This was originally epublished on January 8th, 2007. It was my first blog post ever. Just now I have decided to start a second blog that is just music. In order to keep my poety and cell phone photography separate from the music. I will try to do one of these once every 2 months or so, since they are so long.
Blog #1. I'm still trying to figure out the format for this. Despite what it says at the top, this is my first & is only a "Best Of" list. I know from now on it's going to be a planned periodical blog that includes some of my POETRY, my CELL PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY and maybe an occasional "opinion" column. It will be pretty formatted. 3 pictures per blog, 1 poem, 1 column. And every once in a while I will throw in a "special". It might be something like this one.
I always wanted to do a "Best Of" list for a year. Finally last year, or last last year, 2006. I decided to keep track of sick things that happened in the upcoming 2007 & then write a little review. I actually did it. I also think everyone else's lists are pretty boring. I never got asked to do a list for anyone else's web-page so I decided to do my own. On my least favorite list of 2007 you can put everyone else's "Best Of" list for two-thousand and six.
In NO particular order:
ATTITUDE PROBLEM
Probably the best band of 2007. They aren't on here for any particular release or any particular show. They are on here just for existing. 2 drummers, one bassist, one massive beard. AT, Kevin & Ryan. I got to do a little week long tour with them, but that only meant that I got to see them a bunch. The two drummers mathematically BASH away at the drums while the bassis RIFF's along. Stoner prog thrash punk with a big ass middle finger in the air. Whoever didn't like this wasn't drunk enough, or wasn't high enough, or didn't have long enough hair. Or never listened to actual rock music and learned to rock.
D.J. SURGEON @ Inciting HQ 060907
One of Detroit's finest Ghetto-tech DJ's. He went on at 2 a.m. The show was at Inciting, it is located on Delaware Avenue. It is what looks like the office upstairs from & for a meat-packing factory. Its about the size of a small high school classroom. It is tucked away, hidden & between some of Philadelphia's biggest, stupidest night-life, shimmering tube top clubs. D.J. Surgeon really showed everyone what was what. Amidst a crowd full of gamers & Jersey whiggers he pleasantly stopped the needle & said "whassup everybody, come up here and check this out". And then proceeded to scratch the way I have never seen anyone ever scratch before. I'm sure you have, since DJing seems pretty boring to me. But that wasn't the best part. It was his mixes & how awesome the crowd got. Heather throwing a couch across the dance floor, ripping the shirt off of a fat gamer, flirting with the total square, that was trying to calm her down, by showing him her tits. DJ Surgeon ruled, I'm sure he could've packed any club anywhere in the world and I'm sure he could make anyone in the whole world dance. It was pretty cool cause he ended up at this little ass place. And it was pretty cool that we ended up there, high on ghetto coke listening to ghetto-tech after a sweet Angeldust/Birds of Delay show.
CF - POWR MASTRS
Unbelievable. I hope this is the first of many. I seriously hope that this is the first of many. If I remember correctly, a couple days after he gave this to me, I finally sat down to read it. First I smoked a huge joing and drank a 40. That might not mean anything to you, but I hate weed and I hate weed culture. Except for those special occasions. This was one of those. It really made the respectably psychadelic effects of the story work. The graphics were simple. The story is like a modern day youth-culture noise artists projection of living in a Lord of the Rings type world. Almost creating a Henry Darger style "world of its own". Sick frame progressions, sick magical explosions. I could say more about the actual story if I hadn't been completely absorbed into it while reading.
BIG MOE R.I.P. MIX
Big Moe, the only person in the world that likes Codeine more than me. One of the S.U.C originals. One of the motherfuckers from the original D.J. Screw tapes. Anyway, he died last year. Shortly after, this 3 part mix popped up on the "Houston So Real" blog. This is possibly some of the best "rap" music that will ever exist on the whole planet, if you even want to call it that. It's only down-hill from here. Not just Big Moe, but the whole Houston culture is worth checking out. Some certain Screw mixes are on my "Best of the Best Ever" list.
SINK OR SWIM 4 Episode TV Pilot
Mr. Kornhauser. This was better than seeing a band at a show. I never thought to watch (or make) a 4 part drama TV show at a dirty old warehouse. Especially one made by all of your friends with no tongue in their cheek. Actually piecing together the sci-fi, 6 Feet Under, thriller piecies. At the end of each episode you were left wanting more. Highly recommended.
ANGELDUST/ERNESTO AVELLINO SPAIN/PORTUGAL TOUR 1107
This was an amazing experience for me. 3rd time touring in Europe. The Spanish countryside is where dreams are made, actually. Playing in an old slaughterhouse in the Basque country. Eating food that made think I have never actually tasted before. The drugs. The hard alcohols: Orujo, Bagaceira, Absynthe. The jokes, the mirage of freedom. Watching Ernesto hump the ground while yelling "I Love Me!" All the views we got to see, all the drives. I could go on forever about this. (There is a detailed journal type account of this on my personal myspace page.)
KEVIN SHIELDS @ Adventure Island 062607
The reason this was awesome is simple. I was surprised. It started out sucking to its fullest. An indie-rocker girl sitting on the floor playing really boring psychadelic wobbly jam music on a little casio keyboard. It was at a pretty low volume, she was only running her fingers up & down along the casio. When I was just about to fall asleep by pissing from boredom, she BLASTED into a full on wall of noise by whacking two pedals. She also had this weird old cash register thing that whenever she touched it, the sound would be manipulated. Well, she sort of writhed around the cash register awesomely awkwardly for about 10 full throttle minutes until playing with that little casio again at the end, to bring it full circle. The element of surprise in jam music is pretty fucking affective, bringing in something totally new to your set, totally abrasive after establishing boredom. Or really doing that after establishing anything at all. Anyway, I talked to her for a minute after the show but haven't heard from her since. She probably found out that I was a foot-fetishist pervert that watches videos of old ladies pissing every once in a while.
LAZY MAGNET 12" "He Sought for that Magic which all the Glory and Mystic Chivalry were Made to Shine - or - Is Music Even Good?"
Everyone else got this on tape or CD. I got one of the 5 LP's that were made. The copy I have, has no cover, its just a test press: A 12" record with no label just sitting in a white paper sleeve. The 2 sides combine to really make one whole song that includes every single genre of music ever created, but somehow it all makes sense. Somehow it all flows together flawlessy, never making you even consider that thought, that it really is EVERY kind of music ever created. New wave, metal, indie rock, french pop, fantasy rock, drone. But not like "yo, dude, this is like the perfect combo of every music like fusing it all together to form the like super-music." It's actually a new wave song, then a metal song, etc. A seriously beautiful piece of music geniusly woven together.
D.J. DOGDICK @ BOBO'S 121507
DogDick rolled in after everyone else had already played. He set up for 30 minutes, chugged a beer, shot the shit & then played. The set started out with an atmospheric ultra-tape-hiss intro from a homemade synth. He meandered around his BIG ASS PILE of cords & electronics, scruffling the stubble on his chin or playing with his soul-patch. It built up as he paced around & then eventually came in with a nice RNB hi-pitched fuzzed out sample. He sang his sweetly worded, completely gross lyrics while the simple beat sat in the back, buried underneath the atmospheric into. The atmospheric intro, now a burrier. He played for about 10 minutes total, then ended. A really nice tease. Everyone danced pretty hard, all 20 of us that were sporadically placed around this Italian Market storefront turned garbage-art gallery.
PARTY DJ-ed BY NAGOSKI/BIGDADDYNUGG/DOGDICK 123007
Jena & Leslie's birthday party @ my present residence. Smoking wet, drinking bagaceira, Sears in a wheel-chair rapping over a Freeway instrumental, smashing a naked lady painting over my head, Dogdick head-banging finger in the air, Gabber, the two Mexicans sitting on one couch for seriously 6 hours, smashed glass, Dirty Jers Babe Lair arriving in Philly, negative Darren rolling his eyes, double dutch, everyone dancing, beautiful women. This had everything that would qualify this as an official "party"... a full-on "Rager".
DRUMS LIKE MACHINE GUNS @ Adventure Island
I've seen the Morserberger brothers about 30 times total and at this show I was so fucking engaged I couldn't even head-bang. That's a lot considering I'd visually call these guys "Hair Noise". This set was total sensory overload. Big strobe lights filled the room. Ice cold noise cutting through the dirty garage air up there at the Adventure Island. In everyone's face, comedically, Brian slowly headbanged creating that sick ass visual you would always get while performing air-guitar as Guns N' Roses in your room with your little weak ass strobe light. Stunted movements, photo-stills hanging in the air. But what made it the best was all these things coming together: the strobe effect, the hair, the comedy & the cutting noise.
COSTES @ the Pageant Gallery 032207
This Costes tour wasn't as dark as the last time he toured the U.S. It was much more positive and had a serious amount of comedy in it. Even though it wasn't as powerful or violent as the last tour, this still DEFINITELY makes it on the best of '07 list. Rubbed Raw got to play a few of his east coast shows, so we got to see him a few times. The Philly show was definitely the best one that I saw. Sort of had that vibe like when you're at a frat party and someone shoves a whole beer can up there ass and all the other "dudes" start cheering for him. There's a beauty within that kind of action. The last tour was like watching an honest man show his honest feelings.... and some blood.... and some shit... and some puke.... and an aryan girl putting a razor blade up her pussy.