Rock Snob Radio Episode 5 - The Return

OK, so Jussy is still in the hospital, and we're all waiting impatiently for his triumphant return, but until then I've recruited Taylor to co-host the show with me and we recorded a new episode last night as we goofed around the Queen St. Commons before heading over to Indie Dance Night. Doing our best to lower the standard of discourse in every medium we can.

Rock Snob Radio: Episode 5 (audio/mp3)

Today's show is all indie rock all the time, because we evidently have something to prove. Here are the bands:

Cave-In
Dinosaur, Jr.
Bear vs. Shark
Wintersleep
North of America

Remember that you can subscribe to this podcast in iTunes by going to the Advanced menu and choosing 'Subscribe to Podcast' and pasting this URL into the box: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RockSnobRadio .

Show Review: The Dean Malenkos and Officer Girl

(cross-posted to The Hallway: Link.)

It's a good thing I've adopted the strategy of spending only a small amount of cash when I go out or this week would have killed me, between trivia / karaoke on Tuesday, OFU / Pat Deighan on Wednesday, Walter Shreifels / Bucket Truck on Thursday and tonight's show this week has been pretty much solidly ferocious.

Tonight I was staring down the barrel of an evening shared with a programming book and my NES emulator, which gave me another good reason to leave the house even if I was on my own. I walked past one of those uniquely hilarious displays of rage outside of Myron's, the choice quote was "Oh yeah? Well I'll find the back door then I'm gonna burn this fucking place to the ground!" Apparently he was from Montague so he didn't give a shit. Good to know.

Fortunately Gonzo got into Hunter's right after I did so I wasn't alone for very long. Also, my deciding to stay home and watch a Futurama episode I hadn't seen before ended up leading to near perfect timing as the Officer Girls started sound checking about right when I got there.

Officer Girl (I don't honour novelty capitalizations, sorry, rusty.) started off playing my favourite song of their's from their first batch of songs that they played all over town this Summer.
They started off pretty well, playing my favourite song of theirs, "Wreck Rip" I think it's called. (actually you can hear this one by going to officergirl.com and clicking on the big poster image thing.)


The crowd that stood up as soon as they started knew all the songs and were familiar enough with the band to really get up and bop along. These girls are definitely still the hot band in town.

The thing that keeps me listening to Officer Girl is that they seem to have a nack for throwing in very familiar-sounding chunks of some melody or riff lifted from some rock or pop song, and run through a rock tumbler to be punched around enough to fit with their off-cambre style. So your ears keep getting tingly feelings of familiarity while the rhythms keep on changing up and sneaking around to tap you on the other shoulder. There were a bunch of times when I was sure the song was over and they just switch right up into another time signature and keep on playing the same song. Unpredictable in a way that keeps my brain on its toes. These guys have some great talent, and by now everyone who cares about good, original music around here knows it.

That was just the appetizer, though. I have to admit right here that I really didn't know much about the Dean Malenkos. I sort of ignored the PEILocals message board threads pimping their new website or what-have-you. I just figured they were some bar rock band by the sounds of the name. Good thing I stuck around to be proven a complete and utter idiot.

Gonzo's description when I asked him what they were like was "twitchy punk" which I took to mean that they had a drummer who liked to think he was in charge of things. Usually that can be pretty cool, as long as I'm not in the band, in which case the drummer should simmer down and stop getting uppity. But if it's not me having to follow along to the crazy time changes and bizarre stops and starts then it can be pretty damn excellent to listen to. My interest was piqued.

I knew things would be good when the drummer (Jon Empworth, the only member I really had ever heard of before) did his warmup and drilled the shit out of the drum kit like it was just sitting in his way. Before they started they began to taunt the crowd a little, like any good 'fighting against all odds' punk rock outfit should. They complimented Officer Girl, saying if they knew the opening band were going to be that good they would have practiced.


As the Dean Malenkos started the people taking up the little area in front of the "stage" suddenly switched from being a friendly-looking crowd of mostly regulars to a rather more uniformly male and uniformly less sociable bunch, obviously people who had arrived just for them. That's usually not a bad thing except for the guy who thought that hardcore dancing on a 9 foot x 6 foot stage was a totally dope idea.

... behind the scenes as al cobbles together his review...

al says:
I'm listening to the songs on the malenkos' website and can't figure out if they played any given one or not
al says:
stupid punk rock

... that was your exclusive look behind the scenes of al's review embellishing magic.

They did the make fun of PEI thing pretty consistently for most of their set, something I've heard enough times before to not find it all that ironic anymore, but they totally pwned our entire province when they actually played part of a Haywire song. There as absolutely nothing one can say to that. The closest anyone came was when the guy next to me pointed out that Dartmouth didn't really count as Halifax. A nice try, but didn't phase them, natch.

As for the songs, punk rock is punk rock is loud and quick and punchy and not at all constructed to stay in your head. I remember the excellent drumming, and the pretty hilarious lyrics, but they didn't really cohesively form themselves into discrete units in my memory that I would remember as songs.

Anyway, here are links to the songs on their website, to make up for my not being able to slip in names of songs into this review to try and sound like I know what I'm talking about:

Norwegian Punk Song
Bad Western Starring LL Cool J
The Song About Eating Pussy
Not My Problem
I don't Wanna Cum On Your Face
Christian Right

Definitely the kind of thing I can never get enough of live but really
can't sit down and listen to at home. The lyrics are chuckle-worthy and the energy is there, but it's not quite my thing in that environment, I suppose. Same goes for dance-y techno stuff, really. Gotta be in the right setting. But as live acts go, these guys gave me everything I wanted, and also THEY PLAYED CRAZY TRAIN. And didn't throw in any of that Sum 41 'we're too cool for this' bullshit, either. They played a hard song, showed that it was hard, and played it pretty well. Then later on they played "Panama", and even as the singer did the David Lee Roth "raach down between my legs" bit, you weren't made to feel like a loser for enjoying it. This also put them solidly in the camp of punk rock musicians who can really play their instruments well, for what it's worth.

They seemed to have a good time, the way the stage was set up it didn't really give a lot of people a chance to move around, but then again it can often look pretty barren at a bigger stage like Myron's if it's not totally packed, and I got up as close as I wanted, so I can't really complain. The sound was certainly good. If they keep booking bills like this one Hunter's could really rise to the top of the local venues all on its own.
Technorati Tags: Music, Concerts, PEI, Officer+Girl, Dean+Malenkos

Show Review: Pat Deighan & the Orb Weavers, Out From Under and Andrea

(Cross-posted to The Hallway: Link.)

This was a really great show tonight. I wasn't really planning on going anywhere or doing anything tonight, had a nice slow day, and was kind of kicking around the house just waiting to get tired enough to go to bed for the night. It's nights like that when wandering off by yourself to see a show really becomes appealing.

Hunter's is big enough that the place can seem a little empty if it isn't brimming with people. That's how it looked when I got there around 10:30.

I had some good conversations with a couple of dudes from Out From Under, especially the extremely attractive Jeff Cameron. We had to cut my diatribe about the PEI electoral system short because they needed to go set up the sound system, I almost said "Oh, good, it's about time." but I kept my mouth shut.

First up was Andrea playing solo. Normally she's the MC for Baba's Open Mic Night, where she's been steadily and humbly doing her thing for quite a while now, playing a few songs each night before the rest of the performers come on. Normally she'll do a few of her own songs and a few covers, her version of “Basement Apartment” left her voice in my head when I think of that song instead of Sarah Harmer's, and I've only seen her do it once. But tonight was a bit of a coming out event for her, and she did all her own songs. Unfortunately her guitar pickup was causing a bit of a buzzing in the sound system (my little guitar does the same thing, a pain I know all too well.) but as long as she was playing it it wasn't very noticeable.

Andrea's singing is very powerful, her voice reminds me a lot of Dar Williams, one of my favourite folk singers. They both have a voice that projects confidence and seriousness without being at all shrill or too high-pitched. Her playing is standard acoustic pop/folk fair, with steady rhythm and lots of interesting quick little chord changes, and her playing never took a back seat while she was singing, she can balance the two very nicely.

And her lyrics are worth paying attention to as well, mostly little sad songs but the few happy ones she has make you really smile. Even the sad songs have their poignant moments that bring a smile to your face. She writes intelligent lyrics that aren't just about boys. One funny moment came when she had written a new verse to one of her songs but didn't have it memorized, so she wrote it out on her arm and had to roll up her sleeve before playing the song. I hope she gets to play more shows in front of more poeple, she's got something good going on to be sure.

Out From Under came on next. The last couple of times I've seen them they've opened for some other band. In my opinion I'd have put them at the end each time, but maybe they're too humble or generous for that. It's OK, though, they still get their groove on very nicely. OFU's country sound storms out of the gates and dominates their other influences enough that I really don't hesitate to call them a country band anymore.

The singing style is pretty similar to the Corb Lund Band, if you've ever heard them. Beefy but lighthearted lyrics about sometimes bizarre subjects. You can tell that they have a total blast writing and performing music, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be all about having fun.

They're all about the shuffle rhythm, really great for getting people dancing, which a few eventually did even though it was a bit of a slow night at Hunter's. Their new bass player could really hold down the fort with his playing, he fit in perfectly with the rest. And their guitar playing is always superb with extended melodic playing through most of a song that is of the skill of most people's guitar solos.

The drumming was nice and lively as well, with the bass and the guitars there was always a bit of a blur between the rhythm and lead sections, with one melting into the other really nicely the way a good jam band is able to.

Last up was Pat Deighan and the Orb Weavers. I've always enjoyed these guys when I've seen them, which was always to open for some other act, most recently they opened for Mark Bragg and did an excellent job of getting people warmed up.

Now that I've seen them about 3 times or so it's to the point where I know their songs well enough to remember a few snatches of verses and remember how the riffs and solos go. They're rather less adventurous than OFU are, perhaps because of the nature of the makeup of the band and the fact that it's much less of a melee.

The drummer kept kind of quiet most of the set, just keeping time and not really making himself noticed. Then in the second-last song he really let loose and pounded out some pretty rapid-fire sequences. I don't know why he saved himself up like that, he could have really been a lot less pedestrian for the whole show. The last song had some more skilled drumming as well with a few tight time signature changes, not something that the band does very much of right now.

The guitar playing is the strongest part of their sound, very aggressive and tight with good interplay between rhythm and lead. You can tell that the creative force behind the band is nearly all in the guitar playing. That leaves the bass to just take up following the melodic line and not really mark its own territory.

If I was a manager and this band played a tryout in front of me the first thing I would do is match them up with some little guy who's completely off his nut crazy to sing for them. Someone who could really let loose and show some real feeling in his singing. The singer seems like he's concentrating more on his playing and almost doesn't have it in him to really put the same punchiness into his vocals as he so naturally does in the guitar playing.

I think they'd do a great job backing up some unhinged maniac singer. If anything it would grab people's attention and be a real stage presence to be reckoned with. That's not to say that they're not enjoyable to watch now, but right now it's more an exercise in watching a great guitar player show off his stuff with a band and try to sing at the same time than to really watch a group of players flourish to their full potential.
Technorati Tags: Music, Concerts, PEI

Pull Your Pants Up

from Jamie Davie... (some of you who get this might already know..)

(17:34:05) Can't Keep A Good Pants Down: Just got a call from
Nick(Justin's Brother). Justin woke up today, is recognizing
everybody. Trying to talk, but they still have a tube in his throat.
They're hoping to take that out and put him on a mask tomorrow, so we
all may be able to see him in a few days, hopefully

also... just in case some don't know Justin is suffering from ards..

more info here... http://args.org

Yippie Justin is improving!!!!
tell whoever should know.. :)

Get Well Soon, Jussy

Justin is currently in the Cardiac Care Unit at the QEH and is very very sick. He was admitted into the hospital late last week after having been sick for the past couple of weeks and not getting any better. It was discovered that he had a case of acute Pancreatitis, which is essentially a swollen, inflammed pancreas. On Sunday morning he would not wake up after being given a dose of heavy painkillers the previous night, and was moved into ICU where he was put on a respirator. He is now being kept drugged unconscious to keep him from doing anything to negatively effect the treatment they are providing him. He developed some form of respirator pneumonia while in the hospital and his lungs keep filling with fluid. They have to keep draining the fluid out of his lungs, and his blood oxygen levels are dangerously low. I have not been able to even get into the hospital to see him during this, I only saw him the evening he was admitted, as he is undergoing very intensive treatment and only family are allowed to visit. He's basically been unconscious for about 3 days now, and the doctors are not giving us very good news on any of this.

I just don't know what to say at all. This has been making me crazy for the last few days. Jussy is the best friend I've ever had and I feel powerless to do anything for him.

Please keep him in your thoughts while he fights this thing. I want to put this God character on notice that there are a lot of people he's gonna have to answer to if Pants doesn't get better and quick.

On Hiatus

... Until I get a new microphone. Hopefully this week. We haven't done a show since before seeing Pearl Jam, and now we've got a KMFDM concert on top of that. Lots of 'I was so effing pumped' variations to be doled out. Just you wait.

See my post about audio troubles and cheap sound cards. Link.

Rock Snob Radio Episode 4.5

Just because I really like the songs we played in the lost episode (A legend that shall be passed from father to son for generations as the myth of the early Rock Snob years grows and spreads), I just recorded a little substitute show by myself today. Not quite as action packed as your standard serving of Al & Jussy but good music is good music.

An even more schitzophrenic show than usual today, I go from hardcore to classic rock to classical piano in the space of three songs.

Rock Snob Radio: Episode 4.5 (audio/mp3)

Here are links to the artists we play on the show, but don't really look at these until after you listen to the show, so it doesn't ruin the surprise.

The Stooges
Regina Spektor
Queen
The Gits
Financial Panther
Elton John
Glenn Gould
Blocks Recording Club

Let That Be a Lesson For You

I just got home from Pants' place and was about to upload episode 4 of the show when I took a listen to the mp3 file that Audacity generated and realized it was just an hour of silence. I'm so disappointed, we had a really fun time tonight hanging out and waiting for the storm which still hasn't materialized and talking about music we really enjoy. I'd like to re-record a show with the same or mostly the same songs because I like them so much. We'll see what happens.

At any rate, we're definitely going to bring a voice recorder along with us to PEARL JAM NEXT WEEKEND. (!!!!!) So we'll try and keep an audio journal of the trip and our adventures. Trust me, if the phrase "Hey Stone Gossard, this beer's on me." gets uttered by one of us, it will be captured for posterity.