I probably should have posted this a few days ago… on Christmas. Sorry I go off and didn’t see that someone who’s a bigger Oasis fan than I am, had emailed it to me until now. Yep, it’s Noel Gallagher covering “Merry Christmas Everybody” with a shitbox video some geek made out of Oasis images. Why? Cuz all I saw over the holidays were signs that said “NOEL” and it has to do with Oasis… the best Rock N’ Roll band on the planet. Fuck yeah!

Even though this video is shitty and cheesy at the same time, it gives me good reason to drop the killer knowledge I’ve been told about the new Oasis record. From what I’ve heard… The record “kicks ass” (duh) and is “pretty much done”. It was tracked in a mere 16 days here in Los Angeles, with a few overdubs done at Abbey Road (kinda like what’s going down in the top photo broski)… and the band will return to sunny LA after the holidays to mix the record with D Sardy. And after that happens… Noel… give me a call, I owe you a few pints and I’m down to let you know what I think of the mixes. Plus we’ve gotta tear it up… bring one of those helicopters from the “D’ya Know What I Mean?” video so we don’t have to fuck with traffic!

By the way, what’s everybody doing for New Years? Let us know in the comments! I got no plans if Noel doesn’t call us… Casper Clause is down to drive this party where ever it need be and we’re ready for action. I promise.

One more from “Be Here Now” while I’m at it.. fuck all.

If you’ve read past the headline, I’m assuming you’re familiar with late Welsh punk rockers McLusky and their manic attack. If not, do yourself a favour and pick up McLusky Do Dallas, one of the best rock albums of the 00s (not saying much, perhaps, but it’s something) with it’s manic Jesus Lizard textures and Pixies-style hooks. Then check out the darker and heavier The Difference Between You and Me is I’m Not On Fire, a noisier, angrier affair, which came a few months prior to their breakup in 2005.

But this isn’t an article about McLusky; that’s all back story. The real deal is that primary singer Andy Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone teamed up with bassist Kelson Mathias to form Future of the Left and release Curses, a record every bit as hard hitting and quirky as its predecessors, without sounding like a retread.

 

 The Lord Hates A Coward [3:34m]Play Now

 

 Manchasm [3:54m]Play Now

Falkous’ lyrics remain as mean and surreal as ever, with opener “The Lord Hates a Coward” crunching heavy and going on about how “violence solved everything” and multiple references to hiding bodies throughout the album. The band alternates between longer, more structured numbers, and Wire-esque toss-offs of noise and rhythm like “My Gymnastic Past” and “Fuck the Countryside Alliance.”

While the band works mainly in guitar-based post-punk (or post grunge, or whatever you want to call it nowadays) some syntheseizers creep in, adding a different sort of noise to the proceedings. “Manchasm” has Mathias’ fuzzy basslines anchoring the song while Falkous fist-fucks an organ and howls about ghosts and pussy, while “Suddenly It’s a Folk Song,” the poppiest number here, could be new wave if the keys weren’t so distorted. The melody provides relief from some of the album’s jerkier moments, while the sound remains consistent.

What we have here is a solid debut by seasoned veterans that keeps the strengths of former projects while still looking ahead. If it’s a bit scattershot at times, that can be chalked up to the band finding its legs. What’s more, is it’s a rock release in 2007 that keeps clear of simpering trend-jumping or hopeless retro-fetishism. Do yourself a favour, check it out.

Wrigley Scott

Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood

FUCK YEAH! Our good (and hairy) friend from the great white north (Canada!), Nardwuar The Human Serviette, has just released another amazing compilation DVD!!! It’s actually a “prequel” to the last DVD he put out, which makes it a great introduction if you’re not already familiar with him yet. But don’t worry cuz those of you that are already fans of our little buddy, you’re gonna be AMPED too cuz this is two DVDs chalk-full of about 5-and-a-half hours of NARD! It’s a must have entertainment for any rock fan! You can click here to buy it! And as a bonus, everyone that purchases this DVD gets a free Nardwuar floatie pen! How fuckin’ killer is that?

These two DVDs include the two television specials that Nardwuar produced for public access cable before he became known across Canada via the MuchMusic network. He’s super famous in Canada, much like Michael Moore and Sum 41 cept way skinnier and with much better taste in music. There’s loads of full-length interviews and bonus material on here with people like that band Nirvana, Sonic Youth, former President Gerald Ford, Ron Jeremy, Flea, Timothy Leary, Courtney Love, Tommy Chong, Tom Vu, Anthony Robbins, The Degrassi Kids, Cynthia Plaster Caster, Jello Biafra, and debonair longtime Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, to name but a few (well, about half).

Check out this interview from 2002 with Sonic Youth (not on the DVD) about the interview they did with Nardwuar back in 1991 (which is on the DVD). it’s the stuff legends are made of…

Nardwuar vs. Sonic Youth (2002)

There’s also videos of Nardwuar’s band The Evaporators on these dvd…. you gotta get into em!

The Evaporators - “You Got Me Into This, Now You Get Me Out!”

And here is some bonus Nard for you newbies (don’t think these are on this DVD)…

Nardwuar vs. The Transplants

Nardwuar vs. Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Nardwuar vs. Queens of the Stone Age (2003)

For the last four years or so, I’ve watched my friends “hit the road” for “tour” in support of whatever noise pollution they’ve recently released onto the universe. I went to college and they went on tour. Sometimes I joined my friends, pretending I’m in their bands. “Tour, bro!” I always say. This past weekend was no different. I loaded my air-guitar in the trunk and hit the road for Queens of The Stoneage @ The Warfield, San Francisco.

When tour duty calls, I’m there. Little guy named Mikey Shuman…yeah…that handsome bassist in QOTSA…might wanna check him out…been slaying bass in multiple bands since AOL 2.0 came out. Anyway, in true Hausfater fashion, here’s a detailed account of the show/tour ’08: San Francisco.

First thing’s first: I called Mike to make sure Troy and I wouldn’t be wearing the same jetblack designer suits to the show. It would totally be noticeable if we donned the same outfit because homie plays guitar in Queens, which means he stands on stage and everyone watches him while I pick my nose in the crowd, trying to smoke joints without getting caught. It’d totally be awkward if people caught on that we had the same penchant for expensive couture, not to mention, the same exact Boss suit. TroyBoy is class all the way; Men’s Warehouse…you’ll like the way you look. I guarantee it.

What I really did was call Zach and Jon “Beth—I slang chickens” Weston. I needed to confirm the tour. The show was the following day; in present time it was Friday evening. If we were to time it just right, we’d get there just as the band stomped on stage, Saturday night. After confirming the tour dates, I slammed down the phone and packed my tour backpack with all the essentials: spliffs, a Hollwood mogul biography, Desitin (for concert ass chaffage), Tom’s Natural Deodorant, white t-shirts, a wad of cash, cigarettes, and some clean undies. Zach had mentioned that they gang would be at my house in around an hour. I had just enough time to prepare and pack a homemade tuna “sang.” I proceeded to roll a nice spliff for the first leg of tour. Life was good.

At around 11:30 AM our tour bus (Sara’s hybrid) left Encino for rockier territory. We knew we were in for thick riffs and crunchy tones. Good thing I brought a camera to document this monumental event: Queens rocks San Francisco!

“Queens are done touring for a while after tonight, dude. Might wanna check it out,” said Jon. I mean Beth. If Jon says something like that—you know it’s true; the dude LIVES for nerd rock gossip. Buddyhead was invented for spazes like him.

Six hours, three spliffs, a Black Rebel album (Baby 81), four bags of chips, five road-sodas, and two gas/pee stops later…we finally arrived in Homowood. Some people call it San Francisco. Apparently there’s a serious jail-island there, a ton of gaylords, and Jack Kerouac wrote some pretty important book about the very same subject as to why we were traveling to San Fran. But who cares? We were on the road; Jack’s dead. We were there to rock. And I was there to pretend I played jembe in Queens of the Stoneage (I actually ended up telling this Rugby team @ The Queens after-party that I played professional Polo at the Gene Autry Equestrian Center).

We checked into the hotel—Beth’s family is pretty fuckin’ connected—we walk into any FourStar Hotel anywhere in the country, mention his last name, and BOOM!—first class service. The funny thing was that tonight, when we checked in with the concierge, the desk clerk said, “we have one rule…absolutely NO partying!”

To which Jon replied, “So, like, no going OFF?” The debauchery was about just about to begin. This poor concierge had no clue that he was giving key cards to the likes of Charlie Manson, Richard Ramirez, and Gigi Allen. We were probably gonna thrash the place. We were gonna definitely go off!

Sara, Jon, Zach, and me went upstairs, tarted-up a bit, put on killer outfits, and hit the town. We made our way to the direction of The Warfield at around 7: 30 PM. But not without stopping to get completely drunk first. What good are sick tones if you’re sober? We decided to eat a shitload of sushi and drink a boatload of Sake before getting our desert on. That’s DESERT. Not Dessert. It’s a nerdy Queens joke. Finally, at 8:45 PM, we hopped in a cab headed for The Warfield.

Shuman texted me to let us know he’d officially be onstage at 9 PM so as not to blow it. “Going on at 9,” read the LCD of my phone. “More like GOING OFF at 9,” I texted him back.

Our Hasidic cabbie dropped us off right in front of the venue at 9:04 PM. I could hear “Burn The Witch” pulsating through the walls of the Warfield. This bummed me out . We were late. I wanted my tickets! I wanted my pass! I wanted to rock! Fuck! The girls and me waited patiently behind the railing for Zach and Jon to return with our prized all-access passes/pit tickets; they somehow magically appear at every QOTSA show—like fat Mexican girls at Morrisey concerts. I slammed the ticket in my back pocket, ripped the non-adhesive off the sticker, pressed it to my knee, and I was off, lost amongst the throngs of Queens fans and San Francisco queens. I finagled my way all the way to stage left, where Shuman and Homme territorially hold it down show after show. I tried screaming at Mike…letting him know his Encino brethren were there in support. No such luck.

(Misfit Love)

I proceeded to light up one of my spliffs after “Misfit Love.” I was finally settled. Here’s where it gets a bit hazy. I remember hearing “In The Fade”, “3 &7’s”, and then “Make It Witchu” right after, but I have no clue in what order said songs were played.

Here’s what I do recall from the show, though: Josh was larger than life. For some reason, he grows about two feet on stage. His boots get bigger, his arms thicker, and his hair redder. Guy’s a fuckin’ beast—in life, onstage, on an album…he owns it. His crooning reminds me of a cross between Harry Conick Jr. and the older guy with the motorcycle you try warning your sister about.

Joey, the drummer boy, stays at a constant, sitting stationary as he bangs those drum heads into oblivion. He looks angry when he plays—but I know it’s just him killin’ it! He hones in on the tunes, focusing. He never skips a beat. In between songs Joey smiles, as friendly as can be for someone who looks so intense when in the pocket.

Dean stands behind the keyboard rig, lurching back and forth for most of the show. He’s essentially the Crispin Glover of the band. I know he might seem more INTERPOL than Queens at first glance, but I’m here to assure you…the guy is subtle desert rock until the day he dies. He may not have all of the apparent bravado as Josh. But that’s why he hangs back, asserting his position as the spine while Josh handles the theatrics with Mike, front and center.

Michael Shuman aka Mikey Shoes has grown immensely with the band since his arrival, only ninth months out. (His first shows were 40,000+ festivals, mind you). He doesn’t seem out of place, or just filling in like he’s doing a job. The man honestly takes care of business: the leg kicks, the spitting, the telepathic chord changes with Josh and Troy—it’s official—Shuman’s here to stay.

And finally, there’s Troy—who seems like a paternal figure to the rest of the gang. While Josh might be the father of Queens, Troy is definitely the weird uncle from out of town; his weird suits only assert this claim. Troy is always dressed to the nines, looking like he just left the most bitchin’ funeral in the history of death. If “The Punisher” were a real superhero, Troy would be his evil twin.

Yes, Queens rule. Their latest album, Era Vulgaris, might be their best yet. It’s definitely my favorite. It’s unrelenting, hard, sexy, metallic, and even pretty (“Suture Your Future”). Songs For The Deaf might be the staple of the band, the moment they became “Queens” and not just another weird wonder of the radio. But, I must say, Era is perfected raw. I rock out to it over and over again in my car and I’ve had it since June! This might be one of the few rock albums of the last decade that I listen to all the way through without being disappointed—not once. If you haven’t copped this album yet, you’re fuckin’ blowin’ it.

(Sick, Sick, Sick)

The boys finished out the show with “Go With The Flow” (I think, I was totally Spicolli’d by this point). The lights came up; and the band exited the stage. I found Zach and Jon. We headed backstage, doing the Wayne’s World the whole way: showing off our passes and being totally obnoxious. I started telling people “I’m with the band!” A few minutes of this and we’re ushered into line with all the other jagoffs wearing laminates. Not so VIP anymore, lemme tell ya’. Fuckin’ A!

Ten minutes passed. The line began to move. I’m ushered through a little tunnel/locker room and within moments I’m high-fiving Mike. We took a few stupid photos before Mike led us to some spare brews. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Joey, just chilling on the couch, simmering in a pool of sweat, smiling and signing an autograph.

“Hey! Nice to see you,” Joey said, sticking out his hand. I shook his Zuess-like hand with pride! Joey is even cooler in person than he is onstage.

Soon I saw Troy, standing around post-show, sipping what was probably rum and coke, looking so fuckin’ fly. I decided to let him do his thing. Josh was nowhere in sight. Dean came over and asked if we’d be at the after party—“of course, dude!” He smiled and walked off; such a gentleman. We drank a few more spirits, lit up a few cigarettes, and waited for Mike to do his rockstar thing.

Twenty minutes later, Mikey comes out and tells us to meet him at some rad bar in San Fran. But he’s gotta swing by the hotel and drop off his stuff first. “Then,” he said, “were gonna party!” Woo! Yeah!

The night continued to get better and better. The cab dumped us out and we stumbled into the bar, ready to ignite. Immediately, I ordered our gang a round of Irish Car Bombs. I mean, shit, here we were in San Fran with Queens. It’s no time for Cosmos and Apple Martinis, ya dig? Zach and I got started, having a drinking contest with this Rugby player that I previously mentioned. (This is the clown who believed I was a professional Polo player). We drank our Car Bombs and The Rugby tool continued to buy rounds for Zach and himself. We did two Car Bombs apiece and headed outside for a smoke; Shuman came out to join us. We talked about what a spaz I am, how rad the show was, how long off Mike gets for the holidays, and what’s around to eat. We ditched our tobacco products and headed back into the bar. I began drinking Budweiser—keeping the party patriotic! I took my beer from the bar before doing a 360 degree spin.

(Mikey Shoes, M. Haus, Z. Diggs)

An hour passed. Zach and I headed back outside for another smoke when BAM! I almost fell onto Josh Homme, also smoking outside. In person, Josh is a huge, slaying, shredding, married, rich, sexy, rockin’ dude. But a DUDE! A dude’s dude! You know what I’m saying…”I’m not Lebowski! I’m the DUDE, man!” Yep, Josh is a man you could get a hotdog with at a ballgame…a dude you could call to beat up that guy who fucked your sister and never called again. He’s a man’s man. Anyway…the three of us got to talking and being drunk dudes just smoking on the corner.

My mom calls me SpongeBobSquareHead. Ex-girlfriends call my coiff the Brillo-Pad, and Josh Homme refers to me as “Mikey’s boy with the Helmet.” Go figure.

(Josh Homme & Matty Hausy aka “The Helmet”)

Our cigarettes were almost done, and me, being the drunken, stoned genius that I am, convinced (with ease) Josh to take a picture with me in a homoerotic embrace. “It’s for Buddyhead, dude!” That’s all I had to say. Within seconds, he had his huge arms around me, wrapped in a warm desert embrace; I stood there, bursting with joy, wishing my name were Brody. For one night in San Francisco, I, Matt “The Helmet” Hausfater, was the King of Queens.

Merry Xmas, Buddyheaders.

-M. Haus

I finally twisted Aaron’s arm enough and he agreed to stream some Jubilee songs on their myspace page. Yeah, you can thank me now. Head on over to http://myspace.com/jubileeband and check out three tunes from the “Rebel Hiss” single, which will be out on a small label called Buddyhead. If ya like what ya hear, you’ll be able to buy these songs (and more) in a digital format very soon in a new and very exciting way. They’ll also be available on a cd single, 7-inch, and a limited edition 7-inch including an alternate mix of “Rebel Hiss” as well as a nifty cover of The Replacements… neither of which will be available online, or anywhere else for that matter. You can only get this limited 7-inch at the UK tour dates below, and there’ll prolly be more announced soon, so keep yer eyes peeled. And to continue with my freeloading ways, I will also be coming on the tour to DJ before, between, and after all the bands. That’ll all be goin down here (other dates soon to be announced):

Jan 22 2008 @ BARFLY GLASGOW, UK
Jan 23 2008 @ JOSEPH’S WELL LEEDS, UK
Jan 24 2008 @ KIKO CLUB BOLTON, UK
Jan 25 2008 @ WA1 WARRINGTON, UK
Jan 27 2008 @ PRESSURE POINT BRIGHTON, UK
Jan 28 2008 @ CLWB IFOR BACH CARDIFF, UK
Jan 29 2008 @ CAVERN EXETER, UK
Jan 30 2008 @ BARFLY LONDON, UK

Hopefully I’ll see ya there.

This is my first post on Buddyhead, although if you’ve been a reader of Buddyhead for years. You might remember me from my infamous naked photos in a hot tub or Casper Clause. Anyways, I had four tickets to Van Halen at the Honda Center in OC and I brought Travis, Sam Velde and Jason Moore. Long story short they totally slayed. They were better than I could’ve imagined. I was so pumped on Halen that today I went and checked out David Lee Roth on Wikipedia. According to Wiki, Val Kilmer is rumored to play Diamond Dave in the new movie “The Dirt” (the story of Motley Crue) and it’s slated for a 2009 release. I double checked with imdb.com and it confirms that Kilmer is in talks. The best part is Christopher Walken is rumored to play OZZY! How fuckin’ rad is that? The Walken snorting ants!?!? YES! That is going to be mind blowing!! It’s being directed by Larry Charles. Charles was the executive producer on Seinfeld, Curb your Enthusiasm, Entourage, and also directed Borat for all of you who aren’t in the know. This is going to be the best movie of 2009 as far as I’m concerned and it at least gives me something to look forward to. The only thing that could make it better would be if Crispin Glover got involved, I’m picturing him as Mick Mars.

PS: This photo is Diamond Dave carrying a 15ft microphone around on stage, bad quality taken from my Blackberry.

This live performance on the Henry Rollins show of Ryan’s song “What Sin” speaks for itself. If you don’t think Ryan Adams and Cardinalsare KILLING IT here, then I am gonna have to question if you even like Rock N Roll…

Now I got a question, what album is this song on?

Ryan Adams & The Cardnalrs are on tour now!

Jan 16 2008 8:00P
Cain’s Ballroom Tulsa, Oklahoma
Jan 18 2008 8:00P
The Rialto Tucson, Arizona
Jan 19 2008 8:00P
Spreckels San Diego, California
Jan 21 2008 8:00P
The Arlington Santa Barbara, California
Jan 22 2008 8:00P
Bridges Claremont, California
Jan 23 2008 8:00P
Marin Center San Rafael, California
Jan 25 2008 8:00P
Elsinore Theater Salem, Oregon
Jan 26 2008 8:00P
The Paramount Seattle, Washington
Jan 28 2008 8:00P
Zellerbach Berkeley, California
Jan 30 2008 8:00P
Royce Hall Los Angeles, California

I’ll be traveling to and through a few small towns called Bejing and Shanghai for about the next week…maybe you’ve heard of them. If anything breaks while I’m gone too bad cos I’ll be there going off. WOOOO. If any nerds want to follow what I’m doing check out my blog. If any cool chicks wanna hang out email me at vishal[at]buddyhead[dot]com!

So we were going to sit down with Matt Maginn from Cursive last time he was in Los Angeles, but Travis and I just ended up drinking way too many beers with the guy at The Frolic Room instead. We forgot about the whole “rock journalism” thing, beer tends to have that effect on us. So you’re gonna have to settle with this email interview we did… I’m going to guess you don’t need an introduction to the band. But for the record I want you all to know that Matt is somewhat of a newcomer to the interview scene. Not too many people are like “Hey, let’s interview the… BASS PLAYER! Well, we did. We think Matt’s got some bass lines (not to mention some killer one liners too) and he has also played with Bright Eyes, Slowdown Virginia and tons of other cats… Plus he helped run Saddle Creek Records and now helps Conor Oberst with Team Love Records. That’s what’s called “well rounded” kids, you might wanna check it out. Anyways, here’s proof that yes even the bass player can be cool…

How’s it’s going?
Shit is going pretty well. Just kickin it in Columbia, MO, my new stomping grounds. Watching my dogs chase a groundhog around in the yard. Luckily for Phil these dogs are city dogs so they wont want to eat or kill Phil who could probably kick their asses anyway.

Back in the day how did you guys settle on the name Cursive? What, if any, is the meaning behind naming the band that?
How did you settle on the name Buddyhead? I am sure it is more interesting than the story behind the name Cursive.

Yeah anyways.. What are some of the names you guys almost called the band?
Fuckface, Dickmaggot, Jerkwad, SensiMensi, Big Trouble in Little China, Old Yeller, Lot 90, Blondo.

Wow. What was the name of the first band you were in?
The Semi-Conscious (Yes, true).

What made you wanna learn how to play an instrument?
I loved music and wanted to do it as my hobby. Mess around with a four track. Hang out with friends and make sounds together.

What year did you guys start Cursive?
1995

Ahh, the 90’s! So help us get this straight… The band broke up after your second record, right?
Yep, we were done dealing.

What were the reasons you guys initially threw the towel in? Someone’s feet stink? Someone play hide the pickle with another band members lady friend? Give everyone the “Behind The Music” dirt that they want!
Tim and Steve had an affair with each other on each other. I wish there was something flashy going on. Tim was moving away with his wife at the time, Steve decided to go to Law school. And Clint and I decided to stay around in Omaha and play footsie with each other.

While you guys weren’t a band there for a bit, you guys started selling more records than when you were a band… Why do you guys think that happened?
Not sure if that happened actually. We were back together by Summer of 99.

Oh, ok. How did you guys end up getting back together and making music again?
Tim missed us and moved back to Omaha. :) We missed his ass too. Especially the pimples. Tim and I met up over a couple beers at the local Keno parlor and hatched some plans to either start a new band or continue on as Cursive. We decided to keep the name since we had put so much effort into naming us as you can see from the question above. We asked Ted Stevens to take Steve’s place and then we went to work writing Domestica in the basement of USA Baby in Omaha.

Is Cursive your only job? Or do you have another gig something else that brings home the bacon? What is it?
I worked at Saddle Creek for about 5 years and last Spring I moved over to Team Love where I am now. I do the label stuff pretty much whenever I am not working on Cursive.

What is there to do in Omaha, Nedraska?
I dunno, I bailed. Actually, Omaha gets better all the time. Great bars and we have new venues like Slowdown and the Waiting Room. We also have another independent film house.

Who in the band still lives in Omaha?
Ted.

The label you guys are on, Saddle Creek, has like a full on compound thing there right? We heard they have a killer office with a gold bottom swimming pool, a brand new rock n roll venue, a top of the line recording studio with expensive mics and a saddle creek yoga studio… What’s going on over there dude?
Lets see everything is accurate except the recording studio and yoga studio. Robb and Jason who run Saddle Creek built this big building that has a theatre, venue, label office space, coffee shop, retail store, and eventually a restaurant as well as I think 8 apartments and a couple condos for them. Its a classy little joint.

So you work for another label now right? Tell us what you got going on over there that you’re excited about….
Well, I like everything of course. But we have a record from Flowers Forever coming down the pipe that I am really excited about it. The cover art alone makes it worth the whole adventure. I am still loving David Dondero’s record Simple Love. The Man is an real life troubadour. Capgun Coup are some young guys from Omaha that are great now but will be amazing in the future. They have just the right combination of talent and irreverence. Later we will release a band called A Weather. They are extremely chill. I love em in the way I loved bands like Codeine. They don’t necessarily sound the same but evoke the same sort of response from me.

Cursive is always on tour man. How do you like life on the road?
I love to travel but I don’t necessarily like to tour. I love to play music but not sure I want to play every night. Its a love hate/thing. I think we just all sort of numb ourselves and get through it. There are a lot of friends and times that I experienced on the road and I would never trade those in. Also, miss my wife a lot when I am gone. If we were big shits we could just travel with our family but that does not seem to be our destiny.

You have any current favorite bands? What bands around today are you into?
Good question. I like all kinds really.

Your drummer, Klint, left the band a while ago. Who’s the new guy?
Cornbread Compton. He is a friend from way back who used to play in the amazing Engine Down. He’s been an awesome addition. Dude can play the fucking drums like a madman. He also has a lot of great input in the writing process too.

Right on. But, what’s in your fridge right now? Come on, give us the run down…
Turkey sausage, Diet coke, Wine, Beer, Pigs Feet, Chicken Feet, Frog Legs, Gizzards.

Who can drink the most in the band?
Used to be Clint. Not sure who will rise to the top now. My bet is on Ted. Clint was so awe inspiring he could drink a whole pint in 3 seconds. I over did it one night and kept showing him off to friends and nearly blinded the man.

Can you guys out drink Bright Eyes?
They’d give us a run for the money for sure. okay, not sure I want to be in any contests but we would pants em for sure.

Do you guys get as many chicks as Bright Eyes?
Of course. duh. Cmon you guys have seen us. Does it look like WE have trouble gettin the ladies? Balding is in and greasy is out.

Are you guys working on a new record or are you just sitting on your hands? What are you dudes up to? Give us the skinny.
We are actually working on a new record now. We are about 10 songs in and shooting to get 30 total to pick from. Not to be sensi mensi but I feel really good about this new shit. Tim has really brought us some great great tunes to work on. Its eclectic as hell. All the songs have Tim using a capo, and Ted’s got this wicked twelve string that is tuned like a Bazooki. Makes for some wild sounds. Cornbread is amazing and really adding a shit ton to the songs through beats and ideas. Finally we have a new dude, Nate Lepine, who is sort of our Sensai. He plays horns, keys and some winds. He’s a real pro and teaches us what the hell we are playing and why it works. We actually talk about notes at practice which is exciting.

Killer. I noticed that your website address is “cursivearmy.com“… Are you guys Kiss fans or what? Fess up!
Yep. That is actually exactly where we got the idea so I will not make any smart ass responses.

Ok Matt, you’re off the hook… Thanks!

 

 Cursive - Bad Sects [3:42m]Play Now

I’m in the middle of one of the shittiest things in life at the moment… Yep, you got it… I’m moving. It’s right up there with going to jail, getting a Columbian necktie, being stabbed, doing your taxes and waking up. Anyways, the point is that I haven’t had time to write anything the past few days. So while I’m taking beds apart and putting thousands of cds I’ll never listen to in boxes, check out this SICK CSNY outtake from a bootleg called “Studio Archives 1969″. I don’t know much about it… if you do, fill me in down there in the comments section smart ass. Also, please check out the George Clinton article Stevie Chick wrote which is right below this garbage I’m writing. Homeboy is one of my favorite rock writers around and I’m honored to have him contributing to Buddyhead. Welcome, Stevie.

 

 CSNY ARCHIVES 1969 [2:23m]Play Now

“How you doin’? I’m pretty good… I’m ready for ya…”
The voice on the other end of the line sounds madd gravely, and that’s not just several tonnes of transatlantic static coating his words in crackly fudge sludge, but several decades on the business end of a life spent as circus-master of a never-ending party, ever-engulfed in rubbery low-end, supine and snapping groove, and fuelled by more contraband substances than a piker like Scott Weiland could even name. George Clinton probably shouldn’t even be around right now – certainly, a number of his stellar sidemen, guest-stars in that Parliafunkadelicment thang, took it to the bridge one last time some years back – but he’s still alive. Very much so, in fact.
A few months back, I had the privilege of interviewing James Brown saxophonist Maceo Parker, the man whose hard-bop bleat burst out from between the whipcrack licks of Brown’s classic groups, and was later manipulated by the Bomb Squad into the blood-curdling siren-scream that wailed throughout Public Enemy’s ‘Rebel Without A Pause’. Following a number of combative tours of duty with Brown, in the late 1970s Parker took up with the only other artist who could reasonably challenge the Godfather for the Funk throne, signing on as musical director for Clinton’s Parliament. It was, he said, something of a culture shock.
“Where James preached uniformity, punctuality and discipline, George didn’t have any of that,” Maceo laughed. “And that was shocking, it really was. If some guy was into Tarzan, and wanted to dress onstage like Tarzan, or like a baseball referee, or a pilot, that was okay with George. I mean really, really okay. And if someone wanted to wear the same outfit for four years and not wash it, that was okay with George. I was used to tuxedos, bow ties, patent leather shoes… Uniforms. George said, life’s just a party, so you shouldn’t be uptight about how people dress. And that was his concept; they’re from outer space, and they’ve come down from their galaxy to show the people of Earth what funky music is really about.”
When I tell Clinton about Maceo’s reminiscences, he unleashes a deep, easy chuckle and adds, in the same booming baritone that preached of a forthcoming Armageddon over the opening bars of Funkadelic’s ‘Maggot Brain’, that “Funk is about the party. And funk is also whatever it takes. Do the best you can, and that’s funky.”

George’s muse wasn’t always such a kinky, freaky, polymorphously perverse thang. Born in Kannapolis, North Carolina in 1941, Clinton later moved North with his family to New Jersey, starting up his own barbershop, straightening nappy duds with pressing irons (as was the fashion at the time). Like many a young barber in the 1950s, Clinton also pursued a hobby in harmonising, forming his own doo-wop quintet, The Parliaments, in the image of his heroes Frankie Limon and The Teenagers. It’s a style he’s recently returned to, reuniting the members of the Parliaments – Ray ‘Stingray’ Davis, Clarence ‘Fuzzy’ Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas, all of whom later served in Parliafunkadelicment – to cover ‘Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight’ for his 2005 album How Late Do U Have 2 B B 4 U R Absent?, and entering the studio earlier this year to record an entire set of doo-wop classics.
“I love doo-wop,” he begins. “It’s always fun… Whenever I made albums with Bootsy [Collins, gleefully flamboyant bassist who worked with Clinton and Brown, and also fronts his own Rubber Band], we always included a couple of ballads in there. When we got inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, I bumped into the Young Rascals [soulful New Jersey rock’n’rollers from the 1960s], and we spent all day sitting backstage, singing doo-wop. I love doo-wop, because it’s all about begging for pussy! [laughs]”
I’m struggling to believe George Clinton has ever had to beg for pussy…
“Nowadays I have to beg myself to go get some!”
Clinton’s Parliaments later morphed into Parliament, scoring an early hit with ‘(I Wanna) Testify’, before shenanigans with their label Revilot (which declared bankruptcy, transferring their contract to Atlantic) saw Clinton can the Parliament name, forming Funkadelic with most of the same musicians. Indeed, Parliament’s debut album, 1970’s Osmium, was released the same year as Funkadelic’s eponymous debut, and shared that album’s slurring, carnal, mind-expanding sense of funk, along with a haunting, beautiful bagpipe-augmented ballad upon the subject of death, ‘The Silent Boatman’. Following a short period working as label Invictus’s in-house band (and cutting some killer tracks for The Chairmen Of The Board’s funkdafied final album, Skin I’m In), however, Clinton put the Parliament moniker to sleep for a while, and navigated Funkadelic towards the outer reaches.
The albums that group recorded throughout the early 1970s remain as crazed, as futuristic, as genius as they must have sounded upon release, a golden sprawl of loose booty breakbeats, thick wet wah-wah, ludicrous concepts and more than a little apocalyptic dread. The closing track off their 1971 album Maggot Brain, ‘Wars Of Armageddon’, was a case in point: its unhinged, echo-drenched ten minute hurtle through broken-glass grooves, screaming shape-shifting guitar, dubby FX, and pre-Hip-Hop ‘samples’ (of everything from shattering glass, to feline shrieks, to squabbling lovers, to gunshots, to that very Armageddon of which the title warns) warped the nascent genre of ‘funk’ as surely as Jimi Hendrix’s loving ax-abuse changed rock’n’roll forever.
“We changed up our style, right at the time when the European groups were coming over here,” Clinton explains. “We went ‘rock’n’roll’ as Funkadelic, we mixed Motown with rock’n’roll. That’s where the Temptations got it from; we were copying the Temptations at first, but once we got to ‘68, ‘69, they were copying us, with songs like ‘Cloud 9’ and ‘Psychedelic Shack’. They were imitating us by that time. We changed up, we never stopped changing, we stayed underground. By the time of Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow [their 1971 sophomore LP] we had our own core of fans who dug what we were doing.”
Those fans weren’t just plugging into the noises Clinton and his gang of brilliantly twisted musicians were purveying [and the Parliafunkadelicment ranks would play host to a litany of dusted genii throughout their existence, including Bootsy, mercurial guitarist Eddie Hazel, and keyboardist and arranger Bernie Worrell, who would raise the group’s efforts to near-symphonic levels of lushness]. They were also buying into the Funkadelic mindset, Clinton’s lyrics and sleevenotes zipping across the whole crazy gamut of life, from birth to death, from love to war, encompassing multitudes. Maggot Brain, for example, may have opened with its mordant title track – a wrenching, epic guitar solo performed by an acid-dazed Eddie Hazel, and inspired by Clinton’s whispered instruction to “Play like your mother just died” – but its other six songs essayed love, drugs, cultural differences, drugs, Vietnam, drugs, and the aforementioned Armageddon. Indeed, the elliptical slogans that made up ‘Wars Of Armageddon’’s lyric sheet spoke eruditely of Clinton’s gladly-addled worldview: “What do we want? Freedom! Right-the-fuck-on, Brother! More power to the people! More pussy to the power! More pussy to the people! More power to the pussy! Right on, Right on…”
“Oh, you can’t take nothin’ serious,” laughs Clinton now, of such lyrics. “I try to tell people, I ain’t no guru, I’m just looking for some drugs and some pussy! I have my feet on the ground; if I pretended I was a guru, that would be bullshit. I didn’t know what I was doing really, they were just coming off the top of my head… Freestyling! That’s still how I write songs for the most part. Sometimes I’ll try and do something deliberate, pay attention and focus… But it takes so long! [laughs]”
1972’s epic double set, America Eats It’s Young, was perhaps Funkadelic’s most ambitious set yet, both musically and lyrically, reflecting an America torn apart by racial division, by the fallout from the Flower Power era and subsequent frustration and betrayals, by the Vietnam war (still raging on with no end in sight), and by the actions and pronouncements of President Richard M. Nixon, who would soon disgrace the country and leave office in shame.
“‘Wake up, live in the presence of your future’,” murmurs George down the phone-line, mouthing the chorus to the album’s closing track. “I remember writing those songs… That was the album where I really was trying to see if I had any brain cells left [laughs]. I’d been under the influence of psychedelics for so long, I thought, damn, I wonder if I can be ‘logical’ at all? On that album, there are so many songs and so many subject matters – unfortunately, the Vietnam war was on my mind…”
History seems to be repeating itself; the album’s messages and themes remain pretty key, thirty-five years later.
“History really does seem to be repeating itself,” he agrees, sadly. “We’re definitely living through 1968-69 all over again. I was planning on just chasing girls for the rest of my life, I didn’t know I’d have to be writing songs about war and everything again, you know what I’m saying? I never thought everything would be repeated so closely like it was before, I’d have thought we’d at least be up in space fucking everything up there by now. But we still here on this planet, making the same dumb mistakes, getting into wars we shouldn’t be in… I would much rather it was some Star Wars shit or somethin’, or making peace instead of war… Some kind of evolution…”

Funkadelic began to evolve themselves, in the mid-1970s, as George and his musicians ‘changed-up’ again, and the Parliament brand-name roared into life once more, with 1974’s Up For The Downstroke LP. With Funkadelic signed to the Detroit-based Westbound label, Clinton took the ground-breaking step of signing those same musicians, under the Parliament moniker, to Neil Bogart’s Casablanca Records; a couple of decades later, the Wu Tang would attempt a similar hijack of the label system, each rapper signing to a different label for their solo careers, though such shenanigans would cause George many headaches as the 1980s began.
While Parliament boasted similar musicians, their musical identity was pronouncedly different to Funkadelic’s; where that band’s ethos was best expressed by the rhetorical question “Who said a funk group couldn’t rock?”, Parliament played to a tighter, more soulful groove, with horns and synthesisers and hooks and an appreciation for the dancefloor which anticipated the coming of Disco.
“We started adding the horns with Parliament,” remembers Clinton. “A whole ‘nother sound incorporated within Parliafunkadelicment. A lot of people didn’t know we were the same group… We’ve snuck around behind ‘em two or three times [laughs]. They didn’t know it was us!”
You liked to keep people on their toes…
“Yeah, I love it. It keeps me young. And I love trying to keep up with music, like I said, to find the music parents hate. Whatever young musicians come up with, that the parents hate, that’s always the new thing, and that’s what I start making. Same with ‘Atomic Dog’ [from Clinton’s 1982 solo album, Computer Games, his first following the end of Parliafunkadelicment as recording entities]…”
As the 1970s wore on, Clinton’s two groups continued to record and tour apart from each other, building a brilliantly schizophrenic canon of billowing funk and graceful groove. The summit of their achievements, perhaps, was 1976’s P-Funk Earth Tour, an elaborate touring stage show featuring ‘both’ groups performing a set of Parliafunkadelic favourites. The most memorable moment of these shows, however, was non-musical. Bringing to life the sleeve artwork of Parliament’s 1975 smash album Mothership Connection, a huge prop star ship would slowly sink from the roof of the venue, landing upon the stage where Clinton, as his alter ego Dr Funkenstein, would clamber out and begin performing.
“That was phenomenal,” he remembers, still a little awed at the memory. “We’d rehearsed for a long time. Having watched Pink Floyd in the early days, and The Who doing Tommy, and the musical Hair – which also copied us – we ended up doing a semi-serious spoof of all this stuff. When we did the Mothership shows, I had the whole concept mapped out: Pimps In Space! [laughs]”
In some ways, the Mothership Connections Parliafunkadelicment achieved onstage during this era were their high-point; as the 70s gave way to the 80s, contractual problems with his labels and pay disputes with his musicians saw Clinton retire Parliament and Funkadelic, to pursue a solo career, along with occasional tussles with the law over substance-issues. Thanks to the samplicious ways of the Hip-Hop generation, however, the classic grooves of Parliament (and, to a lesser degree, those of Funkadelic) never fell from favour and, he says, Parliafunkadelicment were recently approached to perform one of their Mothership Connections in actual, proper Outer Space… “We were supposed to perform on the space station, in 2005,” he promises. “We were ready to go and everything… Zero-gravity funk… Anti-matter music…”
Instead, he’s remained earthbound, continuing to bring funk to the masses, keeping that party from ever ending. Though it might surprise you to learn that George Clinton is actually himself something of a wallflower…
“It’s all about the stage for me,” he chuckles. “I’m actually a bit of a fake when it comes to the after-show party. I like to take my ass home early. All the P-Funk fans, they mostly expect more than I can give… I know I can’t live up to the expectations they’ve built up about me over the years! And the ones who come along and want to have sex with me? I’m scared of them…”

Tweak Bird. Maybe you have already seen them live, maybe you caught
them opening for the Melvins or Big Business, or maybe you have simply
heard the name mentioned in conversation. Or maybe you have never
heard of them in yer life. If you have not yet experienced Tweak
Bird’s tunes or live show, it is time you get on it, stat.

A couple of weeks ago I played a gig, unaware that one of the groups
on the lineup would soon be my new favorite band. I had heard the
name Tweak Bird before, mainly from the Darker My Love dudes, who give
‘em a big thumbs up, but I never really peeked beyond that. That
particular night, I had a late flight to catch and couldn’t really
stick around the venue after we played. I was all packed up and ready
to go, and ventured inside one last time to make sure I wasn’t leaving
anything behind. When I opened the door, the sight before my eyes as
well as the sounds pounding into my ears pretty much floored me and
stopped me in my tracks. Two engaging dudes blasting out captivating
heavy and psychedelic jams with tight vocal harmonies, not to mention
another lad behind them, casually but also maniacally splattering
colorful paint on an easel, with a hot light casting an eerie glow on
his wild artwork. They were so amazing, I just had to stay for the
whole set. Come to find out the two dudes, Caleb and Ashton,
are brothers, not to mention big fans of outer space, pinball, the
ganja, shooting guns, normal stuff like that. The songs are loud,
intense, energetic and crafted well. The vocals are really
intriguing, as they are pretty, dramatic, sometimes a bit creepy, not
to mention catchy and absolutely on. Very interesting stuff. Another
thing that caught my eye was the two unusual amps Caleb was using,
which I later found out he rigged himself. Needless to say, they’re
nice and loud.

Tweak Bird are lining up sick gigs and blazing a fire on the streets
of Los Angeles, with a 7″ and plans for another release. Check ‘em
out Monday night at Silverlake Lounge, with Crystal Antlers, another
top notch band that will rock the fuck out of you. More intense and
mindblowing psych rock. Last time I talked to the Antlers boys, they
were sweeping chimneys for a living, and jumping across rooftops.
Their music is soulful, resonant and obnoxious, in the most charming
way. They also make the most beautifully hand-crafted shirts, with
delicate paintings of women and wolves.

Basically, both acts rip and words cannot sum them up. They must be
experienced live for the real deal. Go see them…the sooner the
better.

Monday, December 3rd
Tweak Bird, Crystal Antlers
@ Silverlake Lounge
2906 Sunset Blvd.
FREE - 9pm - 21+

You can also catch Tweak Bird on December 30th, at Echoplex with the
Melvins and 400 Blows.

www.myspace.com/tweakbird
www.myspace.com/crystalantlers
www.maxneutra.com

Looks like it’s that time of year again dudes! Yep, it’s the miserable fuckin’ holidays! Whatever is right. But hey man, we know you’re on a tight budget, work hard for your money (so hard for the money) and gotta buy a bunch of presents for people that consider themselves to be your friends and family and we’re here to cut you a little bit of slack.

We’ve got a little something going on called a bloody HOLIDAY SALE! In celebration of the holidays and our pockets being empty we’ve thrown everything on sale in the Buddyhead Online Store in hopes of exciting you and therefore making you purchase lots of items from us. But I mean come on… like it’s not a great idea? You can give dad that “Homophobia Is Gay” T-shirt for Christmas. He’s gonna think it rules. And you know that your neighbor is gonna be stoked when you give him that sweet looking Buddyhead Suicide zip up hoodie for Hanukkah. Who wouldn’t be?

Aside from all that stuff you can find yourself Moccasin’s “Last Leaf” for the SUPER LOW PRICE of $5.99! Not to mention you can also get yourself some shirts on sale for as low as $8.00, hoodies at $20.00 and a whole bunch of other stuff with their prices SLASHED for BUDDYHEAD’S HOLIDAY SALE!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE BUDDYHEAD STORE

x

So first off, where did the name for the album and sub discs come from?
It started out we had all these songs that sort of fell behind the stove so it seemed like a legitimate name for a bunch of castaway songs.

Is there a disc you identify most with, or in other words, are you the bawler, brawler, or bastard?
I think the bastard, I like all the spoken word stuff, I’m still trying to hammer out my own unique hybrid of incorporating all the vocals and backing tracks. I’ve been doing the spoken word stuff for a long time and I’m tryin to just sort of invent my own niche.

Your known for being a storyteller and with all the different vocals you use do you sometimes feel as if you are assuming a different role when your writing songs?
Well all song writers say “I” and “me” and “we” but it doesn’t necessarily mean “I” and “me” or “we”, its just a device its just putting it in the first person, you know, “House of the Rising Sun” was written from the point of view of a woman that had taken a bad turn but the most popular version is form the point of view of a man, it’s a cautionary tale and all cautionary tales will always have a place because we’re still warning our kids about the “dark side”.

When most artists compile large records such as these, they throw in the hits, some live tracks, and a few unreleased. You went into the “vat” grabbed a bunch of b-sides and called it “Orphans”, why do you think this was a better way to encompass your music?
These are just parallel projects we were doing while making records, you start workin’ on something then someone pulls you off the tractor and asks you to do somethin’ else, they’re just things I’ve been through and ongoing things. Something for a movie or a compilation record, things that normally wouldn’t wind up on the same record, just some satellite projects.

Do you feel like you were bias in anyway while choosing which old recordings to put on the record based on which record that song was initially for?
Well a lot of it was new, once we came out with a title like “Orphans” there’s a lot of things that can fit in with that box, once we got the Bawlers, Brawlers, and Bastards, I mean those can be anybody’s songs.

I know you’ve done a lot of work with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, how did you two meet?
We met in New York in the early 80’s. I had just moved there from LA, we were trying to do a play, Franks Wild Years, and I was very naive to assume that in a couple of months we would be opening in a theater over there. It was kinda David and Goliath, or throwin’ peanuts at a gorrilla, bigger than we thought it was and took a lot longer. I lived over there for a while, probably 14 different places. We met at a party (Jean-Mischel Basquiat’s birthday party) I didn’t know any of those people, and I was new to New York and it was kinda bizarre, like some big magazine party or something. From there Jim was ready to do a picture and sometimes you think there’s a certain amount of happen stance and synchronicity or whatever. You meet somebody that your supposed to meet and they should be in your next project and I think people want to see if the worlds gunna collaborate with them and get some encouragement. When you bump into somebody and they have some time on their hands and you think its gunna work out, and a lot of artists seem to go with their instincts on that one, before you knew it we were down in New Orleans doing this picture (“Down By Law”). It was an all around good experience and we’ve been friends ever since.

I was reading about the record and it says there are collaborations with artists in film and I know Jim plays guitar, is he on the album at all?
Nope, nothin for Jim, but there are some songs I did during the soundtrack I did for his film “Night on Earth”.

Do you plan on doing any soundtracks in the future?
It’s a tremendous amount of work, my feeling with movies is they always ask you when their outta money and they want it by the weekend and theirs some real large flaw the film and their emphatic about their feeling that your song will repair that. There’s usually a lot of pressure and no love or money, its rare that its both love and money, its usually one of the two. But who knows?

So what do you think of Scarlet Johanson doing an entire album consisting of covers of your songs?
Well some songs are meant to be recorded by other people, those are the seeds in the tomato you know? You expect that someone will hear it and might wanna interpret it themselves. So we’ll see.

Yea hey, you might have a whole new audience of 14-year olds!
Oh yea, the teeny boppers, it’ll be like The Beatles concerts, girls crying, holding pictures of me and coming apart emotionally behind police barricades.

You refer to your voice as your key instrument and you have so many different tones. One critic said you voice sounded like, “It had been soaked in a vat of bourbon, left in the smokehouse for a few days, then taken outside to be run over by a car”. When you first started to work on your voice is this what you were going for?
In some ways its like bein a character actor you try to find the right voice for the song to make sure it fits, that’s usually how its worked, you try to expand it, most of what you absorb ultimately its what your going to secrete if you pay attention that is.

Do you think playing different roles in your songs helped when you first started acting?
Songs are kinda like movies for the ears, sometimes when you don’t have a picture you have to invent more atmosphere to conjure up the people in the song, which is why I usually put food in there and street names and stuff. So I guessed it help with the embellishing.

I noticed that you often mention brands in your songs but the last place you want any of your songs to end up is in a commercial…
Well there’s a certain amount of poetic license, its usually if it fits or not, I’m not consciously trying to endorse products. My problem is that they’ll ask you three times and you say no then they go find an impersonator its kinda like a parking ticket for them, its not really that much of a penalty, but its like they say, its easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Its the ants at the picnic you get use to it. Some people say, “gee that’s flattering” but not really for me. Its good exposure but its just based on what you’re going for or else you wind up like a racecar driver.

Who did the cover art?
Julianne Deery took the polaroid at this roadhouse, and then Matt Mahurin whose done some covers for me in the past, put all the ghosts in it.

Is that what you were going for, with the ghosts and stuff?
I guess, its like salvage art with all those sepia photos, I guess that was the idea to create this atmosphere of subliminal people in an underworld poking through.

So what’s in this 94 page handmade booklet?
Just photos and lyrics, that’s all, credits too. There’s no essay or long drawn out liner notes or anything like that.

Knowing that not everybody is going to really be into your music do you consider any elements of your music to be punk?
Well everybody likes the feeling of not everybody is into the stuff their into, I’m somewhat of an outsider. Second guessing what the public’s response will be and tryin to create stuff that will have a broader appeal Isn’t really my thing, I’m more interested in the arcane minutiae of it all, just oddball things. I like small moments in the world, I’m in the salvage business.

Where did u record orphans?
This place out by San Quentin called Bay View Studios, they should call it San Quentin view…cause you can see San Quentin. Yea, we worked with Carl Derfler, Charlie Musselwhite, and these guys from this group Club Foot Orchestra. Carla Kihlstetd and Marc Ribot, we were just tryin to plug in a lot of other songs after we had the central idea for the record.

The album has already leaked on the internet and everything, what do you think of all the pirating that goes on through the internet?
Its kinda Pandora’s Box not much you can really do about it, I mean people are policing them. I mean goin to a record store is a whole experience for me I don’t have a computer so that whole galaxy Isn’t really available to me. Well I’m a grumpy old guy its kinda like taken chickens to the beach, its like OK now get ‘em all back in the truck, its a little to late to take any action.

 

 Tom Waits - Lie To Me [2:10m]Play Now

 

 Tom Waits - Road To Peace [7:17m]Play Now

What we have here is a new documentary entitled “Fuzz: The Sound That
Revolutionized the World.” As you would guess, the film is about Fuzz
Pedals. The documentary offers an inside look into today’s booming
boutique pedal industry, as well as the musicians that play them.
Companies featured in the film include Zvex, Death By Audio, Electro Harmonix, D*A*M, Analogman, Way Huge (RIP), and Keeley just to name a few. Jack Waterson of LA’s Future Music (one of the best, and undoubtedly funkiest music shops in LA) is also interviewed. Cool old guys like Billy Gibbons, J Mascis, Steve Albini, and Jon Spencer appear in this bad boy, in
addition to not-as-cool Aussie rock revivalists Jet and Wolfmother. Mascis has such a massive Big Muff collection, that if liquidated could put a down payment on a house! Albini tells us that although he’s quite fond of his original Harmonic Percolator, he does not love it like he loves his penis!

While this film will definitely be a snore fest for those not interested in stomp boxes, those who dig pedals will enjoy this. Frodus (fellow Buddyhead contributor and Cassettes frontman Shelby Cinca’s old band) are even mentioned!

Trailer - http://www.brink.com/gallery/3231

Speaking of fuzz pedals, this reminds me of a new company called
Fridgebuzzz Electronics. In addition to making custom guitars and synths, Fridgebuzzz just released a fuzz pedal called “Land Of The Rising Fuzz,” that is all the rage in NYC. This thing is based on the sought after 1960’s Japanese Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz that is rumored to be the fuzz tone used on The Jesus And Mary Chain’s “Psycho Candy” album. The first batch of “Land Of The Rising Fuzz” are almost gone. Don’t blow your shot at owning an original.

Wednesday night my best pals—Evan from Wires on Fire, Jon “Beth, the Buddyhead Editor” Weston, and Curls, my longtime pal since preschool—went and saw Entrance at The Airliner. This has been our routine for years: Evan and Jon call Zach and talk about some band they hear is radical. Zach then figures out how we can get in, who will drive, and how we can efficiently save the environment by riding in one car. Then, like JFK during the Cuban Missle Crisis, I get “the call.” I roll a spliff for the ride and we’re off!

Entrance is a three-piece rock band consisting of Derek James (on skins), Paz Lenchantin—the chick from A Perfect Circle & Zwan, lead by Guy Blakeslee on guitar and vox. They are playing shows in support of the new release, Prayer of Death, on Tee Pee records. These guys (and gal, especially) are pretty heavy.

We picked up Evan at his new digs in Silverlake. He’s got a killer signed headshot of Julio Eglesias in his kitchen and Bad Brains art in the shitter—the home is decorated in Modern Fuck. We smoked a doob in his living room and hit the road. Jon needed to borrow a coat; what can I say? The man was chilly. I snagged shotgun, naturally. We proceeded to get lost for 45 minutes because Curls got a lead that the show was downtown (24th and Broadway). Unfortunately, my friends are nothing like Juan Vasquez…they suck dick at directions. Then they all complained that my Crackberry couldn’t get the proper GPS location either. Yeah, like Google is gonna find some shitty ass venue that only exists in the minds of my three stoner friends.

We parked The Curly Man’s Volvo and headed for the door. Apparently, we were the only Anglo Saxons there to see a rock show; everyone else (the brothers) had on Air Jordans and Phat Farm hoodies. We were at the right place? $10! Cha! Right! Dudes—what gives, man! We paid the fee and were immediately stripped searched. Lemme tell ya’ guys—I cracked up with this three hundred pound piece of chocolate love feeling me up. Jon agreed. This guy tickled the shit out of us.

Once inside my boys made their way to the bar, blah blah blah. Immediately we headed outside towards the stage; the place was packed. Our Gang decided to head up to the balcony to watch the show. It was fucking incendiary up there. Everyone was rippin’ bowls, and, to quote André 3000, “lickin’ blunts and rolling reefer papas.” My kind of place. Evan was bummed we were out of squief so we opted for Stella.

The band began to wail. It was pretty heavy from the get-go, which we all liked. We started grooving, especially Jon. He kept grabbing my shoulders and being a chimp and shit. Curls was hitting on cunts. I was exhausted from work but trying to stay in the moment. Then this Guy opens his mouth; he crooned like a trashy Jeff Buckley. Their sound was a bit reminiscent of Two Gallants (whom I adore), but being that there are three of them, one being the sickest female bassists of all time, I must say—Entrance rocked harder and heavier. I haven’t seen such heavy grooves since listening to Maggot Brain.

I couldn’t really understand what the hell Guy was saying in between songs. It didn’t really matter. I soon noticed that their drummer dressed like Robert Plant circa Houses of The Holy had he been a lesbian with straighter hair. Oddly enough, there was this weird guy painting on an enormous easel off to stage right, for what reason I have no clue. Let’s just say it was a bit too Bonaroo for my taste. Thank God the band was shuckin’ and jivin’.

I could go on to describe each musician’s instrument, lending metaphors here and there. But I won’t. It’s boring. And I’m not Lester Bangs and this is not Creem magazine. So I’ll make it short. Paz makes any band, like, “go to 11.” Her bass was thicker than a hot fudge sundae from Carvel. And having a killer drummer behind you and a boozy Jeff Buckley incarnate for a lead singer doesn’t hurt either. This is Southern blues for smoking doobs and drinkin’ whiskey.

We all agreed: Entrance Band was really spectacular. Sick tones, bro. If you have a chance to check ‘em out I highly recommend it. You can get a taste of their stylings at http://www.myspace.com/entrancerecords.

 

 Entrance - Grim Reaper Blues [4:29m]Play Now