USA! USA! USA!

Sanity prevailed. Lets hope Barack can clean up the greatest mess in American history...it's not gonna be easy.

In other news, I'll be djing with HJ after the Fuck Buttons show at Mono tomorrow. It's gonna be a barackan party.
GZA tonight and Lightning Bolt this weekend. hurrah!

God hates smalltown values

I'm not voting this year. It's pointless. Obama will win Washington State anyhow. If you live in Texas or Alabama or some other rightwing state; please vote democrat. I moved to Europe...not my problem anymore.
How fucked up is this country? Church groups organize movie trips to see The Passion while the "elite" skip out on voting to smoke pot. No wonder morons are running the country. So anyway; I've been robbed by the electoral system before, so I've just give up and besides, this time sanity will prevail. On nov 4th I'll be drunk; celebrating.
Yes I know, I'm no better than them; and your point is?

The Usaisamonster - Anal Lies

New record out on load
myspazz

No Oslo!

No Nebraska! and Don Vito were in town a couple of weeks ago at Revolver.
Revolver are continually putting on great shows. (sic alps, lightning bolt etc coming up) Second time seeing the amazing Don Vito.
The small (but appreciative) crowd even got the bands to do 2 nights in a row. Here are some top quality cellphone photos! Thanks Nokia! you bum.

New No Nebraska! out this month on Sk Records
Check out mp3: No Nebraska! - le coût du prix libre

Mp3: Don Vito - Electric Mayhem
Touring England in February; check em out.

This is good stuff. Buy it. It's that simple.

Buy Don Vito
Buy No Nebraska! here:

Forest City Rockers Motorcycle Club

Do you like parties? Do you like karate? Do you like badass cartoons?
Then you will like The Mayyors:


Mayyors are not on the web. check at S-S
Buy Karate Party from S-S
Jay Howell - more great animation here

Bad Deer

Anyone else notice the Bad Company "All right now" riff in the new Deerhoof song Tears and Music of Love? I did.

It's ok. I still love Deerhoof.

Offend Maggie is out now (today!) on Killrockstars.

Sic Alps

Videos from Description of the Harbor:




mp3: Sic Alps - Bathman from U.S. EZ

Buy "Description of the Harbor" from Animal Disguise
Buy "U.S. EZ" from siltbreeze
Info: Sic Alps

RRR: Ranheim Release Record

Ranheim has a new record out this month.
Official release date in Norway for 'Norwegian Wood' is 22. September.
19 kroner at Platekompaniet.
There is a release party at Mono tuesday the 16th.
I'll be spinning some records there too...
Steve Albini recorded this in Chicago, so it sure sounds good.



Here is some exlusive (oooh!) footage from this summer:
Ranheim - Boycout (clip)
(sorry, not from the new record)

Ranheim myspace
Buy from Kong Tiki

Permanent (brain) Damage

My good friend (and former boss) Al Milman is re-releasing his classic punk rock masterpiece from 1977. (Actually its been out since july..I've been in a drunken haze all summer so I didn't realize it before now. He actually sang a few songs at Funhouse this week!) The 30th Anniversary compilation includes the complete first two 7-inch EPs, unreleased studio tracks, and live recordings - restored by none other than Jack Endino.

Check it out:
Alan Milman Sect - Stitches in my head/I wanna kill somebody

Alan Milman Sect/Man-Ka-Zam 30th Anniversary CD is now out on Flotation Records out of Seattle.
Buy it now or get spanked.

Sunshine for Shady People

So on September 18th Three One G will release Arab on Radar: Sunshine for Shady People on DVD. This is the documentary of one of the most explosive bands of the last 15+ years.
Sunshine for Shady People DVD Trailer:


I got my copy in the mail yesterday, so I put on my thinking hat, opened a bottle of wine and put it in my ol' dvd player. This aint no VH1 rockumentary bullshit. This was short and noisy. Not so much a story about a band, instead it's random clips thrown together without much structured history. No explanation about why they broke up (there was no mention of Eric's cartoon) or any concrete info. In other words, it was just a taste of the 7+ year fury that was Arab on Radar. The only disappointing thing was the live footage. The sound quality is pretty mediocre. Strange that they did not use better video (like for example the 2002 Michigan Fest DVD footage), or any of the many youtube clips out there. I never did get to see this band; but they split into The Chinese Stars which I saw and have written about earlier. Made in Mexico and Athletic Automation are the other projects that came out of AOR. All worth checking out. So here is some footage of Arab on Radar:

Live:



God Is Dad video:


Empeethrees!
Arab On Radar - Number 5
Arab On Radar - Number 3

Buy Arab on Radar from Skingraft
Buy Sunshine for Shady People dvd from Three one G

Slothbear

So I get alot of stuff in my mailbox from bands...well, not alot, but some. I've been meaning to write about it all, but never gotten around to it. So with that said, I just got an email from a New York band called Slothbear, and I instantly liked it. Lo-fi noise pop. This gives me alitte Sic Alps feeling; which is a good thing. According to their myspace page, the songs "were recorded on a broken four track with no microphones."
Great. Keep using it.

I stole this one from their myspace page:

Slothbear - The Exceptional Bastards (rapidshare - right click etc)

You can contact the bears here,
and if you ask nicely they will send you a free cd-r. Neato!

Info:
www.myspace.com/fuckinslothbear
Slothblog

Question.

Why do bad things happen to good people?
More importantly, why do good things happen to bad people?
Man, I loose sleep over that.

But then I listen to this song and I forget about everything for a few minutes. Part Deerhoof, part Melt Banana, ice cream sundays, butterflies, rainbows , and part, oh lets say Boredoms...it's instant happy times in just over 4 minutes. Enjoy!

Ponytail - Beg Waves (right click/open in new window)



Weee! happy! Ponytail!

Ponytail myspazz
Buy here


Next stop...Madrid!

Drink...listen...repeat.

Country Teasers/The Rebel here

Dj whore

Ok it's time to whore myself out again.
I will be djing two nights this week.

Friday at Revolver...

...and Thursday at Mono.

Please don't come; the music is gonna suck balls.

Nobunny - Boneyard

Who doesn't love bunnies?!?

Bunnies are great, especially when they rock.

Visit Nobunny here. On tour in the states now.

Not to be confused with Unbunny. On tour in Europe in september.

Go Sweden!

OK, so I've been kinda harsh with Norwegian bands in my last post.... well they sure are beaten by their Swedish neighbors. Here is an example.

Buy Skull Defekts here.

To noisy? try this one:

Monica Zetterlund - Trubbel (1968)

If you don't get the picture, go rent Trading Places for fuck sake.

Øya recap

OK, so I guess it's time to write something here. The Øya Festival is over, and I'm still tired. Generally it was a pretty weak year with alot of bad Norwegian bands, over-hyped foreigners, and a lot of repeats; but there were some highlights. Pictures below!

Wednesday

The festival really started on Tuesday night at Last Train with an excellent set from local heroes Bungelow Ranchstyle. They probably will be playing the main festival next year. They get better every time.

First up Wednesday was Mogwai, who I've possibly seen to many times, cuz it really wasn't all that exciting. It didn't help that it rained and the band looked bored. It did pick up at the end, but I've seen better Mogwai shows. I'll still buy the new record that's out soon on Matador Records.

The Mae Shi was disappointing. They called themselves the dumbest band at the festival and well, it showed. I like some of their stuff, but it didn't work with the constant spastic screaming. Maybe it was the bad sound. Good stage show though.

I could continue writing about all the bands that disappointed me at this festival, but as you know, I'm all about positivity you assholes!

No negative thinking.

Grinderman (sort of pictured above) also suffered from bad sound, and me being too tired to enjoy myself at this point. Enjoyed the Bad Seeds show earlier in the year more.

Thursday

One of the few surprises of the festival was Lightspeed Champion (who includes one of the guys from Test Icicles) It was one of the few shows where I stuck around for the whole set.

The other ones were Best Fwends and The Death Set. Both bands I've listened to before, but never really got into. Man was I wrong, they both put on fantastic shows. I saw them 3 or 4 times during the festival...they seemed to play everywhere. I skipped Sonic Youth to see The (motherfuckin') Death Set, if you know what I mean.

Thursday night I went to Rockefeller to catch Original Silence. This is a "Thurston Moore side project". He should just drop the Sonic Youth thing and do this full time. I saw Original Silence at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival without him, and the energy was even higher now. This band includes the best musicians playing right now: Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) Terrie Ex (The Ex), Mats Gustafsson (The Thing), Paal Nilssen-Love (The Thing, Atomic etc.) and Massimo Pupillo (Zu). The big surprise of the night was the Japanese trio Nissennenmondai who opened the show and blew me away. Noise grooves straight outta Compton.

Friday


Health played a frantic set; not as good as at Spasibar, but still worth seeing. That was about it at the festival Friday. (No negativity here folks!)
I did however finish up the night at Blå where Noxagt and Årabrot (pictured below) put on a good show.

Saturday


Saturday was all about seeing The Sonics. Being a former Seattlelite, it was fun to see them, even though the energy wasn't all the high. They did get a mosh pit going from their greaser fans though.

The Night Marchers (ex Hot Snakes) did not start out so good, but I stuck it out, and it turned out to be a good rock and roll show (with some guitar strap modifications).

A great supprise saturday was Janelle Monaè. Mark my words, she's gonna be huge. Outcast style funk, soul, r&b, rock and a fantastic live show, with dance moves that even got me going.

Several mediocre bands later it was time for another show by The Death Set. This time at camp indie; the smallest stage. This turned out to be the best show at the festival. They played Operation Ivy (Bombshell) and Nirvana (Tourette's) covers and constant samples from the beastie boys and dizzie rascal mixed with intense electro-punk madness. Ok, it might sound stupid, but it was stupid good. I was lucky enough thanks to The Death Set, to get into a private party for the volunteers that worked the festival and both The Death Set and Best Fwends played again. By this time I had reached blackout (due to champagne and cheap drink prices at the party) and I lost my camera. I also (almost) lost my molded earplugs earlier at camp indie where Johnny jumped me at the start of the set. The rest is a blur. If you want a real professional recap of the festival, you've come to the wrong place.

Maybe some videos and a recap of the Kongsberg Jazz festival later...maybe.

Dj at mono tomorrow.

AAARGH!

It's too fucking hot here to update this site.

Doing the Soft Bondage dj night at Mono Thursday.

Come and dance/buy me drinks or something...

Next week is the Øya festival. More info later.

KGB Jazz

Spendt the week at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. I saw alot of good shows including Original Silence (picture above by stein hofve)
Original Silence (with Thurston Moore) will also play the Øya Festival in August. Good times.
Pictures and video from kgb soon. Next stop: Paris.

It's over...

Spasibar closed it's doors last night. A bunch of bands, no bartenders, and an open bar where you served yourself. People were encouraged to tare the place apart...and they did. The owners built a fire onstage at about 3am. 6 arrests and a firetruck later; it was all over. R.I.P.

Tornadoes...

Life is sorta shit right now. So what's better than some soothing depressing music? Well, it used to help, but no more. Still I will be seeing Bonnie Prince Billy tomorrow. On the positive side, I just had my birthday and it's one year closer to death. Good times!

Bonnie Prince Billy - Death to everyone set to tornadoes