- Doug Stephen in FOR FUCK SAKE EVERYONE KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE GOD DAMNED ACCORDIONS JESUS CHRIST Woah, okay Vice Magazine.
- Doug Stephen in Vampire Weekend - S/T I’ve never listened to a solo Paul Simon record, or to Graceland, so I don’t know about that. But the songs I’ve heard by Vampire Weekend...
- bjyhore in New Single: Patrick Wolf’s “Accident and Emergency” She had actually been robbed of it cant be cruel. Mistress. I could do. jennifer lopez porn Three.
Well, it’s been ten days since the big event, and i’m sure all y’alls in Internet Land have been wondering: “So, Superstarcastic, how was the first ever Superstarcastival, a Benefit for Concern Worldwide?” Well, i’m glad i asked for you. Please for me to fill you in:In case you haven’t been paying attention (or have been paying attention and have a dangerous recall deficiency that borders on Reaganesque), i happen to play drums for Milwaukee’s own aural equivalent of the Coca-Cola/Mentos experiment, IfIHadAHiFi. Thus, our story begins with the band arriving at Chicago’s Beat Kitchen for load-in at 4:30. We weren’t the first to arrive as power-pop punks The Lusties were chilling outside with the $2 Berghoff Reds that were the bar’s special that day. Michael “Literati” Lustie didn’t need to try very hard to sell us on those–by showtime at 8 PM i was committed to drinking water until after our set in order to bring myself down to “buzzed enough to be dangerous onstage” from “too drunk to keep any kind of beat.” Yeah, for being full-blooded Sconni, i’m a bit of a lightweight.
As i worked on this, i was introduced to several of my SSC brethren and sistren (no, i don’t care whether or not that’s a word), including Sam, Zak, and Amber (who needed no introduction, as she’s hard to miss), who had no problem at all finding me thanks to my caving in to her demand to bring my high school hesher jean jacket to the starcastival. As the introductions were underway, The Lusties kicked off the night with a solidly-executed set of punk friggin’ rock, Lunachicks-style (if yer askin’ The Fucking Wizard–and you are), which led to equally stellar sets from Das Kapital and Pool of Frogs, whose Tenacious-esque vocalist bravely attempted to remember the name of the charity we were raising money for, with entertaining results for the audience.
For my money, i thought we played fairly well, and judging by my perception of the audience response, i think most people agreed. I had a problem with constantly exclaiming that the money raised was going to feed little Abu in Tanzania for 21 cents a day, which is absolutely ridiculous, as everyone knows that kids in Tanzania aren’t named that. I dunno; adrenalin does weird things.
The Red Tie Affair closed things out with a solidly driving set of charged indie-rock that sent the crowd home happy, and it was on to the schmoozing and drinking for the SSC writers and The HiFi. It was also time for KARAOKE ON DEMAND at Zak’s place, and those who braved the afterparty witnessed JoshD/MrAlarm/The Fucking Wizard tearing some early Madonna a new ass. Eventually, i think people were scared away by such antics as the band and Joie growling through “Whiskey in the Jarrrr-oh” in the style of Metallica, but fuck ‘em, they don’t know how to rock. Or something.
Anyway, big thanks about to the Beat Kitchen, the other bands, Joie for working her fracking ass off to make this a reality, Amber and Sam for traveling long distances, and (i think her name was) Brittney (or something) for being incredibly, staggeringly, entertainingly drunk, and for calling me a moron for being from Wisconsin. I truly hope you didn’t get the alcohol poisoning, my dear.
And Now: Photos!
Edie Lustie shakes it and shakes it well.
“Thanks to Worry Worldwide–er, wait!” Pool of Frogs feels it.
Like i’m not going to run a photo of my own band. As if.
Writers conference! Guess which of us are durnkn! (Note: The jacket looks way better on me than draped over my bass drum. Don’t deny it, ladies.)
Davin Youngs took these. He’s swell.
I can’t wait to see this band, or at least ask them about the Karl Marx reference. But first…
Some bands opt to throw in some tricks to distance themselves from the pack. I’m short on concrete examples, but I’ve been dragged (or did the dragging myself) to plenty of shows of bands whose names I forget where a cerebral edge is confused with mystifying the audience. I think of the guy dressed like The Gimp spraying the audience with a turkey baster full of God-knows-what. Of course, that was back in Cleveland, and the band needed to do something to get the audience’s mind off the music. What I’m talking about are tricks, distractions, contact lenses that make your eyes yellow… it’s been known to fill the seats. For awhile, at least.
So there are those kinds of bands, and then there are the rare birds whose music kicks ass with the artillery they’ve got, at any time of day, and at any time of Man, or at least post-hippie man. Count Chicago’s Das Kapital in the latter category. Fully-equipped to remind you that rocking-the-fuck-out still does and always will work, their combination of straight rock and punk energy is unique for its honest execution if not originality. Let’s not forget that their chord progressions and key-changes are well above most of what gets filed under ‘punk’, so thank lyrics about religion, social interaction, drinking in Chicago, and obscure characters from required elementary school reading played through music that is so primal that you forget it can still be made.
Imagine some well-read, corn-fed Midwesterners burrowing into the basement of a building somewhere west of the Kennedy Expressway and having a fucking great time ripping out some clean, fast and mind-sticking hooks. There are organ licks on songs like ‘Set Adrift Again’ and ‘Old Blue’ that are pure rock, and lacking the sneering that comes from the Green Day wannabe’s, Das Kapital is more interested in a good, noisy time than in inciting fervor, or slack-jawed drooling, for that matter. Smart rock that lacks pretension and self-righteousness? Someone’s got to do it.
Anger is also a gimmick too oft used by people who shouldn’t be given drivers licenses, let alone guitars and microphones, but these guys have no hubris to defend and they’re not out to fool you by being angrier-than-thou. Sure, they’re pissed about the shit that goes on in the world and locally, but who isn’t? Not like the mouth-breathing punks and their minions who still think that Bush-bashing is ‘edgy’ (though some things don’t get old), DK is keen and efficient. Not that they’re got a chip on their shoulder, they are more perceptive than mad, and loudly so.
Bring it, fellas. Can’t wait to see the show, and that goes for everyone.
There’s a sense, I think, in which guitars are kind of like gingersnaps: they both have a certain magic to them when they’re nice and crunchy.
Chicago’s The Red Tie Affair are a band that understands this. Their particular brand of angular rock is heavy on gloriously crunchy guitars playing riffs that fit together as precisely as the links in a chain fence. It’s a sound that’s reminiscent of some of the older “emo” bands (they kind of remind me of Mineral in places, though you can tell their songs apart), but without the affectation that’s made the genre a punchline over the last several years. It’s just a guess, but I don’t think you’ll see them break down in tears halfway through their setlist.
But if the overall texture is like a chain-link fence, lead singer Brooke Blary’s voice cuts through it all like one of those as-seen-on-TV Amazing Ginsu 2000 knives. (I’ve always wanted one of those, by the way; you never know when your life is going to depend on your ability to cut through a three-inch metal pipe or a handful of rusty nails — feats that are impossible for ordinary knives.) She’s got a powerful instrument, sort of like a hybrid between Cristina Scabbia and that girl who sings for The Donnas, and she uses it to inject a measure of passion into the music that really raises it to another level. I’ve not seen her or the rest of The Red Tie Affair before, but they seem like the sort of singer and group that would be very good live.
Which, of course, is yet another reason that I’m heading up to Superstarcastival on June 2nd, something that I can’t recommend to you highly enough. In the meantime, their myspace page features three songs from their album Photographs and Broken Glass, that should tide you and the rest of the proletariat over, at least until that great day arrives. “Don’t Even” is my favorite, I think, (and it’s downloadable!) but all three of them are quite good, and worth a listen or several.
The thing that annoys me about comic books? They never show what the super-villains do in their off time. Sure, we get the occasional glimse of Peter Parker struggling with his love life, or Batman engaging in some corporate merger. But what about the bad guys? What are they doing with all that stolen filthy lucre? Surely they have hobbies.
Well, allow me to let you in on a secret. Lex Luthor, BraÃniac*, Mysterio and Ra’s Al Ghul commit their dirty deeds to pay for their band.
That band is called IfIHadAHiFi, and they will rock you with SCIENCE!
Sure, they pretend to be four clean-cut boys from Milwaukee, but that’s just them being smarter than you - they get you to let your guard down, then twist your brain until it bends to their booty-shaking will! Everything about the band is smart - the palindromes, the so-tight-you’d-swear-it-was-computerized rhythm section, the Albini-esque guitar chime, the synths that aren’t new wave so much as no wave…
But this is knowledge used for Sinister Ends! Heck, the chorus of “(The HiFi Vs.) Potential Energy”, the first song on 2004’s No More Music, clearly states their criminal intentions: “WE WANT TO STEAL YOUR POTENTIAL ENERGY!!!”** Your only defense is to pogo until you drop!
Nowhere is their mad science more obvious than the stage. You know shoegazers? IfIHadAHiFi are whatever the opposite of shoegazers are. You will witness acrobatic feats of pure rock at the Beat Kitchen on June 2, the likes of which may never be repeated.
It’s a shame that there’s probably some fire code that keeps them from having a Tesla coil on stage, as it would seem to be the most appropriate accessory: electric, noisy, chaotic and potentially dangerous. But really damn cool.
* When I was writing this, I hadn’t yet seen hotshotrobot’s post in loving memory of the BAND Brainiac, but now this reference seems even more appropriate.
** They really do sing in all caps, bold and with exclamation points, I swear. Hit their myspace page and see for yourself!
I have encountered a myriad of difficulty trying to wrap my head around how to appropriately and best describe the music stylings of Pool of Frogs; a caffeinated, uber-energetic band of rockers setting out to do justice to all walks of the rock and roll. Essentially, I am incapable of doing so. This is because there is no way to best describe them and there is certainly no one music genre they fit into. They are able to shift back and forth between a hardcore and punkish feel yet in the same song break it down to a simpler and smaller head bobbing feel. (Yes, I am attempting to explain their style of music by assessing how extravagantly a listener would move his or her head to the music, so just roll with me.)
Pool of Frogs features 5 tracks on their Myspace Page, providing a nice sampler of what they are capable of. They are great at mixing up the rifts and vocals during each song, keeping you on the edge of your seat as you can’t be sure what might happen during every song. (We’ll be holding a drawing for everyone to guess how many of the tunes that Pool of Frogs will play at the Superstarcastival will effectively jump between styles of rock. Just like guess how many M&Ms are in the jar. The winner gets a high five from me, a highly coveted prize not to be dismissed lightly.)
“Lover†and “Extrasolar Planets†are the two featured tracks on their page while they give you “Lover,†‘Be What I Want,†“King of Catholic Church†and “Blackriver†as feeds via Youtube. These videos showcase their unparalleled energy levels while performing live as well as their creative potential in producing humorous and almost anecdotal music videos. “King of Catholic Church†is a mixture of Tenacious D and They Might Be Giants in terms of combining off-the-beaten path music with varying vocal demeanors. “Be What I Want†is a nice change of pace as they bring a keyboard and some previously unheard harmony into the mix, more things to add to their flowing list of musical capabilities.
The one thing that Pool of Frogs promises to deliver in a musical performance, besides innovation and energy, is a consistent usage of expletives in a loud, raucous manner. How could you not want to see them Sat, June 2nd at the Beat Kitchen? I’ll be there, armed and ready to hand out that elusive high five. Until then, check out their answers to our infamous 5 Questions:
1. When historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will they say?
hmmmm……
2. If you could play a show w/ any band/musician living or dead, whom would you pick and why?
Dinosaur Jr. because for a brief moment, not too long ago, we thought we were going to open up for them when they come to town soon.
3. What is the strangest band-related dream you have had?
hey! sex dreams with band members reflects how connected we are through the music!
4. What do your fans look like?
All hot chicks, dude. Absolutely nothing but hot chicks.
5. What bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think, “Man, this Bullshit again?â€
Honestly, shoddy sound engineers.
Bonus Question: Why won’t you forget to tip your bartender?
Because his name is Marko and he’s huge and angry
Folks, if you haven’t heard yet, your comrades at Superstarcastic are getting ready to turn up the Chicago heat faster than Chris C
apuano sending smoke flying past Alfonso Soriano at Wrigley Field Miller Park South. The first ever Superstarcastival is taking place on Saturday, June 2nd at one of my favorite Chicago venues (no lie–it’s frickin’ great), The Beat Kitchen. And because we’re filthy commies, the proceeds are going to benefit Concern Worldwide.
As we approach the big day, we thought we’d be swell and give you a sneak peek at what you’re in for–that being an eclectic stew of everything we dig here at Superstarcentral. Along with the driving indie rock of The Red Tie Affair, the earplug-mandatory dance-skronk of IfIHadAHiFi, the bluesy psychedelic punk of Pool of Frogs, and the no-nonsense asskickery of Das Kapital, the Superstarcastival will be bringing you the delightfully snotty punk-pop of Chicago-via-Austin’s The Lusties.
Yeah, that’s right–punk-pop, as opposed to pop-punk, which very often sucks. What’s the difference? Instead of emulating relatively lightweight pop-punksters, these cats go for the jugular by channeling the badassery of punk rock ‘n’ roll bands like X, The NY Dolls, and a few modern groups like the Distillers for good measure, only to sprinkle some sugar in with the medicine by way of the buzzsaw power-pop of bands like Cheap Trick. If i’m not getting too obscure here, i’d like to point out that The Lusties remind me in no small degree of The Goops, a fantastic but obscure female-fronted punk band from the mid-90s whose singer, Eleanor Whitledge, had a lot in common with the deep, soulful alto of The Lusties’ own Ms. Edie Lustie.
Anyway, enough talk. Tunes. The Lusties’ MySpace page features a pair of tracks from their 4-song EP, so feel free to crank “High School Love” and get all hot ‘n’ bothered on your own. Then head down to the Beat Kitchen on June 2nd for a live dose of sex, booze, and “the only band worth the hangover.”
