- Aaron L. in Replicator US tour Blog - Day 22 - “9 lbs of Awexome in a 10 lb sack.” Man….I just found this. Don’t mean to get all spammy but Songbird on Linux (Ubuntu in my...
- Sizslegumeslurgek in Replicator US tour blog - entry zero. hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats....
- SoableAdjuraunrerb in Replicator US tour blog - entry zero. joslziqbxgskocyqwell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch
Has it already been fifteen years? Frankly, I didn’t take too much notice then, nor do I now (just not my thing, eh?), but It’s a Shame About Ray has been out for almost as long as it takes a person to go from birth to driving age. And they’re celebrating at the Abbey Pub, but what’s really happening is…
The Ladies & Gentlemen, a highly reputable local outfit, opens for the Lemonheads. You’ve seen their name a million times before, and said to yourself, “These guys are always at the Double Door/Reggie’s/Martyrs, maybe someday I’ll check ‘em out.” Say ‘yes’ to a Brit-ish, power pop, new wave fix. The songs are catchy as hell, and tailored to the ADD demographic, but if that’s not your thing… there’s a bar in the other room where you can state into your beer in peace.
TLAG is building up steam, and if you’re already in for the Lemonheads, get there in time for the opening act (which also includes Canasta). Maybe not headlining at the Sears Center any time soon, but get a look at these guys as their base continues to grow (which is, amusingly, directly proportional to the rate at which the band’s hairline recedes. 80’s kids on instruments in the 21st Century…).
Can you imagine how excited i was to hear that Rick Froberg, one half of the creative force behind one of my favorite now-departed bands, Hot Snakes, recently played his first show with his new band, Obits, at New York City’s Cake Shop? Can you really?
How about the excitement of hearing word on the internets that this new band, these Obits, sounds like a cross between CCR and another Froberg joint, the venerable Drive Like Jehu?
If the words “mind blown” and “enormous boner” spring to mind, you’re pretty close to accurate.
Now, take that knowledge and add, as the cherry on the top of DJ’s orgasmo-rock sundae, the discovery that the first-ever Obits show was bootlegged and posted online, and, well, this blog post could take a downright awkward and uncomfortable turn for the rest of you.
I’ll be in my bunk.
[two minutes later]
As of right now, the sendspace link for the show is still good, so download it while you can. If you’re a fan of Jehu and Hot Snakes, be assured that Obits bring the rock and bring it hard, in a more straightforward, slightly more classic rock, but still blistering Froberg style. I cannot wait for the album.
Oh, and by the way, Froberg’s longtime running buddy, Hot Snakes and Rocket From the Crypt alum John Reis, has started playing out with his new outfit Night Marchers, and like Obits, it’s everything you could hope from ol’ Speedo. Check out their MySpace and groove to some farfisa-flavored RFTC-style garage-punk. Scream, Dracula, scream!
Flushing together a confounding mix of metal, prog, salsa, and you-name-it is not the recipe for distinctness a lot of bands expect it to be. “We don’t really sound like anything else out there,” is, 9 times out of 10, a blatant lie from bands who cite belligerently divergent influences; a harbinger of indecisiveness more than breadth.
No so with Ideamen. Far better than jerking themselves off with what they have Frankenstein’d from across the rock spectrum, each song is another, “Why didn’t I think of that first?” moment for songwriters listening in. Catchy as hell too, even when they’re shredding balloons with a wood chipper. ‘Know the Dance’, for example, makes you wonder why salsa and shred-metal haven’t been partnered before as a matter of course.
The Ideamen ep Progress, from the folks that also brought you Soulvasq and the Gwen Mitchell Experiment, collects five tracks too accessible to go unnoticed, and too urgent to be disregarded. The juxtaposition of styles and frequent dynamic shifts court being a little too abrupt, but maintain a giddy arc that neither burns slow, nor too hot. The Chicago-based quintet could have made simpler songs to effectively convey its lyrical message, but the energy of Dave Solar’s vocals (surpassed only by his rubbery, comfortably awkward stage presence), and the piano and synth-heavy arrangements do the perfect job of conveying the feeling of watching priests and politicians hurl poo at each other. ‘Cavity’ is especially effective at creating a cartoony space that’s far from goofy, and mixing kazoos and stoner-rock riffs don’t sully the keen lyrics, but give phrases like, “You’re either with us or against us,” the appropriate absurdity they deserve for being spoken earnestly by humorless pundits.
A few jaded listeners might not like how accessible AND good are Ideamen, because a band with such a penchant for the complex should be spending their time bending minds and to hell with tapping toes, right? Well, who better to rattle a few cages than an aggressive dance band from somewhere between hell and Wally World?
Ideamen plays the Double Door on Wednesday, October 3, doors open at 8 PM.
Montana is big and wide, it’s why it’s called Big Sky Country. It’s also home to Wantage USA one hell of a rock label that puts out some amazing stuff (think: Fucking Champs, The Whip, Big Business, Federation-X), etc. Although we had only been to Missoula once, almost 5 years ago, we had a great time and were excited to return there.
Kum and Go!
a real chain of convienence stores/gas stations
After spending the better part of the day travelling through Montana, which again is very pretty, but also FREAKING HUGE, we finally roll into Missoula, where we stop by a local coffee shop for liquid libations for the caff-heads in the band, and delicious crepes for all. The numbers taken for orders were actually different countries, which led to endless jokes about Italy sitting with the German delegation, and France being lowest on the totem pole for food imports.
We also briefly stopped by the local army surplus store, looking at the paintball guns and butterfly knives, good times!
Missoula is a cool little town, I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly makes it different, but it is unique. It has a combination of college town, plus working class mentality and…Montana. It somehow seems to work in a way that it never has for me in say, Olympia. Everybody is very friendly and helpful and cool and the vibe is just pretty cool. I’m sure it has it’s dark side like everywhere else, but it just seems like a nice place to me.
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Hi everybody, i’m Conan Neutron, I play in the band Replicator from Oakland, CA. There are many tour diaries, but this one is mine. Thanks to the SSC gang for asking us to do it here.
Wow, i’m really, really behind here… sorry folks.
Detroit at Small’s was a fun show, if you take away the combative relationship we had with the very moody soundguy.
Chris GoGoing to Ifihadahifi
For some reason we have bad luck with sound people, but not as bad luck as the dude who was apparantly shot down the street (!)
Hi everybody, i’m Conan Neutron, I play in the band Replicator from Oakland, CA. There are many tour diaries, but this one is mine. Thanks to the SSC gang for asking us to do it here.
There are no two ways about it, by the time we had reached Boston we were pretty spent, emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted with a series of shows that, while featuring good performances and some great people, were definitely less then stellar. Morale was low and our cash flow situation even lower.
Luckily, our time in Boston was JUST what we needed, a chance to recharge the mental and emotional batteries with a day off in a kick ass city, and a well and truly wicked awesome show!
And indeed, Replicator had a wicked awesome time.
Conan telling it like it is at the show…
Replicator posing all crazy go nuts like.
But first we stayed at this place:
Our crappy hotel, which Todd dubbed “the Moneyshot motor lodge”
