VC009

heros and villains (0.00 / 0)

I've seen both Lou and Ornette.  One was still mind-blowing, and one was merely strange to see after so much record listening.  It's probably obvious which was which.

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by: ReeL @ Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 06:22:38 AM UTC

I could see that goin both ways (0.00 / 0)

so don't ever tell me which one is which

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by: hhex65 @ Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 07:23:56 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lou Machine Animal (0.00 / 0)

I'm thinkin his current spate of improv tours as Metal Machine Trio (judging from the recent live disc "Creation Of The Universe") might be one to catch ... don't know that I'd want to see him perform his songs at this point, especially after watching the Berlin DVD ... he sings pretty well in some of the clips from the European tour, but the actual performance featured on the DVD he's sort of terrible (and I am a very forgiving listener) although the band is amazing (same guitar player from the Rock N Roll Animal record, Steve Hunter)

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by: Kira The Cat @ Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 17:57:32 PM UTC

Berlin's not one of my favorites (0.00 / 0)

what about the shows he did with The Killers, were they any good?

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by: hhex65 @ Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 07:23:16 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lou ? Killers (0.00 / 0)

hadn't heard about that ...

there's a nice vid of Lou singing "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" which has incredible tone and at least the first half of the twelve-minute performance is well worth some attention

and as for Sonic Youth,
Thurston did a very nice cover of Lou's VU outtake "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore" sometime last year which can be found on you-tube as well

I would love to see Ornette eventually ... imagine he'll play L.A. sooner or later when I have the $$

How do you feel about Milford Graves?

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by: Kira The Cat @ Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 19:11:51 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Graves (0.00 / 0)

I know him from "Love Cry" (& other Ayler recs?) that's it

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by: hhex65 @ Tue Mar 23, 2010 at 04:23:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

milford (3.00 / 1)

took a college course with him long ago

he hooks his musicians up to a machine that projects their brainwaves on a screen then has them play along with the waves

he provides a kind of music medicine wherein he plays drums at you or gives you a tape to listen to that fixes what ails you

and he's got some recent-ish solo percussion records (1990s mostly) that are great, he mutters and howls in no language in the background while sounding like a room full of drums and gongs and things falling down the stairs

don't think he's on much other Ayler, tho, usually it's Beaver Harris or others, maybe one track on the Live In Greenwich Village discs?

strangely enough there's some youtube videos of Milford drumming with Lou Reed and John Zorn (pretty sure it's John Zorn) ... I'd like to have seen that show

he's also on Sonny Sharrock's BLACK WOMAN which is great free jazz record in the strident shrieking mode (there's a singer)

LOVE CRY is great, I named my 8-track after it

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by: Kira The Cat @ Tue Mar 23, 2010 at 22:15:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

old timers on the road...lou/muppets (3.00 / 1)

I saw Lou in Boston a few years back and it was really really satisfying - he was enjoying himself and drawing things out. It was kind of straight rock n roll fun time - sort what I would expect at a Springsteen show. Not legendary, but absolutely scratched the itch. Also: his biceps are gigantic.

Saw the Stooges in '07 in Boston also and they were fucking GREAT. I had misgivings about seeing a reunion of any sort, but the band was so right on and Iggy still does the Iggy thing, which may be a dead thing - a pose or style - but still feels alive. I like seeing a men in their sixties still killing, quells my own fears about gettin' older...

Also: recently saw Sonic Youth w/ Meat Puppets opening - uninspired Sonic Youth showing (just playing just songs) but the Meat Puppets were pretty awesome, even trotting out the hits as they were - MPII, Up On The Sun - and Curt's guitar playing is fantastic - reminds me a lot of Neil's actually - I loved these bands as a kid, and this show confirmed and reversed my frame of appreciation - used to love Sonic Youth's amateur hour abandon, but this time it was the pure unapologetic SKILLFULNESS of Curt's guitar playing that blew me away - always preferred energy and inspiration to technique as a rule, but sometimes maybe technique is enough...on a given night...

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by: gsmoss @ Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 21:44:35 PM UTC

At that Meat Puppets show in '84 (0.00 / 0)

they had smoked out during the break-- every band did two sets a night then, though you had to leave and pay again or sneak back in, whatever.

So, for the late show they did all of MPII same as the first set but bridged the songs together with improvisation-- and they'd be getting very spaced out but then Derrick Bostrom would hit a count on the bell of the ride cymbal 1-2-3-4 and they would kick into the next song like a bluegrass machine, perfect fingerpicking etc-- just loved that spectrum

SY had that too once Steve joined up, just adding that slick drumming really expanded what they were already capable of doing, I'm glad they had the balls to go that way and not drift off

I saw Dream Syndicate around that time too, with Karl Precoda and Kendra Smith still, they were very good but I think they fell off after that lineup...at the time I thought they were gonna get as big as REM eventually did

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by: hhex65 @ Tue Mar 23, 2010 at 04:41:37 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Where is Lou? (0.00 / 0)

I kneel on the street
and I tie up his feet
then I check his heart beat
seems like mission is complete
another son of a bitch has been killed

and who are all these
people staring
don't they know who I am?
I am sgt. Adolf Huckleberry
and I feel like I'm a missionary

people walking by
holding their hands
talking romance
it makes no sense
to me

I got a gun and I know how to use it
wanna see what I can do with it?
I'll put it in your mouth
and i'll blow your brains out
don't you mess with me
I'm carrying a gun

to serve and protect
your fragile communities
from the Devil you know you don't know
the Devil you know you don't know

he could be just like a stranger
who is walking down your street
peeking through your window
while you're half asleep
your life is in danger
you gotta put your trust in me
take a book of bible
and pray away your sins

but someone stole the book of bible
from underneath your pillow
if you don't get hurt tonight
you sure will tomorrow

as i was falling half asleep
I got up to brush my teeth
i looked into the bathroom mirror
and there he was and said: Allright!
We're gonna rock n' roll all night!

and then he took me to his claws
and flew me over the canyons
into the land of gloom and pest
and there he dropped me in his nest
and then he poked me with his horn
and said: Hey Lou, are you hungry?
I said yes, and he fed me kingsize worms.

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by: najemnik @ Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 01:34:28 AM UTC

the devil (3.00 / 1)

"the devil you know you don't know" is a fantastic line.

Best Trux show = '98 Spaceland in Silverlake CA, just after 3 Song EP came out, Neil playing with what was then a new model of Dan Electro pedal (distortion or delay)...did Shaker Life and an amazing drawn out and dynamic version of Back to School (which I used to have a bootleg cassette of, where it's gone I do not know) and Dave Pajo played an endless version of The Yellow Kid for an endless encore. A bright spot in a bad year...  

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by: gsmoss @ Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 03:10:50 AM UTC

...probably with Jon Theodore on the drums? (0.00 / 0)

Pajo was great

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by: hhex65 @ Tue Mar 23, 2010 at 04:42:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Wait a minute... (0.00 / 0)

...Jimmy Buffet?

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by: gsmoss @ Fri Apr 02, 2010 at 04:43:32 AM UTC

and the coral reefer band (0.00 / 0)

it was a long time ago, 80-81?...something like that-- he had a broken leg.

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by: hhex65 @ Sun Apr 04, 2010 at 13:37:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]