Down and dirty at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 came along at just the right time for me. I’ve been going through a bit of a musical drought as well as a real one. (I think a lot of folks will probably refer to the weekend event as “dust fest.”)

When I first got to Auditorium Shores on Friday night, I thought the place was full of revolutionaries — I guess because my mind has been “occupied” by current events lately.

Every other person had his face covered by a bandana. After eating about my second tablespoon of dirt, I finally figured out what the deal was. The grass is gone after about a year of very little rain and the wind constantly blasted us with dust. I soon had my own bandana. It was some protection, but I still inhaled enough dirt to start a garden. Chris, my concert buddy, had to miss the last day due to allergies.

I saw a lot of great shows, but the hip hop acts seemed especially enjoyable and relevant for me. Strange, since that’s not my main genre. Public Enemy and Kool Keith kicked a lot of ass. Also really enjoyed Henry Rollins’ spoken word performance on the last day.

Friday night, Nov. 4

We arrived a bit late and missed some good acts, but I enjoyed the hell out of Public Enemy. I thought it was interesting to see how mixed their crowd was, and how white. The fact that they were even at the same festival as Slayer tells you something about how much our culture has changed since the early days of hip hop.

Public Enemy performed a many of their old favorites and were political as expected — many mentions of “Occupy” and a rant about the unjust treatment of immigrants. “Fight the Power” seemed especially relevant given the social protests going on in the country and around the world right now.

Danzig Legacy (Glenn Danzig and members of the Misfits and Samhain) were scheduled to play at the same time as Public Enemy, but were a huge letdown for a lot of fans. Glenn Danzig was a huge primadonna, bitching about the stage and making unreasonable demands.

He went on stage more than 40 minutes late. The band was just starting to get on a roll when they cut the power at 10 p.m. Then he fought with people backstage and tried to start a riot and took off in a van. Always thought he was a prick. Lucky for me, I was more into Public Enemy anyhow and didn’t bother with the Danzig show, but my friend Chris really wanted to hear the Misfits and Samhain stuff and was really disappointed, especially since he forked over $80 to get into the festival on Friday.

Another group that deserves a mention: Four Tet. Some very good electronic music that made me think of ’90s Detroit techno. Somehow it made me think of revolution. I think that’s the rabble rousing music for the Internet age.

Saturday, Nov. 5

I finally got a chance to actually see Tune-Yards. Last time I “saw” them live I only got to see the top of people’s heads, but heard enough to get me permanently hooked. I thought Merrill Garbus and company put on a hell of a show.

Dan Deacon was a good electronic artist who knew how to get people moving. He had technical problems at first, but got them ironed out. There was some crowd surfing.

M83 put on a great show as expected. Although it was a bit hard to appreciate it fully as a minor dust storm kicked up right about that time.

Kool Keith was a pleasant surprise. He wasn’t even supposed to be at the festival, but agreed to fill in when scheduled rapper Rakim broke his foot. Keith packed his performance with old favorites, including some from the Dr. Octagon days. “Halfsharkalligatorhalfman” and “Livin’ Astro” were highlights. A lot of the songs were in that wacky vein, but many, like “Sex Style,” were hilariously over-the-top obscene.

I took a bit of a break from the music and watched a few acts from Wham City Sketch Comedy, a Baltimore-based troupe that includes the aforementioned electronic artist Dan Deacon. Ben O’Brian was pretty damn funny, doing basically stand-up and messing with the audience. There was a guy dressed in an egg costume who made egg puns, who was… not the funniest guy I ever saw. There was also a depressing yet funny lecture on human extinction from a guy pretending to be a drunk professor.

Swedish singer Lykke Li put on a hell of a show. Teamed up with the guys from Peter, Bjorn & John, her show had a lot of punch. Not only did she sound great, but her show was visually arresting also, with the smoke and flapping banners.

I didn’t plan to watch Spoon. I’ve been a big fan for years, but I figured I’ve seen them a few times already and I might want to check someone else out. But they were really on fire and I found I couldn’t resist. I had to stick around for the whole show. Damn good musicians.

Sunday, Nov. 5

We got a little rain in the morning, which kept the dust down. There was also a sprinkle of rain in the evening, but not enough to cause major problems or damage my new cellphone. Speaking of cellphones, the festival had a solar power recharging station for those and other electronics. Pretty neat (I also managed to sneak a bit of juice from outlets near the food booths).

The two bands that really stood out for me on Sunday were Austra and Grimes. Austra is a synth pop and electro-rock act featuring Katie Stelmanis, a classically trained opera singer whose career took a left turn when she fell in love with acts like Nine Inch Nails.

We Were Promised Jet Packs was the first band of the day. Pretty good indie rock. Lots of energy. They seem to be going places.

This was their best:

Grimes is a witch house act featuring a woman with a little girl voice, electronic beats and noise. Her music was catchy and hypnotic. In keeping with the witch house scene, her blouse had inverted crosses and a pentagram. A somewhat effeminate looking man danced on stage alongside her. She had good songs with a lot of energy. The crowd got into it.

Budos Band was impressive, with their Ethiopian-inflected funk. I saw them for the first time in a small venue at South By Southwest and didn’t pay much attention. I have since discovered how amazing they can be and I’m not the only one — they attracted a pretty good crowd. The bari sax player got props from the crowd by talking about metal. He said one of the songs, “Black Venom” was named for Black Sabbath and Venom and dedicated that one to Slayer, the death metal act that was the highlight of the festival for many. I loved the baritone sax and horns. I kept thinking about how much my dad would’ve loved them if he could’ve lived to see them. He used to lament the rarity of band instruments in rock ‘n’ roll.

I got a big kick out of Master Pancake Theater, hosted by Alamo Drafthouse. That’s something they do at the downtown Austin location, making fun of movies Mystery Science Theater style. This time they poked fun of music videos by Pat Benatar, Eddie Murphy and Michael Jackson (they made one together and was it ever awful), Boy George, David Hasselhoff and last but not least, Henry Rollins.

Henry Rollins followed Master Pancake Theater, giving a very entertaining spoken word performance. He talked about politics, his days in the punk band Black Flag, eating rats in India and traveling to Vietnam and North Korea. He didn’t mention Occupy Wall Street as I had expected, but he challenged the young people in the crowd to take charge of their destinies and become the world’s next leaders.

After that, I was pretty much tuckered out. I caught a little bit of the VERY popular Slayer show, but I wasn’t feeling it. Not enough of a metal head. Not for that kind of metal anyway. All in all it was a success as far as I’m concerned. The dust was pretty hardcore and I think having a 10 p.m. noise ordinance curfew at a music festival is ridiculous. But anytime I can make even one discovery it’s worth the money, and I made several.

Former Asylum Street Spanker Wammo to display art on March 9, tour set for April

Just paid a visit to Wammo’s website wammobaby.com and it seems he’s on the move. He’s going to hold an art opening and DJ Night at Corona Cafe and Nomad in Austin on Wednesday, March 9. As a longtime Spankers fan, I would definitely love to go. Not sure if I’ll make it though. Of course I wish he and the Spankers were still on the same team, but he’s doing what he feels and I wish him all the success in the world. Corona opens at 7 and spinning starts at 9 p.m. at Nomad. The two Corona and Nomad are two doors down from each other on Corona Street at Cameron. Check out the website above for details.

Wammo will be touring with Hammell on Trial for a “three-part spectacle of storytelling, comedy, and song” as follows:

4/20 Nietzsche’s -Buffalo, NY
4/21 BopShop -Rochester, NY
4/22 Tin Angel -Philly, PA
4/23 Stoltz Listening Room at Avalon Theatre – Easton, MD
4/29 Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
4/30 Canal St. Tavern – Dayton, OH

Elgin gets a kick out of Kinky

Author, musician and humorist Kinky Friedman signs autographs following his Nov. 21 talk in Elgin, Texas

Kinky Friedman is many things: a musician, a humorist, and a prolific author. On Sunday, Nov. 21, he was above all a Texan.

Friedman spoke before an audience of approximately 120, giving his take on what makes a real hero. He read from his book, Heroes of a Texas Childhood and spoke on other topics. Friedman signed autographs and posed for photos for an hour and a half. He also gave a $300 donation to the Friends of the Elgin Public Library, the group that sponsored his talk.

Friedman peppered his talk with one-liners that got laughs from the audience. ”I’m 66, but I read at the 68-year-old level,” he said. He joked that he planned to be cremated and have his ashes “sprinkled in Rick Perry’s hair.”

Friedman’s 23 heroes included the likes of Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Barbara Jordan, Willie Nelson and his own father Tom Friedman. “These people are my heroes, not because of who they were, what families they were born into, or because they worked hard or were brave,” he said. “I chose these people because of their tragedies and challenges and how they dealt with those challenges.”

Friedman said he showed the table of contents of his book to a group of college graduates, who only recognized three out of 23 names. They had never heard of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan or WWII hero Audie Murphy. “I think people need to know upon whose shoulders they stand,” he said. “If I ever become governor, I’ll make my book mandatory reading in public schools.”

At times, Friedman’s talk entered the political realm. He said he hoped that Governor Rick Perry, being a staunch conservative, might have the ability to end the death penalty in Texas. He noted that many believe Cameron Todd Willingham, was wrongly executed for arson in 2004. “Christians, I apologize that you have to hear it from a Jew, but remember that’s who you heard it from the first time,” he said.

Friedman said one of his main goals when he ran for governor was the “De-wussification of Texas.” He cited as examples of wussification, or weakening character, the arrest of drinkers in a Dallas hotel bar by undercover police, and the scandal caused when he was photographed drinking a Guinness beer during a St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “I drank it, but I did not swallow,” he said.

He quoted Jordan as saying that political correctness “is going to drown our culture” and said the term was popularized by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Freidman’s reading was about his father, who grew up in Chicago during the 1920s, earning money by working for a peddler in a horse-drawn cart, running groceries up to tenement dwellers. His father went on to became a Navigator on a bomber plane during WWII, a college professor and owner of a summer camp in the Texas Hill Country.

Friedman said his father taught him to “treat children like adults and adults like children.”

Hip hop – the profane and the principled (part 3)

If you don’t pay close enough attention, you might be tempted to place Bomani Armah (Darel Hancock, aka D’mite or G-Mike) in the “profane” category, but you would be mistaken. This guy is truly a principled hip hop artist. He’s not afraid to use strong language, but it’s always for a point.

D’mite insists that he is not a rapper at all, but a poet with a hip hop sensibility. In fact, he’s so insistent that he also sometimes goes by “Notarapper.” (Although when you get down to it, what is rap but a form of poetry?) Unquestionably though, he’s not your average hip hop artist. He’s an intellectual who wants to change the world for the better – one who also has a wonderful sense of humor and knows how to get his point across.

I discovered him on TheSixtyOne thanks to “Read a Book.” The song came out in 2007 and was featured in a video on BET, but it was new to me. I found it hilarious and still do. He uses the words “nigga” and “mothafuckah” plenty of times, but it’s all for a good purpose – a litany of good habits anyone should be smart enough to be doing already – but you know plenty of people aren’t.

Check out his music and see if you don’t agree. D’mite’s music is available for purchase, streaming and freed download on Bandcamp (which is great for me, since it’s easy to embed the songs). Lots of good material there that should convince you that hip hop can indeed operate on a higher plane than the gangsta rap of Dr. Dre or even the party music of The Pharcyde.

Last time I checked I couldn’t find the original edit of “Read a Book” available for download. The Bandcamp version is a “clean” radio-friendly edit (which defeats the purpose in my opinion). Fortunately, you can hear the song on YouTube via the video that ran on BET.

Farewell to the Asylum Street Spankers – spanks for the memories

Wow, this really makes me sad. I just went on Facebook and saw an announcement that my favorite Austin band is retiring. The Asylum Street Spankers are like nothing you’ve ever heard – retro style, rockin’ sensibility, superb musicianship and funny as hell. There will never be another band like them. I don’t know what brought this about. Could be the bad economy is getting to them. Also, Christina and Wammo both have small children. If it’s what they need to do, then I wish them well. Musicians aren’t actually obligated to wreck themselves for our entertainment. They’re giving a farewell tour and if you get the opportunity to catch one of their final shows I would advise you to take it. Their schedule can be found here.

If you need any more convincing, read my recent post about the band: Asylum Street Spankers’ vintage sound captures Austin’s spirit That post also includes some great Youtube links that will give you an idea what Spankers shows are like, and a link to their Bandcamp site where you can stream Spankers songs or order mp3s or CDs.

Also, check out their albums on Bandcamp.

P.S. I’ve been asked why Wammo is not being listed on the ASS Facebook page. I also noticed a lot of the people who surfed into this blog lately entered search terms like “Is Wammo on Farewell Tour.” I don’t know the answer to that and would like to. If anyone has seen a show on this tour I’d like to know if Wammo was there. I’d also like to know why the band is retiring. I imagine it has to do with Wammo and Christina each having new babies. Maybe they’re all tired of touring and want to devote more time to their families. I can respect that. I just wish the band would let us know what’s up. In any case, I would still recommend catching one of the farewell shows if possible. If Wammo’s not on the tour it would definitely be a disappointment, but I did see one Spankers show when Wammo was out with the flu and it was still awesome. Speaking of which… It has occurred to me that Wammo could be ill. I’d at least like to know that he’s all right. If anyone knows anything, please let me know.

PPS. Saw a comment on the ASS Facebook site stating that Wammo was leaving for family reasons. Probably about what I figured. His wife just had a new baby and probably asked him to stick around and stay off the road. Fair enough I reckon. I will miss him though.

Update: Wammo sent out an e-mail announcing his plans and telling his reasons for quitting the Spankers. I reposted it here: Word from Wammo aka ‘Road Dog’

Asylum Street Spankers’ vintage sound captures Austin’s spirit

Austin has drawn me like a magnet for almost as long as I can remember. The culture, with its mix of Texas cowboy brashness and hippy tolerance, is wonderful and totally unique. For a creative type like myself, the live music and open-minded nature of the place is irresistable. I love my state in general as most Texans do, but Austin is the best part for me. It’s like an oasis.

Few bands embody that Austin spirit like the Asylum Street Spankers. The band has become my favorite live act. I’ve seen show after show, each one different from the one before, but always enjoyable. The group takes its name from Guadalupe Street in Austin, once referred to as Asylum Street because it runs by the state mental facility. The term “spanker,” is a double entendre. It can mean a skilled musician, or just exactly what it sounds like. In fact, the band’s entire name is a double entendre. Think about those initials.

It’s hard to describe the band’s music. Styles include swing, jazz, country, blues, hip hop, ragtime, gospel — you name it. The music has a vintage sound, with all acoustic instruments, but the songs are immersed in rock ‘n’ roll lore and pop culture references. The band’s central figures are Wammo, a funny, mouthy dude who looks a bit like a biker, and Christina Marrs, a pretty woman with an even prettier set of pipes who has a demure girl-next-door appeal — but can belt out the raunchiest lyrics you’ve ever heard. The remaining lineup changes a bit from year to year, but always features top notch musicians. Sometimes former Spankers turn up and fill in. It’s almost like a collective.

The Spankers absolutely refuse to be pigeonholed. They’re funny, but they’re not a comedy act, and no way are they a novelty act. They’ve done X-rated albums, a drug album, a children’s album, an Off Broadway show and most recently, a gospel album. You never know what they might do next, but it will always be entertaining.  You really have to hear them yourself.

Luckily for me, they’ve made it easy. Most of the Spankers albums are here on Bandcamp. You can stream the songs for free or purchase the albums as downloads, or as physical CDs. I like everything they do, but I especially recommend What? And Give Up Show Biz? because it captures the band’s live sound, which I love.

Some of my favorite songs are “Beer,” from Spanker Madness, “Hick Hop,” from Mercurial and “My Favorite Record” from the album of the same name.

Check out the band’s website: www.asylumstreetspankers.com. You can also order some albums that aren’t posted on Bandcamp, including their X-rated EPs, T-shirts and members’ solo albums. And check out their tour schedule. If the Spankers turn up in your town, go see them. You won’t regret it.

These videos will give you an idea what the band’s live act is like:

Rock ‘n’ roll tuba… Who woulda thunk it?

If I had only realized back in high school that you could make rock ‘n’ roll with a tuba, how different my life would’ve been. I enjoyed the hell out of that instrument, but it never occurred to me that I might have a future as a tuba-playing rock star. Of course I could imagine becoming a polka star, but who wants to become a polka star? I could’ve used the rock star angle to get chicks if I’d only thought of it. A while back I came across someone who has just about pulled that off – Wolff, formerly of Drums & Tuba. Actually he’s not exactly a star just yet. He fears he’s up against something called a “brass ceiling,” that limits how high you can go if you decide to make a career as a tuba-playing rock ‘n’ roller. Whether he makes it past that ceiling or not, he’s definitely created a unique sound and makes some excellent music. In my book he’s already a hero. He’s also got a great sense of humor, which probably helps a lot when you play a tuba for a living.

And now an ode to the tuba, which fed my love of music while providing loads of fun and making me a horrible discipline problem during my last two years of high school…

Growing up, it never even occurred to me that I might not play in the band at school. The only question was what instrument I would play. Our family was very musical. Dad was a band director for many years, a virtuoso on clarinet and proficient at many other instruments. Mom played piano at church and Dad directed the choir. I inherited my love of music from my parents. I did not inherit my dad’s talent for the clarinet. It was the first instrument I tried, naturally, but I sucked at it. Didn’t really matter how much I practiced. There were just too damn many holes and keys on the damn thing. It was like they made it for someone with 100 fingers. Impossible. I know it tore Dad up, hearing me make such horrible noises on his favorite instrument. I stuck with it anyway, but never rose higher than a mediocre third-chair clarinet player. One of those guys the band director (not my dad, I only got him for 6th grade band before he retired) would ask, “Please don’t play between measures D and H” when it got close to contest time.

Fortunately for me, our only tuba player got into a little war with the band director during my junior year. He wanted to quit band and they wouldn’t let him, so he became as big of a pain in the ass as possible, to try to force them to kick him out. He liked to do things like holler, “Excuse me. I got PP on my music!” (pp meaning pianissimo, or play softer) and tell the male band director, “Don’t get your panties all in a ruffle!” Being that he was the only tuba player, the band director was kinda stuck, so the war escalated (and got funnier) every day until the director got desperate. He came to me, I guess because I was the most useless person in band who seemed to actually be trying, and asked me how I would like to become the next tuba player. And I thought, eh, what the hell? And I discovered I had a knack for it. I picked it up really quickly. And I loved it. I became the new tuba player and the old one got to quit band like he wanted.

I also got to be almost as big a pain in the ass as the guy I replaced. Later on we got three more tuba players and we all became partners in crime and made the director’s life difficult. But we could all play, and when it got time for contest, we would practice and get serious, so he put up with us. But we gave him a pretty rough time. We liked to fill our valve oil bottles with water  and use them as water guns. We shot spit wads. We made a point of taking our valves apart to lube them just when we knew he was about to call on us to play something. When he tried to get the flute section in tune, we would hum through our tubas so they would sound off key. (Dad did not find that story the slightest bit funny.) We also used a little crutch for brass players called “valve positions” which apparently had been driving band directors nuts for generations. They were little patterns of circles someone would draw on sheet music, open and shaded, that told you where to close a valve and where to open it. We would memorize those and pretty soon, we could sight read any piece of music, but if the band director said, “Play an A,” we couldn’t do it. We’d play whatever random note and he’d say “WHAT?!” and we’d play a few more till we got it. He nearly pulled his hair out over that.

Dad always said drummers were the worst cut-ups in any band. They’re always smacking the drums at the wrong times, won’t listen, don’t want to learn the music. They always know they can quit high school, join a rock band and get rich and famous any time they feel like it, so they’re just humoring the band director at best. The tubas are the second-worst. Like the drummers, they are loud, so you have to put them in the back of the band hall so it’s hard to see what they’re up to. I think Dad called that one pretty well.

But when it came down to the crunch I really was there for the music. I loved the sound of the instrument. Especially the shiny new concert  tubas, which had a much sweeter, richer tone than the Sousaphones we used during marching season.

Alas, the tubas were expensive instruments. The school bought them and I just got to use them. When I graduated I didn’t get to take one with me and there was no way I was going back to playing clarinet, so over time I kind of forgot what it was like to play an instrument. Too bad. I could’ve become a defiant almost-rock star like Wolff and beat him to the punch by 10 years. Sigh…

BTW, I wonder if Wolff gets the chicks? I bet he does.

Two theories about drugs and music

Theory #1: Metal today sucks because they’re doing the wrong drugs.

I grew up on hard rock and still loved it for a long time after they started calling it metal, but at some point it just went to hell in a hand basket. I think it began to go down the toilet when the rock ‘n’ roll guys switched from LSD & heroin to cocaine & speed.

Hard rock/early metal was much more interesting when it bordered on psychedelic or delved into philosophical themes, eg. music from Jimi Hendrix, early Judas Priest, early Scorpions, guys like Frank Marino. As time when on, cocaine and various other “up” drugs began to take hold and the music became more about aggression. A little aggression is fine, but when it’s all you’ve got, it’s boring. I think that’s why so much of today’s metal is almost unlistenable.

Theory #2: Doing drugs doesn’t make musicians creative, but it can make them more intensely creative for a while before it kills them

I don’t do drugs myself. I think it’s dangerous, bordering on suicidal. But let’s be honest. Drugs and music, especially rock music, go together like peanut butter n bananas. I don’t condone it but as long as they’re willing to sacrifice themselves for my entertainment I might as well show a little appreciation.

So back to my theory. I think most artistic people have a quota of creativity. When it runs out that’s it. After that their stuff is gonna suck. Say a rock ‘n’ roller is gifted to a level that will allow him to make decent songs for about 15 years. If he does the right drugs he might be able to instead have 2-3 years of totally freakin’ awesome songs before he OD’s or jumps off a bridge or chokes on his own vomit or whatever. If he records during that period you’ll get 1-3 albums of such awesomeness that no one could recreate them w/o OD’ing on something. What do y’all think, am I onto something?

P.S. I’m only a little serious.

P.P.S. I realize  my theories can’t explain why the guys from Aerosmith or Keith Richards are still alive.