Big Takeover 30th Anniversary Final Post!!! Put a stake in it already!!

There were a few more bands I wanted to talk about briefly that appeared in Brooklyn that weekend. One was Libertines a band from the 80's from Cincinnati. Without the Big Takeover I probably would have never heard of them. They had been defunct for many years and only recently have reunited. This was their first ever New York appearance. I thought that they were pretty good, but I wasn't knocked out like I was with the other bands. They were selling a compilation cd of their works for $5 at the merch desk, so I picked it up. Well worth purchase. I'm listening to it right now & liking a lot. They sound like a revved up REM maybe a little like the Montreal Punk band, the Nils. The singer had what I would deem a very Lunderganesque quality to him which is high praise indeed. Before you go checking Webster's, its not there..... yet. He is a friend who I was in a band with at college who went on to be in the Golfpunk band The Divots. He also brought to life my idea of covering the Welcome Christmas (Bahoo Doray) song from How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon in a loud fast manner. And brilliantly. Besides being a real hockey player/coach. Anyway, for personal reasons I had to like these guys, & now that I'm hearing the songs, I think not being familiar with their set list was the main reason I was a little unimpressed.

Another band I wanted to mention was Sleepover Disaster. This was their first New York appearance and they are a band from Fresno that are part of the shoegazer movement, bands influenced by Sonic Youth, Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine. I thought that they were a really terrific sounding three piece,sonically intense, but with ferocity more like punk rock. For the most part I found them really good, interesting, but at certain times they would break into these amazing instrumental passages that were completely off the charts. These huge almost dubby loops over squalling beautiful feedback--I kept having these images in my head of Godzilla crunching cars & buildings in Tokyo during these moments. Again there was not that much interest from the crowd to begin with, so I made sure I made my way up toward the front, because I like supporting bands, and I've discovered bands that I really like quite accidentally, so it always pays to keep your ears open. I probably will go into a lot more detail about that in future posts. I think anyone at this fest who gave these guys a chance was well rewarded as was I.

30 years is a long time for a music magazine. A lot of magazines that I liked have bit the dust, or became crappy, for a variety of reasons. And Jack is somebody who keeps it real and in a lot of ways the magazine has stayed the same, adhered to its principles. It has expanded on these principles, and no doubt the musical palette has expanded over the years, but I don't think the basic product has been altered, which comes from a search for good innovative passionate music. I hope they have a festival every year even for only one night, and a few bands. I think if anybody could get a revived original lineup of the Saints over here, it would be Jack. Ed Kuepper & Chris Bailey reunited in Australia on stage a while back, but wouldn't that be a great thing to see over here!!. For those who don't know, the Saints were one of the greatest punk bands ever, who were around in some form even before the Ramones, and put out threes lps before they split up. Hated in their own country at the start as punk was despised then , hated when they came to England because they didn't look like cookie cutter punks (long hair). Judge them for their music. A great disc to pick up is the Wild About You 2 cd set on Raven Records, which compiles this original incarnation of the band. Unfortunately seems to be out of print. Or pick up the box set, or at the very least their first album "Stranded". If you like the Ramones, Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Damned, this is essential music.
At the very least subscribe to the Big Takeover-- 4 huge issues for 20 bucks American. The best Music Magazine for Punk/Alternative/etc. you can find. I guarantee you will discover at least one new favorite band if you buy an issue.

More On Big Takeover's 30th

Went back to Brookyln for more music on Saturday, the 2nd day of the BT fest. Missed the 1st 2 bands (would have liked to see Paul Collins), but caught most of the set of The Sharp Things, a large symphonic pop band, (think Zombies, Love). They were OK--I liked what they were trying to do and you really don't see a 10 piece band with violins, trumpet, & flute everyday. To be fair, it must be complicated to set up & coordinate such a big ensemble, so I think under other circumstances I would have liked them better

Even though a brief set, seeing Don McGlashan ex-Mutton Birds was an event I had been looking forward to for a long time. Envy of Angels, produced by Hugh Jones (who also produced Echo & the Bunnymen's Heaven Up Here!!), is one of the great kiwi albums, unfortunately never released in the US. I don't believe they ever toured here either. He really is a great songwriter, and played songs solo with acoustic guitar & french horn, and with a band of Jack Rabid on drums & the Posies/Big Star Jon Auer on bass. The set was entirely too short, but it was great that he came from New Zealand to join in the celebration. Got to here the poignant "while you sleep" live!

Jon Auer also performed a short set. Love the Posies. Could go on about Big Star for a month. Only 1 original member left now, Jody Stephens. Lost Alex Chilton in March and just recently Andy Hummel. Chris Bell died tragically more than 30 years ago. Anyway the Posies are simply terrific musicians with unbelievable harmonies who sort of fell off the radar after the first few albums. Some power pop purists seemed to scorn them because they alternatized & punked up their sound. I don't have any problem with bands evolving, so I think it is all rather silly. Creative people aren't going to sit still. Solar Sister is one of my favorite songs, & I had never seen the Posies before so I was looking forward to this.

Unfortunately, in between sets, people didn't seem get back to the stage in time, so he started playing to a handful of people. I made sure to get up near the stage, as it seemed a little weird for an act of this pedigree to be ignored. Thankfully it was not long before people came back inside to listen. He gave a solo set,  distinguished by a very dark self-deprecating humorous patter between songs. He played some things from his terrific solo album,  a song from their upcoming new album & a Chameleons cover. The vibe was very much like his birthday album, where he did a set in the living room of friends. Very enjoyable.

The penultimate band that evening was For Against, a power house of a band who performed live on this coast for the first time in 16 years. They went through a tight ascetically powerful set. Another one of the great american bands that I think a lot of people don't know about. That could be a catchphrase for a lot of the music in this festival. Jangly & dour at the same time, its very easy to think of REM & Joy Division stuck in a blender. Sometimes the interplay betweens the instruments gave off almost an aural strobe effect. The singer reminds me so much of lead singer in my college band (Tom), who was in ROTC and had to down to Camp LaJeune in SC. They really delivered the goods and I again was very happy that I came to Brooklyn.

Jack Rabid's band Springhouse played sets on both evenings. The first thing you would notice about this band is the pretty unique sounding guitar sound, maybe making the guitar sound almost organ like, swirling & full. It looked like an amped up acoustic guitar with vinyl strings. Another thing I noticed is the drumming, a very important part of this band. I don't claim to be an aficionado of drums, but even I notice things sometimes. He is a good creative drummer, not ostentatious, but switching things up and driving the music to better things. It makes a difference. I went to a blues festival in Jersey & the roteness and sameness of the percussion made the music so bland & boring. Contrast that with the jump blues of a Levon Helm & you can see what a difference creative drumming can make. I saw Calexico at Tarrytown Music Hall last year & was blown away by John Convertinos drumming/percussion & realized that he almost looks like he is playing on a childrens drum set. In high school I saw a local band & the drummer had like 80 drums & 102 cymbals in his set. To play the outer reaches of his drum set he would have had to get up & run to the end of his drum kit or maybe if he was part mutant spider he could have utilized what he had at hand. I remember seeing Elliot Smith backed by Quasi at Tramps in NY, with Janet Weiss pounding the holy hell out of the drums, making Baby Britain sound more like London Calling. Anyway digression is my middle name. What I'm trying to say is he helped keep things fresh & energized. I think I enjoyed the 2nd Springhouse set a little more, when they went with a four man combo and played Postcards from The Arctic in its entirety. Very nice indeed. They just put a new album out after being defunct for many years with one of those very interesting letterpress cardboard covers.

Of course the biggest stir was the final act--I've already heard what some people have said--that this set was one of the greatest rock performances they had ever seen. I could go along with this. The Mark Burgess Band, the former lead singer of the Chameleons with a white hot backing band. I thought it would just be Mark Burgess, but this was quite a capper to a great event. They played a long & ferocious, passionate, at times hypnotic set of Chameleons tunes. You would come along through droning psychedelic passages only to be catapulted into hyper aggressive in your face pounding driving bliss. Listening to Burgesses backup band I kept thinking about Nick Cave's birthday party for some reason. I recall someone referring to them more as a gang than a band & I got a little of that vibe here. And Mark Burgess really pulled out the stops himself, putting on a brilliant show, yet on another footing,he performed with a certain joy, knowing on another level that he was at a party, and was celebrating his heart out. What a set !!! I would definitely pay big bucks to see this lineup again!!! I only wish my friend Mr. Baseball had been there, who is a huge fan of the Chameleons and other British Neo-psychedelic bands. He would have freaked.

One more post on this for Sleepover Disaster & Libertines.

30th Anniversary continued...Shock & Awe from Dynamo in Flip-flops

All Killa.....Filla, fair to negligible.

One of the big reasons I made my way south from the bucolic Hudson Valley to Brooklyn was see Seattle's finest. No, not Sir-Mix-A-Lot. (Don't misconstrue--I love that peer-he just was someplace else that night-check out youtube for his charming banter with Queen Elizabeth during his knighting ceremony). I'm talking about the Mighty Mighty Visqueen.

Not long ago I had no idea who they were, but there was a rave revue in the BT for Sunset on Dateland, the 2nd album. Based on said advice I purchased said album & was completely blown away by everything, the kinetic drive of the songs, the passion, catchy riffs, strong vocals. I got everthing I could, the equally great 1st album King Me, the Young Fresh Fellows tribute album which they have one track, & some children's record where they do a nice version of John Fogerty's Center Field. I bought the damn t-shirt! and would occasionally use myself as a human billboard in downtown White Plains. It had been a long time since I had an album make such an impression on me. The band is just great, & Rachel Flotard, the guitarist/singer/songwriter, is just so disgustingly talented. I can't understand how this music hasn't garnered more attention. Maybe its just sort of the history of the music business--market failure, where money that in theory should be utilized for the greatest return either qualitatively or renumeratively is getting flushed down the toilet so cookie cutter teenage soap opera stars can storm the charts & the distinction between songwriters & performers is underlined & bland is the new Grunge. I mean Rachel is originally a Jerseyite, and Jersey is the new flavor for the terminally bored. I'm still waiting for SNL to do a parody, Real Vampires of New Jersey. Maybe in Seattle maintaining a tan is just economically unfeasible. Or she doesn't call herself "the preposition". The reality is, she probably is Jersey's best export since Bill Bradley.

The new album Message to Garcia is terrific, very diverse tunes with thoughtful lyrics. I've been reading up on the internet on her and she has been through some tough times recently, nothing scandalous, but a subject I don't really want to broach here. It's out there already.What I will say is that she has come back with a vengeance, and the new incarnation of the band is really great, as I can attest from the Bell House. Ben Hooker is an excellent drummer and Cristina Bautista was an energetic performer on bass. Rachel was completely riveting on stage totally dynamic and in fine voice. (also a good sense of humor on stage, a rarer thing than one would think.) A great performance leaving me no more stupified than if she started the set rising up on stage playing guitar standing in a clam shell a la boticelli. Sorry about my overactive imagination.

Here is an idiosyncratic opinion of mine. Some people might think its a little sexist but I feel its a high compliment. Sometimes I wonder about women in rock and there are great ones, but imagine sometimes that at least up until recently that young women who want to pick up a guitar and start a band, maybe their role models might be Pete Townsend, the Stones, The Clash, music to emulate all well and good. I know there are amazingly talented women out there, Sleater-Kinney, Joan Jett, Bjork, Penelope Houston, Blondie, Chrissie Hynde,Siouxsie, Exene, Kim Gorndon, Joni Mitchell, Sleeper, Lush,etc. But I think that if my godchildren or niece were starting a band, I would send them a Visqueen cd, and I would say this is a good place to start. You can hear the Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, Nirvana etc, but she really has her own thing going, she writes her own lyrics, plays ferocious guitar,sings with passion, and clearly when you hear the new album she has set her own course. Also records on her own label! Just like a painter, you ground yourself in the field before you before you find your unique way, like a process. And I think she is at least as good as the female artists I mentioned, (well maybe not Joni).



If you are fortunate enough to have this band playing near you, by all means get out and see them. You will not be disappointed. After the Avengers walked off the stage, I rushed out since I had a bit of a drive. And there was Ms Flotard out in the street chatting with somebody next to a Pt Cruiserish vehicle. I thought  about saying great show,  or you rock!!, or maybe even Girl Power!!, but..awkward, you know 1:30 a.m., Brooklyn, quiet street, itchy drunk guy with hair starting to resemble Oglethorpe from Slapshot, I Rabidded out as in post one. I did the same thing with Robyn Hitchcock at Maxwell's, so there is a pattern of behavior developing here. I guess then in the words of the great Robert Pollard, I wasn't "that drunk". But all three of those sentiments were at least conveyed on a psychic level. Hey, in a parallel universe that band is filling arenas, entourages, hordes of dancers on stage. Of course they are so good that they don't need those last two distractions. That's the other music biz.

ps Flipflops: Hey I'm not a foot fetishist, but I accidently looked down during the set to see flipflops. For some inexplicable reason that seemed really cool and down to earth. And not it that old Huey Lewis "hip to be square" or George Bush someone I could have a beer with thing. Its not something I generally think about--a random observation. But it reminded me of an anecdote--a favorite album of mine Odyssey by James"blood" Ulmer came out in the 80's, (I actually found out about this in music review in Newsweek magazine) and maybe 15 years later they had a reunion concert at the Knitting Factory. Unique power trio, harmelodic guitar, drums & fiddle. Ulmer was there in harmelodic snakeskin cowboy glory, and I really enjoyed the live renditions of that excellent bluesy laid back spacy swagger of an album, which makes me think about life growing up in a rural southern town for some reason, which is pretty far from where I was raised. But something was nagging at my consciousness--it was the fiddler, Charles Burnham, there was something about that guy. I think he has some jaunty little hat on, okay, not a big deal. Is it the goatee? Plenty of people wear goats, though his was a little longer & seemed to come to a point. So what if he had a little vest on? But I suddenly looked down to the stage, and lo and behold! The man was wearing a pair of Ali Baba pointy slippers!!! He was actually dressed up like one of Santa's elves & I broke into uncontrollable laughter. And it took me about an hour to figure it out. But it was still all very cool. If Cecil Taylor can play piano in Jane Fonda leg warmers, why not this?? You just can't make this stuff up.

Anyway go support this band so we can all go see them again in New York. Soon. More bands to blab about soon.

Big Takeover at 30--Can Rabid still be trusted? No Sleep in Brooklyn

As a  long standing loyal reader of the Big Takeover Magazine, I made the trek down to the Bell House in Brooklyn for the 2 day music festival. I don't know him personally or had any involvement with the magazine, but I really wanted to show my support for my favorite magazine and also see a bunch of performers who I have wanted to see perform for years. A lot of magazines have fallen by the wayside over the years yet he has continued on for years with dogged tenacity. And his devotion to finding great music and spreading the word has resulted in him getting talented musicians from across the globe to come to Brooklyn for a celebratory bash.

I was in a Borders store many years ago on my lunch break looking at music magazines. And that was when I noticed The Big Takeover for the first time. At the time I was a big music fan who was getting a little bored with music. And there it was--Issue 42- Radiohead. To this day like Bilbo Baggins and his "precious" in The Hobbit , I'm still not sure whether I found the magazine, or the magazine found me. Embarrassingly, I was ignorant of Radiohead, dismissing them as some over hyped big label flavor of the month band. But, there was a blurb on the cover about Stiff Little Fingers the phenomenal Irish punk band, who I have been fortunate to see a few times. Got home, read the magazine for 2 days straight. (Love Radiohead--The Bends most listener friendly-Ok Computer- somber soundtrack album for the end of the millennium.) A great magazine, intelligent, loyal to the music, great enthusiasm. And the magazine is so loaded with content (to the uninitiated, be prepared to read a lot) On his recommendation I got the self produced 2nd album by Whipping Boy that I had to e-mail the guitarist of the band to obtain. But he would just as equally laud a big name major label act if they created a worthy product. And he name checks artists who maybe don't have a project to push at the moment, but deserve their due, to not ever be forgotten. And in this society things get forgotten in the blink of an eye. You only have to look at the current political situation in our country to appreciate this. I really have found out about so many bands that I would have otherwise not known about without this magazine. Bands like Glide, Mutton Birds, Leatherface, Gene, Pointed Sticks, The Saints, and many many more. One of my favorite things about the shows were how many musicians came on stage and said that the Big Takeover was the best music magazine in the world; and while such statement are opinions, I think such opinions are not hyperbole.

Anyway, I get in the door of Bell House. Nice venue, decent selection of good domestic beer, performance area sort of barn like. Who strolls across but the editor himself--he's sort of looking at me, thinking, should I know you? He's had so many minions working for him and interviewed so many musicians over the years that I could have been one for all he knew. But my brain was baked from sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and I am an unpeople person to some extent, so I went to front bar and drank instead of some awkward "I think your magazine is cool" banter. But I guess I really am a believer--when Jack mentioned on his website that the shows may sell out, I truly like to believe that I live in world where things like this do happen and I made sure I got tickets well in advance.

Maybe someday this show will be the fodder of babbling cool people, like the Sex Pistols show in Manchester, which you would think must have been held in a soccer stadium instead of a university hall. Yeah, she was at Bell House, I was there, Diddy was there. There was a good turnout, no Justin Bieber level of hysteria. But I have to say that I do feel like a lucky punk. There were some great great performances and I love it when I see something great that I'm ignorant of and get completely floored. It's happened many times before so I keep my ears open and not just music. Flower is a NYC band I've heard of who I know has a member who is in Versus, but I don't know their music. They were absolutely great, and that was the first band on! That was definitely a highlight in a festival with a lot of highlights. They have been defunct for 16 years supposedly, but I hope they do more things because they certainly didn't appear to be rusty or worse for wear. They were had a nice intense squall to them. I think they have an out of print CD with 2 of their albums compiled on 1 which I really have to get.

Another highlight (mildly stated) was the final band on the bill the legendary Avengers, without a doubt one of the greatest  and most exciting punk rock bands ever, one of the greatest American groups ever to hit the stage. I was supposed to see them a bunch of years ago when they reformed for an East coast tour with some bands on the Lookout! label. That day there was a monsoon and there must have been a foot of rain, flooding everywhere, and I just could not get down there. But finally on Friday I got my very delayed gratification. I had noticed the guitarist Greg Ingraham wandering around the bar, having no idea who he was. But its an intangible thing, but my spider senses noticed the intense rock aura. Some people just have this. Like at a hockey arena when you see a guy walking around with an average build who's legs just seem to big to fit in his pants. You know the guy is a player. The Avengers guitarist is a Punk rock guitar hall of famer.Hear him play for 10 seconds and you would concur. Such intensity. Penelope Houston is everything and more, a completely engaging intense singer. The whole band played with ferocity and chops and the crowd was loving every second of the set. The band is one of the most unknown and under appreciated rock bands that I know of, but music every fan of challenging rock and roll should own. Unfortunately part of the problem is that the "pink album" is not readily available, though I believe the Avengers website has CD-R's of the album. Seeing the Avengers is definitely one event I will never ever forget and made me very very happy. So a belated thanks, Jack.

More on the show in the next posting......I have a lot to say about a mighty mighty band from Seattle that made the Haj to Brooklyn and should be a household name.