Yo Gabba Gabba!

When I was a kid in the 70's, the freakiest kids shows were put together by Sid and Marty Krofft. I never understood what the hell was going on during H.R Pufnstuf or Sigmund & the Sea Monsters but I kept watching simply because...well, I'm not sure why I watched but I liked the freakiness.

These days, it seems like the torch of freaky kids programs has been passed to the lead singer of The Aquabats, Christian Jacobs (aka The MC Bat Commander) and his show Yo Gabba Gabba!. My daughter is completely in love with the show but I can't, for the life of me, figure out what the hell is going on. Yet, it's incredibly colorful and fun to look at. Check out this sample to see what I'm talking about:


The dude in the orange hat is DJ Lance Rock and Biz Markie occasionally makes an appearance but, occasionally, they work in some indie rock as well such as when they used a Low tune in a cartoon.

Good stuff...even if it's freaky.

The Radiator

Last year, Lee Anderson of Radio Bean and Jim Lockridge of Big Heavy World conceived of a great idea. They set up a newly licensed noncommercial low power FM radio station in Burlington called The Radiator (105.9 FM). Then they went and got a bunch of people associated with the Burlington music scene to come in and do weekly shows.

You can see the full list of programs here but, for those following the VT blogosphere, there are a bunch of bloggers in there too:

♫ Bill Simmon of Candleblog and Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report have a talk show on Sunday afternoons.

♫ Nick from Angioplasty Media does a indie music show on Tuesday mornings (9am-11am).

♫ Jason Cooley from Icebox Records does a show on Wednesday nights.

♫ You can hear Tanner from Highgate on Thursday nights from 9pm-11pm.

♫ Jay from Spitting Out Teeth is on the air from 7pm-8pm on Saturday nights.

♫ jb from The Le Duo is spinning free-jazz on Wednesdays from 6pm-8pm.

It's safe to say that the VT blogosphere is well represented.

I hadn't posted about the station before because I was waiting for the signal to be available via an online stream. The over-the-air signal doesn't extend much beyond Burlington so I hadn't had a chance to hear it until now. Thankfully, they finally got the stream to work and now everyone can check it out directly from the station's website. Enjoy.

Awdio

Living in Vermont, one of the things we don't have here are chic late night clubs with cool DJs pumping out the latest beats. Well, while Awdio doesn't give you the experience of paying $15 for a cocktail and hanging among the beautiful people, the site is able to bring you the music in a continuous stream straight from the DJ booth.

The site is still in the beta mode but they are offering 100 minute free trials before they start charging you for checking out the hippest clubs from around the world. I haven't ponied up any money for a full membership but I like clicking on the various clubs' names, seeing where in the world it's located, figuring out what time it is there and listening to whatever the DJ is spinning and programming.

I was just listening to a club in Berlin where it was 6am but the house music was pumping. However, having been to Berlin, I'm not the least surprised to hear that people are dancing at 6am on a Wednesday morning. It's a crazy town.

Perhaps that's the charm of Awdio...it's fun to check out the music but it also makes the world feel much smaller.

Capstan Shafts News

Here are a few news items about the best thing out of Lyndonville, The Capstan Shafts:

♪ On May 2, The Capstan Shafts will be playing at Middlebury College with Menomena and The Ruby Suns. It's the school's annual spring music festival. I have no idea whether it'll be just Dean or if he'll have a band with him. I'll take it either way. Tickets ($10) are available here. The cool thing is that it's a Friday night, it's open to the public and it's my birthday that night. Hey!

♪ On March 31, Dean released another album. It's a homemade CD-R release called Miles Per Famine. It costs $3 plus $2 for shipping. Nice. You can order it by either paypal to deanedwardwells@yahoo.com or via the post office with cash/check at dean wells box 348 lyndonville vt. 05851.

The Capstan Shafts | Evelyn Halfstep | Order Info Above

The Capstan Shafts | You Have Such Low Standards | Order Info Above


♪ On June 27th, Dean will be releasing his next full length album (I'm not even sure what that means in the world of The Capstan Shafts one-minute songs). No title yet but, like Environ Maiden, it'll be on Rainbow Quartz.

The best source for news on The Capstan Shafts is the myspace page that a fan maintains. Be sure to check it for the latest on all things Capstan Shafts.

This Weekend

TONIGHT April 11

The Smittens and Let's Whisper at The Skinny Pancake

Here are the details:

Enjoyers of Crepes,


The Smittens as a 5 piece pop the walls off the Skinny Pancake Friday night. Come down and have a dance or just a nice sit-down while bedroom popstars Let's Whisper open up the set.

When: Friday, April 11, 2008 at 9:00pm

Where: The Skinny Pancake

60 Lake Street

City/Town: Burlington, VT

Who: The Smittens and Let's Whisper

How Much: Pass the hat (F45 note: but make sure it's at least $5)

You: Enjoying Fondue , Crepes and Pop Songs


TOMORROW April 12

Rock for Docs

Here are the details from Farm:

we'll be playing at the Higher Ground Showcase lounge as a fundraiser for Doctors without Borders
We start at like 7:30pm
we'll be playing with
The Dirtminers
Avi and Celia
Jazzam
Pete the meat whistle
the breaking in
and lights out

the cost is $17 at the door

Plants & Animals du Nord

This picture IS Plants and Animals. This latest Montreal export is a mishmash, far out, stupendous band. Reference points as broad as The Go Team and Phish, within the same song even (please don't let that stop you), they craft songs that are as engaging as they are interesting. One of my favs off the recently released Parc Avenue (so QC) is the Peter Frampton meets Broken Social Scene styled tune Feedback in the Field. It is almost as if the songs are a celebration, but stop short of being annoying, thanks in part to a steady stream of American/roots/blues.  After a strong SXSW showing a few weeks ago, Plants and Animals will be stopping at Cegep Mont Morency, Laval, QC tomorrow before closing out the tour in the Maritime. Keep an eye out, as they should be back on the road in May.

Plants and Animals | Feedback in the Field | Buy

Plants and Animals | Faerie Dance | Buy

Pond Skimming at Bolton Valley | Apr 5

Tomorrow, April 5 (1pm), Bolton Valley will have their annual pond skimming. It's always a fun affair. You can see all of my videos from last year's skimming here.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

I went to see a movie and a hootenanny broke out.

That was the idea that kept rolling through my head last Saturday night as I watched the documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song on the penultimate night of the Green Mountain Film Festival. Do you remember how I mentioned in my review of I'm Not There that I'm uncomfortable with people applauding at the end of movies? Well, imagine how I squirmed as people clapped throughout the film, sang along to the songs and even talked back to the screen. Yeh, it was a weird night in Montpeculiar.

The film was a straight forward documentary of Pete Seeger's life. A very traditional looking doc and I enjoyed it. However, what I hadn't counted on was the reaction the rest of the audience had to it.

Now, for those unfamiliar with Montpelier, it's a place where activists from the 50's and 60's go to die. The town is populated with Raging Grannies and dudes with long gray ponytails who spent their youth in folk clubs and now dutifully protest the Iraq War every Friday since the war began. I should have connected all of it before the film and expected such a crowd but it didn't click for me until I heard the first round of clapping and singing.

It started quietly with just a few people singing along to the movie. Just enough such that it was noticeable but I wasn't sure if the film had suddenly popped into stereo or if folks were stretching their vocal chords in the theater. But then it grew and grew with each song until the crowd was louder than the soundtrack. Then people were so overjoyed with themselves that they began applauding at the end of the songs they sang. It was like being at Rocky Horror.

The kicker for me though was when people started yelling at the screen. "Yes! Pete!" "Oh my God!" "We need more songs like that these days!" At that point, I had slid so far down in my seat my shoulders were touching the armrests.

Oh, did I mention that they had the cinematographer for the film there to answer questions afterwards? However, people didn't really have any questions. They just wanted to talk about their personal experiences with Seeger.

"I went to college in the East Village and, in 1957, we booked Pete Seeger to play our school. However, due to the blacklist, he was banned at the last second from coming on campus. So, we all organized a caravan and drove Pete and everyone up to Columbia University and oh what a hootenanny we had up there. It was wonderful."

Or "a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine played at a folk festival and Pete asked them if he could sit in with them. He was just that kind of a guy! So wonderful!"

Perhaps I'm just a shallow cold person who doesn't relate to anything on such a devotional level but I found the crowd's overall rapture with Seeger and, quite frankly, themselves to be a bit creepy. Everyone was having a good time and nobody was being hurt (except for my neck from
slouching down in my seat) so it sounds petty to complain or mention all of this but it does speak to the wacky community in Montpelier and their love for the ways of their youth.

Oh, one last thing...it was a big night out for the politicians too. I saw Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, Secretary of the Treasury Jeb Spaulding and 2006 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scudder Parker. Vermont politicians love their protest songs.

Pete Seeger | Turn, Turn, Turn | Buy

Beach House | Monkey House | Mar 30

I missed the Beach House show at Monkey House last Sunday night but Angioplasty Media has a link to a full recording of their set. They also have the Papercuts set available too.

The Earaches

If it was 1993, The Earaches would be signed to a major label. However, it's 2008 so they are only getting mentioned on this crappy blog.

The fact is that after Seattle broke, tons of bands with a heavy guitar sound from the Northwest got snatched up. Well, The Earaches may be fifteen years too late but the Seattle four-piece is cranking out some fine fuzz-ladened guitar-driven garage rock. Their 2006 album Time on Fire doesn't break a single note of new ground in the exploration of rock and roll. However, if you like garage-punk and the energy it disburses, then you'll be happy with it.

The Earaches | So Into You | Buy

The Earaches | Right Now! | Buy

Curt Smith

Any fan of the Vermont Mountaineers knows and loves the slugging superstar of the last two championship season, Curt Smith. The guy was clutch game after game. Well, my son was asking me about him tonight and we decided to see how his senior season at University of Maine is going. I'm pleased to see he's continuing his pitcher-brutalizing ways.

Through 20 games, Smith is leading the Black Bears with a .419 batting average, .500 on-base percentage, .730 slugging percentage, five dingers and 13 RBIs. Oh, and he's 8 for 9 in stolen bases. Gold.

Here's to hoping that he gets drafted and signs a nice contract.

Because he's a senior, Smith isn't eligible to play for the Mountaineers this year. However, Maine visits UVM next month for games on May 9, 10 & 11. Both Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's game start at 1pm. It'll probably be the last chance for Vermonters to see Smith play locally.

Oh, and the Mountaineers start their 2008 campaign on June 7. Also, I noticed that the team in Concord has been replaced with a team in Lynn, MA called the North Shore Navigators. That sucks for the players since Lynn is a much longer bus ride than Concord.

photo courtesy of BuzzFisher

Malkmus on FOX News

What's happened to you, Mr. Malkmus?

I finally made peace with my favorite artists selling their songs to banks and car companies but I'll have a tough time swallowing one of my all-time favorites going on the propaganda mouthpiece for the GOP. Yeeeesh.

You can see the video here.

By the way, I thought it was interesting that when they listed his tour dates, they left off his show at Mass-MOCA on Friday. I guess they figured that nobody in the Berkshires and Vermont watches FOX.


Stephen Malkmus | Hopscotch Willie | Buy

Ray's Vast Basement

OK. I know this sounds like an April Fool's joke mocking hyper-literate bands but Ray's Vast Basement really is a band from NoCal that released an entire album based upon the works of John Steinbeck. The project started when Jon Bernson of RVB was commissioned by the Actor's Theater in SF to compose music for the theater's performance of Of Mice and Men. Well, I guess Bernson just couldn't stop himself after that because he then went on to tackle Grapes of Wrath, Tortilla Flats, East of Eden and Cannery Row. What?!?! No love for Travels with Charley.

The band collected the pieces and released them last summer on their third album, Starvation Under Orange Trees. Some of the tracks suffer from the dreaded "sameness disease" that kills albums like dutch elm disease knocked off trees but when the band takes advantage of the fullness of their ensemble, they hit some high peaks. I'm not enough of a Steinbeck fan to speak to how well Bernson did in translating the books to song but I'm digging the album on a less literary level.

Ray's Vast Basement | California's Gone (Grapes of Wrath) | Buy

Ray's Vast Basement | Black Cotton (Of Mice & Men) | Buy

Stereotyping Record Store Clerks

Well, someone has gone and written another silly screed against record store clerks. You can read it here.

I'm so tired of this stereotype of record store clerks. In my nearly thirty years of buying records, I can't recall a single time I've had a store employee say anything detrimental about what I was buying. No funny vibes. No intimidating glares. In fact, it's never been anything but the opposite.

The clerks I've dealt with have been incredibly helpful. I even remember one time as a kid when I asked a clerk for help because I couldn't find any Van Morrison albums under "V". Now, that's a perfect opportunity for a clerk to take a pound of flesh out of me for making him walk me to the "M" section. However, the guy just pointed out that Van is his first name and his albums are filed under "M". Not a dismissive tone in his voice.

The fact is that over the years, I've discovered a ton of great albums due to one clerk or another. Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister was from a clerk at Tunes in Hoboken. Lambchop's How I Quit Smoking was from a clerk at Vintage Vinyl in Jersey. And The Handsome Family's Twilight was courtesy of The Cush keyboardist Michael Clifford when he was working at Buch Spieler.

I don't know why this stereotype of record store clerks has developed but I think it has to do with people lacking confidence in their purchases and externalizing that cognitive dissonance by taking a paranoid stance against the otherwise innocuous looks from the person taking their cash.

Now, those asshats at Shaw's commenting on my choice of paper over plastic...I hate those fuckers.

photo courtesy of Control Top

Black Mountain | Glasslands | Brooklyn | Feb 23 2008

After hearing about how jds and I enjoyed the Black Mountain show in Montreal last month, a friend gave me this matrix recording. It isn't the Montreal show but the one in Brooklyn from earlier in the same week. Similar setlist. It overmodulates at a few points but, in general, sounds great.

Black Mountain | Night Walks

Black Mountain | Stormy High

Black Mountain | Voices

Black Mountain | Queens Will Play

Black Mountain | Wucan

Black Mountain | Tyrants

Black Mountain | Druganaut

Black Mountain | Thirteen Walls

Black Mountain | Evil Ways

Black Mountain | No Hits

Black Mountain | No Satisfaction


photo courtesy of surgery

I'm Loving This Drummer

It's slow to start but stick with it.

I'm Not There

Last Tuesday, as part of the Green Mountain Film Festival, I caught Todd Haynes' much-talked-about Dylan biopic I'm Not There. Like everyone else that's seen the movie, I have a few opinions on it:

♪ Going into the film, I had heard rave reviews for Cate Blanchett's performance and boos for Richard Gere's. Perhaps I'm just feeling contrarian on this one but I don't see what the big deal was with Blanchett's portrayal of Dylan. Yes, it's interesting to see a woman play a man but it's not like she was recreating the image of Clint Eastwood. It's Dylan and during that era, Dylan had a lot of feminine features. Plus, she was really just mimicking the image of Dylan we've all seen in D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back. She didn't have to bring any new interpretations to the role. She basically just strived to live up to those feelings we had for the original movie. None of the other actors had that luxury.

♪ Regarding Gere's performance, while Gere didn't do much other than wander around some sets that looked like a cross between The Basement Tapes and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, he wasn't given much to work with either. His scenes were easily the most abstract of Dylan creations and perhaps people were just reacting negatively towards that sense of confusion. So, it wasn't so much the actor but what he was given to work with. I don't think any actor could have made those scenes any more clear or compelling.

♪ One thing that saved the Gere scenes and got me to perk up was when Gere rode his horse down the street and came upon...Jim James & Calexico singing on a stage. From digging the soundtrack for the last few months, I was quite aware of their fine performance of "Goin' to Acapulco" but I didn't know that Jim James (in white face) and Calexico were both going to appear in the movie and play most of the song. Nice treat. However, then I kept hoping that Gere would wander upon Antony & the Johnsons doing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Seeing Antony on the big screen would certainly have further perplexed the masses.

♪ My favorite sequences involved Heath Ledger simply because it was the first time I'd ever seen any film try to portray Dylan's years in the late 60's raising kids in Woodstock. Dylan talks about those years in Chronicles Vol. 1 and, now that I'm in the midst of child-rearing years, I found them more interesting. It just makes for a compelling contrast between the public persona of Dylan and the reality of the guy struggling with marriage and spending time with his kids. I have no idea how accurate it was but I'm glad Haynes delved into that era.

♪ I also enjoyed the quick cuts to Ben Whishaw playing Dylan at a press conference during the 60's. Ever since reading Robert Shelton's biography of Dylan, No Direction Home, where he transcribes his contentious press interviews, I've always enjoyed listening to Dylan spar with the media. Whishaw did a good job of bringing those quick clips alive.

♪ My biggest complaint with the film is the same complaint I have about most Dylan books and films...they focus on the 60's and a little bit of the 70's and then completely ignore the rest of his career. I know that people love the 60's and Dylan was a huge part of that tumultuous period but a lot has gone on in Dylan's career since the 70's. Why doesn't anyone ever want to explore what drove him into an artistic rut in the 80's but then rebound with Oh, Mercy; followed by an almost feverish period of touring that still continues today. Plus, in the early 90's, Dylan told Columbia that he would never be recording any new material. Well, what drove him to that decision and then to reverse himself with three strong late career albums? I'd love to see a film that dove into those murky waters and came up with some ideas.

♪ The sold out crowd busted out in applause at the end of the film. Am I the only person that finds that weird? Isn't the purpose of applause to let the performer know you are enjoying their work? But Haynes and the cast are thousands of miles away (and probably don't care). When people applaud in a movie theater, I feel they are just trying to show off how much they loved the film to their fellow film-goers. It's always seemed pretentious to me and when it's an artsy Dylan film, it's even more so.

♪ Oh, I almost forgot...the music was fantastic.

Beach House + Papercuts + Greg Davis | 3.30.08 | Winooski

Local presenters Tick Tick have put together a beautiful woozefest for this Sunday:

Beach House + Papercuts + Greg Davis | 3.30.08 | The Monkey House

Touring in support of their new record Devotion (Carpark), Baltimore-based two piece Beach House (MySpace) play lovely, sparse, autumnal, lovesick songs. With echoes of Mazzy Star, Spiritualized, and Nico, they'll conjure a particular atmosphere: organ-drone, slide guitar, reverb, melody, drum machine on bossa nova. Hopefully it'll be foggy in Winooski that night - expect a lush, experiential show. 

Papercuts (MySpace) is the mastermind of Jason Quever, a Californian who has collaborated with the likes of Cass McCombs and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. His album Can't Go Back (Gnomonsong) is a masterful complexity of pop hooks, rich textures, and his own distinctive croon.

Local opener and Beach House labelmate Greg Davis will start things off with a heady drone session.

$6 advanced at Battery Street Jeans, The Monkey House, Pure Pop Records or www.ticktick.org. 

$8/$10 day of show

Papercuts | John Brown | Buy

Beach House | Gila | Buy

Beach House | Astronaut | Buy

Readability Level

I have no idea what criteria this Blog Readability Test uses to create its scores but I'm guessing it just looks for specific words and sees what level of reading those words correspond to. I doubt it considers the significance of such nuanced arguments such as "The World Fastest Drummers are lame". It's probably just a simple database thingy.

Regardless, here's a rundown of the level at which you need to be reading to understand various Vermont blogs (and "Vermont associated blogs") (check out the big brain on JB...genius!):

Genius

The Le Duo

College (Post Grad)

Burlington Music Journal

College (Undergrad)

Montpelier Matters
Spitting Out Teeth
Pages Within
VermontMusic

High School

Brent's Notebook
Found Drama
Green Mountain Daily
Vermont Daily Briefing

Junior High School

A Cold Sweat
Bradley's Almanac
Candleblog
Kingdom for a Voice
Solid State
Stuck in VT
Terrapin Gardens
The Contrarian
Transistor Blast
What I Saw Today

Elementary School

Analog Giant
Angioplasty Media
Eat More Kale
Highgate
The Oyster Guide

X-Press 2 with Kurt Wagner

Want to know who deserves more than one sentence on his Wikipedia page? Kurt Wagner.

As the lead singer and songwriter for the Nashville country-soul ensemble Lambchop, the guy has put together a collection of songs that rival any contemporaries in quality and quantity (don't argue with me on this one; I'm very touchy when anyone questions Lambchop's supreme greatness). Additionally, he has a distinctive voice and vocal style where he's able to simultaneously sound like a country bubba and art school VU-lover.

Well, the DJs behind the British electronica group X-Press 2 seem to love Kurt Wagner also since they asked him to lend his vocals to their beat creation "Give It Up" on their 2007 album Makeshift Feelgood. I give them credit for seeing Wagner's voice as one that would work with dance music and I tip my hat to Wagner for pulling it off.

Now I want to hear an entire Lambchop dance album.

X-Press 2 (feat. Kurt Wagner) | Give It Up | Buy

X-Press 2 (feat. Kurt Wagner) | Give It Up (Full Club Version) | Buy


photo courtesy of personanongrata