Well It's been one of those days, just a day when everyone totally erks the heck out of you, I would go into a long diatribe (but my last 2 posts were huge, and sometimes you like a quicky) about the idiot that rode my bumper today in his shiny mid-ninteys cool man black (I swear that's a real color) camaro, but I thought naw... I'll just dedicate this song to him.

So to all the ass wipes that tailgate in camaros this song for you!

Bitchin' Camaro Dead Milkmen Big Lizard in my Backyard

Buy Dead Milkmen

Dear Liela,

First off, thank you so much for a great show last night! I honestly don't know how you maintain all that energy especially at the end of a grueling tour and let me say, you went out with a bang last night. I could tell by your performance that you knew how to handle yourself on a stage with four gentlemen but even more admirably in front of an audience of about 300, comprised of at least 100 pervy and rude men. The way you heckled that heckler was truly inspiring, THANK YOU! Indeed, he would NOT know a babe if he saw one.

photo credit: mediaeater
Now, about your voice; I have to tell you how impressed I was that you were even more raspy-wonderfully-Gidgety (and I mean that as a compliment) than in your recordings. You told us you might need help on the high notes, pfffft. That was false modesty, my dear. You had it GOING ON last night! It's so refreshing to find a voice that's not dreary, cutesy, popstar-like sliding all over the long notes in that Mariah Carey fashion. I mean if you're Mariah do it, but please, if you're somebody else, do your own fucking thing! And you, Liela Moss, you do you own thing wonderfully! There's a certain bit of psychedelia in it, a dash of Grace Slick perhaps? I don't know what you think of all the comparisons to Blondie or to Nico, but I think you're just you: open, raw, out there exposed and bare with lyrics that cut to the quick in a way that none of those artists could do in their time. That, to me, is what indie should be, bravo!

I feel a little embarrassed that we gave you such a small stage... surely you and the boys in The Duke Spirit deserve a much grander space. I could hardly see Olly and had to sneak sideways glances at him before the show, in all his dandy grandeur, yummmmmmmmmm! (Not to mention his performance on "This Ship Was Built To Last") Maybe you could point him towards this blog for me? ;) I would have really loved to see Toby stretch out and hit that bass in the way I know he wanted to last night. God, I love his lines in "Send a Little Love Token" and "The Step and The Walk."
photo credit: richt/tlobf
Now Liela, I need you to do some smoothing over for me, ok? I'm terrible with guitarists, oi! I also was pretty far back from the stage, alas and well, I'm quite short. So who ever did that amazing fret work on "Into the Fold" really deserves a toffee pudding or a pint or whatever they want over there in Prague where you are off to next. So Luke or Daniel ( well both of you, ok?), throw it back, men! Well done! The encore, Neptune's Call was brilliant as well! Thank you.

Please come back and give us another show. I swear I'll buy 50 tickets and make them give you a better venue with excellent sound and more room to romp around and kick and prance and throw your arms about as I know you like to do. Because you all were fucking awesome. And I meant that when I hollered it to you from the street as you were getting into your tour bus. And wow, Liela, thanks SOOOO much for dashing over to me in the street and shaking my hand last night. You ROCK! :)

xoxoxoxo,
a tart - and yeah, like I said, I'm blogging about ya'll today! And thanks for the kind word about Obama, I'm glad you're a fan too!

p.s. Did that guy who climbed on stage at the end actually grope you? OMG, I saw you throw him off and all I can say is wow. If that wasn't an act, where the hell was security when we need it, eh? Don't think all of us in Chicago are animals hun!



Send a Little Love Token mp3
Neptune's Call mp3
Buy the album directly from them
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venue: The Empty Bottle

Opening Bands:
The Pale Gallery
MySpace
Brian Boes: Electric Guitar, Pale Jonny: Electric Bass, Brent Larson: Electric Guitar/Vocals, Jeff Massey: Drums/Vocals. They came on strong and not too loud, confident and for a local band, I'd give them kudos for a good sound. It's kinda like Green Day meets Wheezer.... a good, tight band, Pale Jonny is a good, funky bass player, Bred Larson did a fine guitar solo on "Autograph", but damn they need some work on vocals and "Drop the Deadbeat 4/4" honestly didn't show off the lyrics in my opinion, but tell me what you think. To be fair, the venue did them no favors in terms of acoustics. "Autograph!" was incredibly danceable tho!

from The Pale Gallery EP:
Autograph mp3
Drop the Deadbeat 4/4 mp3
They're not signed yet, here's hoping they are soon!

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Skybox
MySpace
Tim Ellis: Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Christian Carpenter Fields: Background Vocals, Keys & Lead Guitar, Mike Holtz: Drums, Percussion & Background Vocals,
Dan Ingenthron: Bass Guitar & Background Vocals. Think Jerry Seinfield doing an impression of an Indie Rocker, add Tina Weymouth, bass player for the Talking Heads, and then make it a dream sequence wherein the band does some Sigur Ros songs but in English and you pretty much have the Skybox. Now granted, I am most definitely not an indie rock fan (how do you people dance to this stuff??) In fact, I generally use the term "indiecrap" much like I use the term "fucktunes" to disparage the younger generations' love for all things "wacky" and "fun" grrrr. So when these guys started singing about their relationship with their right hand, especially their thumb, forgive me if I felt it was dumb. The sing-songiness of it all doesn't help me get over the fact that I babysat these brats when I was in my 20's and listening to the really good music of my time. It's as if they never really outgrew Sesame Street, ffs.

However, I have to say, even with the bad acoustics, (did I mention the horrible venue already?) the horrible audio mix and the absolutely rude locals, it was blaringly apparent that these guys have loads of talent and will be huge if indeed they are not already huge (I know little to nothing of the local indie scene). Vocally, Tim Ellis has a terrific falsetto, and a lot of energy. Christian Carpenter Fields is a perfect accoutrement to him, I'd be surprised to learn that the two were NOT long time friends, they seemed so in sync with one another, musically. Mike Holtz gave a very good performance and Dan Ingenthron simply blew me away. I don't often think of Tina Weymouth, few bassists cover the frets the way she does. He saved the night for me, honestly, with this band. They opened with "Various Kitchen Utensils" and I couldn't stop smiling, even as I gritted my teeth. Slower songs like "Gravity Can't Keep Us Down" were lost on the audience which talked through most of it. This is a band that needs a captive audience. The fast songs work well live but the rest don't fill the stage enough to keep the mood going yet. Yes, you indie freaks out there, you will love this band and all their sappy-love-filled harmonies and fun songs and on CD the melancholy stuff is pretty good I'll admit. Go hear them, go buy their CD. Here, taste the love! :)
from Arco Iris:
Various Kitchen Utensils mp3
Gravity Can't Bring Us Down mp3

Buy Skybox's Arco Iris

After yesterdays post on "Fish", I have been playing some of my old Marillion discs and reminiscing to myself. I decided to pour through all my CD's and check out items I haven't heard in a while.

As I have been absent for a few days it doesn't mean I haven't thought of music, or what I would bring to the plate next. So I thought I would drastically change direction of where I have been going and introduce you to (in my personal opinion) one of the best lyricists I have ever heard in my lifetime.

In about 1985 I was introduced to this band by a rather eclectic friend, though he always had decent taste in music, it was a bit out of my taste range during those years (he listened to a decent amount of Rush, Cult, Genesis - while I was listening to Anthrax, Dokken, and Malmsteen ) but my taste was maturing quickly as this was the time in my life I was devouring new sounds and looking a different sounds.

I was asked to listen to "Assassing" by Marrillion off the Fugazi album. It was different, heavy keyboarded very twisting melodies and a singer with a different sound, but the lyrics were deep and meaningful and the sound was luscious. The albums my friend showed me had cover art was incredible and literally had a piece of every song "drawn" right into the art. But unlike most covers of the time it was thought out and put together in a manner that wasn't overkill, it was almost a normal Salvador Dalí painting. All of the art work from the Fish era of Marillion as well as Fish's solo career was done by artist Mark Wilkinson.


"Fish" or Derek Dick (his given name) was the Scotsman lyricist and singer of Marillion. Derek as I understood it in the day, was extremely shy and would paint his face up and use "Fish" as a stage name, almost ala Peter Gabriel of Genesis in his day. Fish also seem to have gotten his deep perspectives writing ability from Jack Kerouac and a good stiff drink which would later give way to the downfall of the greatest progressive rock bands ever. Fish was with Marillion from 1982 to 1990 when there was a decent deal of friction in the band, the years of touring and inter band fighting had worn them thin. Fish was then replaced by Steve Hogarth, and Marillion quickly carried on. I personally think Hogarth mellowed the sound of Marillion out way to much, it was like very watered down 30 year old scotch.


With much relief I found that Dereck went on to do solo material using his moniker of "Fish". Though I never thought that his solo albums reached the level introspectiveness as when he was in Marillion, it was still great, his lyrics were still strong works of art.

Fish is still active in touring and has a huge cult like following just as Marillion still does even in it's new modern "Hogarth" era. Fish's new album 13th Star shows he still can write some master pieces showing the simplicities of life in a complex way. So have a listen, enjoy, and listen to the best lyricist I have known.

*as a side note, I am in no way trying to lay out bands I put up here as me being the all knowing God of information on them. What I write and put up relate to my life and what I knew at the time. Though I am no huge fan of Wikipedia I will say it is a wealth of information, so if you want more info on the artists feel free to go to the artist them self (which is what I do) or feel free to wiki info.. that is all :)


Script for a Jesters Tear - Marillion - Script for a Jesters Tear

The Web - Marillion - Script for a Jesters Tear
(An absolute favorite of mine)

A Gentleman's Excuse Me - Fish - Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors

Zöe 25 - Fish - 13th Star

Buy Fish here

Buy Marillion here

It's always nice when great music aligns itself with beautiful women. In the case of The Duke Spirit, I found the music first, the woman second. I'm quite proud of that! Those who know me by my rakish nature probably won't believe it but honestly, I was simply scanning the music files on the SXSW website late one night and heard "Lassoo" and whamo! like a lightening bolt this voice from Venus smacked me right down to the center of my you-know-where.

See, it's always the vocals: the actual way the voice sounds*, how it resonates and transforms the words, how it reverberates through the song - over the instruments, around the (sub)text of the melody or lack thereof (as is often found, in my opinion, in indie rock these days) and most importantly out the lips of the singer, out the very body of the person who breathes it and groans it and exudes it. In the case of Liela Moss it's a very lovely body indeed and I can't wait to witness it in action ... and indeed I will, on Thursday night! Yay me!

But don't let my goofy ramblings about embodied utterances distract you from the music of The Duke Spirit, it's freaking great too! Listen to these two tracks and prepare yourself for my ridiculously overenthusiastic report of the show on Friday, I'm sure I'll be in a stupor over it all.





photo credit: Afraid Of Ducks


In the meantime, roll these songs around in your mouth a bit, and yeah... if you're an avid blog reader you've likely heard them before, sorry, nothing new here!

The Duke Spirit: from Neptune, 2008
Lassoo mp3
Wooden Heart mp3


photo credit: CC Chapman

The Duke Spirit's Website buy their album!
The Duke Spirit on MySpace

Now why is this a good week? Yesterday's post brought me such a treasure! Amy Ray's new album, Didn't It Feel Kinder. The second track hit me with that lightening bolt described above but alas, no time to devote to it today! I'm going to soak it in for a few more days because well, Amy always evokes something very personal in me. Lucky you, eh? Goddamn, women rock!

*after a few conversations with Puppet Show, I have come to the conclusion that this is why I am seemingly genetically adverse to a lot of what's known as metal these days. The "growl" just doesn't do it for me like other kinds of singing do, even though I do relish in the girl-punk sounds of Pretty Girls Make Graves and The Butchies and others... go figure!