white noise

There’s no doubt that Thriller (the track and the video) encouraged my love of Halloween and zombies. Thriller was quite possibly the first cassette I ever owned. I remember making a copy from someone (ah, the days before RIAA suits) and listening to it constantly with my awesome new Walkman. I remember to listening to Mom’s records before that (Pink Floyd and Foreigner most of the time), but getting the walkman was really the start of building my own musical collection. I was in sixth grade then – young enough to enjoy pop music unabashedly. Adolescence would bring new preferences. But in ’82 if I wasn’t at the arcade dropping quarters into Pac-Man or Galaga, I probably had headphones on and more than likely Thriller was running over the play head.

I may not listen to that music a lot anymore, but it’s refreshing to hear Michael pop up from time to time. I’ll be damned is this wasn’t one of the best feel good scenes I’ve seen in years:

Yesterday brought the debut release from Street Sweeper Social Club – the new band featuring Boots Riley (The Coup) and Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine).

The sound of SSSC is almost exactly what you’d expect from mashing up Boots and Morello – politically infused rap grooves with heavy guitar riffs and experimental solos all leading up to choruses meant to be sung loudly. Some criticize Morello for always sounding the same (from Rage, to The Nightwatchman, to SSSC), but that’s the nature of having a signature sound. There’s actually a lot of variety to what he does, but it’s always unmistakably him. As for Boots, he brings a great presence to the band – a little more chill than Zack de la Rocha, but also just as explosive. To put it simply, if you like Rage you will almost certainly love SSSC (or if not, don’t expect to be won over).

We saw SSSC open for NIN last month and even though we missed a few of their songs I was completely impressed. The band was crazy tight. Boots strutted and danced while he threw down. And Morello? That guy is a magician. He’s got blazing fret work. He DJ scratches over the pickups. But it was when he soloed with his face that we lost it. Here’s a video someone shot from the pit of the show we saw:

Just a note that I’m beginning to post something I’m listening to every week (give or take) over in the sidebar. Just spreading a little musical love this year. Party on Garth!

This week’s pick, “Dawn of the Dead”, falls squarely into my recent mode of all things undead (with reading “World War Z” and playing “Left 4 Dead”). This track by the British group Does it Offend You Yeah? is a guilty pleasure of mine of late. Along with that ultra poppy hook, I gotta give props to the combination of the Killers-esque guitar line, some very unexpected steel drums, and the tribal “Ooos” and “Ahs”.

We caught They Might Be Giants in concert last night at southgate house. Unless I’m forgetting something this is my second time seeing them; the last being well over ten years ago. They put on a heck of a show, with everything you’d expect from them…a few classics, a few new songs, lots of humor, audience participation, and good a backing band. Since I haven’t listened to a new Giants CD in ages, the highlights for me were the Flood hits “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, “Particle Man”, and the closer, “Istanbul”. They also played “Twisting” and “Whistling in the Dark” so, Flood was really well represented.

Their opener (the real point of this post) was Oppenheimer, a synthy drum and guitar duet (Shaun and Rocky) from Belfast, Ireland. Their sound is a bit like a The Postal Service, but with more pep and cheer. At times I hear a Her Space Holiday tint to them, and other times something more along the lines of We Are the World Trade Center. I enjoy all these bands I’ve just drawn comparison to, so Oppenheimer hits the mark for me, too.

Speaking with Rocky after the show, he told me this was their third time to the area – second time at SGH and once at the Comet. They were thrilled with this show since their first gig at SGH had about 20 people standing around. Anyway, I picked up their CD and it’s under heavy rotation. (Yes, I actually bought a CD. I’ve all but given up that archaic practice, but I’ll still gladly fork over $15 if I can give it straight to the artist – instead of the store, the distributor, the label, etc.). If you like synth-pop that’s low on testosterone, check em out:

Oppenheimer – Saturday Looks Bad to Me

Oppenheimer – Breakfast in NYC

Dave, Donna, and I had a blast in Indy on the 3rd. Bauhaus and NIN played a great show. The Bauhaus sound didn’t translate well outdoors in the daylight (dusk), but it was still awesome to see Peter Murphy (for the first time) and Daniel Ash (again since I saw L&R; 16-17 years ago). They closed with a cape-swirling rendition of Bela Lugosi’s Dead which was freakin perfect.

Then Trent and company came on and rocked for close to two hours. They played a lot of old favs (probably just 4 shy of the entire Pretty Hate Machine album) and the new singles (e.g. Only, Hand that Feeds, Every day…). They also played a number of great song I’d completely forgotten about– like the Piface project’s “Suck” and “Burn” from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. Quiet moments like “Something I can never have” and “Hurt” (performed solo) gave us some rest through the otherwise exhausting set. He closed with bringing Peter Murphy back on stage for “Final Solution” and lastly “Head Like a Hole”.

What was it?

Big ass concert in Chi-town! Two days, 5 stages (plus one for kids), over 60 bands. This was our third Lollapalooza, and while it may not have beat the first one, it was huge.

Early Acts

The first day started around noon, with a little M83 on our way into the park. Once in, we headed straight for The Dead 60’s ( a very fun ska/Clash-influeneced band – check em out live if you can). They play better to a small venue like when we saw them open for Garbage, but they still rocked out. “I gotta have more cowbell!”

We milled around a while after that, catching a little of Liz Phair’s act (just too poppy!), and from there we set up a blanket to enjoy The Bravery. Their set sounded great, but their performance plays a lot to the people up front, so we didn’t feel much energy from our vantage point.

Content with having watched them do “An Honest Mistake” and “Tyrant”, we made an early exit to get good stage position for the next act…

With a Rebel Yell

Billy Idol. This is a guy I never thought I’d see live – after all, that was a different era. But the Brit was back and as lean and mean as ever. His set was a blast…full of classic hits (“Rebel Yell”, “Dancing with Myself”, “White Wedding”, “Eyes without a Face”, “Flesh for Fantasy”)…and the crowd was rocking out.

Pixies

This was the highlight of the concert for me. An hour after Idol rocked the stage, Frank Black, Kim Deal, and company tore it up with over an hour long set. We were standing about 8-9 people back from the front of the stage. It took standing an hour in 100 degree heat to get that spot, but it was worth every drop of sweat. Hearing songs like “Monkey Gone to Heaven”, “Debasser”, “Broken Face”, “Here Comes Your Man”, “Wave of Mutilation” (twice!), and the closer “Where is My Mind?” is something I’ll never forget.

Day 1 Nightcap

How to conclude such an awesome day? While most of the kids were grooving on Weezer’s cheesy goodness, we decided instead to kick it with the Digable Planets. Donna and I saw them back in the hay in Columbus, and seeing them together again was a lot of fun. The Chicago skyline and ‘Nickelbags of Funk’…a perfect nightcap.

Back for (a little) more

Saturday was phenonemal…and exhausting (we got up early and drove up that day before everything started)…and Sunday was even hotter. Temps hovered around 105 to 110 with some heavy humitity. This day consisted of more up-and-coming bands so we chilled (I mean roasted!) on a blanket and enjoyed more of the festival atmosphere itself. We watched Kasabian (would love to we them again), a little of Tegan and Sara, and a good chunk of Perry Farrell’s latest project, Satellite Party (with bassist Tony Kanal from No Doubt). The latter was quite cool, a definite notch above Porno for Pyros.

But alas, we had to hit the road. A 5+ hour drive and the need to be up early to teach the next day, meant we had to miss The Arcade Fire and The Killers (sniff, sniff).