama costumes (you will be up against too much competition) unless you can come up with some very original twist on such a topical (IE: obvious) choice.

Following below is a guide to some of the hip-hop flavored Halloween happenings around the Bay Area (most with costume contests), including of course the two Bay Area Amoeba Music Halloween events which note are both early (2PM) events since each store will close early tonight at 6PM. All others, unless specified, are nightclub events that start at 9PM and go til closing (2AM or later).

2:00PM - 6:00PM Amoeba Halloween Madness at both the Berkeley and San Francisco Amoeba stores this afternoon with the Horrific Halloween Costume Contests and DJ Sets at each location. At the Berkeley store there will be the spooktacular sounds of DJs Ralphus Fuad & I am Bloody Baby Tooth and a costume contest hosted by Jo-Nasty for a chance to win "an Amoeba Gift Certificate to DIE for!" Free, all ages. SF Amoeba's costume contest will be hosted by Mike Bee with the ghoulish sounds being thrown down by DJ Nero Nava. (Note that the Hollywood Amoeba is also hosting a special Halloween Shock-Hop with a host of in-house DJs starting early, at 5PM, since that store will close at 9PM tonight.

Multi-talented Japanese-born hip-hop artist Shing02, who has called the Bay Area home for the past 18 years, has relocated to Los Angeles. "It's for a fresh start," the MC/DJ/producer/musician & musical instrument creator (the Faderboard, which Japanese DJ equipment company Vestax manufacture, is his invention) recently announced to surprised Bay Area friends. The artist was raised in Japan and England before moving to California at age 15.

But Shing02 had been away from the Bay for much of 2008 already, spending six months this year touring in Japan. Up until his move away he was living in North Oakland. This weekend Shing02 returns to his beloved Bay Area to do two special Halloween shows later today (10/31/08). At 6:30PM he will perform at the Halloween Hip Hop Showcase at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park along with his ensemble Kosmic Renaissance. The show is free and all ages. Then after that show Shing02 will head over to the Ahoy! Ninjas! party at G3 Lounge (in SF's Richmond District at 3910 Geary @ 3rd Ave.) to do an emcee set for this second show which opens at 9PM and goes til 2AM ($15 or $10 in costume). Yesterday, as Shing02 was prepping for his trip to the Bay, I caught up with him at his new LA home to ask a few quick questions about music, LA vs the Bay, his tour of Japan this year, and what to expect at his two shows today.

Amoeblog: You said you left the Bay Area for  "a fresh start." Is LA providing that for you?                           

No doubt about it, birds are animal of choice for record label mascot. I've been gathering animal label images for well over a year now and this is my second round of birds.





My friend, do you hear the black flight of ravens over our plains?

You know those grinches that, on Valentines Day say, "I don't need a holiday to tell me when to express my feelings for my loved one" or, on Mothers Day say "I don't need a stupid holiday to tell me when to call my mom?" Well, that's one reason I like Halloween --because those bias keep their yaps shut for once. After all, it's unlikely that those negative nancies are going to say, "I don't need a stupid holiday to tell me when I can dress like Boba Fett and go door-to-door begging for candy from strangers." Like so many holidays, most of the customs are under threat of disappearance due to the media standardizing, simplifying and corporatizing its observance.



Halloween origins

On Halloween, the boundary between the alive and deceased is erased or at least thin. It was observed as Samhain by the Celts and other Euros until 837 AD, when one of the popes decided to move All Souls Day from May 13 (previously chosen to capitalize on another pagan holiday -- The Feast of the Lemures -- on which day Romans would exorcise their homes of evil spirits) to its current date. Over time it has evolved from a harvest festival, to an opportunity to divine the future (in the 18th century), to an opportunity for children to obtain candy, to its current status as an excuse for drunken adults to dress like media figures or slutty versions of mythological beings.


Jack-o-lanterns and other Halloween trappings

With the recent advent of the Jack White/Alicia Keys James Bond theme song, a fellow employee and I got to thinking about odd pairings. What was up with the 80s anyway? It was the era of the power ballad, which means it was also one of the main eras of odd pairings (although I do seem to remember Bob Dylan popping up in Wyclef Jean's "Gone Till November" video in the 90s, but blessedly that was not an artistic pairing).

The first one that comes to mind, of course, is Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. Paul was the "cute" Beatle and Michael was the "cute" Jackson, so this seemed like it could work...until you realize that Paul lived on a Scottish farm with his wife of many years, Linda, and their children, eating vegetarian food and lovingly raising animals. Michael, on the other hand, lived on Neverland Ranch, allegedly with groups of small children shuttling in and out of his Playland, complete with caged exotic animals. And these guys duetted twice, on "Say Say Say" and also "The Girl is Mine!" Without even considering the legal issues that came about soon after the duets due to Jackson buying the Beatles' songbook despite McCartney's wishes, it's no surprise they never talked again after creating these tracks. Here's "Say Say Say":



Another odd pairing that is a favorite of mine has always been Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton's "We've Got Tonight." Kenny's a down home kind of guy, into primping but still at home in cowboy boots-- a classic Texan. Sheena's an intense, romantic gal hailing from grey Scotland and specializing in dance-pop. I think all these two had in common was that they were selling a heck of a lot of records on their own back in 1983. I've heard they really did not get along at all in the studio though. At least they could come together this once, just for this night, of course. From the intro chatter to the mic control, I absolutely love this performance:

It is hard to believe that The Cure have been recording albums for over 30 years now. They had already been a band for about 10 years before I became a fan, and I have now been obsessed for the last 20 years -- ever since I first heard them. The Head on the Door was the first album by The Cure that I ever heard and bought, way back in 1985. Two years later came the amazing album Kiss Me Kiss Me. By the time Disintegration came out in 1989 I was a hardcore crazy fanatical Cure fan. It is sort of funny. This was the album that Robert Smith made that he thought would not be a commercial success. His label also was worried about this album. It was their darkest album yet and would remain their darkest of all time, yet everyone embraced the album and fell in love with it. It somehow managed to speak to an entire generation. The Cure was not just for the goths and weirdos anymore. Everyone liked them. I could not get enough of this band. Disintegration remains most Cure fans' favorite album. It came out at an important developmental part of my life and probably was the most important album in my life. People often overstate the importance of certain albums, but it came out a couple days after my birthday during my last couple months of junior high. It became my album of the summer of 1989, the year before I started High School. I probably listened to this album at least once a day. Wish came out 3 years later, a couple weeks before my 18th birthday and close to the end of my life in High School. While Disintegration would remain my favorite, I also fell in love with Wish. The album was everywhere. The singles that most Cure fans didn't really like were all over the radio. It was really all about the B-sides and the non single tracks on this album. These were the songs I was obsessed with. I could live without ever hearing "Friday I'm In Love" or "High" again, but still can't get enough of "Apart," "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea," and "To With Impossible Things." This album became the album of my summer of 1992. I was not alone. It was another important album for a very important part of my life. The Cure was there for me again to help me transition both emotionally and physically. For most of us, Wish would be the last great Cure album. We are hopelessly devoted fans for life but nothing can compare to those albums.

                                 Amoeba Music Hollywood Hip-Hop Top Five 10:30:08


1) T.I Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)

2) Prodigy, Big Twins & Un Pacino Product of the 80s (Dirt Class Records)

3) MF Doom Operation Doomsday
(Traffic Entertainment)

4) Foreign Exchange Leave It All Behind (Hard Boiled)

5) Lil Rob 1218 Part II (Upstairs Records)

Thanks to Ray at Amoeba Hollywood for this week's hip-hop chart with T.I.'s sixth and latest album Paper Trail still going strong, holding down the number one slot a month after its release by the ever- popular Atlanta rapper. The number two hip-hop album seller at the SoCal Amoeba this week is Prodigy of Mobb Deep fame, who teams up with BIg Twins (aka Twin Gambino) and Un Pacino for the New York City themed Product of the 80's album on Brooklyn's Dirt Class Records. The album captures a bygone (rougher) era in a place and time each of these NYC artists, who were born in the seventies, witnessed first hand growing up. On this new collaborative album the rappers are backed by production from the likes of Jake One, Sid Roams, and Benny Needles. The Traffic Entertainment reissue of MF Doom's Operation Doomsday is selling well at all of the Amoeba stores, including Hollywood, where it is number three this week.

I am first and foremost a simpleton. No news flash there. On occasion a “reasonably intelligent” accusation is hurled in my direction, but I’m probably more at home dancing along the edge of idiocy. But contrary to the proof you might read here, I’m not quite the Nijinsky of Idiocy. That takes fortitude, and though the phrase has a nice ring to it (I honestly wouldn’t mind such a caption adorning my tombstone), I believe the Nijinsky of Idiocy should, at least for the next few days or so, go to Ashley Todd in Pittsburg, who is this year's gift to Halloween. She’s the woman who fabricated being assaulted at an ATM and claimed to have had a “B” carved into her face because she was a McCain supporter. Maybe idiocy isn’t the problem here. I like to think true idiocy often tandems with clever, and with a sprinkling of clever, an actual idiot can invent fanciful, imaginary situations to play with in the house of the bored. Add a few well placed twisted characters to the story line, a bit of grit, and genius may blossom (well, that’s my personal and optimistic idiotic hope). Actually, Ashley Todd’s misadventure isn’t idiotic, nothing's about to flower. It falls short. It’s asinine. It's hateful. It's dildoic. There's no panache, no élan, just a stiff half-cocked punch line without a set up. So as my fraction of an idea on three hours of sleep swerves past this week’s car wreck, here is a quote I think Ashley Todd, perhaps unknowingly, took to heart on her trip down the aisle of American paranoia -- from W. C. Fields, “If you can't razzle them with dazzle, baffle them with bullshit.” Though, this quote also fits: “The human race has gone backward, not forward, since the days we were apes swinging through the trees.”

On Saturday, October 25th, Amoeba sponsored an event coinciding with the drop of the new version of Guitar Hero, entitled Guitar Hero: World Tour. As you may or may not have heard, Amoeba is featured in the game as a playable level which is unlocked as you play through the "Tour" career mode of the game. So naturally, to celebrate the release of Amoeba's first venture into the video game world, the folks of Amoeba Berkeley had a wee soiree down the street at Blake's On Telegraph. The event was held on the top two floors of the three floor bar, where patrons could not only be the first ones to purchase the new game, but could also demo a single guitar version for Xbox 360, or the full Rock Band version on the PS3.


This is the first time that a Guitar Hero title has been sold with the full Rock Band set up, including an updated guitar (now 25% bigger and with a sunburst finish), an updated drum set (similar to the Rock Band 2 drum set with 3 drum pads and 2 "cymbal" fan pads to better recreate the feel of a real drum kit), and my personal favorite, the microphone. Unfortunately for yours truly, my voice had been rendered useless by a cold, so I could not belt "Living On A Prayer" at the top of my lungs.

The set up of the event was pretty neat, with DJ Vinnie Esparza spinning a great mix of tunes varying from Latin soul breaks, to artists you would assume would be played at a Guitar Hero event: Sabbath, Maiden, Slayer, etc. Before entering the event I had wondered how we could have a DJ and multiple versions of the mainly musical game all going at the same time. Upon arriving, however, I saw that the game stations were equipped with nice headphones for each person, so they could hear the rock, while not interrupting the bar's other alcoholics.

Guitar Hero!

The expression conjures denim-y visions of long-haired axe '70s victims on stadium stages, tossing their ringlets while shooting out silvery torrents of liquid metal... Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Ritchie Blackmore, Ted Nugent, Peter Frampton for God's sake... whammy bars whamming, wah-wahs wawwing, while the smokepots explode, the amps overload, the groupies squeal and the wastoids drool... THE GUITAR HERO. A mythical metal man with a Strat, stealing from the rich and shredding to the poor!

The great hard rock and heavy metal guitarists have been well-documented and complimented to death.  BUT DID YOU KNOW... there's another kind of guitar hero out there? Just as heroic, but more flannely?  More of a van- riding kind of hero, modestly sqwawking his stuff on the beer-soaked stages of the alternative landscape?  Not your ordinary guitar hero, I'm talking about.. the INDIE ROCK GUITAR HERO.

Yes, it's true, there are indie rock guitar heroes too! Dare I say it! We self-loathing, mumbling indie types have our own low-budget version of the big-rig metal demigod, and to my mind some of them are just as wanktastic and wailing as the big guys, and deserve a little blogspace. Now, once we get into this, there are gonna be opinions and opinions. I myself am more of a fan than an expert, and I certainly suck at guitar, so I hereby humbly present to you my own biased and incomplete and endlessly revisable list of
indie rock guitar heroes.  Dispute these choices and add your own!

In no particular order... so let's start off with Black Flag founder and serious shredder Greg Ginn. SST founder and SoCal punk legend Ginn is far more experimental and metal-oriented than most of the amateurish guitarists from the first wave of American punk. He's a wild noodler and a very emotive player, with no effects but his lucite Dan Armstrong Ampeg. Often called "the punk rock Jerry Garcia," Ginn does kind of make like a very angry Deadhead with his wandering, mid-range jam-punk, perfectly complementing the angst and musclebound humor of singer Henry Rollins. It's more accurate to compare him to free-jazz players like Ornette Coleman or James Blood Ulmer, especially on instrumentals like Slip It In's "Obliteration." Sweaty, gnarly, rude, uplifting, free-thinking punk axe wankery!

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

 

---

Saturday November 1

Alien Nation

1988, 91 min

director: Graham Baker

starring: James Caan, Mandy Patinkin & Terence Stamp

New Beverly Cinema
7165 W Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Midnight, $7

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November
November 8 The Stepfather
(Daddy's Home and He's Not Very Happy!)
November 15 Title TBA
November 22 Waxwork
(20 Anniversary! More fun than a barrel of mummies!)
November 29 Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon
(Now, when I say, "Who's da mastah?" you say, "Sho'nuff!")

 

December
December 6 Title TBA
December 20 Title TBA
December 27 New Year's Evil

Yesterday (Oct 28th), with exactly one week to go before the most crucial presidential election in recent American history and at a time when the nation is in its worst economic state in many long decades, emcee Paris' new album Acid Reflex (Guerrilla Funk - Fontana - Universal) arrived in Amoeba Music and other stores across this troubled nation.

For the ever-politically outspoken Bay Area hip-hop artist, whose two-decade long career has been a series of confrontations with the establishment, the timing seems perfect to unleash this lyrically charged new album, the latest in a series of incendiary releases that include the post 9/11 Sonic Jihad and the 1992 album Sleeping With The Enemy, featuring the highly controversial song "Bush Killa" which resulted in him getting him booted off the Warner Brothers distributed Tommy Boy Records at the time.

The new Paris album, Acid Reflex, which tackles just about every issue and problem facing America today, is not only (in my opinion) the best, most lyrically engaging album of this year, but it is also one that harks back to a forgotten time in hip-hop when the genre was rich with high-profile artists who used the medium as a platform for social and political debate. I recently sat down with Paris to talk about the state of hip-hop today & his history as an artist, his label Guerrilla Funk, the economy, next week's election, and other issues addressed in the new album Acid Reflex, including the current trend in America of scapegoating immigrants.  Here's what he had to say.

This is so Perez-y, I know, but it was exciting for me that a red carpet premiere -- of Milk, no less -- was going on tonight a few blocks from my humble home!


Being a pop culture junkie, I was not gonna miss this. Castro Street was blocked between 18th and Market, and there was indeed an actual red carpet rolled out in front of the Castro Theater for the stars to walk. There were bunches of No on 8 supporters as well, shouting from behind the blockade, erupting each time an actor emerged from the motorcade. Milk stars Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsch, and James Franco, and they were all out in full force, and thisclose to me! The movie is a biopic of the beloved Harvey Milk, and many of his friends and supporters from back in the day were out on the red carpet as well, including my old landlord (!), Carol Ruth Silver, who was on the SF Board of Supervisors during Harvey Milk's time and was apparently also targeted by Dan White. She is even portrayed in the movie! This is all news to me! The most surreal moment was definitely seeing Carol Ruth, rail thin and in one of her ever-present hats, arm in arm with Diego Luna and Emile Hirsch, being photographed by the paparazzi. Also on the carpet were the gorgeous Diane Lane, Robin Wright Penn, T.R. Knight and his nearly underaged boyfriend, and, of course, Gavin Newsom. I also spotted Phil Bronstein, former Chronicle editor, former husband of Sharon Stone, and one-time victim of a grisly Komodo Dragon attack.

Even though it was on the opposite coast and about 3000 miles from the nearest Amoeba store, there were numerous Amoeba logo sightings (on bags and t-shirts mostly) over the weekend at the big WFMU Record Fair at Manhattan's Metropolitan Pavilion on West 18th Street.

Understandably the giant annual music collectors convention, which boasts 10,000 square feet of vinyl (lots of rarities), CDs, DVDs, and magazines & artworks, etc., draws many of the same folks that Amoeba Music attracts-- diehard music fanatics. "Let's face it, music collecting is an addiction," laughed DJ Babu, who visited the fair on the opening day, Friday, when he also did a live set on WFMU from the Chelsea location.

LA native Babu, who coined the term turntablist and who is known for both his solo DJ/production work (his Super Duck Breaks on Stones Throw is a classic) and his membership in Dilated Peoples, Beat Junkies, & Likwit Junkies, said that over the years that he has spent way more time and money at the Hollywood Amoeba than he cares to even think about. Today (Oct 28) is the release date of Babu's latest album, Duck Season Vol. 3 on Nature Sounds. Look for it at Amoeba.

And if you think Babu traveled far, how about record collector Nakajima who flew over all the way from Japan for four days specifically to shop at the all weekend record fair!? But then this record fanatic has also made previous trips to the US from Japan specifically to shop at the Hollywood Amoeba (where he got the Amoeba t-shirt he wore over the weekend as in picture below right). New Yorker Andres (pictured above left proudly clutching his Amoeba record bag), who lives just a few blocks from the Manhattan record fair location, said that he got his bag on "one of several visits" to the Hollywood Amoeba store. "I love Amoeba and every time I go to LA I go to Amoeba," he smiled. 

Maybe some of you have heard of this game called Guitar Hero. I am sure some of you are fans of Rock Band and want nothing to do with Guitar Hero. I am probably one of the very few people who has never played Guitar Hero or Rock Band. I have heard  people talk about it endlessly  and been at parties where people have been playing it, but I have resisted for some reason. I guess it is sort of like Karaoke. I love the idea of it and actually love watching people "perform" at Karaoke bars but am just too shy to actually sing out loud in front of large crowds of strangers. A couple of years ago one of my friends dragged me to one of those private Karaoke booths that they have in Japantown in San Francisco. I never even really knew these existed. I could finally do karaoke. I really don't mind embarrassing myself in front of my friends. I just don't like strangers I guess. So really I should love Guitar Hero. There will be no strangers watching me embarrass myself. I just never had this game in my own house before.

Up until last week the newest game system I had was a Super Nintendo. They unfortunately did not make Guitar Hero for Super Nintendo. I have spent numerous nights playing Nintendo Jeopardy and Super Mario World late into the night, but I never really felt the need to upgrade. In my mind all the new games were for people who were obsessed with sports or war games. I didn't really feel the need to kill people in a game. I felt that I could happily live out the rest of my life living off used Super Nintendo games from thrift stores. Then I found out that there are actually new games for people like me. I just never spent the time to find them. When I found out Amoeba was going to be in the new Guitar Hero game, I realized I had to get myself some sort of new game system. I could not let this moment in history pass me by. Amoeba Hollywood always carried used games, but we never really got into the whole new games market until now. How could we not carry a game that we are a star of!? We are carrying the Guitar Hero games in all versions at all 3 stores. But we also have a selection of other games at the Hollywood store. I am so excited that game nerds can now hang out with music and movie nerds. I am sure we will all get along. We don't sell the actual game systems, but I imagine you can figure out where to find those. I could have gotten a Play Station or XBOX, but being a long time fan of Nintendo, Wii was the obvious choice for me. Of course, these are the hardest systems to find, but I managed to track one down last week, and I will be bringing home my new copy of Guitar Hero very soon. The new version of the game, Guitar Hero World Tour, actually came out yesterday, October 26th. The Game industry seems to have their own set of rules. Guitar Hero actually came out on a Sunday! They can't even wait until the Tuesday street date like the movies and music.

I am excited to be able to embarrass myself in front of my boyfriend and friends. The new Guitar Hero will let me do that numerous times I am sure. Rock Band was basically a more involved version of Guitar Hero. You didn't just get a guitar but a drum kit and microphone. Guitar Hero has now become the best again with Guitar Hero World Tour. Not only does the game feature Amoeba Music Hollywood as one of the venues you get to play in, but it also comes with a whole lot of extra stuff. The band kit comes with drums, a guitar, and a microphone. It even has a music studio program that lets you create your own digital songs that you can share with other users of the game. I will be patiently waiting for the New Wave Edition that comes out with a keyboard! This is surely the next step. Come on, Guitar Hero, do it for me! I could also go for the Shoegaze edition. I would most likely do a lot better playing a Lush song than Korn. But for now, I will settle for Guitar Hero World Tour. In case you are dying to see the songs that come with this new edition, here they are...

• 311 - "Beautiful Disaster"
• 30 Seconds To Mars - "The Kill"
• Airbourne - "Too Much Too Young"
• The Allman Brothers Band - "Ramblin' Man"
• Anouk - "Good God"
• The Answer - "Never Too Late"
• At The Drive-In - "One Armed Scissor"
• Beastie Boys - "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"
• Beatsteaks - "Hail to the Freaks"
• Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell"
• Black Label Society - "Stillborn"
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Weapon of Choice"
• blink-182 - "Dammit"
• Blondie - "One Way or Another"
• Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - "Hollywood Nights"
• Bon Jovi - "Livin' On A Prayer"
• Bullet For My Valentine - "Scream Aim Fire"
• Coldplay - "Shiver"
• Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Up Around The Bend"
• The Cult - "Love Removal Machine"
• Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel The Pain"
• The Doors - "Love Me Two Times"
• Dream Theater - "Pull Me Under"
• The Eagles - "Hotel California"
• The Enemy - "Aggro"
• Filter - "Hey Man, Nice Shot"
• Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"
• Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
• The Guess Who - "American Woman"
• Hush Puppies - "You're Gonna Say Yeah!"
• Interpol - "Obstacle 1"
• Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song"
• Jimi Hendrix - "Purple Haze (Live)"
• Jimi Hendrix - "The Wind Cries Mary"
• Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle"
• Joe Satriani - "Satch Boogie"
• Kent - "Vinternoll2"
• Korn - "Freak On A Leash"
• Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
• Lenny Kravitz - "Are You Gonna Go My Way"
• Linkin Park - "What I've Done"
• The Living End - "Prisoner of Society"
• Los Lobos - "La Bamba"
• Lost Prophets - "Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)"
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Sweet Home Alabama (Live)"
• Mars Volta - "L'Via L'Viaquez"
• MC5's Wayne Kramer - "Kick Out The Jams"
• Metallica - "Trapped Under Ice"
• Michael Jackson - "Beat It"
• Modest Mouse - "Float On"
• Motorhead - "Overkill"
• Muse - "Assassin"
• Negramaro - "Nuvole e Lenzuola"
• Nirvana - "About a Girl (Unplugged)"
• No Doubt - "Spiderwebs"
• NOFX - "Soul Doubt"
• Oasis - "Some Might Say"
• Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train"
• Ozzy Osbourne - "Mr. Crowley"
• Paramore - "Misery Business"
• Pat Benatar - "Heartbreaker"
• R.E.M. - "The One I Love"
• Radio Futura - "Escuela De Calor"
• Rise Against - "Re-Education Through Labor"
• Sex Pistols - "Pretty Vacant"
• Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye"
• Smashing Pumpkins - "Today"
• Steely Dan - "Do It Again"
• Steve Miller Band - "The Joker"
• Sting - "Demolition Man (Live)"
• The Stone Roses - "Love Spreads"
• Stuck In The Sound - "Toy Boy"
• Sublime - "Santeria"
• Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"
• System of a Down - "B.Y.O.B."
• Ted Nugent - "Stranglehold"
• Ted Nugent's Original Guitar Duel Recording
• Tokio Hotel - "Monsoon"
• Tool - "Parabola"
• Tool - "Schism"
• Tool - "Vicarious"
• Trust - "Antisocial"
• Van Halen - "Hot For Teacher"
• Willie Nelson - "On The Road Again"
• Wings - "Band on the Run"
• Zakk Wylde's Original Guitar Duel Recording

While these are not exactly the songs that I would have picked I am sure I will end up knowing more of these songs than I think I do. I am excited to see Oasis and the Stone Roses, and can't wait to perform "Eye of the Tiger." But where is The Cure?? Black Sabbath?? Def Leppard?? AC/DC?? Journey??? Judas Priest?? Guns N' Roses?? I guess you can't get everything. And I am sure much work goes into the acquisition of these songs for the game. I wasn't really expecting to find Suede and The Cocteau Twins. But is The Cure too much to ask for?

Therefore, I present you…

So, the McCain / Palin camp have sunk to an all time lame-o moment with Ashely Todd. Seriously, her hoax is even worse than the old Morton Downey Jr. thing. In contrast to the very lame, I present the very coolest in negative imagery...

The magnificent scenes of heroism, transcendence and man dominating his surroundings should please the most masculinist among us, including Ayn Rand and Leni Riefenstahl:


The close-ups all have that overly melodramatic silent-era quality to them. Note the way Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has Valentino eyes and Sark (David Warner) looks like a Conrad Veidt villain:

Last month I found myself with quite a bit of free time, roaming Downtown L.A. during extended breaks. I was stuck on a jury and the trial was being held up for many reasons. Anyhow, I finally got truly familiar with Broadway. Ross Cutlery, the Bradbury Building, Clifton's Cafeteria, Angels Flight, La Cita, and the Grand Central Market--  all places I had been to before, but now I was finally steeping in them. The Los Angeles, Orpheum, Million Dollar, State, UA and Palace Theaters. Even with all the razing going on downtown, Broadway is still a time warp.

               
 
Above is a video preview of the new Guitar Hero World Tour and its Battle of the Bands mode, which allows eight players to join online and challenge each other band-to-band to determine who is the best player. In the band modes, up to four players can jam together, online or off, as they progress through the game, and in single-player career-mode, players can jam on any of the instruments in branching venue progression, enabling them to rock out in the order of their choice. And as you know tomorrow is the official release date of this new Guitar Hero World Tour game and Amoeba is previewing it at Blake's in Berkeley tonight (Sat) with a Midnight Sale and Preview Party for the new game with three areas (Wii, PS3, and Xbox360) set up for demoing the game. More details here.  

You can check out some previews of the new Guitar Hero on the GamerTrailers website or in Popular Mechanics magazine, which pits Guitar Hero World Tour up against Rock Band 2 and Rock Revolution in a preview from E3 2008 (with video). Meanwhile, today's Los Angeles Times takes a more sobering look at the game in a story less about its technical aspects but instead focusing on the implications of its success in relation to the state of the economy, stating that, "wildly popular Guitar Hero video game could become a test of the game industry's ability to weather the broader economic storm."

Joseph Childress is a drifter-- the kind of artist I had heard about months before actually meeting and seeing him perform, because he had been hitchhiking and rambling around the country. His reputation preceded him, and it was rumored that he was coming to live here in San Francisco; and indeed he has, becoming a solid part of the SF scene within the 2-ish years he has been here in our fair city. His voice is strong, burbling like a stream, and it's one of his greatest assets; and then there are the songs -- melodic stories about landscapes, both inner and outer. Though he has settled down for a while, he is still one to keep an eye on: Joseph will release a highly anticipated first album in the near future.


Miss Ess: So what have you been listening to these days?

Joseph Childress: Well, besides the obvious classics, I have been digging almost everything I've grabbed from Sublime Frequencies and Mississippi Records. Also, Lucky Dragons, White Rainbow, the Yaala Yaala label, Los Increibles, Melodii Tuvi, and the George Mitchell field recordings, mostly country and world stuff. 

ME: What inspires you to write songs? Do you write the lyrics or the music first?

JC: With the exception of maybe three songs, I write the music first. I let the melody tell me the story. I will usually get an image if the part is doing its job. As for inspiration, a whole lot of things inspire me, from nature and women to politics. The weather plays a huge role, also seasonal change. When the air starts to change I get an overwhelming feeling to write.

One of the best things about working at Amoeba Music is all the stories you get to hear. It seems everyone has at least one really great story starring some celebrity or other. Add to that the countless daily recounts of brushes with the bizarre (I'm sure each location has it's own special blend of resident and transient "street life" enthusiasts) and the many stories from the road told by those touring musicians Amoeba frequently fosters; the odd life-altering event/near death experience sort of yarn is spun as often as are the wheels of the gossip wagon. All this and more than enough stupid jokes and "inappropourri" to swell one's ears and imagination for days. Some of the stories I've heard will stay with me forever and some of the story tellers I'd swear have lived multiple lives.

One of my favorite co-workers I like to trade stories with at Amoeba is dear to me for his deep appreciation of all kinds of heavy metal, especially glam/hair metal. Though he's a bit older than me, I'll never forget the day we bonded over our knowledge of obscure (read: tragic) hair metal bands. Floodgates opened and we discussed everything from Bang Tango's singular hit, "Someone Like You," to Pretty Boy Floyd's album Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz and their singular saving grace (ultimately, their hair). Clearly we could go on for days as, it seemed to me anyway, I had no one else at work with whom I could discuss late eighties Hollywood glitter rock and still feel comfortable with myself afterwards. 

One of my favorite stories this person shared with me involves Warrant, a band that almost always suffered comparison to Poison yet never eclipsed, or even slightly reached, Poison's level of glam-rock stardom. Perhaps that explains why my friend saw them playing in a crappy night club in Fresno. The story is short and amounts to this: at sometime during the gig he stole backstage and lifted a number of items from Warrant, namely a bottle of White Rain shampoo. Now, maybe it's not that funny to everyone, but I clutched my gut in laughter upon hearing this. White Rain! The bottom shelf of hair products! These glamorous guys, who obviously pride themselves on their hair, couldn't get it together to get some Panteen Pro-V or Mane and Tail (being the show ponies they were). I have to admit that I was and still am inclined to think the worst of Warrant -- I was never a fan, not even a little, of their music and their frontman, a man called Jani Lane, frightened me in an Edgar Winter way. To me their music was a tepid, obvious attempt at following Poison's lead (and so was Jani Lane's romance with"spokesmodel" Bobbi Brown, who happened to be Poison frontman Bret Michael's ex-girlfriend) and it was even rumored that Warrant's two guitarists Erik Turner and Joey Allen hadn't played even a shred of a note on Warrant's debut album though they received credit for it. To top it all off, the most annoying girl in my school, who was also my best friends' neighbor and confidante, loved them and Warrant quickly became the crux of our rivalry. And so the very thought of Warrant roughing it on the road with dollar store bought White Rain set me snickering. It was too perfect. And to think that Warrant's debut album was titled Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich-- hardly.
 
Later on I got to thinking about all those wanna-be rock stars featured in Penelope Spheeris' documentary Decline of the Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years and my laughing slowly subsided into a kind of internal choke. Remembering all those faces staring directly at the camera proclaiming, "Oh yes, I'm gonna make big one day. Definitely. Without a doubt," really hit home. I wonder just how many rockers made the pilgrimage to Hollywood with a mind to find fame and fortune. I thought of my brother (pictured second from the right with his band Trauma Kamp) and how he moved to Hollywood around that time with only what I can imagine to be the same dream of making it big in the music business (and let me tell you, not only did he survive the strip, he's got endless yarns of killer stories about the madness that is, er was, er probably still is, the Hollywood rock scene). Suddenly I was furious at my friend. How could he steal such vital items from a hair metal band on the road like he's stealing food stamps from the needy? The ridiculousness of my anger started me laughing again and I giggled my way over to my dusty video shelf to look for my copy of The Metal Years, only to find it missing, stolen perhaps by a fellow coworker and metal enthusiast whose name just happens to rhyme with the latter syllable of the word Warrant.
A few weeks later I'd find myself hungry again for a viewing of The Metal Years after being asked for the umpteenth time when Amoeba's gonna have the new AC/DC album, Black Ice. In answering this oft repeated query, I've noticed that customers seeking this release get a cool, terse response: it's a Wal-Mart exclusive. Now, I am as courteous as the next person when manning the info counter and exclusive sales of new releases are nothing new in music retail, it's just that I find it very hard to swallow that a retailer that once used to ban all releases that required a Parental Advisory sticker, a retailer that seemingly backed the PMRC (the Parents Music Resource Center, a committee founded in 1985 by Tipper Gore and three other highly connected political ladies, pictures right) in their endeavors to protect and uphold the morals of America by stifling first amendment rights for recording artists of every genre, a retailer whose name used to be synonymous with right wing, so-called "bible-thumping" Christians could ever, ever sell, exclusively, the new, long awaited record by heavy metal bad boys AC/DC. Maybe the lyrics to AC/DC's hit single "Money Talks" from their Razor's Edge album released in 1990 could clue us in on this retail gaffe: "come on come on love me for the money/ come on come on listen to the money talk." Yeah, and the only way anyone can hop on AC/DC's "Rock N' Roll Train," the first single from Black Ice, is to slum it on down to Wal-Mart 'n' buy it there, or, as it turns out, Sam's Club is selling it too, but only to those who have a membership of course. I understand that a large part of American rockers live in places where Wal-Mart is the only place they can shop for music and I've been reminded repeatedly that times are tough all over, yet Billboard reports that copies of Black Ice are "flying off the shelves" in Wal-Mart and Sam's Club -- money talks indeed -- and I can't help feeling like the "understanding" between Capitol Records and Wal-Mart is a last ditch effort to make mega-bucks on a new release while the mega-bucks can still be made. At least while Wal-Mart is "rolling back the prices" on items like toilet paper you can get the new AC/DC album used at Amoeba for a fraction of what they're flying off the shelves for in the 'burbs. This just in: New York Times reports that Wal-Mart now owns rights to the new AC/DC-themed Rock Band video game, "AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack." I wonder what they'll own rights to next. 

Radio killed the iPod star? Not quite but, as reported this week by Ad Age, a recent study of online and radio listening habits of a youth/young-adult demographic, revealed some interesting findings.

The study, which was conducted by Paragon Research in a random survey of 400 14-24 year olds, showed that this group has increased its time spent listening to radio by 11% this year, while its time spent listening to iPods has actually decreased by 13%.

In the Ad Age story, Jeff Haley, president-CEO of the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau), said the study confirms what the radio industry has heard anecdotally by reflecting the "lack of inertia in the MP3 experience. You don't have the ability to refresh or any kind of automated way to come across great new music. As a result, that isolated programming effect does not allow you the serendipitous experience the way radio does."

Indeed, that is exactly what makes listening to your favorite (especially local, non commercial) radio station in real time so special: the surprise and sense of the unexpected; never knowing what will be next on the DJ's playlist or in his/her mic break. But of course, a radio or an iPod are merely listening devices and it is only a matter of time before all digital players such as iPods will be easily able to pick up all terrestrial radio stations' streams on their iPods and other music players.

Country Music

In the American South, traditions from Celtic music, folk, blues, gospel and mountain music melded together into what was originally known as Hillbilly music. Hillbilly produced some incredibly popular artists like Jimmie Rodgers, who sold over a million records in the '20s, back when there were probably like 2 million people in the country.

In 1949, Billboard started referring to it as Country, since many Hillbillies began to feel like they were performing some kind of minstrelsy for urban, northern audiences who'd stick some straw baies on the stage to make these noble savages feel at home.

Anyway, it wasn't just popular at home. There are seemingly more fans of country outside of the U.S. than in it. Before long, other countries were producing their own Country, influenced by the original but occasionally tailored to their own traditions.

Canadian Country



It shouldn't really come as a surprise that Canada, our kid sibling to the north, would have their fair share of Country musicians. in fact, outside of the U.S., Canada is the Countryest country. Originally it developed out of their heavily Celtic Maritime Provinces. Most Country, however, mirrors the U.S.'s and many Canadian Country artists have infiltrated Nashville unsuspected and undetected, capable of producing Pop Country as bland as our indigenous experts. Most Canadian Country musicians sing about Tennessee this and Kentucky that, happy to not reflect their own backgrounds. Those that do have a more distinctly Canadian tone often have an elevated Folk aspect to their music.

Canadian Country artists include Shania Twain, Adam Gregory, Hank Snow, Paul Brandy, Wilf Carter, Tommy Hunter, Stompin' Tom Connors, Corb Lund, George Canyon, Don Messer, Anne Murray, Lucille Starr, Marg Osburne, Ian Tyson, Mercey Brothers, Maurice Boyler, Gordie Tapp, Carroll Baker, Bob Nolan, Stu Davis, Gene MacLellan, Myrna Lorrie, Ray Griff, Ronnie Prophet, Colleen Peterson, The Good Brothers, Terry Carisse and Prairie Oyster.