Slade - the great UK rock group performing Look Wot You Done from 1971 when they were more rock than glam - glam rock didn't fully kick in til 1972/73. In 1972 they released the hard rock album "Slayed" featuring such timeless chant-alongs as "Gudbuy T-Jane" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now."  Then there was the song  Cum On Feel The Noize  which years later  popularized in the US by Quiet Riot. . Formed in 1966, Slade's lineup was   Noddy Holder (vocals / guitars /bass),  Dave Hill (guitars / vocals / bass),  Jim Lea (bass/guitar/vocals /keyboards / violin), and  Don Powell - (drums / percussion) and their most successful years were 1971 to 1974 during which time they made some truly classic hard rock and glam songs - scoring over a dozen UK Top of the Pops hits.

  The folks who throw the fun themed All Tomorrow's Parties Don't Look Back series, in which they invite chosen acts to recreate live an album from their back-catalog, have convinced the seminal D.C.-born, NYC based Girls Against Boys to perform their classic, early nineties, post-hardcore album Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby.  And this weekend the band, that  began as a side project of Eli Janney and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty and whose lineup then became Janney plus Scott McCloud, Johnny Temple, and Alexis Fleisig, will perform the entire album from start to finish in exact sequence for two performances only - one in NYC and one in LA.

The first concert is tonight, Friday (7/20) at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City  and the second is scheduled for Sunday night (7/22) in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theatre  at 5515 Wilshire Blvd. This will be the first time the band has performed in LA or New York in five years (they performed in Europe this year - most recently in Spain last month). I  recently caught up with Johnny Temple,  one of the band's two bassists, to ask him about this unique two-gig, bi-coastal, event, and the idea of a duel bass rock band.


AMOEBLOG:  How did the two bass players  idea come about and how does it affect the band's sound?

JOHNNY TEMPLE: A lot of the rock bands of our era, well really the rock bands of any era, tend to be more melody driven, while we tend to be more rhythm driven.  Basically we all grew up in Washington DC which is very funk music oriented. We grew up listening to a lot of soul and funk and Go-Go music which, as you know, is native to DC. And a lot of bands from DC have a greater emphasis on rhythm and groove than a lot of other (non DC) rock bands do. So by having two bass players it  kind of pronounces the bottom end, the sort of rhythmic feature of the songs, more so than  the melody.

More shots of graffiti from around the San Francisco Amoeba Music on Haight Street - including some pics from directly across the street from Amoeba.

Have you ever committed a crime or offense for which you were not arrested? In other words: have you ever done something illegal (anything at all) but never gotten caught for it?  If so and you are a legal resident applying for US citizenship you legally must admit all details of your crime, and essentially turn yourself in. The direct question is part of the US government's current INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services) form for permanent residents, here in the USA for over five years, who are applying for US citizenship. The form in question is the N-400 INS Application for Naturalization ten page questionnaire. It must be accompanied by a money order for approx $400  a fee that is scheduled to increase substantially by the end of this month when it's raised to $675. As a result there's been a significant surge in the number of applicants at INS offices around the US trying to get the application process rolling by the July 30th cutoff date for the lower application fees.  NOTE: Due to the huge rush on INS offices, the same day this AMOEBLOG was posted the date for the new rates was extended until August 17th.

But the fee increase is only one reason for the rush. The other reasons are more serious and are rooted in the new post 9/11 America - where race profiling has become more common a practice and border crossing has gotten increasingly more difficult for non-Americans - even if they are US "residents' or Green Card holders. More importantly the consequences of the possible new immigration laws means that many immigrants, especially Mexican, whose status is currently "Alien" figure that now is the time to up their status and try to become US citizens.