Guest List by Colonel K

While I no longer read Pitchfork for the reviews, I still read it every morning to catch up on industry gossip and read the interviews. Since the essay I had planned for this week is not yet ready, I decided to poach some questions from Pitchfork’s “Guest List” and interview, um, myself.



>> Favorite Songs of the Past Year
Kanye West “Flashing Lights”
I lost interest in Mr. West after Late Registration. I dunno, perhaps I grew tired of his incessant bragging and public temper tantrums. But personal criticisms aside, this is one of the standout tracks on Graduation. The video is hot, too.

Portishead “Machine Gun”
I know Portishead were working on “Third” for a really long time, but upon listening to a pre-release copy, I can see why they were under so much pressure. How do you beat “Dummy” and “Portishead”? I know a few people who are pretty disappointed with “Third,” but I think it’s wonderful reinvention of the group's sound. It's still depressing, but I like that they're using much more jarring

Chromatics “Hands in the Dark”
When I first heard “Hands In the Dark” in my friend Scott’s car, I asked what year it was released. To my surprise, he said “2007.” It’s one of the most beautiful and haunting dance songs I’ve heard in a while. It’s perfect for night drives, too.

>> Favorite Older Songs at the Moment
The Gist “Love at First Sight”
Not to be confused with the DC band, Gist. This was Stuart Moxham’s solo project after Young Marble Giants broke up in 1981. It reminds of the grey and dingy RER stations outside of Paris. And the synth line does sorta remind me of that weird deer in headlights look when you first make eye contact with someone you're attracted to.

Blur “You’re So Great” and “Death of a Party”
These songs are back to back on 1997’s “Blur,” and I really like them because they both deal with reexamining your personal and social life, respectively. “You’re So great” is Graham Coxon lamenting his alcoholism while proclaiming his love for an unknown person. “Death of Party” is Damon Albarn shrugging off Britpop as a lame party that no one should’ve attended in the first place.


>> Favorite Song Ever
“Loaded” by Primal Scream.
I think I was at a Britpop dance night when I first heard this over a full PA system.
It always reminds me of really amazing nights out.

“Red Sleeping Beauty” by McCarthy
First time I heard this song was sophomore year of college. I was so blown away by the intro, that I asked my friend to play it 2 more times.

>> Best Recent Concert
Ghostland Observatory at the 9:30 Club.
This show was so over the top, that I had no excuse to not enjoy myself. Strobe lights, smoke machines, lasers. The works.

>> Favorite New Band
Ringo Deathstarr. Ra Ra Rasputin opened for them back in February, and I was really impressed on two counts. First, their equipment and guitar tones. Second, the songs were all really good.
I tend to be dismissive of most shoegaze revival groups, but these guys had “it.” I ended up changing my listening habits because of them. I started listening to My Bloody Valentine and Ride again; something I hadn’t done in about a year and a half.

>> Last Great Film I Saw
Control by Anton Corbijn. Every shot in that movie is flawless. He did a fine job making the transition from music videos to the big screen.

>> Last Great Book I Read
The last book I really enjoyed was “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” The story was so moving, and the descriptions were so vivid. It’s incredible that the author was able to transmit all that information simply by blinking one eye. Then again he had no other choice. I’ve also been working my way through George Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia.”

>> Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment
My Rickenbacker 360. I’d wanted a Ric for years, and during the summer after Freshman year of College, I got a job that paid really, really well. I found one for a reasonable price, and it’s been my main guitar ever since.


>> Favorite Record Shop
There are actually a lot of really good record stores in Washington DC, and they’re all located within walking distance of one another. But the one I spend the most time in is Red Onion Records & Books. I got two records that I never thought I’d see: David Bowie “Heroes/Heroes/Helden” 12” (with French, English and German versions of his 1977 classic) and the US version of Teardrop Explodes “Kilimanjaro.”

>> Best Purchases of the Past Year
1. A pair of Sperry Top Sider Boat shoes
2. A Univox 335 Custom Copy 12-string electric guitar.

The Sperrys are the most comfortable and versatile pair of shoes I own. It’s so great not having to wear socks. The only hang up is that I have to moisturize my feet so that they don’t look ashy.

The 12-string electric was something I picked up simply because it was a very good deal ($300 vs $1200+ for a Rickenbacker 12-string). It's taken some time to really get that "jingle-jangle" sound, but it's worth it.

>> Best Thing I Did This Year
Move myself to the top of my list of my priority list.

>> Favorite Venue
Black Cat. It’s close by and I’ve seen more good shows there than at any other venue I’ve frequented in the last eight years.

>> Favorite TV Show at the Moment
Well, since The Wire ended, I have no reason to watch TV anymore.


>> Favorite Video Game at the Moment
I was never into video games. We never had them when I was younger. I still can’t be bothered to play them.

>> Favorite Radio Show
I don’t listen to the radio anymore. Even though I have an AM/FM receiver, I never use it. It’s a real shame, you know?

>> My Ringtone
Beep once, then vibrate. A phone is just that, a phone.

The Colonel's Orders....WEEK of 2/25/08 TWO EVENTS, NO COVER

...because Friday is a long ways away.

WEDNESDAY 2/27
Ringo Deathstarr
with
Ra Ra Rasputin
830 PM
Wonderland. 11th and Kenyon NW
Metro Columbia Heights
21+

THURSDAY 2/28
Question. How many people have remixed music by my solo project, the Norm and the Shake.
Answer: Two. Come see one of them spin @ St. Ex in DC.

HEY!!!!! I want my money back: The worst, the most boring, most disappointing shows I’ve ever attended

I curse the fact that I was not allowed to go to big concerts when I was younger. Sure I got to go to a bunch of local shows, but never anything memorable. Hell, I remember when all my friends in junior high went to the No Doubt, Shelter and Unwritten Law show at Rockland Community College. Sure I didn’t like any of those groups (still don’t) but I really felt left out. To make matters worse, by the time I was allowed to start hanging out in Manhattan and Brooklyn, most of the amazing venues, like Coney Island High and Wetlands, were being shut down.

Thankfully, my concert-going habits changed when I arrived at University of Maryland, College Park in fall of 2000. Since then, I’ve kept a detailed list of every show I've attended. And while there were some groups whose performances changed the way I think about music (Q and Not U, Joe Strummer, British Sea Power), there have been quite a few that have left me feeling disappointed.

DISCLAIMER: Please do not take offense to the strong opinions that you will read below. They are merely a reflection of what I was feeling at the time.

December 22nd 2000
Shopping Cart Catastrophes, PF 113,DDF, Lanemeyer and others
American Legion Hall,
Norwood, NJ
My first semester at U-Md proved to be incredibly eye opening. I was brimming with new musical ideas, and I was really looking to move away from the punk and hardcore that had come to define my last year and a half of high school.
But attending this show at the Norwood Legion Hall felt like a huge step backwards.
Shopping Cart Catastrophes started out as a fun, catchy pop-punk band that reminded me of the Descendents or the Queers. But at this show, they were very self-consciously trying to become a “serious and articulate” emo band. In other words; a Rockland County version of Jets to Brazil. Man, I thought it was dreadful; a total betrayal of everything they stood for. I understood their desire to change their sound, but the lyrics were just sounded trite and they just weren’t the same group anymore.*
PF 113 and Lanemeyer? I wrote them off instantly because of their names. DDF, well those guys were part of the Nyack scene, so I sorta had to give them a chance. And while I wasn’t the biggest fan of the studs and Mohawks, I thought they sounded ok. However, I took issue with the fact that they had a song called “1977.” Come on guys, I don't care how young you were. You just don’t write a song with the same title as one of the best Clash b-sides ever.

*They also fired their tall and quirky guitarist, Kevin. Me and my crew always liked him. He was the joker of the group.
**(NOTE: Allegedly, this legion hall stopped holding shows cuz some punk kid took a shit in a cup and hid it behind the bar. Upon hearing about this, one angry old Vet grumbled something along the lines of “I can’t believe we went to war against the Nazis for the sake of you people.”)

July 6th 2001
Stinkfest 2: Shabutie, Salty Black Flour
The Fire House
West Nyack, NY
Shabutie, now known as Coheed and Cambria, were considered to be one the best bands in Rockland County. And I fucking hated them with a passion. I loathed everything about them: Claudio’s ridiculous falsetto, the band’s self-indulgent muso tendencies. I could go on for days. But most of all, I despised the fact that their sound was becoming so influential. It was around this time that the Nyack scene was becoming obsessed with their style of playing and singing. In my opinion, it set everybody back a couple of years. Moreover, people who booked shows would only hire bands that sounded or looked like them, effectively leaving everyone else out in the wilderness. It was at this show that I realized that it was going to be an uphill battle to try and get any sort of scene love for my group, Scam. I suppose I was just jealous...

March 29th 2002
Fanshen, Insults, Youth Crüe, Project Mayhem (NJ),Black November
Rutgers Univ. @ Livingston Campus Quad 1 Dorms Main Lounge
Piscataway, NJ
On this particularly warm March evening, I decided to take a trip with my good friend (and sometimes bandmate) Kevin Rankin. At the time he was in a group called Project Mayhem and we were both curious to see whether the New Jersey band with the same name was any good.
Turns up they weren’t. In fact, every band on the bill played a rather tuneless variety of hardcore. I seem to recall a group that featured two linebacker-sized lead "singers" who made it a point to show off their meathead tendencies by slamming into each other during their entire set.This was easily one of the most pointless shows I’ve ever attended: All aggression and no talent. In retrospect, we probably should've spent the evening at a diner somewhere.

April 23rd 2004
Blonde Redhead, with Secret Machines
Black Cat, Washington DC
This was the show where I realized that I was no longer liked Blonde Redhead. From the winter of 2001 to spring 2004, I was crazy about them. Man, I used to spend hours digging up information about their equipment and trying to figure out what sort of tunings they used.
Now here’s a lesson for all you live music fans: try to avoid concerts that are scheduled towards the end of a band’s tour, for most musicians are physically and emotionally drained by the time their final dates roll around. I learned that the hard way at this show. (April 23rd was the last date on Blonde Redhead's lengthy US tour).
I had really liked "Misery Is a Butterfly" (their first record for 4AD) but hearing it played live didn’t sit well with me. Kazu, Amadeo and Simon looked bored and detached when performing. As a result, the new material suffered. Where was the sexy and exotic aggression from "La Via Vita Violenta" and "Fake Can Be Just As Good"? Since then, I haven't bothered to see them play live or buy any of their records.
In retrospect, this experience reminds me of the time I had a crush on this girl. Then I found out that she was fucking around with this dude in a band I hated, and I was over her. And to make things even more awkward, I had to work with that dude for an entire summer. Homeboy told me some wild stories.

July 15th 2004
The Unicorns, Erase Errata, Moving Units, Weird War, Les Georges Leningrad, Blood on The Wall.
Some warehouse, Williamsburg, Brooklyn NYC
During the summer after graduation, I was living at my parents’ house and working a crappy data-entry job in order to save money for my upcoming trip to France. A lot of my spare time was spent working on music with friends, going to lame parties and getting into all sorts of funny shit (e.g. The Jewish Deli incident at NYU Alumni hall).
My friend Jerry and I heard about the show through MySpace and made it a point to attend for three reasons: hipster girls, "free Red Stripe (till it runs out)" and the Unicorns. We left the 'burbs at a reasonable hour, flew down I-87, transferred to I-278, found a tight parking space and bee-lined it to the warehouse only to find a line going around the fucking block. And while it was 730 PM, it was still 90 degrees outside.
When we got inside nearly an hour and a half later, we found that all the free beer was gone. After duly purchasing a few cans of Brooklyn Lager, we made our way to the stage, where Moving Units were struggling to keep the audience interested. The acoustics in the cavernous main room were terrible, and the band knew it. Every instrument sounded like mush. To make matters worse, the Unicorns wouldn’t be on till at least 2:00 AM.
We attempted to make good of the situation by hanging out in an adjacent room where a DJ was spinning garage and post-punk. We made some idle chatter with a couple of girls I knew, drank a few more beers, and finally decided that the whole shindig was not worth our time. We went home in the middle of Weird War's set.

October 27th 2005
Swollen Members, opening up for Ghostface Killah
Sonar
Baltimore, MD
(From Wikipedia)
Swollen Members is a Canadian hip-hop group hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, consisting principally of the duo Mad Child and Prevail. They have been called "two of the most innovative people in hip-hop".

TRANSLATION: PROOF THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER CITE WIKIPEDIA IN YOUR RESEARCH!

You see, Swollen Members are loosely affiliated with the Red Dragons skate/snowboard crew from Vancouver Canada. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Red Dragons gained notoriety in the Skate and Snowboard world during the 1990s for their hard drinking, hard partying ways, much of which was documented in the Whiskey video series. But history aside, Swollen Members is responsible for some of the most unimaginative and unbelievably awful music ever put to tape. Oh, and they have ZERO street cred.
These guys didn’t last more than twenty minutes***. We were booing and hissing throughout their entire set. Some of the harder dudes in the crowd decided to toss around their skater-brah fans. It’s probably a good thing that Swollen Members didn’t try to stay on longer than they did, otherwise a riot would’ve broken out.

***And according to my people in New York, Swollen Members barely made it through two songs before being booed offstage at Hammerstein Ballroom.

In Defense of the Nano: Why Less is more with Apple’s I-Pod

The problem with modern society is that we’re constantly being pressured into buying bigger and better versions of things we already own. But upon closer inspection we often find that we’re being duped into purchasing an inferior or unnecessary product.
Nowhere is this trend more evident than with the ubiquitous little box that has changed, for better or for worse, the way that we listen to music: The I-Pod.



The Saga Begins:
My first I-Pod was a 4th generation model with a 40 gig hard drive. Initially, I was thrilled to have portable access to such a large amount of music. But the technical flaws soon came to outweigh the benefits. Every now and again, the thing would just stop working or inexplicably refuse to connect to my laptop. And over time, I began to realize that I had more music than I could ever hope to fit on it.
Eventually, my I-Pod died at the end. Thankfully I was able to replace it without paying a cent because the warranty didn't expire for another two weeks. But four months later, the replacement inexplicably died as well. And to make matters worse, this was a few days before I went on vacation !!! I shook my head and cursed myself as I hiked out to the Apple Store in Bethesda, MD do the inevitable to purchase a brand new 30 gig.
(Ed. Note Unsurprisingly, the 30 joint started showing signs of early retirement this past December. It was then that I decided to start doing some research)

On the Technical Tip:
In case you didn’t already know, the larger I-Pods (20GB+) are nothing more than portable hard drives with a little view screen and a click wheel. If you listen carefully, you can hear them whirring, and huffing and puffing; making the same noises that your computer might make when it’s unhappy. And while a larger hard drive means that you can carry more music with you, it also has its drawbacks. As the folks at MacIntouch.Com pointed out:

“Carrying around a device powered by a delicate spinning drive does seem like a recipe for disaster”.

That's right ! Hard drives are sensitive to pretty much everything. Heat, cold, sweat, water, soda, you name it; your hard drive will probably hate being exposed to it. And while the folks at Apple designed this world class mp3 player with the active user in mind, the average I-Pod owner probably forgets that they’re dealing with a piece of sensitive electronic equipment.

Thankfully, Apple has offered more durable alternatives for several years. The Shuffles (1GB) and Nanos (1,2,4,and 8GBs) are both based on flash technology.Because flash drives do not contain any moving parts, and are therefore less sensitive to being jostled because there is no lag or whirring,they are much better suited for the average (and abusive) Joe or Jane.
In other words, I propose that we, as music fans, sacrifice our desire for “bigger, better, faster, more,” and settle for smaller models.
Oh, of course, some people will argue:
“ Well what if you wanna listen to a specific song and you don’t have it on your small mp3 player. Wouldn’t you find that to be a bit annoying?”
My response?
“No, not really. Besides, there are plenty of times when I wanna hear a song and don’t have it readily available. I’m used to that.It's not the end of the world, you know?”

Moreover, I believe that having a smaller mp3 player is more beneficial to both the casual listener and obsessive fan. The casual listener (read: most people who buy mp3 players) isn’t really that obsessive about how their music, and probably doesn’t need to have everything on hand. The serious music fan, on the other hand, probably has too much music (in various formats) to fit on one handy device.
Besides, having a smaller I-Pod ultimately means that you have to constantly cycle through your music. And in my opinion, this allows you to get better acquainted with your collection. I mean, come on. There's nothing more irritating than meeting people who boast about having 150 GBs worth of music and are unable to discuss any of it with any sense of depth or feeling because they have no attachment to it.

Colonel K Approved: Lode Runner & Fever

A quick glance at the event listings for this first weekend in February could easily make your head spin. But worry not; I've picked out one show that will actually be worth your time.

This Friday night @ Velvet Lounge in DC, Lode Runner and Fever will be playing a pre-game set. That's right, by the time they're done playing, you'll be buzzed enough to make moves to the next concert, party or whatever else is in your day planner.Plus, yours truly will be there taking photos and hangin' out.

Doors are at 9pm
Lode Runner (Giorgio Moroder influenced post-punk)
Fever (Straight up gorgeous pop)

Don't front:


Velvet Lounge
www.velvetloungedc.com

915 U St NW (Metro; U-Street Cardozo)
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 462-3213

Great Moments of Racial Harmony in Pop Music

You know, it's a bit funny: music is supposed to be the great equalizer among people, and yet TODAY, it's rare to see a group with black and white members. Come to think of it, you don't see blacks playing instruments in mainstream rock groups. Maybe in indie groups (TV on the Radio, Bloc Party, Black Kids, etc.) but never anything that would be played on MTV or BET. What happened? Why don't young black kids have guitar heroes anymore? Where are today's Ernie Isleys, Jimi Hendrixes and Nile Rodgers??????

I suppose that's another essay for another week...

So, as a tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr I have compiled a list of five groups who forgot about race and decided to make beautiful music together.

Love
I’ve always found it rather unfortunate that the Doors became the superstars of Elektra records during the 1960s, and not these guys. But it seems as though Arthur Lee and company were thoroughly uninterested in fame outside of LA. In fact, the group rarely left the Sunset Strip. And thanks to constant infighting and drug use, the group would splinter, leaving Lee as the only original member.
In spite of the drama, Love was one of the best psychedelic groups to emerge during the mid 60s. Their masterpiece, 1967's Forever Changes,was dark mix of jangle-pop, proto-punk and mariachi music (really). While the album failed receive much press in the US, it was well received in the UK, where it would serve as strong influence on the so-called "quiet-pop" movement of the 1980s (See my essay on the Pale Fountains).


Sly & The Family Stone
Black and white
Men and women.
Side by side.
One nation under a groove.
The first song I ever heard by Sly and the Family stone was “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” It was featured in the closing credits of a skateboard video, Second Hand Smoke by Plan B skateboards. I thought it was amazing…until I heard it on vinyl. And Vive la difference!!! The funky bassline, the sneaky rhythm guitar (which was nicked by Janet Jackson for “Rhythm Nation”), and THOSE horns.
It’s difficult to write about Sly and the Family Stone without launching into hyperbole. So much of what they did was unprecedented and just so damn SOULFUL AND FUNKY. But because their albums were out of print for so long, a lot of people began to forget how powerful they really were. Thankfully, the folks at Epic/Legacy reissued all seven of the group’s albums (you only need the first five) in 2007.


The Specials
Starting in the 1950s, large numbers of Caribbean immigrants came to cities like England to work in the factories. As a result, a large number of white kids from the Midlands were exposed to ska and reggae through their black friends.
The Specials, some of whom were children of these factory workers, were among the first to successfully combine island grooves with the DIY spirit of 1977. Lyrically, the group was in a different class. With songs like "Gangsters", "Working for the Rat Race" and the landmark single "Ghost Town", the group effortlessly described the ennui and frustration of life in Thatcher's Britain.



Talking Heads (live 1980-1985)
With albums such as Fear of Music, Remain in Light and Speaking In Tongues, Talking Heads fused African polyrhythms, gurgling synthesizers and sharp, angular guitar playing. They were, without a doubt, one of the funkiest groups (black or white) of the early 80s. In order to faithfully reproduce these albums on stage, the Heads recruited a wildly diverse eight-piece band. Among the members of the “Expanded” lineup were Parliament keyboardist, Bernie Worrell, bassist Buster “Cherry” Jones (who briefly played with Gang of Four), vocalist Nona Hendryx and Kentucky guitar wizard Adrian Belew. The result was nothing short of fantastic. Many of these people, particularly Bernie Worrell would continue to work with the band, both live and in the studio, until their breakup at the end of the 80s.

NOTE: While I do love Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, I think it's a lot more fun to look for clips of the group's jaunt through Europe. Especially the 1980 performance in Rome that was recorded for Italian television.
Highly Recommended Listing: The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads


3RD Bass
Vanilla Ice may’ve sold more records, but 3rd Bass had the street cred and the style that the Iceman could only dream of. This New York based trio was unique in that they had not one, but two capable white MCs. And even more importantly, they were embraced by the New York hip-hop community, which at the time was in its imperial phase. If you watch the video posted below, you’ll notice cameos by Zev Lov X of KMD (later MF DOOM), a pre-VH1 Flavor Flav, and numerous other heavy hitters.

Don’t you Forget about: Simple Minds

This is a new series for my blog. In addition to my usual essays, I’ll be posting YouTube videos by bands that I believe deserve a second chance.

THIS WEEK'S VIDEO: Simple Minds “I Travel”
It’s rather unfortunate that Simple Minds are only remembered for their cover of “Don’t You Forget About Me” and their shameless arena rock grandstanding during the mid to late 1980s. When they started, Simple Minds was one of the most intriguing and challenging groups around. Their first five albums, recorded between 1978 and 1982, boasted the influence of American New Wave, Giorgio Moroder, avant-garde jazz and punk. Yet their music never came off as contrived or frigid. There was always a believable emotional edge to their songs.

The song “I Travel” was the first single from Empires And Dance (1980). Vocalist Jim Kerr wrote the politically charged number after noticing the stark differences between East and West Berlin. While Kerr would later regret his “unmoved” vocal performance on the album version, he certainly makes up for it in concert. I stumbled upon this German TV performance a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to stop watching it since.



LINKS:
More Information on “I Travel”