Hmmm ...Thank Golly It's Friday

Hmm... Thank Golly It's Friday

Man, I'm watching T-Rex, Myrna Loy & Ray Davies documentaries on the sattelite, typing on the interweb, drinking cold Sierra and I just got back from a dinner feasting on the unruly sushi & sake' at The Drunken Fish in Oakland and i'm prolly beyond satiated...

If I keep my expectations and dissapointments in check, hey maybe life's seeming sorta good at the moment & it looks like lotsa loopy stuff going on as usual this weekend near my world...

Friday night my frisco freak pal Barry is DJing out at the outer avenue's finest dive bar The Riptide...

Barry's got one of my fave sick senses of humor and has played a role in so many wild show business exravaganzas over the years. A list of the bands he's played in since i met him is an awesome testimony to his dedication to the extreme lifestyles of being one of the nuttiest nutty buddies from beyond.

Barry is a road warrior and twisted punk noisecore metalloid genius who has played guitar for Rich Kids on LSD, Me First & The Gimmes Gimmes, GWAR, Embryo Killers, Osgood Slaughter and amongst numerous other dealios...

I've included a few mp3'z of Barry's current combo The Crosstops, they are a "trucker punk" band that to understand, I'd say ya gotta catch their shtick live...

Crosstops - I'm An Accident

Crosstops - Me & The Road

Crosstops - Camping With 2 Bi-Sexual Girls Unbuttplugged

However, as much as I love the fool, I've already notified the boy Barry that I'm likely to skip vacationing in his wonderworld in favor of catching The Leaving Trains at Annie's Social Club ( i.e Old CW Saloon )...

Audra has allowed my buddy Parker to slot in Falling James and crew along with DJ Eddie Budd and a slew of naughty nincompoops will be there I'm sure. Not the leat important fuckup on that list would have to be Falling James, whose street cred has to include the fatalistic footnote of living through being the first Mr Courtney Love.

The Leaving Trains have been Falling James and whoever he's fallen in with since the very early 80's. here's some sample 4 track recordings made in 1983 by in a suburban L.A garage by Vitus Matare.

Falling James & Leaving Trains - Leaving Train

Leaving Trains - Creeping Coastline of Lights

( both samples from the unabridged 28-song Wharf Rat Tales soundtrack with other scenesters The Gun Club, The Last, Rain Parade etc)

According to Parker this is thee way to spend a Friday Night... and no t just cuz of the revamped Leaving Trains...Opening the bill are two bands featuring ex-members of Zen Guerilla...I'll let GibbsMo fill ya in...

Opening the bill is Cheetah Speed featuring Carl Horn from ZG and a rhythm section that beats harder then a monkey watching the banana channel. Following will be the (so-I’ve-been-told) legendary High Karate featuring former ZG member Andy Duvall, his brother, and a band who will be doing their first show in 13 years. Just wrap your head around that: Brothers, alcohol, first show in 13 years? Think of the possibilities people!

Spinning all evening will be the immortal (I shit you not) DJ Fast Eddy Budds playing a bunch of rare 45’s that none of you could ever possibly own. And if you ask him why not, he will tell you. And before long your head is spinning and the show is over. Consider yourself warned.

Here's some Zen Guerilla from what so far appears to be their final throwdown on Sub Pop, but who knows...

Zen Guerilla - Staring Into Midnight

Zen Guerilla - Barbed Wire

Saturday night I'm foregoing a chance to catch the season opening Roller Derby battle in Oakland to help host a carnival of craziness going on in an old wherehouse at the bottom of Potrero Hill where many a Nirvana & Melvins record amongst thousands of others were shipped & Steelpole Bathtub lived...

Adventurous creative souls still lurk there, so keep yer eyes peeled for wacky whatnot

Thinking man's folksters and party hosts Sweet Crude Bill and The Lighthouse Nautical Society have honored me with the invite to do a lil mic hogging...so watch for me to appear on some sort of manic MC duties...

here's a Sweet Crude Bill teaser recorded deep in the heart of the Bluegrass Mountains of Virginny...

Sweet Crude Bill & The Lighthouse Nautical Society- Get Back Into It

and while we're at it, why not some music from openers Low Red Land

Low Red Land - The Duke

Low Red Land - Bloodletting

DJs (Studio G)

Live Bands (Studio H) Clide vs. Crocodiles @ 9:30 Low Red Land @ 11 Sweet Crude Bill & The Lighthouse Nautical Society @ 12:30 (debut show!) plus don't forget the Anarchist Kissing Booth click for info on The Fuego Fatale Electronica DJ Party in Studio G

party likely rocks into the way wee hours so don't be shy to stop by and say "high"...

anyhow, after living through the hangover, I'll also be on view and doing duty behind the bar whilst whipping up drinks and rawkin remixes sans crutches for the first time in weeks at Sadie's Flying Elephant... if you live in F CA, then hey, you know the joint...

stop by Sadie's on if yer a Sunday Night Survivor

we'll avoid talking about politics and concentrate on the booze...

zoinks !

Speaking of booze etc... hve ya noticed more people in the "media" seem outraged by the revelations that Oprah's pet James Frey exaggerated hi substance abuse than were about G.W Bush & Colin Powell's B.S WMD scare sessions before the Iraq war?

speaking of WMD scare session B.S, a former Undersecretary of the Israeli Foreign Ministry hassurfaced saying that Israel is deliberately exaggerating the issue of "nuclear" capabilities of Iran" because it's a discrete way of getting its considerably high amount of budgets approved to provide extra financial support for defense as well as intelligence services, claims Dr. Alon Liel.

A military industrial complex conspiracy ? jeeez, say it so?

Eisenhower woulda never believed it...

I Just Saw That Darn Dubya Dude Is Talking Up His New Nuke-lee-ur Plan...

Maybe it's clear indication that despite the bad rap he's taken on stem cell research, maybe Prez Bush is fully into science and stuff. Or maybe he's just completely insincere and lost in space on environmental and national security issues, anyhow let's just try and fathom his latest proposal for nuclear reprocessing in the U.S.

in other dealios... I've been killing time on the train ride home by getting pissed off while reading this book :

Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy

It's just a basic rehash and forthright analysis of why our mainstream media sucks big fact-wads... I don't recommend it if ya ain't got a strong stomach for annoying observations about spin doctored modern media, but these people below do...

"John Nichols and Bob McChesney are the Paul Revere and Thomas Paine of our time. We ignore them at democracy's peril."

-- Bill Moyers

"The fact that investigative reporters went to jail while Bill O'Reilly runs around free as a jaybird tells us we need McChesney and Nichols desperately. Their book is a lifeboat for surviving the burst of dam of bullshit called 'American Media."

-- Greg Palast, BBC 2000 election correspondant, and author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Amongst some of the many infuriating passges are ones like these...

"Nightly news coverage on NBC,ABC, CBS,PBS,CNN, and FOX during the first three weeks after the Iraq invasion found that pro-war U.S sources outnumbered antiwar sources by twentyfive to one."

Click To Order "Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy"

and the big meaningless pile of random audio I include just to fatten out your musical diet:

Pastels ( with into from John Peel)- Advice For The Graduate

Brian Eno & the Winkies - Paw Paw Negroblowtorch

Brian Eno - I'll Come Running

Brian Eno - An Ending ( Ascent)

Abductors - Adolescent Death ( RKL cover )

Ol Dirty Bastard - Sussudio

Paolo Conte - Happy Feet

The Mighty Stars - Suzanne

The Mighty Stars - Go!

Brian Eno - 1/1

Brian Eno - A Stream With Bright Fish

Brian Eno - The Windows Startup Sound

Avenging Nightmares & Whanot

Now that Seattle has slaughtered the Denver Donkeys, and we darn well know the Pittsburgh NFL team may be the last gainfully employed Steelers left in the country... I can rest. Ahh... The team that Microsoft Built... how long before they crash?

and then, I gotta believe the stupid sign I saw hanging in the stadium that summed it up "Detroit Hawk City"

So in a few minutes, with all the Super bizness settled, I'm headed out the door to catch the Avengers on a little tour warm up before they head to Europe . Penelope Houston is/was the singer of this early West Coast punk band who began and disintegrated in an era that brought us the raw uninhibited punk music from compatriots like X, the Weirdos and Mutants etc. They opened for the Sex Pistols last show at Winterland, and broke up before their debut album even hit the streets. Today sadly for legal reasons, much of the Avengers best old school material is out of print, although the stuff does circulate on bootlegs and live tapes...

Penelope split for Europe, quit music for awhile, married and divorced and remarried, and resurfaced starting in the late 80's with a folk type group. Despite some good music made with collaboraters like Pat Johnson, Josef Brinkman, Steven Strauss, Chuck Prophet and even Billie Joe from Green Day, eventually she realized that ya gotta give the people what they want... and they want to hear The Avengers, not Fairport Convention soundalikes.

Here's some cuts from her solo albums...

Penelope Houston - Behind Your Eyes

Penelope Houston - Pale Green Girl

if yer not familiar with her Avengers stuff... i pity the fool... but seriously since I'm gonna lame out and not go on and on, just go to Strange Reaction and grab some more rare cuts and read a little bit more on these important late 70's punk pioneers. You can also head over to the Avengers page on MySpace to hear some more stuff via streaming ...



Avengers - End Of The World

Avengers - I Believe In Me

Avengers - Teenage Rebel

Avengers - American In Me ( 1979 live)


This weekend while I was galavanting around in Frisco checking out bands and whatnot, I saw that in New York a far heavier thing was going down...The International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity was being convened on the 5th anniversary of G.W Bush's initial inauguration. From Jan 20 - 23 activists, witnesses and whatnot were gathering to analyze, recount and draw attention to activities of the current Bush administration that defy and flagrantly flaunt the ideals of international law. The concerned activists behind the Not In Our Name statement have been helping arrange a special tribunal in New York to focus on these crimes...

Here's their spokesman Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights announcing what they'd be up too....

Michael Ratner - Bush Commission

Amongst the many participating at these hearings were:

Scott Ritter, former UN weapons Inspector
Ajamu Sankofa, Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Amy Bartholomew, Professor of Law, Carleton University (hear audio);
Barbara Olshansky, lawyer for Guantanamo prisoners
Malik Rahim, New Orleans Common Ground Collective (hear audio);
Denis Halliday, ex-head of UN Humanitarian Mission In Iraq & UN Asst Secretary General
Ann Wright, former U.S foreign service officer who resigned to protest Bush's Iraq War
Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Boston U, (hear audio)


---------------

these recordings from yesteryear are a bit lo-fi compared to yer digital faves of today but do capture the majestic raw rawk performed live in it's prime . The Sabbath cut is supposedly from the Fillmore West, but I think all are from TV shows, with the introduction on the Sabbath track possibly provided by the legendary ny music industry figure Don Kirschener...

Alice Cooper, the man Marilyn Manson owes it all too, hams it up on Johnny Carson, and then with an intro from Kermit The Frog ( a.k.a Jim Henson) on the beloved Muppet Show...

Alice Cooper - Lace & Whiskey ( live on Johnny Carson 1977)

Alice Cooper



Black Sabbath - Behind The Wall of Sleep ( live in New York 1970)

Alice Cooper - School's Out ( live on The Muppet Show)

as a bonus click the pic for the video of Cooper on the Muppet Show singing Welcome to My Nightmare






P.S here's some Seattle-centric fare for those who wanna party and throw around some Northwest sonic pride...

Kingsmen - Little Latin Lupe Lou

Kingsmen - Louie Louie

Nirvana - You Know You're Right

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

Mudhoney & Sir Mix A Lot - Freakmomma

Cat Heads & X-Tal & Enablers & Eitzel and Whatnot

CLASS REUNION: THE X-TAL/CAT HEADS FAMILY TREE

Ex SF Weekly music editor Dan Strachota, the booking agent at The Rickshaw Stop recently had the goofy idea to resurrect stray performers & bands from SF's late 80's / early 90's music scene. Saturday night, the concept comes to life and the club proudly presents a special occasion, whereas many M.I.A performers recombine into four unique and legendary bands.

Expect a celebration of the creativity of San Francisco's UnScene era, whose performers have lost none of their chops & wit, some may have less hair, but perhaps a bit more wisdom. Word is a few folks are flying in from around the country as far as Alaska & Maine I hear to to partake of the festivities, so if you are already in the region, then all you gotta do is get to 155 Fell @ Van Ness...

That's Like, So, Not Hard ...

Why: because duh, The Cat Heads X-tal, It Thing, The (Ex) Cat Heads are all going to be up onstage Saturday Jan. 21, 2006.

All Ages Welcome...Doors at 8 pm, 9 pm show.

THE CAT HEADS A rollicking, rambunctious, silly and heartfelt bohemian quartet that rocked in four directions at the same time, the Cat Heads were UnScene vets who recorded two albums on Restless Records in the late 80s and were beloved for their spirited live performances. Their debut album Hubba came in 1987 followed by Submarine in 1988, they skillfully balanced the deep and the cheeky, and were a popular local club band before disbanding . All the og vets will be onstage at once ms. Melanie Clarin, plus messrs. Mark Zanandrea, Alan Korn & Sam Babbitt. MP3s and more at www.catheads.com

X-TAL Sensitively snarky garage-protest troubadors who traveled the world, and released seven albums and several singles on the Alias, Rough Trade, and Normal labels. Tonight revisit their songs that combined ethereal psychedic folk rock, with a post-punk edge. The band went through several lineups, and tonight singer J Neo Marvin, combines original bassist Alan Korn & drummer Mick Freeman with guitarists Jimmy Broustis ( 1987-1993) & Mark Zanandrea ( 1993 - 1995) for a tour through the highlights of their vast & unruly body of socially relevant & politically charged work. Also tonight they offer a very special limited edition CD release of live performances recorded on tour in Paris and Cologne! X-Tal's "Who Owns Our Dreams?" CD will be offered to fans, friends and curiosity seekers who make it to the show for just $5. www.jneomarvin.com/words/xtal.htm

IT THING After the Cat Heads broke up, Mark Zanandrea and Melanie Clarin released the eclectic psychedelic masterpiece The Ode To Billie Joe Bob Dylan Thomas Jefferson Airplane Experience on the Baited Breath label. Years later, joined by bassist Josh Housh, they are hard at work on their second recording. We will hear some of it, along with some old favorites, at this show. www.catheads.com/it_thing.html

THE (EX) CAT HEADS The other two former Cat Heads, Sam Babbitt and Alan Korn, just reissued their lovely rootsy-pastoral gem, Our Frisco, on the Australian label Lamingtone. With alan busy playing for X-Tal tonight representing the (Ex) Cat Heads will be Mr. Sam Babbitt in a brief solo set. www.catheads.com/ex_cat_heads.html

Your hosts for this evening will be yer pals Lil Mike ( ex- Komotion/Chameleon DJ ) on VJ / MC duties and Stereo Steve (KUSF/ Noc Noc ) spinning the not so golden oldies from his Quixotic collection of unusual audio...

X Tal & Cat Heads will be Stereo Steve's guest DJs on KUSF on Friday afternoon, Jan. 20 at 3:00, playing both old songs and a cross-section of all the projects we've been involved with ever since. For a sneak preview of this event, tune in on Friday Jan 20 @ 3 pm tune into KUSF 90.3 fm or streaming on the web at Live 365 / KUSF

For more coverage, see this story Mike Rowell at SF Weekly wrote up on the show and another even more exhuberant recount of the era from the Contra Costa Times by Denise Sullivan reconting the 80's scene that sprung the Cat Heads etc



Also : Check Out the mixture of happening tunes and artists via J Neo from X-Tal's own 24 Hr Streaming Live 365 Station Ear Candle Radio

For those of us that cannot sit still long enough for streaming to catch up with us, I've provided some mp3 downloads tracks of tunes that are related to the above mentioned gig.


X-Tal when I met em circa 1988

From 1990's debut LP known as Reason is 6/7th Treason album, the entirely appropo

X-Tal - Encore

and the ballad sung by drummer Mick

X-Tal - Cheap Holiday

here's J Neo's latest project doing a Magentic Fields cover

J Neo & The Content Providers - Crazy For You

The Cat Heads have a great website with lotsa stuff including some cool MP3 tracks recorded by them and in all their various side projects over the years...

Cat Heads - Golden Gate Park

Cat Heads - Postcard

(ex) Cat Heads - Anti Song

It Thing - Cupid Is A Sniper


Another show that's happening in this weekend in SF is at the spot formerly known as The Covered Wagon Saloon, and for awhile The Cherry Bar. Now rechristenend Annie's Social Club, on Friday Jan 20th The Enabler's and American Music Club are coming out of hiding to rawk the haus...

Mark Eitzel of AMC will no doubt be yodeling up a despondent storm followed by fiery antics of Pete Simonelli and his band The Enablers who will close down the show in a furious din ...

The Enablers, whom I've mentioned in a couple previous postings are a pedigreed post punk act whose musicians have done time in bands like Tarnation, Swans, Toiling Midgets and Nice Strong Arm...

here's some tracks related to that sorta shindig thing as well...

Mark Eitzel with Toiling Midgets - Mr Foster's Shoes

Mark Eitzel - Christian Science Reading Room

American Music Club - Ladies & Gentlemen

American Music Club - Another Morning

American Music Club - If I Had A Hammer

Mark Eitzel - Outside This Bar

Mark Eitzel - My Pet Rat St. Michael

Mark Eitzel - Proclaim Your Joy

Enablers - For Jack : A Phillipic

Enablers - Pauly's Days In Cinema

Last weekend I headed to the grand re-opening of the former Covered Wagon Saloon, now under new management as Annie's Social Club...and despite potentially waiting in line in the pouring rain, a slew of old school punks & drunks, and rock n roll fans of all shapes and sizes were gathered outside.

Live entertainment inside was to be provided by the wrinkled grey haired faux wildwomen known as The Grannies & the raunchy retro rockers The Naysayers. However most people seemed plenty occupied crowding around the bar just trying to get a beer, or even just hanging out listening to Spike from Me First & The Gimme Gimmes as he DJ'd old rock n roll hits from the cramped wooden closet/DJ booth. The bands tore it up that night on the 6 inch high stage that has held the gear of so many bands ranging from High on Fire & Gwar to G.G. Allin and even Nirvana , Soundgarden, Melvins, Op Ivy, L7 , RKL and Bad Religion. I used to work at the joint before I was even old enough to get in, and there are indeed numerous fond and vague memories galore I could share of that ol' hole on Folsom & 5th...

here's a few of my flyers for the joint I made over the years/beers

Annie's Social Club is the new name and comes from the new owner who owned a bar across from the 850 Bryant cop shop ...

The place had a lot of fans, including Me First & The Gimme Gimmes who filmed a video there a couple summers ago...

She sold that place and has hired Audra , the promotionatrix behind siuch beloved SF institutions as Stinky's Peep Show & Incredibly Strange Wrestling...


The first night at Annie's was packed, with karaoke in full swing in the backroom, and the boys bathrooms had been newly painted black , but the upwelling of old scents and a scene that won't die couldn't be completely buried...

Members of dozens of bands milled around and even I, while propped on crutches in a far off corner behind the jukebox, amongst the folks I mingled with included guys from acts such debauched mutant local SF acts as Slender, Hippie Bitch, Hammers of Misfortune, Crosstops, and Barfeeders.

It was a carnival of characters including Erno, the tattoo artist with a hook for a hand, Big Floyd, Fat Wreck Chords ambassador of goodwill, Lil' Damon the punk rock legal researcher with the missing front tooth, and numerous others...

I imagine Friday & Saturday Night I'll see a similar sea of old faces from places that are gone... and it sounds like fun...

Then if my luck and money hold out after last call on Sat, I may even slip down to LA and catch some live music down there on Sunday & Monday Night...

anyhow

I gotta split... lotsa beer drinkin left to do...

psst if you'd like to catch some of that Eitzel music on the road... looks like this is goin' down in Feb in a venue near you...




ps I found an Eitzel centric post here

[X-Tal][Cat Heads][indie][rock] [frisco]
[reunion][concert]