Teenbeat’s 20th: Night One Redux
Posted on March 7, 2005 at 10:35 am | No Comments
An updated look back at the first of three Teenbeat Records 20th Anniversary shows down in DC a couple weeks ago…
The 20th anniversary shindig put on by Teenbeat Records couldn’t have started off any better: Colin and I decided to get to Arlington, Virginia’s Galaxy Hut a little bit before the listed 8:30pm start time, and as we walked into the smaller-than-expected club, a trio was up against the window getting ready to go. I focused on finding a good spot by the bar, overlooking their identity until Colin said “Isn’t that Mark Robinson up there?”.
30 seconds later, Unrest launched straight into ‘Suki‘, one of my favorites from their brilliant Imperial f.f.r.r. album. Instant and complete happiness. It was Bridget, Phil, & Mark, cruising through a loose set that also included ‘June‘, ‘Imperial‘, ‘I Do Believe You Are Blushing‘, ‘Make Out Club‘, ‘Light Command‘, and a closing combination of the instrumentals ‘Vibe Out!‘ & ‘Hydrofoil’, and there were only about 20 or so early arrivals there to see it. I think most people assumed that the poster listing “DJs Unrest” meant that B, P, & M would just be spinning discs between sets (which they did), not actually opening up. Glad they chose to pull off a practice in public… what a total treat.
So here’s a few songs from Unrest’s first performance in a whole lotta years…
Unrest
live at the Galaxy Hut
February 23rd, 2005
Light Command (live)
I Do Believe You Are Blushing (live)
June (live)
Vibe Out! / Hydrofoil (live)
It was pretty much impossible for the rest of the night’s lineup to live up to a start like that, but there were some really nice moments throughout. Tape-Op guy Larry Crane, who was the bassist in former Teenbeat band Vomit Launch, played a few V.L. songs for us, and here’s one of ’em…
Larry Crane (Vomit Launch) – ‘Stillness‘ (live)
Tracy Shedd made hanging around until the end so worth it. She was a real discovery for me, her voice reminiscent of Lois Maffeo (as Colin pointed out) or maybe early Liz Phair. I’m pretty psyched to check out her recorded stuff, but until then here’s…
Tracy Shedd – ‘Inside Out‘ (live)
Tracy Shedd – ‘Falling On Ice Hurts‘ (live)
Tracy Shedd – ‘New Song‘ (live)
The acoustic recordings are a little hissy due to their quietness (although I tried to remove some of it), and may occasionally be marred by small-club conversation and bag-shuffling, but still worth a listen.
Lots of familiar faces in the club that night, probably about sixty Teenbeat friends and fans gathered together to kick this thing off, including the long-time-not-seen Archie Moore (Heartworms/Velocity Girl) and Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto. I meant to ask Archie if he’s been making any music lately, but spaced it. Anyone know? Colin & I spent some time hanging with Frank & Matt of Shumai (who played a post-fest party on Saturday night), along with Kevin from The Lil’ Hospital.
I picked up the just-released deluxe edition of Unrest’s Imperial f.f.r.r., along with the new solo disc from their drummer, Phil Krauth. For the curious, here’s the tracklisting for that expanded Imperial…
1. Volume Reference Tone
2. Suki
3. Imperial
4. I Do Believe You Are Blushing
5. Champion Nines
6. Sugarshack
7. Isabel
8. Cherry Cream On
9. Firecracker
10. June
11. Loyola
12. Electrico
and these extra tracks…
13. Hydrofoil One
14. Full Frequency
15. Isabel (12”)
16. Cherry Cherry
17. Wednesday & Proud
18. Empire
19. Rip-off
20. Chdemo
The next morning, after a slow rise at my sister’s Arlington pad, Colin wrote and quickly recorded a new song called ‘The Whole Weekend To Go‘, pulling together bits of conversation overheard at the Galaxy Hut. ‘Cuz that’s what Colin does. Enjoy.
More sounds & pictures from the nights two and three, including live mp3s from Versus, Tuscadero, Flin Flon, +/-, Unrest, and many more should be up shortly…
Back in Blog
Posted on March 3, 2005 at 3:22 pm | No Comments
Bless me fatha, for I have not blogged. It’s been one week since my last post.
Yeah, I’m still here, don’t go frettin’. Feelin’ run down after my DC Teenbeat trip, started playin’ drums with some new friends, cramming for a March 13th show at TTs. Work’s been a little nutty, the Nac’s gotten a bit dusty, but I’ve been working on two more Teenbeat-related posts (and lotsa live mp3s) that should be up in the next couple days. Blog willin’.
Until then, a few semi-quick things…
Hey, Boston-types: David Rees (he of the brilliant Get Your War On and M.N.F.T.I.U.) will be speaking and signing at Harvard’s Boylston Hall tomorrow afternoon, Friday the 4th, at 4pm 7pm. I’m gonna have to skip outta work a little early for it (that ok, boss?). Check out Rees’ hardcore art-skillz on this poster for the event. Impressive, as always. (thanks for the heads up, sushiesque)
Further evidence that my friend Jo rules the school: Check out her newly-christened Friday Night Project, where she’ll be trying to convert and post one random live/rare cassette in digital form each week. The first one is a doozy: Some old-style House of Love, recorded live in 1987 when they were still a five piece, with Andrea Heukamp on guitar and vocals. Very, very nice. Thanks, Jo.
Speaking of which, thanks to Chromewaves for directing me to cd-wow.com, where I just ordered up the new (import-only) House of Love disc for a mere 10 british pounds, shipping included. Cheapest I’ve seen it. Pretty satisfying to be able to write “new House of Love disc“, and I hope it’s worth the wait. Now, how about some North American tour dates?
So I caught a preview screening of Hostage, the supposed ‘return-to-form’ action vehicle for Mr. Bruce Willis. Since Die Hard is easily among my favorite straight-up-action films, I had a sliver of hope that this movie could be a solid diversion, if not necessarily an original one.
The swooping, animated cityscape of the opening title sequence had me thinking they’d swapped out the screening for a sneak of Sin City (don’t I wish)… all blacks and whites, and blood red skies. It kinda looked liked a cutscene sequence from a Hostage video game, which would no doubt be more enjoyable than the film itself. Hell, I’d play it. (Ah ha… a little clicking reveals that the director of Hostage, Florent Emilio Siri, actually helmed two Splinter Cell games. There ya go.)
Based on a Robert Crais novel, Willis plays Jeff Talley, an L.A. hostage negotiator who takes a small-town police chief position after a negotiations falls apart. You know the drill, even if you haven’t seen the trailer… the slo-mo tragedy of this opening is a simple set up for an eventual shot at redemption. It cruises through this obiligatory intro, straight into the “why did we have to move here?” family squabble (using his real-life daughter, Rumor, who has a small, whiny part, and the unfortunate combination of Bruce’s huge oval head and Demi’s small-ish facial features), and then the “we’re in a small town and things are so simple” police station scene, but without any real emotion… there’s no connection made to any of the supporting cast, which would have ratcheted up the drama later on. It all seems so painfully paint-by-numbers.
The score was so over-the-top, the sound mix so bombastic, and the story so overwrought, it would have been comical if it wasn’t so damn deadly dull. It lacked the energy and pace of a Die Hard film, was entirely devoid of humor, relying far too much on Bruce’s furrowed brow, and on Ben Foster’s sulking, gothy character for menace. Six Feet Under fans know Foster well… here he pretty much plays a murderous riff on broody art-student Russell, but there’s no real motivation revealed, just an offhand line about losing his parents or something. There’s one unintentionally hilarious slow-motion shot of him framed by flames, and I swear he looks like the star of the next direct-to-video Crow film. The filmmakers also constantly and creepily milk the threat of underage sexual assault, with lots of shots of freaky Foster leering at his tied-up teenage hostage and her peek-a-boo thong.
And the violence… so much of it was unnecessary, all blood-spurting headshots, live burning bodies, and a particularly brutal knife to the mouth. I know, that just guaranteed some of you will go check this out. Hey, I’m game for a little gore, but this movie uses it so sloppily, and all too gratuitously. It even pulls the cheapest trick in the book (the villians are so evil they kill puppies!). With a better supporting cast, a tighter script, and sharper direction, these moments of shock could easily have come from situations instead of upside-your-head violence. The movie’s premise actually provides a solid enough framework, but the screenwriter and director fail to fill it in. There’s no rhythm, no build-up, and so no real pay-off.
I’ve heard good things about Robert Crais’ novels, and I’m really curious to hear from fans of this book after they see the film… did Hollywood screw this up? Was it all down to the editing and directing choices, or was the source material this ham-fisted?
If you’re in the mood for some big-screen action, skip this sucker and check out Ong-Bak. And if you’re hankering for some classic Bruce, turn on your television. Somewhere, on some random cable channel, Die Hard is probably on.
My longtime appreciation for Vermont Senator Pat Leahy climbs yet another notch, as he sponsors a new Anti-Phishing-Scam bill. If you user the internet, and I’m, uh, guessing you do, this will impact you. Go, Senator, Go.
Athiests, agnostics, and others will find this both amusing and fairly frightening: My Little Golden Book About Zogg.
The second part of the exclusive fan-conducted interview with The Arcade Fire is up over at fan-forum Neighborhood #1. If you missed the first part, it’s right here.
Now that I’m spending more time behind the drum kit again, I need some real earplugs. I’ve never really used any, and I’m gonna end up paying for it if I don’t start soon, so I ordered up a pair of these. Relatively cheap, and promise to do the job. Hope their product is better than their unnecessarily flash-heavy website. I need to find something that saves my hearing but still allows me to feel what we’re all playing. If that didn’t sound too cheezy.
From earplugs to Headphones. Not the wearable kind, but the listenable kind… namely the new non-guitar trio of Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan, Tim Walsh, and Frank Lenz. Electronics, vocals, and live drums, and you can stream their entire album over at Pure Volume. Doesn’t come out until May, so that’s quite an early preview.
My friend Rob sent me a link to his new Black & Blue Productions site, where you can check out a video for My First Days on Junk’s ‘From A Parked Car‘. Head over, click on ‘Reel’, have a listen-and-look-see.
Just a few more weeks until that swell double/triple disc Yo La Tengo collection gets released. Billboard speaks with Ira Kaplan about it.
Nostalgic gamers delight: Liberated Games has dozens of free, legal downloads of old-school PC games. We’re talkin’ Hexen, Descent, Doom, Heretic, Rise of the Triad, lots more. I seriously need more free time.
The first Red Sox spring training game of the ’05 season is on the tube tonight, and it’s gonna be nice to kick back and soak that in, pretend it’s not wintertime for an evening. Yesterday I shook the magic hand of former Sox pitcher Bill ‘The Spaceman’ Lee, and told him how much fun I had watching NESN’s recent rebroadcasting of the ’76 Red Sox vs. Reds World Series. He did, too, remarking that “It’d been years since I’ve seen myself pitch!”. He’s got a new book out, if you’re a fan of the man.
By Monday, some live Teenbeat mp3 action. This I do solemnly swear. And if you’ve emailed me in the past couple weeks, hang in there… I’m hoping to clear out my inbox over the weekend, too…