Sunday, April 27, 2008

Sorry for the lack of blogging.  I took a huge and tragic spill on a hill I had no business skateboarding down back when I was in college and, as a result, I occasionally throw my back out, so I’ve been laid out flat for the past two days.  Here’s a quickee post for you to enjoy and then I’m going to crawl back on the couch. 

Guitarist extraordinaire Gary Lucas hosted a “Beefheart Night” back on April 9th at the Knitting Factory here in NYC. Gary played with his fantastic all-instrumental Captain Beefheart cover band Fast ‘N’ Bulbous (their CD Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind is highly recommended) and several fans and friends of Don Van Vliet spoke in between the band’s two sets. David Lynch sent in a cool little video of himself reading ”Pena," too. The highlight was a surprise appearance by the legendary Robyn Hitchcock at the tail end of the evening, who performed three songs with Lucas accompanying him on the steel guitar.  A few weeks ago I uploaded my video of them doing “Sure ‘Nuff ‘N’ Yes I Do” to YouTube and yesterday Lucas contacted me to let me know that both he and Hitchock really enjoyed seeing it, so I uploaded their version of “China Pig” today (unfortunately, I didn’t record their last song “Click Clack"). Enjoy.

“China Pig”

“Sure ‘Nuff ‘N’ Yes I Do”

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Really shitty cell phone picture of the Beastie Boys’ heads

Went to see them last night at Terminal 5.  Not a bad venue, but the sound sucked. MCA wasn’t into it.  The tops of all of their heads looked great. The girl next to me said they “looked old.” She was what we refer to in the business as “an asshole.” “Lighten Up” was cool because Mr. Fuzzy Head, who may or may not have been this guy, played the woo-woo machine. Some NJ fuck knuckle with raging neck fat really got into the encore ("Sabotage"). Guys were selling balloons of nitrous oxide (3 for $20) on the street after the show, something I’ve never seen in NYC before (after 17 years here, I don’t say that often).  On the subway ride home, I found out my wife Chris knows nearly all of the (discernible) lyrics to ”B-Boy Bouillabaisse” (yet another reason I love her). We went to a really disgusting neighborhood diner because we hadn’t eaten dinner.  Afterwards I had ”bad breath onion rings” (I didn’t realize the irony until this morning). The end.

Friday, October 12, 2007

David Bowie on the Legendary Stardust Cowboy (about 2:00 into this interview with Jules Holland):

He made positively the most cacophonous, awful records that had ever been made in the late 60s. [...] And [a Mercury records exec] gave me this stack of singles by this guy and I thought they were unbelievably atrocious, but in that wonderful way that you couldn’t stop listening to them they were so awful. [...] And there’s a bugle solo in the middle [of the song “Paralyzed"] that’s to die for (laughs).  And he won me over.  And his name Stardust became part of the Ziggy Stardust name. That’s where I got the name Ziggy Stardust.

Recently I finally got a chance to see the Ledge open up for Daniel Johnston in a show in NYC that was curated by Bowie and, man, he didn’t disappoint. As his band (which featured bassist Klaus Fluoride of the Dead Kennedys) played their opening instrumental, the then 59-year-old Ledge crawled on his belly all the way from the side of the stage to his microphone.  They then ripped into a manic version (is there any other?) of “Paralyzed,” a song they performed twice that evening, and prior to the next tune, the Ledge removed his heavy gun holster and hurled it at a dangerous velocity into the crowd. Later he flung paper plates adorned with his siganture into the crowd and, yes, I’m the proud owner of one of them. It was rockin’ dementia at its finest.

Below you’ll find a few of the better Ledge videos on YouTube and an MP3 download of the rare “Standing in a Trashcan (Thinking About You)” that will be begging for a spot on your next mix CD for as long as you allow it to remain on your hard drive. Enjoy.