Last night as I was listening to, and really really trying to like, T. Pain's latest over-produced and overly guest heavy new album Thr33 Ringz I quickly determined that Mister Pain is still painfully over-using that vocoder like voice altering program which I had hoped would have stayed back in the summer of 2007 when near every damn rapper had some digitally altered ear-piercing robot voice effect prominent in their sing-songy rap hit single/video. I thought or rather hoped the fad was long over. But I was wrong.

Apparently here at the end of 2008/cusp of 2009 this gratingly annoying vocal effect is still very much alive as proven by such current hits as the T. Pain featuring Lil Wayne single "Can't Believe It" --  found on the R&B singer's aforementioned recently released new album.

But let's leave T. Pain alone. Even more painful to these hip-hop loving ears is Kayne (the artist formerly known as a hip-hopper) West who recently, in an interview about his rap-free new LP, announced that "hip-hop is over for me" and who dedicates his heartbreakingly-hard-to-listen-to entire new album (808s and Heartbreak) to (like T.Pain) singing through the vocoder like autotuner effects. Jeesh. I guess his hanging out with Daft Punk just rubbed off on him way more than anyone could have ever anticipated. Below is a clip of Kayne performing a track off this new album on Letterman earlier this week. Disappointing? Hells yeah and not coz the autotuner is a bad piece of musical recording/performing equipment. But like anything in music, as in life, it comes down to how you use it, or rather don't use it (3 words Kayne: "less is more").

Saturday November 29

Vanity Insanity Triple Feature!

3 Action Packed Films Starring Vanity!

Never Too Young To Die 8pm
dir. Gil Bettman, starring John Stamos, Vanity, Gene Simmons, George Lazenby

John Stamos is Lance Stargrove, star gymnast & son of top secret agent George Lazenby. Gene Simmons is transsexual singer / evil-doer Ragnar out to poison the Los Angeles water supply. Throw in Vanity as Stamos' love interest (you'll never eat an apple the same way again), Peter Kwong (one of Big Trouble In Little China's elementals) as Stargrove's fun-loving computer nerd pal and a plot to retrieve a mysterious computer disc and you don't even have half the "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS MOVIE EXISTS" that is NTYTD.

Action Jackson 10pm
dir. Craig R. Baxley, starring Carl Weathers, Vanity, Craig T. Nelson, Sharon Stone, Bill Duke, Robert Davi

Craig R. Baxley (stunt coordinator for tv's The A-Team) directed one of the last truly-80s action films that showed that Carl Weather (Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies) could & should have been one of the great action stars of the decade. As Detroit cop Jericho Jackson, Weathers battles evil auto magnate Craig T. Nelson (take THAT bailout plan!) with the help of Vanity & a seemingly never-ending stock of one-liners.

The Last Dragon Midnight
dir. Michael Schultz, starring Taimak, Vanity, Julius Carry

Motown records founder Berry Gordy produced only one Martial Arts / R&B epic and this is IT! Trainer to the stars Taimak (playing Leroy Green aka Bruce Leroy!) searches for his inner master, meets-cute with Vanity and battles the Shogun of Harlem (Julius Carry in a career defining role, RIP) to pulse pounding sounds by Debarge, Rockwell, Stevie Wonder & more! This may be your last chance to see this in the theater before the remake hits in 2010!

Ever since recently receiving word that film director David Lynch would be visiting Amoeba Music Hollywood today (6:30PM but get there a little early) for an in-store signing in celebration of the release of the recommended new nine disc DVD box set collection David Lynch The Lime Green Set, I decided to do a little digging in the crates and host my own personal David Lynch film fest: going back to re-watch many of the living legend's classic creations, most of which I hadn't seen in many years.

I watched several episodes of the early nineties show Twin Peaks (which was executive co-produced by Lynch along with Mark Frost), Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Wild At Heart  -- all of which combined, I know, really only scratch the surface of this fine film-maker's body of work. But still it was enough of a refresher course to give this Amoeblogger a proper dose of the heart and soul of the artist behind these brilliant works.

I guess in retrospect what is foremost so striking about the 1990/91 ABC TV series Twin Peaks, to which the 1992 David Lynch film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was a sequel of sorts, is the fact that it even made it onto network TV in the first place, and managed to last two seasons at that. It was not your typical mainstream TV fare by a long shot but like any of the best TV shows it was addictive viewing for those who got it. I guess that is the key to all of Lynch's work: you have to appreciate all of his nuances and to fully dispel everyday reality & allow yourself to submerge deep into Lynch's world -- typically a slightly surreal parallel universe that summons up the place of dark dreams we've all experienced at sometime --  to really get and to fully appreciate the magic David Lynch manifests on the screen. 

An album made entirely in one’s bedroom is no longer a foreign concept. In fact, it has become the norm. Digital sampling and recording programs such as Pro-Tools, Reason, Cubase and Digital Performer have all become the norm for most musicians. Why pay studio costs and mixing engineers for what you can do on your own your own computer?

The unfortunate result has been that as the need to record in a pricey recording studio has become a thing of the past, so has analog home recording. There is something a bit different from home recording made from analog forms (cassette or reel to reel recorders) rather than digital. Most arguments made on digital versus analog have to do with sound. My argument has to do with creativity. Although you still have the ability to overdub parts in analog recording, there are no quick fixes. You cannot instantly quantize bad timing, edit mistakes, cut out background noise or automatically tune vocals that are off key; all which you can do on the most basic digital recording programs. Instantly the mediocre can sound like the professionals. But what if some mediocrity is part of the charm? Honesty captured onto tape, with background noise, slightly off key vocals and poor recording techniques that captures a song in its purest form. It's no wonder fans of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix used to pay top dollar for bootlegs of their home demos. There is purity to their songs that got lost once they made their way into a professional recording studio. The same thing sometimes happens with digital recording. The options are limitless, so much so that the end results sounds nothing like the beginning.

The Lo-Fi movement of the late eighties/early nineties exemplified this. Artists such as Daniel Johnston, Sebadoh, and The Mountain Goats didn’t just record onto four track for the sake of purity, it was also about economics. A Tascam 4 track recorder was affordable. Many studios were selling their outdated eight and four track reel-to-reel recorders dirt-cheap as well. In a bedroom, garage or in a practice space, you were left to your imagination to create without the restraints of paying a studio an hourly rate.

Thanks to user Navelgazer at community blog Metafilter, I was turned on to this interesting story recently published by the New York Times about an all-female Saudi rock band called The Accolade, most probably the first one of its kind ever. There are no photos of The Accolade because they are forbidden from posing for them. They have a MySpace page though, where you can listen to their first single, "Pinocchio." It is the sound of cultural awakening.

I am a big 1950’s sci-fi film fan and aficionado of the scores of these classic and occasionally not so classic B-movies. The fact is, more often then not, the music will be oddly brilliant. Another inevitable universal truth is the lower the budget, the better the soundtrack. Some of the very best ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ scores were composed by Irving Gertz. He died on November 14th in Los Angeles at the age of 93.  

The youngest of eight children, Gertz was born in 1915, in Providence, Rhode Island, where he learned to play the piano, clarinet, upright bass and tuba as a kid. He studied composition at Providence College of Music and privately with composer Walter Piston. In 1938 Gertz was hired by the music department of Columbia Pictures, but left to serve during the Second World War. After his tour of duty, he studied with legendary composers Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ernst Toch before returning to the industry.

Throughout the 1950’s and until his retirement in 1968, Gertz contributed music to more than 200 films, often without screen credit. One of his most recognized early works is the music for the 1955 western Top Gun, but his most notable musical efforts are in the Sci-fi world. Some of his soundtrack work includes The Alligator People, The Leech Woman, The Curse of The Undead, and The Creature Walks Among Us. Gertz also worked extensively with Jack Arnold, the first certified genius of the low budget 1950’s sci- fi genre, scoring films like It Came from Outer Space, The Monolith Monsters and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Gertz also worked extensively in television, composing for Land of the Giants, The Invaders and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Beatles fans take note: in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' White Album (in actuality their self-titled album), "the producers, engineers and technicians who worked on the LP recall their contributions" in a recommended documentary special by the BBC in celebration of the double LP set that was originally released on November 22nd, 1968 and was the fab four's ninth studio album.

Click here to check it out. Note that you will need Real Player in your computer. Meantime, check out some White Album related video footage (including some rehearsal/recording sessions) of John, Paul, George, & Ringo down below the track listing & YouTube album audio medley (immediately below). Luckily I found a copy of the album for just a dollar in the used vinyl bin at the Amoeba Music Berkeley store some years back (a numbered copy and in good condition too!). It is also available on CD-- both new and used. Get it if you don't already own it. And buy it at Amoeba!

THE BEATLES' WHITE ALBUM TRACK LISTING:

SIDE A:

I'm currently hooked on 椎名林檎 (Shiina Ringo), aah-gain. This recurring addiction happens from time to time and, for me, always with the same kind of artist: preternaturally gifted, flawed but beautiful ladies with an unconventional way of expressing themselves though the kind of music that appeals to ears hungry for one-of-a-kind singer/song writers-- you know, the Tori/P.J./Bjork/types (I suppose you can replace Tori for Kate if you must). Shiina Ringo is the J pop equivalent to these select "raisin girls" of too-bold-for-Lilith Fair powerhouses of 90's female alt-rock superstardom. Not only has she been compared to each of the above ladies in one respect or another, she has also aroused Courtney Love's attention because of her song "Gips" ("Plaster Cast") in which she sings, "You always want to shrink away/and that makes me happy/because it's like Kurt/and that would make me Courtney;" she's a huge fan of Janis Ian, and many folks mention Shiina Ringo and Alanis Morrisette in the same breath, claiming that her voice sounds Alanis-ish. Though it's obvious that Ms. Shiina embraces all kinds of music -- her tunes vary wildly from the ornately orchestrated classical to slinky jazz to electro-dance to mainstream rock to grungey punk -- it's her vocal eccentricities (she's famous for rolling her "r"s gangsta style) and her thought-provoking, complex lyrics (which often feature sprinklings of archaic language and use of uncommon words/kanji characters) that have made her singularly famous. On top of all that, she's got wicked style, a style so influential that recent J pop starlets have fledged new careers by modeling themselves after Shiina Ringo. Vivienne Westwood has the trendsetting Ms. Shiina to thank for making her wares so sought after in Japan and Japanese culture mavins world wide have Shiina-san's recurring, totally "和" ("old Japan") fashion sensibilities to admire as she so frequently weaves the antiquated with the contemporary when it comes to her visual appearance whether it be in photos, music videos or live stage performances. There has even been a popular manga and film created with an admittedly Ringo-esque main character. Despite all this, my first impression of Shiina Ringo was a somewhat convoluted one given my inability to really "get" everything she was spitting, but --holy moly-- was the music fantastic! And that's all that really mattered at first. Since then I've grown into a comfort pocket with her music that, like so many other of my favorite artists, demands rummaging through on a regular basis. This time I decided to find out more about her; here are some basic facts and interesting nuggets of knowledge about Shiina Ringo -- J pop songstress extraordinaire:

Belgian artist Guy Peellaert, most famous for his album cover illustrations of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs and The Rolling Stones’ It’s Only Rock 'n' Roll and his ground breaking art book Rock Dreams, died this past Monday of kidney cancer in Paris. He was 74.

Born in Brussels in 1934 into an aristocratic family, Peellaert broke with his family as a teenager, first by entering the military, then by choosing an art career over his father’s demands to pursue a career in medicine. Peellaert first major success was the comic strip, Les Aventures de Jodelle, published in 1966 in the French magazine Hara-Kiri. The central character, Jodelle, was modeled after Ye-Ye singer Sylvie Vartan. Peellart's second comic strip, Pravda, again modeled the heroine after a French singer, the iconic Françoise Hardy. In the 1970’s Peellaert went on to design movie posters for such films as Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver; Wim Wenders's Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire and Robert Altman's Short Cuts.

But Peellaert is best known for his rock album covers -- especially his controversial Diamond Dogs design from 1974. The gate-fold cover features Bowie as a half-man, half-dog grotesque. Peellaert painted in a photo-realistic style and the controversy stems from how well he flaunted the hybrid genitalia. I guess that was something of a no-no in the early 1970’s. A few copies of the original cover inexplicably survived, today they fetch upwards of a few thousand dollars each. The initial RCA release had the genitalia airbrushed out, but the recent reissue on Rykodisc/EMI revives the original artwork.

"Carnival of Light," the long-rumored, almost mythical 14-minute experimental Beatles track, may soon see the light of day. Composed and performed only once for an electronic music festival in 1967, Sir Paul McCartney earlier this week confirmed that the recording exists, and the piece once thought to be too experimental for mainstream tastes might actually see a release date sometime in the near future.

 

In the 1990’s while preparing the Anthology collection, the Beatles plus producer George Martin vetoed its inclusion, deeming the track as being "too adventurous" for release. But McCartney feels the public is ready for the psychedelic/avant-garde inspired tune, which is said to include improvised distorted guitar, church organ, gargling, backwards tape sounds, random cacophony and band members shouting words or phrases like "Barcelona!" and "Are you all right?"

First though, approval from the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison, plus permission from Ringo Starr and George Martin would be required.

I found a video on YouTube that claims to contain actual  "Carnival of Light" music. Of course if this is a real Beatles tracks, it's brilliant! If this is in fact not a recording from he Beatle's, it  just  becomes ... more stuff.

For years one of my favorite posters in the back hallways at Amoeba SF has been a bright, colorful border surrounding a black and white image of young Alex Chilton, leaning against a wall in an argyle tank top with the number 1970 below. I smiled every time I saw it but for some reason never gave it much thought...

Chilton has always been something of a cult hero with not one but two fine bands, The Box Tops and Big Star, that largely flew under the radar/were forgotten, and he wrote some of my favorite songs of all time while in different mutations of Big Star including "Thirteen" and "The Ballad of El Goodo" (from #1 Record) and "Nighttime" (off Third/Sister Lovers). He's a master of sweet, low-key ballads, but can also turn out pop perfection -- a very satisfying combo since basically it means he is something of a melodic genius.

This week I happened upon a copy of an album by Alex Chilton entitled 1970! I had somehow never bothered to figure out what that poster stood for, and now here it was, right in front of me. As it turns out, the album is a post Box Tops solo record made by Chilton in, of course, 1970, in Memphis, which was promptly forgotten and left untitled by both artist and producer when Chilton moved on to Big Star. The original, unadorned tapes were later discovered and released in 1996 by Chilton's famous Memphis label, Ardent Records.

1) Q-Tip The Renaissance (Motown/Universal)

2) Jurassic 5 11th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue (Decon)

3) Jedi Mind Tricks A History Of Violence (Babygrande)

4)  88 Keys The Death of Adam (Decon)

5) Black Milk Tronic (Fat Beats Records)

Thanks to Luis at the San Francisco Amoeba Music store for this week's Top Five Hip-Hop chart with the number one slot occupied by Q-Tip with his great new album The Renaissance (far superior to his last solo effort), which includes one track produced by the late J-Dilla. Click here to check out Porkchop's review of the A Tribe Called Quest member's recent San Francisco performance at Mezzanine as part of the Bounce Tour last week. In the number two slot is the Jurassic 5 CD & DVD retrospective package on Decon, 11th Anniversary Deluxe Re-Issue, which includes J5's original self-titled album in its entirety plus fifteen unreleased tracks, as well as a DVD of the documentary The Jurassic Period which was directed by Jason Goldwatch.

Saturday November 22

Waxwork (1988)

dir. Anthony Hickox
starring Zach Galligan & Deborah Foreman

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

Debby, the world's oldest polar bear has died. Suffering from multiple organ failure, she was euthanized earlier this week, just a month shy of her 42nd birthday. Some polar bears living in captivity make it into their 30s, but few in the wild reach 20 years of age. Earlier this year the Guinness Book of World Records certified she was the oldest polar bear on record and one of the three oldest bears ever documented from any of the eight bear species.

Born in 1966 at the height of the Cold War in the former Soviet Union’s Arctic Island’s Region, Debby was orphaned at a very young age, but was rescued by the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In her years at the Canadian zoo she gave birth to six cubs with her mate of almost thirty years, Skipper, who died in 1999 at age 34. All of their offspring are still alive today.

As tributes pour in from around the world, a memorial is planned at the zoo this coming Saturday at noon at the zoo's Animal Tracks Café.

 

My good buddy Daz I Kue of London's pioneering Broken Beat crew Bugz In The Attic recently sent me this fantastic remix of James Brown's "Funky President" that he's done under his Bloodfire alias -- one he's applied to cheeky less-than-official reworks of other jams like Syl Johnson's "Is It Because I'm Black" and Syreeta's Stevie-penned "To Know You Is To Love You," both of which are fantastic and worth the tracking down, if you can find either out-of-print 12".

Recently married and residing in Atlanta, Daz channeled his emotions over the recent presidential election into this fantastic bit of dancefloor badness which juxtaposes the untouchable original with "Yes We Can" chants, putting the whole thing into glorious, evocative focus.

Many thanks to Daz for giving us permission to post the track here. No MP3 either, this is a full-spectrum AIFF CD-quality soundfile, suitable for club play. Play it loud!

Bloodfire V Funky President (Yes We Can Rehash) (sendshare link to 71mb AIFF)
and here's a 16MB MP3 in case you're balking at the file size!

This Saturday XY:XX is hosting a
release party for the new Psychic
TV album. "Psychic TV/ PTV3
returns with Mr. Alien Brain vs.
The Skinwalkers!, a collection of
ALL new material from various
sessions." Dias records head
Gibby will guest DJ. Last time I
was there, the Punch-Out game
was working fine. It should be a
fabulous nite out.

And since there's an extra Saturday this Nov., there's an extra XY:XX. A tribute to D.A.F. is in the works. Although, the competition is fierce as only blocks away, the New Beverly is running a Vanity triple feature...

Welcome to Amoeblogay Music Lists Part IV, in the ongoing five-part series that began last Tuesday and was inspired in great part by the recent Out Magazine Top 100 Gayest Albums list. This second to last installment includes two lists --  both from Amoebloggers. Brad Schelden has compiled a list, in no particular order, noting that, "I did agree with a lot of the albums they (Out Magazine) listed. Seems to be a lot of disco and dance music missing as well."

The other list below comes from Amoeblogger Job O Brother, who says his list includes, "Some records that deserve a spot in any comprehensive list of recordings significant to the LGBT community. Word." Job also added that, "Some of these are so obvious it baffles me they were missed by Out Magazine. In scrutinizing their list, it seems rushed, haphazard, and the work of a small pool of people who would never get a job at someplace like Amoeba Music! I didn’t bother to include Pansy Division – again, so obvious! – because I know that other people contributing to your project will include them." 

Special thanks to both Job O Brother (Another Witty and Unnecessary Blog) and Brad Schelden (Pen is mightier than the sword) for their time and insights in this series and check back here for the final Part V to be posted here in a few days. Meantime, be sure to check out the wonderful Latino Gay Music Icons Amoeblog immediately below this blog, compiled and posted by Gomez Comes Alive!

When Billy Jam asked me on my take on the 100 Top Gayest Albums Of All Time, I initially told him no because I felt I had no right to add to this list cause I’m not gay. I wouldn’t want to read a list on the 100 Best Things About East L.A. written by some hipster from Silver Lake, so why would someone want to hear about what I think?

It goes without saying that many gays shop at Amoeba and the Latin Rock & Pop section is no exception. In fact, we probably get more gays shopping in our section than most sections in the store. In the last four years I have worked in that section I have received quite the education on Latino gay icons.

So I decided to make a list. In the end I did not feel the list is a generalization on what gays like. I feel like our gay customers that shop at Amoeba Latin Music Sections helped shape this list.

Continue reading

1) Q-Tip The Renaissance (Motown/Universal)

2) Jedi Mind Tricks A History Of Violence (Babygrande)

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

4) 88 Keys Death of Adam (Decon)

5) Little Brother Seperate But Equal (Traffic)

Special thanks to Scott at Amoeba Music Hollywood, where the Look Daggers (Ikey Owens of The Mars Volta & 2Mex of Visionaries and SonGodSuns) did a great free in-store performance on Thursday evening, for this week's Top Five Hip-Hop Albums. This chart, based on sales for the past week, includes some great new albums such as hip-hop trio Jedi Mind Tricks' sixth and latest full-length A History of Violence, and Little Brother's Separate But Equal (Drama Free Version) which should not be confused with the similar (including title) release by the group originally featured by DJ Drama on a hosted mixtape. The official DJ Drama-free version contains many extra previously unreleased tracks and bonus material.

And in the top slot on this week's Top Five is the great new release from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest fame called The Renaissance. Q-Tip is currently riding high on rave reviews for both this album and his current headlining spot on the Bounce Tour. The video game tour, sponsored by 2K Sports, rolled through San Francisco two nights ago in a concert at the Mezzanine. Backing Q-Tip onstage for this show (and all of the tour) was both a full live band and a special DJ, DJ Scratch of EPMD fame. Music fanatic, Amoeba Music fan and self-described "jaded raver" Porkchop attended the SF show and was kind enough to write a review for the Amoeblog.

Born in Denver on Dec. 3, 1932 as Ralph Joseph Reynolds, his family soon moved to Oklahoma, where he grew up listening to country music and Western swing acts such as Eddy Arnold and Bob Wills, eventually picking up the guitar as a teenager. In 1956 while performing in Yuma, Arizona, Reynolds wrote the song “Endless Sleep” after listening to Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" five times in a row on a jukebox. Two years later Reynolds met a music publisher named Herb Montei who forwarded the demo version to the Los Angeles based label Demon Records. Demon liked the demo but executives insisted on Reynolds tacking on a more uplifting end to the song; the revised finale has the suicidal girl saved from drowning by her guilt ridden beau. Another peculiar bit of history about “Endless Sleep” -- writing credits for the song went to Jody Reynolds and Dolores Nance, but according to Reynolds, Nance was a fictitious person created by the Demon Records to make it appear that there was songwriting team.

By the summer of 1958 “Endless Sleep” became a huge national and international hit, peaking at No. 5 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, no doubt opening the door for several other doomed tales of love-death tinged million selling pop hits including Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel," Ray Peterson's "Tell Laura I Love Her," Dickey Lee's "Patches" and the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack," to name but a few. Reynolds' next single was not as successful. “Fire of Love” peaked at number 66 on the Billboard charts. It would be his last charting single. Still, he continued to record and tour into the 1970’s for several labels including Smash, Brent and Pulsar Records. His typically anomalous 1963 recording, and excellent single, on Titan Records, "Stranger in the Mirror" / "Requiem for Love" featured a very young Bobbie Gentry (“Ode to Billie Joe”) in her debut. Eventually Reynolds opened a music store in Palm Springs and worked as a real estate agent. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1999.

Djosos Krost (DJ Pharfar and DJ Filip) are two dub-obsessed Danes who are better known for having produced the most popular mix of Junior Senior's dancefloor hit, "Move Your Feet." 

I was on board No Sign Of Bad from the first dub moog-fuzz chords of this album. Guests on vocals include Tuco, Jah Bobby, Little Tasha, EMO and Adrian. Tuco, featured on lead vocals for the opener "Straight Upfront" has that lover's reggae vibe pulled from the holy book of Hugh Mundell and Gregory Isaacs. Such a slinky, relaxed delivery as the little dub bleeps and blurps chase each other's tails around the tune.

A good while back (95-99), I was really into the Japanese electro-dub outfit Audio Active and their super-tripped take on bong-heavy dub. Their two classic releases Tokyo Space Cowboys and Happy Happer still satisfy that stony, space-travel urge instilled in all lovers of On-U era Lee 'Scratch' Perry masterpieces like Time Boom De Devil Dead and From the Secret Laboratory.

Here's a classic track from Audio Active.



And one from that particular era of On-u Sound Dub Syndicate 'Scratch!'

Continue reading

Japanese director Takashi Miike is a freak. Based on ongoing discussions I've held with friends and co-workers I'd say his films seem very either/or; anyone who has seen even one of his films has undoubtedly come to the conclusion that they've either seen one Miike film too many or that they've become Miike movie addicts. I've seen only a few films of his that could be categorized as middling (my favorite is one of these: the wonderful musical-comedy-horror farce Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)), and plenty of others I had trouble watching or couldn't finish due to the shocking visual content his stories are often soaked in. Being highly prolific (he has directed over seventy theatrical, video and television productions since 1991 and is credited with directing fifteen productions from 2001 to 2002 alone) and internationally famous for making movies capable of churning stomachs and blowing minds with such outrageous depictions of extreme violence and bizarre sexual perversions in underworld or otherworldy settings that often involve gangsters, outsiders and general sickos, it is no surprise Miike's films caught Quentin Tarantino's eye. It is a surprise, however, to see Tarantino himself all gunslingin' and gussied up in the opening sequence of Miike's latest creation, made available this Tuesday on DVD, Sukiyaki Western Django. I was so not expecting his performance or much of what followed, but I can say that I had a good night of movie magic enjoyment.

So, now that we actually have something to look forward to in our President Elect, I feel that we'll see our first real nostalgia for the decade known as the 90's. I know that there's been club nites and VH1 shows centered around fond 90's remembrances. However, now that's it approaching the "20 years ago today" mark, I think there will be a more in depth look back on the gen x/grunge era. I know for me, I can finally look back fondly at plasma donations, 60's styled garage rock bands, skinhead assaults, and janitorial gigs -- Henry Rollins on the Grammys and Chumbawamba blasting from frat houses, what a decade!!!  Dovetailed at either end by a Bush as well as a hit or two in the middle by Bush (the band!). The 1990's ushered in the modern American culture wars -- the left armed with the Scum Manifesto and the right playing duck duck goose with the Book of Revelations. 

Part III in this week's Amoeblogay Music Lists series, an ongoing informal survey of the best queer/gay or "gayest" (in all senses of the term) music or movies, includes submissions from Amoebloggers Miss Ess and Eric Brightwell. Note that most of these lists drew inspiration from the Out Magazine Top 100 Gayest Albums of All Time.

Amoeblogay Part I featured Larry Bob's Top 26  Queer Albums and Amoeblogay Music Lists Part II featured Amoebites Mark Beaver, Amoeba Brady, Brent James and Michael Whitmore. Lists still to come from Amoebites Brad Schelden, Jon Ginoli and Job O'Brother.

First up today for Part III is Miss Ess who says, "I agree about Pansy Division, but I personally haven't listened to them too much. I also think earlier Gossip records are better than the one that made the list. I like That's Not What I Heard. Sleater-Kinney should have had more entries on there too, like The Hot Rock and The Woods. I also love Mirah's album You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This."

I was a New Order fan way before I was a Joy Division fan. I know most people would claim the other way around. I am sure you hear some people born in 1985 who claim to have liked Joy Division before they liked New Order, but it is just not possible for some of us. Joy Division was formed in 1976, when I was 2 years old. Ian Curtis committed suicide days after my sixth birthday. We simply didn't cover this event in my Kindergarten class. Joy Division were not on Sesame Street. It really was not until 1987 when I started getting into New Order. The double album Substance came out in 1987. It still remains one of my favorite albums. It was one of the albums that shaped who I am today. It probably was also one of the first albums that I was absolutely obsessed with. I am sure it has a special place in the heart of many. The first album by them I remember actually buying was Technique, which came out in January of 1989. I was in ninth grade and not really ready for the 80s to be over. I actually think I had a dubbed cassette of Technique and Substance before I actually bought any album by them. Within the next couple of years I picked up most of the New Order albums and the two studio albums of Joy Division. I quickly fell in love with Joy Division as well, but for different reasons. I was also a Morrissey fan before being a Smiths fan. It was always exciting to go back and discover a band that was over before I was old enough to actually listen to them while they were happening. I fell in love with New Order-- there was just no avoiding it. They were everything I wanted in a band. They were also really unavoidable during the 80s and 90s. New Order were all over the radio and you would most likely hear them everywhere else you went. You would hear them in the mall or at your friends' house. DJs loved New Order. You would most likely hear them at any school dance, dance club, party, wedding, or bar mitzvah that you went to. They were a band that was easy to fall in love with. Joy Division captured that inner depression and angst that many of us felt, but New Order captured that more fun and optimistic side that many of us also identified with. Joy Division and New Order were sort of two sides of a coin. They have both remained with me ever since. I still never get tired of hearing "True Faith" or "Blue Monday."

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 15

Sorcerer (1977)

dir. William Friedkin
starring Roy Scheider
soundtrack by Tangerine Dream

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

---

November
November 22 Waxwork
(20 Anniversary! More fun than a barrel of mummies!)

 

November 29 Vanity Insanity Triple Feature!
Tickets $10. Three ACTION PACKED films, vintage trailers & more!
Never Too Young To Die 8pm

Action Jackson 10pm

The Last Dragon Midnight

December
December 6 Phase IV
(Paramount archive 35mm print!)

December 20 Title TBA
December 27 New Year's Evil

Whitmore, Amoeba Brady, Brent James, and J. Mark Beaver all contributed to this second part in the ongoing Ameoblogay Music Lists week for the best queer/gay or gayest albums, songs, music videos or movies. Amoeblogay Music Lists Part I yesterday included SFQueer.com's Larry Bob's Top 26. His and all of these lists were inspired by the recent Top 100 Gayest Albums of All Time compiled by Out Magazine, previously Amoeblogged about in these pages, and to whom we are indebted.

One thing worth mentioning in light of the outcome of Proposition 8 in the California elections last week and its blow to same-sex marriage in the state, is that despite this step backwards for human rights, a likely positive outcome is that it will not only strengthen & energize the civil rights movement but will most probably also inspire some powerful new art, including of course lots of great reactionary music.

The record I couldn't believe wasn't on the list, because I would have placed it at number one -- with a bullet! -- if for no other reason then the fact that it's so weirdly brilliant, not necessarily good, but weirdly brilliant: Jobriath's self-titled first album on Elektra. I thought about blogging about this record recently because I think it was just reissued on CD along with his second album, Creatures of the Street.

Today is the feast day of Martin of Tours. Martin was a Roman soldier who gave part of his cloak to a naked homeless man. According to some, he gave the rest of his clothes to another naked man and rode Lady Godiva-style through the late autumn winds. God miraculously warmed the earth for him, which is why it gets warm after being cold this time of year (known by a few as "St. Martin's Summer"). That night, Martin dreamed that Jesus came to him, scantily clad in the portion of his cloak which he'd given to the naked guy. When Martin awoke from his homo-erotic dream, he decided to devote himself to Christ and was baptized at 18.

Eventually he became a bishop in Tours. He didn't want to be a bishop so he hid in a goose pen. The geese betrayed him with honking and that is why we traditionally eat goose today, a sort of revenge best served fairly hot.



In Tours he gained a reputation for his iconoclastic violence, destroying the polytheistic art objects and ancient, historic temples of the indigenous Druidic religion like some medieval representative of the Taliban. He even went a little nuts and cut down trees, to the locals' dismay. On one occasion, a druid consented that he could cut down the tree if he stood where it was likely to fall. He did so and, of course, the tree fell in another direction. The druids were impressed.

As typically seems to be the case with any published "best of" music list, not everyone agreed with the recent Top 100 Gayest Albums of All Time compiled by Out Magazine, which was Amoeblogged about here on September 6th. After reading over this list many disagreed with numerous entries, suggesting certain additions and/or deletions. Most did agree however that Out Magazine's Top 100 list, based on a survey by the respected gay publication of 100 gay music authorities, was a pretty darn good list, albeit not perfect.

"There are a lot of omissions including The Cure, Nina Hagen, a ton more disco artists -- and of more recent artists Basement Jaxx and Miss Kittin" was an Amoeblog comment posted by A.D.Depp.  "It seemed to be a little hipster heavy. It seemed like it missed many gay iconic artists," critiqued Amoeblogger Gomez Comes Alive. Meanwhile Larry Bob of the SFQueer.com website, who updates the exhaustive dally Queer things to do in the San Francisco Bay Area list,  posted this comment to the Amoeblog, "No Pansy Division? Ridiculous. At least they managed to get Team Dresch and Fifth Column to rep the queercore. Also no Tribe 8."

The SFQueer.com webmaster is absolutely right, especially about Pansy Division (pictured above and whom FYI are the number one most popular act, by a landslide, in this Amoeblogay music survey series, which runs over the next few days).  In fact, besides lacking in the queercore department the Out Magazine Top 100 albums list also displayed a glaring lack of any so-called homo-hop from artists such as the Bay Area's Deep Dickollectivelike  (DDC), whose song "Straighttrippin' (feat. Doug E)" from their album BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo was featured on the Independent Sounds: Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. III -- another omission that the ever astute Larry Bob also noted.

Legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba, who was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid, died after collapsing on stage during a concert in Italy last night (Sunday Nov 9th) according to a report from AP. She was rushed to the Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno, near the southern city of Naples, where she died of a heart attack earlier this morning (Monday 11/10). She was 73 years of age. 

Reportedly the singer had just finished performing "Pata Pata," one of her best known hits (once famously banned in her homeland), when she collapsed. Known as "Mama Africa," Makeba's sudden death has sent shockwaves through South Africa, which is in mourning today. "One of the greatest songstresses of our time has ceased to sing," said the country's Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in a statement today. "Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid and colonialism through the art of song."

Over her long, prolific career she had performed with such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, and Paul Simon. She was the first African woman to win a Grammy award in 1966 together with Harry Belafonte for the album An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba, which dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid. Her rise to international awareness began when she starred in the 1959 anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa. A year later when she tried to fly home for her mother's funeral, she discovered her passport had been revoked. It would be thirty years before she was allowed to return again to her homeland.

In my first blog about wrong lyrics exposed, I shared how as a kid I somehow added the name Wilt Chamberlain in The Commodores' song "Easy." I have to think that he was so much in the news at the time that I must have had his name embedded in my head. Even growing up in the Showtime-era Lakers of Magic and Kareem, we still heard about Wilt The Stilt.

Another guy who was in the news a lot during that time was Uganda's dictator Idi Amin. Every day as my father watched the nightly news I heard his name. Maybe that's why when Valen Halen did a cover of the Kinks "You Really Got Me," I thought they were singing: "YOU IDI AMIN!" I thought his name was an insult. To many, I'm sure it was.

Here is former Uganda dictator Idi Amin, taken from the great Barbet Schroeder directed autobiography, General Idi Amin Dada:



Here's Van Halen doing "You Really Got Me":



And for good measure, Here's the O.G. version. It doesn't much sound like Idi Amin on the O.G. version.

As the days get closer to Christmas, record labels start pushing all their potential moneymakers to the forefront. Sometimes quality releases go unnoticed in the avalanche of greatest hits and blockbuster releases. Here is a reminder of some releases that you can find in our Latin Rock & Pop section for yourself and for future gifts for Christmas.

Aterciopelados' newest release, Rio, is their most focused release since 2001's classic, Gozo Poderoso. Filled with melodic vocals and soft Latin electronica beats, Aterciopelados explores their Colombian hippie side without sounding contrived. Life and the environment are the central themes of this album that link each song with the sound of a river flowing, rio/river...get it? Click here to watch a song from their Amoeba instore.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela, the surprise Flamenco hit of 2006, return with Live In Tokyo. Fans of the brother/sister duo claim that their strength comes from their live performances, including many Amoebites who witnessed their in store performance at Amoeba Hollywood two years ago. The release includes a DVD and a few new tunes for you to play air guitar to.

Last year for Halloween I was Bip the Clown, a famous creation of the then recently passed master of mime, Marcel Marceau. I thought it would be good to go an entire day without talking, yet it seemed to arouse violent annoyance in as many people as liked it.

I think it made me realize that I like mime, especially when it's darker and scarier... as in the mimetic acting of German Expressionist silent film... as well as comedians like Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, who were all essentially mimes. And, come to think of it, so was Cesar the somnambulist in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari... whom I was for Halloween a while ago, come to think of it.


Mime has its roots in ancient Greece but most conventions of modern mime were developed by the Bohemian mime, Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who adapted aspects of the commedia dell'arte for nineteenth century French actors. His most famous character was Pierrot, the moonstruck, dumb romantic in white face and poofy threads. He was portrayed in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis.


In the 1920s, Étienne Decroux created a highly original take on mime, focusing on statuary poses, a technique known as corporeal mime.

Tuesday was tough. I woke up early, voted without having to wait in line (my polling place has always been quiet) and spent the bulk of the day thereafter feeling like I had been physically rendered into ragged shreds of mixed emotions that mainly resembled a patchwork of grief. Being confined to the registers at work, restless, while polls across the country closed at their designated times, the ague that wracked my body and mind increased as the day sank heavily into night. On my dinner break things started looking up; I spent the hour with a politically like-minded coworker (and dear friend) at a local sports bar so decorated with festive balloons, streamers and flat-screen televisions that the effort needed to focus on what might really constitute "news" distracted my mind away from any results I didn't want to see, but nevertheless felt somewhat prepared to receive. When it was projected that my home state of Virginia was going to "go red," as red as a Virginia cardinal, my nerves slackened into an uncomfortable numbness.

Given the option to leave work early, I fled and hopped a bus to meet up with some friends at a bar I'd never been to or heard of. Trying to find a place unknown on such a night was absolutely frustrating and just when I was knitting my brow in consternation, bent over my cellphone feverishly texting queries to inebriated friends, a girl at the front of the bus began to squeal like a steam leak. Suddenly strangers were hugging, kissing and high-fiving me, dancing and falling all over each other on a crowded, careening Haight street bus with a horn-happy driver at the wheel. Images alike to those photos taken during the block parties that erupted at the end of World War II flashed to life in front of me and, maybe for the first time in my life, I felt the news. Everyone here would remember this night, the night the streets of San Francisco went wild for Barack Obama's victory and the end of eight years of  George W. Bush.

I just finished reading Suze Rotolo's A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. Rotolo is most famous for having had a complicated and inspiring relationship with Bob Dylan early in his career and for appearing with him arm in arm on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Her autobiography is an easy read, and she chronicles not only her time in the Village in the early 60s, but also the trials of growing up the child of two communists in the era of blacklisting, and her post-Dylan trip to then-recently Communist Cuba for several months in 1964. It's interesting to read about a woman's life in the early 60s (I was glad to have recently experienced a visual touchstone of the early 60s in Mad Men) and the limitations that were part and parcel of daily life back then that are now in many ways foreign to us gals. When Suze was with Dylan, everyone expected she would merely be his shadow and have no career or creative pursuit of her own, and, among other things, she was subjected to his own rigid expectations of her looks and her second-class status.

While the book was mainly enjoyable to read, I'm not sure if I was expecting too much, but it was not heavy on details, in my opinion. I respect Rotolo's right to keep some things private, of course, but I also wondered at times why she was compelled to write a book if she wanted to keep so much to herself. Still, the book does give an outline of The Village as an exciting, creative place and also of Dylan as a charismatic but manipulative charmer. She also gives an interesting take on the corrosive effects of fame on individuals, those around them, and their relationships.

If you're trying to escape the inevitable -- late fall's chill in the air -- then slip into an easy sense of denial by listening to Bobby Charles' self titled 1972 album.

The album is bursting with the organic sound of Bearsville, NY in the early 70s crossed with a dash of Cajun spice and that simple, ephemeral combination will warm you right up again.

Bobby Charles is an idiosyncratic songwriter from Louisiana who wrote "See You Later Alligator," known mainly as covered by Bill Haley and His Comets. Charles wasn't one for fame, and hid behind artists like Muddy Waters who covered his work, allowing him to pay the bills. I'm not sure why exactly, but somehow in the early 70s he ended up in Bearsville, New York, hanging out with the likes of Bob Dylan and The Band. That friendship is reflected in the album's sound as well as its production, which is by Rick Danko and John Simon (who also put out at least one excellent solo album). Members of The Band no doubt also contributed musically to this album, though with the exception of a songwriting credit for Danko, they are uncredited.

The album's songs are instantly pleasing through and through. They alternatively ramble along and bound forward energetically, but all the tracks glow with an animated heat that will take that chill right out of you: quite the accomplishment for such a hermetic kind of guy! There's also some sweet, sunshiney love songs on this album that'll have you feeling the sun on your shoulders again and make the return of spring seem not so far away anymore. It's all very bucolic and idyllic, as you shall see.

1) Paris Acid Reflex (Guerrilla Funk/Fontana)

2) Mighty Underdogs Droppin' Science
    Fiction (Definitive Jux)

3) Murs Murs for President (Warner)

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

5) Black Milk Tronic (Fat Beats)

Thanks to Tunde at the Berkeley Amoeba Music for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five sales-based chart, which finds the Bay Area's own Paris in the number one slot and his thought-provoking, lyrically charged, recommended new album Acid Reflex on Guerrilla Funk/Fontana. If you missed the interview with the controversial artist when it was published last week, click here to read the Amoeblog Paris interivew.

Reactions to Barack Obama's victory on Tuesday were upbeat (to put it mildly) in hip-hop circles. Longtime Fillmore, San Francisco rapper San Quinn told Amoeblog the next day, "Hopefully with him winning it will give little black kids in America a new sense of hope to know that instead of drug dealers and rappers and basketball players and football players and many other stereotypical but true things that we choose to be, including killing off each other, that now we have a chance if we keep our slate clean to be the president of the United States." 

It is really hard to think about anything but the election this week. It is really all I have thought about for many months now. I have become obsessed with watching CNN every night. I sometimes feel like I know John King and Anderson Cooper better than I actually do. I have spent a lot of time with them. I am just glad it is all over now. The people of the United States actually impressed me this year and elected a president that I actually respect. I still remember how I felt in 1992 when I was able to help elect Bill Clinton in my first election. I have not felt this good about an election since then. Unfortunately we still have to wait a couple of months for Barack Obama to take over. I can't really imagine the last 8 years without music to help me get through it. Just try to imagine your life without the escape that music offers you. I would not have made it. Think of all the great music that came out during the Reagan and first George Bush administrations. The music that came out between 1980 and 1992 was some of the best music ever created. It still remains my favorite period for music. I am really happy about Obama but this might mean we are facing a bad period for music. Just think about all the bad music that came out during Bill Clinton's eight years in office. These were the years of Blind Melon and Crash Test Dummies, Spice Girls and Aqua. I will need to do some more research, but I am almost positive that having a Republican as president helps to create some fantastic music, while having a democrat as president makes musicians lazy and helps to create some horrible singles and albums.

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 8

The Stepfather

1987, 89 min

director: Joseph Ruben

starring: Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen & Shelley Hack

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

---

November
November 15 William Friedkin's Sorcerer
(Roy Scheider tribute! Paramount archive 35mm print!)
November 22 Waxwork
(20 Anniversary! More fun than a barrel of mummies!)

 

November 29 Vanity Insanity Triple Feature!
Tickets $10. Three ACTION PACKED films, vintage trailers & more!
Never Too Young To Die 8pm

Action Jackson 10pm

The Last Dragon Midnight

December
December 6 Phase IV
(Paramount archive 35mm print!)
December 20 Title TBA
December 27 New Year's Evil

Born and raised in Queens, New York, longtime KZSU DJ Kevin "Kevvy Kev" Montague first moved to (and never left) the Bay Area back in the early eighties to attend Stanford University. It was there that, along with his (Members Only) hip-hop crew, Montague began broadcasting what would become the world's longest running hip-hop radio show, The Drum, which airs every Sunday on KZSU from 6PM to 9PM. Several years ago, in celebration of this unique radio program, Kevvy Kev began throwing the annual Bang The Drum hip-hop festival. The festival's eager participants have included Big Daddy Kane, CL Smooth, Smif & Wessun, Das EFX  (who performed at the most recent Bang The Drum in August), Canibus, Ras Kass, Saafir, Money B, Special Ed, Camp Lo, J-Live, Blackalicious, Mr. Lif, Rasco, Planet Asia, Hieroglyphics, Peanutbutter Wolf, The Lifesavas, and Kutmasta Kurt. 

Kutmasta Kurt was once a member of The Drum radio show crew. Others have included Mike Nice. The current weekly lineup includes DJ Felix the Friendly Traveler, Raymundo, and Jimbrowski with rotating DJs including Amp Live and D-Sharp. The very original lineup was born out of the 1980's Bay Area Members Only crew which, in addition to Kevvy Kev, was Jonathan Brown, Richard "Rich D" Dwyer, Louis "Easy Lou" Carr, Todd "Todd T" Hosein, Mark "Rockmaster Markski" Hosein and human beatbox Bruce "Casual B" Richardson. This 1980's hip-hop crew built a name for the hip-hop parties they threw. The Members Only crew also put out a record, the twelve-inch single "You're Not Down."

Thursday, November 6th!!!

Anda returns for our monthly soiree and we have lots to celebrate! Obama is now the President Elect, Mando Fever will be joining us again on the turntables and Anda welcomes AfroBeat Down to our stage! Ray Ricky Rivera (spinning Retro Salsa & Cumbia)
Gomez Comes Alive! (spinning Afro-Beat, Champeta & Cumbia)
&
Mando Fever (Descarga & Real Wednesdays)
Spinning Latin & Brazilian House

All this is happening at Mal’s Bar:

Mal's Bar 
2331 S. Hill Street.
Los Angeles, Ca. 90007.
(213) 746-2177
$8/21 & Over
Starts at 9:30

DON’T MISS THIS!!!!!

The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. Back in 1990, President George H.W. Bush named November National American Indian Heritage Month. The purpose of the observance is to highlight the roles America's aboriginal peoples have played in the country's history. It's kind of interesting. I'd say that the main role Natives have played in regard to American history was armed resistance and reluctant subjugation. It's kind of like Israel having a National Palestinian Heritage Month, Turkey having an Armenian History Month or Sudan having a Darfur Day but whatevs. I suppose, somewhat begrudgingly, that most Natives today have come to accept the fact that America is here to stay ...at least until 2012. Furthermore, Natives have, in many cases, actually been supportive of America and contributed to her history, to be sure. For example, not only did many Native nations align themselves with the US and its colonial antecedents at various times, but they also served as really good trackers and proved to be natural ecologists who demonstrated their intrinsically environmentalist natures by using every part of the bison and coming up with 30 different names for snow.

        
                    Don't worry, I will use every part of you                                     Hmm... what kind of snow is this?

Continue reading

Like the majority of people in America last night experiencing that combined feeling of joy and relief as the final results in the presidential election became clear, I was really moved when Barack Obama finally got to give his acceptance speech. Not only was it an incredibly inspiring and intelligent speech, but it was also just pitch perfect, like a great symphony or the best pop song. The rhythm of his oration style, especially as he built up to the finale, systematically interspersing in his talk those three words (Yes We Can) right on rhythm, was purely musical in its delivery.

Watching and listening to Barack in Chicago last night all I could think of (besides "Thank God the Republicans are finally out") was, Wow! This speech is not just historic but it is so made for matching over beats that we are going to be hearing this particular Obama speech replayed and sampled over hip-hop instrumentals for a long long time to come. Like JFK and MLK before him, Obama's equally great oratory style is made for playing back over beats.  Already he has been sampled to death in hip-hop songs, but now that he is finally elected to the top position this first hip-hop generation president will be an integral part of the genre for quite sometime to come.

While relatively young for such a high ranking job, 47 year old Barack Obama is not actually the youngest elected president of the United States of America (both Ulysses Grant & Bill Clinton were a year younger, while JFK was just 43 years old and Theodore Roosevelt was only 42 when elected to presidency), but he is the first bona fide elected US president of the hip-hop generation. In fact, he is even younger than many contemporary hip-hop figures, including Grandmaster Flash who, at age 50, is three years Barack's senior.

Scott Walker
Years of Employment: "Since the turn of the century."
Jazz floor dude

Miss Ess: What initially got you into jazz?

SW: A horrible answer: I don't remember. Most probably, like many people, it was a mid-era Miles Davis [record]. Pinpointing which one, twenty something years down the road, I would only be guessing.

ME: What album do you consider to be the pinnacle of the form?

SW: To me, there are different forms: Free/Avant, Bop, Trad, so I am tempted to answer one example for each, but won't at risk of boring/alienating readers. I would say an early [Thelonious] Monk recording: one of the late 40s sessions.

ME: What present-day jazz artists do you enjoy?

SW: Seeing Marilyn Crispell last week was pretty heavy: solo piano. I like solo piano stuff a lot, it's kind of like listening to a demo of a song -- it's distilled down to an essence, whether it's Fats Waller, Monk, or Sun Ra. It's hard, because like blues, jazz is so much about re-releases and focusing on history, standards, and regurgitation.

Is there a jazz record you love that crept up on you-- maybe one you didn't love it at first but grew to adore?

I didn't like electric Miles Davis when I first heard it. It was probably parallel to when people first hear electric Dylan: "Is he really serious/allowed to do this?" Now I listen to the electric stuff more often than the acoustic.

If anything can give us some kind of hope on this Election Day, maybe this can: Perhaps you caught some of this on Pitchfork last week, but Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel has been coaxed out of his 10ish years of hiding at last this past October! He's been spotted on the road with his Elephant 6 buddies on their Holiday Surprise Tour, where he ended each show with his NMH B-side "Engine." A surprise tour indeed!

This is the best video I could find of one of his performances right here -- you can actually see Jeff through the whole thing, despite the dimmed lights (apparently Jeff's still feeling a little shy). First up, he performs "The Fool," and then "Engine" begins at about the 3:00 mark. The whole room ends the video by singing "Happy Birthday" to Jeff:



He looks happy and healthy and sounds great. This is a huge deal because Jeff virtually disappeared from the world years ago, soon after releasing one of the greatest albums this music fan has ever encountered, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. To read an earlier post I made on the subject, click here.

1) Azeem "Going Dumb vs. Going To Brazil" (Oaklyn)

2) Paris "Get Fired Up" (Guerrilla Funk)

3) East Coast Avengers "The Day That Hope Died" (Brick Records)

4) The Mighty Underdogs "Warwalk" (Definitive Jux)

5) Jurassic 5 "Gotta Understand (Bean One Remix)" (BOMB Hip-Hop)  



6) Dirt Nasty "1980" (BOMB Hip-Hop)

7) Madlib feat Prince Po "The Thang Thang" (Rapster)

8) Blueprint "Sacred" (Rhymesayers)

9) Hu$tle Simmons "Over and Out (feat. Buff 1)" (Break Bread Projects)

10) NaS "Black President" (Def Jam)

The number one entry on this week's Jameoblog Top Ten (a subjective, song oriented chart) is the funky and funny "Going Dumb vs. Going To Brazil" by Azeem off the always edgy Oakland emcee's recommended brand new album Air Cartoons on Oaklyn Records (cover by Ezra Li Eismont -- scroll down to see his Oaklyn speed painting video). On one level the song "Going Dumb..." is an ode to "the town" (Oakland) but on another it caps on the short-sighted shallowness of many fellow dwellers of Azeem's in this East Bay city where hyphy culture still rules. In the Anas Cannon produced song, Azeem pokes fun at "that dude that ghost-rided and ran over himself" as well as those who just "wanna swerve thru the town high on pills." Meanwhile, the artist's idea of real fun is heading south to the beaches of Brazil and not acting "dumb." The fourteen track album features lots of great producers complimenting the former Spearhead member's lyrical flow, including DJ Zeph, DNAE Beats, Meat Beat Manifesto, DJ Spin, DJ Aneurysm, Mark Pistel, and Kontroversy 396. And scratch fans will be happy to hear both DJ Quest and Z-Trip add some sick cuts on a few album tracks.

The number three entry is the incendiary "The Day Hope Died" from the thought-provoking, ever confrontational East Coast Avengers (ECA) whose recent single/video "Kill Bill O'Reilly" caused some controversy with its over the top lyrics that suggest murdering the notorious FOX News host. In fact, it was so extreme in its lyrics that even longtime BIll O foe Keith Olbermann of MSNBC condemned the song (scroll down to see video clip below). Boston's ECA, who cite Public Enemy, Paris, and the Dead Kennedys among their influences, is the trio of Esoteric (of 7L & Esoteric, The Army of the Pharoahs), trademarc and DC the Midi Alien. They recently dropped the album Prison Planet, on which they lash out at numerous deserved political and media targets.

I thought I would share my altar for Dia De Los Muertos. I've been doing this for the last several years. To me, death is not the end. I still feel the presence of people who passed on every day. Dia De Los Muertos is a day to honor remember those who have passed on to the spirit world.
On my altar I have family members, including my grandmother, my aunt Lola (Dolores), my cousin Robert Bobadilla and my sister Irene Gomez, who passed back in 2005, My friend Lance Hahn from the band J-Church is also there. Every picture that I picked has a meaning. The pictures of my aunt and grandmother came from the day when we were all last together as a family. the picture of my cousin was from my other sister's wedding. and the picture of Irene was from a party that she went to that she had lots of fun at. The pic of Lance was of him and I drinking 40's at his place in the Mission District in San Francisco after a show. I also included CD's of artists who had an impact on my life that have also passed on: John Coltrane, D. Boon, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Hector Lavoe, Ralpi Pagan, Duke Ellington, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Eazy-E and Jimi Hendrix. I rotate most artists every year except for D.Boon & Hendrix. They are always there.

I offer the spirits flowers, tequila and Pan De Muerto. I usually set it out for a day, hoping that the spirits will come down and absorb the essence of my gifts to them. Then I do a shot in honor of all of them and take the Pan De Muerto and give it to friends. So Amoebites in Hollywood, if you had some Pan De Muerto in the break room today, you shared it with some of the best people I had the pleasure of knowing in the physical world.

Yma Sumac the legendary, one of a kind singer famous for her 4 1/2 octave range, has died in Los Angeles. She was 86.

Peruvian born, she was the personification of exoticism, making her an international sensation in the 1950’s. After signing with Capitol Records in 1950, the striking, raven-haired beauty became known as the "Nightingale of the Andes," and the "Peruvian Songbird." Her first album, Voice of the Xtabay, rocketed to the top of the LP charts introducing a whole new genre, Exotica, to the music buying public. During her heyday, Sumac headlined at the some of the most prestigious venues in the world, such as the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall. She reportedly made $25,000 a week in Las Vegas and turned down offers to sing with New York's Metropolitan Opera. Her eccentric costumes and stage settings were often extremely elaborate, filling stages with native dressed drummers and dancers and caged wild birds. Yma Sumac was also featured in the 1951 Broadway musical Flahooley and appeared in the films Secret of the Incas in 1954 and Omar Khayyam in 1957.

Although details of her birth and early life have varied greatly, lending mightily to her legend, the biggest misconception was that she was born in Brooklyn as Amy Camus -- Sumac was actually born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo in Cajamarca, Peru, on Sept. 13, 1922. After performing and recording in Argentina in the early 40’s, she and her husband, bandleader Moises Vivanco, moved to New York City in 1946, where they performed as the Inca Taky Trio, with Vivanco on guitar, Sumac singing soprano and Cholita Rivero, her cousin, singing contralto and dancing.

Self Help Graphics in East L.A. had their final Dia De Los Muertos celebration at their current location on November 2nd. The property that housed the event for the last thirty odd years was sold earlier this year. Self-Help Graphics not only held the longest running Dia De Los Muertos festival in Los Angeles, but many other events as well. Self Help provided a space for Chicano artists to work and display their artwork. It was also the location of The Vex, an all ages punk club that housed many classic early punk rock shows in the early 80’s. Many great artists have either performed or shown their artwork at Self Help Graphics, too many to list them all.

Continue reading

Diwali (or Deepavali, Tihar or Swanti) is a festival of lights primarily celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Newar Bhuddists but also, occasionally, fans of holidays, South Asian food or culture. As with all ancient holidays, the true origins are obscure but undoubtedly symbolize the triumph of good over evil. Probably due to its timing, it wouldn't be too unlikely that its roots were in an ancient harvest festival. As is also true of all ancient holidays, Diwali acquired additional significance over the millenia for different people. In the modern age it's marked with lots of lights, house cleanings, new outfits, decorations, flowers and snacking on sweets. This year Diwali fell on the 28th, but was celebrated in the Southland's Little India neighborhood yesterday, on the first.




For Hindus

Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, is honored on this day to ensure a good year will follow and, in northern India, the financial year begins on Diwali. In parts of India, the homecoming of King Rama of Ayodhya is observed with the lighting of rows (avali) of lamps (deepa) which were used to light his way after a 14 year exile. In western India it marks the day King Bali was sent to rule the underworld by Vishnu. Southern India marks it as the day Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura. 

 

According to several sources close to musician Frank Navetta, including the lemmingtrail message board, the original member of the pioneering SoCal punk-pop group The Descendents died on Friday (10/31) "after becoming ill over the course of a few days."

In 1978 guitarist Navetta formed the Manhattan Beach-based group The Descendents along with Tony Lombardo and Bill Stevenson. Navetta reportedly was the one to give the band their name. Milo Aukerman joined in their second year. Navetta remained a member for six years.  After leaving the band, Navetta, who penned the Descendents' fishing themed song "Mr Bass," moved north to Oregon to become a full time fisherman.

Navetta's last recordings with the Descendents were on the album I Don't Want To Grow Up. Navetta's songwriting legacy includes such Descendents classics as "Parents," "My Dad Sucks,""Marriage," and "Statue of Liberty" off Milo Goes To College (you can listen below). Six years ago Navetta rejoined Tony Lombardo and Bill Stevenson for a kind of Descendents reunion at ALL's (ALL being the band that morphed out of the Descendants) Stockage fest in Fort Collins, Colorado, where the group played songs from their pre Milo lineup including "Ride The Wild" and "It's A Hectic World."

Yesterday Amoeba San Francisco was flooded with spirits in their finest Halloween garb...

Our annual Horrific Halloween Costume Contest took place and this year's event was hosted with aplomb by our own Mike Bee (aka Batags) and DJed aptly by Dracula..er...Nero Nava.